http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/ Main blog en aaronwitherow@gmail.com Copyright 2008 2008-08-05T12:12:00+10:00 http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/sigma_10_20mm_f4_56_hsm_dc_review/ http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/sigma_10_20mm_f4_56_hsm_dc_review/#When:12:12:00Z I have been wanting a wide angle lens for my 400d for quite a while now, problem is that they are not that cheap.  In Australia they retail at around $760 in the shops so it is quite an investment to make.  If you choose to go for a canon model then add a few hundred extra to that price. As I am going home to Northern Ireland in the very near future for a holiday I decided that now is the best time to get one. The deciding factor was when I checked out the price in the US.  The Australian dollar is very strong against the US at the moment and makes it ideal to import. A strong dollar and the fact that the US has it a lot cheaper than here, $260 cheaper to be exact made this an easy option to make. Within a few days of placing an order in the US my Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 HSM DC arrived and I must say I am really impressed. Having a lens that is 8mm wider may not sound that great but it makes a massive difference, especially around the city and places where it is hard to get a little further away from the subject.  The Canon 400d has an APS size sensor which means that you have to take into account the crop factor when buying a lens.  The sigma is equivalent to 16mm on a standard 35mm camera but this is still pretty wide. There have been quite a few reviews that I have read about this lens in relation to quality control issues like softness on the left side of the picture, but I have had not such problems with mine.  In fact my lens is extremely sharp and pretty sturdy, it also sits very well in my hand as it is quite heavy and solid. I have not had that long to play with this lens yet but my first impressions are very good indeed, I love having a wider perspective and it opens up a lot more possibilities. I have noticed a few instances of flare, even with the use of the supplied lens hood but this is not very common and can be eliminated by being a bit more studious when taking the shot. Interior shots are now much more fun to take and you can be a little more creative with your shots, I am really looking forward to using this more indoors. All in all I think this is an excellent lens, sharp, sturdy and a great addition to my kit. Photography 2008-08-05T12:12:00+10:00 http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/os_x_dialog_usability_irks/ http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/os_x_dialog_usability_irks/#When:09:31:00Z I have been using my Mac now for quite a while and I have used one at various times throughout my computer beginnings. One thing really irks me though and that is moving the focus on buttons on dialog screens with the keyboard. On Windows its simple and intuitive to do simply press tab and you can cycle through the buttons.  On a Mac its needlessly complicated on what is generally a vastly more intuitive operating system than Windows. It gets even worse if you own one of the new aluminium keyboards as you have to add the fn function key into the equation. So for anybody who does not know, or just can’t be bothered to look up the keyboard shortcuts, if you want to cycle through the buttons on a mac you have to enable the option in the keyboard shortcut preferences, here is how to do it: When you get a dialog box popping up, in this instance, one from firefox, you press control and f7. This will turn on the preferences to enable you to move between buttons with the tab button. If you own one of the new keyboards you will have to press control -> fn-> f7. You only have to do this once by the way. Now when you press tab you will see the blue shadow appear around the buttons. You would think that you can now just hit enter or return and you will select the highlighted button, well if you thought that you would be wrong, you have to hit the space bar, very intuitive eh! But never mind at least its simple to move between tabs in Safari, what’s that? it isn’t… aww shit Apple 2008-07-22T09:31:00+10:00 http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/photoblog_and_daily_photos/ http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/photoblog_and_daily_photos/#When:11:47:00Z I have been thinking lately of creating a photoblog, well not really a full blog but more of an experiment.  There are a few reasons for these thoughts creeping into my head, the first one being; I enjoy building websites so I want to build another one. Although I do this all day at work, there is nothing more satisfying than being able to create something that is specifically for you and also being able to use the latest technologies on it. The other reasons base around the fact that I have been carrying my camera to work with me but I have not been forcing myself to take more pictures. Having a daily photoblog is one sure way of trying to push myself to get more photos. The end goal of this is of course to get better at photography. I am worried though that I will not be able to carry it through and I will stick at it for a few weeks then slowly but surely I will start missing days and end up calling it off. I also need inspiration that I will be able to find enough subjects. A good post (and really the reason for this one) is one by David Emery on the subject of project 365, which he is undertaking. It is good to find out what other people have been doing and how difficult they found it. One of my favourite photo blogs is that of Sam Javanrouh who runs daily dose of imagery, I love his photos, the colours are great, he really is a great photographer. At this stage I’m not sure what will happen, whether I will ever take on this project, either way I want to document this and every time I come back to my site it should serve as a reminder… TAKE MORE PHOTOS Photography 2008-06-25T11:47:00+10:00 http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/styling_forms_with_definition_lists/ http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/styling_forms_with_definition_lists/#When:05:29:01Z I have been meaning to write a post for a while about definition lists but have just not got round to it. Instead of covering just definition lists though, I thought I would make it a little more specific and talk about a very good use for them, styling forms. It was not that long ago that I hadn’t even heard of a definition list, now this is one of the most versatile tools in the tool box that I use daily.  Definition lists are good for a variety of uses, including Faq’s, forms, images with descriptions or replacing unordered lists for drop down menus to name but a few. First a little introduction to the definition list for those that may not be aware. Definition lists are in the same list family as the un-ordered list (<ul>) and ordered list (<ol>) but they differ a little in their structure. Unlike the un-ordered and ordered list, the definition list does not have <li> tags but is a pairing of a <dt> tag and one, or multiple <dd> tags. These tags are wrapped within the <dl> tag. An Example An example of the definition list structure is as so: <dl> <dt>Definition</dt> <dd>A statement of the exact meaning of a word, esp. in a dictionary.</dd> <dd>The degree of distinctness in outline of an object, image, or sound, esp. of an image in a photograph or on a screen.</dd> </dl> As you can see the <dd> tags describe whats in the <dt> tag. So why do I think that definition lists are the answer for forms? Well, forms are normally made up of two things, a label and an input field. The label is related to the input field, this makes definition lists perfect if you ask me. This may not exactly be the original purpose for a definition list as the dd element is supposed to be a definition description but it works perfectly for forms as the <dt> and <dd> tags are paired, just like the label and input fields are. Whats the point of adding extra markup when you can just style the label and input tags? Well adding the extra X/HTML gives the document structure, especially so when there is no style sheet applied.  I also find that less CSS styles are required to get a decent looking form, much better than when you have to style all the other form elements. Ok Ok all these words are hurting my eyes, example please A simple contact form is normally only about four fields and in its basic, valid markup, looks something like this: <form method="post" action="#"> <fieldset> <label for="firstname">First Name:</label> <input type="text" id="firstname" /> <label for="lastname">Last Name:</label> <input type="text" id="lastname" /> <label for="email">Email Address:</label> <input type="text" id="email" /> <label for="comments">Comments:</label> <textarea rows="5" cols="30" id="comments"></textarea> <input type="submit" value="Submit" /> </fieldset> </form> If you take a look at the definition list - basic form example, you will see how how it looks with no styles added. Now lets mark-up the form with a definition list <form method="post" action="#"> <fieldset> <dl> <dt><label for="firstname">First Name:</label></dt> <dd><input type="text" id="firstname" /></dd> <dt><label for="lastname">Last Name:</label></dt> <dd><input type="text" id="lastname" /></dd> <dt><label for="email">Email Address:</label></dt> <dd><input type="text" id="email" /></dd> <dt><label for="comments">Comments:</label></dt> <dd><textarea rows="5" cols="30" id="comments"></textarea></dd> </dl> <input type="submit" value="Submit" /> </fieldset> </form> Now we have added a little more structure to the form, take a look at the second, definition form example, still with no styles added. Even without any styles applied to the form, it still looks well structured. All we need to do is add a few styles to the form and we can make it look a little easier on the eye. If we want to make the form sit a little better all that is required is to add the following code: form dt{ float:left; width:150px; } Simple, we have floated the <dt> left, enabling the label and input to sit side by side and by adding a width we have added some space between the label and input fields. A very basic but structured form.  If you wanted to have a little space between the input fields just add a margin to the bottom of the <dd>. form dd{ margin-bottom:6px; } I’ve also added a width to the form just to make it sit a little better and not sprawl all over the page,definition list - example form with styles. There it is, a very basic form but with a lot more structure added thanks to the definition list and with minimal CSS to make it look neater, much easier on the eye. Tutorials 2008-06-22T05:29:01+10:00 http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/photoshop_colour_picker_outside_document/ http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/photoshop_colour_picker_outside_document/#When:09:11:00Z A quick tip for any Photoshop users out there that I only discovered quite recently.  If you are a web designer or developer you fairly regularly wish to get colour values from photos or other websites on the internet. This can sometimes be a pain and I have many times found myself taking a screen shot of a webpage, pasting it into Photoshop and using the colour picker to get the values I was looking for. There is a little known feature in Photoshop CS3 (it may be in other versions) where you can select colours from outside the document window. To do this is pretty simple.... First select the Eyedropper tool (press i) You can set up Photoshop and whatever you wish to take a colour sample from, side by side. In the photoshop document click and hold the mouse button. If you now drag outside of photoshop it will get the colour value of whatever you hover over.  Simply let go of the mouse button to select the colour, et voila. A quick and simple tip but saves a lot of time fannying about. Applications 2008-06-18T09:11:00+10:00 http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/lowepro_slingshot_200_aw/ http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/lowepro_slingshot_200_aw/#When:00:14:00Z I have been getting restless lately and trying to find the time to take some photos. I am not usually that motivated to go out after work so I have been trying to take my camera with me in the mornings and take a few shots. The problem is that my camera bag just does not meet my needs when carrying my camera too and from work.  When I bought my camera (Canon 400d), I bought it with the lens kit. This included the standard 18-55mm lens and a 70-300mm lens. I also got a 2 Gig compact flash card and a lowepro ex160 bag. I also had a canon ef 28-105mm lens from my previous camera, this all had to fit in my bag. The ex160 bag fitted all my gear but there was no room for expansion and room was rapidly running out. What’s more was that the bag had quite a thin, no padded strap which was quite sore on the shoulder when carrying the bag for a while and it just plain gets in the way.  This brings me to my new purchase the Lowepro slingshot 200 AW . I first noticed this bag only a couple of weeks ago and it looked like it would do what I needed it too, namely: carry all my gear, have room for expansion in the future, be able to get my camera in and out of it quickly and when needed be comfortable to carry I read some reviews and had a look around some stores, eventually going into the store with my camera and trying out how it fits and feels. The slingshot is a backpack but has the great ability to become like a top loader bag in a few seconds. It has one strap that goes diagonally across the chest enabling you to pull the bag around from your back to your front and get easy access to your camera. It is also makes it so much more comfortable to carry and really felt like it had nothing in it. I am sure that this is the case with any backpack but the problem with a backpack is that it stifles the urge to take a photo as you have to take the backpack off to get at your camera, not much fun if you are accessing it regularly.  Backpacks are also quite large and I don’t want to have too much wasted space to carry around just enough for some extra equipment here and there. I can imaging the the slingshot would get sore after a while if you fully load it and take it on an extended journey but then you buy something for your needs and a backpack would be more suitable in that situation. All in all I am very happy with this bag and it will enable me to take my camera everywhere without it being so much of an inconvenience and with one excuse out of the way that can only lead to better photographs. Photography 2008-05-25T00:14:00+10:00 http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/new_mac_mini/ http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/new_mac_mini/#When:12:14:00Z You may remember that I purchased a G4 Mac mini last year. Well I have had nothing but trouble with it. It started off innocent enough when every now and then the colour wheel would pop up and the machine will slow to a crawl, cue various hard reboots. Eventually the machine had had enough and it finally packed in. Still being under warranty, I took it to the Apple store to be repaired.  One hard drive replacement later and a couple of weeks of time, I had my Mac back. Happy days I hear you exclaim, all sorted, well not quite.... As the hard drive had packed in completely I had lost all my data, everything I had on it for the past eight months.  I decided that now the hard drive was being replaced that it would be the perfect time to upgrade to Leopard, the brand spanky new OS from Apple. I installed the OS and all was going fine and dandy....for a week, then I was getting kernel panics, the system was slowing down again and every now and then the hard drive was not being recognised. Back to the Apple store you piece of shit. Another two weeks in being repaired, a logic board later and a happy soul I was to have my computer back.... For one day! I felt like throwing the machine out the window, I tried to reassure my self that the horrible grinding sound coming from the computer was it taking a little time to warm up but with no luck it booting up, back to the Apple store. If your thinking a pattern is forming here then you would be right. It turned out the hard drive had packed in again, this time I was thoroughly pissed off and I wanted it replaced. I took it back to the Apple store and they said fair enough but you will have to call Apple, So I did and I have to tell you I have heard a lot of bad stories about Apple’s customer service but they did everything they could to help me out. Apple replaced my old G4 Mac mini with a brand new intel Mac, I am pleased as punch and I can’t speak highly enough of the service that I got from both the Apple customer service reps that I spoke too. My new machine came yesterday and I am finally glad to have a computer that is working, I also got the new mac keyboard just as a little treat ;-) Hopefully everything should go as planned (I wont mention the older keyboard and the missing cord from the last machine) but I would like to take the opportunity to thank Apple for great customer service and and happy little intel Mac. Apple 2008-05-02T12:14:00+10:00 http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/all_change_summertime/ http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/all_change_summertime/#When:11:32:00Z The clocks have changed here in Victoria and that is the end of the summertime.  Now when I finish work the sun is not far off setting and I have been witnessing some really nice sunsets in the past week. The weather is starting to get a little chillier and I must say I’m looking forward to the Autumn and Winter.  A change to wrap up warm, low sun in the sky, naked trees and much better colours instead of just a harsh sun.  Much better photographs to be taken so in hope that I will be taking more photos(good or bad) here is one that I took while waiting for the train. Photography 2008-04-08T11:32:00+10:00 http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/ie8_u_turn_on_standards_compliance/ http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/ie8_u_turn_on_standards_compliance/#When:03:54:00Z Looks like Microsoft have done a u-turn on the old IE 8 debate and have now decided to have IE8 run as IE8 by default. This marks a big change and means web developers will not have to opt-in to run it this way. I’m just in the process of reading the IE Blog so I’m not sure of all the details just yet but this looks like a big win for web standardists. I say look out for a post on A List Apart pretty soon. Take a look for yourself if you are in anyway interested. blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/03/03/microsoft-s-interoperability-principles-and-ie8.aspx Web 2008-03-04T03:54:00+10:00 http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/old_jonny_rambo/ http://www.aaronwitherow.co.uk/blog/comments/old_jonny_rambo/#When:11:12:00Z I’ve have just watched the new Rambo movie and man does it turn up the blood, gore and guts rating.  This seems to be the norm now or maybe I think that because I saw Sweeny Todd last week, but both films don’t hold back on the blood. I didn’t think that the latest incarnation of Rambo would be that good but I left pleasantly surprised.  I would say that at least this time the film seems a little more real but then again about 4 million people get either blown to bits, hacked to pieces, shot with an all too powerful gun or tortured in the most horrible and nasty ways imaginable. Blood and Guts but all in all a good movie Entertainment 2008-02-23T11:12:00+10:00