Why have I only just started using Feedburner?

You'll see the fruits of my delayed labor all over the place:
1. just to the right, e-mail subscription.
2. on The Flash Centre website, the Blogs page now has nice links that show partial headlines.

I can now see how many people read this (rather depressing) :-(

In the future I'll move The Flash Centre's feed over as well, bringing the current subscribers with it (I have no idea how to do that!) That'll make it much easier to send out event notifications, we've been having reliability issues with the website's built in system lately.

Gary Veynerchuk Talks about legacy

Gary started in the family liquor store but built it into Wine Library, a massively popular store, website and now internet TV program.
And you can understand how he's done it with an outlook like this....



I really wish more of the business decisions I see made were made with this thinking in mind.

Canon HF-10 FTW

I have gadget lust for this thing. I want to do some video content for TFC, product demos, interviews, reviews etc and this would do the job perfectly.
I really want to know though, whether it can record at lower resolutions, I can't find any information about this. For those things I know are only going to ever be on the web, it would be nice to save some space (and processing power later!)
With a DM-100 mic the setup looks really cool.
(I just noticed on that review that it doesn't do SD recording, darn, but hey, I'll live)

Canon are trying to get a kit over to us to try out but nothings turned up so far. I'll just have to live in hope.


Oh, if you own a Nintendo DS, you have to get one of these:
CycloDS Evolution
It lets you store and play game files that you've downloaded from the net (of course, you have to own the game to download it, legally ;-) )
I already have 18 games on it (I've got a 1GB microSD in mine)

Please Apple, make this!

Macroumors is reporting that apple has filed a Patent for an automated fitness device.
The idea of telling my iPhone how I am now and what my goals are and have it work out a custom fitness regime is awesome!
I'd buy into that in a flash!

7.2 magnitude earthquake in China

Details only seem to be on the USGS website so far. Looks to be in a
relativley low population area.
The really amazing thing about this event; I heard about it first on
twitter!
In fact, it still isn't on the BBC website yet the news seems to be
spreading like wildfire over twitter. Is this the new method of news
propagation?

Alex Ray

http://www.theflashcentre.com
http://www.lunchatmykeyboard.com

Sent from my iPhone

Really cool flash accessory kit

Although it irks me to recommend a competitors product, I've just seen a great kit of speedlight accessories on Warehouse Express's website.
It includes a snoot with 2 grids, beauty dish with deflectors and grids, a big diffuser 'blob' and a set of coloured filters.
For anyone interested in the 'Strobist' methods this looks like a great way of getting all the modifiers you need in one go.
It's reminded me that I need to open a section of The Flash Centre's website dedicated to portable lighting. Just another thing for the to-do list!

Phaseone launch new camera

Phaseone's new camera is based on the Mamiya 645AFD platform but with loads of upgrades for increased reliability and useability.
Also, Phaseone have designed their own 80mm lens, aparently with unsurpassed resolution.
At the moment, the camera uses a focal plane shutter (which is guaranteed for 300,000 images!) but leaf shutter lenses will be available before the end of the year. This means users will have the advantages of being able to shoot at 1/4000s but also be able to sync flash at 1/800s.
A new version of captureone, v4.1 adds lens abberation removal and
tethered image previews in les than one second.

As you might expect, the camera won't be cheap, and you'll have to buy it in a kit with the PhaseOne 80mm lens. However, when its bought as a package with a back it works out much cheaper.
We'll start getting demo units around mid April, the camera starts shipping in August.
I can't wait to check it and the new lens out.
More info at http://www.phaseone.com/camera

London Photographic Meetup Group

I've just registered on their forum.

It's really important that companies keep the relationships and conversations going between themselves and grassroots organisations like this. After all, if you're not involved, the conversations will happen without you anyway and you won't know what's being said.

My aim for this month is to sign up for more forums like this.

PhotoshopUser TV Reviews Skyport

Scott Kelby reviews Elinchrom Skyport on Photoshop User TV.
The review is about half way into the episode.

http://www.photoshopusertv.com/photoshoptv/photoshopuser-tv-episode-124-march-10-2008.html

Alex Ray

Sent from my iPhone

Bowens, what is it good for?

Cutting sofas in half, apparently.

Samsung XL20 Monitor

I've just finished doing a quick eval of the new Samsung XL20 LED backlight monitor.
First impression ---- Niiiice!

To be honest, the whole experience was nice. Even the box is better designed than it's rivals; instead of having to yank a heavy screen out the depths of a deep upright thing (only to have the sprung base fly out!) the Samsung lifts gracefully out of the flat side of the box, much better.

The on screen display system is a pleasure to use (you can tell they make consumer products with granny safe GUIs!). It ships with a DVI and USB cable, both of which feel high quality.

Once connected you can instantly tell that this monitor has a huge gamut and a quick profile shows that the primaries are much more saturated than our Eizo CE240W.

My only complaint is that the Natural Colour Expert software doesn't work under Leopard. But soon you'll be able to use ColorEyes Display to calibrate it using DDC controls and the internal LUT, so you won't need NCE.

All in all a lovely piece of kit.

Coming to a TFC near you soon.

Somedays...

Somedays...
You have a good day at work

Somedays...
You have a good day of work

Somedays...
You just work