Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Android apps - what a pain in the butt!

Yesterday I wrote an article to publish today. The Android app has frozen with the article perpetually listed as "saving". Clearly the Blogger app is not to be trusted further than I can throw the entire of mount Everest while playing a Chilean nasal flute!

The problem - as evidenced by the problem with Google's blogger app is the general poor quality of the apps on the Android market. The problem is not solely an Android issue however. Windows, Linux, iOS etc all have vast numbers of apps, the majority of which are abominable.

Take the enclosed screenshot. This is an app designed to attract men to download it. Looking at the description, it does nothing bar move a stocking up and down a leg. In reality this is quite boring because it's an imitation stocking and an imitation leg. Having said that, thousands of impressionable young men will be downloading that trash and crucially viewing the adverts shown in the software.

Increasingly, Android software is powered by advertising. People put a worthless piece of junkware together - you can't really call it software - in order to get people to view adverts via the junkware. Writing software has ceased to be about writing software that does a job and become more about flogging advertising space.

The best thing you, the consumer, can do is simply to get the Google apps and ignore the rest. Maybe even go a step further and write in a notebook each company that advertises a product you normally purchase then making a commitment never to buy from that company again. If the product stinks so badly that it has to be advertised in order to get people to buy it then you don't want it. A good product is advertised solely via word of mouth.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

You can't buy entertainment like this

Today, reading a photography forum, the views of many of the members was just downright amazing. The question is more - how are people willing to express views like that allowed to use the internet without parental supervision? Aside from the normal groups that back up whatever the leader says and engage in self-congratulatory back patting and peer adoration, there are people willing to post even more complete tripe.

In some discussion or other that was so memorably important that I can't even remember what it was about, just five minutes later, somebody was seen to be attacking somebody else over their forum name. How pointless is that? It was allegedly a photography forum yet precious little discussion of photography took place - it was more an equipment discussion forum. Perhaps that forum needs to rename itself "Gadgets R Us".

In most "photography" forums, only gadgets are ever discussed. The very minimal photography discussion is generally things that have been read on the backs of cereal packets. Somebody will post a photograph and claim it's theirs and when questioned as to the technique, usually just guesses and gets it wrong because they never took the photograph in the first place.

Another popular thing for photography forums is for cries such as "Woe is us. The sky is falling". Aside from discussions in which people claim it's getting harder for professional photographers (which misses the point totally that such a beast does not exist), claims are made about how a section of the population is ruining it for the rest etc.

Over the past few weeks there have been discussions such as the following...
1. Women are pushing men out of photography because they're so much easier to deal with. An example quoted was "boudoir photography". The writer omitted to note that a male photographer would want a couple of witnesses on his side to make sure that false accusations of impropriety would fall flat in court.
2. Photography is the realm of the professional. How can this be when photography has become so easy that somebody with an iPhone can take a photo good enough to hang on a wall?
3. What will employers think of you if you use a screen name like that? In the unlikely event an employer really did look up somebody that was using a forum, they would look them up with their real name. They would be looking for Benedict Ramsbottom, not their forum name of MissTiggiwinkle. In the event MissTiggiwinkle had Benedict Ramsbottom's website URL in the signature, no link would be proven. As an example www.microsoft.com - because that's in the blog, am I now Bill Gates?
4.  With a username like that, who's going to take you seriously as a photographer? Just because somebody calls themself "Noddy&BigEars" on a forum does not mean that they're going around in the real world calling themseof "Noddy&BigEars".

Perhaps the biggest issue facing most forum users is their complete inability to differentiate between fact and fiction; between real life and forum postings. Just because something is written online does not make it true. The moon is green and made of cheese. George Clooney has had a sex change to be a Las Vegas lap dancer. Neither of those are true and only an idiot (or a forum user) would believe otherwise. There's just no ability to discriminate between fact and fiction for the forum users. Thus, best advice is to steer clear of forums.

Monday, October 27, 2014

To the 30 million or so Americans who are unemployed/under-employed

Yes. I am one of your number. I am one of you. I feel your pain. I know how hard it is to manage on an itty-bitty income with bills that reach into savings no matter how low your bills can be reduced and no matter what services are given up.

Agencies are the bane of your life and the bane of mine too. How many times have you been called for an "interview" then found it was purely speculative by some miserable agency? Mileage is not reimbursable by any agency. Trips to distant interviews are largely a waste of money unless they result in an actual job.

Head to CareerBuilder and its  ilk and 90% of the positions are either clearly by agencies or by agencies pretending to be the hiring companies. To an agency, you are a product and that is all. You are not human, have no needs and don't deserve to be treated as human. If you're on their shelf for more than a few months, you're quietly thrown in the garbage as unsalable.

Agencies will not fit a job to you. They get a job request and look for the freshest addition to their files in order to fulfill the request. You are in their eyes, a product that goes stale quickly rather in the manner of milk left in a bottle in the hallway.

Dealing with agencies is frustrating to say the best. The best advice that can be given is simply not to deal with them unless one of your very best buddies is working for an agency and willing to help you to locate a position. Agencies are not on your side!

So, what can you do with online applications? It's not cool to give lists of people or organizations you don't want to deal with on a job application. The key is to ensure agencies don't contact you. Make a policy of blocking the phone number of every agency that calls your main number. And never ever give out an email address. I did once and had to close the account due to agency spam.

Regrettably, there is little that can be done to reduce the agency plague though it would be nice if the Almighty were to send down bolts of lightning to vaporize each and every agent in those agencies.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

One Helluva shock

After switching solely to a MiIf pad, with a Nexus 7 to replace my ailing Macbook, this first two days internet usage came as a shock. About 1.28GB of data or around $12 of the $40 data card purchased. Clearly that won't do! At that rate, I'd be bankrupt by the end of a month!

The new paradigm is here to stay for the moment however. The trick now is to supplement MiFi usage with free public WiFi usage. Most of that data usage came from two sources - Google Play and Google Services with quite a chunk also coming from Gallery.

The solution was to disable auto-updates and the gallery was just updating to match what's in the photo library on the google account. It'd be a fair guess that once the galleries match, data usage will be minimal. Clearly this device should have been set up over public WiFi.

In use, it all seems quite good. The smaller size combined with a keyboard cover ($10 from eBay) seems to work quite well. The blogging app isn't that great - it won't permit article descriptions to be entered nor for articles to be shared via Google Hangouts, nor will it allow a posting location to be selected rather than being arbitrary. It also won't permit posts to be scheduled - they're always posted instantly which is not really that desirable.

In general though, the system of using a Nexus 7 and a MiFi pad seems to be working quite well with just a few minor teething issues. We'll have to see how a longer immersion works.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Strangely reducing hits

Today, out of interest, the hits on the blog were examined. Until a while ago, the hits had been building pretty steadily from a few at the beginning to between 150 and 250 a day. Since blog posting became more sporadic due to work commitments, visitor numbers have plummeted. This is a little disconcerting as it would indicate that viewer are not reading the blog for content but rather viewing to see whether there's anything new posted.

Having said that, there does seem to be an increase in search terms that seem to be finding the blog. That's very useful. As stated before, searches that locate the blog are of much more personal interest than anything else; it indicates people are finding the blog because of the content rather than because it has been mentioned some place or other.

It was said a while ago that the way to get blog readers was to create content and lots of it. This is something that really, doesn't work. Like so much that masquerades as advice, it's not bulk that makes the difference but quality. As any student knows and as many have found to their regret, brevity is to be preferred over verbosity. Anybody can write a thousand Twitter messages in a day and then combine them as an article. It takes skill though to write an article from start to finish. Again, short but informative articles seem to work best.

Comparing this blog to the other blog of www.britishphotographer.blogspot.com, it would appear that enough people simply find that blog without listing it anywhere. That blog has not been updated in some 7 months. Viewer numbers are constant at around 30 a day. Thus if one was to compare that with this blog and its fluctuating figures, it would seem that fresh posts attract the wrong kind of viewer.

I'll split viewers into two - the desired and the undesired. The desired hunt for content and read a single blog entry on it before moving on. The undesired hunts for fresh content then moves on. Its quite possible that the vast majority of the fresh content scanners are not actually human but rather content bots.

In light of the hits largely being bots, the number of hits and any changes up or down really does not look all that interesting. Perhaps it's getting back to the old adage of nothing online being worth a hill of beans and more especially so when it comes to statistics and figures.

Getting into gear

After a delay of 24 hours, both the WiFi hotspot and the tablet ordered online from Walmart finally arrived. Of course, no sooner than they had arrived, it became evident that the fine print of the hotspot indicated a $45 a month plan that had 3GB of data and merely slower speeds thereafter on Straight Talk phones. This was something entirely unexpected and had a rethink starting.

The old scheme was to pay $40 a month ($45 after tax) for a Family Mobile cellphone plan and $55 a month for DSL internet. Total $100 a month. The cellphone plan allowed 5GB of high speed data then zero. The new scheme is 4GB of data for $40 plus $45 for cellphone. This is $85 which is $15 less.

Given that YouTube is entirely optional and not something that it would be wise to risk precious data on unless while using an alternate (read free) WiFi hotspot then YouTube isn't going to get much traffic. Basically, there will be way less casual web browsing - which is a very good thing since the internet can quickly become addictive.

The way forward (since being a cheapass is to be recommended) might be to change phone service from Family Mobile at $40 before tax to Straight Talk at $45 before tax and cease using the MiFi pad since a smartphone will work as a MiFi pad. This would have the effect of bringing the cost of phone and data down from $100 a month to $85 a month to $50ish a month. Cost reductions are always welcome.

Certainly the data will be slower after the initial burst of 3GB of "high-speed" data though as 99% of web use is entirely entertainment, this should not matter much. It'd be like the old days of dial-up though having said that, I have yet to encounter 3G in South Carolina. Even the 2G speeds obtained from Family Mobile in SC is way faster than the 2G speeds of Virgin (the previous phone service provider).

So, where is all this leading? It's leading to total mobility. The plan is still to relocate into a converted schoolbus for living and working. Power will be solar and water etc will be taken aboard as needed. Eventually the plan is to roam around the US with a camera, taking photos and uploading them to the travel blog www.britishphotographer.blogspot.com from www.schoolbushome.blogspot.com.

Initial testing of the new (read secondhand) tablet and the MiFi pad reveals excellent performance. It might in view of this be a good idea to upgrade the camera system to something that has WiFi so that images can be upoaded easily.

Originally, when purchased, the idea was to have a camera and a couple of lenses that would just be enjoyed. That got perverted by somebody else into a mission to make money from photography. That ended up costing more money than had ever been spent on anything else and never made a profit. Two reasons for that - the first, there's no money in photography and the second - making it a business makes photography unenjoyable. The old gear is contaminated with the bad memories associated with that business. Probably best to sell the whole lot and restart with more modern gear.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The new paradigm

It has now been several days since DSL got the boot. Today is the first full day that access has been solely via a mobile phone. It's really not going too badly, to be honest. Blogging means a constant connection if it's to be done on a laptop. That's a bit of a bind but not too much of a bind.

Today the portable MiFi pad and a Nexus 7 tablet should have arrived at the local Walmart. This is how blogging and other things will be continuing for the foreseeable future. The Nexus allows for composure of a blog entry without having to be online. Thus, it's a case of composing and connecting to upload. It's even possible to use wifi elsewhere as the tablet is so much more portable than a laptop.

Sadly, Walmart's promised delivery date of Monday seems to have gone by the wayside. Interestingly, popping into Walmart it was necessary to enquire where to pick up ordered goods. The staff completely ignored me and kept on talking to each other when asked where to go. That was not very promising. They had to be reminded that the customer came first. Mind, I suppose if staff are paid peanuts then employers can expect monkeys.

Meanwhile, good news on the transport front. It seems that the new mobile accommodation is looking more likely and more promising. Apparently the God-awful tires on the vehicle are to be replaced with tires in a better condition and the oil leak that was on it is cured.

Basically, good news all around. There's precious little need to be online 24x7 and precious little need to have a 24x7 connection or even a DSL connection unless one watches videos all the time via youtube.

The transfer from a corded data connection does not look to be adversely affecting anything to be brutally honest. It is making connection time have more point to it as connection time costs money. In fact, with prudent connecting and judicious use of wifi hotspots, there's no real reason why internet use should cost much more than just the ordinary cellphone bill. That immediately eliminates $55 a month in expenditure.

Monday, October 20, 2014

A brave new world.

Today is the first day of NOT using a DSL connection. This blog entry is being typed on a laptop while the laptop is connected to a mobile phone via a WiFi connection. The connection is 2G, not 3G and seems fast enough for basic web and text. It's not something that's going to be good for large file uploads or for Youtube. On the other hand, this site doesn't actually do much with Youtube aside from the odd Photography 101 video.

Tomorrow, two things ordered a few days ago will arrive at a designated pickup point. The first is a refurbished Nexus 7 from 2012 and the second is a MiFi pad. The bizarre thing was that the two items were in store in Walmart but if I'd bought them then and there, in person I'd have paid 20% extra for both. Buying them online from Walmart and picking them up, the price was 20% lower. Now while $20 is not a huge amount, when all it takes to save $20 is a couple of days wait and dropping into a location I pass daily to pick them up, it seems insane not to take the cheaper route. It's not as though the internet is desperately important!

The old DSL was shut off on Friday (well, it should have been - I called their number and asked them to shut it off). Here's where a Comcastesque story should have been written but alas Windstream was quite pleasant and not pushy. The conversation went along the lines of...

  • Me.. I'd like to cancel my Windstream Internet.
  • Windstream... Why? Is there something we've done wrong?
  • Me.. I'm moving house.
  • Windstream... Would you like to port your account to a different address?
  • Me... I'm moving to an RV full time.
  • Windstream... OK. Well, thanks for 3 years of being a customer. You'll get two letters. One confirming closure of the account and one with the final bill. You're paid up to date. 

It was all really quite civilized, which was a little disappointing. The truth is that while I'm not moving imminently, I did decide to go over to MiFi instead of using Windstream. It was something I'd considered several years ago but instead of going MiFi, I'd gone DSL. This is a mistake that's now being corrected. It would be folly to say that Windstream did not prompt the change by adding a $5 charge to my Windstream bill when I forgot (for the second time in 3 years) to pay my bill on time and paid in full, the next month.

With careful moderation of internet usage - IE using my refurbished tablet for Youtube videos when at a WiFi hotspot and with care not to remain online when I'm not by my computers, there is no reason on earth why a combination of the 5GB of data from my phone and a few extra GB from the MiFi pad should not get me through an entire month.

Uploading photos is something that will have to be done from the tablet and public wifi. There are added benefits to having restricted internet. One of those is I'll probably do a lot more housework (which I've been neglecting) and the other is that I'll probably work harder on a course that I'm doing. It's just too easy to flop down in front of the computer after a day's work rather than study.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Going mobile

Over the past few months, investigations have been carried out into the viability of using a mobile Internet Service Provider. The big sticking point is that there's no way accurately to gauge the amount of data used each month. Clearly YouTube will burn up a lot more data than most other websites. 

Having for years suffered at the hands of Windstream as my internet service provider, I have the great pleasure in announcing that tomorrow I am dumping Windstream and going over solely to a mobile internet service provider. This goes together with my forthcoming transfer from static rented accommodation to living full time in a motor home. 

What effect will this have on blogging, photography and business? Clearly there will be a lessening of time spent online - which is generally to be regarded as a good thing. There might even be a resurgence of photography which has been pretty dormant over the past 7 months or so.

The plan is to prepare totally for a mobile life. The mobile site (www.schoolbushome.com) is not intended to replace or succeed this site. This site is all about photography/business. Maybe, being totally mobile, the opportunities for truly great photography will now present themselves. It will be very interesting to document the transition from static living to mobile living.

There are a great number of things that have been considered but there are equally a great if not greater number of things that haven't even been revealed yet as issues. 

The first stage starts tomorrow - dumping Windstream. They're a DSL provider that provide fast-enough internet. It's not stunningly fast nor is it stunningly reliable. Mobile internet is going to be slower - rather akin to dial up. On the other hand, all the internet is used for is web searches, reading web pages and blogging. None of that is particularly data intensive.

It's not really possible to recommend Windstream. To sign up, it was a case of heading into the office. To cancel, it's a case of having to ring some wretched phone number. With luck it's not going to be as bad as Comcast. One of the things that really annoyed me with Windstream was that they provided a "free" phone number. As soon as I plugged a phone in, I had non-stop advertising calls all day, every day until I unplugged the phone. They also went and published my name and address with the phone number in their miserable little phone directory. That, of course, got published online so until I changed my address I was easy to find. I don't like being easy to find. It's a privacy thing!

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Smoke 'em down to the butt

During WW2, smokers were advised as an economy measure to "smoke 'em down to the butt" rather than waste precious tobacco. In these economically tough times, smoking them down to the butt is what we all have to do. Forget Presidents and the like saying "The recession ended 5 years ago" - that's just baloney designed to engender the false belief that the recession has ended. Look around you and see how many places are still closing. Indeed www.columbiaclosings.com lists all the places that have closed and are still closing in my area.
Smoking them down to the butt is what we all have to do, these days. This is the remains of a pencil. Sure - pencils are cheap but why buy a new pencil until you've fully used up what was left of the original pencil?

A week or two back, my computer began acting up. After deducing that it was probably the battery, the battery was replaced and hey presto, the computer works properly again. The OEM battery would have been $80 and what I got was a cheap knock-off for $20 which works. Had the battery not worked, I would have been out the cost of the battery and had to buy a new computer. This is why I got a cheap battery. Now I know it's the battery and not the computer I can keep on. I don't expect a long life for a battery costing 75% less but I could be wrong. Saving money by repairing the old is always a good move. Economy with everything.

The same thing with photography equipment. Many people are into constant trading of gear, buying and selling, losing money all the way. They buy one lens and try it then decide they want something better without ever having made the best of what they had.

At the moment I'm debating whether to sell all my camera gear because a lot of it I just don't use. Some, I do but the rest is just taking up space. I'm probably going to indulge in a phased reduction, reducing down to the bare minimum and maintaining that minimum. I'd built up a stupid amount of camera gear as part of the photography business I had. I've already got rid of all the studio equipment on the basis that it was never ever used.

When I do still life photography, I don't use a flash. I use a desk lamp. I just don't get the fuss about flashes. They're clunky and awkward whereas everybody has a desk lamp. I don't need a honking great big mega bucks flash. When I do landscapes, I don't need a flash. For those ultra-rare occasions when a flash IS needed, the onboard flash is more than adequate.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

$45 for 17 minutes, 64 messages and 500mb data

That's right - my monthly phone bill has just arrived. It was $45 for
64 Messages
500 mb data
17 minutes talk.

Per minute that works out at $2.65 a minute. Per megabyte that works out at 9 cents. Per message that works out at 70 cents. That's quite expensive! On the other hand, I do not have a house phone.

Given that the plan gives me 5GB of data at 3G speeds (Good luck on finding 3G anywhere in South Carolina), unlimited talk and unlimited text, for $45 a month, it's not a bad buy. There are some interesting plans out there for $100 a month for 20GB. I'm not sure I'll need that.

The plan is - as outlined yesterday - to replace DSL with a MiFi pad since my internet usage - even for this blog - is minimal. For $70 a MiFi pad can be obtained with non-expiring top up cards and 6GB a month for $50. The plan is to use up the phone data package until it's down to 2G data then to use the MiFi pad.

Since wifi is now commonly available in most place, it's no great problem to use wifi either for a lot of operations - particularly when large amounts of data need to be transferred. This is the age of minimalism and the age when all things are possible.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Gone the way of the Dodo

The domain name www.britphoto.us expired last night. Originally it had cost $3.99 but the renewal was $10.99 - a price hike of $6 so the name provider was told to take a hike. Seriously, a 275% price rise in a year? Who's pulling whose leg there?

The new multitude of domain names from .xxx through to .butcher, .brothel and .sadism has an advantage in that it's now uneconomical for domain pirates to hog the domain names. For me though, as an individual, I really don't *need* a domain name which is why all mine will be lapsing sometime over the next year or so.

Originally, one domain name had been kept in order to retain an email address. That's no longer important so my domain names and webspace can all vanish. There's more than enough free webspace around these days not to have to bother with paid webspace or a paid domain name.

So, in true Communist style, here's my 5-year plan (all of which will be accomplished in way less time while the rest of the time will be devoted to as much drunken debauchery as the lady in my life permits):
  • Domain names shall no longer be purchased.
  • Webspace shall no longer be purchased.
  • Only free blogs and free webspace shall be used.
  • Email will all be free sites.
  • Photo hosting will all be done on free sites.
  • Internet access will be reduced and will go from DSL to MiFi.
I hate to think how much money has been spent on webhosting and domain names over the years.

Notice that I'm moving away from DSL and over to MiFi. This is largely because MiFi and my phone all provide large amounts of data. As long as I don't go nuts and use youtube via a phone connection, there's absolutely no need for me to use. In terms of cost, there's virtually no difference. The monthly MiFi charge would be the same for 6GB as my monthly DSL bill. The DSL is somewhat slow but then speed has never really bothered me since I don't generally do youtube nor do I play online games. I even moved away from using Facebook quite a while back. I'm just not a heavy internet user.

So, the future looks brighter. Less internet expense, less internet and more living. My latest project is to turn an old school bus into a motor home and to live in it. This will be documented in writing and with photography. There's even a special blog set up for it: www.schoolbushome.blogspot.com which you are encouraged to view.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Mobility and possibly upward too

Today I have considered yet again selling my camera gear to rid myself of some old and unhappy memories associated with the purchase of the gear and of the memories of the rather unfortunate photography business that I once owned.

For about the past year I've been trying off and on to sell some of the gear that I own in order to reduce down to a sensible amount. Out of desperation I tried one of the online dealers and went for a quote. It seems I'll get more selling to a dealer than I'd get selling on eBay and of course a ton less hassle.

What narks me tremendously is the amount of money that was thrown away on such a stupid venture as a photography business. Having said that, there really was no alternative to starting a business with such dubious prospects at the time. That's a story for another day though. I feel very much as though somebody saw me coming and said "here comes a sucker - let's fleece him".

Anyway, the amount I'd get selling my stuff isn't a vast sum but it would generate some money - enough to re-equip with more modern equipment and in a different format. Looking at the current selection of camera gear, I notice one huge issue... There seems with the smaller formats to be almost nothing in the way of wide lenses nor anything much in the way of fast lenses.

I am not a professional photographer nor do I have any aspirations to call myself a professional photographer. I am happy taking photos for myself. I don't really care whether people think they're the worst garbage anybody has ever seen nor whether they think they're better than sliced bread. All I care about is taking images and memories that please me. If others like them, it's a bonus.

Two things I would love to photograph are the night sky and the autumn colors. Maybe with a new camera kit, I will feel more like going out specifically to photography the night sky and autumn colors and even both at the same time.

At the moment, it's just thoughts but other plans such as getting more versatile accommodation go hand in hand with my camera plans. I'm slowly freeing myself from an unhappy past. I'm moving forward with both my life and my photography.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Youtube advertising- how cack-handed is it?

Pay money, select a video and choose how to promote it. That sounds so simple, doesn't it? The reality is not so simple and almost always requires assistance from the Youtube helpdesk in order to get the advertising system to do anything whatsoever.

A month ago, I was asked to promote a political candidate via Youtube. All I can say is NEVER AGAIN. As somebody who has passed a Law School Admission Test to do the Juris Doctorate and as somebody who also has a degree in computing, it can't be assumed that I'm in any way dumb.

The entire Youtube advertising system looks and feels like some geek designed it in the 1990s for other geeks to use. It's extremely user unfriendly to say the minimum. After waiting a week for the adverts to start showing, nothing had shown then Youtube said the "bid" for the adverts had to rise from 2 cents to 15 cents. Now, given that people just click off adverts within 5 - 10 seconds, that just seems expensive. No wonder Google is so rich!

The next problem was that somebody at Youtube/Google looked at an advert and threatened to terminate the advertising account for "incorrect text capitalisation". What kind of joke is that when the text is the same in all the literature as on the Youtube advert?

In terms of advertising display - it's not displaying as often as it should and is generating no return clicks. Essentially, Youtube advertising appears to be a complete and total waste of time, effort, patrience and money.

My personal recommendation to those planning to advertise on Youtube is just to spend the money on beer instead.

In addition to my adwords (which Google can cancel if they want - personbally I don't give a hoot since it's just a money-soaking waste of time) I and a friend run adsense. This means that we get paid if people click on adverts placed on our videos.

In terms of income from the video content we place on Youtube, one of my friend's videos has 8,000 viewes to date. Adverts show every time. Her income from Adsense from that video - maybe 10 cents at most.

So - youtube for advertising or income. Don't hold your breath nor expect more than a dollar a decade income. Advertising - just write your advert on a piece of paper and stick it to the underside of your desk. The same number of people will respond to it and it'll be cheaper than Youtube.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

More on Domain Names or Moron Domain Names

There has been a huge explosion in domain names. Now that IPV4 has given way to IPV6, the number of permissible domain names has risen from a paltry 4,228,250,625 possibilities to a mildly more sane and sensible 340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (approximately). That's probably more addresses than atoms on planet Earth.

Along with this, the old two and three letter domain extensions such as .org, .com, .uk, .us have all been superseded by long extensions such as .company, .church etc and all at vastly inflated prices. I used to pay $3.99 for my domain names. I culled domain names when they rose to $10.99. Many of the new names are $34.99 and more. It's just not worth it for something unlikely to generate much income!

In fact, since nobody seems to type domain names in as anything other than a search term, these days, the question that becomes more relevant is - do we still care about domain names? With such a proliferation, the old method of typing in a company name and adding dot com to find the company other than by doing a Google search has become a bit hit and miss.

The big bonus with the new domain name proliferation is that domain squatters now will not be able to register every domain name they can think of. It's just too expensive for them to register every variation of a name on every domain out there.

A side bonus of the new domain names is that nobody will much care now. There's no special prestige behind any domain name. A .org is just as good as a .xxx or a .church. Nobody will really care any more what the extension is or even whether it's a subdomain. To my mind, it seems better to have a good label on the website that can be found easily on a Google search and to use that label multiple times - perhaps on every page and every post. Thus, if you put "Mr Blobby" on every page, eventually Google would default to your website than the websites about Mr Blobby.

To my mind, domain names have ceased to be relevant to anything. Mind, I have a feeling that the internet is becoming increasingly irrelevant to people's lives though nobody can imagine life without it any more.

Friday, October 10, 2014

The big identity rip-off

For a number of years we have all been warned about identity theft. This is just one among many reasons why domain names are being dumped for my blogs. Nobody needs to know who owns the domain. Nobody needs to know how to contact the domain owner. In order to maintain a domain name, it's necessary to pay for a domain name and then pay for domain name privacy which is not always available. In Britain for example, anybody that checks "UK individual representing self" gets automatic, free domain privacy as long as the website is of a non-commercial nature.

Over the past few years I've been hounded by somebody online. I'm pretty sure that the person that's hounding me is not the person that they're purporting to be. Yesterday, for example, I had an email allegedly from this person that wanted me to join their LinkedIn network. I dropped LinkedIn probably a year ago. So long ago that I don't really recall. LinkedIn is allegedly a professional network yet the antics of those using it would demonstrate that it is anything but professional. More like a bunch of bored teenagers pretending to be businessmen.

After receiving an email from the individual concerned, I looked them up on Facebook and found that their portrait was the same as on their LinkedIn email but that they were described differently. On LinkedIn they were a "Professional Photographer" (excuse the laughter - there's no such creature). On Facebook, they were a "church secretary" (much more believable). On Google+ they're an architect. Same photo, same name, same person?

Given that somebody is unlikely to be a "Professional Photographer" (haw haw) at the same time as being a Church Secretary and an Architect, at least two of those accounts have to be fake. We can pretty much eliminate the "Professional Photographer" LinkedIn profile from the genuine list by virtue of it being a total falsehood. There's no need to prove anything there. This leaves Church Secretary and Architect. Either of those could be true though I'm going to say that it's more likely that this person is a Church Secretary than an architect.

There is a 3rd option - all the pictures could have been lifted off the internet and recycled, creating somebody a totally false identity. It could be a stolen identity or it could be somebody concealing their own identity by making up a fake identity to use online in order that their real identity is not used fraudulently.

So, as ever, it pays to conceal one's identity online. This is why the domain name that used to be reserved for this blog is not being renewed (or rather, one of the reasons - the main being financial). The domain expires on October 12th. I can't say that it overly worries me that it will expire. It might cut down on the hits I get from internet forums. As stated before, I'd rather people read my blog because it is interesting than because they find backlinks to follow, mindlessly.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Laptop choices for photographers

Ahh... The good old days when desktop computers ruled and the choice was between a Mac and a PC. Macs were used by tweed-cap wearing intellectuals and PCs were used by beer-guzzling football hooligans. There were a few oddballs that used Linux but they were the kind of people that made you nudge your best mate in the ribs before whispering "that oddball is on the way - cover your pockets and look broke".

Times have changed massively. Now the choice is more confusing. Desktops have given way to laptops and tablets. Laptops have become smaller and more capable than ever. Tablets are becoming faster and more capable though the only tablet that produces anything nearing reasonable performance is Microsoft's Surface which is pretty mundane as the laptop replacement it purports to be.

The iPad started the tablet revolution and Google followed suit with their Nexus 7 and Nexus 10. Everybody else seems to make tablets too but deliberately cripples them by putting too little storage on them to make them worthwhile. Android just does not work well with multiple drives so all this baloney about being able to increase storage by adding an SD card is just that - baloney. An 8GB tablet is a brick, not a usable tablet with Android.

Over the past few days, the prices of some tablets have tumbled. I currently use a $50 RCA 8GB tablet. It's slow as molasses and can't take any software at all other than the stock with updates - it's that underpowered. Thus I looked at more, newer tablets.

Walmart is always a good source to look at tablet prices and specifications. The key though to remember is that unless a tablet is a Nexus or an iPad then it's more than likely going to be hopeless. I checked and found the old and discontinued Nook HD+ was a very tempting $125 down from $279 new. Neat but as it has no camera, pretty limited and worth maybe $50, not $125. I looked further at tablets and the more I looked the more I realised that anybody buying tablets that weren't iPads or Nexus were going to end up paying more than the price of an iPad or a Nexus by buying a series of cheaper and ultimately unsatisfactory models. My own experience echoes that. I bought a Nook Color for $90 after they had gone off sale. It was miserably awful and I ended up selling it on ebay for $35. Then I got a $50 RCA tablet which I outgrew fairly rapidly. That's $140 spent on tablets that represents about 1/3 to 1/2 the price of a Nexus or an iPad.  So - unless you're planning on single-handedly stopping the Chinese from going broke, either buy cheap and be ready to curse it daily or buy a good one and be happy.

Now let's look at laptops. Again, there's a vast array of laptops but honestly though it all looks confusing, there're only two ways to go. Either get the cheapest of the cheap and put up with Windows or get a Macbook of some variety. Even the most expensive Windows laptop will only perform as badly as the cheapest Windows laptop. Linux doesn't even enter into the matter.

So, as with all things - buy a good item at a realistic price or buy cheap and regret it every time you have to use the blessed thing.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Still spartan posts

My schedule is very busy these days. I'm hoping it settles down to something sensible sooner or later. Monday, for example, I had to be 7 miles from my house at 10am then 6 miles the other side of my house by 2pm then someplace else at 6pm until 9pm. Basically, an 11 hour day during which I never stopped. Today was equally busy and it started at 8am before concluding at 6pm. Tomorrow is another long day - 10am about 20 miles away then be 6 miles away in the other direction by 2 then somewhere closer to home until 9pm. Another 11 hour day. This is how my weeks are shaping up at the moment.

In terms of blogging, I'm just not getting much time right now. It's not just this blog but all of my blogs that are suffering. I might even just ditch my cable internet connection - I'm so busy that I'm just not using it. I'm using mobile communications far more frequently.

When all is done over the next 8 weeks or so, I should be in a better position to blog. There's just a ton of stuff I'm doing right now that should - theoretically - earn me a load more money. That will or should enable me to take a trip to Virginia for the fall colors if not this year then next. I keep saying next year and it never happens. I think I've been saying "next year" for about 10 years.

Monday, October 6, 2014

What is photography about?

Today I looked at one of those internet forums. It was a laugh a minute with all the ridiculous discussions going on. For all the world it looked like people were sitting at their computers, straining their minds to come up with ever more pointless discussions. It's almost as though the forum users are in competition with each other over banality. Perhaps there's some kind of prize for coming up with the most banal discussion?

A look at today's list of silliness on one forum:
  • Are the days of the DSLR ending?
  • Is carrying a DSLR suspicious now?
  • I'm sick and tired of equivalence.
  • Is there a crash test for cameras?
  • Is this lens too damaged?
  • I wish they made this silicone rubber jacket for my E2XF.
  • Made in China.
  • It's not the camera's fault. Is it mine?
  • My dream full frame camera.
  • How many zooms do we really need?
Seriously - none of those topics are anything other than gossip. There are no problems being solved. In olden days people used to write into photography magazines suggesting cheaper alternatives to developing trays. A popular alternative was seed trays. Then there were other cheaper suggestions including making one's own developers rather than buying pre-mixed developers and paying for the privilege. Similarly discussions abounded about making up one's own cassettes of film from big rolls that photographers used to buy.

The whole emphasis was on how to achieve the desired results at minimum cost. Discussions abounded about the cheapest lens to do a job and the best way to use it to achieve the maximum results. The emphasis was all about the photography.

Compare that to today. It has become a "mine is bigger than yours" contest. People now compete on the purchase price of their lenses. They buy the biggest and best that they can find and brag about their prowess. Gone is any discussion on how to get the best out of the cheapest. Gone is any actual skill in photography. Photos a bit blurry - get a new camera with a higher maximum ISO - has become the answer. Nothing about skill.

The master photographers of old would weep when they saw the philosophy of modern online photographers. I'm pretty sure they would weep, looking at the low standard of modern cameras which become more about pushing fiddly little buttons and playing with settings and less about actual photography as time progresses.

Generally, it seems best to steer clear of online forums and their silly nonsense. It seems pretty good to steer clear of camera clubs too as many of the members get into online nonsense too.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Arbeit macht frei or Wahrheit macht frei

Every schoolboy knows the infamous words above many of the Nazi Concentration Camps, "Arbeit Macht Frei" of which the most famous is the text with a backward letter above the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Interestingly, the actual death camp is in Birkenau whereas the administration block was in Auschwitz as a friend discovered on a trip through the area. Had he taken the same history classes that I took in university, he would not have made the mistake of looking for the death camp in Auschwitz.

Needless to say, this is not about work making anybody free which is the meaning of "Arbeit macht frei" but rather about "Wahrheit macht frei" which is totally different. This means "Truth sets us free". Now while there was a Nazi slogan that did mention truth setting one free, it's applied in a different context here.

Truth and the internet can be strangers and nowhere more so than on internet forums. Quite often it's possible to read entries on this blog about the failings of internet forums and their users. Sadly the users of forums seem incapable of stepping back and viewing a wider picture. Were they able to do so then they would doubtless see how ludicrous adherence to some of the stranger viewpoints held would appear. Even more unfortunate is that when reality is introduced to such groups, the denial of reality is so strong that often the person that introduces reality and questions the strange and unrealistic views gets ostracised.

As many regular readers will realize, this blog often casts severe doubt over whether a "professional photographer" actually exists and argues that such a beast never has existed. Without requoting the case against the alleged profession (which is very strong), regular readers might be interested in a recent message on such an internet forum that was received by this author.

Quoting word for word: "Jun 2, 2014 10:49:36 Moderator Note: Do not troll other members. Continued trolling may result in a ban. There is no need to respond to this message. Thank you." This was pretty strange as no "trolling" had ever taken place. Injection of reality was the only offence this author is ever likely to do. It seems trolling and reality are the same thing on forums. Needless to say, the strange message was responded to with the question: "Jun 2, 2014 11:53:41 Where and when did I do something you consider to be trolling? " No response was ever received.

Today, another cryptic message was received, despite not having posted anything on the forum for a week and more. "Sep 29, 2014 12:49:11 Moderator Note: We're done with the trolling of professional photographers. Next time I see it it will be a week ban. After that, it may be made permanent. We have many respected professional photographers on these forums. There is no need to respond to this message. Thank you. " My question is - putting reality to one side for just a moment and dipping into the most fevered imagination - assuming that a "professional photographer" actually existed, why would somebody whose job was to take photographs want to spend their free time playing around on an amateur's internet forum? It just doesn't make any sense. Do bankers spend their free time on Banker chat groups? Do policemen spend their free time on police chat groups? No - none of them do. Work is work and free time is for something different.

As far as being threatened with a "ban" from some little "forum", can I just say that I'm shaking in my boots? (from laughing so hard) Really - how childish! This is just saying "you're telling us something we don't like so we're going to call it something inane with a lot of syllables and blame you for being wicked and then we'll stick our fingers in our ears and shout la-la-la". If only the people on these daft little forums could step back and see how ludicrous they all looked.... I just find the idea of being banned from forums for speaking the truth to be hugely entertaining and a damning indictment of the lack of intelligence of the vast majority of internet forum users. Perhaps the internet has now become the opiate of the masses? Do I even care if somebody sticks their fingers in their ears and screams la-la-la? Not in the slightest. It's hugely entertaining to watch.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Have you bought a smart watch yet?

That's it - we're all sick of dumb watches. Who the heck wants a $20 watch that tells the time and keeps on going for 18 months between battery changes? Why not get a brand new smart watch costing $300 that has to be recharged daily or twice daily and which is more desired by the dregs of society who will happily relieve you of its burden and sell it in exchange for drugs.

The other day at an event, two people were seen with smart watches. Heaven alone knows what the brands were but they were sported by two college age people that could well have been students. This was the very first time such a bizarre item has actually revealed itself in my vicinity.

When smart watches came out, the question asked was "why". The question still applies. My 10 year old Lorus Quartz watch that has long since ceased to be waterproof still works just fine. The battery costs maybe $5 every 18 months. It tells the time perfectly adequately, is lightweight and quite rugged.

It could end up being like tablets - gadgets that are laptop clones that are sold on portability but for which everybody eventually buys a keyboard anyway. Certainly, I have a tablet - the cheapest I could possibly get. It's great for playing Scrabble against friends but for anything else it's painfully slow and painfully underpowered. If it were not for playing scrabble with friends, I would not even have a tablet.

As for a smart watch, I can't even fathom how I'd use one, what I'd use it for or why I'd even want one. The screens are too small to do anything meaningful for example displaying photographs. The processing power would be minimal and the battery life is too short. I'm pretty baffled about what on earth they'd be used for. Until I absolutely positively cannot live without a smartwatch, the $300 of price tag is staying firmly in my wallet where it will be used on such irresponsible fripperies as food and gasoline.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Spartan posts

Those who are familiar with this blog will doubtless have noticed that posts have become somewhat spartan of late. This is due to an incredibly hectic work schedule.

Like many others, I work to earn my crust rather than sponge off welfare. It's hard and often ends up with my working more hours than God sends.

Last week the schedule was...

  • Monday 9am - 1pm, 16 miles away from home 
  • Monday 2pm - 6pm, 6 miles away from home (in the other direction)
  • Monday 6pm-9pm 1 mile from home
  • Tuesday 9am - 1pm, 16 miles away from home
  • Tuesday 2pm - 6pm, 6 miles away from home (in the other direction)
  • Wednesday 9am - 1pm, 16 miles away from home 
  • Wednesday 2pm - 6pm, 6 miles away from home (in the other direction)
  • Wednesday 6pm-9pm 1 mile from home
  • Thursday 9am - 1pm, 16 miles away from home
  • Thursday 2pm - 6pm, 6 miles away from home (in the other direction)
  • Friday 9am - 1pm, 16 miles away from home
  • Friday 2pm - 6pm, 6 miles away from home (in the other direction)
This week's schedule is shaping up as
  • Monday 9am - 1pm 1 mile from home
  • Monday 2pm - 6pm 6 miles from home
  • Monday 7pm - 9pm, 20 miles from home
  • Tuesday 8am - 12pm, 20 miles from home
  • Tuesday 2pm - 6pm, 6 miles from home
  • Wednesday 11-15am - 6pm, 6 miles from home
  • Wednesday 6pm - 9pm, 1 mile from home.
  • Thursday 2pm - 6pm, 6 miles from home
  • Friday 2pm - 6pm, 6 miles from home
As you can see my schedule is somewhat hectic. Throw into that that I have a personal life and that I am looking to obtain some new accommodation and you can probably imagine why postings are spartan - I'm just getting very little time to post right now.