Let's Get Technical - LONG

For those of you following the blog, I wanted to explain some of the technology I’ll be using.   First, let me say, my laptop and cameras are password protected.  That means they are useless to anyone who tries to steal them…it’s the first thing a pawnshop will check for when you try to sell them.   Also, I’ll have a proximity alarm on my laptop and hidden somewhere in my camera gear.   If me and my gear are separated by more than a certain number of feet, all hell will break loose….that hell being a crazy canuck realizing he’s about to lose a large chunk of his material possessions and livelihood.

So, on with the technicals.

Photography:

Canon 20D – 8.x megapixel semiprofessional body that I make take professional pics (
Canon Rebel 300D – firmware upgraded to 10D capabilities.  This is my ‘backup’ body.

Sigma 70-200mm 2.8f   - My primary telephoto lens. Good for shooting sports
Sigma 28-105mm 2.8-4.5f – A good all-round utility lens.
Sigma 20mm 1.8f  - A not so bad wide angle good in low light situations
Canon 17-85mm  -  A good utility lens, comes standard on the Rebel
Sigma 2x extender – doubles the total length of any of these lenses.  When used on the 70-200mm, and combined with the 1.6x factor of the digital bodies, the effective maximum length is 640mm

Laptop:

Dell C540 – 1.7ghz Celeron, 768megs Ram, 20 gig harddrive
40 gig external USB 2.0 harddrive
Internal Wifi Card
PCMCIA Wifi/Cellphone Card – Works almost anywhere I can get a T-mobile signal
PCMCIA CF Card Reader
Cooling Pad with USB/Firewire hub
Windows XP Pro
Picasa 2 – Quick photo editing, and photoblog publishing capabilities
Photoshop CS2 – For all your photo editing needs
MS Office XP
Skype – Voice Over  IP telephone.  Username – hotshot38 –give me a call!

My Workflow:

Photos are loaded to the laptop via the CF Card Reader, usually auto-imported using Picasa2, but sometimes via copy/paste from folder to folder.   Once on the harddisk of the laptop, photos are culled quickly using Picasa2’s lightboard (library).   This allows me to quickly cull or pick similar photos for the one with the best result.   Photos to be kept and process are marked with a star.  
Once I’ve starred all the photos I wish to keep, I’ll start working with only those starred photos.   IF they do not require too much editing, I’ll usually crop, finetune lighting and color balance, and sharpen right in Picasa.   IF there is a certain filter that will make the photo look better, ie: soft focus, glow, b&w, I’ll apply that filter to the selected photo.

Once I’ve processed all the starred photos, I’ll select only the starred photos and export them to a new folder.   The originals are still intact.  After the photos have been exported, I’ll navigate to that folder, select one of the most interesting, and click on the ‘BlogThis’ button of Picasa.   This will in turn open up a new window with space to write some description about the selected photo.   After entering the text describing the photo, I’ll click on the Publish button (don’t forget to select and copy the text first, in case it gets eaten).   Picasa automatically resizes the photo for web viewing.   You can also click on the photo itself to get a larger version.

Voila!  A new blog entry is born.   A browser window will open confirming the new entry has been received.    Keep in mind, this is mostly done on the fly, no spellchecks were killed in the making of this blog….only the English language.

Of course, I need to be online in order to a blog entry this way.   I have two (or three) ways to get ‘online’.   First, via Wifi, or wireless 802.11b/g.  If I can find free wireless hotspots, that would be the preferred method.   I may have to pay a daily rate for a hotspot depending on where I am.   I read that some of the VIA Rail trains (in Canada) have wireless hotspots onboard, for a nominal daily fee.

If there are no hotspots available, and I do not need a high speed connection, I can usually get connected through my T-Mobile Internet card.   This is a PCMCIA card fitted in my laptop that dials into the internet via cell phone (GPRS) networks.   I should be able to get this anywhere T-mobile cell phones work, and on some roaming networks.   So far, the speeds here in the sticks of TX have been dialup or slower.   I hope that in the bigger cities the EDGE technology as T-mobile calls it will be a bit faster.   Regardless, it should be fast enough to update a blog wherever I’m connected.

For longer entries, like this one, I can type them up in MS Word; thereby ensuring that they are saved to disk, before attempting to upload to Blogger.    Many a good thought has been ‘eaten’ by the blog demons….it’s always a good habit to select and copy your text before hitting that publish button.

Telephony/Video:

Another piece of software that I use is Skype.  http://www.skype.com  This internet telephony software (VOIP) is a handy gadget.   I can call any of my friends who have Skype and talk for free, just as if it was a regular telephone.   I can even share my web cam for a video-phone experience.   It’s a little shaking so far testing on the t-mobile cell phone connection, but as stated, above, hopefully the technology will be faster elsewhere.

For pc-pc calls, use the nickname ‘hotshot38’ and try to give me a call.  
I can also phone any regular phone number on a pay-per-minute basis…anywhere in North America, it works out to around 1.5 cents per minute…..that’s about 6 hours of phone time for $10….not bad.

I also have a Skype-In number which allows anyone on a regular phone (including cell phone of course) to call my number and talk as if it were a regular phone call.  That cost me $35 a year….no charge on incoming calls.   I won’t publish the number here….only close friends and family.

My webcam is a cheapie.   At the extravagant price of $9.99 it clips onto my laptop monitor.   It also has ‘night-vision’: if it’s too dark 6 LED’s turn on and light me up.   So, I can be in complete darkness on the train, and if you SKYPE me, you’ll be able to see my video no problem…if we have a good connection that is.    I also use a headset/microphone for better quality and privacy.   It’s a bit cumbersome, but it works.  Great for listen to mp3’s also.

Speaking of which, I ripped my complete music collection onto my laptop before partaking on this adventure.  I don’t NEED music like many who can’t live without it, but I figure on a long and lonely highway….oops, almost broke into song there.   It’ll be good on those long nights when I can’t sleep and my eyes are bleary from too much reading (or blog typing).

Well, that’s just about it for the technology part.  I’ll have a radio scanner with me, but not sure how much train traffic I’ll listen to unless there is an emergency.   I’ll also have a GPS with me: the Garmin Etrex – Simple, but good enough for me.   I might do some geocaching at each stop I make, depending on how much time and other factors.   Check out www.geocaching.com   for more info on that.    

Thanks for getting through this.