Instead of Burning try Converting

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

A few days ago I downloaded some software that came as a .UIF file. Assuming it was a disc Image I attempted using Roxio, Nero and even an ISO mounting software I use called Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel to open it with no luck. I then did some searching on the net and found out that UIF is a proprietary extension for a program called Magic ISO. Essentially it’s just a compressed ISO.

Magic ISO allows you to make Images and Burn them, however their free trial version only allows you to burn (or create) up to a 300mb image. My Image was slightly over at 430mb so I was out of luck (or so I thought).

I quickly did some searching and came across a handy little tutorial on how to convert UIF files. As it so happens Magic ISO also has the ability to convert the UIF files (basically extract them) into an ISO instead. This feature is actually enabled for any size file in the trial version so I was in luck.

In case the link ever goes dead all you need to do is:

  1. start Magic ISO
  2. click tools -> convert
  3. select the UIF file
  4. choose the output file name and location
  5. click ‘Convert!’

Two Souls Join as One

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

Corey and Maggie Winters

This weekend Rachel and I attended Cory and Maggie’s wedding. Their ceremony was beautifully done, outside overlooking some fantastic scenery including some Great Blue Heron’s spreading their wings to soar above the trees in perfect wedding-time bliss!

The Joined Vase

Cory and Maggie added some splash of uniqueness (as most weddings tend to do) and one of our favorite moments was the combining of the sand vases into one. This was symbolism at its best and the ability to keep the result was the icing on the cake (or perhaps the sand in the vase?).

I was overly impressed with the vision of photographers on scene and their ability to setup poses. I’m sure they got some fantastic shots but I snapped some of my own which I thought I’d share so take a peek. The entire album is also available, some photos of which are interesting some of which are horribly bad but that’s because it was a learning experience. Overall the wedding was absolutely beautiful.
Corey and Maggie
Best wishes and all the best to Cory and Maggie Winters.

A Learning Experience

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

This weekend I borrowed my friend Ryan‘s camera to test the SLR waters again. While I absolutely love my H5 I have been toying with the idea of purchasing an SLR to push myself over the edge into the black (money) hole that is the hobby I so lovingly call (along with billions of other people…) photography. I had very good experience this weekend as Rachel and I attended Corey and Maggie’s wedding and I used Ryan’s camera while we were there. Through that experience I learned some very valuable lessons, some good and some bad.

The first lesson I learned was holy crap it’s fast! I could fire off several shots in the time it takes my camera to take one. Digital photography makes it super easy to take a bunch of photos and figure out the choice ones later and this made it even easier. This is great for situations like weddings since there is always inevitably someone closing their eyes at any given time.

The next lesson I learned is a harsh one although it turned out ok in the end. Check your settings! I had been playing the previous night with low light settings and had subsequently had the ISO setting at 800. I had forgotten all about this and shot the entire wedding and after-ceremony photos at this same setting. It wasn’t until I went to modify the ISO setting after going inside that I realized this. If I had done this on my H5 it would have been suicide, the photos would have been grainy beyond belief and would have required lots of post-processing which would have in turn dulled the photographs dramatically. Luckily the SLR handled the higher ISO setting just fine. It was slightly more grainy than I would have liked but none the less the photos were not ruined as I thought they might have been

I also learned something about photography in general, more closely tied to the profession than the hobby though. I noticed that I was taking shots of random little things that were happening like private hugs, tears etc that the real photographer wasn’t capturing. At first I wondered why this was and then I realized that they had a lot of stuff on their plate and even more to coordinate. Because they were staging and placing everyone, it left the other would-be photographers to do their stuff. I talked to one of the other people there (whom I thought was working with the hired photographer) and he told me that he much prefers going to weddings where he is simply the ‘friend photographer’ as apposed to the ‘hired photographer’ so that he is left alone to get his shots right instead of setting up poses. This allows for many more real and candid shots which I believe come out much nicer anyway. The lesson here? If you’re a photographer hired for a wedding, be sure to have 1 or 2 (at least) other photographers there at least during the formal portrait sessions.

Don’t Trust the Average Meter. I learned the hard way that the average meter is not the way to go, instead trust your instincts and keep it on ‘spot metering.’

I also learned that If I go down this path (which I fully believe I will now) I need three things right out the door.

  1. A camera body – I recently came across a new canon, the 40D which I believed was my perfect camera (were I to go SLR). However; some other companies have also recently released new camera body’s that are in the range I’m looking for such as Sony and Nikon. I’ll need to do some more research before I decide on my camera body now, although I’m still leaning towards the Canon 40D.
  2. A flash which can be aimed – I can’t begin to list the number of times during the wedding (the reception especially) that I wanted to use the flash to add some light to a dark scene, but wanted to keep the ambient light and not add the harsh glare-tones that come with the built in flash.
  3. A high(ish) zoom lens – The lens that comes with the 40D kit is 28mm-135mm F3.5-5.6 IS. I’m not sure if this will be enough or not so I’ll have to play with it In store first. I do know that the 18-55mm lens I was using this weekend simply didn’t provide enough range for me. I realize that you get better results by adding multiple lenses to your arsenal and for some things this may be perfectly ok however for my preferred style of photography, and the randomness that comes along with weddings, it simply doesn’t work. It may come down to something like the 28-300mm Canon (which will increase the initial cost of this little venture quite a bit).

All in all I’d say a successful adventure and some good lessons learned. I’ve determined that I could definitely improve my photography with the addition of an SLR, now comes the hard part of researching and finally deciding.

To Serve or Not to Serve (The Customer)

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

He who wishes to secure the good of others, has already secured his own. ~Confucius

We are affected by Customer Service more than once every day. It makes a difference when you get your coffee in the morning, it matters when you fill your gas tank on your way home and when you buy your weekly groceries. The way in which you are served leaves a lasting impression on you. To that end it is my belief that Customer service should be the most important part of any business regardless of its particular niche. This week two companies left their impression on me and I’d like to outline those impressions below.

The Good News

Sometimes when you’re at the brink of never shopping somewhere again they can unexpectedly surprise you. That was the case with Circuit City this week. I live approximately 5 miles from the nearest Circuit City and rather than go there and find out they didn’t have what I wanted in stock i decided to give them a call. Literally 20 minutes after being on hold, being transferred 10 times, calling back twice and complaining, I finally got in touch with a manager who then instructed me she’d check the inventory and call me back. All this for a simple inventory check?

She called me back to let me know what I needed was in stock and that she’d have it held at the desk. Perfect. I headed over picked up what was held at the desk for me and went home. The problem arose when I tried to use it. The item I picked up turned out not to be the item I had asked for. Furious, I stormed back to Circuit City the next morning expecting a fight since I had already opened the package. When I arrived back at the store the same person was working the counter and instantly recognized me (it was also the Manager who I had talked to on the phone the previous day) and said:

You’re just not having any luck with this are you?

I said “no I’m not” in a gruff early-morning voice and she then proceeded to do the exchange without any more complaints. At the end of the transaction she explained that she had also credited my card for $8.50 (when there was no price difference) simply for the ‘inconvenience.’ Instantly she transformed my frustration into acceptance and even happiness. Not only did she fix my original problem but went above and beyond to simply make sure I wasn’t frustrated with their service.

The Bad News

My wife Rachel and I are planning on going to the Brian Regan show with some friends in our hometown in a few weeks. Since I sent out the notice to let people know about the show I offered to buy tickets for everyone so that we would be seated together. Originally I priced the tickets on TicketMaster at $30 a piece. This is what I told everyone and what I collected.

When I actually ordered the tickets The real bill included $2.50 (per ticket) for a facility charge, $7.50 for a convenience charge(per ticket) and a $3.60 service tax(total). That’s $10 per ticket more than advertised and an additional $3.60! After giving them a call I found out that the facility fee is actually charged by the venue so there’s nothing we can do about that however the tax and convenience charge is something Ticketmaster applies on top of the ticket price. Also I found out they only charge this convenience charge on the phone or on the Internet. If you go to the Ticketmaster counter the fee is waived.

How in the world does this make sense? Because it’s more convenient for me order my tickets from the comfort of my home you get to charge me more money? I say shenanigans! When I order from home especially over the Internet, I’m not distracting your customer service people from their real jobs, serving people who really need their help. It costs you no additional money to let me buy over the Internet. In fact I say it costs you less because you don’t need to have someone standing at a counter.

So what did I end up doing? Going to the actual venue and buying them direct. I had to leave work early just to get there while the box office was open. Such a complete inconvenience and utter customer service failure.

In Summary

The age old statement

The Customer is always right

Shouldn’t just be a saying on some old warn out poster behind your counter. Make it your policy, your goal, your JOB. After all, who pays your salary? What’s the best type of advertising?

That’s right Customers.

Unique vs Shared keywords

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

Hide verses Archive

Ed Kohler recently posted an article entitled Archive vs Hide on Gmail and Google Docs. In this article he talks about the different keywords Google uses to describe essentially the same functionality. This is an issue that is not unique to Google. I’ve seen the same problem across teams where I work as well as within my own work. Another similar problem I see all the time is when the same keyword is used by two different products to refer to different things. This is something that runs rampant where I work and so I’d like to provide a few tips to help avoid these problems.

  1. Publicized Usage – Whether kept internal to the company or not, nothing can help reduce multiple keywords and multiple keyword definitions than letting other teams know what keywords you’ve used and for what.
  2. Regular Collaboration – Preventing the problem is better than dealing with the aftermath, but the only way to find out if the problem exists and to come up with strategies for resolving the problem is collaborating with the other teams.
  3. Publicized Standards – if standards exist the chance for collision of keywords is greatly reduced.
  4. Namespaces – Prefixing a word keyword used on a particular project especially in the case of ID’s helps people identify exactly what that keyword is when seen outside of the project.

If you have any other thoughts or suggestions please let me know!

An art form that uses the night sky as the canvas

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Rachel and I saw Balls of Fury last night. I’d only give it Two mediocre thumbs in the middle (5/10).

Fireworks Over Canal in Pittsford

On our way home, we saw some flashes in the sky to the north and determined it was fireworks so we resolved to go find them. On our way through Pittsford we saw some more flashes and sure enough fireworks they were. When a few more went off as we were crossing the bridge we decided to stop and watch there. I’m glad we did because the reflection in the Canal of each explosion of color just added to it.

A great (random) end to a good day.

I have to apologize for the quality of the picture as I only had my pocket camera with me and it does not have good manual settings for long exposures. I’ll be sure to carry the other one from now on.

Keep it Simple Stupid

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Keep it Simple Stupid (or what’s commonly know as the KISS principle) is something I picked up in my Software Engineering classes during my tour of duty at RIT. It is something I try to carry over into my every day life. That being said I’d like to share a few simple ideas I try to utilize to simplify my digital life.

Your Blog

For those of you reading this directly from the website you should have already noticed a complete redesign. This is only part of my new Zen overhaul. I have taken several points from Skellie‘s post 50 Tips to Unclutter Your Blog. If you’re interested in exactly what I did please check out the article. You may find some additional tips which I haven’t yet implemented as well.

Your Wallpaper
My Simple Wallpaper
A recent simplification I have made is my wallpaper. I was a fan of scenery wallpaper, most often shots that I took were my favorites, but I recently decided that this just adds to clutter. Photographic backgrounds can hide icons and can be a distraction. I created this simple background which provides a central focal point for any icons you wish to display on the desktop. I’ve provided several sizes so feel free to download it if you’d like to try it out.

Your Feeds

Chances are, if you’re like me, you subscribe to a lot of feeds. You probably also generate a lot of content on the Internet and therefor a lot of feeds (whether you realize it or not). If that’s the case why not manage both in the same place? I use Google Reader extensively and this is one of the biggest reasons why. Essentially I maintain two feeds: My Shared Items and My Content. Both are exactly what they sound like. My Shared Items is a feed in which articles, Videos, pictures and anything else i want to share will appear. I do this by utilizing Google Reader’s Shared Items feature. My Content is another feed in which any content that I produce will appear. For example, Any post on this blog, My posts on Randy and Rachel, My Comic Strips and my Youtube videos.

Your Archives

Lets face it, in this digital age chances are you have a lot of digital stuff. Stuff you want to keep. For most people this might just mean photos. For some it means photos, videos, music, software and more. To store all this and keep it organized you need a system. I have dual 250Gb SATA drives in a Raid 1 array which i use strictly for storage. On the root of this array I have the following directories:

  • Files
  • Music
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Software

Everything I need to store fits somewhere in these 5 categories. Music and Videos are broken down by genre. Files and Software are broken down by category. Photos is broken down by date. This is probably where I’m the most organized. My Photos directory contains photos dating back to the 1950s all the way up to the present. To do this I created decade directories (1950s, 1960s etc) and within that year directories(1951, 1952 etc). Finally within the years directory I list the actual albums which also have a naming convention (MM – DD – name). Because of the shear amount of photographs I store I needed a system and this has greatly simplified things for me.

KISS

Regardless of what you’re doing, when something seems like its too complicated it is. Simplify it. Do whatever it takes to reduce the clutter and the complexity in your Digital Life. I will be making this a recurring theme for this blog so let me know if you have any specific topics you’d like to know how to simplify.