Colour Calibration of a monitor is the process of making sure that the colours on your monitor match what you would get it if you were to print the same picture out on a properly set up printer.
For this job, I use a Pantone Huey. However, with the recent addition of a second monitor, I wanted to upgrade to the Pantone Huey Pro. This is a software-only update.
I went to the web site for the upgrade, and found that the upgrade was no longer available in Europe. Yet it was available in the USA?
So I sent off a polite letter to Pantone customer support, who confirmed that the upgrade was no longer available in Europe. Disappointed, I asked that this be reconsidered.
So imagine my surprise to receive an email saying that the Pantone Europe people had reconsidered, and the upgrade was to be once again sold in Europe! I was probably their first customer for it, and it undoubtedly works well :-) (The link is here)
So, kudos and thanks to Pantone Europe
Friday, January 22, 2010
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The downside of renting your own domain
I have a few domains - thepotters.org is my main one for the family, stagepics.co.uk is another, ross-online.org.uk and sabos.co.uk are domains that I rent and manage on behalf of others.
Completely separately, there is the subject of spam. When spammers are sending junk mail, they know that many mail servers will do a lookup to check that the mail they are sending appears to come from a valid domain.
So spammers create email addresses based on real domains, with any old string before the "@" sign.
That means that when automated reponses or hate mail come back, they go to the domain that the spammer created. And in all of my domains, I have a "catch-all" set up, so that any email sent to that domain comes back to me.
Which is why I have had over one hundred and fifty mail messages telling me that panuche [at] thepotters.org is not a member. Started the morning beautifully, that did!
IT WISNAE ME!
Completely separately, there is the subject of spam. When spammers are sending junk mail, they know that many mail servers will do a lookup to check that the mail they are sending appears to come from a valid domain.
So spammers create email addresses based on real domains, with any old string before the "@" sign.
That means that when automated reponses or hate mail come back, they go to the domain that the spammer created. And in all of my domains, I have a "catch-all" set up, so that any email sent to that domain comes back to me.
Which is why I have had over one hundred and fifty mail messages telling me that panuche [at] thepotters.org is not a member. Started the morning beautifully, that did!
IT WISNAE ME!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Carbonite follow-up
Well, my Carbonite problems are sorted out. I didn't get an response to the web form I filled in, but the "live help" service worked a treat.
It appears that my problems related to a Windows Defender update that trashed my hosts file - when I updated my hosts file to add 127.0.0.1 as the IP address relating to localhost, everything came back to life.
It appears that my problems related to a Windows Defender update that trashed my hosts file - when I updated my hosts file to add 127.0.0.1 as the IP address relating to localhost, everything came back to life.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Carbonite backup...
For several months now, I've been using Carbonite for online backup. Any file I create or change gets copied to a server somewhere in the USA and backed up. If fire should engulf my house (let's hope nobody's in at the time) I can get all my photos back from the server. All my personal papers I have also scanned, and feel comfortable that they're backed up somewhere.
It's hell on my broadband connection, but that's what broadband's for...
Anyway, such a service is only as good as its response when things go wrong. In the past couple of days, all of my Carbonite windows seem to have been replaced by an internet explorer window saying that "This program cannot display the webpage".
I have sent them an email explaining the problem. Let's see how long it takes them to respond.
It's hell on my broadband connection, but that's what broadband's for...
Anyway, such a service is only as good as its response when things go wrong. In the past couple of days, all of my Carbonite windows seem to have been replaced by an internet explorer window saying that "This program cannot display the webpage".
I have sent them an email explaining the problem. Let's see how long it takes them to respond.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Deep Zoom Composer
(Second try posting this)
I have been playing with a new Microsoft technology called Silverlight (in this day and age, it's well worth having a few strings to one's bow).
Anyway, one tool built on this is called Deep Zoom Composer, and it's pretty cool. I've thrown together a Deep Zoom panel with over 1000 StagePics photographs at http://www.stagepics.co.uk/sp2
Drag the black surface around with your mouse to see more pictures. Birl the mouse wheel to zoom in and out, or click (to zoom in) and shift-click (to zoom out) if you have no mouse wheel.
I'm very impressed, and am looking forward to playing more with this technology.
I have been playing with a new Microsoft technology called Silverlight (in this day and age, it's well worth having a few strings to one's bow).
Anyway, one tool built on this is called Deep Zoom Composer, and it's pretty cool. I've thrown together a Deep Zoom panel with over 1000 StagePics photographs at http://www.stagepics.co.uk/sp2
Drag the black surface around with your mouse to see more pictures. Birl the mouse wheel to zoom in and out, or click (to zoom in) and shift-click (to zoom out) if you have no mouse wheel.
I'm very impressed, and am looking forward to playing more with this technology.
Two Shows
This has been an amazingly busy week!
I haven't taken any show photos for a couple of months, but this week I had two productions to shoot - vastly different to each other, too
On Monday, I went into Edinburgh to photograph Edinburgh Music Theatre's production of Hair. As ususal from EMT, I was impressed by the performances. Everyone on stage was committed to the show, and it was clear how much work they had been doing. They knew what to do, when to do it and they were able to rely on their colleagues to do the same thing. They were focused and intent on what they were doing. While the show was not exactly my cup of tea, the quality of performance was simply outstanding.
Tuesday saw me in Dunfermline, watching Carnegie Youth Theatre's Annie. Once again, I was amazed by how well the show was performed. I could not think of the performers as "children" - they were performers who were so good on stage that they demanded to be compared to an adult copmany, and they did as well as most of those!
Congratulations to both - and I'll have your photographs online as soon as possible!
I haven't taken any show photos for a couple of months, but this week I had two productions to shoot - vastly different to each other, too
On Monday, I went into Edinburgh to photograph Edinburgh Music Theatre's production of Hair. As ususal from EMT, I was impressed by the performances. Everyone on stage was committed to the show, and it was clear how much work they had been doing. They knew what to do, when to do it and they were able to rely on their colleagues to do the same thing. They were focused and intent on what they were doing. While the show was not exactly my cup of tea, the quality of performance was simply outstanding.
Tuesday saw me in Dunfermline, watching Carnegie Youth Theatre's Annie. Once again, I was amazed by how well the show was performed. I could not think of the performers as "children" - they were performers who were so good on stage that they demanded to be compared to an adult copmany, and they did as well as most of those!
Congratulations to both - and I'll have your photographs online as soon as possible!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Where have I been?
Wow, it's been a million years since I last wrote anything here. Whoops!
Well, the exciting thing is that rehearsals are now well under way for The Boy Friend by the Stirling and Bridge Of Allan Operatic Society (SABOS for short), and I am lucky enough to be playing the part of Bobby.
It's a fun little show - the music is all really light-hearted and the story line very cheerful. It's also very strange in a few ways. There isn't a solo in the entire piece - every number is for two or more people. Also, there isn't anyone you could describe as the star. Rather, there are quite a few large roles, but none really much bigger than the others.
We have finished music rehearsals and are on production rehearsals now. The dancing is pretty simple so far, but it's often better to have something simple that you can actually do, rather than something fancy that you don't pull off.
I think that Amanda (who's playing Maisie) and I shall be doing something more complex in "Won't You Charleston With Me," but we haven't set the dance part of that yet. We tried some lifts the other day, and I realised that my arms are painfully - embarrassingly - weak. It's not that Amanda is heavy, or not jumping well - she is great. I just need to build up some strength.
Hopefully there will be time before the show.
Speaking of exercise, I was out for a run today, and if I can get the linking right, I should be able to embed the route into this blog entry. Woo Hoo!
Well, the exciting thing is that rehearsals are now well under way for The Boy Friend by the Stirling and Bridge Of Allan Operatic Society (SABOS for short), and I am lucky enough to be playing the part of Bobby.
It's a fun little show - the music is all really light-hearted and the story line very cheerful. It's also very strange in a few ways. There isn't a solo in the entire piece - every number is for two or more people. Also, there isn't anyone you could describe as the star. Rather, there are quite a few large roles, but none really much bigger than the others.
We have finished music rehearsals and are on production rehearsals now. The dancing is pretty simple so far, but it's often better to have something simple that you can actually do, rather than something fancy that you don't pull off.
I think that Amanda (who's playing Maisie) and I shall be doing something more complex in "Won't You Charleston With Me," but we haven't set the dance part of that yet. We tried some lifts the other day, and I realised that my arms are painfully - embarrassingly - weak. It's not that Amanda is heavy, or not jumping well - she is great. I just need to build up some strength.
Hopefully there will be time before the show.
Speaking of exercise, I was out for a run today, and if I can get the linking right, I should be able to embed the route into this blog entry. Woo Hoo!
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