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March 28, 2012

Your Shoebox VS. The Cloud

Old Shoebox Tech saved this 114-year-old photo of my great-grandfather.

I work with a few colleagues who are fond of conspiracy theories. It seems like a fun hobby for them. (To each his own.) They enjoy pointing out unsubstantiated facts that suggest a bumpy ride ahead. And they’re loving the whole 2012 thing.

While I’m not planning to move to a desert island any time soon, it does remind me about my own little worse case scenarios.

Here is one that occasionally keeps me up at night, especially after my toddler bangs on my computer keyboard a bit, while I’m trying to use it!

What if you woke up the next day to realize you’ve lost your complete digital family photo collection?
Not one picture from the 21st century.

The Shoebox
This nightmare didn’t existed in the old analog days.

Worse case scenario- the shoebox.

My parents had some family pictures from the ‘40s and ‘50s in a shoebox stuffed in the back of the closet.  Sure, the box got lost for years. But it wasn’t going anywhere. This practice borders on archival neglect, but it worked just fine.  Yes, these precious photos are a little faded and could be in better shape, but they’ve weathered the decades intact.  Most importantly, they still exist.

I was a little more organized than the shoebox strategy in my non-digital years. I developed my film, ordered the prints, and put my favorite photos in albums, which sit proudly on a shelf.

Then Y2K hit, and digital photography came to the masses. The computer meltdown we feared never appeared on 1/1/01, but I believe the legacy of that expected digital doomsday is alive and well today.

Back It Up
I think I snapped my last photo on film sometime in 2001.  Without negatives, I knew to back up the photo files and I did so with decent regularity.  (Remember Zip disks and how awesome it was that they could store a whopping 250 megs?!)

Then came CD storage, external hard drive back up, and consumer friendly tools like Time Machine.

Photo Shangri-La
For the next decade, technology offered amazing ways to share your pics. From email and online sharing to your smartphone and digital photo frame, the options were many. Today, your photos have no boundaries. What could be better than that?

So remember, all of your photos sit on your computer and are hopefully safely backed up. Maybe you’re using Apple’s Photo Stream for your most recent 1000 pictures.
And your favorites are also floating around digitally based on how you’ve decided to share them.

Where are most of your pictures not living?

On photo paper.

“Hold on,” you say in protest. You can print a photo any time you want.

Photo printing is available online or at the CVS down the street. You can get your photos in a day or an hour. The archaic practice of bringing in a roll of film for 3-5 day rush-developing is long gone.

But wait, there’s more…

The Double-Edged Sword of the Home Photo Printer
Doesn’t everyone have a printer now that can print a decent photo? Yes, I know ink cartridges are insanely expensive and clog up if you don’t use them every third day, but if you want, you can create a great hard copy of any of the thousands of pictures you’ve taken since the turn of the century…
… in 78 seconds.

Bam!  Isn’t technology wonderful?!

OK… here comes the big question:
How many hard copies of your digital photos do you actually possess?

Could you fit them all in a shoebox?

That’s the problem!
There are no more hard copies.
And here’s the ultimate irony- There is an inverse relationship between how easy it is to create a digital photo print and the number of times you’ve actually made one.

I’m sure there’s a bunch of you out there who would say,
“Good riddance. Who needs useless hard copies?”
They’re redundant and expensive. The digital versions are free and always accessible. You can back them up to the Cloud… to Flickr… they exist everywhere. They are infinitely backed up. Your priceless photos couldn’t be safer.

I hear a knock-knock at the door.
My conspiracy friends have come by for dinner.

Your Photo Library’s’ Last Meal?
Let’s review the menu…

The Obligatory Appetizer – You Eat Too Much.
People take too many pictures.
Once you buy the memory card, you’re set for infinity. Then it’s all free.
Some of these shots are great. Many are good. Plenty are just okay.
Chances are you’re holding onto all of them. Who’s got time to delete the marginal shots?

The Scary Main Course – Got any TUMS?
Your best photos are getting lost in the quagmire of your photo glut.
Unless you can devote some serious time on a regular basis to organizing your photos, many of the ones that really matter will eventually be lost, like that email that disappears behind your next 500 messages. Time is your enemy.

Yes, there’s the instant gratification of posting pictures on your Facebook page or Flickr account.
Yes, they’ll always be there, (maybe).
But no, the problem isn’t solved.
Over time, your virtual photo archive will just gell into a costly, unviewable mess. And with all your thousands of pics, the Cloud doesn’t stay free for long.

Plus, nobody wants to be subjected to all these pictures, and without some organization, neither will you.

The Healthy Dessert – Your Meal is Saved!
I say, “Sign Up Here to Get Organized!”
Print an annual photo book of your life.

Let’s face it. Every photo is not worth existing in corporeal form. But I think it’s critical to print out your favorite photos every year. Sure, you can do it the old-fashioned way by placing hard copies into an album, but I shudder at the time suck. (Anyone out there still doing scrapbooks?)

The simple solution is a photo book constructed via the Web.
It’s the perfect marriage of new tech and old-fashioned wisdom.

There are lots of services that let you build a photo book right from your computer. These gorgeous, coffee table-ready books aren’t cheap, and that’s actually a good thing. It forces you to be selective as to which photos to include. Remember, nobody wants to be overwhelmed with too many pictures.   And don’t be lured into creating lots of full-page images.
You quickly burn through pages that way.

Here are a couple options:

Apple’s Photo Books
It’s super convenient, because it’s integrated into Apple’s iPhoto and Aperture, and you’ve got immediate access to all your pictures without having to upload them.
The cost starts at $29.99 for a 20 page 8.5” x 11” hardcover book and 99 cents for each additional page up to 100.
This is the service I use. And for full disclosure, I’ve pushed up to that 100-page limit for my annual books. (Like you, I take a lot of photos in a year!)

Shutterfly
The 8” x 11” hard cover photo book starts at $34.99. Each additional page is $1 with a 101-page limit.

So there you have it!  Go activate your own micro publishing empire!
Each year, spend a little time and create one of these books.
It’s really a no brainer.

The Unexpected Aperitif – The Goodness Continues
But wait. There’s more! Through this process, you’ve also digitally collected your best-of-the-best pictures for the year. Take those files, burn a few disks, upload them to the Cloud, and maybe even throw them on a thumb drive for safe keeping.

And where are you going to put that thumb drive?
Here’s a thought…  Got a shoebox?

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March 24, 2012

The IT Guy is in the Doghouse


Let’s take a little test.  Does any of this sound familiar?

“Honey, our home network is down… again.  Why can’t you fix it so it doesn’t keep happening?”

The phone rings. Your parent is on the other line.
“My printer isn’t working. Can you press a few buttons and make it work again?”

Speaking of computer printers, I turned on my Epson the other day, and found the front LED menu items now glowing in French.  I turned around and my two year old was gleaming at his crowning accomplishment of the day. He had discovered a menu subdirectory I didn’t even know existed!  C’est impossible!

If any of this rings a bell, don’t deny what you know to be true. Embrace it.
You are tech support for your family.

The likely reality is you’re no tech expert. You probably know just a little more than everyone else related to you.
That may not be saying much, but you’re it. You’re what stands between the blissed-out 21st century family and tech anarchy. The thankless job is yours. Own it.

Here are a few tips I’ve found helpful to keeping tech peace on the home front.

Use Remote Access via iChat
My father just turned 79, and he works hard to keep up with technology just like the rest of his generation. The good news is he’s always been into gadgets and early tech. So he was ready for digital living.  In the 80’s, he had the first TV watch from Casio. How cool is that? (It didn’t really work, but I guess that was never the point.)

He was an early Apple adopter before Apple ruled the world. He loves his cell phone. And he does a pretty good job driving his iMac today.
When he does get himself into a little computer pickle, I’ve found that doing screen sharing via iChat is an amazing tool for me to diagnose problems and make the fixes remotely from the comfort of my own desk. No house call required.

I know the videophone thing has been around since the ‘60’s, but now with iChat or Skype, the fact that I can check in and see my Dad whenever I want on my computer screen still seems nothing short of magic.

Your Tech is Only as Strong as its Weakest Link
When my father got his iMac, I suggested he pass on the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I love these wireless tools for my own computer, but it’s easy to forget they occasionally need to be re-linked to the computer without reason. Lose the weak link. It’s a worried phone call to you late at night waiting to happen.

Don’t Try to Win the Battle with Older Tech
This is when you really question whether you should be in the family tech support game. You know you have to figure the darn thing out. And it’s driving you crazy. Just because it’s a few years old and no longer playing nicely with your newer tech is no reason to retire it early.

Yes it is.

I know. That’s admitting some level of failure on your part. But the ‘fam’ doesn’t really care about threats to your geek god self-image. They just want the tech in their lives to work. And remember, that’s your problem.

So for the past six years, I’ve been very satisfied with my old Airport Extreme Base Station, which creates the happy glow of my home’s wireless network. The only problem was ever week or two the network went down. Inexplicably. But I realized the simply fix was a quick reboot of the base station. And I just did that by unplugging the Apple unit and then plugging it back in again. A 10-second operation, tops. I theorized the problem evolved from some growing incompatibility with my cable modem. No biggie. I thought.

Long ago, I subscribed to the fortune cookie philosophy of
‘Home tech is imperfect.  Just enjoy that it works.’

Occasionally, my wife would mention the issue in a casual way. I thought more as a point of curiosity. Perhaps an intellectual exercise.
So I didn’t think much of it.
I know I couldn’t cure the glitch, but I could quickly treat it.
Problem solved. Or so I thought.

The fact that the glitch continued… and with growing frequency by some accounts… revealed the truth.  Casual comments evolved and morphed into frustrated reminders.

One night, it was made very clear to me.
The IT guy was now in the doghouse.

So I did some research and confirmed that back in 2009, Apple had upgraded their wireless base stations from the older 802.11g network standard to the newer and faster 802.11n dual band technology

Better range. Less interference. It’s the new thing. In fact, now, it’s already the standard. The cure was there, waiting for me.

Get with it!

So I did. Bought it online, installed it in no time, and voila… no more network problems.  Our home network is humming again.

Why?  I really don’t know.

It just works again.

The official word from ‘BL Tech Support’ is “Product has reached end-of-life status. Replacement ordered and installed. Please fill out the satisfaction survey.”

I confess it’s a pricey choice to simply buy new technology to solve your tech ills, but I rationalized it by saying I had already gotten my money’s worth on my wicked old base station.

More importantly, my wife is happy. She thinks I’m a tech god again.
Harmony has been restored.

Anybody want to buy a perfectly good old Airport Extreme Base Station?

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March 18, 2012

My Mission for the Perfect Picture

Every so often a great picture bumps into me.
Whether I’m able to capture it is another matter.

Now I like to think I can snap a photo.  But I’ve got a little secret to share.
And I’m not proud of it.

I just take lots of pictures.  Lots. Really.  I’m like a machine gun. Eventually, you’ve got to hit something.

With digital photography, it costs you nothing to do just that.
(Managing all those photo files is another story for another day.)
The pocket film camera is a thing of the past, even though my father keeps asking me if I’m using his old Minox spy camera from the 1960s.

Over the past few years, I’ve recruited a couple different cameras to try and satisfy my craving to take the perfect photo.  And believe me, as my boy keeps moving faster and faster, it’s getting harder and harder.

I know part of the problem is taking pictures in low light. We’ll come back to that…

So everyone’s got a pocket camera these days. You can easily pick up a good one for under $200. Some have even broken the $100 barrier.

I prefer Canon cameras. I know that along with Nikons, you pretty much can’t go wrong with a Canon. Kind of like Hertz and Avis. (I’m not saying which is which.)

Also worth mentioning is a couple of my friends are married to the Panasonic Lumix series.

Another reason I’ve stuck with Canon over the years is the functionality is similar from camera to camera, and the movies these cameras capture are all QuickTime files. It’s a format I prefer when editing home movies on my iMac.

So what do I have in my little arsenal these days?

My main pocket camera is the Canon SX230.  The camera is about a year old, but it’s still on the market for about $250.  That’s a little pricey, but you get a huge 14x zoom.  It’s also a little big to jam in your pocket, and I’ve been a little envious of people with those wicked small cameras seemingly the size of a matchbook.

So I splurged and got a smaller Canon pocket camera last month.
The Canon PowerShot Elph 300, an older model that’s still available.  I got a sweetheart Valentine’s Day deal, which was hard to pass up.
The newer Elph 310 is available for $220 at B&H Photo.  ($199 in pink on Amazon)

And why do I need another pocket camera?
(I know my wife is going to be paying special attention to this answer.)
It fits easily into the pocket of my jeans. It’s really tiny. Takes great photos. And with the exception of a flimsy battery door, is pretty tough.
That’s important, because I’m grooming it to take over as my ‘Toddler Cam.’

What?

That’s right, my two year old has his own camera. It’s currently my old Canon Digital Elph SD960 from 2009. He likes pressing all the buttons and snapping lots of photos. He takes amazing self-portraits. (not really)  He also knows how to change all of the settings.  (really)

The truth is, I assigned the SD960 for home duty to be the camera of choice for others to capture my son’s adventures. The problem is somewhere along the way, he annexed it to his toy collection. Now, even though we still use it, it belongs to him. (Disclaimer: I was not present when this unauthorized incident occurred.)

And now the 960 is a mess. Eventually, the entire front fell off like the face of a Terminator. (The guts look shockingly cool.) The body is now being held together like a toddler art project with scotch tape. My original fix was a more manly super-glue repair job. But when I realized I had also super-glued the battery door shut in the process, requiring an hour to chisel the fossilized guck away, I acquiesced to the SpongeBob band-aid solution. But I digress…

So the 960 is still working, but I know its days are numbered. Plus it can’t take a low light picture to save itself. When I come home to see what the little guy has been up to, it’s sometimes like a Big Foot sighting. I know he was there, but the blur is hardly worth framing.

The 960 is actually Toddler Cam 2. The first one was my old Canon G9. This Canon series is a tank of a camera. (The current one is the Canon G12.)  It’s expensive, big, and bulky, but built beefy and strong. I retired it as my main camera before its time, simply because it didn’t take HD videos, and I wanted all my home media to cross over that line together. (I’ll address this issue in another post.)

What happened to Baby Cam 1? One day, the G9 just didn’t turn on anymore. There were no signs of blunt trauma. The tank was just dead. We’ll talk no more of this.  Can you see a pattern forming?

So I’m training the Canon 300 to become Toddler Cam 3.

But my mission to capture the perfect photo moment is not complete.
I still craved that crisp low light photo, and everyone knows you always need the right tool to get the job done. You can’t send a pocket camera out on every mission.

Cue the orchestra and curtains.

Yes, I also have a DSLR. The Canon T1i.
I bought it right before my son was born. (Canon is now up to the T3i.)

It’s got the big sensor, capable of sucking in every bit of available low light.
Plus that old-fashioned looking DSLR lens demands respect from everyone within your perimeter and will solve every photo challenge you’ll ever encounter.

For the most part, it’s been a solid camera.
And I’ve gotten some really nice shots of my son. But…

I still take a lot of blurry low light photos.
What?!

There are two problems.

Problem 1:
It’s the glass. (Excuse me?)
The glass. It’s what people in the business call the lens. Lenses are really expensive. (Hundreds and thousands of dollars.) And the cheaper kit lenses often sold with consumer DSLRs are relatively average. They’re still going to shoot better shots than your pocket cam. But if you really want amazing low light shots, you’re gonna need better glass.

Problem 2:
It’s too big.
Yeah, I know.  This is becoming a circular argument.
But come on! It’s hard lugging a big camera around when you’re also carrying the diaper bag.

I guess I’ll just keep trying.

Uh oh… I think I’m hearing Yoda.
“Try Not.  Do, or do not.  There is no try.”

My Jedi training continues…

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