A blog about life in a Web 2.0 world. http://www.neff.ca Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:52:20 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=10 It's been almost 2 years since my last product review, technology blog post, or news update. In that time, I've been very busy building websites, moving, and learning how to surf. When I read an announcement about the release of a new version of Ubuntu, I felt compelled to awaken from this blog-less slumber and write this article.The article I read was about the release of the 8th version of Ubuntu, codenamed Hardy Heron . If you're wondering why they chose that name, they did it because it's now quite trendy to make a two-word alliteration with the letter that corresponds to the next release number - 8 in the case of Ubuntu, or, H. Anyways, my plan was to test two variations of this new release - Ubuntu 8.04, which runs the Gnome window manager by default, and a special version of its twin brother, Kubuntu 8.04 running the brand new KDE4 window manager by default.I downloaded and burned a LiveCD for each, booted them up one by one, and attempted to answer two important questions: Is KDE4 better than Gnome, and most importantly: Is Linux Ready For The Mainstream? Here's what I found: Blog Section - Product Reviews Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:01:05 +0100 index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=10 Along with the onslaught of HDTVs, a plethora of pretty cool 'alternative' hardware has come along that can enable consumers to do some very powerful things. The point of this editorial review is to show you how to skip the T.V. entirely, and go straight to a laptop-based media center with a wall projector for around the same price as your buddy's cool new HDTV, only 3 times bigger, more portable, flexible, and functional, (oh, and thanks to Microsoft being thrown in the mix, 3 times less reliable, but that's for another topic of discussion, that being, this topic of discussion (index.php?option=com_content task=view id=9 Itemid=10)).Anyways, the question on the chopping block for today is this: How can one build an affordable, yet portable, 10 to 20-person theatre for watching movies, tv, or playing video games. Blog Section - How-To's Fri, 20 Oct 2006 22:23:29 +0100 index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=10 The next wave in digital photography is pictures that are self-aware . Hmm, that's not entirely accurate, let's try again. The next wave in digital photography is pictures that are smarter than human beings . Uhh, that's a little misleading too, but not entirely incorrect. Err, at least in one particular way it's not.What I'm talking about are pictures that know precisely where and when they were born. Specifically, they know where on earth in latitude and longitude the camera was when the picture was captured. Hidden metadata within the picture's image file header known as GeoTags are now being used to store the exact location the camera was when the picture was taken.On the surface, it's not entirely obvious why this is such a good thing, or why people would want this. However, it turns out that there are already a plethora of existing, and even more planned ways of using this information in powerful ways. Most of these ideas center around the integration of sharing pictures on the web, with online mapping tools. But being able to see where you were when you took a picture has many more uses than just triggering memories about the trip at a later date. In fact, through the use of Google Earth and Google Picasa, you can make a flowwing, automated 3-D slide-show of the path you took on a trip, with picture thumbnails superimposed over the 3-D globe.Here is a great tutorial on how to GeoTag your pictures using existing (relatively) cheap hardware... Blog Section - Technology Mon, 02 Oct 2006 21:22:11 +0100 index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=10 About two weeks ago, while I was on my honeymoon, my sister sent me an e-mail asking where she could buy a copy of Microsoft Office. When I got back, I tried to answer the question as succinctly as possible, but knowing that she was probably going to be using it for her growing corporate wellness business, I just couldn't give the simple buy it from store X . She had ignored the more important fundamental question, Which Office Suite Should I Use? The Need:To create Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations to accomplish various business and personal tasks.Considerations: Functionality, Compatibility, Legality, and CostOptions: OpenOffice (Free), Microsoft Office ($100/pc on ebay, or $275/pc retail), and Google Office (Free, but NOTE: Google Office (http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=3547) is not a term Google uses. Its free online e-mail (http://www.google.com/mail/), calendar (http://www.google.com/calendar/), spreadsheet (http://spreadsheets.google.com/), and page creator (http://pages.google.com/) services are available, but its online collaborative word processor Writely (http://www.writely.com/) isn't perfected yet, and no online collaborative presentation creation service exists, yet (http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/06/garter-expects-google-powerpoint-soon.html)]). Recommendation:...[continued]... Blog Section - How-To's Sat, 23 Sep 2006 20:52:04 +0100 index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10&Itemid=10 Yesterday, Steve Jobs gave a very fascinating 90-minute keynote address at the WWDC, which detailed a barrage of new technologies Apple has been working on. Blog Section - Technology Tue, 08 Aug 2006 16:25:06 +0100