In Entertainment on
2 April 2012 tagged crash, Entertainment, Games, pc, shutdown, skyrim, windows with no comments
I like Skyrim. It’s a great game. I wish I could play it on my PC.
Often, and I’m not sure what the cause is as it seems to vary depending upon location or “some other set of conditions”, my PC will shutdown and reboot. I’ve been running temperature monitors and everything is well within tolerances. One possible correlation is that it happens soon after I load into a new area.
The googles suggest various bits of voodoo but nothing official. There are also enough occurrences of this that it doesn’t appear to be specific to my machine.
I’m posting my configuration in case others have had similar problems:
- Intel i7 2600K
- Asus P8Z68-V Pro Motherboard
- Asus 560Ti
- Windows 7 64bit
- OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SSD
- Tons-o-RAM
Please leave a comment if you’ve had this problem yourself. Double-plus bonus points if you have a fix for it.
Update 2012/04/04: It isn’t my RAM:
In Photography on
30 March 2012 tagged gx1, lumix, micro43, panasonic, Photography, street with 4 comments
Earlier this month I waxed enthusiastic about my latest toy, the adorably-named Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1. Since then, I’ve had a chance to read Peter Thomsons’ review of the 14mm F2.5 pancake lens in his London Street Photography blog. I highly recommend it and the linked reviews from that article, they’re all excellent.
I’ve been a fan of the 14mm pancake since I got mine with my GF2 last year. It is surprisingly good, amazingly compact and unobtrusive. I find this lens on the front of my camera about 50% of the time. I tend to use it as the default when storing my camera in its bag, mostly because it’s compact, and keeps a lens on the camera for shooting if I want to snap something quickly. The other half of the time, I revert to the 20mm F1.7. It’s hard to talk about a micro-four-thirds system without mentioning one of these two lenses they are so canonical to the system.
Reading the reviews of the 14mm made me realize something though: It is a fantastic little lens.
Maybe because of the low price or diminutive size or plain old utility of it, it never reached out and struck me as a real attention-grabber. It sort of quietly does its job, lets you shoot great pictures and all the while doesn’t draw attention to itself.
It’s also a focal length I really love. At a full-frame equivalent of 28mm, it is a medium wide-angle lens. You can get quite a lot of scenery in a single shot.
I was in London last week and when I was lucky enough to do some walking about, I kept this little lens on the front of my camera. It really shines in a street setting, giving you enough room to take in some of the scenery around your subject if you want to. If you want to fill a frame with something, you have to get in close which can be fun (or a little daunting).
If you have a micro four-thirds camera and you don’t have one of these little gems (I believe we’re calling them “the pocket rocket” now), you owe it to your camera to pick one up. They really are amazing.
In Technology on
10 March 2012 tagged codec, content, ipad, Music, rights, Technology, Video with 2 comments
listening to Hitting the Surface by Monolake from the album Ghosts.
It’s the future. You have a device in your pocket that is exponentially more powerful and has hundreds, maybe thousands of times more storage than the largest computers of 30 years ago. Maybe you have a bag with a tablet computer in it which is roughly comparable in terms of storage and processing power to the phone in your pocket. Only bigger. They are massively-capable devices by any measurement we care to throw at them.
You’re listening to music from your phone on your headphones.
This is where our story gets a little strange. Where did that music come from? More and more, people are streaming music from an online service without actually storing anything on their local device. Services like rdio, 8tracks, spotify seem to be growing in popularity. Most people think the notion of buying music on a CD is quaint or even absurd. If you happen to be someplace and want to watch a video on your tablet, chances are you’ve downloaded it or streamed it from somewhere. Almost nobody would consider buying a movie on a DVD and transferring it to their iPad.
iPad Workplace 2.0 by mbiebusch
Yes, iPad. If you have a tablet, there is a high probability it’s one of those things that Apple sells. Android on tablets has not taken off with the exception of the Kindle Fire. And Apple just released a new one this week.
While they’re marvelous devices, getting content onto them is something of a challenge. They only support a very narrow band of video formats for playback. If you’ve downloaded a video from somewhere, unless you carefully checked the format beforehand, it probably won’t play directly on your iPad. If you’re a determined sort of individual, you might have Handbrake or Miro Converter on your computer and can transcode that video before transferring it to your iPad.
The key ingredient here is “computer”. There are no tools native to the iPad that let you do this sort of conversion. Worse, there are very few players capable of playing back these alien formats on the iPad. The short-lived VLC promised to do for the iPad what it does for general purpose computers but it was not meant to be. Now it’s dead. There is an Xvid/DivX player but it is predictably awful.
This is no accident. Apple really wants you to get all your content from the iTunes Store. They’ve made it difficult to write software to do this sort of thing on the iPad and even more difficult to actually get it into the app store where people can download it. They’ve limited the codecs they support. And they don’t provide tools to convert video to it on your computer. Services like Netflix exist and will happily stream video to you if you’re a member, but you’re borrowing that media. When it’s off their servers, you don’t get to watch it again.
How many years until this same thing has happened to computers? Not soon enough for the media companies.
In Photography, Technology on
4 March 2012 tagged cameras, gear, gx1, lumix, micro43, panasonic, Photography, Technology with 1 comment
Awhile back I posted about the Lumix GF2 and promised I’d write a post about some hacks I was hoping to find. Well, short of the little popup-flash bounce trick, those hacks never really materialized for me.
The GF2 served me well. It’s a great little travel camera, but the lack of dedicated hardware controls made it feel a little toy-like, despite the excellent implementation of its touch screen controls. The GF2 also lacked an external shutter release, a feature I use constantly for macro shots or when on a tripod. Long exposures take as long to process as your shutter release time – a 30 second exposure takes 30 seconds to finish recording – that’s pure waiting time when you can’t take another shot. It makes the GF2 useless for some types of time-lapse photography.
Which brings us to the GX1. Announced late in 2011, the GX1 promised to be the true successor to the now cult-status GF1, the origin of the micro-four-thirds species. With the updated 16MP sensor replacing the now aged 12MP LiveMOS sensor and a processor that’s been tweaked and upgraded from the top-end G3, the GX1 is probably the fastest m4/3 camera in Panasonic’s lineup.
The camera starts up and is ready to fire in just over a second (depending on lens). DPReview clocked power to exposure time at around 1.4s in their excellent review. Subsequent shots are a mere 0.2s including auto-focus. Long exposure shots are recorded with very little delay regardless of exposure time. Touch screen controls feel responsive and snappy for the most part, the exceptions being a few animated UI elements that feel a tad sluggish (the touch tabs interface, for instance). Fortunately, for most of these touchscreen features, there are now dedicated hardware controls to access functions directly.
Construction-wise, the GX1 is a solid little camera. The addition of the extra chunky rubber grip on the front feels good in the hand, though it does feel like there isn’t a lot of space for your thumb on the rubber grip surrounding the command dial. That said, I don’t think I’ve accidentally hit any of the controls with my thumb during shooting. It’s a fairly comfortable camera to hold with one hand if you need to. Shutter release feel is excellent with good feedback on half-presses.
Controls
The controls are comprehensive. Two hardware Fn buttons are assignable and an additional two are available in the touch tab interface. By default they’re set to Auto Exposure for Fn1, AF/AE Lock for Fn2, and Fn3 and 4 are set to adjust display paramaters (level guide and histogram respectively). These are pretty sane defaults and I like the positions of Fn1 and Fn2 for auto exposure and AF/AE lock well enough. Astoundingly, the button labeling on the four-position buttons are silver on silver guaranteeing they’re impossible to read in any light. Fortunately, you’ll get to know them pretty quickly. I chose the “silver” body for my GX1 and the other button labels are white on the somewhat dark silver body. Also not super-easy to read, but I still like the nearly titanium color of the aluminum body.
One slightly surprising change is the single control dial (referred to as Rear Dial in the manual) has been made slightly smaller on the GX1. This means you need more rotations to accomplish the same change as on previous models. A minor point but one that makes the control dial feel a little bit clunky. I’m also not a huge fan of the feel of this control. I’d prefer something more solid with better feel. As probably the single-most heavily used control after the shutter release, it’s a control I’d prefer had better tactility. This does however encourage use of the auto exposure button on Fn1 when shooting in any of the manual exposure modes. The rocking power switch next to the excellent mode dial on top has a somewhat cheap feel to it as well. I’m worried that I’ll break it off someday. The battery and memory card door on the bottom is the only other piece of plastic on the body that feels like it could break if I weren’t careful. I’d probably have to be a complete ass to manage that though as when it’s closed, it’s fairly tight.
My only other quibble with this camera is the inclusion of Panasonic’s iA button. iA stands for “Intelligent Auto” and is a feature for novice shooters who just want a point and shoot. Dedicating a full button on the top plate for this feature is pretty annoying on a camera aimed at enthusiast shooters. I’d far prefer it were programmable. Your only option is to set the iA button to “click and hold” to eliminate accidental presses. If you’re into iA mode, it lights up in a garish blue when activated letting the world know that you don’t know how to use your camera.
Video
Other fun features on the mode dial are various scene and creative modes that let you alter the colors and shooting characteristics if you’re into the whole instagram thing and shoot in JPEG. One nice feature of these modes is that they work when shooting video. This gives you an easy way to shoot in sepia or black and white without requiring time-consuming post-processing on your computer. More-importantly, the custom white balance modes also function in movie recording. If you want to shoot with a cyan or orange filter or green up your fluorescent lights like you’re in an episode of CSI, you can do it.
These are great little cameras for video and honestly one of the main reasons I became interested in micro 4/3. They take a bit of getting used to. Some lenses have different focusing characteristics and if you’re shooting in continuous auto-focus they tend to hunt a bit. This is where the touch screen auto-focus really comes in handy. Setting yourself in single shot auto-focus and using the touch screen to pick your focus point mid-shot (called “rack-focus”) or using face or target tracking autofocus modes let you shoot a scene with impressive results. Something I still need more practice with.
The GX1 has returned to offering a stereo condenser mic on the top, a feature missing from the GF3. I don’t believe it’s possible to attach a hot-shoe mounted stereo mic as is possible on the more video-focused GH2 though for my needs, the built-in mic is just fine.
Conclusion
So there you have it! The GX1 is a superb “little” walking around camera. With the 14mm pancake lens or the 14-42mm power-zoom, it’s quite pocketable. Having traveled with it a couple of times now, I have no qualms about carrying it in a small camera bag, you can pack a surprising amount of photo gear into a compact carrier. Would this replace my Nikon DSLR? Probably not (14 bit color in the Nikon, multiple exposure capabilities, a whole different range of high quality lenses, etc.). But for travel or street shooting, I think the GX1 and a couple of hot primes fits the bill nicely.
A high ISO test shot, cleaned up in Light Room.
Camera Pron with the 45mm Leica 2.8 Macro.
In Entertainment, Technology on
26 February 2012 tagged android, Entertainment, gadgets, Games, phone, Technology with no comments
It’s true. I made the switch to Android late last year. Many found this shocking as I like Apple’s stuff. People would look at my huge slab of an Android Nexus and say, “dude, that thing is huge” or, “sidetalkin’!”. After playing with it for a few minutes, their reactions were usually changed to something like, “hey, this isn’t that bad” or “I could see myself using one of these things”. The Android team should be commended for 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich (abbreviated as ICS). It’s a surprisingly nice OS.
But one area where iOS has a distinct advantage is in games, or so I thought. They have some awesome titles. For most of them, I’m pretty happy playing on my iPad as it’s a great platform for games. There were a few that I always had with me on my phone though. Games that made sense on a phone, were kind of casual and easy to get into but you can put them down at a moment’s notice to do something else. And I’ve found them on Android.
Orbital (Bitforge Ltd). $4.00 for the “pro” version, Free version to try, but trust me, you want the full game. It’s simple, it’s fun, has a two player head-to-head mode and entertaining noises. I have probably logged more hours on Orbital than any other game on my iPhone. And now it’s on Android! Sweet.
Dungeon Raid (Fireflame Games). $3.19CDN. I used to play this a lot on short-hop flights, in line at the grocery store, couch surfing or well, anywhere. Kind of a connect-three dungeon RPG thing with different character classes and abilities. Humorous loot names and scary monsters. It has endless replayability.
Tiny Tower (Mobage). Free! OK, this is a new one to me having never played it on the iPhone. But with it winning Game of the Year on iTunes I figured I’d give the Android version a try. Also, the price is certainly right. Not disappointed! Takes only a few seconds to keep your tower running. It will haunt your dreams.
Other standbys like Doodle Jump, Flight Control and others will keep your thumbs entertained for hours. You don’t have to fear, there are plenty of good games on Android. You’ll just have to buy them all over again.
In Entertainment on
26 December 2011 tagged Books, Entertainment, goodreads, reviews with no comments
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I put off reading this for so long, I’d forgotten why I never read it. It certainly came recommended from many sources.
A great, sprawling book like the city fixture for which it’s named, Perdido Street Station is a modern fantasy with hints of steam punk. Set in a city not unlike a Victorian-industrial London, it answers the question of what the world might be like if magic were just another form of science. In the city of New Crobuzon, humans co-exist awkwardly with Xenians (weird human-animal hybrids) and Remade humans forged from metal machines and other creatures. As readers, we’re given glimpses of still stranger beings that exist in and around the city.
China Mieville is a wonderful world-builder. His books breathe with convincing setting and life. The city itself a character in his book (not unlike The City and The City which also offers a setting as a main feature) is teeming with activity and color. It exudes a convincing reality that is equal parts lively and filthy. The dream-like quality of the world hints at nightmarish potential early on before delving headlong into it.
With all of this it would be easy to forget to write a story about characters the reader might actually empathize with, and yet even some of the most alien come to life and pull you into their story. At its core, it’s an adventure story about a group of characters facing impossible obstacles, and it’s a real credit to Mieville’s writing that he manages to imbue these characters with real heart and feelings.
A great read. I will add mine to the list of many sources of recommendations.
View all my reviews
In Computing on
25 October 2011 tagged Apple, Computing, icloud, keychain, mobileme, Software, sync with no comments
Apple released OS X 10.7.2 this week and they’ve flipped the bit on the iCloud service making it available for everyone. This service replaces MobileMe which I’ve been a user of since it was called .Mac. I use it for an email account, some convenient webdav storage (that happens to be pretty slow) and for its syncing service. Well, that last bit just got a lot less useful.
iCloud won’t sync Keychain items or Email accounts between computers anymore. If you’re like me and have multiple machines, these features are really valuable and don’t have a viable replacement. Some users have started linking their Keychains files to a directory on Dropbox and using that as a cheap solution, but this doesn’t take merges into account. If you update your keychain on two computers at the same time, you’ll have to pick one or the other which means losing information.
MobileMe’s going to be active until June of 2012 which gives Apple plenty of time to create a solution, but I have a feeling they won’t. That leaves it up to a 3rd party. So far I’m not aware of any decent alternative. I know a lot of people are fans of 1Password but I gather they’re really targeted at saving your web passwords, which is still a useful feature but not really what I’m after.
So it’s kind of a weird thing. I’ve been a paying customer of a service I’ve gotten value out of for nearly 10 years. Now Apple is replacing this service with something free that doesn’t do what I originally paid for. Oh well, I hear iCloud supports Windows Vista.
In Photography on
1 September 2011 tagged cameras, equipment, gear, nikon, Photography, support with 3 comments
This week I experienced what might be considered a “catastrophic failure” of the CF card release switch on my Nikon D300. It broke right off! I’d had the card out to offload some photos, went back to my camera, put the card in, closed the hatch and noticed a little black bit of plastic hit the floor. I picked it up and looked at the back of my camera to see a hole where the CF release switch was supposed to be.
This was very distressing to me. Especially as I’m going to be going to a photo workshop very soon now.
I called Ivan’s, our local camera shop and asked them about the chances of getting it repaired. “Not very good,” was the gist of the reply. Apparently there’s a backlog and some cameras are taking several months to get fixed if it needs parts that aren’t in Canada. And there is apparently a bit of a parts shortfall these days. Not good at all.
He did give me Nikon Canada‘s number though and suggested I give them a try. “Maybe if they get a call from a customer, they’ll be able to help you out.”
This gave me a bit of hope. I called The Canadian Source of All Things Nikon and was shocked to hear a human answer the phone after the first ring. She transferred me directly to customer service who then sent me directly to the parts department. I explained that I had a broken release switch, and did they have another? “Let me check,” the parts tech said and put me on hold. She came back promptly and said she’d have to call me back. I left her my details and hung up.
Hunh!
She didn’t call back that day so I ordered a USB cable from Amazon. I could still get about 300 14-bit RAW shots onto my 8GB CF card before I filled it up. More if I shot in 12-bit, which I usually do anyway. My hopes of hearing back from Nikon were not great at this point, but I held on.
The next day, Deb asks me if I’d seen any results on the web for my broken button. I said I hadn’t. My search string was weak, but she managed to find this thread on the D200/D300 Users Group on Flickr almost right away. Apparently it’s a pretty common thing. Deb also read through and discovered that by prying the rubber grip back, it exposes a catch release slot over the door. With her fingernails and a toothpick, she was able to pop the door open. Nice, though repeated applications of this hack would almost surely destroy the rubber grip on the back and compromise the dust seals there.
Later, I downloaded a D300 Repair manual. It’s easy. Just search for that and grab a PDF.
Then a little after noon, the phone rang. I recognized the 905 number and greeted the parts technician. “We have your part!” she said, excitedly, then paused. “… but we can only ship it via Purolator”. I laughed and said I didn’t mind paying $15 dollars shipping for what must be a pretty cheap part (it’s 5 bucks). She sounded relieved and I gave her my shipping info. She said it’d be there in a couple of days.
Wow!
I am so used to having dismal customer support experiences that I was totally unprepared for how awesome Nikon would be to deal with. In fact, I expected nothing to come of this and was considering all kinds of crazy options. Deb kept telling me that I should “just go and buy a D7000″ but I was pretty uninterested in doing that. My 4 year old non-S D300 is such a familiar machine that I didn’t want to give up on it. I don’t care that it doesn’t shoot video or has fewer megapixels. I love the control layout and I can pretty much run the whole thing in my sleep. Or at night. In the dark.
I’ll take some pictures when the switch arrives and document the repair for others in case they need it. I probably should’ve ordered two replacement switches for when this one fails in another 4 years.
And, as I was writing that last sentence, the Purolator guy rang my doorbell with the switch. Honestly, I’m a little amazed at just how awesome this is. Total time to receiving this part is under 48 hours since I placed the call. All done over the phone, no internets clogging up the communications. Just humans. Thanks, Nikon!
