Abba is my favorite band after Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Neo Punk Death Metal, and Kill The Baby. So I was looking for a couple of my old favorites from my early records from the seventies. But I found most of the early Abba is not available on iTunes. Except in hits collections. Fortunately there were a bounty of those:
ABBA: Greatest Hits
ABBA: the Definite Collection
ABBA: Gold
ABBA: Number Ones
ABBA: Thank you for the music (box set)
ABBA: Classic Abba
ABBA: 18 hits
I'm not kidding. D'ya think somebody is trying to milk it? :-)
... Anyway, I was sort of kidding about the "favorite band" part, they were slightly too poppy for me, though I liked when I was a kid and I still respect them. But you have to admit: after Lennon/McCartney, Andersson/Ulvaeus was one of the greatest hit-machine teams in pop/rock ever. My gawd, there's barely one song in their numerous albums which does not just slide right in under your skin and stick to your brain, it's amazing. Talk about making it look easy. Think about the number of hard working bands and composers all over the world who would kill to write just a single hit as big as any one of Abba's thirty most popular songs, but it can't seem to happen. Talent is a mystery.
It's funny, I find that the songs I still like the most were those I really love when I was probably not even a teen yet. Like Honey Honey, So Long, and Ring, Ring. I am guessing it is not so much that they are better, but just that my youthful joy is still triggered when they are played now, over thirty years later. It's interesting that you just can't shake that early evaluation of something, and most of the time the bias is not even visible to you.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Tony Blair investigated for war crimes
"We have killed at least 30,000 and possibly 300,000 children. [...] not one of these people have harmed or attacked Britain."
Video of press conference announcing a Scotland Yard investigation of Tony Blair breaking international war laws.
Personally I find it pretty interesting that you need to have a law telling people that invading other countries and killing innocent people is a bad idea.
Video of press conference announcing a Scotland Yard investigation of Tony Blair breaking international war laws.
Personally I find it pretty interesting that you need to have a law telling people that invading other countries and killing innocent people is a bad idea.
Quality digital cameras
The long-expected High-Quality-Compact-digicam Sigma DP1 is finally coming, in spring.
UPDATE: Thanks for Bert for pointing to these sample pictures. I have to admit, they do look really excellent.
It will be interesting to see how it fares. If it really makes significantly better pictures than pocket cameras, and if so, are the compromises worth it? For instance, it has a fixed-focal length lens, and a modest largest aperture of 4.0. Compare with a classic high-quality compact (film) camera, the Konica Hexar, which had the very strong feature of a lens as sharp as any Leica lens, and the high speed of 2.0. All that in a compact camera with autofocus and built-in winder, which cost less than the Leica lens cost alone.
Also, I am made less than optimistic by previous attempts in the genre, to wit the Leica M8 and the Ricoh GR Digital. The former costs $5,000, but in many respects compares poorly to entry level DSLR cameras costing $500. The latter I bought for twice what I paid for the Fujifilm F10, but it did not have a better image quality, and unlike the Fuji it does not even have a zoom lens. It's all quite weird.
UPDATE: Thanks for Bert for pointing to these sample pictures. I have to admit, they do look really excellent.
It will be interesting to see how it fares. If it really makes significantly better pictures than pocket cameras, and if so, are the compromises worth it? For instance, it has a fixed-focal length lens, and a modest largest aperture of 4.0. Compare with a classic high-quality compact (film) camera, the Konica Hexar, which had the very strong feature of a lens as sharp as any Leica lens, and the high speed of 2.0. All that in a compact camera with autofocus and built-in winder, which cost less than the Leica lens cost alone.
Also, I am made less than optimistic by previous attempts in the genre, to wit the Leica M8 and the Ricoh GR Digital. The former costs $5,000, but in many respects compares poorly to entry level DSLR cameras costing $500. The latter I bought for twice what I paid for the Fujifilm F10, but it did not have a better image quality, and unlike the Fuji it does not even have a zoom lens. It's all quite weird.
Sony buzzwords
Nicely tongue-in-cheek article covering a Sony camera press conference.
"09:30: There's a lady on stage now who appears to be talking about cameras but there are so many buzzwords ('leveraging user experience') that I'm not sure."
"09:30: There's a lady on stage now who appears to be talking about cameras but there are so many buzzwords ('leveraging user experience') that I'm not sure."
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Opportunities
I love when great opportunities just fall into my lap. See for instance the e-mail I just got:
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Dear Friend,
Greetings from taiwan, my name is chung mao bank manager of bank of overseas taiwan, i have a lucrative business proposal for you just get back to me for more details.
Regards,
Mr Chung Mao.
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Dear Friend,
Greetings from taiwan, my name is chung mao bank manager of bank of overseas taiwan, i have a lucrative business proposal for you just get back to me for more details.
Regards,
Mr Chung Mao.
Friday, February 01, 2008
Rebel Rebel
I think one of the best camera deals right now (though there are many) is getting the Canon 400D (which in the US is burdened by the moniker "Digital Rebel XTi"). Because it's being replaced by the 450D (or XSi), which is not a revelutionary upgrade, it can be found for £350 or $550.
And what you should do is not get it with the kit lens, even though it's cheap, for it's crap. Instead get the new kit lens: 18-55mm IS. IS stands for image stabilization. More than worth the maybe hundred dollars extra. And on top of that you will also get a lens which by all reports is amazingly sharp.
And both camera and lens are amongst the smallest and lightest around, so for travel or walk-around photography, or just casual photography, they are ideal.
Good books for young readers
Good books for young readers.
Alex said:
I'm not sure what saving merits there are to Lord of the Flies. It is miserable, depressing, and really no inspiration for someone who is being bullied.
Isn't it funny how school teachers and libraries will push insanely depressing and disturbing books onto their hapless young students?
One of the stories which was read loud to us in primary school was a about a boy who was bullied into climbing a high smoke stack, and fell down.
Another one was about two boys who heard about bacteria (they called them "batteries") and wanted to help a friend who had a wound on his leg, so he wouldn't die from infection. So they tied him down, gagged him, and sawed off his leg. Just lovely stories for kids.
Alex said:
I'm not sure what saving merits there are to Lord of the Flies. It is miserable, depressing, and really no inspiration for someone who is being bullied.
Isn't it funny how school teachers and libraries will push insanely depressing and disturbing books onto their hapless young students?
One of the stories which was read loud to us in primary school was a about a boy who was bullied into climbing a high smoke stack, and fell down.
Another one was about two boys who heard about bacteria (they called them "batteries") and wanted to help a friend who had a wound on his leg, so he wouldn't die from infection. So they tied him down, gagged him, and sawed off his leg. Just lovely stories for kids.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Camera deals
PhotoBorg article on buying cameras cheap.
Update: somehow I missed this interesting page when it came out.
Update: somehow I missed this interesting page when it came out.
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