April 20, 2009 by Brad.

Do you use different video players? Have you noticed there seems to be no consistency in the use of (or even the existence of) keyboard shortcuts?

For example, what’s the keyboard shortcut for “Pause” on your player? In some cases, it’s “spacebar”, in other cases it is “p” and in yet other cases (Apple QuickTime), clicking in the window will pause the player. In the case of Microsoft Windows Media Player, it is “Ctrl-S”.

Would it be possible for the player developers to establish a standard for the most common functions, such as pause/resume, fast forward, next chapter, etc? Wouldn’t we all appreciate this?

Personally, I like the approach taken in WinDVD in which letter keys are assigned functions related to the letter, e.g.

F - fast forward / stop fast forward, resume playback    

R - fast reverse (rewind) / stop rewind, resume playback

and function keys are assigned related functions, e.g. 

PgUp - previous chapterPgDn - next chapter  

Spacebar - pause / resume playback    

I particularly like “Spacebar” for pause / resume playback because it is perhaps the mostly frequently used function and the spacebar is the largest key on the typical keyboard.

What’s with the multi-key combinations in Microsoft Windows Media Player, e.g. Ctrl-S and Ctrl-Shift-F? Most keyboards have about 100 keys, so it hardly seems necessary to use multi-key combinations. Why not just assign each key a dedicated function? It should be feasible to map just about every conceiveable function to its own key. Tsk, tsk.

If you think about how these players are used, you can see why single keys are important. In my case, I use a laptop in the TV room to playback recorded TV programs on a large screen TV. I don’t want to be fumbling with multi-key combinations when skipping commercials.

So developers, could we please have a standard on this? Thanks.

What are your thoughts? 

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April 8, 2009 by Brad.

People ask me all the time if pottery is food safe.  Read the rest of this entry »

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April 2, 2009 by Brad.

Greetings!
The Theme for March 2009 was “Openings” - an even more challening subject than “Opposites” I think. Nonetheless, the club members were undaunted and submitted a whopping 25 fine photographs. Congratulations to our winners.

For April 2009, the Theme Shoot topic is “Hard Edges”. The due date for submissions is end-of-day Sunday, April 26. We have scheduled an outing to go shooting “hard edges” in the town of Ladysmith on April 19. We’ll meet at The Printingdun Beanery Cafe on 1st Ave at 9am.

If you’re interested in joining the Ladysmith Camera Club, please click here to send an email to the club to get further information. The club meets the 4th Tuesday of the month at “The Terrace Room” behind “The Printingdun Beanery Cafe” at 341 First Ave, Ladysmith, British Columbia. The public is welcome. The LCC welcomes new members, novice to pro.

3rd Place Selection
“Through The Open Fence” by Daphne Pollard

2nd Place Selection
“Open Doors And Broken Windows” by Tom Maxie

1st Place Selection
“Chain Port” by John Anderson

Images on this page are copyrighted © 2009 by their respective makers. All worldwide rights reserved.

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April 2, 2009 by Brad.

Do you sometimes have a colour image that appears washed out, lifeless and overly gray, even after adjusting levels and contrast? You know there is more colour in the image, but you can’t seem to coax it out. Well, if you’re up for a short ride through the Lab colour mode, here’s a very simple trick to “pump up the colour”. Read the rest of this entry »

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