The Self-Confessed Geek

Real Geeks Don't Read Dwell

2012-02-23T11:57:00.002-08:00

Like a lot of geeks (but not all) I love good design. That I'm a sucker for well designed tech goes without saying; the iPad, the Fuji X100, La Clie Hard-drive Cases all float my boat. But outside of tech, Fender Stratocasters, Pininfarina cars and Eames furniture are also a turn on. I want to live a Jetson-esque house that Architectural Digest want to feature, to wit, I read a few interior design blogs for inspiration and also for the voyeuristic thrill of seeing how other people live.

Which is how I came to read this article: 10 Steps to a Home Office You'll Love. Let me give you the executive summary: hide all your tech and buy expensive, designer office furniture. In other words, if you're a geek, be ashamed, send your toys and action figures to Goodwill, and compromise what you need to work and create so that some architect wannabee in stupid glasses will approve of your work-space.

We take it as read that the iMac looks amazing in the Apple collateral when it is photographed in a staged office that is devoid of cables, peripherals, paper or anything personal. When we get it home, if you're anything more than the most casual of users, it doesn't look nearly as clinically clean once you get it connected to the network, and hooked up to a couple of backup drives, and connected to a second monitor, and your Wacom tablet. If you're a digital creative these things are not tech clutter you can just hide away; they are daily necessities you need to work.

When you dive deeper into digital multimedia creation there are other things you can't live without that are hard to sweep under the designer carpet. If you're into music creation (as I am) and you don't live in the elite world where you can afford to have a dedicated studio, there are mixers, microphones, keyboards, guitars and rack mounted effects. If you have to hide these things away in the closet after every session to maintain some zen ideal of what your work space should look like, the next time inspiration strikes, you face so much setup and breakdown time the barrier to starting creating is too high. If these things are setup and to-hand, when inspiration strikes it's a simple matter of flipping a few switches to get from the point of inspiration to getting that idea recorded.

Likewise, if you podcast or make videos and you don't have a dedicated studio, with all your equipment broken down in the garage how much more motivation do you need to create your next episode or masterpiece if there's all that setup to go through before you can even start to create?

Real geeks also need more than one computer. What are you going to do while your code is compiling or your video is rendering on your main work station if you don't have another machine to work on? Real geeks don't use laptops as their main workstations: laptops are great but we need the power and flexibility only a tower provides and when was the last time you saw a hulking tower workstation in any of the offices featured as role models on Apartment Therapy? For real geeks technology isn't static - we are constantly switching in and out hardware; cycling external hard drives; changing out network hardware; bringing a new laptop into the room for testing or review. Real geeks keep their cables tidy but accessible and that doesn't mean hog-tied to the back of a cabinet you can't get to without a flashlight, crawling on the floor and banging your head on furniture.

This is one geek who has had enough of trying to live up to some Hollywood interior designer's idea of what my work space should look like. To do so is to deny my geekness and inhibits the creative process. There are no action figures anywhere else in the house other than in my office. I still need some very uncool looking paper manuals to get some tasks done. I love my Nerf gun and I need a guitar close at hand to bang out some frustration on. I need the speed and reliability of a wired network and if the router and network switch are in the basement how can I read the status lights when something periodically goes wrong?

I'm tired of apologizing for my man-cave. We keep the rest of the house pretty grown-up and tidy so I'm going to put a sign on my office door: "Interior Designers: Keep Out!"

In Paise of the Cheap, Black, Plastic G-Shock

2012-02-20T14:44:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make: I used to be something of a watch snob. That's not so unusual for a guy as we only really get to wear one piece of 'jewelry'. I love mechanical, military style watches which are pretty understated and the opposite of hip-hop bling but the good, collectible ones can be pricey nonetheless. I have one or two nice watches that I like to wear for special occasions but even these ostensibly utilitarian timepieces require some care and maintenance. The most obvious issue is if they're not worn and/or wound regularly they don't even run. If they are not run regularly they tend to be less accurate and when they need to be restarted setting the time and date is a pain. There's nothing defines 'pointless' better than putting a watch on when you get up and looking at your wrist to see when the train is coming to find the hands haven't even started to move yet or it's obviously at least two hours off.

Watches I own don't cost thousands but they do cost hundreds which means I'm a little precious about them when I go to the gym or work on my car and, no matter how careful I am, they do occasionally collect scratches to their case or glass that no one but I will notice but it drives me crazy anyway. So what is the point of a watch you're afraid to wear and isn't as accurate as your cell phone anyway?

I do like to wear a watch. It feels natural to me when I want to know the time to refer to my wrist. I come from a generation where learning to tell the time and getting your first watch were rights of passage. I still remember every detail of my first watch, a child sized mechanical Timex I still have in the back of a drawer somewhere. I want to wear a watch but I want to bow out of the escalating horological arms race with my richer, more successful friends (I am the Miata to their 911s). I want it to work unconditionally, be cheap, unremarkable and tough. So, of course, there is only one choice; the G-Shock DW-5600E.

I'm not talking about the collectable original version with the screw-down back and the Keanu-Speed association. I'm talking about the current version that costs less the $40 on Amazon. The watch that G-Shock aficionados deride and no one else even notices you're wearing. The watch that was one of four timepieces approved to go into space on the wrists of Shuttle astronauts. The watch you can bash into the wall and the wall will come off worse. A watch you put on and forget and abuse and it just keeps on going and looking exactly the same. I'm not talking about any of the limited edition versions in 'look at me me!' primary colors, or with reversed faces that look cool put are impossible to read, or advanced features to charge themselves from the sun or automatically set themselves.

I'm talking about the cheapest G-Shock out there. The poor imitation (in collector's minds) and successor to the original G-Shock. The ultimate cheap, black plastic watch.

It's a watch that draws no attention to itself but if you look at it closely has a rugged, utilitarian charm. It is chunky and substantial without being heavy or cumbersome. Its recessed face is protected and intuitive to read. Its integrated strap is supremely comfortable. The recessed buttons are protected from accidental use but responsive enough to work with work-gloves on when you need to. Its one flashy feature is its back light which works just long enough for you to read the time without compromising the long battery life. When the time finally comes to replace the battery it is almost a shock to the system that this watch needs any attention at all but removing the back just needs a common jeweler's screwdriver not a specialized watch back opener and it is the work of a couple of minutes to do the job.

This watch is the antithesis of a fashion statement and so has a charm all of its own. There's a reason this watch is used and abused by astronauts, military personal, first responders, law enforcement etc. If you want to know what the toughest, most comfortable shoes are to wear all day are look at the feet of police people, nurses or chefs. They won't be the prettiest shoes but they will be practical to a fault. That should be the DW-5600E motto as well: practical to a fault.

So why have I wasted so many words not reviewing a product that doesn't require another review anyway? Let's just say I am a fan. In a world that can be expensive and complicated it is what is is - I usually hate that conversation-killing statement but it seems totally apropos for the DW-5600E. There is nothing ironic, or political, or elitist, or hipster-cool, or over-sized machismo about this watch. It's more watch than 99% of us will ever need for much less money than we deserve to pay.

So it bears repeating:

... it is what it is.

Taking Photos at Conferences

2012-02-14T15:48:00.000-08:00

You've been asked to take some pictures for the team's/company's blog/newsletter while you're at the conference. How do you come back with something actually usable?

How hard can it be?

If you were sent to the souks of Morocco with a half-decent camera, it wouldn't be hard to come back with a few fantastic shots. You'd have amazing light, fantastic colors, and exotic characters to work with. Conferences typically have none of these things -- the light is usually horribly unflattering and there is too little of it, and you're taking pictures of a lot of people in business suits milling around making presentations, and in meetings. It can be difficult to get enthused about the subject.

There's a reason I use stupidly heavy, expensive cameras and lenses for these photo shoots, but learning to use this equipment takes time. And who wants to lug around tens of pounds and thousands of dollars worth of camera gear, in addition to your laptop and other gear? So what is a road warrior to do, especially if you just want to use your iPhone or slim point-and-shoot?

There are a few things working in your favor:

Your shot will probably be displayed in a relatively small size -- perhaps just a thumbnail in a blog entry or a newsletter to try to make big blocks of text more visually interesting. Your shot is not going to be printed in a two-page magazine spread, so you don't need to sweat the small, technical stuff.

Secondly, today's cameras (even the one in your iPhone) are amazing pieces of technology. Compared to the cameras of 5 years ago, the way they handle low light and complicated lighting situations is almost miraculous.

Almost ...

1: Your Camera Doesn't Think. That's Your Job.

My first tip: Do not mistake all those technological features in your camera as intelligence. Your camera is not smart, however much its manufacturer may claim otherwise. Your camera does math really well. It guesses at settings based on what its sensors are telling it and how it is programmed, and this looks like intelligence within normal shooting parameters, such as your family vacation. But when you're inside a badly lit hall, that programming starts to fall apart. Your job is to do the thinking while your camera does the math.

This basically means that you shouldn't just rely on your camera to get everything right. When the exposure or color balance is off or looks horrible, you have to know why and be able to make compensations. Unfortunately, in taxing photographic situations such as a conference or meeting, you can't always rely on the dummy "P" mode. You're probably going to have to access some of your camera's more advanced features. When you chimp and see something wrong with the shot you just took, think about what the camera is not getting right and adjust accordingly.

Don't let this scare you off - you don't need a degree in photography to be able to do this. You just need a few more tips ...

2: Turn off your flash

This is one reason you have to get out of "Program" mode: your camera will "see'" the low light in any presentation room as too dark. It will turn on the flash -- which is, at best, useless and obtrusive and, at worst, ruins your shot. How will it ruin your shots? The flash is too "fashy" (I hope I'm not getting too technical here). You know those pictures you took at a birthday party with the flash on, where your subject's skin is bleached white and the background is monstrously black and dark? That's what flash does. It over-lights your subject and makes everything else black. This is the very definition of a snapshot, and while you might be able to get away with these kinds of shots on Facebook, they will make your newsletter look amateurish.

When I say your flash is useless, I mean it probably won't reach your subject. Your flash might look bright, but it is tiny, harsh and directional -- and it probably won't even reach more than 6 feet. Your iPhone with its LED flash probably doesn't even reach that far. You know when you go to a concert and see all those flashes going off in the audience? They're all a useless waste of batteries. You will never see a professional concert photographer using flash. Why? A flash powerful enough to reach their subject would be too heavy to hold. If it did reach the subject, it would annoy the performer and the audience, and the resulting picture would look like it was lit by daylight not the stage lights. Stage photographers use "available light" -- and you should, too.

There is a price to pay for using available light indoors, and that is "noise." Noise is the ugly grainy effect you see when you shoot in low light with the flash off. It is the result of your sensor working hard, and electronics amplifying a weak signal. But grain is far preferable to not getting the shot or taking a "flashy" deer-in-the-headlights picture. There is something we can do about noise in editing; we can't make it totally go away, but we can reduce its effects. Noise, however, is usually only noticeable if you look at a picture large - when it is printed or cropped small, it is hard to see.

3: Watch the light

Photography is all about light. When photographers look at the light, we look at two things: quantity and quality. Quantity is the amount of light available. Our eyes are amazing; we can walk from bright sunshine to a dark theater and they adjust almost instantaneously. Our cameras are not quite so flexible. Even though we can see clearly in both situations, that doesn't mean there is the same amount of light. Inside, there may be only 5% (or less) of the light available outside in the daylight.

Quality refers to how directional (or defused) the light is and its color. We usually can't do anything about the directionality of the light in a conference room, however, watch for strong back-lighting. For example, if your subject is standing in front of a projection screen, they are back-lit (the light coming from behind them is much stronger than the light falling on the front of them). You are unlikely to get anything more than a silhouette. What can you do about this? Move your feet and your shooting position. If you move to the side so the screen is not in your frame anymore, you should get better lighting for your subject.

Light has a color. Again, our eyes and brains automatically adjust for this, and your camera tries but interiors throw it off. Daylight is slightly blue. The light first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening is much warmer (the golden hours, in photog parlance). Interior light is often very orange, but that depends on the light source. Fluorescent strip lights look green, and don't get me started on the horrible sodium lights they use on my conference demo halls. It will help if you know how to set your camera's color balance manually, but again, there is a limited amount of color correction that we can make later. It is more important that you try to see like the camera and become more aware of the light.

4: Burst mode is not just for sports photographers

Most cameras have a burst or continuous mode that is packaged for sports pictures, however, it is really useful for conference shots, too. One of the main reasons a photograph is not acceptable technically is that it has a lack of sharpness. This isn't usually a result of the camera not focusing on the subject, but more often is because of movement in either the subject (motion-blur) or the camera (camera-shake). In low-light situations, your shutter speed is typically longer -- which means that there is a much greater chance of introducing camera-shake. When you press the shutter, don't hit it like a keyboard but squeeze it like a trigger. This reduces the amount you move the camera itself when you take the shot.

In burst mode, you typically take 3+ shots every time you press the shutter. The advantage of this is two-fold: first, even if the camera is moving in the first shot as you press the shutter, it will probably be more still in the second and third, so they will be sharper. The second advantage has to do with people's expressions as they talk. When people speak, their mouths move into unusual positions for a fraction of a second. We often do not appreciate that until that moment is frozen by a camera. As people talk, their expressions can look momentarily unflattering. Some people blink a lot when they speak. If you take a lot of shots at once, you have a much greater chance of getting a flattering, sharp shot with the subject's eyes open.

The professional photographer's biggest secret is that he/she shoots a lot more than any amateur. We don't ever take one shot -- we shoot and shoot and shoot some more. When we get back home, we sift through hundreds of shots for the best one or two, and the rest never see the light of day. If you only take one shot, the chances of it being a keeper may be 20:1 (10:1 if we're being generous). If you take 20 shots of the same thing, therefore, you are much more likely to get the shot you need.

5: Zoom with your feet - turn digital zoom off

In the quest to impress consumers with massive zoom magnification figures, manufactures sometimes bring "digital zoom" into the equation. Optical zoom is achieved through the physics of moving pieces of glass around. Digital zoom does little more than crop your image in-camera and boost the resolution of the resulting file. If, when you zoom in, your images look jaggy (another technical term) on sharp edges, the digital zoom may have kicked in. Go to your manual and find out how to turn digital zoom off. It's better to just to crop the image yourself when you get home than to let the camera do it.

If you're using your iPhone, all of your zoom is digital -- so don't use zoom.

It's much better to "zoom with your feet," that is, keep the camera lens at a wide angle setting and walk to a better shooting angle rather than shooting from the back of the room and zooming in. The longer your zoom, the greater the chance that you will introduce camera-shake. Try this: take a camera with a wide zoom setting, and at its widest setting, try to hold it still while framing a shot. You should be able to hold it pretty steady. Now try again at the longest (most zoomed-in setting). You should see that your frame doesn't remain as steady zoomed in. Zoom exaggerates camera movements and shake. Extreme zoom should be avoided, especially in low-light situations.

6: Watch your frame

Our eyes and mind, in combination, are selective and see what we want to see -- not necessarily what is actually there. A camera is not selective like that. It just represents what is put in front of it, so you should try to see like a camera. Try to be aware of where your subject is in relation to the edges of the frame. Fill the frame with your subject, especially if the image is to be displayed at a relatively small size. Remember to check your background. Keep horizon lines as level as you can. If the stage appears to be tilting at some crazy angle, it will throw your viewer off. Even a small tilt makes the viewer think things are slipping downhill. Keep an eye out for distracting elements such as glowing exit signs behind a presenter. By moving your camera position even an inch or two over, you may be able to block that distracting element with the subject.

Also look for things blocking your subject. A microphone on the lectern may provide a sense of place, but if it covers the speaker's mouth or an eye, it will be distracting. A microphone, auto-queue or even a speaker's papers can also throw off your camera's focus, so try to make sure your camera is locked on the speaker's face. If your camera has "Face Chaser" technology, turn it on. After you think you have the shot, review some shots on your camera's display to make sure what you caught looks something like what you saw and what you wanted to show.

7: Don't run out of juice

Your camera needs power and space on a memory card to work. If you are nursing a battery or editing yourself before you even take a shot because you are running out of space on your card, you are likely to miss the best shot. Have a fresh battery plus a spare with you when you begin every day. Also, buy a second or third memory card and keep it in your pocket. Remember, the biggest difference between pros and amateurs is that pros shoot much more - with enough power and card space, you can easily shoot like a pro. Don't cripple yourself by skimping on these accessories. Be prepared.

8: Learn to be selective and edit

Even though professionals shoot a lot of frames, they show only the best and they hide the rest away. Sifting through your pictures on your computer is a skill and a chore, but must be endured. You don't want to give your team every shot you took of a particular presenter -- you want to show them one or two of the best. If you show more, you dilute the impact of what you have and your "consumers" become spoiled by choice.

Sifting through your images generally goes in two or more passes. On the first pass, eliminate any pictures with technical issues. If something is even slightly out of focus, throw it away. If a shot's exposure is so far off that it is beyond saving, delete it. In the second pass, pick the potential shots to process and deliver. There is a lot of software out there to help you with this chore, from the free (Picasa, iPhoto), to the moderately priced (Photoshop Elements) to the professional (Lightroom, Aperture). Pick one and learn how to use it. None of them are difficult to use after a brief learning curve.

I can't teach you to edit in the space of a paragraph, but no professional delivers images raw out of their camera. There is always a tweak or two worth doing. It can be a little intimidating when you begin learning to edit, but operations usually fall in a few general areas:

Global adjustments that affect all pixels in an image like levels, exposure, color balance, saturation, etc.
Specific adjustments that change limited groups of pixels like cropping, cloning, perspective correction, etc.
Artistic adjustments such as converting to black & white, filters, etc.

Don't worry if this means nothing to you yet, but if you learn nothing more than how to crop and adjust your levels in your free, image-editing program, you will greatly increase the impact of your photos. Be warned: Learning how to edit pictures can become an addictive time-suck.

9: Don't say "cheese"

The way we've been taught to take photos is to jump in front of one or more people, tell them to say "cheese," watch them stiffly pose, and take the shot. This might work at the Thanksgiving dinner table, but it won't get you anything too interesting at the conference. There is a place for a quick, formal head-shot, but that's a different subject than general conference photography. What you want to tell the story is some establishing shots (the venue exteriors, crowds milling around, the demo grounds floor, conference banners, etc.) and then the narrative itself (presenters presenting, attendees attending, demo staff demo'ing).

Get a good position in the front row to take pictures of the presenter at work. He or she will be far too busy working the crowd to notice or worry about you taking pictures. As I've already mentioned, taking flattering pictures of someone talking is a challenge, so take lots of shots. You don't want shots of the person looking stiff behind the lectern either, so look for moments when the presenter becomes especially animated and uses his hands or even props to illustrate a point.

Once you've taken your shots of the presenter, get up and work the room a bit. Take wider shots of the presenter and the screen, wide shots of the filled room with the presenter up front, and detail shots of the rapt audience. Without being too creepy, try to be inconspicuous and catch people doing what they do. If you're not too up-in-their-face, they won't pay any attention to you. The larger the room, the easier this all is. In a more intimate environment, it is much harder to be inconspicuous. In this situation, you should still take lots of shots, but write off the first few minutes of shots until your subjects become used to you being there and taking photos. Once the novelty wears off, they will stop paying attention to you, and then you can get the better shots. In small-room presentations, look for those moments when the presenter and audience are interacting. In those moments, when people are enthusiastic and involved, they will totally forget about you -- and you will be able to get the most animated shots.

10: Have fun

We don't get too many opportunities to play while at work, but photography can be playful and fun. If you are just doing the minimum required to get a shot, your photos will reflect your attitude. Look for what interests you visually, and it will interest others. A presentation room maybe the most mundane of venues, but play a game with yourself to find the most visually interesting element in the room and feature it. Try taking a panorama of the whole room with an app on your iPhone. In your image editor software, try to make your best shots even better before delivering them. Use what you've made to illustrate your own reports, blog posts or other documents - illustrating those paragraphs of text makes them much more digestible.

Happy shooting!

Creative Commons Soundtracks: And Another 4 Weeks Worth

2011-09-16T17:19:00.000-07:00

My project to take the free 8Pack released by Sony each week, to turn it into something else and then release it under the creative commons licence continues. I'm still not confident enough to think that they can stand alone but if you need a clip of music to back some video then I think they work and I have fun making them:

Suck It Up by the other Martin Taylor
Just Sit Back and Chill by the other Martin Taylor
Jigzag by the other Martin Taylor
Go With It Again by the other Martin Taylor

In addition I've been messing around with NanoStudio on my iPhone some more. These couple of tracks were also made with the intention of using them in video work and they're released under the same creative commons licence:
Go To Sleep by the other Martin Taylor

The Return Trip Effect by the other Martin Taylor

Freesound: Give & Take

2011-08-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

If you're a filmmaker at any level from just starting out to an industry expert you know that, in the edit process you always find a few sound effects, foley or ambient noises that you're missing. If you've been in that situation you've probably been to freesound.org. Freesound is a constantly growing library of Creative Commons licensed sounds. If you're looking for something their search engine usually returns a few hits of sounds that might be useful and it is often quicker and much more convenient than digging out your field recording equipment and hunting down the sound for yourself.

That said, I'm sure lots of us have a few eclectic sound recording languishing on our hard drives that we recorded for one project or another. If you have something you're willing to share the process of uploading them is a little geeky (ftp) but they do have a web interface too and it is a simple way of uploading a bunch of files at once. You simply upload your files, then describe and tag them and then wait a couple of days for them to be approved. What's in it for you? What goes around comes around and what good are those files you're hoarding especially if you're not going to use them again. I just uploaded some of the sounds I've collected in recent months and it felt good to share. I hope other filmmakers will consider doing the same and freesound will become an even more comprehensive and useful resource for everyone.

Skullcandy Hesh Headphones: Refinish

2011-08-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

I have a slight headphone fetish. As I'm not encouraged to blast my music anymore I listen to music, write music, produce and edit video all while wearing headphone these days. I don't like in ear buds, I prefer big, over the ear headphones with my favorites being the chunky but beautifully solid and neutral Sennheiser HD 280's. As a result of this obsession I have several pairs of decent over the ear headphones lying around both at home and at work.

When I saw the Skullcandy Hesh Headphones in NBA Cavaliers Colors ridiculously cheap (they're usually $40-50) I couldn't resist. They had a built in iPhone microphone which I thought would be useful but I didn't like their paint job - I don't follow any American sport so I planned to refinish them.

This weekend I finally got chance to do that. Here's the process:

Disassembly:

Remove the earphone soft pads - they just pull off
Undo the 3 screws hidden under the ear pads
Separate the plastic holding the driver from the shell
Desolder the wires from the drivers (2 joints per driver) making a careful note of what goes were when we get back to reassembly.
Unscrew and remove the detail pieces in the shells (they were gold in my case).
Remove the connection cord from the left shell.
Carefully expand the c-brackets where the headband meets the shells and prize out the shells

Painting:

Using a fine sanding block, remove the existing paint from the exterior of both shells
Remove all dust then carefully spray paint the shells using several light coats
Let the paint cure at least for 24 hours
Using cutting compound, cut back the paint surface.
Polish the newly painted shell exteriors.

Assembly

Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
Take care when soldering wires back in place.
All plastic components are labeled Left or Right somewhere in their molding
Take care not to scratch your new paint surface when reattaching the shells to the headband.
Drivers can only fit back in the shells one way, with the plastic lump towards the bottom.
When refitting the soft pads you can persuade the vinyl edge back into the crack between the shell and drivers with a blunt knife blade.

To complete the de-badging I also unpicked the badges from the fabric covering the headband. There you have it; slightly less obnoxious Skull Candy Hesh headphone but how do they perform?

You can tell the market these headphones are aimed at (not me); the headphones are very bass heavy. But it's not just the the bass is over powering the mids and highs - the mids and highs seem to be completely missing. Construction wise the Hesh plastic is very creaky which does affect your listening experience if you move your head at all while wearing them. Ear seals are far from perfect so they don't exclude as much of the outside world as you think they should. A cheap pair of Senneiser HD 202 headphone's easily out performs the Heshes acoustically. The Hesh headphones don't sound that bad if you haven't just been wearing good quality headphones. I do keep them around specifically for use with the iPhone as the cable fits with the bumper in place, they have an inline microphone and they do sound better than the apple included earphones.

Creative Commons Soundtracks: Another 6 Weeks Worth

2011-07-29T07:57:00.000-07:00

I"m still continuing my project to take the free 8Pack released by Sony each week, to turn it into something else and then release it under the creative commons licence. As before, these pieces aren't meant to stand alone but be used in video or other media pieces for soundtracks, although I've yet to hear of anyone using them for that purpose but me. But even if I'm the only one using them they serve as a great learning opportunity - I'm now confident I can go in and make something appropriate for a scene in little time.

Ready? Set.... by the other Martin Taylor

Hot & Heavy by the other Martin Taylor

Backyard Siesta by the other Martin Taylor

Lose Changeling by the other Martin Taylor

Forbidden DMZ by the other Martin Taylor

Reabsorbing The Infinite by the other Martin Taylor

Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum: Render Error Still Occurs in v11

2011-07-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum. For the money (around $100) it is impossible to beat on the Windows platform. However, ever since I started using it 3 versions back it has been plagued by a bug that Sony are either unwilling, or unable to fix.

The problem occurs when you are trying to render HD video out above a certain, unknowable complexity on a 64 bit platform. The error you see when you're trying to render out (just before the application crashes) is "The system is low on memory. You may be able to reduce memory usage by closing other applications." I'm here to tell you it doesn't matter how many programs you close, once you hit the threshold and start seeing this error your video will not render. I am also here to tell you it is not an issue with the amount of memory you have in your machine (unless you have less than 3gb). I have 8gb memory in my Vista 64 bit desktop and 3gb in my Win 7 64 bit laptop and both were plagued by this issue trying to render the same project recently - the project had 6 video tracks and 8 audio, with effects on most clips and tracks but it was only three and a half minutes long.

First an introduction to some boring Windows fundamental architecture. 32bit versions of Windows can only use a maximum of 2gb of memory. 64bit versions are not restricted in the same way which is one reason geeks like 64bit systems. Unfortunately many consumer pieces of software are 32bit. Now, you can run a 32bit program on a 64bit version of Windows but it won't be able to use more than 2gb of memory itself. With me so far?

Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum is a 32bit program (Pro is 64bit) which runs well on 64 systems but has had this memory leak issue when rendering in all versions I can see to date. Basically the render process is using as much memory as it can get (2gb) but at some point it doesn't release a part of memory it has reserved - it then tries to get more memory and the crash occurs. Why Sony haven't fixed this issue is infuriating - I was sure they would have it done in version 11 but no; I installed the software and the bug was back.

Luckily for us there is a tried and tested way to address this issue that has been documented for previous versions of Movie Studio and this is my update to those instructions for v11.

Close Sony Vegas (if it hasn't already crashed on you.
Download and install CFF explorer from www.ntcore.com/exsuite.php.
Run CFFExplorer
File > Open "C:\Program Files (x86)\Sony\Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11.0\VegasMovieStudioPE110.exe
In the left plane of CFF Explorer click NT Headers > File Headers
Bottom right of the resulting grid will read "Click here" - click there
In the resulting dialog window check "App can handle > 2gb address space" and then click "OK"
File > Save As and save the file to a local directory (somewhere in your documents or desktop)
Close the file in CFF explorer
In Windows file explorer make a copy of the original file you just opened (this is so, if things go wrong, you can get back to where you were)
In file explorer move the file you saved in a local directory over the one in the installed directory: whenever you try to copy or move a file in the installed directory Windows will probably ask you exactly what you want to do to try and stop you corrupting installed applications - Click "Move and Replace" and then hit "continue" if it says you need to confirm your administrator privileges. This may seem long winded but you have to get around Windows security that is trying to stop you messing up your system.
Repeat the CFF edit for the following files:

VegasMovieStudioPE110.exe (you just did this one)
vegasmoviestudiope110k.dll
all dlls in the FileIO Plug-Ins dirrectory - in my installation this was:

ac3studioplug\ac3studioplug.dll
aifplug\aifplug.dll
atracplug\atracplug.dll
aviplug\aviplug.dll
compoundplug\

compoundplug.dll
mc_dec_aac.dll
mc_dec_avc.dll
mc_enc_mp2v.dll
sonyjvtd.dll
sonymvd2pro_xp.dll

fhgaacplug2\fhgaacplug2.dll
flacplug\flacplug.dll
gifplug\gifplug.dll
lpecplug\lpecplug.dll
mcmp4plug2

mc_dec_aac.dll
mc_dec_avc.dll
mc_enc_aac.dll
mc_enc_avc.dll
mcmp4plug2.dll

mcplug2

mc_config_mp2m.dll
mc_config_mp2v.dll
mc_config_mpa.dll
mc_dec_dd.dll
mc_dec_mp2v.dll
mc_dec_mpa.dll
mc_demux_mp2.dll
mc_demux_mp4.dll
mc_demux_mxf.dll
mc_enc_mp2sr.dll
mc_enc_mp2v.dll
mc_enc_mpa.dll
mc_enc_pcm.dll
mc_mfimport.dll
mc_mux_mp2.dll
mc_mux_mp4.dll
mc_mux_mxf.dll
mcplug2.dll

mp3plug2\mp3plug2.dll
mp4plug3

aacaenc.dll
mp4plug3.dll
savce.dll
sgcudme.dll
sgocldme.dll
sgpuclb.dll
sony4vem.dll

mvcplug

mvcplug.dll
sonyjvtd.dll

oggplug\oggplug.dll
qt7plug\qt7plug.dll
rm9plug

rm9plug.dll
pncrt.dll

sfpaplug\sfpaplug.dll
stl2plg\stl2plg.dll
swfplug\swfplug.dll
wavplug\wavplug.dll
wicplug\wicplug.dll
wmfplug4\wmfplug4.dll

This fixed the crashes while rendering for me and I hope it works for you but if you're not comfortable messing around with dll files please be careful - you could do more harm than good .If you can't see the dll files of the folders they are in you may need to make hidden files visible. All the dlls in the file IO directory that I listed may seem like overkill but I just wanted to never face this error again ... until the next time when Sony release v12 and I've forgotten all about this pain. Then again, Sony might actually get its act together and fix this issue for us ... fat chance :)

How 3D is spoiling 2D

2011-07-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend I saw the last Harry Potter twice: first in 2D and the next day in 3D. I am a fan but not that big of a fan but it was just a accident of circumstance that led me to see it twice in quick succession but it did allow me to compare the 3D and 2D prints while each was still fresh in my mind.

Quite a few critics are citing HP as an example of 3D done right. I'm not so sure. I know you're rolling your eyes and dismissing me as yet another 3D hater but hear me out as I think I've finally put my finger on what it is about the current 3D movies that doesn't work for me.

Harry Potter demonstrates the problems that still remain in state of the art 3D technology. I am not an expert in this technology so I can only report what I perceived through my own eyes. As I understand it, there are two ways of making a 3D movie: during production (with 3D cameras) or in post (on 2D source material). HP is the latter (except for one scene). Converting 2D source material to 3D is a big, labor-intensive industry. Artists go through by hand rotoscoping the elements in the frame which can then be set on different 3D planes. So, if you have a character in the foreground, another in the mid-distance and then the setting as the background you would separate the three elements so you can put one in front of the other, in front of the other. It does give an illusion of depth but, as far as I can see, it doesn't convey the subtitles of real world 3D.

In the real world there aren't just three 3D planes in the scene described above. The character in the foreground is 3D in his own right - his nose is closer to than his ear and the perspective between the two points is gradual. As a child did you ever make a 3D diorama peep box, or shadow box, or cardboard puppet theater? It seems to be the same principle. One thing is in front of another giving the illusion of 3D but each of those things is flat which ruins the illusion in a paper model and a multi-million dollar movie.

To my eye these flat 3D movie planes layered over each other actually look flatter than and normal 2D movie. When you're watching a normal movie you quickly forget that you're watching something flat and 2D. 3D is represented by depth of field, lighting changes and camera movements and by the viewers own, intrinsic, visual intelligence. In someways that is taken away from you in a 3D movie. The flat areas layered over each other look flatter because you're fighting to interpret the flat areas within a layered 3D environment. It's also hard to become unaware of this visual trick and once you see flaws you constantly get pulled out of the illusion as a result.

'So, why not just go and see it in 2D you Luddite?' I hear you ask. Well, because the emphasis is on 3D the 2D print suffers. What do I mean specifically? You seem to see some artifacts in 2D as a result of the 3D process. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 there was a specific scene that made this obvious to me. After Harry, Hermione and Ron have dropped into the lake off the dragon's back they are walking around a hilly area, getting warm and talking about what they are going to do next. When I saw the scene first in 2D something didn't feel right. It almost felt like they had been filmed separately from the background and green-screened in - like they were stuck on to the background rather than really being in it. If it was a still photo I was examining I would have said it was clumsy use of in PhotoShop - the kind of thing you see when someone hasn't used shallow depth of field when they took the shot but they have faked it after the fact by masking the subject and then blurring the background. You can always tell - there's something about the edge of the subject, a slight halo or something, and the background is too uniformly blurred. It's not how natural bokeh looks. Whatever the equivalent is in filmic terms, that's what I'm seeing and that's what I object to.

This all said, I loved the final movie and am very sad that the decade long journey is now over. I still give it two thumbs up in 3D or 2D but a lesser movie I might not feel so magnanimous towards. 3D is not an evolution from traditional 2D movies but an alternative to them. For the moment it is still a matter of personal preference but I'm still far too aware of the technology and process to get sucked into a 3D movie as easily as I can slip into the world of a traditional 'flat' movie.

You pays your money and makes your choice....

Editing Exercise: Vincent Laforet Edit Contest

2011-07-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

If, like me, you're relatively new to the world of film editing Vincent Laforet (yes, the person behind Reverie) and creativeLIVE have a great exercise and competition for you. It's the “Complete the Edit - Win Vincent Laforet's Redrock Kit” CreativeLIVE challenge. You download the takes you want created at a recent workshop Mr Laforet held - unfortunately, if like me, you're not a Vimeo pro user you have a limited number of downloads available per day so assembling the footage you want can be the longest part of the process. You then edit the clips into a finished piece and submit them to the vimeo group. You could win some great Redrock Kit but real benefit of entering is the exercise of piecing together an edit from someone else's footage (warts and all).

This is my first time editing anyone else’s footage but my own and was a lot of fun and very educational. It took a lot more time than I anticipated to even get a first assembly and then I spent even more time tweaking everything to get to a final cut (I've already re-uploaded my entry 4 times):

I edited it using Sony Creative Software Movie Studio HD Platinum 11($76 from Amazon) on a sub-$500 laptop. The score (little more than atmospheric sounds and a couple of string swells) was also created by me on Sony Acid Music Studio 8.0 ($36 from Amazon) and footage audio edited, augmented and sweetened using Audacity (free). Color adjustments and titles also done naitively within the consumer version on Sony Vegas. I’m hoping that the results from my budget/amateur system measures up to those with more professional suites - in an ideal world I hope that you don’t even notice I’m using consumer, cut-down versions of NLE and DAW software.

I purposely edited it in a linear way (no Memento tricks) in keeping with what I felt was the old-school, 50’s feel of the footage and script. In my imagination the man’s back story has to be that he is a gum-shoe detective getting his comeuppance. In keeping with this classic 50’s feel I edited the dialogue slightly to remove the overtly sexual lines and a couple of other phrases I personally felt weren’t in keeping with the scene. I’m not usually that prudish but I wanted the details of the affair more implied than stated.

I found myself spending as much time editing the audio as the visuals. From a visual stand point the footage is very clean but the audio took some work to normalize, and remove clothing, static and breath noises (probably from wireless lavs?) and the off camera dialog. Any unwanted noises I removed I then had to replace with room sound or Foley sounds from other footage which I did in Audacity. After I added the soundtrack you couldn't even hear the room noise anymore so this may have been wasted effort but it was a good exercise even so.

The only visual challenges I couldn't address included the hand grabbing the letter opener from the desk being very white compared to the lead actor but I wanted the footage to move from the desk to the door. Also, the clock at the beginning is an hour behind the clock at the end but again, I needed the footage so left it in and, hopefully, nobody will notice but me. Finally the reflections in the picture frame glass I just decided to live with.

This said, I am far from an expert so any constructive criticism is gratefully received. Seeing the other creative entries I doubt I will place but I feel like I already got a lot out of the exercise just by taking part. If you wanted to give it a try yourself the competition runs until 12th August, 2011 so you have lots of time to obsesses over every frame between now and then. Good luck.

Creative Commons Soundtracks: Even More Fun With 8Packs

2011-06-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

I'm still sticking to my resolution to take the free 8Pack released by Sony each week, to turn it into something else and then release it under the creative commons licence. As long as it's fun I'll keep doing it.

I am working on a simple video tutorial on using Sony Acid to score video. Hopefully that will be available before I post my next bunch of 8Pack pieces.

I hadn't realized that it has been over a month since I last posted anything here so here's the last 6 weeks:

Voiceless Glottal Plosive by the other Martin Taylor

Rerolled Credits by the other Martin Taylor

Carried Away Again by the other Martin Taylor

Extensions Extended by the other Martin Taylor

Solar ReCycled by the other Martin Taylor

Simulcast Expressions by the other Martin Taylor

Windows 7 Sound Issue: Unwanted Reverb Stuck On

2011-05-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

I had a strange problem with my little, Dell laptop (Inspiron 1318) the other day. I thought I'd put the issue and solution out there just in case anyone else encounters it. The issue was as if a reverb effect was stuck on.

I was about to work on a podcast that I edit in Audacity when I noticed that the source audio was dripping in reverb. If you have edited any audio yourself you'll know that you want the audio as dry as possible so that you can choose when and how to apply effects. At first I though the reverb had been added to source audio as it was recorded but then I noticed there was reverb applied to any audio I listened to - YouTube videos, MP3s in my music library, they all came through drenched in horrible reverb. Something was wrong with my machine.

The funny thing is that I wouldn't know how to add blanket reverb to all audio on my machine. I checked my audio driver from Dell and reinstalled it even through it was already up to date.That didn't make any difference.

To get rid of it I had to uninstall the audio driver and then reinstall it from scratch. To do this:

"Start" button and select "Computer"
Select "System properties" from the top menu bar of the "Computer" window
Select "Device Manager" from the left-hand "Control Panel Home"
Select "Sound, video, and game controllers" to show your audio device(s)
Select the audio device you are currently using then right-click and select "uninstall."
Reboot to complete the uninstall.
On startup, Windows will detect the sound card and re-install drivers.
It may require another reboot but your sound should now be clean

I hope this information is clear and useful to anyone else who encounters this weird problem.

Creative Commons Soundtracks: Fun With Acid

2011-05-06T12:58:00.000-07:00

I'm still really enjoying messing around in Sony Acid Music Studio. I claim to be a photographer and a videographer so there is often a stress to perform in those roles. I make no such claims to be a musician so nothing is expected of me and I can just play. Acid is like finger painting with sound and it takes no time to be able to create something out of nothing and isn't that the appeal for many creative activities?

I've continued to take the free 8Pack downloads each week and make something of my own out of them. Hopefully I'm not remaking the same piece over and over but I have noticed a signature in the way I work: I trawl through the loops until I find one that really appeals to me , usually a drone, or percussive sound (but not full drum loop) that I can use as the backbone of the piece and build everything else around. Perhaps I should challenge myself to write something that does not have one loop that runs through almost the whole thing? As that one constant is what holds everything else together in my head that may be tricky for me but I'll give it a go.

Tales To Be Retold by the other Martin Taylor

Duality Reexamined by the other Martin Taylor

Even More Dynamic Low Z by the other Martin Taylor

I've also entered a couple of challenges; the first Soundcloud Soundbites challenge:

Sound Bites: Soundtrack for Train, Utility Poles & a Sunset by the other Martin Taylor

and Frequent Traveller's East Croydon Remix Competition:

East Croydon Taylor-made Remix by the other Martin Taylor

Again, there's something very low-stress about entering a competition and putting your work out there in a field in which you're an absolute beginner. By contrast, I have started assembling my entry for the next Blurb Photography Now book contest. Last time I poured days of time and effort into my entry just to be ignored and it destroyed me. It's taken me two years to recover the strength to consider putting myself through that again. Ignoring my music is fine because that is just messing around - I'm serious about my photography through; if I put my photography work out there and it get's dissed or ignored it's a whole other ball of wax.

Creative Commons Soundtracks: 8 Pack Remix

2011-04-11T17:15:00.000-07:00

If you happen to be in to Sony Acid Music Studio (or Pro) you'll know what the 8-Packs are. For the rest of the world the 8-Packs downloads are a song and all the source loops required to created that piece that Sony releases to the world, generally each week. You have one week to download the current 8-Pack and then it's gone forever. With the help of my handy RSS reader I've been religiously downloading the 8-Packs for a year ot more. The loops they contain are valuable. Deconstruction the songs is inspiring. The fact that it's all free, Royalty-free music that you can customize easily yourself makes them invaluable.

However, I've recently been thinking that I should be doing more with each 8-Pack than downloading it to my Acid resource repository on my PC, rendering out an MP3 and then forgetting about it. I should take advantage of these little collections of loops and see what I can come up with using them as opposed to the 'official' song that comes with them. I've done this for the past 2 weeks and I'll try to keep doing it for the next 50. It's a great way to learn how to score for your own movies - even if what I come up with is not as good as what a real musician would make at least I'm learning the techniques and language and that has to be worth something doesn't it?

I've looked around and I'm surprised that no one else is doing this but here are my first two efforts. In the future I'll post a month's worth at once. Of course, if you want to use anything they're all available under the creative commons licence from SoundCloud.

Post-Apocalypse Revisited by the other Martin Taylor

They Rise Again ... Again by the other Martin Taylor

Creative Commons Soundtracks: Part 3

2011-04-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

I am having trouble finding much in the way of tutorials for Sony Music Studio. Not that there's a lot out there for the pro version either and what little there is largely works in the consumer version too. Luckily, if you're a Vegas user already, Acid is very intuitive but I thought there'd be a huge fan base especially among semi-musically literate film makers looking for royalty free scores they have control over. I'm still only playing with the looping part of the program but I am trying to find a midi controller keyboard on Craigslist to start playing with that third of the program and I'll look at the audio recording part of the program too. Until then here are my latest creative commons efforts:

Saturday Morning Drive by the other Martin Taylor

Nothin' to be Blue About (Acoustic Blues In E) by the other Martin Taylor

Creative Commons Soundtracks: Part 2

2011-03-24T15:59:00.000-07:00

I try to lead a creative life; as much as I can fit in around the wage-slave mundanity of the 9-to-5. Part of that is I allow myself to play and dabble in as many fields as I want. I know the cliche "Jack of all trades, master of none" may apply to me but I do consider myself a reasonable accomplished photographer. The danger of mastering a craft is feeling stale. I can knock out pictures of a reasonable standard but I've lost a little of that wonder and magic I felt when I first saw a print fading out of the ether in a developing tray, or when I first realized what I could do with my first digital camera and an early version of PhotoShop.

It's a feeling I've rediscovered playing at making soundtrack music. The last time I recorded something was on cassette on a hissy 4-track. Like all arts and crafts, technology has changed all that and lowered the bar to entrance and participation. Instead of having to patch a load of things together with midi cables and bounce down tracks I can now just mess around for a few minutes here and there on my laptop. I'm sure what I'm coming up with is the equivalent of those first Photoshopped pictures I made: cliqued, over-saturated, over-sharpened, amateurish messes but I am having as much fun as a kid with finger paints. And to get past those musical, amateurish messes I first have to make them. Lucky you can even hear my fumblings thanks to SoundCloud which seems to be to music what Flickr is to photography. Just like a newbie on Flickr I am lost in the crowd on SoundCloud and am having a hard time working out how to separate the wheat from the chaff but the novelty is still working in my favor.

Deep Dive Drift by the other Martin Taylor

Wednesday Loopy Blues by the other Martin Taylor

Creative Commons Soundtracks: Theme for the Digerati

2011-03-18T12:21:00.000-07:00

Theme for the Digerati (v2) by Martin Taylor
I'm not much of a musician but, like many filmmakers and other content creators, I do sometimes create a soundtrack when I need something specific and I can't find what I need with a creative commons licence (I never use music without having the licence even for the smallest job). It feels a little hypocritical to always be taking others creative work in this field but never putting anything in the pot myself. So, for what it's worth, heres a little something I came up with for the background of a technology video.

Here's an older theme I created for a short architectural rendering video:
WFH Cottage Theme by Martin Taylor

Finally, a short orchestral theme I created with Sony ACID Music Studio just to see if I could create something traditional for a soundtrack if I need to:
Theme For An Imaginary Prairie by Martin Taylor
I might not be a musician but I still like to mess around with my guitars, Sony ACID Music Studio and various iPhone apps.

Using The DIY Mini-Rail Dolly

2011-03-14T11:58:00.001-07:00

Last time I described how I made a mini-rail dolly. I finally found a little time to take it out into the backyard and try using it. Here's the result followed by a few tips and tricks for using it:

Backyard DIY Mini-Dolly Test a video by the other Martin Taylor on Flickr.

I couldn't find any real instructions on using a slider so here is what I learned after using my home-brew device once (there should be more authoritative voices than mine out there but I can't find them):

Have a planned start and stop point for your move and pre-focus accordingly.
If you're rolling into a focus point pre-focus with your camera in the final location and use a finger to mark where that position is on the rails - your finger makers a pretty soft stop point.
Don't use the end buffer of the rails as your stop point - the way the camera stops is too sudden.
Give yourself 5 seconds with the camera still at both the start and end points of your move to give yourself more options when you come to edit.
Start the movement slowly and end slowly - avoid sudden acceleration and braking.
Don't move the camera too quickly - you want to induce a feeling of sophistication not motion sickness.
It's really hard to move the camera consistently at a very slow speed.
Pulling focus on a DSLR while rolling is very hard - avoid if at all possible.
When you're trying to get a smooth move you can hold the sled or head but it seemed to work best for me if I held the camera itself.
Objects must be close or mid-distance to work effectively with small movements of 5ft and less
Keep your tracks, horizon and horizontal lines level - shim the tracks to achieve this and make sure they don't rock part way through the move as the center of gravity changes.

Again, these are just my personal findings. If you know better I'd love to hear from you.

DIY Mini-Rail Dolly

2011-03-02T16:38:00.000-08:00

Finished truck sitting on rails

As more and more people get into video the number one accessory they seem to want after a shoulder rig is a slider. A slider allows short trucking camera movements. Commercial sliders run the gamut in price (from several hundred to several thousand) and design. A slider usually has a captive body that you mount a tripod head to. The body runs on a track on mechanical bearings or some low friction material. The tracks seem to run anywhere from 2 to 5 feet and can mount on a tripod themselves or some have feet that allow you to lay the slider on the ground for a low profile shot, or rest it on a convenient table or counter top.

Sliders are popular because camera motions are shorthand for high production values but, because a slider unit is self-contained, setup times are significantly less than a full size camera dolly on rails. Not to be out done I wanted to be able to achieve these kind of shots sometimes but my need wasn't severe enough to justify commercial prices so I went into CAD and then to my toolbox to come up with the following.

This is less a slider than a scaled down version of a floor mounted dolly and rails system. The truck isn't captive so, unlike a slider, you can lift it off the rails. This makes it easy to transport and also allows you to create many different rails configurations for different situations that can utilize a single truck; the following tutorial offers one rail design but you can easily make longer rail systems that this truck can run on.

Exploded design view

My design requirements were as follows:

to be cheap
to accomplish perfectly smooth camera movements silently
to be easy to construct with the minimum of tools
to be light and compact enough to be transported in my tiny car without having to put the roof down (I have a MX5 / Miata)
to be strong and reliable.

Total cost of materials was $50 and consists of the following:

PVC & Lumber (actual lumber dimensions are smaller than quoted eg. what is called 1" thick actually measures 0.75"):

6"x1" plank ($5)
2"x1" plank ($1)
1.5" (inside measurement) PVC pipe length ($5)

Hardware:

8 x Rollerblade wheels with bearings and spacers ($25 from Amazon)
4 x 5/16", 3" long screws for axles
4 x 5/16", 1.5" long screws for bottom guide wheels
8 x 5/16" washers
8 x 5/16" T-nuts for wheels
3/8" and 1/4" T-nuts for tripod head mount
3/8" and 1/4" screws for tripod head mount
Box of 1.25" wood screws (for track construction)

Consumables:

Wood glue
Nails
Paint or stain for finishing
Wood filler
Sanding sheets

Tools required:

Miter saw (miter box optional) or power saw that can accomplish same
Drill & bits (preferably powered)
Hammer
Screw driver
Pencil & square edge to measure and mark cuts
Sanding pad or electrical sander that can accomplish the same.
Hacksaw and file or Dremel

Walk Through:
Construction of the truck:

Cut 2 x 9" lengths from your 6x1" board. Cut 4 x 5.5" lengths from your 2x1" lumber Glue and pin together as shown in the illustration Clamp and set aside.
Cut 4 x 1.5" lengths from your 2x1" lumber to use as the axle blocks Glue and pin to the truck body as shown in the illustration
When solid drill 3" long holes in the center of each axle block - they should be deep enough that they can accept the remaining threads of the axle bolts when they have the skate wheels in place. Widen the entrance of these holes to accept the t-nuts Press or hammer t-nuts into place for the axles.
Mount the 4 main wheels: each has a long bolt, drop on the wheel, then a washer then screw into place - the wheel should be able to spin freely. Using a pipe as your guide estimate where the guide wheels need to be on the bottom of the truck body so that the main wheels run on the top of the tube and the guide wheels keep the truck running true. As you did for the main axles, drill holes for the shorter guide wheel axles, fit t-nuts and mount the guide wheels in place. Find and mark the center of the top of the truck body. This is where you will mount a t-nut of the correct thread (1/4" or 3/8") that your tripod head will mount to. You can see that I put both sizes of t-nuts on my truck so I can mount any tripod head on it. You can do the same or chose the thread you most commonly use. You can also use the smaller 1/4" screw with an adapter to scale it up to 3/8" when required. Mount the t-nut(s) as required. Take a 1/4" or 3/8" bolt appropriate for the t-nut(s) you just fitted and the tripod head you want to use. With a Dremel cut off wheel remove the bolt head. File your cut smooth so that it will easily mount in your t-nut and the base of your tripod head. You can cut a slot in one end of the screw to allow a flat screw driver to get purchase of your headless bolt if required.

Construction of the rails:

Take your PVC pipe and cut it exactly in the middle to make two identical rails. Cut 3 x 10.75" sleepers from your 6x1" board. Cut 4 x 10.75" sleepers from your 2x1" board.
Use your completed truck to accurately space your rails. It is important that your rails the right distance apart for your wheels and absolutely parallel. Using your assembled truck to space the rails will ensure you get this bit right. Mount the center 6" wide sleeper to your rails first. At the center of both rails, using the truck to accurately space the rails, drill a pilot hole and screw the sleeper to both rails - use 2 screws each side. A wood screw should cut into the PVC pipe as well through the wood with ease. It helps to have a extra pair of hands when you're trying to hold the rails the right distance apart and drill and mount the sleepers at the same time. Mount the two other 6" wide sleepers about a third of the way down each rail in the same way, again using the truck to ensure the rails remain the right distance apart, screw the sleepers into place.
Mount 2 of your narrow sleepers between the 3 wide sleepers - these only need to be mounted with 1 screw per side. Flip the rails over and mount the 2 remaining narrow sleepers at the very end of the top of your rails. These sleepers not only add strength and rigidity to your rail component but they act as a buffer so that your truck with your precious camera on it won't fall off the ends of the rails and crash to the floor

Testing and finishing:

Mount a tripod head to your truck with the headless bolt you made.
Put a camera on the tripod head.
Put your rails on the floor with the sleepers on the bottom
Put the truck on the rails and check that the truck runs freely and smoothly on the rails.
If everything works well you can take the tripod head and wheels off your truck and sand and paint it if you want. Everyone seems to like the truck better when it's painted black even though it has little real practical purpose.

You're done and ready to roll! Next time I'll post some demo footage and write some tips on using this system.

Truck with wheels removed, ready for paint

Bare truck body

If you're a SketchUp geek you can download and explore my construction model for this design.

Deciphering Craigslist Creative/Crew Ads

2011-02-22T00:08:00.000-08:00

I've been trawling through the Creative and Crew Ads on Craigslist for the last couple of months trying to get attached to a cool project. Even though I'll work for free for a project I believe in the signal to noise ratio is massive. I'm starting to understand how to filter out some of that noise; if you're in the same boat here's how I've learnt to translate the various ads so far:

Producer wanted = need someone to get money for us
Good for student, recent grad or enthusiast = you won't get paid
Credit & copy = you won't get paid
We don't have much of a budget but this gig could lead to more lucrative work = you get paid now or in future
Wanted: camera operator with own gear = director/DP just found out how much camera package rental is and think they can get both you and your gear for next to, or absolutely, nothing
Wanted, editor to complete this project: 75% complete = we thought we could do it ourselves with a pirated copy of FCP but we've messed it up so bad we'll never get it done
Ground floor opportunity = you won't get paid
High profile festival potential = we're submitting it to Sundance along with 25,000 others - they'll accept it right?
Will be a great addition to your portfolio = you won't get paid
Deferred Payment = you won't get paid
Simple gig, 30 minutes tops = we'll pay you for 30 minutes work, not your traveling time, prep-time, setup time, break down time, waiting around time - pencil in the day, here's your $30 - now you will be editing that for us won't you?
Experienced director = I've read The Idiot's Guide and watched Extras

Your mileage may vary but I've sent out countless emails, for which I've only received a handful of replies, none of which have led anywhere. Bitter much? Yes sir, I am.

Hulu Resources for Filmmakers

2011-02-16T14:53:00.000-08:00

If you've been paying attention this week you can't help but have noticed the hullabaloo about the Criterion Collection abandoning Netflix and moving to Hulu. As a subscriber to both Netflix on demand and Hulu Plus the only difference to me is the portal I use to get to this great resource. If you're not a Hulu Plus subscriber but you are a movie lover, the Criterion might be a good impetus to subscribe for a couple of months. If you're a filmmaker you don't even have to subscribe to Hulu to get a little education and entertainment - mostly not as high-brow as Criterion's movies but fun none-the-less. If there's nothing on TV here are a few suggestions from Hulu and, if you're a film student either in a real school of through your own invention, you can even count this as studying:

Edit Your Own Damn Movie - directors talking about directing - not especially deep but very entertaining
American Grindhouse - a history of american exploitation film
RiP! A Remix Manifesto - the complexities of intellectual property in the era of peer-to-peer file sharing
Blood, Boobs And Beast - story of Don Dohler, whose movies have been called everything from oddly brilliant to some of the worst films of all time
Bergman Island - Ingmar Bergman discusses his work, his fears, his regrets, and his ongoing artistic passion (Hulu Plus only)
Touch The Sound - challenges the way we think about sound
Poultry In Motion: Truth Is Stranger Than Chicken - hilarious documentary that follows cult director Lloyd Kaufman as he tries to make a feature with no money
Dreams on Spec - screenwriters talk about breaking in to screenwriting

DIY Photography: Ikea Macro Lighting

2011-02-14T11:44:00.000-08:00

I was in Ikea the other day when I stumbled across the JANSJÖ desk light for a laughably cheap $10. Sometimes Ikea's pricing is just weird: this version of the lamp is $10 but the same lamp with a clamp base, or a wall mount instead of a weighted one is $30. It's basically the same light for a third of the price.

Once I got over the bargain price I realized how useful the Jansjo might me for table top studio photography. The Jansjo is a 4watt LED bulb at the end of a very long, thin goose neck. It produces a very clean, focused light source while remaining relatively cool. We think of LEDs being a very efficient, cold light source but when one is producing this much light there is some heat loss and, although to can comfortably take hold of the lamp and position it even when it has been lit for some time, it is warm to the touch.

In my table top photography I've found that it is a relatively simple matter to light that high-key, floating on white look. Basically, you stick the item in a softbox and then flood it with light and you end up with something like this:

Example of flat white light in a softbox

If you want something a little more controlled to bring out modelling in your subject you need to be able to control the position, direction and relative strength of your light sources. The Jansjo lights are perfect for playing with this kind of setup. Not are they cheap but their long, thin goose-neck supports and heavy bases make them simple to position and adjust. The next picture is a similar subject to the previous soft box shot but this time I used 3 point lighting for the subject and a couple of broader lights for the background:

Example of directional light from the Ikea LED lights

Ikea Jansjo lights being used to create
the above action figure portrait

Both kinds of lighting setups have their place but the little Jansjos are now a favorite of mine for macro and table top photography. During the work week the 4 lights I have have the life of standard task lights on my desk but some evenings and weekends they can quickly be re-purposed for use in my desk top studio. Just remember to manually set your white balance with these lights - they're a little warmer than you might expect.

Highly recommended

Sketchup WIP: Valley Forge

2011-02-09T10:23:00.001-08:00

I love Sketchup and am an unpaid evangelist for Google's free, 3D, conceptual design tool. I do, however, get bored of seeing the same old subjects: houses, kitchens, Google Earth buildings - Sketchup has the potential to be a much more creative tool than that. Marry my love of Sketchup with my love of models and props from Sci-Fi movies and you get something like this.

This is a model of the Valley Forge spaceship from the 70's movie, Silent Running. I've been working on and off on this model for years: for many months I won't touch it and then I'll spend a couple of days trying to make headway. This weekend I pushed on trying to make some progress by adding the main living section and the fuel pods at the back. It's still nowhere near finished but I couldn't wait to show it off.

There's something amazingly satisfying about creating something from nothing even if that something is just virtual. Once it's finished I'll post it to the 3D Warehouse where I hope it will remain the most accurate rendition of this ship available. By now you should know how geeky I really am - this is just another side to my nerdom.

Pocket Cinema: Is That a Movie Studio in Your Pocket or Are You Just Pleased to See Me?

2011-02-02T10:55:00.000-08:00

The promise of the HDSLR is the democratization of video and film making. The idea that, that new DSLR you just bought for stills can make amazing HD video files so why don't you just start making a movie?

The reality is, before you begin you need to buy a new tripod and head, rail system, matte box, follow focus, video monitor, viewfinder, shoulder mount, sound recorder, microphones, lights, computer and software if you want to take it seriously. And that's just the gear: there are new technical skills to learn and you can't man all that gear yourself so you need help, plus you need something to work on worthy of all that expense and hassle and suddenly that promise of anyone being able to make a movie get's paralyzed by the work and expense involved.

Which is why I was inspired when a friend suggested I listen to a BBC radio program on Pocket Cinema. Sadly the show isn't available for you to listen to anymore but the nub of the show is what creative filmmaking people are achieving with the the most modest of gear; a Flip or their cell phone or, at the very most, a consumer camcorder. Little in the way of crew or gear or hassle - filmmaking in its loosest, cheapest most accessible form.

Visiting the French Pocket Film Festival mentioned in the BBC Radio piece shows a diverse representation of what Pocket Cinema is. Viewing the prize winners, Pocket Films are pretty avant-garde but I wouldn't expect any less from the French. A couple worth viewing as a taster are Turbo 2008, Home and Much Ado but you can loose a lot of time exploring the entries. This led me to The Disposable Film Festival for an American point of view. Again, exploring the entries and winners is inspiring and redefines what filmmaking is.

It's hard to be inconspicuous
carrying all this gear

We live in interesting times. Blockbusters cost more than ever to make. More 'films' than ever are being made as the cost of making an indie comes down. The opportunities to make a living making film or video are fewer and harder than ever to break in to. We watch fewer movies in a theater, we watch less live TV but we spend more screen time than ever before. Video on demand is almost ready for prime time. We can watch more stuff for free. We watch 'movies' on our phones although the average maximum time anyone one can concentrate on a phone movie is 9 minutes. The short of it is, times for low/no budget filmmakers are changing at a rapid pace.

We've had the best camera is the one that's with you movement for stills so why not have the same thing for filmmaking? Looking at all those pocket film festival entries you see people not waiting for creative or practical permission to make movies. You see creative people making art, narrative and documentary movies with the closest tool to hand: their cell phone. A device so ubiquitous than no one will blink an eye if you take it out and start shooting footage. This was the promise of the HDSLR but, in my experience, even the lightest run and gun HDSLR rig attracts all sorts of attention when you take it out in public.

It is liberating not to have to consider exposure, white balance or even pulling focus - the iPhone won't let to adjust any of those things so you can just get down to the business of capturing footage. That's not to say that you should forget all you have learned, you just need to apply it differently. Just because it's acell phone doesn't mean that footage has to be shaky and badly framed. In fact, the easiest way to make your pocket film footage stand out is to use some support. Mounting you iPhone on a massive fluid head may be over kill but a cheap tabletop tripod for locked down shots is useful and you can use it as a handle when you're moving around so that you don't have to hold your iPhone in the double finger pinch grip.

I'm inspired enough to start shooting more video with my iPhone. If that results in something that's great but if it doesn't I have lost nothing. I already have the iPhone with me so why not use it? I can only learn more by doing even if I don't have permission from anyone yet to call myself a filmmaker.

Impressions of the Syma S206, Mini-3 Channel, IR Helicopter

2011-01-26T11:34:00.000-08:00

By the time it arrived direct from China I'd almost forgotten that I'd ordered the little Chinook Helicopter from eBay for $25 shipped. It took 21 days from purchase to arrival so was it worth the wait?

Syma S206 Nose In

It certainly had some big shoes to full as I love my little S107: it is so maneuverable, fun and easy to fly as well as being virtually indestructible and easy to repair when you do eventually snap something. The S206 is a very different animal despite being another coaxial IR helicopter from Syma. I was expecting them to share more components than they do; they do share the same charging mechanism and battery and a couple of components in the rotor-heads and the controller is similar but beyond that parts look unique.

The S206 is a vaguely to scale Chinook transport helicopter with double rotors - a similar configuration to the real CH-47. Compared to the S107 the S206's fly bar and rotor blades are shorter but work in the same way with two motors per head providing lift and directional control. Two sets of blades makes the S206 handle very differently than the S107: I don't feel like I have such precise control of the S206 but it is very stable and easy to hover. It doesn't feel as nimble but it seems to be able to move forward quicker but this may be a symptom of the way I have the S206 trimmed. The S206 controller has two buttons as well as the rotary trim. The two 'inch trim' buttons allow you to set up the amount of forward or reverse momentum the S206 has at center stick. Of course, I have mine set up to be moving forward at center stick so I can have lots of forward momentum but this means that you have to apply reverse stick to get this helicopter to hover and you need to apply reverse stick as you lift off or the S206's ground effect will cause it to shoot forward into the wall.

The S206 is a little twitchy: you can have your hands off the directional control and sometimes it hovers perfectly - at other times it seems to get caught in a spin. This may be a result of the specific model I have - the non 'G'. The G version may be more modern and have a more sophisticated gyroscope to keep things neutral. My version with the smoked cockpit glass and mains charger may be a little more agricultural in its handling but it is still a lot of fun.

Syma S206 backed my Helicopter flight-helmet

The way the S206 turns is very different to the S107. The S107 turns on a dime pivoting exactly around the drive shaft: with two drive shafts in play the S206 pivots less quickly somewhere around the middle of the fuselage. As usual with these 3 channel coaxial helicopters the S206 wants to turn faster to the right than to the left.

Because my S206 came direct from China the mains charger supplied did not fit in a standard US wall socket without an adapter (the price of saving a couple of bucks). Those that appear to know more than me about battery charging technology claim that the mains charger is a little brutish on batteries. Unfortunately, the mains charger that comes with the S206 is the only means to charge it: unlike the S107 the S206 controller does not have a charging cable. Luckily the USB cable that comes with the S107 works perfectly well on the S206. Flying and charging times are as advertised; 8 minutes flying time and about 30 minutes to charge.

From an aesthetics stand point the fuselage detail is fun although decals of rivets around the around the porthole windows and and the silver of the turbine engines is a little silly and unsubtle. It feels solid, maybe even a little heavy which may account for its performance; as the battery falls from full charge it takes more and more throttle to get it to lift and in the end it struggles to get off the deck at all. My only concern with strength are the wheels that look flimsily but are they taking the knocks although I try to avoid the kind of heavy landings I know the S107 would take in its stride. As the fuselage acts as a kind of soundbox the S206 sounds a little plastic when compared to S107, not that that means anything.

If the S107 is the cheap Miata roadster of the Syma line the S206 is the little import pickup. If you already have the S107 and you want something similar but a different flavor the S206 is a lot of fun and at $25 it's terrific value.

The Plastic Fantastic HDSLR Shoulder Support

2011-01-24T10:57:00.000-08:00

Trying to work out what goes where
here you can see the position of the Zoom H4

Let's take it as read that the DSLR used for making HD video is a beautiful but flawed compromise. This statement is true of almost every aspect of the format but nowhere more so than the form factor which is especially obvious when you take the camera off your tripod and try to hand hold it. For taking stills it is perfect but when taking video without the optical viewfinder available it is clunky and awkward. So an exclusive cottage industry has been built around the idea of making your HDSLR feel more like a real, movie camera.

If you have an unlimited budget there are some beautifully engineered rod and rails camera systems out there. Industry professionals may be able to justify a shoulder support that costs as much as their camera, it may even seem cheap to them, but to the rest of us working stiffs, it is an expense that is hard to justify. So, like many other enthusiasts, I was excited when the Adorama Shoulder Support surfaced for $45. If I'd waited I would have been able to get the same thing for about $10 less from Cowboy Studios but even on my meager budget this accessory was more than worth taking a chance on. When it arrived about a year ago I played with it a bit but it has taken me many months of occasional messing around to get to the point where I'm happy with this rig.

How I configured the cheap shoulder support for run and gun, one man shooting.

Here are the components I used, less the sound and camera gear of course:

Shoulder support $36
Giottos MH-621 Quick Release (optional but makes life much easier) $35
2x Pedco UltraPod II table top tripods (2x $18) $36
Flash bracket (something like this) $12
Foam pipe insulation off-cuts (free)
Mini ball-head (optional) $13
2 1/2" 1/4" screw 25c

Total $132.25

Hopefully the picture clearly shows how I assembled these components but, to summarize I attached the straight flash bracket and the shoulder mount included camera platform directly to the shoulder mount using a hardware screw. This makes the thing difficult to break down without a screw driver but what kind of geek travels without their Leatherman anyway? It also makes the contraption more solid and is necessary as the included finger screw will not reach through two accessories at once as I required. I then used the included offset to raise the camera up to eye level; if you're using the battery pack this component is not required. On top of that I put the quick release bracket. When I'm assembling this to use, the camera is the last component I put in place and the first I remove as the whole thing is a little unwieldy and difficult to put down. The quick release plate is also compatible with my video tripod which makes switching from shoulder mount to tripod a quick process. By taking your time and adjusting the angle of the offset and quick release plate and the forward and back movements of the release plate in the clamp it is possible to get the camera viewfinder in a really comfortable and natural position for filming. Take time over this and tweak it when necessary to prevent fatigue.

On the far right side (when you're wearing it) of the support I put a mini ball head I already had to which I can fit my Zoom H4 audio recorder. The ball head allows me to tilt the H4 into such a position that I can see the display while filming so that I can be sure I'm really recording sound and am not just on standby. From the line out on the H4, to the 5D mic in I use the Pink Noise cable to step down the signal level. From the headphone out I always have my cheap but wonderful Sennheiser HD 202 headphones - you should always be monitoring the sound you're recording to avoid any nasty surprises when you get back to edit your footage. When I'm using this shoulder mount I usually use the Rode Video microphone fed into the Zoom H4 although I can also use the Zoom's built in microphones when I need a stereo recording or wired Lavs or a hand held microphone if we're not moving around too much and are doing interview type footage.

The 'handles' are actually Pedco UltraPod II table top tripods which have a strong ball head which allows you to lock the handles in any position you want. They're not as strong as dedicate solid handles but they work and, like most of the components I used, they can be used for other things when you break the rig down. I slipped some offcuts of pipe insulation foam over them to make them more comfortable but, as most of the weight is taken on your shoulder and rib cage they are not used as much to support the rig as to balance it.

The only other tips I can think of are, if you leave your camera strap on, like I do, hook it through the shoulder rig when you mount the camera so it doesn't flop around and get in the way of fall into frame. I also removed the included pin and rings for the shoulder mount strap - I found that using it hindered more than it helped when moving around and trying to keep things steady.

I also urge you not to blindly copy my setup but to experiment for yourself to find what works best for you. You should also practice using this rig and capturing test footage long before using it in anger. There's a lot to think about in HDSLR video capture and wearing the camera on your shoulder adds a whole extra level of complexity and it takes time to get comfortable with it.

Antec 300 Review

2011-01-05T07:39:00.000-08:00

Everything in place with plenty of room to breath

The last time I modded a PC case blue LEDs were new and expensive; rounded cables were hard to come by so we razor'ed and wrapped our own; the default PC case color was still beige; and a PC over 1gig was screaming. Then it became more expensive to build you own PC than it was to buy something with a guarantee and an OS from Dell or HP and cutting windows in the side of cases to show off the internal components seemed too geeky even for me.

So I buy my PC's off the shelf these days and then add components and upgrades as required. My current home desktop is a HP Pavilion m8407c. It's a couple of years old but its Core 2 Quad processor is still man enough for Lightroom, Sketchup and Sony Vegas which are the most heavy duty programs it has to deal with. I also might be the only person on earth still happy with Vista 64.

I couldn't resist my geek tendencies to light up the Antec 300

As usual, I have had to add components to keep my machine current: 8 gigs of memory with heat pipes pre-fitted caused an issue as the hard drive cage would no longer fit in position with a drive in place. The case was holding more hard drives than it was designed for and I needed to add another one - drives were just balanced in place as there were no more spaces to fit them properly. A chunky video card and new power supply were taking up much more space than the OEM components. Finally I had to admit that I'd outgrown the OEM HP case and so, unexpectedly, I found myself in the market for a new PC case for the first time in years.

Things have moved on a lot in the intervening time since I was overclocking my Celeron 233. I don't think you could buy a beige case even if you wanted one and 80mm case fans are reserved for the most frugal of cases. That said, I didn't want to spend a fortune on a new case that spends its time hidden under my desk. I wanted something with plenty of space for expansion without being monolithic. I wanted something quiet and understated. Surprisingly, I was spoiled for choice but I after reading a few reviews I plumbed for the Antec 300 for $60 delivered from Amazon.

Understated front panel

The 300 is much bigger than the OEM HP case but is still considered a mid or mini-tower. It's exterior is an elegant black and its front is a stylish perforated metal. Behind the front is a removable, washable filter and, although the case does not come with a power supply, it comes with a top mounted 140mm fan and a rear mounted 120mm fan. The side panel will also take a 120mm fan and the front will take two more fans. That's a lot of cooling; way more than I needed and I wanted the case to be quiet not sound like a spooling jet engine in a wind tunnel. I turned the two included fans down to their minimum settings relying on negative case pressure (air gets sucked in to the case by the air being forced out of the rear) to keep everything quietly cool. The interior is plain galvanized steel and many people of the interwebs seem to paint it black for better heat conduction they claim, though really it's because it looks cooler but who's going to be looking in there except me when I need to swap a drive out? Way too much effort for such little payback.

I wasn't even going to fit a fan to that side panel but I couldn't find a way to turn off the 3-wire case fan monitor in the HP bios so, to avoid a system nag on every boot, I installed the little case fan from the original HP case to the side via a fan adapter and a 3 wire cable extender. It is definitely not needed to keep the components within working temperatures and shame on HP for not making this fan's settings accessible in the Bios.

Apart from that little issue rehousing the HP internals into the Antec was relatively easy. There is so much more room to get your hands into the case when you're installing everything than in the compact HP case. The power supply fits on the floor of the case, well out of the way of the motherboard just make sure your power supply's cables are generous enough to be that far removed. I was using an Antec power supply I'd already bought to power a beefier graphics card so it wasn't a problem for me but the OEM HP power supply might be a different matter.

I did not have to remove the CPU or memory from the board before transferring it into the Antec which came with plenty on standoffs to get the motherboard properly seated. The rear panel from the HP surrounding the motherboard ports removes from the HP case and fits in the Antec to give a professional finish. There is plenty of room to route the cables tidily and out of the way of the main components. The only fiddly part of the installation is fitting the front panel lights and switches to the motherboard. If I were to do this again I would connect those wires before I screwed the motherboard into the case: the writing on the motherboard is too tiny for these old eyes and my fingers aren't dexterous enough to easily plug those micro connectors onto the pins of the motherboard. Luckily I got them in the right place first time and did not have to revisit that part of the installation. The front USB connectors were a much simpler affair.

The right side has a box to hide cables
obviously, I don't know how to utilize that.

Antec supply a bunch of thumbscrews with the case which are great for mounting the hard drives in a tool-less fashion. There's room for 6 standard 3.25" drives with ample air flow around them. There's also room for 3 optical drives and even 1 laptop sized hard drive on the floor though I've yet to work out why I'd put a laptop hard drive in this case. Although there is no built in method for isolating the drives from the chassis to reduce sound everything is so solid that HD noise is minimal - certainly better than the OEM case.

The Antec doesn't come with a card reader and the HP's is not a standard fitting. I could have bought a new card reader for not much money but I was trying to change as little as possible from the old configuration as I knew that worked. So it was out with the Dremel like an old-school modder to adapt a standard front panel blanking plate to take the OEM card reader. It's not the slickest job you've seen but it works. The only flamboyant touch I added was to light the front panel with a couple of blue neon tubes (cost $12). I leave them off 97% of the time only turning them on when people come over and visit the man cave. I guess I'm not as grown up as I like to think.

Conclusion: for $60 the Antec 300 is a solidly built and quiet case with lots of cooling and expansion potential. If you're in the market for a classy looking computer case it is hard to beat. If, like me, you're looking to rehouse a computer that has outgrown its OEM case it's a great choice but it would be equally competent if you were building a machine from scratch. After all this time of buying off the shelf PCs this case may inspire me to building my own again. It demonstrates the difference in quality between OEM and specialist components really well. Highly recommended.

Simple iPhone Earphone Mod

2010-12-17T11:04:00.000-08:00

My Eargells were colorful: those available today are clear

When it comes to headphones I'm more of an over-the-ear, enclosed-back kind of guy. In my mind there's still no substitute for big drivers and a sealed enclosure to get decent sound quality. That said, those kind of headphones are bulky to carry and conspicuous when you wear them so sometimes you need more pocketable earphones.

Perhaps I have freaky ears but I cannot find in-ear headphones small enough to fit in my ear canals and the standard headset that comes with the iPhone falls out of my ears with little provocation. I have to hold my head absolutely still and, because they fit so loosely, the sound quality, which is marginal at the best of times, is weak and tinny. Certainly I could not run wearing them or even walk around in them.

I contemplated the hack that I've seen to make custom silicon earpieces but that seemed like a lot of effort for the crappy stock headset. Then I came across Jabra eargells. They seem to be intended for ear-bud style headsets but with a little persuasion they'll fit on the standard Apple earphones. They don't stay in place very convincingly though so I added a couple of drops of plastic-specific super glue to them to keep them from moving. I can now run wearing these headphones and the sound quality is much improved as the little sound there is is directed into your ear instead of spilling out. The sound quality does not approximate a decent pair of enclosed headphones but that was never the point. At least I can now use the OEM headphones when I'm out and about which were previously useless to me. I can stuff them in a pocket and if I loose or break them I won't be upset.

Cost: less then $10.
Time invested: 10 minutes.

Adventure in RC Helicopters: Are We Having Fun Yet?

2010-12-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

I gave up on waiting for xheli to get a working battery to me for my Honey Bee V2; I know they're super busy in the run up to Christmas but it was incredibly frustrating to have my helicopter in-hand but not be able to fly it. I ordered a couple of spare batteries from another supplier. I wish I could tell you that experience was better but I ordered what was advertised as genuine eSky batteries but I received generic, un-badged batteries.They were about half the price of the eSky batteries from xHeli and I couldn't be bothered to go through another round of emails and returning an order so I've kept them. At least they took a charge.

While I was looking into batteries I got all paranoid about LiPo batteries failing and burning down the house. The RC forums seem to be littered with tales of LiPo batteries failing and either exploding or catching fire for no good reason. To protect myself and my home I bought a LiPo charging bag. That's a fancy name for a fire-retardant bag you but the batteries in while they're charging, and when they are charged, so that, if something does go wrong and there is a fire or an explosion, it remains safely contained. Word to the wise: don't put the charger itself in the bag. I did the first time and the charger must have over-heated because its lights were flashing some combination that wasn't even deciphered on the badly translated key. After being left to cool it seems to be working fine again now.

I had been using the simulator to understand what controlled what but it turns out to be an unsubtle model of the real thing. Hovering in the simulator is easy; a little power, a little rudder and there you are hanging in the air - real life is another story. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

I knew that, being older, I would find learning to fly a little tougher than your average teenager weened on video games so I decided to follow Radd's School of Rotary Flight. He subscribes to the slow-but-steady school of thought. Basically, you keep the helicopter on the deck and learn the controls before you even try to hover. In theory it's the best way to learn; in practice it's dull. You have to expend 9 batteries worth of flight time without ever leaving the deck. Movements outside a 1 foot square constitute a 'crash' with the punishment of having to reset everything if you stray outside that area. I thought this was supposed to be fun?

Transmitter Settings

One obstacle I found was that the manual gives bad information about setting the slide switches on the transmitter to setup the mode and orientation of the controls. For mode 2 it describes setting the aileron = 'down', elevator = 'up', throttle = 'down' and rudder = 'up'. I found on my example the aileron and elevator switches had to be set the opposite way than the manual describes. After discovering that the controls felt a little logical at least.

The other obstacle I encountered was that the helicopter always wants to slide left which makes the ground exercises tricky unless you hold the aileron stick hard to the right much of the time. The simulator does a poor job of representing this effect. This drift is especially pronounced on a low friction surface (like the tiles in my kitchen) and the helicopter skates and drifts all over the place as soon as the skids get remotely 'light'. It seems that the helicopter starts to drift before the cyclic controls have any effect on direction.

All of which just encouraged me to race through to that 10th battery when you are actually allowed to leave the deck for the first time. It is fun to see your helicopter in the air for the first time. It's less fun to see its first crash. Controlling movement in the air turns out to be very different from making the helicopter scoot across the kitchen floor. For one thing the movements on the stick have to be way more subtle. For another, there's no breeze in the kitchen. Even when it looks totally still outside I'm learning that there is wind movement pushing your helicopter out of your control.

Which leads to your first crash. I say 'crash' but that is something of an over statement; 'heavy landing' is more accurate. I was over soft ground with the training gear on when a breath of wind pushed the helicopter behind me and threaten to topple it over. I was only three feet off the ground so I did what any beginner would do; I panicked and cut the throttle. I must have come down pretty hard through because the blades weren't level after that and spinning them up caused them to clip the tail boom. It's a scary thing to see your new toy bent out of shape although it turned out that I'd just popped a bearing out of the center hub. It didn't take long to diagnose or to fix.

Harder to diagnose was a transmitter 'problem'. The ET4 transmitter has Voltage Indicator lights and the manual says "When the last light turns red and flash, the dry batteries are in low capacity and need to be replaced". Either the transmitter eats batteries or the batteries that shipped with it are crap because, after playing on the simulator a bit (the transmitter has to be turned on if you're using it as your controller) and my 10 helicopter battery cycles the transmitter's bottom two lights (red and yellow) were the only two lit. 'No problem', I thought. 'I still have some time left before I need to change them according to the manual.' Wrong! With the green lights out the transmitter won't bind to the helicopter. As this coincided with my 'heavy landing' I saw the transmitter having no effect on the helicopter and assumed the worst - that I'd burnt out the 4in1. After much fretting and fiddling I tried fresh batteries in the transmitter and all was well again.

So that's where I'm at. I still can't fly but, given enough room to drift around I can hover ... a bit... a very little bit. I've found the manual and simulator to be inaccurate in places. My helicopter is no longer virgin - it has some dirt and scuffs on it but I haven't had to use any of the spares that I ordered yet. To answer my original question, yes, we're having fun already even though I've got a long way to go.

Adventure in RC Helicopters: Go-Faster S107

2010-12-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

While still waiting to get a working battery for my Honey Bee V2 I continue to mess around with the Syma S107 in the office. It's a great distraction: if I get frustrated with code I just go into a quiet machine room with my toy helicopter and mess around for five minutes. Invariably, when I get back to the desk the problem I was trying to escape doesn't seem nearly as daunting. Perhaps my employer should provide all its software engineers with this toy to make them more productive.

Anyway, I wanted to make the S107 go a little faster. I tried what some have suggested, removing the weights from the ends of the flybar but it became too unstable. Instead, I removed the tail do-dads, boom support struts, and rear skid legs. You loose a little weight and strength but it can still survive a crash pretty well. Because the center of gravity has moved forward slightly the helicopter will now move forward at center stick and it takes quite a bit of rear stick just to hover. So, at the cost of a little stability you get a lot faster forward momentum.

The only other hack I've done to the S107 is remove the spring that held the throttle at 0%. Now you can fly it more like a proper RC helicopter with two fingers holding each stick and the throttle not fighting against you all the time. If you do this just remember that you must cut the throttle before you crash otherwise you will do more damage to your helicopter (again, like the bigger, hobby helicopters) which is probably the reason the spring is there in the first place.

Adventure in RC Helicopters: Battery / Charger Problems

2010-12-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

I mentioned how excited I was at the arrival of my Honey Bee V2 but how I wasn't able to fly due to either a battery or charger problem. Yesterday a new charger finally arrived from xHeli but, as I feared, it didn't resolve the issue. So I still can't fly; I'm still frustrated and my issue remains open on the xHeli forum. Maybe I'll get to fly before Christmas; who knows?

Update: They got back to me via the forum and now want me to send the battery back to them for testing. How long before they get around to testing it and sending me a working battery? I am getting tired of the time and effort it is taking with xHeli to get a working product so I ordered a couple more batteries from another supplier to see if I can get satisfaction quicker that way.

Update 2: xHeli sent me an RMA number. Withing 24 hours I sent them the battery. Now all I can do is wait until someone can get a good battery to me.

Memory: The Poor-Man's Upgrade

2010-12-01T23:12:00.000-08:00

Back when I used to build and over-clock my own PC's Memory was called the poor-man's upgrade. For much less money than replacing your CPU, which usually involved replacing your motherboard and all the hassle that entailed, you could max out your memory and keep your PC's performance contemporary for another 12 months or so. These days it's just not cost effective to build your own PC but it's still useful to be able upgrade your desktop when required.

My current desktop is the case in point. I tend to buy off the shelf PC's and then add to them as required. I expect a PC to last me about 3 years or a little more. My current workstation is a HP Core 2 Quad 4 CPU running Vista 64 that I bought a little over 2 years ago. I know a lot of people complain about Vista 64 but I actually like it. It has been tweaked in the past couple of years. To drive my main monitor, a Dell 30" LCD that I love, I had to replace th video card. To power the video card I had to replace the power supply. I've added a couple of extra internal hard drives to it to keep up with my ever expanding photo archive and I'll add another before I'm done.

For most people and most tasks this PC would fly but most of the programs I like to use are memory hogs. Sketchup, Lightroom, Sony Vegas, PhotoShop among others can each eat 2-3gb of memory. My PC came with 4gb so I should have been OK but Vista itself is resource hungry even without any of those other multimedia programs running and I noticed the memory usage often topping out at over 90%. I guess at that point the virtual memory (disk space) takes over but it is much slower so I was starting to experience performance issues waiting for these programs to respond or slow performance as the programs themselves were running sometimes.

To update my PC I took advantage of a Black Friday offer and bought 8gb of 'gamers' memory (basically memory with heat sinks attached from what I can see) the maximum my motherboard supports for around $150 shipped from NewEgg. It took a little fiddling and repositioning of one of the machine's hard drives to fit the new, chunky memory into the compact tower that houses my PC but I did wrestle it into place and it seems to have done the job. I can now run Lightroom, Sketchup and Google Earth at the same time and the memory usage doesn't reach 70%. I guess that means I'm not using scratch disk as much because all those programs seem to be running stutter free again.

I'm not saying that upgrading memory will make your old machine new again but it still seems to be a cheap way to keeping your middle aged machine current if you use a lot of memory intensive programs. Certainly, tonight I'm very happy with my $150 investment. Hopefully I'll remain so for another 12 months or so by which time 8gb of memory will be common-place rather than excessive and it will be time to upgrade properly.

Replica Movie Prop Obsessions: Part 1

2010-11-22T16:56:00.000-08:00

I was digging around through boxes in the basement this weekend when I came across a couple of boxes of partially finished movie prop replicas I had once slaved over and it took me back. It's a story of obsession, betrayal, politics and the main stage for this story was a forum called the Replica Prop Forum. What period does this story take place in? Star Wars action figures had just been re-released with their new buffed, body-builder physiques; VHS was still king and George hadn't yet broken every fanboy's heart by diluting the franchise into something targeted at pre-teens and appealing to their video-game aesthetic.

But I'm getting way ahead of myself. This obsession started out as a way for a recent emigre to California to pass some time. It starts out with me obsessively combing through every Toys R Us within driving distance looking for 'rare' action figures freshly put out the shelves. It quickly progressed to a tiny apartment looking like a KayBee outlet and a feeling that toys were not enough. I wanted harder, more grown-up stuff. I wanted exact copies of the props I saw in my favorite movies.

In those days the community was small and centered around an Internet forum called The Replica Prop Forum, or to those in the know, the RPF. Back then a as yet undiscovered Adam Savage hung out there with the rest of us obsessives although I didn't pay him much attention as his obsession was making a perfect replica of the Maltese Falcon. My obsession was much more mainstream; I wanted to own the SciFi Excalibur, Luke's lightsaber hilt from the original movie (ANH). Unlike Adam Savage, I wasn't alone, and it wasn't hard to find out that many of the original Star Wars screen used props were modeled around hardware ready accessible in the 70's. Unfortunately, that hardware was a lot more scarce in the 90's and there where a lot more people looking for it.

The lightsaber I wanted was based on the flash handle of an old, large format press camera. It's a tube that held the flash bulb at one end, the 3 battery cells went at the other and it joined to the camera via a clamp at the middle. I now knew the name of the thing I was looking for (a Graflex 3-cell flash) but so did everyone else. Ebay was in its infancy but it was full of fanboys like me looking for our 3-cell flashguns. It was equally full of merchants trying to trick you into buying the wrong flash tube with illegible photos, hinted at authenticity and fained ignorance.

After some time, I grew tired of being outbid at the last minute for a genuine Graflex flash (in eBay parlance, ‘sniping' was a new phenomenon that had to be executed manually not via some web-service or bot) but I learned via my new RPF friends that I could build an acceptable analogue out of hardware store parts. I was still relatively new to the US and rented my apartment so I had never been in Home Depot before. I was like a kid in a candy store and I, and many others, spent many hours trawling the isles of our local hardware store looking for common, cheap components we could substitute for the actual components of a genuine Graflex flash. I knew every piece of the Graflex flash even though I had never even held one on my hand. I poured over prop-geek porn: the Visual Dictionaries, The Power of the Myth, The Art of Star Wars, and a hugely expensive and massive, illustrated Japanese tomb ‘The Star Wars Chronicles'. I learned to use my first CAD software (2D DeltaCAD - long before Google bought Sketchup) just so I could make working diagrams that I shared on the first website I ever built on Geocities (I learned HTML just to be able to create this site). I've actually tried to kill this embarrassing website many times but, even though Geocities died off ears ago, my old website won't go away. It is one of the skeletons in my closet.

Via the RPF we hardware saber builders shared out discoveries. A Dremel was the badge of office and when I finally completed my own Luke ANH lightsaber I was immensely proud of it. From a distance it didn't look too bad. It was the right size and if you squinted when you held it in your hand I could almost believe that it was the movie prop. The few friends I deemed geeky enough to show it to were fooled but I knew the guys on the RPF would recognise it as a cheap fake in no time. So, for a few weeks, it tided me over but soon enough I was back on eBay searching for the hard stuff again.

DIY PVC Table/Skater Dolly

2010-11-20T13:35:00.000-08:00

Introduction

A table dolly is a small, low profile camera support designed to be used on a table top and often used to add movement to product shots. Its axles are usually adjustable to allow it to travel in straight lines or curves and circles. It can be used for a lot more than product shots though. On a suitable, smooth floor it can be used for low-angle tracking and trucking shots. If you have a folding table (borrow one from craft services if you don’t) or a board on a couple of saw horses you can also easily simulate a slider or a traditional full sized tripod and dolly movement.

There are lots of commercial table dollies available at all sorts of price points. A lot of people have also made DIY versions ranging from the complex copies of the commercial offerings to a bean bag balanced on a skateboard. This version is very influenced by the Frugal Filmmaker’s project (http://filmflap.blogspot.com/2010/06/make-pvc-table-dolly-for-under-20.html I’m a big fan of his video tutorials and attitude) with a few key differences. The main one is that his design is intended for smaller camcorders but I wanted to be able to use it with a larger DSLR with a decent lens too. Too this end I needed the dolly to be more stable, so I made it have a larger wheel base. I also wanted it to take a more substantial head so I made it accept any standard head with a 1/4” screw mount. Being lazy, I didn’t want to have to cut any PVC pipe either so I came up with a simple drill, glue and screw design using easily sourced, hardware store, parts.

Supplies

1 Rollerblade (go to the thrift store if you don’t have one lying around from the 90’s; they’ll have plenty to choose from for a few dollars. It doesn’t need to be very high quality. It just needs to have 4 wheels and bearings in decent shape.)
5x 1/4” diameter, 1.5”long machine screws and appropriate washers and nuts for axles and to mount head. If you salvage the axles from the skate wheels you only need 1 screw to mount the tripod head.
3/4” PVC pipe components

4x connectors
4x 3” risers (threaded both ends)
4x Screw on end caps
2x plain T-joint
1x T-joint threaded incoming pipe
1x screw in plug
2x 90 degree elbows

Glue

PVC Cement
Epoxy (the 7 min version specifically for plastic works best)

Optional: Goof-off or some kind of solvent to remove the sticker residue.

Tools

Drill
1/4” bit
Allen Keys (to disassemble the skate)
spanner/wrench

Construction
1. Preparation:

Remove the wheels from the skate. If the axles on the skate are useable, salvage them as well.
Remove stickers from the PVC components. This is the hardest part of the project but with the stickers covering all these components they won’t go together properly.

Running gear:

Drill a hole in the center of each of the screw on end caps.
Screw the wheels on to the end caps. Use a washer or two between the cap and the wheel and the nut and the wheel. You can either use new hardware or the original axles from the skate. I used the original skate axles (hex keys required) and nylon washers I had lying around between the end caps and the wheels. The wheels need to be tight enough to be held securely but not so tight that they don’t run freely.
Glue the axle in place in the end cap using the epoxy for further rigidity. Set aside to cure.
Glue a riser into each side of a plain T-joint using PVC Cement and a connector into the top of it - repeat for the other set of running gear.
Screw the wheel assemblies on to the end of each riser.

Body:

Glue a connector into each smooth end of your thread T-joint.
Glue a 90 degree elbow onto each of the connectors. It is critical that this assembly is true if all 4 wheels are to sit level at once.

Tripod head mount:

Drill a hole in the center of screw in PVC plug.
With a washer on the bolt, screw it through the hole you made. Using a set bolt on the screw and the washer make the screw protrude about a 1/4” through the plug and is solidly in place.

Assembly:

Screw the tripod mount into the threaded t-joint on the body.
Mount any small to medium sized tripod head on to this. A small ball head is the most compact for traveling but a pan or small fluid head is easier to use.
Slip the running gear onto the body. Friction will be enough to hold them in place but they should be loose enough to set a turning radius.
Mount the camera onto the tripod head and you’re ready to roll.

Use/Demo
Just like any other camera movement, using the table-top dolly takes a little practice to get smooth. Use it to circle, or describe an arc, around or past an object. You can also dolly past or along a subject. You can also truck into or out from a subject. If a small subject is too low relative to your camera’s lens a small, improvised stage can be used (an upturned glass is useful). Set the radius of your turn before moving the camera and don’t try to adjust it in the middle of a movement.

Demo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martintaylor/4970049615/

Adventure in RC Helicopters: Honey Bee V2 FP Arrives!

2010-11-17T16:50:00.000-08:00

Very excited as my new Honey Bee V2 helicopter arrived via UPS this morning - of course I was in the shower.

I opened the box and checked everything was there and undamaged - excitement rises! But then I encounter my first problem: I plug the Li-Po battery into the E-sky charger and both LEDs just keep flashing. According to the information on the charger this means “battery goes wrong” (another example of Google Translation at work?) which I assume means that there’s something wrong with the battery. I get in touch with xheli.com via their chat feature on their site and 'George' says he’s sending me a new charger - I don’t understand why when the badly translated lights indicate that it’s probably a fault with the battery but what do I know?

Oh well, at least I can try flying the virtual RC copter with the included software. I try to install it on my Win7 laptop and it fails to launch with the Application Error “Exception EComPort in module fms.exe at 008B728. Registry error (win error code: 2).”

A little digging around reveals that the software is actually freeware and it needs a ‘virtual com port’ to work. The solution the site describes doesn’t seem to work. I find another program called VSPE - that says I need to pay $25 for the 64bit port of the ‘free’ program but it does seem to work without me hitting my credit card again. Then FMS hits another problem “D3DRM.dll is not downloaded”. Back to the forum. I finally find the missing dll and place it in the FMS directory. Finally I get the program to work. I download and install a model of the Honey Bee V2 and calibrate my transmitter for use with the program (for the record, it must be switched on to work. Finally I ready to fly but I’m out of time.

A frustrating first experience - at least the helicopter looks good sitting on my desk.

Adventure in RC Helicopters: New Heli Ordered

2010-11-12T15:32:00.000-08:00

After much deliberation I ordered a Esky Honey Bee V2 FP from XHeli.com. The other strong contender was the Falcon 40 from Exceed but, after reading around, the consensus seems to be that the Honey Bee is a little more robust. As, doubt, I'll crash my new toy while I'm learning this was the deciding factor for me. I also ordered some spares for the Honey Bee, the training legs and some other pieces to repair my very battered S107. Even with tax and shipping the total was less than $150. I think that’s pretty good bang for the buck.

Adventure in RC Helicopters: Introduction

2010-11-10T14:56:00.000-08:00

My little brother very generously sent me a little S107 co-axial helicopter for my birthday. I really hadn’t being paying attention to the current state of technology in these little toys but as soon as I was up and flying around the house I was sold. The co-axial was so easy to fly but I wanted something more challenging; something bigger that could fly outdoors. A little research revealed that the next step up was probably a 4-channel, fixed pitch helicopter. Whereas the co-axial practically flies itself as long as you’re careful with the throttle, a single bladed helicopter flies more like the real deal and is much more tricky to learn. As I read the various tutorials around the web it became obvious that I shouldn’t expect to be lifting off the ground for at least a week or more and that I should expect to crash and have to repair my helicopter even if I was cautious and patient.

Improve the Google ranking of your portfolio site

2005-07-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

I was recently asked by a photographer how she could improve the ranking of her site in google's results. I asked the obvious question, what google searches did she want her site to appear in? She told me "San Francisco based photographer" and the like.

So I took a look at her site. It was really nicely designed, showed off her work professionally and her work looked great but it was certainly not optimised for Google ramkings. Her site was built by a graphic designer who made the typical mistake of assuming that if you put keywords into the metatags (metatags hold information about your page/site that are not visible to your viewers but are used by other programs) that would be enough to court search engine spiders and bots. Unfortunately, google no longer really uses the keywords metatag very heavily, if at all. It was too easy to trick search engines into ranking a page highly based upon its keywords when its content may have had little to do with those words. Indeed, some speculate that if your page has keywords which are not then found on that page that your page may be penalized for "keyword spamming" and suffer in the search engine's ranking as a result. One thing we to do, therefore, is make sure that your keywords are also found elsewhere on your pages.

Please keep in mind that I'm not a specialist in this area and that improving a site's ranking is something akin to alchemy and is not an exact science but is subject to change whenever google changes its bots.

First off, a tiny bit of technical background to put my suggestions into context. Photo portfolio sites are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to search engine rankings. Why? Because search engines, and google in particular, do everything they can to rank what they consider the most useful and relevant results first (I won't complicate things be talking about those who chose to pay to improve their tankings). How does google do this? Mainly through the text found in various places on your pages (both hidden and visible) and through how many other pages link to your site. Being so image heavy in their content, as opposed to text based, puts photo portfolio sites at a distinct disadvantage in this regard.

Two tags that are used more heavily by search engines are your page's title and its description. The page's title is the text you see in the very top of the window of your browser when you visit a site. It is, therefore, really important that we get the page title right. For the site I was looking at I suggested something like " - a San Francisco / Bay Area based photographer specializing in lifestyle, interior, portrait, editorial and travel photography". Changing this could be the single most important factor in improving a sites ranking.

The description metatag is what a search engine uses to describe your site when it returns results. If a page does not have a description tag the search engine simply uses the first few words of text it can find on your site. This was what was happening with the site I was looking at so I suggested putting a description on to each page, something like: " is a San Francisco based photographer working in the Bay Area and specializing in lifestyle, interior, portrait, editorial and travel photography." This may seem very repetitious when viewed in relation to the title I suggested but there is a search engine concept called "keyword density" that I won't bore you with but basically means that the more often you page contains a word that the search engine indexes, the better its position in the result rankings.

Another thing I suugested we could do that may have a small effect on rankings is to optimize the "alt text" associated with the images on the site. The alt text is a piece of information associated with an image that tells the browser what the image is in a textual format. You rarely see this text but as a portfolio site has so little textual content we should take every opportunity we get to add some. I suggested that each image should contain a description like " - by - a San Francisco based photographer working in the Bay Area and specializing in lifestyle, interior, portrait, editorial and travel photography." Again, it may seem repetitive but keyword density means that it may pay off when a search engine hits your site to index it.

As the site was so image heavy I also suggested that adding a biography, mission statement or content page of some kind. This page could be then used to inject more text into the site which google would see as making your site more useful and, therefore, might affect the result rankings possitively.

Finally, the most important factor that will affect your site's rank I couldn't really help the site's owner with. That is the more often other "useful" sites link to a site the more useful google thinks the site is and the higher it will rank it. Do whatever you can to get links to your site put on other sites; get clients to link to your site from their acknowledgments, get your site listed in directories of similar sites. Do you ever write anything that is published on the web? If so, make sure you have a link back to your site from the article. Do you post to any bulletin boards or newsgroups? Put a link to your site in your signature so it's included in every post you make especially if that community is, itself, indexed by google. Persuade friends to link to your site - whatever you can do to get links to your site, do and the higher the ranking the site linking to yours has with a search engine itself the better. Google rates a link from an "important" site higher than a more provincial one.

How to Use Meta Tags In Search Engine Promotion
How to Improve Your Search Engine Ranking on Google
Score Higher in Google Search Engine (and why Google is saving the web.)
The Search Engine Tutorial for Web Designers

How To Set up Movable Type on 1and1

2003-10-27T12:35:00.000-08:00

In the last few weeks online communities in general, and the blog world in particular, have been splattered with reactions to the news that a host called 1and1 is giving away three years worth of premium hosting. 1and1 are a huge hosting service in Europe (they claim to be the world's largest) and this promotion is part of their strategy for moving into the American market. Netizens were understandably skeptical about the offer, after all, how good could a service that is totally free be?

Never one to pass up a bargain, I signed up and even finally got around to registering my own domain which cost a modest $6. I had been wanting to play around with movable type for some time, not to keep a "dear diary", but as a way to display some photographs and as a way to create a dynamic repository for anything I wished to publish (like this information). 1and1, unlike most other cheap or free hosts, seemed to provide all the resource I needed to be able to do this at no cost or risk. Too good to be true? It turns out you can still get something for nothing on the web and that the quality of the hosting is not always determined by the price you pay. The fact that you can read this missive is proof enough that 1and1's offer is straight up and can host movable type. If you too are looking to play with MT or just want 3 years of something for nothing too and you're a US resident I suggest you sign up for 1an1's offer before it ends at the year's end.

How do you set it up? I did not keep notes while I setup MT on 1and1 but I will try to lay down some pointers as to how I got it running:

First off you obviously need a 1and1 account. Sign up for the offer and you get back an email telling you how to activate your account. This involves giving 1and1 a US phone number where you can be reached in the next few minutes. An automated call is placed by 1and1 to that number giving you a pass code. You then enter this code into the authorization page and your account is ready to use.

Through 1and1 you can then get a domain you already own redirected to your new host. 1and1 can also be the host for more than one domain or for various sub-domains. As I didn't own a domain I wanted to use for this site I bought one through 1and1 which took about 24 hours to be registered and activated.

The next thing you need is the Movable Type program. I downloaded the latest full version with libraries from movabletype.org and started following their installation instructions. The instructions can be a little overwhelming if, like me, this is your first experience of installing movable type but, as long as you go through them carefully it is an easy install. Here are 1and1 specific instructions to augment MT's own instructions:

Finding Perl on your Server - don't worry about it, Perl is in its default location on 1and1 so you don't need to change your cgi scripts to point to a different perl location.
Installation Directories - The application - in 1and1 your whole directory is cgi enabled, not just a specific cgi-bin, so you don't need to worry about relocating your static files. As for the installation directory itself, I chose a sub-directory under my home directory, called "moveabletype". This was for my own sanity and to keep the MT files apart from and static pages I may want on my site.
The database - I used MySQL so there was no need to create external directories.
Configuration - Configure Movable Type URL - I used the subdirectory moveabletype again for this.
Configure Database options - before you set this you need to go to your 1and1 control panel and enable the MySQL database. Now go to the "webspace" menu on the control panel and select "MySQL Configuration" and note your database name, user name, password and host name. Use these values to set the mt.cfg values for ObjectDriver (DBI::mysql), Database, DBUser and DBHost.
You can now skip all steps to "Set your SQL database password". Open mt-db-pass.cgi and replace the password with the password you noted down from you control panel.
Uploading files and setting permissions is just as described in the MT instructions. Do remember to be specific about whether the transfer is ASCII or Binary. I used smartftp and it was very easy to transfer the files in two loads; one for each style of transfer.
Create your Movable Type database directory - skip this step.
Checking for Perl Modules - running the http://www.your-site.com/mt/mt-check.cgi url worked first time for me as it will, hopefully for you.
If all goes well you are now ready to start using movable type.