Category: Uncategorized
Being a photographer, I’m always on the look out for cool creative photographs.
Singlatheorist.com’s post on roomba’s cleaning path showed an excellent use of the long-exposure technique. In his case, he used a 30s exposure (and a Canon XSi, my all-time favourite camera.)
To achieve this technique, it’s actually pretty simple.
1) Turn the command dial on your camera to “Tv”. This is your shutter-priority mode. The camera calculates the size of the aperture.
2) Dial down the shutter speed to your desired duration.
Tips:
- These kind of shots work well to convey motion Adding a light source into the scene that moves during the exposure will leave a very interseting light trail.
- Dial down the ISO to eliminate noise and to gain control over the aperture.
Give it a try!
Test post with the new theme!
July 11, 08 – 3AM
- unable to fall asleep thanks to green tea frap from starbucks
- still very uncertain about the decision. After all, the monthly statement will be inflated to $70+, which in the light of my usage is overkill.
- went to bed. Decided to try my luck tomorrow when the stores open. If I manage to get one, then it’s meant to be. If not, no big loss.
July 11, 08 – 10:30 AM
- got in line for the iPhone 3G at Am-Call Wireless, authorized dealer for Rogers, at Pacific Mall.
- As you can see below, the lines weren’t long. Just a meagre 10-12 people. For those who aren’t familiar with Pacific Mall, this is a major mall (and physically massive) that serves the Chinese population. There are at least 2 major Rogers dealerships in it, and at least 3 smaller Fido dealerships. 
So fortunately, there wasn’t a great rush. Armed with my trusty Canon, i decided to take a quick stroll around the mall, and see all the iPhone action. Here’s a pic of the employees setting up the iphone.. still unboxing it, and setting up the display.
- The iPhone still covered up at a Fido store — 
-now, I’m back at my store, Am-Call… and guess what i saw – the iPhone that i really want. 
.
July 11, 08 11:00 AM
- the store opens its doors; with anticipation, i decided upon the 16gig. Only thing is that Roger’s Customer SErvice Portal, the thing that handles upgrades is down. *sigh*.
July 11, 08 12:30 PM
- after intermittent coming-alive of the portal, my FIRST iPhone is finally registered and good to go. Just as I was about to be handed over the iPhone, I noticed a scratch on it… a rather unsightly blemish on the silver aluminum. There also seemed to be glue residue around the seems… For an apple product of such costs, i expected quality. The CSR decided to take it back, after a ‘thorough investigation’ that involves a lot of rubbing with a microfibre cloth.
July 11, 08 1:45 PM
- the portal is back online, and the phone is successfully registered.
- onwards, back to home to un-brick the iPhone.
No one says it more eloquently than engadget. (So, why reinvent the wheel.)
”What would you do if the US patent office gave you the go-ahead on a far-reaching, non-specific application filed for a “mobile entertainment and communication device”? If your answer was that you would immediately draw up lawsuits against almost every major electronics manufacturer that even looked at a smartphone funny, you get a cookie. Yes folks, as impossible as it is to believe, the holders of the aforementioned patent have just sued Apple, Nokia, RIM, Sprint, AT&T, HP, Motorola, Helio, HTC, Sony Ericsson, UTStarcomm, and Samsung… amongst others. So eager was this company to sue, in fact, that legal papers were filed a day before the patent was granted, and subsequently had to re-submitted. The real sucker-punch here is that the patent simply combines a list of prior technologies jumbled into one product, a practice which has recently been ruled against by the Supreme Court. Still, we doubt it will stop the holders from trying to nab a few dollars in settlements, staying the work of real innovators, and generally making a mockery of our patent system. Bravo! “
MacWorld 08, being one of most exciting times for all techophiles, promises to be an exciting times this year. Past years we’ve seen the introduction of the iPhone, the iPod, and other products that have both revolutionized the industry and changed the ways in which we live our lives.
This year is just as exciting. There are rumours of the MacBook Nano, a sub-notebook of the Mac family – something that has been tried / produced in a while. Multi-touch interface is also highly hyped this year.
Engadget is doing a live coverage at : http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/15/live-from-macworld-2008-steve-jobs-keynote/ … The SteveNote started at 12PM EST. So far we’ve seen the Time Capsule, a network storage device that I suspect will store “snapshots” of your computer, and will allow you to restore it to a certain point in time.
More to come in a couple hours.
(Apple stocks volatile ahead of MacWorld: http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AAAPL)
Every so often, I get the urge to write about something as soon as I’m reminded of it. This time, it’s the beautiful photography done by Hamish Darwish. His work has been featured and shipped to millions of people as part of Windows Vista’s desktop wallpapers. On http://www.istartedsomething.com/20070126/finding-vista-wallpapers/, is an interesting article on how Microsoft elicited photographs for shipment with Vista. Apparently, they went through over 20,000 photos, over 50 GB of files for the first round.
Nevertheless, two of his work, out of the thirty that he had submitted made it. As for the rest, he’s releasing them in a .zip file on his own web site. (See bottom of: http://www.hamaddarwish.com/vista.html) .
