Category: Pursuits

  • Doh, hit by a MacBook Pro revision

    So after advocating avoiding the first iteration of new gadgets and programs, I finally ponied up for the latest revision of Mac laptops, the Macbook Pro with Intel’s Santa Cruz Core 2 Duo chip. It also happens to have a new generation of video controller chips, Nvidia’s GeForce 8600M GT. Ho hum…or not. One reason…

  • Imperfectly building my imperfect PC

    Had a couple of free hours last night after the kids went to bed so I went up to the attic to sling together my latest and greatest cheapie Windows box. This one, based on an ASUS T3-M2NC51PV all-in-one, barebones case and an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane processor (actually running at 1.9GHz ),…

  • Refreshing our look with Mandigo

    After years with the basic WordPress default theme, I decided it was time for a spring wardrobe update at GravitationalPull.net. I wanted a new theme compatible with the latest version of WordPress as well as the plug-ins I rely on like SpamKarma and Automattic’s wicked cool sidebar widgets manager. Some of the theme preview sites…

  • Solving Tivo download issues

    I’ve tried a variety of programs to get TV shows off our Tivo and onto my iPod, mainly so the kids can watch some of their favorites while traveling. The Tivo, which sits in our bedroom far from the nearest wireless access point, was connected to the Internet and our home net via a Netgear…

  • A couple of better Lightroom guide books

    I’m happy to report that I’m learning a lot and getting plenty of use out of both of the books that I bought last week about Adobe’s Lightroom program, my new preferred photo manager. Martin Evening’s The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers, with the dark grey cover above, is a bit…

  • It’s Lightroom by a full length over Aperture

    (Updated 6/21) Some time last year, I can’t say exactly when, I crossed a threshold with Apple’s iPhoto software. The program had already slipped from the “greatest thing since sliced bread” category down a few notches to just “really useful” as my growing photo collection had slowed basic operations and made the program’s tagging deficiencies…

  • Tim Grey’s Lightroom book fails to inform

    Adobe’s wonderful new digital photo program, Lightroom, has a lot more bells and whistles than iPhoto or other typical low-end photo software. That’s exactly why I bought it. With a so-called prosumer camera, the Canon Digital Rebel XT, I’m able to do many more sophisticated things while shooting pictures and I needed a software program…

  • Bye bye Shuttle XPC

    Well, good bye Shuttle XPC. We hardly knew you. Thanks to an emergency computer situation at my mom’s, Shuttle XPC had to go over and run TurboTax (which requires at least W2K now). The installer was giving my mom an error message that it didn’t support Windows 98. I kept saying try it again —…

  • Google Earth is showing post-Katrina damage

    Amidst a debate over what’s what with Google Earth’s view of New Orleans, here’s what the program is showing right now: My post is reacting to some comments on Dave Winer’s blog that missed the message of a Google blog post on the subject and made it sound as though pre-Katrina imagery was still in…

  • He marched in the animals, two by two

    …And he called out as they came through Hey Lord, I’ve got green alligators and long-necked geese Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees Some cats and rats and elephants, but Lord, I’m so forlorn I just can’t find no unicorns. Ah, the Irish Rovers and The Unicorn Song. Brings back fond memories of rainy…