Big Trousers online ticketing and support introduced today.

It is designed for all customers who register  to report problems with content management, wordpress, computer hardware and software, email, photography and general IT.  Also available are articles in the knowledge base designed to assist your and your business.

The web is no longer prohibited by desktop and laptop computers. With exponentially growing numbers users surfing the web with handheld devices we’ve ensured that our support site is optimised whether you’re viewing it on your 27″ iMac or your iPhone 4.  Also, the support site is hosted away from  our main server so that in the event of server malfunction or maintenance, the support site will still be live and operational. Server maintenance or server downtime is reported by as as it occurs live in the support site.

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Althogh this app is primarily designed to allow remote management for camera functions is also acts as a monitor for stills and can show you previous shots taken. It works but tethering the Camera via USB to a Mac laptop running the free onOne server software, this then is detected by the iPad app and so the camera is connected to the iPad. My big question was however, would this work in the field away from our WIFI network. Given the nature of the software both the iPad and the Mac Laptop need to be on the same network.

I remembered that a recent ios update 4.3 allows tethering via WIFI personal hotspot to 5 devices. With the iPad and the MacBook on this iPhone network, would the system still work?

To my surprise it did work and with a quite nice result. The framerate is not at camera speed but looked about 15 fps which is fine for most applications. No audio is passed through and so audio monitoring will have to be sorted some other way. Perhaps via the AV out we will get audio.

With this system you will need USB tethered computer and iPhone and an iPad. Bit of a mess but it does allow you to make camera settings like color temp, exposure and focus on the iPads touch screen. You also have a fire button for stills and a shoot button for video.

Other advantages are that you can shoot HDR exposures using the intervalometer setting within the app. Seems a bit too much gear to be carrying on a landscape shoot however.

I have finally assembled the components required to make better use of the Canon EOS 5D Mk11 HD video capture. This set up should allow greater stability, better focus action and view and a way better solution than just mounting on my stills tripod. I am looking forward to testing on some unsuspecting children.
What I am hoping to achieve is a shallow focus, Cinema style look in High Definition primarly for web.
After much research and a few fitting trials I have started with:

• Manfrotto Pro Tripod ART 535 with 501HDV head
• Canon 5D Mk11 body
• Canon 17-40mm wide zoom
• Canon 70-200mm tele zoom
• Zacuto Z-Finder
• D-Focus follow focus
• indiRAILSpro DSLR
• Lee Filter hood and ND grad set
• Also around but not in shot, Delkin Fat Gecko Dual Suction Cup Camera/Mount

The job is a display of news and coming events on 3 big screens for The West Footscray Neighborhood House. The screens run separate keynote presentations containing HD video and slideshows all with audio in 3 different locations within the center complex. Three Mac mini’s run the program files in full HD resolution and they could not be more happy with the quality of the presentations.

There were a number of hurdles to overcome however and in the interests of others trying to achieve the same result we will list solutions to some of the problems we encountered.

Firstly because there are no keyboards or mice we needed control over the screens from another Mac on the network. A 22.5 inch iMac in the locked admin office could be used via screen sharing in house but we also wanted remote access. Once all the right bits of network apparatus were in place we could gain control over the 3 Mac mini’s using Back to My Mac over the internet from our office. We can transfer updated Keynote files, check the system for failures or launch an application. With high end bandwidth at both ends it runs perfectly. On reboot however the Bluetooth equipped Mac mini’s went looking for a keyboard and mouse. Not a very pleasant screen image to greet me on the first morning of trials. This was sorted by turning off all Bluetooth services. Open system prefs/Bluetooth and advanced. Uncheck “Open Bluetooth Assistant…” box and the system will stop trying on reboot to connect.

Now to get a file to run on reboot simply add it as a login item. Normally you would have an Application as a login item, like Mail or the persistent Skype… To make a file like a Keynote slide show a login item use the login items window in System Prefs/Accounts and select and add using the + or for big files we found it was necessary to drag and drop the file into the login window.

Finally the big hurdle, getting Keynote to close to allow automated shutdown. The screens need to shutdown overnight and reboot in the morning. This keeps the noise down overnight for the neighbors. A simple task made complicated by some new code requirement that Keynote check first if a file has been saved before allowing shutdown to proceed. A good idea for those editing presentations but a pain in the butt for our purposes.

The trick was to use Automator and create an iCal alarm that simply put shuts down Keynote without saving 5 min or so prior to the scheduled Mac Mini’s shut down. Open Automater, choose iCal Alarm, select quit application from the menu and drag it into the script window. Choose Keynote from the dropdown ( here you will need to say “other” and get Keynote from within the iWork folder), UNCHECK “Ask to save changes”, then save entering Keynote Shutdown as the iCal alarm name. iCal will open with editable parameters for the alarm in a new iCal Calendar called “Automator”. Set the repeat to every day, end never, and the timing of the event and click done.

If anyone has any other questions relating to the placement setup for function of a presentation kiosk using the Mac, drop us a line and we hope we can be of assistance. Our thanks also to Rod Langham Electrical for his great work with the physical installation and heavy lifting.

Angophora costata (Smooth-barked Apple) from Philip Greenwood on Vimeo.

This is my favorite from the shoot, Cussonia spicata (Cabbage Tree) Cnr Inkerman and Hawthorn Rd Caulfield Park, Caulfield North, or as I called it the Manilong Sifficokus.

As of Monday 24 August we are lowering the price of the Student Subscription edition. For annual subscribers, the subscription will drop from $49 per month to $29 per month. And for students who subscribe on a month to month basis, the price will drop from $69 to $49.

With now up to a further 40% off Creative Suite Design Premium Student Subscription edition, it’s a great time to get students hooked into Adobe products, especially if they have been, um, borrowing a mate’s copy!

This is good news given the apparent lack of support for CS3 for its use under Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
An upgrade to CS4 is now more affordable under this student subscription model.

Petrina did the graphic design for the graphic slides that appear throughout the film. Much stuffing around with dog biscuits and the like in the photographic studio for quite a few weeks but the result was worth it.

If you haven’t seen it yet book now and get along for a delightful story set in the West of Melbourne.

Read a review online at The Age.

Or get online to visit the official site.