sunpech.blog

What's In My Messenger Bag

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Mon, 06 May 2013 09:00:07 PDT

Not long ago I posted what's in my camera bag. I thought I would follow up on what I carry in my other bag-- especially when I travel. Here's what I typically have in my messenger bag.

Going from the top, left to right:

Canon 5D Mark III
Apple adapters
Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone
Kindle Fire (version 1)
Kindle Paperwhite
Business cards
Lens cleaner pen
Pens
Apple AC charger/adapter
Micro USB charger
Headphones
15" Macbook Pro (mid-2010)
ONA "The Union Street Camera and Laptop Bag" - Ranger Tan

You're probably wondering why I have so many mobile devices/readers. The Galaxy Nexus is my phone of course. I always have this with me.

The Kindle Fire I have I use mostly for playing a game or reading my Twitter feed. It also runs a custom ROM, Jandycane. I blogged on how you can root the Kindle Fire and put a custom Android ROM on there. a while back.

The Kindle Paperwhite I use for actually reading ebooks. It's actually really nice and clear-- very easy on the eyes for reading anywhere. I while back I tweeted about winning the device at a Amazon Cloud Services meetup in Los Angeles.

Besides all the gadgets, I highly recommend the messenger bag from Ono. They're well made, stylish, and just holds everything you see here.

Laptop Warranties are Worth It

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:00:14 PDT

I've owned three laptops over the last nearly twelve years. Each of them, I've gotten some kind of warranty with. And I'm glad I did. If you don't want to read this blog post, here is the shortened version:

Get a 2-3 year warranty for your laptop.

In 2001, I got my first laptop-- a Dell Latitude C600 (15" screen). Over my years using this as my main PC, the screen, hard drive, and battery all broke at some point. With a warranty, Dell was able to replace the parts as needed. I retired this laptop around 2005.

In 2006, I got a Lenovo Thinkpad T60 (15"). This was a solid machine, or I should say is-- since I still use it today as a secondary laptop running Ubuntu Linux. The only thing that ever went wrong with this was the battery, which all models were replaced with or without warranty.

In 2010, I got my first Mac, the Macbook Pro (15", mid-2010). Almost two years ago, in 2011, when I upgraded OS X Snow Leopard to Lion, the hard drive failed. I brought it into the Apple store and they replaced it. Recently, I went into the Apple store to look at Macbook Airs. Speaking with one of their reps about how my current MBP's battery charge just doesn't hold anymore, the rep told me if my MBP was still within the 3-year AppleCare warranty, that I should bring it in and have it looked at. I checked, at my AppleCare doesn't expire until April 30, 2013-- just five days! So I brought it in, they checked it-- and normally a battery is rated for 1000 cycles. I was at around 326. So I was covered. I got my battery replaced for free. I probably saved around $129. They put in a brand new battery too, so it's like my MBP got a new lease on life! It can probably last me another 2-3 years!

From these past experiences, there are a few things that generally can go wrong with laptops:

Hard drives
LCD screens
Batteries

I tend to use my equipment a lot. I bring them with me on road trips, to offices, around the world and back. They go through a lot of wear and tear. I'm careful with my stuff, I don't just drop it or pour food/water on it. It just gets a lot of use.

I highly recommend getting some kind of warranty in the range of 2-3 years for laptops. That's about the age of how long you should keep a laptop before looking into getting something new. If you really take care of you laptop, maybe you can squeeze 4-5 years out of it. My Lenovo Thinkpad is going on 7 years!

What makes it worth it is not having to go through the headache of spending time and money to order parts to replace what's broken, if it's even something you can fix yourself. Warranties probably run a few hundred dollars-- about the cost of parts and labor if something were to break. To me, that's worth it.

Here's a picture of both laptops, still in use today.

Be Considerate of Other Photographers

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:00:06 PDT

Last week I was in the Bahamas for a friend's wedding. The people, the scenery, and weather was beautiful up and through the wedding. The day after... not so much. We had a bit of a tropical storm, but it didn't last too long. Thank goodness the wedding day had clear skies.

Naturally, I brought my camera with me on the trip. I do have a post on what's in my camera bag, typically. I knew they had their own photographer(s) for the weekend, so I wanted to share with everyone how you can be considerate of photographers at events.

Get out of their way

If it's an event such as a wedding, stay out of their way. I mean this physically, don't be in front of their shot. Give the photographers priority to get their shots. They are professionals being paid to do their job. Likely you're just a guest to attend the event, it's not your place to get the absolute best shot at the expense of the bride and groom's photographers.

Minimize use of flash

The room isn't well lit. Maybe you think it's time for you to switch from auto flash to always use flash. Maybe you want to start taking photos willy-nilly-- as in all the time now that the big ceremony is over. WRONG. A constant use of flashes can actually be captured by other cameras in the area-- possibly ruining a good photo by some awkward light source. So be prudent as to how many shots with flashes you use. I'm not saying don't ever use flash. Prudence.

Do not just stand there

There may be a time for that group photo where on one side is the group, the subject, and on the other is everyone with a camera(s). So you're there on the side with everyone with a camera. After you take your shot and you're done, leave. By standing there reviewing your photo(s), you're eating up space that someone else could be in your spot to take a photo.

Take turns

Same situation as above with a group photo. It's so annoying to look at your finished group photo of eight people, where everyone but two people are looking directly at your camera. Instead, these few people are looking at someone else's. It's not the subjects' fault either, they don't know where to look! Everyone firing off shots all at once benefits no one. Take turns, call out which one the group should be looking at so they know. Then call out when everyone should be looking at yours when it's your turn.

Just one more story I'd like to share. I feel as though I'm being too preachy.

During a beach photoshoot, the photographer rounded everyone up. And I do mean everyone-- all 120+ wedding guests for a big group shot on the beach. When the different groups were taking turns, some of us wanted to also take pictures of the group. The lead photographer wouldn't have that. He basically shooed us away so he could get his shot.

At first I wasn't too pleased that I couldn't also get my shot. But I understood. I needed to get out of his way and let him do his job. I was able to sneak in some candid, behind the scene shots that turned out fine.

Okay, rant over. Sharing time. One photo only though, I like to keep this wedding album private out of respect of the bride/groom.

Here is a shot of the gazebo before the wedding. This is one of my favorite shots I took in the Bahamas.

What's In My Camera Bag

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:13:01 PDT

In Feedly, there's a Flickr group that I subscribe to: What's in your camera bag? I like to consider it photography gear porn.

So I thought I would share what I typically carry with me when I'm out and about. I consider this a light package. When I'm actually at an event I know I will take tons of pictures, there will be a bit more in my bag. But overall, this is good enough for most situations.

Here's what is typically in my camera bag, unless otherwise noted:

I have (going from left to right, starting at the top left):

Canon 600 EX-RT Speedlite
A Better Bounce Card (large)
Canon 24-105mm f/4 L IS lens
Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens
Canon 5D Mark III
Western Digital 2TB external USB hard drive (only if I'm bringing my Macbook Pro)
Extra SD memory cards
Flashlight keychain
Lens wipes (I use Zeiss Pre-Moistened Lens Cloths Wipes)
Extra AA batteries (rechargeable, for flash)
Extra LP-E6 batteries (for DSLR)
ThinkTank Retrospective 30 camera bag

In the future, I will definitely do a post of what's in my camera bag when I'm doing a full day event. You may be surprised as to how much this bag can fit.

Wondercon 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:17:50 PDT

Over the weekend on Sunday I went to check out Wondercon down in Anaheim. I would have loved to go all three days, but I couldn't secure tickets as they sold out days in advance-- which I heard was a first.

The ticket for Sunday was only $10. Not bad, but they didn't have long hours on this Easter Sunday. However, they did open the doors early for everyone. Supposedly it said 11am, but they let people in as early as 10am.

This was my first time to Wondercon. But I've been to quite a few comic cons throughout my life now. Of course nothing beats San Diego Comic Con (SDCC), but this is probably the best one in California excluding SDCC.

The other two I've attended were Long Beach Comic Con and Comikaze Expo. Although they're both good, I would say that Wondercon is slightly bigger and attracts bigger dealers. I was surprised to see Graham Crackers from my home city of Chicago was there. CheapGraphicNovels.com, one of my favorite dealers, was also there. They offer 45% their trade paperbacks, which is probably the best deal you can find for TPBs.

So in terms of comic con sizes, I would rank them in this order:

San Diego Comic Con (very very big, several hours to walk entire floor)
Wondercon (can walk floor in about 1.5 hours)
Comikaze Expo (small-ish, can walk entire floor in one hour)
Long Beach Comic Con (small, can see everything in under an hour)

Obviously everyone can walk and look at different paces. This is from my perspective of how I would walk and look at stuff.

The costumes at Wondercon were okay-- granted on a Sunday of any con will generally not have nearly as many cosplayers as Friday/Saturday. Also, like on any Sunday con, there were a lot more young kids and toddlers.

What I love about the Anaheim Convention Center is that it has pretty decent parking. I paid $12, and it was an easy walk. Not many people know this, but if you go early, there's an area of parking that is a mere few steps to the front! There's also plenty of options for food at restaurants nearby as well as an area for food trucks. I don't know why people complain, SDCC, LBCC, and LACC all make it more of a hassle to get food nearby. At the other convention centers you have to cross a big street to get to food! ACC makes it so easy!

Some of my favorite pictures are below. Full album can be found on my G+ page. This directly links to the album, but on G+. Normally I link to my Picasa album, but it seems G+ is getting a big push.

Some nice toys

Oblivion just had a ship there with someone giving out free flyers and paper toy thingie

Some wicked Wreck-it-Ralph costumes

Disney's Duck Tales Remastered in HD

Joss Whedon and cast talking about Much Ado About Nothing

Chris Hardwick (@nerdist)

The copies of The Return of Superman doing well from the 90s I see... /sarcasm

Valiant Entertainment had a booth!

Related posts:

Why I love Google Reader

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:28:21 PDT

Yesterday some sad news hit me with Google's decision to close Google Reader on July 1, 2013.

Why? As The Next Web wrote, Former Google Reader product manager confirms our suspicions: Its demise is all about Google+. See Brian Shih, former Google Reader Product Manager's answer on Quora.

This is sad for me because other than Gmail and Search itself, Google Reader (GR) is the service I use the most from Google, and is a browser tab I always have open. I did write a post years ago my favorite Web App is Google Reader. You could say that GR is my gateway to the Internet!

As much as I like Google Plus, it's no Google Reader in terms of importance for my daily reading.

What I love about Google Reader

It syncs my read items as a web-based RSS Reader. I use multiple devices, so having a central place is key. This is why I don't care for fat/local client apps.

I have the choice to socially share an item to a Facebook, Twitter, and G+. It's not socially driven by default. I have no idea how I'm going to keep up with a mess of streams on social networks I already listed.

It's simple. I know what websites I like, there's not many, but I do like to at least skim the headlines every day. That's right, EVERY SINGLE DAY.

My Reader Trends screenshot shows I have read 300,000-plus items! Although I'm pretty sure I used Reader since maybe 2007 or so.

What it means to see Google Reader shut down

In short, it makes me feel that no Google service is safe from being shutdown. I use Blogger, which is also owned by Google, as my blogging engine. But are they one day going to take it down in favor of Google Plus? Should I switch to some other blogging platform in anticipation that G+ is going to swallow everything else that is Google?

Google's axed other services that I didn't care for much, such as Google Wave and Google Buzz. But those services were short-lived and never got much traction to begin with. They never housed so much useful data for me, and maybe most anyone.

Going Forward

Are we to believe that Twitter feeds and G+ posts are a good replacement to RSS? I certainly don't think so. The social web is certainly great, but not everything needs to be social or curated material. This is especially true when your social network doesn't even cover the material you're interested in!

The point of RSS feeds is for me to go over the content on my own time and speed. With the large fire-hose stream of material from social networks, I just don't bother to even skim over the thousands of tweets/posts from a mere eight hours ago. It's just not feasible as it's more suited for real-time or rather, recent-time.

As Mike Elgan points out, Google Reader is used by tech-journalists and bloggers. These are the people that generate content that social networks share with each other! If GR is also the gateway to the Internet more so than social networks-- it's going to have a dramatic change in workflow.

If and when Google Reader really does shut down, I'm going to have to figure out how I view the Internet. I remember using iGoogle and Netvibes several years ago, but immediately switched to Google Reader because it was such a better way to view and consume information. This is very sad news for me. :(

More Info

Thankfully, Google is giving the option to download your stuff via Google Takeout. I'll be sure to do that before the end.

As my Facebook friends have pointed out, there's a petition to keep Google Reader Running on Change.org. I've signed it, but I doubt it will do anything.

On reddit, there's a nice AskReddit thread: What are some good web RSS readers to replace google reader?

Pictures from UnCubed LA

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:30:58 PDT

I went to the The UnCubed event here in Los Angeles this past Thursday. I wanted to check out what startups are here in LA and see the panels. It was good event that was extremely relaxed for a job fair. It was right by the beach-- LA style no doubt.

I took pictures here and there, but didn't take any of the actual job fair. I got a chance to see what companies and technologies are at play. For the most part, most startup companies run on Rails/PHP/Heroku/AWS/MongoDB. Little to none on Microsoft's technologies. A little disappointing, but somewhat expected.

The speakers from the first discussion:

Topic: The Future of Innovation in Los Angeles

Lane Halley (Carbon Five) - moderator
Alex Maghen (Grindr)
Avesta Rasouli (Coloft)
Robert Jadon (Startup UCLA)
Erik Rannala (Muckerlab)
Eva Ho (Factual)
Michael Jones (Science)

Full set of pictures can be found here.

The Stanley Kubrick Exhibit at LACMA

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:32:01 PDT

Today I checked out the Stanley Kubrick Exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). To be honest, I'm not all too familiar with Stanley Kubrick's work. There are only two of his movies that I can say I watched entirely: Eyes Wide Shut and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. The latter being more Spielberg than Kubrick anyway.

I hear that a lot of people either really like Kubrick's films, or really dislike them. I've seen bits and pieces of his movies for the most part-- The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Full Metal Jacket, and Spartacus. I've always found his films to be unsettling and erie. I'm just never in the mood to watch them in it's entirety.

After seeing this exhibit, and enjoying it so much, has me considering giving his movies another try. In all likely hood, I'll fall asleep watching his films.

I took the pictures below with my Galaxy Nexus Android phone. I didn't post-process or re-crop them at all, they are straight from the device.

Full set of pictures can be found here.

Cleaning Up Old Social Accounts

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:33:01 PDT

A week ago I deleted my Instagram and Path accounts.

Today I was able to delete an old Facebook account I created in 2006 when I was in graduate school. After graduating, I not only lost access to that email address, but also forgot the password and even the email address! It was one of those school accounts that auto generates an email address based on first letter of first name, followed by however many more characters of the last name. The formula: [firstname initial][first x characters of lastname]@students.depaul.edu.

So for me, it was always hard to remember since my last name has sixteen characters! I didn't know where it stopped... ssuwata@students.depaul.edu? ssuwatan? ssuwatana? It's doubly hard to remember since email is commonplace now. Back in the mid 90s, school email addresses might be many student's first email address to be widely used.

The problem with forgetting the email address and password, is that these pieces of information are required if you want to delete your Facebook (FB) account. However, it seems a while ago FB implemented a vanity login/url for everyone. This old account was eventually migrated with the vanity url in plain view. It used the simple formula firstname.lastname in place of the email address for login.

I used that and guessed at the old password as was successful in logging into my old account! I then checked out all the friend requests that I was never able to respond to and went about to deactivate/delete my account. I am pleased I was able to delete this seven year old account that contained some of my information and wasn't under my control.

But this does raise privacy and security issues.

What about others who forgot their email address/passwords, and/or even email addresses they no longer have access to (such as school emails)?
Should old social network accounts float out there forever, if the user can't get back into their account?
The auto migration to facebook vanity logins of the formula: firstname.lastname?

These are some nasty defaults from the university and Facebook. The university's default got me into it, and Facebook's default got me out.

The reason I cleaned up these social media accounts is not because I dislike the service or anything-- but simply because I am no longer active on those accounts. I see no reason to keep them and my connections on them active if they're virtually dead. Although this piece, Why I’m Quitting Instagram by Ryan Block is a fascinating read.

I also feel uncomfortable with having my data that is out of my control-- at least having it seem that way.

A while ago I used TextAmerica for moblogging with pictures. This was before there was Instagram, Twitpic, yFrog, etc. This was even before iPhones and Android devices. But I eventually stopped using the service and they eventually went under. I wondered, what did they do with my data? I don't recall being given any notice that they were disappearing. Thankfully, they did end up deleting old free account data.

So, when it comes to unused accounts with my personal data, I rather take a pro-active approach to deleting my accounts. One of the things I look for when I sign up for any new service, free or pay, is how easy is it for me to walk out-- to remove/delete the account.

How awful would it be if in the real world, you can walk into a store, but then don't know how to navigate your way out?

For example-- Ikea. I love their products. They're affordable, decently made, and most of all-- I don't feel bad if I have to throw them out or give them away once I no longer need the table, shelf, or whatever. However, I can't stand the layout of the place. If you've ever been to an Ikea, the place is built like a maze with sections and little shortcuts everywhere. I always have to make long walks to find the few things I want to get. I do end up staying longer than I want to, but so does everyone else-- causing lines and shortage of staff to go around! I seem to have a love/hate relationship with Ikea.

Anyway, I do feel cleaner.

Related posts:

Dark Knight Legend Exhibit at LA Live

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:32:06 PST

Over the weekend on Sunday, I went to check out the Dark Knight Legend Exhibit at LA Live. It's a free exhibit there, located on the top of the parking structure just north of LA Live. The exhibit runs until December 14, 2012.

There's artwork, vehicles, models, props, costumes, and behind the scene videos from all the Batman films throughout the exhibit. I really like how close I could get to the props and costumes. I did go on a busy day as there were a lot of people there. Also, I recommend parking in the structure just below-- should only be $5 for the first two hours.

Here are some of the pictures I took. Full album can be found here.

Fixing an Android Error Message - Error retrieving information from server

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 09:00:07 PST

I have a Galaxy Nexus that recently got an over the air (OTA) update to Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). Coming from 4.1.2 I was thrilled to see the new changes, particularly with their new panorama feature. But after the update I had issues with updating apps on the Google Play Store.

The Problem

I got the following error message:

Update for "Foursquare" could not be downloaded due to an error. (Error retrieving information from server. [RPC:AEC:0])

This would apply to any app, but for my case both Foursquare and Google Music.

I tried a lot of different things from clearing the cache of each of these apps as well as the Google Play app, to even uninstalling the Foursquare app and re-downloading it. None of which worked.

Solution

In the end, I found this link which pointed me in the right direction.

The workaround is to simply to go to Settings->Accounts&Sync->Google and removing my Google account. Afterwards, just add it back again. Then the error message disappeared and I could update/install apps once again.

Setting up Windows Phone 8 Emulator on a Virtual Machine

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 10:17:44 PST

Not long ago I blogged about Installing Windows 8 Pro on Parallels Desktop 8. That of course worked for me, but when it came time to having Visual Studio 2012 (VS2012) and running an emulator for Windows Phone 8, it simply doesn't work. I searched the Internet as to why, and came up with the following links:

As a lot of people pointed out, it's not really possible in Parallels Desktop 8 (PD8), but is possible through VMware Fusion 5 (VMF5) with a small workaround.

I recommend following this guide, but will supplement some more information as it pertains to VMF5, as it's not exactly the same as VMware Workstation 9.

First off, I recommend installing from scratch. I tried to import my existing virtual machine created through PD8, and failed many, many, many times. I ended up with a blue screen screen and countless reboots that try to fix something that didn't get fixed. Save yourself time and just do a clean install of Windows 8 on VMF5.

Even if you have or haven't installed VS2012 with Windows Phone 8 SDK, you should uninstall Hyper-V.

You can get to this in Windows 8 through Control Panel and search for "windows features". Then click on "Turn Windows features on or off".

Make sure these boxes are unchecked, as in off. You'll check these back on later.

Next in the virtual machine's settings, in Processors & Memory, uncheck "Enable hypervisor applications in this virtual machine". You'll check this back on later.

Next you have the Virtual Machine Library window open, and then right click + hold alt (option) key to get the option to "Open Config File in Editor".

Here add the following settings, as they shouldn't exist.

hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = "FALSE"
mce.enable = "TRUE"

Finally, check back on everything you unchecked from before. A restart is probably needed for the Windows Hyper-V install again.

Now you'll be able to run a Windows Phone Emulator within VMware Fusion 5, on a Mac!

Happy coding!

Note: I haven't purchased my copy of VMware Fusion 5 yet. I'll likely buy it before the 30-day trial is up.

Long Beach Comic Con 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 23:28:21 PDT

Over the weekend I attended Long Beach Comic Con held at the Long Beach Convention Center. It's not as big as San Diego Comic Con nor Comikaze Expo, but it definitely had a more collector's paradise feel to it.

I actually didn't take too many pictures myself as I was head deep in the comic book bins looking for deals on actual comic books. Normally I'm more of a trade paperback (TPB) kind of comic reader, but recently started picking up some individual titles again. I'll try to have a blog post up covering some of my more recent readings.

There also weren't too many people dressed up-- but then again I went only on Sunday, the day after the costume/masquerade party. I definitely missed taking pictures of some pretty nice costumes because I was mostly there for the comics, not panels or costumes really. Sorry to disappoint if that was what you were hoping for!

Full album can be found here.

Some pictures I took:

Went to the Valiant Comics panel.

Dinesh Shamdasani, CCO of Valiant in the middle.

Joshua Dysart, the writer for Harbinger.

Rocksteady!

Killer Klowns from Outer Space?! (Movie reference)

Related Posts:

Installing Windows 8 Pro on Parallels Desktop 8

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:26:10 PST

Last week I went to a Microsoft launch event, New Era of Work, and got a free copy of Windows 8 Pro. I had already tried Windows 8 Preview as well as have Windows 7 Ultimate running as a virtual machines (VMs) through Parallels Desktop on my Macbook Pro (MBP). I didn't like the preview edition that much, so I uninstalled it after a few days. But after attending the event, I thought I'd give it another look.

Please note that the latest PC I own is a Lenovo Thinkpad T60 from 2006, which the wireless card just broke the other day. So my MBP from 2010 is the latest hardware I own.

The problems is that the current Parallels (version 8) does not support upgrading from any Windows OS to Windows 8. Here is the screenshot of what Parallels sent to me via email:

I learned this the hard way when I installed a preview edition of Win8 and upgraded to Win8 Pro, and things were just wacky. The following was screwed up:

Screen resolution was not fully supported. I have a 2560x1440 native res that wasn't supported-- instead I had to run it at 1920x1400, which was pretty sub-optimal.
The path to the shared home folders was not supported. I couldn't access my Mac's home folder of \\psf\Home, which is an inconvenience.

The preview edition of Win8 ran better than the upgraded Win8 on Parallels Desktop through the upgrade! There's no way I was going to try upgrading my Win7 Ultimate that already runs just fine!

But there's a workaround. If you do a full install, it should run just fine. Here's how:

Through Parallels 8, I'm not sure about previous versions, you have an option to install other virtual machines to whatever you already have. From the virtual machines list, click on new.

The window that opens up should allow you to download and install a preview edition of Windows 8 for free. Do that and pick whatever architecture you want (32 or 64 bit). I chose 64 bit and highly recommend that.

Let it download and install fully. From here, as per the instruction given to me from my copy of Windows 8 Pro, go to: http://www.windows.com/nfrdownload. Follow the instructions there to begin the download process of Win8 Pro. Once that finishes the download, there should be a screen that comes up that asks where to proceed with some options.

Choose to save the Win8 Pro as an ISO on your local computer to install later. Do not choose to install immediately!

Once you have the ISO saved, you can do a full install of Win8 Pro from that. At this point you can go ahead and delete the Win8 preview VM you just installed on your Mac.

Now you can install Win8 Pro from the newly downloaded ISO. The product key I had worked. If the product key you were given was for an upgrade only, there are workarounds for that even-- via some registry edit. See: Probable Fix: Problem in Activating Windows 8 After Clean Install

Note, this is all because Parallels 8 currently doesn't have a clean upgrade path for current Windows OSes. Once that fix is made, then this is probably the only way to get Windows 8 Pro to run on Parallels on your Mac OS X.

Upgrading my 2010 Macbook Pro to SSD

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 02:44:49 PDT

I recently upgraded my 15" 2010 Macbook Pro's 500GB HDD to a 512GB SSD. The directions you find in this blog post, you should easily be able to find using a search engine. I just want to document what I did, hoping to help fill the Internet with something useful, maybe.

The didn't have a problem with the CPU or even memory. Well, I do constantly run out of HDD space every two-three months, but I do regular backups to an external USB 3.0 1 TB hard drive. But this is due mainly to the large image files from my photography. I don't keep many applications open nor do I install apps left and right.

The problem I was having was with the speed of my hard drives. My apps were taking too long to open up and to read/write files. So I took it upon myself to invest about $400 to breathe some new life into my two year old hardware.

Here's what I bought:

The SATA to USB 2.0 adapter and cable with the SSD attached.

Next, I cloned my current hard drive over to the SSD. I used a free cloning app: Super Duper. Install it and just choose to backup all files. This may take a while, depending on how much data you're transferring over. Interestingly enough, the USB adapter used two USB connections.

Transferring my files over to the SSD via USB, aka cloning the hard drive.

Next, I needed to remove the screws. As shown in the picture, the three screws on the top right are longer than the others. A Phillips Head #00 is required (in the screw set I recommended above).

Preparing the take the screws out.

With the bottom lid removed, the hardware is exposed. The hard drive is on the bottom left. To remove that, you'll need the Torx T6 screwdriver (also found in screw set I recommended).

I also recommend getting a dust remover to help clean the inside of the Macbook Pro. It's amazing how much dust got into mine!

Removing the hard drive

Then I simply attached my SSD, and screwed everything back in, and ta-da, done! Well, I also recommend to enable Trim with Trim Enabler.

My Macbook Pro runs considerably better-- it boots faster, the larger apps like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom open up lighting fast. Smaller apps I don't notice anything faster. When I work with RAW files, it's also nicer than before.

I should note that I opted to clone because I just had the hard drive replaced and did a clean install just a year ago. It's pretty much better to do a clean install if you have everything in place and are willing to. I'm still using OS X Lion (10.7.5).

I recommend the following youTube video: Crucial M4 SSD 2010 MacBook Pro Install for detailed instructions. It's what I used as a reference to upgrade my MBP.

Mobile Camp LA

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:00:02 PDT

I picked up a free ticket to Mobile Camp LA earlier this week and decided to attend. Overall I wasn't too impressed with the event. It may have very well been the first of it's kind aimed at developers, designers, and business folk. Anyway, I thought the venue was a bit of a mess as many things went wrong.

Earthquake drill at 10:15am (slightly distracting, but out of their control-- I understand)
A lot of sessions held in a one big open space separated by cloth dividers. Too noisy!
Microphone problems-- couldn't hear some sessions at all!
Power outages-- no presentation slides or projectors!
Cancelations and running behind time (somewhat normal, but there seemed to be quite a few).

Anyway, it was still enjoyable and I shouldn't complain since it was free for me.

One more complaint in general, here was one session I ended up not enjoying where the speaker was more interested in promoting his own product than talking about technology or problem solving. I just do not like sitting through some kind of product advertisement for an hour.

The interesting thing I walked away with was how many new products/services Adobe was coming out with for not just designers, but also developers. Check out html.adobe.com to see all these brand new stuff. They are definitely pushing the Creative Cloud. Something I'll have to keep my eye on since I use Photoshop and Lightroom pretty heavily these days.

Prashant Sridharan (from Facebook) presenting on Native iOS Development.

Cross-platform MObile HTML5 Apps by Max Katz

SASS/LESS by Jake Johnson

Windows 8 Tablet by Daniel Egan

Backbone with mobile backend by Sid Maestre

Fund Your Start-up by Glang Biscan

SoCal Code Camp at USC

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 00:08:36 PDT

Last weekend I attended SoCal Code Camp held at University of Southern California (USC). Had a good time learning about new stuff as usual. The prizes here are pretty spectacular, but once again I won absolutely nothing. Nothing!

Like the one I went to earlier this year, this one was also a bit heavy on the .Net side of technology with little representation from Android and iOS, and nothing from Ruby/Rails/Java/etc. Not that I'm saying it's the organizer's fault or anything, they actually did a great job. Sometimes I wonder if other tech communities here in Los Angeles care to organize something under one event/banner at all, as each tend to have their own community to care for. Oh well right?

Dylan Campbell, one of the organizers I talk to.

Hattan Shobokshi presenting on ASP.net MVC Topics: The Model Binder

Free tacos for lunch

Prize and schwag giveaway at lunch. There was another giveaway at the end of the day.

Joe Enos on Improving your ASP.NET build and deployment process with build scripts and continuous integration.

Jon Flanders presenting Native iOS programming for .Net developers

Lee Salazar on From Codemonkey to CEO.

Related:

Pictures from SoCal Code Camp (held at California State Fullerton earlier this year)

Comikaze Expo 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 23:28:21 PDT

Over the weekend I checked out the Comikaze Expo at the LA Convention Center (LACC). As far as I know, this was the first "real" comic con taking place in Los Angeles. The previous year's I heard took place in a parking structure or something. But this is a comic con for LA made by fans, for fans. That's their slogan more or less anyway.

Anyway, I had fun and took a lot of pictures. I can now recognize a lot of familiar faces and costumes from other events. I must say that LA has a lot of creative fans that put a lot into making really awesome costumes.

Thoughts and Criticism

However, everything didn't go smoothly. Here's what I've seen, read, and/or heard were problems:

Long lines for those who pre-purchased their tickets. No line for those who bought tickets the day of.
Inexperienced line coordinators.
Air conditioning problem. (It was a wee bit hot inside!)
Fire marshall had to turn people away who actually had tickets!
Wristbands instead of badges were given out.
Social media silence.
The main stage was also in the main hall with exhibitors.

I'd like to share some of my input in regards to some of these.

For the problems with lines (#1 and #2), things weren't that bad. I went early on Saturday around 9:30am and the lines weren't that bad. Doors supposedly open at 10am. However, those who came in the afternoon had problems as the line went right out the front. I've been to San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) and Anime Expo. The lines and attendane for those were much greater and wait sometimes much much longer than just an hour or two. Some fans should get a grip on the idea that these conventions have a lot of people going in a short period of time and lines are unavoidable.

That said, the line coordination showed how inexperienced Comikaze organizers really are, or how short in supply of volunteers they have. With proper preparation, they could have avoided a lot of trouble by simply putting masking tape on the floor weaving through a controlled area. Simply relying on disgruntled fans to self organize straight lines is unrealistic. They are going to curve, bend, and morph into something ugly.

Air conditioning (#3) I dunno they could really do anything about. That's really on LACC staff.

In regards to tickets and wristbands (#4 and #5) the Comikaze staff also made a mistake. I understand they themselves are fans and want to make it affordable and serve everyone equally, but they should have prioritized the customers that already paid! It's pretty unacceptable for those that pre-paid to watch as those who bought the day of get their own quick line/queue and walk right into the main hall. And also for them to pay the same price! The point of offering something pre-sale is to help estimate the number of visitors coming in to plan accordingly to have enough staff and ticket booths. They then are the ones that should not only be given priority, but also the discounted price for committing.

The wristbands were also a poor choice. Honestly, the only events where I am given a wristband to wear are music concerts. It's a quick and dirty way to get people in and verify that badges are unlikely to be easily exchanged. But badges are way better, and here's why:

They're more comfortable and be taken on/off. Wristbands are worn for 24-36 hours or however long the event goes for.
They show the event organizers care because badges can be kept afterwards. Wristbands are torn off and thrown away.
For fans in costumes where their arms and wrists are covered, badges can be clipped somewhere else other than the wrist.

The social media front (#6) is where they fell short initially, and is probably the hardest to do well. This isn't just about the Twitter and Facebook pages, but also communication that is accessible and easy to find. So many people, myself included, were wondering when the ticket booths would open on the first day. The event is set for 10am-6pm, but when is the earliest fans could get tickets? That was left out completely on their website and wasn't addressed in a timely fashion on Twitter/Facebook. Many other questions were also not addressed on the social networks. Which brings up, why bother being on a social network for an annual event if on the days leading up to and on the event, they're not on it addressing issues 24/7? I think fans can understand if the nine months after the event it were dormant, but the days of? No, not acceptable to only check it once a day.

And finally, the main stage being in the same main hall, without seats is kind of a no-no. It makes the main stage like a big soapbox on a noisy street instead of a, well... a main stage. It should have been reserved for Hall G or something further away on it's own. The advantage would be to have ample seating and a better location for audio and video projection.

And for some of the fans that just complain about everything... they maybe need to calm the eff down. The ticketing system for SDCC is way more difficult and time consuming. Also more expensive. There were fans that complained about how little space there was between exhibitors... are you serious? Have these fans ever been to a comic con before? If anything, there was way too much space! LACC, aside from the a/c problem, could accomodate way more people than what showed up. I've seen it at Anime Expo, which is also held at LACC.

Much of the problems is due to inexperience. This was their second year, and overall I thought it went well. LA really deserves it's own comic con. They've got the people, the fans, and friggin Hollywood is here in LA. Seriously. Why is Hollywood and entertainment putting everything into SDCC when right in their own city they could do something to reach out to fans? SDCC is already too big and popular to be contained in just a 4-5 day event. Again, seriously, LA is perfect.

Anyway, sorry for the long rant. I just wanted to share my thoughts on my past comic con experiences.

Pictures

Here are some of the pictures I took. Full album can be found here.

Todd McFarlane signing

BatGirl Spoiled

Adam West

Julie Newmar aka Catwoman

LeeAnna Vamp

Wall-E

They Live style Hooters girl

Adrianne Curry

Noah Hathaway - played Atreyu in the Neverending Story

McFarlane and Stan Lee on stage!

A contest was announced to win a signed Hulk #181- first appearance of Wolverine.

Kevin Smith does Fatman on Batman with Adam West

Mark Hamil

James Hong

DotCom!

Related posts:

Brazilian Day in LA

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 09:00:03 PDT

Yesterday I posted about my visit to Greekfest LA. The following day, Saturday I checked out Brazilian Day LA, which was during the super sunny and hot day. What I loved was that the costumes and culture were so colorful and lively. Pretty much everyone was enjoying themselves watching or dancing along to a nice big neighborhood party.

The parade was pretty awesome too. I just wish the sidewalk for it was a bit bigger and less congested. It was challenging trying to take some pictures when it was crowded for no reason-- there was definitely room for everyone!

Full set of pictures can be found here.

Greekfest LA

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 09:00:09 PDT

One of the things I love about living in Los Angeles is all the ethnic fairs that go on. Over the weekend I attended two different fairs no so far from where I live.

On Friday there was LA Greekfest. I went during the evening to avoid the crowd and heat during the day. My favorite dish was the dessert, the pastry puffs.

Full set of pictures can be found here.

Some Greek beers, which tasted pretty watery.

Pastry Puffs!

A dance contest with about fifty contestants from the audience took place.

San Diego Comic Con 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 23:28:21 PDT

Last week I went to the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) and had a blast. The last time I went was back in 2010, which I blogged about here. I took quite a few photos, but only post-processed a fraction of them. I may choose to post-process more of them at a later date. You can view the full album here.

I attended SDCC with a 4-day pass along with preview night. So the dates for this convention were July 11-15, 2012. We stayed at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina near the airport, and took the shuttle bus to the San Diego Convention Center.

This is going to be a big post. I have several sections to this blog with photos.

General Pictures
Statues and Toys
Celebrities
Costumes
Panels
Some Thoughts

General Pictures
Here I am all packed for my road trip from Los Angeles to San Diego on Wednesday for Preview night. The Chopper plush and hat I bought at Anime Expo a few weeks ago for my sister.

Some girls that couldn't get tickets into the con outside the convention center.

The local Ralph's nearby was all decorated for SDCC fans. All the local restaurants and stores catered to the comic book fans-- it made it seem like a huge geek festival all five days!

Some snacks we bought at Ralph's.

The next three photos are from the line on Friday to get into Hall H. I'd say roughly 10,000 people lined up for a room that could only fit 6,500. The line went all the way to the wharf and wrapped a few times there! We got there at 8:30am, and still couldn't get in!

The Jesus freaks as I call them, were also there outside preaching all day and night.

A view of the Gaslamp district from the convention center.

Statues and Toys
Here are the pictures I took of some of the sculptures and statues on the main exhibit floor.

A customized Walking Dead (WD) vehicle for getting through zombie crowds. There were quite a few booths just for WD. They had a huge presence at SDCC!

Celebrities
I spotted quite a few celebrities in the exhibit hall. I wasn't able to produce great pictures of some of them due to the crowds and how quickly they were moving with security. Here are the ones that came out okay.

Lucy Liu looks much better in person than on TV or the big screen.

Elijah Wood

~~Not sure who she is~~. Yvonne Strahovski

Orlando Jones

Star Trek TNG guys

~~Not sure who she is~~. Rachel Taylor

Vanessa Williams

Terry O'Quinn

David Hasselhoff (aka Knight Rider)

Hercules

Sarah Underwood

Anthony Bourdain

Andy Serkis, aka Gollum.

Kristian Nairn, aka Hodor from Game of Thrones.

Costumes
There were a lot of diverse costumes this year, just like in 2010. I did notice a trend with a lot of girls dressed as Loki from Thor, and a few guys dressed as female characters such as the Super Mario princesses and one slave Leia from Star Wars. Of course it was all in good fun.

Panels
I wasn't able to attend the panels I wanted to on Friday due to the huge lines. But one of the nice things is that to get into some of the other panels, you end up going early and sitting through other panels-- which lets you discover other interesting things you may not have known about.

Avengers vs X-Men panel

The Following panel

Person of Interest panel

Director Jon Favreau introducing the panel for Revolution.

Revolution panel.

Mythbusters panel was easily my favorite. I love the show, the cast, and the content. Very entertaining and great fans in the crowd to make it even better.

John Landis as moderator.

Tory Belleci

Kari Byron

Jamie Hyneman

Grant Imahara

Adam Savage

Some Thoughts
SDCC has evolved from being about comics to being about entertainment-- the movies and TV shows. The actual comics sections is about a fourth of the main exhibit hall. This has been happening for years as more mainstream content makes its way through. It's a good thing and bad thing.

The good thing is that big money is making its way in. There's great free schwag and big stars are appearing there to promote their movies and/or TV shows. SDCC also transforms downtown San Diego into a big nerd party.

The bad thing is that it's not easy to get tickets, hotel, and the lines are very very long. I often joke that it's more of a line-con than a comic-con. I stood in line for one hour just to get SDCC t-shirts! It would make way more sense to have these available to order online before or after the con. There is a lot more mainstream demand to get into this. I'm sure that there are people in the thousands, if not tens of thousands that are upset that they couldn't get tickets.

That all said, Comic Con has outgrown the convention center there. It needs a bigger venue. It's really sad how only the super fans that sleep overnight in line are the ones that can get into Hall H or Ballroom 20, the two biggest rooms at the convention center. Also, scheduling is a big factor. On Friday I wanted to see Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and Sony Pictures-- which were all scheduled back to back. You probably needed to wait at least six hours in line to be one of the last set of people to fill Hall H. SIX HOURS. It shouldn't be like that. The popular panels should be spread out across more days or more rooms, so people have to choose one or the other. It just seemed to me that more people were waiting outside to get into Hall H than it could hold.

As for deals on comic books and TPBs, it's gotten better. What I didn't like about shopping on the floor two years ago was that the deals I found weren't all that great. Same with Anime Expo. Unless what you were buying was a exclusive item or hard to find, it's just better to buy it online. This year the deals on the last day were spectacular. After my initial research, they were much better than what's offered anywhere.

I only criticize because I love. I want Comic Con to get better and make the attendees happy. I do plan to make this a regular thing every year with my sisters. It really is fun, but I think I'll avoid some of the bigger panels unless they schedule things really well. Until next year!

Anime Expo 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 23:28:21 PDT

A little over a week ago I attended Anime Expo (AX) held at the LA Convention Center. I had a four-day pass for June 29 - July 2, 2012. The last time I attended AX was in 2008, quite a long time ago. I recall being the odd one for not dressing up-- as so so very many people dress up in an anime costume!

So a motivation for attending this year was to take pictures of the costumed attendees. The level of detail and work that goes into the costumes is amazing. I've posted some of my favorites here, but here is the link to the full album. I took over 1500+ photos for the first three days, but chose a little over 300 to post and share in my album.

I opted out attending the last day on Monday because I didn't really think the prices for toys and stuff was competitively priced. If you know what you want and it's not too rare of an item, you can definitely find a better price online. The same goes for the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) which I will be attending in a few days.

For me, the best part of AX is taking pictures of attendees and walking the exhibit hall to check out the toys there. I did check out the masquerade on Sunday evening-- but I just didn't care for it really. Maybe I'm just old and out of touch of the current anime/manga because I didn't enjoy it so much. For me, the best costumes are showcased in the lobby of AX.

Anyway, I plan on attending next year. It's a super fun event for photographers and anime fans!

The AX logo.

The X Games was right right down the street, which caused a lot of trouble for AX attendees and drivers downtown.

The pre-registration line on June 28 was ridiculous! The ticket booth is open 4pm-9pm. I recommend NOT going when it opens, and instead go closer to 8 or 9pm when there's no line.

The entrance to AX.

The lobby area where all the attendees in costume hung out.

Putting CyanogenMod on the Kindle Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 23:08:05 PST

After seeing the Nexus 7 tablet make its debut at Google I/O yesterday, it made me realize how my Kindle Fire (KF) is kind of lame. I reviewed the Kindle Fire back in November 2011.

To be fair though, my needs have changed. When I initially purchased the KF, I didn't want an iPad2 or a 10" tablet. I just wanted a simple reading device that could browse the web a bit and play some games. And that's exactly what the KF was, and still is.

My needs have changed in that I want more. I want Gmail. I want YouTube. I want more apps.

The problem is that over the past eight months, I haven't seen any big improvements happen from Amazon. The Amazon App Store has fewer of the apps I like available compared to Google Play. On top of that, the Google Apps such as Gmail and YouTube aren't available. To me, the biggest reason to use Android is Google's products and services: Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, etc. These are all solid apps that should be on any Android device.

Besides the lack of Google Apps, there's no native Facebook app! The one in the Amazon App store simple redirects to a browser of the mobile site! This is incredibly misleading.

On top of all of this, there are other nuances with the KF: The UI sucks. The carousel and bookshelf is just stupid. I'm sure there are folks that like how this UI is rather simple. It's just not for me. I ended up installing Go Launcher EX alongside it. (See instructions on how to install it.) The volume UI also is not readily available-- requires an extra click to get there. The rotating wallpapers cannot be customized either.

Recalling all these frustrations, I got pretty close to pre-ordering the Nexus 7, which is priced exactly at $199, very competitively against the Kindle Fire.

But I didn't. Instead, I decided to just hack my Kindle Fire and see how close to a vanilla Android I could get.

Below are instructions I followed to get a custom ROM (Simple CyanogenMod 9) onto my Kindle Fire by rooting it. Disclaimer: I am not responsible for anything that goes wrong with your device if you attempt anything I have written and linked to below.

The instructions are pretty clear and I highly recommend reading and following them.

Get Kindle Fire Utility (I used v0.9.6). See instructions here.
Unzip the Kindle Fire Utility and install the drivers.
Root the device.
Install TWRP Recovery. For instructions, see: How to Root and Install Custom Recovery on Kindle Fire using Kindle Fire Utility.
Install Simple CyanogenMod 9 ROM (6-10-2012). For instructions, see: Amazon Kindle Fire: Flashing the Simple CM9 custom ROM.

Note, for the developers out there that have the Android SDK installed, the KF Utility has adb packaged in it already.

So, I was able to put Simple CM9 on my Kindle Fire using the instructions in the links listed above. Here's a picture my KF running Google Play that's downloading Google Chrome browser.

Here is a screenshot of my homescreen after some customizations.

Another screenshot of the Settings and tablet information.

Overall, it was a pretty simple process. Just follow the instructions. I was able to re-download my Kindle books again using Kindle app in the Google Play store. My Kindle Fire is just awesome now. Maybe I'm speaking too soon, as it hasn't even been a full twenty-four hours of running it just yet. I do notice that it sucks up the battery a lot more, but that should be obvious as I'm running a heavier UI and more apps.

These are exciting times aren't they? Microsoft has entered the tablet space (once again) with their Surface. Or at least the announcement of it. There's rumor of a new Kindle Fire from Amazon next month. A lot of competition, which in the end the consumers win.

**Update (January 8, 2013)**
Just wanted to add that there is a way to root the Kindle Fire from a Mac. Just use BreakDroid. The Kindle Fire Utility doesn't work on my Windows 8 Pro virtual machine like it did on Windows 7 Ultimate.

Also, I switched to use Jandycane instead of CM. Still basically the same steps as above, but it gives me Jelly Bean on the tablet. I don't expect any more updates for custom ROMs on KF simply because Google Nexus tablets are superior in every way.

Google Plus Photographer's Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 20:45:06 PDT

Last week I attended the Google+ Photographer's Conference in San Francisco, May 22-23, 2012 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The day before, I attended a photowalk at Golden Gate Park which I blogged about already.

Some things I observed and learned at the conference:

Adobe Lightroom 4, Bridge, and Photoshop seem to be the digital tools of choice of many photographers.
There are just as many Nikon users as there are Canon users.
Be a good editor and curator of your work/portfolio. Only show your best work, and when you are ready, organize by a theme.
When writing Google+ posts, write to share, not to impress.

One of my favorite sessions were the Blind Photo Critiques, where photographers submit a set of photos (two to five pictures) to be critiqued live on stage, in front of everyone on the big screen. I just learned a lot listening to the panel on what makes a good photograph in terms of composition, lighting, focus, and so forth.

Some Day 1 Video Sessions:

Google+ Photographer's Conference Opening Keynote with Scott Kelby and Bradley Horowitz
How to Host a Successful Hangout with Trey Ratcliff and RC Concepcion
Building your brand on G+ with Guy Kawasaki
Tips and Tricks for G+ Panel with Brian Rose, Mike Wiacek, Vincent Mo, and Chris Chabot
An Evening with Jeremy Cowart

Some Day 2 Video Sessions:

10 Things to help Photographers on G+ with Matt Kloskowski, Trey Ratcliff, and Colby Brown
Optimizing your Images for G+ with RC Concepcion
What do you want next from G+ with Brian Rose and Mike Wiacek
An Evening with Trey Ratcliff and Closing (along with Scott Kelby)

A quote that I really enjoyed from Trey Ratcliff:

The left brain is for getting through life, but the right brain is for living.

Sunrise at Golden Gate Bridge from Battery Spencer at 6am.

I used the Canon 5D Mark 3's HDR feature to take the picture above. I post processed with Adobe Lightroom 4.1 (RC2). I took about a dozen shots of the bridge, but chose only to show my favorite. Again, editing which was a little difficult.

The registration desk

The lounge

Scott Kelby giving the opening keynote

Scott Kelby speaking with Bradley Horowitz

Catherine Hall

Matt Kloskowski

Colbey Brown

Adobe showcasing Photoshop CS6 and Lightroom 4

Guy Kawasaki on building brand on G+

Trey Ratcliff taking a picture of Jeremy Cowart

Blind Photo Critique

Live photoshoot

Some tai-chi going on early morning outside

RC Concepcion joining in for the second blind photo critique

Google Plus Photographer's Photowalk at Golden Gate Park

noreply@blogger.com (Steven Suwatanapongched) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 20:45:06 PDT

Last week I was up in San Francisco May 21-23 for the Google+ Photographer's Conference. On Monday, there was an optional photowalk at about ten locations. I attended the one led by Scott Kelby at Golden Gate Park.

The photowalk was pretty fun. It's the third photowalk I've been on so far, and in general I like to stray from the group, go at my own pace, and take shots of everything I find interesting. I socialized a bit, but the part I enjoy is seeing how other photogs at the same location on the same day take photographs.

The weather was a bit dreary with a lot of overcast. I ended up using a lot of HDR to help spruce things up. I used the Canon 5D Mark 3's HDR feature to produce the pictures. I post processed with Adobe Lightroom 4.1 (RC2). I also used some nifty Adobe Lightroom Instagram Presets on a few pictures.

I'll have a post on the actual conference soon.