blog world
Canon EOS 60D – Already?
Aug 29th
Wow! Canon is really going at it now. The D series revolution is going crazy, just after releasing the Canon EOS 50D, they come out with the Canon EOS 60D – at the same MSRP price? Why Canon? I have been a big fan of the 1D’s series and I am glad you kept the 1Ds Mark II around for awhile and made it an amazing camera and I did really enjoy it and I know technology is coming out so fast and we need to keep up, so I hope the Mark III 1Ds will be around as long as the Mark II 1Ds has.
I just feel bad for those who just purchased the Canon EOS 50D, knowing the Canon EOS 60D is the same price and of course has a higher and new technology built-in to it, naming a few:
1. )Max. aperture TTL metering with 63-zone SPC with the following selectable modes:
Evaluative metering (linkable to all AF points)
Partial metering (approx. 6.5% of viewfinder at center)
Spot metering (approx. 2.8% of viewfinder at center)
Center-Weighted average metering
2.) Total pixels: Approx. 19.0 Megapixels: 5432 (H) x 3492 (V) pixels
3.) Effective pixels: Approx. 18.0 Megapixels: 5200 (H) x 3462 (V) pixels
Oh well – Technology as we all know it, travels so fast that we as the consumers are constantly on the chase.
You can see the 50D / 60D Side by Side Comparison – HERE
Alienbees Ring Flash Experience
Aug 29th
Finally! I got my hands on the Alienbees Ring Flash (by chance) After using the nifty Profoto Ring Flash for 5 years now, I have always wondered how the Alienbees Ring Flash performed, I have seen various good reviews and some mixed reviews online, but the only beset review you can get is from you! Using it yourself.
Overall I was pleased with the results, although power wise, not quite close to my favorite Profoto RingFlash – but for what you need it for, it has great features. Power wise I was just using it for 2 various F-Stops, so I didn’t really push it that much, since it was not mine and it was my first time using it, the slider where you were supposed to mount your camera was missing a piece, I am not quite sure if it came with one and was attached to someone’s camera.
I had a good experience using it and would love to experiment more on it and post some cool pictures. Below is a sample of one of the shots.
Big Talent in Small Packages
Aug 10th
Looking for talent? This is some raw fresh talent, not all big talents come from big name people. Sometimes they come in small packages. Jackie Evancho is one talented young lady, this young lady will be making her mark and I am sure we will be hearing more about her. As the AGT’s judges has said, this will be the new buzz of the internet and as I type this blog, the news is already talking about this performance tonight. This is indeed a good stage to bring out the wonderful talent that we have around the nation. Good luck everyone!
RonOsmena.Com – Up and Running!
Jul 23rd
Wow! Finally got the chance to finish up my simple revamped site, decided to get rid of the heavy front page FLASH – just wanted it to load fast and easy – Clients will be happy not to wait for the front loading page.
For now I decided to incorporate my work under one showcase – “PORTFOLIO” later on as I update my images I will break them down into there corresponding categories. – Remember this was an update on my core site files and the look and feel, easier navigation and just direct. Images will come next and boy do I have a lot of images to catalog and edit and upload.
So for now I hope you enjoy the new and simple www.ronosmena.com site and by the way I also changed my blog location, not really a frontend change, as a user, you won’t even notice the change, but yeah I did!
Oh well! So here we go! It is now time to get indexed by GOOGLE, YAHOO and BING!
Just a little plug – Check out PurpleARO coming soon!!!
Happy Easter Everyone!
Apr 4th
Just would like to take this moment to great friends, family and readers a Happy happy Easter !!!
Stay happy! Enjoy your day with family and friends!
Happy Easter Everyone!
Upgrading Magento 1.3.2.1 to 1.4.0.1
Apr 2nd
After very painful weeks of studying the tables reading the new structure of 1.4.0.1 and going through pages of Magento Forums, I could not find the specific installation / upgrade I had with Magento and to tell you honestly it was really getting to my nerves. Here is a simple step I have created to UPGRADE a 1.3.2.1 to a 1.4.0.1:
Keep it simple.
1.) Back Up your Production DB
2.) Create a new Staging DOMAIN
3.) Create a SAMPLE DB
4.) Install Magento 1.4.x.x in your Staging DOMAIN
5.) Use the SAMPLE DB for the NEW Magento 1.4.x.x Install
6.) Once everything is installed and working (AS A FRESH INSTALL)
7.) Create a NEW PRODUCTION BLANK DB
8.) Restore your Back Up’d Production DB and Restore it to the NEW one you created in STEP 7
9.) Go to /app/etc/
10.) Rename the “local.xml” to any file for example “local.xml-SOMETHING”
11.) Now go to the the STAGING DOMAIN (this should run the INSTALLATION again)
12.) Go through the Installation and use the NEW PRODUCTION DB you just restored in STEP 8
13.) Once you you go to the step after the database information, it may take a few minutes depending on your DB size, mine takes about 15 minutes (BE PATIENT)
14.) After a couple of REFRESH’s on your browser you will see the ENTER YOUR NAME section that means you have gone through.
15.) DONE
This procedure has helped me upgrade all my 6 clients whom run Magento as there backend e-commerce solutions and after documenting all my notes and making a step by step instruction manual, I have more fixes from the above steps.
If you had a very smooth version and less products and customization the above steps should work flawlessly (I hope) but if it doesn’t as it did not for me, since I had to edit a few tables, my INDEX products / categories was not refreshing, had to DROP a table and edit the operation of one table. I had to add the WIDGET table, etc. Then yes it does need further deep fixing.
Please feel free to email me and I would be able to see if I can help you.
Then again to remind my readers that the above steps WORKED FOR ME and I was successful after a few weeks of painful studying. It may not work for you if you have other customizations done to your site. But hey! It’s a staging site anyway and we all can get desperate, so go ahead give it a toy around!
P.S.
Do not forget about the the templates, your OLD templates will not work with the new 1.4.0.1 so again you have to recreate your templates as well.
Yeah yeah I know it is a pain, but oh well, we always love a little challenge.
‘Ciao!
The Rise of Joomla
Mar 5th
The CMS battle will never end. We CMS designers and programmers will always talk about which format to go for, Joomla or Drupal, I know there are others out there but we know Joomla and Drupal are the favorites.
If you as a designer or a programmer after drilling down and using both, it really boils down to client needs. It’s what you want out of it, both platforms are strong in there own way.
I have to give it up to Joomla because just randomly browsing around the internet I have come across various websites that use there platform and I have to tell you that they are impressive and just as powerful as any heavily coded website. User Interface (UI) can always be enjoyable no matter what platform you use in the back-end side.
It again boils down to what your client needs and how you want to give the output and of course how much your client is willing to spend.
I am sure the rise of Joomla website backed platforms will continue to rise.
Calm after the deadline storm!
Jan 7th
Got to my desk early today and was at a very creative mood – Was about to burn more DVD catalog’s and I got a call that they didn’t need anymore!
I have to post the design of the CD it’s pretty simple but I like it – nice and clean!
I really like the sense of digital catalogs now after creating this – officially this is the 2nd digital catalog I have published for them, I am digging it now! I still think people like to have the PRINTED version.
So what is it? Digital or Traditional (PRINT) Let me blog about that later on today. First let me head over run the Website Analytic Reports and see if the 2010 International CES got of a good start!
The Deadline is now Dead!
Jan 6th
We pushed it as much as we could and we only ended up with 30 DVD’s! This is what I expected since we had so many hitches and with only 4 sets of hands working on 100 tasks = Impossible!
Well the good part is I get to do more edits on it and get it going for tomorrow! MICROBOARD is not finally making its worth and working like a charm!
Today was a really hectic day…wait…what day is it?
Just Checking In – Desk – Deadline Day
Jan 6th
It ‘s like 9:45am and I just got to my desk to get this done – Early morning rush! Drove to pick up the blank DVDs and Ink Cartridge for the MICROBOARD Publisher – then drove down like 30miles to pick up some of the sales team’s business cards and stuck in LA traffic towards my office. (I still made it to type up this blog before everything else)
We have to re-calibrate this MICROBOARD again before we can even get everything going! 200 DVD’s is impossible at this point – Deadline is set in 2 hours (is that possible?)
My assistant Mark is now working on the prep and I am once again multitasking – doing a 2nd run through and minor edits to the catalog and designing a simple DVD cover.
Let’s get this done and let’s see where it takes us!