New Fast Nikon 24mm Lens

Nikon 24mm f/1.4G EDNikon is catching up with Canon in regards to the (really) fast prime lenses. They announced a new 24mm f/1.4G ED (link to the techpart)wide-angle lens today. This new lens makes it possible to do low-light photography with a maximum aperture of 1.4. Especially when you're shooting with a low-light monster like the Nikon D700 or D3(x/s).
The lens should also give you a nice depth of field (DoF) when shooting wide open, and being relatively close to your subject. We all know that wide-angle lenses tend to have a large DoF due to wide-angle optic characteristics (et voila).

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iPhone 3GS Tethering with Firmware 3.1.3

Updated on Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 8:38 by Willem

With the release of firmware 3.1.3 the tethering option is back on the iPhone. After the reboot of the iPhone you get additional fields in the 'Cellular Data Network' section in the 'Network' menu (Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network). Just enter the appropriate information in the APN field (for KPN in the Netherlands enter internet in the APN field) and the Internet Tethering option is back (w00t) in the 'Network' menu.

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iPhone Firmware Update 3.1.3

Apple released an update for the iPhone. Release 3.1.3 fixes some issues like;

• improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS
• resolves issue where 3rd party apps would not launch in some instances
• fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard
• Tethering is back (even on the non exclusive carriers)....
  Results may vary since not every carrier allows tethering (like T-Mobile in the Netherlands).

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(Theoretical) Apple iPad Thoughts

Apple iPadApple announced the iPad this week. Basically, it's an oversized iPhone/iPod Touch. It comes in several 'sizes'. Meaning different memory sizes (16, 32, and 64GB). The 3G option is an option on all versions (which sets you back an additional >$130).

The size is too big to put it in your pocket, but I think the device will find many owners in frequent flyers market. Smaller than a laptop, and bigger than the iPhone. Just the right size.

I do have my doubts about the device as a gaming platform. It's too big to cover the entire screen with your hands when you're holding it. The iPhone/iPod Touch can be held with both hands and you can access every part of the screen just with your thumbs (at least I can).

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Arca-Swiss Monoball Z1 Review

Updated on Friday, February 26, 2010 at 15:50 by Willem

Arca-SwissLast year I bought a Gitzo GH2780QR [1] ballhead with an additional (medium) lens plate for my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. The concept of this ballhead was/is ingenious. By using the big knob/dial you could change the friction on the ball. This enables you to pan/rotate the camera and lens very fluently, and when you applied enough friction, you could let go of your camera, and it would not move or fall down, and you'd still be able to pan/rotate the camera. All in all very safe and handy.

But there were some things that annoyed me;

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Microsoft Haunted by 17-year old 'feature'

It looks like that every Windows version is susceptible to a 17-year old 'feature' that could give hackers access to your computer. The 'feature' exist since Windows v3.51, which dates from the last century (this way it looks even older :-) )

The person (Tavis Ormandy) who discovered this feature did a full disclosere which can be found here. So you'd better start watching your 3.51 Operating Systems (and above).

Extend Windows System Partition under VMWare

When working with Virtual Machines (VM's) you probably work with templates (and/or) clones to create new VM's. When you do this, you basically get a fixed drive with this. The size of the drives are basically the size from when you created them in the past. Since people put more and more crap programs in these VM's, you'll need more, and more diskspace.

Under VMWare it's relatively simple to add space to a virtual disk (vmdk), or even add an additional disk to the VM. The problem is that this works for creating additional partitions or extend existing NON primary system partitions. This means that you can't enlarge your C: partition, a partition where (under normal circumstances) all your programs are installed.

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Apple Snow Leopard and FileVault (part deux)

Updated on Monday, March 29, 2010 at 23:04 by Willem

A while back, I wrote a couple of blog posts about the FileVault quirks in OSX. The problems seemed to be gone with the upgrade to Snow Leopard, but this week I ran into a (new??) 'feature'?

When I remove a directory on a (SMB) file-share it removes the files and directory (or so it seems). But after a couple of seconds the (empty) directory re-appears.

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Backupify Cloud Backup

Updated on Monday, January 11, 2010 at 16:32 by Willem

There's a new service around called Backupify. It's an online backup system for your online identities/services (free usage till January 31, 2010). It provides automated online backup for the following online services:

• Gmail
• Twitter
• Google Docs
• Flickr
• Facebook
• Basecamp
• Wordpress
• Delicious
• Photobucket
• Blogger
• FriendFeed
• More coming soon...

On itself a nice service, since cloud services aren't invulnerable to customer data lose. This way you have a online backup in case Flickr or Twitter 'decides' to purge your data.

There are some 'drawbacks' though (in my opinion).....

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Hollywood's Next DRM Failure in the Making

Later this week several Hollywood-related companies will announce a new digital media distribution system that's suppose to ignite digital downloads of movies (and possible other digital content). They call it DECE (Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem). The key-feature being 'portability'.

This time a name without 'protection' or 'rights' in its name, but the result is much the same.
In the 'old' days DRM was implemented by protecting the resource with a key, and if you had the proper 'key' on your device the content was playable. Downside was that playback was mainly limited to only one device, or it was OS/player dependent (Windows -> Windows Media Player, or Apple iTunes, OSX -> Itunes).

If you wanted it to play on another device you had a problem, since you lacked the proper key to 'unlock' the digital content. Thankfully Apple has lot's of DRM-free mp3's in it's iTunes store, but not everything (like the movies / TV Shows) is DRM free, or watchable on lots of devices.

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