Category Archives: Gadgets/Gear - Page 2

My Rim Job (huh huh huh)

Posted by on October 3, 2012 No comments

I will never have another chance to title a post with that, so I am going to take a moment and soak that in.

Ok, my 12 year old moment is past.

Since I have done quite a few posts lately about Photography, I thought I would give my MINI a little time in the spotlight. There is a modification I have been wanting to do for a while now and only recently got the time to do it.

Rims are expensive. For my car they range from around $150-$200, [amazon_link id=”B002HLTBQ4″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]per wheel[/amazon_link]. Sadly, I don’t have that to spare right now, since the current rims are working just fine. Yeah I know it’s good to have a second set of wheels for summer/winter, but then you are talking the cost of the rims + the tires. That, and I don’t have a good location to store the tires in the off season. All of that leads me to my current solution.

[amazon_link id=”B000LNOOEO” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Plasti-Dip[/amazon_link]

Lots of folks use Plasti-Dip on various parts of their car because of it’s durability and easy of use/clean up. I had seen some other MINI’s with Plasti-Diped rims and loved the look. So I set aside a few hours, jacked up the car, and went to town on “Diping” my rims. A few of the members of the MINI forums I belong to said that I would need around two cans per wheel. I found that this was WAY over the amount I used. Grand total was two full cans for all four wheels. I was being VERY generous in applying as well. The coating was nice and thick and I was able to do about 3 coats per wheel.

Next project will be less crappy rotors and breaks!

Cleaned up the wheels before painting

Masked off the areas I didn’t want dipped

First Coat!

Setting on the car!

The final product

I had two wheels off the MINI at a time and just cycled through the coats. Total time was about 3 hours, and then I let it set (on the car) overnight. Overall I am very happy with the results. The total cost was about $12 for the two cans and the masking tape. I bought lots of extra cans, but I guess I will be using them for other projects. If you are looking for a quick way to add a little flare to your ride, this is a good way to go about it!

Important side note. If you are going to mask off an area that you don’t want “Dipped”, make sure you remove the tape BEFORE the dip is fully dry. this will reduce the amount of tearing as you remove the mask.

When it rains.

Posted by on September 28, 2012 No comments

Yesterday was Sarah’s birthday.  She hates when people point it out, especially me, which is probably why I do it so often.  She still lords over me that I am older so I feel justified.  The day started off well enough.  I crawled out of bed as quietly as I could so she could sleep in, and I headed to work.  Around lunchtime I met up with a friend and as I was getting out of the MINI, disaster struck.

You know that cool post I did earlier about how I use my iPad for so many things.… yeah well, it dropped.  It slid off my lap and fell to the pavement.  Honestly, I didn’t think anything of it at the time, since it had fallen before.  It’s in a leather case that tends to protect it fairly well, and it only fell from about 1 foot high. Well, it landed in just the wrong way that this happened:

Ouch!

Yup, the corner shattered and spider-webbed across the whole screen.  I too, was shattered.  My mind rapidly went through all of the various solutions, from using it as it was (since it still worked fine), to buying a new V.3 iPad ($800!!!!!).  Then it dawned on me that a friend had this same thing happen to his and he was able to get it repaired.  It’s just the front glass that shattered so the repair really isn’t that bad.  I found a place near home to work on it and it was done in 2 1/2 hours.  Total repair: $120. (the place was http://apluscprepair.com/ and they did an great job!)

YAY!

Using that extra few hours I swung by the store and bought Sarah some flowers and Oatmeal Creme Pies. (her favorite).  After the repair was done we headed out to grab dinner at a place in Front Royal, about an hour’s drive.  What we didn’t expect was the Armageddon level rain storm that hit us!  Driving back home was a nightmare as the storm was doing it’s impression of a DubStep Rave, with thrumming waves of the water and the strobe effects of the lightning.  I could barely see the road.  Crazy.

We did make it home safely.  Oh, and of course, when we checked the mail, I got a lovely letter from the District of Columbia informing me that they were super nice and took a picture of my car and me the other day when I was driving home from the ren faire (and was dog sick).  They felt I should have a copy of the photo and it was only going to cost me $125.

Oh, yeah, it was raining too.

You take the good, you take the bad…

Mobile Photography

Posted by on September 25, 2012 1 comment

The Apps

I have been traveling around quite a bit lately.  The thing that always goes with me is my photography bag.  (It’s contents are listed in the sidebar)  What doesn’t always go with me is my laptop.  You see, I have a behemoth of a laptop.  It’s an older ASUS gaming laptop that, while great for gaming, and processing photos, and everything else, is just HUGE!  I love it to death, but it’s just not a feasible option for simple travel.  Sure, if I am going to be someplace for an extended time, or have a lot of luggage I can take, it would make more sense.  So in most cases, I just use my iPad.

When I bought the iPad I have now, I knew I would be using it for photog stuff, so the 64gb size made sense.  I shoot primarily in RAW and that takes up a lot of space.  Of course, storage isn’t the only concern though.  I needed a few good quality applications to round out it’s usage.  I thought that I would post about what I am using and the process in which I use them.

The apps that I tend to use the most (for photography) are:

So, there’s all the tools, but how do you incorporate them into a shoot?  Easy!  Here is a play by play on how I would go about using all of these tools out in the field to Shoot, display, organize, process, and publish.

Release Forms

I have an upcoming project I am working on for a photo essay on Portraits. (subject to be explained at a later date)  I will be on location for the duration of the project and won’t have access to my PC until much later.  So I would go about the shoot, like usual.  Meet with the subject and discuss the plans for the project and their involvement.  If they agree to the project they would then fill out the release form in Easy Release and sign.  Then I would have them fill out the form I created in Numbers that asks them for information specific to the project. (Simple questionnaire)  It’s important to have questions in the survey that would identify them in the pictures.

Using my Nikon camera and lighting gear (supplemented by the SoftBox app) we would take the photos.  The Eye-Fi card would wirelessly transfer the JPG preview to the iPad, which would be standing nearby, to display the picture I just took (within a second or two).  This allows a larger screen to see framing, lighting, exposure.  I like the LCD on my camera, but sometimes it’s just not big enough to judge if I got the shot I wanted, or was just off. The downside to this is the time it takes to transfer.  If you are shooting at an event where speed is a factor, this is not a good solution.  Of course, if you at an event like that, you probably aren’t checking your LCD every few shots either.

Eye-Fi used as quick Preview

Softbox can show different colors or textures

Once the shots are done I import the RAW into the iPad using the camera connector. (it’s an important step to delete the Eye-Fi imported JPG’s to avoid duplicates).  Then I can use Photosmith to organize the shots into groups, flag the ones I want to keep/discard/etc. Now, I can stop here and wait for my PC to process photos, since when I get to it I can sync Photosmith to Lightroom and go from there, but, if I am going to be out for a while and want to get some work done quickly, I can proceed with processing.

Organizing and tagging like a PRO!

Using Photosmith I can identify the shots that I want to focus on.  If I shot in bracketed mode for HDR use, I would find the two shots I want to combine and open them in Pro HDR.  Adjust the levels, and save then move on to Snapseed.  For a typical shoot, I would just open in Snapseed. This allows me to adjust all my levels, colors, and balance.  I can do some selective adjustment as well.  If I need to use more precise editing, or want a more Lightroom type feel, I can use Filterstorm instead of or in conjunction with Snapseed.

HDR Editing on the fly

Quick Professional edits

Precise edits

Once editing is finished I can use the iPad to post to various social networks, email, and even my own website.  Using FlickStackr I can upload to Flickr directly, add all the info I need, tag it with keywords, location, and people.

Uploading and tagging on Flickr

So there you have it.  The whole process described above can be done, on the scene, in a matter of minutes.  (depending on shoot time)

Now, that’s not to say that this process doesn’t have it’s faults. You certainly aren’t going to get as accurate processing as you would with Lightroom on a PC.  As with all electronics, battery life is an issue too.  The Eye-Fi card adds a draw to the camera battery, and having the iPad up and receiving drains it as well.  Barring that, I love being able to set up, shoot, process, and publish all while on the road.

World Traveler

Posted by on August 28, 2012 No comments

Huge sorry for the lack of content for the last few weeks. Things have been a tad bit hectic as of late. You see, I have been traveling around for work and working very long days, so I haven’t had a lot of time to write. After the London trip I went back out to North Carolina for a week, and then off to Arizona for a month or so. The downside was a serious lack of time, but the plus side is I got to see some cool stuff and even take some great pictures.

I was down in Sierra Vista AZ and the landscape looks amazing. Armed with my trusty camera travel kit (aka, “My Bag” stuff to the right —> ) I set out to capture some great sunsets. Below are the results:

Sunset at Sierra Vista
Looking towards the mountains in Sierra vista lends to a great sunset shot.

Tombstone Cemetary
In Tombstone AZ, just about a 30 min drive from Sierra Vista, there are two cemeteries. The one most people know is Boot Hill, which is where the victims of the OK Corral are buried, and then the main cemetery, where everyone else goes. The real one is MUCH better looking (Boot hill looks like someones Halloween decorations).Cross at Sunset

The graves there date back to the foundation of the town.

For comparison, here are the Boot Hill graves:

Seems Safe
While venturing out (by myself) I ran across this sign and thought it might not be a good idea to be out, at night, so late, alone.

Shot for a shot
Back in Tombstone, at Big Nose Kates Saloon, I had a great shot of this whiskey. When the Barkeep asked if I wanted a picture of the bottle, he whipped out all the props for it!

After one of the trips to Arizona, I took a side trip to Parris Island South Carolina to watch my Son (who, you may remember, went off to the Marines) graduate Basic Training (aka, boot camp (aka, 3 months of hell)). Proud Father is Proud.

And lastly, not that I am back, I am trying to get back to normal. This means attending events like the local DC Metro MINI’s annual picnic! Where we got together and took this great shot:

Click to Super Embiggen

So, yeah. It’s been a bit busy. I will try and keep things updated more now that I am home (for now)

We’re Back!

Posted by on July 16, 2012 No comments

This was the start of our London Journey

Hey all!

We are now back from London!  We had a total blast the whole time out there and I took a metric F-Ton of pictures! (They use the metric system over there.)  Most of them are the touristy style pics, you know, because that’s what we were.  I did manage to set up and take some good solid pictures that will require some post processing and tweaking.  Those will be trickling out over the coming days.  Sarah actually as a very good day by day accounting of our trip over on her website.

 

Sarah got a few snaps of me taking snaps

I did want to touch on a few things that really made the trip though. (from a Gadget/Tech/Game perspective, that is.)  For my photography stuff I brought the whole backpack of gear, but rarely used all of it.  For general city travels I used my messenger bag and typically just the camera and my 18-270mm lens.  It was great for all around shooting.  On a few days I brought my 35mm with me, but rarely needed to swap it out.  I found that carrying around my full 15-20lb bag of gear would wear me out fast.  Also, I am not ashamed to say that a lot of shots were done in AUTO.  I was there as a tourist, I liked some of what I saw so I wanted a picture.  These were for memories, not art.  I know there are some photogs out there that claim they would never use the AUTO setting on their camera……they are full of crap.  It’s there for a reason.  To get the memory you want at a good quality.

Setting up for a shot of the London Eye

That said, I also set up a number of shots specifically to be processed and done in an artistic way.  These were set in M and bracketed.  The downside being that 1: I have a large number of photos to go through, and 2: Sometimes I would forget I was bracketed and ended up with some shots all over the place in exposure. (what, I was tired!)  All of my Touristy shots are in my gallery on the site here.  My Artistic shots will be trickling out as I work on them and probably uploaded to Flickr.  Keep an eye out!

 

Actually, we had good Signal everywhere

We had a very fun experience with Cell phones while in the UK as well.  My friend loaned me an old iPhone 3G for the trip and my wife as using her unlocked Motorola Razr Maxx.  First thing at the airport I tried one of the kiosks to grab a sim that we could at least use to call our driver. It was an O2 card that was 10£. Sadly, I didn’t use it at all, it had no data and we found our driver before needing it.  Next, while out we hit up a local shop that dealt in various phone stuff. I picked up a 3 sim that had the low end of texts and min, but unlimited data for 15£. Since we were only using data while here it would be perfect. It worked perfect in the old iPhone but in the wife’s Motorola it wouldn’t get any data. The guy said to go to the 3 store in westfields and they would fix it.

Had I realized (or not been tired from the plane) there was a mall right next to me, I would have just gone there.  The 3 store was shit for help. Their on staff folks were clueless and their phone support couldn’t figure out the Android APN settings.  We decided to hit the O2 store and got a sim that had 500mb data topped up to 1.5gb. The Guru was enamored with the Motorola and set up the APN very quickly. Everything worked great! Again, had I been more aware of my mental state, I would have just had them top up the card I bought at Heathrow.

As a side note, while out and about we noticed that O2 had better service with better coverage, but 3 had that unlimited data factor for cheap.  The final score board was 1 O2 Sim from the airport never used. 10£ 1 3 Sim from random store, never used 15£ 1 3 Sim from random store, used in iPhone 15£ 1 O2 sim from O2 store, used in Motorola, 20£

Yeah, that’s a game.

From the gaming side of things, we had a great meetup with some of the RetroNickRadio fans out in the UK!  You can find the details of that over at the RetroNick site.  We were also clued in to a little hole in the all Arcade located right near the London Eye.  I got very few pictures and didn’t have enough time to really explore, but it was a great find.

 

 

I know this post is starting to drag on so I will cut out here.  Expect some more excerpts from the trip in the coming weeks!

HTPC of Doom!

Posted by on June 15, 2012 1 comment

Ok, it wasn’t really of doom, but I liked the title.  This last week I have spent a lot of time building my new media PC to be hooked up to my TV.  I canceled cable, and my Tivo service and am now relying on online services and rentals.  I just got tired of missing things when they aired, the DVR not catching them for some reason and then not being able to see things.

So I built an HTPC (Home Theater PC) to pull in my DVD’s, and play videos straight off the web.  I was using my Xbox for this, but, while the Xbox has been coming out with more and more apps to cover everything, it’s still not perfect.  So I balanced it out with the HTPC.

Sorry for the low-rez, I was excited

Thankfully, I am friends with an HTPC expert, my friend Louis.  The one I built is based on the one he owns.  He helped spec out the parts and guided me through the setup.  See, I haven’t exactly built a desktop PC in around 8 years.  Apparently, a lot has changed since then!  All of the parts arrived on Monday afternoon.  This was bad.  See, I a the type that wants to open and play as soon as I get stuff.  So that evening I dove in to start building.

Huge Mistake.

I was up till 1am before I finally got everything installed and running.  WIndows was fully patched and ready to go.  Then, Tuesday, Louis had me check the mode the Hard drives was running in.  Turns out they were defaulted to IDE and needed to be in ACHI.  Yeah, when I made the switch (even after following instructions to ensure it wouldn’t happen) the OS was wiped out.  I had to do the software portion all over again.

Long story made short, I spent the last few evenings tweaking and configuring.  I am now running the following:

  • [amazon_link id=”B004EBUXHQ” target=”_blank” ]Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost)[/amazon_link]
  • [amazon_link id=”B002X578GE” target=”_blank” ]G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333[/amazon_link]
  • [amazon_link id=”B004Q81CKY” target=”_blank” ]OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5″ 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive[/amazon_link] (SSD) (Boot Drive)
  • 2 x [amazon_link id=”B0042SGDVG” target=”_blank” ]SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive[/amazon_link] (for 4TB Total)
  • [amazon_link id=”B0048D7AD0″ target=”_blank” ]SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card[/amazon_link]
  • [amazon_link id=”B005FE52X6″ target=”_blank” ]ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard[/amazon_link]
  • [amazon_link id=”B005HGPPG6″ target=”_blank” ]LIAN LI Black Aluminum PC-C60B ATX Media Center / HTPC Case[/amazon_link]

Needless to say, I may have gone a bit overboard on the hardware for something as simple as a Media Box.  However, playing Civ-V on the 47” tv is pretty damn cool.

Downside, I am exhausted.  Sleep soon!

Panning, Lessons from the fail book.

Posted by on May 9, 2012 No comments

This last weekend I was out at a MINI event with lots of cars and driving and great outdoors.  In talking with my friend Paul, we figured this would be the perfect chance to try a technique known as “Panning”.  This is where you set your camera to a lower shutter speed (to keep it open longer) and you move the camera at the same speed as the target you are shooting.  This gives the illusion of speed to the target.  It’s great for shooting cars as they go past.  The car stays in focus, but the background becomes a blur of speed.

This is NOT an easy trick to master.

Bad Bad Bad Bad

I decided to stop mid way on the Tail Of The Dragon to test out this technique.  There were lots of photographers on the road so my setting up camp for 30-45min wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary.  I understood the principle of the technique, now to just practice.  Something I learned quickly was that location is a huge part of this.  I set up near a turn, and not far off from the road.  This was two-fold of a problem since most of the cars were coming towards me, instead of past me, and it was hard to see them coming.  With the cars shortening the distance to me, I had to work on my focus as well as the panning.  If I got the focus right, I may not have the whole subject in the frame. If I got the panning right, the subject would be out of focus.

All totaled, in 45 min of practice, I took around 100 shots.

Of those 100, I ended up with 4 that were close to what I wanted, and only 1 really good one.

Needless to say, this is something that I will be working on.

10th annual MINI’s On the Dragon 2012

Posted by on May 8, 2012 No comments

I am beat.

Last Wed. I set out for the MOTD event in Deals Gap NC.  It was a good 9 hour drive from Manassas to the Tail of the Dragon.  Since I was going by myself there was no real need to stop aside from emergency bathroom breaks (3 total).  I made great time and arrived at around 2:30pm to the event, which was well underway.  Over 700 MINIs signed up and just blanketed the area.  Driving around with lodge was like I had visited MINItopia, with a MINI in every driveway.

I finally met up with Clint (my buddy from Vegas) after wandering around in a cell dead zone with no internet access either.  It was amazing being so disconnected from everything.  We were relying on the FRS radios I brought with me.  It’s amazing being as internet connected as I usually am to go to nearly black out comms.  I am still slowly getting used to being connected again.

Overall I had a blast!  Lots of great driving, hanging out with incredible people, enjoying the great outdoors!  I had a bunch of stuff done to the POD including, Pulley wheel reduction for the supercharger (I hear that’s a rite of passage at the dragon), new brake handle, [amazon_link id=”B0073XO404″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]stubby antenna[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”B002VB8TIG” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]chrome bonnet scoop[/amazon_link], and a LightInSight.

I even got to practice some photography tricks.  Check out my gallery for all the pics I took.  I am really looking forward to attending next year!

N7 Gaems G155 Case

Posted by on April 13, 2012 No comments

It’s GADGET TIME!!!

Yup, it’s finally here!  I spent the last 3 weeks refreshing the Bioware store website.  Now it has finally arrived.  My Mass Effect N7 Branded Gaems G155 Portable Gaming Case.

So let me rewind a bit here.  This year I have a TON of travel coming up for work and personal stuff.  With Mass Effect coming out, I really wanted a way to carry my xbox with me on these trips.  So weeks ago I started looking at the G155 case.  It was inexpensive and had great reviews.  It was just a matter of pulling the trigger.  Then my friend tweets out a link to this.  My eyes went wide, pulse raced, cheeks flushed…..wait a sec here…ummm.  Yeah, so, the fact that I had just been looking up this very case, and this one is N7 BRANDED!!  It was a no brainer.  Trigger pulled.

Click to Embiggen

Then began the waiting game.  I didn’t realize that the shipping would take 3 weeks.  I had hoped to have it before PAXEast, but alas, that did not happen.  Thankfully, it did arrive yesterday so I will have it for my Vegas trip.

The case itself looks great. It’s not overly heavy with a system in it and it holds, in its side pouches, the power supply for the Xbox (which is ginormous), power for the screen, 2 HDMI cables (a short one it comes with, and a long one in case the hotel I am in allows for an input), a single controller, and a play-and-charge cable.  I can set two games on top of the Xbox and close the lid with no difficulty.

Click to Embiggen

Overall, I am very happy with how the case works.  I was surprised to see that the screen actually will do 1080p.  Everything fits great and works perfect.  What I wasn’t that pleased with was that the N7 branding was a sticker skin……that I had to apply myself.

So let me throw some things into perspective here.  The case I had started looking at is the listing on Amazon.  At the time I was looking at it, the price was listed as $269.00 (prime shipping).  The N7 Branded one on the Bioware store was $260.00 (with $8.50 shipping).  I was like “Sweet, I am saving $0.50 AND getting the N7 brand!”  Meanwhile, in the past 3 weeks, the Amazon listing has dropped to $249.00, still with prime shipping.

Grand Scheme, I love the case.  If I were waiting for 3 weeks for it, I would have liked for them to professionally apply the skin.  That’s it.

If you are interested in the G155, or the N7 Skin, you can find them Both at the Bioware Store, Separately at the Gaems site, and the Amazon listing is still the best for fast shipping.  The Skin by itself is $29.99 from Gaems only.

Working through the Trilogy (again)

Posted by on March 26, 2012 No comments

Lately I have been suffering a little PTMED (Post Traumatic Mass Effect Depression, it’s a thing).  I tried to go play some Old Republic, but found myself too distracted with all of the huge range of emotions I experienced with my playthrough of ME3.  (Note, still liked the ending).  As I have mentioned before, I never did a second playthrough, only the single story, and single save.  The quick recap about this meant that I was able to experience the whole story in a very unique way.  It didn’t get convoluted with alternate choices or multiple stories.  (Not that there is anything wrong with that, just not what I wanted to do).  I have now experienced the whole story, and I loved it.

So, what do you do with a story you just finished and loved?  You experience it again!  I made the decision to run through the whole story again, starting at Mass Effect 1, and working through the whole trilogy.  I experienced a small snag in this though.  My ME1 disk went missing!  I had pre-ordered and bought the collectors tin for ME1 and had the tin, and the bonus discs…..but no game disk!  I checked with Gamestop and they wanted $30 for a pre-owned copy (WTF!!!).  Amazon had new Platinum editions for $19 (UPDATE, it’s $16 now!!!) with prime shipping so that’s how I went.  It arrived on Friday.

To accompany this epic playthrough I also splurged and purchased the N7 branded G155 Personal Gaming Environment.  I have a number of trips coming up that may end up with me in a place that might get boring. (assuming I don’t get out and take pictures.) So I picked up this case so I could take a 360 with me.  I will probably have a post about the case after I get it wit photos and such.

So, I am now 10 hours into Mass Effect 1 and the experience is amazing.  First off, it’s VERY difficult to transition from ME3 controls down to ME1, you can tell they improved on quite a bit.  Outside of that, though, it’s been outstanding.  It feels like one of those movies where I have been transported back in time and given the opportunity to make new choices, knowing what I know now!  My favorite moment so far was meeting Wrex for the first time (again) with the Dialogue

Wrex: Do I know you human?

Me: * Not yet
* You will
* Shut Up

For those that are curious, I am playing through as BroShep.  My first was with FemShep, and my Romance options were ME1: Liara (Duh), ME2: Garrus (Comedy Option), and ME3: Traynor (Stress Relief).  I would be happy to explain these if you ask, but I think I know how I will steer things this time around.  I will certainly keep you updated on the progress both here and on Twitter.