Monday, January 11, 2010
Kindle video
Is it me, or does the promotional video for the KindleDX look and feel exactly like the videos Apple was doing a few years ago? (It's a bit down the page, the "See What Customers Have to Say" one.)
Mädchen, Mädchen Orgasm Scenes
Pascal was doing a little research into why my "Domai Faces" video has been put into the adult section of YouTube (I think because of the link/domain), and he found two cute videos (and a bit sexy) about girls and bicycles, this one and this one.
Translation issue
One of my friends is translating a personality test from Swedish to English.
(The original question is: "Klarar du av stillasittande arbete en hel dag utan att bli rastlös?")
Possible translations are:
"Can you manage a full day of work, sitting down, without getting
restless?"
Or:
"Can you manage a full day of sedentary (sitting) work without getting
restless?"
The question is if these are clear English. Any suggestions?
(The original question is: "Klarar du av stillasittande arbete en hel dag utan att bli rastlös?")
Possible translations are:
"Can you manage a full day of work, sitting down, without getting
restless?"
Or:
"Can you manage a full day of sedentary (sitting) work without getting
restless?"
The question is if these are clear English. Any suggestions?
Businessman arrested for ‘anti-gipsy’ email
Businessman is arrested in front of wife and son... for ‘anti-gipsy’ email that he didn’t even write, article.
"Council staff believed the email was offensive because ‘likey’ rhymes with the derogatory term ‘pikey’."
Are you fucking kidding!? Do we now have to consider the possible rhymes of every word we write?
And to my mind: even if the man had written the mail, and if he hated gypsies... so what? If he goes out and sticks their vans on fire, do arrest him, but if you had to arrest all the people in the UK who had ever uttered something vaguely racist, then I think there would be more people in the prisons than outside them!
"Council staff believed the email was offensive because ‘likey’ rhymes with the derogatory term ‘pikey’."
Are you fucking kidding!? Do we now have to consider the possible rhymes of every word we write?
And to my mind: even if the man had written the mail, and if he hated gypsies... so what? If he goes out and sticks their vans on fire, do arrest him, but if you had to arrest all the people in the UK who had ever uttered something vaguely racist, then I think there would be more people in the prisons than outside them!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Scott Church
Thanks to Sean for pointing out that apparently Vimeo allows some nudity.
For example this one by Scott Church. (Also noteworthy in that I at least would have thought, based on the video, that the shoot was failed or far from done, but he got a very nice image from it.)
For example this one by Scott Church. (Also noteworthy in that I at least would have thought, based on the video, that the shoot was failed or far from done, but he got a very nice image from it.)
Low light and modern cameras
Here's a quote from the discussion under the Red Truck night picture post.
----
eolake said...
... I looked up the file, that pic was taken at F:3.5 and 1/25th second. (1600 ISO, 35mm lens.)
I'm still mad at Canon and Nikon for not building in stabilization in the camera bodies, many of the best lenses don't have it, and if I'd had it, I could have gained a stop or two for this shoot, would have been nice to have been able to shoot at 1/10th second and F:4.5.
Anna said...
1600, and 3,5 !
I thought 1600 would be much more noisy, and 3,5 much more blurred...
Maybe I have to revise part of my knowledge... :-)
Eolake said...
The Canon 5D2 is one of the best in high-ISO quality, partly because it's full-frame, and big/expensive. But like I said, the newest smaller DSLRs are pretty dang close now.
With a wideangle lens, the depth-of-field is much greater.
For somebody with more patience than me, it might be simpler simply using a tripod.
----
So I just wanted to test what I was claiming, and shot this picture on automatic, hand-held at night (not even leaning on the window sill), with the Pentax K-x with kit lens. By amazing coincidence, it fell exactly on 1600 ISO and F:3.5! And it was at 18mm zoom setting (equivalent of 28mm wideangle), and 1/25th second.
And you can see that this is also very good quality, even though it's an affordable camera and not full-frame like my 5D2. (And I have not even done any noise reduction.)
Here it is with (Nik software) noise reduction (software, often a Photoshop plug-in, which reduces noise in photos, though often at the cost of detail):
I think you'll agree that's dang good low-light quality, and it's hand-held and with an entry-level DSLR with kit lens, around $600 or so.
(If you're interested, the original file is here.)
(Note: with such slow shutter-times hand-held, you should take a few exposures of each picture, to get one sharp one. Also, while the Pentax has built-in anti-shake, it's not the most powerful in the biz, sadly.)
-------------
... But a weird and slightly unfortunate characteristic about the Pentax is that, just like my old Pentax ME-Super, it tends to underexpose. Strange. I wonder if it's a philosophy of some kind that Pentax has.
Gawd, the number of under-exposed negatives I got back in the day before I found out that a camera's ASA (ISO) setting is not set in stone...
----
eolake said...
... I looked up the file, that pic was taken at F:3.5 and 1/25th second. (1600 ISO, 35mm lens.)
I'm still mad at Canon and Nikon for not building in stabilization in the camera bodies, many of the best lenses don't have it, and if I'd had it, I could have gained a stop or two for this shoot, would have been nice to have been able to shoot at 1/10th second and F:4.5.
Anna said...
1600, and 3,5 !
I thought 1600 would be much more noisy, and 3,5 much more blurred...
Maybe I have to revise part of my knowledge... :-)
Eolake said...
The Canon 5D2 is one of the best in high-ISO quality, partly because it's full-frame, and big/expensive. But like I said, the newest smaller DSLRs are pretty dang close now.
With a wideangle lens, the depth-of-field is much greater.
For somebody with more patience than me, it might be simpler simply using a tripod.
----
So I just wanted to test what I was claiming, and shot this picture on automatic, hand-held at night (not even leaning on the window sill), with the Pentax K-x with kit lens. By amazing coincidence, it fell exactly on 1600 ISO and F:3.5! And it was at 18mm zoom setting (equivalent of 28mm wideangle), and 1/25th second.
And you can see that this is also very good quality, even though it's an affordable camera and not full-frame like my 5D2. (And I have not even done any noise reduction.)
Here it is with (Nik software) noise reduction (software, often a Photoshop plug-in, which reduces noise in photos, though often at the cost of detail):
I think you'll agree that's dang good low-light quality, and it's hand-held and with an entry-level DSLR with kit lens, around $600 or so.(If you're interested, the original file is here.)
(Note: with such slow shutter-times hand-held, you should take a few exposures of each picture, to get one sharp one. Also, while the Pentax has built-in anti-shake, it's not the most powerful in the biz, sadly.)
-------------
... But a weird and slightly unfortunate characteristic about the Pentax is that, just like my old Pentax ME-Super, it tends to underexpose. Strange. I wonder if it's a philosophy of some kind that Pentax has.
Gawd, the number of under-exposed negatives I got back in the day before I found out that a camera's ASA (ISO) setting is not set in stone...
Good discussion
Mike at tOP took up the subject of good/bad jobs that I blogged recently, and it has generated many interesting comments.
dark pictures... (and bright ones)
I went against my education here, and just killed all the detail in the shadows in Photoshop. It's not "right" technically, but it made the pictures more interesting, to me.
I quite like these now, actually. As straight photos, they were quite boring. Perhaps I have something to learn about going past Correct Technique.
And here are some you might call the "opposite":
These look interesting on a white background, so most of the edge disappears.
(Canon 5D2, 24mm F:1.4, set at 8.0 and ISO 640. Though these pretty much could be taken with any camera. At least until/if they are printed big.)
I've taken many photos of the snow in the past couple weeks, find them on my blog.
I quite like these now, actually. As straight photos, they were quite boring. Perhaps I have something to learn about going past Correct Technique.
And here are some you might call the "opposite":
These look interesting on a white background, so most of the edge disappears.
(Canon 5D2, 24mm F:1.4, set at 8.0 and ISO 640. Though these pretty much could be taken with any camera. At least until/if they are printed big.)
I've taken many photos of the snow in the past couple weeks, find them on my blog.
Debate in France
Pascal informed:
France is having a national debate on whether to outlaw concealing one's face in public.
Interesting. I'll bet the only thing making it a debate is religious reasons.
While I may feel uncomfortable if somebody were to hide their face in public (I don't think I've met anybody, not since us kids in the hardest winters of my childhood), I don't believe it's right to outlaw it. Why not also outlawing curtains? After all, it would be much harder to manufacture bombs if everybody can look into your home 24/7, you can't argue against that.
France is having a national debate on whether to outlaw concealing one's face in public.
Interesting. I'll bet the only thing making it a debate is religious reasons.
While I may feel uncomfortable if somebody were to hide their face in public (I don't think I've met anybody, not since us kids in the hardest winters of my childhood), I don't believe it's right to outlaw it. Why not also outlawing curtains? After all, it would be much harder to manufacture bombs if everybody can look into your home 24/7, you can't argue against that.
Update: so far as I know, the reason for the suggested law is violent demonstrators who wear ski masks so the police can't identify them. If there was such a law, they can arrest them merely for wearing the masks.
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