tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184677012024-03-19T05:21:03.029-05:00Ulysses at LargeComments about matters trivial - and quadrivial - by William PorterWilliam Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-75215220292068753102010-01-20T14:33:00.000-06:002010-01-27T16:18:09.427-06:00Macjournal review by WPMacJournal makes an excellent front-end your online blog. You can take advantage of its great text editing features, drag and drop media such as photos or podcasts, and click a button when you are done to publish your entry directly to your blog.Photos can easily be resized right in MacJournal.You can also print MacJournal entries very easily.William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-75807511591968888042009-10-15T17:25:00.003-05:002009-10-15T17:52:31.268-05:00Upgrading my laptop's hard disk: Postscript to the addendumIn my last post, I said: [I]t's a mistake to think you can simply clone an 80GB drive to a 500GB drive, swap the drives, and go about your business. An old friend who is a fan of the Mac writes to say that, on a Mac, assuming the drive was not corrupted and the clone itself isn't corrupted, then this is exactly what you could do. Maybe. It would seem to be possible to do this on a PC, as well. AtWilliam Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-83503029689190080682009-10-14T22:36:00.002-05:002009-10-14T22:45:08.311-05:00Upgrading a laptop hard disk: AddendumIn my summary of lessons learned, I think I failed to mention the most important lesson of all. That is, it's a mistake to think you can simply clone an 80GB drive to a 500GB drive, swap the drives, and go about your business. Next time I do this, I think I will do it like this:Make sure I have a good backup of all the documents on the old hard drive. By "documents," I mean my photos, databases, William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-52891950396426731242009-10-13T08:34:00.006-05:002009-10-14T19:41:39.285-05:00Upgrading my laptop's hard diskI work on several computers, but the one I work on most - the one I do most of my database work on, as well as all of my photo editing - is a Latitude D820. I don't know what I was thinking of when I bought a laptop with an 80GB hard drive, but it soon became clear to me that 80GB wasn't enough. After thinking about it for a long time, two days ago I finally got around to doing something about William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-65642018324130314182009-03-02T11:03:00.001-06:002009-03-02T11:03:35.099-06:00It's Casimir Pulaski day!Here's a holiday that I seldom celebrate: General Casimir Pulaski Day!Pulaski was a brilliant Polish cavalryman who volunteered his services to General Washington during the Revolutionary War. He died from injuries suffered during one of his engagements but not before distinguishing himself and coming to be recognized as the Father of American Cavalry. William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-61646293438513294592009-02-18T12:30:00.002-06:002009-02-18T12:37:27.460-06:00T-Mobile DanceI could bring up Intelligent Design here, but I won't. Let me just say that, if this doesn't put a smile on your face, well, God bless you. Be sure to watch in high quality.T-Mobile Dance on YouTubeWilliam Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-20840873180939311862009-02-09T23:38:00.001-06:002009-02-09T23:38:36.044-06:00G1 photography with Snap PhotoThis photo of my dining room was taken with the G1 using Snap Photo rather than the default Camera app. Post processing in Pic Say. Snap Photo uses the G1's accelerometer (!) to provide digital image stabilization. Seems to work. Keep in mind that this was a low-light challenge. No flash, no sunlight, just one incandescent light. I adjusted saturation in Pic Say but color in the original shotWilliam Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-53557995032384818242009-02-08T11:08:00.001-06:002009-02-08T11:08:54.348-06:00A better browser for Android: SteelHaven't gotten the 1.1 firmware update yet, but I am happy to have discovered something really good for Android: the Steel browser. http://kolbysoft.com Steel has a touch-screen interface, including an on-screen keyboard. I still don't want to type a lot on a virtual keyboard, but it's very useful to have the option for, say, entering a url or password. Steel also displays pages William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-31661867137559293292009-02-07T11:39:00.003-06:002009-02-07T11:46:57.241-06:00You don't have to be a tech genius to outsmart malwareThe other day while Penelope was surfing the Web, she suddenly saw a scary screen saying the computer was infected and asking her to take action. She handed the computer to me. Here's what we saw:Notice that the presentation looks "official," but is in fact completely generic. Next we got the following messages:Behind the dialog in front there is a dialog with the even more official-looking titleWilliam Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-61005048376694274512009-02-05T10:00:00.001-06:002009-02-05T10:00:15.512-06:00Speed Dial add-on for Firefox 3Speed Dial - GalleryOne of the things I liked about Google's new browser, Chrome, is the way it displays thumbnails of my most frequently visited pages when I open a new tab. But there was a lot to dislike about Chrome, as well. First, Chrome displayed 9 thumbnails only. Second, it didn't ever seem to update them. Third, I had no control over what thumbnails were displayed. And I should add, William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-52969741651404209562008-12-18T13:56:00.001-06:002008-12-18T13:56:36.044-06:00Carbonite works!I'm still not sure what I did, but somehow, while I was working on my to-do list (a FileMaker database), I accidentally deleted all of the active task records. Gack! I'm a slave to that database. Without those records, I'm not a freed slave: I'm a slave without a clue what to do.But did I panic? I did not. I went to http://carbonite.com, logged in, and in two or three seconds I learned how to William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-2026483034012917982008-11-19T10:37:00.003-06:002008-11-19T10:41:09.787-06:00The compact camera I would buy today if I had any money: Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3KOf course there's no such thing as an absolute best compact camera, but for my own needs these days, if I were buying a compact, this may be the one I'd get: Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3K. I've heard rumors about it coming - PopPhoto.com had a preview of this camera back in July - and I just became aware that it's out by reading an actual review in the dead-trees edition of Pop Photography (October William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-83832446663532636452008-11-14T11:01:00.001-06:002008-11-14T11:01:15.483-06:00Followup re TooDo on AndroidI was delighted this morning to find an email in my inbox from Edouard Mercier, the smart programmer who created TooDo, the powerful task management app for Android that I mentioned (and criticized) in yesterday's post. I was delighted to hear from him, because it's clear that he really wants to make TooDo better. I have offered a few more of my own personal suggestions for him to consider, and IWilliam Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-61405159133952778722008-11-14T00:49:00.002-06:002008-11-14T00:59:31.254-06:00To-do list options for the T-Mobile G1 (Android OS)I've found a couple of to-do lists for the Android OS.First, I tried TooDo from Edouard Mercier. This was my first choice because it claims to be able to sync tasks with the excellent and very powerful online to-do manager, Toodledo, which I've been using for about a year now. (It also syncs with Remember the Milk, another popular online task management service that I have never used.) In William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-77720209017060839842008-11-11T15:50:00.001-06:002008-11-11T15:50:08.218-06:00Integrated Gmail - more about why open source rocksEarlier today I was reading an article about add-ons for Firefox that mentioned something called Integrated Gmail. After visiting the web page for the Integrated Gmail add-on (here), I downloaded it and gave it a try. It's quite nice.With the add-on installed and configured, I'm able to get access to my mail, Google calendar, and Picasa, all on the same web page. In the screen shot above, notice William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-9695619065820517822008-11-09T17:53:00.001-06:002008-11-09T17:53:07.632-06:00Android talks my languageI was pleased yesterday to discover that many common abbreviations (I've, can't, won't, they're and many others) can be typed in Android without the apostrophe: when you hit the space key, Android adds the apostrophe for you. But I was really tickled this afternoon when I discovered that one of the abbreviations Android expands automatically is y'all. Very cool! William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-40872382609060422772008-11-09T12:01:00.003-06:002008-11-09T12:20:02.393-06:00T-Mobile G1 + Google Android = Something Close to HappinessI have been reluctant to move to a "smart phone". I am not eager to do a lot of typing on a teeny keyboard, so I am not eager to use a phone for email. I also dislike the idea of being "in touch" 24/7. And I did not want to be tied to a specific email service. For these reasons, I was never attracted to the Blackberry. I liked the Apple iPhone much more. But the iPhone has been too expensive, andWilliam Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-16148376841366953282008-11-08T23:41:00.001-06:002008-11-08T23:41:49.604-06:00Quick note about typing on the G1 phoneI find the keyboard on the T-Mobile G1 "smart phone" a tad awkward to use. After all, I am a 110+ wpm touch typist when I can use all 10 of my fingers. Typing with my thumbs is frustratingly slow. But I am getting a little more comfortable with the keyboard every day and already I am able to type faster than I expected to be able to, and I make fewer mistakes than I William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-73660510662672184522008-11-08T22:37:00.001-06:002008-11-08T22:37:59.505-06:00First post from my phoneHere's a pic of my daughter and her friend. This message was written in Gmail on my T-Mobile G1 and automatically posted by email. This must be how Instapundit does it - and now I understand why he keeps his posts short. My thumbs are getting sore! William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-47935459657647559222008-11-08T13:21:00.014-06:002008-11-08T16:54:32.902-06:00Do you dare hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon?Just got back from a wonderful trip with my wife to the Grand Canyon. We arrived on Friday, October 31, 2008. Hiked down the South Kaibab trail to the river on Saturday, spent two nights camping at the bottom of the canyon, then hiked back up the Bright Angel trail on Monday, November 3. When we did this together over a decade ago, we hiked down one day, and back up the next. This time, we spent William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-26288819138862659822008-09-24T19:46:00.001-05:002008-09-24T19:46:19.033-05:00Hooray: Picasa 3 supports Pentax raw filesI just realized that Picasa 3 supports Pentax raw (.PEF) files. Earlier versions of Picasa were able to display the PEF files generated by my Pentax K10D and K20D, but Picasa could not read the EXIF info. Now it can. This is good news. All important photos go through Adobe Lightroom, but this requires some effort, because I have to attach the big hard drive to my laptop. But I take a lot of William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-9131255691026410412008-09-24T10:06:00.001-05:002008-09-24T10:06:12.373-05:00Chrome 1 no threat to Firefox 3I've been using Google's new browser - named "Chrome" - ever since the day it was released a couple of weeks ago. Chrome is cute, but that's about all I can say in its favor. I'm going to stick with Firefox 3 for now. Firefox is a very mature and capable browser with a terrific feature set; Chrome is an immature application with a very limited feature set. One key difference: Firefox supports William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-6936619389473961782008-07-29T18:50:00.009-05:002008-07-29T22:31:45.224-05:00Lightroom 2 releasedAdobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 was released today. It's not earth-shattering news for those of us who have been using the public beta since last spring. But the beta had a few bugs and the final release adds some new features that weren't in the beta. And with today's official release, I can finally combine my old Lightroom 1.x photo collection with the photos I have edited in the last four months William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-15658375193043469332008-07-09T18:16:00.005-05:002008-07-09T23:29:24.543-05:00Photoshop vs LightroomThe question of Photoshop vs the alternatives seems to come up in online forums more often these days, especially as the alternatives to Photoshop get more and more sophisticated. The question is often directed specifically at the difference between Photoshop and the program that Adobe very confusingly calls "Photoshop Lightroom". So I've gathered my thoughts on the matter here.Use Photoshop to William Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18467701.post-2896598856389515202008-07-03T16:19:00.002-05:002008-07-03T16:49:28.210-05:00Nikon's coming D700 and full-frame frenzyOver at pentaxforums.com, there's been a lot of chatter about when Pentax is going to release a full-frame body to compete with Nikon and Canon. With Nikon set to release its second full-frame camera very soon (the D700) and at a price (around $3000) that sounds more like a new computer than a new car, this chatter is likely to increase. To some posters, a Pentax full-frame camera seems necessaryWilliam Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12239624429096629272noreply@blogger.com