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Digital Photography

Thwarted by online poker

Today marked my second Linux/Ubuntu casualty in almost 2 dozen attempts. As I’ve learned more about Ubuntu the past couple of years, I carefully selected clients who would have little problems dealing with a non-Microsoft operating system.

You may have read my take on Ubuntu usage for the average computer user before, but here it is again to setup the rest of the story: I believe that any computer users who uses only email, word processing, Internet, digital photography, and maybe a solitaire or mahjong like game can function perfectly and happily in Ubuntu. Those who need proprietary Windows programs or like to buy and try out different types of software will not do well with Ubuntu.

What do you really do with your computer?

In my travels, it seems that most home computer users primarily use email. I would love to see 100-200 comments attached to this short article so you can tell me what you use your computer for from day-to-day. You don’t have to be statistically accurate or detailed, I’m just curious and this topic is too broad and detailed for a poll.

Here’s how I use my main computer:

Internet (web browsing, pay bills, web site maintenance, etc) – 60%
Email – 15%
Instructional videos – 10%
Word Processing – 8%
Desktop publishing (creating newsletters, flyers, calendars, etc) – 2%
Skype video calls – 1%
Digital Photography (including ordering, editing, and downloading photos) – 1%
Games – .33%
Other – 2.67%

YOUR TURN! Leave a comment and share what you use your primary computer for on average. Thanks!

Backup your digital photos with iPhoto – Video Tip

Macintosh users take digital photos too. And they also need to make sure their photos are backed up safely. Thankfully, the bright men and women at Apple computers have built in a great picture management software called iPhoto. Within iPhoto, you will find a straight forward method of backing up your photos.

Here’s how:

1. Start iPhoto
2. Hold down the Command key on your keyboard and select which folders, albums, or events you want to backup
3. Click Share from the menus
4. Click Burn button on the menu that appears
5. Once the burn is finished, the disk will eject.

I am still partial to Picasa for picture management, but Google still hasn’t released a version for the Mac yet. However, as you can see, the iPhoto makes pretty easy work of backing up your photos.

More Linux success stories

I want to keep singing the praises of an operating system that I used to make fun of on our show; Linux. In partial defense of myself, Linux traditionally has been known as the geeks operating system, and a user needed to be permanently attached to a forum for help and have an affinity for the command prompt or as its known in Linux, the terminal.

Great digital photography debate topics

Technology is no different than politics in that there are a variety of topics that people have opinions on. While you may not know much about these topics now, what you know about them can have a great impact on knowing who to listen to when it comes to learning more about digital photography and related topics.

PC vs. Mac:

The Mac people will tell you that Macs are better for graphics, easier to use more stable.

Understanding exposure

Theory and Practice of Photography

Aperture:

Aperture is the setting of the iris of the camera lens. Just as your pupils in your eyes expand and contract to let in more or less light, you can do the same with your camera by setting the Aperture.

The Aperture measurement is called F-stop. The higher the F-stop number, the smaller the iris is set in your camera.

The trade-off: Each concept of photography seems to have a trade-off that prevents you from wanting to use it all the time.

Where to buy a book manual for your computer

“Why didn’t my computer come with a manual?”

One of the most common complaints we hear is about how new computers don’t come with manuals. I am here to explain why this is the case.

The sad answer is that if the computer company came with a manual, it would weigh more than the computer.

“But my old computers used to come with manuals…,” Is the next comment.

Back in the old days of computers there weren’t many uses. You would use computers for word processing, finances, Internet and email. In each case there were only a handful of options.

I use a Mac, therefore I am

Ya, don’t ask me to elaborate too much on the title of this post, I didn’t mean anything too deep by it.

I picked up my new/old Mac that a reader gave me. It is an older system, but It does a great job. It’s a dual 867mhz G4 with a gig of RAM, 10GB hard drive and Leopard OS. While it may seem a little dated by Mac standards, it is every bit as fast as my dual core Pentium that I typically run XP on.

I haven’t used it for any digital photography stuff, but I didn’t want it for that. I wanted a mac so I could use it exclusively for a few weeks and learn how to help my Mac clients adapt to “the switch” from Windows.

New computer recommendations

At least once a year, I write a short article about my current computer recommendations. The holiday season is upon us, and I haven’t written an article like this in awhile, so here goes.

In the past six months, I ask more questions than I give when approached with this question.

Scenario 1

If I find that the person has a 2-4 year old computer with Windows XP, and just thinks the computer is slow, I go with this advice: