Happenings from M.D. Shivers

I've installed Firefox 3 on one of my Mac's, but I've been patiently waiting to install it on my main system and laptop. Why? Well for the past 3 years I have lived on Google Sync for Firefox. This is a extension that you install for Firefox that allows you to sync all of your bookmarks on mulitple machines and platforms. It's awesome and it really works well. All of my bookmarks reside on there. And if I am on Safari and find a link, I'll open up firefox and bookmark it there.
I've got .Mac and it provides the same ultility for Safari. But it doesn't even come close to the functionality and power of Google Sync.
.Mac is a paid service and Google Sync is free. Well I read yesterday that Google is no longer going to support Sync. This really stinks, because if you are like me, bookmarking can make or break your work flow, your ability to learn new things and be able to access that information on multiple computers.

So now I am trying to get my .Mac account fixed and all cleaned up. So far the first few tries have been not too good.
So all you Firefox Google Sync users, you got till the end of the year for support on Firefox 2.

Posted by Michael Shivers at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been on the ground running the past few months, traveling, editing, shooting, traveling and you kind of just wake up every day seeing what the next thing will be. It may be new words coming out of a loved one's month, a new piece of computer gear that may be released or something that just goes missing. I've been reading blogs on the net for a long time- some I follow every day, some I follow every other week. It's amazing how this information machine keeps going and going- new things everyday, or something being hashed out over and over.
I'm currently at the phase of being here but not here, listening but not listening, seeing but not seeing, doing but not doing. I kind of like it. It's relaxing, yet I still am getting a lot of things done, but time is just moving faster and faster- which can be a little scary.
So i've got a huge backlog of things that i've been reading,listening,watching and studying. And why keep it all to one self?
Another thing that I've been thinking about is enagement. Not marriage, but people to people. People should engage their neighbors. People should engage their old college classmates. People should engaged their preachers. We all need that extra little kick in creativity, and friendship never hurts.
So it's sometimes funny to think about that one can get a lot of "engagement" through some random blog that you found one night while doing some crazy surfing, and luckily, oh luckily thought to create a bookmark.
While the blogs are a valuable resource, a little good ol fashion get together never hurts.

Posted by Michael Shivers at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

the windy city, originally uploaded by mdshivers.

I can see this from my hotel. My first impressions of Chicago are amazing. What a wonderful city. It's big and busy but not as much as New York. It's still pretty cold though and it's the end of March. But pretty busy up here, not much internet time :)

Posted by Michael Shivers at 06:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This looks very cool. And very structured. (Unlike the Sigur Ros contest that was pretty random and didn't hear from them in three months!)

Check it out

Posted by Michael Shivers at 07:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

play me a melody, originally uploaded by mdshivers.

I recently got a Canon G9 as a little pocket camera, so I could shoot high quality pictures, but not have to carry my DSLR around with all the lenses and bags. I've been wanting to be able to have something discreet, but also something that can shoot RAW and can use my existing camera flashes. The G9 so far has been a really great camera. It's 12.1 megapixel chip with 6x lens, with an ISO range of 80-1600 and F-stop starting at 2.8 has been great. The micro-mode works wonders and beats out my big camera (20D). Also with the 12.1 megapixel and RAW mode, I can crop and do all sorts of stuff with the image and still have a high quality output.
To edit in RAW, you will need CS3, Lightroom 1.5 or Aperture 2.0. Or you can use the Canon software that comes with it.
It has a pretty high frame rate (obviously nowhere near my 20D, but still very fast. It's got movie mode, and panorama mode which already have come in handy.
so I defiantly recommend this little camera as your road warrior or the camera that you want to have without the difficulties of lugging around all your gear. I plan to take it with me on my trip to Chicago, and will be leaving the 20D at home to rest. I have used the G2 for several years too, and the G9 is a different beast. Smaller, sleeker and the controls are much more professional. So if you have a DSLR and are looking for a small compact full functional camera- this is the one.

This picture was taken with the Canon G9 in RAW mode with external 430ex flash. Post process in Aperture 2.0

Posted by Michael Shivers at 09:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

growth, originally uploaded by mdshivers.

i processed this about a month ago and totally forgot about it. as you can see, the photo a day thing has gone astray. I've been taking the photos for January, but I missed about three days. It's not that it's hard to take a photo a day, (well it's not easy) but the harder part is downloading, processing and then uploading to flickr. That to me is a long process. I don't really want to post junk to flickr anyway, I'd rather post stuff that I like and enjoy. That's just who I am.
So I am officially out of the photo a day for the year thingy. It didn't really push me artistically, and I got more frustrated with it as time went on. But I may try to do the thursday picture that Utata hosts or something to that degree.
What I do plan though is posting more photos to flickr and print more off. I need to see my own work in some way... so I can grow from that.

Posted by Michael Shivers at 09:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

another face, originally uploaded by mdshivers.

January 6th, 2008
So this picture a day thing is not as easy as I thought. Yes I have taken one everyday so far, but I really like editing the photos and playing with color and texture and all that jazz. But doing it everyday is drag. Well it's a drag when you are short on time and trying to make time for a little side project like that. So yes, I am continuing, but won't be posting each photo each day.. for now. I may change my mind and just snap away and then post.
I took this photo because I realized I don't have that many of me. I'm usually behind the camera and I'd figure I would break out the tripod and the remote control.

Posted by Michael Shivers at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)