All posts by Carl Green

Yuk It Up, Go On…

OK, so who wants to laugh at this ageing techie?

I decided that yesterday would be the day I gave my 32Gb iPhone a much needed clean up. With less than 1Gb free space remaining, I need to give myself some breathing space. So, I import all the photos and videos from the iPhone  into a ‘dump’ folder I made on my desktop, which I use for just such purposes, then I wiped the phone. OK so far. 15Gb now free and hundreds of photos and videos to wade through later.

Then, two days later, I find that somehow that dump folder does not contain all the things I copied over from the iPhone. Not sure how it happened. These are personal files, just snaps for the most part, so I wasn’t perhaps as careful as I should have been. Whatever happened, the end result is that none of the videos and many of the photos were simply not there. I’m not going to blame the computer. I’m going to blame the user. Whatever I did, it was what my geek friends and I would term an epic fail. Still, I’m not beaten yet. Far from it. We have plans for this scenario.

phoneSituation: The iPhone is empty. None of my iPhone backups have that material, because I cleared those out as well during my purge. Well, I don’t need it any more, right? I have copied everything to the computer for safe keeping! Except…the desktop folder doesn’t have it and, of course, like a good little techie I have emptied my recycle bin. Bum. I’m still not beaten yet!

Good job I have File History configured and turned on… I am going to thank myself for being sensible enough to use this fantastic feature, and be grateful to Microsoft for adding it to every version of Windows since version 7. With File History, your documents, desktop files, Libraries and any other folders you want are monitored and backed up to a location of your choice. More, any changes to those files are also backed up. What does that mean? Imagine you wrote an essay or a spreadsheet, then made changes and wanted to go back seven versions to the original draft or layout. That’s why it is called File History. You can keep as many versions as you want, automatically. So…

I just rolled back a couple of days and found the original files that were on the desktop immediately after I imported them from the phone. All the photos and all of the videos are there, happily waiting to be restored to their original location. Two clicks and two minutes later, I’m sitting watching one of the videos that would otherwise have been gone forever. Nothing missing. No damage. No harm, no foul. In this instance, Microsoft came through and delivered exactly what they promised, right when it was needed. They don’t get enough praise for that. So from me to Microsoft, well played, Microsoft, well played indeed.

Time to go. I have a whole bunch of photos and videos to wade through.

Another Busy Week

Our medical software division in New York are building a mobile interface for the electronic health record application we sell to hospitals and facilities across America.
I’m working with the development team on the user interface, designing for the app all the icons and other chrome that will be used.
It’s fun.
They need a library of unique and identifiable icons which can be used across various colour schemes, size ranges, and devices. That look modern and attractive without getting in the way, and which can be identified at a glance by first time users, while remaining attractive to long term users.
Of course, I nailed it first time. The draft icons I presented were approved at the first meeting and I started work on the rest of the icon libraries. I handed them off on Friday to the development team, who came back with only two words: Wow! Awesome!
I think I’m going to enjoy this project.

Holiday weekend! Canada Day 2014! Hang on…I’m working.

OK! It’s Friday June 27, and the working week is over! Right? Wrong. It just started.

After a quick cuppa, I’m going to start editing photos from the Lakeshore Catholic High School Graduation shoot last night. I want to get those shots in the bag and into the computer, so I can wipe my media cards and charge my spare batteries, load the car with flashes, reflectors, light stands and other camera gear because tomorrow…I am out of the house by 7:30 am to drive to London Ontario. I’m shooting a wedding.

Heading back around midnight so I can shoot more photos on Sunday at a different event, I should have another full media card (or two) and several hundred photos of the bride and groom, the wedding party, families, formal photos and candid cameos (my speciality)  of (I think) a total of around 120 guests. Me and a camera. No pressure, then.

Up early Sunday and starting to edit THOSE photos and wipe the media cards again… and off we go. Back to the day job on Monday…so much for a holiday weekend. ‘

Still, I get to spend Tuesday with Nikki, as it’s Canada Day, which makes it a national holiday here. I am going to unplug the phone, pack up an assortment of food and drinks and, if my weary self can handle it, take Nikki off somewhere for a picnic. Actually, we haven’t hit the beach for a while. Maybe we’ll go there. Actually, that’s walking distance from here. We can do that. If I can stay awake.

Note to self: Leave laptop at home.

Friday 13 at Port Dover

After a hard week doing…well, lots…it’s time to recharge the batteries. The edible Nikki and I are enjoying a long weekend away. As this weekend is the only Friday 13th this year, it’s going to be the mother of all parties.
Every Friday 13, upwards of a couple of hundred thousand bikers from across Ontario and northern US swarm the sleepy little Lake Erie waterfront town of Port Dover for a 48 hour music fest, with barbecues, camping, bars, booze and bikes. The best airbrush artwork is to be found here, and I love photographing it. Imagination and creativity run rampant. It is beautiful.
We shop, eat, make new friends and enjoy the many bar bands. The whole town is transformed. And we always keep an eye out for one of the true icons of this event: Thong Guy. Representing the ‘this is me, deal with it’ mentality and individuality of the weekend, all I can say is that I have never before seen a guy in his seventies make open toe sandals look good with a gold sequinned thong. I don’t think he ever buys a drink, which is good, because I don’t want to think where he would keep his money. A regular for many years, like the Lone Ranger, he rides in to town alone. Nobody knows where he comes from or where he goes afterward. I think they’re scared to ask.
We enjoy the atmosphere. Rarely a fight, the bikers respect the community and pretty much police themselves. The bikers are accepted into the community, and they take that responsibility very seriously. Police involvement is usually a quick chirp of the horn and a flash of the lights, before unruly revellers are brought to the ground under the weight of a dozen friends. It’s quite fun to watch, actually. Horseplay, usually.
Anyway, this is how two car-bound innocents like ourselves can drive without fear into a camp ground full of motorbikes, set up a tent surrounded by some of the most ethical and trustworthy strangers we never met, and sleep like babies. Well, apart from the constant ‘pipe wars’ which break out every thirty minutes of the night, accompanied by the good-natured chorus of  ‘shut those beepers off, you bopping beep holes’! Or something pretty close to that. Note: if you can sleep through a four- bike chorus of full throttle battle only fifty feet from your tent, this may be the party for you. Otherwise, stay home.
Well, I write this while charging equipment before heading in to town for some atmosphere. All charged now, it’s time to go and see what new excitement lies in store for us this year. Burger and a T-shirt, perhaps. That’s a good place to start. Here we go…
——-
P.S. The cell network was swamped all weekend. No service, no signal, no call, no Internet. That’s why I’m posting this on Sunday instead of on the day I wrote it. Hey, I’m not wasting a good article just because it’s a day or so late… Photos to follow later. Ciao!

A Postcard Design

This is the front of a postcard I designed which landed in the mailboxes of healthcare providers across America recently.

On the rear of the postcard we launch a prize draw contest which is proving very successful, and which is generating a lot of interest in our field of industry and across our target audience  (which is why we did it, of course). It worked.

Just wanted to share the image. Because I like it. It is good. So there.

Front image for a postcard

Busy Week, Busy Weekend

This last week has been a little hectic.

In print, I finished a 6-page sales brochure, 2 product technical specification sheets, and a full page advert supporting a national U.S. fundraising campaign for a major healthcare provider client.

I wrote, and promoted via Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook, four in-depth blog articles for three separate medical software companies. I moderated an opinion poll, launched a national prize draw and sent over 10,000 marketing e-mails to assorted client lists advising upcoming attendances at various conferences and trade shows. Plus other stuff.

In my own time, I wrote a 7-page proposal outlining my recommendations for best next-steps for our group of eight companies, in terms of web site modifications and development, and budgeting for the year ahead.

After I did that, on the way home on Friday I recorded some video for my YouTube channel.

This particular video has a serious theme surrounding mental illness (not mine, you witty person) and may prove unsettling for some: you have been warned. The next day, today, I recorded another, shorter, bounce-back video which discusses some upgrades I have planned for the community newspaper I co-publish.

Both videos were uploaded today and both are in my Thoughts From A Car series, which I hope to maintain on a more regular basis now that I have developed a workflow which allows me to output consistently at a high rate of production. Hope you like them.

I think I may just stop and have a little rest now. Then, on to the gystservices.com site to add some more photo galleries and change things up a little. If I don’t fall asleep first, that is.

The best thing about doing what I do is that I can jump right in and completely redesign everything in minutes, from video to web site to blog to print ads to…well. You get the idea. When inspiration hits me, I don’t stop until I’m finished. And that reminds me. I should change up the ads I’m running on the newspaper site. Something new. Something…ah. Yes. I know the very thing. Time to get started…

Heartbleed

Those that know me, know of my involvement with the media. Proud owner of a largely unused Press Pass, I am also semi-responsible for the on-line newspaper, the News In Port Colborne.

I make sure the wheels don’t fall off, take care of the backups, handle the adverts, and also write a technology column whenever the mood takes me.

Or, when something important comes along, as it did recently in the form of the Heartbleed bug in the Open Source SSL library behind two thirds of the secure servers on the Internet. Out there for two years before being noticed, this issue carried potential for great harm.

I won’t rewrite it here, it’s far too long. But I will post here a link to the article I wrote for the aforementioned newspaper, for those interested in reading it. Enjoy!

http://newsinportcolborne.com/2014/04/heartbleeds-bug-the-facts/ 

3D Goodness For My Desk!

I was just handed a coaster for my cups. Doesn’t sound exciting, right? But this coaster is special. I made it. Well, I made the 3D template the 3D printer used to make it.

It’s a single face of the design we call Rubik, a 3D cube I created in Photoshop to advertise our New York medical software division. Rubik has popped up in print, excelled on e-mail campaigns, vroomed animatedly on video and stood proud on 10′ by 10′ stands at trade shows.

I have flipped open her lid so I could put things inside her, including a jack-in-the-box. We put lights inside her like a pumpkin and I even took out a wall so I could park a car inside her. As you can see, she is very versatile. She is the face of our Google Plus page.

And now, she’s sitting on my desk holding my cup. I think that’s pretty durn cool.

SigCube

 

A sad and a strange day

Today the city of Port Colborne said goodbye to a fine young man. Mikey McIntyre, beloved son, grandson, brother, uncle and friend to many more, died. At the ripe old age of twenty two.
Death is known as a constant companion. We’re all going there some day. I am more than twice his age, yet I highly doubt that so many people will turn out for me when the time comes. Standing room only. This man was loved.
He was quietly spoken, to the point of invisibility, as one speaker noted. That is a neat trick when you stand six foot six and are built like an outhouse, like Mikey.
I can’t claim to have known him very well. I can say that the loss is mine. That today I stood with and watched and listened to those he left behind. And I was left feeling, frankly, a little envious of the Gentle Giant. To be loved so much by so many is something that most spend whole lifetimes trying to achieve. Mikey did it without even trying. In only twenty two short years.

For Bexx

This is a photo of my beautiful niece Rebecca, who is getting married on August 9th, Andy’s ulcer permitting.

Congrats to both her and fiancée Denton, a man whose dashing good looks no photograph could possibly capture. In other words, I didn’t get a good one.