Canada Line transit to Vancouver

If you're taking the Canada Line from the airport to the city, you will notice that the price of a 1-zone and up ride listed on the ticket machine charges an extra $5. You can save yourself this $5 by buying a faresaver ticket. Remember to have an extra ticket with you for your arrival the next time you leave the city.

When buying a ticket through the machine, remember that a 1-zone ticket will get you anywhere around Richmond. If you're traveling more than 2-zones, just add fare to your 1-zone ticket.

Discount fare periods (1-zone fare will you travel multiple zones): Weekdays after 6:30 pm and all day Saturday, Sunday & statutory holidays.

Traveling to Manhattan through Newark airport

A few tips for those traveling to the Big Apple through Newark airport.

• An easy and cost effective way to get to Manhattan from Newark airport is the NJ Transit line. Take an AirTrain from the airport to the first NJ Transit stop and from there, hop on a train to New York Penn Station. Cost should be around $12 one-way. 
• Arriving in Newark airport affords you a free ride on the AirTrain.
• NJ Transit line does not run between 2am - 5am. This is what's stated on the website, but there may be trains that start at 4am.

Going back to Newark airport from Manhattan is pretty much the same. Take a NJ Transit train from New York Penn station to Newark airport. Remember to keep your train ticket as it allows you to take the AirTrain to the airport for free.

The best walkaround lenses for a crop-body camera

For this post, a Canon crop body will be my point of reference

Some factors to consider when buying a lens:

• Maximum aperture (lowest f-stop)

• Focal range

• Image quality

• Build quality

For a walkaround lens on a crop body, you will want the minimum focal range to be around 17mm. The range of any lens you attach to your camera will be magnified 1.6x. 17mm will be 27mm and so on. This is important because you will want some wide-angle options. On a full-frame, 17mm stays as is.

The list

17mm+ lenses

Sigma

Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM

Has constant f/2.8 aperture and Sigma’s version of image stabilization (IS)

Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM

Has macro, but doesn’t have a constant f/2.8 aperture.

Tamron

Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II VC LD Aspherical IF SP AF

Has image stabilization but average build quality. f/2.8 aperture

Canon

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

This lens has the best build quality of all the lenses I’m listing since it’s in the L series. It’s the most durable and heavy of all the lenses in this list. It’s a bit slow at f/4 and doesn’t have IS, but if you ever decide to upgrade to a full-frame body in the future, this lens will give you great wide-angle shots. Your body can accept EF and EF-S lenses, but full frames can only take EF. This particular lens is an EF lens.

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

In the EF-S walkaround range, all lenses compete with this. It’s not an L lens, but has L lens elements and great image quality with a constant f/2.8 aperture. Build quality is not the greatest though.

Others

Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

People seem to like this lens because of its overall quality, but it’s not very fast if you take a look at its aperture.

Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

This is Canon’s best superzoom lens. Has an amazing range, but sacrifices speed and image quality. This is a lazy traveler’s lens.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM

L lens with great everything, but its range is more suited for full-frame bodies. Also not the fastest at f/4

Play videos with subtitles on your Xbox

If you're trying to share video from your computer to your Xbox, you'll notice that the gaming system does not support subtitle (.srt) files. Same goes for Windows Media Center. While adding a media extender to your Xbox will allow you to play .mkv and other unsupported Xbox formats on your TV, subtitles are still not supported. TVersity will help you get around these problems.

Follow the instructions HERE

• For step 2, the new version of TVersity does not give you the option of not including its codec pack in the installation. Simply install the program and DO NOT uninstall the codec pack from your control panel.
• All the other steps are straightforward. You can open each program through your start menu.

To share your computer's media to your Xbox, TVersity must be open when accessing files from your Xbox. When accessing media on the Xbox, TVersity + your computer's name will show up under each media category.

IMPORTANT: Both the subtitle (.srt) file and the video itself must be in the same folder AND have the same file name. If not, the subtitle will not load when you open the video on your Xbox.

If you want to learn more about TVersity, read HERE

Team Fortress 2 - How to redeem Summer Shades

Want the new Summer Shades that just came out for Team Fortress 2? Follow these 3 easy steps.




1) Join the 'Steam Summer Camp Group'

• Open Steam > click 'Community' at the top
  
• Then click 'Groups'.
  
• Search 'Summer Camp' in the search box.

• Join when you get to their group page.

2) Link your Steam account with your Facebook profile.

• Again in Steam, click 'Community'. Click 'Profile'. Under the Action menu to the right, click 'Edit my Profile'.

• Scroll down until you see the Facebook icon. Follow the steps to login.

3) In Team Fortress, complete the 'Escape the Heat' achievement






You're almost done..

Now in Steam, go their store front page and find the 'Earn Prizes & Win Games' link, or anything connected to their prizes.









You'll be directed to a 'Prize Booth' page showcasing a bunch of games. Scroll down until you see a picture of Golden Sunglasses. You can now redeem your glasses by clicking on the Sunglasses picture.











Open TF2 and there are your new sunglasses!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please help me by viewing my video below. I want the ugly hat!



Not clear enough? Watch it again in HD - fullscreen.

Let your friends know by sending them this link or be a douche and keep it a secret. Either way, enjoy the summer and give me a Bill's hat!

Team Fortress 2 Replay - Flare Gun Sniping

Check out my replay video I made for the Saxxy Awards!

Pyro is probably one of the funnest classes to use in Team Fortress 2 and once you start using the Flare Gun, it's hard not to stop. The gun deals out mini-crits to enemies that are already on fire, so if they run away, you can gun them down. The crit will deal a bunch of damage and if they don't die from that, you'll probably burn to death.

Pyro all the way!

Using Picasa pictures for Craigslist

Using high-resolution pictures for your Craigslist posting will give it more pop and generate more interest.

1) Make sure you have a g-mail account. Activate and Log into your Picasa web albums.
2) Open Picasa on your computer and log into your Web Albums - at the top right of the screen.
3) Your pictures should be displayed in Picasa. Select/highlight the pictures you want to use. Right click one of the highlighted pictures and choose 'Upload to Picasa Web Albums'.
- A small screen should pop up. Since you're using it for Craigslist, you don't need the picture to be too big. Under the 'Size to upload' dropdown list, select 'Small: 640 pixels'.
- Visibility for this album: 'Anyone with the link'.
Click 'Upload'.

Your pictures should now be in your Picasa web albums.

Inserting the pics in your Craigslist post is a little tricky, but simple once you get a hang of it.

1) Open the picture in your Picasa web album. Right click it and select 'Copy Image Location'. The URL of the picture is now copied.
URL Example: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/picture1.JPG

2) In your Craigslist 'Posting Description', you will need to enter a little bit of HTML.
- I normally put the pictures under the description

Example:




So the HTML part is




You just need to paste the URL in between the 2 quotation marks

** You cannot copy/paste the HTML code to your listing. You will have to type it out yourself.

** IF you find a picture on the internet and would like to use it in your Craigslist post, just copy the URL and insert it in between the quotations above, just like you would if it was your Picasa Web Album picture.

Final Example:

Posting Description: Nike Shoes: Air Pegasus 83 SI White - Men's USA Size 9
Price: $55
Specific Location: Vancouver - Oakridge Mall

- Never been worn - Includes box
- Perfect for summer
- Rare green & Grey color combination
- USA Size 9
- E-mail me for more pictures
- Initial correspondence will be made through e-mail not by phone. - Lowball offers will be ignored!







A live listing I have on Craigslist