Technical Reviews and Geek Toys

A few months ago I wanted to buy Bella a digital camera so she could take pictures when she went to visit her family in Utah. I found a Canon PowerShot SD890 IS digital camera at Sams Club and liked it so much I bought another one for myself.

The PowerShot is very easy to use and offers a number of features that makes it very useful for the amateur photographer. Since it is a 10 MegaPixel camera the images are crisp and of good quality. The Optical Image Stabilizer System comes in handy to get rid of the shakes and the Digital Zoom enables me to get real close to capture very small objects (It will focus as close as .79 inches). I use it in my work, in fact all of the photos displayed in this blog were taken with this camera. Since I carry it in my laptop bag I am amazed at how often I use it to document my work. A picture is worth a thousand words and several pictures of a rack or when performing a site survey has proven to be very useful to me.

Even though the camera has a real image optical zoom viewfinder, I find that I use the 2.5-inch TFT color LCD with wide viewing angle (PureColor LCD II) most of the time. The LCD is also used to view and even edit images that have been taken. The built in flash has a limited range of 11 feet which wasn't powerful enough for taking pictures outdoors at night in the rain but it wasn't meant to be. It uses a SD/SDHC Memory Card which is really handy as I can take a picture, pull the card and plug it into the SD slot of either my laptop or PC and immediately use the picture in a document. I replaced the 32MB SD Memory Card that came with the camera with a 4GB SDHC card so I can take LOTS of pictures. The camera uses a easy to remove Rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery which is suppose to be good for around 320 shots when using the LCD. It comes with a battery charger and while I haven't found the need, one could always purchase a spare battery to use while recharging a spent battery.

Having used this camera for the last few months it is easy for me to recommend it for anyone.

Merry Christmas to all from New Mexico. Today I thought of the many blessings our Lord Jesus has given us this year and gave thanks. Jesus is the reason for the season. We did not have to get out in the frenzy today as we have all of our shopping done. Another thing to be thankful for.

I took this picture today thinking about how the change in the seasons has changed the view. I know there are many who have a whole lot more snow than we have. I guess there is probably around two feet on the ground and much melted last week. I had to go out today and get the washing machine going as the pump had some ice in it and Bella needed to do some laundry.

So many people are going through hard times this year and many are angry. We saw on the news last night how people are losing their homes and trashing them before they leave. I think of all of the families who have lost jobs and those that for reason or another will not be having a good Christmas. And I think of all of the people who are trying to travel somewhere to spend Christmas with family or friends. I am so thankful that we don't have to go through that. It would have been nice to have been able to drive up to Utah to visit the kids though. Tiffany and Alan are expecting identical twins the end of February. Bella is so jazzed.

So, Merry Christmas my friends. Thank you for visiting my blog. I appreciate it. May the Lord bless you and your famlies.

-- Jim & Bella --

Disney - Pixar's latest animation, Wall-E was recently released on DVD and we picked up a copy. What a great film. For those of you who haven't heard, Wall-E follows the story of a robot named WALL-E who is designed to clean up a polluted Earth. He eventually falls in love with another robot named EVE, and follows her into outer space on an adventure. Check out Wikipedia for a detailed analysis. Bella and I enjoyed it so much we bought the 3-disk special edition and will send the other to the grand-kids. I highly recommend this for anyone who likes a good video.
On 12/8/2008 Bloomfield, NM hosted a Lighted Christmas Parade. Bella and I thought it would be a good way to be visible and decided to put together a little "float". We decided Bella's shiney - clean truck would be a great platform and also that Wall-E and Eve would be a technology related - fun theme.

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I don't know where the time has gone. It has been over a month since my last article and I am shaking my head in virtual wonderment. We woke up this morning to find snow on the ground. No, it wasn't a surprise as we watched the weather last night. We have added a few things since Life Is An Adventure II. We have added some skirting and a casita (small house) which is now home for our freezer and the washer and dryer (yea). Bella is just giggly because now she doesn't have to spend a couple of hours each week in town at the laundromat.

Bella and I have both been battling the flu over the last week and even though I went through it early last week, I find that again I am not feeling well. I have several things that I need to write about and will do so over the next week or so so please check back.

Awhile back I wrote about the new HP Compaq 6710b laptop I purchased. It came with Windows XP installed which was fine because I am totally Anti-Vista. I think I have made it pretty clear that the only reason I am running Windows is because so many web-apps and other programs require it. I installed Firefox so I wouldn't have to use IE and I have been pretty fortunate to have not had to deal with being infected with a trojan or other intrusive software. Well the other night that changed. I clicked on a link to get a updated version of some software and obviously wasn't paying close enough attention and the next thing I knew here was a pop-up saying my computer was infected. Well, that grabbed my attention because the pop-up was from XP Anti-virus 2009. This is a nasty parasitic rogue security software application which when installed replicates itself to the point where it will totally take over. I have seen pop-ups on infected web sites where a pop-up comes up saying your computer is infected and "click here" to run a virus check. Click on it installs the trojan so DON'T CLICK ON IT!

Fortunately, I was quick enough and had PC-Doctor already installed. PC-Doctor blocked its access to the Internet and after a couple of reboots, I think it was removed. But that was it. There are other options...

Last Friday, version 8.10 of the Kubuntu linux distribution was released. I downloaded the desktop version which creates a bootable CD to allow one to play with Kubuntu without installing it. I was pleased with what I saw. I have been using Sun xVM VirtualBox virtulization software to run Windows XP as an application in Kubuntu for some time and it really works well. I looked at all of the Windows software that I have to use and the web-apps that I use that requires IE and determined there was only one thing that I had to check before I was ready to wipe and install Kubuntu on the laptop.

I use a Keyspan USB to Serial Adapter and although I have used it on previous versions of Kubuntu, I wanted to make sure it would really work. This version of Kubuntu will actually install while inside of Windows. It installs itself as an application I believe and allows one to either boot on Windows or on Kubuntu. I guess I am a little vague here because I installed it and booted into Kubuntu to check the keyspan device. When it worked... no problem. I immediately rebooted and installed Kubuntu. This is so sweet..... everything works. The wireless device immediately saw my network and after I put in my passkey I was connected. I installed Windows XP inside of virtualBox and it works.

I am just so pleased with this new version. I has some effects built in for those who need some eye candy. (I must fall into that category because I think the effects are pretty cool.) Here is a screenshot tour. If you prefer to not have to login, the system can be configured to login automatically.