Casa dé Hambone

Photofocus and mydl.me – Two Great Tastes that Taste Great Together

Kevin W. Hammond — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:56:49 GMT

Scott Bourne has started up two new blogs, Photofocus and mydl.me. Each are a blog/podcast combination and are a continued reflection of his passion for photography and technology.

Photofocus, focused squarely on photography, is the rebirth/spin-off of the former This Week In Photography blog, twipphoto.com. In a confusing array of business entanglement, the TWIP podcast was owned by Alex Lindsey and the TWIP blog was owned by Scott Bourne. They have now cleanly separated those two entities, with Scott rebranding the original TWIP blog Photofocus and Alex creating a new blog, twiplog.com, to support the ongoing TWIP podcast.

If you want the rich photography discussions, tips and insights that you’ve come to know and love from the original TWIP blog, you’re going to want to subscribe to Photofocus. It’s 100% Scott and all the goodness that comes with.

mydl.me, is an awesome URL for Managing Your Digital Life. It is the latest venture put forth by Scott Bourne and talks all about the increasingly large collection of digital assets we have today and how to manage them and avoid disaster. Make sure you subscribe to the mydl.me blog and also pick up the podcast on iTunes. They both promise to be good stuff.

The Saga of the Offline Casa

Kevin W. Hammond — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:56:37 GMT

Seems that webhost4life.com had made some changes to their application firewall that had the blog offline for an extended period of time. Couple that with me not doing much posting – I think November 2008 was the last post – I didn’t notice it until today.

Time to start fixing both of those problems.

Seeking Instructions to Migrate to WordPress

Kevin W. Hammond — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:14:19 GMT

I’ve been playing around with WordPress and would like to migrate casadehambone.com over from DasBlog. However, I also want to retain all of the content on casadehambone.com and, ideally, maintain the permalinks as well. Anyone have some recommendations or guidance for accomplish this?

Technorati Tags: dasblog wordpress

Recent Happenings at Casa dé Hambone

Kevin W. Hammond — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 01:34:48 GMT

The past few weeks here at Casa dé Hambone have seen some changes (for the better) that aren’t without

We turned off for-fee television by putting our DirecTV account on a 6-month suspension

We’ve not had any incoming television feed for nearly two weeks and don’t (yet) miss it
I bought two ATSC tuners for my Media Center PC, but we took down the chimney today to which the antenna was mounted; doh!

For the first time ever, The Wall Street Journal is being delivered

I figure without television, we may as well subscribe to a good newspaper
I really like The Morning Read from The Wall Street Journal as delivered by audible.com; I really wish The WSJ included this as a subscriber benefit

I have switched to Comcast Business for my Internet and VoIP services, leaving Speakeasy after nearly 4 years

My Caller ID now says Casa dé Hambone when I call people
The installation was seamless and nothing in the hose missed a beat in the cut-over

One of the strongest storms in recent history blew through the area two weeks back, leaving many in our neighborhood with between 4” and 3’ of water in their basements

We were blessed that our flood control worked as promised
I have a leaky gutter that seems to backup and results in a considerable leak into the basement … from the first floor floorboards and immediately above where I kept my computer and desk!

My primary desktop and computer have relocated to the main floor in light of a leak uncovered by the above mentioned storm

The new digs are reachable by the entire family, equating to more use and contention by all
The new digs get way more sunlight and the breeze while I type this is wonderful

We had a new cap poured and new flue pipes installed on our primary chimney, including new tuck pointing

My now-empty plumbing chimney was deconstructed to below the roof line due to a 30 pound piece of mortar falling into the gangway between my neighbor’s house and mine

New glass block windows were installed in all of the basement windows, replacing what had to be windows far older than I am

We now have full ventilation in the basement … something we’ve never had and would have been quite beneficial back when we discovered what Hell must smell like

I’m currently soliciting bids to put on a new roof and install new gutters

This final point has become quite urgent given I now have a hole in my roof due to deconstructing the now-idle chimney
Know any good roofers in Chicago?

Quite a bit to take place in less than two weeks. Surprisingly, we’re quite calm about it all. The last two major home improvement projects are new windows and a new front stoop. Maybe this time next year.

There some interesting detail behind some of the above bullets, each worth its own dedicated post. More to come.

Technorati Tags: home improvement, television, internet, voip, windows, chimney, flood

Get Rid of my.live.com and Bring Back Personalized live.com!

Kevin W. Hammond — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:39:17 GMT

If something isn't broke, don't fix it. But someone within live.com at Microsoft thinks that it would be "better" if we visited my.live.com for the personalized portal rather than www.live.com.

Did the person or team responsible for this stop to think that typing "live" in the address bar and pressing Ctrl+Enter drops you onto your personalized page? Well it doesn't any more. Instead, www.live.com renders a horribly designed, full-screen search UI and effectively hides the link to the personalized page in the last place you'd look ... the lower right-hand corner. Let's not even mention that the need for the graphic hides that personalized link off of the page if your browser window is too small.

No, now I must visit my.live.com for my personalized experience. To shorten the keystrokes, I can type "my.live" and press Ctrl+Enter, but it's a very unnatural act.

Please, get rid of my.live.com and bring back personalized live.com.

Technorati Tags: live.com, microsoft, personalization

This Week in Photography: Podcast + Blog = Good Stuff

Kevin W. Hammond — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:02:54 GMT

It's a rare treat when you find a podcast that is hosted by experts who come across as engaging, knowledgeable and entertaining while managing to not sound arrogant. This Week in Photography (TWiP) is exactly that type of podcast.

Hosted by Alex Lindsay and Scott Bourne, TWiP manages to hit each and every week on topics of interest to beginning and intermediate photographers with a well-structured yet jovial roundtable style. Regulars on the show include Fred Johnson from Adobe and Ron Brinkmann, author of The Art and Science of Digital Compositing. The four of these personalities combined do a fantastic job of delivering current photography-related news, demystifying complex topics and generally engaging in discussions that raise the photography intelligence quotient (PiQ - a term I'm claiming rights to right here, right now) of their audience with each and every episode.

TWiP also goes beyond your typical audio-only podcast to include screencasts and innovative use of the Apple AAC format for podcasting to include reference images for those equipped with video-capable iPods.

The TWiP podcast is also backed by an active blog, www.twipphoto.com, a flickr discussion group, a flickr contest group and a flickr critique group. The TWiP crew has managed to create a vibrant and friendly community in just a few short months - showing that there is huge interest in the subject and that they have a podcasting style that is appealing to the masses.

If photography interests you, I highly recommend you start listening to the TWiP weekly podcast and adding their blog to your list of feeds.

Technorati tags: photography, podcast, itunes, twip

From the Perspective of an Ant

Kevin W. Hammond — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:00:26 GMT

How do you take a creative picture with a point-n-shoot in a dark school gym packed with kids ages 4 to 14? How do you avoid taking the same snapshot of your kids that everyone else there is taking? You do it by taking the picture from a completely different perspective.

In this case, from the perspective of an ant.

Earlier today I was talking with my friend, Drew, about Brian F. Peterson's book Learning to See Creatively. One of the exercises Brian puts you through is to shoot the same subject with the same lens but from a variety of heights and distances. From your belly to your tip toes. From near and far. All so that you learn about looking at things from a different perspective. Armed with a different outlook on the world, you can take even a dull, mundane rock and make it look interesting by providing a totally different perspective when making the image.

This image was made tonight at my daughter's first ever Spring Dance. As she and her friends danced together in a circle, I thought it'd be cool to see what these tiny dancers looked like from the perspective of an ant. I place my Canon PowerShot SD500 on the ground, asked them to tighten up their circle and look at the camera. The result is this cute group of faces that I'll cherish forever.

So the next time you're looking for something a little different, consider what the world around you would look like to an ant passing by and capture it!

Technorati Tags: photography, perspective

LightScribe in an Upside Down World Makes Sense

Kevin W. Hammond — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:33:44 GMT

Why would you ever put a recordable DVD upside down into the DVD drive? To directly label a LightScribe disc, of course!

It may be intuitively obvious to some, but it definitely was not to me. I'm currently burning DVDs for the models that attended the March 1 Chicagoland Strobist Meetup and thought it would be nice to use LightScribe to etch one of their pictures on the front of the DVD. I've had a LightScribe-capable drive for a few years but have never actually used it in such a way.

After creating the label with Nero Cover Designer (a part of Nero 8 Ultra Edition), I began the LightScribe process and was greeted with the error "LightScribe disc information is not recognized. Please ensure that the disc is a LightScribe disc." I scratched my head and like all things with computers, tried the process three or four more times in hopes that something different would occur. Of course, the same thing happened over and over again despite me doing absolutely nothing different. That is the definition of insanity right? I may be in for a rough road ahead.

A quick Google search turned up this post on cdfreaks.com where the poster mentions his CD being inserted upside down in the drive. Huh? Upside down? However, after thinking about it for a few moments it made sense. When the disc is inserted right side up, it is written to on the bottom of the disc. Inserting the disc upside down would then result in the label of the disc being written. A quick flip of the disc and Nero Cover Designer was happy as a claim and nineteen minutes later out popped my first ever directly labeled LightScribe disc.

If you have a LightScribe-capable drive and want to get started with some high quality templates and free software, look no further than lightscribe.org. lightscribe.org provides drivers for Windows, OS X and Linux, software for direct labeling of LightScribe discs, pre-made templates and even quick how-to guides for some of the more popular commercial solutions out there.

Technorati Tags: lightscribe, nero, dvd, cd

Buying an iPhone? Some Helpful Research for You

Kevin W. Hammond — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:08:00 GMT

In my unceasing desire to purchase an iPhone, I've been doing a bunch of research to understand exactly how this is going to impact me near term and long term. Here is some of the research I've done that may surprise you.

You Loose Any Discount on Existing AT&T Service Contracts

Adding the iPhone to an existing AT&T contract negates any and all corporate discounts you may already receive on that AT&T contract. For me, this equates to loosing a 15% across-the-board discount on my entire monthly AT&T bill, or approximately $15 a month.

Basic iPhone Data Plan is Cheaper Than PDA Data Plans

The most basic iPhone data plan from AT&T is actually cheaper by around $6 ($10 after I loose my 15% discount) than my existing unlimited PDA plan used by my Windows Mobile device. The basic data plan provides for 200 SMS messages each month, well below my current SMS usage.

You Can Use Your Existing Voice Plan

If you're an existing AT&T customer and either adding the iPhone as an additional line or replacing an existing phone, you can use your existing voice plan without any changes other than the loss of the corporate discount mentioned above. All you need to do is add an iPhone data plan which varies in price from $20 to $40, with the only difference being the number of SMS messages included (200, 1500 and unlimited.) This may be the single largest benefit of being an existing corporate customer in that I have a very good voice rate plan.

No Corporate or Government Discount on iPhone Hardware

The iPhone is not eligible for any corporate or government discounts; disappointing as I was hoping to leverage my 10% discount on Apple hardware; however, it makes sense when you consider that AT&T is selling the same device and by negating any discount, everyone pays the same amount. Other than shopping for an extensive amount of iPhone or iPod accessories, there's really no reason to shop for an iPhone at the Apple Store. Your local AT&T Wireless store is likely all you need.

Replacing a Broken iPhone

If you break your iPhone, Apple will apparently replace it for $250.00. When I called the Apple Store, getting this straight answer was a tad difficult as the sales person did not want to disclose the replacement price without having a technician on the phone. However, plenty of Google results show a recurring theme: $250.00 to replace a broken iPhone - and a not-so-insignificant number of people unhappy that their screens broke without even dropping the phone. On the upside, there's no need to purchase another AT&T service contract. Furthermore, there are a number of business out there that claim to repair iPhones for fees far cheaper than $250.00. Just be sure to remove your existing SIM before sending in your broken iPhone for service.

I'm still struggling with the current lack of accessibility to my corporate Exchange server. I know these features are coming and I'm balancing waiting against having it right stinkin' now. Fortunately I am fully unified communications enabled with Exchange, and I can dial in and use Outlook Voice Access and have my e-mail read to me. Regardless, it's no substitute for having new e-mail pushed to the device and, more importantly, having immediate access to new

As such, I haven't yet purchased my iPhone. I was in the car after having bought beer and on the way to the Apple Store when my disciplined side kicked in and I turned around to come home. But the day isn't over yet and my current conference call ends within the hour ...

Technorati Tags: iphone, at&t

Selling my iPod Touch for an iPhone

Kevin W. Hammond — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:35:23 GMT

It's 2:30AM last Wednesday morning. I wake up in the middle of the night due to a dream:

I am sitting in Steve Jobs' office at Apple HQ and have just been handed my first iPhone. I'm excited beyond belief.

So excited, that it wakes me up and prevents me from going back to sleep. What the heck is wrong with me? My wife says I need serious, Divine help.

I admit it. I want an iPhone really, really bad. With Apple's recent announcement for support of Exchange ActiveSync, remote device wipe, etc., the barriers for me not getting an iPhone are practically all gone. Assuming Microsoft IT will permit it to sync with our Exchange servers, I truly could be down to a single device for everything.

I currently have a 16GB iPod Touch that I love. It has been a great device. It's the de facto media player in my BMW 335i. It's the device I sit with in my easy chair and watch podcasts. It goes everywhere my phone goes ... which is why I'm thinking an iPhone would be a nice upgrade and yield true device convergence.

However, there's a few items that are holding me back:

I lose my 15% across-the-board discount with AT&T on my existing service by adding an iPhone, though the iPhone data plan is $10 cheaper than what I'm paying now, so it's almost a wash; kicker is that the cheaper plan includes "only" 200 SMS messages a month; I'm not a heavy SMS user today, but I sense the iPhone could increase that usage substantially
I've so many contacts that my car cannot sync them all from my Windows Mobile device; I've had to resort to the JETware Hands-free Extension from JETware Mobile to filter the contacts that sync with the car's address book; I'm not sure if the iPhone has similar capabilities or not
It's unclear at this point if iPhone v2.0 meets Microsoft IT requirements for connecting a mobile device to Exchange - though it certainly seems to hit on all the major buttons
The iPhone is expensive and its clearly a want vs. a need - but my oh my is it a strong want
What happens if I break the iPhone before my shiny new 2 year contract with AT&T is up? I've already dropped one iPod in a bathtub; does Apple have a replacement plan for dolts like me?

Do I wait until the v2.0 firmware is shipping and have an opportunity to see how the new-and-improved iPhone handles things that my Windows Mobile phone handles so well? Or do I sell the 16GB iPod Touch, buy the 16GB iPhone now and deal with the chance that I could end up with an iPhone acting as nothing more than an iPod Touch with a few extra features?

It may be time for a trip to craigslist.org and see if I can sell the iPod Touch so I can start sleeping better at night ...

Technorati Tags: ipod, iphone, windows mobile, activesync, exchange