Technology at work and play

Extending your HTC Desire’s battery life

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Sat, 28 May 2011 16:32:00 +0000

I’ve been asked for suggestions on how to do this a ton of times; here are several tweaks I use for my HTC Desire that easily extend its battery life to get me through the day. And with charge to spare. Do these (in no specific order): Disable 'Background Data' from Settings | Accounts and Sync. This notorious setting sucks battery life big time by keeping tons of Google apps (Gmail, Contacts, Calendar etc) continuously in sync. Better to just let these apps update only when you need them. Install Advanced Task Killer--a super little app that lets you 'kill' unnecessarily running apps as often as you need. I invoke this several times a day; especially after extended bouts of using multiple apps. This one's a must-have. Disable any radios when you don't need them (WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS). I've installed nifty shortcut widgets to these radio settings on my home screen--beats having to poke into the Settings screen each time. Beware of installing unverified apps--some of these...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Must-have Android apps

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:24:00 +0000

A few months ago I traded in my Windows Mobile phone for an Android device. From the research I did back then, going over to the Android platform seemed like the most natural thing to do, given my requirements. And I haven’t regretted it since. Sporting a fantastic user interface, spiffy response, plenty of great apps that can be downloaded and installed over the air, and the ability to synchronize all of my contacts and calendar information with the Google cloud makes it a very compelling proposition indeed. I’m also pretty happy with the capabilities and features on my Samsung i7500 Galaxy (5PM camera, LED flash, WiFi, Accelerometer, GPS, 3.2-inch AMOLED screen et al), though support is a different issue altogether—Samsung seems to have completely forgotten about this phone in their firmware update strategy. Be that as it may, Android is a great platform and one that I think I’ll be with for a while. Going by the industry and consumer support, and the strides they’re making with...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Four steps: From point-and-shoot to pro!

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:20:00 +0000

Being a good photographer is more than just having the best equipment or getting plenty of practice. To be able to truly ‘tell a story’ through imagery, there are certain rules of thumb I’ve come to learn—rules that can almost instantly notch up photography skills. Here, then, is a quick list of points to bear in mind each time you’re poised to click that shutter button, and a few associated techniques I use that can help nail that shot. Focus: Even the best software and most advanced computer cannot save a photograph that’s out of focus. Unless you intentionally want blur in your photograph, you absolutely and positively need to ensure that the key subject in your shot is in focus. Technique: Master the art of pre-focusing the camera before shooting. Pre-focusing or focus lock is a mode that almost every digital camera has—it’s what enables you to half-press the shutter button (during which time the camera focuses, calculates exposure, and blazes through all the processing...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

The holy grail of computer graphics

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:09:00 +0000

When it comes to serving up high-quality graphics on a computer, we’ve come a long, long way indeed. From the days of Pong, Atari and the Commodore 64, we now have supercomputing-class boxes in our very home in the form of devices like the PlayStation 3. Even computers, with their graphics card containing fancy components like stream processors that boast of delivering realistic graphics in games and visualization applications, there doesn’t seem to be any slowdown in the pace of innovation in this exciting sector of computing. Computer graphics bigwigs like ATI and Nvidia continue to pursue the honor of being top-dog graphics company by creating more powerful graphics processors, more transistors and ever higher clock speeds. The story so far All 3D scenes are composed of little ‘facets’ called polygons—the greater the number of polygons to build a 3D model, the greater the detail. Faster processors enable faster polygon processing, resulting in more detailed scenes that can...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Mobile gaming: Augmented reality with the Nvidia Tegra

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:25:00 +0000

These days, consumers increasingly want to take their experiences with them—be it gaming, movies, music, or the Internet. Devices like the Sony PSP, the iPod, multimedia cellphones, and video-capable portable media players do just this—they provide entertainment no matter where you are. But when it comes to portable devices, there are several invisible yet real barriers to a good experience—battery life and processing power. Manufacturers are grappling with these very issues while developing the next funky cell phone or portable gaming device. The Holy Grail lies in the ability to integrate console-class graphics capabilities with day-long battery life. And it looks like Nvidia (a leader in the development of processors for gaming and visualization) is very close to that elusive goal. With the launch of their Tegra processor, they can now offer phone and handheld game device manufacturers the ability to play high-definition movies and desktop class games on portable devices. If you’re...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

All-time great sci-fi movies of the videotape era

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:09:00 +0000

When it came to figuring out what to do with my life, there never really was any doubt about what I’d become—an engineer. I remember the numerous times I stoically opened those steel wind-up alarm clocks, to see what made them tick, or took apart music systems (even my VCR, when I was all of 10 years old, to find out how to un-jam that tape!). Needless to say, not all of these exploits were successful—in fact, most were outright disasters. Over the years, I left behind a sizeable wake of cannibalized motors from toys, wrecked stereo systems, and bed sheets that bore scars from trysts with 240-volt electricity (yes, there was the time I nearly got a nice domestic fire going—and we didn’t have a fireplace). Sure I had my fair share of chastising, but through it all mum and dad did all they could to ensure that I had a steady supply of science and technology influences throughout my formative years—from the junior microscope sets, to telescopes, to electronic do-it-yourself kits. I...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Reduce noise in your digital photos

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:24:00 +0000

Noise is one of the most evident demons in digital photography—often manifested in those numerous, tiny, unsightly colored spots seen on the skin, skies and shadows in photos. While the best way to assuage image noise is to set your digital camera to use a lower ISO setting, this isn’t the optimal solution situations like shooting a dark scene, for example. So what do you do if you’re forced to shoot at a higher ISO, but still want to reduce the amount of noise in your images? You have several options—using one of the noise reduction filters in your image editing software, or using dedicated noise reduction tools like Neat Image or Noise Ninja. But there’s a simpler (and free) method to reduce the noise in your digital photos while maintaining overall image sharpness—it’s a technique based on the principle of averaging. Before we go into the details of this technique, a heads up on where this technique can and cannot be used: You can use this technique to significantly reduce...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Audit your computer’s hardware and software

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:41:00 +0000

Ever wanted to know the gory details of your computer’s hardware and software configuration without having to painstakingly study each of its components? If you’re a geek, that answer would be a resounding yes. If you’re not, it doesn’t hurt to know, right? Even though this isn’t the most exciting of ways to spend your time, knowing what your computer consists of is knowledge. And that’s power! I use WinAudit—a useful freeware application that does exactly this. Sounds simple enough, and it is. But the level of detail it brings up in the audit report is quite amazing—be it the serial number of your computer’s optical drive or the exact stepping of the processor, this application quickly and efficiently generates a host of information about the target system. The program is a snap to use—simply launch it, click the Options button to select the categories you want to audit, then click Audit. It will run for a couple of seconds, then display its findings in neat categories. You can...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Fluid interfaces, and wearing your sixth sense

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:38:00 +0000

I recently came across this this truly awe-inspiring implementation of technology--a device that empowers you to intuitively pull up information on virtually anything in the world around you. Sounds too fantastic to be true? Click the image to see this proof of concept in action, as demonstrated at a recent TED presentation. And if you're looking for a regular dose of truly cutting-edge thinking and ideology, I highly recommend visiting the TED Web site and watching (or downloading) their fantastic lectures. I think I just used up my quota of superlatives for this month. But with reason.

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Automating your Web browser

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:37:00 +0000

These days, finding ways to be more productive and efficient is key to staying ahead. When it comes to general office work, browsing the Web or working on online forms and Web sites takes up a significant part of our working hours. In the normal course of working on Web sites, you'll notice a large amount of repetition in the tasks you do--logging into your favorite sites, entering registration information into online forms, transferring image and text data between your computer and the Internet... this list goes on. So how does it sound if I told you there's a way to automate these repetitive tasks, so that they can be performed with a single click? For starters, it would save a heck of a lot of time each day, and accrued over days and months it would translate into considerable savings and higher productivity, leaving you with more time for stuff you like doing! I use Firefox as my primary Web browser, and have been using a great little Add-on called iMacros to automate many...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Origami works of art

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:50:00 +0000

In an earlier post, I mentioned my interest in paper folding, and how fascinating it is to build interesting objects from simple materials. Back in school, I remember those lazy summer days, when I used to try and create everything from Origami flapping birds, to geometric shapes, to aerodynamically accurate paper aircraft! Of course, not all these endeavors were met with success, but it was a heck of a lot of fun. Having been bitten by the paper folding bug recently, I decided to dig a little deeper and find out exactly how complex this art form can get. These days, there are hundreds of Web resources that will teach you the fine art of making paper models, complete with scientific explanations, and even instructional videos--it's on a different level altogether! An hour of digging through online resources and I came away amazed. Here are some of the best paper folding models I found--they can take anywhere from a few minutes to over 40 hours to create! First up is...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Playing classic DOS games using Microsoft Virtual PC

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:34:00 +0000

If you were a teenager during the late 80s or early 90s, you'll be awash with a wave of nostalgia when you read these words: Dangerous Dave. Wolfenstein 3D. Doom. Prince. Zaxxon. Brings back memories, right? If you're still clueless, these are classic DOS-based games that used to take up a sizeable portion of our leisure time back in the day! Still don't know what I'm talking about? Well, DOS is a text-based PC operating system... oh, never mind--you're way too young to be reading this post! If you really must know, I'm talking about an era where the GUI was still several years away, a time when computers were built using 386 and 486 processors, with a whopping 8MB of RAM, and 240MB hard disks. *Sigh*... those were the days--the heady, primordial era of personal computing. I revisited those days recently when I was experimenting with a cool application that lets you run any operating system--current, past, or upcoming--within your present Windows operating system. That's right, you...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Cubeecraft: Geeked-out cutouts!

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:15:00 +0000

I've always liked paper folding, and have been following arts like Origami ever since the early school days. I know--it's not a guy thing, but I was interested in it from the mathematical standpoint. Or so I explained. Even the simple act of flying paper airplanes was complicated with extended pursuits of trying to hone them for prolonged flight, or funky acrobatics! Then a couple of days ago, I came across this ultra-cool site, and was bitten by the paper folding bug once again. The author of this site has pretty much nailed down the art of creating some of the coolest paper characters I've seen. And what characters! Classics like Mario (of the Super Brothers fame), Darth Vader, Sonic the Hedgehog, Spiderman, Superman... heck, there's even Kratos (from God of War), Pinky (from Pinky and the Brain), and Obama! If you're particularly skilled in digital illustration, you can also download a blank cutout template and try your hand at creating your own character! Creating one of...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

DVD Flick: Converting videos to DVD

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:24:00 +0000

Ever needed to convert a whole lot of videos into a DVD? Here's a handy little tool that enables you to do just that: pop in a blank DVD, point the application to one (or more) videos on your hard disks, configure a few basic settings and boom--you have a DVD that will play on any conventional player. DVD Flick is especially useful for converting DivX movies into DVD format (great for sending movies to your mom who has an older DVD player, or for compiling and distributing video clips recorded on your digital camera). DVD Flick is one of those ultra-handy Open Source applications that do a fantastic job of serving a specific requirement quickly and efficiently. Creating a DVD with this application is child's play. Start by downloading the program from here. After installing it, click the Guide icon on the top and you'll see a quick and easy run-through for creating a DVD. You can create a regular DVD in just a few clicks, with the default program settings. But you can also...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Building a Web site using Kompozer

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:58:00 +0000

Now that we've gone through the motions of what's required to get started with building a Web site--booking the domain and selecting a hosting provider--we're now on to the final stage of actually building the Web site! This step involves creating the HTML files that contain the site content, and link to other elements like images, downloadable files and whatever else you might want to include on your Web site. Building a Web site can be creative, or quick-and-dirty. The path you choose depends on: Your skill with Web designing Your knowledge of Web programming Your access to Web design applications The duration you have to complete the project Assuming you're like me, you: Have no formal training in Web programming or design Have no Web programming skills Are reasonably skilled with Photoshop and image editing I know, this doesn't look like too promising a position to start at. But that's the beauty of the Internet coupled with a bit of...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Setting up your own Web site: Part two

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:49:00 +0000

When it comes to setting up your own Web site, this much is clear--it's easier than you think. It all begins with getting a firm handle on the focus and intent of your Web site, and pulling together compelling content (see my earlier post here). The next step is to shop for online services that will help you book your domain name, and actually host your Web site. Let's see how this works: Booking the domain name: Quite simply, the domain name is the name of your Web site. The first thing you'll need to do is check whether it is available. To do so, you can head over to one of hundreds of available Domain Registrars--these are authorized services that sell domain names. Some of the more popular ones are Network Solutions, Act Now Domains or Register.com. All you need to do is type in your preferred site name in the search field, and you'll find out whether it taken or not. When you find a name that's available, you choose the duration for which you want to book the domain name...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Setting up your own Web site: Part one

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:51:00 +0000

At first, it sounds like a daunting task in itself. You'd ask, "Isn't this something that only large companies with development and programming teams can do?" Actually, no--these days it's something that anyone can! So if you're thinking of popularizing your home business, or creating a platform for sharing your hobbies, or just setting up a home for your family on the Web, you can build a www.yourname.com Web site easier than you can imagine! All it takes is getting familiar with the process, and understanding some of the jargon you'll encounter along the way. After that, you make like you're strolling through the aisles of your favorite supermarket as you set off shopping for the right online services--it's actually fun! From end to end, you can be up and running within a week. Here's how you go about it: At this juncture, you should grab a pen and a few sheets of paper and put down a whole lot of questions to which you'll need to eventually get answers. What will be...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Create images using text

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 03:30:00 +0000

I've always been fascinated with photographs, and being the geek I am I'm even more fascinated with interesting ways to create photographs! Here I'll explain how to create a neat form of geek-art known as ASCII art. What is ASCII art you ask? Let's talk about ASCII first--this is simply a standard that is used to represent text characters on your computer. So when you type on a keyboard, specific codes that correspond to each of the letters, numbers and symbols are used to tell the computer exactly what it is you are entering. This character standard is also used to store text in your documents. At its most basic level, it's the type of characters you see in Notepad--the no-frills, standard Courier font text. ASCII art is the process of creating computer-generated images using just these text characters! Using freely available software, you can create stunning imagery by putting your favorite photos through these programs, which do all the mathematical calculations and decide what...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2: Portrait tricks

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:58:00 +0000

Good photos begin with good technique. More than having a capable camera and great equipment, it's all about mastering the nuances of composition, understanding the capabilities of your equipment, and knowing how to capture the situation and subject. But even in the best of cases, it's good to know that you can use tools that'll help you lift the quality of your image just enough to push it into 'exceptional' territory. The capability of today's digital cameras to resolve the tiniest of details in a scene can actually be detrimental--with their multi-megapixel sensors and high-quality optics, digital SLRs are especially relentless when it comes to capturing the good and the bad in a subject. With portraits, you can capture the colored serrations in your subject's iris as easily as the blemishes on their cheeks or the discoloration in their teeth. So while some schools of thought might deem this to be cheating, I say why not use technology to flatter your subject--be it a beautiful...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2: Development workflow

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 04:30:00 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to put this fine photo editing application through its paces--one of my cousins got married a couple of days ago, and I shot about 350 RAW images across the different marriage ceremonies (you'll find some on my Flickr Photostream). Faced with the prospect of churning out high-quality images from these RAW images in record time, I happily dug into the famed Lightroom 2 workflow. After several bouts of trial and error with color configurations and tweaking sequences, I arrived at the following workflow which I believe enabled me to extract the maximum quality from my RAW images in the shortest possible time. Remember that I already used Presets and Default settings to bring my photos to a more natural, higher-quality level before performing editing individual photos using the following steps. 1. Crop the photo: The crop tool can spell the difference between a good photo and a great one. While in the Develop module, hit [R] on the keyboard or...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2: Initial configuration

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:30:00 +0000

Ok, it's official: I'm hooked onto Lightroom 2. The sheer power of this program, its slick interface, and brilliant attention to user interface makes this the best imaging application I've ever used for my photographs. If you haven't read my initial experience with Lightroom 2, you'll find it here. The groundwork Lightroom 2 offers several methods to help you streamline your photo processing workflow. The following steps will help you set up your Lightroom 2 environment with pre-defined settings that will lift the quality of your photographs during the import process, even before you begin tweaking them! This will let you reach your final result faster. You only need to perform the following actions once--they will subsequently invoke automatically each time you import your photos: 1. Define a camera profile: When I first started using Lightroom, I noticed something strange while importing photos--when each photo first flashed on the screen during the import process, it...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Become a human calculator

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:50:00 +0000

The one thing I detested about mathematics in school was the way the education system made it so theoretic. Learning trigonometry or Calculus was anything but fun, and it certainly didn't appear to be practical at the time. Even today, how many times do you hear kids say, "What am I ever gonna use this stuff for?" Math is, in fact, the most practical science there is--from calculating the curve of an aircraft wing (Fourier math playing a big role here), to modeling financial forecasts (mathematic extrapolation), math is the very foundation for almost every device and technology we use. But for the majority of us, it really isn't a cause excitement. So wouldn't it be great if there was a way it could actually help our everyday lives: like giving us the power to be the fastest human calculator at dinner with friends? That'd certainly beget admiration points! Well, there is such a field of mathematics that can help you do just that--it's called Trachtenberg Mathematics. ...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Hard disk defragmentation: The easy, free way

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:05:00 +0000

If you're already well-versed with the concept of disk fragmentation, go ahead and skip to the next paragraph. If not, let's walk through why defragmentation is important to you. Computers are a lot like pets--you have to take care of them if you want them to stay healthy. I know, it's not the best of metaphors, but it's close. Computers consist of several components, all of which play an important role in its overall functioning, and eventually in providing a satisfying user experience. The component we'll examine in this article is the hard disk--the storehouse that holds all your applications and data. To visualize how it works, think of a hard disk as a cross between a magnetic tape and a record player. Of course, they have smaller electronics, faster speeds, and higher capacities. Hard disks consist of one or more magnetically coated platters on which the data is stored. This data is read by tiny heads that 'fly' above the magnetic surface as the hard disks spins. The heads are...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2: I'm getting hooked...

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:44:00 +0000

In a recent post where I wrote about how I process RAW images from my Nikon D40 using Adobe Camera RAW, a reader replied asking about RAW processing tools with a little more chutzpah. I've been following the buzz that's surrounded the recently-launched Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2, and decided to dive in and try it out. I'm the kind of software user who builds long-term relationships with my applications. I need to coax myself a fair bit before committing to anything 'new and improved'. When I do encounter something that promises to change the way I live, I go through several phases that include flirting with the new software, reading about its capabilities and other users' experiences with it. It takes a while before I convince myself to toe-in and test the waters. When it comes to processing images from my camera, I've always known, loved and trusted Adobe Camera RAW. Sure, it's no Swiss Army Knife of image processing, but it's simple, efficient and entirely effective. I've been...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.

Streamline RAW image processing

noreply@blogger.com (Marco Angelo D'Souza) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:27:00 +0000

We've already seen the advantages of shooting RAW images here. Next, you'll need to quickly get used to chalking out extra time for processing these images. Depending on how shutter happy you are and how fast your computer is, this could easily run into a lot of extra time--a few hours even. The best way to quicken this process is to get into a groove with processing those images and develop a workflow that lets you crunch through them as efficiently as possible. First, get to know your RAW processing software. Like any good artist, you need to have a keen understanding of your tools. No matter which RAW processing application you use, read the manual and learn it through and through. The faster you learn the lay of the land, the faster will you be able to navigate it, leaving more time for you to concentrate on tweaking your photos. I use Adobe Camera RAW 3.7 (with Photoshop CS2). Camera RAW is a simple, fast and capable plug-in that facilitates RAW processing within Adobe...

To read the complete story, click on the article title. In my blog, I write about digital photography, computing, cars, music and whatever else that catches my fancy.