ARD Lock screen

Not sure how the chicken vs egg thing works out, but the previous Tech at Sheldon didn’t do much for managing Macs, so since I have a stronger Apple/Mac background, the Macs here are getting some newfound TLC from me. First step getting an disk imaging/ghosting system in place.

The couple of weeks it’s kind of been a side project to get a “Master Image” set up on a computer to use as a basis for creating more specific images. Yesterday I deployed the image for the first time onto 2 more computers (one for testing on another similar PPC system, and one on an MacIntel to install Intel/10.6 specific software)

I’m also testing to see how Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) is going to work for myself and specific teachers who might need it. I noticed when you run Curtain (lock screen while managing computers) it displays the name of the person who locked it. Which led me to ask, where is it getting that name from?

It’s pulling the name from the ARD Admin’s long username in OS X. In my case that was my actual name. I was thinking I might want to change this to read “Screen locked by SHS Admin.” To make this change: Go into System preferences -> Accounts, and change your Full Name. You will then need to quit and relaunch Apple Remote Desktop.

Happy Mac Administrating.

Scott Slalom Shin Guards

It’s been a long time since my high school alpine ski racing days, but it seems like I get a chance to bash some gates every now and then. I always regret it though when my shins/knees get bruised up, and my snow pants get torn sometimes. This past Friday, I found a pair of “like new” Scott shin guards at Value Village on Centennial Blvd.. Only cost me $5! They aren’t brand new, show some signs of being packed around or possibly worn, but they don’t look like they’ve hit a gate yet.

Can’t wait to get the chance to break them in… I love bashing slalom gates!

(above: Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 50mm f/1.8, Canon 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro)

Note, I did not test the faster lenses stopped down to match the slower ones. I suppose the DoF/fall-off is mostly as expected for the different apertures. But the main reason for the compact macro is it can do this (read on):

Notice just over 1 line of printed 10pt text is in focus, this lens can focus much, much closer to the subject.

Now, on to David’s fancy new lens, the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 macro. We intended to compare this one to the Canon 28-70 f/2.8 I’m borrowing from Tom at work, but were a little too unscientific about the testing. However, because of the price of the Canon (and figuring they should be fairly comparable as a medium-telephoto), I was more interested to see if the Tamron could also take the place of having a dedicated macro lens. Here are a few tests (Tamron 28-75 left/first, Canon 50mm Compact Macro right/second):

(above: Admittedly, my cropping here wasn’t perfect, but it appears the DoF fall-off on the Canon is more rapid, and both are very sharp where they should be. So from a larger distance, the Tamron does it’s job. However, it simply cannot get as close to the subject as the Canon, meaning you would have to crop the digital image to produce the same result)

(above & below: The Canon is clearly more clearly focused, look at the “teeth” on the edge of the coin. I can’t be entirely sure if this is because of the lens, the setup of the shot, or because the photo from the Tamron needed to be cropped big-time to produce a comparable framing)

The fact that both of these final tests produced the same result indicates to me that having to crop the final image down and the resulting quality is substantially less, and so the Tamron is not an adequate replacement for a prime macro lens, if you intend to use it for extreme close-up macro photography. Let it be noted that the Tamron isn’t marketed as a dedicated macro lens, so these tests were merely done as research to see which lenses I want to plan on getting… eventually.

I hope to do another test soon comparing the medium telephoto lenses in a controlled environment. Stay tuned, but don’t wait up for it

A little backstory leading up to this entry here. About 2 weeks ago, I checked out a really nice lens, and took it with the rest of photo kit to a waterski tournament where I shot a little over 1500 photos. All this with the hopes of selling a few prints to people. Now on with the research….

The first place I looked at was ExpressDigital’s PhotoReflect (I’m not providing a link, they’re not worth it, keep reading), because it’s where the 2008 AWSA Western Regionals photos were posted. I looked around the site, looked a little clunky but usable. Their rates sounded high at first glance (I’ve since found out they are indeed relatively low). For low-sales-volume accounts, they scrape 18% off the top, but don’t charge any bandwidth or storage fees.

The second place I looked at was PhotoWorks which also has free upload and storage, but their pricing markup is severely limited. The only options are a solid $ increase (ex. adding $10 to the cost of the print, regardless of size), or a solid % increase (ex. add 400% to the cost of the print, $1.14 4×6 and $209.70 for 20×30)

I kept on looking, asking a few photographers I know for recommendations. Unfortunately most people I know don’t sell their work online. Enter Zac. He suggested a few sites to check out. The first, PhotoShelter, is what he’s used in the past, and they have a “free” account to try, cool. The others DigitalRailRoad and RedBubble seemed to be capable, but targeted at other audiences.

Now for comparison, PhotoShelter seems the best option, as they handle all the printing and shipping stuff, and they scrape 30% off the top. But there is a $50 setup fee, and I would soon need more storage for $7-10/month (so $50 setup + $120/yr). DigitalRailRoad does not have a free account option, starts at $50 setup + $50/month, and they scrape 40% off the top. Most expensive, lowest margins, not a good combo. RedBubble seems to be targeted more towards art stuff.

These all seemed a litle overpriced now, and I remembered that PhotoReflect was free except for the 18% scraping. So I signed up for an account to try it out, excited to try their plugin for Apple’s Aperture. Low and behold, the plugin crashes Aperture every single time I try to connect to the website with it. Doing some research, other than providing the crappy plugin, they provide ABSOLUTELY NO MAC SUPPORT. Bullox.

Another option is using SmugMug Pro account which costs $150/year and they scrape 15% off your markup. The biggest selling point for SmugMug is also it’s biggest downside, the website is really Ajax-heavy. While it is a SWEET looking site, I’d worry that the glam of the site might be offputting/intimidating to some customers.

Ultimately I don’t think I’m ready to throw myself into the world of pro-photography, which is what it would require to justify the investment of joining most of these sites. I do want to start making some money from my work so I can justify spending more money on equipment, and more time in the field. So for now I’m still stuck thinking about what I want to do.

EDIT: I just realized with PhotoWorks, you can use the % markup with a minimum $ markup. For example, I can say 300% markup, but a minimum of $5. This seems to create a nicer price scale, though I wish I could markup the larger items less, since I don’t think I’d be selling many.

That’s what Toni asked me about 2hrs ago. Followed by:

Me: getting my calendars set up to sync through google
Toni: sounds exciting there
Me: you have no idea
Toni: lol
Toni: you are an odd one

Anyways this is fairly brilliant. Google Calendar is the brains of the operation, where the data is stored and whatnot. Sure I exported most of my calendars straight from iCal, but then I set up the calendars to utilize Google Calendar’s new calDAV service (Google’s instructions). So now I can edit events on my iMac at home, the iMac at work, even on my iPod Touch, and it’ll sync up to the gCloud, and back down to my computers/iPod, and essentially be the same everywhere.

Caveat here is regarding the iPod Touch. I only see the “live” calendars when using Google’s mobile interface, the Apple Calendar interface needs to get plugged in at home to sync. Same with posting, it if i post to Apple Calendar, nothing goes live until I plug & sync at home. And obviously Google Calendar needs to be within earshot of wi-fi access.

This is all acceptable though, wi-fi seems ubiquitous enough for when I’m hopping between computers, and when I’m not (say, when I visit the family cabin in Minnesota), the iPod Touch will be the only device I have for keeping schedules, so it’ll “just work”.

The one thing I don’t understand, is why do each of my Google Calendars need seperate CalDAV accounts in iCal? This is makes it a pain the ass to set up, but after the fact is mainly cosmetic (see image above, and click to enlarge).

Hmm.. ramblomatic blogger? I’m going to bed.

I’ve skied at Mint a few times, but only at the Emerald Valley’s Northwest Championships tournament. This was the first one where our club wasn’t as required to do the work. I still helped out with scoring and judging, it helps to practice at a variety of locations, learn the quirks of the computers and whatnot.

22nd ANNUAL MINT LAKE OPEN
TourID: 08W133C
Yacolt, WA
7/12/2008 to 7/13/2008

Slalom Rd 1: 4 @ 58k, 23m
Tricks: 810 pts (personal best!)
Jump: 64 ft (personal best!)
Slalom Rd 2: 2H @ 58k, 16m (personal best!)

I also took some photos from the site (click image above for gallery):

Towards the end of the “shoot,” we wandered over towards the playground equipment and took some interesting shots.

I’ve decided to keep using the school’s EOS Elan 7, and the recommended TMax 400 film for the foreseeable future (for the purposes of this class). I didn’t like how my Rebel K2 winds all the film and exposes it in reverse.

This is the third roll, and the first in a series of 2 rolls taken near the Fern Ridge Reservoir in west Eugene. David and I wandered around, and climbed up an embankment. Took pictures of small animal skeletons on the ground, of the horizon, and birds in the sky, among other things. What do you think?

These were all taken with the EOS Elan 7 using TMax 400 film.