iPhone Seven review by Pogue

This year it's hard for many to decide whether to upgrade their iPhone or not. But I think this review by David Pogue outlines it well. David has a way of cutting things down to brass tacks.

Living canvas

Here is a cool story of two artists who actually create photographs on plates of living grass.
(It's not painted on the grass or something, it's actually developed by projecting a negative onto young grass, so it grows richer and darker where it gets more light.)

Ben Franklin and the Internet

Ben Franklin and the Internet [Satire]
By Eolake Stobblehouse

Did you know that Facebook was invented on the same day as the Internet? ... Don't feel ashamed, very few people do, yet.

On the dusky June day in 1752 when Franklin flew his famous kite, when the lightning struck, a picture and a sentence formed in Franklin's mind; the image of a bearded man and the thought "Ach du lieber got".

Unbeknownst to him at the time, this was the thought and the face of German scientist Herman Liebstmirnicht, which was coincidentally conducting the kite experiment at the same time as Franklin, half way around the globe!

Remarkably, the Leyden Jar which stored the electricity from the lightning strike also stored for several hours Liebstmirnicht's thought and his picture, thus providing the very first electronic memory. Benjamin Franklin printed out the thought and image on rice paper from the "ur-RAM" of the jar, using a jury-rigged printer made from rubber stamps and a loom. And so this was the world's first "face-book" page!

Also not publicised widely is the fact that the Zuckerberg family, after a protracted legal battle, has a contract with the Franklin estate to pay 2.5% in royalties a year for the next five hundred years from Facebook  profits. Dr. Liebstmirnicht sadly did not survive his lightning strike and left no heirs, so Zuckerberg is still comfortable.

Thankfully, due to today's wire-traveling electricity and the safety of modern "eye-phone" PDAs, we can communicate with our global friends without being electrocuted.

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[Not a word of this is true, but who knows, it might have been.]

Simulated shallow depth-of-field

I've been saying that one of the next steps for phone cameras would be simulated shallow depth-of-field for blurry backgrounds. And here it is, a review of the Huawei-Leica phone. Good stuff.
[Update: there are even iPhone apps for this.]
The next important step would be an extra lens, for tele- and portrait-photography. (I think this will be easier than making a good zoom lens in the tiny space available.) My wish is for a 100mm-equivalent lens. This would be a good portrait lens, and give a bit of reach, unlike the 70mm which is so common on Normal zoom lenses, 70mm is just a longish normal, not a tele. (In my view it's the downfall of the last two generations of the otherwise great Sony RX100 camera, they shortened the zoom to 70mm.)

Great camera offer

The much-praised Olympus OM-10 is currently for sale at a great price, including kit zoom.

(Update: Ken spotted this seems to be the mark 1, not the more current mark 2. I'm not up on the differences, perhaps a mark 2 is worth the $200 premium. I think they are both very good value for money.)

"I’m so glad that I don’t have to choose between performance and portability anymore." (From the article above.)

From our ol' photographer friend EmptySpaces:
"I have had this camera (mark 1) for a year now and love it more all the time. I believe that, other than some reconfiguration of the dials/switches, the big upgrades to the mark ii version ares 5-axis stabilization (vs 3-axis on the original), the addition of a couple custom slots on the dial, and a big upgrade in EVF [electronic view-finder] resolution. Plus some smaller upgrades, too, I'm sure. Same sensor, same rear screen, same battery life, though. The 3-axis IBIS works awesome."

The purpose of literature

It is said that in the minds of academia, the purpose of literature, fiction, is to teach us more about ourselves.
I think that's like saying that fine arts painting has the purpose of teaching us about nature or architecture.

Fiction can certainly explain our minds about man. It just seems to me that many in academia thinks it can do so in an explainable way, as if all the lessons can be literal and logical and be disected, and have final, single explanations. I think that fiction and art expands our minds on a higher and more complex level.

CAD new generation

This shows highly interesting vistas for the future as to how AI can help us in very broad areas create the products we dream up, even highly complex ones.

Around the world on solar power!

It didn't happen fast or in one stop, but nevertheless a solar-powered manned airplane has made it all around the world!

SolarPuff

The SOLARPUFF is an amazing little device, a small, bright, foldable lamp driven purely by sunlight.
I own several of them myself, from their Kickstarter campaign, it works well.
It can do much good and fun for us, but the real boon is what it can do in the large parts of the world without an electric grid.

Fork, a new macro pic

(Click for big pic)

Update: 

Russ thought it might work as B/W too, so let's see: 

Also I wondered a bit late if a bit more contrast might be good:

Less subtle, but more punch.

  

"Sheep view 360"

If Google street view won't come to the Faroe Islands, then the Islands will come to Google, sheep and all!
(The girl behind it is beautiful too.)

Acid Horse - No name no slogan