Zach - A Friendly Fox

My Problem with a “Filmmaker Mode” for TVs

By Zach | 2020-01-072020-01-07 by Zach

At CES yesterday, directors and cinematographers further endorsed the concept of a “Filmmaker Mode” setting for new TVs. New TVs from Samsung and LG will include this setting, which will disable post-processing effects like motion smoothing. Motion smoothing is a technique used to make 24fps videos look like they were shot at a smoother framerate, like 120fps. These post-processing effects cause the TV to display media in a format quite different from the way that…

Pro Tips and Essential Applications for Windows 10

By Zach | 2019-12-152019-12-15 by Zach

Way back in March 2014, I wrote a blog post called “20 Essential Windows Applications You Should Install.” A friend recently installed Windows after using MacOS for a long time, so I decided to update that list of applications for 2020. Many of those apps are still relevant and critical to my workflow today. Some of them are no longer useful, so they’ll get the cut. I’ll also include in this post a few handy…

Music

Madeon – Good Faith: An Album Review

By Zach | 2019-11-152019-11-15 by Zach

Madeon recently released his Good Faith LP, and I’ve been listening to it all day. I’ve found myself more interested in music and music production lately, and this LP inspired me to write my first detailed album review. In this album review, I will: Score each track individually on a scale from 0 to 10. Share some thoughts about each track. Among those thoughts, I will share my favorite moment from that track, which is…

Uncategorized

How to Choose the Best Car to Buy: 9 Research Steps

By Zach | 2019-08-282019-08-28 by Zach

Choosing the best car to buy for you can be a challenge! The number of options available can be overwhelming, and it can be stressful to sort through all of them without a clear game plan. Here are nine clear steps that you can take to make your car-buying research process feel significantly more manageable. 1. Create a Google Spreadsheet Create a new Google Spreadsheet. Add the following column headers: Manufacturer Model Body Style Notable…

Personal Photography

My Photographic Journey

By Zach | 2019-05-072019-05-07 by Zach

A recent Reddit post inspired me to scour through my photographic archives in search of proof that I’ve improved as a photographer over the past several years. My hunt led me on a nostalgic tour through time, questionable data retention practices, and my entireD:\ drive. While it quickly became obvious that I’ve learned from previous mistakes, what I discovered forced me to rethink what it means to have become “a better photographer.” The very first…

Music

Best Music of Q4 2018

By Zach | 2018-12-05 by Zach

For many years now, I’ve made one music playlist for every quarter of the year. Today, I’d like to share with you a subset of my Q4 2018 playlist. The subset list is titled “2018 Q4 – Best of the Best”, and it consists of my favorite music that I’ve discovered or rediscovered during the final quarter of 2018. Here’s “2018 Q4 – Best of the Best” on Spotify! Here’s “2018 Q4 – Best of the…

Education Personal

On Learning, Language, and Psychology…

By Zach | 2018-11-19 by Zach

Within the past six months, I somehow stumbled upon LESSWRONG and added its feed of posts to my RSS reader of choice. Recently, I came across the following post, and it deeply moved me: Mark Eichenlaub: How to develop scientific intuition This post itself is a beautiful gem, but I found the real treasure trove in Mr. Eichenlaub’s answer to this Quora question: Do grad school students remember everything they were taught in college all the time?…

Computers

Perfecting your Audio Input/Output Settings for VR and Beyond

By Zach | 2018-09-062019-12-15 by Zach

It’s quite difficult to settle on comfortable audio input/output settings from within Windows. All audio hardware is different, and there are many factors that play into how audio playback sounds to your ears and how your microphone input sounds to others. This is a guide to setting up your audio devices to achieve maximum comfort for you and your listeners. I work at a VR company called High Fidelity, where audio I/O is critical to…

Photography

Five Steps for Successfully Photographing the Milky Way

By Zach | 2018-07-16 by Zach

This past weekend, I went on a camping trip to Ocean Cove, a gorgeous campground just north of Jenner, CA. It gets very dark there at night, especially when the moon is new. Just after midnight, I set up my tripod and camera on a big rock overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the Milky Way, and Mars. My girlfriend Liv perched herself on another rock in the corner of the frame. I readied my camera, took a few…

Computers Programming

Set the Date of VX8300 & enV Touch Photos from Filename

By Zach | 2015-03-242015-03-25 by Zach

Before I continue explaining what this is for: If you know exactly what this utility does and you’d like a download link to the Python script, here it is: LG_Photos_Filename_To_Date.zip Introduction A long time ago, I used an LG VX8300 flip phone. I still maintain it’s the best flip phone I’ve ever used. After that, I used an LG enV Touch, which was also an excellent device. Both of these phones took perfectly fine images…