An editor comes calling

Yesterday, an email popped up on the old blackberry.  It was a little more interesting than Mrs. Alphageek informing me I snore a lot, or that I should stop on the way home and buy milk.  It was someone who wanted to use one of my pictures.  Ho, hum I thought.  After all, this happens from time to time.  Someone wants a picture for some website that gets twice as many readers as I have.  That would be about twenty readers for your math challenged folks. 

I researched who sent me the email.  The person appeared to be a real person, as opposed to the time that somebody emailed me and wanted to publish a picture.  I said "sure" and that person never called me back, making me think it was one of my friends, trying to pull a good joke.  This time, I could tell that the person is a real photo editor.  I got somewhat interested.  After talking to Mrs. Alphageek, I decided I better say "sure" right away, or they would go on to the next desperate person on flickr.

I sent back the reply and told them I was on board.  This morning, I received a reply "we are going to have your picture in our article up by noon!"  I was pretty stoked!

I will now reveal that the site is Womans Day online edition.  They get over a million viewers a month.  I was going to hit the big time!  I had this image of hip New York editors looking at that picture and going "wow"!   I would be able to add photographer to my list of professional skills.

That balloon burst a couple of hours later, when I received another email thanking me for my enthusiasm, but they went with a picture by a different photographer. 

I got home and took a look at their article.  I am not going to give them the satisfaction of a link.  You can see the picture at this link.   Their picture sucks too.  It does not have anything in it to tell the scale.  If you have the time, leave a message on their site and let them know that it does not look very big.

New computer follow up

Guess what?  The new computer can drive two monitors!  I don't have to buy anything!


The built in video has a hdmi output.  The hdmi output can be used to drive a second monitor.  One can either directly drive a monitor with an hdmi input, or use an hdmi to dvi converter cable.  Make sure you buy this niche market cable at someplace like newegg or monoprice, so you don't get ripped off.  Many thanks to Spud for telling me to try the hdmi.

The computer now gets a full Alphageek approval.  I know you were on the edge of your seat for that one.

Alphageek's New Computer

I decided it was time to upgrade the computer in the new office.   The four or five year old computer was really starting to get long in the tooth.  Not that I could not use this antiquated machine, but I was feeling the need for some increase in speed.  As usual, this will not be one of those normal reviews.  Go to Google if you want to look up some "real" computer reviews.  You should really try the link anyway because I made it do the work for you.  You are welcome.

I sat down and opened some WTRB, and wrote down my requirements.  It had to be small, because I don't want to fill up my office with computers.  It had have plenty of memory, at least 6 gigbytes.  It had to support two monitors, and it had to support gigabit ethernet.  It should run windows 7. Oh, and I did not want to build it.

I surfed the internet far and wide, and was not liking what I found.  I had a small form factor (SFF) pc, which means it is not as big as usual, and I wanted to continue that trend.  When I purchased the last computer, there were many SFF computers out there.  That market is being over run by netbooks and nettops.  I like these, but they meet about zero of the requirements outlined above.  I finally found something made by Gateway that met all of my needs.  Well, almost all of my needs.  More on that in a minute.

I purchased a Gateway SX2801-01.  It is a pretty decent computer.  I really like the fact that I can network to my network attached storage at gigabit speeds.  It met all of my requirements, including the small form factor.  I was a happy geek.

There was only one problem.  It only supported one monitor.  While I can live with one monitor, it is really not very geek like to have only one monitor.  When I made my purchase, I was sure to ask "can I put another video card in?"  The nice twenty something helping me said sure, if it was a low profile video card.   I got it home, and decided to purchase the new video card.

I surfed around, and found one on newegg.  I thought I was done.  Then, I saw a review.  The review said, "it does not use much power".  I went, hmmm.....  It was then I realized I was going to need to look at the power supply.  I opened the case, (that took a week, pretty good) and examined the power supply.  I found out it is only 230 watts.  230 watts is probably not going to power a new video card for very long before failing.  Then it would be back to the old computer.

I then started to find a new power supply.  I am still waiting on some power supply companies to email me back and tell me if I can use any 1U upgraded supply, or if I have to use a LITEON (the OEM) or if I am out of luck.

I should just learn to live with one monitor.  Maybe I will just buy one of those 30" monitors out there.  Remember, I did not want to build a new pc.

How will it end?  Stay tuned to these pages.