One consideration in buying a new SLR camera is make sure your photo editing software supports RAW natively. If not, then you will need to go through an intermediate program that converts the RAW photo format into a more universal format such as DNG. Photoshop CS3 seems to be getting outdated nowdays with the Photoshop CS4 release. This means less Photoshop CS3 updates from Adobe for supporting new cameras. Here is a list of Canon and Nikon cameras that are currently supported with Photoshop CS3. Notice the Canon EOS 500D T1i, Canon Powershot SX1 IS , and Nikon D5000 are …

While travelling in NYC, I noticed that my T-Mobile Google Phone G1 would run out of battery after 8 hours. I tried the resolve this by changing the data network to 2G, but it did not affect it at all. Note, I have turned off most services on my phone too — no e-mail sync, no bluetooth, and no wireless. 

The problem appears to be occuring when there is no data/voice cell phone coverage, the G1 uses a LOT of battery power to find a signal. Normally, I never run in the red (<10%) with a good amount of usage on the …

Netbooks are gaining popularity for their convenience and price range. There are some limitations due to the screen resolution, 1024×600 on the 9″ screens. This is a roadblock when installing applications such as Photoshop, which require a minimum resolution 1024×768.

To get around the limitation, you will need an external monitor with a resolution of 1024×768 or higher and an external video port on the netbook (Dell Mini 9 has it built-in) Hook up the external monitor to the netbook. Make sure you are NOT running in mirror mode. I usually put the the external monitor on the right side. Next, …

I have found a useful free video converter software. Its great for converting flv files to avi/mpeg/mov. It works quite well for a free video converter. I was able to convert videos from one format to another without any major issues.

WinFF http://winff.org

WinFF is a GUI for the command line video converter, FFMPEG. It will convert most any video file that FFmpeg will convert. WinFF does multiple files in multiple formats at one time. You can for example convert mpeg’s, flv’s, and mov’s, all into avi’s all at once.

Easy to use interface.
Fast (Winff does not hinder FFmpeg in …

Having trouble activating the G1 Android Google Phone?

If you buy the G1 Android in a store, you probably won’t have problems activating it since they help you set it up. However, if you buy the phone online and use an existing SIM card, I suggest calling T-mobile first to make sure you have the G1 data plan on your line.

Gmail has added themes! They are starting to send over the themes across all the servers. You can see if you have themes on your account by going to “Settings” and check if you have tab for “Themes”. You may need to change your Gmail settings back to old version, then go back to new again for them to show up. (At least I had to) If so, you should get a message asking you about changing your theme. Right now, I have the pebbles one installed — screenshot below.

If you uploaded some Microsoft Office 2007 files onto your Apache server, you will notice that the files will open up as a zip file from your browser. To fix this, you will need to add the new file extensions to the Apache configuration file so that it will know how to set the correct file type. At first, I tried editing the /etc/mime.types file, but that did not work for me. So, I added the file types into the Apache configuration file and voila — it worked.

In Apache, edit the httpd.conf file. Or, in Apache2 edit the apache2.conf file. Search …

There is only one downside to digital photography. The reliance of the hard drive. If you lose all your data on the hard drive, there is not a negative or color print to salvage the lost photos on the drive.  More megapixels mean more space required for the photos. Thus, its important to have a reliable drive that has lots of space.

I recently purchased the Antec MX-1 case to replace a broken 1 TB external drive. Luckily, the drive broke within the return policy of the store and while I was still verifying the integrity of the drive via a …