Pentax K-X Firmware Update Irony
Posted in
Funny Funnies | February 04, 2010 @ 2:45 PM
I recently purchased a Pentax K-X digital SLR camera. I love it. The photos taken with it are great (for example, this picture I took of my wife holding our son born last week (Jan 29th at 4AM) without a flash and on auto:
You can see a larger view of Aiden here.
The funny thing about the Pentax concerning the firmware is it doesn't meter the battery properly. Rarely it tells me new batteries are dead and often it things old batteries are fully charged. Despite this, they recommend using it to judge the safety of an operation that could "brick" or make your camera inoperable.
On their firmware update page, they say if using batteries while updating make sure the "battery level indicator is displayed “Green” (Batteries are full) before updating". Ironically, this is the very thing there's a problem with - You can't rely on the battery indicator.
Worse yet, Pentax further indicates "If the camera turns off during updating due to lack of battery power, the camera will become inoperable. If this happens, a charge will be made for repairs even if within the warranty period." So don't trust the battery indicator as recommended by Pentax! At least not until you fix it, lol.
My suggestion is to put a fresh pack of Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries in if you have to use batteries. They're flipping amazing. They actually stand up to their "8x longer in high tech devices" claim.
I haven't used the camera much since I've (successfully) updated the firmware, but I always carry an extra pack of batteries anyway.
If you're in need of the Pentax K-x firmware update, you can find instructions on their website with a download link:
http://www.pentax.jp/english/support/digital/k-x_s.html
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Status Bar: Basic Internet Security
Posted in
Internet Technology | January 25, 2010 @ 11:24 PM
I used to work at a computer lab at a local community college, tutored there on the side, and took classes as well. One browser feature I found seriously under-used was the status bar. It's a fantastic tool although its title is somewhat misleading from its best purpose. The title of the "Status Bar" suggests its primary intention- to let you know the "status" of the website your visiting. The things it tells you whether the page is loading, if there's a problem, or if it's done loading are obvious things you can tell even without the status bar though. So most browser producers turn the status bar off by default. This is a serious mistake. Web surfers should be educated to the golden usage of the status bar: To let you know where you're going- before you get there. The status bar shows you the actual internet address of the link you're holding your mouse cursor over.
Please turn the status bar on in your browser. Please choose: FireFox, Internet Explorer, Opera, or Chrome. Turn it on in Internet Explorer:
 How to turn it on in Opera
 Chrome: The status bar in Chrome only appears when hovering over a link. It disappears to save web space, although this can be an annoyance for many people. It is a subject of debate: It's unlike other browsers in the way it operates and what it displayed. This section will remain as is until appropriate functionality of the Chrome status bar is set. See complaints: 1 | 2 | 3 Turn the status bar on in FireFox
See at the bottom, where it tells you the actual address of the website your visiting? Now that you have it turned on, hold your mouse over any link on this page. Down at the bottom left you will see the actual address that link will send you to if you click on it (example: the image directly above). Without it turned on, you're like a bat in the day time- just wandering until you run into something you don't like. At first it will just be nice to know where you're going. After a while you'll learn what addresses you do and don't want to go to. Here's a few links to try it out: http://chexed.com/ | Web Design Cafe | Rudy | www.yahoo.com | Opera Browser Be aware that there are tricks and hacks which have been able to change the status bar in the past, though securities are getting better. Good luck internet surfers, captains, and tourists. If you would ever like to avoid untrustworthy sites brought up in Google or Yahoo's lists, you might want to check out my number #1 plugin review for IE and FireFox: McAfee Site Advisor. I consider it invaluable and I am not paid or endorsed by McAfee to promote it. It's that damned good.
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A Few Reshapings
Posted in
Site News | January 21, 2010 @ 10:30 PM
I've restarted 3 blogs I had planned to join into this one and did so attempt, unsuccessfully. I've also started a new website for web designers and bloggers too.
Each blog has its own personality, so to speak. I do wish to try to integrate them further. As much as my blogs are a part of the web, they are a part of me. Perhaps pulling my blog back together will pull together a bit of me.
The blogs reactivated blogs are:
Computer Games and Web Design
Chexed the Cool Sites out
That Which Is Written
The new website is http://wdcafe.com/: It will help web designers, bloggers and many more people who spend time on computers with their image and information distributing needs. We will find free tools for web design, image editing (graphic design), web design, blogging and more! If you have any suggestions of software or services to be added to the "Web Design Cafe", please to let me know.
I was so excited to write this I held myself from the latrine to write it.
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AntiFraud - Business Idea
Posted in
Ideas and Inventions | January 16, 2010 @ 2:53 AM
Almost every major corporation has antispam and antispoof divisions set up. These divisions are where every day regular people, like you and me are supposed to send emails we get asking us for our passwords, or to "login" to verify your account when the link takes you to a Nigerian website.
PayPal has spoof@paypal.com, while others tell you to call them or the FBI.
There should be a catch-all email address provided by a company who could make some money via government security grants or big businesses. That email should be marketed well enough that you don't have to search for the sometimes impossible (literally) antifraud email addresses. I just searched for 1st Mariner's antifraud email address to no avail. Although I "could" give them a warning so they can get a website shut down, I will not, because they have no well-accessible antifraud email address. I need to sleep at 3am, actually.
For an extra fee, instead of just forwarding these emails to the appropriate businesses- this company could take the road and get fraudulent websites shutdown- so people like PayPal don't need an entire department of "spoof@paypal.com" (though they seem pretty good, just using them as an example).
If just one or a few major companies were handling these problems thousands of companies have, they can most efficiently derail fraud and be cost-effective for stamping fraud-losses within these other companies.
Well, there's a free business idea for anyone willing to take the challenge of antispoof and antifraud or web savvy enough to make it look easy.
It'll take some coordination of the big guys, might want to offer it for free for a few months or a year so they can do their metrics? Not necessarily though depending on service package.
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Shaving Woe
Posted in
Thoughts | January 03, 2010 @ 12:23 AM
In most civilized cultures I'm aware of, from the time a person is young they are taught not to lie, not to judge others by their appearance, and many other good morals.
It appears that there is a massive social stigma with body hair. It's so bad that men and women literally loose confidence in themselves if they don't shave. Men think they're doing something wrong by not shaving their face and women think they're doing something wrong by not shaving their legs.
We need to stop judging people by their appearance.
There has been a lack of awareness so deep that entire cultures have been engulfed in this desire to "better" themselves by removing what is literally a part of themselves, their hair. This is a body modification practiced by a huge majority of people who generally speaking, believe they "should not judge others by their appearances." Perhaps if we nullify our own partaking of this body modification, we will help slow or even stop the propagation of this cultural ritual contributing to the discrimination of entire societies.
It us an utter fact that those who do not shave are blatantly discriminated against. Nearly every place I have worked, when I have grown a beard I have been discriminated against. Many companies openly state they look for a "clean" look - I do not suggest being unclean, but hair does not have to be so if it is lightly groomed. Women are laughed at who do not shave their legs. More and more the cultural norm is to have as much hair removed as possible with the exception of the head. Does having more and more hair removed really make a person better? Of course not.
Those with less hair are more often in more appealing positions in life for many reasons. A few reasons that stand out are number one, most people shave in this times, two, those few who don't shave are kept on the outer circle simply for their physical differences - as much as a black or white man is kept out of a black or white crowd- perhaps more-so. It is an undertoned discrimination without the credit it deserves. Cultural discrimination like this undermines the morals and values of the culture and when the discrimination is so deeply buried that few recognize or notice it, than those peoples are being degraded without even their own knowledge of it. Nearly everyone has been told not to discriminate people based on their looks, we have no good excuse.
I am now in a familiar position- where I have let my #beard grow and work for a company where I feel I may potentially damage the companies image by not shaving. However, I feel I may be worse off for myself and the company by #shaving and sacrificing something I #believe in. Should I #shave as usual? Or should I let it get to the length my path of life provides? (which isn't very long considering fire hazards and machinery hazards, but still long enough to cause stares).
Although I understand the discrimination from companies to maintain a certain image which society expects, I do not agree with its origins in most cases and thus its existence.
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