BenBailey.net

When the OLPC and ASUS Eee PCs first came out, I thought they were cool, but I didn’t know if stripped-down laptops would catch on with a mainstream audience. However, with manufactures like HP and Dell venturing into the netbook arena, it appears there is a serious market for mobile solutions in the sub-$600 price range.

Having a tiny, basic notebook would be a great tool for on-the-go communication. When I’m traveling or at a conference my notebook usually shares a backpack with my camera gear, so weight becomes an issue. Most of the time I just need something for taking notes, so carrying around a full-sized laptop is overkill. A three-pound laptop would lighten the load while providing all of the tools I need.

I’m curious to see how the upcoming Dell E-series systems compare to popular options like the ASUS Eee PC and the MSI Wind. I think having devices produced by mainstream manufactures will add credibility to the netbook market. Most people don’t know who ASUS or MSI are, or where you would go for support. Knowing that Dell or HP is there to support you could be a big selling point for the average consumer looking for a netbook.

I do think that there is a price ceiling on the devices. The newly released Asus Eee PC 1000H started selling for $650. That is a bit high for me, closing in on the pricing for low cost, full-sized notebooks. I don’t think it is a mistake to sell a higher-end netbook, but for me $550 or less is the ideal price range. It doesn’t look like I’m the only one who feels this way: ASUS dropped the price of the 1000H to $550 just six days after its release.

I’m also a little concerned about the prevalence of XP on these computers. While I know that XP is a good choice, and really the only Microsoft OS appropriate for low-end hardware, support for XP won’t be around forever. Does Microsoft’s pledge to support XP until 2014 include mainstream support for these computers?

The third x-factor is battery life. If the machine can only squeeze out two hours on the battery, it isn’t going to be appealing for travelers looking for a lightweight solution. Three hours should be considered the minimum. A few ASUS Eee PC models claim an “all day computing experience” with a seven-hour battery life. From the reviews I’ve seen of the Eee 901, 4.5 to 6 hours is more realistic.

Hopefully this market will continue to grow. I’m optimistic that with faster, more energy efficient processors coming in all the time, what you can get for $500 or less will become even more impressive. I’m going to wait and see what comes out over the summer months and pick one of these up myself. Having a simple, lightweight computer for taking notes and traveling would be useful, especially if it costs less than $500.

You can never have too many computers, right?

I download a lot of big files. Constantly pulling down HD-quality videocasts, Windows service packs, and Linux distributions can freeze even the best of browsers. In the past, I’ve recommended LeechGet, but the limitations of the free version left me wanting more.

Enter Free Download Manager. As the painfully obvious name suggests, it is a free utility for managing and accelerating your downloads. FDM has an excellent feature set to please the most demanding of downloaders. With two versions to choose from, you can find the one that is best for you. The full version includes support for bittorrent, downloading flash videos, file sharing and more. The Lite version includes just the download manager, but you can always add the other features later as they are available as plug-ins. I use the Lite version since I don’t need the bittorrent or video features.

There isn’t anything revolutionary here, but FDM works well and is easy to use. It will monitor your browser, waiting for you to download files and take over from there. You can disable monitoring and just use FDM when desired by choosing the option from the right-click menu in the browser.

It can also help keep your files organized by placing the download in a subfolder based on the detected file type. For example, if it detects you are downloading an EXE file, it will prompt you to place it in a Software subfolder. This can sometimes be hit or miss, but you can always change the selection when initiating the download. As someone whose desktop is always cluttered with downloads, I find the organizational feature is a real plus.

If you’re looking for a great free way to speed up and manage your downloads, give Free Download Manager a try. It’s lightweight, spyware and junkware free, easy to use and it doesn’t cost a dime. Hard to beat that combination.

Get Free Download Manager from their website: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org

There’s a lot of buzz about Adobe’s beta release of Photoshop Express, the simplified online photo editor and hosting service. The review over at Webware mentions the site’s TOS, which is worth a look:

Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, with respect to Your Content that you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Services, you grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, derive revenue or other remuneration from, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other Materials or works in any format or medium now known or later developed. (emphasis mine)

I’d like to see some clarification on this. Especially the parts about being irrevocable and being able to “derive revenue.”

Update 3/29/08: Ars Technica has more details and a response from Adobe.

MLB Increases Its Chokehold: Starts Its Own Online Usage Restrictions…

– Sites can’t post more than seven photos from any game online.

– Audio/video content created at MLB ballparks cannot stay up on a news site for more than 72 hours.

– All applicants for a press credential must provide advance written notice of intent to transmit any non-text material.

I read this last week and still don’t get why the leagues, including the NFL, are allowed to dictate how news content is presented. Hopefully the media organizations will fight this and make the MLB come to its senses. [via Buzz Out Loud]

Long exposures with the Holga can be a little tricky. With just one shutter speed (1/125 or so) and one aperture (f13) doing anything with the standard mode is pretty much out of the question. Some models have a bulb mode, but since there is no meter it’s a guessing game when it comes to proper exposure length.

So I figured I would cheat and use the 20D to meter the scene. I set the 20D to f13, set the ISO to match the film speed, and framed the shot to match the Holga the best I could. Using the 20D’s meter, I set the proper shutter speed and fired off a test shot. If it looked good it was the one I wanted to use for the Holga.

Without a cable release for the Holga, I have to press and hold the shutter manually. I don’t have a watch either, so counting down the seconds is an inexact science. Essentially I just press the shutter and then count out the seconds in my head - one-one thousand, two-one thousand, etc - until time is up and I release the shutter. Not much to it.

I’ve only tried this once, but it works pretty well. The biggest issue is the camera shake due to the lack of a proper cable release.

Here is one of the better exposed shots from my first attempt. The exposure time was about four seconds.

Photographer Recreates Famous Photos with Legos - Recreations of the work of Ebbets, Cartier-Bresson and more with some clever shots of Star Wars Legos thrown in for good measure. The Eddie Adams Vietnam photo redone with smiling Lego figures is a little creepy.

The photographer’s Flickr stream is worth checking out. I particularly like this photo of Soundwave and Laserbeak.

Actions are a great way to accelerate your Photoshop workflow, but clicking though the actions panel to choose the one you want can be a hassle. I recently decided to streamline the process even further by assigning keyboard shortcuts to my most used actions.

Assigning the shortcuts is easy, the option is just buried in the Photoshop actions menu.

To get started, fire up PS (I’m using CS3) and click the actions tab. Choose the action that you want to assign the shortcut to then click the tiny arrow (expertly circled in the image on the left) to open the actions menu. Then choose Action Options. This brings up a window where you can choose the F-key you want to use. You can also specify if you want to make use of the CTRL and/or Shift keys for your shortcut. Click OK and you’re done.

Now you can fire off actions without having to aim your mouse. It scores points for boosting both speed and laziness - a win-win situation.

Last Saturday our local photography group had access to a Lamborghini Diablo for a group photo shoot. This was a thrill since I spent a considerable portion of my teenage years drooling over cars in “Road & Track” and “Motor Trend” magazines. Mixing fast cars and photography is about as good as it gets.

After finding a parking lot with enough green grass nearby to provide a decent background, we started shooting. Cars like the Diablo aren’t exactly common around here, and we drew plenty of looks from passers-by wondering what we were doing with such an unusual car. I think someone asked if we were working on an ad.

Shooting cars can be a challenge. You really have to keep an eye out for harsh shadows and reflections that can spoil a shot. Since I like to use a wide-angle lens, I spent a lot of time crawling around the parking lot trying to keep my reflection out of the picture. Is there a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon?

With another successful group shoot in the bag, I’m already curious to see what we come up with for the next outing.