Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

Thinking about privacy. Been trying OpenPGP and this works pretty well with MacMail. Also SpiderOak is a 2GB service (if you use the code worldbackupday, you get 5GB) and if you refer people then each of you gets an additional 1GB just by clicking on my link.

Well at school, it is so easy to rip off a laptop, so some thoughts gathered from the web about how to protect yourself: TUAW has some good suggestions. The best is to change the system preferences/accounts so you disable automatic login and ask for the name and password. Also in System Preferences/Security/General, set it…

Sigh. Why is it that people sometimes get so close to great and then fail. Apple photostream is nearly wonderful but feels half implemented. The main issue is that while sharing, u only get low resolution images. The sad thing is they do store the original resolution somewhere but other users can’t access it even…

Some good ones and you can even peel them off: Now All Who Wander Are Lost. $10 at Amazon. P.S. I Love You. Another great little saying :-0 $3 from Amazon.

As if there wasn’t more to think about. The Canon 70d is pretty amazing with its dual contrast detection sensors. Canon 70d really works for incredible videos. Now if they would put that into a new full frame. Wow.

I have some old home movies which were split up into different AVIs in the old days of CDs at 700MB, so how do I put it all back together: AVIdemux2 is a freeware product that takes things in AVI containers and joins them or transcodes them. Since we are at it, if you have…

As my buddy Sam said, it is always interesting to see what Rich finds interesting and watch him burrow down…well, continuing that tradition, we were in “Back to School” mode and someone asked, what’s the best pen? Can’t help but use Google to answer and found some wonderful sites like Penaddict to help. We were…

Its amazing how quickly you can use storage. We have our star windows machines in a 2x250GB soft raid. But the new drives allow more questions. Tom’s Hardware and Anandtech like. There is going to be a sea change shortly as SSD moves to PCI Express and we could even slam a drive into the…

Its amazing how quickly you can use storage. We have our star windows machines in a 2x250GB soft raid. But the new drives allow more questions

Well spent a weekend using these are some quick thoughts: The Sony RX100 is actually a spectacular camera. It is much smaller than the smallest of these and its photo quality at wide angle is comparable to these in good light. And it is definitely nice to have a zoom. And the video mode is…

Back to school time. Time to figure out a daypack that works not just for school but also can do double duty as a hiking pack. I would get the osprey talon 22. In fact I kind of want one. A little heavy but perfect for big loads like school books. $99 from amazon The…

Nothing like using lensrentals.com and actually using all three cameras for a weekend. Really eye opening. Here are the quick notes and some test summaries. As an aside, I like to look at four review sets: Handling. Ming Thein and others who use the camers professionally Sensors. the specifications at DxOmark (which does great testing…

And here is Ming’s view of Ricoh’s quirks and other notes… Unique to Ricoh is the snap focus mode, where the lens will default to a certain distance setting if the shutter is jabbed straight down past the intermediate position and the camera isn’t given time to find focus.   The trouble is, unlike the…

Been spending a lot of time on composition lately (even reading!). Some good advice now that I’ve been shooting wide alot…   If you know how you want the composition of your frame to appear – specifically, the relative prominence of subjects and other supporting elements – then you’ll know whether you need to use…

Well,  here are some things I didn’t know: Mileage Plus Shopping If you go to the Mileageplusshopping.com, you can register up to five credit cards (it doesn’t have to be just a United card), then if you click through that site, you get to double dip by getting additional miles as well. For instance REI…

Now that we’ve had such fun with the Sony RX100, it’s time to think again about cameras. I was literally blown away by the quality of the RX100. It is to be sure a pretty amazing pocket camera and in good light has great resolution (F/3.2, ISO 125, 10.2mm focal length with RAW, it has…

OK, don’t really know where to put this, but socks are so key: Wrightsock Coolmesh II. These are great for short hikes and super comfortable. $8 from Amazon. Smartwool Outdoor PhD Medium. Top rated by Outdoorgearlab, but nearly impossible to find at the end of the season. Large fits 9-11 size men. $22 street, $24…

Well there are quite a few choices in hiking and backpacking watches, but the core features seem to be an altimeter and a compass and for us lazy people solar powered so we don’t have to worry about batteries. I’ve had a Suunto Vector for years and thanks to Roanoke Watch Repair, it is back…

We’ve got the bug and here are some good books: Backpacking Washington: Overnight and Multi-Day Routes. A terrific book by Romano and from the great Mountaineers out here White Mountain Guide, 29th: AMC’s Comprehensive Guide to Hiking Trails in the White Mountain National Forest (Appalachian Mountain Club White Mountain Guide). AMC looks like the big…

To use the maximum memory isn’t easy because you need to put in an older 1066MHz (aka DDR3-8500) part to get the cheaper 1333 Mhz (DDR3-12800) part to run, but just realized the way to do this is to get five DDR3-10800 and five DDR3-12500 and put one in each as the MacBooks will go…

Lurking around, if you have a Visa Signature card: Offer valid 2/1/2012 – 11/2/2013 Get $5 off a $25 Fandango Gift Card, instantly redeemable for the movie of your choice. That’s $25 in movie tickets for only $20! Fandango Gift Cards can be used for tickets to any movie, any time, at any Fandango partner…

Well there are some things to look at and to be careful of which is mileage expiration and extending them if you plan to use them. Asia Miles. I don’t fly these guys much, so we had 80K miles and got a nice pair of sun glasses, a decent one cent per mile Qantas. This…

I’ve been slowly trying to figure this one out. Every couple of months, the iMac (late 2009), so it is now old. Freezes with strange artifacts on the screen. If I were on a Windows machine, I would load the latest video drivers, but that isn’t an option on the Mac. I’ve been going through…

I have one of these and stupidly left it in the car, so I’m sure it has been working for months. Now the battery is dead. Fortunately. DCRainMaker has all kinds of FAQs about this and most importantly how to turn the back and stick in the CR2032 battery! The device is designed to run…

Well there is nothing quite like having reliable electronics (that are light!) on a backpacking trip. After 10 miles with a full pack, grams count! Here is a review of some things that might make sense but a personal locator beacon at 4-8 ounces makes lots of sense if you are really out of cell…

Well we probably have half a dozen first aid kits and didn’t really think about what happens when the medicines (and even bandages!) expire. Seems like there has to be a better way of getting the right set of refills. While you could individually get the various parts and also medicines, it is nice to…

These machines support up to 8GB of memory, but are very picky in that they need PC-8500 (1033 MHz) dRAM, but many folks don’t. First you have to check your model numbers. BTW, the reason you might want to do this is your MacBook is perfectly good and you care about the environment. And/or, you…

Well, if it doesn’t matter the FBI can hack your phone and listen to your conversations (Just kidding), here are a list of accessories for the phone: Cases. The Frexishield Frost Skin for $11 is clear durable silicon gel, the Rearth Ringke Fusion Case is all black, the Spigen Ultra Thin Air is easy to…

I’ve been using the RX100 for about three months now and although the Mark II is out, this is a pretty awesome camera. Some notes on accessories: The grip is awesome. i got mine from a third party, but Sony now makes one. I lost the little wrist strap (used it to tie on a…

Wow, what fun, backpacking is kind of like bicycling. Hard to get into, but addictive as a sport (and also a a geek gear acquisition excuse :-). Here are some more notes on things. If you want to drool, check out the Dream Backpacking list at Outdoorgearlab.com Hiking Boots. Well, like most things, this is…