Aesthetics and usage

While I generally prefer the color black to silver, I can’t get over the awkward wannabe-sports-car shape of the SD990IS. Further adding insult to injury is that those odd contours lead to a physically clumsy holding position. The thumb has no home like it does on the SD880IS. Holding the 880 feels far more natural. Insignificant as it may sound, this small difference has led me to generally enjoy using the 880 more than the 990.

Even so, the SD990′s optical viewfinder will inevitably be missed by SD880 users, and the quick-shot mode which makes specific use of, is very cool.

The SD880′s wide angle lens is fun – useful in both indoor and outdoor situations, simply a great feature I wish the 990 had an option for.

Manual-mode on the SD990 is as it is on all Canon camera’s – useful if you read the manual and/or are particularly meticulous about photography. The SD880′s program-mode offers a few manual options such as exposure time. I figure, if you’re the type to really tweak, you probably have or are in the market for a D-SLR camera.

Win: SD880IS (but very close)

Overall photo quality

So do the additional 4.7MP spec-advantage of the SD990IS equate to better pictures? Absolutely – the SD990IS has superior IQ and a bigger sensor (however slight) than the SD880IS. This is apparent in the clearer less noise better focused pictures in every shooting environment. Noise is the single largest complaint of the SD880IS and after taking some 200 photos with both cameras, I can see why.

Photo file sizes (.JPG only used, in auto-mode) are also advantage SD990 – at 9MP/Large which is comparable to the SD880′s 10MP setting, files – in general – are almost ½ as big as the 880. With the larger file size there is no discernible quality advantage. At full resolution, a typical 14.7MP 990′s image file range from 3.5 to 5.5MB depending on settings.

Win: SD990IS

Which to choose?!

From the first moment I held the both, I generally wanted the SD880IS: ~$100 cheaper, wide-angle lens, huge LCD and subtle-yet-slick styling. In the weeks I wavered between the two, I really wanted to want the SD990IS for it’s better picture quality and optical viewfinder which I knew I’d eventually miss. However, I found myself more often picking up and snapping shots with the SD880IS. Its elegant and modern form factor as well as “handling” I can only continue to say is totally natural won me over – the slightly lighter and smaller body certainly helped pull the tide, too. Undeniable though, was the nicer photos the 990 consistently delivered.

Tie (yes, I know, COP-OUT!)

So… wait, what?

I’m keeping the SD990IS. The facts are that aesthetics are ultimately irrelvant and awkwardness is hardly a reason to dismiss an otherwise superior camera. I want to take great pictures after-all, and while the wide-angle lens is a loss, the additional zoom and capabilities are definite gains.

The final factor was made by a weight neither camera had control over. Dell is fantastic for returns and I waited too long to return the 990IS to Adorama (they only offer 14 days from order, oops!)

Ultimately both Canon’s are fantastic point and shoot cameras. Their differences place them in similar yet different target audiences: SD990IS edges towards the professional photographer type and the SD880IS is certain to be a favorite among party-goers, like those who love(d) the infamous Polaroid camera.

—-
Miss part one or two of this “series?”
one) Sizing up the competitors
two) Through the eyes of the combatants

Seeing is believing and this battle aims to expose what each competitor is made of. So, I took many many auto shooting-mode photos to simulate the typical life of the point and shoot camera. that is: no tripods, no ideal lighting, no expert photographer (me.)

The best practice for sample shots, as determined by the sum of various intarweb photologists, is to take a crop of a 100% untampered photo (i.e. not resized.) In most cases, the size of my crop is 1280×900 and the flash is disabled. I am not a fan of the flash as it often seems to bleach the subject. But because of this, you will plainly see that a lot of these shots fair on the too-dark side. None of them have been photoshopped in anyway.

Let us begin with one of my favorite subjects both to blog about and photograph, the motorcycle.
Default focus, outside, night-time, cropped, flash on sample shot:

• rain drenched motorcycle handlebars
• SD880IS:
  
• SD990IS:
  

We see the SD990 capture more sharply the intricacies of each shape than the SD880. Additionally the 990 has more accurate and less washed-out color representation, partially attributable to the greater focus it has on the subject, versus the 880′s blurry concentration.

Moving on, lets see some holiday season detail:

• tree top crop
• SD880IS:
  
• SD990IS:
  
• tree top, crop with flash
• SD880IS:
  
• SD990IS:
  
• full tree no crop
• SD880IS:
  
• SD990IS:
  

Again, like the handlebars, the tree top crop shots make it obvious that the SD990IS certainly captures greater detail than its lesser Megapixel sibling. Although I prefer the 990 in these shots, the differentiation of detail is simply not critical for a majority of users needs (myself included.)

macro focus sample shot:

• a free-range brown egg
• SD880IS:
  
• SD990IS:
  

This macro sample is quite interesting, as it appears to expose each camera’s IQ precedence – the SD990 seems to focus on the background whereas the SD880 on the egg itself. However, the more likely explanation is user error in aiming the camera itself. I have little doubt that had I taken more shots, we would see the same or greater amount of detail on the egg from the 990 as the 880 displays here. I am blown away by the sheer detail in each grove of the table cloth and the 880 holds up admirably as well.

land and cloud scape horizon sample shot:

• 100% cropped, default zoom
• SD880IS:
  
• SD990IS:
  
• max optical zoom, 100% crop
• SD880IS, 4X:
  
• SD990IS, 3.7X:
  
• max optical+digital zoom, 100% crop
• SD880IS, 16X:
  
• SD990IS, 15X:
  

These shots highlight the dramatic difference a lens makes on each cameras overall offering. SD880IS’ wide-angle lens offers, obviously, more photo width. While the standard lens (in terms of 35mm) equipped in the SD990IS captures less width but greater magnification. This results in a complicated and seemingly contradictory conclusion: the SD990IS at 15x, has superior zoom than the SD880IS at 16x. Unlike most of the samples, I prefer the 880′s photos overall in this last sample set.

—-
Continued here: part three – choosing the victor, usage and conclusion.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=&tag%3Dcjh-20?url=search-alias=toys-and-games&field-keywords=made+in+usa

buy “local” and support your aching economy.

by the by: while I am not a democratic party member, I tend to the left. but I also wholeheartedly agree with the policies of republican Ron Paul.

so anyway, I was watching the news last night and a reporter interviewed a young black man who proclaimed among other slightly black-centric statements, how long that “they” have been waiting for this. and while I’m sorry for the slavery of your ancestors and the contemporary oppression/version of such injustice, I can’t help but feel that that kind of mentality just further sets us back from becoming a color-blind society. the dream that Obama (marketing) has won us over with is that his vision and influence of “hope and change” will proliferate America and make it a better place for all. singling out the black element of America’s new leader is not helpful, and I have no doubt President-elect Barack would agree.

so please, young black guy, don’t steal our hope-thunder with your blind and somewhat arrogant pride. just be proud to live where you do and realize you couldn’t have elected Obama without all the help of your fellow (non-black) Americans.

[image by patrick moberg, via abram's nickels]

since becoming an avid elevator rider (two to four 7th floor round trips a day,) I’ve noticed my habit to press the button many times. there’s something downright visceral about doing something whilst waiting for the inevitable. generally, a concious effort is required to stop from repeatedly smacking that inconsequential button.

[via slantback]

I bought a soyo pearl 26″ widescreen lcd (DYLM26E6) for ~$230 on utter compusion “thanks” to slickdeals… and unlike many folks, I received my order within a few days without a single hitch.

other than the expected freakin’ huge screen – this coming from a long time user of 20″ WS monitors – the bundled accessories leave much to be desired: vga cable, power cable, audio cable, instruction/warranty booklet.

the specs:

1920×1200 pixel WUXGA resolution
1200:1 contrast ratio with 2ms response time
16:9 aspect ratio
Brightness: 500 Nits
176º viewing angles
Built-in speakers deliver stereo quality sound
Input: 1 VGA, 1 DVI, 1 audio (3.5mm)
1-Year limited warranty

impressions:
this is not a high-quality monitor. the stand is a dead giveaway of how many corners were cut in manufacturing this screen. that said, my screen is OK. as far as I can tell, there are no dead pixels – something many others who cashed in on the slickdeal have complained about.

all in all, I’d be pretty happy with the thing *IF* the colors weren’t so f’d up. I been unable to tweak the settings (which by the way, are limited and the UI is poor) to my liking – that is, everything just looks “off.” tv shows, movies, games look alright but the windows GUI just looks wrong. this is compared to samsung and dell 20″WS screens… the best I’ve come to getting the color spectrum sane is by using these settings.

I’d probably return the thing but it was a stock liquidation by officemax so they aren’t taking returns. if you’re in the market for a bigass screen at at a budget price, pass on this and get a dell or samsung.

say McCain and Palin are elected and then he dies (not all that unlikely) – we now have a president who was a city council member, mayor of a town with a mere ~5K population and <two years governeral experience of the most distant state in the U.S.. give me a frackin’ break!#@$* we’d be ROYALLY SCREWED. Oh but wait, she’s got ~1 year AK-OIL-COMISSIONER experience too, awesome!? is this someone we want so close to the reins?

2001 google search results:

- senator barack obama has #1
- senator joe biden also has #1
- senator john mccain also has #1
- governor sarah palin does not have a single result.

please do not vote for McCain/Palin …

to create entire disk image:
server: nc -l -p 12345 > image.bz2
client: dd if=/dev/sda bs=4M | bzip -9z | nc server's-ip-address 12345

to copy created disk image to new client hard drive:
client: nc -l -p 12345 | dd of=/dev/sda
server: bzip2 -dc image.bz2 | nc client's-ip-address 12345

assumptions & prerequisites:

1. intermediate Linux/unix knowledge (this aint no point ‘n’ click guide)
2. two networked computers on the same IP subnet; a “server” with ample free disk space and a “client” who’s hard disk you wish to backup/image
3. client computer must be bootable by USB or CD/DVD – I used a Ubunutu install CD
4. each computer must have utilities dd, nc, and/or bzip2 or gzip (compression utility)
5. note: though the compression utility is not required, it is highly recommended as the image you create will be the same size as the hard drive capacity – i.e. 120G drive will create a 120G image file without compression.
6. you may want to tweak which compression method you use and examine the dd syntax, particularly the bs= portion
7. it is important to watch the network or process I/O for progress meter as these processes will not terminate automatically due to the nature of nc which maintains a connection until manually broken.

updated 9/24/08: fixed copy created image to new hard drive server steps and added another assumption step. good luck!

in a word: great! in one year I can count the issues I’ve had on one hand. I’ve spent about $15 on hosting for the year and only had downtime a couple times. their business mantra cannot be beat. it’s a bit like supporting a grass roots cause.

on a nitpicky note, nearlyfreespeech latency leaves a bit to be desired. the point click … load is not instant. I’d say about “a” second for most pages, sometimes two or three…. but always less than ten. :) this is via this website, naraku a wordpress blog, and my pet project Tastes Like Happy which is entirely isolated from any potential mysql db related latency (if there is any, I haven’t noticed.)

(as ignorance is never a valid excuse)

California Highway Patrol’s website states:

Can motorcycle riders “split” lanes and ride between other vehicles?

Lane splitting by motorcycles is permissible but must be done in a safe and prudent manner.

so it is entirely up to the officer to judge your technique. just hope you don’t split past an officer having a bad day, because they can make up anything to smack it to ya.

part of this I am sure is myself improving my own skill and familarity with how my bike operates. the other part, I assume, is the break-in process progressing.

the biggest observed win is the shifting – I had some serious qualms with the jolty shifting. especially going from neutral to first while stopped (I know not the safest idea, I only go there at long lights and after there is someone stopped behind me.) the transmission would stick in neutral, I could not kick into first at all… often right when a light would turn green. because of this, I forced it once or twice before figuring out that all I needed to do is let off the clutch the slightest bit while pushing down (normal pressure) on the shifter and it would slip right into gear. also, first to second seems a bit smoother, and I find myself using the clutch with less and less tension while shifting.

as a majority of my engine break-in is complete (again, I assume,) I have been riding at higher rpm (i.e. going faster, yay!) on the freeway. cruising at ~5500 rpm in 6th feels pretty solid with a good amount of engine breaking (if/when needed) and an equally good amount of ready-torque when I need it.

only farkle have on the bike so far is a madstad windshield mount. I bought it to help with wind issues however I do not feel that they are “resolved.” I am still using the stock windshield and think that it may be just too small to provide the amount of protection and calm-wind-pocket I want on my commute. I am currently undecided which after-market windshield to purchase…

my OEM hand guards come today… can’t wait to put them on. I am also considering these stock mirror replacements – emgo mark ii mirrors – that I’ve seen a couple times and looks like a cheap and effective farkle.

related: first long ride on the Suzuki DL650 V-Strom

onehundredpushups is a fitness plan of that sort.

so first “fix” the bum elbow, then invest six weeks in pushup training.
yeeah!

my fav is the weebee >>

random sampling – metavilter versus youtube

interesting to note: it’s built using the php “framework” symfony and the particularly slick yahoo pipes.

I would have a hard time imagining hiring a programmer who was still on Windows for 37signals. If you don’t care enough about your tools to get the best, your burden of proof just got a lot heavier.

and

Apple will continue to trounce everyone else for the preferred geek platform. The stigma of being a Web programmer still using Windows will increase.

Jeff takes (understandably) personal offense, as he is a windows platform programmer, but rises above that simple fact by extracting the deeper offense and offering a logical retort to Dave’s insult:

…What purpose does the statement “stigma of being a Windows developer” serve? I can only think of one: David gets off on putting other people down.

And that makes him kind of a douchebag.

Which also means when you’re using Rails and OS X, you’re using the platform of choice for douchebags.

I admire Jeff’s wit as well as his coding-insight and that’s why I will always be a CH reader.

Don’t waste time arguing about the character select screen. Results speak loudest. Show the world what you can do in your programming environment of choice.

While I am no longer a windows coder, I use tools similar to those available on windows AND osx. I chose Ubuntu on my macbook pro because I prefer the interface over OSX and windows offerings. in the end, it makes no difference what platform you “use”, it’s what you create that defines you as a developer.

a few days later, he received a call from a legit (sounding) Comcast representative call letting him know he saw his blog post. “Frank assures me that Comcast is not selling any of their customers’ personal info to outside organizations, and then recommends I sign up for the Do-Not-Call list.”

now, the most interesting part about all this is that abram’s blog is under an alias, and in order to get his real (and up to date) contact info a decent amount of digging had to be done. so, this means Comcast has some sort of PR dept that actively and assertively seeks out and destroys rumors.

it likely went something like this: the representative received a tip (quite possibly from the consumerist) on the blog post, read it, whois’d the domain, looked up the real name in Comcast’s customer records db, retrieves cell phone #, and finally makes a friendly call to clarify and answer any other questions my bud abram had.

fairly impressive for a large company to go above and beyond to both save (Comcast) face and reassure customer. I wonder how often this sort of thing happens?

…perhaps the S&D Rumor Mill is in response to occurances such as this:

prime Paul points:

• belief in freedom as defined by the constitution
• a (much) smaller federal government, leave many matters to states
• a logical foreign policy (pundits say isolationist) that advocates protecting our borders over maintaining the US empire (world police)
• concentration on a balanced budget, serious crackdown on overspending
• maintain his seat in the 14th congressional district of TX
• the presidential campaign will continue until funding drys up (or the GOP selects McCain officially)

message from ron (2/11)

my biggest gripe about Ron is that he doesn’t keep things short – a two edged sword. on the plus side, he is thorough and chalk full of education & experience; even when I do not exactly agree with his stance on a particular point, I find myself nodding, yeah he knows what’s up. (unlike dubya, who knows what’s up… his ass)

on the other hand, we are an ever shorter attention span people – short and sweet wins broader appeal. he speaks quickly, pauses rarely, and guns his points hard – oft times to comedic degree that many consider “crazy.” to those I ask, how bad could it be to have a mad scientist as president versus what we have now?

From his about page
Brief Overview of Congressman Paul’s Record:

He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.

He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.

He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.

Congressman Paul introduces numerous pieces of substantive legislation each year, probably more than any single member of Congress.

1.) random stock photos of asshappy people
2.) plethoria of extraneous flash animation(s)
3.) each page contains “quotes” that support a page’s “content” as well as answers to broad questions nobody asked
4.) all quotes include positive reinforcement words like “great, excellent, revolutionary, and !!”
5.) make superfulous use of statistics when quotes are not enough (and even when they are)
6.) compliment the audience profusely, e.g. “You seem like a smart person….”
7.) …uniqueness…?
8.) profit!

inspired by atlas; most notably, their about page.

I donated because we need Paul. America is in deep deep shit and I agree with Dr. Paul on many fronts as to the cause and solution of our various entrenchments.

it is known that: outspark has numerous foreign offices – at least one other “official” in Seoul, KR (source). or, more likely, the “gold farms” are shadow entities of Outspark’s primary investing company “Altos” – not a bad way to earn a quick return on ones investment, eh?

the concept in question, “gold farming,” goes way back. it is essentially, a sweat shop for people (stereotypically, Chinese) (and sometimes bots) playing the “game” 24 hours a day, “earning” in-game currency or “power leveling” for sale on these websites. this allows players, not into the grind typically required to obtain such sums or ascend to such levels, to exchange the in-game services for real-life money. it is a scorned process but very popular nonetheless; tis taboo if you will.

my biggest personal complaint is the blatent lack of respect in *advertising* these gold vendoring websites. in the case of Fiesta, bots/people sit in major towns and spam in the “shout” channel – “www.blahblahbuyourgold.com customer respect is number one to you.” yes, the engrish is that bad and often worse. what’s worse, there is no /ignore command in Fiesta, no blacklist, shitlist, fracklist, nothing. these people spam all day and all night. often even when a “GM” (gamemaster, moderator if you will) is on.

so, does it not make you go hmm? this isn’t a bad idea either. and if it’s the extent of it, and we continue to play for free, I guess I’m OK with it. there really isn’t anything illegal going on, so long as the gold buyers aren’t getting ID theft, etc… gold farm sites are pretty f’n sketchy.