I have updated my homepage photo with an image of the moon during the eclipse. This was taken a little before the full eclipse because the visibility deteriorated badly over a 20 minute period. By the time we left, the moon was no longer visible through the haze. Nonetheless, it was a good sight while it lasted and luckily for us, not too cold!

The evening was also full of adventure as Dave’s Range Rover got stuck in the middle of a big puddle… a small lake nearly. As Aidy had the benefit of a good view and a camera to hand… there may well be a picture online soon!

This may be obvious to every other Mac user out there, but as a new switcher, I need all the help I can get to try and memorise all the new things I learn about the platform.

My task for today was moving all of my 250GB of files from my old Windows backup onto a new HDD so that I could reformat the old drive for the MAC. Sounds easy but each time I tried to do the 16 hour Firewire->USB2 transfer, it would stop with an error. I have now manually copied across the files and folders but to ensure nothing was lost I needed to find a way of comparing the two directories.

Filemerge – Small app… big help

I was very lucky to be hunting around the computer and come across this great application that I think was installed with the Apple Xcode tools. It very easily allows you to compare two text documents and luckily…even two directories. What a gem! You get two lists that are colour coded showing the differences.

Icing on the cake

I found another great addition use for this tool, it can actually merge the two directories or files together. This very simple tool has a lot of power which is why I have made a note here for myself in he future!

After reading part 1 of the “Taking Your Photography To The Next Level” articles on the Luminous Landscape, I was deep in thought about where I am now and where I want to be in relation to photography. Whilst stuck into this review -as I have a habit of doing- my thoughts started wandering off a bit and I came to the conclusion that this type of analysis can be used for any aspect of life and further to that; I realised that I always do this anyway… if not always consciously. So if I take this ‘common sense’ approach and apply it to something else in my life, how much control could I have over being able to take myself up a level and would I be better able to control my ascension by focussing on the significant factors and avoiding the ‘fluff’ that I would inevitably get caught up in? If I can identify the noise… can I be better at anything? Can I take ‘anything’ up to any level I desire by knowing where I have to be?

Now I may have some big ideas at times… and I think this is one of those times… so I am going to try an experiment. Can I get rich (lifelong goal!!) by focussing on it? Avoid the fluff, avoid the noise… focus on taking it up a level… know where I want to be and know how to get there. by the end of this year, I will either be rocketing my way up the levels… or still down here near the middle!!!

Friday is always ‘one of those days’! To help the obligatory Friday foolishness, have a look at this list of valuable instructions… all of them from real products! I swear… 5 mins went by quickly!!

Here is my own addition to 4 billion other blogs!

Apple iPhone – ’nuff said!

Happy New Year to everyone I know! May all your resolutions stick and your ambitions be realised!

Thats it now, here endeth the fun and niceties… it’s back to work for us all and I can tell you, I don’t like it much! I do, however, like the new challenges and projects that I will be working on this year. The aims I have set for myself will be tough to reach but if/when I get there, it will have been worth it! It is back to work, but at least its another year of opportunities to make use of and try to achieve something great.

Should anyone come accross this site in search of a Photoshop script to generate the output required for Pixaria. Then you may have found the right place!!

On this project page you can learn about the script, download it and find instructions for setup and use.

I have updated my homepage photo today and I have a reason for announcing it! Apart from the fact its a cool shot of a racing yacht that got stuck on the rocks during last Sunday’s race…. it is also a picture that I edited using the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Beta 4 software. If you have not seen or tried this software yet, you should give it a go. The features and performance are outstanding and I can see that it will be a fantastic part of my workflow from download-to-print/web when the final product is finally released. As I will be receiving a free licence, I am keen to learn as much about it now as I can because other than the hefty image manipulation I dabble with that would require the full Photoshop app, I would say that Lightroom does 97.5 % of what any photographer needs and it’s very very slick.

Check out the latest release and details of the software on the Adobe Labs Website.

Anyone that reads this website may know that I co-own a yacht called Mystere with ‘me-mate-Dave’! As it happens, he recently cut his hair but I have a feeling that this may have been him recently trying to forge a new career as a musician!

I would just like to point out that I have had a very uncomfortable day in 35degC with blazing sunshine… the thunderstorms at home look much cooler!!! And now on to the point of this post…. One of my friends from overseas has managed to discover my secret! This is terrible news really as I can no longer use my ‘Media Powers’ to avoid the toilet except for some of the benefits he has highlighted in the post linked above! Can you guess which ones?

I have to point out though, that his photo of me is out of date… I have recently shaved the moustache and as a result look much younger!!

What I can’t figure out though, Allan is…. ‘Why did that film come straight to mind??’… I had never even heard of it!!

It is apparent that I have been a lapse lately with most of my hobbies and interests for the last couple of months. This site is not regularly updated, I have not been out with my camera (though it is getting plenty of use!), I haven’t sat and used my computer for any length of time and finally… I haven’t been out sailing much. What could be the problem? Well I have some answers….

Having just bought a new house, I have been very busy with a bit of renovation. My computer is on the verge of meltdown (it keeps hardware resetting itself). And most importantly… its summer… and its time to be outside whenever possible… not sure how this explains the sailing!?!?

My mind is starting to yearn for some techie things again now and so the building of my custom ‘Digital Darkroom’ will be taking a step up within a week or two. If only I could fix the computer!!!

As I have not written to this site in a long time, it seemed like fun to actually take up on Gringod’s Wikipedia Meme… so …

1. Go to Wikipedia.
Done.

2. In the Search box, type your birth month and day (but not year).
May 16

3. List three events that happened on your birthday.

• 1568 – Mary Queen of Scots flees to England.
• 1866 – Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.
• 2005 – Sony officially unveiled its PlayStation 3 game console during an E3 conference.

4. List two important birthdays and one interesting death.

• Birthday: 1953 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
• Birthday: 1966 – Janet Jackson, American singer
• Death: 1990 – Jim Henson, American puppeteer (b. 1936)

5. Post it.
Done.

As far as memes go… this is actually quite an interesting one!! Give it a go… I will pass it on to anyone!!

A panoramic stitch made from 5 portrait images of the Colloseum in Rome… where else??!

Thanks to a link from Gringod, I downloaded the ‘New Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet for Windows XP’ from the M$ website. This great tool finally gives you control of the colour profiles installed on your system and switching between different profiles for different tasks is a simple matter of selecting what you want.

The real benefit for me came in the added bonus side effect of the tool overcoming an issue with the ATI X800 graphics card installed in my system. By reading the ‘Readme’ file after installation (something I never do but may start now) I discovered that it is possible to use flags on the application. By altering the application to start with a /L flag, the tool will load up the default profile in stealth. This shortcut could then be placed into the startup folder to be run when logging in to Windows.

I was keen to try this because I have been having a long term problem with the ATI drivers. My calibration tool has a profile loader that will load the profile when the computer starts but the ATI drivers would then override the proper profile with something akin to nothing! I discovered a year ago that I had to remove the profile loader from startup, wait for Windows to load then use the loader. All would be well with the LUT (Lookup table) and I could continue as normal… this was a complete pain though and now that this has been solved on my PC, I am quite pleased!!

• From the M$ site, the tool has the following features;
• • Install and uninstall ICC color profiles
  • Inspect, rename, and compare two different color profiles
  • View a 3D graphics plot of color profile color gamuts
  • Associate color profiles with devices such as printers, monitors, and scanners
  • Apply custom color gamut adjustments to one or more displays on the fly
  • Set up display calibration reminders at intervals you specify

My 2006 chili challenge has begun. This will involve growing everything needed to create a selection of chilli based products! Ideas of the cusp include chilli ketchup, chilli mead and general chilli dip!

Yesterday ‘H’ and I sowed a selection of seeds in the new virgin propogator. Other than the tomatoes which should be sweet and juicy, the rest of the seeds belonged to some heavyweight heaters as shown here!

The next stage of the challenge will begin after germination.  Place your bets now as to what might make it to the land of the living and check back in a couple of weeks for an update!