[Download Show #35 as MP3]
News
- Blockbuster Announces Blu-Ray at 1400+ of their 1700ish stores
- Judge Rules that Server RAM is a 'document'w
- Basically anything that lives in RAM can be classified as a document and can therefore be supoenaed
in court - This controversial decision could mean that companies have to store large amounts of data just to ensure they can protect against liabilities.
- It is scary to think that people who do not understand technology are making decisions like this one.
- Google Powerpoint Viewer Goes Live
- Google's been slowly releasing it slowly to Gmail users, but its out there now
- When someone sends you a PPT (Power Point Presentation) you can "View it as a slideshow" using none other than FLASH!
Software / Hardware / Power Web Picks
- Understanding RAID
- RAIDs can be complicated to understand
- You have so many configurations and each one is best for only a handful of situations
- The folks over at bit-tech wrote a nice article that helps to explain the various possible raid configurations as well as their potential uses
- They cover all the various RAID types from RAID0 to RAID6
- Great if you are in the IT field or are always confused by the various possible RAID types
- 33 Ways to Watch Free TV Online
- YouTube
- Joost
- Babelgum
- New Flash version for Linux
- New Flash Player
- Full Screen Flash works
- Reworked as a GTK app (Linux native GUI toolset)
- 20 Firefox Extensions to Save You Money
- Time Tracker
- [Derek] What is Woot! Michael?
- Woot! Watcher
- Cell Phone Minute Minders
- Price Comparison : Buy it Online
Gamer's Corner
- 100 Free (Legal) Full Game Downloads
- Cube & Cube2 - FPS with dynamic map creation is
- Allegiance - Allegiance is a free, online, multi-player space simulation game. You pilot spacecraft, flying in a team with other players, defending and attacking sectors in space. Allegiance challenges your tactical ingenuity, your ability to function in a team and your prowess at blowing stuff up. Experienced players take command and lead their teams to victory or defeat.
- Armada Online - Drive around spaceship, technology evolve, all online.
- America’s Army - America's Army is one of the five most popular PC action games played online. It provides players with the most authentic military experience available, from exploring the development of Soldiers in individual and collective training to their deployment in simulated missions in the War on Terror.
- Sid Meyer loves the PS3
- "...The PLAYSTATION®3 is light years ahead of this technology. As with any new platform, it's going to be a challenge and take designers some time to come to grips with the hardware. But believe me, you'll be amazed by the possibilities."
- He's working on at least one "suprise" for the next-gen console
- PS3 Rumble Controller in Development
- Battery life with wireless has been the major issue
- How will sony release the controllers without frustrating current owners?
- Blacksite: Area 51 Screenshots
- Midway Entertainment
- Coming out for PS3, Xbox 360, & PC
Editorial ("Power Up")
- Top 10 Photographic Mistakes
- Images are too cluttered
- Less is more
- What made you look at the picture in the first place
- Get the background out
- Example: Picture of an entire city vs. picture of a reflection of a building in another building
- There is no bad weather photography
- Some places look just right with clouds, thunderstorms or the like
- Blue sky is often boring sky
- Example: Use an overcast sky can make nice silver reflective natural light
- No Patience
- Sometimes weather is tough, circumstances aren't right
- Example: Clouds covering a peak, rainbow you know is coming
- The Digital Attitude
- Digital Photography is a blessing: You can take as many photos as you want without paying a dime and you can get instant feedback in the field.
- Many people will say the number one thing they like about digital is the ability to delete pictures they don't like. Since when is deleting a picture a good feature?
- The quality of a picture can only be judged on a large screen, and unless something is really wrong (e.g. someone walked into your frame while you pressed the shutter), you should NEVER delete a picture in the field.
- The Photoshop Attitude
- A "photographer" took a photo of a group and noticed that the flash hadn't fired. He put the camera in his pocket with the comment "I'll photoshop it later".
- Even if you could solve all your problems with Adobe Photoshop (your would at least get increased noise levels), and need to spend a lot of time on the photo.
Taking a second shot with the flash enabled would only take a few seconds. So if you think a photo didn't come out right and if you have the chance, always take another one (but don't delete the first - but remember, we talked about not deleting, someone might have their eyes closed in the new one or there might be some other reason the previous shot turns out better). - Photoshop is an invaluable tool for photographers as I've mentioned on the show before; however, it is not a remedy for everything and you cannot turn bad photos into good ones with Photoshop alone. As with anything in technology, Garbage in - Garbage out. The same applies to Photoshop.
- Unwanted things in a scene
- Move to the left or to the right if there is something in the background that detracts
- Always shooting from eyelevel standing
- Go higher, go lower, see the world from a different place.
- Example: On the beach you could make a small bush dominate the scene by being low, you could climb to a high vantage point to take a picture of a mountain.
- Placing People in the Picture
- Most people don't take a single photograph without posing in front of a perfectly good scene. Don't get me wrong, its nice to see someone was somewhere, but how many of those can you really look at and stay interested. The pictures feel extremely static and people always pose the same way.
- You might as well pose in front of a blue screen.
- I don't mind a few vacation snapshots and some of them can be quite funny, but I think it is a much better idea to capture the moment.
- People laughing and joking or having fun going after some activity is much more interesting than having them pose together in front of the camera.
- Not including other people
- There are perfectly valid reasons to include people in photographs.
- Guiding the Viewer into the Scene. Placing a person outside of the main area of interest and having the person look into the photo. The viewer can identify with the person.
- Giving a sense of scale. Only with the person in the scene can a viewer truly grasp the size or perhaps to give depth to a scene.
- The Person is part of the scene itself, an actor or the person is the scene (sports) or documenting the life of people, the person being tightly related to the scene
- Wrong Perspective
- Use the zoom on your camera.
- If you have something in the foreground and something in the background, when you step closer, it will exaggerate the depth between the foreground and background.
- Art is not something we can grab and hold in our hands. There are no rules and there is no right or wrong. Rules are meant to be broken and often some of the most amazing pictures I have seen did not abide by any rules.
- DVR vs Live TV vs Ratings
