If you haven’t or maybe you’re just wondering what all the buzz is about, I’m hoping this little post will shed some light on what’s possibly the biggest indie success of all time.

Before I get started, I’ll cover just a little bit about what Minecraft is.

What is Minecraft?

Minecraft is an open sandbox game, which means you’re not directed on what to do or how to do it. There’s no princess to save or arch-villain to kill. The game world is wide open and waiting for you to explore and use your imagination.

You’re main interaction with the game involves mining, crafting, and constructing with different kinds of “blocks.” Can you imagine a towering stone castle in the distant horizon? You can build it. You can build pretty much anything you can imagine, but before you lay down the first block of stone, you’ll have to do a bit of mining. And if your imagination isn’t enough incentive to start digging, maybe the zombies will once the sun goes down.

Reasons to Download Minecraft

If my little introduction has whet your appetite, hopefully the following list will send you over the edge.

Play the Beta, Get the Full Game. Lots of people don’t realize that Minecraft is actually still in beta testing. By purchasing the game now at a discount, you get to play it now before it’s officially released later this year. Also, you’ll get the full version when it’s released (and all the updates in between). It’s quite a deal. Play a really fun and addictive game before its full release, get a discount, and get all the updates and the full version when it comes out.

There are Millions Minecraft Players. Don’t think for a single moment that you’re getting into an obscure game that nobody plays. As of this writing, sales for Minecraft are just shy of 3 million. Yes, that’s million. Nearly 10,000 people bought the game in the past 24 hours. You’re not alone, friend, which brings me to my next point.

Minecraft is Multiplayer. Minecraft is lots of fun in singleplayer, but if you spend any amount of time building something really neat, you’re going to want to show it off to someone. Minecraft has a component that can be installed on a public or private server, allowing many players to coexist in the same world. You can work together to plan and build a mega-structure, explore, or spend some time checking out the stuff other players have made. If you need some time to yourself, you can always pick a direction, start walking, and build your own little place on a distant mountain.

Minecraft is Infinite. Unlike pretty much any other game, the world of Minecraft doesn’t have an end. The game dynamically generates new terrain as you travel into previously unexplored parts of the world. You can walk in any direction infinitely, though, I’m betting you’ll get tired of just walking for hours and hours and want to settle down somewhere, mine for resources, and build use your imagination.

The great thing about the infinite maps is that you’ll always have a new place to explore, but you’ll also have a place to call home. Once a chunk of land has been generated, it will become static and always stay the same (unless you decide to get out a shovel and pickaxe and make some modifications yourself).

Markus Perrson, aka “Notch”. Minecraft is being developed by a group of individual developers, but the guy who started it all is affectionately known as Notch. He has a reputation for being one of the most friendly and likable developers on the planet. He tweets, posts, and shares on Google+ regularly. It’s a personal touch that you rarely find in other games.

One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about Minecraft is being part of the developing process. I haven’t contributed code or made game-changing suggestions, but I’ve played for a while now and witnessed the changes and additions Notch has blogged about over the past year. It’s really neat to read about an idea or new feature and then see it unfold in the next version.

Download Minecraft

Are you ready to give Minecraft a try? Great! I’m sure you’ll have a blast. If you need a little help or just want to learn more about the Minecraft world, check out the Minecraft Wiki.

Already a fan? Let us know in the comments.

Why a Used Xbox

So why all the talk about a used Xbox? I’m a frugal guy. If I’m in the market to buy something that’s morethan $50, I’m going to perform a somewhat obsessive research project on the item (one of the sure signs you’re a geek). Electronics, particularly ones that have been around for a while, tend to drop in price significantly compared to retail. The Xbox is no exception. With a little patience and the right resources you can save $50 – $100 if you buy a used Xbox. Depending on the model, that’s around 33% savings.

Red Ring of Death, Cannot Read Disc

This one has been covered several times before, so I’ll not go into too much detail here. If you’re new to the Xbox scene, there are two problems you may experience with your Xbox. The worse of the two is the Red Ring of Death (RRoD). The RRoD got its name from the green circle you normally see on the front of your Xbox when it’s on. The green light turns into a menacing red when a problem has occurred. RRod is usually caused by a thermal event due to bad contact between the processor and the heatsink. The only way to fix it is the tear apart (void your warranty) the xbox and re-seat the heatsink or buy another Xbox.

Another problem is with reading discs. For some reason, the DVD drives in some Xbox’s malfunction, severely limiting what you can do with your gaming machine… that depends on playing disc-based games. My particular problem was caused by the magnet coming loose, which meant the drive could not hold the disc in place while it was attempting to be read. This accounted for the terrible noise I heard when trying to play games or watch movies.

Roommates

Those of you with siblings can probably relate to this the most. My brother and I had different tastes when I comes to video games. We would fight over what to play, who got to play first, etc. The same can be true if you’re living in a dorm or apartment with several other guys who also like to play games.

It’s somewhat unreasonable to expect your parents to buy two of everything simply because you and your brother or sister can’t agree on something like video games. You’re on your own now, though, so there’s nothing outside your budget that should keep you from having your own Xbox.

Multiplayer

If you’ve played a video game in the last five years, chances are you played them online. One of the best things about modern gaming is that you’re not confined to your room, void of all contact with other humans. When you hop on your Xbox, you’re joining a community of other players who like similar games and genres.

While online multiplayer is fun, some of the best gaming moments I’ve ever had were during LAN (local) games with my friends. We would all meet up a the designated home, hook up three or more Xbox’s and play way into the early morning hours. If you’re living with several other gamers, it really makes sense to pick up an extra used xbox or two for epic multiplayer moments.

Keep the TV Screen All to Yourself

My first split-screen experience was nearly two decades ago with Goldeneye and Mario Kart on the N64. Chopping the screen into four sections left us squinting and sitting too close to the television, but we really didn’t care at the time.

In these days of large, fancy displays, you’re probably not keen on the idea of splitting it up with your best buddy, even if he did totally buy you lunch that one time. Encourage your friend to pick up a used xbox so you both can play in full-screen, high definition bliss.

For more information on buying used items, check out BuyUsedGear.com.

Elinchrom is based in Switzerland and is known for creating exceptional studio lighting strobes and light shaping tools at a reasonable price. I know many pro photographers who use Elinchrom lights and love them.

I decided to give Elinchrom a chance since they seemed more practical for my uses. After spending some time looking at the Elinchrom offerings, I decided to focus on these 3 units.

Strobes Used

• Elinchrom Ranger Quadra “A” Head To Go Set – $1560
• Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS $2449
• Elinchrom Digital Style 600RX Monolight $800

Accessories Used

• Elinchrom Skyport Universal Speed Set – $176
• Elinchrom Rotalux Softbox 24 x 31.5″ – $175
• Elinchrom 27″ White Maxisoft Reflector (Beauty Dish) – $275

I rented each unit to use in a handful of sessions that I had coming up. I wanted to see which one best fit my needs and shooting style.

Elinchrom Ranger Quadra

I probably spent the most time with the Quadra. What a cool little unit! Beautiful light from a package that was so lightweight and portable. I got the A Head, which offers faster flash duration and recycle time (The “A” stands for Action; they do have “S”, or Standard, heads that are a little cheaper).

Pros
- Small, lightweight and portable
- Can be plugged into AC power when in the studio to conserve battery life (officially, the strobe only runs off of battery power, but when the AC adapter is plugged in the battery is charged between flashes)
- Fast flash duration
- Built-in Skyport Receiver

Cons
- Not great build quality. After using less than 2 weeks, the rubber rim around the top of the battery pack was starting to become separated from the body.
- The strap loops are on the top of the unit. If you have the strap clipped on, it’s cumbersome to screw in the lighting cord
- Requires a poor quality mounting adapter in order to use the full-size Elinchrom modifiers.
- The mounting system is poor overall.
- The modeling light automatically turns off each time the strobe fires. In some situations, the modeling light is the only light in the room at the time so it was a pain to have to turn it back on after each shot I took.

If I was already heavily invested in Elinchrom, the Quadra unit would be a no-brainer addition. For the price, it offers a nice quality light in a very lightweight and portable unit. My biggest problem is that this would be my main strobe (at least to start with), and given the build quality it made me a little nervous that this would be my starting point for building my big lights arsenal. Not quite enough bang for the buck, which is why the next unit in line was the Elinchrom Ranger RX.

Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS

This Ranger RX kit had great build quality, terrific light, easy controls from the battery pack, and the mount is much easier to deal with than that of the Quadra.

I had 2 problems with the Ranger RX: weight and power.

Let me address the weight first. After doing a couple of location shoots with the Quadra I had gotten used to it’s small size and light weight; the Ranger RX is a completely different beast. For the type of shooting I do, it would be a little too cumbersome to tote around on location.

As far as power goes, it’s not that there wasn’t enough power; it’s that there was too much! I tend to shoot with large apertures when in the studio and the RX’s lowest setting is 17 watt seconds. I like to get my light in close to the subject, but with my typical light distance the widest I could get my aperture was f/5.6 at ISO 100.

Elinchrom Digital Style 600RX

While I was at it with Elinchrom, I took the opportunity to try out the RX600 monolight. It was a well built unit along the lines of the Ranger RX, but had less of a power ranger and a rather unimpressive flash duration. The quality of light was on par with the Ranger units, but the 600RX was just a little bit more restrictive than I had gotten used to with my Alien Bees strobes.

Skyport Remote Control Speed Set

I had a chance to work with the Skyport remote control system. I was a little hesitant to leave my PocketWizards in my bag, especially since the Skyports didn’t seem to be built as ruggedly as the PocketWizards are, but I liked having the ability to vary the power with the Skyports.

Indoors, the Skyports worked as expected. The only problem was having to hold down one of the power adjustment buttons in order to turn on the modeling light. You tap the button once, and it increases your power. You hold it down for 3 seconds, it supposedly turns on the modeling light. This was hit or miss for me, and maybe I wasn’t holding it down long enough, but I eventually just gave up trying.

Using the Skyports outdoors was where I had a problem. I had several misfires when using at a range of under 30 feet. That doesn’t happen with PocketWizards (unless they are low on batteries), so it frustrated me quite a bit. But for indoor use, I really can’t complain.

Elinchrom Rotalux Medium Softbox

This was my first time using any softbox other than the Paul Buff foldable softboxes. The Elinchrom softboxes are touted as being quick setup, and this is probably true when compared to softboxes from other manufacturers. But, they obviously haven’t tried the Paul Buff foldables. I could have 3 Paul Buffs setup by the time it took me to setup 1 Elinchrom.

Aside from that, the build quality of the Elinchrom softboxes are great. I was very happy with the light diffusion it produced. I can see why many folks lean toward Elinchrom modifiers on their Profoto lights (and others). Good quality for a good price.

Elinchrom 27″ White Beauty Dish Maxisoft Reflector

The Elinchrom Beauty Dish was also a cool modifier. It comes with a few different deflector discs that can be used to vary color and sharpness of the light. My favorite was the silver.

If I had to find one fault with the beauty dish is that Elinchrom doesn’t offer grids. There are third party solutions that you can use, but again, I was missing the flexibility that the Paul Buff beauty dish was offering me.

Sample Images

Conclusion

Elinchrom is a dependable company making reliable instruments that produce terrific light. The price of these instruments is reasonable and affordable compared to the other manufacturers that are in the same league. The lower price, however, is at times evident in the build quality. And this is apparent build quality I’m talking about. Nothing broke or cracked while I was using it. It was just the feel of it. And this can sometimes be misleading.

If you are wanting good, consistent lighting and don’t yet have a huge budget, then it’s worth giving Elinchrom a closer look. For me, as far as strobes go, I wish I could mix the Quadra, the Ranger RX, and the RX600 monolight together and get the perfect strobe, but as they are separately I felt I needed to keep looking for a solution that better suited my needs.

Coming soon, a test drive with Profoto.

About the Author

Bo Boswell is a Nashville-based portrait photographer. See more work on his website, BoBoswellPhotography.com, or follow him on Facebook or @bo_boswell on Twitter.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my handheld flashes. They’re lightweight, fairly low cost, provide flexibility and are a lot of fun. But lately, I have been looking at transitioning to bigger studio lights.

Whether you do photography as a hobby or career, at some point you will be faced with the decision of what lighting gear to buy. Just be careful about not letting this evolve into, as Zack Arias says, G.A.S., or Gear Acquisition Syndrome. It’s easy to get caught up in the gear that other photographers are using and what is the best equipment to get.

I think the bigger question is, what is the best equipment for me, for my style of shooting or for this specific project.

What Type of Lighting Equipment Am I Needing

My style of shooting and the subjects I’ve been shooting lately work better with AC powered strobes. When I am working with small kids, I need a fast recycle time and I don’t want to worry about a flash’s AA batteries dying on me. I also need a modeling light because the studio space I use is pretty dark. Since I shoot Canon, trying to work with the auto-focus in a dimly lit room is not a lot of fun, so a modeling light is a necessity.

Since I also shoot in outdoor locations, I see the benefit of having more power with big strobes. I’d like to be able to schedule sessions earlier in the afternoon instead of shooting at sunset and missing dinner with my wife and kids. That being said, I want something that is lightweight enough to be easily managed and moved around by myself for those times when I don’t have an assistant and am on my own.

For the past few years, I have been using a set of Alien Bees lights. I did many sessions around the holidays with some B800s and I was continuously having issues with color consistency, or lack thereof. I was shooting a lot of families and kids and was having to spend quite a bit of time in Photoshop afterwards; I was always running into coloration problems even though the individual sessions were shot with the same settings and lighting scenarios.

I’m to the point now where I’d like to upgrade to more consistent strobes. The caveat here is that this can be expensive business, especially since I’ve grown comfortable with the sub-$500 range of handheld flashes and Alien Bees monolights. So, I took a look at my expected upgrade path and figured out what I’m going to be needing.

Current Lighting Gear

- 3 Alien Bees B800 Monolights
- 1 Alien Bees B1600 Monolight
- 1 Canon Speedlite 580EX
- 1 Canon Speedlite 430EX

While I had 6 effective lights to work with, I looked back over the past 2 years and realized that I typically employed 4 lights maximum. So, I’d eventually like to end up with 4 big lights. Now, this number is good for me. Some photographers use more lights, many use less. It all depends on the individual photographer.

It was never my intention to buy all my lights at once. I wanted to start with one or two that suited the majority of my needs and then slowly add on more lights as needed.

Profoto vs. Elinchrom vs. Einstein vs. …

I did a lot of searching around online to help decide on which quality lighting brand to go with. Of all that I read, I kept coming back to 2 typical brands: Profoto and Elinchrom. In fact, I had a hard time finding photographers that I admired who didn’t use one of those 2 brands. I was also curious about the bold claims of the Paul C. Buff Einstein, so I narrowed my search down to these 3 manufacturers.

I made a list of the lights I was interested in by each of these manufacturers and set aside a small budget for renting each of lights so I could have some workable experience with them. It was a very fun and informative experience but it helped me make, what I feel, is the best decision for me.

I did a lot of reading in online forums about people who had experience with either Profoto or Elinchrom (or both). Profoto is, without a doubt, the most highly recommended brand. It seemed that the majority of folks who were using Elinchrom were doing so because they couldn’t afford Profoto. Yet others still swore by Elinchrom so I knew they were worth a look.

Continue reading my experience with Elinchrom strobes…

About the Author

Bo Boswell is a Nashville-based portrait photographer. See more work on his website, BoBoswellPhotography.com, or follow him on Facebook or @bo_boswell on Twitter.

Changing this setting back to where tabs open at the end of the tab bar is relatively easy and will only require a quick trip into the about:config section of Firefox.

1. Go To Configuration Settings
In the Address Bar, type about:config and hit enter. You’ll be greeted with a cheerful warning that proceeding into this section of Firefox might void your warranty. Click the button to promise that you’ll be careful.

2. Filter It Out!
In the Filter bar, type browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent which will filter out all the values we don’t need to see and just display the one we’ll be changing.

3. Toggle It!
Once you have found the browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent preference, you’ll notice that the default value is true. Right-click on the preference name and choose Toggle (or just double-click the preference name to toggle automatically). This will change the value to false.

4. Enjoy!
That’s it! You can close out the about:config window and enjoy having your tabs work like they used to.

Some will argue that we should just attempt to embrace the new open relative behavior. But I am far too set in my tab-using ways at this point. Mozilla is just going to have to embrace us.

1. Don’t get married.
2. If you ignored #1, don’t get your wife roses for Valentine’s Day.

Now, please let me explain. Both of my points here are a joke (kinda…mostly). However, there is a reason behind #2. If you buy flowers for your spouse or girlfriend one year for Valentine’s Day, then she will expect them the following year (or something of greater emotional value or importance). Even if you both “mutually agree” beforehand that flowers aren’t necessary, she will expect them.

So, I’ll assume that since you’re reading this article then you’ve ignored my advice. I know what you must be going through at this point; you’re worried that you’re a horrible husband/boyfriend and you’re scrambling to find the best place to order flowers.

Rest easy, because I’ve done the legwork for you. After nearly 5 years of marriage I’ve tried a variety of different flower shops and florists and I will now rank the top 3. Each flower shop is judged on the quality of the flowers and of course the general level of excitement of my wife.

In order of rank:

1. 1-800-FLOWERS.com
2. FTD.com
3. ProFlowers

1-800-FLOWERS
The first few times I ordered flowers, they came from ProFlowers.com. Then one day I found a better deal on 1-800-FLOWERS so I ordered from there instead. My wife proclaimed, hands down, that the quality of flowers were much better than ProFlowers.com, as well as having arrived in nicer packaging and had a longer life.

FTD
My wife actually puts FTD.com on the same quality level as 1-800-FLOWERS. The reason that it’s listed as number 2 is because my wife claimed that the edges on a few of the flowers were slightly wilted, but nothing unsightly. The package that I purchased included chocolates, but she didn’t even know until I told her that there should’ve been chocolates included. Because of the way the flowers were packaged, she thought that the box of chocolates was simply an ice pack and had put it in the garbage. So, if you place an order that includes chocolates, you may want to make mention of it in the personal note.

ProFlowers
It’s unfortunate that ProFlowers falls into last place, because many times I’ve found better prices on their site (I’ll let you determine how that reflects the quality of the product).

The first order I purchased from ProFlowers, my wife called and was thankful but said that all the flowers were wilted and looked to be half dead. I immediately called the site’s 800 number and filed a complaint. My wife received fresh flowers the next day at no extra charge. So, if the flowers aren’t up to snuff, just give them a call and they’ll get a new set out to your loving spouse asap.

The important thing to remember is, money won’t buy happiness; but money will buy roses which will make your wife or girlfriend happy. So, instead of buying yourself a copy of Left 4 Dead this month, think of the sweet woman in your life (your wife!) and order her some flowers!

Note that I’m referring to the cable subscription that we use to watch television with. I guess this also applies to satellite users, though it seems that not as many people are disgruntled with them and many rural customers don’t have a choice. So, just to be clear my focus is on those companies like Cox Communications and Comcast.

My argument leans firmly on services offered by Netflix, Amazon’s Video on Demand, and Hulu. With just one of these services, namely Netflix, I can watch just about all the television I can handle. I name Netflix above the others simply because I get so much for my money. About $15/mo lands me around 8-10 DVD rentals and the ability to watch streaming movies at no additional cost.

What really pushes me over the edge is how about $80 of my monthly cable bill applies television alone. That’s nearly $1,000 a year in television entertainment. Do I feel like I watch $1000 worth of TV? No, not really.

I can hear a few of you asking, “what about my local channels?” Fear not! Your local channels can probably be picked up over the air with an antenna… in HD! For the cost of a couple of month’s worth of cable television, you can have the equipment you need to watch over-the-air broadcasts for free. A couple of great sites to learn more about this are AntennaWeb.org and TitanTV.com.

I want to wrap up this post by saying that although I’m considering dropping my cable television subscription, I’m far from thinking about canceling my internet connection. After all, every one of these services rely on a fast and solid connection to the web.