Kaylee: You're nice, too. Mal: No, I'm not. I'm a mean old man.

'Serenity'


Buffistechnology 2: You Made Her So She Growls?  

Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!


DXMachina - Apr 28, 2005 6:31:40 pm PDT #2673 of 10003
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.

When I last did DP, that would have meant Pagemaker. Is that still the case?

I continue to use PageMaker all the time, and still like it. More people use Quark nowadays, though.

For digital cameras, this link was posted uptread a bit. [link]


Typo Boy - Apr 28, 2005 7:35:18 pm PDT #2674 of 10003
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Hmm - before those reviews will do me much good - where do I find a good on-line intro to the basics of digital cameras? For example do I need more than a megapixel?

OK - Howstuffworks gave a basic intro. However I may need to forget digital for the moment. It looks like most of them run $140+ and above. I was thinking more in the $30 range. I guess digital cameras may be cheap, but not yet THAT cheap.


Gris - Apr 28, 2005 7:42:51 pm PDT #2675 of 10003
Hey. New board.

Typo Boy: When it comes to basics like megapixel resolution, it really depends on what you're going to do with the images. If you want to print them out, then I'd suggest higher than a megapixel. Here's why:

A single megapixel picture is about a 1200x900 image. This can be printed as a 4in x 3in image at 300 dpi, which looks quite nice, but if you try to blow it up any bigger you'll have to drop to a lower resolution, and will get noticable pixellation in the final printed image.

A 4 megapixel camera, on the other hand, is about 2400x1800, which lets you make an 8x6 image at that nice-looking 300 dpi, or 4x3 at an even nicer 600 dpi.

If all you want to do is look at the pictures on your computer and possibly an iPod photo or some such, the 1 megapixel will likely do you, as long as you don't want to blow up small parts of your images to bigger sizes for wallpaper making or some such.

If I were buying one, I think I'd be getting a 3-4 megapixel one myself.


evil jimi - Apr 28, 2005 7:46:13 pm PDT #2676 of 10003
Lurching from one disaster to the next.

For example do I need more than a megapixel?

Oh yeah. The more mega the better. You also want optical zoom and not just digital zoom. The latter is just like zooming in on a picture on your PC--the bigger/closer it gets the more pixellated it becomes.


HiddenSky - Apr 28, 2005 7:46:15 pm PDT #2677 of 10003
"There are two sorts of people in the world: those who believe Joss Whedon is a genius and those who are wrong." - Connie Ogle, Miami Herald

The Digital Camera Resource Page is a good place to start.


Typo Boy - Apr 28, 2005 7:56:01 pm PDT #2678 of 10003
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Hmm - I think I was underestimating the price range of digital cameras. I was thinking the $30 range - I guess for that stick to old fashioned film based cameras; it seems like digital starts at $140. Don't know where I got the impression it could be cheaper.


evil jimi - Apr 28, 2005 8:02:53 pm PDT #2679 of 10003
Lurching from one disaster to the next.

You can get a digital camera for as little as $US50 but the quality isn't that great.

This was taken on a Concord 2040, which I picked up for AUD69 (an appropriate price, considering the location of the pic :) [link]


Gris - Apr 29, 2005 2:33:15 am PDT #2680 of 10003
Hey. New board.

Kristen: Dropped you an email. Let me know if you didn't get it, I'll try again.


§ ita § - Apr 29, 2005 4:27:37 am PDT #2681 of 10003
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

So ... I have an AVI I can't play on the Mac. Does one download codecs, or a new player? How does one find out what codecs one might need?


Stephanie - Apr 29, 2005 4:29:42 am PDT #2682 of 10003
Trust my rage

ita, I use this to watch .avi on my Mac. [link]