Kebablog

Despite my moaning about Adobe in the past (and future) they still produce my main workflow tool: LightRoom

Now after a year and a bit they’ve released the beta version of LR3. As usual with the beta versions you cannot use an existing library. Which is a little frustrating as it means to test I have to duplicate work. Though I guess as the Beta is slated to be a little buggy then I suppose they don’t want togs to destroy their work.

So differences:

Initially the Interface looks the same, not a great deal of difference here then.

A few differences on the left hand side as it now shows a Publish Services option. Handy for a quick upload to Flickr or in my case hopefully my webserver. Though only tested Flickr at the moment. Will save me using iPhoto! Also it seems many API have been written for the LR2, so no doubt these will be converted for LR3. Would be nice to see an Alamy one!

(more…)

So it began…….

As a courtesy to domain names, we are sending you the notification of the domain name registration that is due to expire in the next few months. When you ****Switch**** today to the domain renewal, you can take advantage of our best savings, blah blah, blah

I emphasised ‘Switch’ as it’s a key word. Switch indeed. I bought the .net domain though 123-reg.co.uk, so I expect it’ll auto renew when it expires (1st Feb, 2010)

Act today!

So it continues………

You must renew your domain name to retain exclusive rights to it on the Web, and now is the time to transfer and renew from your current Registrar to the Domain Renewal Group………Privatization of Domain Registrations and Renewals now allows the consumer the choice of Registrars……..Domain name holder are not obligated to renew their domain name with their current Registrar or with the Domain Renewal Group

I’ve read the letter and indeed, it’s written so you are aware. However some will be caught out by the wording and just jump to renew. Mainly to protect their important web IP.

it continues…..

Review our prices and decide for yourself. You are under no obligation to pay the amounts stated below, unless you accept this offer.

So I did check the prices.

1 Year: Domain Renewal Group £20 – 123-Reg £9.99
2 Year: Domain Renewal Group £35 – 123-Reg £19.98

DRG offer a 5 year price of £65 with a staggering £35 off. Now 123-Reg don’t offer a discount, but the 5 year price is £49.95.

So thank you for your kind offer Domain Renewal Group, but I prefer to stay with my original registrar.

The Domain Renewal Group, have a UK office:

56 Gloucester Road,
Suite 526
London,
England
SW7 4UB

The office located at this address is…..

Image obtained and © Google Maps 2009

Looking at this address it also appears to be the same as the ‘Domain Registry of America’ and ‘Registration Services Incorporated’ (according to Google searches anyway).

http://www.domainscams.co.uk/ is a useful tool for finding info out.

It seems DRG do actually register your domain should you choose them, but they seem to charge over the top (100% in my case – over 1 year) for the process.

Please note this sort of letter only seems to appear if you have a .com .net .org (US based) domain name. I guess it may happen in the UK for co.uk, but I’ve not heard of one. Just as usual, whenever you get anything check it, even if it does include information you might not think another company could’ve obtained.

….to install. But thought what the hell, why not I’ve got a bit of time to kill.

Slightly worried that the installation on my MacBook didn’t ask if I wanted an Upgrade or new install.

So 5 minutes to find out if I’m going to be reinstalling applications all night. Just hope this update doesn’t break the Canon software again.

/edit seems to be fine.

My 200gb hdd is now 214.75gb
Now have 155.25gb spare compared to 135.96gb
Used space dropped to 59.5gb from 64.04
Install took around 50 minutes.

What? Well MySQL of course. It wasn’t broken, just didn’t like to start properly. I really should buy a book on it, so I know what I’m doing.

Turned out it was just permissions on some data.

Now time to restore missing posts and comments. SQL hacking here I come (will backup first).

Well, backed up my MacBook using Time Machine. Replaced the HDD. Reinstalled OS X, restored Time Machine backup and it’s back to normal now.

So bigger disk, means more junk.  Yep, may stick VMWare on it and dump and XP/Linux virtual computer on the 2nd partition.   This (250gb – well 230gb) is the largest internal drive I’ve ever owned!  Not bad for £46.54 (Western Digital Scorpio Blue 250gb 540rpm Sata-II WD25000BEVT).  Christ I remember paying £400 for a 20mb Amiga HDD.  Just need to get a cheapo caddy and I can use the MacBook 80gb as an external

(Though not done system updates yet – still impressed how quickly it’s back to normal!)