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K. B. Peterson - Navigation
August 1st, 2008
It’s August and one of my new goals is to release a new song each month. So here is Navigation a slight departure (can you have a departure from just one song?) from my last song. Zip file comes with the song and high-res album art.
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Vacation
August 14th, 2008
I returned yesterday from a week long family vacation on the Pend O’Reille Lake in Idaho. My aunt and uncle own a cabin between Sandpoint and Newport. When possible, my family visits annually in the summer. It was a great couple of days of swimming, tanning, and reading my large stack of books.
In other news I got a new digital camera. A Canon Digital Rebel XSi. The pictures in the post, in addition to being from vacation, were all taken with the XSi and then tweaked a bit in Photoshop.
This is my mom and her dog Sparky.
My niece Sophia prepared for her first inner tubing excursion.
Panoramic of Lake Pend O’Reille from the dock. Click for a larger version.
This is a shot on the return to Yakima. My dad and I ran out of gas in one of the few areas of Washington without cell phone coverage. A local farmer was kind enough to sell us some gas.
That should get everyone up to speed. I’ll be back to my usual blog activities and should be updating almost every day.
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SimCity 2000
August 16th, 2008
If you’re like me, you spent a lot of time when you were younger playing video games. In honor of those days I’d like to present SimCity 2000 one of my favorite games of all time. As I mentioned in a previous post I loved playing with Legos as a child and 2000 definitely builds (pun intended) on my love of construction and design.
SimCity 2000 is now available for free all over the net (as well as SimCity 3000 and 4000). For all my friends with Intel Macs check out “How to Play Sim City 2000 on Your Intel Mac for Free” for the complete how-to.
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Eno + Byrne
August 17th, 2008
Legend of ambient music Brian Eno and founding member of Taking Heads David Byrne are releasing their first collaboration in 30 years. The album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is to be released tomorrow. One free song is available now.
Can’t wait.
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Canon Rebel XSi
August 20th, 2008
I mentioned in a previous post that I upgraded from my Rebel XT to the new Rebel XSi but besides the pictures I posted didn’t really say much about the camera. So far I’ve been very happy with the results.
Even though there is only a few years and a slightly different name separating these cameras the actual experience is very much improved. The three things that stand out are:
1. The Screen
On the XT camera information was shown on a small black and white LCD display that was often difficult to read and the preview of the photograph was shown on a color display directly beneath it. The XSi does away with the dual display and gives you one fat 3” screen for both camera information and preview. The display is very bright and works well even in full sunlight. When you put your eye up to camera a light sensor detects you and turns the display off.
2. IS Lens
I got the XSi at Best Buy where it comes standard with a Canon IS (Optical Image Stabilizer) lens. IS works much better than expected. It effectively stops the shake from my hand pushing the shutter-release button even at low shutter speeds.
3. 12.2 MegaPixels
That’s more than a 50 percent increase from the XT. It’s nice to have that extra information for larger prints or tighter crops.
Best Buy has a deal that comes with a nice bag, extra battery, and a UV filter for an extra $50. Highly recommended.
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iPhone 3G
August 29th, 2008
I recently purchased an iPhone 3G and so far it’s been a pleasure. As you all know it’s a phone/iPod/internet/email device so I won’t dwell on those features. I would like to point out a couple of Apps that have incredibly useful functionality.
Simplify Media is a free app for the iPhone that allows you to stream your entire iTunes library over WiFi, 3G, or even EDGE. You need an account with Simplify and the desktop version of the software (both of which are free) and you’re ready to take your full music catalog almost anywhere you get cell phone coverage. So far I’ve only used it over WiFi and 3G but it was quite quick even while in a moving car!
AirMe is another free app that uses the iPhones built-in 2 MegaPixel camera to snap a photo, geo-tag it, and upload it immediately to flickr or Facebook. I’ve been using this quite a bit and it works flawlessly. It’s really great for capturing the moment when I don’t want to lug my Rebel around.
Things is a productivity app for keeping track of, well, things. It allows you to put objectives into Projects, ongoing Areas, or just a general ToDo list. I won’t go into all the features (too many to explain here) as their website provides an ample description. Available for the desktop as well and has a nice WiFi sync capability.
I hadn’t heard about any of these apps before I got my iPhone a week ago and it was a pleasant surprise to get all this additional functionality for free. I’d love to hear about the apps that you’ve found useful.
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