eBook Reader Comparison ala wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Comparison_of_e-book_readers&oldid=402896555

eReader Formats ala wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Comparison_of_e-book_formats&oldid=402990936

Learning the iPhone 4

Last Friday I decided to buy an iPhone 4.
I have been using the iPhone 3G for two years but there were enough improvements (camera, compass, iOS4.1) for me to warrant an upgrade.

While at the Apple store, I noticed there was a class on the iPhone 4  to be held the next day, Saturday, so I signed up.

During the class I watched how students were overwhelmed with all the different things the iPhone could do and they were jumping all over the place with their questions. This was an experience  very common to my beginning computer classes, where students were so excited and wanted to know everything - and all at that moment! I often referred to this learning enthusiasm as a giant pill that could not be swallowed in one gulp, but had to be bitten off a little at a time.

With this realization in mind I decided to put together a small plan for “how to learn” about learning about the iPhone. My advice; take it a step at a time, master one thing and then go on to another. Limit your frustration, relax and have fun.


Start by learning about the following topics - one  at a time. Pick the one that interests you at the moment, and then tomorrow, try another. This is just a partial list - the fun is endless.

iPhone 4 hardware
everyone needs this, start with the buttons, and then go on to memory, sensors, etc. as your curiosity grows.

   The Phone
Learn to make calls, what the bars mean, voice mail, proximity sensor, voice control, FaceTime

   Camera
still, video, HDR, flash, resolution, editing, panoramas, front and back cameras. The camera is a big one for me  of course, and I’ll will explore more about it here at palzot as time goes on.

   Viewing Pictures
saving, copying from the internet and other sources, The camera roll, Albums vs Places

   Playing music
podcasts, songs, and YouTube, Netflix

   e-mail
read and send, create accounts

   Internet
Weather, Stocks, Google, Quick browsing

   PDA
Calculator, Calendar, Clock, Contacts, Notes

   iBooks
read thousands of free classics and ever growing number of purchased new releases

   Navigation
Maps, Google Earth, tag your photos with locations, geocaching

   All those other Apps
create an iTunes account, 250,000 additional things to do with your iPhone


- Now remember, this is an on-going learning experience. You cannot learn it all at one sitting. But that’s the fun part. You now own something you can continue to explore for years to come.

In addition to the digital Photography classes, I will be offering at home tutoring (and general help) on using the iPhone in your home at $35 an hour.

HDR Napkin

Downloading pictures from you camera

Downloading pictures from you camera’s media card, using Windows:

 

1.    Insert the memory card into the SD (or appropriate card) slot.

2.    After a short while the  following window appears:

3.    Choose Import Pictures. This copies all your pictures to the default “(My) Pictures” folder.

4.    If you only want to copy only some of the pictures to your hard drive, use “Open folder to view files”. 

5.    You will have to navigate to the correct sub-folder on your SD card.

6.    Then, click on the first picture you want and continue Ctrl-clicking on every other picture you would like to copy.

7.    Finally, drag the whole collection to the folder on your hard drive (probably “my pictures”)

 

8.    NOTE: The “Organize and Edit” and “Copy pictures to your computer and view them” choices only appear if you have Photoshop Elements and Picasa installed on your computer.

Freddy the Spider

Just in case you didn't get to see this bad boy over at Facebook I'll post it here also. While traveling in Georgia last summer, I came across a tree filled with these buggers, each about 5 to 6 inches long. Perhaps ants don’t have all the fun.

Photographing spiders in their webs can be tricky sometimes, because the camera wants to focus through the web and on the objects behind it. However this fellow was so big, focus was not a problem.

Ants

Ants, An Experiment in Macro Photography

Some folk get all bent out of shape whenever they see ants crawling about. Me, I think they are real helpful, cleaning up crumbs and such.

I had some crackers the other day, and left a crumb or two down there on the floor. If you look carefully, you can see it near the center of the picture, between the chair leg and table leg.

A bit closer and you can at least see the black spot. That’s a cluster of ants.

Even closer, you might be able to make out an ant or two. They are very small, some may say “tiny”, scientifically .33 mm long and .2 mm wide.

Now we are beginning to see something.

The ants will continue to chow down until this whole crumb is gone. I won’t bother them, and by nightfall, there will be nothing there. Ants are our friends.

To actually see the ants at work click on the YouTube video from the sidebar link. Ants clean up

HDR or High Dynamic Range

This is a photograph of my neighborhood in HDR or High Dynamic Range. This picture is actually 3 exposures merged into one image. Do you think this fad is a keeper?

Images using HDR (High Dynamic Range) seem to be popping up everywhere. An HDR image consists of 3 or more exposures, usually one or two f-stops above and below the average exposure setting. This gives both the highlights and the shadows a chance to be shown at their best. Using either software and in some cases the camera itself, the multiple exposures are combined into one, giving the final image a pretty wide (dynamic) range of exposure. What place do they have in modern photography?

If you look carefully at my example, you will see three birds near the center of the image. There was actually only one bird in flight, but the time delay between exposures caught the bird at three different places. The three pictures were merged using a free HDR program called Qtpfsqui (http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/) but there are others. Some of the image editing programs have HDR merge built right in and Photoshop plugins also exist.

So what do you think of the whole process? A lot of Flickr images are HDR. It is a fad that certainly was not around before digital photography. Some of the most recent digital cameras have HDR and its variations built in. These cameras actually claim to be able to produce a better images by exposing for shadows and highlights in the same scene. This would be very useful for nighttime photography and landscapes with dark shadows and bright skies. I look forward to seeing some very creative work done with HDR photography.

Another HDR image emphasizing the drama of color.

The Ole Church in Winter

This is an experiment, using the new trial version of Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3. Looks kind of old. The product has its good points, but that name is a little lengthy.