It's the best, mainly because it's terrible. It's a montage of several unboxing videos of the Google Nexus phone/tablet thinghy. I guess I would have thrown the entire box + contents out of the window. Google can learn a lot from other companies like; Nikon, Canon, Leica, Apple... Hell, even the shrink wrap on Microsoft products are easier to remove. Unboxing is an integral part of the new gadget/thinghy experience nowadays.
Posts filed under Hardware
A (slightly biased) review of the Samsung Galaxy S2 Phone
My employer decided to give its employees new smartphones. Mostly because we've been begging for them the last couple of years. Unfortunately, not the one(s) we (or perhaps I) have been asking for.
In my line of work I come across customers with wireless networks that need (some sort of) security in place. The only real question I get during those projects is; "Will it work with an iPhone or an iPad?" In my entire career, I haven't had a single question of that kind regarding Android or Windows Mobile phones.... There's no denying it; the iOS devices from Apple are huge. Even in the corporate market.
So, no corporate iOS device for me. Instead, they shipped the Samsung Galaxy S2 (listed as iPhone look-a-like) to me.
Install KatzEye Focusing Screen in Nikon D300
Focussing manually has it's advantages. First, the number of potential lenses for your body sky-rockets. There are numerous old and new extraordinary good MANUAL FOCUS lenses available for the modern DSLR. Examples are lenses by Voigtlander, Carl Zeiss, and the old Nikon (Ai-S) lenses. The problem is that most of the modern cameras lack a decent (visual) indicator for when your object is in focus. My Nikon D300 has a small indicator (a dot) in the viewfinder which notifies you when you've got focus. But when you shoot with large apertures (e.g. f/2, f/1.8, f/1.4 or f/1.2) on MF lenses you have to keep track of your composition (through the viewfinder), and watch the 'in-focus' indicator. Something I find very hard to do. I allways seem to miss at least one of them. Missing composition is easy to fix in post-processing, but fixing focus can't be done.
Thankfully, there's a solution to this problem; Katz Eye Optics. These guys offer old-skool focusing screens for the modern digital SLR's. All you have to do is replace the focusing screen with theirs. You can do this yourself, or your camera brand service-center should be able to do it for you (at additional cost). I did it myself though, and ran into a problem (of course). But more on that later...
Configure SSL Certificate for Juniper J-Web Interface
By default, the J-Web interface (GUI for the Juniper SRX firewalls) has SSL enabled. Like most devices with SSL out-of-the-box, the protection is based on a self-signed certificate. Self-signed certificates are easy (they come basically out-of-the-box), but they tend to nag you every time you connect to the GUI. So, it's time to install a proper certificate.
In this case, I use the XCA (1) software to create a new certificate. This certificate is signed by my own root CA, which I installed on all of my devices and Operating Systems. Basically, I trust myself.....
According to the Juniper support pages on SSL certificate usage, I found out that the certificates are to be in the PEM format. No problem for XCA.
AVN Fritzbox and the 'Exposed Host' Setting
The Fritzbox 7340 is the only real available VDSL modem/router in the Netherlands. Too bad, since it has some bugs (but what piece of software hasn't???). Fortunately, the router works well, just as long as you use it as the only networking device in your (small) network.
In the last couple of days I've been busy to add the Juniper SRX100 branch firewall to my local home network. The idea was the following:
- The Fritzbox (FB) will remain the Internet router
- My web/mail/ssh server is placed behind the SRX100
- All the individual portforward rules in the Fritzbox are directed to the SRX100 by selecting the 'Exposed Host' in the FB.
Enable Juniper SRX Firewall Logging
Juniper started to migrate their firewalls from Netscreen to the Junos environment 'a couple of' months back. The advantage is that there's a universal OS for routers, switches and firewalls. Just like Cisco IOS. The disadvantage is that the Junos OS is being adapted for the firewalls. So the foundations are there, but there are still lots of features missing and bugs are also still abundant.
The bugs are thankfully mostly related to the WebGUI. On the commandlinethe bugs are in the same league as the Cisco, Checkpoint and every other vendor bugs. No piece of software is perfect.
Nikon P7000 Review
;)
Nikon Coolpix P7000Some of the readers may know that I used the Panasonic Lumix LX3 as a backup/compact camera for the times a dSLR isn't welcome (or practical). One of the places where a dSLR isn't welcome is your average (pop)concert. The Lumix LX3 was (and still is) an excellent compact camera with astonishing low-light capabilities. The only problem I had with the camera was that the zoom function only went to 60mm (35mm equivalent), and 60mm is a bit short when you're not standing directly in front of the podium....
Dell U2711 27" Monitor Review
;)
Dell U2711 MonitorThanks to some fortunate circumstances I've been able to get a new 27 inch monitor; The Dell U2711 Ultrasharp PremiumColor.
I was in need of a new monitor, since my old 24" Dell 2407WFP has some problems generating proper colors. Something which is quite important when fooling around with photographs on a computer. Another reason is that my the screen wouldn't work 'properly' with my new 27" iMac.
The 27"-er has a whopping resolution of 2560 x 1440 (WQHD), which is 'slightly more' than your average monitor. This monitor has an IPS panel, which is much better in rendering true colors than the old TN display.
The desktop real-estate is enormous (the same as the 27" iMac). Only problem so far is that my mobile devices aren't capable of using the full capacity of this display. Both my MacBook and Windows 7 Dell E6500 (work laptop) only go as high as 1920 x 1200. So I either have have some black borders, or I have to settle for a stretched screen. In both cases; the image is still extremely good. The display will be used as a second display on my 27" iMac.
Windows Phone 7 Series
Windows Phone 7 SeriesMicrosoft will be shipping a new phone operating system this year. After the Windows Mobile brand, they're switching to an alternate name; Windows Phone 7 Series. And obviously, with a new name comes a new website; http://www.windowsphone7series.com.
I can't really see why they keep bothering trying to access the phone market. Every single Windows Mobile (or Windows CE as it was called in the old days) device I've owned crashed more frequently than the 'good old' Windows Millennium Edition on an average Sunday. I can't count the number of times that I received a phonecall while doing something else (e.g. playing solitaire, or reading e-mail) and that the call finally went to voicemail. Why? because the phone froze, crashed, or answer button was unresponsive.
New Fast Nikon 24mm Lens
;)
Nikon 24mm f/1.4G EDNikon is catching up with Canon in regards to the (really) fast prime lenses. They announced a new 24mm f/1.4G ED (link to the techpart)wide-angle lens today. This new lens makes it possible to do low-light photography with a maximum aperture of 1.4. Especially when you're shooting with a low-light monster like the Nikon D700 or D3(x/s).
The lens should also give you a nice depth of field (DoF) when shooting wide open, and being relatively close to your subject. We all know that wide-angle lenses tend to have a large DoF due to wide-angle optic characteristics (et voila).