Yellow School Bus

An American icon, sort of.

This was taken on my way to the first day of the Photoplus expo at Jacob Javits Center.  Shot using a Canon SD880 IS.  Opened in GIMP, scaled to 1600 width and did a bit of USM to make it look sharper.  I wish I am a bit more proficient in enhancing the color, make it more saturated or giving it a technicolor look.  Perhaps I can just underexpose it a bit.  This was pretty much a grab shot but I did try to make sure the bus was right in the middle of the frame.  I was shooting into the light so I was mildly blinded when looking at the LCD screen.  I guess what I was trying to say was I did an excellent job capturing the bus.

First Family Portrait

P090109-0127

Originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream.
First Family picture by acclaimed photographer Annie Leibovitz. The picture is a bit controversial as it's pleasant as it's seemingly ordinary. I don't know if it's a deliberate effort to be low key by the White House or by the photographer. But it's a big departure from Leibovitz generally elaborate celebrity larger than life shots I used to see. Is Leibovitz joining the non art direction and non Photoshop camp? I am not sure. I think there is definitely a revolt against over art direction and over Photoshop in general. This is a good family portrait, like one taken at Sears perhaps, it is homely, cheerful, and effortlessly good looking.

More Cameras

What's not clear in addition to the picture is actually the digital back attached, that's the Hasselblad 39MP CVF-39

 

Canon 1D Mark IV with a 35mm f1.4.  I like.

Project Overcompensation

Canon 1200 mm comes with a price tag of $99,000

Another view of the monster

 

 Bigma

Nikon

liveBooks

Our friends from liveBooks ...

The Leica Man

Me at Photoplus Expo 2009, holding some ridiculously expensive equipments.  On the left (or top if your screen is kind of smallish) is a Leica S2 with a Summarit 70mm f2.5 lens.  On the right (or bottom) is a Leica M9 with some astronomically priced lens.

UPDATE:  There is of course, some interest in the S2 ... I was so enthralled by the mere experience of holding a Leica that costs more than my car so I didn't even notice anything.  Later I read it has some one single AF point.  Yes, you read it right, one, so you won't pick the wrong AF point by mistake.  I think that's kind of neat.  I did remember in the sub par lighting condition that's the expo, the AF wasn't doing its job with any more conviction than my Canon P&S.  Actually I wonder why they bother AF at all, why not just manual focus, I don't think people are going to shoot formula I with an S2.  As to the M9.  It's hefty, more than I imagined it would be, the S2 on the other hand doesn't weigh as massive as it looks, so I don't know. Leica is a brand that is pretty much impervious to negative reviews, plus I guess it really has its merits even most (sorry if you can afford one I don't mean to be offensive) people can't afford one.  So what does it really matter?  If you like it and can afford one, go ahead buy one and call it a day.

Note:  For the fashionista, more utilitarian actually, out there, that's a Uniqlo +J jacket by the purity obsessed Jil Sander as worn here over a 100 years old gray pocket Gap T-shirt.  The jeans was a pair of originally unwashed shrink-to-fit Levi's 501, look what I did to it, it's on the verge of disintegrating and falling apart.  Clear Freeway frame by Shuron USA.  Messenger bag is a Coach.  Not seen are brown Blundstones boots and lime green American Apparel brief.  The hairs, on top of my head and on my face, are all mine.  I finally relented and bought myself a Dovo straight razor, beard, here I come.

Windows 7

Are you 7 enough to use Windows 7?  Windows 7 is not as 7 as I have imagined, at least that's what all the reviews told me so far.  But does it really matter?  Even The New York Times described Windows Vista as "epic fail" but to me, it really doesn't matter.  I just use it to browse the web.  It could well be Windows 3.11.  As an aside, I think the word "fail" is really on fire.  I try to be trendy so I have adopted it to my post usage as well.  I know the really hip people are going to hate that as a hip lingo is once again summarily appropriated and adopted by an uncool person like me and even by the Gray Lady.  There is chance that I will have to go 7, like it or not.  But really it doesn't matter.  Not much anyway.

Canon EOS 1 D Mark IV

As if the world needs another big ass digital camera.  I say yes actually.  Canon just announced its latest high speed professional DSLR that once again offers a dizzying array of features that at once appeal to professional photographers and professional gear heads.  According to my quick glance at dpreview, where else anyway, the new camera has 45 AF points that have the potential to focus correctly as opposed to its predecessor that is mired with focus problems, real or perceived.  The thing offers full 1080p video and can shoot in the dark, i.e. ISO 120400, not that it means anything to me,  It is totally outside of my knowledge and experience.  If with any luck, I may be able to see it in the PhotoPlus in NYC.

The World Is Not Enough Of Apple

There is an avalanche of good news coming from Apple.  First and foremost, the stock is now over $200 and most likely will stay that way and if Cramer would have it, it probably is going to shoot past the $300 or even $400 price point.  Sky is the limit.  As if that is not enough, Apple just rolled out some minor upgrades of its notebook and desktop line, the details of course can be found in Apple's site and other sites that are peripheral and feeding off Apple's success.  The new unibody hard plastic, er, I mean polycarbonate MacBook lacks FireWire and SD slot, bummer.  Perhaps what's old is new again, it just looks like my broken iBook G3 from way back 30 years ago.  Anyway, for FW and SD you have to go MacBook Pro.  Anyway, people are lapping up anything Apple makes.  The state of Apple is strong and reality distorting, just like it should be.  Disclaimer:  I own Apple stock and products.  If you buy Apple stock and end up losing more than your underwear, don't blame it on me.  I can't be responsible for anybody's stupidity and misfortune.

Random Thoughts

It's really not the equipment.  I have similar equipment but my pictures are pedestrian at best.  Mostly I just admire my equipment, they are my objects of affection, sometimes I feel bad for my gears, it's like I never help them fulfill their potentials even they are capable of taking great pictures.  Oleg Noikov's October 21 2009 pictures just blow me away.  Sure I don't have a CFV-39 back but that's not really irrelevant.

Apple Can't Do No Wrong

Just like pseudo model Chrissie Chau, Apple can't do no wrong.  If you disagree, you are wrong.  In the midst or at least the immediate aftermath of an economic death spiral while most companies are struggling to stay afloat, that's with the exception of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, Apple is yet having another stellar quarter.  The share price of Apple hit $200 at some point.  You can see even people are struggling financially and losing their homes to foreclosures, when it comes to computing, people are willing to pay a premium to be cool or perceived to be cool.  You do pay more to be cool, just look at Apple's profit margin.  Apple's gross margin is over 32.26% while Dell was around 20.4%.  Disclaimer:  In the interest of disclosure, I own Apple stock and products (broken G3 iBook and free iPod something, the 512MB gum stick).  If you were to lose more than your underwear buying and selling stock, don't blame it on me.  I can't be responsible for anybody's stupidity and bad luck.

Something About Shoelaces ...

It's the morning rush.  Everybody is in a hurry.  There is no time for anything.  Everybody has to be out at 7:28AM.  That's except for one thing, tying up the shoelace in a butterfly bow securely.

I pulled over the curb once I found out Harry just tucked in his shoelaces instead of doing it the right way--securely tied in a butterfly bow.  I would not tolerate this infraction.  It is one of my many excuses to get mad at them.  I just think there is really no reason not to know how to tie the shoelace.  With the invention of Velcro, both kids and parents are just too happy not to know how to tie their shoes.  If I see any otherwise healthy ten  year old wearing Velcro tied sportshoes not because of any misguided aesthetic reason but out of necessity, it really makes me sick.  I wouldn't like them to just slip in and off a tied pair of shoes either, especially when they whine and scream while trying to squeeze in their untied pair of shoes.  I feel like to yell and slap them around.  But I choose my war to fight, sometimes I just give up and back off.  Like any parents in the morning rush.

Digital Back CFV-39 For Hasselblad

This is a digital back for Hasselblad V series cameras.  I think.  I don't bother to read the fine prints.  Oleg Novikov is in the process of penning his field experience with this 39MP back.  The site is good old html, and I don't know if it has any perma link.  Anyway, do a search or something, the update is on October 17, 2009.

Daily Fodder From Donald

The guy is on a roll.  After playing grammar cop, with spectacular failure, in a legco meeting, Donald Tsang continues his daily blunder by trying to give nepotism a bad name.  The father-in-law of Tsang's son turns out to be a vendor and a likely beneficiary of some government sponsored energy efficient light bulb program.  There won't be any conflict of interest if it has been properly disclosed and approved by some certain branch of government.  It looks like this was not the case.  Another Oopsie from your Chief Executive.

Sourced from mingpaonews.com

The Year After

Dow is inching towards 10,000.  JPMorgan Chase is having spectacular quarter profits.

What happened a year ago seems so far away now.

• Bear got saved by the government and bought by JPMorgan Chase
• Lehman Brothers, not so lucky.  Paulson let it go under.  The bankruptcy had a domino effect, a run on the money market, a liquidity freeze, a collapse of confidence.  Barclays bought part of Lehman at a good price.
• AIG was considered too big to fail and saved by the Fed.
• Merrill Lynch sold at $29 a share to Bank of America.  John Thain got a good deal from Ken Lewis.
• Morgan Stanley was saved by Mitsubishi
• Goldman Sachs got money from Warren Buffett.
• The Fed got Congress to pass legislation to spend $700 billions on TARP.

The free market is not free.  The Fed spent taxpayers' money so the free market can remain free for the bankers.  How we got to the point where we couldn't let one financial institution fail without dire consequence to the whole global market is beyond me.

I am not sure if we are having any financial reform.  Or any health care reform at all.

UPDATE 3:24PM:
Dow passed the 10,000 mark.

Staedtler Eraser

When I was little like eleven or twelve, education was a privilege. We needed to jump through hoops just to go to secondary school (or what we call junior high school here).I remember our primary school teachers made sure we had the right weapons for this Primary Six public examination, i.e. three sharpened HB pencils and a Staedtler eraser for those multiple choice questions. To this day, I still believe in a good eraser. Every time, my kids erase their homework with some sub par eraser, I can't help but tell them to use a real eraser. It irks me to no end seeing them using the eraser head from the pencil.

Nikon D3s

I am live blogging live blogging the supposedly Nikon D3s launch. Just kidding. I can't be live blogging that. Anyway, the "s" is not meant to indicate plural but a new model for the incremental evolutionary upgrade of the Nikon D3 model. There is some excitement, manufactured or not, really depending on who you are, to this launch. And the usual rumor sites are prepared to blog more about this should it really become a real product. The Leica M9 is the camera du jour, everybody is still very much excited about it and got a bit hung over since its 09/09/09 launch. But if you are looking for sheer speed and high ISO and expandability, nothing really beats a Nikon, there I said it--as if I really know what I am talking about. I want a D3 like DSLR with 18MP selling for a thousand bucks. Give it to me Nikon.

UPDATE:
Sorry guys, there isn't really anything first hand here.  But thanks for visiting.
You got to go to Nikonrumors.com to see all the D3s rumors.

Lee Jeans

I remember once upon a time Lee made some killer jeans.  But now in the US, Lee just specializes in selling the ugliest jeans it can possibly make.  They re-design all the good old jeans they can and make them look as ugly as they can possibly make them, the cut, the wash, everything.  If not ugly they simply won't sell them.

I really don't get it.  If only they don't change a thing they would look the best already.  Now instead for the best looking Lee you will have to find them in Europe or in Japan.  America somehow deserves the ugliest looking Lee jeans.

GPS Experience

I am spoiled by Google Map and Google in general.  So when I have to type in something in my GPS, and it takes like a minute to give me choices I am not at all happy.

J Crew and Levi's

I don't know what Levi's was thinking.  But I guess if the price is right, one can sell his mother.  That's what I feel about the transaction between J Crew and Levi's.  Allegedly Levi's sold its LVC, or Levi's Vintage Clothing (Collection?) to J. Crew.  If you were to do a relevant search on Google you probably can find traces of this relationship.  I don't know it's made public or if it's even true but that's what I have gathered from my source.  The collection typically sells for $200 for a vintage 501 replica and I guess J. Crew would probably jack it up maybe 25% more why 25% because that's what Google cache is telling me.

UPDATE 2 seconds after the above and some Google result reading:
The above was indeed old news.  I found reports on that in August.  So it's a done deal.  My post trying to be a fashionista fails. Miserably.  I guess the LVC is not offered online.

I Love You All

Again it's time to thank a very small number but dedicated readers out there ... some where--my imagination runs wild during this time of the day.

Clean Is Not Enough

Empire State Of Mind
warning: explicit lyrics, maybe offensive.

Every time somebody reminds me how dirty New York is, I just shrug.

"When you leave New York, you are astonished at how clean the rest of the world is.  Clean is not enough."--Fran Lebowitz.

Bear Mountain Trail

I am still searching my own identity in this world.  One of the roles I play regularly is my boys' Dad, though I am definitely not going to get any Oscar award for that judging from my lackluster performance.

It was a five-hour hike and I made it back alive without totally embarrassing myself and my kids, I think.  Just look at the pictures, I was always the last one trying to catch up, always on the verge of losing my will to walk another step or live another day.

The inept photographer in me says:  notice the purple fringing around the tree branches?  I think Canon compacts or maybe most compacts have this problem when shooting directly into the sunlight.  But big deal, I'll just leave it as it is.  If National Geographic decides to call me, which is like never, then I will learn how to remove this purple fringing thing.  For now, I just love the color purple.

Ralph Lauren

FAIL.
 

Photoshop fail, legal fail, publicity fail, what now, fashion fail?

I think the dude is selling Americana, like romantic vision of the great American ideals, great outdoors, freedom and individual liberty.  But dude is suppressing freedom of speech through some big wig lawyers.  Shame on you cowboy.

via bb via Conscientious via hongkie tweet.  Yes, I am just recycling the news.  No you won't see the picture except via the link.  I am afraid I will get a cease and desist from Polo.

Note:  There is no freedom of speech in this blog.  Comment at your own risk.

The Inevitable Pseudo Intellectualization of The Pseudo Model Phenomenon Part II

Don't let this die.

I can really appreciate the humility of this chick girl.  She is the first to admit she is the one to blame for perhaps her sub-par performance, because as she puts it she doesn't have "enough ink" in her to answer those supposedly intellectually profound and challenging questions--my words not hers.  I mean how can you hate her?   Her meteoric rise to fame and fortune can be attributed to her good look and good management.  But I guess it's also because she is a girl of our time.  By that I mean she didn't come from any of the traditional establishment in Hong Kong, i.e. traditional TV beauty pageant.  People are already deeply critical and cynical of traditional TV if not downright sick and tired of it.  And Chau proves that those people are right.  TVB can no longer be the arbiter or purveyor of taste, or as a gatekeeper and hold you back to become successful though it may help when you have it on your side.  The public, read guys, don't need TVB to tell them which chick has the beauty and the brain to be named Miss Hong Kong, not anymore and not even relevant to a large part of the populace.  The most severe critics that I am aware of turn out to be from the good old fashioned venues, some chick from a beauty pageant and a woman whose dad is a billionaire casino mogul and an openly practicing polygamist.  Both suggest Chau, is pandering to sex and bad taste in general, and hence deserves absolutely no respect and worse is like committing the  biggest crime ever, which is mind-boggling considering both are in the same business though admittedly with less publicity and grassroots support than Chau.  Epic fail.  People tend to root for the underdog and the underdog is Chau.

The Inevitable Pseudo Intellectualization of The Pseudo Model Phenomenon

The first rule of being a model, you don't talk.  The second rule of being a model, refer to rule number one.

The inevitable pseudo intellectualization of the pseudo model begins.  Epic Fail.  I like her the same regardless. (note to Chau:  don't be intimidated, if you were, by this professor or the academic setting, his questions aren't necessarily hard or intellectually challenging.  If you feel like it's a dumb question, probably it is.  What's profound is how far you have gone from where you were to where you are now.  Enjoy your fame and fortune.)

via ESWN

Success Has Many Parents ...

picture via wiki

Success has many parents while failure is always an orphan.  (update 10/11/09:  apparently it's no long available as linked image from wiki, but single click on it still gives you the picture, so click away.)

Charles K Kao, Nobel prize winner.

Failure Is An Orphan

Epic fail.

Just take him, anybody?



via ESWN

Jackie Chan, unintentionally funny.

Cast Iron Grill Pan With Ridges

I am a fan of cast iron cookwares.  I guess I must have said it a dozen times already.  What can I say?  I got nothing better to write about.  This one has ridges, so you can really make nice looking grill marks on it.  It's also coated with enamel on the outside which I don't think is necessary but can add different colors to  the same pan for aesthetic and marketing reasons.  Some has the enamel on the cooking surface so that makes it non-reactive to acidic food, me think.

Patricia Cornwell

I like her novels.  She is reliable and I feel like she's always done her work.

Cable

I am happy with the HD pictures from cable.  I have seen HD pictures from satellite, and I have to say they look pretty bad to me.  I don't know if it's the setting or what.  So I never bother to switch to dish.  Plus I am a man of habit.  But since this summer, I don't know exactly when, the cable software got changed, and I don't like it one bit.  I think there had been a few random reboots already.  The navigation is not anywhere near intuitive, there are times when the navigation seems dead end, you just can't back out or exit your way out the menu.  The interface is worse off than before upgrade.

Letterman Owning The Narrative Of His Own Story

Instead of just watching others make fun of himself, he makes fun of himself and makes a show out of it.  A week after he broke the news that he was being extorted for having affairs with his staff, Letterman once again takes control and shape his own story.  He makes fun of his affair and shortcomings during his entire opening monologue.  He goes on to apologize to his wife, Regina and even once again apologize to Sarah Palin, perhaps just for comical effect.  The only problem I see with his affairs is he was doing that with his underlings.  Does it amount to sexual harassment, an abuse of power?  Or was he just a sugar daddy?

Well the truth will probably set him free.

FTC

The FTC announced today that bloggers should clearly disclose whether a post is editorial or advertisement when something like payments and free products are involved.  All my posts are editorial because nobody in his right mind is going to pay me anything.  I always appreciate bloggers who are upfront about the goodies they receive and clearly state that hey, this is an ad instead of a regular blog post.  Because some readers just don't have it in them to discern the difference.

via theonlinephotographer.

Recession. What Recession?

Photo jacked from Nytimes.com.  Copyright belongs to its rightful owner.  Photo by Danielle Levitt

This pair of artfully aged and perfectly torn jeans is selling for $575 at Barneys New York.  You just want to kill yourself, don't you?  It's like people have a lot of money and willing to spend a lot of them to just look like not rich or some hobos.  People are too ashamed of their wealth or what?  I guess I will never ever find out in my lifetime how the rich people think  I wear torn and deconstructed jeans too, but I don't pay people to do it for me because that would be too contrived and too expensive.

To learn more ridiculously expensive stuff or stuff that makes you want to kill yourself, click here.

Overgrown Fig Tree From Neighbor

Chinatown

I just got my film back from processing.  I mailed them on Monday 9/21 during lunch break on priority mail.  Today is Saturday 10/3.  Usually I am fine with the time it takes to get back the pictures.  But it just seems a bit too long.  As usual, the majority or should I say all of the pictures are sub standard.  Technically they are by and large OKAY.  I mean, you can't really go wrong shooting in auto, can you?

Chinatown

Breakfast At Home

This one comes out all right, (by my probably ill informed standard that is). I think ideally I should shoot a single roll of film under the same lighting condition so when I develop, the same roll would get the same effect, consistently good or bad. I mean you can't develop frame by frame from a 120 roll film. Anyway, for me, all different lightings across a roll of 120. So it's not really that great when it comes to develop. More work needs to be done after developing when it comes to print.

Bark

The scans come back OKAY, but the prints look pretty bad, The majority of the pictures I took them with a yellow filter in the front, I was hoping it would increase the contrast a bit. Still some of them came out pretty flat, just a mushy shade of gray, in part could be a result of overcast outdoor lighting; there was no black at all. It's hard to take good pictures and it's even harder to get some nice black and white prints. I am still agonizing, like I do with many things most of the time, over if I should proceed to develop my own black and white. I don't want to just buy stuff and end up not using them.

A Day In The Park

Big Disappointment From Big Wong

I like to exaggerate.  It's a disappointment, even it's not big, in the scheme of things.

Last night I was in Chinatown.  I went to Big Wong.  I ordered a rice plate of Roast Pork and Roast Duck over rice.  It came instead Chicken and Roast Duck over rice.  I was OKAY with that.  I took a look at the check, the waiter got it right, at least on the check  Probably the kitchen messed up or the waiter ordered it wrong.  Anyway it didn't bother me much.  The dish was definitely below average.  The rice wasn't warm or soft and the meat, both the roast pork and the chicken were below average.  I have it much better in mid town.  So I was disappointed given that it's the very famous Big Wong in Chinatown.

Bring Sexy Back To The Armed Force

Photo: Diego Azubel/European Pressphoto Agency jacked from nytimes.com.  Copyrights of photo belongs to its rightful owners.

Sex And Violence.

Nothing sexier than a legion of women soldiers decking out in hot pink skirts and toting some seemingly semi automatic weapons.

China Celebrates 60 Years of Communist Rule

China’s leaders marked their nation’s 60th anniversary on Thursday with a precision display of military bravado that included, improbably, a female militia unit toting submachine guns and attired in red miniskirts and white jackboots, and a fleet of floats with representations of a giant fish and Mount Everest.

Letterman

Letterman is enjoying unprecedented ratings.  But I am mildly disturbed by a couple of recent incidents, not even counting his latest:  he admitted he was bedding some staffers.  The first was during the pre-interview of President Obama, he was making fun of the woman who brought the heart-shaped potato.  I don't like it how he made fun of her especially she was/is a fan and a woman.  Then came another show when he again made fun of an Indian guy who asked for a jacket or jackets to bring back to India for Christmas.  In the end he got a couple "skankets" from guest Bruce Willis.  I don't know whether the show did or did not give him a jacket or jackets.  Granted the guy was aggressive but sometimes all you need is to ask for what you want.  I like Letterman when he makes fun of the rich and famous but not when put down his audience in some sort of borderline insulting ways.

Ken Reviewing M9

I am live blogging Ken live blogging his M9 review.  M9 is now in his, gasp, "sticky little hands" now as he puts it.  I have no idea why they are sticky.  Could that be he is in Arizona?  Or because of something insidious?  Anyway, I am delighted to read his review.  I can't possibly link to his article as there isn't any permalink yet, he's still crafting his html like in the 80s.

UPDATE:
For what is worth, here is the link about sharpness.  I didn't own any of the cameras and unlikely to get any one of them, but I found it pretty appalling that given the founding as it is, the Canon whatever Mark II can't even focus correctly.  I think that's pretty ludicrous.  I guess some people are going to suggest you need to use certain focusing technique, i.e. suggesting it's a user error.  But I don't buy it one bit.  If I paid $2,700, or even $270 I fully expect it, and rightfully so, to acquire focus 99.99% all the time with all my manufacturer's lenses.  I like how Ken says it without irony or anything, "and let the Canon shoot at f/8 since it was having a focus problem." like as a matter of fact.
----
I just now went to dpreview.com, somebody is saying the same thing with Canon 7D, focus problem.  I think even long time ago, when the Canon whatever 1DMarkII came out, it had focusing problem too, and Canon even acknowledged it and it was a big big deal.  I simply cannot believe that.

Not counting any P&S, the lowly Nikon D70 and my ancient F5 never have any auto focusing issue.  They are so reliable that it's just ridiculous.  Reading all these online hearsays about Canon auto focus problems spanning from one model to another over the years, I guess I would never ever take a chance with their DSLR.

Film Processing

I live in NYC, yet I send my films elsewhere for processing and scanning.  I still haven't found the one with the price point and the quality and the convenience I like.  I thought I did, but it didn't quite work out.  I am not even aware if B&H or Adorama process any film any longer.  If I were to develop my film then I very much would limit myself to black and white processing.  But to make a print I'll have to either scan it or get an enlarger.  As an aside, when I typed enlarger in eBay for a search on photo enlarger I got something totally different from what I have in mind, photographically.  The turn around of any mail order develop and scan has been painfully slow, always to the tune of a week or ten days counting shipping.  So there is really no instant gratification.  One time I was at a local CVS, I asked a youngster manning the photo developing machine if they scan film while developing he says yes but when asked how big and what dpi, he was just like me, clueless.  I thought he looked nerdy enough to know the in and out of his photo processing but no.  I thought I might get lucky to get my film developed at CVS but I guess not.  Also, I found out films are pretty expensive, a roll of 36 Tri-X at CVS is selling more than $6.  I think that's pretty steep.

What Camera To Buy

Usually nobody asks me for any camera recommendation.  Because people are generally smarter than what I give credit to.

In the rare circumstances when people did ask me I usually didn't know what to recommend.  Or I seriously afraid I would recommend the wrong ones.  And they will forever think lowly of me.  Contrary to what most people think, I do care what people think of me.

I was at a birthday party in a roller skating rink, doing double axels, triple loops and the quad salchows to the tune of I Gotta Feeling and You Belong With Me, the crowd went nuts and was cheering and clapping for me.  I was the center of attention.  While I was enjoying the spotlight, my wife pulled me aside and introduced me to this lady who wanted to get a camera.  I was flattered but I really didn't know where to begin.  So I just handed my lowly Nikon D70 and 18~70 kit lens and asked her to shoot.  I told her to shoot using P, and tried to explain ISO and flash (I wonder if I would be that generous and easy if that was a $7000 M9 with a $2000 lens attached, but I am afraid I would never find out).  Anyway, I was a bit lost as I don't know what she likes or not likes.  I told her if she can put up with the weight then sure a DSLR with changeable lens is good if action and flexibility are what she is after, otherwise any point and shoot will do the job just fine.  She seemed quite satisfied with the shooting and my explanation.  I hope she enjoys whatever she gets.

For me, I just like cameras, any good cameras.

My Misadventure of Simple Back Up

I knew it. I knew I am the kind of person who should never do any backup or anti-virus kind of protection. It's just not me.

I thought I got everything covered after I bought my external enclosure and a 500MB hard drive. I run the Simple Back Up program on schedule. And one day I found out my harddrive was full 100%. To make the long story short, Simple Back Up is just as smart as me, which is to say not very smart and rather erratic. The time I didn't turn on my external hard drive, Simple Back Up still wanted to backup, you know kind of over enthusiastic in its work ethic. Instead of backing up to my designated partition, it just went ahead and backed up to /media. On some nights I notice under the top command that gzip is running even though my external hard drive is off. But I never thought too much about it because I thought the program might be checking for content for incremental backup. Seriously, what do I know? At first glance it seemed the gvfs-fuse-daemon was at default. So I was tempted to just remove the /.gvfs. Good thing I did more Googling before I did something I would later regret even I have a serious death wish. In the end, I could safely confirm that Simple Back Up is dumping stuff to where it shouldn't be. It took me a while to figure out things got dumped to /media, yes, I was that slow. I proceeded to delete them and delete them again in the root trash folder.

In the end, it wasn't all bad. Just a few hours of frustrations.

So I am not backing up anymore, at least not automatically.

Random Post

I had no idea Clinton and Letterman are the same age until Letterman mentioned it on the show. I don't know why Letterman keeps wearing the brown plastic frame that he is wearing. The frame keeps fogging up. It fogs up whenever he wears it and it has become a distraction; I would pay attention to his right lens looking for signs of mist to form instead of paying attention to whatever funny stuff he has to say. Ditch the frame or redo the lenses.

Like Letterman said, Clinton is extremely smart, still. And I like how he philosophizes and breaks issues down. Clinton talked very little about his North Korea trip and only said that it was at the journalists' families request that he takes the trip. And he was very respectful to the present administration, in part, I guess it's his nature and in part his wife is with the administration. His role on the North Korea trip was pure humanitarian and therefore should be construed as such. He is not going to express any more opinion on Kim or North Korea than he already had, so as not to influence the present administration or the sitting president's policy on North Korea.

President Week

This is like president week for Letterman. Tonight, Obama will be on Dave's show, the first sitting president ever to be on a Late Show. Then tomorrow, Tuesday, it's Bill Clinton's turn. Clinton has so far never made any comment regarding his North Korea trip. So it's interesting to actually see him talk about it in his own word. At least I am not aware he ever talk about it. I assume Letterman is going to ask him questions regarding his rescue mission in North Korea.

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Taiwan 2009

The Recession Is Over ...

... for Apple. Apple is hitting some 52-week high in the stock market, just days after the one year anniversary of the financial market meltdown. Some analysts even go on to say this 52-week high can become 52-week low in anticipation of even better performance from Apple because of robust growth attributed to iPhone and the App Store sales or what have you from Jobs and his team. Apple is now $179 or about, up more than $4 from yesterday's close.

Reading Leica M9 Reaction

Dante Stella's Surviving the horrors of 9/9/M9
Philip Greenspun's The Leica M9, one for the marketing textbooks.

Del Portro

It took another Spanish speaking, sleeveless T-shirt wearing young man to beat Federer.

Del Portro ended Federer's winning streak in the US Open by securing a five-set victory in Flushing Meadows. The 20-year old Argentine had a shaky start on the first set but stood his ground as the match progressed. Too bad the match began around 4 in the afternoon and my VCR wasn't set up to record the match in its entirety. So by the time I found out rather serendipitously by surfing to channel 702 as the match was still playing. But it was match point number 3 on the fifth set already. On his quest to the US Championship, Del Portro beat Nadal and and in the end 5-time US Open Champion Federer, a feat that legitimizes him as a rising talent.

As a side note, Serena finally issued another statement apologizing for her behavior yesterday and re-iterated her apology in the post match interview after the Williams sisters won the Women's Double. Man, Venus Williams just acted surly and all that. I think I used to like them better. Now it's like wow, they can't be bothered. With talks of suspension and prize money forfeited and tons of bad press, I think an apology is definitely the smart thing to do.

Clijsters Won

Big mama won it all. Not only did she win the US Open Championship, she also won the hearts of tennis fans. Best come back story of 2009.

US Open

The weather finally cooperates.

The women's semi is underway.

Clijsters is leading Willams one set to none. Serena finished the first set by smashing and breaking her racquet. Kim Clijsters is such a silent killer though out this tournament.

update:

Serena has cranked up her game in the second set. But Clijsters is just fearless and extremely composed. Serena's grunting and anger don't bother her. She is pounding the ball with depth, speed and enormous power. Serena is in unfamiliar territory now.

update:

Clijsters is leading 5-4 on the second set. Serena is serving to live another on the US Open. Clijsters is able to get Williams running and out of position. A feat that most players can't do.

Now it's five all. Clijsters leads 6-5. Serena serves to survive.

update:

That is outrageous. That's going to tarnish Williams reputation as a sportsman. She was called for foot fault by a line person. Then led to match point. Then led to her verbal abuse of the line person. Through out the match, Williams had been outplayed by Clijsters. And Williams just somehow stole Clijsters glory by walking off the court. She was booed by the crowd as she waved and walked off the court. Losing is not easy but by cursing the line person not once but twice just made it worse than it's already been.

update:

If you thought Serena's on court antics was bad, wait till you see her post match press conference. She acted if that was no big deal and very dismissive of the whole thing. OKAY, she is intense, she is good, she gives 200% on court, McEnroe is her idol, she is the world real number one even though Safina officially is, but can she at least say she is sorry for her on court misbehavior? She just made it worse by acting nonchalant when she was given the chance just to show maybe a tad of contrition.

update:
I think what's so offensive, in addition to her on court misbehavior, was her after match press conference, when given the time and distance to reflect and to explain herself. The New York Times' Liz Robbins says Williams appears "eerily composed" after the matcd. I think that's too generous of her. I think Serena was just being smug. She can't possibly defend the indefensible as what (her idol) John McEnroe says probably referring to his past behavior as much as Serena's. She was wrong on the court, and she was wrong again in the post game interview.

update:

Serena Williams got fined for $10,000 for I guess conduct unbecoming as in going berserk during the semi final on Flushing Meadows. And she was fined another $500 for smashing her racquet. Pocket change for Williams as she is a millionaire many times over. Today she issued a statement via a PR firm which probably cost her more than the measly fine. The statement is just a statement trying to I guess to avoid any lengthy suspension from the USTA or whatever governing body. Of course, the statement offers no apology to anybody whatsoever, not the lineperson, not the audience, not the youngsters who look up to her. Because, she is Serena, she can say anything she wants. She was wrong on the court, she was wrong in the news conference, and she was wrong again in the prepared statement.

US Open

It all began inauspiciously when Oudin's youngest sister, Christina, apparently not a spelling bee, spelled "BELIEVE" as "BELEIVE" when asked by Pam Shriver, one of the female commentators, to spell the catch word Oudin has been using to propell her all the way to the quarterfinal of this US Open, before the beginning of the match. Oudin proceeded to play the match against 19 year old Wozniacki from Denmark. She was tight and nervous and never got herself in the zone. In the end, Wozniacki didn't break much of a sweat to win the match in two sets. Oudin was visibly disappointed and on the verge of tears. As if it wasn't bad enough for Oudin, Shriver did the unthinkable, she went to interview Oudin right away as in "right now" as Oudin was overheard asking her back. Shriver got her on court interview in front of everyone in the audience and at home and prefaced it with an opening "We don't usually interview the loser ..." immediately followed by "but you are not a loser ..." blah blah blah if that will kind of make it right. Why choose the word "loser" to begin with, it's such a bad word choice. I think Pam Shriver should be suspended from interviewing for the rest of this tournament. She needs to go to one of those sensitivity workshop.

The Unstoppable iPod Evolution Continues

iPod nano now has video capture capability and can receive FM radio. iPod touch is positioned more than a glorified mp3 player, it's a pocket PC, no I mean Mac, and a gaming device that competes head to head with platforms like Sony's PSP and Nintendo DS. That's pretty much what I got away from browsing the usual Apple mongering sites. Oh, one more thing, surprise, Jobs was back on stage. Apple stock went down more than a dollar so far.

090909

dpreview Leicalized logo cropped from dpreview.com

The camera that you have been waiting for all your life: Leica M9. The camera is announced today but in reality days ago the specification of the camera has been leaked like an old man who has problem controlling his bladder. Bits of specification have been dripping off from those rumor sites unabated.

Dpreview of course, played by the rule and, surprise, totally Leicalized themselves probably for the day, and only has the hands-on preview out today. I don't know if the logo was done for fun or paid for. In any event, it's pretty clever.

The price? Okay, it's a measly £4,650 or US$6,995 over here. But since you ask, you probably can't afford one anyway. By the way, the Leica websites are crashing and burning probably under heavy traffic, hopefully their Internet performance or lack thereof is not a reflection of the quality of the M9. Well it really doesn't matter to me anyway. What I actually want to find out is Will it blend? My guess is it won't.

Leica M9

If you have to ask the price, you can't afford one. It's destined to be the most coveted and adulated camera for this year. Owning one, people will resent you for as long as you live.

US Open

Some crazy game is going on on Flushing Meadows now. Teenager Woznacki is battling against veteran Kuznetsova who is grunting and pounding the balls with searing force and depth. So far she has saved like a handful of match points. Now she is forcing a tie break. Kuznetsova is unbelievably tough and yet sometimes, she just hit some stupid shots to send the ball to the net, it's weird. As to the teenager she got an all round game and she is not intimidated by all the gruntings by Kuznetsova.

UPDATE:
19 year old Caroline Woznacki from Denmark is going to the quarterfinal. Kuznetsova hit some what-was-she-thinking shots which I am sorry she regretted very much. Moving forward Woznacki will be facing Oudin. Oudin is competitive but I have to give the edge to Woznacki just because she sort of got the height. Oudin has a lot to do to make up for her physical disadvantage, so far she has proved she has done an excellent job on the court despite her 5'6" frame. On the other hand Caroline Woznacki is 5'10", it going to help her pound the ball and placing the ball.

US Open

Venus Williams is in a state of shock and disbelief. Kim Clijsters is forcing a third set from Venus' bad knee and her oversized crest. Well it's now match point number one from Clijster and the crowd is cheering on ... Clijsters delivered the bomb and won. Through out the match she has remained calm and collected, and let her skills do the talking. Well at least we don't have a two Williams final, that's for sure. Apparently Clijsters is well liked here in the Open. Big Bad Mama still has it in her, a wife, a mother and a great tennis player even after a two year hiatus.

US Open

It's Saturday night and all the major networks or cable TVs have stopped broadcasting the US Open. CBS is playing 48 hour mystery while ESPN2HD is playing NASCAR, so much so for the US tennis. To watch the match live, I have to go to the usopen.org which is not all that bad considering the alternative is no match at all, thanks to Big Blue and Akamai.

Andy Roddick dug deep and pushed to have a fifth set against fellow American player John Isner. In the end, he wasn't good enough to move to the round of 16. It's disappointing. It will be good to see he capture one more Grand Slam, just one more. I think there is still enough left in him to do just that.

Surprise

Surprise, the kids are listening to popular songs already via Z100. So pretty soon they will be asking me for those glorified mp3 devices, actually it's been brought up once but I just happily ignored it. It seems like overnight. And they have a presence online. I think it's just the way things are. I have no intention to turn back the clock or demonize all online activities.

US Open

I think we have found a feisty female dog in Oudin, the new hope of American women's tennis. Her quickness, deep forehand are giving Sharapova a lot of troubles, of course compounded with her self-inflicted countless double faults, Oudin is leading the third set three games to one. Sharapova is digging deep despite her erratic serves. Once she got into a rally she can be dangerous, her two-handed backhand is still as lethal as ever. Both women are extremely competitive. Right now, Oudin got the edge being the one with nothing to lose, I mean she is only seventeen. Two female dogs are throwing everything they have at each other. What a game to watch.

UPDATE
Sharapova put up a good fight but not enough to deter the meteoric rise of young Oudin. Oudin is taking flight in this US Open ... with the help of her funky tacky and what look like sized 11 "Believe" Adidas shoes.

I Gotta Feeling

warning: risque content

Black Eyed Peas' I Gotta Feeling totally dominated the airwave this summer. The amount of airplay is just phenomenal, I think everybody is brainwashed at this point unless you have been living under a rock. I heard it at least twice on TV during the US Open. The first time I heard the song was when the group performed on Late Show with David Letterman. Ever since that, it has been non-stop.

Panasonic GF1

Panasonic announces its GF1 the much anticipated micro 3/4 answer to Olympus EP-1 which some questioned an epic fail. Leica on 9/9/09 is going to announce another camera most likely an upgrade to its M8.2 model which of course I have no idea.

US Open 2009

Serena Williams decks out in an exceedingly smart outfit by Nike--black on the outside purple on the inside one piece skirt with oversized purple headband to match. Looking sharp. And her outsized talent can only be matched with her supersized ear rings. Her opponent, Czink wears similar ear rings only ten times smaller, as if an apt indication of their relative tennis talents.

US Open 2009

Federer, in a break to usual scheduling, got to play first in the evening matches before Serena's women's match. I don't know if there are any reasons to this change of scheduling. Is it a one time thing, a Federer thing or just a random thing? I have no clue.

Federer is back to black with contrasting red placket and collar. Nike really got the fit right, the rest of the sponsors are still making shirts that can double as tents for camping, way too big.

Federer is dictating the game from the get go, looks like Serena doesn't have to wait too long to show off her night outfit.

US Open 2009

Nadal is versing Gasquet. So far Nadal is winning, leading two sets to none.

None of his knees are taped and the guy is returning serves and hitting forehands ten feet behind the baseline. Odd. I don't know what it means except it shows his knees are well enough and he has big biceps which I think is pretty well established long time ago. He is also sliding and gliding on hardcourt as if he is on clay. Crazy. Nadal's attire, yellow form fitting tennis shirt and black shorts, is so normal, compared to his archenemy, he seems oddly abnormal in the US Open. Perhaps he should reunite with his clam diggers and sleelveless muscle Tee to at least look the part.

UPDATE:

Gasquet is going to enjoy the rest of the summer as Nadal just sent the guy home after a straight three-set victory. I don't think Nadal played particularly well, just well enough to defeat Gasquet.

US Open 2009

Mattek-Sands is rocking a pair of tubesocks in the US Open. Instead of taking the tried and tired route of super sized crest and monogram, Mattek-Sands puts on a pair of knee-high tube socks, kind of counter programming in this Grand Slam tennis fashion event. Let's see if we will see more of the tubesocks. Right now, Venus Williams' crest and her bandaged knee took the first set.

update:

So big crest sent tubesock home early. Oh well, perhaps Mattek-Sands can model for American Apparel or something.

US Open 2009

Thousands and thousands of emails are flooding my inbox asking me why I don't have any US Open pictures for the opening weekend free admission event. If you are an avid reader of this blog, then you would have known I was away doing some daredevil whitewater rafting in Pennsylvania. Anyway, there won't be any pictures for that weekend. And even more unlikely any pictures of any real matches there. If you want to see pictures, I am afraid you have to resort to the official US Open website or the likes.

Venus Williams almost lost it. Dressed in pink and with a gigantic crest on her back that would make Federer jealous and put Polo's big pony to shame (and the rest of us mildly disgusted), Venus was struggling until she realized she would be on her way out on the first evening of the Grand Slam event. Anyway she dug deep and pulled herself out despite her knee problem compounded with an awful crest on her back. Nothing Dushevina could do once Venus was on fire. The End.

Cabin

The camera doesn't come with a square format. So I did it in post production.

Rafting

Data Recovery

The 857th picture recovered. Camping 2009. The Canon SD880 IS, though is not water proof, but it did survive our 4 hour grueling white water rafting trip on Lehigh River. (the grueling and white water parts are of course my exaggeration, but the camera did get wet inside my pocket)

I thought I protected the last 23 pictures before I erased all the pictures in my camera. But apparently I didn't protect any pictures at all. When I pressed Play, it said no images. I am now enjoying data recovery from my SDHC card. The data recovery is in chronological order so I am recovering my earliest pictures which I actually don't need. I just need the last pictures. I am letting the program runs its course, so far I've recovered some 300 jpeg files. Not bad at all.

UPDATE 8/31/09
I almost recovered all the jpegs. Of the 857 files, only the first picture got corrupted, the rest are all safe and sound. Here is my experience.
I inadvertently erased all the files from the SDHC, thinking that I protected some of the images. I did not.
I didn't do any write to the card, that is, I left the card alone once I found out I made a mistake.
I searched online and found a freeware, called PC Inspector smart recovery. It took a minute to download and install.
I ran the program, then plugged in the SDHC card. The program didn't see the card. I exited the program, and re-run it, then the card was seen by the program.
It took 7.5 hours to recover the 857 files from the 8GB SDHC card and wrote to my notebook HD. All the files I wanted to recover were recovered.

News From The Far Side: Lau Still Wants To Be Your Dream Lover

劉德華前晚與朱麗倩四手交纏返港，他保護女友行經被歌迷讚Man
picture and caption from mingpao.com

Holy cow, Lau still wants to be your dream lover.

I was having lunch at my desk and yes, you guessed it, I puked all over the keyboard when I read about it. I did not make this up. Lau said it himself as quoted by mingpao. In his blog, he says, as alleged by mingpao and I quote (being an irresponsible person, I didn't go and check Lau's blog, I simply don't have the stomach. OKAY, I finally did, but the navigation is just so blah, I would never find it even if I tried ....):

仍然可以夢中見嗎？？？？我收回這句、繼續夢中見..............zzzzzzzz

Gosh, the guy is like still living in his own little fantasy world I guess: Oh, I am your dream lover (gasp). Let's meet in your dream and .... Is there anything wrong with it per se? I am not sure ... it's just that some of his fans are mentally challenged or something? Or is he just so condescending, he talks to his fans like they are some 10 years old's?

What's "十指緊扣" evil twin sister? It's "四手交纏"

Anyway back to the caption. I applaud the caption writer of mingpao for coming up with this new (and improved?) "四手交纏" instead the usual tired, cliched "十指緊扣." At least nobody (it's just me actually) can accuse the caption writer for being lazy and keeps using the time tested "十指緊扣" whenever a couple is holding hands . Though it's not exactly accurate looking at the picture, at most there are only three hands tangled together. I know I am just nit picking. Let's see if this newly coined corny expression "四手交纏" have any staying power, co-exist with or totally dethrone the time worn and tested "十指緊扣." Or it will quickly go to oblivion and be forgotten.

News From The Far Side: Forbidden Love

華仔朱麗倩十指緊扣返港

24年情終破禁

Headline and picture via Mingpao.com, picture credited to (星洲日報). This whole silly misleading illustration by yours truly.

Look how happy, proud, contented the guy is ... I would be like that too if only my super duper idol Lau holds my hand like so ....

I thought the tired, overused, cliched expression "十指緊扣" is dead already. Well I guess it's very much alive, what can I say?
What is the deal with the face mask? Is it for the prevention of the swine flu? Or does it even matter? Or is it a way to protest the suffocating and worsening air condition? Or is it a silly way to stay anonymous? Is he losing it?

Pet Peeve

Don't you hate it when you need to print something and the printer is taking its sweet time to warm up? Everybody can pay lip service to environmentalism but when it really inconveniences us then forget about it. When I want to print I want to print now.

My Fifteen Movies

Due to a severe lack of talent and imagination and general indolence, I am going to write my own 15 movies kind of post. As I am writing it, more like dragging my feet on it, I really am not sure if there are 15 of them. You know it takes much effort to come up with a list, let alone a list of 15 items. Here they are, not in any particular order.

Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer (1986)

I managed to sit through this master piece of random violence. It was a 90-minute relentless assault on humanity. After the movie, I wasn't the same sweet innocent person I was before. At the end of the movie, nothing redeems itself. People just die and the killer moves on. Shocking. Just like in the real world. I haven't watched it again ever since I met the movie in one rainy evening in September 1990. To me, actor Michael Rooker is forever Henry.

Ai no corrida (In the realm of the senses, 感官世界 1976)

Disturbing. If you want to be disturbed, check it out and watch it back to back with Henry: The Portrait of a Serial Killer. Your life will be destroyed.

The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)

When compared to Henry, The Silence Of The Lambs seems like a walk in the park. It is a good thriller, both the book and the movie adaptiation, they should have stopped making yet another sequel or prequel after that.

The Unbearable Lightless Of Being (1988)

I have a weakness for arty farty movies. The book is pretty good, I think I read it a few times. It has certain appeals especially when you are a arty farty college student. All men want to be Tomas, to a certain extent, smart, righteous, and above all, a chick magnet. Daniel Day-Lewis is a lean mean sex machine.

La Femme Nikita (1990)

Another silly film by Luc Bresson. The gun is big and sexy. And She is holding it in her hand. I saw it in Angelica on Houston. Another pretentious move trying to be arty farty.

無能情聖戲嬌娃
I never saw this fascinating sounding movie. But the movie title intrigues me. The one who came up with the title was pure evil genius.

望鄉 (Sandakan No. 8, 1974)

I don't remember the story, but watching Japanese movies, to a large extent, is about experiencing the sensibility. The title is by itself enthralling already. You don't even have to see the movie.

Basic Instinct (1992)

I thought there would be nude scenes every other minute. Alas, there weren't and I was hugely disappointed.

Caligola (1979)

I never really saw the whole movie. I shamelessly fast forward, pause, and rewind through the entire DVD. The movie is pretty disturbing and hard to watch.

E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)

What can I say? I was young and innocent and I fell prey to Steven Spielberg's tear jerking exploit and Hollywood's propaganda machine. But I think the movie was pretty good. A friend of mine says ET means the extra testicle. It actually rolls off the tongue easier. Try it.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)

Same as above. I was at awe and thoroughly entertained. I don't think I could ever get that feeling back.

Citizen Kane (1941)

Orson Welles' seminal work. I saw the movie just so I can say I've seen this fine movie about rosebud.

春光乍洩 Chun Gwong Cha Sit (1997)

Does Wong Kar Wai ever wake up in the middle of the night, drowned in his own sweat, and say, "'I am such a fraud.'"? I think this is one of his better works. He tried so hard to tell a story of two persons trying to live together without killing each other.

The 400 Blows (1959)

If French cinema was ever the New Wave, then The 400 Blows was the crest of that wave. It finally hit me in 2008 when I saw it on DVD. It doesn't blow at all. The movie is mesmerizing.

獨臂刀 (1967)
Even you lose your arm, you can still fight like a man and kill them all. That's the message. I found Mandarin enormously entertaining and fun. The word "know" or "知道" sounded like "pig trough" to my young and playvil ear.

Across The Street

I like this picture.
Shot at ISO320, pushed 1 stop.

Soft Ice Cream

I like this picture.

Times Square, NYC

Shot at ISO320, pushed 1 stop. The color is muted and dull, oh well, I guess that pretty much reflects my life too. When I first arrived to this great city, I found it odd that cars can still turn right or left while it's WALK for the pedestrians who supposedly got the right of way, but I guess nobody would really think so. The taxi cabs always got the right of way.

Bikers

Boys

Summer of 2009

Canon G11

Canon introduces its latest model from the venerable G series, the G11. In a welcoming shrewd change of things, the mega pixel arm race actually reverses course. The G11 packs a 10MP sensor, 4.7MP less than its immediate predecessor the G10 while the physical sensor size remains the same. The new G11 is expected to have good performance on higher ISO, or a two-stop advantage over the G10 as far as noise is concerned. The G series is always good. It's really a no nonsense way of taking great pictures. If you are not into bokeh, high def video or interchangeable lenses. The G series is the way to go.

Backup Finally

I just gave myself an excuse to buy a sata harddrive and an enclosure ... so that I can finally do some backup as I don't want to spend some $800 like r&e did ....

I bought a discounted 500GB harddrive (I am too cheap to go for any bigger plus I really don't have much to backup) and an alumininum enclosure that has an internal sata connection and external sata, FireWire 400 and USB2 connection. I think I have pretty much everything covered that is with the exception of a FireWire 800 connection. Well I rather have sata instead of FW800, anyway I don't see that happening any time soon given how old or backward all my machines are and how unlikely I am going to go for a new desktop.

I don't know how long it's going to take as my data files are about only 100GB or less. Anyway, I am sort of testing the backup process from Ubuntu as I really have no idea how things exactly work. I am using Simple Backup via FireWire.

To get the massive harddrive ready, I used GParted to do all the grunge work so I didn't have to. I proceeded kind of slowly given that I really don't know anything about disk and stuff. But I got it done, I formatted the drive to three partitions, ext3, NTFS and FAT32. So I can go around and back up stuff if I want to. Boring.

What's Wrong With My Firefox

After all these upgrades and what not, it's my experience that my Firefox 3.0.13 is not running as smooth as before. It takes forever to fire up and the type down just randomly stalls. I am switching to Chrome for now.

Food On The Go

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Shot at ISO320 and pushed 1-stop in processing.

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This picture grows on me. For some reason I like it.