Operation: Chicken Scratch

Recently the gang at OCS have gotten into photography and crawled the web for all the information we can find. We’ve put together a list of blogs and sites that cover everything from the latest gear reviews to professional lighting techniques. Check them out:

RoslundMedia.com - Great (newer) site run by a Master Photographer and his whole friggin family of pros. Perhaps a little short on content right now, but keep an eye on this one . . . these guys are sharp!

ScottKelby.com - The Photoshop master (and President of NAPP)! Scott has over 42 books on digital imaging and photography. This is his daily blog. He also runs our next link.

KelbyTraining.com - A great source for tutorials and training from the world’s best in the business.

LightroomKillerTips.com - Matt Kloskowski’s blog for everything Adobe Lightroom. Matt is co-host of Photoshop USER TV with Scott Kelby.

KenRockwell.com - Some of the best gear reviews on the net.

PPA - Professional Photographers of America, a must for any professional or aspiring photographer. This is where photographers earn their Master Photographer degree.

1001NoisyCameras.com - Blog of everything happening in the industry.

That’s about it for now. We’ll update the list as we go. Most of these sites have links to other sites and you’ll probably get lost for hours with all the information available out there. If you know of another site that should be on our list, drop us a comment on this post and we’ll get it added. This is your opportunity for shameless plugs!

There are tons of sites out there on the web that can save you a lot of loot.

One of our favorites is:

journeyed.com

A great site for software discounts, like Adobe Lightroom for only $99 (versus $299).

This site was designed for students and educators, who receive (in some cases) HUGE discounts on software and books from the manufacturer. Sometime the manufacturer labels the software as “educational version”, although there is normally no difference between this version and the “full” version.

One catch is that you have to provide a transcript, student ID, or paystub from the school in order to qualify.

Talk about feeling like you’re in the Twilight Zone . . . 

The staff here at OCS are still in debate over these two consoles, as they each have their own unique features. Since the specification differences have been mapped out many times already upon various sites around the web, we are going to skip all that and get right down to the meat and potatoes . . . FEATURES vs. PRICE!

Here is a simple break down of the major differences that we can see. In all fairness (to the Xbox 360), we can’t compare the entry level Xbox 360 to the entry level PS3, so we’ll start with the Premium System for Xbox against Sony’s entry level PS3:

The Xbox 360 does have an entry level “Arcade” system which doesn’t inlude the 20GB HDD or a headset, but it does offer a 256MB memory card and a cheaper $279 price. The PS3 offers an 80GB model which features backward compability with PS2 games for $499.

The Xbox 360 offers an available 120GB HDD for $129, while the PS3 requires you to spring for the 80GB model. Another option is to buy an external HDD for the PS3 and utilize one of the USB ports to expand your storage space. Chances are, $129 will get you at least 120GB of storage space, in addition to the internal 40GB HDD.

This is a feature the Xbox 360 just can’t compete with. Why they didn’t include built-in WiFi capability is insane. If your console is near your PC or Mac however, ineternet connection sharing is a solution. Check out our post on How To: Connect to Mac

Another “upgrade” for the Xbox 360, while the PS3 offers a Blu-Ray DVD player in both models.

Ok, so the Xbox may have a slight advantage with Xbox Live! over PS3’s gaming network. One of the features that Sony is lacking here is being able to access your dashboard during game play. If you want to invite a friend to a match, you actually have to back out of the game play. Sony also makes chatting with friends difficult, and requires you to quit the game entirely before initiating a chat session.

The wired controller included with the Xbox is a bonus that Sony doesn’t include, however the wireless headset is extra. Sony has the right idea of allowing any Bluetooth 2.0 headset to connect to the system, although it would have been nice if they included even a cheap one in the package.

Microsoft almost missed the boat on this one, but realized it was stupid to offer High-Def features without HDMI outputs and fixed their mistake.

As far as graphics go, there are plenty of online screen shot comparisons that pretty much sum it up . . . there ain’t much difference. Although developers have advised Sony adopters to be patient, as the graphics engine included with the PS3 is evidently capable of producing some serious detail once the developers get rolling. From what we understand, game development for the PS3 is much more difficult than the Xbox platform, this is why we see many of the titles released weeks or months for Xbox 360 prior to PS3. The Sony will display up to 1080p resolution via the Blu-Ray DVD player, a feature Xbox users have to purchase the HD-DVD player to receive.

Another consideration when looking at these systems is reliability. The Xbox 360 is notorious for overheating and ultimately disappointing gamers with the “Ring of Death”, thereby rendering the console useless. We’ve read on recent postings around the web that consoles produced after October 2007 have corrected this problem and now offer an extended 3yr manufacturer warranty (unconfirmed). We can definatly say that the fans on the M$ console are working overtime! The cooling system for the Xbox is so loud, that it makes it hard to even watch a DVD in close proximity. Compared to the whisper quiet Playstation, this is a big pitfall for the Xbox.

Assuming you already have a Bluetooth headset (used with your mobile phone), to get the same feature set on the Xbox 360 as offered standard on the PS3, will cost you somewhere around $895. This factors in the purchase of the larger 120GB HDD for the Xbox, so if you want to keep the smaller 20GB HDD, then subtract $129 for a total of $766. Either way, the PS3 undisputably offers more bang for the buck! Does that mean it’s better? We’ll leave that up to you to comment on.

If you own an Xbox 360 and your network router is in another part of the house (or just too far to run an ethernet cable), then you’ll want to use a WiFi connection to connect to Xbox Live! Of course M$ offers an adapter for about $90 that connects via USB to your Xbox 360, but we’ve figured out a solution that may save you some loot!

If you own a Mac with an airport wireless card installed, you are most likely connecting to the internet via Airport (Mac’s WiFi connection). If your Mac is closer to your Xbox than your router is (or if you use a laptop), simply connect a Cat5 ethernet cable (not a crossover cable) between your Xbox and the Mac’s ethernet port.

Then goto: System Preferences>Sharing and click on Internet Sharing. (The box will likely not be checked). You’ll want to make sure your “Share your connection from:” drop down menu says Airport. Then check the box that says Ethernet. After you’ve done this, you should have an option to Start internet sharing.

Now you’ll need to configure the Xbox to communicate with your Mac:

Open the Terminal.app on your Mac and type: ifconfig en0

You should see a line that reads: inet 192.168.2.1 Note this IP address for later use.

Now type dig in the Terminal.app and look near the bottom for a line that starts with “SERVER”. You’ll want to note this address as well.

On the Xbox, enter the network settings menu (refer to manual) and edit the information as follows:

IP Configuration: Manual
IP: 192.168.2.2
Mask: 255.255.255.0
Router/Gateway: 192.168.2.1 (or the address returned from the ifconfig command above if it’s different)

Then edit the DNS information as follows:
DNS Configuration: Manual
DNS Address:[enter the IPs of the dns server displayed from SERVER line of the dig command]
PPPoE Settings: Off
Advanced: Automatic

Now test your settings and you should be online!