Diary of a Network Geek

I am, in spite of what some shooting buddies may have thought, a Canon shooter, and always have been.

I understand the crazy devotion that Nikonians have to their brand, but I do not share it.  So, for all you fellow Canonites, I have a special Friday treat; Canon Quick Guides.  These are guides right from the Canon mothership on how to use their gear, the right way.  They are, per the website, “a free downloadable resource for EOS cameras and accessories. These PDF cheat sheets are helpful tools to carry around in your camera bag for quick reference, or to read from your computer for step-by-step guidance on specific product features and techniques.”  And, they are pretty damn cool.

Incidentally, they were first pointed out to me by Syl Arena of Speedliting.com and [amazon_link id=”032171105X” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Speedliter’s Handbook[/amazon_link] fame.  Trust me on this, he knows Canon!

So, anyway, go print some out to throw into your camera bag before you go shooting this weekend!
And, enjoy the rest of your Friday!

I’m a cheap bastard.

I love the idea of using spare parts to make something cool and new.  I especially love it if the spare parts make something that I wouldn’t normally be willing to spend money on having, even if it is cool.
Digital picture frames fall into that category for me.

Sure, I’m a photographer and I shoot digital, so a digital picture frame is an obvious bit of techno-lust for me, but, like I mentioned, I’m a cheap bastard.  Too cheap to get a digital picture frame just to show off my own work.  But, when I saw this article on Ikea Hackers about making a DIY digital picture frame from an old laptop and an Ikea frame, well, I had to share it with you all.
I’ve seen similar articles, but this one really looked better than the other ones.  And, I certainly like the finished product better.  Now, all I need to do is find an old, working, laptop!

Well, more precisely, extending your wifi signal.

Not too long ago, I bought an antenna for my wifi router, in an attempt to broaden the range of my laptop in my own house. I could barely get a signal in my bedroom. Outside, on the back porch, I could only get a signal if I sat with my back to the yard! Well, unfortunately, before I could even test the antenna, my router fried and I had to get a new one. Luckily, the new LinkSys wifi router had better signal coverage, so I didn’t need the extra help.
But, if you still do, or just want to get a little bit more out of your wireless router, this article on ZDNet titled Expert tips on extending your home WiFi range has some good suggestions.

There’s something about this that appeals to me.

When I was fresh out of college, I won a trip to Long Beach with a bunch of amenities. A buddy of mine and I went, since we were both single, and enjoyed ourselves, in spite of the worst rainy season the greater L.A. area has seen in more than 20 years. I mean, roads would shut down after we’d use them, forcing us to find another way back to the hotel and I think we only two days of sun. The day we arrived and the day we left.
But, what I remember most was a t-shirt I saw at a tourist shop on Catalina. It was a Parrothead shirt that had the lyric “I used to rule my world from a payphone” on the back, with a nice, relaxing picture of a hammock between two palm trees. The idea of being so unattached, free and mobile really appealed to me, but, alas, it’s a life I’ve never known.

Now, what does that have to do with a USB drive? Well, thanks to Lifehacker, more than you’d think. Have you ever thought about how nice it might be to travel with all your information and favorite applications, but leave your laptop behind? Yep, free and easy living. All you need is a good-sized USB thumb drive and three articles: Top 10 USB Thumb Drive Tricks , Carry Your Life On A Thumb Drive and Tiny USB Office (via LifeHacker). That’s it. Your key to carrying your life in your pocket. Well, your digital life, at any rate.

And, before you write this off, I know a guy who did just what they describe. He loaded everything that mattered to him on a thumb drive and had no computer at all for more than a year. Of course, now, he has a MacBook, so you can take that with a grain of salt. But, also, according to ZDNet, Microsoft is coming out with a product to help you do all this via their suite of programs and operating systems called “StartKey“. You know when Microsoft gets behind an idea, you’ll see it implemented, one way or another.
So, do you all think you could do it? Could you make the switch?

Either “best” or a “buy”.

I hate BestBuy. Why? Because their sloppy web design cost me several hours of my life. In fact, I’m so irritated with their malfunctioning website that I will not ever buy anything from them again, if I can help it. I would have given up after the first try last night, but my favorite nephew and godson (yes, that means I am a Godfather), said that all he wanted for his birthday, which was yesterday, was a gift card from BestBuy. Though, “WorstSale” is probably a better name for them.
It all started quite simply, as these things usually do, with me going to their cursed website to purchase a simple $25 gift card for my nephew. Sounds simple enough, right? Fifteen minutes worth of transaction and off to bed, I figured. WRONG! After getting through the transaction the first time, I noticed in the side-bar, in small print, something about needed to have pop-up windows enabled to complete the transaction. What? WHY? What sort of crazy e-commerce website would require me to open a potential security hole in my browser just to spend money on their website? And what kind of moron would let that roll out to the public?
So, I check my Account and see that there are no orders. Just to make sure, I do a search on the order number. Nothing. So, I call and verify with the very polite customer service person that my credit card has not, in fact, been charged. She then tells me to go ahead and try it again now that I have pop-ups enabled for their site and it should all be good. Fine. Only, it wasn’t. I tried this three times only to have NONE of the attempts show up. Not even the one I did through the hated Internet Explorer, which I generally don’t use for security reasons.
So, I call Customer Service again, cursing the idiot who thought up this moronic system. The second very polite Customer Service rep confirms again that no charges have gone through to my card and offers to take care of the transaction for me. Okay, great. All done. And, he tells me that I will be e-mailed a confirmation. Wonderful.
This morning when I check my e-mail, guess what I found? FOUR confirmations, each for a $25 gift card. All of which were processed at around 1:00AM, which was more than TWO HOURS after I was done on the phone with BestBuy’s Customer Service. So, I get to waste even MORE time trying to ge this straightened out today.

I have never, ever in more than ten years of on-line purchasing had a worse experience than I did with the BestBuy website. I have bought from little “mom-and-pop” stores and even game companies from the United Kingdom and never had problems like I’ve had with BestBuy. Gee, aren’t they supposed to be a technology company? Don’t they sell high-tech gear? You sure wouldn’t know it from their non-functional website!
So, what has all this taught me? Don’t ever use BestBuy again. In fact, I’m going to tell everyone I know about this experience and encourage them not to use BestBuy, either. If you live in Houston, I recommend that you try MicroCenter or Fry’s. If you want to get something from the internet try CDW. Personally, I will go to extreme lengths now to avoid spending even one more cent inside a BestBuy. All because one stupid web development team couldn’t get their shit together. (Crap, I almost made it through that entire rant without making any excretory remarks. Oh, well, shit happens.)