File Systems for New Hard Drives

The Alpha 900's large files will eventually take its toll on every owner's data storage strategy.  (Really, it's a good problem to have).  Recently I went out and purchased not one but THREE 1 terabyte external drives for my desktop computer: one to act as my primary drive, one to act as a backup, and the third to act as an offsite backup, which I will swap with Drive number two on a weekly basis.  At $130 for each drive, it is probably the best dollar-per-megabyte deal in the history of the planet.  (Actually, so is the Alpha 900.)

But be sure to read the fine print before you actually hook up these drives and start to use them!  Read on for the reason...

The Greatest Gift for your Parents

I don't know about you, but in my experience as we get older the snapshots we take of our families become increasingly precious.  (Even the ones that are poorly framed and overexposed... that's the difference between a photograph and a snapshot.  A snapshot jogs a neuron associated with positive prior experience; whereas a photograph has to make people say "Wow!" without the benefit of that shared experience.)  Anyway, that's why photo-related gifts can be so valuable, and that's why so many people are thinking about gifting the new wave of digital photo frames now available.

BUT... if your giftee happens to have a computer (even if it's only to check email via the web), here's a gift idea that is inexpensive, easier, and more flexible than those expensive digital photo frames: Upload all of your digitized family photos throughout the ages onto their computer's hard drive and turn them into a screen saver!

"Isn't that essentially the same thing as what a digital photo frame offers?", I hear you ask?

Lighting for Wine Bottles and Glass

How did I take this shot of a wine bottle and glass (below) using no fancy equipment other than a single off-camera wireless flash?  Read more to find out!