Rough Cuts Ltd Blog

I got out for 4:30pm, travelled to the spot I'd chosen and pointed the camera at the horizon. The cloudy horizon. 20 minutes I thought, it might clear. But alas it didn't. I checked my compass, I knew where the moon should have been rising, but as with all of the best laid plans, it didn't show. It got darker, and darker and the conditions for a great shot became even more challenging, especially considering this was going to be the brightest moon ever. The clouds looked lovely. Illuminated as they were from behind. Then it peeked through the clouds and I started getting my first shots of it. Manually focussed, sharp, shoot, overexposed, adjust, under adjust, snap again. Full manual mode adjusting only the shutter speed. 2 second delay. Push, wait, review, adjust. Push, wait, review, adjust. This was the best, liverpool in the foreground and the moon glimpsing out of the clouds.  The Daily post liked it and shared it on their page, but I was disappointed. The world was in ...

I've been using a Chromebook for the past week, and I've stumbled across a lot of tips that make it easier to use as a replacement for an 'ordinary desktop' these are my top tips.  ========================= Press ALT + ‘[‘ or ‘]’ to trigger Windows snap left and right respectively. This enables you to have two windows open at the same time, to use one for reference and the other to create. To get ‘Caps Lock’ press ALT and Search together. Why don't they have a caps lock button? Weird. You can do quick sums in the search box, which is handy, just like on a Mac. To lock the computer quickly press ‘Search’ (the magnifying glass) + ‘L’ Press CTRL SHIFT ALT and Reload to watch the window Barrel roll, utterly pointless, but a lot of fun to watch! Especially if you're 9 years old. Pres CTRL and SCREEN to take a screen shot, or hold shift as well, to snapshot a portion of the screen. Goto chrome://settings/search#accessibility in chrome to...

On the 14th of November this year there will be the biggest ever supermoon that the world has ever seen since records began etc etc, again. Nevertheless it will provide (once again) fantastic opportunities to take some great pictures. However, you should probably start snapping now. The difference in diameter will be negligible and the weather, clouds conditions on the 14th may not be as favourable as they may be on the 13th, or the 12th. So my advice, is get snapping straight away, but bear in mind the 14th is when it's 'full' but that doesn't always mean more photogenic. The other thing to bear in mind is, if you want to get a natural shot of it looking supersize, then you're going to need a foreground, and peculiarly, light. It's actually much easier to photograph the moon during the day. So thinking about what time the moon rises is going to be important as well. Without the use of photoshop or an equivalent photo editing program, if you want to get the cl...

I've used Apple Macs for 8 years now, my first was a 2008 MacBook pro 15" which, by comparison to it's windows equivalent was light years ahead. You see Windows was using Vista, and it was a car crash of an Operating System. I had one, I used it for 28 days, and used system restore, more times in the time I had it, than I'd used on my XP machine I was replacing. Fortunately Tesco were great and refunded it for me as faulty. Which was the best way to describe it. I bit the bullet, and without first hand experience, I forked out 4 times the amount I'd spent on my Vaio for the Mac. And I loved it, I became an advocate. I could name several people, who, from my enthusiasm went out and bought Mac's themselves. But time moves on, and so does technology. Wireless streaming is no longer for the Bill Gates of this world, we all expect it. Music, everywhere. Films, all over. DLNA should be commonplace... but one Manufacturer is out of the game. Because they have their ...

So today I had my first experience with a google chromebook, 12 actually, networked. Initially I was impressed. Being OS light, they were quick responsive and pretty intuitive. Then I came to printing. Printing, something so rudimentarily simple, that it should have taken moments. Alas, no. You see, Chromeboxes don't install printers. No drivers, no messy installation. Because, well. They don't work. Now this wasn't a £30 printer, this is one of the schools £500 canon laser printer, a worthy investment. But to be blunt. It was rendered pretty much worthless. After hunting round for an hour or so for a USB lead, I plugged it directly into the Chromebox. Although the OS detected the Printer, with no drivers to install, it was a pointless effort. Chrome found no apps that were compatible. So it wouldn't work. After further investigation, I found in order to make this printer work, I would need to plug it into a windows machine and share it. Use the windows PC to act as...

I can remember back in 1985, we synchronised the playback of "Dire Straits" - "Brothers in Arms", the LP, with the 'DDD' (Digitally recorded, Digitally mastered, and Digitally stored) CD. Then someone else hid the selector and played back, through a JVC amp and some Mission speakers, both sources. At the time I got them mixed up. I thought they sounded equally as good as one another. I honestly could not tell the difference, they both sounded great. It was the Amp and the speakers in that set up that took the source and made something listenable. So with that in mind the sound quality debate turns it's head to MP3. We'll call it a draw between Vinyl and CD as my opinion hasn't changed, (although I much prefer CD because I always hated the pops and inevitable scratches Vinyl produced. Progress made with CD's, for me at least, was progress ). At this point it's worth considering something important. A CD is a 750mb data source. Stream...

Sometimes, websites fail to give you a proper idea of the specifications of a phone. For these situations, use GSM arena .

Just transferred both my kids onto this 30 day sim only deal, which trumps my previous favourite sim only deal from Virgin. Not sure how long this deal will be on, but this sim only deal could be all anyone needs for a very very long time to come. Talkmoile sim only deals  

Lots of manufacturers trade handsets to the UK. This is great, more competition means lower prices for us consumers. But I've resisted buying many a good handset because the frequencies for usage don't marry up with UK frequencies. This link here shows frequencies licensed to be used in the UK, from GSM arena http://www.gsmarena.com/network-bands.php3?sCountry=United+Kingdom If the phone you're looking at buying doesn't include these, it probably wasn't designed to work in the UK. If it has these frequencies, it has amazing specs, and its a great price, buy with confidence! Here are some places you may not have thought to look, for superb specced reasonably priced cutting edge technology. banggood.com     Link to their european warehouse deals. Shipped quicker than from Hong Kong, some staggering high spec Android hardware from China. Motorola shop   - Motorola have made a tremendous come back, buying direct can mean special offers and unique personal...

My network charges me for data and my phone stores data, and I have 2gb from my network and I get 16gb on my phone, what? Many people I speak to don't even know what their data allowance from their network is or what it actually means. Some people find the whole concept of data perplexing, I know because I have nonsensical conversations with people who's brain I can sense is suffering a meltdown when it comes up. But the same word (data) has been used by both phone manufacturers and networks to describe two totally different things. Even though somehow, they're sort of the same. It's easier to think of Data like this. Disposable data - Incoming data from the network (or over WiFi), watching a video (but not keeping it) reading a news article, searching the internet, finding pokemon or playing a multiplayer online game.  Permanent data - The photos you keep on your phone, the videos, your emails, your account details and apps. This is all data that the phone n...

I'm getting a lot of requests for Mobile phone buying advice, handsets and mobile deals. To be honest, there has never been a better time to buy a mobile with cheap running costs, but people who want big savings, need to get used to a new way of funding them. Truth be known, there has been very little innovation in the past few years with mobile phones. Very few innovations that most of us would consider 'must have's anyway. 3D touch, fingerprint sensors, flexible or curved screens are far less significant than a great camera, good battery life, fast processor and a great screen. Speaking of screens, most cheap phones now have screens with better resolution than top notch handsets. This is where most phones get their wow factor. Although I will make some recommendations, I'd like to help people find their own deals (and share them with me). Both sim cards and Phones. I'd urge everyone to look for a great spec handset for a low price (I'll explain how ...

Wix. Don't ask, just use Wix OK? Why? 1) it works 2) weebly doesn't