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Oct 03
If you have a wad of cash burning holes in your pocket, you may consider adding these items to your shopping list.
Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G ($200) (Review to come soon)
NeatDesk ($399.95)
Be a Malevich: The Compacts (~$100) (Review to come soon)
Panasonic RP-HTX9 Retro Headphones ($159.99)
Oct 02
Verdict: Buy ($99.99)
These days, I spend about 12 hrs of my time in front of a computer screen (I know!). I estimate that about half of this time, I’m actually clicking or typing. I’m almost certain that I’ve been doing this since the day I started this career in programming. (At least far as I can remember). It’s therefore not surprising that I started feeling mild wrist pains and early signs of RSI 2 years into this profession. Back then, ergonomic concepts were foreign to me. This encouraged me to do some serious reading into computer ergonomics and led me to experiment with quite a few different computer peripherals and some changes in personal habits. Eventually, all signs of RSI went away.
During my experimentations, I found out that the biggest contributor to the pain and other RSI symptoms in my wrist/arm was my constant mouse-dragging and clicking movements (Not typing, surprisingly). Back then, I had a standard (PC) two-button mouse. I eventually switched to a trackball. I started with the Kensington Expert trackball. It’s a great product and I still have one attached to a spare computer in the house.
Since then, trackballs have become my pointing devices of choice. The biggest advantage they have over mice is that they reduce the strain on the operator’s wrists because:
This year, Kensington released an updated version of their Expert Mouse, the Kensington Slimblade Trackball and I ordered one a few months back for my primary computer. I am happy to report that this model performs even better than the Expert mouse and, while also being cheaper than the Expert.
The Bad
The only thing negative I can think of is that the scrolling functionality produces a mechanical clicking sound which was not present in the Expert. Unfortunately, since the sound is mechanical, I cannot change its volume or get rid of it entirely. This could be a problem if you work in a crowded environment, for instance.
The Good
Where do I begin? This trackball is a definite improvement over its predecessor. The design has been streamlined to age more gracefully (glossy surface, flush buttons, thin design). The scroll ring has been removed. (Scrolling is done by rotating the ball itself!). Low maintenance. The area below the ball is actually hollow. Thus all dirt and dust that usually accumulates on the ball simply falls through onto my desk instead of getting trapped inside the base. This is essentially the ultimate trackball on the market. Period.
MouseZoom allows you to speed up your pointer beyond what OSX normally allows
Usage Notes & Tips
Oct 01
I recently purchased the Lingolook Japan iPhone App in advance of a trip to Japan at the end of the month. The app costs $4.99 and offers flash cards and spoken Japanese translations of popular and useful phrases for those, (like me), who don’t speak Japanese at all.
I will be posting a detailed report of its usefulness as soon as I get back but here are my first impressions. I must preface this preview by saying that I’m not a frequent buyer at the iPhone app store. I think I purchased only 3 other apps since it opened.
At first glance, this app seems to be well-designed, easy to understand and use.
Some nice features:
Sep 30
Verdict: Buy ($59.99 – $149.99)
I’ve been “eyeing” the Eye-Fi line of SD memory cards ever since the first one came out about 2 years ago. For those of you not familiar, Eye-Fi makes a family of SD memory cards for digital cameras which automates the transfer of your pictures from your camera to your computer or social sites such as Flickr, Facebook Et cetera. Their line currently consists of 6 different cards, ordered in ascending price:
Eye-Fi introduced some nice features in their higher-end cards:
These new features come on top to the traditional ones supported by the lower-end cards:
So I went ahead and ordered the Explore Video. It costs $20 more than the next-cheaper model, the Share Video, but I figured the premium would be justified given that a true GPS module for my Nikon D90 would cost me around $250.
The Bad
Unfortunately, the geo-tagging functionality, in my experience, does not work sufficiently well at this time, to justify buying this model over the Share Video. The technology used by the card (WPS), while commendable and impressive, does not achieve a high enough success rate, and will probably disappoint most users. The good news for those, like me, who’ve already bought the Explore Video, or the Pro, is that the geolocation success rate will slowly improve over time as Skyhook is constantly adding to its Access Point (AP) database as well as accepts AP MAC address submissions from users.
WPS was also used in the 1st gen iPhone and some iPods for google maps positioning
If you’re not familiar, unlike a GPS unit which uses radio signals from satellites to determine your position, the Eye-Fi uses Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) – wifi signals to triangulate your position. Eye-Fi partnered with Skyhook Wireless which has a database of wifi’s MAC addresses mapped to physical locations. This means that there needs to be at least 1 recognizable wifi signal within reach of your camera to allow the card to determine your position accurately. Thus any picture taken away from urban centers will most certainly not be geotagged successfully. Personally, my card has been able to geotag about 11% of my 200 photos taken so far, though, to be fair to Eye-Fi, that’s still a small sample size and I live in western Canada.
The only other qualm I had with my card was at some point, I had set “Relayed Upload” to ‘On’ and “Selective Transfer” to ‘Off’. This forced my card to try and transfer any picture taken to my Flickr account as soon as it detects an open Hot Spot it can use. For some reason, this caused my card to enter a state where the camera couldn’t write or read from it anymore and reported the card as ‘busy’. The only solution for me was to reformat the card, after which it started behaving normally again. Since then, I’ve turned “Selective Transfer” to ‘On’ and haven’t had the problem ever since.
The Good
Everything else with my card is great. I must say Eye-Fi did a great job polishing its features based on identified user pain points & workflows. Before owning an eye-fi card, my pictures would sit for weeks, if not months, in my camera. I hate to say it but, uploading, sorting, organizing and publishing the pictures, became a chore.
The Eye-Fi introduces workflow improvements that works for me. When I take pictures, I usually take multiple shots of the same scene just to make sure I get the best possible results. I then quickly review the different pictures on my camera LCD and tag the ones I want to keep using the “Protect” button on my D90. (This workflow assumes you have set Selective Transfer to ‘On’). And that’s it! Instead of postponing the organization of photos for months after an event actually occurred, as soon as I get home, my camera automatically uploads, tags my selected photos to my computer as well as Flickr, making them instantly viewable by friends and family.
You can also make use of the Eye-Fi in imaginative ways – You can easily set up a live photostream of an event, (wedding, birthday party, conference) and throw in a projector and you have yourself something people will be excited about.
Usage Notes & Tips
Recommended buy for Amateurs: Eye-Fi Share Video
Recommended buy for Pros: Eye-Fi Pro