Monthly Archives: April 2005

Weekend Experiment

Infrared PhotographEric’s exploration of digital infrared photography over on flutterby has urged me to try to take some more infrared photographs. Toward that end, I’ve created Experiments in Infrared Digital Photography in my brainwagon photo gallery. So far, there are only three images, all derived from a single shot of some plants that I did yesterday. I was experimenting with changing the result using gimp. Let me know what you think.

Science Fiction on the Big and Little Screen

It’s no surprise: I’m a bit of a scifi geek. But just a bit. I’m not hugely well read in the genre, although I have read a lot of the classics by Bradbury, Hogan, Asimov and Clarke, and even some of the more modern stuff by Gibson and Orson Scott Card. Most of these books are translated into truly dreadful movies and television shows. It’s too bad, and largely while I’m holding my breath about the impending release of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, due out next week. (Expect a podcast review next weekend…)

But sometimes, you do stumble across things which are truly good, and I thought I’d mention two of them here.

The short-lived series Firefly by Buffy creator Joss Whedon is now out on DVD. It’s truly sad that this marvelous series was cut by the geniuses at Fox, because it was the first science fiction show in a great while which wasn’t homogenized crap. Great characters, imaginative situations, and great story telling. I’m comforted in a small degree by the knowledge that it has spawned a movie: Serenity, which will be out this September, but I really wish we had more than just a single 90 minute installment for these characters. If you haven’t watched Firefly, rent or buy the DVDs and scan the episodes and the director’s commentary. Very good.

My other good science fiction experience of the month was provided by the first two episodes of the BBC’s new production of Doctor Who. I really like Doctor Who because it never centers around technology. American audiences seem to be obsessed with technology, but in the Doctor Who Universe technology is just magic: the Tardis moves almost by magic incantation rather than by science. As a result, they never bother to explain technology: it simply is never the point. When you think about it, it’s hardly ever the point in real life either. Nobody ever talks about how a television works, only if it does or does not.

But in anycase, I’m getting astray. Chris Eccleston is really good as the Doctor, it is a pity that he only was signed for a single season. Billy Piper is a gorgeous, likeable sidekick and they seem to have real chemistry on the screen. Effects are improved over the classic episodes, but never quite reach the “totally believable” stage, which frankly, I find a bit good. Anyway, if you get the chance to see ’em, check them out.

I don’t want to join any club that would have me as a member…

I’ve supported the notion that I think that the world is a much better place when people can communicate with one another. It’s one of the reasons that I blog.

Sometimes, this is a hard philosophy to live with. Creationist knuckledragger Ken Ham has apparently figured out how to use WordPress and podcast.

Sigh.

I have to console myself with the notion that some will at least listen to him and realize what a collosal dumbass he is.

Steve Ballmer’s email about anti-discrimination bill

Cowardice.

It saddens Scoble.

Is it really surprising that a company as large, predatory, and self-centered as Microsoft might not be a good guardian of individual rights? Let’s face it: companies aren’t good guardians of individual rights. The best you can hope is that they just stay out of the way. But it’s hopelessly naive to assume that your employer will act in your best interest. It sometimes happens, and those companies should be treasured, but it surprises me every time it happens. You can’t expect companies to behave ethically or with conscience.

Nikon respond to RAW WB concerns: Digital Photography Review

There is a bit of a tizzy going around some of the blogs I frequent about the Nikon D2X. You see, Nikon has decided to encrypt some of the information in their NEF or “raw” format, so that you need to use their utilities or their SDK to get appropriate color correction of pictures from their applications. This shouldn’t be a really big deal, because apparently they did a really poor job, and a couple of people have already reverse engineered the encryption. But there is a small problem: it’s possible for Nikon to sue people who circumvent such a measure under the DMCA. It might not actually be a DMCA violation: after all, for it to be a violation of the DMCA there has to be some copyright of the underlying data, and it is hard to imagine that the white balance data is copyrightable. It’s also pretty clear that the encryption of this white balance data doesn’t actually serve any copy protection. This recalls some of the findings in the recent Lexmark cases, and should be struck down on a similar finding.

But they could definitely make life miserable for software developers in the mean time. They may not win, but they really don’t have to prevail in court. They can just write checks until they do.

What is truly mystifying is why Nikon chooses to limit the functionality of their hardware. Why they choose to screw their customers. Why they choose to slow the adoption of their equipment. Nothing about this policy serves their customers in the slightest degree. Presumably they think they can make some money by licensing their SDK to developers. Hey, here’s an idea: stay out of the software business, except to the extent that it allows you to make better cameras. Then, sell more cameras.

Dpreview.com (an excellent website by the way, highly recommended before any camera purchase) has an article which reproduces Nikon’s response to this controversy.

Nikon respond to RAW WB concerns: Digital Photography Review

Through use of the Nikon Software Developer Kit, authorized developers can produce software by applying creative concepts to their implementation and adding capabilities to open Nikon’s NEF file and use NEF’s embedded Instructions and Nikon’s Libraries. Nikon photographers reap benefits from independent developers’ approaches, because it allows the photographer to open and process their NEF images.

So, tell me Nikon: how are your customers well served by denying motivated developers from developing software for your cameras? Just what does a developer need to do to become “authorized”? Do they need to demonstrate some really cool application? Insight into digital imaging? I suspect not. I suspect that the way they become authorized is by signing a licensing agreement and a check.

I’m a software developer, and I’m a consumer of digital products including cameras. The two are not disjoint things: I’m capable of operating in both spheres and I like products (indeed, seek out products) which enable me to operate in both spheres. Your design decisions make it very easy for me to select my next digital camera: hello Canon.

Nikon’s press release ends with the incredibly condescending line:

Nikon continues to welcome dialogue with bona fide software developers.

Kiss my ass Nikon. I don’t need your bone fides to develop software.

Canon: are you listening? Don’t follow them down this path.

Recipes and Encouragement

While I was on Julian’s website, I noticed that he still hadn’t mastered the fine art of meat loaf. I thought that he should check out Good Eats Meat Loaf for inspiration.

It’s not a perfect recipe, but it’s not bad. They use a mixture of ground chuck and ground sirloin to get the right amount of fat, and some crusty garlic croutons to balance it out. Getting precisely the right mix of bread to meat is essential to avoid making a doorstop. I like the spice mix generally, but you should consider using red onions (I like meat loaf mostly on the second day, in sandwhiches with slices of red onion on it, yum!). It never hurts to put strips of bacon on top either.

Curse my Weight Watchers diet.

Oh well, another thing to try is to use an even greater variety of meats. I like a 1/3 split of ground chuck, ground pork and ground veal for meatballs, although I’m mostly opposed to using veal, I sometimes succumb to it for dishes like this. I’m in good company, Emeril’s Kicked Up Meat Loaf uses a similar meat mix.

Oh, and Julian, if you are listening to this, I liked the Chopin, keep up the recordings!

Wil Out…

This just off the pokerwire.com WPT ticker…

Annie Duke eliminates Wil Wheaton; John Kabbaj out
Ten minutes after being crippled when an opponent hit trip queens against his pocket kings, Wheaton pushed his last 15k in with pocket kings (again!). Duke called with AK and spiked the ace.

Sorry Wil. Hold’em be a harsh mistress. And that Annie Duke is a damn good player. At least you outlasted Tobey Macguire. 🙂

Update: another blog suggested that he may have peaked as high as number seven. Way to GO Wil.

A self-referential puzzle

I’m bored, so I decided to amuse myself with a self-referential puzzle. This post on brainwagon.org (including the title “a self-referential puzzle” but not any footers) contains thirteen As, four Bs, four Cs, seven Ds, fifty five Es, nineteen Fs, five Gs, ten Hs, twenty nine Is, fourteen Ls, four Ms, thirty three Ns, seventeen Os, five Ps, twenty Rs, thirty eight Ss, thirty five Ts, eleven Us, nine Vs, six Ws, two Xs, nine Ys, and seven Zs.