August 03, 2005

More On the New Mouse

A couple of good in-depth reviews of the new Mighty Mouse:

http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008561.html

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/mightymouse.ars/1

Posted by boverby at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2005

Digital Photography Hacks

Digital cameras are getting better and cheaper all the time. They’re even embedded in phones these days. So now that we’ve all get one, or are drooling over the latest to hit the market, what do you do once you’ve broken down and have on in hand?

Enter Digital Photography Hacks: 100 Industrial Strength Tips & Tools, by Derrick Story, part of the O’Reilly series. $29.95 list, $18.87 at Amazon.com (see link at bottom). Derrick Story is a longtime photographer and writer for O’Reilly and for the MacDevCenter (www.macdevcenter.com). In this volume, he’s compiled 100 hacks from himself and those submitted by others.

The first thing to mention is the breadth of the book. It covers tricks on camera functions, tools, computer software, pantyhose and overcoming problematic exposures and circumstances.

The first “hack” in the book is something simple, that many camera owners probably already know – the utility of carrying a portable tripod. They’re small and light, and will probably do the trick in a pinch.

The book moves along, explaining more difficult issues, such as removing red eye, lightening teeth and correcting for flash fall off in an image. There are chapters covering camera attachments, working with flashes, computer connections and software, plus a few others. You might be surprised that a book aimed at photographers and shutterbugs has an entire chapter devoted to camera phones.

As I’m just learning to use Adobe PhotoShop to retouch and adjust images, I’ll probably spend a good deal of my time in the chapter dedicated to using these tools.

The book contains a very wide range of ideas and therefore, most people will think that some of the hacks are trivial, while some are complicated, but that’s a reflection of our own knowledge of the subject. The good news is that the majority of readers will find that the majority of the hacks are interesting and should serve to improve our photo skills, as well as our creativity.

Overall, the book is easy to read and is written in such a way that you don’t need to read it from cover to cover. You can move to the chapter or “hack” of interest and it is self-contained, not requiring the reading of several other hacks to understand. So feel free to scan the table of contents and start exploring.

You’ll just have to read the book to learn why you should keep pantyhose in your camera bag.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0596006667/qid=1108580736/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-1453886-4587332?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Posted by at 04:13 PM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2005

Review: Mac OS X Power Hound, Panther Edition

In Mac OS X Power Hound, Panther Edition Rob Griffiths of Macosxhints.com and a monthly article in Macworld magazine offers a collection of well over 600 tips and tricks covering everything from basic Mac OS X Finder tips to tricks that will help just about any Macintosh user use Terminal like a pro.

For this book, Mr. Griffiths has compiled and completely rewritten the best and most useful hints found on his very helpful website Macosxhints.com. Chapters include tips for using the Finder and Dock, iLife applications, Mail, Office, and many other common Mac OS X programs. Each chapter focuses on a particular OS X feature or application and provides several tips or tricks for getting the most out of each application. The information is provided in a very clear manner with ample screen shots and detailed step by step instruction for the reader to follow. The final 100 plus pages are devoted to Terminal and Unix tips making this a great book for both the basic and intermediate Mac user.

This book is definitely not a replacement for a more traditional Mac OS X manual but the 600 plus tips and tricks included will definitely provide every Mac user with something invaluable. While you can certainly read this book from start to finish, I found this to be somewhat overwhelming. Luckily, the book is written so that each tip or trick does not require the reader to have read previous items. In fact, I found this book most useful by just scanning the vast Table of Contents until I found an item that sparked my interest. In many ways the information in this book would be better presented as "Mac OS X Trick of the Day" calendar as long as you didn't throw each calendar page away at the end of the day.

Overall, I found a lot to like about this book and definitely recommend it to any Mac user who is ready to move beyond the basics.

Posted by snelson at 03:36 PM | Comments (0)