Author Archives: Bill

About Bill

Birder, cat-lover, pilot, poet. Former lounge lizard, pauper, pagan, lifeguard, chauffeur,cop and martial artist, turned pacifist addiction writer. Tries to be a good husband, father and brother, and makes a decent friend. Likes to take pictures. Stumbling down the Middle Path, one day at a time.

What does the “C” stand for? — Murrmurrs

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Murr does it again!

The C-string is designed for women who find the thong too dowdy. Referring to it as underpants is like calling Roast Bacterium an entrée. It is an attempt to reduce the underwear to its most essential part. If you wanted a more minimalist approach, you could just knit your pubic hair in place.  Read more…

I Don’t Capture Images

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I just take pictures.

I was young once, and I quite understand the need for self-validation, but the pretension of some of the online photography community gets to me after a while.  Jargon in general annoys me. I’ve been in two professions that were loaded with it. In both — aviation and law enforcement — the jargon began as a means to clarify communication (and, in the case of cops, to sound official), but then worked its way into common speech and became the dialect of the in crowd.

Understandable. However, putting on the dog just for its own sake, when perfectly good terminology already exists, is off-putting to many of us who use language to make a living. Calling a photograph a “capture” rather than the shot, picture or photo that have been in common use for a century, smacks of a need to dignify one’s work oneself, rather like calling your work “fine art” instead of letting the critics decide.

I don’t know.. maybe I’m just a crotchety old fart, but I’ll  continue to take pictures anyway. The jargon slingers will have to decide if they’re captures.

If You Have An Android Phone, You MUST Have This App

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WiFi File Explorer Pro establishes a secure WiFi connection between the browser on your PC, Mac or Tablet and your phone, using your home network.  When you give it a click, it automatically accesses the WiFi connection you have the phone set to use.  Then it gives you an IP address (one of those 10.0.0.2:1500 jobs).  You type that into the browser, and a window or tab opens with a file structure that allows you access to all the data on your internal storage and SD card.  From that point you select whatever files you like and download or upload as you wish.  Spend two minutes really looking at the interface and you have it knocked.

Any file can be copied from your phone to the other computer and vice-versa with the same ease as any other upload or download.  There are even a simple media player and photo browser to explore your files before you transfer them.  Transfer music, images, documents, data…whatever you like.  I suppose you could even make a copy of the whole OS, if you wanted to.

And no cable!  If you have the phone, you have a connection, quickly and with no fuss. You can’t forget the cable because you no longer need a cable.   Even if you remember to bring one, you won’t use it.  If WiFi File Explorer doesn’t work, you did something wrong.

This is absolutely the best buck you will ever spend on an Android app!  Go to the Android Market or Amazon’s Appstore for Android and get it, NOW!  Try it out, and then leave a comment here about how fantastic it is.  (You can download a free trial, but don’t bother.  It’s only 99 cents, and I absolutely guarantee you’ll end up buying it, so save yourself the time.)

One thing:  You can connect to any WiFi network that your phone is configured to connect with.  That means the one at McDonald’s, too, or at Starbuck’s.  If you’re on an unsecured network, DO NOT ACTIVATE THE APP.  Otherwise, it’s cool.  You can connect to your buddy’s system, too, to share files from your phone.  Just be certain he has an encrypted WiFi network.  You’d be amazed how many people don’t.  You can’t screw this up without trying, but it’s not idiot-proof.