Richard Hamilton Photography Blog

Viewed 1000 times

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:20:00 +0000

In early June of 2009 I set a goal for myself to produce a photo that would be viewed at least 1000 times on my Flickr account. As with any good goal I also included a deadline...the end of 2009. I then proceeded to break my collarbone and stopped shooting. Fortunately, in mid-June I participated in the first assignment of the Strobist.com Book Camp II with a head shot of Suzy and myself floating in a swimming pool. I am very excited to write that the photo, which I have enclosed below, was viewed today for the 1000th time on Flickr!

I would like to thank everyone who viewed the photo, and pay special thanks to those who left their comments.

Richard

Solution to Blank Pages in Zinio Reader

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:19:00 +0000

As a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals ("NAPP"), I have a subscription to the Photoshop magazine. They provide a digital copy of their magazine through http://www.zinio.com who provides the free Zinio Reader which allows one to read the magazine on the desktop.

Today I updated the Windows (Vista) video drivers and the ATI Catalyst Control Center on my laptop only to find out that I could no longer read my magazines in the Zinio Reader. It was only showing blue lines on blank pages where the content was suppose to be.

If you have used Zinio, you will know that their help area is greatly lacking. The solution? It turns out that you must check the boxes "Use application settings" in the Anti-Aliasing section in the Catalyst Control Center (Graphics -> 3D -> All). Hope this helps you if you experience the same issue.

Aside: If use use Photoshop and are not a member of the NAPP, I strongly urge you to consider joining. The Photoshop magazine is one of the many benefits that you will receive from NAPP. For more detail, please click here.

Kind regards,
Richard

Caymana Bay Observation Tower - Photo Blog's topic of the week

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:23:00 +0000

Last week I spent the week in New York city on business. I cannot remember ever seeing so many yellow taxis in my life (never mind in one place). I unfortunately did not take my camera with me as I knew that I would not have time to take photos. So this past Sunday, Brigitte and I took a drive and the camera came for the ride :-). One of the places we visited was the Caymana Bay Observation Tower. The Tower is absolutely beautiful and includes a undersea glass mosaic consisting of in excess of 3,000,000 titles. Accordingly, the photo's in this week's Photo Blog are of the Observation Tower. To see the photos and learn more about the Observation Tower, please stop by my Photo Blog.

Have a great week.
Richard

A Beach Wedding - Photo Blog's topic for the week of November 2, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:27:00 +0000

After four months of not using my camera for more than a few minutes at a time (due to my broken collarbone) I have recuperated to a point where I am ready to start using my camera. It was therefore fortuitous timing that I was asked to photograph a beach wedding this past weekend. So I thought, what better topic for this week's photo blog than the photos that I took of Simone and Pierre's beach wedding on Seven Mile Beach in the Cayman Islands.

Have a great week!
Richard

Pirates Week - Richard's Photo Blog's Theme for the week of October 26, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:19:00 +0000

Every November for as long as people here can remember, the Cayman Islands have hosted a Pirates Festival. As the 2009 festival is quickly approaching I thought it would be nice to devote this coming weeks' photos on my Photo Blog to the 2008 Cayman Islands Pirates Festival.

More information on the November 12 - 22, 2009 festival can be found at http://www.piratesweekfestival.com/.

Photo Blog`s Topic for the week of 2009.10.19

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 03:49:00 +0000

For the past two months I have been posting a photo a day on my photo blog and briefly blogging about the photo. Last week I did something different on my photo blog, I devoted the entire week of photos to one topic, specifically the 27 June 2009 Junior Equestrian Jumping Competition held here in the Cayman Islands. Similarly for this coming week, I will be "photo blogging" about one topic... the photos will be from Haydee and Eric's lovely Cayman Islands wedding in November 2008.

Enjoy and have a great week,

Richard

Part IV - The Surgery

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:16:00 +0000

After over two weeks of walking around with a broken collarbone, the moment of truth arrived. We arrived at the hospital around 11:30 and I was promptly admitted by a nurse who took all my readings, confirmed my information and placed a “hospital band” on my arm. She also advised that unfortunately all the beds were occupied, so I was free to wander as long as I was back before 13:00.

So my wife and I explored the hospital. Shortly before 13:00 the surgeon came to talk to us. He advised that everything was ready to go; they were just waiting for the previous surgery to conclude. While talking to the surgeon, he received a call advising that the OR was available.

We proceeded to the admittance office where a bed was being wheeled in just for me. A quick change into the ‘oh show me your butt’ hospital gown, a kiss from Brigitte and off I was to my long awaited surgery.

I was delivered to the holding area outside of the surgery room where the nurse verified again all of the details including which collarbone I broke. The Surgeon and the Anesthesiologist stopped by to answer any last minute questions and mark my right arm to ensure everyone saw which one would be operated on.

A few minutes later I was in the operating room being hooked up to the monitoring machines and given oxygen. The next thing I remember was Dr. Vivek calling my name. It was over and went very well. Dr. Sanders updated my wife and although he could not use Plan A, Plan B was just as successful. Plan A and Plan B you say? Plan A was to attach the main collarbone back to the small piece of collarbone from the AC joint. Unfortunately, when he did that, the small piece of collarbone lifted from the AC joint and was also cracked into four pieces...not good. It essentially meant that I tore the ligaments in the AC joint. Plan B was to attach the main collarbone to the right shoulder blade and attach the little piece of collar bone to the main collarbone to allow it to heal.

So, as you can see below, I have a bit of a gap between the main collarbone and the right shoulder blade. The plate has effectively bridged the collarbone.

With a successful surgery, I was given a prescription of Percocet / Oxycodone and Cephalexin and sent home.

Next time in Part V – The Recovery

Part III - Health Care in the Cayman Islands – Preparing for Surgery

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:38:00 +0000

In Part II I left off having decided to wait two week until the arrival of Dr. David Sanders, a Canadian trauma orthopedic surgeon. The two weeks passed surprisingly quickly, especially considering that I actually stopped taking my pain medication a few days after the accident. "Mind over matter" as I would say to my wife. I actually didn't really need the pain medication as I slept most of the time and didn’t move much. The body is amazing how it takes care of itself and does not allow you to overdo it for too long.

On July 13 we met with Dr Sanders. We found him very helpful, and he provided us with all of the pros and cons of surgery versus waiting for the collarbone to heal itself. Yes, believe it or not, there was an option of waiting three to four months to see if the collarbone would set itself. As long as I didn't mind a collarbone sticking up an inch or so next to my shoulder. The main risk with the surgery was infection. However, no one could remember a case of infection from a surgery that was done on the Island. They have had a few cases, but these occured with individuals who had their surgery done off Island. One of the downsides to waiting was that if the collarbone did not heal, the other side of my collarbone (attached to the AC joint) would have become ineffective as the body would have started to dissolve it.

Having weighed the options, we decided to go ahead with the surgery and I was advised to arrive the next day at the hospital around 11:30 as my surgery was scheduled for approximately 13:00. I was then introduced to Dr. Vivek, the anesthesiologist - a very nice gentleman whom you immediately feel comfortable with and know he has everything under control. This was especially evident the day we met him as his receptionist was off sick and he was managing the whole office . After filling out some forms and discussing my history, Dr. Vivek walked my wife and I though the procedure and answered our questions.

Since I was never a patient at the Cayman Islands Hospital it was strongly suggested that I register after meeting with Dr. Vivek. The Cayman Islands Hospital is a 24 hour full service, 124 bed, non-profit Government Hospital in George Town. From their website: “It offers accident and emergency services; a wide range of surgical services; a Critical Care Unit, physiotherapy; a pharmacy; a central sterilisation unit; and laboratory services, including a state-of-the-art forensic unit - along with many other facilities a person would expect in a modern health care setting.” Registration was very easy and we were in and out of the hospital in about thirty minutes.

I was now exhausted and heading home knowing that the surgery was less than 24 hours away and that the surgery team was very experienced and knowledgeable, and that my collarbone repair could not have been in better hands.

Next time in Part IV – The Surgery.

Part II - Health Care in the Cayman Islands - The Orthopedic Surgeons

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:38:00 +0000

As noted in Part I, as a Canadian who always had universal health care, all of our friends and family wanted to know what it was like living in a country where you had private insurance. This multi-part article discusses my experience with the Cayman Islands Health care services after I broke my collarbone in June 2009.

I left off Part I departing the private hospital with my arm in a sling, my collarbone broken and full of pain medication in my system (and pocket) waiting for Monday to see if I could see the Orthopedic specialists. I cannot say I remember much of the weekend, I am told that I slept a lot :-)

Monday rolled around and my wife was able to arrange an appointment with the Cayman Orthopedic Group. No waiting, the appointment was for Monday! The Group is actually a number of Canadian Orthopedic surgeons, with varying specialties, that rotate throughout the year on one to two week "visits". Thinking about it, it sure is a really nice gig if you can get it. The surgeon flies down for two weeks, brings his family who has a great vacation, they all stay in the company condo and he makes some money while enjoying the beautiful Caribbean weather with his family.

The surgeon I saw on Monday specialized in reconstructive surgury (i.e. hip replacements). I was impressed by his honesty. He said he could do the surgery but strongly recommended that I wait for two weeks until the next surgeon arrives. It so happens that the next surgeon arriving was Dr. David Sanders from London Ontario who is an orthopedic trauma surgeon for London, Ontario, Canada performing primary and reconstructive surgery for all complex fractures of the pelvis and extremities. It does not take much convincing to wait when a surgeon tells you that you "smashed" the collarbone and that it will be a "bun fight" to get it back together and he recommends you see another surgeon.

Although I was convinced, I had others that suggested I fly to the US or Canada to have it fixed. It appears that this is quite common practice. An interesting part is that my private insurance would have covered 100% of my surgery if I left the Island, but covered only 80% if I stayed. That is one issue that I have never followed up on. Nevertheless, I had decided to stay on the Island and wait for a few reasons. First, I could not imagine flying with a broken collarbone that was floating around and was painful when I walked never mind flying. Second, I felt very comfortable with the Doctors and the health care services on the Island.

We booked the surgery for July 14 and the Orthopedic group began obtaining the necessary approvals from the insurance company. I am told that the local insurance company uses a firm in the United States to review and confirm that the surgery is required. In my case, one look at the X-ray showed it was necessary.

Next time in Part III - Preparing for Surgery.

Kind regards,
Richard

Can't change descriptions in Flickr

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:20:00 +0000

A completely different topic today (still photography related mind you). For quite a long time I have not been able to change the descriptions on my Flickr photos. Normally you can click on the description box below your photo and describe away.

Tonight I decided I would do some research and try to figure out what the issue was. I found a number of posts that said it was related to a Greasemonkey script called Flickr Rich Text. The problem was that I did not have that particular script. Although, I do have a number of scripts, (including a Check Play script that I have just recently finished modifying for the Flickr Foto Competition Group, but I digress). So, I turned off Greasemonkey but I still could not edit my descriptions.

Long story short, it turns out to be a Firefox add-on called Better Flickr 0.3 which uses the Greasemonkey Rich Text script. I found this out here.

Hopefully this will help someone one day and save them a bit of time.

Have a great evening,
Richard

A Photo Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:29:00 +0000

For those that have been following my Blog or viewing any of my websites, you would have noticed that over the past couple of weeks this blog and my website at http://www.itslife.ca were slowing changing. I have now almost completed the "re-branding" of my Blog and websites tying them all together under Richard Hamilton Photography with a new logo and design.

One of the more exciting additions is a photo blog which you can find at http://www.richardhamiltonphotography.com. I will be posting a photo a day from around the world including photos of nature, people (with an emphasis on my studio fashion work), animals (wild, domesticated, big and small) and places (from Canada, to India, to Europe, to the Cayman Islands).

Comments and critiques are always welcomed and even encouraged :-)

Take care,
Richard

Part I - Health Care in the Cayman Islands - A visit to the Private Hospital

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 02:30:00 +0000

Coming from Canada, where we have universal health care, my friends and family are always interested in hearing about health care in Cayman Islands and my thoughts of living in a country where all expats must purchase private health insurance. Up until this past June, I was fortunate in that I had no reason to use the health care facilities here in the Cayman Islands.

That all significantly changed this past June when I fell off a bike and landed "just right" to break my clavicle (collarbone). My wife, who was with me at the time, drove me to the Christie Tomlinson Memorial Hospital (the local private hospital), which is all of three minutes from our house. Have I ever told you how much I love living here where we are so close to everything?. As my wife parked the car I walked in and advised admissions that I had broke my collarbone and would very much appreciate if she could admit me without the long admissions process as I felt myself going into shock and was about to pass out. I sat down, put my head down on the counter and waited. Not more than a couple minutes later my wife walks in wondering why I was not being looked after and where everyone was. I looked up and sure enough the admissions personnel was not there. Not to worry, a nurse arrived seconds after my wife and advised that they were ready to see me. Now talk about service :-)

I was taken to one of the emergency rooms where two nurses and student immediately started taking care of me. The first order of business was to administer some fluids and pain killers intravenously ("IV"). I have never see IV bottles drain so quickly. But, they stopped me from going into shock and I never passed out.

After seeing the doctor, it was off to have some x-rays taken. I was very fortunate in that I did not have to get up on the x-ray table. Those are hard enough at the best of time, I couldn't image having to do it with a broken collarbone. What I found most interesting about this experience, is that when the x-rays were done, the doctor asked for payment. It seems that he was a separate profit center and you had to settle your x-ray bill with him.

Back in the emergency room, the doctor confirmed that I had broken my collarbone but they did not have an orthopedic surgeon on staff. For this service, I was referred to the Cayman Orthopedic Group which operated Monday through Friday (This accident of course happened on a Saturday afternoon). I was therefore put in a sling (which my wife had just purchased at one of the local pharmacies) and sent home with lots of pain killers.

All of the hospital staff was absolutely wonderful and I would have no difficulty in recommending them or using their services again (although hopefully not anytime soon ;-))

Next time, in part II, I will discuss my experience with the Cayman Orthopedic Specialists.

Take care,
Richard

Long overdue update

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 04:31:00 +0000

They tell you when you read blogs, if you are going to have a blog, keep it current. Well, I certainly blew that with my last entry way back in December. I would like to say that between family, work and photography I had no time. But that wouldn't be accurate. I could have set aside a few minutes to blog. It's just like exercise or dieting, we can find excuses, or admit that the reason it is not being done is because we have not made it a priority.

Photography has been one of those priorities that has been keeping me busy on the weekends and evenings. I have continued to participate in a number of photo shoots. The last one was this past Sunday with Miss. Cayman, Nicosia Lawson:

and

Nicosia was an absolute dream to shoot as she knew what to do and was already in the next pose before I had to say anything. She was also very open to suggestions even when one of the poses created a cramp (OK that may have been pushing a little to far :-))

As you will also note above, my photos include a little more post-processing than before. (Okay, that is not hard since I did little to none before). Paul Aiken gave me a crash course in Photoshop and has been encouraging me to really get into it and bring out the best of my photos. YouTube and Google have been my best friends as I search and follow tutorials on using Photoshop.

Another area that Paul and I have been dipping our toes in is high speed photography. Our first foray into it resulted in some nice shots which I was able to take and then use to practice my Photoshopping: A water drop before Photoshop:

and the after Photoshop (the main difference is the burnt background):

We have been down in the Cayman Islands for almost eight months but it is still hard to believe that we have "summer" year round with no cold or snow. As I bid you a good night, I will leave you with a photo I took yesterday from outside my office:

How time flies

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:59:00 +0000

Wow, my four days off have disappeared very quickly. They were very "productive"...I was able to sleep in, take pictures and read (both for pleasure and catch-up on some reading for work), while still having time to sort, process and upload pictures to the web.

In the last Cayman Islands' camera club, Paul Aiken, a new club member and an accomplished photographer strongly recommended that members start uploading their pictures to Flickr for others to comment on. He believes, and I agree, that one only improves when they receive feedback. As I researched Flickr, I found a number of groups that hold "contests". I joined two: fotocompetition and challenge you. While neither of these verbally provide you with direct feedback, you quickly learn whether your picture is liked and by how many when the voting starts.

Let me forewarn you, this becomes very addicted for us competitive types ;-) I have had a few winners, including:

and

And yes, I have managed to play with the 5D Mark II:

The last picture was taken at a private residence which must have spent 10's of thousands of dollars on Christmas displays and lights. I have more pictures here.

My new 5D Mark II has arrived

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 05:58:00 +0000

I was absolutely amazed this morning when I was handed a courier package with my new Canon 5D Mark II camera. This was my Christmas gift that I had all but given up hope that I would receive before Christmas. My colleagues were laughing at me as I ripped into the box to pull out the battery and start charging it.

I am not sure who was more excited that I received the camera, Brigitte or myself. No, its not like Brigitte and I will be fighting over who will be using the camera as photography has not been one of her hobbies. She was happy because she know how much I was looking forward to playing with it over the Christmas holidays. What I did find very promising was that she and Miriam were out today with our Canon 30D taking pictures. Brigitte later advised me that she has laid claims to the 30D :-)

When I showed the camera to Brigitte she noted that it looked very similar to the 30D. When we put the two cameras together she was correct, at first blush there was not a significant difference in appearance. The major differences relate to weight (5D is a little heavy) and the LCD is bigger. However, as they say...never judge a book by its cover. The LCD is absolutely wonderful, as is the ability to adjust each lens using the AF Microadjustments. In my opinion this feature in itself is worth the camera as my Canon 85 f/1.2 L was back focusing. With a calibration of +6, done in a few minutes the lens was providing absolutely stunning pictures. I highly recommend reading this article if you would like to micro adjust any of your lens with the 5D MII, 1Ds MIII or 1D MIII.

I will post later this week some pictures taken with the new camera later. In the meantime, I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Photographing a Cayman Island beach wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 21:09:00 +0000

Last weekend I was fortunate to photograph a beach wedding in the Cayman Islands. Haydee approached me asking if I would like to be their wedding photographer. I was quite honored and immediately accepted. However, prior to the wedding I was quite nervous. I had never shot a beach wedding before and if you have ever tried to shoot individuals wearing white against a bright beach background, you will know why I was nervous.

I thought it would be really nice if I photographed Haydee and Eric sitting on the shore while I waded into the ocean. I had the angles worked out and was originally planning on only wadding in. But while I was in the water I saw different angles that I wanted to take which meant going further and further into the ocean. I really didn't mind as I could always change my pants. Unfortunately, what I forgot to do was empty my pockets. I had a Sandisk flash card with a number of wedding photos on it. The card barely got wet, but it was enough for it not to work. What a rookie mistake, but one that I can guarantee that I will never make again. Fortunately, after the card dried out, I was able to retrieve all but three pictures from the card.

I thoroughly enjoyed taking the pictures and was touched by the reaction I received when Haydee, Eric and their families viewed the slide slow I produced.

Congratulations, Haydee and Eric and thank you for including me in your special day.

If you like to see additional pictures of Haydee and Eric's wedding, please click here.

Must have freeware programs

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:46:00 +0000

Do you use programs that you cannot image living without? Are there programs that you think I would enjoy using? If there are, please share them with us. In the meantime, I have noted a number of freeware programs that I use and you may find useful. I have enclosed a link to the website with a brief description from the software provider.

Must have freeware programs

2BrightSparks
"SyncBack is our freeware program that helps you easily backup and synchronize your files to: the same drive; a different drive or medium (CDRW, CompactFlash, etc); an FTP server; a Network; or a Zip archive."

7-Zip
"7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio."

Eraser
"Eraser is an advanced security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns."

Family Safety
"As a parent, you want to help make your family's experiences safer and more secure, and you want to provide good guidance. Windows Live Family Safety can help."

JujuEdit
"JujuEdit is a file editor, or alternatively a text editor with knobs-on...More specifically, it is an application which is as non-destructive as possible: When you open a file, JujuEdit does NOT convert it into an internal file format."

Keepass
"KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish)."

Lupas Rename 2000
"Lupas Rename is a FREEWARE program developed to rename a few or a massive number of files with a lot of features."

Moffsoft FreeCalc
"Moffsoft FreeCalc is a great replacement for your existing Windows® calculator."

Mozilla Firefox
"The award-winning Firefox Web browser has security, speed and new features that will change the way you use the Web. Don’t settle for anything less."

MWSnap
"MWSnap is a small yet powerful Windows program for snapping (capturing) images from selected parts of the screen."

PortabelApps.com
"A portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind."

PuTTY
"PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator."

Skype
"Make calls from your computer — free to other people on Skype and cheap to phones and mobiles around the world."

SMPlayer
"SMPlayer intends to be a complete front-end for MPlayer, from basic features like playing videos, DVDs, and VCDs to more advanced features like support for MPlayer filters and more."

SpywareBlaster
"Powerful protection against spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers and other potentially unwanted software. Trusted and effective."

SteadyState
"You can't always prevent problems during a user session, but now you can undo the whole session. Learn how Windows SteadyState can return your computer and hard disk to its exact condition before the user touched it, simply by rebooting."

TrueCrypt
"Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux"

I also use the following, but do not classify them as "must haves".

AVG Free 8.0
"Basic antivirus and antispyware protection for Windows available to download for free. Limited features, no support, for private and non-commercial use only."

Cain
"Cain & Abel is a password recovery tool for Microsoft Operating Systems. It allows easy recovery of various kind of passwords by sniffing the network, cracking encrypted passwords using Dictionary, Brute-Force and Cryptanalysis attacks, recording VoIP conversations, decoding scrambled passwords, recovering wireless network keys, revealing password boxes, uncovering cached passwords and analyzing routing protocols...Be warned that there is the possibility that you will cause damages and/or loss of data using this software and that in no events shall the author be liable for such damages or loss of data."

Drupal
"Drupal, an open source content management platform. Equipped with a powerful blend of features, Drupal supports a variety of websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven websites."

Google Earth
"Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings and even explore galaxies in the Sky. You can explore rich geographical content, save your toured places and share with others."

HashCalc
"A fast and easy-to-use calculator that allows to compute message digests, checksums and HMACs for files, as well as for text and hex strings. It offers a choice of 13 of the most popular hash and checksum algorithms for calculations."

K9
"K9 is an email filtering application that works in conjunction with your regular POP3 email program and automatically classifies incoming emails as spam (junk email) or non-spam without the need for maintaining dozens of rules or constant updates to be downloaded. It uses intelligent statistical analysis that can result in extremely high accuracy over time."

Mobipocket Reader
"From eBooks and eNews to reference material and desktop documents, Mobipocket Reader gives you access to thousands of titles including current bestsellers, world renowned dictionaries, as well as major enews websites, RSS feeds and weblogs.

Mobipocket Creator
"Whether you need to create personal content to take along with you, distribute or sell ebooks to others, or design more advanced content and applications, the Mobipocket Creator family of products enables to easily create ebooks from a variety of sources to be viewed on all the PDA and smartphone platforms where Mobipocket Reader is supported."

Opanda IExif Viewer
"Professional EXIF / GPS / IPTC Info Viewer"

Stunnel
"Stunnel is a program that allows you to encrypt arbitrary TCP connections inside SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) available on both Unix and Windows. Stunnel can allow you to secure non-SSL aware daemons and protocols (like POP, IMAP, LDAP, etc) by having Stunnel provide the encryption, requiring no changes to the daemon's code."

Tor
"Tor is a software project that helps you defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security."

VMware Player
"This free desktop virtualization software application makes it easy to operate any virtual machine created by VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion, VMware Server or VMware ESX, as well as Microsoft Virtual Server virtual machines or Microsoft Virtual PC virtual machines."

WireShark
"Wireshark is an award-winning network protocol analyzer developed by an international team of networking experts."

Programs I am currently playing with:

K9 Web Protection
"K9 Web Protection is our free Internet filtering and control solution for the home. K9 puts YOU in control of the Internet so you can protect your kids."

Keeping Computers and Children Safe

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:28:00 +0000

One of the struggles we have as parents is allowing our child to surf the internet while keeping her safe. The internet is absolutely wonderful, it has a wealth of information that we only dreamed of when we were children. It has actually replaced the TV in our house. However, just like TV, not everything on the internet is suitable for all ages. With TV it was a lot easier to monitor as it was situated in the living room. Today, some children have computers in their bedrooms or in rooms where parents cannot view it. Furthermore, a child can turn off the sound on the computer and the parent will not be able to know what the child is doing unless they are watching them.

While watching the child surf is highly recommended for parents of young children, it does not work so well for older children. Having just setup a computer to allow our daughter to surf safely, and to protect the computer from viruses, trojans, and accidental deletion of files, I can advise that it is quite a bit of work, but a small price to pay for the ultimate peace of mind.

While there are numerous options available, I decided to use two free programs from Microsoft:

1. Family Safety

2. SteadyState

Family Safety allows you to set content filters, state the sites that either can or can't be looked at and monitor the internet activity. Overall, I think it is a very useful program.

Unfortunately, Family Safety is only part of the solution. A user can accidentally delete files or install programs that should not be installed. This is were the Steady State program comes into play. It allows you to lock down the computer so that any changes made are automatically erased upon restart. It is essentially the same system used in schools and libraries. I found that the computer is a bit slower with the software installed, but it provides great comfort knowing that I will not have to spend hours reinstalling programs or removing trojans.

I have provided a very high level review. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask below.

Pirates Week - 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:22:00 +0000

Yesterday was the 31st annual Pirates Week here on Grand Cayman. Due to hurricane Paloma, it was postponed and condensed into Pirates Day, but it was still referred to as Pirates Week. Brigitte and I thoroughly enjoyed the festival. It started with the 2nd annual boat races sponsored by Caybrew.

Contestants were allowed to only make the boats from cardboard, duct tape and paint. A lot of work went into the boats and costumes.

This was my first cardboard boat race, and I was amazed how many of them completed the course. There was even a team from Japan with a film crew making a movie. Unfortunately, their boat did not do so well, but their tenacity certainly made up for it and they can hold their heads high as they pushed, pulled and dragged their boat around the course.

(Did you notice the bailing of water on the left side?)

The day was packed full of activities including dancing, pageants, a parade, pirate costume competition, songfest, and one of the best display of fireworks that I have seen. If you are looking for a fun filled festival, I highly recommend visiting Grand Cayman during next year's Pirates Week.

For additional pictures of Pirates week, please visit photos.richardhamiltonphotography.com

Until next time,
Richard

Lessons learned with custom domains on Blogger.com

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:35:00 +0000

I'm back! My blog has been off line for the past few days as a result of the switch from rdhamilton.blogspot.com to blog.itslife.ca. It drove me crazy trying to figure out what the issue was. Every time one typed in blog.itslife.ca you were redirected to the Google search page.

This all started when I requested my hosting company, Bluehost, to setup a CNAME to Blogger.com. They setup (as I requested):

blog.itslife.ca --> rdhamilton.blogspot.com

As I researched the issue further, I found that the actual code should have been:

blog.itslife.ca. 900 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
www.blog.itslife.ca. 900 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

Once it was changed accordingly, I republished my blog from the Blogger
Dashboard by publishing it to blogspot and then back to custom domain
(under Settings -> Publishing). Please note that my custom website
returned a 404 error until I republished it.

For anyone that is looking for more information, I found the following
website very helpful:

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2008/11/schizophrenia-and-custom-domain-urls.html

I learned a few valuable lessons that I thought I would pass on:

1. Help in the Google Blogger Help Group is hit and miss. I never received a response to my request for help.

2. There appears to be no way to contact Blogger directly for help. (You receive what you pay for comes to mind).

3. Bluehost is absolutely wonderful and usually responds to my requests for help within an hour of receiving a support request. If you are looking for a web hosting company, I highly recommend them.

Until next time.
Richard

Testing the smoke detector

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:39:00 +0000

I swear that time here in the Caribbean moves faster than in Canada. As with most days, today just flew by. As a matter of fact, it is hard to believe that my family and I moved down here over three months ago. We have been so busy with work, school and volunteering.

Today Brigitte (my wife) and I took a drive to the ocean. When we asked our daughter (my step-daughter) to join us, her exact words were "are you planning on getting out of the vehicle? If so, I cannot go because I cannot be seen with my parents." Ah, the teenage years where parents become two headed monsters that know nothing and embarrass their children if they are seen in public with them. Alas, she did not accompany us.

There is actually very little damage on this side of Grand Cayman. We saw a couple of downed trees, but that was the extent of it. The waves were not nearly as high as I was hoping. But we did get to watch the unloading and loading a Seaboard cargo ship.

Upon arriving at home Brigitte decided to test the monitored smoke detector. Who actually tests a smoke detector you ask?...One who does it by burning dinner ;-). Just for the record, there are easier ways of testing. Even Max (our two year old German Shepherd Dog) had his nose plastered to the window screen taking in as much fresh air as he could.

Today I installed a slide show feed from my photos.richardhamiltonphotography.com website hosted on Zenfolio.com. I have to thank Kalani at http://blog.wanderlusttraveler.net/2008/05/zenfolio-and-unified-photostream-using.html who provided a method of pulling pictures from Zenfolio. It is actually quite hard to find information on how to include pictures from Zenfolio as most of it revolves around Flickr. I made two modifications tp Kalani's suggestions: 1. I found that I did not have to publish my Yahoo Pipe; and 2. I was able to obtain a RSS feed directly from the Yahoo Pipes once I ran it. This saved me the step of using feedburner.

Well that's it for another day. Until next time.

Richard

My First Post

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Hamilton) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 11:26:00 +0000

Welcome to my first post. As I was writing this I was wondering if anyone will ever read this. I therefore thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoy reading my blog. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave me a comment.

I think it is only fitting to tell you a little about myself. I am a Canadian (born and raised) who moved to the Cayman Islands this past summer to experience Island life and work. In regards to Island life, we just just experienced Hurricane Paloma as it passed by as a Category 3. Although Grand Cayman (where we are located) fared quite well, we lost another tree (we are batting 1000 as we lost a tree in the last Hurricane). Here are a couple pictures of the Olive tree that we lost last night:

I am originally from Canada where most root systems from the trees dig deep into the ground. Here on the Island, the root system fans out as the Island is more or less one big rock. Here is a picture of the tree after its "haircut":

Enough about trees and hurricane damage. Enquiringly minds want to know...why should you come back? What can you expect from the Blog? In future blogs I will:

talk about my life as an expat living and working in the Cayman Islands;
tell you more about me;
discuss photography and post new pictures; and
the odd rant (not that the rant will be odd, OK maybe some will think so, but I was thinking more along the lines of infrequent :-).

It has been a pleasure.

Richard