JoeBlog

Both Twitter and Google Reader are services that I use every day.

Recently Twitter has been duplicating (random) tweets sent via SMS. It’s good that I’ve got unlimited texting.

Along the same lines, Google Reader has been duplicating random posts from feeds. I think TechCrunch posts are duplicated most.

This is annoying. Twitter and Google… fix these issues please.

If I wanted to see double of something I’d pick something a little more interesting, say for instance the Doublemint twins

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It was a good little point and shoot camera but today I retired my Sony DSC-W5 digital camera. Taking its place is the highly recommended Nikon D40. I was reading Josh Bancroft’s Tinyscreenfuls blog post about the D40 and it inspired me to take the plunge into the DSLR world of photography. After reading the reviews I was convinced that the D40 was the best choice. I opted for the 6.1 megapixal version of the camera verses the 10.2 MP D40x after reading this review.

I realized I have no practical reason for the 10 MP version of the D40. Taking pictures at 10 MP is overkill for most scenarios and you are likely to do a lot of cropping. More importantly pictures which have been cropped from 10 MP don’t look nearly as good as photos taken at 6 MP that hasn’t been cropped. Don’t be fooled by the camera manufactures trying to tell you that you need as many megapixels as possible for the best picture quality. Take the time to read Ken Rockwell’s interpretation of The Megapixel Myth for a complete breakdown on this.  

After doing some price comparison I discovered Pro Photo Supply in NW Portland had the best deal. Their price even beat out Amazon!

The kit contained the following:

• The Nikon D40 DSLR Camera body
• 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens
• Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR Zoom Nikkor Lens (Telphoto Lens)
• Nikon School DVD "Understanding Digital Photography"
• Nikon School DVD "Fast, Fun and Easy"
• Nikon D40 camera bag (on backorder)
• Rechargeable battery and battery charger
• Nikon branded camera strap

In addition I bought the following accessories:

• Nikon SB-600 Speedlight Flash
• 2 Hoya 52mm UV (Ultra Violet) Super Multi Coated Glass Filters
• 2 Gig eFilm Secure Digital PRO Memory Card

Taking the plunge into DSLR from a simple point and shoot camera is overwhelming. There is so much to learn and it all seems quite complicated. Hopefully the DVD’s that came with the camera will help shed some light (no pun intended) on it all.

I’d like to start out by learning the basics of digital photography. Then once I’m comfortable with that I’ll move onto the features of the D40. Without knowing how to properly frame a shot, when to use the flash, or why to use one type of lens over another there is no point learning about the advanced features of the camera.

The good news is I am able to set the camera in "Auto" mode and use it to take shots. I’ve played around with that a bit already and the picture quality is amazing!

A quick search helped me find a (free!) handy plain english users guide for the Nikon D40. The Author, Ken Rockwell has a ton of great information on his website. I’ll be spending a lot of time there and you should too.

Since I finally have a camera that uses the SD card format I’d love to buy the Eye-Fi Wireless SD card. This sweet bite sized gadget will automatically upload the photos taken on it to any of the 17 supported online photo sharing webistes. No more need to connect the camera to the computer or mess with card readers. A neat concept that I’ll probably end up buying once the price goes down a bit.

In the meantime I’ll be (manually) uploading my photos to my Flickr account. Check there often for my latest photos.

Ultimately I’d like to do macro (close up) and night photography. It will happen. Someday.

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Just got back from seeing the movie "Untraceable". It was a decent movie that could have easily been the sequel to "The Net". The movie did a good job of keeping the realism in tact as much as a Hollywood movie could.

Diane Lane plays an FBI agent who works in the Syber Crimes devision… busting kiddie porn peddlers, online scammers and identity theives. One day she is given a tip about a website live streaming the murder of a kitten. When Lane tries to find out where the stream is coming from, she runs into roadblock after roadblock and finally realizes the perpetrator is… are you ready for this… UNTRACEABLE! (dun dun duuunnnnn!). Lane is told to move on to another case since it was just the death of a cat, but when the website starts capturing people for death, using internet traffic (the number of people visiting the site to watch someone die) to quicken the death of those held captive, the case is raised to top priority. You see, the website’s traffic monitor is directly tied into the death machines the victims are in. The more visitors, the faster they die.

What I thought was going to be the major weakness of this movie actually turned out to be one of it’s strongest points. The story. This isn’t just some random killing spree. The plot behind the killer(s) motivation is actually pretty believable and makes for good storytelling. The crimes are methodical, there are very few loopholes (if any) in the movie (which is rare for thriller films like this) and the characters are likable and seem more real than the traditional line up.

I’d give it a 5 of out 10.

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I wish I would have bought an iPhone before The Tilt Pocket PC phone I bought last month. The Tilt is a great phone. The best Windows Mobile phone I’ve used. That said, it doesn’t even come close to how amazing the iPhone is.

The iPhone is the first Apple product I’ve owned. In fact up until last year I didn’t like Apple products. Mac based computers imho for many years have been really unbearable to use. Then as a wise move they started using linux as a base for the OS. Soon after they announced Intel based Mac computers (which allows a dual boot configuration between Windows and a Mac OS). These moves intrigued me. As a result I’m going to make the switch from PC to Mac as soon as I can settle on the Mac that’s right for me. I’ve been eyeing a Mac Book Pro for some time.

I’m still not a fan of the iPod line of products. The one exception would be the iPod Touch models (which is basically an iPhone minus the phone).

And I really don’t care for iTunes. I don’t understand why the software is so popular. It’s interface is clunky and too restrictive. 

It seems Apple has cleaned up their act in the last couple of years (Microsoft watch out!).

I purchased the 16 GB version of the iPhone. More room for music, video and pictures.

What I absolutely love about the iphone is it’s interface, particularly the web browsing. The browsing experience on the iPhone the best I’ve used on any mobile device. In fact when I’m lounging around the house I tend to use my iPhone to browser the web instead of my Laptop. Browsing the web with the iPhone is really nice. Browsing on The Tilt (or other Windows Mobile phone) is painful. The iPhone makes mobile browsing a reality.

In comparison to the Tilt (or any other Windows Mobile phone to date), the iPhone has a much better overall user experience. It’s usability is currently unmatched. Don’t get me wrong I like my Tilt. In fact its got many things that the iphone doesn’t (3G, GPS, Push e-mail, etc…) so why am I willing to toss my Tilt aside in favor of the iPhone. That’s easy to answer. Usability. It’s fun to use.

What I like about the iPhone:

• Usability.
• The interface. (GUI)
• Built-in Wifi.
• The web browsing.
• Threaded Text messaging.
• 3rd party application support (after "Jailbreaking")
• It’s slim.
• The touch screen is surprisingly responsive and accurate.
• Typing with the on screen keyboard is easy. (Suggests words if you "fat finger")
• IMAP e-mail support

What’s not so great:

• No 3G Support.
• No Push e-mail support.
• Existing MP3’s on the iPhone (synced via iTunes) can’t be used for ringtones.
• No 3rd party application support. (without a "JailBroken" iPhone)
• No built-in GPS (Navizon and Google maps "Locate Me" feature do attempt emulate GPS by using cell tower locations.)
• No way to replace the battery (without sending the iPhone to Apple)
• The Ringer/Vibrate switch is difficult to flip (use).
• No Adobe Flash support in the Safari web browser.
• iTunes - it’s just a horrible program.
• No fast way to enable/disable bluetooth. ("Services or BossPrefs is an option if you "Jailbreak" (hack) your iPhone)
• When connected to computer via USB it doesn’t show up as a drive and you can’t explorer the filesystem or transfer files to/from the iPhone/computer (SSH is an option if you "Jailbreak" (hack) your iPhone)
• No screen protector is included.
• The camera on the phone doesn’t zoom.

Without a doubt the best phone/mobile device I’ve ever owned. I can definitely see more Apple products in my future. The Windows Mobile team should be taking notes.

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Went to the 2nd installment of Ignite Portland tonight. It was a full house at the Bagdad Theater. 750+ people were there and only about 200 seats. Even though we arrived well before the event started we couldn’t find any open seats. So, having to sit on the floor was not fun and took away from the overall experience.

There was some interesting presentations and I was surprised that hardly any were tech based.

Would have been better if the speakers had a monitor, there was music between presenters, a big screen displaying event “tweets”.

All in all, a great job! I’m looking forward to the next one.

You might even say it was wrapped in bacon good!

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We went to Applebee’s for some food and to watch the game. The place was pretty much a ghost town. We found a table with a nice view of the TV and we were set - or so we thought. Although the game was on, the volume was not. When we asked the waitress to turn the volume up she let us know that management wouldn’t let her turn the sound on.

Apparently the Applebee’s we were at didn’t pay the NFL for the right to show the game (all public establishments have to pay). I guess the manager thought it would be ok for his customers to see the game but not hear it. Not that hearing it is all that important. Who wants to listen to the old ‘n busted commentators any way? But that didn’t stop me. I was quick on the draw. From my jacket pocket I whipped out my scanner and tuned it to the frequency of the TV channel airing the game (FOX). I turned it up just enough for everyone at our table to hear and presto! We now had audio and video. It wasn’t a perfect solution. Since the TV was getting its picture via satellite the scanner’s audio was about 4 seconds ahead of the picture. It was actually kinda cool though. If there was a touchdown we’d know well before the rest of the people watching on TV.

The audio being ahead a few seconds bugged me during the commercials. I was looking forward to a couple of good laughs. But as it turned out the spots this year were stupid. Really stupid. Did you notice that most of the advertisers used cutesy animals—squirrels, horses, camels, pigeons, mice, dogs, pandas, and lizards—to endorse their products. Lame. I honestly couldn’t tell you what two-thirds of the ad’s were even promoting. If I had a company and was going to spend 2.7 million for 30 seconds of airtime I’d at least want to be sure people knew what I was pushing. Even the Victoria’s Secret commercial was a let down compared to the “exposure” that the Godaddy.com ad brought to the table. Even though FOX wouldn’t air the Godaddy ad it still managed a lot of hype. It’s sad really this year the big game drew more viewers than ever before. 97.5 million viewers to be exact. I mean seriously, the one time per year people actually want to watch commercials and the spots were pathetic.

Not being a huge football fan I usually watch for the halftime show and the commercials. FOX most likely chose Tom Petty to perform at half time to ensure there wouldn’t be a repeat of the “wardrobe malfunction” that still plagues CBS.

Tom didn’t have any dancers on stage. Boring.

The whole 2nd and 3rd quarter of the game neither team scored. Boring.

They only panned the camera on the cheerleaders once for a total of 5 seconds. Boring.

Personally I think it’s all backwards. I think the main focus should be on the cheerleaders rather than old guys in spandex. Who wants to see a dude smack another dudes butt when you could watch cheerleaders do that… I’d pay money to see that and I’m sure the price of a 30 second spot would quadruple. Hmmmm half naked girls or dudes in spandex. What you rather see more of? All I’m saying is that the superbowl would suck a lot less if only…

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