Big Trousers, Web, Design, Photography and new media.

Testing HD and the Zacuto Z-Finder

Posted on 06. Mar, 2010 by Philip in Digital imaging, Hardware

It rain and it rained big…
So the Zacuto Z-Finder attached to the Canon 5D Mk11 has proved to be the pivotal device for using the DSLR as a video shoot platform. Great stability is generated by using this device alone, but I now know why I need a lanyard on it. More later..

Keynote on auto schedule shutdown-startup

Posted on 04. Mar, 2010 by Philip in Apple, Big Trousers News, Digital imaging, Hardware, Software, Video

A very recent installation job nearly went pear shaped when a new “feature” in iWork 09 Keynote stopped us from scheduling a shutdown of a kiosk style big screen sideshow on 3 screens.

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.

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Guest Network set up with Linksys router and Airport Extreme

Posted on 25. Nov, 2009 by Philip in Apple, Hardware

The Dog Cafe in Footscray asked us to install a wireless network for their clients and a connection for their Macs so that guests were protected from sharing and the office network. Also they wished to file share amongst the office network Macs. Simple, the Apple Airport Extreme with guest network and a standard Linksys AG300 Modem router and TPG ADSL2+.

Well that proved to be an overstatement.

Whilst straight forward to understand in a network sense, not much information was available online or in the hardware documentation to sort out the relevant settings for both devices. Much of the information suggests forgetting the Airport Extreme as a DHCP device, bridging it and allowing the Modem to allocate IP addresses on the network. Whilst that is fine for most networks a guest network supplied by the Airport Extreme requires that it allocate IP addresses becoming the DHCP server for the two networks and isolating them from each other over WIFI. Simple, what about the Linksys modem? Bridge it and the PPPoE settings disappear and the Airport seems unable to to do this for the system, thus rendering the network operable but unable to connect to the internet.

The answer was stumbled upon after trying everything else that seemed logical.

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ADSL2+ vs Telstra 3G Turbo modem

Posted on 22. Nov, 2009 by Philip in Hardware

We just received our new Turbo modem from Tesltra and did an interesting speed comparison.
The charts show ADSL2+ from TPG, 3G via Telstra 3G dongle, and the iPhone speed over 3G in the same location.
Interesting that the iPhone has a higher download speed but the best upload was from the Turbo modem.
All this is academic however given how cheap the data plan is on TPG ADSL2+.
Still for pure upload speed the Turbo modem is streets ahead.

For our live streaming event for Louie Prez next week the uplink for video will be satisfactory if that speed is sustained.

TPG ADSL2+

Tesltra TURBO 3G

iPhone 3G

Easy Time Machine Setup with the Netgear ReadyNAS

Posted on 16. Apr, 2009 by Philip in Apple, Big Trousers News, Hardware, Software

In a recent firmware upgrade for all Netgear ReadyNAS units a simple interface for configuring for network Time Machine backup under Mac OS X 10.5 has been revealed. Untill now only a complex 15 step solution was available for this unit.
Many had opted for the Apple Time Capsule solution for network backups.

This is great news for those with plenty of room on their ReadyNAS and a small number of Macs to backup.

To use the system simply reboot your ReadyNAS and it will have the firmware upgrade done with a page available with set up instructions.

Read more here.

Back to my Mac, working on Billion modem router

Posted on 10. Nov, 2008 by Philip in Apple, Hardware

Over the past few months of testing various models of Billion routers, updated firmware and configuration we have a working solution.
Back to my Mac is a technology in Mac OSX Leopard that allows the user to connect to every Mac they are in control of over internet connection regardless of where they are. Each computer shows in the finder as it would if sharing is enabled on computers on the same local network. Employing only Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) enabled on a Billion 5200 modem router we were able to successfully screen share and access files from outside our office network both on known and open WIFI access.

It seems that not all Billion routers have this ability regardless of the fact that UPnP is available in most of the routers we tested. The difference seems to be the ability to allow an external application to make changes to the port mapping within the router.

Back to my Mac requires a .mac or mobile@me account. All Macs you wish to access should be configured using the same account. Secure connection data is stored and configured via the connection to this service. Since we use mobile@me to access common data for address books and iCal info across all Macs and iPhones, taking advantage of Back to my Mac seemed obvious. Despite having access to other services like Hamachi and Real VNC for over the internet sharing and control we have concentrated on Back to my Mac given that it requires little user knowledge once set.

Importantly there should only be one device acting as a router and for most home and small office networks we take a look at, there are two at times both acting as a DHCP server. This is mainly due to a later inclusion of a wireless access point, a network retrofit very common these days. In the case of Back to my Mac and other more complex network access applications, one of these routers should be bridged or configured so that does not assign IP addresses for the network.
Importantly when all else fails a quick flick off and on of Back to my Mac in System Prefs is all that was required to get the 5200 working correctly. Given the fact that the Billion 5200 is a domestic grade modem we were surprised by this result and also a little disappointed. The quality of the router is not quite up to spec for our requirements generally as it is a little less than stable in a network of 5 to 10 computers, printers and phones. Generally we would advise an industrial grade Billion router for this task. It is relevant to address the fact that enabling UPnP is not advisable under some circumstances and is not encouraged by the Windows security fraternity. It may also be argued that a more advanced system be used on Macintosh networks also and indeed there is a solution.
Back to my Mac can also employ NAT-PMP, a possibly more secure method of network manipulation. None of the routers we used had this capacity however. Apple Airport devices have the ability to use this technology in a network but we were hard pressed to get any ADSL modem router we tested to bridge successfully and allow the Apple device complete control of the network.
Testing will continue with hardware available in Australia to find the best means of making Back to my Mac usable under all circumstances but in the meantime there seems to be some hope for a small investment.

Apple’s Time Machine saves the day

Posted on 28. Oct, 2008 by Philip in Apple, Hardware

Recently released backup software in Apple’s new OS 10.5 Leopard, Time Machine has been found to proove invaluable when a full restore is required.

A customer rang last week saying their MacBook Pro had been damaged in a “drinking” accident and along with screen damage the hard drive may have been rendered unbootable. Some fluid damage to the internal electronics may also have occurred. A new MacBook Pro was ordered and whilst setting up the new Mac we connected the external hard drive that contained the Time Machine back up. The client had done what we instructed and dutifully connected the back up drive every week or so in order to let Time Machine do it’s thing. It keeps a complete backup of everything, even keeps copies of deleted files.

Still unaware of the value of Time Machine when the check box appeared “set up new Mac from Time Machine archive”, the box was ticked and it ran for 45 min. It sucked back from the external drive all the users files, configurations, accounts, applications, preferences, in fact everything so that the result was a perfect copy of the Mac just as it had been prior to the accident. All applications worked and remained registered.

Not only that but Time Machine made available all files deleted going back to the beginning of time for the old Mac.

Now while a new MacBook Pro cost a reasonable amount, the additional cost saved by not losing files and time taken to rebuild amounted to a whole heap more.

It also looks like a great way to get from one model to the next when upgrading hardware. The new Mac will not only have everything appear the same but all deleted files are there as well. It also saves the hassle of that import folder in Mail. At Big Trousers we will be recommending a Time Machine backup for all Macs from now on.

3G Billion WIFI router

Posted on 17. Apr, 2008 by Philip in Hardware

BiPAC 7300GX
3G/ADSL2+ Wireless Router

Looks like Billion have come first to market in Australia with a WIFI router that uses either 3G USB modem or ADSL2+ copper line connection.
Great bit of gear for traveling bands on the road, film crews on location, or just trying to keep the kids occupied in the car with WIFI iPods or PSP’s.
Have your mother-in-law email you from the back seat of the family wagon….

The BiPAC 7300GX is equipped with a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch so you can connect wired-Ethernet devices together. Directly connect up to four PCs or attach more hubs and switches to create a larger network as needed. Use the integrated Router function to share a blistering ADSL2+ or 3G-based Internet connection (requires a 3G data card, available separately), with automatic fail-over*4 to ensure an always-on Internet connection in the event that one of your Internet services fails.

A 12V car power cable is bundled with the router to let you plug the adapter into your car’s cigarette lighter for mobility. The BiPAC 7300GX can also encode all 802.11g wireless LAN transmissions with WEP or WPA encryption to ensure that your data is protected, and boasts a DHCP Server and a powerful SPI firewall to protect against intruders and most known Internet attacks. Secure WLAN setup is simplified by the web browser-based configuration for
easy access to the Internet wherever a 3G connection is available – whether you’re seated at your desk or taking a cross-country train trip.

Call BigTrousers now and get your order in.

New iPods… AMAZING

Posted on 06. Sep, 2007 by Philip in Apple, Hardware

Well I did not see this coming, an all new iPod range with the big surprise, an iPod Touch with iPhone like big touch screen and Wi-Fi for web browsing and iTunes for direct download.
I have ordered a few and I have no idea when they will land.

UPDATE: Looks like it could be a month or two…

MacPro for Phil

Posted on 31. Aug, 2007 by Philip in Apple, Big Trousers News, Hardware

Well I finally took delivery of a shiny new MacPro quad core Xeon.
I have to say it was a decision made for me by the continuing requirements of current software.
When the new iMovie failed to load that was the straw that broke the camels back.
I put if off for long enough but the wait was worth it.
I can stop bugging Petrina for Aperture and Joost and the Mac Pro runs HD video a lot better.

Briagolong iMac

Posted on 10. Aug, 2007 by Philip in Apple, Hardware

Pat B. from the Briagolong school of Fine art just received her new iMac and writes:

We are delighted with the new set up. I was nervous about tackling a new computer being correctly described as a technophobe, but I am able immediatly to do all the things I need to do, no pain at all.

Pat is on Mac OSX for the first time and it is great to hear that all is going well, I expect a Skype call at some point in the future from Briagolong…

New iMacs at last.

Posted on 08. Aug, 2007 by Philip in Apple, Big Trousers News, Hardware

Well we along with everyone else tipped this but the new brushed aluminium iMac is here. What is cool is just how thin it is, up to 4.0 GIG RAM, Up to 1 TB HD, up to 2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme processor, ATI Radeon HD graphics card, and a brand new keyboard.

This photo from Engadget

Drobo Data storage unit

Posted on 24. May, 2007 by Philip in 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

Posted on 24. May, 2007 by Philip in 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

Posted on 18. May, 2007 by Philip in 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.