HTML Overlays are bollix

Dru pointed out HTML Overlays which are the application of XUL Overlays (for Firefox and Thunderbird) to HTML.

Basically the idea is to break up a document into two groups:

  1. The parts that change.
  2. The parts that don’t (like the template).

The first group is actually delivered in the requested document. The second group is dynamically inserted by Javascript. The idea is that the script and the static parts will be cached on the browser, greatly reducing bandwidth and the load of the server.
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Posted on by tychay 1

Astrophotography for the Amateur

When we arrived in Yosemite on a new moon late at night, the most noticeable thing was the stars in the sky. It was so dark you could easily pick out the Milky Way. So I stayed up even later to take 30 second bulb exposures with a tripod and timer. I wanted to edit some of them and asked Sean if he could suggest something.

He suggested “Astrophotography for the Amateur” by Michael A. Covington. Even though the book is “hardcore” there is apparently a whole section on taking photos without telescopes with separate chapters on comets/meteors, the moon, and eclipses. (I wonder if there is anything on taking photos of the sun.)

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Posted on by tychay 1

Sparklines

Sparklines

Bill mentioned that Edward Tufte has posted a chapter from his new book, Information Design about how good information design can distill multiple parameters into immediately comprehensible and intuitive information (sounds like his other two books).

<blockquote

“Also check-out Page 6, where he displays the win/loss record for an entire season for the Baltimore Orioles (162 games) inline with the text. Also notice how he uses just one additional color (red) to highlight unique data. This is great stuff.”
—Bill Tani
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Posted on by tychay 0

“God’s Own” AppleScript?

AutomatorAbout a year ago, when Tiger was in Public Beta, Thies told me to check out Automator. I didn’t get around to it because Thies is in the habit of saying things like, “Skype is God’s Own phone.” When everything is “God’s Own” X, then saying something like, “Automator is cool” isn’t going to get me jumping onto BitTorrent, especially since I never grokked AppleScript.

Earlier this year, I gave a talk in Vancouver. After Cal, the lead developer of Flickr, complimented me on it, I decided to see his talk. Okay, so his doesn’t have cool Keynote transitions like mine, but in terms of content, it totally rocks. What he and Ludicorp were able to do building Flickr is textbook case of why LAMP rules in the right hands. Go see his talk! I was impressed.

I registered for Flickr.

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Posted on by tychay 7

Google Video “Up Yours”

Google Video BETA

Hello,

We’d like to remind you that in our continued effort to respect the
rights of copyright holders and content providers, Google is only
accepting video uploads from persons who hold all necessary
rights to the uploaded material.

Both U.S. copyright law and the Google Video Terms of Service
prohibit distributing copyrighted works, unless you have the legal
right to do so. If you’re not sure whether you have the right to use
any of the content you submitted to Google Video, including any
music in the video, you can remove your uploaded video to the
product by following these instructions:

(blah blah blah)

Yeah, that’s nice but you still haven’t verified the two test videos that I uploaded two weeks ago. What’s the point of a “video upload” program if the user can’t download/link it?
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Posted on by tychay 4

BFD Today

Once a year, driving around work becomes impossible and and I become Grumpy Old Man. That is because of BFD at Shoreline Amphitheatre. Does anyone know how long this lasts? I have leave at a regular hour (5:30pm) to visit my brother and I need to know if I need to allot an extra 30 minutes to get picked up.

Caitlin pointed out that “for my safety” that “professional cameras” are not allowed there “point and shoots are okay”. How does that work?

Would my camera be banned? Probably. No wonder Ken Rockwell is obsessed with surreptitious uses of his digital camera. And yet when I buy plugins, I can get the consumer editions because my camera isn’t cool enough.
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“Blowing” highlights?

Before I go on my rant, I need to give a little background.

book cover
When Andrei purchased his Nikon D70, we discovered that we had purchased different eBooks. I had purchased Peter iNova’s book and Andrei had gotten Thom Hogan’s. So after we had read our respective books, we initiated a exchange of CDs.

The two books are very different. Peter’s book capitalizes on features unique to PDF (actually somewhat frustrating since I hate Adobe Reader), is prettier, and doubles as an introductory book on Photography. Thom’s book is more practical (specific camera setting advice), has some nice tips you don’t get elsewhere, and is laser focused on one thing: talking about the Nikon D70. They both come with a bunch of Photoshop Actions, which I haven’t had a chance to use.

What I’m trying to say, in my roundabout way, is that Thom Hogan’s book is really, really good. It’s the user manual that should have been included with the camera.

[Good, I’ve gotten that off my chest. Now let me rant.]Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 6

Why computer magazines shouldn't review cameras [reprise]

Nikon D70sNikon EOS 350D Rebel

To further emphasize last week’s tirade, PC Magazine usurps C|Net’s position as poster child for digital photography review incompetence. This time it is a review of the Nikon D70s, a small upgrade of my Nikon D70.

Check out this gem:

We love the D70s’ feel and design as much as we did the D70’s, and for those with larger hands, these two models may be preferable to the lighter Canon Rebel XT. The Rebel XT, however, ups the capacity ante to 8MP, which gives you the ability to print very large images, still besting the 6.1MP Nikons. The Canon kit (lens and body) is also cheaper than the D70s kit, although the Nikon lens is longer.

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Posted on by tychay 10

Blog comment logic…

book burning

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

—Ray Bradbury

When John Dvorak visited my workplace, I was introduced as “the Mac guy.”—the split second double-take on his part was funny. But he was amused that a coworker had programmed an old Apple //c we had lying around to generate ASCII art so it’s all good. He did tell me to read his blog.

I can’t keep up with him. He’s the Steven King of the tech world. But every so often I click on a random entry from him to see what is interesting out there.
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Posted on by tychay 7

Buying photography equipment

In 2001, I tried to purchase an Epson 1280 I found at a good price. Instead of the product, I got a “hard sell” over the phone trying for ink and a USB cable at an outrageous price—they didn’t want to ship me just the 1280. I had them cancel my order and went to MicroCenter.

That was my first exposure to the dark underbelly of Brooklyn camera dealers. After that experience, a network search told me my experience was a common modus operandi.

DigiexpoOften when buying photography and video gear the best price you see often isn’t. What goes on is you try to purchase something from them at the price listed, and they’ll try to do things like sell you parts that are supposed to be bundled with the product or other accessories that you don’t want or don’t need.

Even when you find multiple similar (but not the same) prices for the same product from different stores, it turns out the stores are actually the same store—the DNS records and web design offer a clue. Also, these places will spam the merchant review sites to artificially pump up their ratings. It takes a lot of work to winnow the good from the bad.
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Posted on by tychay 8