Mike DelGaudio

I’ve been trying to help a friend work on her website, and got this message. Once you get labeled as a computer geek, you get these questions all the time.

On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 10:11 AM, xxx xxxxxxx wrote:

Mike,

BIG QUESTION??? PC or MAC? I have a new apple computer that I hate. It is supposed to be for the [business –ed], but no one knows how to use it since all the staff has PC. do you have a preference, mac or pc?

I find the switch from PC to Mac to be one of the most frustrating things “regular” computer users do — because it often does not live up to false expectations. The novice to intermediate user hears how wonderfully easy and intuitive a Mac is, then buy one, and sit in front of their shiny new computer and go “huh? Now what?” There is this mystique that OSX is just so obvious to use, and everything is just where you expect it to be, but really, that’s a myth. You need training on it, just like any other equipment.

Once you get accustomed to one way of doing things, it is really hard to break out of it. I know I experience this all the time when I have to use a Mac — I just can’t find things where I expect them to be. When switching between OS’s I tend to have better luck finding things on Gnome / Ubuntu than on a Mac. Maybe that just indicates who the developers of Gnome were trying to target their product for.

Even something like the Ipod suffers from the same thing. I’ve heard time and time again how “intuitive” the Ipod is, but I have had to tell far too many people who have handled mine how to turn it on, turn it off, change the volume etc… I think people interchange intuitiveness for experience. Once you have learned how to use any ipod, it is reasonably intuitive to use. But I have watched people stare at that dumb little machine to try and figure out why it won’t turn off, even after they switch the hold button back and forth a hundred times. Even after having the thing for a long time I don’t successfully turn it off first time, every time. I think that borders on inexcusable.

In my opinion the design of the ipod (at least the “classic” — I’m trying to avoid the iPhone) actually gets in the way of a good user experience. Even something as simple as changing the volume shouldn’t require thought and explanation. Just try to change the volume on your 5g ipod while playing a game of solitaire on the train. Intuitive, indeed.

I wish there was an alternative that had as many accessories as the iPod. I would switch.

I am a big ol fan of the text mate clone for windows known simply as “e”

However, when I tried to start it up today, it would hang when opening the recently used documents. I love this feature where E simply opens all the document that were open when you last closed the app. Handy!

Bust since the progress bar is a modal dialog box when the program opend, you are in deep doo-doo if something happens that causes e to lock up when trying to open those documents upon starup.

Apparently this can happen if you happen to BSOD while e is open (even if e is not the culprit.

Here is how to fix it.

Go to c:\Documents and Settings\[your user name]\Application Data\e\

and delete e.db (if you are nervous about this, rename it to something like “e-CORRUPT.db”

Restart e.

E should start back up in it;s plain vanilla configuration.

Good luck!

I recently touched something on my blackberry and from that point on, it would only type in Arabic characters. Very confusing.

Here is how to fix it.

First, it appears that the keyboard “shortcut” I touched to make this start happening was ALT+ENTER, the first and last keys on the the third row down from the top on the keyboard. Apparently, that default is on for the 8X00 model Blackberries.

Get back to English characters.
To get back to the English characters, go to Options (the ‘wrench’ icon) then Language, then select “English (United States)” — or whatever is appropriate for you.

To turn off the shortcut:
Next, go to the bottom of that screen and change “Use Input Language Shortcut” to “No”.

You should be back in business.

Hope this helps!

I do a fair amount of development work on my laptop using XAMPP. I must admint that I have not read the documentation as thoroughly as I should, so I was very pleased when I found Chris Meller’s post on turning on CURL for XAMPP.

Simply remember that the only PHP.ini file that really matters is the one found in /apache/bin/php.ini.

After you edit the file, restart the Apache server, and you are on your way.

A Christmas From My Memories, originally uploaded by delgaudm.

This is how a lot of HDR images come out, interesting, but pretty cartoon-y and not at all realistic looking.

Living Room, originally uploaded by delgaudm.

I’ve been messing around with trying to get more realistic looking HDR photos. Too many of the ones I have create look like surreal cartoons. Cool, but not what I was looking for. I am actually pretty happy with this one. It pretty accurately reflects what I actually saw.

This is a stack of 5 jpg images, -2 to +2 Merged in Photoshop.

Looking for inspiration for your photos. Take a Look at photographer Rarindra Prakarsa’s protfolio over on photo.net. Described simply as a semipro photographer, Rarinda has an uncanny knack for photographing light so that you can practically feel it.

Update:
It appears others are similarly curious about how Rarinda gets such wonderful light in his (her?) photographs. If you are interested, read through this thread over on DP Review.

Create a unique “collage” from a single photograph. Choose one of two styles: a “joiner” style image without frames or an image created from simulated Polaroids. Every generated image is unique. This toy was inspired by the photo collages of the artist David Hockney.

Hockneyizer: Create a simulated collage from a single photograph

“Richards tech reviews” experienced some problems hosting his Picasa Library on an external drive. We have also discussed this matter previously

1. Be very careful when using Picasa with folders on drive letters that may have unavailable contents, or drive letters that may change

2. Be very careful when using Picasa with folders on a network drive

Richard’s Tech Reviews: Picasa, a network drive and the lost folders

You can now add Picasa to the list of iPhone (and presumably the iPod Touch)-optimized services that Google is rolling out the door of late.

Google Retools Picasa for iPhone Users | Epicenter from Wired.com