Sunday, July 13, 2008

[BLUG] REMINDER: Next BLUG meeting Tues 07/15

Just as a reminder-

What: Next BLUG Meeting
Why: Mark Krenz will be demonstrating Asterisk
Where: Monroe County Public Library, meeting room 1A
When: Tuesday, July 15 2008 @ 7:00pm


What is Asterisk?  Asterisk is an open source phone system for Linux.  It can run (with special hardware) connected to POTS (plain old telephone service; the outside world), or it can run as a pure VOIP system using IP phones and "softphones" (with your mic and headset, or similar).  It can be connected to a single line or many lines and then run to extensions for everybody with voice mail, on-hold music, etc (if you like).

Asterisk is mature, *very* full-featured, relatively easy to program (as they say: easy to learn, a challenge to master), and suitable for anything from talking amongst friends, to an enterprise phone system for your company (I really mean that).
If you have any interest in telephony, VOIP, or real-time communication via the internet, I strongly suggest you come along and check out Mark's talk.
--  Dave Cooley dcooley@kiva.net

Re: [BLUG] recommendations on a good digi cam

On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 02:16:50AM GMT, Ben Shewmaker [ben@shewbox.org] said the following:
> Yeah, thanks everyone for their input. My uncle also has been a powershot
> user for the last several years and always recommended them. Now to decide
> which model, how many megapixels, and what extra features I want/need.

Unless you are going to print out your pictures, I think any number of
megapixels above 5 is useless. All it makes is a very large picture
that you then have to store on your computer and backup. Regardless of
the camera, you should be able to reduce the picture size that you take.
If the picture is clear enough, you may be able to zoom in on a specific
portion of it, but most point and shoot cameras don't take pictures that
are so good that you'd notice a difference.

Also, I'd recommend to everyone that you be careful about large SD
cards and that you test them for a few days before taking pictures with
them. I've started putting expiration dates on my SD cards after which
I will throw them out. I've been reading too many reviews about
people's memory cards failing and I'd hate to lose some really important
pictures.

> I think some of the appeal of having a camera that takes AA's is that if you
> need replacement batteries, they are available worldwide. The proprietary
> work fine for most people most of the time, I'm sure. But I guess it is a
> personal thing and I just like having the option of finding batteries no
> matter where I am. I do have some rechargeable AA's and I'm not a big
> photographer so I find that this works fine for me. And I completely agree
> with staying away from Sony and their proprietary formats. In fact I tend
> to try to stay away from most Sony products in general precisely because of
> their obsession with closed hardware. I mean, do they really have to come
> up with their own format for every type of media?

Sony did invent some media formats that have been wildly successful in
the past (The Compact Disc, the 3.5" floppy disk and almost Betamax) and
I'm guessing they are just trying to recapture their ability to do that.
The problem is that they are not being open enough and I think that's
why these new formats are failing.


--
Mark Krenz
Bloomington Linux Users Group
http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/
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Re: [BLUG] recommendations on a good digi cam

Yeah, thanks everyone for their input.  My uncle also has been a powershot user for the last several years and always recommended them.  Now to decide which model, how many megapixels, and what extra features I want/need.

I think some of the appeal of having a camera that takes AA's is that if you need replacement batteries, they are available worldwide.  The proprietary  work fine for most  people most of the time, I'm sure.  But I guess it is a personal thing and I just like having the option of finding batteries no matter where I am.  I do have some rechargeable AA's and I'm not a big photographer so I find that this works fine for me.  And I completely agree with staying away from Sony and their proprietary formats.  In fact I tend to try to stay away from most Sony products in general precisely because of their obsession with closed hardware.  I mean, do they really have to come up with their own format for every type of media? 

But, yeah, thanks for the input everybody.

On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 5:28 PM, Mark Krenz <mark@slugbug.org> wrote:
On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 04:45:06AM GMT, Matt Zink [matthewzin@gmail.com] said the following:
> just a matter of preference.  These even seem kinda cool:
> http://www.usbcell.com/
>

 Wow, those are cool!  Not having to carry the charger with you would
be awesome.

--
Mark Krenz
Bloomington Linux Users Group
http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/
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Re: [BLUG] recommendations on a good digi cam

On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 04:45:06AM GMT, Matt Zink [matthewzin@gmail.com] said the following:
> just a matter of preference. These even seem kinda cool:
> http://www.usbcell.com/
>

Wow, those are cool! Not having to carry the charger with you would
be awesome.

--
Mark Krenz
Bloomington Linux Users Group
http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/
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Re: [BLUG] recommendations on a good digi cam

On Saturday 12 July 2008 11:50:57 pm Mark Krenz wrote:
> Well, I recommend a Canon Powershot too. That's three recommendations
> of the Canon from Linux users. ;-) I had a Powershot 110 that lasted
> me for 5 years or so and a now I have a Powershot SD700 IS. Both were
> great cameras and I tested several before buying. Sonys may look cool,
> but they don't make good still cameras IMHO. If you want a dedicated
> video camera, buy a Sony, if you want a good still camera that also
> takes videos, go with Canon.
>
> One word of warning though. If you like to take low light pictures,
> be careful and try to get samples of the output before buying any
> digital camera. In the last couple years, I've noticed that many
> cameras of various brands have started taking worse than ideal low light
> pictures. They end up very grainy. I'm the kind of person that doesn't
> like to use a flash because it gives the picture that plastic fake look
> to it.
>
> Also, it was a pleasant surprise to me that my 700 IS had the ability
> to do macro shots, which usually requires a special lens on SLR cameras.
> So if you want to ever take shots of something very small (like a penny
> or something), then you might look for that feature. It can be fun.
> Maybe all cameras have this nowadays (haven't looked recently), but it
> is was not a typical feature when I bought my last one.
>
> Also, if you like to show off your pictures, Canon cameras make nice
> presentation devices as they come standard with a cable too output to
> your TV. Also, I'd recommend getting a camera that has standard types
> of Memory. Don't get Sony memory sticks. If you happen to have a
> Nintendo Wii, it can take standard SD type memory and it has a really
> awesome picture presenter channel on the Wii itself that is almost worth
> the price of the Wii.
>
> As for Linux compatibity, I've never had any problems really because I
> don't attempt to hook the camera directly up to my computer, I usually
> just copy the files off the memory card itself.
>
> As for batteries. I never understand why people want to have AA
> batteries instead of the lithium recargeable. Sure, if you lose one it
> is expensive to replace, but just don't do that. I've never had one
> fail on me, but I guess that can happen. AA rechargeable batteries
> won't last as long as actual AA batteries. Especially the Energizer
> rechargeable ones. Those suck.
>
> Its really too bad that Robert's on Kirkwood went out of business.
> They had excellent prices and service. I bought all my cameras there.
> I don't know who to go to now that would actually know what they are
> talking about and not some Best Buy lacky. Any recommendations on that?
>
> Sorry this went so long. I guess you hit a chord in me.
>
> Mark
>
> On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 01:38:04AM GMT, Michael Schultheiss
[schultmc@cinlug.org] said the following:
> > Pawsitive Results wrote:
> > > I've been *really* happy with my Canon Powershot--mine's an older
> > > model, the A520. It was in the price range listed when I bought it,
> > > and I couldn't possibly be happier with it. Several agility/border
> > > collie friends have asked for my advice, and I've recommended the
> > > PowerShot--everyone has been pleased. Better-than-typical macro
> > > capability, decent at stopping action.
> >
> > I second the recommendation of Canon Powershots. They're powered by AA
> > batteries, which you can get anywhere. My wife and I had a bad
> > experience with a Sony camera with a proprietary battery pack so we've
> > used AA powered cameras ever since. Our latest camera was an A650is.
> > It was about $400 last year but a recent check shows it for $306.94.
> > _______________________________________________
> > BLUG mailing list
> > BLUG@linuxfan.com
> > http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug

One thing I want to toss in is that how linux friendly most camera's are
really don't matter as long as they have a memory card you can pull out and
and slap into a card reader.
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