Guy Stuff at Guys Clubhouse

Well I decided to upgrade my camera situation and start shooting again. Deciding on what camera to purchase at first seemed easy but the more I read, the more unsure I became. When I was done, I was pleasantly surprised at my choice. Not wanting to spend more than a couple of grand,  I headed straight to the Nikon page.  That turned out to be wishful thinking because the more I thought about it, I just couldn’t justify spending that kind of money to get 10 or 12 mega pixels. Then the lens after that. So I turned to Canon. The  EOS Rebel T2i seemed ok with 18 mega pixels and a lens for 1200 bucks or so. Trouble for me is the build quality. In depth reviews and user ratings all pointed to the fact that it feels cheep and plasticy in your hand. I want something durable and robust. Moving up to the next model that is more durable is a substancial increase in price.  I pondered all this for a week before deciding to take a look at the Pentax K-7. What a shock I got.

The K-7 has a magnesium alloy body, is weather proof, 14.6 mega pixels, shake reduction built into the camera body, and, check this out, will use any k-mount lens ever made. What does this mean to me? As a former portrait wedding photographer that shot everything with a Pentax P-5 SLR, I have several very high quality Pentax lenses that have been collecting dust for years. I’ll be able to use these again! Not only that, but their are millions of k mount lenses out there, you can pick up some really high quality ones Cheap! So, that was it for me. I’ve ordered it. The lens that comes with it is not the best, it’s a 18-55 mm f-3.5 but who cares, I’ll use my old one or pick up an auto focus lens at a pawn shop.

To see and read about the cameras I’ve mentioned, or see any camera, I recommend you take a look at dpreview.com as it’s full of great info.

Check out the “My blog” page for lots of worthless new Crap! I just don’t have time to post Crap on this page at the moment. I’ll be back to this page  in a week or two.  However as you’ll see, I am still as always, “Proudly Wasting Your Time”!

This is simple and I thought you guys might enjoy it. It should work for most any program but I can’t guarantee it. I also can’t remember where I learned this but I’ll try to so I can give credit where credit is due. Just follow this step by step. It’s really quite easy. You need two free tools.

• Winrar
• Universal Extractor

Just get the free trial of Winrar ( if you don’t already have it ) . Universal Extractor is free and can be found at www.legroom.net. So go ahead and install those and lets rock!!

a)  Find your favorite program.

b) Make a new file where you like, and name it. (ie “my File”).

c) Now right click on the setup file of the program you’d like to be portable, and pick “extract with uniextract to a subdirectory”.  Extract it into the file you just made.

d)  Open the new file you made ( “my file”), and find the .exe file that runs the app. You should see a bunch of files there. Highlight all these files. ( Note: if you only see 1  file, then repeat step (c) on this file. Now you should see several files. Highlight them all).

e) Right click and choose ” add to archive”. Name your archive and select “create SFX archive”. Choose “best” under the category “compression method”.

f) Click the advance tab. Click SFX options. Now type the name of your executable in “run after exraction” under the “setup program category”.

Almost done!

g) In the “Modes tab” click “unpack to temporary folder and hide all”.

h) In the “Update tab”  click  ”overwrite all files”. Click ok and that’s it.

You’ll now see a single self extracting file that is the .exe . You can copy this to your memory stick or external hard drive and use it anywhere. cool eh!

I have to pick Filezilla as one of the best FTP programs out there.  The interface is quite simple and you’ll  find yourself dragging and dropping, shuffling and renaming files in no time. If you’re  managing multiple sites, you’ll  love it’s Quick Connect function, and with several options for a secure connection, you’ll be uploading and downloading files without a worry. As a long time user I can say this program is stable, easy to use and will do almost everything you would find in a paid for application.  I would say Filezilla is free must have program.

Well Opera 10.54 is out. I’ve heard good things about it so I thought I’d go back and give Opera another chance. If you’ve read my previous post a while back, you know I tested version 10.50 and it was very unstable. But it was smoking fast and so is this one.

Opera comes with an amazing list of features such as:

Integrated email that will send rich text ( the integrated email is one of my favorites )
Chat
Spell check
Speed dial
Tab browsing and tab preview
Turbo option for slower connections
Password manager
Notes
Malware and fraud protection
Opera Link for synchronizing bookmarks
Opera Unite to share content directly with friends
Mouse gesture recognition
Widgets that go beyond the browser and live on the desktop

and the list goes on and on…

Now I’ve only been using it a couple of days so I won’t recommend it yet, but so far I am totally impressed and would rate it a ten out of ten. Super fast with email and a ton of toys, I’ll be living in this thing!

Are you the average computer user? Would like to connect to your desktop anywhere, but phrases like ” port forwarding” and “dynamic IP address” set your head spinning? Then TeamViewer is for you my friend. The free version will do everything you need quite easily.

The install was very simple. After that, I registered at the site and can now access my desktop anywhere in the world by http. You can fix problems, check mails and work on your machine. To transfer files, you just  go to the TeamViewer site and click join session.  This will give a code, password and download a small temporary file to the computer you are using. Now you are hooked up directly to the other computer, allowing a full session including the transfer of files.  I’ve done this to help my daughter resolve issues and it worked great. She just sat back and watched her monitor  as I worked away on her computer from 3 hours away. For the average Joe, I recommend this highly!

TeamViewer is meant for business, and is quite expensive to buy. One great thing is the portable version that comes with a purchase and runs off a USB stick. That would save any small downloads and what not. Just plug it in where you are and enjoy a full session without any worries! But we’re talking free here, so check out the free TeamViewer, it’s recommended at GCH.

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks now, and I must say I’m very happy with our second blog page. There are a couple of things to be worked out. If I was worried about these things, I’d work on it quicker. But I’m not, so if someone wants to, give it shot. I’m sure it’s quite easy, and I’ll get to it myself soon.

• Sticky post doesn’t stick on 2nd blog page
• The “more” tag does not work on 2nd blog page

I know, this is tragic!!

For a “how to” on making a second blog on your WordPress visit Zero Atoms. If ya have troubles just ask. Everone’s helpful.