soimove opdos

Links for 2012-05-20 [del.icio.us]

2012-05-21T00:00:00-07:00

Lightroom 4 Presets
Lightroom 4 Presets for Vintage Effects, HDR Effects, and More tutorial
RAW vs JPEG (JPG) – The Ultimate Visual Guide - Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes tutorial

Links for 2012-05-18 [del.icio.us]

2012-05-19T00:00:00-07:00

RAW vs JPEG (JPG) – The Ultimate Visual Guide - Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes tutorial
Get Color Sidebar Icons Back in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Finder Windows
Use a Strip of Tape to Help Hang Pictures Perfectly Every Time

Links for 2012-05-11 [del.icio.us]

2012-05-12T00:00:00-07:00

AVIATION-TIME.COM
Mechanical Pilot watches from Switzerland, Russia, Germany - Shop
Graf Zeppelin Watches
Mechanic luxury watches
IKEPOD
WatchMann.com
Military Watches, Traser Tritium Watches, Junkers German Watches, Orient Watches, Damasko Tactical Watches, Laco Watches, Torgoen Pilot Watches, Dexter Sinister Watches, Nite Tritium Sport Watches, Arctos Watches, Nauticfish Watches, Dievas Watches Online
Island Watch
Watches, Seiko Watches, Android Watches, Zeno Watch, Orient Watches, Junkers Watch, German Watches, Automatic Watch

Links for 2012-05-05 [del.icio.us]

2012-05-06T00:00:00-07:00

[Flickr]

2012-05-04T12:19:47-07:00

cjw333 posted a photo:

kreuz sampler [Flickr]

2012-04-28T00:44:09-07:00

cjw333 posted a photo:

pitmaster [Flickr]

2012-04-28T00:43:21-07:00

cjw333 posted a photo:

brisket [Flickr]

2012-04-28T00:42:36-07:00

cjw333 posted a photo:

brisket station [Flickr]

2012-04-28T00:41:37-07:00

cjw333 posted a photo:

Links for 2012-04-27 [del.icio.us]

2012-04-28T00:00:00-07:00

Performance Upgrades; FireWire USB SATA Storage; Memory, more at OWC

Links for 2012-04-12 [del.icio.us]

2012-04-13T00:00:00-07:00

Links for 2012-04-08 [del.icio.us]

2012-04-09T00:00:00-07:00

Japan Trend Shop

2012-03-29T23:51:00.000-07:00

Earl Scruggs - January 6, 1924 - March 28, 2012

Peeling an Orange

2011-02-20T00:46:00.000-08:00

I've tried this a few times by hand and I think it's going to take some practice.

I've found it much easier to do it with a citrus peeler.

Listening to Glaciers

2010-08-01T02:59:00.000-07:00

A beautiful post-rock band from Oakland, CA, recommended to me at Aquarius Records in San Francisco. They've recently put out an album called And The Sea Won the Battle which is available on LP and iTunes. The folks at Aquarius had this to say:

"First proper full length (after a super limited cd-r), of gorgeously blissed out post rock from this Bay Area ensemble. Lush and textured, rhythmic and hypnotic, slow burning and sprawling, epic and super rocking, these guys take that nineties sound we love so much and make it their own, the songs smolder and pulse, before exploding into dense roiling Godspeed / Mogwai style blowouts. Meandering prettiness, gives way to loping mathy minimalism, chiming guitars, simple spare drumming, looped melodies, a slow build to near metallic crush, the bass throbbing, the guitars tangled up in psychedelic squalls, the drums muscled and propulsive. The sound moody and minor key, cinematic and soundtracky, brooding and intense, heavy and emotional and harrowing. If you dig stuff like Mogwai, Aereogramme, Mono, Pelican, Grails, Explosions In The Sky, Magyar Posse, Red Sparowes, Snowblood, that Temporary Residence instrumental rock sound, that heavy post POST rock, well, Glaciers does it as good if not better than most of your favorites. Not sure how these guys slipped under our radar, since they're from right here in the Bay Area, but it's time to right that wrong, RIGHT NOW.
Pressed on gorgeous ice blue vinyl, comes with a download coupon, and yeah, it's probably limited too... "

Jahtari Netlabel

2010-05-21T00:21:00.000-07:00

netlabel home to Disrupt and other 8-bit/laptop reggae masters
(link)

Shinagawa Prince Hotel

2010-04-09T20:37:00.000-07:00

Shinagawa Prince Hotel

Shinagawa (品川) - Tokyo, Japan

Mystery Solved – Embedding Images Into ID3 Tags With iTunes

2010-03-12T23:32:00.000-08:00

For the longest time I've struggled with embedding album cover images in my mp3s that are managed by iTunes. One nice thing is that iTunes will automatically download album artwork for your mp3s when you import them into your library. The only problem is that it doesn’t actually embed the artwork in the file’s ID3 tag. The thing about iTunes is that it handles meta data like this in strange ways. In fact I would say that iTunes does a better job controlling the data than they do managing it.

Images downloaded through iTunes are not embedded in the ID3 tag but rather dropped in a folder and then referenced in the iTunes XML file. The ratings that you give to a track are also stored in this file. The problem with this approach is that if you move the mp3 files to another drive by hand you lose that mapping and you have to download the artwork again as well as go back and apply the ratings. Should you have to recover your library from a backup and re-import the files into iTunes you’ll also have to download all of the artwork and apply ratings again.

Although iTunes can simplify the problem and automate the download of artwork for your library, why take the time and the bandwidth to do it again? Fortunately this is not a problem if you happen to embed the artwork yourself, a process that can be time consuming but I think worthwhile.

Why do I care? Well, I use Growl and when some of my tracks would start up, the iTunes notifier would not be able to show the album cover image and instead show the default blank image. This is also true when you view the files in the Finder. Being a visual person this drove me nuts so I went off in search of a solution.

In my searches I came across and downloaded an iTunes script to Embed Artwork from Doug’s Apple Scripts (an excellent source for iTunes scripts). There are a few different scripts to do this so search the site for "embed artwork" to find your favorite. The script I found takes the image file that iTunes references and embeds it in the ID3 tag. Now when I move the file the image moves with it. Note that when you perform this process it makes each mp3 file just a bit bigger usually by a hundred KB +/- a bit.

I had found a solution but I hadn’t completely solved my problems. After applying the script to several albums I noticed that in some cases Growl was still not able to display the album cover. I had to continue my search.

After a bit of hunting around I found that for some reason the problem files in question had been encoded with a v2.2 ID3 tag. I’m not sure why iTunes is doing this and I’m still in search of a way to change the default ID3 tag version when iTunes encodes mp3 files. In the meantime I use the Convert ID3 Tags option in iTunes to update my mp3 files to v2.4 ID3 tags. Now when I embed artwork into the mp3 file everything works as expected.

Check ID3 Tag Version

Right click on an mp3 and select Get Info (you can do a ⌘+i as well)
Look for the ID# Tag version in the middle right column on the Summary Tab
This should say something like v2.2, v2.3 or v2.4

Convert ID3 Tag Version

Select all of the mp3s that you want to convert
Right click and select Convert ID3 Tags
From the drop down menu select v2.4 and then hit OK.

Another Way To Embed

Another way to embed the album cover without having to use the script is to paste the album cover in the Info window of the track(s) in iTunes.
Select the track or all album tracks. I recommend selecting all of the tracks in an album at once.
Once selected hit ⌘+I or right click and select Get Info.
Make sure that the Info tab is selected and paste or drag an image into the Artwork window in the bottom right
Hit OK and you’re done

fohawk lady

2009-12-06T03:27:00.001-08:00

fohawk lady, originally uploaded by cjw333.

I made a recent trip to Hong Kong and have started to slowly go through my pictures. This picture was taken our first morning in the Mong Kok market which was full of of people doing their morning shopping for fruit, veggies, meat and fish. The light was perfect that morning and I snapped a few lucky candid shots as I walked through the crowd.

Hong Kong 2009 set on Flickr

COmpression Sound Art

2009-06-12T00:19:00.001-07:00

Usavich Prison Break

2009-05-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

I saw this video in a toy store in Tokyo and couldn't stop laughing . Unfortunately the clip above was taken down from YouTube but luckily I bought 2 DVDs of Usavich. Each comes with about 20 short videos of Usavich craziness starting in prison and ending up with the break out. Buy season 1 from Usavich Season 1 @ Amazon.

Great Head

2009-05-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

If you've purchased an inexpensive or entry level tripod it is likely that the head that came with it is not the best. Assuming that the head is removable this problem is easily remedied with an upgrade.

I chose the Manfrotto 484RC2 to upgrade my Velbon ULTRA MAXi mini travel tripod which came with a decent head that lacked a quick release. For me a quick release makes the tripod/head much more convenient with the ability to quickly mount and remove your camera. The 484RC2 comes with a great quick release that includes a locking mechanism which prevents accidental removal of your camera. This is an excellent safeguard.

I also like the plate that comes with the 484RC2. The mechanism used to screw the plate to your camera includes a flip out arm for easy tightening. Other plates just have a slot that requires a coin or screwdriver to tighten. If you don't have one of those it's difficult to get the plate tight on the camera which means it's going to slip around.

I was recommended the 484RC2 head since it was relatively light, came at a reasonable price and would work well with my camera. I'm using this with my Canon XTi and a borrowed Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Standard Zoom Lens (my heaviest lens) and although the recommendation was to go with a bigger head, the 484RC2 holds steady with no slipping.

I'll be putting this head through its paces shortly but initially I'm very happy with my purchase.

Japanese Restruant Playlist

2009-05-16T01:43:00.000-07:00

Recently on ask.metafilter someone asked for a list of Music to eat sushi by so I answered.
And here's the list that I came up with:

Audio Sports - hip hop with Yamatsuka Eye of Boredoms, electronic composer Aki Onda and then-battle DJ Nobukazu Takemura
Bulljun - producer of mad beats
Cappablack - down tempo hip hop/illbient beats
Fantastic Plastic Machine (FPM) - Shibuya-kei at its finest
INO hidefumi - Satisfaction is his take on the 70s standards. Very jazzy stuff.
Jemapur - electronic hip-hop
Kahimi Karie - subtle breathy vocals.
Lullatone - electro-pop duo
Nao Tokui - some nice electronics
Riow Arai - electronic hip-hop
Takagi Masakatsu - has an album Eating and another one called Eating 2. Rehome is pretty nice too

please post if you have anything to add.

High Technical Gum

2009-05-09T00:28:00.000-07:00

Black Black - my favorite high technical gum

Entire Yamanote Line in Less Than 4 Min

2009-04-27T21:58:00.000-07:00

David Choe on Spark

2009-03-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

KQED's Bay Area art show, Spark, features a piece on David Choe
A Los Angeles born renegade street artist who relocated to the South Bay
He does some amazing work and has a very different philosophy
about using the street as a canvas

SymmetryS

2008-12-14T00:20:00.000-08:00

yo, yo-yo, yo-yo, yo, yo
yo, yo-yo, yo-yo, yo, yo-ye-ah

Sun Blackbox vs Earthquake

2008-10-14T14:37:00.000-07:00

See what happens when Sun's modular datacenter (aka Blackbox) meets with a simulated 6.7 magnitude earthquake.

McCain Drum Solo

2008-10-13T16:07:00.000-07:00

not bad for an old guy

Thumbnails from Japan

2008-10-11T22:33:00.001-07:00

thumbnails of some of my pictures from my honeymoon in japan.
More from my Japan 2008 Flickr set here.

2008-08-31T03:12:00.000-07:00

File_handler by videos22

Jemapur - Maledict Car

Best Of Netlabels Vol. 4

2008-07-30T23:32:00.000-07:00

Ante Up

2008-07-20T11:32:00.000-07:00

Postpet

2008-07-20T02:37:00.000-07:00

Ableton Live's Drum Rack

2008-06-22T01:08:00.000-07:00

I've been using Ableton Live off and on now for a few years. I love Live for it's ability to easily and endlessly tweak, manipulate and change sounds. I could spend hours twiddling knobs and shaping new clips.

As I tend to prefer using my own samples in Live the real light bulb went off for me when I figured out how to build my own Impulse instruments. This allowed me to clip short sounds and trigger them with MIDI which is perfect for making minimal blipy tracks.

A recent upgrade to Live 7 took this to the next level with the introduction of the Drum Rack. This new instrument is like Impulse on steroids. The same concept of sound clips triggered by MIDI still holds true but added is the ability to tweak each individual sample with things like Filter, LFO and any of the variety of effects included in Live.

Another light bulb went off for me last night after watching the video above at about 2 min 41 sec in where it is explained that you can automatically slice an audio file and dump it into the Drum Rack. This saves hours of manual slicing, although some slight adjustments may be wanted.

There is still so much that I need to learn about using the new Drum rack but for now I'm content chopping up sounds to make a few of my own preset racks. I highly recommend watching the videos found on the Ableton site to learn more about the features in Live.

It's Not All Good

2008-06-21T01:09:00.001-07:00

bowl of ramen from nantsutei ramen shop, originally uploaded by cjw333.

Some of my favorite meals of all time were those that I've had in japan. I just can't get enough ramen, udon and curry not to mention wonderful sushi and a variety of regional dishes. Not all of the food in japan makes my mouth water, however.

Matthew Firestone covers 5 Japanese Foods You Might Want to Avoid on Galding. And you thought natto was bad.

my muxtape

2008-04-19T03:45:00.000-07:00

go to my muxtape