Camera naming and insanity

A reader commented:
"I understand nuttin' to Canon's numbering -- seems to me like they've been introducing the same friggin' camera over and over." (Canon 1D, Canon 1Ds, Canon 1D mark II, Canon 1D mark III. All of them visually near identical too.)

No kidding. I guess it started when Nikon had the Nikon F in the fifties. Some genius at Canon decided to call their supercamera the "F1".
But then Nikon replaced it with the Nikon F2! Argh, what to do? If they called their next model the F2 also, they would look like a me-too. So probably the same genius called it the F1 mark II. And both companies, sticking to the guns they know, have been following the same pattern since, with the big models. They did the same with the big electronic cameras on the nineties which still used film. Those very rounded ones. Weren't they called D1 or 1D or something like that also? Maybe just "1" and "3".

Of course come digital, Nikon calls their cameras D.... , while Canon calls theirs ....D. It's insanity. And spare me the "EOS" and "Coolpix" and "Powershot" just before the name... Who the heck knows  or cares which Canon is a Powershot or not, or why?

 Camera companies and many others too would do well to hire somebody with a drop of sense and imagination to name their products. 40 years ago I read of a Canon experimental camera called the Canon Frog. See, *that* name I can remember, decades later.

Despite them being near triplets, the 7D is not full-frame, while the other two are. And quick, tell me: the successor to the 5D mark II, is that the 6D or the 5D mark III? (Both exist, but oddly the 5D mark III is much more advanced and expensive than mark II, while the 6D seems very much like a successor...)

This is what Mike Johnston calls the "bar of soap" school of design. You take a big wet bar of soap and press it until it's nice and rounded and fit in your hand. Ergonomically not a bad idea, but it gets really boring when all models look near-identical.

New Amazon wrinkle

Amazon has for a couple of years now had their own delivery network here in the UK. And it's buuuuuusy! I got a parcel once later than 10pm!
But they have problems with people taking/receiving parcels which they did not buy.
For a little while they asked the name of the recipient first. This should work. But maybe the typically young and inexperienced drivers forgot to ask before they handed over the parcel, where the receiver can read the name anyway.

Today I saw they have a new gadget. Like a fat smartphone. With touch screen which you sign on.

I asked if it was new, and he said it was. And over his shoulder on his way out, he also said: "It also takes your finger print."

Woa. I don't know how they will handle it in case of misdelivered packages. Will they really go out there again and ask for a person's fingerprints??
And can it really do something with a print of just the tip of a finger?

I do know there's a big chance of some people getting very upset indeed about this development.

Update:
David E says:
"I have signed for Amazon deliveries using these gadgets. I don't see how they could reliably take a fingerprint. I think it's a myth."

That does seem probable.

Dark Picasso

Here's a new photo I call "Picasso loves his iPad".

(Click to see texture.)

Neil Gaiman and FourPlay: Makin' Whoopee

Here's one of those things you never thought you'd see: Neil Gaiman, famed writer (Sandman, American Gods), on stage with a string quartet, singing, of all things: Makin' Whoopee. 

I found it while looking for a video of the string quartet, FourPlay, playing their wonderful rendition of one of my favorite Sinead O'connor songs, Just Like U said it Would B. 

Pen-F review

 Here is a review of the brand new Olympus Pen-F, from the 'Camera Store'. it's a video, and I like the camera stores reviews they are entertaining and still sober.

Fun photo collection

Fun photo collection, apparently not the result of Photoshop.

Your body language shape yourself

Don't miss this one, it splendid. Two minutes of body language "faking" can considerably increase your success rate.

Here's another cool one; how to spot lying.
Did you know that two strangers on average lie three times to each other in the first ten minutes?
(Notice the short video in the last third of a mother lying about who killed her children. That's a scary person, holy frig.)

Snow monsters!

 Snow monsters! This is one for the boys, I guess.

"Fragile"

I've always disliked when people misused important labels so much that the labels started to become meaningless and overlooked. One example is office workers labelling most of their memos "Urgent!" when they are really not so.
Another one is "fragile".

But this example is so extreme that I have to laugh. These are ball bearing balls which I bought for an art project. Now such balls are subject to immense pressure, so they have to be tough. In fact they are so strong and hard that they can handle tens of tons of pressure on one tiny point without cracking! There is nothing one can find in ordinary surroundings which can make a dent in these!
So to label a shipment of these "Fragile"...

Why hide beams?

One purpose of under-clothes nipple covers is to hide the fact that you have nipples, especially when they are on "full alert"...
One ad, in Oprah Magazine, says "avoid high beam situations", with no trace of irony.  :-)

That's one of those things I consider tragic. Nothing so sexy as "high beams", so why hide it? It *is* covered, so can hardly be called obscene.

David Bowie R.I.P. (Updated)

At 69, David Bowie succumbed to cancer, shortly after release of his latests, Dark Star.

I send blessings to him. For me, he was the Kilimanjaro of late-twentieth century seminal rock music (in the broadest sense). So original I can't even think of anybody who *really* tried to emulate him, while the number of musicians who state he was a major influence is legion.

OMG: Simpsons episode 11 was released on iTunes today, containing this line from Skinner: "She has a cat with two different colored eyes; his name is *Bowie*!"

Even my postman talked about Bowie today. That was one famous dude.

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Handheld video with 820mm telelens!

[Thanks to Bert]

Continuing with the super-stabilized new Olympus super-tele. Here is a video which is taken hand-held with it, *including* the 1.4x teleconverter. Astounding.

(Did you know seals have to crawl on land to sleep? Poor critters.)