Steve Jobs

RIP Steve Jobs

Oct 6th

Posted by f E R R i S in Geeky

1,119 comments

Thank you for i”everything” and the disruptive innovations that you have brought into our life, changed how we use mobile devices and computers. A very very sad day for geeks, Apple fans and techies. Never knew I can be so sad over the death of someone I don’t even know personally. A pity my kids are too young to really experience the joy of using products sprinkled with his brilliance, even though Cepheus plays with my iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro on daily basis. I guess I am lucky that I had live some of my life in his time and greatness. My wife is even luckier to work under his great leadership in Apple. I doubt we can easily find someone to fill the void brought by his death. RIP Steve, you will be missed by millions and your legacy, innovations and brilliance will impact the life of many and you will definately be the source of inspiration for many in the future generations to come…


harmony600

Logitech Harmony 600 mini review

Jun 28th

Posted by f E R R i S in Gadgets

1,400 comments

My Hitachi Plasma TV’s remote controller is going wonky, no thanks to the constant “kissing” of the hard floor by my dearest son Cepheus. The power button is not working and I have to walk up to the TV to press the power button every time I want to switch it on. I emailed Hitachi Customer Service to enquire about a replacement unit but I received a way expired “Out of Office” auto reply. I guess the geeky part of me have always wanted to buy a universal remote to play with. Hence, I went out last weekend to hunt for one and finally purchased one from South Asia Computer situated at Funan The IT Mall (Cepheus kinda make up for it by accompany me throughout the hunt for the remote :lol: . The hunt lasted half a day as most places does not have it). The model I bought is the Logitech Harmony 600 (having a promo now and selling for $88, usual MSRP is $99). I kinda like it and below is a short review of the remote.

 

Logitech Harmony 600

What’s in the Box

1. Logitech Harmony 600 remote controller

2. USB cable

3. User guide

4. 2 AA size batteries

 

Features / Specifications

1. Replace 5 remotes

2. Backlit Screen

3. 1 Click activity buttons.

4. Work with both Windows and Mac OS (for configuration of remote)

5. 2 Years warranty by Ban Leong.

 

The Review

The Hardware

The Logitech Harmony 600 is quite well built and feels solid in my hand. Powered by 2 AA size battery, it is bigger and heavier than most remote controllers that I have used before. However,  this is understandable as it has a LCD and a lot more keys than the other remotes. The Logitech Harmony 600 comes with infra red ports, 1 in front to send out commands to your appliances and 1 at the bottom end to “learn” from the original remote controllers. Most of the keys on the Logitech Harmony 600 comes with back light, hence you can use the remote even with the lights off.

The Software

The Logitech Harmony 600 does not come with any software out of the box. We are suppose to configure the devices via web at the following URL http://www.Logitech.com/MyHarmony. This is where Logitech fails big time. The web base application failed to configure my remote on the 1st attempt. All subsequent attempts are met with a “Server error, please relogin to configure your harmony”. In the end, I downloaded the software client ( Harmony remote Ver 7.7.0) from Logitech support site which works like a charm. If you are buying a Harmony, I strongly encourage you to use the software client instead of the web application to save yourself some agony. Within the Harmony remote software, which is very easy to use, I was able to find and select my TV and DVD player model in their database and the Harmony 600 was up and ready to go within 10 mins. I was also able to set up 2 activities, “Watch TV” and “Watch a DVD” within the same 10 mins time frame.

The Actual Usage

Using just the default IR commands for my TV and DVD model from Logitech devices database, I can access all the basic functions of the TV and DVD player with the configured Logitech Harmony 600. However, I found that some not commonly use functions are not available. Nevertheless, I managed to “Train” the Harmony 600 to learn from the original remote controller which is a very simple process as well. With the programmed 2 activities, I was able to turn on my DVD player, turn on my TV, switch TV to HDMI channel and eject the DVD tray with just  the “Watch a DVD” button. I was also able to Stop the DVD player, switch back to TV channel and off the DVD player with the “Watch TV” button. This really save the effort of using multiple remotes and keypresses to perform the same task. You can even use the Harmony to control turn on / off aircon, Dim your light or turn on the fan as long as they respond to IR commands. The Harmony 600 also has a “All off” button that can stop and switch off all the configured appliances.

Comments after 2 days of Usage

The configured and programmed Harmony 600 works flawlessly with individual appliances. Using the default activities created is a hit and miss affair. Sometimes, the TV doesn’t switch to the proper channel or the DVD player doesn’t switch on/off. Nevertheless, activities can be fine tuned and I managed to make them work properly by inserting 1 second delay between each IR commands as sometimes the IR commands may be sent too quickly for the appliances to respond as they may still be responding on the 1st command. The Harmony 600 also has a “Help” button which can assist you should the activities does not work properly as configured. When activated, you will be prompted with a series of questions that help you resolved the problem.

Conclusion

Buy it if you want to handle less remote and want to reduce the hassle of turning many appliances on one at a time. Being a lazy person, I am now on the look out for a IR controlled power switch so that I can switch on / off the power as well without removing my butt from the couch.

 

Useful Link

http://www.logitech.com/harmony/components to check if your appliances is supported.

 


panasonic-gf1

Howto: Photo reflection in water droplet

Dec 3rd

Posted by f E R R i S in Howto

1,331 comments

Received a few queries on how did I took the below picture and hence decided to do a simple howto.

The below are the things you need:

1.

the picture you want to appear in the droplet *best to use 8R and above*

2.

your favorite tap. Mine is the one in the kitchen.

3.

your favorite camera. I was using my Panasonic gf1 with 14-45mm zoom lenses.

4.

I couldn’t afford a dedicated macro lenses hence i use a cheap S$23 bucks Hoya +4 close up filter instead. You can probably achieve better results with a macro lenses.

5.

and finally, setting the props and getting ready for the shot.

  • Turn on the tap so that water are dripping at a reasonable speed.
  • Put the picture behind the tap INVERTED.
  • Turn on the flash on the camera.
  • Focus on the water droplets dripping from the tap. *It easier to focus using manual focus*
  • Set shutter speed to max sync speed. *GF1′s is at 1/160, most entry/mid range DSLRs are at 1/200*
  • Fire away and have fun!

:lol:




Fixing Shutter Speed on Autofocus Theme

Nov 23rd

Posted by f E R R i S in Geeky

940 comments

I have installed and activated Autofocus theme for my photo gallery earlier on while setting up this site. The shutter speed was not working when you click on the EXIF information as per described by the author of the theme. I did some online research and I think I have gotten it working. Take a look at this for working example of shutter speed been display as a fraction in the EXIF information.

Below is what you need to do inorder to get yours working.

  1. Login to your wordpress installation and activated Autofocus theme
  2. Click on “Appearance” follow by “Editor”
  3. Select “Themes Functions (functions.php)”  under the list of Templates
  4. Locate the codes for EXIF. It should start with something like below
    // Convert the shutter speed retrieve from database to fraction DOES NOT WORK ON THE LIVE SERVER FR SOME REASON >:-|
    if ((1 / $imgmeta['image_meta']['shutter_speed']) > 1)      {
    … …
    … …
    … …
    echo “<li><span class=\”exif-title\”>Shutter Speed:</span> ” . $pshutter.”</li></ul>”;
    }

  5. Replace them with the below codes
    // Convert the shutter speed retrieve from database to fraction DOES NOT WORK ON THE LIVE SERVER FOR SOME REASON >:-|
    if ((1 / $imgmeta['image_meta']['shutter_speed']) > 1)
    {
    if ((number_format((1 / $imgmeta['image_meta']['shutter_speed']), 1)) == 1.3
    or number_format((1 / $imgmeta['image_meta']['shutter_speed']), 1) == 1.5
    or number_format((1 / $imgmeta['image_meta']['shutter_speed']), 1) == 1.6
    or number_format((1 / $imgmeta['image_meta']['shutter_speed']), 1) == 2.5){
    $pshutter = “1/” . number_format((1 / $imgmeta['image_meta']['shutter_speed']), 1, ‘.’, ”) . ” second”;
    }
    else{
    $pshutter = “1/” . number_format((1 / $imgmeta['image_meta']['shutter_speed']), 0, ‘.’, ”) . ” second”;
    }
    }
    else{
    $pshutter = $imgmeta['image_meta']['shutter_speed'] . ” seconds”;
    }
    // Start to display EXIF and IPTC data of digital photograph
    echo “<ul><li<span class=\”exif-title\”>Date Taken:</span> ” . date(“d-M-Y H:i:s”, $imgmeta['image_meta']['created_timestamp']).”</li>”;
    //echo “<li><span class=\”exif-title\”>Copyright:</span> ” . $imgmeta['image_meta']['copyright'].”</li>”;
    //echo “<li><span class=\”exif-title\”>Credit:</span> ” . $imgmeta['image_meta']['credit'].”</li>”;
    //echo “<li><span class=\”exif-title\”>Title:</span> ” . $imgmeta['image_meta']['title'].”</li>”;
    //echo “<li><span class=\”exif-title\”>Caption:</span> ” . $imgmeta['image_meta']['caption'].”</li>”;
    echo “<li><span class=\”exif-title\”>Camera:</span> ” . $imgmeta['image_meta']['camera'].”</li>”;
    echo “<li><span class=\”exif-title\”>Focal Length:</span> ” . $imgmeta['image_meta']['focal_length'].”mm</li>”;
    echo “<li><span class=\”exif-title\”>Aperture:</span> f/” . $imgmeta['image_meta']['aperture'].”</li>”;
    echo “<li><span class=\”exif-title\”>ISO:</span> ” . $imgmeta['image_meta']['iso'].”</li>”;
    echo “<li><span class=\”exif-title\”>Shutter Speed:</span> ” . $pshutter.”</li></ul>”;
    }

  6. Click “Update File” button.
  7. It should be working now.

As a precaution, backup the original codes. Perform this at your own risk. I will not bear any responsibilities should you mess up / crash / damaged / screw up your wordpress installation and / or causes any lost of data. :)


,



Completed at last

Nov 21st

Posted by f E R R i S in Geeky

1,004 comments

Finally, after many days of playing around with wordpress, I have completed setting up this site. From now on, all posts regarding my family life will go to http://dear.ly and everything else will come to here. I have also set up a simple photo gallery *click SNIPPETS OF LIFE on menu bar* whereby I will post up photos other than my family members. This blog will be all about ME, I and MYSELF.

If you are interested in finding out what plugins and what settings I’m using, feel free to ask.


  • About Me

    Ferris is messy, lazy, sleepy, hungry, silly, ugly, cheeky, funny, horny, fussy, crazy... He spend alot of his time on his computers and working out in the gym. He is a uber mac fan....