Never seen anything quite like these, wonder what his methods are. (Like Helicon software for deeper depth of field, perhaps? Especially the second one here would seem impossible without that.)
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Raindrops
These seem to be by Chandan V.
Never seen anything quite like these, wonder what his methods are. (Like Helicon software for deeper depth of field, perhaps? Especially the second one here would seem impossible without that.)
Never seen anything quite like these, wonder what his methods are. (Like Helicon software for deeper depth of field, perhaps? Especially the second one here would seem impossible without that.)
Friday, January 18, 2013
"This Service Could Dismantle Copyright Forever"
This Service Could Dismantle Copyright Forever, article.
So what's to stop Mega from going down just the way Megaupload did? Mega's privacy, which is a no-foolin' stroke of genius. See, all of your files are encrypted locally before they're uploaded, so Mega has no idea what anything is. It could be family photos or work documents, or an entire discography of your favorite band. Poof: online and easy to share. And importantly, Mega doesn't have the decryption key necessary to get in. See? It's a masterstroke of copyright subversion.
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So what's to stop Mega from going down just the way Megaupload did? Mega's privacy, which is a no-foolin' stroke of genius. See, all of your files are encrypted locally before they're uploaded, so Mega has no idea what anything is. It could be family photos or work documents, or an entire discography of your favorite band. Poof: online and easy to share. And importantly, Mega doesn't have the decryption key necessary to get in. See? It's a masterstroke of copyright subversion.
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Ivy?
Somebody told me that this plant is Poison Ivy. Do we have a botanist in the audience?
(I looked it up, but it didn't seem very distinctive to me.)
(I looked it up, but it didn't seem very distinctive to me.)
(Clickable)
(Model, Yulinn, Domai.)
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Scam site?
I saw a text ad on the WSJ site, a Canon 5D III for a suspiciously low price (over a grand under normal) on a site called digitaldepotonline.com. When I clicked on it, I ended up on Google's home page! Odd, never seen that before. (It might have been connected to it being a Google Adwords ad, but it happens also if you go directly.)
I'm guess it's a scam site which has been removed. But why google home page? Instead of a scam warning page, or the usual search error page (full of ads) you get when you try a non-existent site?
(This one is only $500 below normal, but that is still suspiciously low for one of the hottest cameras at the moment.)
I'm guess it's a scam site which has been removed. But why google home page? Instead of a scam warning page, or the usual search error page (full of ads) you get when you try a non-existent site?
(This one is only $500 below normal, but that is still suspiciously low for one of the hottest cameras at the moment.)
Ricky Gervais, a fan
[Thanks to Through The Lens]
On the picture above, Ricky Gervais looks kind and warm. This made me realize what it is about him which rubs me the wrong way, in his comedy: normally, he displays no kindness and warmth at all. One can tolerate rude and confrontational comedy better if one feels that the person respects and likes the target and people in general, but I don't get that feeling from him, normally.
I'm sure he *has* kindness and warmth, we are all children of Source. But it's hidden better in some.
At least he's a Bowie fan, so he can't be all bad.
I'm a bit envious that he met David Bowie, for Bowie is one of the very few people who I have dreamed of meeting, even literally, dreamed at night.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Infernal captchas
Google *really* must do something about those captchas (word codes to commenting). they are usually just unreadable. How can it escape them that everybody is complaining about them? (So we're caught between a wok and a fireplace, either accept spam comments, or keep out the good commenters with bad codes.)
Dave T urged me to try the audio option. And he is right, amazingly, the audio version is even worse. Sounds like a ghost in a bad horror movie, in a bad VHS copy of a copy.
Dave T urged me to try the audio option. And he is right, amazingly, the audio version is even worse. Sounds like a ghost in a bad horror movie, in a bad VHS copy of a copy.
We must be brilliant!
100 years ago, society talked in books, each taking several hours to read.
80 years ago, it became radio, each show up to an hour.
60 years ago, television, a show is half an hour.
10 years ago, blogs, reading a post is 5-10 minutes.
Now, Twitter, each post takes 30 seconds to read.
I guess we simply have become fantastically efficient at expressing deep thoughts more and more succinctly. For surely we can't have on our conscience that we converse more and more shallowly?
80 years ago, it became radio, each show up to an hour.
60 years ago, television, a show is half an hour.
10 years ago, blogs, reading a post is 5-10 minutes.
Now, Twitter, each post takes 30 seconds to read.
I guess we simply have become fantastically efficient at expressing deep thoughts more and more succinctly. For surely we can't have on our conscience that we converse more and more shallowly?
Aaron Swartz, Who Helped Free Information, Is Dead
Aaron Swartz, Who Helped Free Information, Is Dead, article.
This video tells a fascinating story.
"... the supreme court has a huge blind spot regarding copyright."
This video tells a fascinating story.
"... the supreme court has a huge blind spot regarding copyright."
Monday, January 14, 2013
Canceling my digital WSJ subscription
Email from Wall Street Journal:
Dow Jones is always concerned when a subscriber comes to this decision; however, for security reasons, your subscription cannot be canceled by email or online.
[...]
Steven
Customer Service
The Wall Street Journal. Digital Network
... Not all that digital, it seems. Tons of other companies have no trouble letting customers securely sign up and cancel, online. (Methinks it may be more to do with not making it too easy to cancel... ?)
By the way, I told my credit card company (Post Office in the UK, mc) to cancel payments to this rebilled subscription, last month. They said they would "tell the company to stop billing", but I'm still being billed. Whu? Can't the credit company stop payments if the merchant doesn't agree??
Dow Jones is always concerned when a subscriber comes to this decision; however, for security reasons, your subscription cannot be canceled by email or online.
[...]
Steven
Customer Service
The Wall Street Journal. Digital Network
... Not all that digital, it seems. Tons of other companies have no trouble letting customers securely sign up and cancel, online. (Methinks it may be more to do with not making it too easy to cancel... ?)
By the way, I told my credit card company (Post Office in the UK, mc) to cancel payments to this rebilled subscription, last month. They said they would "tell the company to stop billing", but I'm still being billed. Whu? Can't the credit company stop payments if the merchant doesn't agree??
Sunday, January 13, 2013
How To Properly Rock A Pocket Square
How To Properly Rock A Pocket Square
update:
It seems the content/link was to a malware site, art of manliness, so I've removed it. Thanks to Bruce.
update:
It seems the content/link was to a malware site, art of manliness, so I've removed it. Thanks to Bruce.
Canon N, a compact for the connected age
Can Canon save the point and shoot?, article.
We see innovative compact cameras from smaller companies such as Fujifilm, but not often from Canon, they are usually more evolutionary in character. But here's a fresh one, the Canon Powershot N. I rather like it, nice looks and it has a tilt-screen. It is a pure "smart phone era" camera, designed to work with your Android phone or iPhone (or tablets, though I think they should have cell connection).
(Compared to the camera already in phones, it has better low-light-capability, it has zoom (a long one), and 12 MP.) It should come in April at around $300.
It's funny to compare it to the Fuji X20, two brand new compact-ish cameras, but they couldn't be more different.
We see innovative compact cameras from smaller companies such as Fujifilm, but not often from Canon, they are usually more evolutionary in character. But here's a fresh one, the Canon Powershot N. I rather like it, nice looks and it has a tilt-screen. It is a pure "smart phone era" camera, designed to work with your Android phone or iPhone (or tablets, though I think they should have cell connection).
(Compared to the camera already in phones, it has better low-light-capability, it has zoom (a long one), and 12 MP.) It should come in April at around $300.
It's funny to compare it to the Fuji X20, two brand new compact-ish cameras, but they couldn't be more different.
Bowie back
I admit, I honestly thought he had retired, especially after I heard that he had a heart attack in 2004. But lo and behold, David Bowie is back.
I admit that the last couple of albums he made in the early noughties didn't do much for me. But the man stands and walks alone, and I can't just ignore a new release, you never know, just one new Bowie song that I really like is magic.
Update: below the first-released video from the album. I heartily apologize to those who like it, but to me, it has that same quality which I did not much care for in the post-millennium albums, a sort of sad, lamenting quality in the melody and voice. He's king, he can do whatevs the frick he wants, no doubt, but this style is just not my thing.
I admit that the last couple of albums he made in the early noughties didn't do much for me. But the man stands and walks alone, and I can't just ignore a new release, you never know, just one new Bowie song that I really like is magic.
Update: below the first-released video from the album. I heartily apologize to those who like it, but to me, it has that same quality which I did not much care for in the post-millennium albums, a sort of sad, lamenting quality in the melody and voice. He's king, he can do whatevs the frick he wants, no doubt, but this style is just not my thing.