Computers are smart. I had a folder full of screen captures (PNG) and I needed them to all be JPGs.

Open Terminal and put in this command:

mkdir jpegs; sips -s format jpeg *.* --out jpegs

Voila!

You smart computer.

We all get scams through email occasionally, or through websites and apps that we use. Scams that photographers receive are a little different though, and they are becoming more prevalent. The last scam I received was a few months ago through WeddingWire.com where I have an account. Many photographers received the same message and still are today as you can see by the last response on this Facebook note.

Today I received an email which at first I thought was real from the subject, but it’s another scam. This time it got a lot more personal as it arrived to my email address directly. It actually makes you feel vulnerable having your name out there, since this person actually went to the trouble of emailing me personally. For people who do not realize that it’s fake, and do not see how scammy their email address is, this could turn into a problem. The key part of this email is “so that i will book ahead before coming” which would arrange a way to get money from you. What a punk.

Hello,

Good day to you.I and my wife with 2kids will be on holiday trip to your city on the 22nd of January and i will like to know more info about your service and sessions.

Kindly let me know your charges and details if you offer Family,Children Portraits,outdoor and Studio Session.

And i will like to know your session availability on any of this date 25,26,28 and 29th of January 2012 or you can just let me know your own schedule.so that i will book ahead before coming.

Await your reply.
Engr Blake
+447031893870
Ireland

Overall, this shows that it’s no longer good enough for scammers to send mass messages to email lists. This could mean that people are just smarter about 419 scams and the like, so different methods have to created. On the other hand, it could just mean that scammers are just becoming greedier and bolder.

At GiveEmThis.com, it scours someone’s posts on Facebook or Twitter in order to predict gifts that person would like. When I entered myself into GiveEmThis, it was pretty accurate.

I would not wear the SLR necklace since it lacks a battery grip. (What a naked looking camera!) But I do like books about Christmas trees and recipes from restaurants. So for me, this site worked pretty well. However, I only mentioned Busta Rhymes once, and it thought I would like his CD. No. Also it confused my husband Daniel with some other guy – not interested.

For a general idea and choosing at least one reliable gift, this site will work well for most people.

I was going through some old CDs and they were pretty scratched. Some of them could not be read so my computer was a little slow on making a decision and spitting the discs back out. At one point, a certain CD didn’t come out at all (and was not showing up anywhere). In fact, I completely forgot it was in there. By that time, I had to resort to opening Terminal and typing in:

drutil tray eject

Then your disc will be out in a jiffy.

Call me crazy, but I’ve never used Google Wallet and didn’t know it existed. That period of time lasted until today when I received an email from Google letting me know that Google Checkout is transitioning to Google Wallet. I have used Google Checkout for a long time to process payments. As per usual with Google, they are either constantly removing a service or merging them together, all related to their plans for ongoing human domination. So I checked out the Google Wallet for the first time. It’s a “smart, virtual wallet” which basically means that it turns your phone into a paypass transmitter.

This is just the beginning, but we believe that, in time, your phone with Google Wallet will be the one thing that holds everything you need to carry.

“Meteorologist is a full featured, free, and open source weather program for Mac OS X. This version of Meteorologist supports multiple cities, new version checking, and many more features.”

Download here.

In a word, Meteorologist is awesome. As a photographer I always keep an eye on the weather. Often I find myself staring at weather.com and figuring out what the next days will hold as far as rain or shine. With this application I have the most handiest way ever to check the weather. And with one click it will go straight to the page on weather.com for the zipcode I’ve entered into the application. It also will show you a radar image immediately without having to go to any website at all.

This is probably the best weather program ever. The only thing it’s missing is sunrise/sunset time. If it had that I would never have to use my browser again to check anything for scheduling photo sessions.

It looks like there’s two main reasons that Battlefield 3 does not start.

1) You need to update your video card drivers manually – do not use any of the Windows walk-through updates
2) Or, you can remove (TM) from the name of the Battlefield 3 folder

Those are the two most popular fixes for the game, which by the way is certainly a beautiful one. Here is one of my favorite reviews of Battlefield 3 from Gamespot:

When it comes to virtual battlefields, nobody does it quite like the Battlefield series. It has a long history of creating sprawling conflict zones where players have an exhilarating range of ways to make powerful contributions to the war effort. The competitive multiplayer mode in Battlefield 3 stays true to tradition, delivering an online combat experience that is amazingly addictive, immersive, and exciting, with refinements and new elements that make the familiar action feel fresh.

Do you actually ever use the Caps Lock key? It seems like a key that should be removed from keyboards. No one has a need for it anymore because we’ve all learned it’s not polite to shout, and it doesn’t look good to post a yard sale sign in all caps either. Programmers don’t even use the caps lock key – changes in code are carefully ammended if capital characters are needed. All in all, I can’t think of any benefit to the key. Personally I wanted to turn it off because sometimes I am writing an email, etc. and I touch it accidentally. The bother is not huge, but it would give life two extra seconds if I turned it off. So here’s how to turn it off.

Open up System Preferences and choose Keyboard.

Click Modifier Keys on the lower right corner.

Select your keyboard if there is more than one in the drop down. Then select Caps Lock and set it to No Action. OK and done!

Featured image from ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME SHIRT FROM TSHIRTGROOVE.

Well good grief, since I’m awake I might as well influence the Facebook world regarding this screenshot I captured the other day with intent to vent. Intent to vent, how about that? Someone get me a cappuccino and a fountain pen. Alright, this message popped up the other day while on one of my Pages.

So yeah that’s very small (but very accessible with enough clicks). Basically Facebook said they are removing Discussions and Reviews on October 31st. Well, my screenshot only lists Discussions but later on it also said Reviews. (That’s Facebook… you know how it is.) Say goodbye to two features that require people to actually type on something other than a Wall. Now Facebook has us all right where they want us: on our mega-Facebook-adaptation-control-panel when we first log in, and then on to the Walls! The end. Unless you have a farm. Or a Group.

Well Facebook – good move. In my experience, no one ever actually uses either of those. Discussions were used in the beginning from what I have gathered. And Reviews… well most people with a service understand that it’s hard to get reviews made at all, and to get one typed up on Facebook is even harder. For those businesses that actually had reviews on Facebook, I feel bad for them since they’ll need to centralize the reviews elsewhere.

Speaking of centralization – yes that is exactly why I feel bad about it. Facebook has actually put itself right in the middle of thousands of businesses, maybe tens of thousands. Everyone becomes so focused on the race to get Likes, the race to get comments, the race to get interaction and the race to get connections. And then Facebook diverts the connections into black holes whenever they want.

Luckily I am still a happy Facebook camper and I don’t have anything to complain about. Yet.

But I do think it will be fun to play with. When a friend on Twitter posted that there was a new gimmicky gadget, and it happened to be a camera, you could see my ears perk up from a mile away. Being an Orlando photographer, news of a photographic camera, and not just the latest small HD video gadget, is what gets my attention.

I go to Lytro’s site and I just think: Apple. And Icon Factory. Alright, so that’s a very small roadblock and I get back into checking what this is about. When you visit the most important page to Lytro (this one) you get three main points.

1. The camera takes pictures instantly. (Great…? Most do.) Okay, I’m being fussy. They are saying it takes a “multi-picture” instantly.
2. The pictures focus on every single thing (for the most part) in the scene very clearly (for the most part) and later on your computer, you can choose the focus.
3. SharepicturesonFacebookYEAH!

So what is the point? Now anyone can control bokeh with a simple consumer device. Bokeh is the creamy blurriness you see in photos, and in movies, when focus is on a nearby object leaving the background muffled.

Here’s the part that benefits professional photographers. There is something that happens to us sometimes, and we don’t really talk about it. Sometimes while we are quickly snapping away (such as with kids or pets) some of our pictures are out of focus even though we are doing everything right. This is usually no biggie, but on occassion you are culling through your images and see an amazing expression – and gosh darn it, that’s the blurry one.

If the technology used to make Lytro could make it into DSLRs, that would be amazing for fast-paced situations. But this is not a feature I would have on all of the time. It’s basically like cheating, and the bokeh is not as beautiful. It looks cheapened.

In closing, I guess I do look forward to people pointing little sticks at each other. And one of the winning marketing phrases of 2011 is definitely “The only camera that captures living pictures.” Living pictures. It’s got everyone crawling! (To order.) Okay I’m going to sleep.

P.S. The day after I wrote this, there were interesting hits. Maybe someone agrees, or they are doing a little research: