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Wednesday, April 7, 2004
Exhumed 
| | Anyway, expect light blogging. |
Listening in
| | I think Channel 9 at msdn.com is one of the coolest things I've seen coming out of Microsoft in a long time, if not ever. Mostly because it's not coming out of an advertising or a PR orifice, but rather out of the company's very human pores. Congrats to Lenn, Scoble and the rest of the crew. |
| | By the way, I love the metaphor, which is semi-familiar only to audio channel-surfers on United Airlines flights. Far as I know, only United lets passengers listen to cockpit chatter. In most United planes, the chatter is only on Channel 9 (on some it's on Channel 6). I'm a huge fan of the service, and almost always go out of my way to thank pilots for opting to leave it on (it's up to the pilot, and quite a few don't). |
| | The difference with msdn's Channel 9, of course, is that the passengers are also in the conversation. And in many cases the passengers are also pilots (that is, they're developers). |
| | And I can hear the voices in the back of my head (and coming in through emails) saying "Just remember who runs the airline." |
Look out above
| | A coronal mass ejection (CME, movie) is heading for Earth. It was hurled into space on April 6th by an M2-class explosion near sunspot 588. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives, probably on April 8th. |
Duke of whacks
| | Hunter S. Thompson wallows in the collective dissappointment felt by college hoop fans over the buzzer-to-buzzer blowout of Georgia Tech by UConn in the NCAA finals Monday night. The real final game was UConn-Duke, which was severley compromised by the most touchy officiating ever seen in a semifinal — topped off by a non-call on the foul against J.J. Reddick on his drive to the basket near the end of the game. UConn won fair (lots of touch fouls went Duke's way), but not as fair as it would have been if the best players on the floor, on both sides, weren't in foul trouble for half the game. |
| | Anyway, the pull quotage has little to do with basketball: |
| | About 13 minutes into the first half, I got so bored and disgusted that I flipped over to watch a George Bush speech about freedom and democracy in Iraq. But that, too, was sickening. I FELT THE FEAR COMING ON. |
| | How long, O lord, How long? This blizzard of shame is getting a little old, isn't it? Just how low do we have to fall, before the voters catch on? |
| | Indeed. How many times can a man be robbed -- on the same street, by the same people -- before they call him a man? Bob Dylan said something much like that in a tattered old song called "Blowin' In The Wind." Read it and weep, you poor bastards -- because Dylan was yesterday, and George Bush is now. |
| | That is a morbid observation, at best, and we are all stuck with it. The 2004 presidential election will be a matter of life or death for the whole nation. We are sick today, and we will be even sicker tomorrow if this wretched half-bright swine of a president gets re-elected in November. Take my word for it. Mahalo. |
| | Then again, we took his word on Duke. |
Rocking album
| | Speaking of pix, my friend Marshall Burns has hacked a photo album that has more sort and display flexibility than I've seen in any other album software. Marshall's a Ph.D. quantum mechanic, by the way. Among many other things. |
| | Of course, I'm trying to get him to blog. |
Coolpix and pans
| | In my CES Report, I said the digital camera I found myself liking best was the Nikon Coolpix 5700. Well, a few days ago I got one. So far I agree with all the pros and cons in this comprehensive review. (Also this one and this one.) I love the high quality of its photos, itsmaterials and construction, its grip, and its range of options and features (e.g. white balance adjustment, which is subtle and amazing). But I'd like add a few quibbles: |
| | - Battery life sucks
- Barrel distortion at wide-angle makes the camera poor for shooting architecture and other subjects with straight lines along the edges of the frame
- The on-off switch is in the wrong place, right in front of the shutter, where the zoom ought to be
- Manual focus is, so far, impossible for me to figure out... same with the macro mode
- The UI is full of non-intuitive features
- Focussing in low light ranges from difficult to impossible, and there's no autofocus assist
- The charger doesn't indicate charge condition (only that the charger itself is on)
- There seems to be no way to charge the battery inside the camera
- There is no mode where you can see the image both in the LCD Viewfinder and in the external twist & flip display (makes it hard to show the subject and the shooter the same image)
- The twist & flip display is a bit too small
- The USB connection is an odd one, requiring yet another arcane cable
- Doesn't come with a lens shade
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| | But it's the only really good camera with the three things I want: good photo quality, lots of zoom, and a flip & twist display. So I'll learn to live with it, and probably love it. Eventually. |
| | [Later...] Hmm. Just found out about the CoolPix 8700. It has 8 megapixels vs. 5 in the 5700. Also better performance in several areas. Same form factor. Here are the Froogle prices on the 5700 and the 8700. |
| | [Later...] Ross has a new Olympus. I was tempted, but needed the zoom more than the wide-angle. Otherwise very comparable. |
Because they're all dead, or close enough
| | Rodent Regatta points to this here survey, which says we're both Grammar Gods. I guess 'cuz we aced it. Too bad I can't wave my result under the noses of all those teachers who gave me a C or worse in English. |
Lots of packets, comfort optional
| | I'll be in Dublin and London from 27 April to 3 May (speaking at ICT Expo/Linuxworld Ireland) and I'm having a bit of a time trying to triangulate those coordinates with two equally independent variables at hotels: broadband (by Ethernet or wi-fi) and cheapness. |
| | By the way, I just encumbered the left column there with a new list of places I'll be going this year. Long as it is, it's incomplete. Like, I just realized I need to add this one. |
There are responses to this message:Re: Coolpix and pans, jayoung, 4/7/04; 10:55:52 PM Re: Wednesday, April 7, 2004, Doug Klippert, 4/7/04; 11:16:51 AM Re: Tuesday, April 6, 2004, michael moncur, 4/7/04; 9:36:31 AM
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