A successful individual typically sets his next goal somewhat but not too much above his last achievement. In this way he steadily raises his level of aspiration.
-- Kurt Lewin
Interesting statement. I've noticed that ambitious individuals, including sometimes myself, often judges themselves against the most successful person in their field. And of course this just leads to continuous frustration, instead of satisfaction with your last success.
So instead of "the last play I was in did better than ever, it's wonderful", you have "I'm not bigger than Tom Cruise yet, it's horrible."
Even on a smaller level: back in school, in the subjects where we walked through a series of exercises individually (wood shop and typing), when I fell behind a couple of the fastest in the class, I lost the spirit and started coming late to class! That's just dumb. Maybe you should only compete with your past self.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
A Unique Monochrome Medium Format Back
A Unique Monochrome Medium Format Back, article.
A monochrome (Black/White) digital camera would have greater resolution and greater sensitivity than the normal color ones. A lot more of both. Because you don't have the color filters to steal light. But unfortunately at the moment there is only one such camera, and it's unreasonably expensive (price like a good car). We can hope a more customer-friendly camera will be made some day soon.
Oh, and isn't just typical of this universe that making a good camera without the added complexities of the color matrix filters was harder than making a color camera, not easier? Ridiculous, but typical.
A monochrome (Black/White) digital camera would have greater resolution and greater sensitivity than the normal color ones. A lot more of both. Because you don't have the color filters to steal light. But unfortunately at the moment there is only one such camera, and it's unreasonably expensive (price like a good car). We can hope a more customer-friendly camera will be made some day soon.
Oh, and isn't just typical of this universe that making a good camera without the added complexities of the color matrix filters was harder than making a color camera, not easier? Ridiculous, but typical.
Serious Use of Compact Camera Images in Graphic Design
Serious Use of Compact Camera Images in Graphic Design, article.
"As someone also doing serious and fine art photography with compacts for the past couple of years, this is where I fall into a dilemma. While on one hand I strive to capture technically sound images and am always on the lookout for the next compact that would raise the bar on my images, on the other hand as a designer I make do with images that I would reject outright for technical flaws if taken by me. Images used in important publications, which may be read and used by top national and international organizations, governmental agencies, funding agencies, think tanks and the like, taken with automatic point-and-shoot cameras I would not even look at! Thus I wonder if it is the image (the subject, the moment, the interrelationship of elements, the light, etc.) and the purpose for which it was taken that really matters and that the rest is essentially 'technical' and 'secondary', the bit photographers tend to worry too much about these days!"
If you have followed my blog for a while, you'll know that I struggle with similar issues. On the one hand, I know that technical perfection has very little to do with the artistic impact of a photograph, and in fact many of the most famous pictures in the world are very imperfect technicality. On the other hand, I'm enamored with the tech side of things, and it's hard to separate this from the creativity.
"As someone also doing serious and fine art photography with compacts for the past couple of years, this is where I fall into a dilemma. While on one hand I strive to capture technically sound images and am always on the lookout for the next compact that would raise the bar on my images, on the other hand as a designer I make do with images that I would reject outright for technical flaws if taken by me. Images used in important publications, which may be read and used by top national and international organizations, governmental agencies, funding agencies, think tanks and the like, taken with automatic point-and-shoot cameras I would not even look at! Thus I wonder if it is the image (the subject, the moment, the interrelationship of elements, the light, etc.) and the purpose for which it was taken that really matters and that the rest is essentially 'technical' and 'secondary', the bit photographers tend to worry too much about these days!"
If you have followed my blog for a while, you'll know that I struggle with similar issues. On the one hand, I know that technical perfection has very little to do with the artistic impact of a photograph, and in fact many of the most famous pictures in the world are very imperfect technicality. On the other hand, I'm enamored with the tech side of things, and it's hard to separate this from the creativity.
Sound insulation boxes
You may remember my question about sound-insulating the vents from my air conditioning. In the end I went with pretty much what I'd had in mind from the beginning, and got some boxes with sound insulating material inside, mounted. The workers were just here today.
I was worried that it would deface the building, but I think the boxes were so beautifully made by C.M Fair Joinery, that they actually enhance the building, or at least are much better looking than the cheap plastic grilles which were there before.
I think they won't bother anybody, I think the air flow will be sufficient, and I also think that they will do the trick. At least make a significant difference. I'm quite happy.
I was worried that it would deface the building, but I think the boxes were so beautifully made by C.M Fair Joinery, that they actually enhance the building, or at least are much better looking than the cheap plastic grilles which were there before.
I think they won't bother anybody, I think the air flow will be sufficient, and I also think that they will do the trick. At least make a significant difference. I'm quite happy.
Super-HD (updated twice)
My pal photographer/videographer Laurie Jeffery has told me over coffee from my cappuccino machine yesterday, that he has no need so far for a camera with more than 12 megapixels. I have said the same more than once, but I'm an amateur photographer.*
He does work with real high resolutions in videos though. See this amazing setup he did for Heathrow (London) airport. One video running on 24 monitors, each one HD!
I can't figure out how the heck he broke up the picture into many little ones, and exported each bit to run on a separate monitor... Maybe he can enlighten us briefly? (Or brief us enlighteningly.)
Update:
Talking about Laurie, he made a couple of nice artistic-nude experiments today.
* Update: I was asked why I said that I'm an amateur photographer. It's because it might be a plausible objection to my opinion on resolution: I don't have clients to answer to. But Laurie has, and none of them want more than 12MP can handle (with a good camera).
(I guess there are clients who do demand more, otherwise medium format digital cameras at $30,000 would not have a market, would they?)
He does work with real high resolutions in videos though. See this amazing setup he did for Heathrow (London) airport. One video running on 24 monitors, each one HD!
I can't figure out how the heck he broke up the picture into many little ones, and exported each bit to run on a separate monitor... Maybe he can enlighten us briefly? (Or brief us enlighteningly.)
Update:Talking about Laurie, he made a couple of nice artistic-nude experiments today.
* Update: I was asked why I said that I'm an amateur photographer. It's because it might be a plausible objection to my opinion on resolution: I don't have clients to answer to. But Laurie has, and none of them want more than 12MP can handle (with a good camera).
(I guess there are clients who do demand more, otherwise medium format digital cameras at $30,000 would not have a market, would they?)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Clever engineering
Tommy sent this example of top-notch home-engineering.
Looks safe to me!
Notice the front wheels hardly touching the road. Should make for light steering!
Looks safe to me!
Notice the front wheels hardly touching the road. Should make for light steering!
Hillbilly joaks
(Seems to be joke week.)
Two hillbillies walk into a restaurant. While having a bite to eat, they talk about their moonshine operation.
Suddenly, a woman at a nearby table, who is eating a sandwich, begins to cough. After a minute or so, it becomes apparent that she is in
real distress. One of the hillbillies looks at her and says,
'Kin ya swallar?'
The woman shakes her head no.
Then he asks, 'Kin ya breathe?'
The woman begins to turn blue and shakes her head no.
The hillbilly walks over to the woman, lifts up her dress, yanks down her drawers and quickly gives her right butt cheek a lick with his tongue.
The woman is so shocked that she has a violent spasm and the obstruction flies out of her mouth.
As she begins to breathe again, the Hillbilly walks slowly back to his table.
His partner says, 'Ya know, I'd heerd of that there 'Hind Lick Maneuver' but I ain't niver seed nobody do it!'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hillbilly Vasectomy
After their 11th child, a hillbilly couple decided that was enough, as they could not afford a larger bed.
So the husband went to his veterinarian and told him that he and his cousin didn't want to have any more children.
The doctor told him that there was a procedure called a vasectomy that could fix the problem but that it was expensive. 'A less costly alternative, ' said the doctor, 'is to go home, get a cherry bomb, (fireworks are legal in hillbilly country) light it, put it in a beer can, then hold the can up to your ear and count to 10.
'The hillbilly said to the doctor, 'I may not be the smartest tool in the shed, but I don't see how puttin' a cherry bomb in a beer can next to my ear is gonna help me..
''Trust me,' said the doctor.
So the man went home, lit a cherry bomb and put it in a beer can. He held the can up to his ear and began to count!
'1'
'2'
'3'
'4'
'5'
At which point, he paused, placed the beer can between his legs and continued counting on his other hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HUNTING
Two hunters were dragging their dead deer back to their car. Another hunter approached pulling his along too. 'Hey, I don't want to tell you how to do something, but I can tell you that it's much easier if you drag the deer in the other direction. Then the antlers won't dig into the ground.'
After the third hunter left, the two decided to try it.
A little while later one hunter said to the other, 'You know, that guy was right. This is a lot easier!'
The other added 'Yeah, but we're getting farther and farther away from the truck!'
Two hillbillies walk into a restaurant. While having a bite to eat, they talk about their moonshine operation.
Suddenly, a woman at a nearby table, who is eating a sandwich, begins to cough. After a minute or so, it becomes apparent that she is in
real distress. One of the hillbillies looks at her and says,
'Kin ya swallar?'
The woman shakes her head no.
Then he asks, 'Kin ya breathe?'
The woman begins to turn blue and shakes her head no.
The hillbilly walks over to the woman, lifts up her dress, yanks down her drawers and quickly gives her right butt cheek a lick with his tongue.
The woman is so shocked that she has a violent spasm and the obstruction flies out of her mouth.
As she begins to breathe again, the Hillbilly walks slowly back to his table.
His partner says, 'Ya know, I'd heerd of that there 'Hind Lick Maneuver' but I ain't niver seed nobody do it!'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hillbilly Vasectomy
After their 11th child, a hillbilly couple decided that was enough, as they could not afford a larger bed.
So the husband went to his veterinarian and told him that he and his cousin didn't want to have any more children.
The doctor told him that there was a procedure called a vasectomy that could fix the problem but that it was expensive. 'A less costly alternative, ' said the doctor, 'is to go home, get a cherry bomb, (fireworks are legal in hillbilly country) light it, put it in a beer can, then hold the can up to your ear and count to 10.
'The hillbilly said to the doctor, 'I may not be the smartest tool in the shed, but I don't see how puttin' a cherry bomb in a beer can next to my ear is gonna help me..
''Trust me,' said the doctor.
So the man went home, lit a cherry bomb and put it in a beer can. He held the can up to his ear and began to count!
'1'
'2'
'3'
'4'
'5'
At which point, he paused, placed the beer can between his legs and continued counting on his other hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HUNTING
Two hunters were dragging their dead deer back to their car. Another hunter approached pulling his along too. 'Hey, I don't want to tell you how to do something, but I can tell you that it's much easier if you drag the deer in the other direction. Then the antlers won't dig into the ground.'
After the third hunter left, the two decided to try it.
A little while later one hunter said to the other, 'You know, that guy was right. This is a lot easier!'
The other added 'Yeah, but we're getting farther and farther away from the truck!'
Update: Tommy shared:
How I learned to mind my own business...
I was walking past the mental hospital the other day, and all the patients were shouting, '13....13....13.'
The fence was too high to see over, but I saw a little gap in the planks, so I looked through to see what was going on.....
Some idiot poked me in the eye with a stick!
They all started shouting '14....14....14...'
-----------
Pascal added this one:
Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with those expensive double-pane energy efficient kind, but this week I got a call from the contractor, complaining his work had been completed a year ago and I had yet to pay for them.
Boy oh boy, did we go around and around! Just because I'm a blonde does not mean I'm automatically stupid. So, I proceeded to tell him just what his fast-talking sales guy had told me last year - namely, that in one year, the windows would pay for themselves.
There was silence on the other end of the line, so I just hung up. I have not heard anything back.
Guess I won that stupid argument!
Windows 7 Keeps the Good
Windows 7 Keeps the Good, Tries to Fix Flaws, review.
And Pogue has some interesting comments based on the Win7 review's reader feedback. It is interesting for example that virtually all reviewers really liked Vista when it came out, but now it is widely considered very poor, and a flop. (Myself, I've only used it for a couple hours on my mac, so I have no strong opinion. Seemed all right.)
"As recently as this summer, at least two-thirds of corporate computers were still running the positively ancient Windows XP."
Really? Wow. Even though, as David also points out, nothing threatens MS, they gotta hate a statistic like that! Compared to that, the propagation of OS X is a triumph. Of course you could say they had a much smaller userbase to convince.
And Pogue has some interesting comments based on the Win7 review's reader feedback. It is interesting for example that virtually all reviewers really liked Vista when it came out, but now it is widely considered very poor, and a flop. (Myself, I've only used it for a couple hours on my mac, so I have no strong opinion. Seemed all right.)
"As recently as this summer, at least two-thirds of corporate computers were still running the positively ancient Windows XP."
Really? Wow. Even though, as David also points out, nothing threatens MS, they gotta hate a statistic like that! Compared to that, the propagation of OS X is a triumph. Of course you could say they had a much smaller userbase to convince.
Man Busted for Being Naked at Home (updated)
[Thanks to Jeff.]
Man Busted for Being Naked at Home, article.They were on his property, and they are suing him for being naked?! ... just when you think the world can't get any weirder...
Update:
I'm reminded of a remarkable incident in my own life. About 12 years ago, when Domai was a very young site, I started writing a fictional story for the newsletter. The story described how I walked past a window where a nude lady came out, and neither of us were embarrassed.
I wrote half the story, and the next morning on the way to work (I still had my day job, that's how long ago this was), that exact thing happened to me! It was early and dark, and I walked past a house on the edge of the industrial district, and this gorgeous young woman came out of the shower and into her kitchen, which had a whole glass door, giving me full view of her wet, slim, beautiful figure.
No, I was not offended and did not call the police! I loved it!
And what an amazing "coincidence"!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Another GF1 review
DPReview reviews the Panasonic GF1. Now, they make verrrrrrrry long reviews with a billion details, so you can start with the conclusion, and then go to the first page if interested.
Like me, they like it and think it's one of the rare camera which makes photography fun again, as well as being capable of making very high quality pictures if used right.
"the GF1 is a camera that simply cries out to be used and, for this occasionally jaded user at least, puts the fun back into photography. [...] once you attach the wonderful 20mm F1.7 pancake it becomes something special; an unobtrusive creative tool that you can carry anywhere, and one that's capable of superb photographic results.
When I started using the GF1 I didn't think I'd use the 20mm F1.7 that much (too many years using zooms), but once attached I rarely took it off. The 40mm equivalent focal length is both restrictive and yet surprisingly liberating from a creative point of view, and took me back to my earliest days of photography using a Pentax Spotmatic with a single 50mm lens. And you can stick it on a wrist strap and basically carry it with you wherever you go."
-
Like me, they like it and think it's one of the rare camera which makes photography fun again, as well as being capable of making very high quality pictures if used right.
"the GF1 is a camera that simply cries out to be used and, for this occasionally jaded user at least, puts the fun back into photography. [...] once you attach the wonderful 20mm F1.7 pancake it becomes something special; an unobtrusive creative tool that you can carry anywhere, and one that's capable of superb photographic results.
When I started using the GF1 I didn't think I'd use the 20mm F1.7 that much (too many years using zooms), but once attached I rarely took it off. The 40mm equivalent focal length is both restrictive and yet surprisingly liberating from a creative point of view, and took me back to my earliest days of photography using a Pentax Spotmatic with a single 50mm lens. And you can stick it on a wrist strap and basically carry it with you wherever you go."
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