After a year or so of “not so good” webcam reliability, Alan Jones (Fredericksberg Virginia, USA), asked me to assist. We had a quick gloss over the issues on iChat video conference and then got down to business. The problem as usual was the local network and the html for the webcam page. We needed to manually set the IP address of Alan’s local machine, then Port Map for port 8080 to that LAN address. The html was then altered to call for the external network IP address. Get everything cleaned up and bingo, Alan was live to the world. Or at least potentially.
Here is his reaction as we went “live”
Thanks to Apple iSight and Evocam webcam software
Visit Alan’s Webcam page and see if he is in his “Office”. He has a great list of Webcam sites from around the world linked to this page.
Well the geek in me could not rest until I had built a Widget for OS X Tiger for our Blog.
So here it is, all shiny and new. You will get a brief of the last 5 most recent blog entries. Download, double click to unzip, then double click the Widget to install.
Download here.
With most inkjet printers used by photographers it has been difficult to calculate the cost of ink per photograph. An information panel in the Epson printer utility keeps track of the total ink use per color for each of the last 10 prints. This is handy when a large print job comes up and you need to keep an accurate costing of materials.
- Job No. 0 - User Name : Philip Greenwood
Doc Name : Malacoota Basalt.tiff
Job State : Complete Start : 01/30/07 22:11:17 End : 01/30/07 22:19:06
Paper Used : W 327mm x H 445mm Page Count : 1
Ink Used : PK 0.35ml C 0.08ml M 0.09ml Y 0.29ml
Ink Used : LK 0.29ml LC 0.22ml LM 0.67ml LLK 0.19ml
So if you add all the ink together and you know your cost per ml you get the exact cost for this image. I see that Ultralchrome K3 is around $150 for 220ml. That is .6818 per ml. Ink used = 2.18 ml. So this print cost $1.48636 in ink.
The print I used as a test was an A3 image to A3+ Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl 285 gsm using Hahnemuhle profile. This material is around $5.87 per sheet. So for this image, chosen as an average density and color costs $7.36 in materials. Thanks David for the tip.
I am getting a bit bored with the DRM thing that the Europeans are going on about.
I figure they are steamed up about a perceived lack of competition in the sale of Mp3 players. Perhaps the only reason iPod’s are selling so well because of some lack of competition. These “suits” are sick of handing over wads of cash to their spoilt children perhaps.
Netherlands’ consumer protection agency spokesman Ewald van Kouwen said, “When you buy a music CD it doesn’t play only on players made by Panasonic,” Kouwen declared. “People who download a song from iTunes shouldn’t be bound to an iPod for the rest of their lives.”
I would like to point out that there are not too many Mp3 players that are not platform specific. If I want to buy wmv files as a DRM download, I can’t do it with a Mac and an iPod. Should I be beholden to buy a Microsoft product in order to even purchase music?
The iTunes music store allows the purchase of downloads to a computer only, either Mac or PC. If you want to play that music on a CD player be it Panasonic or whatever, burn an audio CD. If you don’t own an iPod rip that CD as an Mp3 and put it on any Mp3 player, with no DRM attached. If you purchase an iPod you get the benefit of the performance of the free software, iTunes, that allows syncing the original DRM AAC encoded audio.
The DRM is the electronic virtue of the deal Apple has with it suppliers of music as downloaded data, not a way to force the purchase of an iPod. I do not own an iPod but I do purchase from iTunes music store, shit I can even hear the music as it comes out of the speakers, and no iPod in sight.
If these blokes in Europe are scared of a lack of fairness in the music download business take a look at the Zune. Now that is locked up as tight as a fishs’ butt.
I can’t believe the French are up in arms about FairPlay, what’s next the Japanese demanding a stop to over-fishing in the North Sea? I don’t think you can even use the word champagne to describe the color of an armchair fabric.
A deadline has been imposed to make iTunes compatable with other music players or they will take Apple to court.
Bring it on I say.
After having been amazed and excited by Steve Jobs demonstration of the Apple iPhone, some industry analysts have been critical of the the lack of support for 3rd party application developers. I for one would be more than happy with the applications that it ships with now and I am sure Apple has some great ideas for future development. I would expect those responsible for that at Apple are fairly talented.
One heavyweight in the Apple tech comment arena, Leo Laporte (TWIT, MacBreak Weekly ) had me flummoxed with his downgrading of the iPhone. Although Leo has my complete attention and respect as a tech journalist (love the voice too), I have been thinking that he has been in some way influenced by some associates/sponsors who are in the main 3rd Party developers.
I am not suggesting this is a conflict driven decision as I suspect Leo is above that, however I would like to point out the sponsorship possibilities in the 3rd party hardware market, an area Apple has left wide open.
Perhaps it is me but I think this iPhone has to make it’s mark as a good cellphone first. The more advanced user who owns a Treo type device may be left wanting more, but the vast majority of ordinary cellphone users who now own an iPod will be delighted with the iPhone.
As for us in Australia, there is no hope of seeing an iPhone for 12 months, and even then in a market dominated by “unlocked” cellphones it ain’t going to be cheap. I suspect well in excess of $1000 AU plus a fairly high monthly contract fee. I would buy one for sure…..
if I could hide it from Mrs Big Trousers.
A recent blog entry by Daring Fireball reminded me of the need for good User Interface design. The story is one about the surprise in the Mac “Address Book” that allows you to sort updated vCard information.
When confronted by what appears to be a tedious task just do the obvious first and see what the application offers. In this case a special screen pops up to let you know that you have an existing card that matches and what the differing information is.
Khoi Vinh writes his account of the process as it magically appeared to him.
It reminded me of the advise I gave to a client who could not remember how to burn a CD. ” First insert a blank CD. Then follow your nose”
“One sign of good UI design is when you take a guess how something should work, and you’re right.” John Gruber.
Some of the text from this case makes for interesting reading. Seems the “bribe” allegations against some industry analysts have been substantiated.
I often wondered how those crazy software comparisons were justified in a journalistic sense.
Analysts are people who are paid to take a stand, while always trying to appear to be disinterested observers (since the appearance of independence maximizes the price they can charge for selling out). Treat them as you would treat nuclear weapons — as an important part of your arsenal, which you want to keep out of the hands of the enemy. (Bribe) Hire them to produce “studies†that “prove†that your technology is superior to the enemy’s, and that it is gaining momentum faster.
Read the pdf here
This PDF includes a memo written in 1997 by James Plamondon, a Microsoft technical evangelist.
Leo Dale asserts that his new MacBook has made his G5 PowerMac Dual 1.8 GHz obsolete. He is putting it up for sale, very soon. All due to the incredible speed of the MacBook. Leo runs a small home recording studio and employs Logic Pro to record and mix.
In his testing using identical files on an external firewire drive the MacBook runs everything needed at speed.
No need to keep the PowerMac for serious work as was thought, the MacBook does it all.
Get online and have a listen to some of the ringtones for sale written by Leo and Ray Pereira.
Or just get online and click the iTunes links.
Ξ January 22nd, 2007 | → 1 Comments | ∇ News |
Finally got time to complete the CSS rebuild for our own site.
Still some bugs to be found and could do with some refining, but we will get to that soon.
Any comments will be appreciated.
After years of plodding along with an old barge of a PC on AOL dialup, Chris at Artistic Reflections attempts the big move to Mac OS X this week.
As a high volume production picture framer Chris has invested in the latest technology for his high quality production factory from computer controlled mat cutting to precision mitre machines. Now the office gets the workover with the latest MYOB running on a new Intel Core Duo MacMini, and ADSL through TPG.
I will report back and ask Cris for his impressions.
This great article from Smashing Magazine.
CSS is important. And it is being used more and more often. Cascading Style Sheets offer many advantages you don’t have in table-layouts - and first of all a strict separation between layout, or design of the page, and the information, presented on the page. Thus the design of pages can be easily changed, just replacing a css-file with another one. Isn’t it great? Well, actually, it is.
Read the full article here.
Russell from Australian Interactive Multimedia Pty Ltd
has invited all to view special pricing on all Genuine Epson Wideformat cartridges.
Click here to see their pricing.
It seems that the update to OS 10.4.8 has rendered EOS Capture useless.
That is the one essential piece of Canon software I need, as do others.
I use an Automater script to have Capture send files to Aperture.
I can shoot to the card and download still but for studio portraits where the client is present it is great to have Petrina work on the editing as I shoot.
I am going to ring Canon in the morning and will publish the outcome.
UPDATE:
After waiting for an enourmous length of time on the phone to Canon tech assistance and after 5 push button options and being put through to 3 different people this was the response: “The person who looks after Mac issues is otherwise occupied on other calls, he will call you back….”
Ξ January 14th, 2007 | → 9 Comments | ∇ News |
I am just going to see how long it takes Petrina to notice, or to be alerted to this pic of her.
When she is not cranky at me she can be quite attractive.
I was approached by this suit at The Esplanade today who reckons he can supply Ultrachome K3 for my Epson 4800 Pro at a very cheap rate. Nearly $100 off retail.
Charlie Hu of infoMedia Australia
(no site) said he will email me the price list tomorrow.
Don’t hold your breath but if he does give me a good deal I will post the details here tomorrow.
UPDATE:
The details are in, and a very good deal.
220ml Ultrachrome K3 $125 + GST.
Minimum order 8 carts.
Ring Charlie and tell him Phil from Big Trousers sent you.
Charlie Hu
infoMedia Australia P/L
T 9510 2266
M 0411582213
F 9510 4999
206 Commercial Rd
Prahran Vic 3181
chu1734@bigpond.net.au
