Walt-O-Matic

This morning I woke up to an email, it basically read this:

You received this email because you have created an account on Beyond.com. This is a one-time mailer. If you have any questions, please contact us.

I’m thinking to myself, “what?!?” Actually, I’m thinking something quite a bit more colorful.

Then there’s another message from Customer Service.

Then there’s another message with my username and password.

…right.

After deciding it isn’t some email spammer trying to get me to some foreign national site, I login. And what do I find? Someone had screen scraped an old copy of my resume and contact information and made an account for me.

At this point, I figure that anyone with any common sense should completely discount beyond.com’s credibility completely. Here’s why.

First, if any arbitrary user is able to make up accounts for someone else, then clearly the database of provided by beyond.com can’t be trusted. I know my information was wrong, so clearly any potential employer looking for candidates would actually be wasting their time — it isn’t an accurate representation out there. But more over, this represents bad business and security practice if someone other than the actual person can create an account.

Second, let’s assume that such a thing isn’t possible. The alternate conclusion is that beyond.com is scraping the web, making accounts, in an attempt to build a database to give the appearance they are more than they really are. Will some suckers sign on and “correct” the information? Perhaps. But I suspect many others will ignore it. Again, this is really not helpful for anyone trying to use beyond.com for candidates.

Bottom line, either side of the coin — something is wrong. Very wrong.

And, of course, removing that profile is painful and obscure. The help files toss around words like ‘deactivate’ rather than ‘delete’. Such things should make users of beyond.com question the marketing metrics of beyond.com as well.

To me, and in my personal opinion, beyond.com isn’t worth the pixels its printed on. In fact, it sucks.

REVIEW: Walt gives Beyond.com two thumbs down.

I love my Canon Powershot A570. Apparently, so does my wife. I know, because I don’t get to play with it very much anymore. That’s why I got the SD890 IS.

So, why would a photographer with a Canon EOS 5D that can produce images that look like these need with a point-and-shoot camera, you may wonder?

Turns out it isn’t always convenient to pull out a full sized digital SLR. Especially if you’re driving down the road, sitting at work, or floating down a river. What’s ideal is a camera that takes good enough pictures, and if it gets destroyed you won’t be mad at yourself. Well, not for long, that is.

As such, I found my self eyeing the Canon Powershot SD890 IS. It’s a small, 10 megapixel camera, with reasonable 5x optical zoom, image stabilizer, and face detection. The feature list is pretty neat, in that it an do sound recordings, movies, stop motion, high ISOs, macros, panoramic stitching, spot color, color substitution, and has all the manual goodies you’d expect from a real camera. USB connectivity, and even weirder, video out that looks like a USB connector.

However, what I’m not thrilled with is the physical interface to the camera. In an effort to be stream lined, it “feels cheaper” than my other power shots. And I’m not just talking the small 32MB SD card that comes with it.

To start with, the on/off button is plastic and needs to be pressed in a considerable way in order to turn the camera on and off. Not only does it need to be pressed in, but it has to be at a particular angle or nothing happens.

Originally I thought I had received a defective model and actually ended up returning it to the store, which incidentally was not BestBuy for good reason. The returns person was unable to turn on the camera. When it was turned on for her, she was unable to turn it off.

While I appreciate the need to not have the camera activate while in one’s pocket, it’s still imperative that the camera can be activated upon demand.

The zoom in/out ring on top feels rugged enough to hold up to use, but the mode selector for automatic/manual/scene/movie is so sleek in design, it’s uncomfortable to change modes. Instead of turning the side of a wheel, with most Powershot models, it requires more thumb torque than you’d initially expect.

I’m not thrilled with the review mode being a button instead of a setting on that dial, but I also have to admit that it makes the review process very easy. That, I assume will just take some getting used to.

The only other real complaint is the lower wheel-like interface for changing sub-modes and selecting menu items. It’s a rotating shuttle, that’s also a N/S/E/W rocker switch, that also has a button in the middle; all slightly smaller than the size of a dime. Navigation is difficult, and not for the reasons you’d think.

While the ring-wheel for selection is a nice way to change modes, you have to exaggerate the amount you turn it to change to the next selection. Thus the perceived required turn amount in the GUI is far less than what is actually required, making you think it isn’t working, when if fact it is. It’s not overly sensitive, but the exact opposite. I’ve yet to be able to find a way to adjust the spin sensitivity on the control dial.

There is tactile feedback which feels like little stops as the wheel turns, but it’s clear the GUI is not looking for how many of those pass by (distance), but rather speed. Slowly turning the wheel does nothing, no matter how many increments it literally feels like you’ve passed.

Luckily, since it also acts as a rocker switch, the GUI responds to this, so it’s not as big of a deal as one might think. It just feels awkward, though the GUI is totally usable.

Aside from that, the LCD is large and bright. The display shows all the settings you’d need for information, and it’s easy to find settings. In particular, I’m impressed that it’s possible to overlay a grid and 2:3 shading, which makes composition all the easier, especially with face recognition properly focusing.

The camera doesn’t have as many models as it’s smaller predecessor, but then again, it’s got better optical resources and a slightly smaller footprint, which scores high in the portability scale.

The one thing I wish it did have was the ability to use standard AA batteries. Normally, I use rechargeable AAs, but it’s nice to know in a pinch you can use a standard household battery. Nope, for this camera you need a special Canon NB-5L 3.7V 1120mAh(Li-ion) battery. Small, light, compact, charges quickly, lasts a while, but still — if it goes dead, you’re out of commission.

All in all, though, if I have to judge it based on the quality of pictures, I’d have to say it’s a very capable camera. Handy to carry, easy to use.

REVIEW: Walt gives the Canon Powershot SD890 IS a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

UPDATE: The camera does not have a Aperture or Shutter Priority mode.

REVIEW: Walt downgrades the Canon Powershot SD890 IS a rating to 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Every time I’ve gone to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I’ve never come back disappointed.

That was, until CES 2008.

Admittedly, I go to the show for a mixed bag of reasons. I’m a hobbyist, and I want to see what bleeding edge stuff is coming out next. I’m a reviewer, and I’m interested in identifying what works, what doesn’t, and conveying how to improve products. I’m an arm chair psychologist, and I enjoy people watching, mass crowd manipulation, and the interactions that happen between consumers and vendors. I’m a purchaser, looking for products that will improves my business and clients’ success. I’m an entertainer, and like to see performances by others. I’m also a marketer, and I like to see how others sell products.

CES, for me, is one of the rare times when all these elements come together. For instance, in years past, I’ve watched as entertainers and booth girls attract attention, pulling people out of the crowd into the vendor area. Then, with a promise of a prize or raffle, or perhaps some interesting swag, get the person to emotionally commit to giving a product attention. A quick, flashy, glitzy presentation subtly conveys memorable sales information, and when all is said and done, the consumer walks away happy, entertained, informed, and, if done right, has reason to tell others to come see that booth. Done real well, sales result for the vendor.

Effectively, you have many vendors competing for product attention at once, and the winner has to be good at not just the initial draw, but also at retention. That means starting with a good product. That means crowd manipulation. That means showmanship. That means sales. Everything.

At CES you never know what you’re going to find. Performers. T-Shirts. Gizmos. Great deals. Innovation. Music. Creativity. And, swag.

This year was different.

If I had to sum up CES 2008 in a single word, it’d be this: boring.

I didn’t see any stunning innovations or uses of technology that just blew my socks off as I had in years past.

Normally, I walk out of each day from CES with my arms filled with product information and swag. Instead, I literally walked out on CES this year by day two. I felt it had let me down.

And, it turns out, I wasn’t the only one. Whether back at the hotel, riding an elevator, or standing in line for a Vegas attraction, show, ride, or meal, I talked with other CES attendees, and they all seemed to focus on the lack of luster of this year’s conference.

My favorite story came from a gentleman who was a VIP, he explained that they were provided musical entertainment in the form of an exclusive show. Well, apparently the organizer of that event didn’t seem to realize that older, more conservative, business men weren’t exactly fond of rap music. The generation gap was dwarfed by the culture gap, and it conveyed a pretty negative message, and he questioned his future involvement with CES.

Even a number of big name vendors made a no show this year. Their absence was noticed as a vote of no confidence.

Vendors didn’t engage the crowd, the swag was pitiful, the drawings limited, and the product demonstrations infrequent. The last thing I want to do if I’m interested in a product now is to be told to return in two hours for the next 10 minute demo.

All in all, it was quite disappointing. And, while I have my speculations on what caused this year to be sub-satisfactory, I sincerely hope that CES 2008 becomes a wakeup call for vendors and conference organizers, rather than a death rattle.

It isn’t often that a game comes along that is:

• Instantly Playable.
• Wonderfully fun.
• Loaded with eye-candy.
• Highly addictive.

Hmm, make that:

A-d-d-i-c-t-i-v-e.

Don’t let the two dimensional Asteroid-like vector graphics on the box fool you. Geometry Wars: Galaxy is not an Asteroids rip off.

If you got a Wii, you need to buy it now for your collection. Before the holidays.

Deep inside we all want a game where you shoot everything with total disregard, you’re loaded to the hilt with fire power, you amass incredible scores, and you cause all kinds of explosions and manipulate the environment to destroy your enemies. That why we seek cheat codes. This game found out how to do it without ruining playability! You get everything you ever wanted, without relying on cheat codes to make it happen.

Here’s my take on what gives this game its incredible hook:

Visually Pleasing

There isn’t a moment that there isn’t some color explosion, spray of sparks, swirl of color, or special effect going on. Some thing’s always moving or blowing up, and when it does, it looks like the best fireworks show you’ve ever seen. Effects are not boring, the tend to interact, and don’t seem redundant. Those watching will be treated to an impressive spray of color and particles.

Simple Controls

The simple synopsis is that you’re a ship in the middle of a grid in the galaxy. With the nun chuck you steer, with the Wii-mote you point.

You don’t need to read any rules to start playing instantly.

Enemies Fear You

As you point, you emit a red laser that directs where you’ll fire; enemy objects see the red laser and run from it.

Unlimited Firepower

Unlimited, constant, fast, ever improving unlimited firepower — just push the button or squeeze the trigger.

Enormous Colorful Bombs

If enemies get too close, push either button on the nun chuck and a kill-everything bomb will go off, taking out all your enemies.

Points for Everything

Whenever you destroy an enemy, you get points. If it moves, shoot it. If it doesn’t move, shoot it. If it disrupts the fabric of space itself, shoot it.

As you play, you get awards, in addition to the high score list, which is easy to get on and bump off the default scores; no one wants to look at scores from the game designer anyhow.

Cumulative Score Multipliers

Destroyed enemies leave behind little golden bits which you simply have to zoom near, accuracy doesn’t matter, and you’ll consume them; doing so gives you score multipliers. You can have very big multipliers.

Money Does Buy Happieness

Earning multipliers is like accruing currency, you can save up between games. Currency unlocks different playing fields, new enemies, and more wonderful things.

A.I. On Your Side

In addition to your ship, there’s a totally hands free drone.

Your drone stays near you, and using some very basic artificial intelligence, it helps you.

You can buy different skills for your drone. The more currency you have, the more skills you can purchase. And, get this, one of the drone’s tasks can be to collect more currency. Clever.

Longer Play

Think back to how many times you’ve played an arcade game and lost a life because you missed something trivial or committed a dumb mistake.

You may have your drone shoot, defend, snipe, or do one of any number of a selected set of tasks. You pick which, making compensates for weakness in your play style or leverage your strengths.

If you miss something during play, aren’t playing attention, or aren’t looking where you’re going, there’s a really good chance that the drone will take care of it for you. Play lasts longer and is more enjoyable because little accidents don’t matter.

The Addiction Feedback Loop

The more you play with a drone using a particular skill, the smarter it gets. The better you play, the faster that it gets smarter; it literally accumulates experience. With enough experience, the drone levels and plays even better, helping you even more.

Meaning, that after you finish a game, the drone is more capable, and you’ll do better in the next game at the same level of effort. So you do.

But then your drone levels, so now you want to play again to see what the new capability is. So you do.

You get more kills with a better drone. That directly translates to higher scores and more currency. And, more currency means new drone skills and more experience. Which, gives you a better drone. That takes you back to more kills.

Every time you finish a game, the next carrot is just withing reach — if you play one more time.

Pure evil. The best kind.

Features, features, features

Aside from the ton of worlds and surprises you can unlock, the disc has more.

Yes, you can play with another player. Even more surprising, if they have a Nintendo DS, your Wii will go WiFi and connect to it.

There’s also a Retro version as part of the game as well.

The game experience itself is fresh.

Plus the game itself comes in at about $10 cheaper than other main titles, it’s so affordable it’s not worth resisting.

Walt gives the Wii’s Geometry Wars: Galaxy two carpel tunnel thumbs up!

Today I was forwarded a review of OS X entitled: Leopard is the New Vista, and It’s Pissing Me Off.

I think it’s safe to say that I’m a fan of Apple, in general, as I find their hardware, environment, and tools far more productive for my development, office, and home needs than I ever did using Microsoft or its products.

I think it’s also fair to say that I’m willing to also point out when things don’t work:

• Duplication Menu Item Problems
• Having to rebuild Spotlight indexes, manually
• And, more recently, Four complaints of Leopard
• And very recently, Five Things I Can’t Do With OS X Mail RSS

Oliver Rist, raises some very good points in his treaty on Leopard’s recent similarities to Vista’s screw ups.

Here’s my take on his five points.

Vista Similarity 1: Wait for a Service Pack—Perpetually

Rist is right in saying that “[With Tiger] Everything. Just. Worked. Period.” I’m also quite in agreement that with Vista, even “a year after its shrink-wrapped release” it still has problems, driver issues, and “doesn’t work with 50 percent of new software.”

But I wonder how far back he’s actually recalling. Historically, I recall that each early version of Apple’s OS had serious kinks. Is comparing Tiger 10.4.9 with Leopard 10.5.1 actually a valid Apple to Apple comparison? (excuse the pun)

I’m with Rist if he thinks it should be, but accept the reality it isn’t. In my mind, Apple changed a number of things about the OS that they didn’t have to. Stability, size reduction, and additional hardware support will always earn high marks on my reviews. Unless the new glitz is functional, it doesn’t do much for me; but more on this in a moment.

At the moment, I’m tolerant because historically Apple has made right in reasonable time. By 10.4.3 and 10.4.4, I was quite happy. Given that I suspect Apple’s real purpose was not to make GUI fluff, but to pave the way for resolution independent graphics and new Core Animation, I’m surprised how well things held up.

Microsoft, Direct X improvements aside, gets no such pass, because as a whole, I still have problems with the OS, and it’s been around longer, and had more people working on it.

That said, I’m also aware that a good number of the Microsoft blue screens of death aren’t Microsoft’s fault — directly. When drivers do bad things, it can topple an OS. Of course, this leads me to wonder why Microsoft didn’t manage their kernel layers a bit better.

Knowing this actually provides some insight for Leopard as well. Everyone understood how Tiger worked. Too well, perhaps. There were quite a number of OS resource tweaks that delivered amazing integration and features. I was certainly one of the advanced users.

However, Apple assumes, and I think rightly so, that if you intend to do an upgrade in place, then if you’ve changed the operating system out from underneath them, you roll the dice. A number of people were bit by Unsanity’s Application Enhancer that didn’t upgrade at the last moment before installing Leopard.

Keeping up to date with OS X third-party applications is just as hard as it is on Windows. That’s why I eventually plopped down the money for Version Tracker Pro. Had I not, I would have been one of those that the new install would have taken out. Diligence is king.

Even so, my problems with an Upgrade was slightly broken features, like the password working after a screen save (despite the settings to the contrary), and performance. I later learned that the former was a permission problem on the preference, and the latter was a library extension that didn’t work with Leopard and just tried to keep reloading itself.

My solution was to do an Archive and Install. All of my options were preserved, just like an Upgrade in place, but because the OS was virgin fresh, my system behaved wonderfully.

I give Apple this round, simply because a “fresh install” with Microsoft is so destructive.

Oh, and yes, once you’ve touted something as a “new” feature, like 64 bit, you can’t do it again for the next release. That’s cheating.

Vista Similarity 2: Needless Graphics Glitz

I love eye candy as much as the next guy, and in my operating systems too.

However, I question the real value one gets out of it. As long as it doesn’t get in the way, that’s great. If it communicates more information subtly, that’s great too. Incidentally, what I mean by that is effects, like Genie, which show where your Window is going when you minimize it, is useful.

All these different preview modes, sliding covers, and non-sense, I could really care less about.

Though, I have to admit I’m a closet user of them. Sometimes it easier to quickly view an image to make sure I’ve got the right one, or scan the contents of a document because a poorly chosen filename was used. I’d like to think Apple could have done this without the big production.

What really gets my goat, however is that Tiger had transparent Windows. Then it went away! That really made me mad, because I was using them since I had a small desktop.

So, that made me go find Virtue, in order to have multiple desktops. My gosh, I loved that product. Where else could you have different backgrounds, on a 3D cube, and get to them by keystrokes, mouse maneuvers, or tilting or laptop or waving your hand over it and triggering the ambient light sensors!

But then Apple went and created Spaces. With no real future, Virtue is going away - - and killing off a fantastic sales tool for me. With no competition, I don’t see Apple adding these things back.

And, only now, are we starting to talk about the transparency I had before. Argh!!!

So, while Vista is pretty, and Apple is pretty, Apple got by for having slightly more than fluff for fluff’s sake. Apple gets to take this round, begrudgingly.

Vista Similarity 3: Pointless User Interface “Fixes”

I’ve got to say, again, I agree with Oliver. The new dock may look pretty, but Apple had an uncanny way of letting me know what was going on with those nice, readable from a distance, black, unobtrusive triangles.

Do I have a way to get them back?

Can I switch an put the dock on the side and get something more acceptable looking? Yes, but then again I don’t want it on the side.

It’s crappy decisions like this that cause people to write utilities to hack the operating system which cause the initial instability problems in the first place.

Using Vista as the example, just because something is pretty doesn’t mean it’s enjoyable to use.

Having said all of the above, I have to admit that many of the things I initially didn’t like, I quickly grew to use. They bother me less.

Let’s just say in this round, the bell rang, and there was no winner.

Vista Similarity 4: Nuked Networking

I groan when I see Microsoft operating systems splinter over stupid artificial limitations like how many network connections can be concurrently inbound or outbound. I shake my finger at any operating system which can’t handle jumbo packet sizes or let me switch between 10/100/1000 ethernet speeds.

But I do accept that Windows shares, using Samba, can be difficult with Microsoft deliberately sabotaging protocols to force a homogeneous network with them being the vendor. Embrace and Extend. Anti-Trust. Bogus interoperability. Halloween Memos. I just can’t take the message that Microsoft is out to help me seriously anymore; too much bad history; too little progress. DRM, WGA, poison pill updates, spying - that’s the reason I left Microsoft.

While I recognize that Apple and Microsoft are in a cat’n'mouse game for accessing Windows resources, I do have a complaint to put on Apple’s shoulders.

And that is: just because I have a network, doesn’t mean I want to network. Unless I’m trying to comb my network’s machines, don’t bring them all to my Finder. I don’t need that. I know what kind of network traffic Microsoft generates.

On the other side of the coin, VNC is now built in. And, well, wow. Apple, you did well there. It’s almost as if Apple knows I’m slowly expelling Microsoft and replacing it with Unix systems.

But that doesn’t change the fact that when I do need access to a Windows box, and I’m using my Mac, I want it to be just as seamless. Just the other day, I tried to copy a file from a Windows share to my local desktop to work with a local copy. Locally. (Sense a theme?)

The Windows box said “that file is in use” (because someone had the network Excel file open) and wanted to know if I wanted a read-only copy. The Mac, however, simply said Permission Error and never told me why.

Apple: I need error messages to not be so abstract. Give me a way to Option-Click on them or something and dump the error.h code; in short, if I’m smart enough to fend for myself, let me. Or, just make it work.

I assume people have already heard that if you Move (not copy) a file from one resource to the other, if the destination is full and aborts the copy, the source file still gets deleted (the other half of the move). I hope that’s fixed.

Now, the sheer fact that Microsoft has a horrible time with other OS’s (and depends on them playing by their rules), the final score for this one goes to Apple. Though Apple got lucky.

Vista Similarity 5: Bundled Apps as New Features That Suck

Oliver and I may start to part ways at this one, although not that far.

All the standard home and media applications Apple bundles with their OS are really top notch in my opinion. In fact, I buy iWork in addition to iLife. It’s Apple’s Pro applications that use a interface that I find very dated. And ugly.

But the feature we all seem to gripe on is Time Machine.

My first experiences with Time Machine were horrible. The system would seize up, and, well to be fair, I have to admit that this all went away after I did an Archive and Install, rather than the Upgrade in place over my existing patched OS Tiger.

And, while I applaud the concept of Time Machine, I don’t like that I can’t force it to kick off when I want. Or that I can’t easily point it at a common server. Or use it wirelessly.

But my biggest beef is why in the world Apple just didn’t hold off, wait until ZFS was working the way they wanted, and delivered something that managed things directly with the filesystem itself.

In addition to Time Machine, I find myself using SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner to make quick, efficient backups, that are also bootable.

What I think Oliver might have missed is a subtle difference.
- With Time Machine, everything is backed up.
- Not that Time Machine backs up everything.

Let’s cover that a little closer. Time Machine does do a full backup, but then everything from then on out is incremental. And intelligently so. In fact, you can even go wandering around the files on the backup disk directly, should you choose to.

The way I’m reading things is that the review gives the impression everything is always backed up. That’s just not so.

Would I like to be able to tell Time Machine to only back up what I want it to? Yes. Please.

Would I like to only delete the things I intend to? Of course. But, realistically, it’s when I delete an important system file, and Time Machine has a copy, that I’ll suddenly become more forgiving of why it does what it does.

All his GUI gripes with Time Machine are dead on. However, when you get Time Machine working (via a clean Archive and Install - which keeps your preferences, data, and applications, btw), it does work as advertised.

It’s close. Time Machine’s integration is trivial. But over all, I think Vista’s backup, is better in the long run. Vista wins this round.

Oliver, I think, in this case was guilty of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. To be ticked off at the first version of a new application that could have been better, is justified. To extend that assessment to all bundled apps, as he does in his title, is not.

What the world hates is that after buying the OS, you still can’t do much with it. With Apple you can. And, with most Window machine purchases, you get a lot of crapware. Apple, you don’t.

In fact, I think Apple misses the mark. QuickTime Pro should be bundled with the OS, and if they were really on top of things, iWork as well. I’d gladly even pay the full retail price rolled into the cost of the machine. Why? Because can you image if everyone’s machine out of the box shipped with software that could do Office related stuff? You’d have a killer do-all platform from time the machine was powered up. There’s no way Microsoft could do that.

So, while Vista won this round, I’m gonna give Apple half-credit, since I think it was an unfair contests.

Walt’s Final Score

Apple 3.5 / 5; Vista 1 / 5.

I’d still rather use OS X Leopard than Vista any day of the week.

Walt gives OS X Leopard a thumbs up, even though it still needs some work.

Today I went to Target, and there in the DVD section was Battlestar Galactica: Razor.

I picked it up and held it in my hands. In fact, I did better than that. I went to the check out register.

That’s when the device beeped. I was quick to learn that the product could not be sold to me until December 4th.

I understand Target’s contractual obligations, and I respect that. But it’s also very unlikely that I will be in Target that day, having plenty of time to price compare. These kind of delayed releases actually cost stores sales, especially those impulse buys.

As a consumer, I’m not at all thrilled with waiting, whether it be for Harry Potter book seven or the latest movie release. When delay is introduced, I believe we all lose. The consumer learns they can live without the product, and to wait a little more causes no harm. The store is aware the consumer is willing to pay the most when they first see the product.

So, rather than groaning about the movie industry inflicting self-wounds and collateral damage, here’s what I read on the DVD.

First, it was the Extended Widescreen Unrated “What They Couldn’t Show You On Television” Edition.

It had Battlestar Galactica facts, and what looked to be a really neat directors commentary.

It was unclear if the unrated was for more brutality, sexuality explicit scenes, or just because the new content wasn’t passed by anyone who would take the time to rate it.

Based on what previewed on the SCIFI channel, I speculate that this DVD is gonna get a Thumbs Up.

Without exception, two books leap to the front of my personal library when it comes to Photography.

Light: Science & Magic

Crime Scene Photography

Most photography books explain general principles of photography, how the camera works, and, if lucky, perhaps a simplified discussion of optics and proper metering. By the time you really understand the relationship between ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture, and are capable of shooting in Manual mode, you’re not done — you’ve just scratched the surface. The next subject you need to tackle is light, and it is light that allows you to get those really dramatic and interesting shots. And if you think because you own a 50mm f/1.4 lens, you know it all; think again.

Light: Science & Magic is a masterful excursion into the role that light plays with photography. It covers light sources, reflection, and angles, explaining why surfaces look the way they do. Certain objects are hard to photograph, such as glass or white subjects on white backgrounds. Either detail is lost or everything comes out gray. This resource shows how to use light to solve those hard problems. The section on diffused, direct, and glare reflections is worth the price of admission alone. Camera placement, light placement, and gobos, combined with the right metering technique, will yield stunning images. It covers methodologies of lighting portraits in fascinating ways. The book is littered with tips and tricks from front to back. It’s odd to find a book where there’s solid, approachable, directly applicable material on every page, but this book does it.

The next book is quite unexpected, Crime Scene Photography. This book goes far deeper into explaining the workings of photography, delving into the mysteries of optics, proper exposure in bad lighting conditions, and the clever use of filters. It clearly explains inverse square laws, plays with subtle differences between intensity and distance, unravels why rules of thumb actually work, shows how to get the most from a flash. And all these topics roll up to support how to draw out the details you want to capture, including from fluorescent and infrared sources. There’s tons of information to convey size and play with perspective, deal with underwater situations, and how to digitally correct severe problems when you can’t retake the photo. The book is chalked full of examples.

Frankly, if I could only own two books on photography, it would be these. I read the again, and again, and again.

Walt gives these books, two thumbs up!

One of the big things holding me back from buying an iPhone in the first place, aside from lack of SSH (which was soon resolved), was an article about the hidden evils in the Terms of Service contract.

Well, not sure about whether to take things at face value or not, I bounced my concern off my friend Phil, who’s extremely knowledgeable about telecommunications.

He wrote me back a wonderful point-by-point analysis, which swayed my decision. Feeling that other people might benefit as well, I sought permission from him to reprint it here.

iPhone Requires a 2-Year Contract with AT&T.
1. True; they make the 2-year contract requirement pretty clear. This isn’t a great thing but it’s pretty standard in the U.S. when you buy a phone.

Expensive: Requires $2,280, Over $1,730 in Wireless Costs.
2. Also true, though he overstates the price. The service plan runs about $60/month ($40 voice, $20 data); if that’s too expensive, the iPhone is probably a bad idea. That’s still less costly than a Blackberry or Treo (both about $80/month when you turn on the features needed).

Double Billing. You and the Caller Both Get Charged for the Same Call.
3. True, but not unique to the iPhone. Every cellular carrier in the United States save for a few Nextel plans will charge airtime on both incoming and outgoing calls. If you call another wireless phone user, I suppose you could call that double-billing (though if that other user is on the same carrier [ATT], the airtime rate is the princely sum of zero cents per minute).

All Use of the Networks Are Always Rounded Up to the Nearest Kilobyte or Minute.
4. Standard practice for the wireless industry. The per-kilobyte complaint is pretty funny, though, since the charge per kilobyte for domestic data usage is zero cents per kilobyte.

Customers Are Billed for “Network Errors” and “Network Overhead”.
5. I have no idea what he’s talking about, but it makes no sense.

Billed Even Though the Call Doesn’t Go Through.
6. Basically untrue. Billing in a wireless system begins when the call is answered, though the timer starts when the call is initiated. In other words, if a call rings for fifteen seconds and then is answered, the clock begins at 15 seconds and counts up from there.

Bogus Fees Added to the Bill: Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge
7. While I agree that regulatory recovery fees are basically bogus padding, I challenge him to find a wireless (or, for that matter, conventional wireline) carrier that doesn’t do this.

$175.00 Termination Fee.
8. The early termination fee is pretty well standard throughout the industry. There are certain circumstances where you can avoid paying it (for example, if they raise rates during your contract term).

International Messages Are Charged Additional Fees as Are Files Over 300Kbps.
9. International text messaging (i.e. SMS) costs extra on every cellular carrier I’m aware of. The picture/video messaging charging he complains about isn’t even relevant to the iPhone. And the “additional fee” for large messages that he talks about is irrelevant to the iPhone. My phone communicates directly with my IMAP server over SSL; there’s no way that ATT can tell how large a message is, let alone bill me for those messages over 300K.

Over Your Quota: Get Gouged: 40¢ Per Minute and 69¢ Roaming Offnet.
10. Once again, he’s whining about something that’s absolutely standard in the industry: if you go over your bucket of minutes, you pay a pretty high rate. He conveniently neglects to mention that UNUSED minutes from your plan roll forward into the next month and can be used to offset high usage up to a year later. If that’s not enough, just call and switch to a higher plan and ask them to make it retroactive to your previous month’s usage.

The Services Are Not Secure and Can’t Block Your Phone Number.
11. “Not secure” is a leftover from the days of ANALOG cell phones, which could be listened in upon pretty trivially. And they’re saying that when calling certain toll-free numbers, you can’t block your caller ID since the recipient pays for the call. There’s a MENU on the iPhone that allows you set the default for whether you send caller ID or not; you can also set it per-call. In other words: JUST LIKE A LANDLINE.

The Current Mobile Email Service Doesn’t Support Attachments.
12. Absolutely false. You can send photos trivially (about the only sort of attachment that makes sense to create on a phone), and the iPhone will read a lot of formats (Word, Excel, PDF, JPEG at a minimum).

Prohibited Uses and “Unlimited” Sales Hype.
13. The prohibited uses language is pretty standard wireless carrier language. I agree with him that the claim of “unlimited” is pretty misleading marketing puffery, but it’s an industry-wide problem. If you use your FIOS connection at full bandwidth 24×7, you’ll soon discover that “unlimited” basically means that you’re not billed per unit of data, but that you can still be cut off if you abuse the service. There’s basically nothing you could do on the iPhone that would cause this to happen, though.

Service Is Not Intended to Provide Full-Time Connections: Unlimited is Hype
14. Same as above.

Wi-Fi Service is Limited
15. I think he’s deliberately misinterpreting this one. He’s talking about a completely different wi-fi service that one can purchase through AT&T that has nothing to do with the iPhone. There is of course no limit at all to the number of times in a given time period that the iPhone can connect to a wi-fi network.

“Offnet” Restrictions
16. Another deliberate misinterpretation, I think. “Off-net” usage refers to areas where you’re roaming. Since cell phone roaming charges basically don’t exist anymore for the consumer (the carriers charge each other, though), what they’re saying is that you can’t buy the phone and then use it full-time where, say, T-Mobile has service and ATT doesn’t.

Plan Goobly-gook
17. He’s so incoherent here that it’s hard to figure out what he’s mad about.

Comparing US and Other Broadband Countries: America Is being Laughed At.
18. Perhaps he should move! He forgot to mention that countries using the metric system think we’re pretty silly too–but I’m sure he would have if he’d thought about it. Seriously, he has a point: mobile telephony is more advanced in other parts of the world (largely due to standardization on one network type–GSM). But I’m not sure why that would be the fault of ATT and the iPhone.

When Apple recalled batteries from its 15″ laptops, I would have thought that common sense would have prevailed in that if any battery exhibited a physical defect, such as exploding from its own case, that would be more than enough to exchange the battery.

Unfortunately for my friend Marcus, when he went to the Apple Store, with an exploded battery from a 17″ laptop (his is shown above), the manager wanted him to mail the battery and laptop back to Apple. This made no sense, as there was nothing wrong with the laptop. And, furthermore, the US Postal Service might take issue with a battery that is about to have its chemicals bust out of its shell.

17-Inch MacBook Pro Rechargeable Battery
Model A1189, Li-ion, 6N6184M9US0A

What he wanted was to simply have the hazardous waste properly disposed of, even if it meant buying a new battery.

She explained that the Apple Store didn’t have laptop batteries, he’d have to special order one. And to verify his battery was really damaged (she handled it!), he’d have to see an Apple Genius. And, unfortunately for Marcus, the Genius Bar was all filled up with appointments, and he’d have to return the next day. …meanwhile, the battery was still growing out of its shell; something that made Marcus feel very unsafe.

I’m totally of mixed minds on this. First of all, the battery fault isn’t Apple’s doing, it’s a bad batch they got them from. Second, when a battery dies or doesn’t hold a charge out of warranty, you don’t get a replacement. Third, if you take standard flashlight battery and let it age and leak, that’s not a warranty problem. So, on this hand Apple is under no obligation to replace the battery.

On the other hand, this wasn’t a matter of the battery being dead - it still held a full charge. It just would no longer fit in the machine because it was physically defective. In my mind, Apple should replace the battery, and then go back and beat up on the vendor. Even for customer service reasons alone, it’s the right thing to do.

Apple’s stance was if it was a battery for a 15″ laptop, they’d replace it, even out of warranty. But, since it was a 17″ battery, and even though it was made of the same stuff, by the same people, and exhibiting the same visibly defective problem, it wasn’t. That’s just not right.

Basically, Apple was saying that this was a “new” battery problem, and because not enough people reported the model number (A1189), their replacement warranty didn’t cover it.

Marcus came back the next day, stood in line, talked to a Genius who took his old battery to dispose while pointing him at an entire shelf of 17″ batteries. Marcus bought a new one.

Genius Bar Conversation | Register Conversation

Of course, after Marcus gets the run around and has to buy a new battery, we learn about this link: MacBook and MacBook Pro Battery Update

In it, it states that if a battery is visibly deformed, then Apple will replace it. …why didn’t the Apple Store know this?

As someone who does a lot of photography, and I mean a lot of photography, I decided to invest in something that would do color calibration on my monitor.

A while back I purchased Pantone’s Huey and wrote a review saying just how much I loved it. [Pantone Software Update Page]

Since that review, Pantone has only made things better. My primary wish for dual monitor support has been granted in the form of the Pantone hueyPRO.

Once again, a fine quality product at an affordable price to end consumers rolls out the doors of Pantone. Not only do you get the device, a KlearScreen Starter Kit (with a polishing cloth), but you also get a Pantone Book of swatches of 100 Top Colors.

By simply dragging the application to the corresponding monitor, it’s possible to independently calibrate a monitor. That’s just plain cool, much better than drop down boxes and such.

This is where a new mystery appeared. As I was exploring how to manually calibrate a monitor, by setting the Brightness / Contrast by hand, I was startled to discover that my Dell 2001FP monitor wouldn’t allow me to adjust the contrast. It was like the firmware knew about it, but things were disabled.

Then I found this tidbit in the Brightness/Contrast section of the Dell 2001FP Documentation:

“Note: When using ‘2: DVI-D Input’, the contrast adjustment is not available.”

Makes sense. When a DVI connection is used, as I had done, the contrast control is no longer needed. My monitor doesn’t have a problem, all is well with the world.

REVIEW: Walt gives the Pantone hueyPRO a big thumbs up!!!