Yes, we all know Windows task manager sucks. So I set out to find a decent replacement and that’s when I came across System Explorer. It’s FREE and it rocks. Here are the major features:

• Detailed informations about Tasks, Processes, Modules, Startups, IE Addons, Uninstallers, Windows, Services, Drivers, Connections and Opened Files.
• Easy check of suspicious files via VirusTotal or Jotti service.
• Easy search details about file/process via online databases.
• Security Extension for automatic check of processes,modules and selected files.
• “New Task…” dialog with integrated AutoSearch and AutoCompletion.
• Action History for monitoring processes activities.
• Performance graphs for monitoring usage of system resources in time.
• System Snapshots for easy finding of system changes.
• System Report builds rich text report containing major informations about your System.
• Multilanguage and Plugins Support.
• Can be used as Task Manager replacement.

It’s the best one I’ve come across and it actually makes me a bit jelous — you know, not having it in OSX and all — so go grab it and let me know what you think. It comes in installer or portable version (for your USB stick) and as always, if you know of a better progy, send me a comment.

So you’ve probably been hearing a lot lately about the new feature in Photoshop CS4 that allows you to resize an image in a way that the image will not get distorted. Dubbed Seam Carving (we covered it here, here and here), the new function is all the rage.Well, if that’s the only reason you’re going to upgrade to CS4, you might want to hang on and save a bit of $$$. You see, there is a opensource, free, standalone implementation of seam carving called Seam Carving GUI (which is itself a frontend GUI for CAIR…..Content Aware Image Resizer). It’s available for OSX, Windows and Linux so download it, read the manual and have fun saving $$$. Here is a example of what this little gem can do…..

 

  

Gbridge is a free software that lets you sync folders, share files, chat and VNC securely and easily. It extends Google’s gtalk service to a VPN (Virtual Private Network) that connects all your computers directly and securely. No matter if they are behind Firewalls, NAT or anything else for that matter. Here are some of it’s main features:

• Access your files cross your computers, e.g. instant mp3 play, securely and easily through SecureShare.
• Use AutoSync to copy big files and sync folders between your computers.
• Use EasyBackup to auto backup your important directory to another computer.
• Remote control your computer easily and securely through DesktopShare (build-in VNC) or Microsoft Remote Desktop.

Gbridge automatically forms a VPN among your multiple PCs no matter where they are. You can also extend the VPN to include your Gtalk friend’s PCs if both sides allow.

• Great extension of Google’s Gtalk infrastructure, self-forming, zero-config.
• IPv4 level compatibility while providing authentication, encryption and mobility.
• P2P direct network connection, excellent privacy and great performance.
• Dynamic DNS and private IP, solve the real world naming and connectivity issues for almost all network applications.

So grab yourself a copy or two, and don’t forget to send the link to all your friends.

I know, rsync is the answer to all my prayers, at least as far as syncing data is concerned. I agree, BUT sometimes you just want a simple GUI (yes pointy/clicky) application to do the job. Well that’s were synkron comes in. A simple applications that does one thing and it does it well, synchronizing your files/folders. It’s multi platform and works really well. It uses tabs to setup multiple synching jobs. It supports 1-to-1 synching or what’s known as multi-sync were synkron synchronises the sources one by one with their representing folder in the destination. This can be used for backups for example. It also has a scheduler/filters/blacklist and the ability to restore as well. The analyze function is also very useful as it can tell you what will be backed up before its backed up. Oh, and it’s open source/free software, so no excuses .

Just came across this program in my desperate search for a faster copying program. I recently purchased a “small” 4TB NAS from QNAP and I’ve been busily filling it up with my FLAC collection lately. The trouble with this is that it takes windows far too long to even start the copying process — let alone the actual file copy. Well that’s were FastCopy comes in handy, by bypassing MFC and only using Win32 API FastCopy is truly fast, even to a network device like QNAP. I’m now getting around 7.8-8.2 MB/s compared to 5-6 MB/s before FastCopy (this is on a 100 Mb/s connection). Don’t believe me, try it , it’s Free.

So yesterday I went back to the old studio again and did some shots of…VODKA. Oh, and I also drank a bit of it…..hehehe Next week — or later on today — Finlandia….Yumm. Full flickr set is here .

So I’ve been hearing a lot of whining about the new Canon 5D MKII’s being used as 35 mm cinema cameras. Everything from “Where is the fast auto focus?” — and here I thought 35 mm film gear was all about manual focus and adjustments — to “So how do I add filters/mattebox and such?”. Well fear not, Redrock Micro is here to save the day . Their new product “cinematization kit” — specifically designed to 5D MKII — is destined to ship November 1, ahead of the Canon camera.

Redrock accessories for Canon 5D MKII transforms the DSLR into production-ready cinema solutions by providing:

• Rock-solid 15mm support system
• Follow focus for accurate and repeatable focusing
• Swing-away mattebox for light management and easy access to changing lenses
• Shoulder mount and handgrips for steady handheld use
• Support cage for enhanced stability and low angle shot

Okay so where do we start……yeah good old cpio and tar might be good enough for the true old timers who still back up to tape, but a lot of people these days backup to live Online/Nearline media such as disks. Here is a quick (and platform specific) reference to four backup commands that you should always carry in your back pocket when backing up OSX machines.

1. Ditto is a command line util that comes with OSX. It’s a neat little application since it can preserve permissions, resource forks and extended attributes of OSX files when run as root. There are several ways of running ditto, but if you just want to clone your system using ditto here is the command:sudo ditto -X / /Volumes/Backup
2. Rsync is the grand daddy of file syncing/backup utils out there and it comes with OSX as well. You can also use rsync to create a bootable clone of your system. sudo rsync -xrlptgoEv --progress --delete / /Volumes/BackupIn addition to basic copying, rsync can also sync the remote and local targets — ie: if a file gets deleted on the source it gets deleted on remote as well. In this mode rsync only copies files that have changed on the source, so after the initial backup, all subsequent “sync” operations will run very fast. In the above command the -E option is special for OSX, it tells rsync to copy extended attributes for the files being copied.
3. Next is hdutil which allows you to create a image of your drive in a single file. Although the image is not bootable, it has the advantage of being contained in a nice/neat file. Here is the command to create a compressed disk image of your drive:sudo hdiutil create /Volumes/Backup/mymachinesimage.dmg -format UDZO -nocrossdev -srcdir /
4. Last but not least is asr, the drive cloning util. This one works similar to ditto in creating a bootable clone of your drive, but it does this in block mode. Every block in the source drive is copied 1-to-1 to the destination drive. To clone your drive using asr use the following command:sudo asr -source / -target /Volumes/Backup -erase -noprompt Note that since your using asr in block copy mode you need to be able to unmount both the source and destination drives. So you can’t really use this command to clone your boot partition/volume. You can boot from a OSX DVD/CD and use this command from the command line.

That’s it…..Have fun backing-up……and do it often .

Attended a Toronto Argonauts football game yesterday at the Rogers Centre. It was fun and chilly. The Argos were playing against Montreal Alouettes and did pretty good for a while, but at the end the Alouettes were just playing better. Here are some of the shots from the game. All done using Canon’s 70-200 mm F4 Lens. Complete set can be found on flickr .

I admit up ’til a couple of days ago I was a IPOD fan. I personally own 4 Ipods (30 GB 3rd gen, 80 GB 5.5 gen, 16 GB Touch and a 2GB Shuffle). I generally like their sounds quality, build and their user interface. I have also tried a bunch of other MP3 players in the past (Archos, Lexar, Nokia N95, PSP, RCA MC2020). The one thing I’ve always wanted was a expandable, small, solid state, good sounding player that would also play FLAC files. I’m a sucker for good sound and short of ordering a COWON player from US there was no real choice in this market.

That was until Sandisks surprise firmware upgrade for their Fuze and Clip player last week. They’ve added amongst other things, support for OGG/Vorbis and FLAC playback. Upon discovering this I dropped by the local Future Shop and picked up a 8GB Fuze to play with (plus a 8GB MicroSDHC card). This little guy is an absolute joy to use. Super simple interface that mimics the good parts of the original IPOD (I love the scroll wheel), Excellent sound quality (not a COWON , but very close) and a tag based browsing system which integrates the internal and external memory seamlessly.

One of my major beefs with other (read non-ipod) players has always been that they treat the external storage separately. You have to manually switch to the memory card if you want to listen to the music that’s in there. This is a pain and SanDisk has fixed this by presenting the user with a unified tag-based database. You stick a 8GB Micro SDHC card in the device and you’ve literally upgraded your device to 16GB (if you start with the 8GB device). There is no distinction between internal and external storage, it just works.

Of course the other major plus point for me was the ability to play FLAC files. I have to admit that I wasn’t prepared for how well this little guy plays flac files. It’s absolutely mind blowing — for a portable player — no hissing, popping, clicking……just excellent sound. I’ve tested the player with my Sennheiser HD600 headphones and although they are a bit too heavy for this little guy to drive — you have to turn the player up to about 80% volume — the music sounds fantastic. I also tried the super sensitive Sony MDR-V700′s and I have to say the Fuze can literally blow your head right off with clean undistorted sound. I normally use a pair of AKG K26P’s for everyday subway ride and they pair quite nicely with the Fuze as well.

Anyways, If you want a great player — even for mp3/compressed music — you have to give Fuze a listen. I think you’ll be surprised at how good it sounds, not to mention the fact that it’s cheaper than similar Ipods. And as a bonus the player can presents itself as a MTP or MSC device. This makes it simple for people who want to use Windows Media Player to organize their music (MTP mode) or those who just want to treat the player as a USB Storage device and manually copy folders of content over to it (MSC mode). This simply means that all three major platforms — Windows, OSX and Linux — are supported.

My way of upgrading the firmware was to charge the battery to full first (couple of hours), download the actual Fuze firmware (not the upgrade utility that runs in windows only) from the forums, unzip and copy the firmware file to the root directory of the device (device must be in MSC mode). Eject and disconnect the device and let it upgrade the firmware followed by a power cycle (push the power button up and hold for a couple of seconds).

Once again Toronto celebrated Nuit Blanche this past weekend (October 04-05). I did not go to last years event, but had attended the very first one (best one thus far IMHO) in 2006. Although the event this year went without a hitch, there were a lot of intoxicated people on the streets and the whole atmosphere was different than first year. From what I understand, news sources are reporting 1,000,000 people. I don’t know about you, but that was seriously pushing the capacities of some of the events/venues.

I went downtown around 8:00 PM with Camera and tripod in tow and after seeing the see of people at dundas square decided to get a coffee from the nearby Tim Hortons and chill in my office at Ryerson — just next door. Well timmies was packed, one untrained cashier trying to please 15-20 people in line, I gave up. Next I dropped my gear off in the office and decided to head over to the New/Old Metro (Dominion) on gould street. Nuked some pasta and wolfed down some chocolate — figuring the sugar should help keep me awake. I went outside again around 9:30 PM and noticed that Ryerson exhibits were still drowning in people…..back to the office to watch the latest Indiana Jones.

Back out around midnight, well the scene had changed. Less people/kids, more intoxicated teens/tweens, but now it was easier to navigate the streets and exhibits. I decided to start with Katherine Lannin’s “House of Leaves” installation since it was close. Due to the line up I decided to go to where people were exiting and took a couple of snaps. Pretty neat installation, but very busy even at midnight.

The House of Leaves, (a title partly inspired by the fictional book under the same name written by author, Mark Z. Danielewski) is an installation made of thousands of pages from books torn from their binding and fixed to the outer walls of two buildings located at Ryerson University Campus (sandwiched between the Student Campus Centre and O’Keefe House).

Lannin transforms this walkway asking us to reinterpret how we think about public space. The pages completely consume the space transforming it into an ethereal cave like structure.

Passing through the installed work pedestrian traffic stirs and ruffles the pages; an effect that imbues the space with the sense that it is a living organism, a fiction itself, created by other fictions.

Next came the Devonian Square and Annick Mitchell and Sholem Dolgoy’s Sitting Ducks installation, except that (again) people totally ignored the fact that this was a ART INSTALLATION and (some) started “duck hunting”. Now maybe the artist didn’t care, or even encouraged it, don’t know. What I do know is that a lot of those ducks got taken pre-maturely.

Be part of nature in the city and visit the ducks of Devonian Pond – located in the heart of the Ryerson University campus. For one night only, the live ducks that traditionally visit the pond will be replaced by hundreds of environmentally friendly man-made ducks – bedazzled with light and playfullly moving throughout the water.

Adventurous and more serious duck enthusiasts can try their hand at ‘hunting’ specially marked ducks behind an unusually equipped duck blind. Just how far has the man/nature discourse really come? Even if you aren’t a hunter, this will definitely be a supernatural urban experience.

I then made my way through the crowd and ended up watching the end of Jonathan Aitkens “Dislocation” show. Very impressive, but sadly my images came out blurry. I skipped the installations inside Heaslip House — it was a zoo in there — and took some pictures from Arpad Szoke’s Sculptural Installation, “Polly”, in front. The Strobe light was acting like a big magnet for the crowds, and it took a while to find a spot to plunck down my tripod.

I then walked over to Dundas Square to see if I could grab a image that screamed “Fifteen Seconds” and I think I got it.

Daniel Olson’s work, “Fifteen Seconds”, is inspired by Andy Warhol’s famous dictum, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.” From a small guard tower equipped with a follow spot – a familiar scenario appearing in countless films – Olson will highlight certain people, transforming them into instant celebrities. In this performance everyone is offered the chance to have their moment of fame, as they make their grand entrances and exits. “Fifteen Seconds” plays with our often simultaneous and conflicting desires for attention, security and privacy. While some may enjoy the limelight, for others this attention may coincide with our greatest insecurity, vulnerability and isolation.

Next on the agenda was Sam the Record Man’s Sign. You see I’d always wanted to photograph it, but for some reason or other didn’t. Then Sam went under and the sign was turned off for what seemed like forever. Well, although it wasn’t in the official program, Ryerson (the new owners of the buildings) decided to turn the signs on one more time before they get taken down and stored starting tomorrow (October 06). THANKS!!!! .

Zombies were next on the list with Jillian McDonald’s “Zombies in Condoland”. Although I missed the initial “ceremonies”, just as I was about to leave, I caught the tail end of the Zombies march. Man these people were scaaarryyy . I specially love the look of the dude with glasses….priceless.

Zombies in Condoland is a series of night actions that mimic a film screening set for a low-budget horror film such as the type made famous by George Romero whose latest film, “Diary of a Zombie”, was filmed in Toronto.

Anyone can participate and be a zombie. Zombies are encouraged to come in character – nurse zombie, business person zombie, geek zombie, sports zombie. They are encouraged also to do their makeup en route, in cafes, bars, and mass transit. There will also be make-up tents and zombie clothing available on site.

The best shot of the night — atleast as far as framing/timing goes — was the following. Too bad I did not have my 1DMKII camera body with me. The 5D’s focusing was just not fast enough to keep up.

I then decided to leave the undead alone and walked up Elizabeth Street to check out Adam Brown’s Video Installation — “Time Piece”.

In “Time-Piece”, Adam David Brown has produced a sequence of images that show the moon moving through its 27 different phases, from new moon to crescent to full moon and back again. Time has been compressed so that we can observe all the phases of the moon in a relatively short period of time rather than spread out over the length of a month. “Time-Piece” will appear much larger than if it were observed in nature, giving us an opportunity to look at the moon in a way that we never have before; a larger, faster moon, revealing itself to us again and again, steadily rising and falling.

Right next door was Roy Kohn’s multimedia installation — Meeky. I figured the line up was just too long to waste time at 2:30 AM. Took a couple of pic’s of the crowd and left.

I then got on the subway at Queen’s Park station and headed south to Queen station to check out Fujiwara Takahiro’s beautiful “Into the Blue” Sculpture. For a change I was able to get close and also noticed that the crowds were dying down slowly. I was finally starting to enjoy the events.

Fujiwara Takahiro’s “Into the Blue” is a giant, illuminated, transparent cone-shaped balloon. Its shape is achieved through the stacking of inflatable donut-shaped soft acrylic tubes of successively diminishing sizes. Floating in the middle of the Eaton Centre, “Into the Blue” will present two distinct faces. From a distance, it will reflect and refract the surrounding light. Up close, one will be able to walk beneath the work and experience it as an environment. Looking up into the interior will present a dazzling light array, refracted through the complex layers of soft acrylic material.

Next on the list was Domaine de l’angle #2, 2008 over at Massey Hall, a short hop away from Eaton Centre. I personally thought that this was the coolest installation of all. You know you’ve done something right when almost every single teenager — and some adults as well — are wondering “Where is the Art?”. Man some people are just too dense. Thanks BGL .

The Quebec City-based art collective BGL is known for installations that take over architecture and wryly comment on institutional space. BGL will construct a 40 metre long drop ceiling in the alley of St. Enoch’s Square beside Massey Hall, framing the dumpsters, recycling bins and other life of the alleyway in the cool fluorescent light of the modern office.

Next up, Distillery District. I got on Kings street’s Blue line and started exploring the galleries. Lots of neat stuff here, too bad it was getting a bit late (4:00 AM).

I met a group of artists there for whom I have no information, but all I can say is….FILM Heaven…..Ahhhh, nothing like a EIKI mono speaker “chirping” through the otherwise silent night.

That was magic. I took a bunch of pics here, which was located right beside the Balzac Coffee place. At this point the Neurons were having problem firing, so I decided to get a coffee. But my luck, Balzac’s had just closed….Hmmmm, okay more sugar…..couple of Twix bars.

I left Gooderham and Worts totally satisfied and high on sugar at around 5:00 AM grabbed the first street car at 5:30 AM and came back downtown. Got off at Yonge and King and walked up to City Hall to check out the Stereoscope, a Project Blinkedlights installation from Berlin, Germany. But before that I just had to have a Hotdog as I was getting pretty hungry. Let me tell you there is nothing like an old, leathery hotdog first thing in the morning (6:00 AM I think).

Stereoscope is an interactive light installation at Toronto City Hall. This installation by the German group Project Blinkenlights transforms the landmark towers into a huge display screen by arranging lamps behind each of the 960 windows of the building. From dusk till dawn, the façade will serve as an ever-changing and evolving kaleidoscope of graphic animations automatically generated and interactively orchestrated. The public can influence “Stereoscope” through a variety of interfaces including smartphones, the web and physical controllers located at Nathan Phillips Square.

In 2001, Project Blinkenlights became famous in Berlin as the first large-scale interactive media that could be controlled by a simple mobile phone. The project that later became known as “Blinkenlights” spawned a follow-up installation of even greater dimensions and scope at the Blibiothèque Nationale de France in Paris, France. Project Blinkenlights develops all technology on its own. The computer software used to run this project is published under an open-source license.

I spent a bit of time wondering the square until I found the ramp to the (supposedly) restricted terrace. The crowds were down to a handfull of people and it was great to just sit on the floor and absorb the blinkie lights in (almost) silence.

It was 6:30′ish AM and the sun was coming out soon so I decided to go to the other side of the square and take a picture of the fountains.

By the time I walked over to University and Queen it was about 7:30 AM and I was in no mood to ride the subway — which turned out to be closed until 9:00 AM — so I grabbed a cab and came home to my wonderful BED .

Hopefully next year there will be more people going around with questions like “Where is the art? Can you see the Art?” and such. That to me means….mission accomplished….Art is working. People start to THINK…..what a novel idea . At this point please remember — specially now with elections coming up — without art, we might as well start peeling bananas and banging coconuts on rocks. Thanks for hanging in there and see you all next year.

Well, I’ve been a busy beaver and as you can see got a lot of pics to share. They are not necessarily in the order taken, but are all recent. First is the results from our Toronto Strobists Meeting on September 27. We got a bit lucky and ended up having access to a green screen in the studio. So I decided to spend most of my energy on figuring out how you can create a seamless green background using a couple of strobes (SB-26′s). The results are not great, but I think are good enough for a initial effort. The rest of the time was spent to try out and learn about using specular highlight as a background enhancer and to produce some single light portraits. As usual you can find the full set of pictures on my flickr page.

Next is the TPMG (Toronto Photographers Meetup Group) visit to Ontario Place for the annual Chinese Lantern Festival. The visit that almost didn’t happen (due to weather) took place last friday (October 03) and although we escaped the rain the wind by the lake was a tad chilly Shooting these lanterns was very different. I ended up settling on spot-meter mode on the camera since Matrix and Centre meter modes were not working properly (over exposure). The entire set is on flickr as usual….follow this link.