An interesting thing arrived today...

I received a big flat package via FedEx today. I wracked my brain: "did I order an LP from Amazon?" Not that I remember. Oh, it's from FileMaker! I tore it open. Enclosed was physical proof that I passed the hardest written test I have ever taken in my life. It says I am now officially a "FileMaker 11 Certified Developer." Not having an appropriate wall space for such things I put it in the file next to the ones for versions 9 and 10.

Now, back to talking about their business data needs to potential clients who never heard of FileMaker.

Fireworks on the iPhone Revisited

A while back I posted a mediocre effort at shooting holiday fireworks. The most recent 4th of July gave me another opportunity to try out my iPhone on everyone's favorite really hard to shoot subject: fireworks! The iPhone 4 does a much better job than my old 3G did at shooting things that go bang in the night. With the added touch of a really nice video editor right on the phone (iMovie) it's one fun little video producer:

The Aftermath

Just part of the remains of $1000 worth of fireworks burnt up in an hour by my brothers-in-law. Brought to you today by the word "pyromaniac."

Sure was fun, though.

Bearded Irises

In memory of my wife's uncle: a few of the irises he prized and tended. They may be in our yard now, but they're still known as Alden's irises.

iPad Travel screen

I am addicted to screen real estate. So much so that even a 15" laptop screen isn't enough to hold it all. At my desk I have a 20" Cinema Display next to my MacBook Pro. When traveling, though, I have to make do.

I do always have my iPad with me. If only there was a way to...

Ta da! Enter Air Display! If you're on wifi (and where aren't you these days?) you can use your iPad as you would any old second monitor. You can mirror your main screen (okay, I haven't found a use for that yet, but you can) or you can just add another 768x1024 to your desktop for some ancillary application or reduce your window congestion in a development environment like, ahem, FileMaker. Behold:

I'd much rather have my Cinema Display for this kind of work all the time, but it stretches the seams something fierce on my laptop bag.

Air Display is $9.99 in the iOS app store and works on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Insulated

<<Comment deleted due to error: "Hyperbole limit exceeded.">>

Ok, I do like my iPhone. Takes nice pictures, don't you think?

iPhone 4's HDR Option

Here's something that cannot be done with the iPhone app called ProHDR that was mentioned here a few posts back. HDR = High Dynamic Range, a photography technique that uses multiple exposures at different settings to create an image not possible with a single shot. ProHDR is my favorite app for scenery and other static images requiring RG-HDR (Really Good HDR).

Since ProHDR takes photos a few seconds apart (even in automatic mode) it cannot resolve moving objects for beans. You get misaligned images. The HDR option in iP4's 4.1 software takes the multiple shots very fast. Not only does this reduce the required aligning of hand-held shots, but slowly moving objects can sometimes be aligned. 

The adorable little girl in these shots was riding toward me when I took these. The first one is the standard "normal" shot that the iPhone can save as a user-settable option. The second one, though, is the shot that is recorded when the HDR setting on the iPhone camera is turned on. Notice the improvement in both the highlight and shadow detail? Notice that the moving cyclist is sharp enough to make it an adequate photo.

Nice job, Apple. 

Again.

Neither of these photos is adjusted in any way since they were taken.