(http://knowtech.tv/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/wheel-bird.jpg)

the coolest thing about the iPhone camera is that it's the only camera that we have that gets better as time goes by. just about every other camera is feature complete when it comes off the assembly line. the things it can do are the things it does and that is it. there may be a firmware update to fix things that don't work but we don't see them often. and we do it's unlikely that there would be a new "mode" to try out. the iPhone doesn't work that way. there are thousands of camera apps extending the camera into something more. things like panoramas, high dynamic range, visual effects and 3D are all apps that take a normal snap to extend it's interpretation.

making your iThing a better camera is not really as simple as downloading a new app and pressing the shutter. to say that everything is different is an understatement. for example the first time playing with 360 Panorama made a horrible image. the second time wasn't much better. it took some practice to get a panorama that was something worth sharing. all of the apps below are like that. it won't take you long to get the hang of things but you don't want to have your first experience with your new "camera" to be the time of important event.

here are some of our favorite iPhone and iPod Touch applications.

Camera Plus (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/camera-plus/id330803072?mt=8) vs Camera (http://campl.us/)+ is two different cameras.

360 Panorama (http://occipital.com/360/app) is a very free form pano tool. it's like painting. hold snap move repeat.

DMD Panorama (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dmd-panorama/id441183050?mt=8) from Dermanda (http://www.dermandar.com/) forces the camera to be vertical. as you move to the next stitch watch the two ghosts come together and then it snaps (how zen).

Plastic Bullet (http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/plastic-bullet/) and Classic Insta (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/classicinsta/id365889139?mt=8) have two very different goals. one of these is slow. the other is fast. one makes gorgeous printable snaps. the other is classic crap cam emulator.

Plastic Bullet from Red Giant is 2 bucks - err 1 buck for a limited time. it's very slow but makes a nice effect. use it after the snaps are taken for better results.

CIassic INSTA simulates crap cams from the 70s. it has the same 19 effects but put the snap on the different borders is based the "camera" being used to snap. the looks are are frameless, polaroid LAND camera, 90 something and square framed. it's fast enough so you can just shot and go.

related to the INSTA is the Classic SAMP (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/classicsamp/id356937030?mt=8) which emulates a LOMO Action sampler (http://microsites.lomography.com/actionsampler/main/) or LOMO Super Sampler (http://microsites.lomography.com/supersampler/galleries/moveyoursubject). you simply must know this film cam! pull the cord to prime the shutters. snap, snap, snap, snap! unlike the film cameras with the SAMP you get all the cams in one: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 9 taking almost full rez shots!

HDR FX (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hdr-fx/id503560704?mt=8) is a very simple HDR photo taker. click to take the scene then choose the processed look from three modes: sneery, sky, ground. it's to you to save the image when you are finished. there is also a free version (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hdr-fx-mini/id519959783?mt=8).

HDR Photo Camera (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hdr-photo-camera/id465283767?mt=8) is a SLOW! or maybe SLOW-ISH! it is an ad supported (how iWeird) HDR maker that makes you save your processed shot. there are no post processing choices, you just get HDR. remember to save.

Camera Fun FREE (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/camera-fun/id358836316?mt=8) is a free fun house camera that offers Mirror, Pinch and Sketch modes that the kids will use until there is no more power left in the battery.

(http://knowtech.tv/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/headline_mf2012.jpg)

for me it's about momentum. and if I get stopped, if there's the slightest roadblock, I will go home. at least that's what I'm like today. I really did try to get to the show. I tried twice. and it would be easy for me to criticize the show planners. but you see, it's me that is the problem. I hate crowds, I can't walk far, I get tired easily, I can't see up making talking to the people difficult if not impossible sometimes. and if I do make the weekend of it because the world was in alignment I pay dearly for the experience for days afterword.

so I bailed. and instead of just gawking at the spectacle that is 3D printers, robots, nerd talks, and lots more walking around I spent the rest day hacking. and got far. it's pretty easy to forget just how rewarding an afternoon of soldering or programming or writing or coding can be. especially if it's nothing related to the normal day to day.

here's the article that talks about how a kid found out that he wasn't the only one after he spent the day at the Faire. I wish that as a kid I could have fond my kind of nerds.

TinkerCAD (https://tinkercad.com/home/) is a 3D maker tool that works inside of a modern browser.

the SF Gate (aka cronicle) has a series of pictures that give you an idea of the crowd that descended on San Mateo.

FORA TV has almost all the talks you didn't make it to hear.

Zoa Chimerum jewelry

Tapigami

R2D2 builders

WALL-E builders

Adam Savage 2012 Maker Faire -- Why We Make

Chris Anderson talks about making Autonomous Quadracopter drones. he packed 'em in compared to the 30-40 people that listened in 2010.

more information can be found at DIY Drones.

Craig Severson explained his backup system one time. it seems over the top until you hear, "I can take that drive over there, plug in, reboot and I'm back to five minutes ago."

I needed a backup device that transparent like Apple Time

my problem with things today is that it's going to become virtually impossible to play. electronics is a good example. so many of the parts are surface mount only. meaning you can't just whomp something together on a bread board. but to push the idea even further, there is no way for two guys in a garage to make an iPod. okay they could but look at the skill set they have to have to make it happen.

I read a Rudy Rucker book (http://www.rudyrucker.com/wares/) where lots of the tech is mindblowingly complex. tech that was so hard that a humans couldn't even be involved after a certain point. yet interfaces to tech creation allowed the characters to control making without thinking about who made who (robot making tech based on human interaction). the book Makers mentions combining complex programming projects into a greater object. this concept of reusing code is tossed out there like it's no big deal. but fiction always over simplifies making because the story would become boring otherwise. to most people man landing on the moon is a sound bite even though it took the better part of 20 years (don't forgot all the work before the Kennedy speech) to get there.

I've had a lot of printers in my life from letter quality daisy wheels to dot matrix to dye sub to laser. and at some level the businesses I ran wouldn't have been possible without the leveraged use I got from printing without limits. Tom pointing that this same thing is right here with 3D printing is telling.

1) it's ground zero. think of MakerBot (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449399061/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=knowtech-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1449399061)">Makerbot as a Epson MX-80

2) there potential for hundreds of new business

3) be prepared to see lots of failure as it engages

4) plastics and resins are toxic. stand by for regulation in California.

the discussion last night over dinner before the show was about lots of different things but one subject was "I want one but I don't know why I want one." this was Kanen answering the question do you want a 3D printer because making 2 is just as easy as making 1.

I think wanting one of these is the same as back when I had an Apple II of wanting a MX-80 printer. or a printer of any kind. it wasn't that I needed to print lots of things. it was the idea of having a printer right there next to me. that way I didn't have to wait to use somebody else's. over time printers got better. my Epson became a C-Itoh, then it was a Panasonic, next it was a ImageWriter and not too long after became an ImageWriter II which was my last dot matrix printer. after that it was lasers and film printers all the way.

there is something satisfying about printing a stack of paper that is the manuscript / report / script / outline or whatever needs to be on paper to use properly. when tracking takes for a voice production I can't imagine NOT doing that on paper. and proof reading copy just looks different when it lands on dead trees. [note about editing: the trick of course is to make the copy look different. I can write all day long in whatever typeface but if I want to proof read it I have to copy paste into a different werp and change the font and size so I can "see it".]

so yeah, that's been my question since the possibility of having one came up back in May. these things are all around me. really. there's a MakerBot an email away. and Shapeways will send me anything I can dream up. I even bought some tools to help me make things.

so here's the very thing that I'm getting my head around in making my lens mount. I don't have to fab it think about "machining" like I would if I was building from PVC, aluminum and other hardware. right angles aren't even a requirement. one thing that comes to mind right off in learning to think like this is what Apple is doing. the original Mac Mini was the first thing that was made from a block of aluminum.

if you look at the marketing for commercial and freeware "Mac maintenance apps" you see stuff like "Apple should bundle this!" or "it totally saved my bacon!" and finally "best app ever!" dubious marketing at best. the thing is most modern Macs aren't in a "regularly scheduled program." people just use them without doing anything special to them to keep them running.

the people of Know Tech are divided on the care and feeding. Chris has a Windows centric attitude causing him to rebuild and reinstall the System and all his apps twice a year. Kenji lived with a broken MacBook Pro keyboard for nearly 2 years before he bothered to get it fixed. Craig has a detailed backup system. Kristin just uses her Macs. and all the Macs that John takes care of just seem to work without any messing about.

so why do people have a need to maintenance their Macs? it's something that is built into all consumer products. your car needs regular care, you have to put chemicals into the pool, the heater filter gets changed, the coffee maker needs de-liming and the refrigerator needs to be de-iced. maintenance is all around us and were programmed to accept doing it. some people actually like the peace of mind that they've "done something" and other people "just like doing" maintenance because it makes them feel good.

but it can't hurt? if you listen to the guy that runs "some maintenance tool every week" he'll exclaim "I never have a problem with my system therefore what I'm doing is working!" you have to weigh that against our own findings that show you don't have to do anything at all and all is well. sometimes "doing something" can make it worse. look at the Oynx forum (http://www.titanium.free.fr/viewforum.php?f=8) here you will find some of reports that a Mac sometimes breaks after running this tool. this makes the "solution" worse than the "problem" in our mind.

the thing with maintenance tools is that they often get used at the wrong time. these tools usually get pulled out when something is horribly wrong with the a Mac like it won't boot, applications won't launch, something takes forever to open or it's just slow. what happens next is a person will start to "try things" in the hope of making it better.

reboot

command option P-R (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379)

remove the battery and hold down the power button for 5 seconds.

reset-nvram

reset-all

repair permissions

if you phoned tech support at any company you will be asked to try it these things because it's on a list. the thing is that none of the above will actually fix anything. and doing it regularly won't actually make your Mac run any better than it already is running.

almost nobody suspects that the actual problem is a hardware problem. the modern computer is a highly reliable tool. but it's not infallible. parts wear out, static takes it's toll and that time you dropped it yet it still worked has caught up with you. instead of resorting to a long list of tricks the first thing that you should make happen is busting out the backup drive to make sure all the photos, music, writing and email is up-to-date. you do have a backup drive right?

if you don't buy one right now.

there are quite a few "maintenance tools" that will invoke various scripts that clean caches, dump logs and do other repairs. these tools include applejack (http://applejack.sourceforge.net/), TinkerTool (http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerToolSys2.html), mainmenu (http://incrediblebee.com/mainmenu) and OnyX (http://www.titanium.free.fr/index.php).

we aren't not recommending these tools. nor are we flat out saying don't use them. the point of all this is to know what you are getting into before you click GO. pretty much don't take the word of "my Mac friend" just because they sound like they know what they are talking about. look into the forums before you commit to running because there are reports of problems. now, to be fair, maybe these tools didn't cause the problem at all.

Remember when Macworld used to get 30k people coming to it? Well we have days were over 1m people visit our stores.

steve jobs (http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/01/live-from-apples-fall-2010-event/)

Macworld Expo (http://www.macworldexpo.com/) has been "the tradeshow" for all things Mac for the last 25 years. there was a time when it was mandatory for anyone who had an interest in Mac to attend. companies came here to announce products, users came to learn, buyers came to do deals and the press could see all their contacts. it was all under one roof.

today it's not the show that it once was.

the show has become filled with hodge podge of iPod, iPhone and iPad accessories and software for those devices. granted that Mac is only a third of Apple's business it makes sense that the show would reflect this. which is why we think that Macworld should not be the name of this show. it's time for Macworld Expo to die.

trade shows in general need to rethink why they exist because the internet has changed the way that we do business. there is less of a need to rely on "events" for product launches. companies no longer have to deathmarch to make a show date. they can release a product when it's ready which generates its own buzz around the launch.

what has gone missing from the show? practically everything: 3D, CAD, design tools, database, word processing, page layout, business management, utility, development and all the other wacky ideas that people brought to the show. you can blame the spread sheet for the wacky. that's where somebody uses the 1-10% of the show attendance to base how many of something they will sell. you know the thinking, "if we can sell this many of our thing we'll be on our way to success!"

but all the vendors that we used to see at MWE have decided that it's better to stay at home, concentrating on keeping the user base they already have then it is to find 50 new users. all of these tools haven't gone away. no, lots of things are alive and well. like MacDraft (http://www.microspot.com/products/macdraft/index.htm) made by MicroSpot a company that started 26 years ago on what would have been a Mac Plus. think about that… CAD running on a 4 megabyte computer with a 512x384 screen!

Macworld Expo was a catalyst that held together a community of users and vendors. it was a place to meet, learn and grow. which is hard to say about other "trade shows" and we know because we've been to lots of them. there are similar things. ComicCon, WonderCon, and APE come to mind right away where the line between the stage and the audience blurs together into a mass of mutual admiration. the hacker conferences bring a different kind of respect both in code and finding out that everyone you thought was more l33t is just like you. or the conferences on specific things like Photoshop, Flash or 3D where you come away smarted and inspired.

all of those things used to be found at Macworld Expo. but it's been several years since we've left the show with feels of wanting to change the world with new found powers.

and that's why it's time for it to go. at the very least it's name should change to reflect what it's become.

AsseenonTVhat.com

youbiq tripod (http://www.youbiq.com/site/gymbl)

iGrill (http://www.igrillinc.com/)

Vogel Ring Mount (http://www.ipadonthewall.com/usa/)

L5 - universal remote (http://www.l5remote.com/tag/l5-universal-remote/)

the Robert Hess "party list" (http://www.ilenesmachine.com/partylist.shtml) wasn't ever updated this year. it was taken care of by Ilene. we hope she is okay.

Adam Christianson from MacCast (http://www.maccast.com/) joins us on the talk.

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the 3-5 shot panorama is a really cool way to capture a scene. it's not really a pano but think of it as a S-U-P-E-R W-I-D-E picture as you aren't doing a full 360. you can take these with any camera. it doesn't have to be expensive. and you don't have to have a super wide lens. in fact you may want to shoot you pano using a more zoomed lens instead of the widest setting.

(http://knowtech.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/madibfbar.jpg)

some cameras have a PANO mode. this is nifty tool but we have some issues with this mode. first thing is that you have to practice using it because it forces you to shoot a specific way. you don't need that mode to make a 3 shot pano.

how to take a 3 shot pano. start with your lens as wide as possible. later you can change to a more zoomed in setting. the cameras orientation can be either taller than wide or wider than tall doesn't matter but stick to one as you are learning. if there is a way to lock the exposure do that so your frames look to be about the same exposure. when you start taking your pano be quick about it but don't rush.

(http://knowtech.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/opening_day-300x207.jpg)

all the 3 shot panos that we take are hand held but you need to mind some things. the pivot point of the camera. if you get really far off it makes it harder to stitch back together without distortion. exposure is a factor so find a way to hold a setting. framing the important parts of the pano so those subjects are in the middle makes certain you won't cover up those interesting bits.

other tips

hopefully the scene not moving much but if it is so what. the blurs in the frame can be cool looking. it's always a good idea to take more shots than you actually need. or take the same "positioned shot" a few times if the action is not right or it's blurry.

one fun thing to do is to have the same person in each frame. that way when you stitch your subject will be everywhere.

lots of tools can put it together

Adobe Photoshop (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003B32B2I?ie=UTF8&tag=knowtech-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003B32B2I) since CS2

Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 (Win/Mac) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YGMEAQ?ie=UTF8&tag=knowtech-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003YGMEAQ)(http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=knowtech-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003YGMEAQ)

[more list goes here]

print and mount

print your shots and mount them on a board

has an organic displaced look to it.

Continuous is a mode on your camera that takes picture after picture for as long as you hold down the shutter. the frame rate of the shots depends on the camera. the Canon shoots about 4 FPS, Fuji is .3 seconds per frame, Nikon has a mode called 16 (which turns the flash off automatically, there is also has a mode that does 1.5 FPS and the Sony have different rates that depend on the camera. there are several Casio cameras that have super fast frame rates like up to 1000 frames per second!

so what is Continuous mode good for? it turns out there are lots of things that you can shoot. it's a great way to get perfect candids. group shots are always a problem. don't forget squirming kids and pets. you get that winning moment for sports photos. in a nut shell Continuous mode is good for anything that moves.

(http://knowtech.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/rhys.jpg)

Continuous mode is not stop motion or time lapse. you can't set the frame rate to a specific speed. this makes time lapse a different problem and one your camera might solve with a mode specifically for it that function.

(http://knowtech.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/group-150x150.jpg)shooting group shots can be hard because everyone is moving, getting ready or talking with one another. getting the perfect group shot is a bit of luck but if you take enough pictures Continuous mode will catch everyones eyes open eventually. use a tool like Photoshop Elements to combine the best of everyone.

(http://knowtech.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/baby-e1294693398838-150x150.jpg)kids are squirmy worms. they make faces, they move around. if you take 60 shots in two minutes ONE of them will be awesome!

pets are the same thing as kids. only worse. they won't stay, they won't look, but they can hear the shutter and the flash. the camera making that noise may get Fido's attention.

in sports you know when the action is going to start and where it's going to go. using Continuous mode all you have to do is point there and you'll get your shot.

but use Continuous mode anything else that moves. why? because it's really hard to snap the shutter right at exactly the right moment. unless you learn to anticipate it lag is the biggest problem to overcome. but don't bother learning because it will only screw you up for shooting on other cameras. better to have before and after and THE shot instead of a happy accident.

(http://knowtech.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/liteup-150x150.jpg)speaking of happy accidents try this for party photos. you need two cameras. one has the flash on while the other is in continuous mode. start shooting continuously first. next say cheese and shoot the flash shot. you get this nifty light filled shot in the middle. and that's often THE shot!

(http://knowtech.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/IMG_6274-150x150.jpg)the problem is that this makes 100's of photos you will never ever use. but you will want to use them somehow. here are some ideas. make a thumb nail page of the whole thing with the shot in middle. flip books are easy enough to make if you have some patients. or you can print a mini book using a service like iPhoto or Blurb. a photobooth strip is easy to make using Illustrator, Comic Life or Pages. and you can always pick THE shot and print it. here's a nifty movie we made with QuickTime Pro. it's set to 2 FPS. drinks

there are some problems to watch out for Continuous mode. first is that have to hold the camera steady in low light otherwise you'll get a series of blurry pictures because both you are your subject is in motion. it's always better to shoot Continuous mode outside or in lots of light. you'll want to have extra cards on had because Continuous mode chews through memory cards.

there are several things you can do to make shooting Continuous mode even better. turn down the quality/size of the image will speed up the time between shots. and if it isn't turned off automatically the flash should be set to off.

if you are looking for a project to start with the new year look no further, this is it. the idea is to take one photo every day. easy you say! sure, we all take more photos now that we have some kind of camera with us. but when this kind of project started it was a little different and certainly not as easy. you took a camera of some kind, loaded a roll of film that you liked and over the next 24 or 36 days you'd take exactly one photo every day. of course you didn't see what the photos looked like until the end of the roll after you got them back from the developer. this made it more special. you know, that anticipation of "how's it going to come out!?"

the good news is that doing a 12, 24, 36, 52 or 365 project is much easier today because of technology. there's a nifty iPhone app called 365. there is a facebook tool to help you manage. you can use flickr with the tag 365. and there's a web tool called 365 project (http://365project.org/). there's lots here. you don't have to use any of it if you don't want to share.

your daily photo session has some rules. the first is simple. take 1 picture every day for the express purpose of the project. no multi shots. it must be one shot. if you want to simulate doing it with a film camera then no post processing. but we're okay with some touching: color correction, balance, cropping and vignetting. but no heavy lifting like using Photoshop unless the photo is a panorama or one of those multiple snaps to remove all the people, or a photo college of a place that you shot specifically for the day. the final rule is simple: no time travel. if you miss a day you miss a day. it's up to you if you want to fill it in with another picture. but don't make a habit of it.

what you get out of doing a 365? the best gift you will receive is something called "photo reflex" which is being able to see pictures before you take them. it's what every photo journalist develops and it's why their pictures look like they do. some of it is luck but most of it is about seeing.

you will want to share you photos along the way meaning you'll obtain mad posting skillz. by the end of the year putting a photo on the web will be very simple for you. in fact you might scrap one system for another several times before the year is out just because a process annoys you.

a 365 project can end up being your very own coffee table book. every photo service offers books. some will even "automatically lay them out". just select you photo album, choose book, and it's ready to upload for purchase.

anytime you accomplish a year long project is cause for celebration. have a party and show you images on the big screen. if you show one picture every minute your party will need to be just about 6 hours long.

but the best thing about a 365 is the shooting experience. you will definitely approach pictures and picture taking differently by the end.

if you don't know if you'd like to commit to a year long endeavor try shooting for 30 days first. you'll know right away if you up to the task of every day. and if you don't get into it after a month you won't feel like a big knob for jumping off the project 4 months in.

rules

0) start any time. you don't need to wait for Jan 1.

1) you need a camera with you all the time

* iPhone is fine. blackberry is fine. crap cam is fine.

* it's okay to use different cameras for your project.

2) shoot something every day.

* make a recurring alarm

* set a time aside

* or just watch for that photo

3) doesn't have to be something special

* moments happen so be ready to capture them

4) use your tech

* flickr, blog, Mobile Me, print it!

* iPhoto and Picasca have albums

5) don't flake

6) the photo doesn't have to be great. and it doesn't have to be a photo shot for the purpose of the project if you want to be flexible.

7) one picture every day goes in to a pool that you can look back on a year later

Siggraph (http://www.siggraph.org/) hosts an annual conference and trade show for graphics, 3D and visual arts creation. you'll find everything from graphics cards to clusters of computers both of which are be used for render engines. and while the "trade show" aspect is interesting it's just the most visible part of the iceberg. the conference is host to talks supporting papers given by insanely smart people talking about things like "Geometry Aware Direction Field Processing", "Topology- and Error-Driven Extension of Scalar Functions from Surfaces to Volumes" and "Parameterizing Subdivision Surfaces" which are just a few of the topics covering art creation, game development, technical dissertation, educational courses, and panel discussions. and like all conferences it overlaps so there would be no way to see everything during the event. fortunately you can buy it all on DVD (http://siggraphencore.myshopify.com/products/siggraph-2010-conference-presentations-dvd-rom-set). fortunately these videos are also provided in a way that will play from your iPad/iPhone.

links to things mentioned in the show:

sorry, it takes a while to make this list

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