A Quick Update
It's hard to believe that almost a year (10 months) has gone by since I left with Sammy to go traveling. Those care-free days seem very distant. Now I couldn't even imagine going a week without being on my computer. That's all I do these days. It's not that I don't enjoy doing web development; I just feel like an important part of me is being tucked away in a corner.
Come fall, though, I'll be starting graduate school at UNT for voice. Honestly, I have no idea what to expect. I've been out of school for a year now. But I know I don't want to continue web development full-time and being around music and learning makes me happy.
The main decision-maker for me going to Ouachita was that they were offering me money and I was tired of looking at schools. That ended up being one of the best decisions. This is kinda the same situation. I've known that I wanted to go to grad school and this has opened up. So even though I'm uncertain at times, I feel this is the way to go.
All that to say, I'll be in Denton in the fall.
Travel Photos (Finally)
After toting a camera, lenses, and 15 rolls of film halfway around the world, enduring ridicule from airport security officers informing me of the invention of digital cameras while checking my film canisters for explosives, and spending countless hours editing out dust particles, my photos from my travels with Sammy are available for your viewing. If any of you would be interested in having prints of any of these, please let me know and we'll work out something. I would be delighted.
Album 1:
Album 2:
I Hate Oil
This is absurd. The Ford Model T got 13-21 mpg. That was in 1908. One hundred years later vehicles average 30 mpg. I have a hard time believing that all the brainiac scientists out there aren't smart enough to figure out how to get at least 80-100 miles to a gallon.
Take the computer. The first computer I remember having had a 286 processor with 1mhz clock speed. 22 years later I'm running a dual-core 2.2ghz processor. That's a 219,900% percent increase (439,900% if you count both cores). Over 100 years fuel efficiency has increased by 43-131%.
In every other technological arena huge advancements have been made in the last 100 years. Why not fuel? Something's awry here.
Maybe Lee Raymond will give me some of his $141,000 a day.
Great Webcam for Mac Powerbooks and iBooks
I usually don't post about technological things but I figured I should make my contribution since I regularly take advantage of the wealth of information available on the net.
Since video chat is now the thing to do, I thought I should get in on the fun. The only problem was that I have a Powerbook G4 and there aren't too many good, cheap webcam options. I searched the internet long and hard trying to find a consensus on a good solution but didn't really find one. After trying multiple cameras and settings this is the setup that worked well for me:
- Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks Deluxe ($20-$50)
- Macam USB Driver for Mac OS X (free)
- iUSBCam ($9.95)
I bought the camera from somebody on Craigslist for about $20. It's an older model but has a decent resolution and framerate. It has good brightness too so you can be seen even without optimal lighting.
To get it working all you have to do is plug it in and install macam. The installion info is in the mounted disk image. After you install the QuickTime component open up the macam application. Click the settings button (the icon with the horizontal sliders) and copy these settings:
Be sure to click "Save current Setting" in the Control menu. I found that these settings give the best results. The compression setting is pretty critical. If it's set on anything else the video is choppy and/or dark. You can play around with the others.
At this point the webcam will work with Skype (and other programs I assume). Just make sure you have the camera plugged in before loading the program. Getting it work with iChat, however, is a little quirky.
First, download and install iUSBCam (Free trial, $9.95 to buy). After you've restarted iChat it should detect your camera and show the camera icon by your name and buddy icon. Click that icon and your video preview will show up. It'll be choppy so close the window and re-open it. This time it'll be smoother. You'll have to open the video preview window at least once before chatting with anybody.
Now if all goes well you'll be able to video chat away. It's quite possible you'll run into connection problems (sorry). Here is a list of links to help troubleshoot:
http://discussions.apple.com/message...sageID=1399740
http://discussions.apple.com/thread....hreadID=121845
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93208
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93333
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106439
http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/.../t-186585.html
http://www.ralphjohnsuk.dsl.pipex.com/index.html
http://www.panfluteforum.org/ubbthre...o=&fpart=1#563
I hope someone finds this helpful.
the author
- Is it just me or has OS X been having more stability issues? In the last few months I've had to do at least a handful of hard reboots. 2012-01-04
- @sparrowmailapp Is minimal mode not available in the Lite version? 2012-01-02
- More updates...
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