blogbeebe

Walkabout

2009-11-03T22:13:00.011-05:00

I fulfilled my civic duty today when I reported for jury duty at the Orange County courthouse. I didn't serve on a jury; this makes the third consecutive time I've been called to jury duty without having really done anything except sit around and wait. This last time was the worst; I was called up to a courtroom with 29 others; during the initial questioning period the questioning was abruptly stopped, a side-bar was convened between the judge and all the lawyers, after which the judge dismissed us because a key witness could not make it. We all marched back downstairs to the jury assembly area; 45 minutes later we were dismissed for lunch.

I went back up to the parking deck and got my camera out, then started to walk down Orange Avenue looking for a bite to eat and something interesting to shoot. Here are six shots from that walk-about. Everything was taken with the E-3 and the 12-60mm. Post-processing was done in Lightroom 3 beta.

The entire day was overcast, which made for interesting lighting. After lunch I went back to the jury assembly area, then sat there reading a book until 2:30pm, when we were dismissed for the day.

My tax dollars at work.

Watching Orlando Unravel 7

2009-11-01T12:16:00.004-05:00

What started this entry was the second failure, this year, of the former KFC store on University Blvd. The store was re-opened as a Chicken Lickin's franchise store in January (top left photo). Then last week, as I was driving down University towards UCF, I happened to look to my right and see that the store was closed down completely again (top left photo). This posting's collection of photos is from stores and businesses on University and around UCF, such as the Research Park. Why is this important? Because there are major defense contractors in the area (SAIC, Northrup Grumman, Raytheon...) as well as the Army and Navy contract houses. Gathered around a state university with well over 50,000 students. In short, a dynamo for economic activity.

Identification of photos, from left to right, top to bottom:

Current empty store that housed the former Chicken Lickin's on University (empty again);
Former Chicken Lickin's in January 2009, getting ready to open;
Former Krispy Kreme franchise location on University (still empty);
Former Bennigan's franchise store on University (still empty);
Former Fazoli's franchise on University (still empty);
Former Chevron torn down, at the corner of University and Alafaya (still empty);
Former Sun Microsystem's building in Research Park;
A long, empty office block in Research Park (former occupants unknown);
A brand new empty building in Research Park;
Interior shot of that brand, new empty building in Research Park.

As for empty buildings in the various parks surrounding UCF, what I've shown barely scratches the surface in that area. Many of the buildings are only partially full, and there are smaller emptier buildings that aren't worth showing. Needless to say, the economy in Central Florida continues to drag on, with no reasonable end in sight. 2010 will mark the start of the third year in which the economy really started to implode here in Central Florida.

In my next entry, I'll show that a number of former out-of-business buildings are being filled, many of them with 'junk' businesses. Stay tuned.

Watching Orlando Unravel 6

2009-10-18T22:15:00.010-04:00

I haven't written one of my Orlando Unravels entries for some time now because it's too depressing and I've been very busy doing other things, like holding on to my job. So busy is good. In fact busy is wonderful.

I felt compelled to write another Unravels entry because today, while out picking up a few necessities with the wife, we happened to stop by a local Books-A-Million store. This particular store is at the corner of Lee Road and I-Drive (Kirkman/I-4 exit), in the same complex as Sweet Tomatoes. It used to be open four weeks ago. Today, when we drove up, the store was locked and completely empty. We had no idea they were going out of business, and there are absolutely no signs anywhere indicating where they might have moved if they moved. The only thing left is the store with the unbleached wall showing where the letters used to be.

That entire store block is empty now. That Books-A-Million was the last store in a block of stores that once contained a Micheal's Crafts and a big Hallmark Card's store.

The photos are, going from left to right, top to bottom:

First row: former Books-A-Million on the left, the store block on the right.
Second row: Two views of a large empty office complex right behind Universal Studios, across the street from Dr. Phillips High School.
Third row: An office complex near my house at the corner of Della and Dr. Phillips, while on the right is another office/shopping complex across from Universal Studios on Vineland.

The economy is still in the pits. The unemployment rate is still climbing. And businesses, minor and major, are still closing their doors faster than they can open newer businesses to take their place.

Olympus E-3

2009-10-05T21:00:00.010-04:00

One of the reasons I invested heavily in the Olympus system was the E-3 body. The E-3 body is built of molded magnesium, has a bright full-frame optical viewfinder with 1.15 magnification, image stabilization in the body, an articulated LCD with live view, is dust- and splash-proof, and has IMHO one of the best 4/3rds sensors on the market.

Full Frame Viewfinder

The viewfinder, more than just about any other feature, was the deal-maker for me. It's an optical penta-prism design that shows 100% (or nearly 100% according to the ad copy) of the image that will hit the sensor, while providing a magnification factor of 1.15x. This helps produce a bright, sharp viewfinder that's very easy to focus with, especially compared with my older E-300. Don't get me wrong. I love that E-300 and still continue to use it, but the E-300's viewfinder, a porro-based penta-mirror, is darker and at times difficult to use, especially in low-light situations. The E-3 in comparison is blindingly bright.

The E-3 also comes with a built-in eyepiece cover. The eyepiece is closed when using Live View (more about that below), where it's closed to avoid exposure inflation due to light coming in through the eyepiece.

All is not perfect harmony with the finder. A minor nit is the clip-on eye cup. It can be easily knocked off; I've spent more effort than I care to admit noticing it's gone and having to re-trace my steps to find and put it back on again. I've lost the original that came with the body; I ordered its replacement and an additional spare (at $8 a pop).

Body and Environmental Protection

The body is constructed from injection-molded magnesium alloy, wrapped in fiber-reinforced plastics and rubber-like coverings. It's the biggest body you can purchase in the Olympus line, and the heaviest. In spite of being the biggest and heaviest, it's not too big nor too heavy for me. The size and shape of the body fits my hand like a glove, especially when I slip my hand under the attached AS-GS3 grip/hand strap; it feels like one with my hand. The body is "balanced" with an HLD-4 vertical grip/battery holder bolted onto the bottom. Over the past ten months I've learned where everything is (reading the manual, practice, and with the occasional questions on forums about certain features). I'm quite comfortable with operating the camera, and the more I use it the more I grow to like it.

In spite of how well the whole assemblage feels to me, there is a problem with the body and grip combination mounted on a tripod. I own a Benro A-269 M8 tripod. I discovered during a Labor Day weekend shoot that with the E-3/HLD-4/50mm macro mounted on the tripod head and with the camera on, that moving the entire assemblage (camera + gear + tripod) will cause enough of a flexure between the grip and the body that the camera momentarily looses electrical connectivity with the grip and causes the body to reset itself. I'd read of this issue before. Once I encountered it I simply turned off the camera before picking everything up to move it. It's the most annoying quirk in an otherwise excellent system, and the obvious work around is to turn off the camera before you move it mounted on the tripod, but that problem shouldn't be there. I have heard that the E-30 and HLD-4 combination do not have this issue.

Sensor

The sensor measures 17mm by 13mm (hence the aspect ratio of 4/3) and is capable of 10mp resolution. There have been more than enough reviews of Olympus DSLR models and their various sensors; I'll let you hunt them all down. However, if you want the definitive reason why Olympus developed the 4/3 sensor, you can read about the benefits of the four thirds system here.

While there are now higher resolution sensors (12.3mp) in newer models (E-30, E-600/620, and E-P1), the resolution, dynamic range, and noise are more than adequate for my needs. I have discovered that the range from ISO 100 to 800 produces excellent results. In a pinch, and keeping prints and images down to 5x7, I can shoot all the way up to ISO 3200 and get very good results.

The E-3, like so many current Olympus models, has image stabilization built into the body via the sensor support assembly. This is one key advantage over other systems that insist on adding image stabilization to the lens; with a contemporary Olympus body (E-5x0, E-6x0, E-30, and E-P1) every single lens, from the least expensive to the most, benefits from image stabilization.

Articulated LCD and Live View

This was a feature I didn't appreciate immediately; it's usefulness to me grew with time until I find it almost indispensable, especially combined with live view and macro work.

I own the Olympus 50mm f/2 macro. When used for its primary purpose, macro photography, its performance is second to none. The best way I found to use it with the E-3 is to mount the E-3 on a tripod and then rotate the LCD out and enable live view, using the now-comfortably positioned LCD to compose and critically focus the image. I can not only immediately view what I'll eventually capture, but I can also view the effects of aperture, exposure compensation, and color temperature selection as well. I'd much rather take the time setting up a good shot rather than blindingly shooting away.

The only problem with near-perfect feature is the heat generated by the sensor in live view. While shooting outdoors in direct sun one hot Florida day (temperature in the mid-90's), the sensor overheat indicator illuminated on the LCD. I shut the camera down momentarily (it would have shut down on its own) and moved out of the direct sunlight for several moments before turning the camera back on and continuing. In the future I'm going to put up a small umbrella to shade the camera if it's out in the direct hot sun. That's the only time I've ever had a heating problem. Other than that, it's been a stellar feature.

In-body Image Stabilization (IS)

A key feature that I have found useful in low-light situations is the in-body IS. Unlike other manufacturers that add IS to their lenses (such as Nikon, Canon, and Panasonic), having the IS in the body means that any lens attached to the body becomes image stabilized. To give you an idea of how useful IS can be, consider the image of Ruby and Max to the right. This image was shot, hand held, with the 12-60mm at 60mm, f/4 (wide open), ISO 800, at 1/5 second. The image is sharp enough that you can easily see the stitching on the sofa as well as details on the dogs (Ruby's eyelashes, for example).

IS is best for those shots in low light where the subject is fairly static; active subject will blur anyway due to their motion, which negates the reason for turning it on. Most of my experience has been with IS1. I've tried IS2, but I've not been too satisfied with it, and prefer to just turn off IS and pan with the subject (like I did in the 'old days' with film). And there have been several instances, specifically with flowers blowing in a breeze, where IS caused the image to be blurrier than if I had just left it off. In all cases I was shooting outdoors during the day in direct sun and the flowers were in sunlight.

Once again though, thoughtful application of the feature can return excellent results.

Oh, and one other peculiarity of the IS feature. If you leave it enabled and turn the camera off, the camera will emit a low buzz or 'rattle'. This is the sensor calibrating itself. It is disconcerting to hear it when it goes off, and I have never quite gotten used to the noise. Call me silly but I've learned to automatically turn it off before turning off the camera.

Overall

Complaints aside, I consider the E-3 an excellent camera. The E-3 has opened up a whole new world of photography for me with respect to the E-300, and has helped to build upon the capabilities of the Olympus system I first discovered with the E-300. The E-3 combined with High Quality lenses such as the 12-60mm, 50-200mm, and 50mm has produced impressive results for me and for others for whom I have taken photographs. I'm very glad I purchased the camera, and look forward to adding new bodies and lenses to the system.

Camera Website Homage

2009-10-04T10:34:00.008-04:00

Ever since I bulked up with the Olympus E-3 Christmas 2008 (and actually, even before then) I've been hunting down and reading many an on-line photography blog and review site in an effort to gather as much useful intelligence as possible about the pros and cons of the current state-of-the-art in camera gear.

And make no mistake; I'm more the gearhead than the photographer. And why not? A camera is the ultimate convergence of optics, mechanics, material science, electronics, and cybernetics into one convenient awe-inspiring hand-holdable device. The only other device with nearly that much 'pull' in its construction is the smartphone, and it doesn't take nearly as good a photo, in spite of what may be written.

To scratch both the gear as well as the artistic itch of photography, and to make sure I know how much it's going to really cost me, I've developed a list of sites over the last 10 months where I go and seek the wisdom of the oracles. So here, in no particular order, are the sites I frequent on a simi-regular basis so I don't miss out on anything.

1001 Noisy Cameras It wasn't the first one I found, but it comes pretty close. The proprietor (or proprietors, I can't determine which) work to aggregate news from other enthusiast sites of interest from around the web. They're good about giving proper attribution to sources, and they have a number of sub-sites devoted to rumors, news, reviews, and special camera deals. Noisy claims no favorite brand; as a consequence their coverage is both broad and deep. A nice touch is to tell you about a review but not spoil the conclusions of the review. They will provide a link to the conclusion if (like me) you just want to cut to the chase for the executive summary and then read the details at your leisure. You need to go there on a fairly regular basis, since the news flows fast and furious and you may miss something if it slips off the front page before you get there. If you've got a Twitter account you can follow them @1001noisycamera.

Photo Tidbits and Biofos These sites are included together because they are devoted to Olympus DSLRs and equipment. The Biofos site goes further in talking about Olympus film equipment as well. I heavily depended upon both those sites before making my purchase, as both sites go into great detail about the features and operational characteristics of all the current Olympus bodies and lenses, as well as a few non-Olympus lenses. Photo Tidbits is more approachable in its layout, but both will reward the reader with critical information about Olympus equipment.

dpreview Everybody knows about, or should know about, dpreview. They have extensive reviews of nearly every brand and model of camera gear. Their reviews are long (20 or more pages) and extensive, with enough detailed gear shots to sate anyone's lust. They also devote quite a bit of pages to sensor performance, as well as comparing test images with what they consider equivalent cameras. It's that part of the review you can take with some grains of salt. They redeem that part of the review with an extensive collection of test images at the end of the review, and it's there that you can really see if the camera produces the kind of output you're looking for. If there's a part of the site to stay away from, it has to be the discussion forums. It doesn't take very long before you find flamers and trolls in abundance who make Linux and Windows flamers and trolls look like rank amateurs. It might be flawed (and critically so in some areas), but it is an important and reasonably authoritative site.

The Visual Science Lab This site is run by a highly talented professional photographer named Kirk Tuck. Kirk lives and works out of Austin, Texas, and has so for decades. Kirk has worked with multiple camera brands over the years, but recently he sold his Nikon gear (including a D700) and settled back to using Olympus (two E-1's, an E-30, an E-520, and two E-300s). Kirk brings a lot of talent and a no-nonsense point of view to digital photography. He stresses repeatedly what's important about photography, which is the photograph, and backs this up with his own work as well as the work of others who are like-minded. To me he's a breath of fresh air in a crowded and pretentious nation of digital photographers. It should be noted that Kirk writes as well as he shoots, and he shoots extremely well. Kirk has published three books, two of which I own, and which can be found on Amazon.

ThewsReviews I first ran across this site around January while looking for reviews of the Olympus 7-14mm UWA zoom. I didn't buy the zoom because of the cost (deciding to purchase the 9-18mm for roughly 1/3 the price of the 7-14mm). I stayed to read Matthew Robertson's other reviews on Olympus gear and third-party gear that worked (or didn't) with Olympus. His style is fresh and funny, as exemplified by his story of autofocus woes with the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro and his E-3. Matthew is another practical no-nonsense working pro, and it shows in his wide-ranging reviews. He's since added a Nikon D700 to his camera arsenal, and his reasons for doing so are reasonable and logical.

Torontowide I found this blog while looking for substantial information on the 9-18mm (see above). The author of this site works at TorontoWide, a news site dedicated to promoting Toronto's arts community. The blog (and its author) are interesting because he's a photojournalist who shoots Olympus. He's written about his working experiences with the 9-18mm, 35-100mm f/2, as well as the E-3 and E-30. Read the fine print at the bottom of all the postings and he'll tell you what equipment he used. If there's a problem with reading the blog (and the site) it's that I'm in Orlando and not Toronto; it hurts to read about such good (some might say stellar) productions and not be able to go see them.

There are certainly a lot more sites to read about, but these are the ones I visit on a regular basis (read: about once a week on average), and that's about all I can handle with everything else I need to do to make a living. I'm unabashedly pro-Olympus and will remain so, unless, of course, Olympus does something drastic like drop out of the DSLR market. And even then I'd keep what I have and buy up off the used market. Using Olympus (or any brand) should never be about any particular item; it should be about the overall system and how it helps you take photographs. In the end it's all about the photograph, not the camera.

The Menagerie

2009-10-02T22:59:00.005-04:00

We've got five animals in our house right now; three cats and two Labs. The cats are all rescues, as is one of the Labs. One of the Labs was purchased from a local breeder, something we haven't done since we were first married 25 years ago.

The Labs are named Ruby and Max. The cats are Lulabelle, a common mackerel tabby, Ellipse, a long-hair mix, and Lucy, a mackerel mix with a lot of white. The Labs are buds and travel together constantly. The cats generally get along, but every once in a while there's the loud cries of two cats challenging one another. But mostly everybody gets along peacefully.

I love all the animals we have. I didn't go looking for the cats, they just started showing up about two years ago, first via my oldest daughter, and then a year later when Lucy literally walked in the front door. I didn't consider myself a cat person at the time, but I just didn't have the heart to say 'no'. The Labs and the cats mix together quite well, and two of them (Lulabelle and Ellipse) treat Ruby like a big cat (in the center lower picture Ellipse is cleaning Ruby's muzzle).

The animals extend and enrich my life. My family comes first, and I love them all equally, but the animals in the house further enrich my personal life. They won't live forever (I've already watched three Labs live out their lives with us), but I hope we have some animal in our household until we can no longer look after them, and I hope that day is still a long way off.

Postcards from Paradise

2009-10-02T17:17:00.007-04:00

I've taken to shooting with my Olympus E-300 again, far more than the more advanced E-3. I've even gone so far as to set exposure (aperture and shutter speed) using the sunny 16 rule; since I shoot primarily ISO 100 (with some ISO 200), that would mean f/16 at 1/100 second (or 1/200 sec @ISO 200). In my case, because I like to shoot at f/5.6, I increase the shutter speed accordingly to 1/800 second (1/1600 for ISO 200). I do that because f/5.6 gives the best lens performance and the higher shutter speed gives crystal clear shooting.

It's funny, but it's more liberating to set a camera on full manual and ignore the bleeping display, especially when you're outdoors on a sunny Florida day. The light changes in interesting ways from sunup to sundown; when I'm done and I go back and download the images, they're pretty close to what I both saw and experienced the moment I took the picture.

There is some post processing. I use Olympus Master, and within Olympus Master I increase contrast and play with the tone curve in order to make the colors more vivid than they already are. Depending on the lens (such as the Olympus 14-45mm kit lens at 14mm) I also clean up any pincushioning and barrel distortion the lens might add. I like distortion, but paradoxically I like my lines straight.

The pictures that follow are all from the E-300, using the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 along with the Olympus 14-45mm and 40-150mm kit lenses that came with the E-300 when I bought it. By the time those lenses are stopped down to f/5.6 to f/8, they are tack sharp and contrasty. I have more expensive lenses to use, but again, walking and driving with this kit in a Kata DR 467 backpack is fun.

It's been a while

2009-10-01T13:05:00.004-04:00

Thought I'd drop by, clean off some of the cobwebs and dust off the book cases, as it were. I've been busy.

Living the Digital Life

I nuked my Twitter account (@wbeebe). After a little more than a year I finally had all I could stand and left. Twitter's primitive interface/API, which are perversely hailed as avant-guarde by many of the digerati, finally drove me out. Spam re-tweets were the biggest annoyance, followed by the Ponzi/MLM schemers and 'sex workers' who arbitrarily followed me. I blocked far more than I allowed following.

I still have my Facebook account. It's a better Twitter than Twitter itself, but that doesn't make it good in the general sense. I have yet to decide if I just want to let it go and die from bit rot, or just delete the account completely. I may just let ennui set in and let it rot away.

I still post regularly to Flickr (see the image at the upper right for example). Right now I'm in a "post digital" mode where I've taken my older Olympus E-300 DSLR and set everything to manual (sunny f/16 rule) or else aperture-priority auto exposure. I'm trying to practice composition and "seeing the light". Even though it's a cropped sensor (4/3rds) and just 8 MP, it's amazing the quality of the images that come out of the camera. And it's just fun to carry around and shoot with.

Linux

I've got RHEL 5.3 running in the office lab on a number of workstations. As long as those workstations are targeted to a specific task I have no issues. And because they are RHEL, and the contracts are current, there is support on the other end of the phone in case I have issues. So far I haven't.

That tempted me to install Fedora 11, and then Ubuntu 9.04, into Sun's VirtualBox under Windows XP. VirtualBox installed without issue, but getting a distribution to install turned out to be every bit as problematic as onto bare metal.

Fedora 11 refused to boot into a working live desktop, just like it won't natively. I have a Dell D630 with a T7700 Core 2 Duo and nVidia graphics along with 4GB of DRAM. Anyway, after the first and only failure I tossed it aside and grabbed Ubuntu 9.04. It did boot into a live screen, and I was able to install it. It took several installations to find out that (1) Ubuntu requires a minimum of 4GB to install something that works, and (2) it won't run anything larger than 800 by 600 resolution.

In the end I figured I would just use putty, ssh and VPN to get to the RHEL machines in the lab for what I needed, so I removed all the VirtualBox and Linux cruft from my Windows notebook and moved on.

Fini

Béranger grew bored with blogging and put his blog into hibernation. He's now got a Twitter account, which you can follow (if you so desire) at @beranger_v4. I wish him luck and hope he finds the attention he so craves, but never seemed to find while blogging.

Linuxhater's blog has turned into a full-blown parady of itself. Anonymous posters (posers?) keep trying to out-flame and out-troll each other and Linux (and Windows and OS X). Linux has failed, and so now has its most significant critic to date.

Linux itself keeps shambling along, like one of the title characters out of Zombieland. The only reason I pay attention is because of its use in the lab in very specific applications, usually as a server platform for which we would have used Unix in the past. For everything else (and I mean everything else) we use Windows or Macs. I have translated all my open tools to equivalents on Windows (Java, Ruby/JRuby, Eclipse, JBoss, etc), I've moved off of OpenOffice and back to Microsoft Office; in other words my software tools are back to being an end to a means instead of some cause célèbre, and I am reasonably productive and happy.

Chromium and Linux

2009-08-24T00:07:00.003-04:00

I've been reading about Chrome on Linux, i.e. Chromium, these past few weeks. The most positive article was published on Ars Technica (Chromium popularity rising on Ubuntu, gains 64-bit support). Of particular interest to me is the success of porting their V8 Javascript engine to 64-bit. Either as part of Chrome/Chromium or as a stand-alone engine, V8 is a fascinating piece of software. The fact that all of Chrome is going to be 64-bit native, and running on 64-bit Ubuntu, makes the Chrome/Ubuntu combination very interesting. As usual there's no specific release date for Chromium, let alone 64-bit Chromium, but a date isn't really needed when there is significant and clearly documented progress.

I'm certainly not going to get my hopes up. I've been disappointed by Linux's lack of quality across the distributions too many times to suddenly forgive and forget. The best course of action is to simply monitor the situation with an eye towards installing the next release of Ubuntu in a virtual machine and then test Chromium in that environment if it's either released or mature enough. Another course of action would be to wait for the cleanup release from Mint, then try Chromium on that platform. Only time will tell.

Transitioning

2009-08-17T00:03:00.007-04:00

The number of posts I make have dwindled quite a bit since the start of 2009. There are a number of reasons for this, ranging from the load of life and work to total disillusionment with desktop Linux. Other time sinks have appeared, such as Facebook and Twitter, and I've been heavily involved (again) with photography, posting odd bits of work on Flickr. All of that is about to change.

If you look at the Olympus tag in the Category cloud you'll discover I shoot with Olympus DSLR equipment, specifically the E-300 (which I first purchased back in March 2006) and the E-3 (which I purchased in December 2008). I've been collecting lenses and other peripherals, expanding my tools and doing more and more with my "hobby". I've got my sister's wedding to shoot in October, and I've been building up before I make the big trek up to Atlanta. This is her wedding, and I intend to give the best I possibly can.

In the mean time I will be transitioning to more photography-based blogging, ranging from equipment experience to post-processing on notebooks and the type of tools and operating systems. It will all be Windows or Mac based post-processing; no Linux. After a lot of work I've come to the conclusion that if you want to get work done day-in and day-out, then you buy Apple or Microsoft and the tools that run on top of those OS platforms.

If you'd like to read about one of the reasons I won't be using Linux, you should read Thom Holwerda's editorial "X Could Learn a Lot from Vista, Windows 7". I agree with this assessment 100%. Linux didn't use to be this way. The 'golden age' of Linux, for me, was the period between 2006 and 2007, when I was running OpenSUSE 10.x and Ubuntu 7.04. I didn't realize it at the time but both those distributions at those points in time were pretty rock solid for what I wanted to do. But not today. Too many unstable changes in too many subsystems such as video, sound, and even the file systems have produced an environment in which all distributions suffer. Perhaps those earlier distributions were just as unstable, and I've grown intolerant of instabilities over time. Vista hardware incompatibilities and performance-sapping change for the sake of change are two of the reasons I stayed with Windows XP and refused to move to Vista.

But now, it looks like Microsoft has cleaned up it's OS game with Windows 7. And I'm in the market for a new system. So it's going to be a 'contest' between Windows 7 and Mac OS X. In spite of what Microsoft claims the hardware is going to cost essentially the same no matter what OS I pick. I'll probably make a purchase around January of 2010. In the mean time I'll work with either my Windows XP systems or my wife's Mac.

I've got too much to do in too little time. I need support from tools and services that "just work". Unless it's embedded (Android) or managed (Google) I just don't have the time any more for Linux.

Update
This is post 600. Too many, or too few over time? Who can say?

Tweet of the day

2009-08-13T12:39:00.003-04:00

Chrome 2.0.172.39 running on Windows XP SP3. 'Nuff said.

Bing going Bust

2009-07-15T13:17:00.007-04:00

Found this while slumming on Yahoo (you don't think there's just a tiny bit of Yahoo schadenfreude going on here, do you???).

If Bing's first month represented Microsoft's (MSFT) best shot at stealing search market share from Google (GOOG) -- complete with Bing ads everywhere -- it's a huge disappointment.

Microsoft's U.S. search market share was 8.4% in June, up from 8.0% in May, according to comScore.

It would have been a disaster if Bing didn't grow at all with all that advertising and free promotion via news coverage, so at least it's up a little. (And represents Microsoft's best month since 8.5% share in January.) But gaining 40 basis points -- especially as Google's 65.0% share stayed steady -- is not an impressive victory.

It'll still be a few months before we know if Bing is going to be a long-term success for Microsoft. But based on this lackluster first month's showing -- and recent survey results suggesting 98% of searchers won't switch to Bing as their primary search engine -- there's little reason to get excited.

Meanwhile, Yahoo continued to lose share, accounting for 19.6% of the U.S. search market in June, down from 20.1% in May. After having stabilized, downward momentum for Yahoo is not good, and makes a search deal with Microsoft more likely.

Yes indeed. Every time Microsoft tries to do something contemporary and/or cool to match the Googles and the Apples of this world, it always comes out flatter than an open day-old Coke. Search. MP-3 players (Zune). The only thing that is remotely successful is XBox, and that's because it was Sony's to loose, not Microsoft's to win.

Of course that doesn't mean that Google's Chrome OS is going to wipe up the floor with Windows (what an odd metaphor). Google could easily wind up being as spectacular a failure with it's foray into operating systems as Microsoft continues to be with search. Google may have the coolness, but they currently lack the hard-core engineering discipline required to develop and support something as complex as an OS in the manner it should be supported for widespread acceptance. Only time will tell.

I think I was wrong about Intel

2009-07-11T01:08:00.004-04:00

I mentioned earlier how Intel might be concerned that Google's Chrome OS is targeting ARM as well as x86. Turns out Intel has been 'in' on this Chrome OS thing for some time now. PCWorld reports that Intel has been helping Google develop features of Chrome OS to work better with Intel processors. And that's a good thing, considering that Intel processors are in "around four-fifths of the world's computers."

But what's telling is that Intel was not mentioned as one of Chrome OS' early supporters in Google's initial announcement. Why?

Google is aiming the Chrome OS at desktops, laptops and netbooks, all devices dominated by Microsoft Windows, so supporting Chrome could put Intel in an awkward position with Microsoft.

There's that accusation again that Google is aiming the Chrome OS at desktops and laptops, not just netbooks. Again, I have to keep going back to Google's original announcement and the emphasis on netbooks, netbooks, netbooks.

But if it is true that Google's long term goal is beyond the netbook, then Intel's lying low to avoid colliding with Microsoft is telling about Microsoft's continuing monopolistic dominance. And it may be that Intel wants to play nice with Google in spite of its emphasis on ARM-based netbooks in order to pull away from being a bullying monopolist itself.

Funny old world we live it, isn't it?

Yes, lets all take a deep breath, shall we?

2009-07-10T14:15:00.010-04:00

I take the title of this post from Fake Steve Jobs' post, "Let's all take a deep breath and get some perspective." FSJ's post was bitingly funny (as always) and pointed out some interesting truths (again, as always). But then I ran into Jack Schofield's article on Google's Chrome OS, where he went on to opine:

Either way, the idea that businesses are soon going to replace Windows with Chrome OS is beyond fanciful. Businesses whinge like mad when they have to adapt one of their tens of millions of "legacy" programs to run properly on IE8 rather than IE7, or IE7 rather than IE6, or whatever. The minor changes from XP to Vista were apparently beyond many of them. They're not going to rewrite 10-15 years worth of programs to run them via Chrome OS any time soon. Even if they want to, and can afford the attempt, it's going to take a decade.

Wowsers! He's absolutely right, if you assume that Google is trying to push Chrome OS as a replacement for Windows. But that's not what Google said. Let's go back to Google's blog announcement and re-read that, shall we?

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks... Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform.. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

OK. So let's look at the little nuggets in the section quoted from Google. They're targeting netbooks, the lowest powered group of devices in the notebook pantheon, what many call "good enough" computers. Powered by processors with the same computational throughput you had 10-15 years ago when the 486 was considered low-end ghetto and the Pentium 2's and 3's were being introduced (remember all those slot-based processor modules?). And not just low-end x86, but ARM based systems as well.

Google is also targeting the Web. I don't know how many times they said it, but over and over they stressed that Chrome OS is a portable front-end to the Web, and the Web services in particular. Not Windows (XP, Vista, or 7). Not Microsoft Office. Nor any of the "tens of millions of legacy programs." This is an OS with very specific targets, and believe it or not, desktop Windows isn't one of them.

What Google is promising is an OS that is streamlined and targeted to run on those platforms in order to provide a good user experience. That's a far cry from Linux and Microsoft, who are attempting to take their current bloated offerings and shoe-horn it onto these deliberately limited platforms. This is good engineering on Google's part, a far cry from the lazy 'business as usual' attitudes from Microsoft and the various Linux camps. People choose Windows over Linux on netbooks, not so much because Windows is better, but because Windows is the lesser of two evils on those platforms.

If Google builds Chrome OS right, then it really won't matter if it's not Windows. And frankly it won't be mainstream Linux either, which will definitely be a Good Thing. Because it's about time we had a genuinely new OS to work with. Henry Spencer once said "Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly." The same can be said of graphical user interfaces. If we consider the lineage of GUIs from Xerox's gold standard through Apple's poor interpretation on through Microsoft's poorer interpretation and finally into Linux's even poorer interpretation, then the time is long past due for a reboot, if not a revolution, of the entire environment. Google wants to do that with netbooks because the classic PC desktop has long since fossilized under layer after layer Windows detritus. Google wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of pushing this directly against Windows on the PC platform, and Google knows it.

Google is here to really tip over everybody's special apple carts on the netbook platform. They really can pull this off. I hope they succeed. I wish them well.

This Changes Everything

2009-07-08T10:39:00.007-04:00

I'm sure I'm the last to comment on Google's Chrome OS. I'm getting my information from the usual suspects: Ars Technica, Wired (here and here), Yahoo, and CNN, to name but a few.

Here's my take on all this.

All the Linux distributors are going to adapt or die, and frankly, I think many of them will die. They need to. Up to this point Linux has been dominated by the Big Three: Redhat, Novell (SuSE), and Ubuntu (Debian). Everybody else has been a pygmy to these three giants, and that includes Mandriva (the distributions formerly known as Mandrake and Conectiva). Regardless of the current incumbents size it will drive the concept of product quality down every one's throat, and frankly, it's about time.

That drive towards quality should (I say should) also clean out the silly political posturing by some Linux notables about what they will or will not do based on their unique interpretation of the GPL. With Google officially in the ring, this has now become a Real Business. Google OS may be given away, but it won't be free to screw around with.

The Google OS with the Chrome Browser is the entrée to all of Google and its online services. It has to run first time every time. It has to be rock solid and high quality to attract new users and keep them. It has to work seamlessly with every system it's loaded on. It won't be Linux as usual, and I can't wait.
It will put a world of real hurt on Microsoft. A world of hurt Microsoft deserves. My only fear is that Microsoft will buy enough sympathy in Washington that the federal government will punish Google for 'abusing' its 'monopoly' position. After all, who else but Microsoft knows about abusing its monopoly position.

Microsoft has already run crying to Washington over this, and with some limited effect. Certain quarters in Washington are already muttering darkly about Google's position and the need to 'do something'. But Google will survive, and there is nothing that Microsoft will be able to do except adapt or die.

If anything, the ensuing competition will force Microsoft to slim down; after all, what normal company could have survived the PR disaster of the XBox 360's RROD and the subsequent billions it's had to charge off to clean up that mess? The only reason to keep the XBox is to turn it into the home entertainment hub, serving up diverse entertainment far beyond game playing. If anything, the XBox would be Microsoft's counter-weight to Google OS on netbooks. And that's what our Dear Leaders in Washington need to understand before they make Microsoft an even more entrenched monopoly than it currently is. Beware Unintended Consequences.
Apple will be marginalized in yet another market. Apple is a monopoly in the on-line music space, but that is a very narrow vertical market compared to what Google could provide with the Google OS on a netbook. And with a Mac OS native version of Chrome, anyone with a Mac could ride the Google train.

Google doesn't need Apple, Apple needs Google simply because Google has been working on the network infrastructure since its inception. Apple may attempt to compete with Google with its own offerings, and it may have limited success, but it won't stop the Google juggernaut.

The biggest impact will be on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch. If Apple is smart they'll find ways to integrate Google services with the iPhone and Touch. Even though there will be lots of Android smartphones, the Apple iPhone will continue to be the best that money can buy, and many people will want to continue to use it. Apple needs to market the iPhone as a premier mobile platform for premier services, of which Google will definitely belong. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
I wasn't paying enough attention to the official Google announcement, but buried in there is this interesting statement: "Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year."

Wow. I bet that will make Intel and AMD sit up and take notice, especially Intel with its Atom and other low-power processors. The Atom got into the netbook space because it was a compromise solution for running today's OS, and Windows (XP) got in there because the versions of Linux being offered were, in a word, awful. But with Google behind this unique version of Linux being targeted for ARM in the netbook space, anything is possible. Atom is still an energy hog compared to ARM.

What can ARM do for netbooks? How about a netbook with 16 or more hours of useful life between charges? Or how about coating the top of a netbook with solar cells that could trickle charge the batteries?

Or how about this idea. Close the netbook, turning off the screen and other heavy energy sinks (like the disk drive) but leave the processor running in a reduced frequency mode. The top solar cells could provide just enough juice to allow the processor to remain connected to the network without slowly draining the primary batteries. Real, constant connectivity supplemented by any light source, natural or artificial.

So, in a nutshell, I see Linux finally growing up (a Good Thing), Microsoft finally getting its comeuppance (again, a Good Thing), Apple, as usual, being the enigma, and the x86 boys getting the bejeebers scared out of them. Whatever happens, it's going to be a very interesting ride.

Update

The Official Google Announcement. How could I have missed that???
Yet Another Analysis (YAA) from Ars Technica.

Update 2

Sour grapes from the Open Source mouthpiece? Perhaps, or perhaps a solid dose of reality. For Google and Google supporters such as me.
And of course, Fake Steve wades in with his opinion.

Other Web Toys

2009-07-07T18:57:00.002-04:00

If anyone is interested, I've got a Twitter account (@wbeebe).
I've also broken down and got myself a Facebook account (http://www.facebook.com/william.beebe.jr).
I've got a fairly active Flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wbeebe).
Last, but not least, is my LinkedIn account (http://www.linkedin.com/in/williambeebe).

So when I'm not here, I'm obviously elsewhere, both on and off the web.

Chrome Comes Through

2009-07-07T12:14:00.004-04:00

I may have my gripes about some of Chrome's peculiarities, but I've never complained about the Big Issues like Stability. Chrome once again showed me why it's good to have around. A tab/page with a Flash plugin crashed, and another tab showed that just the Flash plugin itself crashed. In neither case did the browser show any instability. The tab recovered itself nicely and I kept on going. That's what I want in every application: rock-solid stability. That's why I use Chrome over any other Windows-based browser. And frankly it's just one more reason why I continue to use Microsoft Windows.

The Annoyances of Blogspot

2009-07-06T10:48:00.006-04:00

Yes, you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you, especially for free. But I've had enough.

First, I get the occasional comment I need to moderate (don't be shocked, but some people actually read and respond to my rambling writings). When I do, I go to my blog and into Comment Moderation to see them listed. So far, no problem. However, when using the latest Chrome (2.0.172.33), I can't click on the expand arrow to expand the text. It works just dandy in Firefox 3.5, but not so much in Chrome 2. Where's the problem? I'd say Chrome, but I would need to grab the Javascript behind the expand control just to make sure. You know, in case somebody is checking browsers and versions and forgot about Chrome version 2. Something silly like that.

Second, I now type everything in raw HTML and text instead of Compose. Why? Primarily because some genius decided to wrap every single paragraph in a pair of empty div tags. This expands the space between paragraphs to more than one line, and that just drives me crazy when I see it. When that happens I go into Edit Html mode and delete each and every one. I got started using Html/text mode in order to put tables in my posts. As actual tables of tabular data. I have no problems with raw HTML as I've been slinging it since 1996, when I accidentally stumbled onto this web thing via Apache running on SGI boxen. But that's a long, long time ago. No, I got lazy over the WYSIWYG editing (such as it is). But I can fall back on the type-html-and-them-Preview methodology. Like back in the old days when I was constantly checking pages in the browser during an edit session.

I guess if I were serious about this blogging business I'd go to a more sophisticated platform. But I'm always too slammed for time, and after four years of posts (four years as of May of this year) and over 500 posts, it's going to be a bit of a hassle to gather all this up and drag it somewhere else. Especially with all the pictures and content.

Yes, I'm too lazy, and all I can do is complain. So sue me.

Firefox 3.5: Stumbling out of the gate

2009-07-01T00:17:00.005-04:00

Tuesday 30 June was the day that Firefox 3.5 was officially released. Many sites sang glorious hymns to its new features and overdue improvements. Based on those initial reports (I'm so gullible) I went slumming over to mozilla.org and downloaded the 3.5 installer. Know ye that I am a unrepentant Googlite, preferring to worship at the shiny altar of Chrome.

I've used Firefox for a long time, helping to use and test it when it was first known as Phoenix (remember them big ugly orange buttons?). Light and lean when compared to Mozilla, it was just what I wanted and needed for my own personal use.

Time marched on, and Firefox accreted features and bloat. In particular it became a memory hog around version 2. I left Firefox at version 2 on my Windows notebook, while upgrading to version 3 under Linux (both willingly as well as part of the general release schedules). I was never really tempted to move from 2 to 3 under Windows; after all, It Worked For Me and that was all that mattered.

Then, in September 2008 I installed the first Google Chrome beta for Windows, and I never looked back. It combined awesome stability with awesome speed and awesome simplicity. I wound up with not one, but two legacy browsers on my Windows notebook; IE 7 and FF 2.

Smoke Test

Based on the glowing review at Ars Technica, I downloaded and installed 3.5 earlier today. FF 3.5 installed without any issues, upgrading my NoScript plugin during the installation process. That is the first time I've every upgraded Firefox and have NoScript properly tracked, so kudos to both teams on that. The new FF also remembered all my open tabs and other bits. From an installation perspective it was fast and absolutely flawless.

Problems occurred during execution. The Ars Technica article points to a new feature developed for Firefox, 3D transforms. When I executed the demo the entire browser crashed.

Finis

One of the three reasons I gave earlier for switching to Chrome was its stability, which is due in no small part to the design decision to use a multi-process architecture, where a process is assigned to each site instance and plugin. Crashes in tabs I can live with. Crashes of the entire browser due to a problem in one tab is no longer excusable, especially within the first 30 minutes of trying out a new release.

I'm in the process of building a proof-of-concept in which certain 'fat' clients are replaced by rich browser applications. One of the assumptions going into this was that I could find at least one rock-solid browser that would not crash if there was an issue in a tab. So far Chrome lives up to that assumption. I had high hopes that FF 3.5 might be as stable, and thus a viable alternative. But after today's minor adventure I'm not so sure. At least I have Chrome.

Deep Thought for the Day

2009-06-21T17:33:00.003-04:00

Nuisance - that which causes offence, annoyance, trouble or injury.

gNewSense - pronounced nuisance - a derivative of Ubuntu which causes offence, annoyance, trouble or injury by stripping out what few bits actually make Ubuntu usable, all in the name of "freedom".

I posted this almost verbatim as Anonymous on LinuxHaters. It differs by but one very special word. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to find the original and discover that very special (missing) word.

Olympus E-P1 Very Near Release

2009-06-15T22:39:00.006-04:00

Olympus is in the midst of releasing a new camera line based on the µ4/3rds camera standard. The µ4/3rds sensor is the same size and type as in the regular E-series 4/3rds DSLRs (such as my E-3 and E-300), but the lens-base-to-sensor distance has been reduced to make the body smaller as well as the lenses. You can use regular 4/3rds lenses with the newer body buy using an adapter.

The best roundup of news and rumors seems to be 1001 Noisy Cameras. You'll find a whole slew of pictures, images, and links to other stories there. From what I've seen it looks to be a sweet little camera with a power punch. Whether I'll buy one or not is another matter. Because it uses the same sensor as a regular Olympus DSLR the image quality will be the same (as will the image size). The question for me is how would I use it. I've got both an E-3 and E-300, and I'm quite satisfied with both. But I must admit to a little Olympus fanboydom, and sometimes something is worth owning for its own sake.

Update
The new E-P1 will use a SD/SDHC card instead of Olympus' xD cards. That feature removes a big impediment to owning an E-P1. I don't know how many customers Olympus has lost in the point-and-shoot marketplace because of their stubbornness over using their own xD format rather than SD. Perhaps this design decision will ripple throughout their camera lines. One can only hope.

Twitterific Whole Again

2009-06-15T22:36:00.002-04:00

Looks like Apple sent a new upgrade to Twitterific in record time. I was able to download a working upgrade midnight last night. Right now it's back to work, and it's in sync with the PC Twitter clients. I'm amazed by both Twitterific and Apple. Thanks guys for working together in a timely fashion.

Olympus E-3 System Six Months On

2009-06-14T17:48:00.011-04:00

It's been six months since December of last year when I first opened all the boxes on my E-3 and its lenses and equipment. While it isn't perfect (what camera truly is), I'm satisfied with it to the point where I'll give it up when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

System Specifics

With the exception of two lenses (the Zuiko 9-18mm and Sigma 30mm) every piece of equipment was purchased back in December of 2008, when the prices were anywhere from 35%-50% off of MSRP. It was remarkable. Since that time the prices have risen back to reclaim half their mark-off. I wish I'd purchased more, but my budget had a firm fixed limit.

My system is composed of the following:

E-3 Body
HLD-4 vertical grip
FL-50R flash
12-60mm Digital Zuiko High Grade ED SWD 5:1 zoom
50-200mm Digital Zuiko High Grade ED SWD 4:1 zoom
9-18mm Digital Zuiko Standard Grade ED 2:1 zoom
30mm Sigma DC HSM f/1.4 prime

Other bits and pieces include a pair of SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Compact Flash cards, Hoya Pro1 Digital Filters for everything but the Sigma (it has none at this time), a Hoya Pro1 Digital circular polarizer (72mm for the 12-60mm and the 9-18mm), extra batter packs (WASABI Power 1900mAh BLM-1 replacements from Blue Nook), all of which is kept in a Kata OC-82 camera bag.

Although the Kata looks large in the picture, it fits easily over my shoulder and the whole kit is light enough and rugged enough for travel to just about anywhere. When I'm out shooting for real I use two bodies, the E-3 with the 50-200mm mounted and my older E-300 with the 12-60mm.

Observations

As I said earlier I'm quite satisfied with the whole system, but it does have its quirks. I'm going to begin to document my observations. I won't get to all of them (after all I want to write more than one post about this wonderful camera). Here goes.

General Fit and Finish - Because it was released in November of 2007, there were already a number of very long reviews of the E-3 and many of the lenses I own (see links below). I read each and every one, paying attention to comments about the camera's quality, as well as looking at sample shots. Based on what I read I pulled the trigger and ordered everything on-line.

When I ordered the E-3 body, I ordered it as part of a kit that included the 12-60mm and the FL-50R flash. The body was the first item that came out of packing and as soon as my hands touched it I could tell immediately that it was a well crafted, precision instrument. Then I unpacked and mounted the 12-60mm and attached the HLD-4 vertical grip. Each component also exuded the same quality feel, fit, and finish. As soon as the lens and vertical grip were mounted and the E-3 was 'complete' it felt like it was molded specifically to fit my hands. Although there was weight and heft to the total package it didn't feel overly heavy, just substantial. After six months of constant use nothing has changed. If anything, my attachment to the camera has grown stronger. The E-3 plus 12-60mm goes with me in my car everywhere I go. As soon as my hand lifts it up the camera system is ready to take any picture I care to take.

Battery Operation - I run the E-3 with the Wasabi's, choosing to put the original Olympus BLM-1's in another vertical grip mounted on my E-300. I've discovered that I get the longest battery times when shooting strictly through the viewfinder. Using live view will cut into the time between battery changes/recharges. One way to really kill the battery life is to use the USB port to view images on the compact flash. I don't know why. When pulling images off the card I turn the camera off, remove the compact flash, and use a SanDisk USB 2 reader with Olympus Master 2 to view and post-process the images.

Live View - As mentioned above, running Live View can be a real battery killer. And yet, in spite of that, when you need Live View you really need it, and it's worth the cost in battery life. It's just not something to be turned on and left on.

I use Live View for the odd shot; camera above my head for the downward look, or off to the side, or sitting on a flat surface such as a table or railing for support. To make it most effective I pre-focus so that when it's active I see the scene in focus. That's because autofocus doesn't work until you press the shutter, and the mirror drops down to allow autofocus to work. That's the bad part of Live View as it's implemented on the E-3; when you enable it the mirror goes up allowing the output of the sensor to be seen directly on the back pivoting LCD. It allows you to really see the scene in detail, but when you press the shutter for your exposure, the mirror is dropped down, the camera then attempts to autofocus and set exposure, after which the mirror then snaps back up out of the way, the shutter is triggered for the exposure, and then Live View continues. It's great for thoughtful shooting, but not so much for fast action.

Live View does have one excellent feature. I can use live view to immediately gauge proper white balance and exposure compensation (if in program mode) or how manually setting shutter speed and aperture effect exposure before taking the shot, even using live histogram through the INFO button on the back of the camera.

Auto Focus - Auto-focus speed and accuracy varies with the lens in use. The fastest and most accurate auto-focusing lens I have is the 12-60mm. It is lightening fast and always (and I mean always) dead on. I have never had a problem with autofocus with that lens.

Autofocus with the 50-200mm is a little less satisfactory. Focus speed is fast, but not as fast as the 12-60mm. Furthermore there has been the rare but occasional time where the 50-200 has refused to focus lock. I shoot single-focus plus manual, so when the 50-200mm starts to hunt I grab the focus collar and manually focus myself.

The 9-18mm, not being an SWD lens, is much slower than either the 12-60mm or the 50-200mm. But it is as accurate as the 12-60mm. My biggest complaint with it is the lack of weather sealing and its slower f-st0p. But the only really good alternative is the Super High-Grade 7-14mm, and it costs 3 times as much as the 9-18mm. For my needs I can live with the 9-18mm; it's an Olympus and it still produces beautiful images.

The final lens in the collection is the Sigma 30mm. The Sigma is notorious for suffering from back-focus and front-focus problems, especially on the E-3. I've been lucky in that mine seems to focus reasonably well. But the problem with the 30mm is the knife-thin depth of field wide open. It isn't so much that it front- or back-focuses but that it wrong-focuses. As a consequence I usually put the 30mm on manual focus and just focus the Old Fashioned Film Way with the viewfinder. Every time I hear about how images are out of focus with the 30mm, I'm reminded of the film days when people would complain about out-of-focus or blurry shots made with 50mm f/1.4 or faster primes. The advice given back about how to use those lenses still applies today. In spite of its occasional problem, when it works it works beautifully, producing quality images that stand with Olympus glass.

In Body Image Stabilization - It works. Regardless of what you may read on dead trees or in forums, Olympus IS on the E-3 is an image saver, especially when hand-held shooting with the 50-200mm at 200mm (400mm effective 35mm focal length). And because it's in-body it works with every lens attached to the E-3. For tripod work (studio, some outdoor architecture and panorama work) it's not that important a feature. But for all hand-held work I can't stress enough how much it helps get the shot, especially in dodgy light.

Weather Sealing - The E-3, the 12-60mm, and the 50-200mm are all weather sealed. I can't count any more the number of times I've been caught out in the Florida rain with my E-3 and 12-60mm. And I mean drenched. All I have to do is dry both myself and my camera off, and every thing's good. The other good reason for weather sealing is the transition from air conditioning to the hot muggy out-of-doors. During the transition from cold to hot all the glass surfaces get coated with moisture. After about a minute the camera warms up to the ambient temperature and I'm off shooting. But the sealing does keep the moisture from building up in the body, for which I am thankful.

There's quite a bit more to write about; each lens in particular and the flash are deserving of their own entry. Suffice to say that it's a great camera, a great system, and it is an excellent value for the money spent.

Links

Olympus E-3 A Technical Review and Reference
Olympus Zuiko Digital 12-60mm 1:2.8-4.0 review
Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm 1:4-5.6 review

Twitpocalypse? No, just sloppy design

2009-06-14T15:28:00.005-04:00

Ars Technica wrote a little article about how the interwebs were all a-twitter over its belief in a looming Twitpocalypse. Everything Twitter was supposed to shut down because somebody, somewhere, decided to use a signed 32-bit value as a unique key for every tweet posted to Twitter. Once the value rolled past 2,147,483,647 and into negative territory then everything was supposed grind to a screeching halt. And then all those Twits who couldn't tweet would just shrivel up and die. If only.

Well, things didn't turn out as catastrophic as many had feared (unfortunately). I've been experimenting with three Twitter clients. One of them has failed, I would suspect, due to the 32-bit value roll-over. The client that failed is Twitterific on my iPod Touch. The other two clients, twhirl for Windows and the regular Twitter web interface, seem to be cooking right along.

I can't complain too much about Twitterific. The Touch (and by association the iPhone) make a poor Twitter client due to the lack of a real keypad. Typing with the virtual keyboard is painfully slow. And since it was free it turns out to be worth exactly what I paid for it. Nothing. I'm debating now whether to wipe Twitterific off or wait for the long, slow, tortuous Apple process to accredit and spit out a Twitterific update that fixes the problem. Yeah, I think my morbid curiosity in this matter motivates me to hang onto the old and busted just so I can see what happens.

Fedora 11

2009-06-11T23:27:00.009-04:00

I decided to try out the latest Fedora, 11, over the weekend. The biggest reason is that the company I work for "sanctions" the use of Fedora on corporate machines. Rather than go through the trouble of installing Fedora 11 on my company notebook I decided to take the lazy way out and run the Live CD on europa.

I know that europa is getting on in years; I purchased all the parts to the machine Christmas 2003. Over the years I've upgraded the video card and replaced one of its two drives. The primary drive, the one on which Windows XP is installed, has worked tirelessly since initial installation and power up. If I'm to believe Palimpsest, Fedora 11's latest utility, then that drive has some problems.

Which, I suppose, is to be expected after such a long period of use.

As is usual I've just poked around Fedora 11 a little bit, noting the obvious in-your-face deficiencies. One of the biggest worth noting is the wildly inconsistent default font sizes that come on the Live CD, and I assume, would get installed. Note, as but one example, the poor placement of controls on the Firefox upload image dialog due to the inconsistent default font sizes.

Some may so "So what? Just pick the proper sizes and move on." I answer back that other distributions have solved this problem already. For example, Mint 7 and OpenSolaris 2009.06 don't have this issue. In point of fact the Mint 7 desktop experience kicks Fedora 11 to the curb. And laughs. Fedora 11's default font problems are just another indicator of the sloppy quality in this release.

I'm not the only one to ping Fedora 11 over it's questionable release quality. Ryan Paul of Ars Technica noted in his preview that quality issues "prevent me from giving Fedora 11 the strong endorsement that I have typically given to new Fedora releases in the past."

For now, I think I'll stick with Fedora 10 on my work system, and Mint 7 on the home system. I don't have time or patience to go looking for more trouble.