Selasa, 21 Januari 2014

If you collect all three stamps at McDonalds for their monopoly contest, do you automatically win that prize?

Q. I've been playing the McDonald's monopoly thing and have almost collected all of one color and I want to know if you definitely win that prize.

A. Ah, the McDonald's Monopoly game... chasing after that one color stamp to win the big prize. If only it was that simple.

First of all, if you like McDonald's and you are happy about winning a food prize, its ok to play. Here's how it breaks down:�Medium Fries ($1.75) � Odds 1 in 9, or 11.1% chance you win.
� Quarter Pounder w/ Cheese ($3.60) � Odds 1 in 44, or 2.3% chance you win.
� Small McCafe or Smoothie ($2.40) � Odds 1 in 44, or 2.3% chance you win.
� McFlurry ($2.55) � Odds 1 in 44, or 2.3% chance you win.
� Breakfast Sandwich ($2.65) � Odds 1 in 22, or 4.6% chance you win

The other instant prizes (winning a DVD rental from a Red Box) to headphones are tougher. The DVD is 1 in 101 and the odds go up from there.

Now for the challenge - getting the properties. The truth is that whatever property group you need, one space is much, much, much more difficult to get than the others. Take the Red group (Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky) which gives you one of 40 plane tickets - the odds of getting Indiana or Illinois are around 1 in 10. The odds of getting Kentucky Ave., however, is 1 in 15 million.

Here is a list of the odds for all of the properties (plus the toughest one of each set to obtain):
BROWN: Mediterranean Ave, odds 1 in 30 million wins $1,000.
� LIGHT BLUE: Vermont Ave, odds 1 in 40 million, wins $5,000.
� PINK: Virginia Ave, odds 1 in 200 million, wins $10,000
� ORANGE: Tennessee Ave, odds 1 in 602 million, wins Super Bowl tickets.
� RED: Kentucky Ave, odds 1 in 15 million, wins one of 40 plane tickets for two.
� YELLOW: Ventnor Ave, odds 1 in 300 million, wins $20,000
� GREEN: Pennsylvania Ave, odds 1 in 40 million, wins one of 15 Fiat cars.
� BLUE: Boardwalk, 1 in 602 million, wins $1,000,000 in $50,000 annual payments.
� RAILROADS: Short Line railroad, 1 in 150 million, wins a year's supply of gas.

Do you see the challenge? It's not getting two of the three properties, it's getting the extremely scarce third one.

Here, btw, are the odds for winning the non-food prizes:
40 point MyCoke Reward (or medium Coke) - 1 in 151
$5 McDonald's Arch card - 1 in 21,518
EA Sports $10 promo code - 1 in 161
$10 Shell Gift Card - 1 in 60,250
Hasbro Monopoly Board Game - 1 in 60,250
$25 Shell Gift Card - 1 in 86,071
Shutterfly 8x8 PhotoBook - 1 in 302
EA Sports Game - 1 in 35,441
$50 - 1 in 60,250
ur Beats Earphones - 1 in 4,061,000
$100 - 1 in 105,701
Panasonic Lumix TS20 Digital Still camera - 1 in 1,506,202
Beats by Dr. Dre Phil Speaker - 1 in 4,016,601
Headphones - 1 in 301,245,030
Panasonic Viera 50-inch Plasma HDTV - 1 in 10,401,541
$5,000 - 1 in 40,166,041
EA Sports NFL Game Experience - 1 in 10,041,541
Beaches Resorts Vacation - 4,634,539
Ace Hardware $7,500 Home Fix-Up - 1 in 31,710,004
NFL Pro Bowl Experience - 30,124,503
2013 Fiat 500 Hatchback - 1 in 60,249,006
2013 Fiat 500 Cabrio - 1 in 60,249,006
$20,000 - 1 in 200,830,020
$100,000 - 1 in 301,245,030

So the morale of the story is if you want to win Medium Fries, you have a good chance of going away happy; otherwise, don't count on anything else.


photographers,and enthusiasts HELP?
Q. I am a beginner to photography and I am thinking of getting the canon EOS 600D. soes anyone own it and could tell me how well it performs and or can someone who owns canon in general help me out?

A. If you have an issue, tell us so we can help you.
Yes, Canon has sold more than a million 600Ds (to make you feel better) so there are lots of owners of it. You will not go wrong buying it.

Here are some tips:

1) Read photography blogs or tips online to be a better photographer. Any camera can do only limited things but with some tips, you will be able to take your camera to the next level. You will have better chances for better photos.
2) Buy some prime fast lens like 35mm or 50mm with F1.8 or so. For Canon or Nikon, you can get one for around $100-$150. With this lens, your DSLR will be able to take photos in low light too. Plus for taking photos for people and pets, they give nice bokeh- background blurring that you see in portraits taken by professionals.
3) Read your camera manual. You will be amazed to know how much your camera can do besides that AUTO button.
4) Work with your camera. Your camera can do only certain things for you. When you are taking a photo, it tries to guess what it is shooting and would set up Aperture, Shutterspeed, ISO, color mode etc to shoot a photo for you. Many times that piece of glass (I mean lens) and that sensor does not know that you shooting in backlight or in snow. It does not kow if you are taking photo outside in broad sunlight or indoor well-lit place. If camera does not know accurately what it is shooting, it will probably give you a bad photo. Now instead of blaming your camera for a bad photo, if you are willing to work with your camera, your camera can take better photos for you. Learn some basic photography tips and help out your camera when it struggles. Set a proper mode like Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Sports and tell your camera where and what you are shooting. If you camera takes too bright or too dark photos, set the Exposure Compensation and tell camera to take less or more light. With your little help, you and your camera can make a great pair and together you will be able to take better photos.

Enjoy Photography.
http://photography-with-any-camera.blogspot.com/2013/05/best-digital-slr-for-beginners.html





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Senin, 20 Januari 2014

Best filming camera to film movies?

Q. Hi! In 2015, some school mates and I are planning to shoot a remake of The Breakfast Club. It will be the 30 year anniversary and we are excited to start. Anyways, I am looking for a great filming camera for movies. I know it'll be pricey but I seem to get 0 help when I just google it. I also want to know how to make the footage have an 80s feel, quality wise. I will be using the camera that any of you suggest for a number of years and films to come, and I would also appreciate if you have any movie editing software? Thank you!

A. I am guessing you are looking to use some digital camera to film. If you are going to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a professional movie camera, please ignore rest of my answer.

Most of us know that most compact cameras, or smart-phones like iPhones, are not good at video recording. If light is good, they do an okay job. When light is dull, they are almost unusable. Same is true for most consumer SLR cameras with kit lenses. So what do we do to take high quality High-Definition videos? Should we use an HD camcoder or a pocket camcorder like Sony Bloggie or UltraHD?

Most compact cameras don't do a good job in low light- for still images or for videos. If you zoom in, the shake becomes too obvious. Most DSLRs will do a little better as light level goes down but many of them will not auto focus during videos (because of the mirror which needs to be flipped for focusing). You can bypass this with a mirrorless camera which can auto focus, like Panasonic G or GF series but with Auto focus, you lose the control over which part of the frame, or on which person to focus on. If you have 3 persons in a frame, your Auto-Focus will not know which one you want to focus on. Why not? Silly, it is Auto-focus! It focuses by itself!! That is the reason you never see a professional movie or videos done with Autofocus.

Now read an article here which can give you nice tips:
http://photography-with-any-camera.blogspot.com/2013/03/video-recording-with-dslr-is-it-worth-it.html


Can most digital cameras now all do full hd 1080p video recording?
Q.

A. Most of them do 1080p HD video. However please be aware that most compact cameras, or smart-phones like iPhones, are not good at video recording. If light is good, they do an okay job. When light is dull, they are almost unusable. If you zoom in and do video, there can be lot of shake. You may be better off with iPhone or some digital camcorder that offers 30-40x zoom.

Read this article- it will provide you some relevant info:
http://photography-with-any-camera.blogspot.com/2013/03/video-recording-with-dslr-is-it-worth-it.html





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