Archive for the ‘Entertainment and Leisure’ Category:
Support Breast Cancer Awareness Month
For the entire month of October, Buy.com has set up a special Breast Cancer Awareness Store. If you buy any of the 2 dozen or so products, a portion of the sale will go to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. I’ve highlighted a few items here from companies that are making the highest contributions. Additionally, Skylarking, Skylark Webworks and Skylark NetWorks will be donating 10% of its proceeds for October to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation at the end of the month. Click the links or the photos, and you’ll be taken to Buy.com’s Breast Cancer Awareness Store. The links also let them know you came from Skylarking.
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Verbatim 320GB USB Portable Hard Drive – Pink |
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New Era Anaheim Ducks Hockey Fights Cancer Women’s Adjustable Hat |
eBags
All year round eBags contributes 10% of the retail sales price of qualifying products to the Denver affiliate of Susan G. Komen For the Cure.
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Mobile Edge
Mobile Edge is a proud corporate partner with Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Mobile Edge donates 10% of the retail sales price of each Komen Laptop bag sold back to the Foundation.
As if that wasn’t enough, here are three more items for you to consider.
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A Cup of Comfort for Breast Cancer Survivors |
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Susan G. Komen 4GB Portable USB Flash Drives (2 x 4GB) |
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Nathan Quickdraw Plus – Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation |
There are more items to choose from, so Buy for the Cause! Shop for Pink Ribbon products from Buy.com’s Breast Cancer Awareness store! Expires 10/31/09
Subscribe to the comments for this postPlay your PC’s Music, Photos, and Video on your TV
I don’t know about you, but I am still waiting for the TV and the PC to come together without having to go out and buy a new television. In earlier articles I have discussed ways to connect your PC to your TV, and though wireless is popular, I prefer wire whenever possible.
WD TV HD Media Player
Photos and Videos naturally lend themselves to television, but how, oh how, to get them from the computer to the TV without having to burn a new DVD? And, as earlier, without having to buy a new TV with some of this capability already built-in.
Enter the “Western Digital TV Hi-Definition Media Player” or the “WD TV HD MediaPlayer” for short, and Buy.com is selling Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player – Refurbished units this weekend for only $85 with free shipping! Regularly this media players goes for $125 new.
HDMI Connector
Composite A/V
This little box connects to your TV via HDMI (left) or Composite A/V (right). If you have an HDTV you may already have a HDMI connector. HDMI allows you to connect audio and video with one cable. If you don’t have HDMI, then you can always use the Composite A/V connections on your TV. Most TVs sold in the last ten years have this connector. You’ve probably seen a composite audio-video cable before with its familiar yellow plug for video, and the red and white plugs for audio sound.
Next you can take an external USB drive with any digital music files, digital photo files, or digital video files on it, and connect it to one of the two USB ports on the WD TV HD Media Player. If you’ve got more than one USB drive, then go ahead and connect one to each of the USB ports. If you have more than two, then you can always switch drives at will to access the content on each of the drive. Western Digital says the media player works best with their own ‘My Book’ and ‘My Passport’ external USB drives, but will work most any USB storage device for that matter.
Once you turn on the media player (and your TV, too) then you will be presented with some beautiful navigation screens to access the media files on your drives. Thumbnail images are shown of your files as shown in the picture at right.
Western Digital has also included some software to convert your photos and videos to a format that works best with the media player. Don’t worry about altering your files. Just connect your external USB drive, and have the software create optimized copies of your files on the external drive while leaving your originals untouched.
And its easy ot navigate through your files with the WD TV HD’s included remote control. And who doesn’t need more remotes in their TV room? … 
The box supports full high definition 1080p image presentations through the HDMI connector. When connected to your TV with the composite A/V cable you’ll get standard, non hi-def video playback. Plus, you can play non-HD digital content, too. (Digital and hi-def aren’t synonyms.)
As you can see the box is quite small, and can easily be transported from room to room or place to place, so you can take your media anywhere you go.
You can read more about the WD TV HD media player on Western Digital’s web site. Have I sold you on this device? then go to Buy.com and get your Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player – Refurbished now! I’ll be there getting mine, too. Check back with me if you’re interested in my opinion.
And if you don’t have an external USB drive for your files already, then check out these USB drive deals from Buy.com, too: Western Digital 320GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive – Cool Silver ($80), or the Western Digital 250GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive Refurbished ($60).
Video: Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party
A friend of mine shared this time lapse video link with me over the weekend. The video was posted on Vimeo, a video sharing web site.
The video shows a band of stars which make up one of the “arms” of the Milky Way galaxy — our galaxy. If you live in an urban or suburban area then it’s not likely you’ve seen it at night. Light pollution from street lamps, buildings, and homes wash much of the star light overhead, but if you are able to get far enough away from the cities (or find yourself in a massive night-time blackout) then you could see an arm of the Milky Way. I once saw it myself while camping at camp Epworth upstate in High Falls, New York in the Catskills, two hours outside of New York City about 30 years ago. Now there are two many lights even in that area for this sight to be seen. These photos were taken at Fort Davis, Texas which is about 8 hours from Dallas and 6 hours from San Antonio.
The video is comprised of a series of 810 photos taken with a modified Canon EOS 5D 12.8 MP Digital SLR Camera
One photo was taken every 40 seconds over a 9 hour period. The shutter remained open for 20 seconds during each shot. The photographer, William Castleman, used a special “anti-alias (AA) filter” which allowed more red light to enter the camera. Specifically the type of red light emitted by stars and nebulas. He used a Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens
Other equipment used by the photographer included:
- a Canon TC80N3 Timer Remote Control for EOS D30, D60, D10, 1D, 1V & 20D SLR Cameras
- a Hutech EOS203 12v power adapter
- a 12v deep cycle battery
He then processed the photos using Adobe Photoshop and created the video using Apple’s Quicktime Pro, and then editted the video using Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9.
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Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 (Windows) |
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