After re-arranging Visual Studio windows and moving my Output window to my 2nd monitor, my web project started crashing after it was built, giving an error BEX in msenv.dll, and an error for msenv.exe was logged in the Application Event Log. After some searching I came across a post referencing a hotfix for similar issues under KB960075, posted here. After downloading and installing, the issue was resolved. A new msenv.dll is placed onto the system that fixes the issue.

Firefox 3.5.2 update fixes Flickr viewing (ICC bugfix)
August 4, 2009Update Firefox to 3.5.2 to fix viewing of images with embedded ICC profiles. This was broken in Firefox in version 3.5, making images on sites such as Flickr to appear very dark. This update corrects the problem and adds more flexibility – images will be rendered using their embedded ICC profile (if there is one). Firefox 3.5.2 release notes.

Japanese Maple
May 9, 2009This was taken with the Canon EF 17-40mm wide-angle lens. I took a spot on the ground and pointed the camera up as the setting sum was hitting the leaves. Back in the lab I split the image into 3 exposures in Lightroom and used Photomatix to create a pseudo-HDR, and added some tilt-shift effect to the focusing via Photoshop.

Night Timelapse
March 15, 2009This week I set up a night-time timelapse exposure with the Canon 5D Mark II using a new timer I purchased from Gadget Infinity. The camera was set to a 30 second exposure, with the timer set to a 45 second interval. I used the Sigma 8mm Fisheye Lens
for this one, so you get a full view of everything.
The video can be seen here.

Cyber’s PetSmart Pickup
March 2, 2009
(Click to watch the video on YouTube)
A rare snow, a timelapse photography session, and a PetSmart grooming date collided and the attached video was created. The video was shot using a Canon PowerShot G9 sitting on the dash attached to a POD Camera Bean Bag tripod
. The resulting video was brought into iMovie ‘09
and put together with the audio. The G9 was set to timelapse video mode, shooting at 1 second intervals, with the ND filter turned on for the longest exposure possible.
Gear Used:
Timelapse Photography Tips:
- Use a tripod or support to keep the shooting perspective steady.
- Set a manual white balance so the camera does not change from shot-to-shot.
- Set a manual exposure to keep the camera from adapting to changing light.
- Drag the shutter – use a longer shutter speed to blur the motion from shot-to-shot to prevent “blips” of new subjects entering the frame.

How to throw a killer Rock Band party
February 17, 2009More info to come…
Checklist
- Rock Band 2
- Ion Drum Rocker Premium Drum Set
- Backstage Passes – we made printed up 3″x4″ artist passes for all of our rockers – came up with a template in Photoshop, put 2 to a sheet, and printed them out on 4″x6″ photo paper at the local drugstore. Then placed them in lanyards purchased at Staples. Instant credentials to present to people upon their arrival.
- Mic stand – put the Rock Band Microphone
on a stand

Amazon announces Kindle 2
February 9, 2009The new Kindle 2- an update of the original Kindle from Amazon focuses on usability improvement versus a large-scale product shift. Kindlw 2 offers an improved screen (16 shades of grey, vs. 4 on Kindle 1), 20% faster page turns, and a 25% improved battery life. A big change appears to be its slim design which seems like it will have a much better feel and easily slipped into a case or jacket pocket – it’s 1/3″ thick. Another plus is that it will charge from a USB-mini port, so you can charge via a laptop and forgo the power adapter on a long trip. There’s also a text-to-speech function that will read text aloud, albeit in a computer-voice. On the demo video, the computer voice is okay, but I don’t see it as a replacement for a real audiobook read by a human.
Overall, seems like a nice upgrade, but nothing bit in terms of new functionality. The Kindle 2 ships 2/24/2009 and can be pre-ordered today. Existing owners who order by midnight on 2/10 will be placed at the top of the list.
Book Cover: There’s also a nice-looking Kindle 2 Leather Cover for the Kindle 2, and some 3rd-party covers and cases are already listed on the site.
The live feed of the Kindle 2 press conference is posted at the Engadet site.

Made the paper
November 3, 2008Or on ajc.com anyway – I’m the 4th one in this gallery of Halloween costumed freaks:
http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/atlanta-holiday-guide/halloween-costumes/readers-costumes6/
Photo shoot entry coming later.

Photo shoot: Joe Satriani concert
October 29, 2008Guitar god Joe Satriani played the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta and the venue allowed “non-pro” cameras to be used, so I brought the Canon G9 with me in what could be its last gasp. The new Panasonic LX3
would have probably come in handy with its better low light capabilities.
With the help of a female friend (which helps to prevent being punched), was able to work our way up front behind a layer of a couple people. Took shots the whole show – about 400, until the battery almost ran out.
I had the G9 set to manual mode, no flash, using ISO 400, he lowest aperture available and played with shutter speeds from 1/80 – 1/160. A tip I came across is to use manual mode as the lights are always changing. Find some settings that work and keep them there.
I got some fairly decent exposures considering. The best came when the lights were up full of course. Noise at ISO 400 on the G9 in that light is pretty pervasive, but it lends an interesting quality to the shots. I had trouble with the auto-focus so I needed to look into setting a manual focus point, but got some good results and mistakes nonetheless.
I post-processed the shots using Lightroom 2.1 only, converting some to B&W and using Matt Kloskowski’s Sin City presets as a starting place on the shots when Satch was playing his red guitar. Played with the color temperature to achieve some good results. Shots with a lot of noise or lower light I went with B&W or muted colors to control the noise.
A slideshow of all the shots is up on my Flickr page here.

What’s in my bag? Episode 2 – Kata Sensitivity V
September 23, 2008This is a 7-minute video walk-through of the packing job I did for my next international trip using the Kata Sensitivity V Backpack. The backpack remains awesome and it’s carrying just about everything I need – I don’t know that I’d want to take more or go heavier anyway. The bag ended up approximately 23lbs. in weight. It could be made lighter with a Macbook Air, but you have to show some restraint
. This is for an upcoming trip to Capetown, South Africa for touring and Botswana for safari. My kit for the trip is listed below. In the video I start with the backpack loaded and unload it an item at a time.
Contents:
- Apple Macbook
- Macbook Power Adapter
- Amazon Kindle eBook Reader
- Canon XSi D-SLR Camera
- Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.4L IS Zoom Lens
- Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens
- Canon EF 50mm f1.4 Prime Lens
- Canon EF 1.4x II Telephoto Extender
- Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash
- Elinchrom Skyport Universal Trigger Set
for remote strobing
- Pharos Trips and Pics GPS Receiver
- Sony PSP
- LaCie 250 GB Rugged Hard Drive
- 3-77mm photo filters
- LED flashlight
- 2 USB battery backup units
- Camera remote control
- Lens pen
- Mouse/receiver
- Extra batteries and chargers for XSi and G9
- Media wallet with SD Cards
- Screen cleaner
- Shower caps
- Several cables and adapters

SDHC Memory Card Tests Updated with SanDisk Extreme III 8GB 30MB/s Edition
September 23, 2008It’s another winner from SanDisk. The SanDisk Extreme III 8GB 30MB/s Edition provides great performance at a high RAM count – see the results on the main post.

Canon fires back
September 17, 2008New Canon 5D Mark II. New Canon G10
.
More info on the blog at TWIP, and a preview on DPReview.
Pretty interesting features on the newly announced Canon 5D Mark II full-frame update to the 5D.
- 21.1 Megapixel
- Shoots full 1080p HD Video
- ISO to 25,600 with new DIGIC 4 processor
- Still just 3.9 frames/sec
- New RAW options size-wise
- Silent shooting options
- 14.7 Megapixel
- New wider-angle lens
- DIGIC 4 processor.

Thoughts on the Canon 50D
September 16, 2008The newly-announced (estimated early October as far as I can tell) Canon 50D looks pretty impressive. Canon has been quickly falling behind Nikon in the upper models, but the 50D looks like it’ll be enough to keep some Canon shooters in the Canon camp for a while. There’s a nice preview up on DPReview.com.
Pros:
- New CMOS sensor with DIGIC 4 processor
- Gapless micro-lenses on the sensor
- 920k pixel LCD
- Cool new interface to the camera features
- New high-ISO modes
Amazon mentions that is captures to SD cards, that’s not correct. Other sites mention it’s still on Compact Flash.
Canon 5D Successor Coming ?
A new version of the Canon 5D appears to be coming as well as in this teaser on the Canon site.

SDHC Card Test Updated with AData Turbo 8GB
September 16, 2008I purchased a cheap AData SDHC 8GB Class 6 card from Fry’s and put it in the Canon XSi for test – results updated on the testing page.

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Setup Failure on 64-bit Vista Solved
September 12, 2008When trying to update my Visual Studio 2008 to Service Pack 1 (I’m on Vista x64), the update for the remote debugger (KB945140) was halting with an error. Checking the first log showed the message: Error 1324.The folder path ‘Program Files’ contains an invalid character. Moving to the log file of the installer itself, the VS90sp1-KB945140-X64-ENU.msp patch, made a reference to an F:\PFILES folder instead of my normal Program Files folder.
My F:\ drive is a virtual drive from PowerISO, which is used to mount disk images. Turning off my virtual drives allowed the installation to proceed successfully. I’m posting that here to remember for next time
.
I saw a post where this issue also was seen with another virtual drive utility, Virtual CloneDrive. The installer seems to think they’re hard drives and is trying to install to them







