So this pretty piece of mac hardware has been sitting here for a week now, and what I have noticed? I am not using my PC as much again, like when I got the iBook I switched email acconts from my PC -> Mac, granted Thunderbird is not Universal yet, so it’d run in Rosetta, but I just as easily converted FH email -> Mail.app.
I think with Mac one thing I know, is less distraction - in Windows you have things pulling your attention every-which-way, but in Mac, it tends to be you choose the point of focus - but don’t get me wrong, I still stand behind my view of every type of computer has it’s place - in the room now the Linux box is webserver/mt-daapd/ssh server - the Windows box/laptop are Vongo, Email, Games - and the Mac, is video, photography, and soon virtual photo processing center - digital negatives here I come!
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I am sitting here with meds slowly kicking in to knock down wisdom teeth pain, and I have been researching printers, and I think I found a winner, the R2400 from Epson was highly suggested, however it’s nearly $900 - and while I “could” afford it if I really really really needed to, I kept looking today at CompUSA and found the i9900 from Canon, big print sizes (up to 13×19 full bleed (aka borderless prints) and its $499, but has a $100 rebate, so $399 all things said and done.
Needless to say I am of course though still looking around, trying to find the pro’s and con’s people may know about the printer, if you have any information about this printer either good or bad, please post a comment 
but it’d be nice for doing prints, and working on some various goodies for a crazy project I have in mind for a friend (not gonna name them here, wouldn’t want them to know my secret evil plans! muwhaha!)
Okay - going to go lay down now.
My sister got me a book for Christmas, and I just finished reading it, granted it was in a bookshelf for a while, and I read half of it at one point, then just came back a few days ago and started reading it again - the catch to it, was very “opinionated” is how I’ll put it.
The book is Deadline
by Randy Alcorn - a decent book, good story line, very good visual depictions of heaven and hell (though Hell’s was brief) - but just great visual ques which really gave you a awesome view of what heaven could truly be, but also of friendship, family, finding faith, and a nice hint of action all in all a good read, I have no complaints about the book other than large sections going on and on with facts about abortions, and various other real-life issues granted, but at times it felt overly preachy, like it felt I wouldn’t of known about the issues listed.
Anywhoo - worth a read, give it a look if you get a chance, as for me, I think I’ll try that whole sleep thing now.
So yesterday (yes it’s 2am again) was a day used for the camera, sure sure, have had code open all day, and misc. meetings which in one (I got to use the camera!) I shot about 450 photos, some were dupes to get a little “live action” and “movement” but also for the sake of changing lighting conditions and ongoing elements in the background (aka folks working out at the gym).
So what did I take shots of? Well was very excited and ran to the lake for starters - I enjoy it a lot, but sadly it was a tad foggy and overcast this morning so I really didn’t get to take as many great shots, but such is the game of winter weather, plus I really need to get some filters for these lenses as it’d of been great to have a UV on this badboy.
But none the less, some great shots - as the day progressed though, I found what I have dreaded in my A510 and X20, green dots. The dreaded “pixels of death!” well I searched ol Google (the mighty search engine that could!) and found a rather interesting post on Steve’s (one of my favorite review sites) which more or less had a E-500 user (like myself) who was having the same worry, dead pixels (or as other google’d sites noted “hot pixels”) - but there was hope from the note, a term I remember reading in the manual “Pixel Mapping” apparently all digital cameras have dead spots - but in the factory before they ship they get those spots mapped, thus they don’t show up in photos - but I did the full gambit of suggestions that Olympus support gave him, finishing of course with the Pixel Mapping, well there are still a few litle pixels, but they aren’t bright, white, pixels of death, but the 2 troublesom green dots on my photos are now gone when I snapped a few shots - so needless to say pretty impressed and happy - the manual when re-reading that section suggests it be done once a year, but as a few noted on other sites when I search maybe every 2-3 months (just to keep it well aligned).
Overall though, very impressed with the camera’s performance, speed, design, and layout - a nice upgrade from my 3.2mp A510 - the next test probably after tomorrow is to do the photo print test @ Target, great thing about Flickr you can upload your pics, then order prints - so needless to say looking forward to printing out something fun.
Going to upload a few choice shots from the Gym photo shoot today, that was a riot!
In other non-camera news, talked with my brother briefly tonight, he got his new laptop from work (his old work one died) but on top of that looks like in maybe 2 weeks or so I may be going out to Grover for a few days to work with him on mail servers and networking junk as they setup a primary mail server up in SLO and have my office here as a fall-back - so time shall tell how that all pans out - but as for me, I need food (I know I know, its 2am) but none the less im hungry Night Folks.
Well as noted, I have been using Mint for a few days now, a testing of my blog for a client who was unsure of the product, so they are enjoying my stats, two features I have loved though are two pepper’s:
and
Both great pepper’s to add but overall, the stats are very cool, had no major issues with it, but the client is impressed thus it will probably move forward to replace the server based stats as they feel they aren’t accurate as to true BROWSING, so this definately tracks per page, for $30, a lot more functionality from the old ShortStat versions, I enjoy it, and was well worth $30 of my own cash.
The thing about being “Hard to Buy For” I get some cash each year, however this year, I actually got a slew of things I asked for since they were affordable and easy, granted I didnt get my iMac G5, or digital camera, so that leaves me back on my journey of my digital camera desires.
I have been reading up on cameras again, and again Evolt E-300 comes up nicely, granted the Canon Rebel XT has some nice perks the big perk in the Evolt line is its Supersonic Wave Filter which at camera start up (aka when you have attached your lens and are ready to shoot photos it vibrates the inner mirror to sake off dust/dirt particles - granted many reviews made the note to explain it doesnt get rid of finger-prints, but considering that in foremer standard cameras I have played with 9/10 it was dust that got me (still is on my A510).
All in all, it feels like a good fit @ 8MP, RAW/TIFF saving, Lens Expansion, Manual Control - plus fair pricing on add-on’s (extra battery & additional lenses) I imagine I could have some fun, because after hitting flickr, and some shots from Lindsay - I think it’ll be fun, in the end it’s not just about what’s on the screen, but what comes out of the printer.
So far the cart includes:
Extra Battery
Nice Camera Bag
2GB Compact Flash Card
Memory Card Case
And of course, the E300 Kit (2 lenses).
It all comes out under $1,000 - with Newegg’s 6 month’s no intrest/payments, I can pay it off in $145 bits for 6 months, probably less if these new ventures take off, but the ability to budget it out over time, and no intrest payments from a credit card to worry about - very nice indeed.
Anywhoo, few more reviews to read, a phone meeting I am not looking forward to as I have no idea what this person wants to talk about (they never emailed me back as to why they want the call) - but I may be hitting buy in the next few hours… unless someone has some really compelling & earth shattering information as to why I should not.
This is a flick I wanted to see when it was in theatres, however it didn’t go very far, it was in limited release, then was gone - so when I saw it was out on DVD today, instead of renting it, I bought it. Good movie. It’s probably not a flick for everyone, but I enjoyed it, good story, good characters, good cast. Robin Williams makes a good “retard” lol.
Pretty much all I have to say right now, go forth, rent, enjoy.
