Why I broke down and bought Adobe Lightroom 2
As an aspiring digital photographer, one of the most frustrating facts of the current software market is the lack of good choices for digital photo management and editing. Of course there is Adobe Photoshop, but it has always seemed rather clunky to me. Not to mention that the full-featured version will cost you more than a decent camera. Then you’ve got Corel PaintShop Pro. That software is quite good for the money, although performance can sometimes be an issue. There is Picasa, as well, which for a free alternative packs quite a punch. The new face-detection features annoy the crap out of me though. For someone who deals with lots of photos and who doesn’t want to spend hours touching up one photo, what are the real, professional quality choices? For me, the answer has become Adobe Lightroom 2.
Lightroom 2 has helped my work-flow immensely since I began using it a few months ago. The learning curve is a little steep at first, but with a good book to go along with the software, much of the mystery goes away rather quickly. What Lightroom lets me do is sort through a photo set in stages, screening out the best candidates for further refinement and then handling all of the common tasks with a very coherent and intuitive interface.
In the future, I’d like to see a much better web gallery editor included in Lightroom. Other than that, I hope Adobe doesn’t try to soup it up with an of the latest fads like face-detection. Keep is simple and solid and I will be a repeat customer.
Convert multiple RAW files to JPEG using Sony Image Data Lightbox
It’s quite convenient to do bulk conversions of Sony’s RAW format images (.ARW) into .jpeg files using the Sony Image Data Lightbox software. It’s basically a four step process. Following are step-by-step instructions with screen shots to help out.
Updated driver software and utilities for Sony Alpha series DSLR cameras
100 Mind Street is transitioning to a heavier multimedia shop, and one of the important components to creating original imagery is the investment in quality digital photos like the lovely snapshot at the right. We have gone against the mold to some extent and are committed to using Sony DSLR products. There are many reasons for the choice, but that is a topic for another post.
For anyone who bought a Sony alpha-series DSLR in the past year or so, there are now updates available for most of the software that ships with the camera. Check the Sony support site to get your updated software.
- The updated RAW driver allows thumbnails of Sony RAW files (.ARW) to be displayed in the Windows shell.
- Sony’s Picture Motion Browser is now up to version 3.3. It’s a major upgrade feature-wise and performance wise from the version 2.0 that shipped with my camera.
- The Image Data tools (Image Data Lightbox and Image Data) also have major upgrades.
Technology Predictions for 2009
Happy New Year and best wishes for peace and prosperity to everyone!
Here is my attempt to play the Amazing Criswell and offer up some predictions for this new year. Can your heart stand the shocking facts of the true story of 2009 Technology Predictions?
10. Web 3.0 will begin to be used as a standard marketing term. The real question is what will it mean? There is so much potential for tech breakthroughs in software and web technologies, but the reality will likely be less smart technology and more media saturation.
9. Internet-based bartering will take off. With the economically uncertain times, more and more people will turn to internet-based bartering to trade goods and services instead of using cash or credit.
8. Adaptive fuel optimization software will lower fuel consumption by up to 25%. New cars and trucks will benefit from breakthrough fuel optimization algorithms. While this may only see light of day in some prototypes in 2009, it will become standard very quickly.
7. Broadcast Digital TV will be a huge success. It will be so successful that cable and satellite companies will take a huge hit in their market share starting in 2010.
6. Massive neural networks will make breakthroughs in identifying terrorist strongholds. With the help of immense data sets, terrorist strongholds will be sniffed out by using massive neural networks. SETI-type distributed computing will allow ordinary citizens to contribute to the fight against terrorism.
5. Next-generation regulation of pharmaceutical companies. New, progressive restrictions will be placed on how drugs are approved for market and on how intellectual property can be hoarded by pharmaceutical and medical research companies.
4. Super-exponential growth will be seen in solar, wind and geothermal energy industry. ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP are going to miss out on the biggest growth industry since the oil boom.
3. Federal stimulus for organic farming and local food markets. An emphasis on sustainable land use, reduced fuel dependency, and higher quality whole foods will double the number of small, organic farms in five years.
2. Open-source voting software will be adopted by 10 states. After congressional investigations of election-stealing and voter fraud, ten states will adopt open-source voting software by 2010 elections.
1. Carbon emissions reinjection technology will be made standard by adoption of new computer models. The new models will allow accurate determination of stable sites for reinjection of carbon emissions in both ocean and subterranean environments.
An intranet for every organization
It might be so obvious that I should just keep quiet, but an intranet can and should be a vital part of any organization’s infrastructure. With the ever-increasing ease of deploying data-driven web applications, such as blogs, wikis, and content management systems (CMS), you can easily have a customized intranet portal implemented for your organization in less than a day. The structure, traceability, and searchability that an intranet application such as a wiki or CMS can bring to your accumulated business data can yield big payoffs for the future of your organization.
It’s information that drives the life of an organization. If your company has an internet site, chances are that the public face of your organization rests on a much larger body of information that is not readily available to the general public, either because of proprietary concerns or because it’s just not ready for public consumption. The image in my mind is like a tree with a complex subsurface root structure or an iceberg where only a small percentage of the total mass is visible above the surface. Having any kind of structure at all to your intranet data can go a long ways toward improving your business processes, making information more persistent, easier to access, and faster to communicate between individuals.
Killer Apps of the Future: Knowledge Management Systems
There’s an up and coming genre of software applications called “knowledge management”, and I’m excited to watch what happens in this field over the next few years. The promise of a single software system to manage all of an organizations accumulated knowledge sounds like a Holy Grail of sorts. If it’s ever achieved, the solution for organizations to manage their intranets will be easy.
Free sources for numerical methods and math-intensive code
As a scientific programmer, I am always on the lookout for open-source or free numerical method and math software libraries to leverage in my programs. There are some very useful packages out there that can make life a lot sweeter when you are writing physics, engineering, or other computationally complex code.
Some software development best practices
Software development projects vary over such a wide range of magnitudes and complexity that it is not easy to generate a list of best practices that is applicable to every project. However, there are a few practices that are nearly universal in my experience. The ones I will cover in this post are: configuration management, feature/defect tracking, and unit testing.
How I converted to a LLC in New Mexico
I suppose it isn’t rocket science, but converting a sole proprietorship to a LLC was a process I found to be more complicated than it should be. After having completed the transition successfully, I can now see that there was really more mystery than any true complexity to the situation. So, for the benefit of others who might be trying to go this route, here is what I did in a nutshell. As a caveat, I’m not a lawyer or an accountant. I consulted my accountant at various points along the way, and she was a great help, especially for the peace of mind of knowing you have an experienced professional guiding you. You should certainly consult your attorney or accountant if you have any questions about any steps in the process. Following are the basics steps I took.
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Agile software development practices
I am a big believer in iterative software development. The Agile model for software development is the one I currently look to for guidance in steering my projects. At the heart of the Agile model is the set of principles expressed in the Agile Manifesto.
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On the use of WordPress themes
A recent newsvine post suggests that many WordPress themes are overused to the point of making them annoying or even intellectually worthless. While I can see the point to a certain degree, a part of me wants to believe that content is still the measure of an excellent blog site. I have to admit, however, that the truth is really in the the union of good content and good style. For better or for worse, the prevalence of some themes, especially the defaults shipped with WordPress, doesn’t allow for much stimulation of that part of the brain that is always looking for something new. So, I encourage everyone out there using a common WordPress theme to take a couple of hours to learn some basic css and tweak your theme a little bit. You’ll find the effort will pay big dividends to your readers and your own sense of individuality. For those of you looking for a great book, check out Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML, published by O’Reilly. You can actually learn css and enjoy the process!
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