Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, Jan 2008
Feb 5, 2008
Feb 3, 2008
Jan 16, 2008
Jan 13, 2008
Computers
I remember my first computer, or rather my families first computer, it was a Gateway, purchased some time during the mid 90's, at the time I wasn't quite aware of what a large role computers would soon play in my life, but none the less it opened up a whole new world of experiences.
There were games, Comanche 2 a helicopter sim, that my father still brings up whenever games are discussed. Then there was Duke Nukem, Duke Nukem 3d, Quake, Prince of Persia, it was wonderful. As a kid I never had any video game consoles so this was a whole new world for me. There was also the internet, 56k in all its dialing - connection noise glory. There were websites about everything, then there was Napster. I've gone through a few family computers, but when the time came to get on for myself I decided to build one.
It was pretty good, not to powerful, but it got the job done. This was until the end of last year, when, with the help of a family, it decided to die. Yes I know it's sad, luckily at the start of the school year I purchased a cheap laptop for taking notes in school. Being a photographer and working digitally, even when shooting with film, the laptop didn't cut it and I had to constantly go to school to work on assignments. With the winter break coming up I decided to get a new desktop on boxing day.
So what did I end up going with? A Dell XPS 420, after looking at reviews and hardware comparisons I tweaked it up accordingly. I needed a powerful machine that could handle large image files, and play the latest games, those were pretty much the only two criteria.
So here are the specs for those interested.
Let me tell you this computer is wicked. It runs Crysis (nicknamed the Graphics Card Killer) on High at 1280x1024 res with 4xAA. All other games I've tried, run at their highest graphics settings possible. Also a file that previously took me about 5min to open in Photoshop, now takes me about 20 seconds. Basically it's awesome. I also bought a monitor, but that hasn't come yet so I'll talk about it when it does.
The XPS also comes with a lot of little add-ons that weren't listed anywhere that makes it even better. You get a pleather portfolio/cd-holder in which the manual comes in and all the system disks. You get cable ties and sound isolating, headphones from Creative, and a wicked XPS mousepad. Also Dell has teamed up with Adobe so you get Photoshop Elements 6, Premier 4, and Adobe Soundbooth CS3, all pre-installed. And like all Dell computers it is free of any junk trial software.
There it is, peace.
There were games, Comanche 2 a helicopter sim, that my father still brings up whenever games are discussed. Then there was Duke Nukem, Duke Nukem 3d, Quake, Prince of Persia, it was wonderful. As a kid I never had any video game consoles so this was a whole new world for me. There was also the internet, 56k in all its dialing - connection noise glory. There were websites about everything, then there was Napster. I've gone through a few family computers, but when the time came to get on for myself I decided to build one.
It was pretty good, not to powerful, but it got the job done. This was until the end of last year, when, with the help of a family, it decided to die. Yes I know it's sad, luckily at the start of the school year I purchased a cheap laptop for taking notes in school. Being a photographer and working digitally, even when shooting with film, the laptop didn't cut it and I had to constantly go to school to work on assignments. With the winter break coming up I decided to get a new desktop on boxing day.
So what did I end up going with? A Dell XPS 420, after looking at reviews and hardware comparisons I tweaked it up accordingly. I needed a powerful machine that could handle large image files, and play the latest games, those were pretty much the only two criteria.So here are the specs for those interested.
- Intel Core2Duo processor E6850 (3.0GHz)
- 3GB RAM
- 768mb nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX Video Card
- 1 TB (1000GB) of hard drive space
- Running Windows Vista Premium
- It has a Vista rating of 5.7 with most of the components rated at 5.9!
Let me tell you this computer is wicked. It runs Crysis (nicknamed the Graphics Card Killer) on High at 1280x1024 res with 4xAA. All other games I've tried, run at their highest graphics settings possible. Also a file that previously took me about 5min to open in Photoshop, now takes me about 20 seconds. Basically it's awesome. I also bought a monitor, but that hasn't come yet so I'll talk about it when it does.
The XPS also comes with a lot of little add-ons that weren't listed anywhere that makes it even better. You get a pleather portfolio/cd-holder in which the manual comes in and all the system disks. You get cable ties and sound isolating, headphones from Creative, and a wicked XPS mousepad. Also Dell has teamed up with Adobe so you get Photoshop Elements 6, Premier 4, and Adobe Soundbooth CS3, all pre-installed. And like all Dell computers it is free of any junk trial software.
There it is, peace.
Jan 9, 2008
Red Toyota
I read in the Metro the other day, that the warmth we are experiencing right now, actually has been a continuous trend in Ontario, since people began to record these types of things.
Also...
I got my new computer and it's AMAZING. More in the next post.
Jan 4, 2008
Chris Jordan
"If 3 Million
of us decide that
we do matter then
the revolution happens"
of us decide that
we do matter then
the revolution happens"
I love hearing photographers speak about their own work, especially those that have a ton of passion and create meaningful work. That is what makes this presentation by Chris Jordan so great. You have to see it.
Jan 1, 2008
Happy New Years
Best wished to everyone, 2007 was great in terms of everything I'm interested in. Lets hope 2008 is even better.
Dec 29, 2007
PC Vs MAC
I'm getting a new computer! A Dell XPS 420 to be exact, and also a new monitor, Dell UltraSharp 2007WFP (20.1" Widescreen). I'll post some more detailed specs for those interested, when I actually get it, which should be sometime next week.
In the mean time I've discovered the wonderful world of truthful PC vs. Mac ads. Here's one very relevent to this post:
Here are some more:
PC vs Mac: The reason I hate it the Pikto has Mac computers.
Half-Life 2 Style: On Macs and games.
Cheers, can't wait for my XPS!
In the mean time I've discovered the wonderful world of truthful PC vs. Mac ads. Here's one very relevent to this post:
Here are some more:
PC vs Mac: The reason I hate it the Pikto has Mac computers.
Half-Life 2 Style: On Macs and games.
Cheers, can't wait for my XPS!
Dec 26, 2007
Dec 24, 2007
Pictures of Clothing, No. 1
For those who don't know, my girlfriend, Olya Siniakov, is a stylist (you can check out her stuff [here]).Although fashion photography isn't my usual thing, we had a little shoot. I tried to avoid "fashion photos" although one or two might have slipped themselves into the set. This is by no means a cohesive set of images, just some random experiments.
I'll be posting more images over the next few days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
