The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

Author: eajhnsn1

  • Digital Camera

    Several months ago now, I purchased a Canon Powershot A510 for use in astronomy. I selected it because of its Manual mode which allows me to control most everything about the camera. Overall, I’ve been very happy with its astrophoto capabilities, as can be seen in my photo gallery.

    I have since started using the Canon over my other camera, a 4.1 MP Sony, for regular everyday use. The color on the Canon is significantly better and that outweighs the resolution difference. The canon has really been an awesome camera, but I have noticed one problem with it that really bugs me. The red-eye reduction on it stinks. I have more pictures that have demon-eyes than I ever have. I never had a problem with the Sony in this area. Very frustrating!

    That’ll just push me more and more toward the DSLR I really want 🙂

  • Upgrade

    Took a little time today to upgrade the blog to the new WordPress 2. I wonder if my spam problems will improve at all…

  • More Orb

    Along with my site move, I took time today to package up my Ambient Orb Service code along with a brief explanation of how to write custom data providers. Hopefully someone else will find my code as useful as I have found it, as demonstrated by the Clear Sky OrbProvider I have been using for a few months now.

    Source is available too!

  • www.ejinnovations.com

    I finally took some time today to really start the move to a Plone powered website. The old www.ejinnovations.com is no more.

    Ideally I’d like to learn a little python so I can pull my blog posts from WordPress and have them displayed in Plone. We’ll see if I get around to it.

  • Busy Day(s)

    Ana and I have taken this week off, something we’ve wanted to do in the past but never gotten around to. Well, so far it has been move-move-move. Yesterday it was going to several stores to cash in some of our gift certificates, followed by an evening dinner with our highschool physics teacher Mrs. Langford and her husband Dr. Langford. We had a very pleasant evening, and ended up talking with them until we left around 10:30pm.

    Today it was running all over town getting me an eye exam and new glasses.

    I now have 2 new pairs of glasses – one regular, one Rx sunglasses – and a third pair ordered for playing recquetball (also Rx). It had been a few years since my last eye exam and my prescription only changed a little bit, but I can see noticably better now. Who’da thought!

    Tonight (in probably 15 minutes) we’re heading over to Ana’s family’s for yet another holiday party. It’ll be fine I’m sure, but we’re just a little worn out.

    That’s it from the Johnson household…

  • Mouse and Keyboard

    I now have a new mouse and keyboard, and they are awesome! The keyboard is the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and it’s definitely the most comfortable keyboard I’ve ever used. It’s unique for several reasons: the comfortable curve in addition to the “natural” style of keyboard; great key action; comfortable, padded wrist wrest built-in; and reverse tilt. This one is for home, but I know I’m going to end up getting on for work too.

    The mouse is the Wireless Optical Mouse 5000. There’s not a whole lot interesting with the mouse, other than it’s a lot smoother than my previous first generation optical mouse. When I picked it up today, I really wasn’t expecting a better feel, but I sure was wrong.

    If you’re in the need, these two products are definitely worth the money. Particularly the keyboard.

  • Merry Christmas

    Merry Christmas everyone! Ana and I hope that you all have a great holiday season, and may your travels be safe.

  • TiVo

    My parents recently gave me their Tivo since they were switching to Insight’s DVR. I’m already using Insight’s as well (dual HD tuner) so I don’t need the Tivo for its recording capabilities. Instead, I have installed Galleon and now have mp3s, among other things, in my family room.

    The introduction of yet another device into the entertainment center finally forced me to spend some time really configuring the remote I purchased a few years ago. We now have everything driven from the one remote, with macro buttons to quickly do things like watch a dvd, watch cable, and listen to music.

  • Oops!

    A couple days ago, in an effort to clean out some of the comment spam my blog has been experiencing I deleted quite a few comments and accidently took a few legitamate ones with them. Sorry Scott, I know at least one of yours was accidently wiped out.

  • Holidays

    Following David’s lead, Happy Holidays everyone.

    We have also been able to get our house decorated.
    decorations