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Review of Nikon Coolpix L110 digital camera

September 6, 2010 By Michael R Erb Leave a Comment
Nikon Coolpix L110 digital camera

Nikon Coolpix L110

Several months ago I purchased the Nikon Coolpix L110 camera. Since then I’ve taken thousands of photos and hundreds of videos with the camera. It has proven to be quite a capable camera in its price range with many strengths and few weaknesses.

Specifically regarding strengths of this camera, the Macro mode is fantastic. If you enjoy taking close-up photos of flowers, bugs, fine detail of artwork, etc, you will enjoy this camera as it takes excellent macro photographs and allows you to get extremely close to your subject. The L110 also has an amazing 15x optical zoom. A 15x zoom is equivalent to a 420mm lens and this lets you really zoom in tightly which makes it great for wildlife photography, travel, sports and nature photography. Image stabilization helps you get those zoomed shots by helping reduce hand-held camera shake. Don’t forget to turn off image stabilization if you are using a tripod. Image stabilization is only to be used when hand-holding the camera.

THE 720p HD video capture of the L110 is surprisingly good. While most camcorders in the under $300 price range only provide mediocre at best still photography capabilities, the L110 which provides excellent still photographs also produces excellent HD video. The larger form factor of the L110 makes taking videos a lot easier too compared to holding a smaller camcorder.

On the not so great side the L110 audio quality leaves a lot to be desired. And low light performance, particularly video, is not very good. In low-light situations you will see a lot of graininess in the video and the frame rate seems to drop as well. Still photography is possible in lower light situations since the camera does have a flash. But if you are looking for manual control of your camera’s aperture, shutter and ISO, you will be disappointed in the L110 as there is little manual control available.

I’ve posted a fairly complete review of the L110 on Amazon. If you read my review on Amazon, be sure you also read the comments as many people have asked questions that I’ve attempted to answer as best I can. A lot of information not in the review is presented in the comments. I have also produced this hands-on video review.

Here are some representative photos taken with the Nikon Coolpix L110…

Filed Under: Featured, Product Reviews, Video Reviews

Review of CMS Made Simple 1.6 by Sofia Hauschildt

April 21, 2010 By Michael R Erb 3 Comments

I’ve been absorbing the most excellent book on CMS Made Simple published by Packt Publishing. Written by Sofia Hauschildt, a tutor, consultant and programmer, CMS Made Simple 1.6 is a beginners guide to learning the basics and so much more of CMS Made Simple, an open-source, content management application.

I first started using CMS Made Simple to build web sites about 5 years ago. I have also used WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, RapidWeaver and hand-coding to build websites. But CMS Made Simple is one of my favorite tools to use because you can get started with it very easily and produce a great website without knowing much about what goes on behind the scenes. Documentation has always been hard to come by though. The wiki and user forums are the best places to visit to glean information and ask questions. But the developers have clearly stated that CMS Made Simple is geared to web developers and not so much to neophytes who need a lot of hand-holding and who need relatively basic questions answered.

CMS Made Simple 1.6 is the book that neophytes need. It takes a very measured and slowly paced approach in presenting small doses of information to enable almost anyone to get the CMS installed and operating in no time at all. This is done as a ‘case study” whereby you build a CMS Made Simple website with a capable tutor by your side… Sofia Haushildt.

The methodology used in this book is straightforward and effective. You are told what you will be doing, you are guided through the process of doing it, then you are told what you just did. It is this repetition of information that facilitates the learning process, especially for block-heads like me. I learn best when I am able to observe someone doing something then doing it myself. That is exactly what this book does… it teaches you by doing. There are ample screenshots at every step of the journey to further illuminate the tasks. Furthermore, there are quizzes that test your comprehension of the material covered. If you diligently follow through in a linear fashion, you will learn all the basics and so much more of how CMS Made Simple can be used to build a great web site.

I was particularly impressed with the aplomb in which Sofia approached Smarty. Smarty is the template engine used by CMS Made Simple. Without an understanding of what Smarty is and how it works in your templates and pages, you would be at a huge disadvantage when approaching a web design project. Her treatment of the subject leaves you with a very good understanding how Smarty functions and gives you many ideas of how you can use Smarty tags to simplify site design by harnessing the power of Smarty.

As you continue through the book you are gently guided into more advanced topics and taught how to incorporate various features into your website such as form pages, inserting YouTube videos onto pages, learning how menus and sub-menus work and are displayed and so much more.

There is an excellent discussion of how just about any web template can be converted to work with CMS Made Simple and it is surprisingly easy when you apply what you learned about Smarty tags to that task. You also learn how to build a template from scratch as well as how to import templates obtained from other sources.

Many code snippets are presented in the book. Unfortunately the book does not include a CD containing code snippets by chapter. But the publishers website has all the code available for download in a zip file so that is a big help since it obviates the need to tediously type error free code from the book.

If you want to learn CMS Made Simple, get this book. It’s as simple as that. What you learn in these pages will save you hours of frustration and question asking in forums. This is arguably the best introduction to CMS Made Simple that you will find. The book is not just for beginners either. People who have been developing web sites with CMS Made Simple already may likely find valuable tips and information that they did not previously know. This book is not a reference book on CMS Made Simple however, so if you are looking for a comprehensive reference book, this will not satisfy that need. In spite of that though it actually is quite comprehensive in that it does cover every important area of using CMS Made Simple in a really well written way. Sofia writes clearly and in a very straightforward, uncomplicated way. I have shelves of computer books and this is what I would consider a top-shelf book.

I’d like to give a plug to CMS Made Simple as well. I know that WordPress is all the rage. I build many sites using WordPress myself. But if you are not building a blog-centric site, WordPress is not always the best way to approach building a page-based website. CMS Made Simple is a worthy consideration. It is very easy to learn and use. It is under continual development and has an active user forum. I like it a lot and it is so much easier to get your head around than Joomla, Drupal and other CMS’s. Check it out and see for yourself.

Now if you’ll excuse me,  I need to try and persuade Sofia Hauschildt into writing a book about Magento…

Filed Under: Book Reviews, CMS Made Simple, Featured, Product Reviews Tagged With: , ,

Preview of CMS Made Simple 1.6 – Beginners Guide

March 29, 2010 By Michael R Erb Leave a Comment

I’ve just received the book, CMS Made Simple 1.6 – Beginners Guide and will be doing a full review of it soon. In the meantime I just wanted to give a brief overview of the book, of which I have high expectations. I’ve been using CMS Made Simple to make web sites for over 4 years. It is very competent CMS but there has been a real lack of documentation. Even the CMS Made Simple website lacks complete documentation so I was very happy to hear that a beginner’s guide had recently been published.

The book takes a “case study” approach which is actually a very good way to present the information you would need to build a site using CMS Made Simple. I’ve only skimmed through the book but have already gained a fairly good appreciation for the approach the author takes.

Stay tuned for my complete review that will be forthcoming.

You may also visit the Packt Publishing website to see more of this book including a sample chapter.


Filed Under: Book Reviews, CMS Made Simple, Product Reviews Tagged With: , ,

Review of WordPress Bible by Aaron Brazell

February 3, 2010 By Michael R Erb Leave a Comment

WordPress Bible
Attempting to write a book about WordPress must be a daunting task since the WordPress development team tirelessly keeps moving the platform forward and is always adding powerful new features. Write a book today and parts of it will be out of date within a few months. That’s why if you’re going to write a book on WordPress, it might be a good idea to include as your Technical Editor someone who is actually a lead developer with the WordPress project. Wisely, Aaron Brazell did just that in choosing Mark Jaquith as the Technical Editor for the WordPress Bible which lends amazing credibility to the pages in this book.

I have been working with WordPress for a number of years and have produced over 2-dozen client websites using WP. My learning curve included spending lots of time in the WP forums (least productive), reading the WP Codex (more productive) and just getting my hands dirty by experimenting and building (most productive). I’ve been patiently waiting for the day that a book would be written for WordPress developers that goes way beyond the “Idiot” books out there. I wanted a book that was easy to understand but got into the deep stuff instead of just the superficial topics that most of the available books cover. My day has arrived because WordPress Bible is the book I’ve been waiting for.

The author, Aaron Brazell, has an excellent writing style that does not require you to have a degree in computer sciences to understand. This book will take a beginner and lead him through advanced topics with ease. However an advanced developer will also be enlightened and surprised by the depth of material covered and the breadth of topics included in this volume.

The book is organized by Parts and Chapters. Each “Part” contains chapters of related material. As an example, Part 2 is about Working with Plugins and contains chapters dealing with Extending WordPress with Plugins, Widgetizing WordPress, Understanding the WordPress Database Class and Dissecting the Loop and WP_Query.

WordPress Hooks are perhaps the single most important reason that WordPress is so extendable. The author goes into great detail about hooks and includes a reference to WordPress hooks in the appendix.

Computer books can frequently be written by knowledgeable people who are simply unable to convey their expertise on a subject in understandable terms. Aaron Brazell is an knowledgeable person who writes very well and does not suffer that weakness. The WordPress Bible is a joy to read and after having done so, you will have a deep understanding of everything WordPress.

I have many dozens of computer books on my shelves most of which have been agonizing to read. This book is one that is at the top of the pile both in readability but also in the value of information contained. If you work with WordPress, you won’t regret buying this book. It’s an amazingly complete resource.

The WordPress Bible is available from Amazon.

Filed Under: Product Reviews, WordPress Tutorials Tagged With:

Sylvania Light Flute – LED task light

February 3, 2010 By Michael R Erb 11 Comments

Sylvania light fluteOsram Sylvania Products Inc 72261 Led Light Flute – SilverWhile strolling the aisles of BJ’s the other day, I discovered this great LED task light called the Light Flute. It’s made by Sylvania and it is just one of the coolest LED lights I”ve seen. What makes it so great is its overall design and functionality.

The case of the light is made of anodized aluminum which is light and strong. It feels very sturdy and the end-cap unscrews to reveal the 3-AAA batteries that power 4-white LED lights. The innovative mounting base allows for several different mounting options… magnetic, adhesive and screw mounting.

The slender light is 8.5″ long and about the diameter of your little finger. It can be mounted just about anywhere and is great for mounting under your desk when trying to re-route cables. It could also be used as emergency lighting, as an under-counter light, closet lighting… the list could go on and on.

The Light Flutes were sold as packs of 2 for about $17 at BJ’s and are also available from Amazon.com.

I haven’t had them long enough to comment on how long the batteries will last, but LED lights are generally pretty efficient so I would expect a minimum of 10-12 hours of continuous light and perhaps much more. I’ll update this post once I have a better idea of battery life.

UPDATE: Several people have told me that they can’t figure out how to remove the cap in order to replace the batteries. I”ve made a short tutorial to demonstrate how to remove the cap. Here is a video of how to remove the end cap of the Sylvania Light Flute.

Filed Under: Featured, Gadgets, Product Reviews, Video Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Apple iPad – Revolutionary, Evolutionary or Neither?

January 28, 2010 By Michael R Erb 1 Comment

After months of speculation, leaked information, mostly fake photos, incorrect guesses and prognostications, Apple finally and officially announced the product that had been rumored for so long, the iPad.

Apple clearly spent way more time developing the product than developing the name… the iPad? Sounds like a feminine hygiene product and I’m not the only one who thinks that way either. Maybe the 64GB version should be called the maxi-Pad? Good one Steve. Really did your research didn’t you. Mmmmm, maybe not. If you visit YouTube, you will find a skit by MadTV that lampoons Apple. It’s not quite as funny as a skit featured on The Onion, but it is so relevant since it pokes fun at the name “iPad”. Just take a look at this…

I watched and listened with eager anticipation along with thousands of others as Steve Jobs unveiled the object of his obsession. The setting for the presentation was clearly meant to portray a non-threatening scene. Just a large leather chair and a table were on stage and Jobs was seated comfortably while using and demonstrating the iPad.

I won’t go into all the detail of the device as that is readily available just about everywhere on the Internet. Instead I’ll summarize my opinion of the device in just a few words then go into greater depth.

The iPad is a larger iPod Touch.

That’s it. Have a great day.

But seriously, what has been on the burner for so long, to me, turned out to be a huge disappointment. As the presentation progressed, I kept waiting for the killer new features to be announced. They never were announced. There were no killer new features. The iPad uses largely the same multi-touch gestures that the iPod Touch and iPhone use. The iPad reorients the screen as the device is turned, just like the Touch and iPhone. The iPad includes a microphone but no camera. NO CAMERA! What? How could you not include a camera on this device? I don’t get it.

I love my iPod Touch. It is small yet so powerful. It does virtually everything the iPad can do but fits in my pants pocket. The iPad, with its 9.3″ screen, is much larger, much heavier (than the iPod Touch) and certainly not as convenient to just bring along with you as the Touch or iPhone. And make no mistake, the iPad is not a phone either.

Pricing for the iPad starts at $499.

16GB 32GB 64GB
Wi-Fi $499 $599 $699
Wi-Fi + 3G $629 $729 $829

Pricing is good and so is the pricing for the 3G plans. Either $14.99/month for the 250MB data plan or $29.99/month for the unlimited data plan. That is aggressive pricing, especially for the unlimited data plan. But keep in mind that the iPad also has WiFi so you’d probably be able to use that much of the time. But remember, the iPad is not a phone. So if you’re comparing the monthly cost to the iPhone, this is less expensive, but you get no phone. With AT&T’s massive problems delivering reliable data delivery on their existing network, it is anybody’s guess as to whether or not the additional burden of the unlimited data plan will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

At the $499 entry point, it provides a good value especially when you compare it to the tricked out iPod Touch. A 64GB iPod Touch will set you back $399. For $100 more you can get the 16GB WiFi enabled iPad. Less memory, but much larger screen and all the benefits that come with it. As an eBook reader, it’s going to be nice. Well maybe not so nice outdoors though. The shiny glass surface will create glare and it’s still using LCD technology which will get washed out in bright sun, unlike the Kindle that uses E Ink technology. And as an eBook reader, is 10 hours of battery life really going to be enough? The Kindle can go days and even up to 2 weeks (if you have WiFi turned off) so as an eBook reader, 10 hours is paltry at best.

This is a perplexing device. As an eBook reader, it falls down in several areas. The battery life, while good for a laptop type of device is OK, but as a dedicated eBook reader, it’s not good at all. The color screen, while gorgeous to look at, will have glare issues and won’t be very good in bright sunlight whereas the Kindle is great outdoors.

Apple iPad Keyboard Dock

Apple iPad Keyboard Dock

As a laptop replacement it falls down too. It has no real keyboard although an optional keyboard/stand will be available. Do you really want to carry along an add-on keyboard? I don’t. Do you really want to do serious typing on a hard glass surface? I don’t. It has no DVD/CD player. It has no user replaceable battery. It can’t run “normal” applications that you would be accustomed to running on a laptop… no Microsoft Office, for instance. It doesn’t do Flash so lots of websites will break on the iPad.

As a netbook replacement it may be good alternative. In fact, if you are considering a netbook, the iPad would be a great choice. It will be excellent at surfing the net (keep in mind the lack of Flash though). It will be a great way to share photos and view movies and other streaming content. But it has no camera so you won’t be able to video chat or snap photos. How on earth could Apple not include a camera on this thing? It boggles my mind.

I’m so conflicted with the iPad. Sure it’s got a coolness factor to it, but so did the original iMac and look how dorky that thing looks now. This then is the brilliance of Steve Jobs and Apple. Make something. Build up the buzz. Make it look pretty or talk us into thinking it looks pretty and that we absolutely must have it or we will be losers. Then a year or two later, make the next thing that makes the previously cool thing look ridiculous… like how could I have ever bought that in the first place when the “new” thing is sooooo much cooler.

I’ve recently purchased an HP dm3-1030US ultra-portable laptop. I love it. It’s light. It’s got a great display and decent battery life. It lets me install whatever apps I want and it does everything I need. It’s very attractive… it has a cool factor to it. It has a keyboard. It has gobs of RAM and a huge hard drive. I also have an iPod Touch that I also love. In fact I use the Touch almost as much as the laptop, especially when traveling. It can do a lot for such a small device. Why do I need an iPad? I don’t.

Had the iPad broken out of the mold and really had something killer about it, I might consider buying one. But as it is right now, I see nothing compelling about it. It’s a big iPod Touch as far as I’m concerned and I don’t need to buy another, larger, iPod Touch. If you’re not someone who has a laptop or Touch or iPhone, this may be attractive. But for many people who already have several ways to access the Internet, this is just another gadget that takes up space. The omission of a camera is perhaps for me the biggest reason I’d not consider this device.

It can’t replace my laptop, I already have a capable iPod Touch. I prefer real books to eReaders. It doesn’t have a camera. It can’t display Flash. Thanks Steve, but I’ll pass on this one.

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Filed Under: Featured, Product Reviews
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