Category Archives: Gaming
Ultimate Camera Accessory
I’m a junkie… It’s an addiction that I can’t put away and unfortunately costs a whole lot. I’m talking about photography and although you can’t always chase after the latest and the greatest gear, sometimes there comes along a nifty piece of hardware or software that is worth the money. I recently purchased the onOne software DSLR remote for my iPod Touch.
The beauty of this software is that it allows you remotely tigger your camera, adjust ISO, exposure, aperture and more – all from your iPod or iPhone. If your camera is capable of “Live View”, it will also stream the live image through the lens to your iPod. It sounds almost too good to be true, and at $20 for the “Pro” version, it is probably one of the cheapest camera accessories that money can buy. That being said it’s super powerful – but there is one caveat – your camera must be connected to a Windows or Mac computer that in turn is connected to a wireless network. This makes it not as handy out in the field, but still a nice tool – especially if you have a USB powered router like the Trendnet TEW-652TR Travel Router.
With that being said, I play to take it to Bonerak’ageddon this weekend in Lethbridge and should be able to upload some photos of the event to Flickr. I’ll also try livestreaming some of the gaming and Windows 7 festivities on Qik. Stay tuned.
Customer Service Isn’t Dead – Just Hard To Find
Over the past few weeks and even months, I’ve spent a fair bit of time at a couple of stores. It’s not that I need a bunch of stuff, it’s just that the customer service and knowledgable people at these places are absolutely fantastic. The first place that I started to hang out as I was purchasing some hardware for the WeeklyTechUpdate.com Podcast is Axe Music in Calgary, Alberta.
BCCHardware bought a few items for the WeeklyTechUpdate.com Podcast including a Behringer XENYX 1204 Mixer, a couple of CAD microphones, Samson USB Microphone and enough cables to make everything work right and connect properly. I made several trips to the store over the past few weeks and dealt with different sales people everytime. I was continuously amazed at the knowledge and helpfulness of the people at the store. Unlike many other audio shops, they were eager to sell us what we needed, not what they made the most commission on. Not only did they know the store, but they new exactly what was required to make quicker, cleaner connections and to get us going in a hurry. Hats off to everyone at the Blackfoot Tr. store.
On a more personal note, the other place that I’ve been hanging out at a bit is Saneal Camera. I recently took a trip down to Livingston, Montana and spent a couple of days in Yellowstone national park. Before I left, I wanted to make sure I had an extra battery for my D90 and a couple of Neutral Density filters for slowing down time to take some interesting pictures. Again, everytime I go into Saneal I speak with one of three people and they know their stuff. From the D90 directly to filters, lenses, and even giving me some tips, they were super helpful – both before and after sales.
In this day and age it’s hard to find people that know what they are doing. Many people that work in retail do so for the paycheck and they don’t know the product at all. In my experience, Saneal Camera and Axe Music have done a great job hiring people that love what they are doing – or are willing to spend the time and money properly training people. This greatly increases my respect for both these companies and the people who work there. I’ll be going back again and again; and no they haven’t paid or sponsored me for this post.
Most “bloggers” continuously rant on one thing or another and I thought it was high time that someone give praise where it’s due. Axe and Saneal certainly deserve a bit of praise in my book.
CoD Me
Things have been going very well at BCCHardware (my alter ego site), and this year we’ve seen growth that has impressed and amazed us. Not only have we reached the magic “Six Million” hits a month, we have signed up a few new advertisers and sponsors. It’s pretty darn incredible that it all started out by modding a few cases and posting some daily news. I’d like to thank you all for making www.bcchardware.com what it is today.
As part of our growth, we’ve added a new staff member – Regina McDougal – and she’s been invaluable in terms of editing photos of all the hardware that we review. The amazing thing is that she does this all gratis. What’s even more fun is that she’s a Call of Duty: World at War player and it may be true that she has a long way to go before she p0wns me, it’s still a lot of fun to lay the smack down online.
I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’ve actually joined a clan – TDRClan and have been hanging out with the likes of Onion, Ratmeat, HooRah and others. It’s been a good time to take a break from technology reviews, research and writing and just shoot something. If you play CoD 5, drop me a line and add {TDR}BCCZeus to your friends list.
