Monthly Archives: February 2006

Photostroll – American Museum of Natural History

Posted on February 27, 2006 | Comments Off on Photostroll – American Museum of Natural History

Went on a Photostroll organized by Ken on Sunday. It was a lot colder than this shot show, but it was a great deal of fun. When we do the next one, my wife and I are sure to go.

See our photos here.

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Posted in Cool Stuff, Images

New York City Photobloggers 6

Posted on February 16, 2006 | Comments Off on New York City Photobloggers 6


After being Sick in bed most of this week, I was finally able to work on the Photo’s I took at NYCPB 6. IMO, All the presenters gave good examples of their work. It was pretty interesting an I recommend you check out the Work represented there:

NYCPB’s Featured Photobloggers:
Corrie and Lex officersrow.org
Joseph Holmes Joe’s NYC
Noah Kalina Noah kalina Interiors
Tod Seelie Of Quiet
Jimmie Yoo cornershots.com
Reza Mazaheri Photos by Reza Mazaheri

I posted my photo of the Event on Flickr

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Posted in Cool Stuff, Images

Too Much Snow…

Posted on February 13, 2006 | Comments Off on Too Much Snow…

Note to self: Listen to the Weather Man.

My Wife and I drove out to my brothers house Saturday afternoon and Stayed overnight. By 4:00pm Sunday Afternoon, I had cleared my car 3 times and started to get sick.

We only got back to Queens after 9:30pm! Glad I have 4 wheel drive…

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Posted in Different

Cool, Someone is using my MT Plugin

Posted on February 11, 2006 | Comments Off on Cool, Someone is using my MT Plugin

After seeing plenty of Downloads of my MTYahooMaps Moveable Type plugin, I received my first Email asking for help making it work. (They left out a step. Note to self: make Documentation more readable…)

I write programs for purely selfish reasons: I like writing something and seeing it work as intended, preferably doing something interesting. I do it as a professional and as a hobby. When someone else can use something I’ve done, I get satisfaction that it’s useful to other people.

The MTYahooMaps plugin isn’t a terribly complicated program and I wrote it using MTGoogleMaps by Nick Punter as inspiration. Yahoo Maps isn’t quite as ready for Prime Time as Google Maps is, but it’s a start. I’m hoping that Yahoo Maps will become more functional as time goes by (It’s still Beta, after all)

If I write another plugin, It will be for my satisfaction, but I hope other people find it useful.

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Posted in Cool Stuff, Plugins

New York City Photobloggers 6 at Apple Soho

Posted on February 10, 2006 | Comments Off on New York City Photobloggers 6 at Apple Soho

They have a lot of good speakers tonite, See here for Details.

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Posted in Cool Stuff

Simpler Spellbound Fix for Firefox

Posted on February 9, 2006 | Comments Off on Simpler Spellbound Fix for Firefox

Spellbound Plugin

  1. Download spellbound_0.7.3.xpi from the download page of Spellbound to someplace like "c:temp"
  2. Temporarily rename it "spellbound_0.7.3.ZIP", open with Winzip and edit the "install.rdf" file
  3. Change "<em:maxVersion>1.0+</em:maxVersion>" to "<em:maxVersion>1.5.*</em:maxVersion>"
  4. Replace "install.rdf" in the zip file with the version you just edited.
    Rename it back to "spellbound_0.7.3.xpi"
  5. In Firefox, put "C:Tempspellbound_0.7.3.xpi" (assuming you put it in C:Temp) and hit the INSTALL button when it comes up.

Spell Check Libraries

  1. Download the Spell Check libraries, "spellbound_lib_win32_1.0+_20050727.xpi" from the Download site.
  2. Temporarily rename it "spellbound_lib_win32_1.0+_20050727.ZIP", open with Winzip and edit the "install.rdf" file
  3. Change "<em:maxVersion>1.0+</em:maxVersion>" to "<em:maxVersion>1.5.*</em:maxVersion>"
  4. Replace "install.rdf" in the zip file with the version you just edited
  5. Rename it back to "spellbound_lib_win32_1.0+_20050727.xpi"
  6. In Firefox, put "C:Tempspellbound_lib_win32_1.0+_20050727.xpi" (assuming you put it in C:Temp) and hit the INSTALL button when it comes up.

Done.

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Posted in Cool Stuff, Different

Fixing Spellbound for Firefox Version 1.5.0.1

Posted on February 6, 2006 | Comments Off on Fixing Spellbound for Firefox Version 1.5.0.1

Ok, As I can’t spell very well,  I use a Firefox Extension called Spellbound. It works very well, has a good Dictionary, and helps me avoid Spelling disasters. I depend on it alot and highly recommend it.

In short: I really NEED Spellbound to work. Trouble is: It doesn’t work after the latest Firefox Update. After some embarrassing Spelling mistakes, I resolved to find out how to fix it.

Turns out, it’s not so hard. In fact, It took me less than 10 minutes to figure it out (No, I’m not that smart, just lucky).

First, with firefox shutdown: Find where your Extensions are. On my XP machine, it’s in my "settingsapplication data" directory specifically:

mozillafirefoxprofilescafabfs7.default user 3extensions

View Extensions.RDF and you’ll see something like:
<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mozilla:extension:{9EBEDB01-55DC-432b-A2DB-7E4AF3230A24}"
       em:version="0.7.3"
       em:name="SpellBound"
       em:description="Adds spell checker support to web forms and extensions."
       em:creator="Robert Strong"
       em:homepageURL="http://spellbound.sourceforge.net/"
       em:updateURL="http://spellbound.sourceforge.net/updaterdf/spellbound.rdf"
       em:optionsURL="chrome://spellbound/content/prefsDialog.xul"
       em:iconURL="chrome://spellbound/skin/spellbound.png">
<em:contributor>Frank DiLecce (Ausdilecce)</em:contributor>
<em:contributor>mozilla.org developers – original spell checker code</em:contributor>
<em:contributor>mozilla.org translators ~ translations</em:contributor>
<em:targetApplication RDF:resource="rdf:#$ra73h3"/>
<em:targetApplication RDF:resource="rdf:#$sa73h3"/>
</RDF:Description>

and

<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mozilla:extension:{21C392B7-136E-4f46-B1DD-405AFE01B2F1}"
       em:version="0.9.1.0"
       em:name="Mozilla SpellCheck Libraries"
       em:description="From the Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.6 Win32 Release"
       em:creator="packaged by Robert Strong"
       em:homepageURL="http://spellbound.sourceforge.net/"
       em:updateURL="http://spellbound.sourceforge.net/updaterdf/spellbound_lib_win32.rdf"
       em:contributor="mozilla.org – development of these components.">
<em:targetApplication RDF:resource="rdf:#$gc73h3"/>
</RDF:Description>

Ok, the "{9EBEDB01-55DC-432b-A2DB-7E4AF3230A24}" and "{21C392B7-136E-4f46-B1DD-405AFE01B2F1}" happen to be the names of the directories that Spellbound and the Mozilla SpellCheck Libraries reside in.

In Each of these Directories is a "install.rdf" file. Edit these and change from

em:maxVersion="1.5"
to
em:maxVersion="2.0"

in both "install.rdf" files.

Restart Firefox and get your Spell Checking back. Life is good once again…

 

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Posted in Cool Stuff, Different

Big Brass Ones…

Posted on February 6, 2006 | Comments Off on Big Brass Ones…

It’s not too often I come across a story that immediately inspires a post, but this is one such instance. I get home from a long day at work, relax, check my mail, email, news and what do I see on CNN.COM’s website?

“Oil industry disputes proposed budget trim”

Let me see if I get this correct:

  1. $10bn profit caps Exxon record year
  2. Chevron’s 4Q Profit Soars to Record High
  3. Imperial Oil Ltd. reported a record annual profit of $2.6-billion
  4. Nippon Oil’s full-year net profit will climb to 150 billion yen, a record profit
  5. Shell Oil Posts Record $23 Billion Profit
  6. IPSCO reports record earnings
  7. etc

Want to have fun? Via Google News, search for “Record Oil Profit”
Oil Industry is upset at a Mere plan of $50 million in federal R&D funding Cut?
Guess the Oil company can’t find an Honest Politician…

As I said: Big Brass ones.

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Posted in Current Issues, News, Rants

Tagged , ,

RAW on the Nikon D70s

Posted on February 5, 2006 | Comments Off on RAW on the Nikon D70s

Nikon D70sSince getting the Nikon D70s, I’ve been trying to use it a lot and I attempt to use it to it’s full ability. So, on the advice of several people, I’ve started using the Camera in RAW mode. This has opened up all sorts of interesting possibilities.

The first thing you notice is the Size of each image. Setting the D70s to Highest quality Jpegs results in files averaging 3 megabytes. setting it to RAW NEF files generates 5 to 6 megabyte files. Not much of a size difference until you take lots of pictures.

I take walks during lunch and take about 50 to 60 pictures each time. This adds up especially since I tend to be a pack rat about my photos and save them all, even the ones I hate. Fortunately, DVD blanks are getting cheaper, so I’ll be burning more DVD’s so I don’t run out of Disk Space.

Back to RAW format; Below is a shot of a Crane I took on February 2nd. The image on the left is what it looked like as is. The one on the right is the image after I adjusted the Exposure prior to loading into Photoshop. Honestly, I was quite surprised how easy it was to adjust. Changing the Whit Balance is fairly easy too. Other than big events like Weddings (I shoot at least 300 photos, once over 800, at weddings), I’ll likely be using RAW setting of my camera for just about everything. The immediate flexibility it offers is very appealing.

Even though I’ve been taking photos for years, I’m still learning about photography. Digital photgraphy makes it a lot easier as you only print/save what you want to. The initial cost is higher than a Film SLR, but you don’t pay for film or processing. Because of that photography has opened up to anyone.

On a related note: I’ve upgraded my Flickr Account. I think I’ve caught the Flickritis bug…

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Posted in Images