Quotes

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
-- John F. Kennedy

Some think it's holding on that makes one strong; sometimes it's letting go.
-- Sylvia Robinson


I think think both of these are really good.

On Sobriety

On Sobriety, article. I was touched.

The Cat Duo

Tommy asks, Is This Art?

Python vs electric fence

whaddafokkingmonster.

A Tale of Two Lenses

Would you believe these two lenses have the same specs? 35mm, F:1.4. Mild wide-angle, big/fast aperture.
580g vs 200g.


(I got the pic from tOP.) Now, the Canon lens (which is excellent, I have it) is designed for a DSLR, which means that the optical design has to compensate for the fact that due to the mirror in the camera, the lens can't get as close to the sensor as it would naturally be. But I'm curious if this fact alone can justify such a huge size/weight difference. (Of course the quality of the Voigtländer lens is to be considered, I have not seen a comparison.)
Update: There's been cast doubt that the picture is exactly to scale. On the picture, the relationship is 1:4 in length, but the numbers given on the site are 1:3.

Nano video

So the new iPod Nano shoots video. Didn't see that coming. I haven't looked closer yet, but I have to admit that my initial reaction is: 'why? ... that's like a cigarette lighter with wheels'.
Saturday update: just coming onto this point in the keynote now... Right, seeing it as a free built-in Flip for quick youtube clips, I can see the point.
Anyhow, it's insane what they have built into this tiny thing now. Voice recorder, radio, pedomenter, music player, video player, video camera...



There's a new iPod shuffle too. With, once again, a radically new form and look. And, once again, a new and different connector to the computer. I love Apple products, but do they have to keep inventing new connectors and plugs all the time?!

Leica's back

Leica's back, article.
Not even as expensive as one might have feared. Rock and roll. ('scuse the expression. The past half hour I've just been listening to the three songs in the "Tush" post below at full vol.)

Compact likkle fokker, yet with large sensor. Another candidate to the long awaited high-quality "digital street camera". If it's fast and the image quality is what you'd expect from a Leica, and has no egregious faults...

Lesson of the day

Lesson of the day:

Don't shake a box of raisins without securing the lid.

And if you did anyway, be careful where you walk until you got them all.

==========

"I shuttle, I shuffle, I tippie-toe, I cake-walk, anything to avoid the 24 chocolate-covered cherries on the floor from yesterday's party" - Andy Warhol, From A to B and Back Again

(Quoted from memory from a reading about 20 years ago, so bear with me if it isn't verbatim.)

What Does 'Expensive' Mean?

What Does 'Expensive' Mean?, article by Michael Johnston. It introduced to me the interesting concept, which I had a feeling about but no term for, of "Veblen goods", which means products which are perceived as being highly valuable because they are extremely expensive, not despite of it. Like a Rolex, a Rolls-Royce, or a turntable which costs $20,000. The bulk of the price is perceived status and "magic", not actual added value. If Rolex started selling a $100 watch, the brand would be dead soon. If everybody wore the cheap Rolex model, who would pay $10,000 for the expensive model?

Looking for tush

I was just rocking out to Joan Jett's "Tush":



... When I thought: that's remarkably saucy lyrics, ain't it? ("Lord, take me downtown, I'm just looking for some tush [ass]".) I looked them up and found out it's actually a ZZ Top song. A remarkably faithful cover, and yet at least as good as the original:



... so maybe I should look at bit into ZZ Top, never really did.

Update: I can't find it on youtube, but I found a tremendous track. John Lee Hooker playing Boom Boom (the song he played in Blues Brothers), with backup by ZZ Top! I didn't see that combination coming! But man, it rocks.

Snowwhite's Revenge

Bert found Snowwhite's Revenge, Apple Powerbook case modification. It's a vinyl decal you can buy.
Besides the cute idea, I think it's quite beautiful, very simple lines, just one color, etc.


Which reminds me: I loved the colored iMacs back around the millennium, before they went flat-screen. And Apple and Jon Ive's team still makes great industrial designs but... they are almost too simple these days, too minimalist. Aside from the logo, there is no decoration whatsoever on a Macbook. My first Apple laptop (the first I bought from new anyway) was the "Lombard" (or "Powerbook G3 (Bronze keyboard)" as Apple lovingly called it). Here it is:

... it was Apple's first really slim Powerbook, and I think it was beautiful. See, there is no functional reason for the three panels with the lovely curved lines on the lid (and notice: the texture and reflection is subtly different between the panels). They are there because of the visual appeal. I think Apple lost something when they dropped stuff like this and went aggressively minimalist.

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(Wow, this makes me nostalgic. Those were some heady days, back when my own business took off, and I could afford to buy a computer like this back when they cost about five grand. And for a year, I think, I ran all my sites, production, and business on that machine. Of course it couldn't handle the size of the files I work with these days.)

Amazon Discussions forum?

Have you ever noticed that Amazon sites have discussion forum for products? It's not something I've paid a lot of notice to, but it can be useful, as for example when I had some questions about my excellent Panasonic SD255 Breadmaker with Raisin/Nut Dispenser (sorry, but that is it's name (seems to be a European name, though, I don't find it on the American site.)).
Here's its forum, and here's my question and answers.