Kleppy's Profile

While I know it's not impervious, I'm glad my Samsung has "Silver Care". Our machine is generally funk free because we use the silver care mode often and we let the interior dry between loads.

Occasionally a load gets left in for too long but another run of the machine with the silver care and things are back to normal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver#Medical
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_uses_of_silver

My wife washed her medical scrubs in it as well and mentioned that her hospital is now using silver infused bed sheets for certain patients.

While there is a version for both iPad and Android, I've found the www.OpenRemote.org software to be a very interesting. We are trying to replace the universal remotes in the rooms at my work.

The requirements are a TCP/IP IR device (that gets the IR signals sent to it by the server/application - iTach from Global Cache is what I'm using)

A "server" that must always be on and running

Mobile device

It requires some elbow grease and would be daunting ( though not impossible) for the uncommitted. But don't be scared. Once you get it working it's quite AWESOME. I've got a working proof of concept pulling everything out of the box and downloading the software to a fully functional remote in 4 hours...

I have not but I did find one review on the B3 website.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?sku=40273693&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=CMmLgIDEirMCFa5QOgod0wsADQ

I have both. I use my phone but sometimes the real clock gets used as a backup for the Do-or-Die times that I HAVE to be up "on time".

@SEAMUSDUBH

I am familiar with it, just as an android user.... never used it. I have used little camera.

I had a great debate about CAMERAS vs devices that HAD a "camera" in them and the "photography" behind them both. I finally conceded with myself when I got a new phone and took am 8MP photo, ran it thru Little Camera and came out with an image that otherwise would have taken me an hour using a tradiotional DSLR and photoshop.

IMO a lens is like a woman. Each lens has it's own features, it's strengths, weaknesses, but in the end, they all have dials, knobs, switches and if you can't figure it out you ruin the big picture.

That said, you have to understand the WHAT of the lens's features before you can understand the WHY. If you don't know the difference between an F-stop, shutter speed, focal length and it's effects on the scene in front of you IE a zoom lens is usually f/3.5 at shortest focal length but drops to f/5.6 at full zoom and if you are shooting in manual, do you know what changes to make to compensate for what the lens just did and how each change has it's own set of effects in the outcome of the picture.

Don't forget about Crop sensor vs. Full frame. If you buy a Crop body and then switch to a Full body, prepare to start over with a few lenses. Most are designated with a "Designed For"

You like taking pictures of the outdoors 8mm-24mm - fields, mountains sparse forest/woods get a low mm lens so you can take it all in. Wide lenses are great for tight spaces too. Cost: $$$ - $$$$$

Midrange 20mm-75mm. Going somewhere that will have you close (but not too close) at times and 10 yards away the next? Get something in this range. There are a tone of options and for many people, this is a "Go To" range. You'll notice many kit lenses are 18mm-60mm for this reason.
Cost: $$$ - $$$$$

"Hello from ___somewhere-ville____!" 75-300mm These are the ones you own because you know there are times you won't be anywhere near what it is you are trying to capture, like a Lion at the zoo or in the crowd for a child's concert/dance/play/etc. "IS" or Image Stabilization is a very handy feature to have on long lenses because you WILL jitter while holding this camera/lens combo and if you aren't able to get a brightly lit environment, say hello to motion blur (smudged subjects)!
Cost: $$ - $$$$$

Notables:

"Nifty-Fifty" 50mm prime in f/1.4 or f/1.8 Forgiving f-stop, lightweight, compact, SHARP, CHEAP $ while sturdily built. this is a great lens to play with. It teaches you to zoom with your feet. People forget that is an option with zoom lenses still.

85 (+/-)mm f/2.8 - That is a good portrait lens. Sharp, excellent bokeh.

You may have noticed these last two are fixed focal length and prime to boot. GENERALLY, lenses that lack either zoom or are prime TEND to be sharper than those that have one or both features. There are exceptions as correlation does not mean causation.

For the Canon people you'll find an "L" series lens will TEND be one of the best options for a lens but you'll also find a hefty price tag attached.

For Nikon you'll find Nikkor series lenses to be some of the best options for you. Just like the "L" glass, check the tag first before you drool on it.

Sigma, Tamron also make MANY quality lenses. I own one from both of them, my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 RARELY leaves the body of my camera.

And the last point that could cause quite a ruckus:
A lens will have more impact on your shots than a body every will.

Given the cost of LEGOs these days.....

@Schang ...and your post is of even lesser value.

This isn't a "how-to". It's not a "all about..." article.

It's a primer to get people into understanding what they are and just how they can assist them in managing their digital domain. Being an owner of a NAS, a file/web/email server, and understanding the technology and it's uses, I feel that there is enough information here to get someone pointed in the direction they need to research ON THEIR OWN about the details of these devices and the technical details about them.

It also opens the door to reusing that "old PC" to do the exact same thing but on a slightly easier, less technical level, (IMO) because creating a share on a windows machine is not very difficult. Setting up a redundant RAID NAS is not something I would expect most people to do, it's something I would expect most people to call me, their "techy friend" and have it setup for them. Count how many friends you know who don't know much about computers but would understand why a static IP is a good idea for your NAS/Server.