Thursday, June 24, 2010

What Do I Do With All The Pics Shot With My New Camera?

Photos from my newish digital camera have taken up residence on Flickr,  a wonderful, photo sharing site on Yahoo. Currently 2000+ of my pics reside there, mostly because I have been putting every photo I take on Flickr as a sort of online backup. And because, often, I can't see what I have (at least not well) until I've uploaded to Flickr.

Maybe someday I'll cull the less than wonderful specimens from my Flickr photo stream.

Changes are underway that should make for an even better experience

See - Tech Crunch.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

An Interesting Feature of This Blog

Sometimes I wonder if it is worth my time to add labels to my posts as I write mostly for myself. Today, just for fun, I clicked on one of my blog labels. To my great surprise and delight, every post labeled with that particular label was before me on my screen.

Now to try it elsewhere..

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Estes Kefauver

An interesting read ...... I discovered Estes Kefauver delivering a message about organized crime, at the end of a classic film noir, The Captive City, .My movie-watching companion is old enough to remember when Estes Kefauver served as a United States Senator from Tennessee. Kefauver was a contemporary of Al Gore, Sr and Lyndon Johnson. He seems to have been an independent man of conscience.

We could use some of Kefauver's anit-trust/anti-monopoly fervor today.

The Captive City, 1952 movie poster

The Captive City, from Wise Films, this review also discusses photographic technique

The Captive City, from Where Danger Lives Blogspot

The Captive City, from Wikipedia

The Captive City, from Movie Mirrors

The Captive City, from IMDb

The Captive City, from TV-Guide

Robert Wise Biography, from AOL Television

See also, This TV  (where I came across this movie)

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Just Saying, "Hello"

I recently acquired a new cell phone from T-Mobile .... Motorola CLIQ .... . The purchase of this phone was brought about by the death of a cute little cell (also from Motorola) I had managed to keep alive for six years (buying it new batteries every two years or so).

Truth is, I liked my old cell better. It's difficult to use everything the CLIQ has to offer without running the battery down way too quickly. When I called T-Mobile for assistance, the suggestion was to use a less than maximum quality setting for photos, to run fewer apps, and to disable the wi-fi.What's the point of having so many features, if I don't use them!?!

And much to my dismay, for some inexplicable reason, the CLIQ turns itself off, without warning, when I am trying to take/save/share a photo or video (and the photo or video vanishes forever). So far, I haven't figured out why. Sometimes it works wonderfully well and other times it does not work at all! One of the principle reasons for buying this phone, was for the camera. I love to send photos off to whoever and wherever as soon as I take the photo. However, I have found that when traveling, the photos do not always go right away (if at all) to where I'd like them to be.

T-Mobile coverage is excellent in big cities but works less well and sometimes not at all in other locales. So not the best service to have when traveling. I find myself pulling out my i-Pod and my MiFi (Verizon provides excellent coverage).

Having said all of the above, I just found a fun feature on my Motorola CLIQ. There is a factory installed app simply labeled, "Voice Search". A simple tap yielded, "Speak Now".

And so I found myself just saying, "Hello".

(My "Hello" produced a page of Google listings for "Hello" beginning with Hello Magazine.)

Update 6/14/2010 - Dropped by Costco today to pick up some HP printer ink. The wireless cell kiosk is located at the end of the aisle. A young salesman asked if I was ready for a new phone. I replied that, unfortunately, I already had a new phone. He asked what I didn't like about it. And I shared my battery woes. He grabbed my cell and added a free app called Advanced Task Killer. Then he turned down the light on my screen and removed most of the apps from my screen. I kept the messages window on top so as not to miss text messages sent directly to my cell. I can check the other functions ---- email, Facebook, etc manually.

He keeps his phone on Battery Saver Mode all the time. However, some of the functions don't function on Battery Saver Mode. I have the phone on Performance Mode when I am trying to take and save pics. There is also a Smart Mode.

He showed me how to use the touch screen to take my apps up and down. Clearly, I need to read the directions or spend more time at Costco.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Movie - City Island

See - City Island

Also - Share Your Secret

We all have secrets - What a relief when we feel safe enough with someone to share our secrets. Too bad many of us have to pay someone to listen.

I am reminded of one of the Crocodile Dundee movies. The male lead is talking with the female lead. She says something about going to see a counselor of one type or another. He asks if she is crazy and she says that she just needs someone to listen to her problems. Crocodile Dundee asks if she doesn't have any "mates" as he just tells his problems to his "mates" and they straighten him right out!