Canon Hybrid Kool-Aide Test

Well, I was going to write a really thoughtful piece on the hype around Canon EOS 5D Mark II but unfortunately Mitch Aunger (Planet 5D) has already done so over at Photofocus.

Only thing I would change if I wrote the article is : a) it wouldn't have been as well written and b) I'm not ready to drink the Kool-Aide yet. While it is possible to use this camera on projects, it is not yet totally practical for most videomakers. You can't record for longer than 29 minutes no matter the format and its 1080p is limited to 30 fps with a very unsexy h.264 codec with mono audio. For example, 29 minute limit and audio makes it useless for those like me who have to film live events in their entirety.

While I quibble about the specs, I can't argue with the pictures.

Canon is not a silly company and I know they will learn from their accidental success and build it into a new line. Then I'll drink the Kool-Aide.

Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus - but snarky lists rule the Universe

You know those emails you get with funny lists of wisdom on whatever? Ande forwarded one with a list of nine things women say and what they really mean. Pretty witty and accurate. Yes, this is for the hapless men who need the translations in order to avoid glares, stares and outright doom. This would be an insult to men if it weren't so true...
But, to preserve the slightest degree of gender dignity, we also came up with some words and expressions men use and what they mean - just to remind the smarter, better half of the human race that we have depth, we have feelings, we...sniff...sniff - dissolves into sobbing puddle of raw emo.

NINE TERMS WOMEN USE (and what they mean)

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!

(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)

(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome.. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' .. That will bring on a 'whatever').

(8) Whatever: Is a woman's way of saying F-- YOU!

(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

* Send this to the men you know, to warn them about arguments they can avoid if they remember the terminology.
* Send this to all the women you know to give them a good laugh, cause they know it's true!!!

And that was the obligatory send this on request - cuz, you know, the Internet isn't quite busy enough with inane chatter...
Like this...

This means this in GUY speak!

(1) Grunts: subtle variations indicate different responses
a- uh huh: An affirmative response
b- uh uh: A negative response
c- huh?: Either an honest question or a time filler while the guy tries to come up with an excuse, an explanation, or a sudden reason to be somewhere else.

(2) Sorrys:
a- sorry: generic - the same thing you say when you bump into a stranger.
b- I'm sorry: More personal - some acceptance of personal responsibility.
c- Oh (expletive of choice), I'm sorry: Full out apology with a tinge of "Please don't kill me, I didn't know, remember, didn't think you'd notice..."

(3) yeah, I remember: Possibly he does OR stalling for time while mental files are ransacked for a clue.

(4) yeah, I know: Variation of above or means acceptance of some uncomfortable fact. "We have to go to that party, remember? Yeah, I know - sigh"

(5) yeah, yeah, yeah: Strong positive indicating he already knew this or has already performed whatever action was required OR strong indication that he forgot about whatever it was and will get right on it as soon safely possible. (Or maybe just in a Beatles mood)

(6) that's okay: Inflection indicates either a long suffering acceptance - a act of nobility really. You want to do something else: "I will do this for you" - please note my perfection in allowing this to happen. A debt is incurred.

(7) Nothing - in answer to "What's wrong?" - either nothing is wrong or this is an invitation to inquire further into the depths of his tormented soul that he is manfully keeping hidden from view. If you are worthy you would know this.

(8) I got it: Indicates that he understands, or it indicates he understood it one of the previous 50 times it was mentioned OR means please let a human with the right set of chromosomes handle this.

(9) okay, sure: Indicates that he is aware that something was said that required a response.

(10) you're right: - has moved on - means can we end this conversation now or change the topic to something at least vaguely interesting?

(11) More Yeahs
a- Yeah, I did - triumphant bragging, give me some credit on this one OR time filler while the guy tries to remember what it was he should have done.

b- Yeah, sure - either agreement, or sarcasm, or please go away until I remember what it is you want - Inflection is everything.

c- Yeah, right - inflection indicates either sarcasm or acceptance of your point.

d- Yeah, .....(long pause)... right: No way this is going to happen.

(12) Why don't you then? A challenge. Either he hopes you will go away and do this thing, OR means "please beg me harder, you have not yet reached the threshold of begging required - and you will owe me big time." Basically a risky move.

(13) That's okay, you go: - means please note that I am making a sacrifice for you. I really would like to go to this wedding, chick flick, shoe sale, dress fitting, baby shower, etc - all things to be avoided at the cost of one's manhood. But phrasing it this way makes the guy sound noble. We need every possible opportunity for that.

(14) Gimme a sec: Please leave me alone for however long it takes to watch this movie, commercial, inning, quarter, car crash, space ship battle, naked folks, folks who aren't naked but should be, YouTube clip, big machines doing neat things, cool explosion - whatever...

b - Gimme a sec, I'll be right there: see above except that car keys are in hand, required clothing is in sight, I'm leaning forward ready to leap from the chair and goooooo.

(15) I SAID I WOULD DO IT! Been asked to do something one time too many. Back off. Could develop into #2c

There ya go - the relationships between the sexes boiled down to neat little cliches - who needs Dr. Phil, Oprah and the rest of that ilk?

3.0 - and away we go...

Ted said, when I told him I was downloading the new iPhone 3.0 software that I should blog about it. What?, me babble incessantly on a topic I know little about - hell yeah!

First - the setting - I have a first gen iPod touch - not an iPhone, so unless the software is really, really freaking impressive, I'm not gonna need the phone-y features - nor the voice command, voice recording stuff - altho I believe if I had earphones with a built-in microphone, I might get some of the goodness.

GETTING IT: The usual Apple simplicity - order from the iTunes Store - but, because I was doing it at 11pm eastern daylight, US time, and the rest of the planet was ordering as well, it took several tries to get through to the Store - but after 5 tries, success and the 231 MBs started downloading - after a few permission requests and a longish period the touch synchs and you are golden - or are you?...

USING IT: First different thing I noticed the next morning was the addition of a search bar in Mail - in fact that seems to be the biggest overall change - search is everywhere, there's a new screen in front of your original Home Screen, the one with all the Apple apps like Safari, Mail, Maps, etc. This new screen has the system wide Search iPod option: type in Ted - 3 contact listings, one Note (Xmas list - must revise, coal surprisingly hard to find) 50 Mail listings, some with blue dots showing unread status, and 1 iCal entry - tap that - Ted just had his birthday, Tuesday in fact, so it shows Wed, June 2010 as the next occurrence.
After I look at iCal, back to Home Page, then sweep left into the Search page which still has the Ted search up - nice!
Type in Ande - fewer hits - why? Because her name in Contacts and email addresses is the full Andrea. Xmas list for Ande: establish religion around her very being - Check, underway.
Katie's Xmas list: take care of her enemies - yeesh, still working on that one - and what did Julie Andrews ever do to her anyway? But this search stuff is pretty cool.

MAPS: click on a location that has an figure in an orange circle and you get the Google Street view of the site, if available - way cool - sadly my touch still thinks I live in California - a lovely residential neighborhood according to Google. I must go there someday.
Anyway, there are several other Maps features - distance and time by car, walking or by air, etc,

IT'S NOT A BUG, IT'S A FEATURE: as the old slam at Microsoft goes, but in this case it's true. Driving to work I plug the touch into the FM radio thingie that sends the touch music to the car stereo - there are hundreds of different versions out there. I look at the screen (maintaining full control of the vehicle at all times, mind you) and it seems to me that the gray area with the Play/Pause, back/forwards controls is larger, taller than before - then I figure it out (neatly avoiding a collision with a bus full of orphans driven by sweet, lil ol lady nuns), the volume slider is gone!
I found a bug, I chortle - I'm one of the cool ones who gets to go "nyah, nyah" to one of the most influential forces in technology on the planet!
Well, on a hunch, when I get home I plug in some headphones - sure enough, the volume slider reappears - damn it!

CUT AND PASTE: Works well, I think using it five times will make it instinctive and no one will remember how freaking long it took to get here!

OTHER STUFF: I know there are plenty of other things - some I'll use, I'm guessing many I won't. Cut and paste alone are worth the price - and the search functions are way useful too. The landscape typing and Stocks views are nice too. And lots of integration between the Apple apps, and oh, yeah, shake to shuffle - how many iPods are gonna be flung out car windows with that little feature?

Ted says, in that voice uses when he suspects he is being wise - that Apple doesn't need the cheap-ass crippled laptop known as a netbook - it has a perfectly wonderful device in the iPhone and touch - tho a tablet version would be very sweet...

I'll keep playing around and let you know if there are other major changes - in the mean time - Facebook, Tweetie, Crash Cart and FML await my inspection.

UPDATE: I've noticed that hitting the forward button to move to the next song has definitely slowed down - a 1-2 second lag now occurs before the next screen comes up, tho the song might already be playing.

We've done around 300 posts, btw! We may have slowed down, but we still enjoy doing them - thanks

Lost Time

Well I haven't been post much lately because 1) I'm lame 2) I've been really #%$ing busy and 3) my old G4 laptop I blogged from blew up.

So to make up for lost time I'm going to quickly blitz through all the things I would have posted.

1) Cannon 5D Mark II got an upgrade where you can now manually control aperture and shutter speed. This is great. But while the great I think this really brings the camera up to a sony fx1 with a massive chip.

Also on the hybrid dslr front was the panasonic GH1. While it is more video centric than the Cannon 5DMkII it's still not without it's flaws.

While I'm glad folks who make a lot more money than I do are buying and supporting this camera it's still gen 1 of this particular technology and let's face it generation one sucks. This stuff all feels like the early days to HDV to me.

Otherwise, I welcome our new full frame overlords.

An Example of 5dmkII footage.


And this video shows what you have to go through to make it shoot like a normal video camera.

2) I predict that we will not see FCS3 at WWDC. (I am 100% sure of this hehe). I think that FCS is tied up with the new Quicktime X and Snow Leopard and we won't see until those are done.

The rumors of no bluray in FCS 3 kind of bum me out a little, but I have to say: who uses BluRay? Middle class videophiles and gamers thats who. Nobody else. I work at government tv station we make between 150 to 200 DVD requests a month. Do you know how many BluRay request we've gotten? ZERO. None. Zippola.

Most people are happy with DVDs. I bought one at ACME supermarket for $28. Why would some switch from something where the player cost next to nothing to something that starts at around $300.

3) Movies: Star Trek was awesome. Terminator Salvation was ordinary.

Okay that's all the big ones. I'm sure I would have made some esoteric post on post-Ceauşescu Romanian photography are but instead I'll spare you.

Does Mankind's Future Change with this Discovery?

If you pay even the vaguest notice of the Internets you see amazing articles and topics all the time. Due to the "gotta get their attention NOW" nature of new new journalism, there is a lot of exaggeration and sloppy writing, false comparisons, shrill headlines and deliberate falsifications!
(Yes, exactly like the title for this post...)
After all, another million Google hits away is a new topic - who is gonna remember last weeks panic... (swine flu anyone?)

But this one might be important.

Doctors at Oxford University have devised a method to program viruses to attack cancer cells, while leaving healthy cells alone - A targeted, programmed virus that sneaks past the defenses and attacks the errant cells.

Scientists have thought this a great idea for a long time: viruses are very effective at what they do. The Oxford blokes say they have the means to convince the viruses to do what we want them to do - and that could change everything.

Imagine: An organic nano agent, basically - engineered to take out the bad guys... You tell it what to destroy, what to avoid, and then it fades away (The anti-genetic engineering folks are gonna love this!)
The story and other links are here from Science Daily.

Humans have lived with, and been killed by viruses for millions of years.

Using them creatively seems to be a much better option...

Looking for {Life} in all the wrong places!

Why would scientists go looking for signs of life 2 miles underground? Just what are the chances that anything could exist there in the dark rocky tombs of the Earth?

Apparently, the odds are pretty good - and those odds might indicate why life out there - in space- might just be flourishing.

This story from The Daily Galaxy explains how researchers - those who look for extremophiles: life forms that live in extreme conditions - found bacteria that obtains its nutrients from byproducts of radioactive decay, whilst living surrounded by bleach. Luckily these bacteria grow very slowly - they won't erupt upon a terrified city and proceed to eat our nuclear reactors.

So, why in the world should we look for weird life like this?

Simple, if life can grow underground, in 600 degree water at crushing pressures, in acid and ice and all sorts of unpleasant places - then it makes sense that life should be doing the same thing on other worlds.

It took us a few billion years to develop Google and governments, Tivo's and Twitter, ramen noodles and Rush Limbaugh (ok, it's not all good.)

What's happening out there?

Makes sense to look, doesn't it?

Let's build it out of neutronium

Recently at a lovely dinner al fresco with the equally lovely Ande and Ted we noticed several of those tiny Smart Cars zipping by on Route 50. Ande pondered, "Those things can't be very safe, what if you got in a crash?" Ted said he'd heard they didn't get great mileage. I used the distractions to sneak another taco and pico de gala from their plates.
Ande settled the question by observing that she would permit them to be built if they made them of something really strong

Fate, synchronicity and a really boring lunch period at work lead me to this article entitled Neutron Star Crust is Stronger than Steel at Space.com.
A neutron star is a star on the brink of fading into a cold dead ember, but not quite yet - it has exploded off its gaseous shell in a supernova - all that remains is a hyper dense core - think of it as a failed black hole - it just wasn't massive enough to pull its spacetime blankets over itself and disappear down the rabbit hole.

The core is left, and it is very, very odd. The average neutron star is about 15 miles wide, spins at impossible speeds - and yet somehow contains the mass of 1.5 stars stuffed inside it.

And it isn't just a cold metal ball - weird things are going on inside the sphere, fantastic energies are at work, out of sight, churning and bubbling, which play havoc with the billiard ball surface - releasing staggering amounts of energy in "starquakes" that build and demolish "mountains" on the surface - mountains mere inches in height.

The material of the crust, that's the neutronium, is unimaginably heavy - here's where the crazy numbers come in - a teaspoon of the stuff would weigh 100 million tons - drop the spoon - it hits the surface at a ridiculous 4 million MPH.
How strong is the crust of a neutron star? - the latest computer projections say the crust could be 10 billion times stronger than steel.

Take that, you dumb ass SUVs hurtling towards our cute lil Smart Car...

Soooo, let's imagine Ande slaps her arms together and does the "I Dream of Jeannie" blinky thing and creates a Smart Car with a neutronium skin in the parking lot of the Americantina on Kent Island. We'd catch a fraction of a second glimpse of teh cuteness before it sank through the asphalt on its way to the earth's core. It would plunge through the 4,000 miles of rock, magna and iron like a bullet fired through a light fog, barely slowing down at the center of the earth before heading back to the surface on the other side of the planet. It would zip up and down like a demented yo-yo on progressively shorter trips to and from the core before finally settling down, leaving the Earth riddled with Smart Car-wide tunnels - this would not be good. Earthquakes and volcanoes and a bad Micheal Bay movie would ensue.

Meanwhile back on the surface - the shockwave and heat created by the Smart Cars initial descent into Hell would vaporize Kent Island, flashing buildings and parking lots into steam, shredding nature, traffic and Ted and myself into really annoyed atoms: the expanding hurricane of destruction would topple the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and erase Annapolis across the Bay. Baltimore would need a new Inner Harbor for the few survivors to enjoy after the old one is destroyed by tsunami waves which at least put out the fires caused by the gamma-ray flash.

Needless to say, Ande would receive a stern talking-to by the Genie's Union.

So, there probably is a better material to build the Smart Car from than neutronium. We'll leave the stellar engineering to the aliens who designed the Monolith - and besides, just what kind of mileage could you get - yeesh.

And for dessert: How about sci-fi novels showing how life on the surface of a neutron star would evolve - Check out Robert Forward's Dragon's Egg and Starquake