Gloves to use with iPhone and laptop
Posted by admin | Filed under Tech
It is getting pretty chilly round these parts and while out wrestling the Christmas crowds I realised I had left my gloves at home, after the wife handed me the third bag of new purchases my fingers were getting bloody cold. I had seen some gloves on one of those gadget sites recently which had flip open finger tips so that you can use your mobile, so I went on the hunt for a set in little old Nottingham. No joy, but what I found was actually a much better solution for me. I got a set of North Face Etips, now they look a little geeky with their faux electronic circuit pattern on the palm and the crappy ON symbols on the index fingers but they work really well. They have a conductive part to the thumb and index fingers that work perfectly with the iPhone so you can swip etc without taking them off. I got a set in black but the North Face site shows an even more rubbish looking set in grey, see:
http://www.thenorthface.com/catalog/tnf-catalog-master/etip-glove.html?parent_category_rn=#
Overall a great purchase.
OS X: Auto mount drive for iTunes
Posted by admin | Filed under Mac
I don’t know how many of you use iTunes with some kind of NAS but I do. I have a readynas which is brilliant and with my new mac I wanted to use the NAS as my music library but every time I rebooted the mac it lost the connection and iTunes defaulted back to my local hard drive. To solve the problem you need to:
- download AutomountMaker
- set up your mount details (e.g IP Address etc) and save them
- then add the file into your login items (System preferences > Accounts > Users > Select user account > Login items > Click add icon)
Now this will auto mount your drive as soon as it boots and no more itunes tears.
PC to Mac: Some things I needed to know
Posted by admin | Filed under Mac
So far:
Force quit an application - http://www.wikihow.com/Force-Quit-an-Application-in-Mac-OS-X
Bootcamp installation pdf - http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/boot_camp_install-setup.pdf
Time machine to readynas - http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13319&start=90
Where is the # key - http://ogston.com/blog/2007/09/typing-the-hashnumber-key-on-mac-os-x/
Minimise the dock - http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2168/os_x_hide_dock/
Itunes on shared storage - http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070424081346722
More Lightroom web templates
Posted by admin | Filed under Lightroom, Photography
Another great resource for Lightroom templates, see here.
Instant photo frame
Posted by admin | Filed under Photography
A neat little christmas gift, trim your photo and write your message on the frame to make a little Polaroid style personalised gift. See here.
The big switch: PC to Mac
Posted by admin | Filed under Mac
Well people, tomorrow night will be the start of the big switch over to Mac. I can’t wait. I do most of my work on a laptop and my Sony Vaio is just too slow, I have a VGN SZ4 but with it’s 2gb ram and 2ghz centrino duo I just can’t get it to run well anymore. When I say anymore I suspect I really mean I have finally had enough of having to choose either Lightroom OR Photoshop to be open and capable of any performance. I have gone for the Macbook Pro 2.53 with 4gb ram and upgraded the hard drive to a 320gb 7200. I hope that will be enought to keep me happy. I have some pretty big concerns over the current issues of running Vista/XP on it but am pretty sure that Apple will fix those over time and this should also make me less likely to just run them on the MBP without fully embracing the OS X experience. I will be putting up any decent switcher links on the blog as I find them. Here are a couple I have found so far:
- http://the.taoofmac.com/space/HOWTO/Switch%20To%20The%20Mac
- http://www.smashingapps.com/2008/11/07/15-free-tools-for-mac-os-x-you-should-bookmark.html
Hot shoe spirit level
Posted by admin | Filed under Photography
When I replaced my Manfrotto cheapy tripod with my shiny new Feisol number unfortunately I lost out on having a spirit level. I ended up on good old ebay and bought a three way hot shoe spirit level for less than £6. If you are like me and take quite a few landscape photos it is will definitely help and stop those feature losing crops to get it level again. I didn’t get it from this ebay seller but you can find very similar ones here.
Photo Manipulation
Posted by admin | Filed under Photography
- Formula Cow
Check this site out which has some great blended photos, see here.
Free Lightroom Presets
Posted by admin | Filed under Photography
You may have noticed how much I love lightroom by all the posts I have made relating to it and here is another. I love presets and I know I can recreate them myself but they are so quick to flick through once you have them installed you may as well get some and here is a great resource for them, see here.
Where did I come up with the name Presidium from?
Posted by admin | Filed under Rambling
It’s not a particularily long story, I have watched Bond films since I was a young lad and I would expect that I am easily into double figure watches of 80% of the films and in doing so a few scenes stick in your mind. I was thinking of what the hell to call my personal blog and knowing that some bloody weaver in the US has my full name domain I went back to Bond, one of my favourite Bond films is From Russia With Love and the opening dialogue between Blofeld, Kleb and Kronsteen:
Number Three, is your section ready to carry out Kronsteen’s directives?
Yes, Number One. The operation will be organised according to Kronsteen’s plan.
I have selected a suitable girl from the Russian Consulate in Istanbul.
She’s capable, cooperative,
and her loyalty to the state is beyond question.
You’re sure she believes you’re still
head of operations for Soviet Intelligence?
It is most unlikely she would know I’m now working for SPECTRE.
Moscow kept my defection secret from all but a few members of the presidium.
And here is the Wikipedia explanation of it, see here. Enjoy.
