Diary of a Network Geek

Since I start my new day job this coming Monday, I’m slacking a little and just sharing some kind of random links about basic photographic technique.

One of the things you see a lot of photographers do, especially if they want to “go pro” and shoot portraits, is something called “seamless paper”.  Basically, it’s a huge, long roll of colored paper that you tape up to a wall or hang from a pole to get a smooth, uninterrupted, but still plain…
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With Apple’s recent announcement that they’re letting Aperture die, without really replacing it, photographers of all kinds are looking toward Lightroom as their photographic management and processing tool.

I, personally, have used Lightroom for years.  I can do most of the editing I would ever want to do faster and easier in Lightroom than I would in Photoshop.  Of course, I’m strictly an amateur and don’t do any other fancy art stuff with my photography.  And, I try to follow Syl…
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Happy Independence Day!

For those of you outside the U.S., today is the day we celebrate our independence as a nation by barbecuing and carousing and having parades and, most of all, by firing fireworks.  All across the country, there will be fireworks displays, both large and small, and there will be photographers at everyone one of them with tons of gear trying to capture that feeling in an image.  My personal suggestion is to just go and enjoy the show,…
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I’m going to take a slight departure from my normal free stuff on Friday posts.

Don’t worry, this is still free, but it’s not just a “click here and look at this thing” kind of post.  This week, you’ll need to actually do a couple of things to get the full benefit of this post.  Basically, it’s a little Summer DIY project for the mildly geeky and social.

Have you ever been to someone’s home and had to ask for their WIFI…
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No, those quotation marks aren’t ironic.

Last year, in August, I wrote about a free service called LensTag that would help you track your camera gear if any of it went missing.  Well, they’re back in the news for another service!  This one was discovered by accident by their president’s wife who mistakenly turned on the tracking for her camera when a couple of flashes got stolen.  It turns out, she started getting notifications about where her photos taken with that…
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Yes, today is Friday the Thirteenth.

I’m not really a superstitious kind of guy.  Not really.  But, I’ve known a lot of people who are.  When I worked in the hotel industry, I once managed to “sell” room 666 to someone not from a Judeo-Christian background, until a co-worker saw it and made a face.  Then, I had to explain to the nice gentleman that some people found 666 to be an “unlucky” number.  But, man, if I had pulled that…
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As the kids get out of school for the Summer, why not “audit” a couple of culture classes for free?

No, seriously!
I know when I got out of school, I thought I’d never want to go back and learn anything new again.  But, times change and so do we.  I’ve done a whole lot of professional training, picking up some good certifications along the way, but there are times I wish I had paid more attention to the cultural courses I…
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Okay, this isn’t exactly a new idea, but it’s still worth sharing.

I got this from Lifehacker back in 2012, but I’ve been behind in my link sharing, so I’m just getting to it now.
The idea is simple.  Reading on-line is rarely the best, most comfortable, most convenient way to keep up with all the things we want to read, especially all the “long form” articles that really get in-depth on topics we care about.  That’s where Readlists comes into play.

This…
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My wife calls the Discovery Science channel the “Lion King channel”, because when she needs me to be calm and entertained, this is what she puts this on, like a mother puts her toddler in front of the Lion King.

Sadly, she’s pretty much right.
How It’s Made is one of my favorite shows.  Whatever channel it’s on instantly becomes the “Lion King channel” for me.  Even boring stuff is fascinating when it’s being made by big, high-speed machinery.
So, today, while I’m…
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These are two of my favorite things, but together in a unique way.

I don’t imagine that it’s any secret that I love science-fiction at this point.  I mean, if you’re anything like a regular or semi-regular reader of this blog, then you know that science-fiction is kind of my “thing”.  But, what may not be quite as apparent is how much I love LEGO.  When I was a kid, back in the dark ages, I could spend hours building things…
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