Art in a church

Was Michelangelo just a big ole pervert? Current debate about art in a church.

MS iPod package

"What if MS had designed the iPod package", a really well done spoof video.

Sony Ebook Reader

TidBITS reviews the new Sony Ebook Reader.

Sadly I am not surprised that Sony has, like everybody else, decided to price online downloadable e-books way too high. They are barely cheaper than paperbooks.
In Steven Levy's book about the iPod, he tells of an experiment done with pricing of online music. It turned out that when a song was set to cost 50 cents instead of a dollar, users bought six times as much! Did the big corporations learn anything from that? What do you think?

I hope Apple is working on an e-book reader device. I would like that so much more than the dang Apple mobile phone people have been babbling about for years.

SearchMash, a new search engine

I thought Google was the Ne Plus Ultra in search engines, but this new one actually has some interesting features. I'll be using it for a while, see how it goes.

Victim culture

There's many ways to victimize people. The most insidious is to convince them that they're victims.
-- Tom Robbins

The more you look, the more ways you find this is being done.
"Have you had an accident in the past two years, Sir? Please look at this brochure."
"Poor you, he is treating you evil."

If the media used as much ink educating the public as they use to pamper to their victim-culture, much would be different.

New blogger version?

Does anybody have experience with the new version of Blogger? The features do not sound compelling to me, but if it is faster and more reliable... ?

Fisheye

Like I mentioned, one of the first lenses I wanted in my yoof when I just started photographing was a super-wide, or a fisheye. But I couldn't afford one. Later when I could, I eschewed strong effects. But heck, what's wrong with just-for-fun? So when I read a review of fisheye lenses, and the very compact Nikkor 10.5mm one got great grades, I got one.

By the way, I am hoist by my own petard. I bought this lens mainly for use with the Nikon D40, not giving a second's thought to the fact (which I even mentioned below) that the camera does not have autofocus with all lenses, not even most. Only AF-S or AF-I lenses. And this one is neither, it turns out. It does not have a motor for AF, and neither does the camera... So manual focus it is, when using that combo. Fortunately for my sense of humor, focus is hardly an issue at all with such a short focal length. At F8 the depth-of-field goes from .5 meters to infinity! So I found it pretty funny when I finally realized why it was that the dang camera did not focus for me. :)

More Pogue

Another funny video from David Pogue, "proving" how Windows Vista is NOT just a copy of Mac OS X.

More fun is how many people take it literally.

"Scary Mary"

I always thought that there was nothing fun or lovable about Mary Poppins. So I like this video remix-trailer.

Pentax K10D

I've praised Nikon's current DSLR cameras a lot, and with good reason. But they all still lack an essential feature which is gaining popularity: built-in anti-camera-shake capability, meaning you don't have to buy special lenses to have the camera help you in the fight against shaken pictures.
But Pentax is finally coming in very strong in the digital market with the new Pentax K10D, and that one has it. My first serious camera was an ME-Super, which I still love, so I hope Pentax will do really well with this camera.
(Oh, and like the ME-Super, it is just gorgeous, I like the look of it better than Nikon's and Canon's models.)

Ashley Olsen

Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, famous since they were babies on Full House, are reportedly worth something like $200,000,000. Each. This, amongst other things, is from films from their own production company.
Does this make them worthwhile artists? I guess not. But on the other hand, does their main-stream appeal make them scorn-worthy? I don't think so either. Who are we to judge what "worth" is? If a Mary-Kate/Ashley film has changed the life of a teenage girl, who are we to call it "fluff"? How many people have you changed the life of?
Everything does not have to be Schindlers List. There is such a thing as just feeling good for an hour or two.

Opinions are like @$$holes

Any clod can have the facts, but having opinions is an art.
-- Charles McCabe, San Francisco Chronicle

I suspect this was meant to be humorous somehow. What I know is that it's about as wrong as can be. Go into any pub, and any clod you ask there will have the most amazing opinions on everything, but very little facts indeed.

In fact the interesting thing is that the really uninformed people often have no clue whatsoever what you are talking about, but they will have formed an instant opinion based on something they were reminded of when you spoke! (About which they also know next to nothing.)