Click on the tab that says "Compare" and you will see that the ColorPLUS package includes the "Spyder" hardware and the other packages include the "Spyder2" hardware.
If you look over the photos you can see the sensors have a different physical designs.
The software package they tested the Spyder with was apparently different than the software in the ColorPLUS bundle but I strongly suspect that the weaknesses are more related to the sensor than the software.
Dry Creek Photo concludes that it is better than nothing (and better than visual calibrators like Adobe Gamma) but the worst of the bunch. The newer Colorvision "Spyder2" is apparently much better and still under $200.
There are even better calibrators from Monaco and GretagMacbeth but the price tag is higher, too.
Seems like a lot of trolls on this topic but since I don't have any mod points right now, I'm going to fall for the bait from those of you who feel rebates are a good thing and relate my recent experiences (not specifically Best Buy but indicative of the rebate experience in my opinion):
Almost 2 years ago I thought I had learned my lesson after submitting rebate requests for 2 Hitachi disk drives. The amounts were large (close to $100 each if I remember correctly) and I never saw a check.
So recently I purchased a Canon 20D camera, with an extra zoom, and a flash. Canon currently has a rather complicated rebate program where if you buy 2 or more of certain items you get a rebate and there is a multiplying factor if you buy more than 2 qualifying products. Here is the sequence of events to date:
1. Prepared rebate request including carefully studying the request form (some products activate the rebate multiplier but don't actually qualify for a rebate amount themselves)and filling it out, making copies of the CORRECT UPC labels, cutting out the CORRECT box flaps with the item logos, making copies of the warranty cards, making a copy of the store invoice, and preparing an envelope with the CORRECT address. All this plus re-checking everything to make sure I followed all the detailed instructions has already consumed almost an hour of my time plus the cost of the copies and envelope.
2. Go to the post office and purchase a "certificate of mailing" to send the request. I don't know if this would actually help to prove anything since its not "registered mail" and even registered mail doesn't prove you actually included something in the envelope but it makes me feel better. This adds another 75 cents (I think thats what the certificate cost) plus my time at the post office.
3. More than 2 months later I get a $20 rebate check for the flash (Yay!) and a rejection notice for the $30 rebate for the lens (Boo!). The rejection slip says that "records indicate that the lens number is a duplicate".
4. I call the rebate center call center. The person verifies that my lens number was apparently entered into their system correctly but they show a previous rebate issued for that number. I ask if she can check the details of the previous submission (after all, everybody has to submit everything but their @%^&$! birth certificate to get the rebate, right?). She does not have access to that information. I ask how I can escalate the issue since I purchased the stuff from a completely legitimate retailer (Amazon). She says that I can't escalate. More time invested.
5. Not willing to give up yet and assuming I have been dealing with an outsourced rebate center, I call the Canon customer support line. Nice lady gives me another number to call.
6. I call the new number and it is another outsourced rebate center that Canon uses but they are not handling the specific rebate that I have submitted.
7. I call the Canon customer support line again. This time the call center person escalates me almost immediately to a supervisor (without my asking, Yay!). She takes my info and says a Canon person will contact me. I started to vent a little bit at this point and I have to say she "handled" me very well.
8. The same day (Yay!) a Canon rep calls back but I'm not home. A day later I call her back. She asks that I fax her copies of all the stuff I originally submitted (luckily I still have them). She is giving me positive vibes that things are going to work out to my favor.
9. I fax all the info although it had been some time since I had used my PC to fax so it took some time before I was able to get all 8 (!) pages to fax succesfully. I included a copy of the check and rejection notice I received and just for good measure, I sent a scan of the back of my lens with the engraved serial number. Probably won't even be visible on a fax but it made me feel better:).
10. Two days later I receive an e-mail from the Canon pe
As noted in several replies, the Ipod socks have been out now for several months now. What the post should have noted and IS new as of today, is that Apple is now offering these socks in scented versions.
Look for these at your local Apple store with the label "Ipod sweat socks".
Besides Bob Atkins, here is another link that I've used in the past that explains this pretty well: Photo Tidbits
Also here is a bonus link to Luminous Landscape where they have a good overview of "bokeh", the quality of that out-of-focus effect:
Luminous Landscape - Bokeh
You can download about 300 different ringtones for $1.99 or less. It's painless, you don't have to whip out your credit card. With a one-click buy it bills your T-Mobile account.
Can customers upload their own ringtones?
No. There's an effort by the industry to make people pay for the content on these devices.
Am I the only one who gets depressed thinking about all the money currently being spent on ring tones in the world? For crying out loud, $1.99 is what we should be paying for a top 40 CD, not a %$^%$#@! ring tone. Talk about a stupidity tax.
Submitted challenge to my in-house think tank and here is what they came up with:
1) 2,000 foot tall wooden skyscraper anchored into ice. Advantages: Tourist attraction as world's tallest building (added attraction that when viewed outside while standing on head, gives impression of being under world's largest popsicle).
2) Blue police callbox appearing structure that can be moved when necessary to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Advantages: Can be referred to by the highly memorable acronym, BASTARDIS (British Antartic Survey Time And Relative Dimenisions In Space). Can also be relocated back in time to take advantage of warmer eras.
3) The Halle Berry Research Station complete with the Monster's Ballroom and the Swordfish solarium. Advantage: Self-generating heat
This may have already been posted but even so its probably worth repeating anyway:
You can help your newsletter cause on AOL tremendously by using a short, concise e-mail address that clearly identifies who you are and a short descriptive subject. The current AOL mail web client still fixes the mailbox display of the from address to only a few characters and while the main AOL client now finally permits the adjustment of the From column to see the entire address, many people don't take the time or don't know they can.
That means that if you send your newsletter from "todaysnewsletter@yourlongcompanyname.com", the AOL user will probably only see "todays.." as the From address. If you have combined this with a not very obvious Subject line (or one easily confused with Spam), then you are doomed to be accidentally sent to the Spam box.
Instead, use an address like "news@yourcompany.com" and back that up with a Subject like "Company News: Latest P4 Reviewed".
I have always wondered if a technique such as this could be used to fight Spam. For example, the mortgage lending spammers supposedly receive referral fees from the mortagage companies. If you reverse-spammed the spammers' web sites with bogus leads wouldn't this cause the spammers' customers to pay exorbitant bills and/or dilute the value of the Spam referalls to such an extent that spamming would no longer be a viable business?
And did you happen to notice that the other legal firm that Infinium uses goes by the abbreviation "MoFo"? Is that rich or what?
Pretty soon the only jobs in this country will be for lawyers and we'll be in one giant circle of litigation while the rest of the world moves on.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.colorvision.com/profis/profis_view.jsp? id=281
Click on the tab that says "Compare" and you will see that the ColorPLUS package includes the "Spyder" hardware and the other packages include the "Spyder2" hardware.
If you look over the photos you can see the sensors have a different physical designs.
The software package they tested the Spyder with was apparently different than the software in the ColorPLUS bundle but I strongly suspect that the weaknesses are more related to the sensor than the software.
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/monitor_calibra tion_tools.htm
Dry Creek Photo concludes that it is better than nothing (and better than visual calibrators like Adobe Gamma) but the worst of the bunch. The newer Colorvision "Spyder2" is apparently much better and still under $200.
There are even better calibrators from Monaco and GretagMacbeth but the price tag is higher, too.
Almost 2 years ago I thought I had learned my lesson after submitting rebate requests for 2 Hitachi disk drives. The amounts were large (close to $100 each if I remember correctly) and I never saw a check.
So recently I purchased a Canon 20D camera, with an extra zoom, and a flash. Canon currently has a rather complicated rebate program where if you buy 2 or more of certain items you get a rebate and there is a multiplying factor if you buy more than 2 qualifying products. Here is the sequence of events to date:
1. Prepared rebate request including carefully studying the request form (some products activate the rebate multiplier but don't actually qualify for a rebate amount themselves)and filling it out, making copies of the CORRECT UPC labels, cutting out the CORRECT box flaps with the item logos, making copies of the warranty cards, making a copy of the store invoice, and preparing an envelope with the CORRECT address. All this plus re-checking everything to make sure I followed all the detailed instructions has already consumed almost an hour of my time plus the cost of the copies and envelope.
2. Go to the post office and purchase a "certificate of mailing" to send the request. I don't know if this would actually help to prove anything since its not "registered mail" and even registered mail doesn't prove you actually included something in the envelope but it makes me feel better. This adds another 75 cents (I think thats what the certificate cost) plus my time at the post office.
3. More than 2 months later I get a $20 rebate check for the flash (Yay!) and a rejection notice for the $30 rebate for the lens (Boo!). The rejection slip says that "records indicate that the lens number is a duplicate".
4. I call the rebate center call center. The person verifies that my lens number was apparently entered into their system correctly but they show a previous rebate issued for that number. I ask if she can check the details of the previous submission (after all, everybody has to submit everything but their @%^&$! birth certificate to get the rebate, right?). She does not have access to that information. I ask how I can escalate the issue since I purchased the stuff from a completely legitimate retailer (Amazon). She says that I can't escalate. More time invested.
5. Not willing to give up yet and assuming I have been dealing with an outsourced rebate center, I call the Canon customer support line. Nice lady gives me another number to call.
6. I call the new number and it is another outsourced rebate center that Canon uses but they are not handling the specific rebate that I have submitted.
7. I call the Canon customer support line again. This time the call center person escalates me almost immediately to a supervisor (without my asking, Yay!). She takes my info and says a Canon person will contact me. I started to vent a little bit at this point and I have to say she "handled" me very well.
8. The same day (Yay!) a Canon rep calls back but I'm not home. A day later I call her back. She asks that I fax her copies of all the stuff I originally submitted (luckily I still have them). She is giving me positive vibes that things are going to work out to my favor.
9. I fax all the info although it had been some time since I had used my PC to fax so it took some time before I was able to get all 8 (!) pages to fax succesfully. I included a copy of the check and rejection notice I received and just for good measure, I sent a scan of the back of my lens with the engraved serial number. Probably won't even be visible on a fax but it made me feel better :).
10. Two days later I receive an e-mail from the Canon pe
As noted in several replies, the Ipod socks have been out now for several months now. What the post should have noted and IS new as of today, is that Apple is now offering these socks in scented versions. Look for these at your local Apple store with the label "Ipod sweat socks".
Besides Bob Atkins, here is another link that I've used in the past that explains this pretty well: Photo Tidbits Also here is a bonus link to Luminous Landscape where they have a good overview of "bokeh", the quality of that out-of-focus effect: Luminous Landscape - Bokeh
You can download about 300 different ringtones for $1.99 or less. It's painless, you don't have to whip out your credit card. With a one-click buy it bills your T-Mobile account. Can customers upload their own ringtones? No. There's an effort by the industry to make people pay for the content on these devices.
Am I the only one who gets depressed thinking about all the money currently being spent on ring tones in the world? For crying out loud, $1.99 is what we should be paying for a top 40 CD, not a %$^%$#@! ring tone. Talk about a stupidity tax.
So you're saying to be a good data thief it helps to be anal retentive?
Submitted challenge to my in-house think tank and here is what they came up with: 1) 2,000 foot tall wooden skyscraper anchored into ice. Advantages: Tourist attraction as world's tallest building (added attraction that when viewed outside while standing on head, gives impression of being under world's largest popsicle). 2) Blue police callbox appearing structure that can be moved when necessary to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Advantages: Can be referred to by the highly memorable acronym, BASTARDIS (British Antartic Survey Time And Relative Dimenisions In Space). Can also be relocated back in time to take advantage of warmer eras. 3) The Halle Berry Research Station complete with the Monster's Ballroom and the Swordfish solarium. Advantage: Self-generating heat
This may have already been posted but even so its probably worth repeating anyway: You can help your newsletter cause on AOL tremendously by using a short, concise e-mail address that clearly identifies who you are and a short descriptive subject. The current AOL mail web client still fixes the mailbox display of the from address to only a few characters and while the main AOL client now finally permits the adjustment of the From column to see the entire address, many people don't take the time or don't know they can. That means that if you send your newsletter from "todaysnewsletter@yourlongcompanyname.com", the AOL user will probably only see "todays.." as the From address. If you have combined this with a not very obvious Subject line (or one easily confused with Spam), then you are doomed to be accidentally sent to the Spam box. Instead, use an address like "news@yourcompany.com" and back that up with a Subject like "Company News: Latest P4 Reviewed".
I believe they use a Canon XL-1 for those videos so I don't believe that "cheap camcorder" is exactly accurate.
I have always wondered if a technique such as this could be used to fight Spam. For example, the mortgage lending spammers supposedly receive referral fees from the mortagage companies. If you reverse-spammed the spammers' web sites with bogus leads wouldn't this cause the spammers' customers to pay exorbitant bills and/or dilute the value of the Spam referalls to such an extent that spamming would no longer be a viable business?
And did you happen to notice that the other legal firm that Infinium uses goes by the abbreviation "MoFo"? Is that rich or what? Pretty soon the only jobs in this country will be for lawyers and we'll be in one giant circle of litigation while the rest of the world moves on.