Toyota Madness is Absolutely Absurd

Today, I was reading this article in Yahoo! News. I just can't figure out people. It's absurd. Absolutely absurd. I especially loved this line:

"Beyond that, Toyota has also issued some Dukes of Hazzard style maneuvers drivers should use if they're cruising along and the pedal does, in fact, stick, such as shifting into neutral or turning off the ignition (but don't take the key out!). Do they teach that in driver's ed?"

this one was pretty good too:

"If you're a concerned parent with a suspect Toyota, you could easily imagine that the gas pedal seems a little stickier than usual. And do what? Risk your kids' lives by driving them around in a death trap?"

Ah, it's the concerned parent argument. Is the only other person in the world with some sanity on this Lenore Skenazy? Remember that the only truly safe driving experience is Mario Kart. Even Mario Kart I'm sure has the risk of repetitive motion injuries. All cars are potential "death traps" - they are powerful tools that must be operated safely. "Dukes of Hazzard style maneuvers"? Give me a break. If your gas pedal gets stuck or your engine runs away for some other reason, turn it off or press in the clutch/shift an automatic to neutral. C'mon.

Personally, I can't believe people are as stupid as these recent media releases suggest. Instead, the media is trying to cause us to have an inordinate fear of the world - and thus a trust of the government and media. In this case - build mistrust in foreign cars, call them death traps (due to a USA-built component ironically) - sell more domestic cars (which our government now has an interest in due to bailouts).

There's nothing to see here people. USA-built Toyotas have a gas pedal that may get stuck. When they can, take your car in to get the gas pedal fixed. In the extremely unlikely event that something does happen, do like you would to safely bring any runaway engine safely under control - turn it off or depress the clutch or shift into neutral.

P.S. My car, a Honda Fit, has a recall too - over a switch that if it gets really wet could start a fire. An issue that should be fixed, yes. But cars can start fire and this is a very minor problem also... just try to keep it dry until they can fix it, no biggie...

Dude, I Want A Dell

Okay, so not long after myself declaring the iPad uninteresting, I have seen the device I really want. It's called the Dell Mini 5. First, the video I found of it in action:



Wow. This is the device I want. It is Zenon's zap pad (assuming it has the front-facing camera which I've heard it will). Since it's an open android device doing video and VoIP over the 3G will be no problem. It's smaller than the iPad but still has higher resolution than an iPhone or iPod touch. Yes, it's basically perfect.

It only needs one thing, that's not even remotely for sure, to get me to want it. The iPad's amazing unlimited data for $29.99 prepaid data plan. That is iPad's amazing killer feature and if Dell can match it then dude, I'm getting a Dell...

Thinking More About iPad

Well, after my initial bad reaction to the Apple iPad, I've been thinking more about the device. It really only needs three things to make me want one:

1. A webcam (and of course video chat versions of Skype and Google Talk to go with it that work over 3G)

2. Adobe Flash support (mostly for my Webkinz fix)

3. Multitasking (so I can leave Slacker Radio on while doing work/browsing the web/etc)

Apple, if you add those three things to the iPad, I'll buy one when I can afford it. Though I'd still like to see it smaller... Without them, I wouldn't get much use out of it...

Mark

Gorilla Power!

I'm all for girl (and boy!) power, but what about gorilla power?

I'd heard of the Joby Gorillapod before. Frankly, it just didn't interest me. I shoot pictures. I handhold when I need odd angles. I use a nice, solid, metal tripod when I need some more stability or self portraits. The Gorillapod? Pointlessness. It was plastic, couldn't be solid, and seemed more like a novelty. Then I started shooting some video with a pocket camera...

I love this thing!

I asked a friend to borrow a mini tripod. He showed me his Gorillapod at the time. I fell in love at first try. Solid, stable video from the most awkward angle? Check. But what else? Stable night time snapshots anywhere? Check. Razor-sharp captures and self portraits in the strangest places? Check. Bike-mounted camera? Check. An extra handhold for stability and positioning? Check. The possibilities in my mind were endless.

I ordered one...

Of course, I didn't order the original. I had to order the pink Gorillapod because, well, I'm a pink person :) . Don't worry if you're not, it's also available in orange, green, blue, red, yellow, and the original grey. On arrival, I only fell further in love. It enabled me to take pictures in a new way I'd never seen before. Steady, razor-sharp night shots with no flash in situations I'd never take a tripod. Solid short impromptu video clips. New places, new things. The Gorillapod is no replacement for a traditional tripod, I was right. It's something totally and completely different.

I ordered two...

The original Gorillapod does have one downside. It's limited to holding 325g. That's a small compact camera. Nothing more. Thankfully, Joby has other options. There is the Gorillapod SLR, rated to handle up to 800g (a consumer SLR camera with the kit lens). There is the Gorillapod SLR-Zoom, rated to handle up to 3kg (almost any SLR rig imaginable). Finally, there is the brand new, metal-reinforced, Gorillapod Focus with a 5kg rating, it's ready to handle almost any camera that's camera tripod mountable. Given the SLR-Zoom only cost a few dollars more than the SLR, and I do have some heavy zoom lenses (and a tripod mount projector), the SLR-Zoom made the most sense to me. You give up the quick-release plate and the extra two vertical joints to help aim your camera. Instead they'd rather sell you their ball head. I've heard their ball head is excellent and it makes sense that it would be the preferred mounting option for professional cameras. I didn't bite, instead choosing to use the SLR-Zoom as is. And it works well for my needs, though the ball head would be nice.

Portability, convenience, flexibility

The Gorillapod product line provides all these things. They're shockingly light. The original is a mere 45g - quite little compared to even the lightest compact cameras. My new SLR-Zoom is only 241g - half a pound, but dramatically less than the weight of the camera going on it. Even the Focus is a mere 500g - just over a pound. This means it's the tripod you will take with you. It'll go in trees, on signs, in the ground, hanging from drop ceiling grids, you name it. It'll help you see the world in a way you haven't seen it before. And it'll be there for you when your big tripod is at home.

Like a gorilla, the Gorillapod seems tough. I was worried since it's plastic that it'd wear out and lose it's stickiness. I haven't had it long enough to tell but neither of my Gorillapods is (in my short time with them) showing any plastic dust that would indicate wear. So they seem to be made of good plastics that should last at least long enough for you to get your money's worth. Though the creativity it will inspire is priceless.


In conclusion, you should buy one

Yes, I'm 100% serious. All the links above are to Amazon, which has excellent prices - especially on the higher end Gorillapods where there is presumably more margin to discount. And my pink/black Gorillapod goes perfectly with my new Sony DSC-W350 pink since we're all about matching around here :)

And yes, the picture to start this article was taken with my Gorillapod and my Olympus Stylus 850SW. The Gorillapod gave me the stability needed to get this pic even on a camera that has terrible high-ISO performance, small apertures (slow shutter speeds), and no image stabilization. I like my Gorillapod :)

The Megapixel Myth (A DSC-W350 Second Look)

Megapixels do not matter

I thought (hoped) that the general public knew this years ago. Sadly, they didn't. I'm amazed how many of my own friends have been very impressed that I bought a 14 megapixel camera. The reality is that such numbers mean next to nothing. You only need about 4 megapixels to make a good 8x10 - or any size above that! Why? After 8x10 people no longer look at photos from "reading distance" but instead they stand back. To demonstrate this fact, today's normal movie theater digital cinema technology - "2K" - is 2048*1080 pixels. That's about 2.2 megapixels. And it's used to fill a movie screen! A movie screen you probably think looks absolutely fantastic... Granted, movies have the benefit that they're flashing by you very quickly giving you little time to analyze - that's why I said 4 megapixels for good quality still photos.

The great benefit of added resolution is cropping flexibility. What if I don't want the whole frame? More pixels let me crop out the edges and still get the 2-4 megapixels required for great results. So, why then isn't a 14 megapixel compact camera meaningful at least for cropping? Because you need each pixel to be good, meaningful, quality image data. With 14 megapixel cameras, that requires high-quality, razor-sharp optics. Not the kit lenses most DSLRs come with, and certainly not the built in lenses on a compact camera. This camera does not produce 14 million good, quality, image detail pixels. In fact, it produces substantially less actual image detail than my 8 megapixel Canon EOS Rebel XT. Of course, that shouldn't surprise anyone. But yet, it continually does. I just had to get this little pet peeve of mine out of the way. More pixels in compacts that don't have the optics for them help extremely little (and may cause harm by reducing the light sensitivity of each pixel!). Now, I'd love to have the new 15 megapixel Canon EOS Rebel T1i - but that's because I have the $380 lens required to make use of those pixels, if I had them. P.S. if you do happen to have a Canon EOS DSLR camera, go buy the 85mm f/1.8 lens - it's well worth the $380 and is an amazing portrait lens.

Running Around With The DSC-W350

No, it's not as tack-sharp as a DSLR. But, in reality, the DSC-W350 has some features that let me get consistently BETTER snapshots than I do with my Rebel XT. One, it's pocketable. The best camera is the one you have with you. That's why my Olympus 850SW is an indispensable device. It can go where other cameras can't. My cell phone has also taken some of my favorite pictures. Do I wish those pictures were taken with better cameras? Sure, but they weren't and if it weren't for those cameras they'd not have been taken at all. The DSC-W350 can go most places, and takes far better images.

Sony offers the technical expertise to make snapshots better. The face detection works, and it works well. Face detection, while not magical, reduces the chance of the autofocus focusing on an unintended subject by looking for human facial patterns and prioritizing autofocus on those.

Another feature that I only briefly touched on in my previous post is Sony's DRO - Dynamic Range Optimization. We've all seen the cool HDR - High Dynamic Range - pictures. Well, don't expect that from DRO. True HDR images require multiple exposures of the image sensor. Careful placement of the camera, nothing moving in the frame, etc. They're quite magical for the right scene but very difficult. If you've shot with a DSLR, you likely know that similar but less dramatic results are available by using a camera RAW image and custom tweaking in post processing of fill light/highlight recovery/gamma. That what DRO does. It applies that type of processing automatically, in the camera, before recording the JPEG. It is, um, well - I generally like it but try shooting with and without it. Like actual HDR, it is NOT for every scene and is not a magic bullet. I've ruined some photos by making a bad habit of leaving it on because of how cool it CAN look. Don't do that. Use it when it'll help your image - and only then.

Next, optical image stabilization. Quite frankly, in a great many situations, this is the difference between a sharp picture and hand-shake blur. And it works - really, really well. Enough that in casual low-light snapshooting I'd prefer the Sony to my (non-stabilized) Rebel XT... (yes, I know, they make IS lenses for it...)

Finally, the last factor that Sony provides is the speed of their Bionz image processor. Sony compact cameras feel fast. And in general, the DSC-W350 is no exception. Portability, autofocus reliability, image enhancement, and speed are all factors in getting a good snapshot. And they're factors Sony gets right.

I have posted far more pictures to my Flickr account, go check them out. None are edited in anyways. A tiny bit of post processing can make most of them look far better.

One More Thing...


All things have trade offs. In addition to the lack of waterproofing, there is one more "gotcha" with this camera. White balance. The automatic white balance struggles in mixed light situations. If this was better, the camera would take noticeably better out-of-the-camera snapshots wherever you go. No camera is perfect at auto white balance - that's why there's manual settings and custom white balance. But it does seem like an area where effort at major improvement would help all camera manufacturers much more than the latest zillion-pixel sensor that compact cameras don't have the optics to take advantage of.

However, it is a great compact camera and I would not hesitate to recommend you buy one today. In addition to pink, it's also available in black, silver, and blue.

Happy snapping,

Mark

Why doesn't equality go both ways?

Today I was reading the Flathead Beacon's police blotter and I read this:

10:04 p.m. A man living on the North Fork Road called to report that his wife was hitting him. The two were separated for the night.

How come I have a feeling that if the genders were reversed this would be worded more seriously and more serious action would have been taken? What "separated for the night" means isn't defined. But I doubt it meant jail for the woman. But the other way around? Jail would have been almost a certainty. I don't know the situation. But, in general, it seems to me that domestic abuse against men is not taken nearly as seriously as domestic abuse against women.

Ladies, yes, this affects you. For anyone to have equality, everyone must have equality. That's what the whole equal thing means.

The Beauty Of Grace

Today, I sit here, thinking of the Krystel Meyers song, "The Beauty Of Grace." A portion of the lyrics reads:


But anywhere you are
Is never too far away
There’s freedom from your scars
The mistakes that you’ve made
Forgiven
The memories erased
Baby, that’s the beauty of grace


Have we forgotten the beauty of grace? Mankind controls the world to a greater extent than ever. We decide our schedule with electric lights (yeah, you knew I had to have started this post off with a light for a reason :) ). We stop diseases with drugs. We build shelter from storms. We even change the flow of rivers.

But for all our great technological advancements, the fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control - seem just as distant as ever. Why? Why can we be the most "advanced" society ever and still tear down those already hurting? Why do we say "good" when a deeply hurting person kills himself? Why do we say "who cares about Haiti"? Why do we walk past the homeless person - the homeless child, even - on the street without so much as a "good day"?

A few weeks ago I stopped to talk to a homeless man. I literally had no cash on me and he didn't want me to go take him somewhere to eat - he had just been brought food. I said "if I had any cash on me I'd have given you something" and he said "just you talking to me means so much." Maybe all that guy needed was a friend. One friend in the world. One friend to encourage him. One friend to love him. One friend to give him hope. One friend to give him the confidence to succeed.

Who will be that friend?

What about you?

Getting Ready for FPBA

Hi world, I just want to let you know that I'm starting to get ready for the Face Painting and Body Art Convention in Las Vegas, NV. This convention will enable me to be a better face painter for my business, Comic Expressions, as well as a better artist for my church. There are classes from some of the world's best face painters - fine people like Mark Reid who I am incredibly excited to meet in person!

For those of you who follow my blog for my more techie side (there's not much to face paint blog about...), I would encourage you to watch my Flickr photostream where my new Sony DSC-W350 will be getting a thorough workout, as will my Alltel data card. I'm glad Alltel is unlimited nationwide data - the last of the unlimited carriers. Realistically, this trip will be the ultimate traveling road-warrior's test of both Alltel (and their roaming partners)' data networks as well as the Sony camera. I will be traveling back through California to visit friends. Pay close attention and see if you like the Sony DSC-W350's results. So far, my recommendation is that you buy one today (available in pink, black, silver, and blue!). I love it. For a sub-$200 compact it does extremely well.

I Am Not Alone

Apparantly, others see the iPad as kinda pointless too...

While this shouldn't be a surprise, I write this blog to get things off my own head. It's not a frequently-visited blog. I've put Amazon links on it in hopes someone buys something big. But in truth I've never seen a penny from the couple tiny items people have bought through my links. Thus, I'm not in this to make money. I'm not even really in it to be popular, since I have so few readers. With that said, I do find it interesting to look through my Google Analytics web stats.

A big surprise

I really wanted to see how my iPad dissing got taken. To be honest, with the overwhelming news media reporting on the iPad I didn't expect to get noticeable amounts of traffic. In reality, I broke 100 hits to my blog today, the first time I've been over the 100 in a day mark. iPad searches were a significant part of this spike in traffic. Since I'm obviously not in the top rankings for just "iPad" - let's see what kinda searches did get people here:

1.	ipad unimpressed		19	1.11	00:00:32	100.00%	89.47%
2.	unimpressed with ipad		4	1.00	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%
3.	"unimpressed" "ipad"		1	1.00	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%
4.	anyone else think the ipad is kinda worthless		1	1.00	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%
5.	applie ipad unimpressed		1	1.00	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%

Surprised? I know I kinda am. For what it's worth, that's from my stats for Wednesday copy/pasted straight out of Google Analytics.

Does this mean anything?

Nah, probably not. But it is interesting. It means the iPad isn't for everyone. I saw it compared to the Samsung Jitterbug. The Jitterbug is an oversized cell phone for old people. It's a niche but it does have a market. Me? I'd rather have a good netbook running Ubuntu Netbook Remix - an OS designed for netbooks that provides a vastly superior user experience to crushing a crippled version of Windows (or even full Windows) onto a netbook. I love mine :) - I just wish it had a better screen (that's why I linked to an Acer and not the ASUS I have - I've since learned Acer's screens are far better).

And yes, I agree with the guy who thinks the iPad is kinda worthless. iPod Touch AND netbook for less money. The only iPad advantage really is the cheap data plan. Give me that, in a slightly smaller device, with a webcam for video chat and VoIP over 3G and I'd buy one in an instant. A separate back side digital camera would be really sweet (the dual cam rumors...) Can you say Zenon's zap pad? But no, this is just a Jitterbug crowd version of the iPod Touch with 3G added.

Better luck next time, Apple.

P.S. Better luck getting my desire. Of course this thing will sell insanely well. I don't doubt that for a minute :) I just wonder - WHY?

Is Anyone Else Unimpressed By iPad?

Today, Apple Released iPad


Am I the only one who is very much not impressed? The only things that really caught my eye are the 10 hour battery life (though if that isn't a real-world number, my netbook gets close...) and the fairly cheap 3G (cell phone plan priced 3G, no contract, and a unique occasional-use 250MB for $15 plan - enough for a couple days of email use a month). Now, let's look at what it's not:

1. It doesn't support multitasking. Seriously. This is a bad enough shortcoming in a phone OS (mainly for things like streaming radio, at least let Slacker and Pandora run in the background Apple).

2. It doesn't support Flash (presumably, due to missing plugin icon in today's demo). Which means no Webkinz or other online flash games / video sites other than YouTube. Yeah.

3. It has no USB host controller (it shows up as a USB device but it doesn't let you plug USB devices into it). No memory card slot either. There *is* a camera connection kit to let you download photos (the main use I can think of for this feature. But the storage is limited compared to even an entry level netbook (due to the use of flash memory instead of a hard drive).

4. No camera. Seriously, this one is a biggie. I could imagine some kinda Zenon zap pad like device (and apparently, so did other people). But without a webcam and video chat software, the zap pad this is not.

5. Finally, what on earth is a GSM micro SIM? It's not mentioned in the tech specs for the device, but it was in the live Apple show. I really hope they didn't create their own SIM standard, which would only further defeat the purpose of it being an unlocked device (the lack of UMTS1700 already largely defeats that purpose as it isn't compatible with T-Mobile). I also wonder how the GSM Association would feel about that. If you know anything about this, let me know!

So yeah, this is definitely not on my must-have list. Actually, it's rather thoroughly unimpressive. Android devices are looking nicer all the time. No, I'm not saying that Archos Android device I linked to addresses my concerns either, it's basically a phone without the phone or camera. Just that Android has more flexibility and someone COULD address the shortcomings I noted in an Android (or Ubuntu Netbook Remix) device

Sony DSC-W350 First Impressions

After a rather failed attempt with the Samsung SL30, I still needed a good compact still camera for taking snapshots with. The Samsung wasn't bad, but it sounded broken and the autofocus failed… a lot.

I decided I needed to take a step up, and pre-ordered Sony's then newly announced DSC-W350/P(the /P means pink). It's also available in black, silver, and blue. Retail price is $199. It's also one of a series of new Sony cameras that no longer requires Sony's proprietary Memory Stick Pro Duo. This camera's dual-slot can take either the Memory Stick cards or the more standard Secure Digital (SD/SDHC) cards taken by most other cameras. This doesn't significantly contribute to size or bulk, the slot is just as small as any other and in fact, that gets me to...

First Impressions

One of the first things you'll notice about this camera is it's tiny. Very thin, not quite as thin as the ultra-thin Sony's - but for a standard line camera it's probably one of, if not the thinnest Sony has released. Adding to that thinness, it's also extremely light weight. The build quality seems solid enough, but not amazing. The lens motor doesn't sound solid and fluid, but it also doesn't sound as iffy and worrisome as the Samsung. The tripod mount is located in a place that a GorillaPod shoe won't block the battery door, and it's also a metal mount. The GorillaPod is a fantastic accessory for any compact camera that I would highly recommend, and it is available in pink/black to match this camera!

If you click here, you can go to my Flickr account where I posted all the photos I have taken with this camera so far (including the terrible ones!), as well as the second set of videos I took (the first set got accidentally deleted, one warning - your videos are in a different folder - do not accidentally copy just your picture folder over then erase the card as I did! This is different from most cameras and could result in you easily losing your first batch of videos!)

The image quality is pretty good and the image stabilization works well. The lens could be better, and 14 megapixels is the result of excessive marketing wars in action. These little cameras simply don't have the optics to produce 14 million quality pixels on a teensy-tinsy sensor. My night images look good. I have done several close-up high ISO and one flash image of a doll. The noise reduction is effective up to ISO 3200 - there is blurriness and loss of image detail, but no objectionable noise thus the images are good for small prints even at 3200 ISO. The flash coverage is extremely uneven up close, though that is to be expected. I do not recommend using flash on a point and shoot anyway. They're little red eye generators :) There are some chromatic aberrations and the focus at night is less than perfect. But, all things considered, it's a good little snapshot camera. Of course, as with any compact, do not expect to take portraits with good bokeh (background blur) - the small sensor size of modern compact cameras makes that impossible. Oh yeah, one last thing, Sony's much touted Sweep Panorama mode is amazing. I expected something like the not-worth-mentioning panorama on Olympus cameras. Nope, Sony got it right and it works well - enough said.

If speed is your thing, as it was mine (and the reason I went with a Sony) don't fear. This camera is fast to focus and fast to click - very responsive. Speed to turn on is more mediocre, but I consider getting a camera out the bigger issue. If you're hitting power on as soon as it's out of your pocket, by the time you're ready to compose a shot it will be ready for you! I haven't yet had time to test burst rates or shot-to-shot performance, but given the responsiveness of this camera I do not expect to be disappointed.

Finally, the video quality is mediocre. Just as the 14 megapixel still images sizes are unnecessarily huge (as the camera optics can't shoot 14 million GOOD pixels), the camera isn't capable of GOOD 720p HD video. Yes, it's 1280x720 but no - it's not like what you'd get on a dedicated HD camera - even something like the Flip Mino HD that I have. The one benefit over a camera like the Flip Mino HD is that it uses a CCD sensor instead of a CMOS sensor - this means no "rolling shutter" artifacts such as skew and wobble.

Overall, the Sony DSC-W350 represents a fantastic camera for the price, and a good little compact for general shooting. Expect a compact camera and you'll do just fine here and be very happy. Don't expect that just because they can put 14 megapixels in a compact that it'll give you 14 million razor sharp low noise pixels like, say, a Canon EOS Rebel T1i would. There wouldn't be a $600 dollar price difference if they did the same thing :) One of the few real "gotchas" - and maybe a Sony expert will chime in here with the answer - is that I've found no way to do AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing) thus making the camera usable for HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo techniques is much harder.

If you keep watching my Flickr photostream there will be lots more images from this camera as I'm planning to take it to the FPBA Convention in Las Vegas with me! If you like what you see, you can purchase the camera from Amazon for slightly less than list price (except the pink, oddly enough - they don't discount that).

Blessings,

Mark

P.S. If you have any more questions feel free to email me at mark@comicexpressions.com

*UPDATED* to add high ISO information.