Review of MPIX book-making app.

A reader asked if I’d tried MPIX. I hadn’t, so I thought I’d make book #11 or 12 or whatever.
Summary: The application is OK – similar to others but with slightly different benefits and problems. It does allow free-form text and photo placement (like aperture), but the alignment and sizing tools are very primitive. [...]

improving webcam picture quality

strobist is a great blog by a professional photographer for off-body camera lighting of all types.
In this post he tackles how to improve your webcam image. All pretty easy, and only the last suggestion costs money.
He also linked to what the duck earlier – hilarious cartoons of a duck photographer.

Restoring macbook after drive failure

As I noted in my previous post, my macbook hard drive failed while I was flying from Oslo to Reykjavík on the way back to Boston.
I’d done a complete backup of the macbook before I left. Generally, there are just applications and log files on my macbook and imac: I try to keep [...]

Ålesund, Oslo, Reykjavík, Boston, Cambridge Apple store

what an amazing place
Originally uploaded by mikefranklin.

The airport slowly filled as the time for the Oslo flight approached. Perhaps not oddly, announcements were only in Norwegian. Our flight was late; we boarded in the polite crush of humanity (orderly lines?), with constant Norwegian broken only by “have a [...]

Valldal to Ålesund

Ålesund
Originally uploaded by mikefranklin.

Finally left for Ålesund sometime in mid-afternoon after a pleasantly bland morning. Time to say good bye to the sun-kissed, snow-capped mountains descending precipitously into cold and deep fjords, as we headed along some windy roads and through some long tunnels. The weather worsened as [...]

valldal day 3

view
Originally uploaded by mikefranklin.

Last full day in Valldal, then off to Ålesund on Sunday so I can head back to Boston on Monday.
After yet another pleasantly lazy start, we drove to Chez Henriksen in the hills of Fjørå, where they’ve got a rather stunning view of the [...]

valldal day 2

on the ferry heading back
Originally uploaded by mikefranklin.

Karl Otto improved his breakfast-making skills – this time only preparing enough for 4 people, rather than 8 as was the case yesterday (there are still just two of us).
I have a bit of a cold, and we weren’t in any [...]

valldal day 1

wow.
Originally uploaded by mikefranklin.

Woke up to a bright nearly sunny day at 4C; Karl Otto prepared enough oatmeal for a … team of hungry volleyball players? Today’s event was a bit of hiking in Muldalen, up to a waterfall along a moderately steep path.
One of his parent’s car [...]

Tromsø to Valldal

café by the fjord
Originally uploaded by mikefranklin.

Tromsø to Valldal
Uneventful start to the last morning north of the arctic circle. Thankfully, Lars Ivar had given me the bus info to get back to the airport,
but as always I tried to verify at the hotel desk. They suggested [...]

Tromsø, day 1

it was like that. I *did not* touch it. did not. did not.
Originally uploaded by mikefranklin.

After quite a nice scandinavian breakfast buffet, and an very brief chat with a friend 9 time zones away, I headed out. The weather was conveniently amazingly great – a [...]