Matchstick and Microsoft are sending me a free Zune to review- July 4, 2008 I was a bit surprised to be contacted by Matchstick, a Canadian "word of mouth marketing" company, yesterday. I figured after some of their missteps a couple of years ago, they might have gone out of business—but instead it seems like they might have learned a thing or two and survived. They've been contracted by Microsoft to find bloggers and other types like me to evaluate the Zune media player, software, and online marketplace, which has finally become available in Canada after its...http://www.penmachine.com/2008/07/matchstick-and-microsoft-are-sending-me State of the digital SLR market: Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, and Leica- July 3, 2008 Last year I created a little composite image of the various interchangeable-lens digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras then available from Nikon and Canon, the two leading camera manufacturers. It turned out to be one of my most popular pictures at the Flickr photo sharing service, of course because photo enthusiasts like to argue about Canon vs. Nikon almost as much as Mac and PC people do about their computers. It became out of date pretty fast, with models discontinued and new ones...http://www.penmachine.com/2008/07/state-of-digital-slr-market-nikon-canon Goin' back to Cali... I mean film- July 3, 2008 I've been writing more about photography lately, largely because I've been doing more of it, especially weird stuff like high dynamic range pictures—it's a hobby I can play with even when I'm on chemotherapy or otherwise ill. I've been happy using my Nikon digital SLR and small lens collection. This week, Nikon introduced a new high-end DSLR, the D700. Of course it was fun to read about, but my D50 is just fine; the D700 is far beyond anything I need to use, and at $3000 is well out of...http://www.penmachine.com/2008/07/goin-back-to-cali-i-mean-film Happy Canada Day- July 2, 2008 It was a long, enjoyable Canada Day for me, even though it included a 3 a.m. wakeup to take my wife and kids to the airport for a trip to Disneyland, another trip a few hours later for our friend Leesa to fly towards home, and, later, nightmarish traffic to Vancouver's North Shore for a barbecue:http://www.penmachine.com/2008/07/happy-canada-day Rock from on high- July 1, 2008 One hundred years ago today, St. Petersburg, Russia, would have been annihilated by an enormous explosion—if the detonation had occurred less than five hours later than it actually did. But as it turned out, the event happened thousands of kilometres further east, smack dab in the middle of Siberia. St. Petersburg was lucky, saved by the rotation of the earth. The fireball now known as the Tunguska Event was the mid-air explosion of an extraterrestrial object of some sort (link via PZ...http://www.penmachine.com/2008/06/rock-from-on-high |