Archive for August, 2006

Film photo vs. digital

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006

I’ve been a complete digital photography convert for the last three years. Then one day I found the old mechanical camera my dad gave me in the drawer, with some film still left in it. I snapped a few pictures around house, feeling nostalgic and odd with heavy body, heavy mechanical clinks of the shutter – much louder and more authentic than even the digital SLR.

And a few weeks later, I finally got around to the one-hour photo place to get it developed.

The whole experience is so different from digital. It is planning and anticipation to digital’s instant gratification. The lightings are delibrate, the angles are carefully planned. Everyone poses for the pictures. There’s a sense of stillness, a touch of elegance in the pictures.

Then, You have to wait for a while to see how the pictures look. It is often long after the vacation or holiday gathering has ended. It natually extends the vacation or holiday when friends and family get to finally check out the pictures – relive the experience and reminisce the happiness.

I hope some company will find some ways to extend the life of film photography, not just for professionals, but also for average people like us. Digital is so convenient. But we have lost a piece of experience in the waiting and anticipation. It is like email, we can live without it. However, a part of me will forever miss those handwritten notes and letters of our youth.

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iSight Followup

Thursday, August 3rd, 2006

Just after yesterday’s search for a video conferencing client that can use iSight to talk to WinXP users, Skype published the 1.5.0.2 beta for OSX – which includes a beta test for video conferencing.
I found it is working but the quality is lacking behind that of iChat or Skype for Windows. Main problem seems to be the inefficient compression which results in heavy CPU usage and very low framerate. I hope those highly paid programmers at Skype-eBay can fix it soon

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Play the hand you’re dealt

Thursday, August 3rd, 2006

In the corporate world, we all have heard way too many times how someone complains about how difficult his/her work situation has been – difficult project, bad boss, or poor engineering culture, etc. Some people spend most of their day being depressed and act depressed. This, not only affect you and your coworker’s mood, but also actually would create an under-achiever out of you.

When I was a teenager I would play bridge for hours with my friends. I like one aspect of bridge very much in that you have to play every hand you’re dealt with with equal amount of enthuse no matter how good or poor a hand you’ve got. Unlike in poker you can always fold a poor hand, you have to play every hand. And if you outplay a poor hand you may end up gaining more points than a good hand in bridge.

It is the same thing in life. You’ve got to do the best you can with the hand you’re dealt with. Instead of complaining, try to figure out what you can do about the situation you’re in. If you’re in a awkward situation, maybe you can turn it around and make a few friends in the process. If you have a difficult boss, try to influence him/her a little at a time and manage your boss better.

If you do that every day, not only you will not waste day after day sitting there sour-graped, but I guarantee you that you will actually achieve great results. And people around you (including your boss) will soon notice your great attitute and be happily surprised.

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iSight camera

Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006

Can’t resist the temptation and finally got me an iSight camera from Apple. Again, it is a thing of design beauty. It’s probably the only webcam that uses a 3-piece glass lens system with auto-focus, auto-exposure, and 1/4 inch CCD instead of the cheap plastic and CMOS stuff.

One firewire cable provides audio, video link as well as power. Three types of mounting device covers just about every possible senario – laptop, flatscreen, and desktop. I just used the magnetic mount to sit the iSight camera very securely on top of my 20 inch Dell LCD.

Other nice little touches include the “on-air” LED and rotating lens cover plus on/off switch. You got to love it – even with a steep price of $149.

OK, enough glow about my implusive splurge. Here comes the problem. The iSight camera works out of the box with my Mac Mini with the iChat software – that’s it. Since very few (none) people on my buddy list owns a Mac, and iChat doesn’t work quite as well with other Windows clients, I feel like the first guy with the Fax machine.
After one sweaty night, here is my discovery:

  1. iChat video works with other iChat or AIM 5.9. But AIM 5.9 video is a fixed smallish window and the quality sucks.
  2. iChat video doesn’t work with the new AIM version called Triton.
  3. MSN Messenger has OS X client, but it’s text-only;
  4. Skype has an OS X client, but it is only version 1.5beta, no luck with Video. Video was introduced as a beta since V2.X on Windows side only;
  5. iSight doesn’t have a driver for WindowsXP. There’s actually a bounty offered for the first hacker to create a driver for it.
    Windows can still recognize iSight as a 1394 desktop webcam. The built-in noise-suppression microphone won’t work. And the auto-exposure and auto-focus functions won’t work quite as well which requires manual adjustment.
  6. Finally, for now the best option seems to be using Skype 2.5 on Windows and plugin another $10 cheapo microphone for the audio. Skype does a good job of allowing full-screen video conferencing. Not quite as fansy as iChat to iChat, but works with most of my buddies.

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