Canon Digital Rebel

Well, you can now add me to the long list of owners of the Canon Digital Rebel XTi. Despite my previous problems with Canon, I picked up their new camera anyways. Mostly because I'm hearing everywhere that it's a fantastic camera, and a great deal. In either case, I'm going to be using it a lot, so I'll give my opinions later.

I did, however, get a fantastic package deal. I got a great quote from Henrys, and then took it over to BestBuy where they have a policy of matching any quote, as well as 10% of the difference. So I picked up the camera (with lens), an accessory kit, and an 8GB memory card. I ended up getting a good $200 or so off the price.

Another little tip, if you're looking for some lens hoods for your camera, why pay good money when you can get them for free! LensHoods.co.uk has some for every imaginable lens, that you can print out and assemble for free.

Electric Extortion

Just the other day, a worker came over from Hydro Ottawa to install their new Smart Meter into our home, and every home in the city.

Their plan, is to charge people more for electricity used during 'peak hours'. Peak hours, being anytime between 7am to 11am, and 5pm to 8pm during most of the year.

As I've discussed before, the Ontario Hydro companies continuously fail to meet the standard sales technique of supply and demand. Normally, when consumers demand more, the suppliers will produce more, and therefore increasing their business. Hydro Ottawa, however, is extortion of an essential service.

And naturally, there will always be an increase in demand for electricity. Think about it, not only is their an increase in computers and electronic gadgets, but the population of Canada is rising by 250,000 immigrants a year, and an additional 100,000 or so refugees. Who, of course, require electricity as well.

So instead of extorting prices to try and drive down consumption, they should merely build more plants to produce the power required. Simple supply and demand.

10 Reasons You Shouldn't Go to Film School

DV Guru just posted a great article on why you shouldn't go to film school. And really, this probably applies to just about any arts-related program out there.

1. Your favorite filmmaker didn't go to film school.
2. Digital Video.
3. Film school is expensive.
4. The Internet.

There's the first 4. Now go read all 10 at DV Guru.

Death of a Camera

My digital camera has finally had it. In fact, it never really did have it... and has always been close to joining that big heap of buggy digital gadgetry.

The Canon Powershot A70 has given me problems right from the start. While its stats were pretty decent when I bought it, it gave me a long and troubling history:

Since purchasing it from BestBuy in 2003, the camera had to be replaced twice, and repaired at least two times (that I have receipts for)... and finally broke again just yesterday... not two weeks after the service plan ended (but two weeks before it was supposed to end, according to what the manager promised me when he convinced me to buy the plan).

I've found that BestBuy's service plan, while persistent, was overpriced and of poor quality. Every time, the Canon was brought in because of purple lines across the photos... and 6 months after they 'fixed' it, the lines would appear again.
So it looks like I'm now without a camera... at least until I can afford a new one... so much for updating my Flickr account.

Starfield Concert

I took Shannon to see Starfield in concert last night. Fantastic rock/emo-ish Canadian Christian band. The concert was a great blend between their hit songs, and well-known worship songs.

The concert was sold out! They actually set today as a second concert, which is also almost sold out. So you better hurry and get your tickets.

I completely forgot my camera, so if you want to take a look, you'll have to search Flickr.

Their setup was pretty simple, and still awesome. Besides the usual lights and stage setup, they were ringed by three huge screens with projectors behind them. They projected full 3-screen-spanning videos that perfectly synched with the music. A combination of motion graphics, and very artistically presented song lyrics. All run off of a Mac laptop controlled by their bass guitarist.

Since the band controlled most of their own presentation, they had just two other guys. One to control a small lightboard, and another for the soundboard and small rack of equipment... It's amazing how affordable quality productions are becoming.

Well, we had a great time at the concert, and thoroughly enjoy their music. So check them out.

God Edited My Video

I was down to the night-before rush to get the material ready in time. Last-minute changes and ideas left me with having to almost completely re-edit the short animation demo that was needed for a meeting the next morning. There was no way I could finish editing, and get enough sleep to keep me awake and alert throughout the meeting. And so I prayed that God would help me.

Nearly falling asleep, I cut out interesting video samples from various animated series, and slapped them down onto the timeline. Then I grabbed two songs from different soundtracks, and lined them up beginning to end and overlapped them so they just fit the length of the video.

And you know what? God edited my video. I couldn't have done a better job even if I tried. It did not require any tweaks or changes. It was finished. And everything fit perfectly too: the pacing flowed well, the music was seamless, the video was edited to the music, and it even felt like the music was tailored to the context and actions which transpired within each scene.

It was amazing... and very humbling.

Blogger (back in) Beta

Well it looks like my efforts to categorize my blogging has been rendered useless... but for a good reason:
Blogger is back in Beta.
Or rather, the new version is. And in a few days or weeks, we'll have plenty of new features to play around with.

Here are the more exciting features that are coming out in the new version:

• Labels. Categorize your posts with labels. This basically makes my own list useless... which is just fine with me, cause it's annoying to update manually!
• Reader Permissions. Just like it sounds, you can control who reads your blog. Perfect for private business blogs, or trading romantic posts with your girlfriend ;)
• Template Editor. Finally, a real wysiwyg editor to make changes to your template! Lately, I've just been dropping my template into Dreamweaver to make changes, but this is easier and more accessible to the average user.

You can go and sign up for the new Blogger Beta, but will have to wait a little bit longer to convert your existing blog over to the new system... come on Blogger! Let's get the show on the road.

- My template in Dreamweaver -

News doesn't like news

My family was sitting in our kitchen, eating dinner and watching the news on the local station. The show opened up with a preview of the evenings news stories. One exciting story caught our eye: the invention of a water-powered vehicle.

We sat through the entire hour-long episode, eagerly awaiting this world-changing story, only to find that they dropped it in favor of a gay Olympian and the opening of a local fair. Now what's with that?

The invention of a simple, affordable engine that runs entirely on water is pushed off the air by some queer athlete? There wasn't a single story in the entire program that was more important than a hydrogen car. Think about it... it tolls the end of the gasoline and petrol monopoly that has raised our gas prices to a dollar a liter. With a cheap engine, and fuel literally falling from the skies, the convenience and quality of life in Canada would raise significantly.

Yet another death knell for traditional media coverage. Already, you can access creative content and news reports directly from their sources... free, fast, and easy. Blogs, free video archives like YouTube and Google Video, and free photo hosting on Flickr. These keep me up-to-date on the most important matters, and the one's I'm actually interested in.

Oh, and for those of you still looking for coverage on the water-powered vehicle.

Displaying Your Pictures

Digital cameras are affordable, they're easy to use, and they take some great photos. But what do you do after the picture is taken? If you're like me, you probably have a folder somewhere on your computer with a few thousand digital photographs. Where's the fun in that?

There's plenty of options out there to get your pictures out in the open.

Just recently, I uploaded a whole pile of digital pictures to a photo lab at Loblaws, and just went in to pick them up the next day. Stick them in some frames around the house, and you're done. Nicer quality, and cheaper than printing it out at home.

I also have a photo iPod, which many of my favourite photos on it. Play some music, and put on a random slideshow of your pictures. Instant picture frame!

Or if you're willing to spend a little extra, why not buy a digital photo frame? There's already several on the market, that have their own memory or wireless network connection, and will cycle through your favourite photos as often as you like. Something fresh and new to decorate your house.

Here's a few of the digital frames out there:

• Vialta VistaFrame
• Pacific Digital MemoryFrame
• Philips Digital Picture Frame
• Digital Foci Image Moments
  

Google Owns the Universe

It's really insane how far Google has grown since it was an up-and-coming search engine online. Nowadays they're buying companies left and right, and adding more and more of the world into their search engine. It's not just websites anymore... now you can search blogs and printed books too.

But the craziest of these has to be their new mapping interfaces... they're offering the world... and now, more than the world...

• Google Maps
• Google Earth
• Google Moon
• Google Mars

With these sattelite images, I can even zoom in right down to my house, and can see that my sisters car is parked in the driveway!

Before long, they'll be offering driving directions... not just between my house and Chatham, but between my house and Mars.

Crossing the Distance

Bridging the gap in a long-distance relationship is always difficult thing. Chances are, you probably only get to see your girlfriend once a month... so what do you do in the meantime?

"Distance makes the heart grow fonder" is a load of crap. But thanks to modern technology, there's many ways for you to interact with your significant other... even though you may be miles apart.

The key to success in any relationship is communication. So be sure to make lots of use telephones, email, and instant messaging. The tech-savvy are one-up in this area. Try chatting with a webcam, which allows you to see the person directly. Even use of VoIP can save you a whole lot of money on phone calls in the long run. Perhaps even write a blog together?

Or for the truly insane, there's a plethora of new products out there (most of which are totally creepy, unless that's your thing).

• Cups that alert you when your partner is drinking from their own.
• Pillows that light up with instant messages.
• Shirts that create pressure and warmth when the other one is hugged.
• Robotic pillows that will allow you to actually hug each other (reallllly creepy)
  

Traveling is the only true way to cross the distance. So get on those trains, plains, and automobiles, and get over there to see her first-hand. Shop around on the web to find the best prices.

Maintaining a long-distance relationship is entirely possible. With enough devotion, determination, faith, and a long-term plan to permanently bridge the distance, you are bound successful.

Tracking Your Life

Learning from the examples of some great leaders out there, I've been working at adding two new habits to my routine, and two pieces of free software have really helped with that.

First, I've noticed that every major Christian leader that I love and respect, takes time in their day to journal. Even if it's for just a few minutes, they write out their thoughts and dreams, and keep track of what God has been telling them in their day. So many books have been written in this way too. Most of the best devotionals, leadership books, and self-help books, were slowly compiled through the life experiences of the writers. If I really have been called to leadership, I better start my own. Already it has really helped me to organize some of my thoughts.

So after some searching, I came across the Advanced Diary. This nifty little program is free, supports multiple daily entries, searching, text formatting, embedded pictures, can be printed and exported, and can even be password protected. It also runs off of a USB drive, so you can take it anywhere you go.

Next, leaders are always have a system to keep important information, interesting tidbits, facts and figures, and notes... easily at their disposal. How many times have I tried to think of a quote or statistic, and just couldn't remember what it was, or where it came from?

Evernote does this well, by letting you easily create formatted notes, sort and organize them, and export them. Combine this with their Firefox web clipper, and you can highlight parts of webpages and add them to your notes with a single click. Brilliant.

Keep track of your life. It's the only one you've got. And who knows? Maybe someone is actually interested in learning from it.

Image Banner

Here's an interesting ideas to help eyes stick to your church site.

Use flickr to make a website badge. Load some photos from your church events onto flickr, or if you're handy with server programming, write your own script to randomly display a series of images. It will keep things interesting, and always changing.

I tried something similar to that on the Celebration! Church page. Just below the main menu, there's a button that, when clicked, will randomly open up an image from within the massive photo gallery hosted on the site. There's lots of potential for something like this on church websites, so check it out.

Also, take a look at some other ways you can use the free flickr service.

Xbox For Your Grandparents

This is just awesome. A church somewhere is teaching grandparents how to play Xbox!

during a denominational retreat for retired ministers, a workshop session will be dedicated to teaching seniors how to play Xbox. Apparently, in a pre-event survey asking these retired ministers what kind of topics they would like to have addressed in the upcoming retreat, several of them mentioned that they wanted to learn how to play video games with their grandkids. Church Marketing Sucks

But when you think about it, it makes sense... in a weird sort of way. I would love to play a videogame with my grandfather, or even my parents. It's a great way for them to get to know their grandchildren better, and involve them in the childs own activities.

I wouldn't be surprised if my own grandfather ended up doing well at it. After all, he's already doing more with his computer and digital photography than my parents.

Anyone up for a seniors game of Halo 2?

The Unfortunate Upgrade

Last night, my monitor died.
I was working on a project, went upstairs to make some tea, and came back down to a totally messed up monitor. And of course, I panicked. Time was running out on some aggressive deadlines, and my monitor fried!

So I went out to BestBuy in the morning, and bought up their second-last CRT monitor (the big fat ones). Looks like the world is moving to LCD and Plasma, cause that's all they had there. Lucky for me, people who can sacrifice a little desk space can get themselves a 19" monitor for $200 Canadian. It's even bigger than my old screen!

Christmas Light Rock

Looks like an eccentric guy down south has been spending huge numbers of hours each year putting together displays of synchronized christmas lights timed to music.

Carson Williams has 16,000 lights on his house, linked back to a computer and animated to music. Anyone outside of his house can tune in to a short-ranged FM radio transmitter set up to hear the songs as they're played. Check out this awesome video of his house performing Wizards of Winter from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

And if you're really daring, you can even build your own light display.

Another potentially great Christian reach out, if handled properly. Thnk about it... wild and crazy lights going on and off, and cars lining up for miles to see the show, and tune in to your selected christian music. (perhaps David Crowder, DC Talk, or Newsboys?)

Katrina vs. Technology

Through the passing of hurricane Katrina, we are given a glimpse into the future of technology and culture. For the first time in human history, up-to-date and accurate news has been brought directly into households around the world, as well as to fellow Katrina victims. All without reporters.

How is this possible? Well let's go over a few of the many many scenarios that recently came to pass in the flooding of New Orleans.

First, picture a man sitting on the roof of his house. Turbulent waters swirl through the rooms below. As the events unfold, he writes down every detail into his wireless laptop, and uploads the information directly to his blog. Hourly. To receive updates from fellow bloggers across town, he has only to search for them.

Second, imagine a typical teenage youth wandering the streets looking for surviving friends, or simply the next meal. While he forages, he is constantly taking photos with his cellphone, and uploading them directly to his photoblog or Flickr account.

Next, a middle-aged tech industry worker is in his 5th-floor highrise apartment. Stranded there, he sets his webcam on his windowsill, and opens his account for anyone in the world may view real-time video of the flooding and rescue operations.

Here I am at home in Canada, listening to a podcast from Focus on the Family on my iPod. They are interviewing a US congressman over his cellphone in New Orleans, just as he is stepping from a helicopter to survey the damage to the city.

Sure, not all civilian news is trustworthy, but on average, it is far more reliable than television news stations. For example, stations here in Ottawa are weeping over an apparent lack of contribution to aid the crisis victims. They entirely failed to mention that the SBC and IMB have large teams present in New Orleans, handing out over 300,000 meals a day!

Bible on my iPod

I've been trying to put a text version of the Bible onto my iPod, since thearetically it should work with the notes feature.

Unfortunately it won't work. The notes feature limits it to reading 4kb per text file, to a limit of about 1000 notes. (A txt bible will need about 1600).

Maybe we can hope for on upgrade from Apple in the future?

Meanwhile, check out this handy app. BiblePod. You can choose to have it automatically upload your favourite parts of the Bible, and it will keep track of which parts you already have on there.

Use More Electricity

Another week of blistering heat and humidity. Remember what happened last year at this time? A massive blackout. All because people were using up more electricity then the government was making, and it overloaded the circuits.

Their solution? This year they're warning us not to consume too much. Already this summer there has been minor brownouts througout Ontario.

If only they were smart enough to actually produce more power. Build more dams, windmills, power plants, and nuclear plants. Then our country would at least be free to use electronics when we want them. After all, we're paying for electricity anyways.

Everyone should use more electricity. Turn on your lights, your TVs and radios, your fridges and stoves, your airconditioners and fans, and turn on your computers and your laptops. Maybe if we caused a couple more blackouts, they'd wise up and provide us with an essential service that's actually reliable.

Bridging Tech from Then to Now

This has been an entirely new experience to me. I spent the better part of a day converting vinyls to digital.

Some of the old music that we require for a small musical dance production is only available on vinyl. So we need to capture music from old classic artists like Louis Prima, Four Barons, Richard Alden, and Margaret Whiting. Not to forget some famous old songs, such as In The Mood, and Blue Danube.

So here I am, conducting a major bridge across the technological generation gap; a turntable wired up to my computer.