People can get caught up in the specifications of a computer that they miss the big picture. No surprise, companies spend millions to get you to focus on those specs that seem so important and you are not really sure what they are. 2.4gHz Core 2 duo, 500GB 5400rpm hard drive, 15” 1440x900px screen. Do they matter, sure. Is that how to pick a computer? No.

So how should you pick out a computer? First, lets define ‘computer’. You used to have two options: Desktop or Laptop. One is big, powerful and stays put, but is cheaper. The other is smaller and portable but is more expensive and less powerful. Enter the tablet. A sliver of metal and glass that needs no mouse or keyboard and lets you do many tasks you do on a desktop or laptop. With that in mind, on to the questions to ask yourself.

What is it that you are planning on doing? Will you primarily be consuming content or producing it? Do you take a lot of photos then edit and share them? Do you take video? Write documents? Create presentations? If you answered yes to these you will want to look at either a laptop or desktop. A tablet is just not as capable for document/media creation as these. Now, if you are going to be consuming content: internet, email, watch movies, view others photos, read books, etc then a tablet is something to seriously consider. You can still create documents on them, edit photos and video, prepare presentations, and most everything else you can do on a laptop or desktop, but its just as easy or powerful. RIght now tablets are great for content consumers or as a supplement to someone with a desktop/laptop who needs more portability.

Now that you have an idea of what you will do, lets not forget you are looking for an experience, not necessarily a tool. Ultimately you want to get some things done, but how. Are you ok with doing it all sitting at the same desk in the same chair? Would you prefer to be able to do these things from that desk, your couch, bed, front porch, back porch, favorite coffee house, airport…you get the idea? Desktops are clearly the most capable machines and offer the most value. Their size and form factor allows for more storage space, faster processors, and cheaper construction. However they limit how and when you can use them. I used to be a big fan of a desktop for ‘power users’. Not so much anymore. The new laptops are remarkably capable even with the most demanding software. Sure a desktop can do it faster, but the fact is today’s laptops can do it, and do it quickly. In my opinion the ability to work anywhere far outweighs the ability to work slightly faster in the rare occasions the software demands it. I really have a hard time justifying buying a desktop.

If you are a content consumer who wants the best possible user experience, give a serious look at a tablet. Need a more capable machine and plan to create a lot of content? A laptop is probably best for you (I usually recommend a 13” screen so the size is manageable and save the money for a 23” screen on your desk when you need more space). Do you just way to get stuff done, don’t care about portability, and want to spend as little as possible? A desktop will suffice.

Now back to the initial question…what do I get? Hopefully you can narrow down your decision to the form factor: tablet, laptop or desktop. Let me say this…Mac or PC (or whatever other software system you get) are all viable options. My personal choice is Apple products. Yes they are not the cheapest. However if you compare similar systems the cost difference is not as much as you might think. Consider that you get more years from an Apple product, maintenance and expenses are lower and its resale value will be higher the average cost of ownership for an Apple product often works out to be less than the competition.

Cost aside, many people get hooked on the software and user experience. The saying, “It just works” may not be true all the time, but it does get the point across. Getting stuff done on a Mac is often easier and more enjoyable than a PC. A Mac comes with all the software you need to edit video and photos. Apple’s office apps are just $20 each. OS updates…$29. They App store makes it easy to get quality software and no boxes or serial numbers to keep track of. Yes, there is not as much software on the Mac, but what you will find are several very solid options. You don’t have to worry about viruses and malware like you do with a PC. There just is not any of this stuff to worry about out there. Sure you can get some bad stuff on your computer if you install it, but use common sense (and don’t use an administrator account as your user account type). Apple also leads the way with customer service for 7 years and coating. They are way ahead of the others. I had an issue with my first iPhone. I brought it in and they asked if I had backed it up. Yes. Do you want a new one? What? Yup, they just gave me a new one just like that. My laptop was having issues with the screen flashing. They tried to fix it, but when 2 new logic boards didn’t do the trick they told me to come to the store and pick up a new one. I walk in with my 2.5 year old laptop and they hand me the model that came out that week. Sign a piece of paper, have a nice day. Free upgrade! Apple Care is required for this service to be extended to 3 years vs standard 1 year, and for laptops it is definitely worth it. Bad stuff is more likely to happen with a device that gets moved, bumped, and more.

Lest you think Macs are for basic users or graphics people, the programing and developer community I work with are 90% Mac users. Not just the designers, but the hard core guys who do everything from the command line. PHP programmers, database administrators, software developers, you name it. Macs can be used by the computer illiterate to the guys who write the software that makes things work.

How to buy a mac…first, go to the MacRumors.com buyers guide. Make sure your product of interest is not due to get an update. Then go to your local Apple store, Best Buy, or Apple.com and buy what you want. There is no difference in price. You can save some by going to the Apple Refurb store. Same as buying new, and often more reliable than new (they test them to make sure they work correctly).

If you really don’t like OSX, really don’t have the money for a Mac, or really just don’t like Macs there are some good PCs out there. I don’t like Dell too much, their support is getting back to where it used to be, but is still not what it should be. Toshiba makes some good stuff, but to be honest I don’t follow the PC side much. The best advice I can give you is don’t go to some big box sore (Best Buy et al) and ask them. They sell what makes them money and often are clueless or will upsell you. Find a computer person who knows PCs and ask him or her.

For 75% of the people out there I would recommend this model: a 13” MacBook Pro. Want more RAM (memory)? 8GB is a very good amount. You can get it here for under $70. Most may not need it, but if you just want to be sure, go for it. Pretty simple to add if you can turn a screwdriver.

I hope that helps some of you. Just remember, its more about what you want to do and how you want to do it than any spec on the box.

My parents have been to CA a few times, but have never made it to Yosemite. Last year they decided to plan a trip to Yosemite with their friends and invited Emily and I along. We would be the unofficial tour guides. The plan was to camp in Yosemite, but they switched to a reservation system for ALL campsites and they went fast, really fast (turns out scalpers were buying them up and selling them for up to $150 a day. Yes, $150 for a campsite!). Instead we had to sleep on a pull out sofa in a house. We didn’t miss our tent.

We started the trip by going to King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Park. They share a border and the main visitor areas mingle in and out of the two parks so it generally goes by the generic term “Seki”. These parks offer some of the biggest trees in the world, high meandering waterfalls, meadows and huge granite walls. It is sort of a mini Yosemite without the crowds. We were able to camp here. Fortunately this time there were no bears strolling by our tent in the wee hours of the morning.

After a quiet weekend in Seki, it was off to face the crowds of Yosemite. That is the one drawback to this great place. Other people like it too. We were able to go during the week so that meant not quite as many people, but still busy.

This winter saw an usually high amount of snow in Yosemite. The final tally was 178% of the normal snowfall. Combine that with a cool spring and warm weather the week we were there and you get a lot of water. 188% of the normal flow for that time of year. Pretty much a normal year’s peak flow (which happens in May or early June) in late June.

There was so much water you could barely get to the usual viewing areas at the bottom of the falls. Bridalveil Falls has an open area very close to where the water hits (and people can get within feet if they scramble over rocks). This time there was no one at this spot, it was like standing in a shower and you could barely see anything the mist was so thick. Yosemite was similar. A wet windy experience. The photography options for these falls were great. Lots of water makes for great photos. I particularly like this one of Bridalveil falls. You can see the mist rising hundreds of feet into the air and curling back towards the falls in the air currents the falling water makes.

The mist trail was quite an adventure. I’ve done it before and not gotten too wet. This time, different story. We got soaked. Oh, did I mention we had rain jackets in the backpack but opted not to use them. Well on the way down we certainly did. That gave me another idea for a business…renting rain coats on the Mist Trail.

My favorite part of the trip was staying in the valley after sunset. I scoped out a spot for a sunset shot of Half Dome, set up my camera and tripod and waiting. Sunset came and I got the usual orange hue’d Half Dome. No clouds or color in the sky to add that extra something to the shot. One of these days…. I then headed to Curry Village for pizza and began driving around the valley looking for spots for my night time shots. A new Yosemite Valley appears when a full moon rises on a clear night. As I waited for the moon to light up the valley I watched about 4 groups of climbers on El Capitan. Their headlamps allowed me to see where they were. I was able to get a few photos of them as they climbed up (or repelled down, not quite ready to spend the night on the granite wall).

The next stop was the other side of Cook’s Meadow for a photo of Yosemite Falls. Only this time it would be in moonlight and I was hoping for a moonbow (rainbow caused by the moon’s light). Sure enough you could see the faint color even by moonlight. I, along with about 15 other photographers, got quite a treat that night. Yosemite Falls at its peak, a full moon, clear sky and clean air made for a great shot of a Yostemite Falls moonbow.

As a group we were able to see some of the other sites. We went to Glacier Point to see that incredible 270 degree view of the valley. Hiked up Sentinal Dome on the way back. And even got stuck in a bear-jam…thats when traffic stops on the roads there as people watch a mother bear and her two cubs in the nearby woods. Sorry, no video or photos of that. Didn’t have the ‘real’ camera handy.

It was a great trip and it was a lot of fun to take others to see these sites for the first time. Take a look at the short video below to get a sample of the sites. Not sure if we’ll go next summer, I hope to make it a February trip so Emily can see Yosemite in the winter. Same park, totally different perspective. Thats the magic of Yosemite, it keeps you coming back for more.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a tool that allows you to quickly add those “I need to do this….” items to a list but only see the things you can and need to work on at any give time or place? Thats exactly what OmniFocus is for.

About OmniGroup

OmniFocus is a Mac only application from OmniGroup. They are the top productivity software developer for the Mac platform (OSX and iOS). They have been around for years and have a very solid track record of software updates, customer support, and moving with Apple (ie transitioning to Intel, iPhone and iPad apps). OmniGroup is a solid company to invest your money and workflow into. They are not some flashy indie developer who generates a buzz with a nice look app, only to never finish it or take your money and then provide no support or updates.

Organizing Your Organizer

The fist step to getting organized is to organize OmniFocus. There are four main aspects of OmniFocus.

• Tasks: Something you need to do. These can be ‘single actions’ like taking out the trash, or a series of tasks to get something done. Which leads me to….
• Projects: Stuff you need to get done that takes more than one task such as getting ready for vacation: check car, pack clothes, charge camera batteries, ask neighbor to get mail, etc.
• Contexts: where/how you can get things done
• Dates: when can I start it? When does it need to be done?

Tasks

This is the easy part. Just try not to micro-manage yourself. You don’t want to create a task for EVERY item you need to pack. A single task “pack for vacation” is good. You can put in your notes the exact items you want to pack. I personally use an iPhone app that lets me create checklists to manage my packing.

Projects

Projects are a series of tasks that are needed to do to get something done. I organize them into folders. Home and Work. Within my Work folder are sub folders for my main areas of responsibility (usually by website). For example, for the Guild website I needed to change the main nav color. That would be a single task. I also had to create an application system. That involved several steps (create database, install software, customize CSS, train users) and thus is a project of the Guild.

But what about those singe tasks? How do I organize them? Simple. I create a project called “Single Actions”. Anything I can do in one task goes in here. I tend to organize these by website.

Contexts

I used OmniFocus for about a year before I got it right. I was setting up projects and tasks OK, but totally using contexts wrong. I would create a task “mock up website” and assign it a context of “Web Design”. BZZZZ wrong! That is not a context. I now ask myself, what do I need to get this done? I could put office, but I can do this anywhere. All I need is my MacBook Pro. So the correct context would be…MacBook Pro. There are other tasks that I can do on any computer like device. For example, I can edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations on my iPad. In that case the context would be MacBook Pro or iPad. So I then create two contexts: MacBook Pro and iPad. To assign the task to BOTH contexts I create a parent context: Computer. Any tasks assigned to ‘computer’ would show up under iPad or MacBook Pro. At this point you are probably saying, “Huh?”. So here is a screenshot of my contexts.
It can be confusing when you overthink it. Sure I can use my MacBook Pro at the office or home. But I can’ only check my home mail at home and only check my office mail at the office. It is also possible to be too specific. I could have Office and a child context Mailroom. But that just gets too complicated. The trick is to keep it simple, yet precise. This allows you to go to your context view and click on any context and only see the tasks that you can do within that context. A great way to focus on what resources you have at your disposal and get things done. All those tasks that you can’t do, disappear.

A video would really help, so here you go. Give that a look.

Start and Due Date

Dates are very helpful. If you don’t need to do something until a certain time, this helps you have a way to clear it from your view until it is time to work on it. Shortcuts are also available. If I need to start it in 2 days, I type ‘48h’ and it sets the date to 2 days from now. Same for weeks and days.

Bringing it all together

Right now I’m just feeding data into the system. Each task has a project it s assigned to, I’ve defined the context in which I can do it, and a time when I should start and be done. How do I then see just what I want to see. How do I see just the work tasks that I can do on my MacBook Pro.

The View bar lets me define these parameters. I can have hundreds of tasks, but these view options let me pare them all down to just what I want to see. Then the real power begins….

Perspecitves

Perspectives are essential to making it all come together. When you adjust the view settings you can save that view as a perspective. That allows you to go to that view at any time. Think of them as saved searches. You can add them to your toolbar, or access them to the menu drop down. This REALLY helps you focus on what you need to do vs be overwhelmed by the next several months of tasks on your list. The Perspective I find most useful is all my “work” projects and tasks that are due in the next 2 days. I then have another perspective for items that are overdue. One is my list of things to focus on. The other is my list of things to get done…NOW!

Taking It With You

If you have a Mac chances are you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch (or all of them). What about when you are away from your computer? How do you access your lists? They make an iPhone/iPod Touch app as well as an iPad app. The iPad app is actually far better in some ways than the desktop version. So much so the UI of OmniFocus 2.0 will be based largely on the iPad version. It even uses location services so you can setup location based contexts. It knows when you are home and will show you tasks that are set to home. Same for any other location based context (office, grocerty store, school).

Ah, yes, but how do you sync your data? No worries. If you use MobileMe you can easily keep your data synced via that. You can also use any other WebDav server or the beta sync server OmniGroup has (free). No matter what your situation, there is a sync solution you can use. iOS 5 will be bringing iCloud to your devices, that could change all of this for the better. Sync is notoriously difficult for developers. OmniGroup is one of the few who nailed it. iCloud will only make it easier for us since Apple build a great sync tool and gave developers all the tools to add it to their apps.

Conclussion

There you have it. A very brief rundown of how to organize OmniFocus to stay organized. Once you get the system down it makes organizing your projects and tasks sooooo much easier. Seemless sync to all your devices means you can never be in the dark about what you need to do. I’ll add more videos and links as I track them down. I may even do a screen cast of my own system to help illustrate things better. Stay tuned!

AddThis is a third party service that puts buttons on your site that allow users to easily share your content. You’ve seen it thousands of times. Just about every website has these tools. There are other services such as ShareThis (which I tried and was not at all impressed with). Twitter and Facebook also provide their own buttons. However I wanted a service that provides a wide range of social sharing options and has detailed meaningful web stats. AddThis has all that.

It is a free service, and with any free service the following applies: “if it is free, YOU are the product”. Any website can collect information about you when you visit: your web browser, computer operating system, screen size, where you are (general location based on your IP address), what page you came from, and other very general information. They don’t install tracking software on your computer, nor do they collect any personally identifying information. They then agregate this information and apply some magic stastistical analysis and are able to provide information that helps other companies advertise their products better. Sound too Big Brother for you? You can opt out.

Thats not what I use it for, but mentioned it for the sake of full disclosure. They do get something out of providing the service. None of the personal information people enter onto the site (ie member’s account information) is accessible. Just the standard web browsing stats your browser tells every website.

OK, so back to my story.

I mentioned I started with another service, ShareThis, but never was happy with it. They kept promising to get things right, but it kept not working. So around April I switched to AddThis. So the data I have is not since the new site went live.

This is the graph of all the sharing data to date. You’ll notice we are not exactly a social media powerhouse. There has been some sharing, but not much. However there are a couple of points that should not be overlooked.

If you look at the graph (orange is shares, blue is clicks), there is one obvious spike in the data. That was on May 2. Can anyone remember what the big story was May 2? Osama bin Laden had been killed the day before and news had gone out that night. Monday May 2 everyone was talking about it. What in the world does that have to do with a missions publication? March 2010 they had done an issue titled “Loving bin Laden”. Rick Wood, the editor, says this about the issue:

When I say the words “Islam” or “Muslim,” what thoughts or images come to your mind? Do you think of bloody pictures of terrorist attacks from Israel or New York? Do you think of masked gunmen with AK-47s raised in the air and explosives strapped to their chests? Perhaps fear or anger rises in your heart. If so, you are not alone. I think all of us, to a greater or lesser degree, have had these images pressed into our minds by television images from around the world. When I have spoken with people in churches about reaching Muslims with the gospel, the one thing that I have encountered most often is fear. Believers are often afraid for their personal safety when thinking of making contact with Muslims, even those in the USA. But how does God want us to respond? It might be natural for us to be fearful, but we are called to supernatural living. And fear is not part of supernatural living. We are called to faith as we proclaim God’s glory in every tribe and tongue, including among Muslims.

Some readers had already shared this issue and the main article, and we shared it via the Mission Frontiers Facebook and Twitter accounts. It got quite a bit of attention and sharing as you can see. The lead article “Loving bin Laden” was shared 38 times and received 215 clicks (viral lift of 556%). The main issue (this story and other articles, what we posted to Facebook and Twitter) was shared 7 times but received 113 clicks (viral lift of 1614%!!). Clearly it got people’s attention and they wanted to tell others.

Now clicks are not our goal. They are a good indicator that people are interested, but are they engaged? Along comes Google Analytics. I can go to the data for that article and one stat leaps off the page. Average time spent on the page: 9 minutes and 14 seconds. In internet time that is HUGE. Facebook users (not included in the AddThis data) spent 25 minutes on the page. Clearly people were not only going to the page, but were reading the article.

When there is quality content on a trending topic, the effects of social sharing can be huge.

The other point on the chart I want to point out is labeled “2”. This one is not nearly as dramatic, but does have a different kind of significance. You’ll notice that the clicks (51) were pretty high, however the shares are very low (3). This is because we had one share that generated 45 clicks. The author of an article tweeted (shared on Twitter) a link to his article, and one of his followers retweeted (forwarded it to their followers) it. These two shares resulted in a viral index of 2250% for that page. I did some checking and the author who originally tweeted it has over 3,000 followers. Our typical Twitter shares are by those with a few dozen.

What is the takeaway from this example? Influencers!! To get a lot of new eyes on your ‘product’ you need to get influencers engaged. These are the people with many followers who are actively engaged in what the person says. I follow certain ‘influencers’ on Twitter. People or organizations who are leaders in the web design and development industry. I want to know what trends and tips they are aware of.

The same is true for missions. It is our goal to get Mission Frontiers and the U.S. Center for World Mission to be recognized as a “thought leader”. One where people “follow” on Twitter or “like” on Facebook. One that other leaders in the movement will follow and share our content. We are actively working towards this goal. It is not about chasing numbers, I want to make that perfectly clear. Rather it is about using tools available to us to effect the most people we possibly can.

It is true that the numbers are still pretty small when looked at objectively. However the trends are very promising and do scale. I’ve learned quite a bit about how people use the site and how valuable sharing tools are. These will be very important tools as we continue to promote the website, and the learnings of the past few weeks are already paying dividends in getting new people to the site.

You could go out and buy a ready to go external drive ready to go. Those are generally overpriced and not very versitile. I prefer to buy an external case (no drive) and a hard drive then put it together myself. The advantages here are:

• cheaper
• you can open it up and swap our the drive much easier that a prebuilt one
• far more options for cases (size, color, connections)
• building one yourself is much cooler than buying one off the shelf

You may be thinking, “but a pre-built one comes with free software”. Big deal. There are very good (better) options that are free. On a Mac you can use Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper. On a PC…well, there is probably something. Google can help with that, or maybe some nice PC users will leave suggestions in the comments.

So what case? Some have fans, but personally I don’t like them. Too noisy. A well designed case can keep the drive cool enough without a fan via a heat sink effect (case touches drive, heat passes to case). If you don’t plan on swapping out multiple backup drives I like the basic ones from Rosewill. Their USB model is a whopping $21 at NewEgg. For $4 more you can get the eSATA version. This does require your computer to have an eSATA card, but it would allow the drive to work at its maximum ~110Mb/sec speed (what mine tops out at over eSATA or internally).

I’ve owned a number of drives over the years and currently have about 20 drive in service for our video department. The current options are Seagate, Hitachi, Samsung, Western Digital, and a few other that are much more expensive and for servers and other high end applications. What you need for external backup is reliable. Fast is good too. Cheap…never hurts. I have had great success with Seagate, and they have a solid reputation among video guys. I have used Samsung as well, but had an issue with one model and it was an ordeal dealing with them on it. Long story, probably my next post. Usually good drives, but poor customer service rules them out. Western Digital has a few solid options. However the one that I’m most impressed with: the HItachi 2TB 5K3000. It is a 5,400rpm drive. That means its cool and quiet. Very quiet. It is also very fast. It gets the highest transfer rates of any drive in our system. Right now, just $65 at Newegg after a rebate.

Why not a 7,200rpm drive? They cost more, run hotter, fail more often, and the advantages of a 7200rpm drive are not really helpful for backup purposes. On a system drive or regularly used data drive, absolutely go with 7,200rpm. However for a backup you just need lots of space, something quiet (it will probably be on your desk), and something that runs cool so you can use a cheaper, quieter fanless case.

What about installing the drive? How hard is it? Super easy. Slide the drive into the mounty thing (SATA drives don’t use those nasty molex cables like IDE drives. Rather they use nice connections on the drive that slide right into the case). Then once the drive is in place, fasten two screws. Put this inside the case, fasten two more screws and you are done. Can you turn a screw driver? You can do this.

So thats it. $105, or $85 if you buy by May 15 and send in for the rebate on the drive.

It was a perfectly clear night and the moon was full. Perfect conditions for a nighttime photo shoot. This one naturally required a long exposure and tripod. The longish focal length (70mm) gets in tighter and makes the shorter star trails look bigger. I wish I could have taken a longer exposure on this shot, but unfortunately I was running out of darkness…not often thats a problem for a photographer. As dawn grew closer the longer exposures made the sky too light and too little contrast to see the star trails.

Half Dome, popular photo op. Not often you can see it this way.

It isn’t very long. It may take serveral minutes to walk the length of it, but that is only because you are contantly looking around at all the color, shapes, and detail.

All that is shaped by one force…water. When it rains, even miles away, water flows down the shallow valley to the north. This shallow valley is hundreds of feet wide. The water may be just a few inches deep but by the time it enters the 10 foot wide opening of the slot canyon it several feet deep.  As more and more water tries to get in there it gets higher and faster. This water can be quite fast moving and carry all kinds of debris. Thats why you often see branches and boulders jammed into the most unlikely places…above your head no less. It also constantly changes the floor of the canyon. It is always a very fine dusty sand from all the sandstone in the area. However a minor flood will usually raise the hight of this sandy bottom, while a major flood will erode the bottom. In any given year the floor can go up or down 10 feet or more.

This is one of those special places that you just have to see for yourself.

When was doing photography full time I made heavy use of my Mac Pro. Plenty of power, space, memory, and all the other good stuff tech geeks like. Lately I just don’t use it much. When I do it is for basic things: checking email, looking up information on line, sharing photos, or maybe some light video editing.

In March Apple was kind enough to replace my Macbook Pro with a brand new one. These new “Early 2011” models are fast…even faster than my 4 year old Mac Pro. When I needed to do some really intensive work like HD video or edit photos the new laptop was better than the Mac Pro. I figured I could just use external drives for data and the laptop for my main computer. So the Mac Pro was listed on Craigs List. I got about half what it cost me, plenty to cover the cost of a new iPad. 

In the weeks since Emily and I are both loving this decision. No longer do we have to start up the Mac Pro, sit at the desk in the corner and do stuff. 85% of what we used to do on it we can do on the iPad. No startup time and easy access means it is ‘faster’ in the sense that we get done sooner. When you take into account that the iPad lets you do all this while on the couch, in the office, in bed, sitting outside, or anywhere with wifi (or no wifi if you don’t need internet) the iPad is far superior.

It has also proven to be a real winner for work. I take it to meetings and conferences and the laptop stays in the bag most of the time. I can take notes, draw diagrams, and most anything else you need to do in a meeting. No need to transfer written notes to digital or lug a laptop around (and be the guy going clackity clack on the keyboard).

Other bonuses are its ability to serve as a media hub. With a $100 ($85 in refurb store) AppleTV you can play your music and videos on any HD TV. I can even see people using one of these for work. Bring you AppleTV, connect it to the presentation TV or porjector and viola, instant wireless presentation system.

Is the iPad a Mac Pro replacement? Absolutely not. You may still need a computer to store all the source files for photo/video, sync with, and do the heavy lifting. I’ve rarely needed to use the laptop, but when I do it shows why computers are not going away any time soon. Aperture, Final Cut Studio and Photoshop just can’t be replaced with anything on the iPad. But for most needs, even light video editing, the iPad performs very well. I’ve even found that the iPad version of applications are at times better on the iPad (OmniFocus being the primary example).

So what about those of you who don’t edit hundreds of 10MB photos or don’t need to capture and edit video? Chances are an iPad is a better fit than a new computer. Anyone looking to update their aging home computer or who is considering a laptop should give a good look at the iPad if:

• you mostly consume media (watch video, internet use, email, and such)
• are careful with portable electronics, they don’t play well with kids and clumsy people
• don’t mind the smaller screen
• have wifi at home
• don’t do a lot of video or photo editing

There certainly are limits to the iPad. I’ve found it can most everything I use a laptop or desktop for, and many things those simply cannot do. Do I regret selling the Mac Pro and ‘downgrading’ to an iPad? Not at all. Best move I made. Only wish I had done it sooner when I could have gotten more for the Mac Pro.

Well, I got it done in a few days. My test project was over, and I didn’t do anything to improve it as my skills improved. Two years later I cringe when I look at it. The good news I suppose is that I’ve learned a good deal in those two years. It is humbling to look at something you did and see so many flaws, but thats what education will do to you.

When I resolved to make a new site…a site I can be proud of…I set out a few goals:

• learn typography
• pay attention to the little things
• make it usable
• learn…a lot
• have fun

Typography

Once upon a time web designers had a handful of fonts to chose from. Why? Browsers only supported a few and there was no way to make sure the user had the same font on their system. If they didn’t, they saw the standard font, not the one you spent hours picking to match the look and feel of your site.

Now designers can chose from hundreds…thousands…of fonts. Modern browsers are able to see that a custom font is used, download it and use it to render the text. This makes a HUGE difference in viewing a site. I spent several hours looking at the basic rules, some popular combinations, and the options that were available to me. My choice? Chunk Five for all headings and PT Sans for content. A nice combination of a heavy serif font and a wide round sans-serif font. I’m feeling pretty good about this selection, but how knows. A year (or a few months) I may look and see flaws to this choice or just not like it as much.

The Little Things

There are all kinds of ‘fun’ effects that you can do in Photoshop and even CSS. However the age of visual overload ended nearly 10 years ago when people realized that “cool” websites were not good websites. All kinds of moving Flash objects and sound effects do NOT make a good web experience. The new rule of thumb is if you use an effect, use it minimally. It should be something that you notice when it isn’t there, but not something that screams for attention when it is there. Things like text shadows, gradients, drop shadows, and the like. On this version of the site I do use these at times, but in more moderation than the past.

Another new trend is using texture. Solid colors are not natural. When was the last time anything natural was one solid even tone? Subtle gradients help, but so too do textures. I added some texture elements to the site to give it a more natural look, and break up the monotony of even color. There certainly is a time and place for solid colors, but I prefer the way a subtle texture looks.

Make It Usable

OK, I’m sorry for the black background and light text. Looks nice, but not really user friendly. This one puts users a bit more up front. Keep it simple, make it easy on the eyes, make sure mobile users can use it (ie no Flash or extensive use of hover effects), and all around something that really has the user in mind.

Learn…a Lot

This one was a blessing and a curse. I am not much more proficient at using jQuery to enhance the site UI (user interface), but at the expense of many late nights. I can’t tell you how many times I would find myself staring at the screen for far too long before finally getting things working right. I also learned about typography, how to make seamless repeating background images that aren’t huge files, how to make an entire website mock up in Fireworks (yup, no Photoshop used on this site), how NOT to upgrade ExpressionEngine to v2 (why you won’t find my old blog posts…but thats another entry).... Yup, I learned a great deal, and still have more to learn. This site will evolve over time as I take on new challenges.

Have Fun

Some of the effects are for usability (the navigation rollovers) others are more for fun (the theater inspired dimming of the photo gallery page). I tried to keep it under control and not work against the other guiding principles (keep it usable and mind the little things), I think I managed to do that.

Making this site was a challenge at times, but I enjoyed the process. There are few things as satisfying as developing a concept and then seeing that come to life. It isn’t done, it will evolve, more content will be added, but at least now I have a website I’m not embarassed to direct my peers to. I welcome feedback, people peaking at my code and letting me know where I can improved. I can take it. Just don’t tell me it doesn’t work on IE 6, I know and I don’t care

So driving back through the valley one last time I started to see something…light from behind Half Dome. A quick check on my sun/moon chart (pre-iPhone trip) verified what I thought. The moon was rising. I thought I might get something worth shooting, so I waited a bit.

Fog plus rising full moon made for quite the sight. I’ve seen plenty of photos from Yosemite, but never anything like this one. The right phase of the moon, right time of day, right weather, right time of year…perfect combination for a unique look at one of the most commonly photographed rocks on Earth.

A short hike from Tioga Pass and you get a great view of Half Dome from the side. Oh, and the light parts on the left…thats what you have to hike up to get to the top. Crazy hike, but worth it.

I set up at my favorite spot to shoot Yosemite Falls (shooting across cooks meadow) at just after 3 am. Tripod, cable release, and some patience…. This shot was exposed for over 20 minutes and you can see the star trails in the sky as well as the blue sky from the morning light not far away. Give it enough time and the color and detail show up. Some of my favorite shots are from after midnight and before dawn. Yup, not for everyone.

It would be several decades until the public would have access to Antelope Canyon. In 1997 it became part of the Navajo Nation’s park in the area and is accessible by permit. The family that found it still takes most of the tours through there (the best one is to just drive to the parking lot and look for one of the family there, the ones in town are overpriced and not as easy going).

I was fortunate to be there on a very quiet December day. It was just me and another photographer from Germany. The tour guide (a 15 year old with a lead foot…fun ride in on the dirt road) left us alone for over 2 hours to take all the photos we wanted. On the way back he even let us explore “Rattlesnake Canyon”, one not open to the public. It was not really a photo place, more of a fun climb and crawl exploration…and no, we didn’t encounter and rattlesnakes.