Photo “Badge” for Web Site

Good evening,

For those of you who have visited our web site (www.cityescapesphotography.com ), you are sure to notice the badge at the top of our home page (the banner where pictures are dynamically filled in). This badge is similar to the common Flickr badges that have started to appear around the web. However, it is not directly associated with Flickr. This piece of Javascript was written by Joe Tan and is available open source at http://tantannoodles.com/toolkit/flickr-dhtml-badge/ (Our thanks to Mr. Tan!)

This script has a couple of important advantages over the classic Flickr badges. First, and most importantly, it can use images from anywhere on the web. You tell the Javascript which images to use and it displays them in random order. This was extremely important to us because it meant that we did not need to have a Flickr site in addition to our primary web site just to host images for the badge. This allows people who click on the image to go directly to our detail page which provides more information about the image and allows orders to be placed. This also minimized synchronization issues by ensuring the badge and the underlying pages point to the same images.

The second advantage this script has is its flexibility. You can specify exactly how large to make the banner, the size of the individual images, how many images appear, what the shape of the badge is, how often new images appear, and how often the entire badge is cycled through before going dormant. This level of flexibility was much greater than provided by the official Flickr badges that I had looked at when deciding what type of badge to use.

I have had no problems incorporating the badge into our site, and have tested it on both Firefox and IE without any problems (although I will note that IE requires Javascript to be placed outside of tables). I would highly recommend this badge for anyone looking to add a little interaction to their web pages without any serious coding.

Terence

www.cityescapesphotography.com

Review of Hyperdrive Colorspace

For our trips, we needed a way to download and backup our digital memory cards without having to connect to a laptop. While this is an extremely convenient capability in general, this was particularly important in Africa, where we were not taking a laptop and would be on the road for several weeks (we had to limit our luggage and were not going to have access to electricity, other than through the vehicle’s lighter port). After looking at several options, we purchased a Hyperdrive Colorspace with 232GB of storage space. We could not have been happier with the functionality this little device provides.

The Hyperdrive has an extremely simple interface that provides one to three button access to all of the functionality one could want in the field – copying cards, erasing cards, and confirming the quality of the copies. Any of a wide variety of card types plug directly into the unit for access. It is extremely simple to copy cards, and the resulting files appear as a regular directory when connected to the PC. There was enough room on the disk to copy approximately 12,000 pictures in the raw + jpeg format we typically shoot, which is enough for at least 3 weeks on the road. The screen is small, but gives enough of an overview of the shots to do some minimal filtering if desired (we copied pretty much everything and sorted through the images on the computer screen when we got back home).

A couple of things should be pointed out, however. The official specs outlining card copy time and battery usage were not even close to what we saw in the field. That is likely because the manufacturer is promoting the simplest case – copying without verifying the data – whereas we always verify our copies. We found that instead of the advertised four minutes, it took closer to 25 minutes to copy a 4 Gb card, and that we could copy only three cards on a single charge. While the faster copy rate (and associated longer battery life) would have been nice, we felt it was very important to ensure the copy was verified.

The only other issue we had in the field was keeping the unit charged. We didn’t have access to electricity at night, and had to rely on the car charger. When using the car adapter that the unit came with, we found that the system could barely draw enough power to keep up with a copy. In order to manage the number of copies we needed to make, we ended up using the regular 110, plug-in charger and a separate car-to-110 adapter that would allow more power to be drawn. This worked well for our trip, but still required charging the unit several hours per day.

One further, but for us small, issue presented itself when we attempted to locate specific files in the Hyperdrive. Though it is simple enough to find the file if you know where it is, the system does not allow you to rename either the file or the folder to something that means something to you. In our case, this was not a major issue, as we do not use the Hyperdrive as a long-term storage system, and we can rename the files once we upload them to our computer. Nonetheless, finding specific photos did occasionally take a bit of searching.

Overall, given the size, capacity, and usability of the system, we definitely felt we got our money’s worth out of this unit and we highly recommend it.

Terence

www.cityescapesphotography.com

Comprehensive First Aid Kit

Happy New Year,

We have always taken a basic first aid kit with us on our travels, since it can be extremely useful at times. When selecting a first aid kit, you must keep in mind both the level of injury you want to successfully address, and the overall size and weight of the kit.

For short hikes, we have used standard, pre-packaged first aid kits available from outdoor stores such as REI. We have often used these small kits to patch up minor cuts, blisters, and abrasions received from a fall or other minor accident on the trail, and they work great for those situations. For trips when we are in the field for a week or two, and have access to a car, we have extended our basic kit to allow us to deal with more serious injuries for a short period of time. For example, we have included a small splint to stabilize a broken bone until proper medical help can be sought.

As part of our preparation for Tanzania, however, we felt we needed to further extend our supplies, since we would need to be equipped to handle pretty much anything for at least 24, and more likely 48, hours (the time it would take to be airlifted to a hospital that meets first-world standards). Knowing that the potential existed for us to be far from any semblance of assistance should we need it, we also added supplies that are not strictly first aid in nature, but rather general purpose, such as a signal mirror and duct tape. Taking that approach, and knowing that size was not a primary consideration since we would always be in or near a vehicle, we developed a very comprehensive first aid kit.

Unfortunately, we were not able to find all of the information we needed to develop a good kit in a single place. To come up with the appropriate set of items, we had to pull information from multiple sources, including the Red Cross. We hope that the information we present here will help save you a little work in putting together your own kit. The resulting kit fits in a medium sized over-the-shoulder bag (roughly the size of a large purse), and should provide everything that you need to triage after even a fairly significant event such as a car accident. Of course, it also contains all of the stuff required to take care of minor injuries as well. Given its size, it is not likely the best fit for backpacking trips, but it is our new standard for any trip where size is not a prohibitive measure.

Obviously, in addition to the equipment contained in the kit, the knowledge of how to use it is critical. As such, we strongly recommend at least one person in your group take an advanced wilderness first aid class to become familiar with these tools and learn how to effectively utilize them. More than one person would be preferable, as the person who knows how to use the equipment might also be the injured, and possibly unconscious, party.

We hope you find this information useful.

Terence
www.cityescapesphotography.com