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Double Twist

By Techie No Comments

iTunes is a great MP3 player but it comes with a lot of bloated software that alot of people don’t want/need/use. It also will only let you use an iPod or iPhone to sync to.

 500x_doubletwist_splash

DoubleTwist Website

I just found DoubleTwist which is an alternative that has all the pros of iTunes but none of the cons. I don’t own an iPhone – I don’t want to own an iphone. I love my nokia and believe in a lot of ways it out performs apple’s offering but i do want to be able to sync my phones content with ease. I think i will be downloading this later today and installing and ridding my machine of iTunes messiness.

Tech-not

By Techie No Comments

BSOD 0x07B

Yesterday was one of those where technology failed me over and over. At work for some unknown reason our Internet connection died. This left us without any connection so I hooked up my mobile with the intent that i’d use that as a modem which worked – kinda! The problem being that when i do this, sometimes they just dont agree with each other and then both of them lock up an freeze and function much like a breeze block would if you were trying to use it for the same reason. This happened most of y’day afternoon which brought on much frustration.When they would work the connection is a 460K connection which is pitifully slow when used to an 8mb connection. this also added to the general frustration. Then my battery on my phone started to die. It would seem that when you are using your phone as a modem via usb a N95*GB cant charge fast enough o i had a constant battery alarm going off also.

Later on I was coming to the end of a project in work. At 4:30 i needed to render out what i’d done and put it to DVD. It was only a 6min piece which was taking 30mins to render except for the fact that I’d received a “General Error” on the last second. We had a courier for over night delivery on stand-by who was really great and patient but when I went through this about 10 times until i gave up and left for home.

That eve we were baby sitting. I got to our place with 5mins to spare and picked up Wifey and we drove around. I had brought the laptop home with the hope that i could do more research on some stuff. I connected no problem at our friends house but after 20mins  their wireless router kicked me off – I was not a happy chappy.

I wonder how i would really cope if all technology suddenly stopped working. I really do rely on tech stuff an alarming amount.

How much do you rely on techie items?

How to create strong passwords

By Techie No Comments
img via: www.jdavidmacor.com

img via: www.jdavidmacor.com

I’m hoping that this post will help people create good strong secure individual passwords for multiple sites. These days we all have various accounts on-line. It has become common practice to have one password for all accounts which is a big no no.  If a hacker is successful at hacking in to your one of your accounts, the very first thing they do is to try and log-in in to every other web-service with the same email/user id and the same password. Usually when a hacker has been successful – they’ll then lock you out of your own account by changing the passwords on you which would be baaaaaad news.

The key here is to create dramatically diverse passwords that YOU find easy to remember. More accurately it is about creating a system that you can easily remember but is also easy enough to make each password for each site unique

Most people will usually have a phrase or two that they use for passwords and that is the key for that. My recommendation for going about creating a system is to build it in chunks where those chunks based on your usual phrase and some common password thinking. Once you have created the system you hopefully wont have to to worry about remembering lots of passwords ever again.

You will need only 3 things:

  1. Time
  2. Patience
  3. Some lateral thinking.

In order to create a secure system we need number 3 of the above list. Some lateral thinking. There are 4 principles that you can apply in building your system. As you read on you will see that you will be able to mix and match any of them. The most secure password however, would be produced by using all of them together.

1). NUMBERS

 numbersLets start at he beginning. If you have a phrase that you usually use i would suggest using that. If you have two phrases – why not combine them!.  Alot of people have a regular password phrase. But a phrase on it’s own is not enough. So the easiest step is to take that phrase and add a number to it:

To demonstrate I will  use two phrases:

CABBAGE” & “PEPPER

When it comes to choosing a number it can be anything.If you have a number that means alot to you then use that. At the very least it should be a two digit number so that rules out the number “7&”.  If your fav number is only a single digit number then multiply it by 11.

To demonstrate I will  use the number

75

With these assets i can create the following passwords:

CABBAGEPEPPER75

75PEPPERCABBAGE

7CABBAGEPEPPER5

You can see that this already creates several different possibilities but a phrase and a number alone is still not secure enough.

2). Character Alternatives. keywords

For some the following will be a familiar concept but for others it may be a bit more complex. It’s not difficult its actually really easy (that’s the whole idea). Below you will see a list of letters. Beside them are displayed alternative numbers/symbols that look similar at a glance. i.e. the general shape of one is similar to that of the other.

A = 4

B = 8

E = 3

I = 1

O = 0 (numeric zero)

S = 5

Lets take our word “CABBAGE” as test subject –  Using the above alternatives:

CABBAGE= C4884G3

If you were to mix up the case it could become even more diverse:

CABBAGE= c48b4G3

All you have to remember is the phrase and then apply the alternatives to it. Now if we apply rules 1 and 2 we could get the following results:

c48b4G3P3pP3r75

75P3Pp3Rc4884G3

7C4884g3P3PP3R5

How you decide to apply those is up to you but i would recommend being as consistent as you can across the board. Remember the idea is to keep the system simple.

3). SEPARATORS

Using Separators to split the phrases and website abbreviations helps also. It helps by giving you the opportunity to introduce more adverse characters and by visually splitting the phrases/words.  This will certainly diversify your passwords.

Below is a just a few characters accessible from your keyboard:

!  ”  £  $  %  ^  &  *  (  ) :  ;  +  _  –  =  `  ¬ ‘  @  ~  #  ?  /  |  \

The idea is to use these to separate the phrases and numbers of your password. It may be visually easier to identify them as separators by making combos of them:

)!(

“@”

$%$

^*^

+|+

\”/

Using these could produce the following results:

CABBAGE PEPPER 75 becomes:

c48b4G3 $%$ P3pP3r $%$ 75

75 $%$ P3Pp3R $%$ c4884G3

7 $%$ C4884g3 $%$ P3PP3R $%$ 5

This leads us on to the final section – how to differentiate passwords for different websites.

4). WEBSITE ABBREVIATION

 colourfulKeys2

This section is about abbreviating the name of the website in order to make the password specific to a website.

If you have followed the above guidelines you should have a fairly bulletproof password BUT all you have is ONE password. You need different passwords for each different website you log in to. Fear not however, again there is a simple solution to this predicament.

Abbreviate the website name!  Think of your passwords like a set of colour coded keys. Each key is very similar but its the colour that tells you for which door it belongs to. In the case of passwords the doors are the websites. The colours are the website abbreviations which tell you which site you are accessing. This way you only really need to remember the main bulk of the password phrases but you get added security when each one is made different by adding an abbreviation of the site to the password.

Here are some samples of possible abbreviations:

facebook.com = FB / FABO / fabo / fAbO

Tesco.com = TE / TESC / tesc / TeSc

google.co.uk  = GO / GOOG / goog / GoOg

Again the idea is to create your own abbreviation format and stick to it.

THE RESULT:

So by applying all these rules to create  passwords for facebook,  Bebo, Tesco, Photobucket where we will use the following phrases and numbers:

“cabbage”, “pepper” & the number “75

the passwords could be conceived:

75   c4bb4g3   $%$ p3pp3r   $%$ fabo    =   75c4bb4g3$%$p3pp3r$%$ fabo

c4bb4g3   $%$!(   p3pp3r   $%$ bebo 75  =   c4bb4g3$%$p3pp3r$%$ bebo75

7 c4bb4g3   $%$ p3pp3r   $%$ teco 5   =   7c4bb4g3$%$p3pp3r$%$ teco5

75 c4bb4g3   $%$ p3pp3r   $%$ phbu   =   75c4bb4g3$%$p3pp3r$%$ phbu

I hope this has been a help – feel free to ask questions in the comment below.

Where do i put my photos?

By Techie One Comment

 galleries

I’m struggling with how bets tomanage photos and video i take and where to put them i.e. where to store them on-line. The choices are:

  • My Website
  • Photobucket
  • facebook
  • posterous
  • twitpic

Each of these have their own limitations and conmsequences.

My Website, has the limitations of not being able to upload many large sized photos. This is a major pain as uploadingasimple gallery is always….hicupful. Ideally i’d just like to upload high res images to my site and for them then to be published to other places automtically from there.

Online accounts all have the same issues – Does anyone remembr GeoCities? that was a website ervice that died and went away. I am looking for a solution that will never go away. i.e. I dont wanna use a web based service only to finfd that in 10 yeas the company folds and my images die alongside it.

Posterous is great except that it is still a young company and it wont post images on to MY site – it will only display them on my site. It will push tem to facbook adn flickr and the like but not o my own website.

Hmmmmmm what to do….

New Era of Film Technology

By Techie, Video No Comments

This is a geek-out entry but i want to record my thoughts more for my own benefit than for others.

In the industry we are all used to Shoulder mounted cameras  been flung around by film crews. We are even familiar with smaller medium sized cameras being used in creative ways.

OSU Spring Game 2006: Media LineupCanon HV30 Podcast Camera #1

One of the problems has always been the cost of Cameras and lenses. In order to get a broadcast worth system you would be looking to spend about £15-25k on a camera then another £10-30k on a lens or multiple lenses. That’s a hefty £25 – £55k for one camera which is silly money. For a company like Tandem Creative (the company i work for) this becomes a major issue. How can we keep up with technology ad make some money to pay ourselves?

With the arrival of HD we are in the process of figuring out what the best solutions would be for us. Should we go for something like the Sony EX3 or a Panasonic P2 solution

In the beginning  025Camera Lake

A lot of these questions have been asked over the past year but then out of nowhere came the solution i want to go for. I give you the Canon 5D Mark II. Yes it’s a Digital SLR but it does video. So why is this so good?

Well combine the benefits of SLR lenses, the massive chip inside th sensor and the fact that you needed spend £50k to get a rig that will enable you to shoot beautiful video.

Canon Eos 5D Mark II

Below are some samples of stuff shot on the Canon 5D Mark II – I’ll let the footage speak for itself.

[vimeo width=”590″ height=”250″]http://vimeo.com/5678870[/vimeo] [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/5487198[/vimeo] [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/5000009[/vimeo] [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/4160284[/vimeo]

why the multi posting?

By Techie No Comments

I’ve  been lookiong out for a sysstem that will easily post my blogs, tweets photos and videos  to all the relevant reas and all in one go – I present you:

www.posterous.com

Ok so actually i have to give the credit to John over at Human3rror / Chruch Crunch for finding this. So far it looks like a very very cool tool. I do already have everything linked but this looks like it will simplify it all down. Yay to technology!

http://irishmark.posterous.com/

cool stuff of the day

By Blog, Techie No Comments

This is cubcam in elephant poo. – Click the image for more – very cool

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Blowing up stuff – THE MANLY WAY

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Its bee a silly couple of weeks in that we are a bit run off our feet at work. We are working on a big proposal for a client and its all hands on deck. Stress levels are not really being kept in check.

In order to keep my sanity I have been looking at techy stuff inbetween bits and pieces. Please be warned I’m about t Geek out here for a moment.

I signed up to twitter a few months back in an attempt to figure out what it was about. It was only yeasterday when i downloaded Google Desktop andadded the Twitter gadget that i realised how one should use it.

Its all about how you use it. I was trying to undestand the concept of microblogging and just couldn’t get it.  You NEED a live interface to really get the benefits of it. Without a live interface you have to keep on opening up a browser , navigate to your page and then check it. With a ljve interfae you get the updates live andcan respond to the people you follwo live. – If youstill dt get it – i dont blame you – just try looking fo a tool that suits you.

The other cool thing has been the google desktop app. It’s actually quite a good tool as it ascts as a searchbar for both yur PC and the web and its right on the desktop or its hidden depending on how you set it up. I think its a very cool lil app.


Cool stuff I have been looking at

By Techie No Comments

I’ve been looking at lots of cool futuristicy type tings….

The Fring – A Hijacked write-up

By Techie No Comments

The Fring

This article has been hi-jacked from : www.fring.we.bs –  The article on that page did not have optimized images so the page was killing browsers accross the land. This article does not do that.

index_html_16d3f35e

img1 - The FRING

This is a fibre-optic flash extension for your DSLR’s popup flash. Totally easy! Works great! Durable!

Designed specifically for K20D with 100 2.8 DFA lens but adaptable to other lenses (see Tamron Adaptall 90 2.5 example at the end.) Build your own!

Easy step-by-step Fring assembly instructions:

(Build and use at your OWN RISK. Don’t run with scissors. Pop-down flash before storing gear.)

Stuff  Needed

1. Go to your local dollar store (with $5 and probably a bit more for tax) and buy:

Balloons

2. some balloons (black preferred)

Cable Ties

3. a bag of cable ties

fibre-optics

4.  “groovy” fibre-optic novelty lights

toothpaste tube

5. Next, brush your teeth regularly and use up a 75 mL tube of toothpaste. Most tubes seem to be shiny inside (you need one that is shiny inside.)


6. Then go to your local bicycle shop and kindly ask for a scrap mountain bike inner-tube for a “craft” project. (Don’t try to explain – they will just give you confused looks.)

7. You need scissors and cellophane tape (other tape is likely also fine – I just had cello tape handy.)

Building:

  1. Start by taking two of the fibre-optic bundles out of their packages. Notice how there are different lengths of fibres.
  2.  index_html_m56db7cb4

  3. For the Pentax DFA Macro 100 2.8 — the shortest fibres are too short to be useful. Tightly bind the other fibres with small cable ties.
  4.  index_html_69e6a86c

  5. Holding the fibre bundle tightly, cut off the plastic plugs at the ends of the bundles.
  6. Fan the bundle out and shake over a garbage can to remove the shortest fibres (too short for the DFA 100 Macro – may be fine to keep with a different lens.)
  7.  index_html_m6d3b0e0

  8. With the DFA Macro 100 2.8, the distance from the outer edge of the lens hood to the camera body – does not change during focusing. The hood does not rotate during focusing either. Both of these facts make this build a bit easier. I have suggestions for different lenses at the end of these instructions.
  9. Remove the Hood of the DFA Macro 100 2.8 (or other lens.) Cut a section of baloon to stretch over the hood (provides grip for the fibres.)
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  11. Stretch the balloon over the hood (you may want to roll it up and then roll it down – prophylactic style.)
  12.  index_html_m5e4bcf8c

  13. Cut two more sections of balloon to have ready.
  14. Put the hood on the lens and the lens on the body.
  15. With the Pentax DFA 100, you will have no problem putting the base of the fibre bundle up against the pop-up flash – while fanning the ends of the fibres around the end of the hood. Try to fill in gaps. We will deal with the thinness of the fibre at the bottom of the lens later on.
  16.  index_html_6f7a1f32

  17. Use a section of balloon to anchor the fanned-out fibres around the lens hood. (Roll it up from below.)
  18.  index_html_64136dc4

  19. Using the grip provided by the outer and inner balloon ring – gently reposition fibres as needed. Perfection is not required and there may be a gap at the bottom of the hood. Fibres can cross over, it doesn’t matter. Live with some chaos. Don’t get hung-up on this part.
  20. Tape down the fibres along the edge of the balloon ring – with one layer of cello tape.
  21. Trim off excess fringe around the hood. Trim so fibres are flush with outer edge of hood. Put hood back on lens.
  22.  index_html_m603181c5

  23. Get your last fresh fibre-optic bundle. Cable-tie the tip so that the longest fibres are kept.
  24.  index_html_6609d3aa

  25. Cut plastic plug off other end of bundle. Shake in garbage can to remove other fibres.
  26. We are going to use these long fibres to improve the coverage at the bottom of the hood (where there may be a small gap.)
  27. Fan out extra fibres at bottom of hood, align end of bundle with main bundle (ending at the pop-up flash.)
  28. Repeat rubber banding, taping, and trimming of these extra fibres.
  29. Cable-tie the new bundle to the old bundle. Remove old cable ties on original bundle. Merge fibres and re-tie. It should look like this:
  30.  index_html_19dab1e6

  31. The way it is now, it can sort-of work, but there will be stray light.
  32. Wash and clean your empty tooth-paste tube and bicycle inner-tube.
  33. Cut a section of toothpaste tube to extend from behind the flash to the beginning of the fanned-out fibres.
  34.  index_html_5fe198e

     index_html_711f5ba5

  35. The reflective surface inside the tube directs the light into the fibres. A gentle curl of tube over and under the pop-up flash will hold it nicely in place.
  36. So that other photographers won’t laugh at you in the playground, finish “dressing” the Fring. Start by cutting a section of inner-tube that matches the toothpaste tube.
  37.  index_html_m2e8cbd15

  38. Fit toothpaste tube inside matching inner-tube cover. Fit over the main fibre bundle.
  39. Optional. Put a stitch right through the inner-tube and tooth paste tube covering, and the main bundle. This will prevent the covering from slipping off when you remove the lens hood. Stitch between the fanned-out part at the base of the hood and the cable ties holding the main bundle together.
  40.  index_html_m7fce94ce

  41. Put lens hood back on. Gently curl the covering of the toothpaste tube and the inner-tube over and under the flash.
  42.  index_html_m615f1a6e

  43. Stretch a section of (preferably black) balloon over the lens hood. You’re finished!
  44.  index_html_m799a399

     index_html_4eb400f2

  45. The focus ring should move freely. You can still reach the focus lock. If you want to use the flash without the Fring, just put the hood on with the fring bundle at the bottom and your pop-up flash will be unobstructed. Or buy a second hood (but that will blow the $5 budget.)
  46.  index_html_m6010e02d


You can modify this plan to work on other lenses. Here is a modified version for a classic Tamron Adaptall 90mm f2.5 with the 2x converter. The end of this lens does not rotate when focusing.

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– bundle only the longest and second-longest fibres

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– longest go to bottom left and right, second-longest to top left and right.

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-instead of a toothpaste tube, use a more shiny and longer tube (or for greater precision, aluminized cardboard open-ended rectangular prism) – made from lid of take-out container.

– cover reflective tube with inner tube, leaving a “hood” to put over the pop-up flash.

– insert main fibre bundle into the reflective inner tube

– as you focus the lens, the fibre bundle slides inside the tube (with the Pentax 100 DFA – sliding isn’t necessary as the length of the lens doesn’t change when focused.)

I haven’t tried this – but if you are using a regular 50mm and close-up filters, or if you are using a macro lens with a lens-hood that turns during focus you could try this modification:

– use the same plan shown in step 34

– smash the glass out of an old polarizer filter (with the rotating double ring)

– thread the filter ring on your lens, put your hood on the ring, and your hood should be able to rotate as you focus (I expect you would need to do gentle manual focusing.)

– or make a contraption that allows an arm to extend below from the tripod thread and/or above from the hot-shoe to support a floating ring around the end of your lens

If the movement of the focus ring is impeded by the fibres of the Fring — build up a wider rim on your lens hood so that the fibres are further away from the barrel of the lens.

Here are some sample shots from the Classic TAMRON 90mm 2.5 lens (and the 2X dedicated converter) using the Fring:

 index_html_5ecc0f7 index_html_m533e5314

Nice even lighting. Above images are not cropped. This is a great lens (just manual focus and a bit heavy compared to the Pentax I replaced it with.) Here’s a cropped close-up of the fly picture:

 index_html_m7cace622

Here is a small gallery of shots from the Pentax DFA Macro 100 2.8. Unless stated, no cropping has been done. Flash used in “P” mode at 200ASA equivalent setting. Hand-held (waiting for my macro rail to arrive – then will try focus-stacking.) At first glance, I think I may have had better resolution with the Tamron 90… aargh…

 index_html_58b7672b index_html_67cdc0e7 index_html_655b4765 index_html_m90c841a

Sample Images from Pentax SMC DFA 100mm 2.8 Using the Fring in the Shade

This how-to is dedicated to all the other poor souls with good intentions and too much time on their hands who have created similar DIY’s on the internet. (Many thanks to the guy who showed me how to rewire my old SF1 cable-release to work on my K20D, and to all the people sharing DIY digital projector projects. Thanks in advance to all of the people posting their macro-photography techniques — which I am looking forward to learning from.) I don’t claim that any of the ideas here are particularly original. I do think that this design is a good low-tech and low-cost macro flash solution that almost anyone can build without special tools beyond a pair of scissors. I particularly liked a brilliant “origami” cardboard ring-flash that I saw somewhere on the net. I made a more primitive version of it that worked – but was too bulky and fragile to store in my gadget bag. I think the designs on this page should have very good durability and are quite ‘crush-proof.’ This page was completed on 11 August 2008. Eventually, someone will probably make a commercial version of this plan – but I think I’ll stick with this $5 solution. This page is slow-to-load because it is one big page — I’m more interested in improving my photography than I am in improving my web-design. Hope it was worth the wait while it loaded.

minority report, a step closer…

By Techie No Comments

This is absolutely amazing! They are calling it a sixth sense i like to call it gesticular reaction. – You can make up your own term for it but mine will always be funnier.

This really is a step into the future – providing the recession doesn’t force us all into cannibalism.

fatal error

By Arg, Techie No Comments

I keep getting fatal errors on the site when trying to upload photos. I manages to sort it so that i ca do a standard upload but i just cant get it to work with seding  a photo from the mobile whcih is most frustrating!

No time No pace

By Techie, WordPress No Comments

I seem to be running around trying to catch up on my news feeds. I’m also waaaay behind on whats heppening on face boo and i dont seem to have a blarney chance of seeing people either.

I have roughly about 40 subscriptions in my google reader page. I also have about 260 friends on my facebook account. I’m trying ti figure out when i am supposed to kee up with it all. Facebook is great – dont get me wrong but I a one of the few who find it a bit overwhelming when it comes tpo follwoing it.  It coul alost be a fulltime job monitoring faceboook.

Couple that with the rss news feeds (click here or here if you dont know what an rss feed is – they rock) its all a bbit too much. How am i supposed to do my job aswell!

HOW I ASK YOU HOW???????

Here’s a list of the sites i subscribe to….if you were interested.

www.4-14.org.uk

www.alphafriends.org

www.dirtstreetpub.com

http://djearworm.com

www.donder.oucs.ox.ac.uk

http://failblog.org

http://fazed.net

http://www.fubiz.net

http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com

http://uk.gizmodo.com

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com

http://livingos.com

http://www.mashuptown.com

http://www.mattmagic.com

http://ruth.irishmark.net

http://www.nickpage.co.uk

http://www.oaktree.org.uk

http://www.Oddee.com

http://politicalspirit.com

http://provideocoalition.com

http://www.sharecreative.co.uk

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/index.xml

http://www.twinklydave.com/wordpress

http://www.todaysbigfail.com

http://tryingtofollow.com

http://vimeo.com/channels/hd

http://blogs.creativecow.net/blog/15/

http://www.webdesignerwall.com

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/feed/

http://wordpress.org/development/

http://planet.wordpress.org

http://www.linkedin.com

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?YouTubeUsername=irishmark

OakTree site launch

By Techie No Comments

 site

SO today the official launch of the new OakTree website took place. I was supposed to be giving a presentation with Bish.

BUT….

I’m sat on the couch.

Ruth went to church without me.

I feel horrible.

I am pretty sure that this cold has come on because of the shoot of thurs with SJI which, while it was a great shoot and it went well, it as absolutely freezing! As i shut my car door to go home at the end of the shoot the first flakes of snow landed on my windscreen.

That’s how cold it was.

Now I have that cold!

Grr – thank God for wives who look afte their husbands….and people say being married is overrated.

rebuild

By Techie 4 Comments

I Just rebuilt the whole database from scratch using xml and that. – This site should now be workin proper!

Was thinking about what i was doin last year….no in 05?