Tidying Your Mac

Introduction

Recently I tried to use someone else's Macintosh computer. As I sat at the monitor I found that the screen contents were totally disorganized; there were icons for applications and documents all over monitor's screen. When I attempted to find a particular application it was eventually located in the "Preferences Folder" within the "System Folder", a most unlikely site. When asked, the owner's response was "I've been hunting for that." This and a similar experiences with the computers belonging to others has prompted me to write the following tutorial

General Overview

You've just purchased a new Macintosh and can't wait to start it up and begin doing all those things that one is supposed to do with a computer. A card that came with the new equipment reminds you to "PLEASE READ THE MANUAL FIRST!" but who among us can wait long enough to read a manual? I couldn't. So, after correctly connecting cables from the "box" (CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT or CPU) to the monitor, the mouse, the keyboard and the printer, you dive in. You're off like a "herd of turtles!"

Fortunately a "Mac" will usually tolerate this approach and will operate properly despite its owner's lack of understanding. However, after a time you will find that a document on which you spent so much time can't be found without a tedious search (sometimes you never find it) or you realize that you're spending too much time online and your telephone bills are too high. Then, one day, someone sits down at your keyboard to use your machine; if honest and direct (blunt), he/she will let you know that they "can't make heads or tails of your setup."

When using another person's computer it disturbs me when there appears to be no rational approach to the way in which the hard disk's contents are organized: word processing applications may be hidden in the System Folder, word processing documents are tucked into a graphic application folder, last year's income tax return is lost somewhere in the System Folder, etc. When the owner is questioned, it is evident that he/she needs to come to an understanding of the terms DESKTOP, FILES, FOLDERS, APPLICATIONS, EXTENSIONS, etc.

This tutorial is an attempt to introduce the most basic concepts of organization and function of your new Macintosh with the hope that you will avoid some of these problems. It will be a "down-to-earth" and nontechnical description.

Desktop

The image that you see on your monitor's screen when the computer first boots (is turned on) and before any applications are running is the DESKTOP. In its simplest form it will contain only two items: the MENUBAR , the bar across the top of the screen with the Apple symbol in its left corner, a number of words or icons along it and a small icon of a computer screen on the far right. If you hold the mouse button down on one of the words or icons another list of words, the SUBMENU, may appear below it. The contents of these menus and submenus differ with each program or application that you run, but in all instances they permit you to make your wishes known to the "infernal machine" beneath or next to the monitor. To carry out these "orders" you hold the mouse button down with the cursor over the word or icon on the menubar, drag the cursor down the submenu until the command you seek is highlighted and then release the button. I will omit a discussion of the function of the various commands and leave that for your reading or experimentation.

The second item found on a minimal desktop is an icon for one or more DRIVES or DISKS which appear in the upper right hand corner of the screen; if you have more than one drive attached to the computer, the icon in the right upper corner is for the disk containing the software responsible for operating the computer itself, the SYSTEM SOFTWARE or OPERATING SYSTEM. It takes its position in the right upper corner because it "loads" first when the computer is "booted" or turned on. These icons may have been given a name such as "Macintosh HD" but you may choose another moniker for it.

Hard Drive

This is the storage site or file cabinet for most of the information that can be accessed by your computer; it contains several FOLDERS, just as a file cabinet would contain rows of folders. In turn, these folders may contain APPLICATIONS that are pieces of software that instruct your computer how to do something (start up and operate the computer, create a letter, write a paper, send a message via e-mail, draw a picture, create a graph, etc.) or DOCUMENTS which may be textual material (letters, articles, data bases, etc.) or graphics such as pictures, graphs, diagrams, etc.

With but few exceptions, it is important to "file" these items in correct and appropriate places. (Note: While reading this material it will help if you turn on your Mac and perform some of the acts as you go along. By performing these procedures while reading, you'll come to understand how and why the machine functions as it does.)

If you click the mouse button twice (double click) on the icon for the hard drive it will open a WINDOW (see below) that displays the contents of the drive. There you will find several folders. The most vital of these is the SYSTEM FOLDER that contains other folders for FONTS, APPLE MENU ITEMS, CONTROL PANELS, EXTENSIONS, PREFERENCES and probably many others. The System Folder also contains two other items that are vital to the operation of your computer: the SYSTEM, depicted as the icon of a suitcase, and the FINDER,represented as the icon of a monitor. It is a good idea not to place anything into the System Folder unless you are specifically instructed to do so either by someone with experience, or by the manufacturer of the software that you are installing. As you become more familiar and proficient in the use of your computer you will feel more comfortable about "fussing around" within the System Folder, but it's best to wait a bit on that.

DEFINITIONS

At this point a few definitions are in order:

Fonts:

These are software items that direct your computer to print or display the typeface in a specific fashion. Some fonts are bold, some are plain and some are italicized. Some are serif fonts; for example this is a serif font (note the flairs at the tips of the letter). Others are sans serif (without tips), as for example this . As you work with word processors you will learn more about the various forms of fonts and their uses. A valuable introduction to this field is The Mac is Not a Typewriter by Robin Williams, published by Peachpit Press.

Apple Menu Items:

If you move the mouse cursor to the Apple icon at the left end of the Menubar and hold the mouse button down on the Apple, a submenu will appear. These APPLE MENU items makes certain programs readily accessible to you; if you drag the cursor to an item in the submenu that you wish to use or "open", the application will be launched. Some of these items include DESK ACCESSORIES, small applications such as CALCULATOR, NOTEPAD, CONTROL PANEL ACCESS, etc. that perform specific functions

Other objects can be placed in the APPLE MENU FOLDER. The latter can be found in the System Folder and anything placed within that folder will appear as an APPLE MENU ITEM which appears as a submenu when the Apple icon is clicked. In general, it is wise not to place large applications in that folder, but if, for example, you wanted to be able to open your word processing application from the Apple Menu, you could use an ALIAS (see below) of the original application.

Alias:

An alias is an icon that looks just like that of an application or document, but is small and occupies very little space (i.e. 6000 bytes) as opposed to the original object which may be relatively huge (i.e 2,000,000 bytes.) It is "connected" to the icon of the original application so that clicking on it or opening it from the Apple Menu will launch the original application or document that may be located elsewhere on the hard drive.

To create an alias of a document, folder or application, highlight the item's icon (by clicking on it once with the mouse button) and either type Command-M or pull down and highlight "Make Alias" under the "FILE" item in the menubar. A new icon with the same name as the original but its name will be in italics . This alias can then be placed wherever you please, the Apple Menu Folder, the Desktop, or anywhere else of your choosing. Its purpose is to be readily accessible to you without your having to search through folders or disks for the original item.

Control Panels:

These are small software items (cdev's) that serve as control devices and perform their function while the computer is in operation. Browsing through the CONTROL PANELS folder that is located in the System Folder, will reveal items that control the action of the mouse, the keyboard, the computer's memory, the clock, etc. This folder can also be accessed by dragging the mouse cursor down the Apple Menu until the submenu, CONTROL PANELS, is highlighted. It is interesting and profitable to explore these devices in order to gain a better understanding of how the computer functions and how you can modify these functions to fit your personal needs.

Extensions:

These items are sequestered within the System Folder and "load" when you start the computer. They are represented by the small icons that march along the bottom of the screen as the Mac starts up. They work behind the scenes to add specific functions to the Macintosh; for example, some allow you to use a CD-ROM drive to play audio CD's; others control your modem and assist in connecting to your on-line service or fax; some assist the printer in its proper operation, etc.

Hierarchal Filing System

Your computer's hard disk can be organized as you would a filing cabinet. Apple programmers have designed what they call a HIERARCHAL FILING SYSTEM with which one folder can be placed inside another folder, and so on. To create a new folder on the desktop or in a WINDOW that is open, you can either type COMMAND (the key with the Apple on it)- N, or hold the mouse button down on the FILE item in the MENUBAR, drag the cursor down until the submenu item NEW FOLDER is highlighted and then release the button. A new folder labelled "Untitled Folder" will appear within the window; you then label the folder by typing it s name in the box beneath it. Double clicking on this folder will open a new window which represents the interior of this new folder; into this you may place other folders or items (files) such as documents or graphic images.

Everyone has his or her own idea of the "perfect" filing system; ultimately you will devise your own. The goal is to know where things are and how to quickly locate them. In order to give you some idea as to how the hard disk may be set up, I shall describe a typical system.



The above illustration depicts the window one might see after opening a hard drive entitled "Mac HD". The folders on this disk are arranged alphabetically.

• At the first level we have placed a folder entitled "Applications" and within it are two other folders, one containing applications related to word processing and a second containing graphic applications.
• The second folder on the hard drive contains documents or products of your applications. In this example there are two folders within the "Documents" folder: one for personal papers and the other for business related items. Each of these folders in turn might contain a folder for "Letters 1996" as well as one for "Budget" or "Mailing List", etc.
• The third folder on the hard drive has been set aside for "Games."
• The fourth, the "System Folder;" as has been pointed out, there are many other items and folders filed within the latter

Remember that each tier of folders may contain several levels of folders just as in a file cabinet. This is what Apple means by it's hierarchal filing system.

How Do I Put Things Where I Want Them?

You have set up your filing system; the next problem is how to put items into their proper folders. The simplest way to begin is to use the Macintosh process of "drag and drop." To do this you find the document or item that you want to move to s specific folder and "select" it by clicking the mouse button on it once; this highlights the icon indicating that it has been selected (see below).



You can now place the cursor on that selected icon, hold the button down and drag the icon to the folder or disc in which you want to "file" it; when the cursor and icon are overlying that site the folder or disc will also become highlighted. Releasing the mouse button will then relocate the original item to the site of your choice. If the original item is on the same disk as its final destination, its icon will disappear from its original location. If the original item is on another disk, a small box will appear telling you that the file is being copied to its new site. After this transfer has occurred you may drag the original item to TRASH unless you want it saved at the original site as a duplicate.

A Dialog Box

Let us now suppose that you have written a letter using your word processor: in this instance you use WordPerfect, a word processing application, to write a letter to Apple Computer. Either before or after writing the letter, you place the cursor on the FILE menu item, hold the mouse button down and drag the cursor to SAVE AS... in the submenu and release the button; a DIALOG BOX (see above) appears. (Alternatively you could use the keyboard and type COMMAND-S.) You then type the name of the document into the box provided in the dialog box; in this instance you have inserted "Apple Computer 2/7/96".



This is a DIALOG BOX. It provides one with a great degree of control, not only of where to file a document, but also the format in which to file it (text, hypertext, WordPerfect document, etc.) The layout of this box will vary with the application in use, but in all instances the buttons and icons are similar.

When the dialog box is first opened the small rectangular box at the top contains the title "Miscellaneous" which is the folder that is open and ready to receive the document should you decide to place it there. If the cursor is placed on the small triangle within the box and the mouse button held down, a larger rectangle (seen above) appears.The titles beneath "Miscellaneous" show the location of this folder in relation to the "Desktop". In this instance the "Miscellaneous" folder lies within one called "Letters 1996", which in turn resides in a third entitled "CNS Files"; this last folder is located on my hard drive, "APS".

If you now click the "SAVE" button, the letter to Apple Computer will be placed in the "Miscellaneous" folder; if you drag the cursor down until the "Letters 1996" is highlighted, then release the button and click "SAVE" the document will be saved in the "Letters 1996" folder and so on.

An alternative way of moving about your hard disk is to click on the icon "APS" in the right upper corner of the dialog box; this will move me back one folder to the one entitled "Letters 1996"; two more clicks on this button will take me to the desktop.

If you should want to file this letter on another disk, either another hard disk or a floppy disk that has been inserted into the computer, click on the button "Desktop" and then move from there to the desired site using choices that appear in the window within the dialog box. After you have found the correct site, click the "Save" button and the letter is placed where you want it.

Last, But Not Least...

Spend plus or minus $75.00 to purchase the software to BACK UP your hard drive. You may never need these files, but if your drive should ever fail you will wish that you had saved all of that information stored there.

Keyboard Shortcuts.. for Mac

Do you find it time consuming to always go to the menu bar with your mouse when you need to apply a common function? Well, for many common tasks you don’t need to. You can use Keyboard Shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts use the modifier keys (the 3 to the left of the spacebar, shift, Fkeys and sometimes the Caps Lock) in conjunction with intuitive letter keys. You hold down the modifier key(s) and then type the letter. You don't hit them all at the same time. For instance, to save in almost every program all you need to do is hold down the command key (the key on either side of the spacebar, the one with the Apple on it) and type S (cmd+S).

Here are the four most common modifier keys and how I will indicate them.

cmd - the command key, the one right next to the spacebar. There is one on each side of the spacebar and they both act identically.

opt - the option key, well labeled

crtl - the control key, well labeled

shft - the shift key, well labeled

FINDER KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS They must be used from the Finder, not from an application.

cmd+N - Create a new folder
cmd+Down Arrow - Open a File or Folder
cmd+O (letter) or cmd+Down Arrow - Open a highlighted icon
Tab - Select the next alphabetical icon
shft+Tab - Select the previous alphabetical icon
Left Arrow (in icon view only)Select an icon to the left
Right Arrow (In icon view only) - Select an icon to the right
Up Arrow - Select an icon (or file) above
Down Arrow - Select an icon (or file) below
cmd+D - Duplicate a selected item
opt+Up Arrow - Open parent window
cmd+W - Close the Active Window
opt+click on folder triangle (list view) - Expand Folder and all contained within it
opt+click on folder triangle (list view) - Collapse Folder and all contained within it
cmd+opt+W - Close all open windows -(or opt+Close from the File menu or opt+clicking any window's close box)
cmd+dragging window's title bar - Move Inactive Window
cmd+I - Get Info
cmd+del - Move selection to the trash
cmd+opt while inserting disk - Rebuild Floppy Disk Desktop
cmd+opt+Tab while inserting disk - Erase Floppy Disk
opt+drag - will make a copy of the item instead of just moving it. The original will stay where it was and you will have two identical items

Some of the most common shortcuts that are available to virtually all Mac programs are:

cmd+A - Select All items or text in active window
cmd+C - Copy the current selection to the clipboard
cmd+O - Open a file
cmd+P - Print the active window
cmd+Q - Quit the active application
cmd+S - Save the current file or document
cmd+V - Paste clipboard contents at current cursor position
cmd+W - Close active window
cmd+X - Cut the current selection, delete it from current window and put it on the clipboard
cmd+Z - Undo the last action

Each application has many of it's own shortcuts. You will find many of them in the menus in the menu bar, more can usually be found in the help files. Here is the edit menu from the Finder. You can see the Keyboard shortcuts following the commands.

c

A printer friendly shortcut list - you can print this out on a single page, just be sure to disable printing the headers and footers.

Blackberry Error code

BB Error Code

0

Error Description
101 Internal JVM error.
102 Invalid code in file system. The .cod files in the handheld have been checked for modification and it has been determined that there is a problem with one or more .cod files.
103 The starting address for the boot .cod file cannot be found. This might mean that a boot .cod file has not been installed on the handheld, or that its format is invalid or corrupt.
104 An uncaught Java exception was thrown in the Java code and diagnosed by the JVM. Execution can be continued or the handheld can be attached to a debugger on a desktop through a serial or USB cable. The event log should contain the traceback of the thrown exception.
105 An OS file system API returned an error status for a certain operation. This can indicate a corrupt file system or an error in the JVM.
106 An error has been detected in the graphics system of the handheld.
107 Internal JVM error.
108 Internal JVM error.
109 Internal OS error.
110 Non-idle event downtime error. A problem has been detected in the accumulation of JVM down time that represents how long the JVM has been idle. This indicates an error in either the OS code or the JVM code.
200 Application manager threw an uncaught exception. The application manager event thread threw an uncaught exception and so cannot continue running.
201 Initialization of the cryptographic system failed and the handheld cannot continue to operate.
202 An attack on the key store has been detected, and the handheld cannot continue to operate.
203 The application manager console process, usually the Home screen ribbon, has failed, like due to an uncaught exception.
501 Internal error.
502 All processes exited. The last Java process has terminated, and there is nothing left to execute.
503 Internal error.
504 Internal error.
505 Internal error.
506 An uncaught Java exception was thrown in the initial VM Java thread thus killing the only live thread in the system. The event log contains the traceback for the exception.
507 A dependency on a .cod file could not be satisfied due to a missing .cod file. Load the missing .cod file onto the handheld.
508 Invalid object. A problem has been detected with a debugger command to the VM.
516 Error occurred during garbage collection, which might indicate a corrupted file system.
510 All threads are waiting on objects, which results in a deadlock. The system cannot recover from this state since no thread can release a lock.
511 A problem has occurred during debugging.
515 The reachable objects form a group that cannot be represented properly by the VM because there are too many objects or the total size of the objects is too large.
516 When committing a persistent object, the VM found that the persistent store id counter has reached its limit. The object was not committed.
517 An inconsistency has been detected in the VM persistent object store.
518 Internal error.
519 Internal error.
520 Internal error.
521 Indicates that Object.wait() has been executed by a thread that holds a lock on another object; occurs only in simulator if the JvmDebugWaits application switch.
522 A thread has acquired two locks on objects in an order that doesn’t match the order that previous locks for the two types were acquired, which indicates a future potential deadlock situation; reported only in the simulator when the JvmDebugLocks application switch is set.
523 A critical Java process has died and the device cannot continue to operate normally.
524 An object has been marked as recovered by the Low Memory Manager but it was not freed during a garbage collection. This is only checked in the simulator under the control of the JvmDebugLMM application switch.
525 Bad persistent object. An auto-commit operation during a garbage collection has detected a non-persistent object reachable from the persistent store root. The type of the object has been output into the event log.
526 The class definition for java.lang.Object cannot be found.
527 The class definition for java.lang.String cannot be found.
528 The file system is corrupted. Data on the handheld is unrecoverable.
529 The file system is corrupted. An attempt is going to be made to recover data, but some data might be lost.
530 Internal JVM error.
531 Flash memory has been exhausted.
532 A JVM assertion has been violated. This error can occur only in the simulator, not on an actual handheld.

http://primbonbb.com/?page_id=84

Apple101.TheDock ,Change, Add ,n Remove

Change the Position of the Dock

Mac OS X lets you customize the Dock in a number of ways.
If you choose Dock from the Apple menu and select Dock Preferences, a dialog will open giving you access to all of the Dock customization options.
Use them to:

• change the size of the Dock
• turn Magnification On (or Off) by clicking the check box and, if On, the degree of Magnification
• indicate where you’d like the Dock to appear
• select the effect (Genie or Scale) used to minimize a window
• check the Animate box, which makes the icon for an application bounce when you open it
• check the box to have Mac OS X hide the Dock when it’s not being used

Add an Application to the Dock

If you enjoy the convenience of the Dock, you can make it even more useful by adding items to it you use regularly. Here, for example, you’ll find two ways to add one or more applications to your Dock.
Let’s say you’re currently using Keynote ’08, your favorite presentation software, and would like to keep it in the Dock at all times. Right-click on its icon in the Dock, and select Keep in Dock from the contextual menu that appears.
Or try this option. Open the Applications folder, grab Text Edit, and drag it to the Dock. Next time you want to use Text Edit, just click its icon in the Dock.
You can use this method to add multiple applications just as easily. In that open Applications folder, choose Calculator and Dictionary, two handy utilities, and drag both into the Dock.

Remove an Application from the Dock

If you’d like to reduce the number of applications from the Dock, you can do so at any time. Simply grab the icon of the document, folder, or application you’d like to remove, and drag it out of the Dock. Release the mouse button, and the item will vanish in a puff of virtual smoke.

Apple 101. Get Dictionary Definitions in One Click

Get Dictionary Definitions in One Click

You’re using Safari to research a paper on climate change and you find the phrase “anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.” What exactly does “anthropogenic” mean?
Here’s a fast way to get the definition of a word you’re not familiar with.

1. Hover your mouse over the word and right-click.
2. Choose Look Up in Dictionary from the menu that appears.
3. Mac OS X immediately opens Dictionary and finds the meaning of “anthropogenic” for you.

Stored in the Applications folder, Dictionary works with all Mac OS X applications.

Using Telephoto

You've probably heard that telephoto lenses are for enlarging distant subjects, but they're also a powerful artistic tool for affecting the look of your subject. They can normalize the size and distance difference between near and far objects, and can make the depth of field appear more shallow. Telephoto lenses are therefore useful not only for wildlife photography, but also for landscape photography. Read on to learn techniques for utilizing the unique characteristics of a telephoto lens . . .

300 mm telephoto lens - two cheetahs laying behind a log

OVERVIEW

A lens is generally considered to be "medium telephoto" when its focal length is greater than around 70 mm (on a full frame; see camera lenses: focal length & aperture). However, many don't consider a lens a "full telephoto" lens until its focal length becomes greater than around 135 mm. This translates into an angle of view which is less than about 15° across your photo's widest dimension. On a compact camera with a 3-4X or greater zoom lens, telephoto is simply when you've fully zoomed in. However, some compact cameras might require a special adapter in order to achieve full telephoto.

Regardless, the key concept is this: the longer the focal length, the more you will tend to notice the unique effects of a telephoto lens.

The above diagrams depict the maximum angles that light rays can take when hitting your camera's sensor. The location where light rays cross is not necessarily equal to the focal length, but is instead roughly proportional to this distance. The angle of view therefore still increases similarly.

Why use a telephoto lens? A common misconception is that telephoto lenses are just for capturing distant objects. While this is a legitimate use, there's a whole array of other possibilities, and often times distant objects are better photographed by simply getting a little closer. Yes, this isn't practical with a lion, but a pet or a person will likely appear better when they aren't photographed from afar. Why? The distance from your subject actually changes your photo's perspective, even if your subject is still captured at the same size in your camera frame. Confused? More on this in the next section...

TELEPHOTO  PERSPECTIVE

A telephoto lens is special because it has a narrow angle of view -- but what does this actually do? A narrow angle of view means that both the relative size and distance is normalized when comparing near and far objects. This causes nearby objects to appear similar in size compared to far away objects -- even if the closer object would actually appear larger in person. The reason for this is the angle of view:

Wide Angle Lens (objects are very different sizes)	Telephoto Lens (objects are similar in size)

Even though the two cylinders above are the same distance apart, their relative sizes are very different when one uses either a wide angle lens and telephoto lens to fill the frame with the closest cylinder. With a narrow angle of view, further objects comprise a much greater fraction of the total angle of view.

A misconception is that a telephoto lens affects perspective, but strictly speaking, this isn't true. Perspective is only influenced by where you are located when you take a photograph. However, in practical use, the very fact that you're using a telephoto lens may mean that you're far from your subject -- which does affect perspective.

Objects appear in proper proportion to one another.
Uses a 135 mm telephoto focal length.

This normalization of relative size can be used to give a proper sense of scale. For full impact, you'll want to get as far as possible from the nearest subject in the scene (and zoom in if necessary).

In the telephoto example to the left, the people in the foreground appear quite small compared to the background building. On the other hand, if a normal focal length lens were used, and one were closer to the foreground people, then they would appear much larger relative to the size of the building.

However, normalizing the relative size too much can make the scene appear static, flat and uninteresting, since our eyes generally expect closer objects to be a little larger. Taking a photo of someone or something from very far away should therefore be done only when necessary.

In addition to relative size, a telephoto lens can also make the distance between objects appear compressed. This can be beneficial when you're trying to emphasize the number of objects, or to enhance the appearance of congestion:

Exaggerated Crowd Density		Exaggerated Flower Density

left: 135 mm focal length - congestion of punters on the River Cam - Cambridge, UK.
right: telephoto shot of flowers in Trinity College, Cambridge, UK.

In the example to the left, the boats all appear to be right next to each other -- even though they appeared much further from each other in person. On the right, the flowers and trees appear stacked on top of one another, when in reality this image spans around 100 meters.

BRINGING  FAR  AWAY  SUBJECTS  CLOSER

320 mm detail shot of a parrot

Perhaps the most common use for a telephoto lens is to bring otherwise small and distant subjects closer, such as wildlife. This can enable a vantage on subjects not otherwise possible in real life. One should therefore pay careful attention to far off detail and texture.

telephoto sunset

Furthermore, even if you were able to get a little closer to the subject, this may adversely impact the photograph because being closer might alter the subject's behavior. This is especially true when trying to capture candid photographs of people; believe it or not, people usually act differently when they're aware that someone is taking their photograph.

Finally, consider this: since a telephoto lens encompasses a much narrower angle of view, you as the photographer can be much more selective with what you choose to contain within your camera frame. You might choose to capture just the region of the sky right around the sunset (left), just the surfer on their wave, or just a tight region around someone's interesting facial expression. This added selectivity can make for very simple and focused compositions.

LANDSCAPES  &  LAYERING

130 mm telephoto shot using layered subject matter.
Photo taken on Mt. Baldy, California.

Standard photography teaching will often tell you that "a wide angle lens is for landscapes" and "a telephoto lens is for wildlife." Nonsense! Very powerful and effective compositions can still be made with the "inappropriate" type of lens.

However, such claims aren't completely unfounded. Telephoto lenses compress the sense of depth, whereas wide angle lenses exaggerate the sense of depth. Since spaciousness is an important quality in many landscapes, the rationale is that wide angle lenses are therefore better suited.

However, telephoto landscapes just require different techniques. If you want to improve the sense of depth, a common telephoto technique is to compose the scene so that it's comprised of layered subject matter at distinctly different distances. For example, the closest layer could be a foreground set of trees, the subsequent layers could be successively more distant hillsides, and the furthest layer could be the sky, ocean, and/or all other seeminly equidistant background objects.

165 mm telephoto shot using layered subject matter - Mt. Hamilton, California

In the above example, the image would have seemed much less three-dimensional without the foreground layer of trees on the hill. Similarly, the separate layers of trees, clouds and background mountainside also give the first example more depth. A telephoto lens can also enhance how photography in fog, haze or mist affect an image, since these lenses make distant objects appear closer.

POINT  OF  FOCUS

For a given subject distance, a telephoto lens captures the scene with a much shallower depth of field than does other lenses. Out of focus distant objects are also made much larger, which enlarges their blur. It's therefore critical that you achieve pinpoint accuracy with your chosen point of focus.

320 mm focal length - shallow depth of field telephoto shot of a cat amongst leaves

In the above example, the foreground fence was less than a foot from the cat's face -- yet it appears extremely out of focus due to the shallow depth of field. Even a misfocus of an inch could have therefore caused the cat's eyes to become blurred, which would have ruined the intent of the photograph.

Fortunately, telephoto lenses are rarely subject to the "focus and recompose" errors caused by shorter focal lengths -- primarily because one is often much further from their subject. This means that you can use your central autofocus point to achieve a focus lock, and then recompose your frame without worry of changing the distance at which objects are in sharpest focus (see tutorial on camera autofocus for more on this topic).

MINIMIZING  CAMERA  SHAKE

A telephoto lens may have a significant impact on how easy it is to achieve a sharp handheld photograph. Longer focal lengths require shorter exposure times to minimize blurring caused by shaky hands. Think of this as if one were trying to hold a laser pointer steady; when shining this pointer at a nearby object its bright spot ordinarily jumps around less than for objects further away.

Simulation of what happens when you try to aim a laser pointer at a point on a distant wall;
the larger absolute movements on the further wall are similar to what happens with camera shake when you are using a telephoto lens (since objects become more magnified).

Minimizing camera shake requires either shooting using a faster shutter speed or holding your camera steadier, or some combination of the two.

To achieve a faster shutter speed you will need to use a larger aperture (such as going from f/8.0 to f/2.8) and/or increase the ISO speed. However, both of these options have drawbacks, since a larger aperture decreases depth of field, and a higher ISO speed increases image noise.

To hold your camera steadier, you can (i) use your other hand to stabilize the lens, (ii) try taking the photo while crouching, or (iii) lean your body or lens against another solid object. However, using a camera tripod or monopod is the only truly consistent way to reduce camera shake.

TELEPHOTO  LENSES  &  DEPTH  OF  FIELD

Note that I've been careful to say that telephoto lenses only decrease depth of field for a given subject distance. A telephoto lens itself does not have less depth of field. Unfortunately, this is a common misconception. If you are magnifying your subject by the same amount (meaning that they fill the image frame by the same proportion), then a telephoto lens will give the same* depth of field as other lenses.

*Technical Note: for situations of extreme magnification, the depth of field may differ by a small amount. However, this is an extreme case and is not relevant for the uses discussed in this page. See the tutorial on depth of field for a more detailed discussion of this topic.

The reason that telephoto lenses get the reputation of decreasing depth of field is not because of any inherent property with the lens itself. It's because of how they're most often used. People usually magnify their subject matter a lot more with telephoto lenses than with lenses that have wider angles of view. In other words, people generally don't get further from their subject, so this subject ends up filling more of the frame. It's this higher magnification that is what causes the shallower depth of field.

distracting out of focus background

However, a telephoto lens does enlarge out of focus regions (called "bokeh"), since it enlarges the background relative to the foreground. This may give the appearance of a shallower depth of field.

One should therefore pay close attention to how a background will look and be positioned when it's out of focus. For example, poorly-positioned out of focus highlights may prove distracting for a foreground subject (such as in the parrot example).

Jailbreaking iPhones and unlocking phones : LEGAL !!!!

Jailbreaking iPhones and unlocking phones in general have traditionally been activities that were, legally, in at least a grey area.

In fact, the opponents of such practices have long claimed that doing these procedures was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and thus illegal. The DMCA did not allow for “Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems”, which is the section that such procedures fall under.

Until now. The Librarian of Congress has revised the DMCA and the changes are very good news for phone owners, and rather bad news for the likes of Apple.

Let’s take them one by one.

In the case of jailbreaking, the objections that Apple had were related to its need to preserve the iOS ecosystem. The Register of Copyrights, however, concluded that since you have to have bought an iPhone in order to engage in jailbreaking, there is absolutely no risk that it would affect sales of the devices. In fact, this is a classic fair use case, and Apple is only concerned about its reputation, not lost sales. Apple claim that these activities harm the integrity of the iPhone ecosystem, and while that may be true, apparently it has nothing to do with copyright.

Apple’s other objection, that jailbreakers use Apple code, was also thrown out. It turns out that fewer than 50 bytes of code are used, out of a total of 8 million bytes of code, or approximately 1/160,000 of the copyrighted work as a whole.

So, from now on, jailbreaking is legal and a matter of fair use.

What is unknown at this point is if Apple and AT&T will be forced to accept warranty repair claims from people with jailbroken iPhones, but if that isn’t happening today, it surely doesn’t seem impossible in theory.

Next up, unlocking a phone is also legal now.

Unlocking is the procedure which aims to make the device usable on a carrier other than the one it was purchased from (and locked to).

This mainly applies to GSM-based networks, like AT&T and T-Mobile, where the use of SIM cards makes switching carriers and the unlocking procedure easier. In theory, this could also be applied to CDMA unlocking (for networks such as Verizon and Sprint), but it might be a bit trickier in practice. Because CDMA phones don’t use interchangeable SIM cards, the phone is practically ‘hardwired’ to the provider who sells them. To unlock a CDMA phone, some reprogramming is usually needed, and the carriers do not, as a rule, accept phones that they haven’t sold to run on their network. Which is a problem, because according to the DMCA changes regarding unlocking, the carrier that you want to switch to has to authorize your device for use on the network.

Be that as it may, this is very good news for mobile phone users and might unleash many more interesting tools on the jailbreaking and unlocking fronts. Hopefully the developers of such tools will have nothing left to fear and will therefore create better procedures and faster updates.