The Internet isn’t new to many, I’ve had the Internet on my mobile phone for almost ten years (it sucked at the beginning). Many of us have access to the Internet via mobile phones. With the advent of smartphones such as the Palm, iPhone and similar devices, they brought mobile Internet to the average consumer. I’m not sure if this or Facebook caused our addictions.
I had some free time on the bus this morning so I though I would try to connect to the Internet from my computer via my iPhone. Without too much effort, and not very much technical knowledge, I got it to work – I just had to look for the information on the Internet!
Rogers sells a mobile internet plan for computers for about $25-$100 per month plus the fee for Mobile Internet Stick – this is mobile Internet without the hassle – for a fee. I wouldn’t be willing to pay more than I do for Internet service as I have Internet access already at home. I pay about $30 per month for 6GB of data on my mobile phone. When I had an ADSL connection, I wasn’t able to exceed even two gigabytes of data so I should be okay with this connection when I use it periodically. Now I can get Internet access where I couldn’t before!
Published from the bus while on the Sea to Sky Highway. Woot!
I sold my D-SLR last week and then purchased a new D-SLR to replace it. However, the purchase that was most notable for me was the purchase of medium format camera at a camera show over the weekend.
Following up on my last post where I spoke about my affinity for square images; I purchased a vintage Yashica A. For the price of a moderately expensive meal, I got the Yashica, a vintage leather case and 10 rolls of film.
It will be interesting to see how the first images turn out. I’m excited about the possibilities!
It was actually the first thing that I purchased on eBay to give it a try. But I ended up with a paint by number set that I would not ever paint. I enjoyed them as a kid, but do not have the time nor patience to do one now. After several months with the paint by number set kicking around, I got the idea to enlarge it and hang it on my wall as art. I found that many people did not know what it was when they looked at it. Some thought it was a topographic map.
I made some others and matched some pencil crayons instead of paint so people that visit could fill in the spaces themselves. It has been by my door since 2001 and the result is interesting. Some did not know the meaning of the numbers – on the canvas or on the pencils and used any colour anywhere – hence the blue fur.
Some do not consider this art; but what is art really? According to the wiki page, Leonardo da Vinci might have invented paint by numbers but a fellow from a paint company commercialized it in the 1950s. It is probably considered pop or folk art; the Smithsonian had a PBN exhibit in 2001.
It had developed into quite a fad. Perhaps art wasn’t getting to the masses in that time. Older PBN sets feature works by famous artists whereas newer ones are generic paintings – animals, landscapes, clowns (eek!), etc. When I was bidding for my PBN set, I bid on some others, such as an unpainted da Vinci. In the end it went for over US$200 – which was a lot in 2001!
This PBN will be complete in a few weeks and be returned to its original place over my couch. I wonder what I will fill the space by the door with next.
My PBN set from Flickr. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.
I managed to get most of my data copied to my new hard drive in my computer after the hard drive upgrade last week. However, to my astonishment, in my pictures directory, I had over three hundred thousand files – more than 302,952 files. The counter kept going and I had enough time to take this picture before it actually started copying files over. The actual amount was just over this number. I’ll need to do some clean up.
I also learned how to use Final Cut Express today which was relatively simple despite having tons more functionality than iMovie and likely too much functionality for what I need. I wasn’t able to load any audio into FC, because I needed to extract audio through iTunes – which I haven’t restored yet, so I just reverted to using iMovie which is able to use MP3 files. The result is the same nonetheless.
Here is the time lapse video of my hard drive replacement; two hour compressed into 15 seconds – started with Final Cut and completed with iMovie.
You’ve probably walked by before but maybe have never gone in. It used to be at street level where the Zara is on Queen Street West. It’s now upstairs near the former location. The entrance is painted orange; there might be a gorilla in an orange t-shirt and there’s usually a guy promoting the place – it’s Active Surplus.
I’ve been shopping there for odds and ends since high school. You can find almost anything there. In the past I found a 15-metre s-video cable for $10 to connect a DVD player and an even longer VGA cable for not much more.
Today I was looking for an AC adapter to connect some LED lights to replace the harsh fluorescent lights in my kitchen. The manufacturer of the lights wanted about $200 for their AC adapter. I found what I was looking for at Active Surplus – it cost me $10. I even found an obscure SmartMedia card reader (for $2) to upload photos from my ancient Fuji digital camera.
If you’re looking for something obscure or that is hard to find; check there first. They likely have it and it won’t cost you that much either.
Kitchen lighting, before and after.
My Flickr set of my trip to Active Surplus today. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.
I got running water again at around 1:30am this morning after two days without a functioning kitchen. I replaced some of the hardware in my kitchen including the sink, faucet and added a food waste disposer. As I’ve never done this before, it probably took longer than if I hired someone. However, I like the process of doing it myself rather than having some do it for me. I learned a lot in the process. Installing the sink took a bit of creative work as the terrazzo countertop wasn’t perfectly flat. However, the most difficult part was configuring the drain. It’s good to be living life again rather than fixing it.
Before and after.
The flickr set of photos. Click on the larger one to advance to the next one.
I actually took a photo every minute I did the renovation. I may make a time-lapse movie out of it. I haven’t decided yet because it was such a chore to change the sink.
Culture, DIY, Photography, Stuff, Technology, Travel, Vancouver, Whistler | Garry May 19, 2009 | 
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