Buying a camera

I will admit that I am a computer guy, but I have never claimed to be a camera guy. However the digitalization of cameras makes them feel more like computers than anything else.

I will offer my humble advice. Go to kenrockwell.com. Read his article on recommended cameras. Buy the camera from the links on his site.

• This guy is an expert on cameras.
• This guy can write in a way that "normal" people understand.
• He frequently updates his site.

I did all my research on his site and then purchased my camera from National Camera Exchange because I wanted to "buy local." The service was crappy and I paid a lot more money. (They offer courses for free with camera purchase. Those classes are offered only once a month and they are usually booked 3-6 months out.)

Ken links to reputable sites that sell the cameras at great prices. That is the best place to buy these things.

If you feel compelled to shop for a camera at Best Buy, remember this: the employees on the floor don't make on money on the sale of the camera. They only make money on the sale of the service plan. This leaves them with little motivation to learn about the cameras. You might luck out and find a camera geek. But you could also end up with someone who was recently transferred from major appliances.

Good luck, and remember: Cameras have nothing to do with taking great pictures.

I can't play this audio or video file. What should I do?

Download and install VLC media player.

This can play anything that I have ever heard of. Most notably, it plays DVDs or DVD files (VOB) just fine. It works on PC, Mac, Linux or your phone.

It is much more efficient than iTunes or Windows Media Player. It won't keep track of your music and sync your iPod like iTunes will. You will still need iTunes for that. But if you have a weird file that you can't play with anything else, VLC will fix it.

Which antivirus should I use?

As a resident tech person I get asked this question a lot. Here is a very short and simple answer.

Use Microsoft Security Essentials.

That's it. Microsoft has solved this problem. Download it, install it, and do whatever is says. Then uninstall any other antivirus you have running.

A slightly deeper dive: Norton and McAfee cause a lot of problems and you should uninstall them whenever you buy a new computer.

AVG would have been my previous recommendation. Its good, free, and efficient. But its not the best solution anymore. If you don't feel good about using a Microsoft product for some reason, this is still a great alternative.

These answers apply to a PC. I am not aware of a reason to run antivirus on a Mac or Linux computer right now.

Visual Studio reference based on output type

We use CSLA in our application. We keep the source code in a vendor branch in our SVN repository. We then keep a debug as well as a release build of CSLA. We have a reference to the debug build in our project because we want to be able to step into the CSLA source code from time to time to see what is happening.

Here is the problem I encountered: I wanted to be able to have the reference to the CSLA library change based upon the output type. I didn't find anything that directly addressed my particular scenario. I was able to piece together a solution that addressed my needs.

This is what I had originally.

<Reference Include="Csla, Version=3.6.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=93be5fdc093e4c30, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
   <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
   <HintPath>..\..\..\lib\CSLA.NET\Csla.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>

And this is what solved my problem.

<Reference Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' "
          Include="Csla, Version=3.6.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=93be5fdc093e4c30, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
   <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
   <HintPath>..\..\..\lib\CSLA.NET\Debug\Csla.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
<Reference Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' "
          Include="Csla, Version=3.6.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=93be5fdc093e4c30, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
   <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
   <HintPath>..\..\..\lib\CSLA.NET\Release\Csla.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>

Big Bang Theory

Leonard: Sheldon lives in fear of the three tine fork.

Sheldon: Three tines is not a fork. Three tines is a trident. Forks are for eating. Tridents are for ruling the seven seas.

Page 56

Page 56 Rules: * Grab the book nearest you. Right now. * Turn to page 56. * Find the fifth sentence. * Post that sentence along with these instructions in a note to your wall. * Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.  

He had gone so far so to steal a staple remover from an untended desk at church and then incorporate it into an Erector-set robot hunter-killer device with which he terrorized much of the neighborhood; its pit-viper yawn separated many a cheap plastic toy from its parts and accessories before the theft was discovered and Randy made an example of before God and man.  

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

wiggitty (sp?)

It is so good to have graphic designers as friends.