Things you need:

- Canon 7D DSLR
- Photomatix Pro (Mac, PC, incl. plug-in for Aperture and Lightroom)
- A computer (Win/Mac)
- A suitable subject or scene to photograph

Photomatix Pro is a nice little gem that makes creating HDR images a breeze. There’s free trial available and you can get 15% off the purchase price thanks to Barleme Design. Please visit their post about HDR to get the coupon code!

With the elementary notes out of the way, let’s get shooting HDR with your 7D:

Set 7D to M (manual shooting mode)

Go to the Menu by pressing the Menu button and navigate to Custom Functions.

Select the C.Fn1 Exposure entry and move the big wheel until you hit 5. Then press enter and scroll to the -,0,+ entry. Press enter again and exit the menu.

Set 7D to your preferred ISO (or auto)

Press the Q button and use the cursor stick to select exposure/AEB setting. Use the small wheel on the top right of the camera to spread the little bars out until they read -2 and +2. Press enter (big wheel button).

Press the Q button and select the shooting mode to High Speed Continuous.

Take aim of the scene you want to photograph and press down the shutter button and keep it pressed for a second! If all goes well you will hear your 7D take three images in rapid succession.

That concludes the 7D settings for shooting HDR images. You should now have three photos of the same scene with three separate exposure settings on your CF card!

Take those files and load them into Photomatix, which will then stitch them together into a single image for you. Play around with the settings to your hearts content and don’t forget to read the excellent tutorial on HDR over on Bartleme.at.

Here are two I prepared earlier:

I hope you found this little tutorial helpful. Have fun and don’t forget to share your images on the HDR Flickr Group.

Banner copyright © by Bartleme.at

Apologies for the rather dodgy looking photos of the 7D. I only have one DSLR and that was having pictures taken of itself, so the iPhone 3GS had to stand-in.

Photos of 7D and nature by Axel Segebrecht.

Not Reachable Divert

* To activate **62* phone number # SEND
* To cancel ##62# SEND
* To check status *#62# SEND

Divert calls when busy

* To activate **62* phone number # SEND
* To cancel ##62# SEND
* To check status *#62# SEND

Divert calls when there is no reply

* To activate **61* phone number *11* no seconds# SEND
* To cancel ##61# SEND
* o check status *#61# SEND

Divert all calls

* To activate **21* phone number # SEND
* To cancel ##21# SEND
* To check status *#21# SEND

To cancel all call diverts

* To cancel ##002# SEND

Source: o2 (UK) Support Site

1. Open Terminal App (Applications -> Utilities)

2. Go to where you stored your Virtual Machines by either typing the path or simply dragging and dropping your folder from the finder on to the terminal window. This will insert the path to the folder into your terminal.

cd /path/to/virtual-machines [ENTER]

3. Now simply copy the VMWare Fusion virtual machine using this command (no need to be root for this!)

cp -rvp Virtual-Machine.vmwarevm Cloned-VM.vmwarevm [ENTER]

Option -r will tell the cp (copy) app to copy folders (recursive)
Option -v tells cp to output information while it’s at work (verbose)
Option -p will keep existing file/folder permissions (preserve)

Remember that although the VMWare Fusion virtual machine appears to be a single file in the finder, it is in fact a folder containing everything VMWare Fusion needs to run the machine! Depending on how large your image is, it may take some time (hence we use the verbose option to let us know what it’s doing).

4. Drag the new virtual machine image from the finder window into the VMWare Fusion machine list and choose “Settings”. Note that VMWare Fusion will revert the name back to the original name of your cloned image!

5. In “Settings” simply click onto the name of the clone and change it to something of your choice.

6. Start the clone and VMWare Fusion will ask you whether it was moved or copied, select the latter (copied) and continue as normal. This question will only occur once.

7. Relax, enjoy and remember to share this info

Thanks to koreanheman and zegway over at the Skype forums for providing the solution.

Step 1: Go to the location to where you installed Skype. For example:

C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone

Step 2: Right-click on the Skype.exe icon and select “Send to” -> “Desktop (as shortcut)” to create a new shortcut to it on your Desktop.

Step 3: Now go to your Desktop and right-click on the newly created shortcut. Select “Properties”.

Step 4: Append the following to the “Target:” text field without changing the existing text:

/secondary

Step 5: Select the “General” tab and give your shortcut a meaningful name like “Skype 2″.

Step 6: Press “OK” and then double-click both your regular Skype shortcut and the new one to start two instances of Skype.

Have fun and don’t forget to request “add me to your contacts” before making a call.

brighterComputing = Managed hosting solutions and IT services
asegebrecht = Web Designer, Camera Man and all purpose Geek

1. Educate yourself
   The help is out there: Find communities such as HowToForge.com and Microsoft’s Developer Network to find information on how to get things done.
2. Stay up to date
   Software is regularly updated to provide vital security fixes and new features. Subscribe to all relevant newsfeeds and newsgroups. Don’t wait to discover bugs.
3. Keep your eye on the ball
   Your systems that is. Use monitoring software like nagios to get notified of any problems.
4. Choose the right tools
   Not comfortable using a command line interface? Then pick a suitable control panel instead. I recommend Webmin or Plesk. But be aware that they can’t do everything you may need to do.
5. Most advice is free, but give something back if you can
   Most people on the web are happy to help you out. Just ask politely and remember to give something back by either helping others or donating to shareware/freeware projects. This is especially recommended when using open source software, as it helps to continue development and bug fixing.
6. Pay for a helping hand when you need it
   If you run a commercial project you may need to get things done quickly, so be prepared to pay for hands-on help. Your first port of call should be the community you are involved in and your service provider. Most are happy to “get down and dirty” for a little financial reward. It could save your skin and usually a lot of time.
7. Use best practice
   Most softwares and systems have established “best practice” guidelines on how to do things properly. Google them or ask the community, you’ll be surprised by how much time you can save by reading instead of wasting it on blindly diving into something
8. Use stable branches of software
   Don’t live on the cutting edge and opt for something mature and reliable, even if it’s two years old and there’s a development version available. Beta versions should never be used in production environments as they can fail you when you need them to work most.
9. Keep your passwords secure and your ports closed
   Most people just choose easy to remember passwords and don’t bother with a firewall. Don’t be lazy and regularly update your master passwords, keep them at least 8 characters in length with variations of upper- and lower-cases as well as numbers. Make sure you spend time firewalling your server properly. Switch to non-standard port numbers where possible or filter them with a proxy.
10. Choose a reliable provider over a cheap one
    If you use your server to make money it will pay to pay more. A good provider is there to help you and keeps their network secure, as well as use good quality hardware. A cheap host is just that: cheap.

1. Post regularly at a certain day and time
   Helps people follow you more.
2. Choose a writing style and stick to it
   First person, informal works best for personal blogs.
3. Get organised: tag and categorise your content properly
   Enables your readers to browse information they are interested in more easily.
4. Let social networking sites know of new posts
   Easily ping services like Twitter.com and Technorati, or even Facebook to gain readers.
5. Stay on topic
   Write a post about one thing, not many. Otherwise it may lead to confusion and disillusion.
6. Don’t rant or flame
   Personal opinions are great, but better kept in a small circle of people that know and appreciate them.
7. Be readable
   Keep your blog clean and easily read. Make those “sidebar widgets” and links relevant to the content.
8. Encourage people to comment but don’t force them
   Ask open questions and write well.
9. Write good, concise posts
   Rather than writing a lot but not well, concentrate on writing a really good post instead. Also, don’t make posts too long. A lot of people don’t read but skim content.
10. Make your blog available to everyone
    Mobile devices (i.e. PDAs, iPhone,etc) are used a lot these days, gain more followers by enabling them to read on the move. Also, http://beta.axelsegebrecht.com/?p=689 As you can see from the long list of categories, tags and archive pages, there’s a lot of information on my site that has accumulated over the years. It’s time to get better organised and make things a little easier for you to find. So what’s the difference between tags and categories, and why is it important?

    Tags are single keywords or “micro categories”, helping you identify related information easier and should consist of “real” words (eg. web-design).

    Categories are much broader, catch-all topics encompassing multiple keywords and are usually made up words or sentences (eg. My Long Trip to Amsterdam).

    Here is an example of part of my new structure:

    Categories
    Portfolio /category/portfolio/
    Clients /category/clients/
    Projects /category/projects/
    Competitions /category/competitions/
    Reviews /category/reviews/
    How-to’s /category/how-to/
    (…)

    Tags
    /tag/web-design/
    /tag/video/
    /tag/client/
    /tag/web-hosting/
    (…)

    Tags are singular, categories are plural. Keywords should be specific to something, categories are broader. If you are looking for how-to’s I’ve written just browse the “how-to” category (ok, it’s singular but only because it makes it read better when written as a URL: http://axelsegebrecht.com/how-to/remove-applications…).

    If you were looking for all posts relating to “web-design” you would simply follow that link and it will show you everything that is related to it, including entries from my “portfolio” and “how-to” categories.

    As a “last resort” there’s always the search, where you can (for example) combine keywords: eg. “web design portfolio”, which would show you everything matching those words or phase in order of relevance.

    By the way (btw) search is only shown where it makes sense, eg. the categories, tags and archive pages where people are looking for stuff and a search form might help them as an additional tool. The reason for not plastering it over every page and post is because the site structure is designed to guide visitors through topics. Search should only be used as a fail-safe tool, not as a primary navigation feature. Also, adding links to categories and tags specific to a page or post make it easier for readers to find relevant content. That’s instead of a general “blog” or “categories” link.

    Hopefully this re-organisation is going to make things a lot easier. Let me know what you think about it and how you organise your blog (if you have one).

    ]]> http://www.axelsegebrecht.com/how-to/get-organised-tags-and-categories/feed/ 0 http://www.axelsegebrecht.com/how-to/remove-applications-from-facebook/ http://www.axelsegebrecht.com/how-to/remove-applications-from-facebook/#comments Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:13:28 +0000 Axel http://www.axelsegebrecht.com/?p=312 With the new Facebook come fresh concerns for its users privacy, as the commercial aspect becomes more prominent than simply being a cool social networking platform for the concerning internet user.

    Once the unique and beloved feature of Facebook, applications are becoming a major nuisance for many friends, even more so due to the absence of any quality controls whatsoever. Hence why one major bone of contention is that removing unwanted applications has become even harder.

    Back in the good ol’ days of Facebook 1.0 you simply went into your applications centre and hit “remove”. That was basically it.

    

    With the new Facebook you are presented with a “remove” option that in fact only removes the link or bookmark. Why the Facebook developers thought this might be useful is unclear as it only confuses users because they expect the app to be removed, not just the link to it from their menu.

    

    I think this is a major issue, since removing the link from the applications menu could lead users to think they removed the application when in fact it is still very much active!

    Is Facebook duping its users into seemingly removing unwanted applications? What other than complaints could they possibly be getting out of it? Let’s look at a typical Facebook application and see why they might want you to keep applications even if you don’t:

    

    

    According to Facebook’s help entry on removing applications you should see a “remove application” link. But you don’t because the entry in fact reads that you can find it in the “about” page:

    

    Looking at the options under “edit” in the applications list we find a few sub-menus, lots of options but no “remove this” link:

    

    

    

    So back to the applications list we go and click on “about” to finally arrive at controls we want to use.

    

    Notice the “remove” and “block” links on the page. Just removing an application doesn’t mean it’s removed! It can still see and use your details, you will also need to block it in order to get rid of it entirely.

    To summarise: Remove link on applications list only removes bookmark. No removal link on the actual application page. Remove link on the “about page” of the application leaves the application able to continue to collect users data.

    Maybe I’m just paranoid but I think the reason why Facebook is so keen to keep the new design is because it does exactly what it was designed to do: confuse its users.

    ]]> http://www.axelsegebrecht.com/how-to/remove-applications-from-facebook/feed/ 6