Life Through the Lens

New Computer Build–Core i5-3550 Ivy Bridge

I got new cpu at deep discount through my sister since my main desktop was getting long in the tooth.  The old Q9300 was starting to bog on all the Lightroom editing that I was doing.  And since that machine was almost 5 years old now, it was due for an update.  So I dropped in an i5-3550, ASrock Extreme 4 Z77 motherboard, 16GB of DDR3, 2 x 240GB Sandisk Extreme SSD drives in a RAID 0 for booting the operating system and I kept the 2 x 2TB Seagates in a RAID 1 for all my photos.

 

I had initially installed it in my old Antec P180 case, but was getting higher than expected CPU temps, so I ended up buying a new Corsair Carbide 400R case and Seasonic 620W semi-modular power supply.  The cable management in the Corsair (all black on right) was incredibly clean compared to the old Antec.

 

And the Corsair even has these cool LED front fans.  I have never been a fan of LED fans, but these white ones actually look pretty good.  There’s also a switch to turn off the LEDs when the mood strikes.

Yongnuo YN-560 II Review

 

This is just an update to my original review of the YN560 mk1.

http://vbanh.typepad.com/blog/2011/07/yong-nuo-yn560-speedlite-review.html

There’s quite a few usability improvements that YN made to the YN560 II.  Most notably is the addition of a backlit LCD screen.  The text is huge and easy to read.  When a button is pressed, the LCD backlight (orange) comes on automatically. 

The modes are the same as the MK1: M, S1, S2, but now has an additional stroboscopic mode.  The left right buttons control full stops, the up down buttons control 1/4 stops.  The zoom angle now has it own separate indicator and is infinitely easier to check and see what your zoom is set to.  The audible beep is still there, but sounds significantly different than my second YN560 II unit.

In field use, the power level seems to be similar to the YN560, and most of the external housing is the same.  The PC port and external battery pack port are the same.  The front optical sensor seems to have a cutout with an darker IR filter on it.

Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk & Big Android BBQ

I’ve been a bit behind on posting to the blog lately.  Last weekend I was in Austin for the Kelby Worldwide Photowalk and the Big Android BBQ.  The weekend contained three of my favorite things, photography, smartphones, and BBQ!

I had a great time meeting up with fellow photogs and running around the University of Texas campus taking photos of things. This is Simi, the leader of our photowalk.

 

Here’s a couple of my favorite photos from the walk.  Nothing spectacular, but decent.

 

The Big Android BBQ was right after and was pretty informative as well as a lot of fun.  Got lots of free swag, got to see hot tech blogger girls, and eat some tasty BBQ. We even had a totally disorganized google maps scavenger hunt to win a Galaxy Tab 10.1. Not only was there a wrong address on the map, but the contested started 30 min late, and the URL for the maps was posted at a hotel 10 miles away, which we didn’t find out about until the organizers tweeted it 30 min late. In which time, someone who was staying at the hotel handily won. I wasted a quarter tank of gas driving around Austin, but did get to make some new friends. 

The LG Girl

 

Cyanogenmod himself

 

But the best part of the weekend was getting to eat at all the Food Trucks.  Since I was ridin’ solo, there was no compromise when it came to what I wanted to stuff my gullet with…and boy was it awesome.  Has some pork belly ssam and ribs (so good, it was like meat candy) at East Side King @ Grackle.

 

Kim Chi fries with Pork bulgogi @ Chi’Lantro

 

Steamed Pork bun with hoisin sauce and Bacon fried rice w/fried egg banana ketchup and sriracha sauce.

 

Chicken Tiki Masala and Garlic Naan at G’Raj Mahal (sorry no food pick, I had to get it to go)

 

Migas and Monk Special @ Torchy’s Tacos

 

And last but not least, the Pulled Pork BBQ sandwich at the Big Android BBQ.

New SSD For the Envy 14

Woohoo, SSD prices are finally dropping and with Newegg sending me a 20% off coupon code that stacked on top of $30, I couldn’t help but buy this 240GB OCZ Agility 2.  The Sandforce controller gives 285mb/s reads and 275mb/s writes.  Now that’s fast.

P3 Kill-A-Watt

I've had a flood of gadgets lately.  This was a Newegg Shell shocker, and I've been meaning to get one for  a while now.  This little device plugs in the wall between the outlet and the device.  It was pretty eye opening to see what kind of power vampires were hanging around my place.  For instance, my Core i5-660 desktop was sucking down 1.0 Watt of power while it was "turned off." Crazy, my Netgear 5 port gigabit switch sucks down 6.5 Watts continuosly.  Its definitely a good investment to figure out where all your power is going.  My vacuum runs at 1400 Watts...yikes.  My 100W equivalent CFLs run at their rated 22-23 Watts.  Pretty cool stuff.

Since I had just installed a custom ROM on my Nexus One, I decided to put the new adjustability features of the camera app to work.  Here's shot of the Kill A Watt with my camera phone.  Goes to show that good lighting makes all the difference...and know how to operate a camera properly helps too :)

 

The Ultimate Coffee Grinder

I had ordered this from Amazon two months ago, but it finally came back in stock.  And conveniently, I able to apply a $20 Amazon gift card (that I bought for $10 from a Living Social deal) before it shipped in the meantime.  This a Bodum Conical Burr grinder with adjustable grind settings, adjustable timer, and a glass coffee grind catch cup. This beauty is coated in soft touch rubber, and because it’s a conical burr mechanism it doesn’t heat up the coffee in the grinding process thereby saving the great aromatics.  The glass catch cup is awesome too because there’s no static build up to cause the grinds to stick against the walls.  The seal to the grinder is rubberized too, so there’s no messy dust to clean up afterwards.  The grinds are very uniform and make a fantastic cup of coffee.

Clothes Washing Convenience

I had been running alerts on my Craigslist Android app for a decent washer and dryer for my apartment.  Up until now, I had been using the communal laundry room, which was a pain and I had to keep getting quarters from the bank.  So this Maytag Atlantis washer and dryer set popped up on CL for $100 and happened to be across the parking lot of my apartment complex.  Talk about convenient, I just happened to have the right 4 prong plug for the dryer, and it even came with a free hand truck to move the things.  Dave came over with some forearm forklifts and we were able to get the machines up in my my laundry room without too much difficulty.

Of course, nothing is easy.  I had decided to buy new braided steel water lines just to be safe.  Unfortunately, the stupid washer was not designed for any tool clearance to unscrew the old lines.  On top of the that, the hot water intake was cross-threaded.  Once we got that figured out and hooked up, the hot water spigot in the laundry room was so corroded it started leaking all over the place.  Luckily that was just a call to apartment maintenance and all was good again.

New Core i5-660 Build

Got a hot processor from my sister, so I had to spend a bunch of money on new components to build my new machine.  Here are the specs, Core i5-660 3.33GHz processor, Asus P7H55-M Pro micro ATX motherboard, 16GB of G.Skill DDR3 PC1333 ram, Kingston SSDNow 64GB SSD, and LG Blu Ray burner.  Old parts include the Rosewill MATX case and Samsung 750GB drive.

Check out the before and after.

HP Envy 14

Another year, another hot deal.  I had been looking for an Envy 14 for a while now and one finally popped up with a instant $500 off coupon.  Also came equipped with a Core i7-720QM quad core and the optional 6 cell slim fit battery that brings the total battery capacity up to 14 cells!  Awesome.  The thing feels like its carved out of a solid chunk of magnesium.  Very well built, with an awesome backlit keyboard.  The touchpad is huge and multitouch. Has a dedicated 1 GB ATI 5650 video card, 4gb of DDR3, 500gb hard drive, slot load dvd burner, and the manual even comes on an SD card. Its packaged very nicely and came in a microfiber pouch. This Envy is more or less a Macbook pro copy that’s much faster and cheaper…and runs windows.

HP FTW!

Went to the company xmas party this weekend.  I volunteered to drive the hay ride, which was kinda fun.  Then we had a super huge dinner of turkey and ham with the standard xmas trimmings. Yum.  They also raffled off door prizes and I was lucky enough to win…but I didn’t win the 42” LCD TV.  I got a wireless HP all in one printer.  Pretty timely as I was just about to purchase one, so that saved me a few bucks.