Nick and his buddies Eric, Adam and Neil were fooling around at the local park and they got filmed by a friend (Jordan) who films for On Deck ... this video is kind of fun ... Nick is in the toque ...
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Charlotte, North Carolina
I returned late last night from a business trip to Charlotte to visit a customer. I was providing in depth technical support for a discussion around model management, one of my areas of expertise.
This was a heavy working trip, and the entire eastern seaboard is socked in with deep gray skies, so no images. I brought the G10, but without a strong enticement (i.e. bright blue skies) there was no way I was going to carry that cam everywhere. Obviously, had the F70EXR been in my pocket, I would have captured many images of the details of the trip and the surrounding countryside from the plane. That is exactly why I own that camera ...
Anyway ... on to the trip itself.
Unlike the ill-fated trip down to San Antonio, this one was perfectly smooth and efficient. Fly to Toronto, clear customs, wait to board and off we go. In Toronto, I grabbed lunch at the Molson Bar, the only sit down place I could find. They had 7 televisions within my vision, and all had a nasty streak on them as if the LCD crystals had failed. I asked about it and the waitress said that the TVs had been on for 24 hours a day since 2004 ... wow.
I flew to Charlotte in a tiny Canadair 100, which is a cigar tube with itty bitty engines. A small interior, but a beautiful flying airplane. As we got below the clouds on approach, I was shocked at how lush the area is. It is wall to wall trees with few open area. Looks a little like England and New England.
We flew in (and later out) over Lake Norman of Catabwa and the smaller Mountain Island Lake just south of Norman and north of Charlotte, and I could not help but feel that this must be a truly serene place to spend any time. Utterly spectacular. Here, you can see how close the lakes are to the city, and how treed the surrounding area is. But this does not come close to capturing the beauty of the area.
I arrived Sunday night at 6pm, Nick (my traveling companion from Houston, had arrived about 20 minutes earlier. We eventually connected and grabbed a taxi downtown to the Holiday Inn City Center. Nice Hotel, very inexpensive, the rooms are a little plain. The area is very nice, although a little dead on a Sunday night. There was a catechism at a local church that was attracting dozens of well-dressed people though.
We eventually settled on a decent local restaurant, whose name I have totally forgotten. The food was nice.
Monday was a full working day at our offices, which meant a fairly long taxi ride. We spent the day with Nick presenting and me providing support when questions came up. Monday night included dinner with the customer, including numerous people from related teams. Very interesting mix of people and quite fun to hear discussions of good or bad locations to live within the US. Charlotte is one of the better locations it sounded like. Texas is great (no state tax) but has high property taxes. Something that drives people to move to Colorado (for example) when they retire.
Anyway ... the dinner was at a really terrific place called Flemings. I can say that this was probably the best steak of my life ... blackened, at least an inch thick and tender and juicy beyond description. They serve appetizers and side dishes family style, and those are terrific. Can't say enough about the place ... try it if you can.
We adjourned to a sports bar that allows cigars (until January when the no smoking laws go into effect) so my friend Nick and one of the customers could light up. We sat around and watched the Packers lose to Minnesota in a place where the walls were literally covered in televisions. The two projectors on each end were something to see.
Tuesday was spent with me doing most of the presenting and demo, followed by several hours with the customer on their system. We helped set up an environment for them using our wonderful Jazz platform (look it up at jazz.net) ... and had a lot of fun doing it.
At 4 it was time to blast off to the airport again ... and I basically was in travel status for the next 8 hours ... getting home around midnight. That's a long day ...
Charlotte is lovely, and very friendly. I can't tell you how many times someone said "sir" or "ma'am" while I was there. The food is fantastic and I enjoyed my limited exposure to the night life.
This was a heavy working trip, and the entire eastern seaboard is socked in with deep gray skies, so no images. I brought the G10, but without a strong enticement (i.e. bright blue skies) there was no way I was going to carry that cam everywhere. Obviously, had the F70EXR been in my pocket, I would have captured many images of the details of the trip and the surrounding countryside from the plane. That is exactly why I own that camera ...
Anyway ... on to the trip itself.
Unlike the ill-fated trip down to San Antonio, this one was perfectly smooth and efficient. Fly to Toronto, clear customs, wait to board and off we go. In Toronto, I grabbed lunch at the Molson Bar, the only sit down place I could find. They had 7 televisions within my vision, and all had a nasty streak on them as if the LCD crystals had failed. I asked about it and the waitress said that the TVs had been on for 24 hours a day since 2004 ... wow.
I flew to Charlotte in a tiny Canadair 100, which is a cigar tube with itty bitty engines. A small interior, but a beautiful flying airplane. As we got below the clouds on approach, I was shocked at how lush the area is. It is wall to wall trees with few open area. Looks a little like England and New England.
We flew in (and later out) over Lake Norman of Catabwa and the smaller Mountain Island Lake just south of Norman and north of Charlotte, and I could not help but feel that this must be a truly serene place to spend any time. Utterly spectacular. Here, you can see how close the lakes are to the city, and how treed the surrounding area is. But this does not come close to capturing the beauty of the area.
I arrived Sunday night at 6pm, Nick (my traveling companion from Houston, had arrived about 20 minutes earlier. We eventually connected and grabbed a taxi downtown to the Holiday Inn City Center. Nice Hotel, very inexpensive, the rooms are a little plain. The area is very nice, although a little dead on a Sunday night. There was a catechism at a local church that was attracting dozens of well-dressed people though.
We eventually settled on a decent local restaurant, whose name I have totally forgotten. The food was nice.
Monday was a full working day at our offices, which meant a fairly long taxi ride. We spent the day with Nick presenting and me providing support when questions came up. Monday night included dinner with the customer, including numerous people from related teams. Very interesting mix of people and quite fun to hear discussions of good or bad locations to live within the US. Charlotte is one of the better locations it sounded like. Texas is great (no state tax) but has high property taxes. Something that drives people to move to Colorado (for example) when they retire.
Anyway ... the dinner was at a really terrific place called Flemings. I can say that this was probably the best steak of my life ... blackened, at least an inch thick and tender and juicy beyond description. They serve appetizers and side dishes family style, and those are terrific. Can't say enough about the place ... try it if you can.
We adjourned to a sports bar that allows cigars (until January when the no smoking laws go into effect) so my friend Nick and one of the customers could light up. We sat around and watched the Packers lose to Minnesota in a place where the walls were literally covered in televisions. The two projectors on each end were something to see.
Tuesday was spent with me doing most of the presenting and demo, followed by several hours with the customer on their system. We helped set up an environment for them using our wonderful Jazz platform (look it up at jazz.net) ... and had a lot of fun doing it.
At 4 it was time to blast off to the airport again ... and I basically was in travel status for the next 8 hours ... getting home around midnight. That's a long day ...
Charlotte is lovely, and very friendly. I can't tell you how many times someone said "sir" or "ma'am" while I was there. The food is fantastic and I enjoyed my limited exposure to the night life.
Sony TX1 versus Fuji F200EXR
The short answer: even after upsizing the Fuji from its 6mp SN mode to match the TX1's native 10mp, the Fuji kills it dead. Several major areas ...
Here are the crops I took after loading both into ACR5 and adjusting contrast and initial sharpening and luminance NR to smooth the noise. I tweaked sharpness afterwards to pull out as much detail as I could.
I then transferred both to CS4 and adjusted the Sony's sharpening to match the Fuji's ... i.e. same sized halos. This, along with the native 10mp versus upsized should have given the Sony a distinct advantage. But the Fuji kicks its butt.
Remember to click on that image to see the original. If it comes up in your browser a bit small, click on it again to see the full-sized image.
Now ... it is easy to focus on trivialities like the lines in the letter "Pure Brew" on the bottle middle row left ... such things show up at 100%, which is like printing at 36" wide with no ink bleed issues ... rare for a compact. The details on the black fabric are retained a bit better on the Sony as well ... but prints tend to go darker in shadow, so such things get lost.
What does not get lost is the response to colors and the overall 3-dimensionality of the image. This is blindingly obvious, even on web sized images. In my opinion, the F200EXR wipes the floor with the TX1 on these real-life issues. Here are those two images ... processed with my usual flow ...
So ... the TX1 / WX1 sensor is very good for a tiny sensor ... but Fuji still has an edge in the real quality of low light images. This is not a surprise to me ...
- Fuji edges are cleaner
- Fuji detail retention is higher (even after upsizing)
- Fuji tones are far better
Here are the crops I took after loading both into ACR5 and adjusting contrast and initial sharpening and luminance NR to smooth the noise. I tweaked sharpness afterwards to pull out as much detail as I could.
I then transferred both to CS4 and adjusted the Sony's sharpening to match the Fuji's ... i.e. same sized halos. This, along with the native 10mp versus upsized should have given the Sony a distinct advantage. But the Fuji kicks its butt.
Remember to click on that image to see the original. If it comes up in your browser a bit small, click on it again to see the full-sized image.
Now ... it is easy to focus on trivialities like the lines in the letter "Pure Brew" on the bottle middle row left ... such things show up at 100%, which is like printing at 36" wide with no ink bleed issues ... rare for a compact. The details on the black fabric are retained a bit better on the Sony as well ... but prints tend to go darker in shadow, so such things get lost.
What does not get lost is the response to colors and the overall 3-dimensionality of the image. This is blindingly obvious, even on web sized images. In my opinion, the F200EXR wipes the floor with the TX1 on these real-life issues. Here are those two images ... processed with my usual flow ...
So ... the TX1 / WX1 sensor is very good for a tiny sensor ... but Fuji still has an edge in the real quality of low light images. This is not a surprise to me ...
Sunday, October 4, 2009
The Things They Carried -- Tim O'Brien -- Book Review
A fascinating series of vignettes from a 43 year old man who spent time humping (walking all day or all night) in Vietnam. He saw a lot of death and destruction. He was responsible for one death that haunts him to this day. He mixes in research and a bit of fiction when it suits him. The book horrifies, amuses and once in a while (like the ending) rips your heart out.
A very worthy read.
A very worthy read.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Happy Birthday Nick!
Nick turned 22 today. A big Happy Birthday to him. He got numerous gifts, culminating with what must surely be one of his favorites ... a package of Drum tobacco and some rolling papers. One of the less wonderful things he picked up in Europe ...
Other notable events today ... Nick got a call from Henrys, one of Canada's leading photo outlet chains and they gave him a job!
Awesome ... he will be making above minimum wage and will be eligible for sales bonuses etc. When he graduates in December, he should be able to transition to full time, which will help him prepare for his next European sojourn ... a Master's Degree at Leeds again ... he hopes.
Meanwhile, he received a lovely gift of the same theme a few weeks ago ... this one something he will probably hold onto as a bit of a souvenir. He is 1/8 aboriginal and this is just kind of cool ...
All the images in this post come to you courtesy of the venerable Fujifilm Finepix F11. A wonderful little cam that was never imported to North America. I bought it gray market from a fellow on eBay. It continues to serve me well ... although the F70EXR is far more camera in every way.
Other notable events today ... Nick got a call from Henrys, one of Canada's leading photo outlet chains and they gave him a job!
Awesome ... he will be making above minimum wage and will be eligible for sales bonuses etc. When he graduates in December, he should be able to transition to full time, which will help him prepare for his next European sojourn ... a Master's Degree at Leeds again ... he hopes.
Meanwhile, he received a lovely gift of the same theme a few weeks ago ... this one something he will probably hold onto as a bit of a souvenir. He is 1/8 aboriginal and this is just kind of cool ...
All the images in this post come to you courtesy of the venerable Fujifilm Finepix F11. A wonderful little cam that was never imported to North America. I bought it gray market from a fellow on eBay. It continues to serve me well ... although the F70EXR is far more camera in every way.
Ben Cooper might be a God!
Who has this kind of luck?
Only a god in my book ...
That's a lightning strike during the first launch attempt of shuttle mission STS-128 on 24 August 09. That launch was canceled due to weather ... duh :-)
The next launch attempt on 26 August was also canceled, this time due to a faulty liquid hydrogen fill and drain valve. Sounds like something you want working when you fly ...
Only a god in my book ...
That's a lightning strike during the first launch attempt of shuttle mission STS-128 on 24 August 09. That launch was canceled due to weather ... duh :-)
The next launch attempt on 26 August was also canceled, this time due to a faulty liquid hydrogen fill and drain valve. Sounds like something you want working when you fly ...
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