One of the things that I always wanted to learn is how to edit videos and put something decent together. I always admire quality video work and I always wonder how they did together and the team that put it together and the equipment. Sometimes I come to the realization that I should just try it, I planned so much and even thought about buying Final Cut Pro, I was really really wrong! I got a lot of equipment that I use for photography and I use a lot of it, and recently I had the courage to try to put together a video together from all the footage I had. I use my Canon 7D for all my video footage and Go Pros or Flips for tight spaces, I have a storyboard or image in mind, I can even describe how I want it to together but I do not have the technical skills to do it, I wanted to rectify that and gain those skills. Since this time around I thought to myself that I had no expectations and I had the right tools in mind to try it out easy with iMovie. I spent the first two hours trying to figure things out and then another out trying to figure out how to transition, I was going nuts, it was taking too long to do something my head thought it was too easy.
Bloggers That Have Made Amazing Videos:
I really need to take a few lessons from these guys! I respected the work they did and now I respect them even more, I have managed to make some headway but I’m going to take it easy and figure this out. It is very time consuming but the end result will be worth it once I get it all together and get the perfect clip. Hopefully I will keep learning and getting better footage and better ideas together. Right now I’m going to stick to the simpler editor before going to something more complex.
DropSnap Instantaneously Syncs All Your Android Device’s Photos to Dropbox. I am the type of person who is constantly snapping pictures with his phone but then I have to choose which pictures go to Dropbox and manually select them all and upload them. It was a very tedious process, but luckily someone thought the same thing and did something about it. The only way I could think of uploading my pics to my PC without connecting my phone to it was through DropBox and someone had the same idea but created a software to do what I was doing manually.
The moment you snap a picture it is saved to a photodirectory directory in your Android phone which DropSnap syncs automatically to a folder inside of DropBox. You have several options about how many times a day you can sync, if you want it only over Wifi or also over 3G, but I stuck to wifi because I’m usually connected to wifi where ever I am. DropSnap is a free download, but requires a $3.99 in-app purchase for automatic uploading to work. If you stay with the free version, you’ll get a notification every time you take a picture, which will let you enter the app and manually sync your photos.
Link: DropSnap
Sometimes I’m paranoid as hell about my website and that something is slowing it down, but in reality I’m not really sure and its always a matter of trial and error. Recently I stumbled upon this testing tool from Pingdom, you enter your website and they give you the time to load, whats slowing it down, whats taking more resources to load, and lots of other details. You can see what is loading first and a variety of items which is very cool and keep on testing it every once in a while, I didn’t even realize my website is 1.8 MB worth of data to load back in the day that which is even more then a floppy disk. I liked how they organized the data and they let you organize the data, very useful free tool, and I keep getting 88/100 for my average score, not bad. Check out the tool linked below.
Link: Pingdom
I am very careful with my machines, I update them constantly and I do regular scans. Sometimes some software crashes or a machine crashes, that happens every once in a while. But I am very careful of what I install or download, so when something weird starts happening I go into lock down mode. The day before my machine was acting fine when the next day any website I enter gets redirect to “Yandex.ru/blahblahblah” I didn’t know why. Some websites would stay but regular websites get redirected.
Googling it on the infected machine was useless because it kept getting redirected so I used a different machine to Google if this happened to anyone. Turns out there is a hostile bot that hijacks websites and automatically redirects them to Yandex.ru which is a Russian search engine/mail provider.
First Step:
- Turn Off All Add-Ons on Firefox and Chrome
- Run AVG Virus Scanner & Windows Maleware Defender
Result:
- The scanners didn’t find anything and the websites didn’t find anything
Next Step:
- Update Windows, Firefox, Chrome, AVG Definitions, Windows Defender, Chrome & Firefox Add-Ons, Flash, & Java
Result:
- Still getting redirected
Next Step:
- Deleted All Cookies, Cleared All Forms, All History from Chrome, Firefox, & Internet Explorer
Result:
- Thing went back to normal
I won’t lie I was a bit freaked out after each step and I was getting pissed, I thought some random Russian was messing with me and I wanted to punch him. So these are the automatic steps that I took and luckily things cleared up. And usually if worse comes to worse, I would format the machine after trying everything, I would have gotten paranoid that somebody really got into it, but it didn’t reach that point.
The guys from LunaTik are back at it again, the ones who made the crazy CNC machined custom watch mount for the iPod Nano, and luckily when Apple made their update they didn’t change their design. They grown from their days of Kickstarter into a full fledged product developer for Apple products and a few other things. I’m still using both of my LunaTik & TikTok when I go riding or outdoor activites, and with that line they are developing other accessories for the iPod Nano.
They have come up with two new products:
Simply the Lynk is an all aluminum machine wrist band for the LunaTik which looks really cool. The AnTik is an analog watch which they developed to fit into the place of the iPod Nano in the LunaTik case which seems to be a smart idea. I like the clean look of both their new products and it seems they have a few new designs for the LunaTik that I might be checking out.
The original LunaTik premium conversion kit is now available for pre-order in an all aluminum version called Lynk. The Lynk is available in silver or black and features the same aerospace grade aluminum frame as the original LunaTik, but the silicone band has been upgraded to an anodized aluminum band with a silicone underbelly and full butterfly clasp. The Blackout version will feature PVD plated buckles and hardware as well as a black clasp. The Lynk band’s lightweight construction offers the comfort of silicone against the skin, combined with the look of precision-machined aluminum.
We thought our fans might appreciate the flexibility of wearing TikTok + LunaTik as an analog watch. Introducing AnTik, an analog watch module with 30 meter water resistance designed to fit all TikTok + LunaTik watch kits. The module is crafted from machined aluminum with a two-handed analog Japanese quartz movement. Now you have the option of swapping between your iPod nano or a contemporary timepiece, depending on your mood.
At some point in time I used to know a large amount of the books I have, but now I have piles of them sitting on different parts of the room and some of them getting dangerously high. When I go through a few piles, I realize there were some books I wanted to read and follow up on at a later stage. I know the books that I read but the ones that go unread sometimes disappear and I forget to follow up on them, until I find them later hidden inside a cabinet or the back of a shelf. So to organize this large mess of items there are two softwares that I have been looking at, one is the usually awesome Delicious Library which has advanced greatly but there is one other very viable option which is Collectorz Home Library, two options to choose from.
Delicious Library 2
Price: $35
Pros:
- Can categorize anything: Books, Movies, Music, Electronics, Toys, Tools, & Video Games
- Scanning through the computer Camera
- Smart Shelf to Organize your Items
Cons:
- Mac Only
- No App for the iPad, iPhone, or Android, Just exporting to the iPhone
Collectorz Home Library
Price: $49
Pros:
- Works on Both Mac & Windows
- App for iPad, iPhone, & Android
- Very good categorizing
Cons:
- Only for Books (If you just want it for books then this doesn’t matter to you)
- You have to enter the ISBN number or enter it through a scanner, not through the computer camera
- There are other versions from Collectorz but have to be purchased individually
Is it just me or all the updates to iTunes is confusing me, so many updates with iOS 5.0 but it didn’t go as smoothly as everyone wanted. Apple has been on the for forefront of fusing media and technology, but with the introduction of iCloud there was a bit of a confusion and with iTunes match its even more confusing.
I for one use iTunes for all my music and purchase music when its available and get it through other means when I don’t find it on iTunes which is only 20% of them time. With iCloud you can move your library to iCloud instead of your computer which is good, but your limited to 5GB which is bad and then you have to purchase the rest on a yearly basis. I can understand that but then there are the other kinks, it backs up everything such as documents and files but it has to be a Mac Made file so doesn’t back up files from other devices or formats. And iCloud only works with Apple devices and nothing else, which can get frustrating with dealing with other devices. If you switch on iCloud storage for iOS device it would automatically erase all the media on your phone which they don’t warn you about. iTunes match is another thing now, it matches the music you have to that on the iCloud and if it isn’t bought from iTunes they try to match it which is pretty good but it is a bit on the confusing side how to activate it for your machines.
Seriously too many changes between iCloud, iOS5, and now iTunes match. I’m waiting for the dust to settle on this to see how exactly I can comfortable use it with my iPods.
Click the image above for a larger verson!
We all go through this, sometimes things just go wrong on the computer, the program you were using just freezes and this illustration TOTALLY defines the process I go through to fix it.
The worst possible thing that could happen with the memory stick of your camera is for it go south and you would lose all your photographs, that includes a memory that could go corrupt in a phone. After doing a little research I found PhotoRec which is freeware photo recovery that works with all forms of media.
PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from hard disks, CD-ROMs, and lost pictures (thus the Photo Recovery name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media’s file system has been severely damaged or reformatted.
I had to work on a Micro-SD card that went corrupt from a phone and a corrupt SD card from a camera. I plugged into the card reader on my PC and it couldn’t read the volume and asked me to format it but I cancelled that. I ran the program and pops up on command line window, keep mind this is a freeware program that is meant to do a job and doesn’t look pretty. You pick the lost MiniSD card that the program can see then you choose a location for it to deposit the recovered files, there are a few technical steps in between like what type of file system was used for the card, I managed to pick the right one. As things progressed it too about 10 minutes to finish all the choices and then the program starts, it said approximately 57 minutes to recover 16 GB worth of pictures. I came back an hour later it recovered everything that was on there even things that I didn’t know was on there. Overall about 70-80% of the pictures were recovered, the rest were either text files or disturbed black images. The program does what you need it to do even though its a bit on the rugged side, I think its a fantastic program.
Link: PhotoRec
Using Windows 7 so much I have come across a lot of tips to quicken and ease the use of the OS, and below are my favorite set of shortcuts that I use throughout the day.
- Windows Logo + L – Locks your computer
- Shift + Delete – The file is gone and even bypasses your recycling bin, you can’t even recover it
- Alt + 6 – To see all the windows you have open
- Shift + Ctrl + N – The easiest way in Windows 7 to create a New Folder in your current window
- Windows Logo + M – To minimize all the open windows, so you can clear your screen
- Windows Logo + Shift + M – To bring back all the minimized windows
- Windows Logo + Spacebar – All the windows turn transparent and you can see your desktop, just in case you dropped something there and you wanted to look for it without having to minimize anything
- Windows + Shift + Left or Right Arrow – A lot of people have dual screen setups, this will move your current active window left or right depending on your choice
- Windows + T – You scroll through the current active programs and windows on the taskbar, very useful to find a specific active window