I like these a lot. Don't know if I really have the space or use for them though.
They're ceramic. And surprisingly premium: $35 for one small, or $175 for a three-set! Not Ikea stuff this.
Friday, May 04, 2012
Contigo mug, lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda
Here's a cool household tip. CalgaryMark reminded me of this post, he and wife got their Contigo travel mugs and are happy with them. (I upgraded from a Thermos foam-insulated mug, and it was a great improvement in insulation and spill-proofness.)
"Thank you for contacting Contigo® and we apologize for the difficulty you experienced with your product. We are working on a lid that comes apart for better cleaning.
I have included a tip that may be helpful. Sprinkle some baking soda in the upside down lid and then add an ounce of lemon juice. The chemical reaction sweetens the whole inside of the lid. Rinse the lid with hot water and let dry, the hot water will clear out anything the baking soda and lemon didn't reach."
By the way, doesn't Blogger seem unreliable recently? I keep getting "service unavailable" error messages when loading a page.
A small downside to the model I have is that the top is hard to clean inside due to the opening mechanism which goes across. But I guess it's well worth it, for the mechanism works great and makes it a lot safer than most mugs.
I asked Contigo about the cleaning issue. They wrote:
"Thank you for contacting Contigo® and we apologize for the difficulty you experienced with your product. We are working on a lid that comes apart for better cleaning.
I have included a tip that may be helpful. Sprinkle some baking soda in the upside down lid and then add an ounce of lemon juice. The chemical reaction sweetens the whole inside of the lid. Rinse the lid with hot water and let dry, the hot water will clear out anything the baking soda and lemon didn't reach."
By the way it foams, it looks like it's a pretty powerful cleaning process.
By the way, doesn't Blogger seem unreliable recently? I keep getting "service unavailable" error messages when loading a page.
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Sand Drawing
Apropos pattern photos, TCGirl took this nice photo of patterns that blades of grass have drawn in the moist sand.
Very cool. I wonder how many times the leaf has to pass to make such a stroke, and it's interesting how they can hit exactly the same groove.
(Clickable.)
Nice for the desktop.
Very cool. I wonder how many times the leaf has to pass to make such a stroke, and it's interesting how they can hit exactly the same groove.
Nice for the desktop.
Photo Travel Asia and OMD
[Thanks to Bert]
It already is starting to look like the Olympus OM-D is going to be a very impactful camera. Here is an article about using it, including some gorgeous China photos.
Talking about the OM-D, look at this dynamic range. (Bottom of page.)
Amanda Palmer's new one
Amanda Palmer is putting out a new album, the first in four years. She's funding it via Kickstarter.
Some really remarkable things:
1) the minimum pledge is only one dollar for the whole album! That's gutsy.
2) In a couple of days she has already made half a million dollars!
Self-funding and crowd-funding via the Internet is an astoundingly "disruptive" phenomenon/technology. There are many awesome success stories.
She's doing the very, very smart thing which people are discovering is very powerful business-wise, and much easier over the Net: selling several different levels of pledges, so you can decide how much you want to pay her, depending on how big a fan you are. One dollar for the whole album is super-cheap. I am sure this already makes many so grateful that they throw in a few extra dollars. And the special-edition CD and vinyl versions are perfect for hardcore fans, and the prices are well chosen, I think.
Some really remarkable things:
1) the minimum pledge is only one dollar for the whole album! That's gutsy.
2) In a couple of days she has already made half a million dollars!
Self-funding and crowd-funding via the Internet is an astoundingly "disruptive" phenomenon/technology. There are many awesome success stories.
She's doing the very, very smart thing which people are discovering is very powerful business-wise, and much easier over the Net: selling several different levels of pledges, so you can decide how much you want to pay her, depending on how big a fan you are. One dollar for the whole album is super-cheap. I am sure this already makes many so grateful that they throw in a few extra dollars. And the special-edition CD and vinyl versions are perfect for hardcore fans, and the prices are well chosen, I think.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Hot spots not so hot
I was looking at options for a little vacation by the beach in the "ol' country", and one holiday center/town I knew as a pleasant place had reasonable prices I thought, and it had free Internet included.
But elsewhere on the page it was less clear what this meant, so I contacted them, and they told me that at the moment the huts do not have wireless internet, there is only "a PC in the reception for checking email".
Really lame. This is 2012, and Denmark regards itself as one of the most technologically forward nations in the world. And in some ways it is, even school children had their own mobile phones in the 1990s. Of course this was helped by it being a small and flat country, easy to cover wirelessly.
But maybe it is really just a small minority who *don't* have stuff covered for a couple of week just with a cell phone and occasional email check on a public peecee.
But elsewhere on the page it was less clear what this meant, so I contacted them, and they told me that at the moment the huts do not have wireless internet, there is only "a PC in the reception for checking email".
Really lame. This is 2012, and Denmark regards itself as one of the most technologically forward nations in the world. And in some ways it is, even school children had their own mobile phones in the 1990s. Of course this was helped by it being a small and flat country, easy to cover wirelessly.
But maybe it is really just a small minority who *don't* have stuff covered for a couple of week just with a cell phone and occasional email check on a public peecee.
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Clark Little, waves photos
[Thanks to Mary]
Clark Little, waves photos.
Rumor has it he had to buy a new camera for every one photo, until he figured out to wrap the camera in plastic. (Just kidding.)
iPhone camera in low light, not great
I, and many others, have said that the camera in the iPhone is excellent. And it's true. It's excellent for a phone camera.
But, just being one marble's worth of space in a phone, it has weaknesses. For example: low light.
Another factor is that you can't set anything yourself on the iPhone, no control over aperture, shutter speed, or ISO. Most of the time, not a problem though.
Also, even with a good pocket camera made in the last couple of years, I'd probably get decent image quality at ISO 800, which would have made for F:2.4 and 1/80th second, much easier to hand-hold.
But, just being one marble's worth of space in a phone, it has weaknesses. For example: low light.
- It's harder to hold still due to ergonomics and size.
- The sensor is very small, so gets grainy in high-ISO/low light settings.
- There is no stabilization (no space for it I guess).
Another factor is that you can't set anything yourself on the iPhone, no control over aperture, shutter speed, or ISO. Most of the time, not a problem though.
Also, even with a good pocket camera made in the last couple of years, I'd probably get decent image quality at ISO 800, which would have made for F:2.4 and 1/80th second, much easier to hand-hold.
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