Plaster goes in

Ξ May 26th, 2007 | → 1 Comments | ∇ News |

New rooms in the Big Trousers complex are nearing completion as plaster goes on the walls.

Drobo Data storage unit

Ξ May 24th, 2007 | → 1 Comments | ∇ Hardware |

This piece from PhotoGeek on the new Drobo USB four drive storage unit.
This could be a very handy bit of gear and we have contacted Drobo to see if we can get hold of a few of these for re-sale.

The Drobo is unique in that it can have drives of unequal size inserted and removed as your requirements change. Have two 500 GB drives and a few old 100 GB drives when you start then just replace a 100 GB for another 500 GB. Drobo will release the extra drive space as storage on the fly, even while the drive is being accessed by a computer.
I am thinking this will be a useful device for photographers with ever increasing storage requirements. It also acts as a hard drive redundancy system so that in the event of a drive failure no data is lost. All you need to do is take out the dead drive and replace it.

Al Gore’s Triple head

Ξ May 24th, 2007 | → 1 Comments | ∇ Apple, Hardware |

Engadget has posted a short piece on this photo of Al Gore’s triple 30 inch Apple cinema display.
Do we all want a set up like this? Not so messy perhaps?
Last line was a good one. ( thanks for the link-Ajay )

“P.S. -Yeah, fine, we’re creepy gadget stalkers, what of it?”

Elgato Turbo.264 hardware encoder

Ξ May 18th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Apple, Hardware, Video |

Just released the Elgato H.264 hardware encoder.

Make Apple TV ready content from Elgato recorded HD Free to Air TV in a flash. No more waiting for video to re-encode as 720p for iTunes playback.

This makes the AppleTV a much more useful device for managing Free To Air TV on your widescreen TV.

Read the article from PhotoGeek.tv

It comes at a time users are coming to terms with the process of automating playback from various sources including HD TV onto TV screens through hardware such as the AppleTV unit.
What this means is that Free to air TV can be recorded, re encoded, then added to iTunes at break-neck speed so that the content will show up on your TV screen as content available for immediate playback.

Bitumen

Ξ May 16th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ News |

And the renovation at Big Trousers continues as the bitumen driveway goes in.

Good design a must

Ξ May 11th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Apple |

From an article by Daniel Turner from Technology Review about Apple and the pursuit of great industrial design. The process employed and the reasoning for this as a productive investment for those who use their products. I have to say I have never thought of Apple products in this way but it is interesting to hear from the designers perspective and understand how such a large company uses “one mind” approach to good design. How many of us have to design for a committee structure?

Apple’s designs are now the stuff of legend–and the object of fascination and envy. But is the focus on design worth it? Why spend time and money making a computer look good? Why do we care what it looks like?

“Attractive things work better,” says Don Norman, who was vice president of advanced technology at Apple from 1993 to 1998. “When you wash and wax a car, it drives better, doesn’t it? Or at least feels like it does.”

Norman cites research in cognitive science suggesting that people’s emotions affect the way their minds process information. In his 2004 book Emotional Design, he writes, “Positive emotions are critical to learning, curiosity, and creative thought. … The psychologist Alice Isen and her colleagues have shown that being happy broadens the thought processes and facilitates creative thinking.”

In multiple studies, Isen, a professor of psychology and S. C. Johnson Professor of Marketing at Cornell University, made subjects feel happy through a number of means, including gifts of candy and words or pictures with pleasant associations. The subjects were then asked to perform tasks that measure creativity; over the course of 20 years, Isen and her colleagues regularly found that subjects exhibited much more creativity when they were in a good mood.

Ustream give live

Ξ May 5th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Digital imaging, News, Photography, Video, Web design |

Released a week or so ago, USTREAM provides a method of streaming live video and audio to a worldwide audience.

According to Cris Pirillo, this is indeed a revolution as it allows bloggers and video bloggers to go live with text chat to their audience. I suppose with Skype you could have live interview and talk back too.

At PhotoGeek.tv we intend to make use of this technology and provide a live video stream while we record audio for the podcast each Tuesday or Wednesday.

Check out the live video page on PhotoGeek left running every now and then from the Big Trousers office.

PhotoGeek week #1

Ξ May 3rd, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ News, Photography |

Good to see the photogeek podcast is finally online.

Cameron talks about the imminent release of the Canon 1D Mk3 along with other discussion and news.

Check out the site and let them know what you think.

Reproduction to canvas

Ξ May 1st, 2007 | → 2 Comments | ∇ Digital imaging, Hardware, Photography |

This is a little job for Ringo, an artist from The StKilda Esplanade market.

Ringo wanted to know if we could reproduce from an original oil painting, a color accurate reproduction to canvas using the wide format Epson printer. The 4800 pro uses 100 year archive pigment ink and also is amazing at this sort of reproduction.

Shot with the Canon 5D and imaging on the Mac calibrated using the Huey display calibrator the first print was nearly indistinguishable from the original.

We look forward to the long print runs Ringo….