Geotagging Pictures under Linux

How to batch geotag photos on Linux machine?
Firs you need to get the track log from your GPS device. I use "gpsbabel" with GUI (gpsbabel -t -i garmin -f usb: -o gpx -F /home/your_login/your_path/route.gpx).
Than I use "gpscorrelate-gui". Only you need is pick the track (in .gpx format) and pictures you need to geotag. Don't forget entering correct time-offset (based on timezone) and calculate day-light-saving! And push "Correlate Photos".
Easy like that.

HP tx2510us - Tablet PC under $1000

HP Pavilion tx2510us 12.1" Touch-screen Entertainment Laptop 

• AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80
  
• 250GB hard drive
  
• Built-in wireless 802.11abgn
  
• 3GB of DDR2 memory
  
• Burns DVDs and CDs
  
• Fingerprint reader
  

Another Movie: History of Violence (2005)

I've just seen pretty good movie History of Violence.
Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, and others.
My rating: 7 of 10 strs.

TodayAgenda version 1.0

Today I upgraded on TodayAgenda 1.0. I use only two plugins on my Home Screen of my HTC P3300 (running on WM6): HTC Home, and TadayAgenda.
TodayAgenda is really good piece of software and it's free.
The only feature I miss is Tasks filtering by priority. I like to show only the High priority tasks...

Sport Watch - SUUNTO T3

SUUNTO T3 - Heart Rate Monitor

Very nice sport watch monitoring your heart rate and managing your training. Comming with Suunto ANT Belt (Heart Rate Sezor). Optional accessories:

• Suunto Bike POD
• Suunto GPS POD
• Suunto PC POD
• Suunto Team POD
• Suunto Foot POD
• Suunto Road Bike POD

Another Compact Digital Camera - Canon PowerShot A640

Who wants to spend more than $200 but less than $300 should think about Canon PowerShot A640.

Basic features:

• 10 MPix Resolution
• 4 x optical zoom (35-140mm equivalent of 35mm film)
• Manual mode, Aperture Priority mode, Shutter Priority mode
• 4 AA Bateries, folding display
• dimensions 109x66x49 mm
• approx. price $290

XnView Pocket - The Best Picture Viewer

In my opinion the XnView Pocket is the best picture viewer for Windows Mobile 6. I run it on my HTC Artemis. If anyone need some help or have a suggestion here is forum.

Ubuntu 7.04

I'm running Ubuntu 7.04 for first time. I have booted from CD so it's not fast enough loading applications but I like it.
The system recognized all my hardware. I can connect to the Internet with no additional settings. So I'm satisfied so far.

Connecting WM6 device to Windows XP computer via Bluetooth

Reading this thread I decided to compose a quick How-To about BT ActiveSync synchronization WM6 device with Windows XP pomputer.

WinXP
Right click on the BT icon in the task bar (bottom right next to the clock)
Show Bluetooth Device/Options/Turn discovery on
Show Bluetooth Device/COM Ports/Add/Incoming
after clicking OK you should see the COM port in the list (for me COM 4)
Right click on the ActiveSync icon (task bar)
Connection Setting - choose the correct COM port from the drop-down list

WM6
Settings/Connections/Bluetooth/ADD new device...
select the device (WinXP computer) and type the password. Make sure that "Turn discovery off" checkbox is ticked and click finish.
CommManager/ActiveSync/Menu/Connect via Bluetoth

Now the ActiveSync and even Internet should work propertly.
I wish you Good Luck!

Upgrade HTC Artemis (P3300) from WM5 to WM6

 Last week I upgraded my HTC Artemis to WM6 operation system. I followed this how-to (in Czech language only).
The main steps were:

• "unlock" the device - start_uspl.exe
  
• upload WM6 O2 ROM - RUU_Artemis_O2_UK_3.4.206.2_4.1.13.28_02.67.90_Ship.exe
  

Other also useful installations were:

• HTC Home - HomePluginWM6.cab
  
• HTC DialPad - Wizard_reTOUCHed_Dialer2.cab
  
• BateryStatus - BatteryStatusExt.1.04.CAB (easy overclocking)
  
• HTC Theme - Htc_default.tsk
  
• and HTC Home Config - HHCv08b.cab
  

You can find all those files here.

I also installed TodayAgenda Plug-In. Now I have HTC Home and TodayAgenda the only Plug-Ins on my Today screen.

All installation went easily - no problem occurred. The WM6 looks better now and are really faster even without overclocking. Additionally my HTC Artemis is working at 273MHz (original 200MHz).

You can find further information at xda-developers.com

Compact Digital Camera Under $200

I'm looking for a compact digital camera for daily use with full manual modes.
I found Canon PowerShot A570 IS good solution. 
Basic features:

• 7.1 MPix Resolution
  
• 4 x optical zoom (35-140mm equivalent of 35mm film)
  
• Manual mode, Aperture Priority mode, Shutter Priority mode
  
• Image Stabilization
  
• SD card, 2 AA Bateries
  
• dimensions 90x64x43mm 
  
• approx. price $180
  

Digital Camera Resolution - Is Higher Always Better?

Todays compact digital cameras have 6MPix resolution and higher (up to 12MPix). Even some cell phones have 3MPix cameras. So when you buy a digital camera is the resolution the main feature what we should look for? Absolutely NOT!
Let's count what resolution we really need. The printer resolution is enough from 200 to 300DPI (Dots Per Inch) - let's count 300DPI. The most common used format is 4x6'' (10x15cm). So if you plan to shoot (and later print!) mostly on this format the picture size should be 1200x1800 pixels. That is 21600000Pix = 2,16 MPix. So the 3MPix digital camera is just fine even for 4.5x7'' (12x18cm)
Bottom line is that when you look for a digital camera more than the physical resolution focus on modes and functions you really need. Ask about the lenses, focal length, "zoom", etc. Consider the size and ergonomics.

Looking for LCD TV

Requirements:

• 37" (16:9)
  
• S-PVA technology (or S-IPS)
  

Not sure about resolution yet

• 1920x1080 px (full HD)
  
• 1366 x 768 px
  

The palyers so far:

• SAMSUNG LE37M87BD (don't know screen technology yet)
  
• SAMSUNG LE37R86BDX
  
• SAMSUNG LE37S71 

The SAMSUNG website doesn't indicate the LCD techology of TVs. Regarding to this page I found out that Panel -"Super Clear" means S-PVA. Unfortunately SAMSUNG LE37M87BD doesn't use this technology.

• 
  

How Do I Store My Pictures

I have three copies on three physically separated medias. The chance that all of them crash at the same time is almost zero. It's important not to use the same disk and different partitions because if the disk would e.g. be physically damaged you loose all your data at once.
I do not trust optical medias like CDs or DVDs so I use three external hard drives (USB and Fire Wire). They became really cheap these days.
I sort the pictures out into folder named by year and then subfolders yyyy_mm_dd_description.
My idea is to mirror all my pictures in some kind of "thumbnails" in monitor-resolution-size on my laptop internal hard drive.
All this work I do manually.

How to manage To-Do List

I have been inviting the best system how to manage my To-Do list. Finally I decided to split my tasks into 3 categories:

• Next 24 Hours
  
• Next 7 Days
  
• Long Time
  

I use the MS Outlook (the obsolete version 2002 which came with my HTC P3300 mobile device) for my agenda. I can tag each task with the priority flag so I use High for "Next 24 Hours", Normal for "Next 7 Days", and Low for "Long Time". Then I made Outlook sort those task descending by priority. To manage my task I switch the priority flags manually.
And it works good for me.

What Software for converting RAW pictures?

It's very clever to shoot to RAW image format. It takes much more space on card but the potential is much higher. It's because there is much more information in RAW (5.5MB - Canon EOS 300D) compare to JPEG (2.5MB).
Because we can not work with RAW pictures directly we need to transform them into some common image format (TIFF, jpeg, HDR, etc.).
I found RawShooter Essentials 2006 the best solution for me. It's powerful and has almost all I need. And it's free. 

• What do I really like: Simplicity, Speed (it's very FAST), Highlights/Shadows clipping, Comparison of various image corrections, 16bit TIFF output. 
  
• And what I'm missing: Levels and Curves, Crop tool, Picture Rotation.
  

Other software options is e.g. Canon DPP raw converter or some commercial programs like Adobe Lightroom ($299).

Linux on Windows machine

Time to time I'm thinking about running some Linux distribution running on my PC.
Honestly, I'm too lazy to use just Linux as my only Operation System. I think after some time on Windows we all become "Win-depended".
So the best way for me is dual operation system. But some kind of dual-boot is not flexible enought.
I've picked VMware Player and Ubuntu Linux distribution. The whole OS should be running in the single windouw under MS Windows.
I haven't tested it yet but I'm wonder how much memory I need to run it.

Paint.NET - Free Image Editing Software

I heard good references about Paint.NET. I just downloaded  (1.5MB) it and I'm gonna test it soon.

What Do I Need from Picture Browser?

The basic functions like thumbnail view, copy, move, full screen view, slideshow, 90 degrees rotate, crop, and others are obvious.
And what I need additionally?
Histogram (all three channels) - it's very useful and powerful tool to study and evaluate a picture. I often use the logarithmic histogram instead of linear histogram in GIMP. Unfortunately I haven't find this option in any picture viewer. I appreciate highlights/shadows clipping.
I also need to be able to grade pictures (five star system) and assign metadata like keywords, etc. (see Which MetaData Fields I Fill Out to Describe My Photos? and Compatibility of Star Rating).

Is it time to change GIMP for some other photo editing Software?

I have been using GIMP for a long time. Since I have DSLR camera
(Canon Digital Rebel XT/EOS 350D) and I have been shooting to RAW format time to time I'm seriously thinking about more sophisticated picture editing software. The reason? Simple, 16bit support!
The only freeware alternative I found is CinePaint (AKA FilmGIMP) but I wasn't able to install it correctly and run yet. The other alternative I'm thinking about is Adobe Photoshop Lightroom . I tested the Beta version some time ago. It's very powerful tool. Only I didn't like was the speed and RAM memory consumption. If I choose the LightRoom I definitely need to upgrade my memory (I have to do that anyway...).
Finally I must say that GIMP is a great tool and I would use it probably forever if there is a 16bit support.