Update: there are very nice video tutorials on Apple's site. They will also give you an impression of working with the apps if you don't have them yet.
I have just gotten iWork today (I ordered it only yesterday!), and it looks very nice. It's a pleasantly compact little package the size of a couple of music CDs, and it includes a small Getting Started book.
---
Apple iWork, new version.
Now three powerful home/office apps. And it is still absolutely amazingly cheap. I have paid more for software that does not do one tenth of what these apps do. Apple is clearly being very, very aggressive about using cheap and free software to add value to their machines. I think everybody wins here. Heck, even if it you only need these apps to open Microsoft Office documents, you still save lots of money!
Even though I rarely use spreadsheets (which is the new app), I think I'll pay for iWork '08 just to get the update to Pages, which has a new word processor mode, more fit for writers than the earlier versions (which only had the more page-layout-like modes.)
iWork is clearly meant to replace the venerable AppleWorks (originally called ClarisWorks, going all the way back to the early nineties), which is/was a quite capable Works application, but which never really got its legs as a Mac OS X application. It sort of sucks in many ways, for instance imprecise text rendering and little things like that. I've been waiting for years for a serious update or a replacement for it. This is it.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Elton John
Elton John (am I breaking the law if I don't call him "Sir"?) wants to shut down the Internet, to save the quality of new music being made.
You gotta hand it to him, it takes balls to be such a luddite (his words) in 2007. Ten years ago every third newspaper reporter was saying that the Net was a fad or crap. But I think by now most people have realized that the Internet is quite simple global communication, instant and practically free. And that to call that a bad thing is just boneheaded.
TTL intones:
Elton John is right, but his suggested action to shut down the Internet is not enough.
I say all music should be live. And to ensure this we need to shutdown all international freight and logistics services. For these have for 60 years been used to ship music on dead formats such as vinyl records and CDs. These formats and distribution methods have provided a breeding ground for vulgar pop music such as that produced by Elton John. We need to rid our societies of this mechanically produced noise as soon as possible.
The only acceptable forms of music are opera, orchestral, choir and chamber music. And the only acceptable medium to enjoy them is live attendance.
I trust that we all want to take care of this matter in the earnest. For unless we do so the future of humankind is most certainly doomed.
Quite right. And it's almost too late, so we better start now. Does anybody volunteer to coordinate the efforts?
You gotta hand it to him, it takes balls to be such a luddite (his words) in 2007. Ten years ago every third newspaper reporter was saying that the Net was a fad or crap. But I think by now most people have realized that the Internet is quite simple global communication, instant and practically free. And that to call that a bad thing is just boneheaded.
TTL intones:
Elton John is right, but his suggested action to shut down the Internet is not enough.
I say all music should be live. And to ensure this we need to shutdown all international freight and logistics services. For these have for 60 years been used to ship music on dead formats such as vinyl records and CDs. These formats and distribution methods have provided a breeding ground for vulgar pop music such as that produced by Elton John. We need to rid our societies of this mechanically produced noise as soon as possible.
The only acceptable forms of music are opera, orchestral, choir and chamber music. And the only acceptable medium to enjoy them is live attendance.
I trust that we all want to take care of this matter in the earnest. For unless we do so the future of humankind is most certainly doomed.
Quite right. And it's almost too late, so we better start now. Does anybody volunteer to coordinate the efforts?
Monday, August 06, 2007
Amazon Vine
Hey, apparently I'm a power reviewer. This is from a mail I got today from Amazon:
As one of our most valued customer reviewers, we would like to offer you a special invitation to join an exciting new Amazon.com program called Amazon Vine. As a member of this exclusive community, you will have free access to pre-release and new products, as well as the opportunity to be among the very first to review them. [...]
Here's how it works--simply opt into the program, and each month we'll email you a newsletter of new products that our vendors have submitted for Amazon Vine reviews. Browse through the newsletter and visit the Amazon Vine website to order items that appeal to you. We'll ship those items directly to your doorstep free of charge, and they're yours to keep. Once you write your review, we'll post it on the product's page on Amazon.com. Not only will Amazon Vine member reviews be noted as such so they stand out [...], but they will be the only reviews displayed on book and music pages before release date.
Pretty cool. :)
It can't be that exclusive, though, I'm guessing, for I am not a Top-1000 reviewer (I was for a while on the UK site).
Update: I see now that I have 125 reviews, though. And I've gotten 548 "helpful" votes for them. That's pretty good.
TTL asks for an address to all my Amazon reviews. All right, find them here. (Looking at them myself now, it is interesting to note which ones many people voted "helpful" and not. I can't see much rhyme or reason in it.)
As one of our most valued customer reviewers, we would like to offer you a special invitation to join an exciting new Amazon.com program called Amazon Vine. As a member of this exclusive community, you will have free access to pre-release and new products, as well as the opportunity to be among the very first to review them. [...]
Here's how it works--simply opt into the program, and each month we'll email you a newsletter of new products that our vendors have submitted for Amazon Vine reviews. Browse through the newsletter and visit the Amazon Vine website to order items that appeal to you. We'll ship those items directly to your doorstep free of charge, and they're yours to keep. Once you write your review, we'll post it on the product's page on Amazon.com. Not only will Amazon Vine member reviews be noted as such so they stand out [...], but they will be the only reviews displayed on book and music pages before release date.
Pretty cool. :)
It can't be that exclusive, though, I'm guessing, for I am not a Top-1000 reviewer (I was for a while on the UK site).
Update: I see now that I have 125 reviews, though. And I've gotten 548 "helpful" votes for them. That's pretty good.
TTL asks for an address to all my Amazon reviews. All right, find them here. (Looking at them myself now, it is interesting to note which ones many people voted "helpful" and not. I can't see much rhyme or reason in it.)
Lost Girls again
A sexually frank and bold interview with Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie, authors of Lost Girls.
---
The interview will not play on the Mac. I ran crying to our super-techie TTL, and he helped me. If you use Mac, go to versiontracker.com and get the newest version of Mplayer. Then open that app and press Command-U and type in this address:
mms://a604.v217620.c21762.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/604/21762/v0001/ondemandwm.chumtv.com/specialty/sex-tv/2007/07/lost_girls.wmv
(The address probably won't wrap. Try tripple-clicking on it to select the whole address.)
---
By the way, Alan Moore on religion, his an others'. (He worships a snake god.)
---
The interview will not play on the Mac. I ran crying to our super-techie TTL, and he helped me. If you use Mac, go to versiontracker.com and get the newest version of Mplayer. Then open that app and press Command-U and type in this address:
mms://a604.v217620.c21762.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/604/21762/v0001/ondemandwm.chumtv.com/specialty/sex-tv/2007/07/lost_girls.wmv
(The address probably won't wrap. Try tripple-clicking on it to select the whole address.)
---
By the way, Alan Moore on religion, his an others'. (He worships a snake god.)
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Nippop girruls
Update: Making Of Sugar Water video.
(These girls are so talented and cute. I wonder where they are today.)
---
My favorite "nippop" (I still claim to have invented that word) girls seem to have disappeared.
I found some videos of old favorites of mine. I discovered Nippop when I live in Edinburgh in 2000.
Cibo Matto Sugar Water
Cibo Matto on Buffy
Takako Minekawa Plash
Takako Minekawa milk rock
Kahimi Karie Elastic Girl
Kahimi Karie Good Morning World
Kahimi Karie Lilitapop Dollhouse (I could only find a live version)
(These girls are so talented and cute. I wonder where they are today.)
---
My favorite "nippop" (I still claim to have invented that word) girls seem to have disappeared.
I found some videos of old favorites of mine. I discovered Nippop when I live in Edinburgh in 2000.
Cibo Matto Sugar WaterCibo Matto on Buffy
Takako Minekawa Plash
Takako Minekawa milk rock
Kahimi Karie Elastic Girl
Kahimi Karie Good Morning World
Kahimi Karie Lilitapop Dollhouse (I could only find a live version)
Early digital printing
An article about early digital art priting, by Graham Nash. Yes, he is the guy from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Or as I like to call them, "Crosby's Still Fresh and Young".
Saturday, August 04, 2007
War of the Worlds
I warmly recommend Alan Moore's "comic book" The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In book II (I think it is) part of the pulp culture elements that he drags into the heady mix (including Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Invisible Man, and much more) is the war of the worlds and the Martians and their tripods. It's a very avant garde book, very much for adults. The movie was not a patch on it.
Alex says:
The original [War of the Worlds] is a dissertation about man, and his place in the natural order of things. It speaks out against the European conquest of the world. It looks at the lust for war and adventure within each of us.
It is a great humanitarian piece.
There are times when the protaginist acts more like Cruise's neighbour, the insistance on returning the horse and buggy to the inn keeper for example, but that is only when the martians are perceived as an inconvenience, not a real threat. Later the survivalist impulses show, bludgeoning the cleric sos the Martians don't hear them.
One thing that surprised me was the 2005 version of WotW by Pendragon films. despite the low budget FX, and terrible acting, this film voiced the characters with real fear, defeat and defiance. Now listening to Richard Burton and David Essex discussing the futile defenses of the artillary "bows and arrows against the lightening", they seem smugly resigned, not fearful of the true horror that has gripped the nation.
There is a gritty sequel recently written, called "Scarlet Traces", which has the British smugly adoptinig the Martian technology, and maintaining it's Empire, believing that since it delivered the world from the Martians, then it owns the world.
Alex says:
The original [War of the Worlds] is a dissertation about man, and his place in the natural order of things. It speaks out against the European conquest of the world. It looks at the lust for war and adventure within each of us.
It is a great humanitarian piece.
There are times when the protaginist acts more like Cruise's neighbour, the insistance on returning the horse and buggy to the inn keeper for example, but that is only when the martians are perceived as an inconvenience, not a real threat. Later the survivalist impulses show, bludgeoning the cleric sos the Martians don't hear them.
One thing that surprised me was the 2005 version of WotW by Pendragon films. despite the low budget FX, and terrible acting, this film voiced the characters with real fear, defeat and defiance. Now listening to Richard Burton and David Essex discussing the futile defenses of the artillary "bows and arrows against the lightening", they seem smugly resigned, not fearful of the true horror that has gripped the nation.
There is a gritty sequel recently written, called "Scarlet Traces", which has the British smugly adoptinig the Martian technology, and maintaining it's Empire, believing that since it delivered the world from the Martians, then it owns the world.
Evening Song
Evening Song.
Title inspired by a song by Danish band Sort Sol.
-----
Sort Sol (Black Sun) was a high peak in Danish underground avant-garde rock when I grew up, and some of their stuff was just phenomenal. They have since, understandably, tried to broaden their appeal to escape chronic poverty, and I think they have succeeded without losing edge.
Tidbit from an interview with the band:
Interviewer: "are there any rituals any of you do before going on stage? Something you just feel you have to do?"
Pause.
Band member: "It's often a good idea to take a leak."
Title inspired by a song by Danish band Sort Sol.
-----Sort Sol (Black Sun) was a high peak in Danish underground avant-garde rock when I grew up, and some of their stuff was just phenomenal. They have since, understandably, tried to broaden their appeal to escape chronic poverty, and I think they have succeeded without losing edge.
Tidbit from an interview with the band:
Interviewer: "are there any rituals any of you do before going on stage? Something you just feel you have to do?"
Pause.
Band member: "It's often a good idea to take a leak."
Does art have to be beautiful?
The following was posted by Final Identity under the Photographers Don't post, and deserves a post of its own.
I've always insisted myself that beauty is essential to art. With the understanding that "beauty" is not the same as "pretty" or "pleasant" or "palatable".
F.I.:
Art begs for a response, or an interaction, or a perception from another person. It can even be "easy" because it didn't take effort at the moment of creation, but that ease was the product of a lifetime of preparation on the part of the creator, whose entire essence and collected world view somehow got translated into the work. Or the effort of creation itself can be "the work" part.
An artist simply trains himself in these various communications and then tries to use them to his purpopses.
I recall a class in "Western Values" or some such, a freshman-level college thing where we all got our first chance to talk about deep philosophical ideas. We did some Sophocles, some Anouilh, a little Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ya know, old chestnuts.
One question arose. Does an artist have to create something that's beautiful? Plenty of students in our seminar, wise to their newfound politicizations, suggested no, he doesn't. He could create an ugly hideous thing, but the response in the viewer might be the intent of the art. Picasso's "Guernica" for example -- a scene of destruction, with the composition itself destroyed. "Mr. Picasso," asked the disgruntled General, who had wanted the glories of his regime idolized instead of battered, "did you paint that picture?" "No, Mr. General. You did," so responded Pablo.
But I insisted that artists must work toward beauty. Or use some other word -- toward wholeness, or toward sanity, or toward just plain old organic compositional togetherness. I think Picasso would be the first to say that the overwhelming response to "Guernica" was in itself a "beauty" of a sort.
Most of my classmates just thought I was a philistine, wishing for pretty pastel reproductions of impressionist water lilies. After all, who insists on something as bourgeois as "beauty" when so much more deep, philosophical, political concepts are available to the artist -- the struggling worker, the horrors of war, the destruction of the environment, plays about dysfunctional families. These are ART because they're DEEP, so thought the class. This fellow seeking beauty? He doesn't GET that art can be UNSETTLING. And it OUGHT to be. So they thought. It ought to "challenge assumptions."
No. I think "Animal Farm" is quite beautiful. Who doesn't see the beauty in "some are just more equal than others"? What a turn on a turn. Orwell would agree. "Guernica" has an incredible organic wholeness to its composition, line and form in place, colors in unity. Even "Morder Hoffnung des Frauens," a weird experimental theater piece from the Jugendstil period in Vienna about ... ya know ... nothing much, except Angst -- even that has a beauty to it. They missed my intent. Most of them are just lawyers and business executives now. I guess their fervent politicization didn't help them challenge their assumptions much at all.
I've always insisted myself that beauty is essential to art. With the understanding that "beauty" is not the same as "pretty" or "pleasant" or "palatable".
F.I.:
Art begs for a response, or an interaction, or a perception from another person. It can even be "easy" because it didn't take effort at the moment of creation, but that ease was the product of a lifetime of preparation on the part of the creator, whose entire essence and collected world view somehow got translated into the work. Or the effort of creation itself can be "the work" part.
An artist simply trains himself in these various communications and then tries to use them to his purpopses.
I recall a class in "Western Values" or some such, a freshman-level college thing where we all got our first chance to talk about deep philosophical ideas. We did some Sophocles, some Anouilh, a little Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ya know, old chestnuts.
One question arose. Does an artist have to create something that's beautiful? Plenty of students in our seminar, wise to their newfound politicizations, suggested no, he doesn't. He could create an ugly hideous thing, but the response in the viewer might be the intent of the art. Picasso's "Guernica" for example -- a scene of destruction, with the composition itself destroyed. "Mr. Picasso," asked the disgruntled General, who had wanted the glories of his regime idolized instead of battered, "did you paint that picture?" "No, Mr. General. You did," so responded Pablo.
But I insisted that artists must work toward beauty. Or use some other word -- toward wholeness, or toward sanity, or toward just plain old organic compositional togetherness. I think Picasso would be the first to say that the overwhelming response to "Guernica" was in itself a "beauty" of a sort.
Most of my classmates just thought I was a philistine, wishing for pretty pastel reproductions of impressionist water lilies. After all, who insists on something as bourgeois as "beauty" when so much more deep, philosophical, political concepts are available to the artist -- the struggling worker, the horrors of war, the destruction of the environment, plays about dysfunctional families. These are ART because they're DEEP, so thought the class. This fellow seeking beauty? He doesn't GET that art can be UNSETTLING. And it OUGHT to be. So they thought. It ought to "challenge assumptions."
No. I think "Animal Farm" is quite beautiful. Who doesn't see the beauty in "some are just more equal than others"? What a turn on a turn. Orwell would agree. "Guernica" has an incredible organic wholeness to its composition, line and form in place, colors in unity. Even "Morder Hoffnung des Frauens," a weird experimental theater piece from the Jugendstil period in Vienna about ... ya know ... nothing much, except Angst -- even that has a beauty to it. They missed my intent. Most of them are just lawyers and business executives now. I guess their fervent politicization didn't help them challenge their assumptions much at all.
The Thompson Anti-Bandit Gun
[Thanks to Pascal]
Too funny. I'm speechless.
One thing I find highly interesting: almost all the crime that police will use violence to "stop", including killing the perpetrators, is financial crime. In other words, they, and by extension all of us, are perfectly willing, nay eager, to kill somebody over money. Including a few innocent bystanders if necessary. Nobody ever considers just letting them go and then try to find the money later. Money must be really valuable.
And of course, like Pascal points out: "I seem to remember gangsters were quite prompt in providing this item for themselves."
Indeed. "Provided only to one side of the law", my ass. Any violence is and will be an excalation of violence, by definition. The first one to stop escalating, wins.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Lens cap
Here is another reason to use an SLR. When the lens cap is on, you can't see anything in the viewfinder.
Poor Posh. I like her. I've only seen her in the interview with Ali-G, and she was very fetching and she held her own against him, which can't be said for many of his victims.
Leica Summarit-M lenses
Leica Summarit-M lenses. It's a new series of lenses from Leica, with limited biggest-aperture (meaning less low-light capabilities), but not so eye-wateringly expensive. Good decision by Leica. I can afford good stuff these days, but I'm frigged if I'll pay $1500 for a 50mm 2.0 lens. (Not that I'm about to buy a Leica, but just in principle.)
... And the present CEO of Leica is Asian! I bet the Germans did not see this coming thirty years ago.
Real photographers don't...
Real photographers don't...
And real painters don't buy pre-mixed paint or pre-stretched canvases... *
And real men don't drive auto-gear cars... (or use automatic weapons, I guess.)
Coincidentally (or not), yesterday I got this mail from my friend Dave:
... But about "art." I'd like to share an aphorism that I heard many years ago:
The most important part of a real work of art is real work.
I suggest that to use a computer tool and randomly run fractals or generates patterns is not really art. Yes the patterns are pretty, but there is no real work involved in making them.
Clouds are pretty, but there is no real work in making them. Taking a picture of a cloud is much closer to art, if there was real thought put into it, with framing, contrast, whatever (I'm obviously not a photographer).
When you (and I mean you, Eolake himself) paint a picture, regardless of the quality of the output, there is real work involved. Some appeal to you, some to others, and some just don't. But there is real work.
I have a Dale Chihuly painting on my wall, 3'x4'. (In a weak moment, I gave in to a Public Broadcasting System pledge drive and bought it because it had my wife's birthday as its 1-of-200 serial numbers). It has some nice colors in it, but frankly, there was not much real work put into it. His technique is to grab ketchup (catsup, if that is the right spelling over there) bottles filled with paint and squirt them onto paper lying on the ground. He squirts until he is done. Hardly 4 minutes of work. Contrast that with any of the glass art his studio (which is about 10 miles away from my home) makes, and anyone can see the difference.
How do you personally define art? I really am curious.
---
Well, I am not sure I agree. While I appreciate the good feeling one gets from seeing something that a lot of work has been poured into, I am not sure it's connected with whether it is "art" or not. Building a house is a lot of work, but that does not make the house art. On the other hand, a very perceptive and trained photographer can make a world class photograph in a split second... Of course he probably used years to get to that level, but still, the actual photograph was over near-instantly.
---
* PS: haha, the thing about pre-stretched canvasses was just a guess on my part based on human nature. But lo this comment from Mike's site:
"I have an art degree from Indiana University and the painters I met there, both professors and students, were very passionate about materials and tools. Many of them wouldn't use anything but linen canvas, which they insisted that they had to stretch themselves instead of buying the pre-made canvases."
And real painters don't buy pre-mixed paint or pre-stretched canvases... *
And real men don't drive auto-gear cars... (or use automatic weapons, I guess.)
Coincidentally (or not), yesterday I got this mail from my friend Dave:
... But about "art." I'd like to share an aphorism that I heard many years ago:
The most important part of a real work of art is real work.
I suggest that to use a computer tool and randomly run fractals or generates patterns is not really art. Yes the patterns are pretty, but there is no real work involved in making them.
Clouds are pretty, but there is no real work in making them. Taking a picture of a cloud is much closer to art, if there was real thought put into it, with framing, contrast, whatever (I'm obviously not a photographer).
When you (and I mean you, Eolake himself) paint a picture, regardless of the quality of the output, there is real work involved. Some appeal to you, some to others, and some just don't. But there is real work.
I have a Dale Chihuly painting on my wall, 3'x4'. (In a weak moment, I gave in to a Public Broadcasting System pledge drive and bought it because it had my wife's birthday as its 1-of-200 serial numbers). It has some nice colors in it, but frankly, there was not much real work put into it. His technique is to grab ketchup (catsup, if that is the right spelling over there) bottles filled with paint and squirt them onto paper lying on the ground. He squirts until he is done. Hardly 4 minutes of work. Contrast that with any of the glass art his studio (which is about 10 miles away from my home) makes, and anyone can see the difference.
How do you personally define art? I really am curious.
---
Well, I am not sure I agree. While I appreciate the good feeling one gets from seeing something that a lot of work has been poured into, I am not sure it's connected with whether it is "art" or not. Building a house is a lot of work, but that does not make the house art. On the other hand, a very perceptive and trained photographer can make a world class photograph in a split second... Of course he probably used years to get to that level, but still, the actual photograph was over near-instantly.
---
* PS: haha, the thing about pre-stretched canvasses was just a guess on my part based on human nature. But lo this comment from Mike's site:
"I have an art degree from Indiana University and the painters I met there, both professors and students, were very passionate about materials and tools. Many of them wouldn't use anything but linen canvas, which they insisted that they had to stretch themselves instead of buying the pre-made canvases."
Weekend
I'm gonna take a long weekend. A pleasant, relaxed one.
(Yes, all my weekends are pleasant and relaxed. So?)
I'm pretty much done with the work, sales are good due to a price reduction, I just had a groceries delivery, including some prawn cocktails, and I have a bunch of good DVDs, including the rest of Dead Like Me season two. So, feet up.
(This is not meant to indicate any influence on the quantity or quality of the posts here, I never know about that.)
Final Identity said...
"I can't imagine eating one of those --in fact, anything from the sea -- frozen and then delivered in a little bag. For goodness sakes, you live on an island smack between the Atlantic and the North Sea!"
Pascal:
Actually, Final, sea products today are deep-frozen almost the moment they are taken out of the sea. So it is a great way to keep them as fresh as can be, and with no added chemical preservers. A frozen product has more freshness than something that you buy immediately but keep in your refrigerator for even one day.
Similarly, I saw a news report on canned vegetables in France. They are steam-cooked in a very short time, briefly after being picked, and canned immediately. So they retain more vitamins than a fresh produce that you wouldn't eat right away.
Basically, if you're not the fisherman or the gardener, bringing the food straight to the kitchen for cooking, some aspects of modern life ARE very positive, and have made much impact on our health and life expectancy.
(Yes, all my weekends are pleasant and relaxed. So?)
I'm pretty much done with the work, sales are good due to a price reduction, I just had a groceries delivery, including some prawn cocktails, and I have a bunch of good DVDs, including the rest of Dead Like Me season two. So, feet up.
(This is not meant to indicate any influence on the quantity or quality of the posts here, I never know about that.)
Final Identity said...
"I can't imagine eating one of those --in fact, anything from the sea -- frozen and then delivered in a little bag. For goodness sakes, you live on an island smack between the Atlantic and the North Sea!"
Pascal:
Actually, Final, sea products today are deep-frozen almost the moment they are taken out of the sea. So it is a great way to keep them as fresh as can be, and with no added chemical preservers. A frozen product has more freshness than something that you buy immediately but keep in your refrigerator for even one day.
Similarly, I saw a news report on canned vegetables in France. They are steam-cooked in a very short time, briefly after being picked, and canned immediately. So they retain more vitamins than a fresh produce that you wouldn't eat right away.
Basically, if you're not the fisherman or the gardener, bringing the food straight to the kitchen for cooking, some aspects of modern life ARE very positive, and have made much impact on our health and life expectancy.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
K.I.S.S.
How come no technology company can manage product naming which is easily understandable? Lookkit:
Leica camera M series naming:
M3 (1954 - 1966)
MP (1956 - 1957)
M2 (1958 - 1967)
M1 (1959 - 1964)
M4 (1967 - 1975)
M5 (1971 - 1975)
CL (1973 - 1976)
M4-2 (1977 - 1980)
M4-P (1980 - 1986)
M6 (1984 - 1998)
M6J (1994)
M6 TTL (1998 - 2002)
M7 (2002 - )
M8 (2006 - )
The M2 came after the M3, then the M1, and then the M4...
And how about Apple's software? Quick, what's the sequence between OS's named Panther, Tiger, Leopard, and Jaguar? Dear Apple, wasn't one or two big cats enough?
But then that's the whole world. My local pizzaria has a zillion different prices for their pizzas. And if you want an extra topping, the price for that is different according to the size of the pizza. :)
Message to the world: Simplicity, folks. It's a good thing. Try it.
Leica camera M series naming:
M3 (1954 - 1966)
MP (1956 - 1957)
M2 (1958 - 1967)
M1 (1959 - 1964)
M4 (1967 - 1975)
M5 (1971 - 1975)
CL (1973 - 1976)
M4-2 (1977 - 1980)
M4-P (1980 - 1986)
M6 (1984 - 1998)
M6J (1994)
M6 TTL (1998 - 2002)
M7 (2002 - )
M8 (2006 - )
The M2 came after the M3, then the M1, and then the M4...
And how about Apple's software? Quick, what's the sequence between OS's named Panther, Tiger, Leopard, and Jaguar? Dear Apple, wasn't one or two big cats enough?
But then that's the whole world. My local pizzaria has a zillion different prices for their pizzas. And if you want an extra topping, the price for that is different according to the size of the pizza. :)
Message to the world: Simplicity, folks. It's a good thing. Try it.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Nippon geeks
You gotta love the Nipponese. When they do something, they go all out, including their geeks. I was looking for a reference about whether "The Churchyard" mentioned in Dead Like Me was an actual sixties band, because they showed an old LP cover which was just so convincing. So I googled some dialogue and found this page. Not only has somebody typed in all of the dialogue, but they have entered the exact miliseconds each line of dialogue is placed at! Oh, and a Japanese translation of each line. And the whole site is about Dead Like Me. Totally amazing.
Yellow Car
I am so bored with blue and grey cars that I was delighted to see this wonderful golden one.
(I also like the greenish car in the background, though I suspect the owner is not as enthusiastic about it.)
This is Jade cleaning my TV. I just found it funny, the ridiculous discrepancy in size.
(I also like the greenish car in the background, though I suspect the owner is not as enthusiastic about it.)This is Jade cleaning my TV. I just found it funny, the ridiculous discrepancy in size.
Should you buy a DSLR or a Compact?
"Should you buy a DSLR or a Compact?", a guide at CameraLabs.com.
Russian Leica
I just bought this hand-customized Russian Leica copy on eBay. (For 30 Euros!)
Isn't it way cool?
Isn't it way cool?
Tension
I am realizing more and more than my arch-nemisis may be tension.
I have a strong tendency to get over-excited about all kinds of things, good and bad, particularly good. And if I forget to relax, in the end my stomach hurts, my back hurts, or my head hurts. And my sleep suffers.
Any good tips for releasing tension?
I have a strong tendency to get over-excited about all kinds of things, good and bad, particularly good. And if I forget to relax, in the end my stomach hurts, my back hurts, or my head hurts. And my sleep suffers.
Any good tips for releasing tension?
It would never work...
"You cannot go out with this Brennan guy, it would never work: you're a taurus, he's a gemini. He's lutheran, you're dead."
- Dead Like Me
That show is really great. Some of the perifiral characters are more real and nuanced than the main characters of most shows.
For example Gorgia's mother, Joy Lass ("joyless"): on the surface she's a bee-ai-tee-see-eitch, but she is much more than that. She is a loving person, but she has profound anger issues, and she is written and played wonderfully well.
And then there's everybody's favorite: Dolores (Georgia's senior in the office). On the surface she seems like an awful phony, always putting a big pretty bow on everything. Again, much more complex. Sure, she pretends, but mostly to herself, and only because she wants so badly that things are nice, not because she wants to fool anybody. And her life and her past is much different than one might imagine. And she is so wonderfully played too.
- Dead Like Me
That show is really great. Some of the perifiral characters are more real and nuanced than the main characters of most shows.
For example Gorgia's mother, Joy Lass ("joyless"): on the surface she's a bee-ai-tee-see-eitch, but she is much more than that. She is a loving person, but she has profound anger issues, and she is written and played wonderfully well.
And then there's everybody's favorite: Dolores (Georgia's senior in the office). On the surface she seems like an awful phony, always putting a big pretty bow on everything. Again, much more complex. Sure, she pretends, but mostly to herself, and only because she wants so badly that things are nice, not because she wants to fool anybody. And her life and her past is much different than one might imagine. And she is so wonderfully played too.
Rollei 35
Shame on me: Stephen Gillette made me want to have a Rollei 35, so I bought one on eBay. Lucky for me I don't care about how it works, and the meter does not work, so I got it much cheaper than it normally is.
In case you've never seen one, it's tiny, like a pack of cigarettes. But full 35mm quality, and great lens.
Isn't it beautiful?
I wonder if it is also beautiful to people who are not camera geeks?
In case you've never seen one, it's tiny, like a pack of cigarettes. But full 35mm quality, and great lens.
Isn't it beautiful?
I wonder if it is also beautiful to people who are not camera geeks?
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