Posts filed under Review

Wibiya Website Toolbar

Wibi... what? I've no idea what it means, but Wibiya allows you to add a toolbar to your website. The toolbar is situated at the bottom of your web browser. Basically, it adds functionality to your website. The tool is still in beta, and you need to sign up to get access. Upon registration you wil receive an invite code within a couple of hours.

The toolbar holds several (configurable) tools you can use to display;

  • a search bar (powered by Google Search).
    So if google doesn't (want to) know you, you won't find many search results
  • a translate-this-page-to-<20 languages> option (powered by Google Translate).
  • recent / random posts from your website/blog.
    based on your RSS feed.
  • your Twitter Status.
  • Photo album
    You need a Flickr account for that.
  • Facebook crap.
  • etc.
Posted on December 15, 2009 and filed under Review, Website.

Rammstein @ Gelredome

Rammstein @ GelredomeOn Sunday December 6th, we saw the Rammstein 'Liebe ist für alle da' tour in the Gelredome in Arnhem, the Netherlands. The evening started with the support act Combichrist. These guys use drums and synthesizer to generate lots of noise. Music/rhythm; good, vocals; bad :-). Definitely not my cup of tea.

Just after 8 o'clock Rammstein started with the song 'Rammlied' from their latest album. Probably the best song for opening their show. And a great show it was. The show was filled with enough pyrotechnics to provide a small village in Siberia with warmth for at least a year.

Posted on December 9, 2009 and filed under Personal, Review, Video.

Long Exposure Calculations

We'll be heading out for some night photography next month. Playing with long exposures is one of the thing you can't get around. Especially since I don't have any f/0.2 lenses in my bag.

Most lenses are sharpest (the so-called sweet-spot) around 2 stops from their biggest aperture (mostly around the apertures of f/8 and f/11) , but the problem is that these apertures kill the available light hitting the sensor of your camera. You could turn up the ISO (to 102400 if you have a Nikon D3s), but that gives you noise, and lots of it with most consumer dSLR's.

The only proper thing to do is adjusting the shutterspeed. Leave the aperture on its sweet-spot (f/9 or f/11), and the ISO at ISO100 or ISO200 (for the lowest amount of noise). But if you do that, chances are that you need exposures much longer than the available maximum on your camera, which is 15 or 30 seconds (depending on your camera). Which leaves you with the bulb setting on your camera. But how do you calculate the time needed for an exposure?

Bulb means that the shutter stays open for as long as you press the shutter release button.

Posted on November 21, 2009 and filed under Photography, Review, Software.

iPhone Apps That Rule

Normally, I wouldn't write about every app I try (or buy) in the iPhone App Store, but sometimes there's a good reason. In this case two;

  • GeoDefense Swarm
  • Appie

GeoDefense Swarm is a highly addictive Desktop Tower Defense game. Very good gameplay, great graphics, and addictive as hell. I heard about this game om MacBreak Weekly, and I curse them every time I start the game (for getting me to buy it and getting addicted).

Appie is a Netherlands-only app. It's an application for Albert Heijn (Supermarkt in the Netherlands). It shows what articles are on sale, what you bought in the last three months (based on your Bonuscard number). It also holds recipes, and a lot more. A definite must-have for everyone who owns an iPhone (or iPod Touch), and who shops @ Albert Heijn.

Posted on November 12, 2009 and filed under Apple, Review, Software, iPhone.

Western Digital My Passport Essential Review

In the post before this one I had some trouble with a Freecom XXS USB drive. I had no way of fixing it, so it went back to the store (and basically back to Freecom). But since that drive is used for offsite backups I needed a replacement unit, because the return of the old drive could take several weeks.

This time the Western Digital My Passport Essentials 500GB (2.5" USB powered) disk was chosen. A nice small device with lot's of storage capacity.

Western Digital Proprietary Connector on the LeftUpon opening the box I noticed immediately that there's something 'wrong' with this drive. The cable / USB connector is proprietary. The connector is some sort of ultra-mini-USB format. No need to say that of all the USB cables I collected over the years will ever fit. So I need to be extremely careful with the one I got with the drive.

Since I lose stuff (hell, everyone does), you could expect a blog post of me swearing 'bloody hell' (and stuff) when I have lost the cable.... but I won't, just read the rest of this review.

Posted on November 2, 2009 and filed under Annoying, Hardware, Review.

First Review New Nikon 70-200mm f2.8G ED VRII

It seems that Cliff Mautner is one of the (very, very) few lucky photographers who received his new Nikon 70-200mm f2.8G ED VRII a month early. His findings can be found on his blog, and I must say..... Those images are awesome (from a image quality point of view). Especially the VRII seems to rock.

/me is looking at his savings.... and cries silently

Anyway, the new 70-200 is a long overdue improvement for the 'old' 70-200mm f2.8G VR lens, since the old one performed not as wel on the FX cameras (D700, D3-range) as some would have liked.

Posted on October 14, 2009 and filed under Photography, Review.