LensWork Daily

Kindle Fire

   

Amazon announces the new Kindle Fire.

Looks like a LensWork Digital Editions device to me!

Amazon's web page went live this morning at 8am my time and they had my pre-order at 8:01. Supposedly shipping on Nov 15th. We will definitely work to make sure LensWork Portable Edition and LensWork Android Edition work on this exciting new device.

   

Ethernet plug success — at last!

As a publisher and software user, I try to fastidiously hold the line between being a technology user and technology installer. I'm not always successful.

A few days ago we rearranged some of our offices and Maureen moved into a room that had previously not been used as an office. Fortunately, it was wired for Ethernet connection, but both ends of the cable were unterminated. I should have called our technology guy, but was in a hurry and decided to do the job myself. How hard could it be?

The receiving plug in her office was easy enough and took only a few minutes to install. The plug at the other end of the cable — the one that's supposed to plug into the switch — was a different story. I scoffed when the guy at RadioShack sold me the package with the five RJ-45 plugs. Typical retail, I thought, to sell me five when I needed one. Two hours later I was back at RadioShack to buy another packet of five because I screwed up the first five.

I have a newfound respect for people who wire Ethernet plugs for living. It's a big enough challenge to get all the little wires in the right order. They ought to pass out certificates just for doing that successfully. But then, to require that you insert them into the plug so they slide into the right slots, crimp that puppy down, and do all this lying on your back in the poorly lit crawl space where the hub is located — this is a sadistic technology designed by Nazis.

I am proud — more proud than you know — to report that I successfully wired plug #9 and Maureen's Internet connection is working perfectly. I am not proud to report the language I used in the completion of my appointed task. Needless to say, I have terminated my first and last Ethernet plug. I retire with an 11.1% success ratio that does not qualify me even for the AA farm clubs.

Premiere Pro CS5.5

There are probably not many applications that will test the horsepower of a computer system like video editing. I've been frustrated with Premiere Pro throughout my relationship with it because of frequent hangs, crashes, jumpy rendering, interminable waits for video output — you name it.

Of course, I blame Adobe and Premier Pro, but it turns out it was my underpowered computer. (Sorry, Adobe.) My new Yippie Skippy super-fast Dell runs Premier Pro CS5.5 like nobody's business.

Yesterday, I edited video. Actually, I edited three videos — in one day! That's unheard of in my world. One of them was a 30-minute, three-camera shoot of my interview with Doug Ethridge. It was downright easy and the software did precisely what was supposed to do handling the multi-camera edits, when it was supposed to do it, with no lag, and not a single hang or crash. And I might add, I don't even have the recommended, super-expensive video card that can do GPU rendering of video on the fly. I can only imagine how this machine would perform far were willing to spend another $3000 for the video card. But, I'm not and am happy to report that — at least for my needs — I don't need to. I guess the 64-bits in combination with 16 GB of memory is enough to least justify paying for the upgrade to this latest version of Premier Pro.

Watch, I Miss Thee

I remember with fondness the world of watches. I stopped wearing a watch about a year ago. I love watches, but I detest watch bands. Mine was bugging me and interfering with the use of my computer keyboard. I took off my watch one day and I never put it back on. Whenever I need to know the time, I have my phone, my computer, my iPad, my Android tablet, the clock radio next to our bed, the microwave, the kitchen clock, the clock in the car, the clocks in my portable recorders, the clock in my MP3 player — knowing the time is simply not a problem!

That said, there is a nostalgic component to the reason I miss my watch. A watch, for me, was an incredibly important piece of technology because of the darkroom. I needed my watch to have multiple countdown timers, multiple alarms, and to function easily for all those things I needed to time in the darkroom. A watch was a more convenient timer than a Gra-Lab timer; a watch was always with me even if I left the darkroom for bite to eat or to rest. Having the right watch was such an important component of my work that I spent untold hours shopping for, selecting, learning to operate, and then shopping for better watches. I did this for 35 years. I now have a drawer full of them — sad little expressions of technology for which I now have no use, but yet cannot discard cold-heartedly. There were good friends for too many years to toss them into the garbage. I feel slightly guilty every time I closed the drawer and consigned them to the dark. Good night, old friends. Rest comfortably in your declining — um, winding down years.

Installed

I'm back from vacation and have spent the last few days catching up — including the installation of my new computer. Yes, it's a screamer. Here are a few comments about the process.

• Installing software is easy; what takes time is reestablishing all the configurations, panel layouts, personalizations, and the fussy little stuff that makes your computer yours.
• Windows 7 is very impressive operating system. I have no idea what's going on underneath the hood, but there are a lot of little tweaks that already seem indispensable. I know it's fashionable to rag on Microsoft, but in spite of that they make one hell of a product. In combination with this 64-bit operating system, the 16 GB of memory, the SSD drive, this puppy scoots right along.
• Just like the frog who doesn't notice the water in the pot getting warmer and warmer, it's easy to overlook how poorly one's old computer is working until it's compared to the efficiency of brand-new machine. My old machine took 15 minutes to reboot; the new one takes about 60 seconds.
• I'm on my computer all day, every day, so my computing needs are not typical. All the more reason for me to have a machine that is a solution. I've often said that the best cameras are invisible, ones that you are hardly aware of in the process of making photographs. I suppose the same could be said of any technology, especially computers. The closer I can adapt the computer to work the way I think, the more transparent it will be. That is always my objective in searching for software and configuring it to my needs.
• Getting a new computer up and running is never a flawless project. That's why it takes me a week from the moment I start the project until the moment I'm really back to work again. With this new computer I was doing work within an hour, but still spending 90% of my time installing and getting things set up. A week later and I'm spending 95% of my time doing work, but they're still 5% of my time fussing to get things just right. As a friend of mine puts it, "fiddle, fiddle, fiddle, fiddle."

All in all a fairly painless process and so far, I couldn't be happier. Thanks again, Dell.

Plug configurations

Just as the lens is more important than the camera, so the microphone is in audio recording. I just found a nice, inexpensive headset mic to use with my Motorola Atrix 4G and ASUS Transformer tablet. Wired, single ear listening, comfortable. Great. The mic sounded very good and I dictated my article for LensWork #96 onto my phone using this headset. So, thought I, why not use it with my Olympus digital recorder, too? Nice try, but the plug configuration is incompatible.

Off to my large toolbox (literally) full of cables and plug adapter. I have 3 dozen plug adapters I've collected over the years, all stored away in a gallon zip lock bag. Not one of them "converted" the three band plug on my new headset properly so I could use it with the simply 3.5mm mic jack on the Olympus.

This is why it is so unbelievable on Star Trek when the crew interfaces their devices with some alien space ship's computer system. I cant' even get my Japanese made headset to interface with my Japanese made digital recorder. What are the chances I would succeed if my recorder were Klingon?

A case makes all the difference

I feared dropping my iPad, so I purchased one of those silicon body armor type cases for it. It gave me assurance, and also provided a more secure grip. I find I use my iPad more frequently because of it. When I got my ASUS Transformer Android tablet, I realized I was repeating the same scenario. In spite of the fact that it has a textured backplate, I found it a bit awkward to hold fearlessly. Because of its long form factor (it is a 16:9 screen), it seemed even more unwieldy than my iPad. For the first couple of months, I didn't use it as much as I thought I would simply because I was uncomfortable carrying it around with me. Somehow I stumbled across the MoKo Folding Cover Case with Stand listed in Amazon.com. I think I was searching for some other accessory and saw this. It looked to be the perfect solution and in fact has turned out to be exactly that. I now carry the Transformer with me everywhere and it has become my primary portable device (after my phone, that is). Funny how such a simple accessory can make such a difference.