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The technology posts are meant for the average user of today's stuff. Nothing to heavy or complex, just ways to help you use popular stuff or grasp needed concepts to use that stuff.

In my work, I interface with many pieces of technology every day. I have to, the graphic arts/visual arts are on the bleeding edge in many ways. I also interface with many perfectly normal people who don't really understand the basics of what they are using because the concepts to work them aren't really intuitive. You need lots of "seat time" and I have lots of seat time.

So here, in that spirit, is my Technology section. Please note that the latest posts are at the bottom of the page unlike the posts in other sections here that organize with the latest posts at the top of the page.

Resolution And How To Think Small
07/12/2007 10:26 pm
Digital camera resolution is an issue that few digital camera owners understand. Proof of this happens every time you get an e-mail photo documenting the latest family confab and the damn thing is huge. It seems to take forever to download (on a DSL pipe) and you have to scroll waaay north and waaay south, waaay east and waaay west just to view it on your 20" monitor.

This happens because the camera shooter has taken the photo using the maximum resolution of the camera and it's going to get worse as the price of pixels gets cheaper. Knowing what is happening pixel-wise and what your end-use is going to be or should be is more important than ever.

A little understanding of resolution, monitors and size is needed and it's a tough subject to verbalize. But I'm going to try. Past tries have lead to eyes glazing over as I tech babble them into submission. But now I think I'm a better man, so I'll try again. Saving grace . . . I can't see your eyes.

First of all, it is very important to understand that all computers and cameras see, take and display pictures in a 'native' resolution of 72 ppi or 'pixels per inch'. (Sometimes you hear this expressed as dpi (dots per inch) but this is a holdover from analog graphic arts and is incorrect. Ppi is the correct term.)

OK, that was easy.

Now, let's talk about what your camera is shooting. If you shoot a photo at the maximum size that a 3.2 megapixel camera is capable of, the resulting picture will be: 28.44" x 21.33" in size. A 5 megapixel camera (very common today in the low price range) will generate a 35.56" x 26.67" picture at maximum resolution. Those people, are very large pictures. These sizes are significant when some e-mail systems cap box size at 10 megabytes. And you can forget about people being able to view them on their monitors.

Continuing . . .

Resolution And How To Think Small - II
07/16/2007 7:26 pm
What most people are after is a photo about the size of a 4"x5" print like you used to get at the corner drug store. But shooting at full resolution isn't the best way to get that. Another downside to shooting a full resolution is the size of the photo, in bytes, as it sits in your computer or on your CD/DVD or on your camera's memory card. Using the 4"x5" print as an example, if you adjust your camera's resolution to shoot 4"x5" sized prints (probably the smallest resolution setting), your 1 gigabyte memory card will hold approximately 3532 shots (+/-). Shooting at the camera's full 5 megapixel resolution (for example) your 1 gig memory card will hold 76 shots. Big difference. A CD will hold about three-quarters of the 1 gig number.

To illustrate the relative difference, below is a photo that was taken at a full 5 megapixel resolution (reduced to fit the page or course). The area in the center of the picture is the size of a 4"x 5" print.

So why do they sell you all of that resolution in a camera if you really don't need it? Good question and it has a really good answer.

Continuing . . .


Which is Better, Mac or PC?
07/20/2007 10:26 pm
The old argument about which brand of computer is better, a Mac or a Windows based PC is and old one. Me, I changed to PCs around 1990. Being a graphic designer, I was supposed to automatically gravitate to a Mac but the numbers just didn't add-up for me. The considerable cost of a Mac over a PC, for questionable performance differences, just wasn't worth it.

Comparisons of the two have always been problematic because Macs used Motorola processors (the brains of the computer) and PCs used Intel or AMD processors. Slowly, Apple has been changing bits and pieces of their hardware to that of the PC specification but always stood with the Motorola processor. But a few years ago Apple finally made the big jump and changed their CPU to Intel. Now that Macs run Intel CPUs, a more direct comparison is possible.

So, if you are thinking of changing from a Mac to a PC or from a PC to a Mac, take a peek at this video. It may help your decision making.

Video [here] or for some big fun [Here].

Update 07/30/08:
A few people have told me that once they got their new Mac it was so much faster than their old PC, so it must be better. Well that is true to a point. The full truth is that if you have an old computer, PC or Mac, it will run slower than any new computer you buy, PC or Mac. In the computer business, newer is always faster no matter what you buy.

And another thing. The Windows Blue Screen Of Death (BSOPD) that Mac users talk incessantly about. Years ago it was common to get the BSOD on a PC. Generally an older installation of Windows (a year or two old) were subject to the BSOD and it was caused not by Windows but by some not so well written software running in Windows. At least that has been my experience. If you are getting the BSOD on your PC you need to get rid of whatever it is doing it or it might be time for a maintenance reinstall (see Rebuilding And Speeding Up Your Digital House above, on 07/30/08). Today with Windows XP and Vista, the BSOD is non-existant. At least it has been for me (about 4 years with XP now) and those that I know.

Damned 867593167_111c79499c_o.jpg
08/05/2007 10:26 pm
This is for all of you digital snap shooters out there who have zillions of pictures, stacking up on your hard drive, named something like "867593167_111c79499c_o.JPG" or "DSC15973.JPG". Going through the pile of photos from your latest shoot at the family picnic and renaming them something that actually makes sense is a major pain I know but you'll have to do it sooner or later so here's an easy way to rename them all in one fly.

This is for Windows PC users only mind you (Macs I have no clue). what you want to do is:

    — Highlight all of the files you wish to name on your hard drive. In Windows you can do a "Ctrl + A" to highight all the files you are looking at or highlight the first file with a "Ctrl + left mouse button" and the last file "Crtl + Shirt + left mouse button" to highlight all files inbetween. Or you can "Ctrl + left mouse button" to highlight each file you want to rename until you have highlighted a group of files.

    — Next, right mouse click on the first file of the group and select "Rename".

    — Then simply rename that file whatever you want (For this example we'll use: "Fam Picnic.JPG") and then tap your "Enter" key. Don't forget to use the same three letter extender (if it is viewable) after the "." that was there before the rename (JPG, TIF, GIF are some of the more common extenders).

All files will then be renamed in consecutive order from that file. The first file will be "Fam Picnic.JPG", the second will be "Fam Picnic-01.JPG" and the third will be "Fam Picnic-02.JPG" and so on to the last file you highlighted.

There. That should cure your mass-renaming woes.

Oh yeah, this renaming scheme works for any files you have not just photos.


Resolution And How To Think Small - III
08/15/2007 12:08 pm
Well, now that you have that camera with all that resolution (and you have read the two posts above ("Resolution And How To Think Small"), when should you be able to use it? Well, maybe all the time. But first you have storage problems to address ("Resolution And How To Think Small - II") and then you need to consider your future "highest use".

Highest use is something that only you can figure. If all you are doing is snap shots of family outings that you will just be e-mailing to others and you don't ever really anticipate making photo kiosk prints, than a small size shot is what you want to do. You get to record the event, the shots shoot quickly so you can capture the action as it develops and you can put lots of them on your storage devices (SD card, CDs, etc.). You can do prints, sure, but they won't be the best. But if you ever anticipate going to the corner drug store and getting high quality prints from your shot or want to use the shot for a nice 8 x 10 print or you have one of the great desktop photo printers, than you need to shoot in a larger size. Why? One simple word: Detail.

When you shoot at your camera's native resolution (72 ppi, see other posts) at a large size you are capturing more pixels than at a smaller size. Large size = more pixels, more pixels = more color information captured, more color information captured = more detail, more detail = a sharper, clear picture (assuming the thing is in focus but that's a different post entirely).

So let's say that you have taken a photo of your cat using your camera's full size capability (a 5 megapixel camera would make a 35.56" x 26.67 photo that would be 14 megabytes on your storage device, see above). That is a huge amount of photo information. When you resize that photo to 8" x 10" without changing the native resolution or "resampling" (in Photoshop lingo) the resolution, you will get a photo that is 8" x 10", still 14 megabytes in physical size and 240 ppi in resolution. That's better than the 72 ppi native resolution that the camera originally shot and it has all of the color information that was in your 35.56" x 26.67 original. If you resized that big photo to 4" x 6", without resampling, you would have a really nice, sharp little photo as it would be 427 ppi at that size (and still 14 megabytes in physical size). A photo made by Kodak or some other digital finisher would be pretty darn nice campared to a 4" x 6" shot at the camera's native 72 ppi resolution.

But whatever you do don't e-mail those 14 meggers to somebody!

So what you should think about before you shoot is what will the "highest use" be? Just a quickie snap or a photo that you want the option to do other things with.

Continuing . . .

Resolution And How To Think Small IV
09/21/2007 11:54pm
Batch re-sizing of photos: After all this stuff about resolution and re-sizing photos, for those of you who don't have some fancy photo editing software or do and need to batch re-size your photos (for e-mailing or adding to a web site) quickly, there are a number of pretty good freeware packages available. You can take one or many photos and re-size them to make them easier to e-mail (see threads above) without dumping $600.00+ bucks for Photoshop or even a few hundred bucks for a less capable application (Photoshop's little brother Photoshop Elements excepted, 'bout $100.00 and it's a nice app). But this is post is about freeware. Try this nice little re-sizing application called Fotosizer [Link]. It doesn't do all the fancy stuff like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements would do but it will batch re-size your photos to make them more e-mail friendly.

Another option for you if you just want to re-size one photo is using a web based application. No installing of software or anything like that, just:

    ~ Select the image you would like to re-size by browsing to it on your computer.
    ~ Select the size you would like your new image to be.
    ~ Click on okay and wait for the next page to show up.

Easy as pie. Can be slow if you have a large original photo and not as fast as using software installed on your computer but it is convenient. Give it a try [Link].

So there you have it a few different ways to easily re-size your digital photos

Continuing . . .


Your Eye Is Just Like Camera Lens BUT . . .
10/16/2007 11:35pm
The human eye, controlled by the human brain, sees what it wants to see, not what is there. Whentaking a photo, how many times have you taken a beautiful sunset only to have telephone lines show-up, layered across the screen like bunting, spoiling the shot? You eye is just like camera lens BUT unlike a camera lens it is connected to your brain. Therein lies the problem. Your brain will focus on the most interesting thing and not all the other stuff sprinkled around the viewfinder like poles, wires, trees sprouting out of heads and other composition destroying paraphernalia.

The cure and what separates the casual snapper and the more experienced shooter is forcing, by habit, your eye to consider all elements present in the viewfinder. It's easy to do and a very good habit to develop. What to do:

1. Locate and compose your central element (in this case the church window, which I used a golden mean relationship combined with a large, medium, small).

2. Then, starting at the upper right corner sweep your eye from corner to corner to corner, ending up where you started at the upper right.



"Sweep" the viewfinder with your eye for better photos

Using this tecnique will force you to see all of what will be in your photo, not just the one interesting element that your brain wants to focus on.

PERMALINK


Rebuilding And Speeding Up Your Digital House
07/30/2008 2:35pm
Many a slow running computer has motivated it's owner to upgrade to a newer, and faster, unit. You remember when your computer was new those many years ago and how fast it was. Booted up in seconds, you were amazed by it's speed. Well, you can have those glory days back. Re-install!!

As a computer gets used, day in day out it accumulates all sorts of junk. A lot of it you pout on there and a lot of it is put on there by web sites you visit and by applications that you have long since stopped using or long ago uninstalled. It seems that every program leaves behind remnants of itself and eventually that the kind of thing that slows your poor computer down. The fix it to wipe off your hard drive and re-install your operating system. Once that is done, your computer will be fresh and free to run like it used to.

As an aside, heavy users usually do this once a year. Anyway, there are two ways to do this:

#1. Take it to your local computer store, along with your original Windows CD, and have them do it. Once you get it back to your home you can install all of your most coveted software and files and off you go. Call them for pricing of this very common operation.

#2 Do it yourself. Not as hard as you'd think with Windows XP or Vista. You just need to format your hard drive and re-install:

To format a hard drive with Windows XP (or Windows 2000 but who owns that now?), insert the Windows CD and restart your computer. Your computer should automatically boot from the CD to the Windows Setup Main Menu. And Then:

    1. At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER and then press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement.

    2. If an existing Windows XP installation is detected, you are prompted to repair it. To bypass the repair, press ESC.

    3. Then use the ARROW keys to select the partition or the un-partitioned space where you want to create a new partition in. Press D to delete an existing partition, or press C to create a new partition.

    4. Type the size in megabytes (MB) that you want to use for the new partition, and then press ENTER, or just press ENTER to create the partition with the maximum size ( I recommend the "maximum" option for most people).

    5. Select the format option that you want to use for the partition (I would recommended the "NTFS" option), and then press ENTER.

After the Windows Setup program formats the partition, follow the instructions that appear on the screen and you can continue installing Windows. It really is this easy. Do it in a little over an hour or so.

But before you do either of these methods you will need to save all of your precious photos and important files. You should have already backed these files up to another source for safe keeping (yeah right) but if you haven't, best to do it now by transferring them to a DVD or CD via your DVD/CD burner. In option #1 above, ask them what they charge to do that for you.

Once your new, speedy, re-installed system is up and ready to go (or back from the computer store), you can now reload all of the applications (Word, Fire Fox, Photoshop Elements, Nero DVD Burner, whatever) that you were using before. Of course you can put all of your photos and files back from that DVD you burned earlier.

You will be amazed at how fast your newly cleaned computer will run, holding off that time when you will have to really upgrade your system by buying new. If you are like most people that probably will be quite some time.