Compatibility
One of the things we had to do for a recent client was a gallery and slide show of their organizations photos.
Pretty straightforward, yes? They were running wordpress and all I needed to do was find a suitable plugin that would provide the Gallery feature which would probably have a slideshow module as well.
That’s what we thought too, until we realized that the mysql database on the client’s server was of a lower version than what the wordpress plugin required. Since we did not have administrator access to the server, we could not effect an upgrade to the mysql database. And the client was clueless as to how to request it.
And when we coached the client into telling the host that we needed an upgrade, the client was told to wait until the host was ready. We’re still waiting.
In the meantime we relied on Google’s picasaweb slideshow feature to provide the required gallery and embedded slide show.
Dear Bambit …
Got another message in my Facebook box today with this request for advice. I’m not really sure why people are asking me as I am not as experienced as most people I know. I do have a passion for photography and for teaching and it’s perhaps why I get these questions every now and then:
hi, ms. bambit! im a newbie in photography and owns a d60. i recently bought a speedlight (sb600) for my cam and is saving up to buy lenses. aside from the 50mm, what can you recommend that would be handy wherever i go? thanks! (i like taking pictures of my children, sceneries and hopefully will go into macro photography)
This is what I replied:
Children – you got that covered with the 50mm — you have the f/1.4 AF-S, right? If that’s not the one you have then go out and get the 35 mm AF-S, which you can use both on your children and on scenery and street.
But in truth the kit lens will serve you very well as long as you take the other elements in consideration — ISO, Aperture and how they work with shutter speed and focal length.
I’m sure you have the money to spend on lenses but like everyone else who asks me similar questions — I will tell you to spend a little more time with your kit, understand the trinity of ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed.
All the photos I have been taking in the past four months are with the kit lens. If you’ve seen the toys and the old cameras, they were all shot with the kit.
If you MUST invest, please invest in training. Get a teacher or join a seminar. Having all the gear is nothing compared to knowing what you can do with what you have.
Motorolla’s New Scanners
Google is the first thing I turn to when I come across a new word or phrase. Symbol LS2208 is one of them. Turns out to be a hand held bar code scanner that provides fast, reliable scanning in an ergonomic, lightweight form.
When I was a kid I used to go with my aunt to do the groceries after church. We went to this grocery store called Century, which stood where a Metrobank branch now stands at the corner of Mayon and Retiro streets in Quezon City. Back then the girls at the checkout counter would enter each and every price number by number on their manual adding machines.
Now, the ladies at the supermarket checkout counters just place the product bar code tag under a reader and that’s it, the purchases are computed and the total bill is arrived at in a lot less time than it takes us to shop.
And then there was that text message that went around a few months back, of how Filipinos were to be tagged like grocery items, identifiable whenever we passed through a scanner. Big brotherish, I say, but that message scared the heck out of a lot of people.
USB Bracelets for Giveaways
The office should have found a better source for our personalized gift giveaways. The latest ones we have are portable USB drives which, while quite useful, have proven to be a bit unwieldy. It’s made out of heavy metallic material and swings on a swivel cover when attached to a computer tower.
USB drives are a good giveaway items these days, because almost everyone has some sort of use for it, whether they have a computer at home or not. Especially useful are those USB drives I’ve seen that are shaped and can be worn like bracelets.
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