Herbert1405241469

I personally have an Olympus E-500, which works great, but on a phone call to a local newspaper (for whom I am trying to get a job as a photographer) when I told them about it, they sort of scoffed at it. It's really a good camera for the amateur photographer. 8 Megapixels, and it's major feature, which I'm sure more and more companies are going to start adopting, is a ultrasonic mini blast on the CCD to blow microscopic dust off the ccd chip to prevent dust inside the camera's photo-sensors. My college has a Canon Digital Rebel, and it works just as well, if not better. I seem to get better photos with the Canon, but I don't like their setup. The Olympus allows you 4 different ways for saving photos, and also the compression rate. So if I was shooting something really important, I could shoot in TIF or RAW mode, which is a huge filesize, but maximum quality. If I wanted more photos on my dinky 512 card (I recommend getting a gig, at the least) then I would opt for the SQ JPEG (or HQ JPEG) with various compression, depending on the importance of the shots. If I know I'm just going to take a bunch of shots of my friends and I for Facebook or Myspace, then I lower the resolution to 1600x1200 or so, to save space and get 500 shots on my card, or if I was shooting portraits for customers who are going to be printing these photos out, I'd opt for RAW or TIF format, depending on what I felt like that day :ph34r:The Canon Digital Rebel, from what I can tell, only has "Small, medium and large" options for resolution, which isn't good enough for me. I want to know how many pixels I'm using!If you're going for customization and relative ease of use, I'd recommend the Olympus. If you're going to be taking professional photos, try the Canon.

Oh wow, I just saw a trailer for this game coming out either in August or September. It looks pretty sweet. From what I've read, it's sort of a free-roam style gameplay, with objectives for targets you've gotta whack, and you can do it whenever you feel the time seems appropriate, unlike the Hitman Series, where they plop you down in a level, and you can't leave until the objectives are completed. This one takes place in a Crusader-era town, and is visually stunning. I hope the PC version isn't as incompatible with hardware like these past couple of games I bought were... Seems like the quality of compatibility is going down the tubes for us PC gamers.... I don't feel like spending another $500 on a graphics card, when the one I have ought to be good enough to at least play games for another year or so... Bleh, that's another rant entirely http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-us/home/

Virtual machines can be fun. I was running a version of Windows 95 on my desktop just so I could play some of my old DOS games that aren't compatible with XP anymore

I picked up Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 right before they released FS X in hopes that I could get a decent price on it (prices drop on older software when they're trying to push the new stuff). I am slightly disappointed. 2004 is no different than 2002, with the above mentioned addition of some planes. I know there's only so much they can do with flight sims, but sheesh, they're just milking the users of profits.Looking at Flight Sim X, I heard the graphics were a whole lot better, but took up a lot of CPU resources in the process, and people weren't impressed.I think what they need to do is increase the realism in location based damage... I know they don't want to encourage people flying into buildings, but it would be a lot cooler if you hit a duck flying in the air and having your rudder stick than having the simulation automatically end and freeze when some damage occurs.

I would think you would need to find an emulator, but as of now I can't say I've heard of one that is 100% functioning at this point. Beyond that, you'd need an image of the game you want to play, which can be hard to come by. Unlike a PC game, you'd have to find a tutorial online telling you what cables and software you would need to hook a PSP up to a computer to rip an ISO of the game itself. I have no idea how one goes about doing that...I know I have a PSP and I sold off all my games just because I found the controls hard to work with. I had GTA: Liberty City Stories, and gave up in frustration because I'm a PC gamer by day, so these console aiming controls and whatnot are a pain in the *bottom* compared to wiggling a mouse around.

Quick and dirty way to reduce redeye in Photoshop:-Duplicate the layer (if you want to preserve the original image)-Select one pupil area where the red is showing with the lasso tool-Hit CTRL+U on a PC or Open Apple + U on a Mac-This brings up hue and saturation. Select to change just the reds (instead of "Master")-Drop the saturation and lightness down till you think the photo looks good-Repeat for each eyeThis gets tedious for a photo with a ton of people, but relatively short and simple way to get a quick Myspace or facebook photo worked out. Those other methods probably work just as well or better.

One of my friends got me started on this stuff. This guy in Canada, Sean Kennedy, does a whole bunch of audio and video projects (he even had a couple of books published, but it's near impossible to get copies). He has tons of cool media up on his sites, including a video series called "Patrolling with Sean Kennedy" which is all about survival when the world comes to an end and you need to live on your wits, what sort of "kit" you'll need (boots, tactical underwear, etc.) good stuff. "Tales From the Afternow" is a post-apocalyptic audio series, where the future Sean is sending radio (mp3) broadcasts back to the past from "sometime after now" talking about how the world was messed up from nuclear bombs going off, plague, and whatnot. It's really really well told. It's compelling if you have the time just to sit and listen to what he's saying. I'm nearly done with all the seasons. Apparently he hasn't put up any new stuff since circa 2004, but it's still awesome. Season 2 ends rather abruptly, and I guess it is a good thing because it was RIIIIGHT on the verge of "jumping the shark" as they say, where you get to that point in every episodic media where the original focus starts to deviate from the creator's original intent... Season 3, or retitled "The Witchhunter Chronicles" take place in the "present" (which at the time was 2004). "The Witchhunter Chronicles" does not take place in the Afternow timeline, but rather, is Sean speaking into a cheap tape recorder, as a sort of audio diary... you'll hear a lot of the anti-corpolitical sentiments you hear in Patrolling up until you get into the final 3 or so episodes, when things take a turn. I have one episode left to listen to... I don't recommend "Episode XXIII: G.I. Wish That I Were Home" simply because it's mostly just him in an army training camp in 1994 talking to his friends about how he misses them and how he doesn't want to quit training, even though it's rough... The only thing about that episode is a very very short tie-in with one of the Afternow plot points, but really it's not worth the 40-50 minutes to listen to. The beginning 5 or so minutes, and the last 5 or so minutes are good though. You'll notice a change in audio quality to know what to listen to. So, if you start listening, start with Season 1: Episode 1, and work your way up to Season 2... THEN listen to the Witchhunter Chronicles. If you liked Fight Club's philosophy, then you'll really appreciate these series. If you're the kind of person who would likely turn it off, you're the one who needs it most Links http://rantmedia.ca/afternow/ http://www.rantmedia.ca/patrolling/ http://www.darkatlas.com/

Well, I just finished S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I don't know what to say. Apparently there are 7 endings, and I got one that I really didn't ....like I won't give out any spoilers, but 5 out of the 7 endings are really unfullfilling.For anyone that is playing the game, I recommend just beating the game as you are, without looking into the different endings. Then, once you beat it, look up the other endings on google video or something, because they're not really worth replaying/beating the game 7 times to get the endings. Don't, though, look up the last two endings. They are different. You have 5 endings where you make a wish (wish depends on things like money you have and reputation) and the last 2 endings are based on a sort of "hidden" side doorway that leads to the last 2 choices, which you need to do on your own, because the path to those include in-game dialog that explains more story plot.I don't know if that makes much sense, but it will once you beat the game on the first run and look around stuff on line.Game wasn't bad. After beating it, I recommend you download mods to enhance gameplay. Even on Novice, the game was incredibly and frustratingly difficult. I downloaded one called faiakes_v1.5, that has a bunch of mods rolled into one. A new version is due out sometime. I also can't wait for the 1.0003 patch, which supposedly lets the player continue playing after beating the game (right now you just get credits).... It'd be like Pirates of the Caribbean (the game). It's just better if you get to "free roam" after beating the game.Overall, the game is all about the experience, and not so much the ending. Once they release a couple more patches, or if the user community creates a mod that allows you to play after the ending, then it'll be better.

I've bought every version of GTA, rather than pirated it, just because they are good quality games in terms of design and the amount of play time you get out of them. Sure, you're going to get some jerks who pirate it, but overall, if a company makes a good product that doesn't suck too bad, you'll sell more copies than people will pirate. Plus, with the size of games nowadays being on dvds and whatnot, it takes too long to download these games to make it worth the time.I truly hope they make the PC version, or else they're not going to get my 40-50 bucks Mini Rant: It ticks me off that they make these games for Consoles and port them to PC. The original GTA was created FOR the PC... I feel like I get ripped off with these games because they aren't optimized for PC and thus usually need a dozen patches to make the games playable. Hitman Blood Money's crappy performance bug when it first came out is a prime example. I bought the game with all the recommended specs, and I go to load it up and I get 4 frames per second, because ATI cards weren't supported correctly or some dumb thing, and I had to wait till the patch came out to play a game I paid good money for! It just irks me

I'm glad to help Playing it more, it definitely picks up. Even on Novice, it is hard as heck. Really have to conserve your ammo and aim correctly, because everyone has body armor, and it'll take a whole clip if you just spray at em. Tips for starting out. Explore a ton before you head out on your first missions outside the main camp you start in. Look for stashes on the map for free stuff, and those are supposedly places you can put your stuff so you don't have to worry about carrying it all, since you have a limited amount of backpack space. Keep your backpack items below 50kg, because even though you can fit up to 60/50 kg.... having over 50kg will slow you down faster when you sprint. Money is no trouble to get in this game. The amount of guns you pick up is crazy, so be conservative in what you pick up. Get guns with better function, and ditch older guns or sell them, unless you are very good with them. Go through the corpses of everyone you kill to get ammo, and even pick up their guns, and check your inventory ... then right click on that gun you just picked up and hit "Unload" if it is available to get the ammo, then you can right click again and "Drop" it so you can lose the weight. Limit the amount of "artifacts" you find, those little bouncy powerups... The main guy you meet in the beginning, and later a barkeeper will have side quests for you to find certain powerups. So it's good to have at least 1 of each on hand (or more if they are powerful powerups), so you can go to these guys, request that quest for such and such an item, and then say "I'm here about the job" and you'll complete the quest without even having to go anywhere :-P There are tweaks on gamefaqs.com to help performance, but I can't use them because my rig just can't handle the better quality on this game. It sucks because I can run this game at Max performance, with all the Dynamic Lighting, but I only get like 6 frames per second The game is great looking in the max settings but it's not playable unless you have a good rig. I get a steadier FPS at the low to minimum settings, which makes the game look crappier, but it's playable. They're supposed to release patch 1.0002, so keep an eye out for it. The last patch they released made previous savegames unplayable, so keep that in mind, if patch 1.0002 comes up, you might need to start over... But if it fixes performance issues, I say it's worth it Random Screenshot to show off the graphics: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Tweaks: http://sigforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/72005498%23332105498 Have fun in the wastelands

Well I just picked this game up today despite some mixed reviews. The people who didn't like it quit playing after an hour, and the people who liked it said you have to play longer than that. Well, I have about 5-6 hours in on it now, and I'm just starting to see what they mean At first, I was disappointed in the fact that even though I have a decent computer rig, the game ran very poorly and I had to dumb down a lot of the graphics settings. This was one of the bigger issues with the game, and I regret not being able to see the landscapes and textures in all their pixel shaded glory, but I don't feel like investing more money in my comp at this time. With Medium settings, though, it is playable on a P4, 2.4 ghz with a gig of ddr ram, ATI Radeon x800 Pro. Starting off, I had no idea what to do. The "tutorial" simply involves a couple of basic text overlays telling you how to run and crouch, with a few tips on the higher functions such as fatigue and whatnot. Wandering a bit too far away from camp armed with nothing but a crappy pistol, I found myself being circled by a pair of (apparently blind) mutant dogs. My aim was horrible, but at about 3 feet I could just barely knock off a head shot. I proceeded to try getting to the first objective, which was to clear out some bad guys from an abandoned wrecked farm. I had 3 other guys with me, but I quickly found out how weak I was and how crappy my aim was when a couple baddies picked me off from across the farm. Of course, the constant reloading from the save was rather annoying, but I pressed on, and eventually completed the objective.Etc. I won't go into the rest of the story, but this objective lead to other objective which supposedly help push forward the main quest, which was to find this guy I'm supposed to kill and somehow it'll fix my amnesia. Going along in the world, I quickly picked up a couple of side quests. The only thing I didn't like about the quest handling system is that I can't get the game to change the active quest (like Elder Scrolls Oblivion) so that the directional arrow on the minimap will point to the way I need to go... Right now it'll only point to the objective for the main quest, and I'll have to keep checking my PDA's map to see where the heck I'm going.In terms of land, and where you can go, it's not like Oblivion, where you get an island, as such... I originally was under the assumption that the Chernobyl plant was in the center of a 30km circle. But rather, you get to traverse 30km vertically, sort of the radius of the circle, and Chernobyl (which I assume will be the grande climax of the game) is in the Northernmost region of the map. The entire game lands are broken up into approximately 10km chunks, and you reach loading points that are like gateways to the next area. The lands are vast, but not as vast as Oblivion.There are many obstacles in your way, besides the mutant dogs and mauraders you'll encounter. Nature herself seems to be out to kill you with gravity fluctuations and electromagnetic storms that seem to be entities in and of themselves that if you bump into will take some of your health away.Now that I've been playing, the game isn't set up as an RPG like they say. You'll pick up "powerups" which are radioactive chunks that you can put on your belt that will give you bonuses in damage you can take by bullets and such, with the drawbacks being the fact that they are radioactive, and will drain your health if you use too many of them. It's pretty standard, actually. I don't consider it an RPG as it is just a standard FPS... The longer you play, the bigger the guns get, and the guns themselves contribute to better accuracy, rather than personal stats.Voice acting is decent. The main characters are done alright, but I've been getting some repetition from the noname bad guys when they see me and shoot at me, and die from me Other than that, it's alright.Story-wise, I haven't really gotten into it. Some plot is given through PDAs and others from misc character dialog, which can get boring at times, due to the massive amount of text you'll get in any one conversation. It takes time and patience.Overall, at this point, I'd say S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a decent game. I don't think it's worth the current retail price, but they're going rather cheap on ebay. I'd say it's worth a look if you're in the mood for a survival horror type game and have a lot of time and patience to get through the above. Also, I'd recommend people making sure they have better rigs than the specs I've listed above, or you might be disappointed in the graphics-end of it.I'll make sure to post more as I get through it

Yeah I noticed that, the uploading via ftp. At times Dreamweaver will hang and I'll have to restart the upload to my server. Other than that, I've had no problems

Freeware solution for what you want would be Virtualdub. (virtualdub.org)It's a handy avi/mpg editor with lots of options and filters. Best of all, it's free

I wish they would come out with an "updated" version of Goldeneye for DS or even Gamecube or Wii. I know some pc game modders made some maps and guns based on the n64 Goldeneye, but it lacks AI. They were designed for multiplayer in Half Life 2, I believe... I want to go back and play the original levels with updated graphics (and sounds)

Oh I love Dreamweaver. We used Frontpage in high school, and I got experience using that, but I didn't really like it all that much. Once I got into college, I got to use Dreamweaver and I must say, it is the superior of the two. I was commissioned years later to redo my high school's website (that I had originally designed while I was still going there) and switched everything over to dreamweaver. Oh it looks so much nicer (though, that may be partially due to the fact that I had more experience). Several pages needed to look the same, and I designed them the same in Dreamweaver as they were in Frontpage, and the file size was three times the size in Frontpage than the Dreamweaver version. Microsoft throws in so much unnecessary code with Frontpage design, it's crazy!

Bleh, I get Symantec Antivirus from my school for free, so I've been using that. It's really non-intrusive and doesn't use up a lot of resources, but the problem with it that I've had is that when a virus does happen to wander into my system, the antivirus is quick to tell me about it... But then does NOTHING to fix it before it runs amok and destroys my hard drive data. Some smaller things it will quarantine, but I've had some really nasty ones that will eat my hard drive like pacman likes pills. I don't get viruses like all the people I know that run computers. Like was mentioned above, you have to use common sense when computing, especially since there are so many ways that people will try screwing with your computer. All it takes is one file to screw you up, and you're out of luck. This is also mentioned above: constantly keep your backups up to date, so you don't lose any important info. I remember years ago before I kept my data backed up on a regular basis, I got a nasty bug and had to wipe my drive, and found out afterwards I lost about 100 bookmarked sites that I'd never be able to find again Of course, I tend to go overboard with backups. I have probably 20 dvds from the past 2 years sitting on my shelf with backups on them. Instead of cloning, I just burn the files and folders, but this leads to data redundancy, because I tend to use the same files after I back it up, which updates them and I end up having multiple versions of the same file in all my backups, but I can't throw away the old backups because they have unique files on them. I'm planning on consolidating all my data, because I'm tired of sifting through dozens of dvds trying to find the files I need. I hope the higher end data storage comes up like HD or Blu Ray, so I can finally get all this stuff onto one disk and throw everything else in the shredder and get some of my desk space back!

I've been experimenting with Blender a bit. I did up a logo that came out well enough. Animating it took a bit longer than I'd hope for, but that's probably due to using the external renderer YAFRAY, which looks very nice in rendering on sites I've seen, but I have yet to fully unlock what it can do.Before Blender, the only real experience I had with 3D software was Poser 4, which really was nice, if you knew how to use it, but had little capabilities in terms of creating new models. The later versions of Poser I tried were rather buggy, and I lost my copy of Poser 4, so I decided to try Blender.The biggest feature of all the 3D modeling programs I've tried, that I really like since I'm a noob at it, is the ability to load a background image that I can "trace" over with polygons to make my models. I think Milkshape could do that too... but that was only available in trial versions. Now Blender can do it so my logo came out Waaaaay better than it would have had I not been able to load up the logo in the background.Shortcuts, from what I've tried so far, are pretty easy to figure out on my own... Learning keyboard shortcuts is the biggest time saver for efficiency when working with programs, so I have been looking up Blender tutorials online, which thankfully are plentiful on their site.Hmmmm, I think that's about all I can think of. Nothing really negative to say about Blender. For anyone starting out, I recommend it highly for it's capabilities (and the fact that it's freeware )

I was rather disappointed, or rather, my brother was. He picked up a DS and the new Super Mario Bros. game a few months ago, and he beat the darned thing in little less than a day! Took him awhile to figure out the warps and whatnot, but jeeze! At least with Super Mario Land for SNES, it took me months to unlock everything, all the alternate levels/endings and whatnot.... That Super Mushroom is a great novelty bit, but overall, from playing it as briefly as I did, I didn't find it any more enjoyable than the older games I played in my youth

Whoo, did anyone else see the trailer that Rockstar released for Grand Theft Auto IV? The graphics really do look sweet. I can hardly wait for that one!From what I have heard, it is going to be taking place in Liberty City (which is based on New York City, as we can see in the trailer, the Statue of Liberty). I guess the main character is going to be a Russian mobster come over for "a new start," to try getting away from the violence and such... which we all know won't be happening

Yeah, I agree. I like Audacity because it has so many cool features and is rather easy to use. The filters in it are nice.

There are many sites out there on the internet that will provide basic technical information and tips. Basically, just take some time to browse around and read up on lighting (which is what photography is all about!) and make sure to read your camera manual so you can realize the full potential of your camera and how it works. Also look into learning all about the technical aspects of photography including F-stops, shutter speeds, ISOs, white balance, etc... so you will know what variables affect the photograph.As for positioning yourself... just look at things at different angles than you would normally looking at them. Instead of just standing in front of your subject, crouch down and look up at it, or find a high vantage point... Take light into consideration, and the subject's background. With F-stops, you can control how blurry or in-focus the background is.Experiment. Flip the settings around in manual mode, and see what works. Learn how these settings affect how a photo comes out. Longer exposures can mean blur, but that blur can be used in artistic ways. Fast shutter speeds can freeze action, such as a droplet of water in mid-air.High ISO values will allow you to set your shutter speed higher, for poor lighting or sports or fast action shots, but will create a lot of digital noise. Lower ISO values will decrease noise, but you'll need longer shutter speeds. Go out and take an afternoon to just shoot photos of things you're interested in. The more you use the camera, the better you'll get at it!

Yeah, going on that same idea, I just re-installed Half-Life 2: Episode One again to refresh my memory before Half-Life 2: Episode Two comes out (whenever they actually get around to releasing it ) I love how deep you can get by relating to the characters in the half life series... I feel like I AM Gordon Freeman! It's just so immersing. I really hope they don't screw up the story like the Matrix trilogy did. It seems, though, that the developers are really listening to their fans, so I have high hopes that the series will, some day far far into the future, will come to a satisfactory closing.I'm looking forward to Portal too. I tried out the Portal mod already out for Half Life 2, and it is pretty sweet. If you're interested in the inspiration for Portal, look up "Narbacular Drop" on yahoo or google. Some college kids made a portal puzzle game for a school project, and it's really a mind-bender. It's free to download.http://www.nuclearmonkeysoftware.com/narbaculardrop.html

I wouldn't want computers thinking emotionally like humans. As a whole, the human species has done nothing but war with itself since the dawn of humanity. That's all we need is one "intelligent" computer to consider itself superior to everyone and start blowing things up Haven't you ever played System Shock?! I don't know. What would we have with computers that think like humans? It certainly would be an evolution, since we'd make them do all the work and the human species would get weaker and weaker, until one day we are totally replaced by the machines and you enter into any such and such apocalyptic android movie you've ever seen The potential benefits would be interesting though... Artwork, created entirely from an intelligent computer, which would take mere seconds to create a masterpiece that surpasses Da Vinci, and them. Marketing campaigns would explode, and computers for rival companies would duke it out with competition, trying to create the mathematically perfect ad campaign. So many possibilities...

I have been using VirtualDub for my video editing. It has a lot of useful filters that I need, and it's opensource, so it's free. It will only really work with avi and importing mpeg, so I have to find third party software to covert it to wmv if I want to put it on the web, but it is rather easy to work with once you get the hang of it. http://virtualdub.org/

Oh I am so glad there are games that can be modded. I bought Pirates of the Caribbean (originally "Sea Dogs 2" but they were bought out by Disney right before they released the game, and had to change the name). But it had great potential for being a cool game, but it was buggy as all hell. Well, the fan-modding community started working together in making this huge mod (which is in fact a ton of little mods all rolled into one big one) and it totally pulled Pirates of the Caribbean out of the crapper. It adds to many cool features that take advantage of the game engine, and just makes the game much more fun and realistic!Then there's other stuff that just takes old games and makes them worth playing again, like the Kung Fu mod for Max Payne, or the new Hi-Res Textures and more polygon model mods for System Shock 2 (giving it an updated, better looking feel to the game). Morrowind and Oblivion mods are mucho helpful too. Gives the games more to work with.Half Life seems to be the best example of why modding is a good thing. I don't have an extensive background in the history of Half Life, but didn't Counter Strike originate as a fan mod? Then lately there are cool mods for Half Life 2 including Garry's Mod, and the newer Portal mod, which gives us a glimpse into how the new Portal gun is going to work months before the game Portal will even be released by Valve!Yes yes, I fully support mods