Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

Well time to set new goals (and of course) buy new hardware. The bike world has been moving fast since I last looked at it two years (?!!) ago. Here are some highlights and things to really want. Shimano Dura-ace Di2 9070. A long name for the update to the Shimano shifting group. It is…

It’s sad, but at least Drobo is clear about what products are ending life, the Drobo’s we bought four years ago and they are coming to end of life with the newest Drobo Dashboard no longer supporting them.

Well, Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) seems to run much better on a Macbook 5,1 (late 2008) and MacBook Pro 5,1 but it still has issues in that grub doesn’t properly dual boot although the base install instructions work fine if you are completely replacing your Mac OS (but they don’t say that in their main…

Well the iPhone is actually a pretty decent camera, but it is hard to hold and hard to see. Folks have been working on this though, so here are some things to buy: Camera+ is a totally cheap ($3) iPhone app that gives you more control. You can even see your iso and shutter speed…

Well, Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) seems to run much better on a Macbook 5,1 (late 2008) and MacBook Pro 6,2 but it still has issues in that grub doesn’t properly dual boot. After two boots, the ReFIT I had on my MacBook Pro seems to work properly, but ReFind doesn’t at all on the MacBook.…

OK, I have the IZon and it was a bear to install, now I have three cameras to try to get running. Let’s see how it goes. They vary in cost from $130 to $600: Foscam IP Camera (Foscam FI9212W) This is a 720p webcam delivering H.264 images over an IP network that is either…

Well, although this camera is a year old, it doesn’t seem like there is an update soon, so it is pretty good to buy. So on to accessories: Sony DSC RX-100. It list for $600 and that is pretty much the cost. The best deal I’ve found from a legitimate reseller is to use your…

How can you run out of space with 16TB worth of DroboPro space. Well apparently it isn’t so hard with all the home movies and photos I’ve been taking. I have an old DroboPro with a mix of 3TB and 2TB drives and it is 98% full! I’ve tried taking a few things off, but…

Spent an hour trying to get our Amazon Affiliate link back up for marketingplaybook.com. Just realized that it is because I have Adblock running so it appears in the source of the page, but not on the browser. I have to disable ghostery, noscript and adblock to see my own ads 🙂

Ming Thein really has a good analysis of what is available. Ideally, you want to buy one lense when you are 21 and then pass it on to your grand kids. Lenses are one place where you can really do that. His post on dSLR lenses is right on (IMHO) where he basically says validates…

Had an hour and a half to think about this stuck at the border. First is ur going up to Canada via peach arch stay left. There r more lanes open on that side. When u come back the wait times are very optimistic. The sign says 40 minutes but we’ve been waiting an hour…

Wow, Sony is basically using its electronic viewfinder technology to make $2K high tech binoculars (see Popphoto). It uses two 1/3.91″ (about a quarter ince) CMOS sensors that are 5 megapixels and beams them to a pair of OLED screens or you can capture the video as well. Plus compared with traditional binoculars, you get…

Scott also mentioned that the new glass coming out was getting much better because the sensors (see the post below) are getting great. Well, the first reviews of the Sigma 35mm F/1.4 DG HSM are truly amazing at $900 vs $2K for the Canon equivalent… The Sigma 35mm f/1.4 is the finest lens I’ve ever…

Thanks so much to my buddies, Bob, Scott and John. We’ve all been buying and looking at various mirrorless systems and my buddies have neatly split into three camps. NEX (Scott), Fuji (Bob) and Samsung (John). So what is a geek to think? Well the main issue is how good the products really are. They…

Linux laptops. There is a dedicated site that helps you get Linux running on a laptop. Ludwig uses the ASUS Zenbook UX31XA although the later one looks like the UX32VD. Here are the choices by a quick skim for ultrabooks notebookcheck.net. Looking at this, they rated the Macbook Air 13 inch (mid 2012) as 89%…

So I got a Foswell PTZ camera to try for $130 or so from Amazon will report on that. The IZon is working just oK, it needs something for low light is the main issue. But up at the $600 range are some pretty interesting products particularly those that are ceiling mounted and that can…

Monoprice finally has in stock the new iPhone lightening connectors. For about half the price $11 of the Apple variety. I’ve tried the el cheapo $5 ones and it broke in a day. See these items: Mini-B, micro-B and 30-pin iPhone cable. Wow has a little connector so you don’t need all these separate cables.…

Our marketing playbook has 2,000 spam users. Added  before we put captcha on. And the system still allows 2-3 users a day who are breaking through captcha (so I turned off new user adds) and I need to get rid of everyone. Here’s how…but becareful because if you set it to 999 users as I…

Now that I’ve been doing a lot more processing of digital photos, it is pretty apparent that the ability to take a zillion photos at once is really changing getting around the dynamic range and optical limitations. Here are some of the tricks that you can do with your computer, but also many vendors are…

Wow cool, Blackmagic is doing a pocket cinema camera that will shoot raw 1080p with a micro 4/3 (actually it is a super 16 imaging area 12.5×7.4mm). It is $995. That means it is capturing 220Mbps. Pretty amazing. A big boost for micro-4/3 is a nice video camera. Technically compared with more traditional cameras, raw…

What a strange consumer experience Sony has managed to cobble together. Super confusing. We are just trying to buy and download games on a PS Vita. Here is what you have to do: They have two totally different login and management systems at playstation.com and sonyentertainment.com. Sony Entertainment seems to have the purchase stuff, so…

Mac’s are just different enough it is hard to make this work. Sphinx generate documentation, but as usual, even with the vanilla Python 2.7 on every Mac, you have to install a lot of scaffolding, the easy way is to just type “sudo easy_install -U sphinx” but this uses non-SSL, so if you want SSL…

YouTube rocks. What a video series!

Been looking for a easy to use camera that works on an IP network. This is far harder than it looks. What I’d like is a system that works in Wifi, ow light, is reliable enough for 24/7 monitoring and can monitor remotely (eg outside the house) and can record video streams locally (so you…