HDR Test 2

When I couldn't sleep last night I thought I would have a play on my new Canon 550D and ended up trying out HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. This is where you take a set of images all exactly the same, but changing the cameras exposure in each one. When these photos are put together using image editing software it creates a "perfect" image where nothing is over or under exposed.
The first one I did last night was just of my bedroom so there wasn't much depth to it, making it look a bit crappy. Tonight I made a new one that looks a bit better, I am hoping to do one in the day light tomorrow though which should look a lot better. Here is the one I made tonight:

Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac

Finally Skype has bought out an update to Skype so it no longer looks like it is running far behind the windows version.
The Beta is now public and available to download from the Skype site here.

Skype 5 for Mac new features:

Redesign
We've redesigned Skype Beta for Mac to make your life simpler. The new single window frees up your desktop and makes it easier than ever to find the contact or conversation you're looking for.

Effortless search
By integrating your Mac address book, it's easy to find the people you want to talk to.

Group video calling (beta)
Get together with more loved ones and colleagues than ever before over a group video call.

New call control bar
Manage calls from a mini Skype control bar that sits on top of any web pages, documents or photos you've got open.

The redesign has both good and bad features, good in the way that is is all in one window, which makes navigation easy, but bad in the way that you can't just have the chat window open which becomes a problem if you are using it on a small screen like a laptop and want to have different programs open side by side. The other problem with the redesign is the amount of blank space in the conversation window between messages, so it takes up a lot more space than is needed. The "whitespace" as Lifehacker calls it can easily be removed however by a nice plug-in from Pongsocket. The tutorial and plugin from Pongsocket can be found here, and handy tutorial video from Lifehacker can be viewed here.

The other features will be useful but the only other impressive one is the group video calling which I think will be great, and I am suprised they have taken so long to add it to their program, being beaten by iChat who don't even have much of a history in audio and video calling!

Facebook Chat on iChat (and other Jabber clients)

Facebook chat can now be used in iChat (and other Jabber compatible chat clients) meaning no more having to always keep the facebook page open and all the constant problems that chat always seems to get on the facebook page.
Using iChat also means you will get proper notifications of when you receive a message or a contact comes online instead of a tiny pop that doesn't always seem to work. And don't worry about having a stupid amount unorganised contacts in your list because iChat will grab your chat groups from facebook and organise them all just like on the normal chat.
Unfortunately you can't set facebook chat to offline whilst using iChat otherwise it will sign you out of both, but you can still close the webpage if you don't want to be notified twice (or you can turn off the the little pop noise if you click on options in the chat window then uncheck play sound for new messages).

Here is how to set it up on iChat:

1. Go to the iChat menu and select "Preferences."
2. From the "Accounts" tab, click the "+" and select the following settings:
   • Account Type: Jabber
   • Account Name: your Facebook username@chat.facebook.com (to find out your username click here)
   • Password: your Facebook password
   
3. Click down to server options and select the following settings:
   • Server: chat.facebook.com
   • Port: 5222
   • Uncheck "Use SSL"

Troubleshooting:
One problem a lot of people seem to be having with Facebook on iChat is after setting it all up and signing is is a pop up coming up saying:
iChat can't log in to chat.facebook.com because your login ID or password is incorrect.
The only way to fix this at the moment seems to be to change your facebook password as there is a problem with iChat and the Facebook servers, and changing your password seems to fix it.
After changing it you can just change it straight back to your old one again and it still seems to let you login in.

Enjoy a facebook chat that actually works :)