One moment you think there’s just one choice to be made and then Canon come along and make you think about it all over again!

Hands-on information and independent reviews are scarce, in fact after Googling for a while none really any exist bar the obscene amount of PR mambo jumbo. I found just one review by a cameraman who has in-depth knowledge of the EX1(r) and got his hands on a Canon XF305 long enough to write up a useful post.

Head on over to Robin Schmidt’s website to read his comparison of the Canon XF305 with the Sony EX1R. Thanks Robin!

If you fancy, why not dive into the discussion on DVinfo.net about Canon’s new XF series camcorders? There’s also a rather longish thread on DVXUser.com.

Let’s get a quick overview of what’s available. This list is by no means complete and is intendent to give you a quick overview of what is out there. Thanks to Pure Mac’s List of Browsers for a more complete and informative list:

• BumperCar
  Browser for kids with great parental controls.
• Camino (Firefox/Mozilla)
  Based on Firefox but written exclusively for the Mac. It’s lean and fast but lacks the plug-ins FF has (still).
• Firefox
  Secure, stable and highly customisable thanks to its plug-ins. Sadly it is also a big memory hog.
• Flock (Firefox/Mozilla)
  Another fine implementation of the Firefox source code, geared towards the social media revolution.
• iCab
  A fast browser build exclusively for the Mac.
• Internet Explorer
  Microsofts version of IE, even worse on the Mac and no longer supported or developed!
• Mozilla
  Mozilla is the umbrella organisation for Firefox, founded by Netscape. You source of fine open source software for the web. Not really a browser per-se… .
• Netscape (Firefox/Mozilla)
  If Mozilla is Firefox’s daddy, Netscape is Mozilla’s. Nowadays the grand daddy of web browsing is build from stable parts of Firefox’s source code.
• OmniWeb
  One of the few that want you to pay for them but it’s a good, fast browser with some nice and unique features.
• Opera
  Apparently the fastest browser on Earth, it has a lot of features and is both secure and stable. Available for a wide range of operating systems, including mobiles.
• Safari (Safari/Webkit)
  Apple’s own development and the Mac’s default browser. It’s fast and relatively stable and mature.
• SeaMonkey (Firefox/Mozilla)
  Based on Mozilla’s Firefox, this is a community efford to create a one-stop-shop solution by integrating email, IRC and web browsing in one app (just like the Mozilla suite).
• Shiira (Safari/Webkit)
  Another variation of Safari/Webkit and developed exclusively for Mac, aiming to be better than Safari.
• Sunrise (Safari/Webkit)
  My pick, it’s the fastest and lightest. Lacks plug-ins and other fancy stuff, but it has got tabs now and … well, it just works!

Finding the “right browser” for you is a difficult question to answer as everyone has different requirements. For example, I need a web browser to test my websites with, so using Firefox with it’s miriad of web-developement aiding extensions is the only choice (unless I want to use web-based tools). Wait – those handy plug-ins are simply web-based scripts wrapped in a tool bar or button!

And that’s when it hit me, I need all key browsers (Safari/Webkit, Firefox/Mozilla, Internet Explorer, Opera, OmniWeb…) to test my sites with as all of them have a slightly different take on what web standards should apply for them (the bastards!). But as my primary browser and tool, I require something fast and stable.

My choice would have to be Sunrise. It may look a little rough around the edges but that’s what I expect from a throrough-bred, web-racing machine just like I would expect a racing car to be without of a stereo or air-con. It’s brill. Try it!

Just looking for something free, stable and secure to browse Facebook and Gmail with? Use Safari or Camnio on the Mac, or what ever else takes your fancy. They are pretty much all the same, with varying degrees of usability and performance. Some have a feature or two you might find you cannot live without but essentially a web browser should do just that: enable you to browse the web.

Flexiscale.com operate a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) billing model where you can set up a virtual server appliance to your liking (mine is 512MB RAM, 20GB HDD, 1 CPU running CentOS 5) and pay for what you use (i.e. CPU time at £0.05 per hour). You can change those settings any time you like and scale it up or down, without having to worry about buying memory or moving your files.

The minimum amount you need to charge your account with is £10 and I’ll be looking forward to seeing how long that will last me. All I’m running on the Virtual Server is Webmin (control panel), Apache2 with PHP5 including xCache and Zend to improve performance. My site runs on WordPress CMS which receives on average 150 unique visits a month, generating just about 700 page views. That’s according to Google Analytics anyway and is by no means the whole picture.

So far I’m impressed by how easy and fast the server grid performs. Compared to the cheap VPS the site ran on before, I feel like it has gotten a lot quicker.

Setting up your virtual grid appliance or virtual server is very straight-forward: Just pick a name, an operating system template (i.e. CentOS), add RAM and suitable hard disk space. Then tell the cloud grid system to start your server and lean back waiting for those worker processes to get it done.

All in all it way quick and pain-free. It took just a couple of minutes for the server to be ready. Thanks to a local YUM repo mirror updates and software installs were fast too.

I’ll keep you updated on how my grid hosted virtual server will perform and more importantly how much it’s going to cost. Stay tuned and watch this space.

Alexander Stigse from Denmark has made it happen and almost entirely by accident whilst creating an advanced version control system and demo app to show it off. When he got in touch with Allan Odgaard – the creator of TextMate – he found more synergy than he could have imagined.

Funnily enough they both studied at the same Uni and Allan’s parents have a summer house in the same village Alex lives! How’s that for a small World? Anyway, on with my impressions and a big “thank you” to Alex and Allan.

Although I have come not to expect too much of any Windows softwareware, I was extremely delighted to see how well Alexander’s version called “e” works. Starting with a small download, a very fast install and automatic fetching, installation and configuration of add-ons (like cygwin).

For me TextMate is life-blood, my craft now depends on it and seeing the same look-and-feel translated to something as gruesome as the Windows GUI I cannot help but being impressed.

The most important part right after the interface design (usability) is that Allan agreed to let Alex use the wonderful bundles that help making TextMate such a breeze to use. Although there is still some way to go (e is still in beta) it’s a usable replacement even now.

Don’t be scared or put off by the fact that it’s beta, it’s actually working nicely. Also, get a personal license key now! It will help support the development and you are actually getting quite a lot thrown in if you do it now rather than later. I suggest you read Alex’s post on licensing and what’s on offer for more details.

And now, go download the beta and find out why I’m actually happy using a text editor on Windows for once

I was looking for a small camcorder to accompany the big one, to use as backup and those hard-to-reach places where big broadcast ones cannot go. Saving up for the big gear takes time and I wanted to get my hands dirty right away. The wishlist therefore was quite comprehensive considering my budget of around 400 Euros: DV-in and out, good manual controls, best possible image quality and of course mini-DV.

Since most mid-range consumer level camcorders are now DVD or HDD the choices appear to be a little limited if you look in the high street. Also, the reviews I had from DVinfo.net and camcorderinfo.com are US focused, so getting the “editors picks” over in Germany prooves a little hard. Why don’t I use German review sources? Simple, I don’t know them and the way Germans are testing gear is not what I’m looking for (Germans have a funny way of testing things, too clinical IMHO).

To cut a long story short, I found an gem in the Canon MVX 20i. It’s small, yet not too small and it has everything I wished for, for under 400 Euros from an online retailer called dnet24.de.

You can find a great in-depth review of the Canon MVX20i and its not very much bigger brother 25i on SimplyDV.net.

The only shame is that I spotted a dead pixel on the fold out screen already. It’s not really that bad but it’s a little annoying nevertheless. Also, a little camera noise can be heard and the colour viewfinder is – as on most consumer camcorders – absolute rubbish. Again as with most consumer camcorders, there’s no way to manually adjust audio recording levels. Other than that, it’s a great little camcorder for the money.

Although it’s only intended as a backup cam and tape-deck, I recommend buying the Rode VideoMic to get the most out of it. The difference between the build-in mic and a proper external one is tremendous! You can find a decent review on the VideoMaker.com test bench. The VideoMic can be found on eBay for under a hundred Euros / Dollars plus shipping.

Amazon Product link.

Sources:

http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Camcorders/Digital/MVX20i

http://www.simplydv.co.uk/Reviews/canon_mvx25i.html

http://www.videomaker.com/scripts/article.cfm?id=12163

http://www.rodemic.com/?pagename=Products&product=VideoMic

What you can expect for 200 Euros is 1440x900px resolution, (sometimes) DVI and SVGA connectivity, 8ms response time, 300 cd/m2 brightness and 500:1 contrast. The HannsG HW191D for around 190 Euros is one of those choices and looks great on paper, has a high contrast of 700:1 but no leads (around 10 Euros). Acer’s new Value Line 19″ Widescreen also looks like a fine big-brand monitor and would make a sound choice.

Walking into my next door electronics supermarket (MediMax) I was suprised to find a gem with all the bells and whistles for just 220 Euros (including both DVI and VGA cables!). The new HP w19 19″ widescreen TFT monitor. Considering it has a slim case, comes in Apple’s PowerBook silver and includes all the cables, I felt compelled to just take it home with me.

Plugging it into my 15″ 1.67Ghz PowerBook’s DVI port it worked as I advertised. OS X correctly identified the monitor as the HP w19 and automatically set it to its native resolution and own colour profile. The picture is crisp and clean. Better in fact than the build-in screen of my PB, which shows some uneven brightness (darker patches). This I assume is due to the thin casing that holds the screen.

One important thing to bear in mind when considering going widescreen is that they do in fact have (a little) less real-estate than their 4:3 brothers. I’ve compared my new HP w19 with a standard Philips 190S6 19″ TFT monitor and here are the shocking(?) results:

HP w19: Screen width 41,5cm x height 25,5cm = 1.058,25cm
Philips: Screen width 37,5cm x height 30,0cm = 1.125,00cm

My new w19 has a native resolution of 1440x900px (1.296.000px or 1.29mpx) whereas the Philips only has 1280x1024px (1.310.720px or 1.31mpx). In terms of total resolution both are pretty much the same, however a standard 4:3 has slightly more.

As with the gross space of your living room the same holds true for monitor gross screen sizes: It’s the shape and indended usage that counts. I chose a new monitor based on playing games, watching DVDs and editing video in Final Cut Pro. As a graphic media designer I have a lot of pallets to accomodate (i.e. Photoshop) or a timeline and two preview screens in FCP. Another bonus of a widescreen is that I can have my bookmarks/downloads/etc open in the Firefox sidebar and still have a large browser window to fit big portal sites. Having a wide screen simply helps to keep things nicely organised and convenient for me. A standard 4:3 simply doesn’t work as well.

[photopress:w19_2.jpg,thumb,left]

Links: Manufacturer Homepage, Product Specifications (PDF)