Brewster's Rockit has the best summary of the year 2007 to date. There have been many blessings in this last year, esp. all of my travels, visiting with friends near and far, as well as the opportunities that 2007 has presented itself, but I am ready for the new year. I like even numbered years and am particularly fond of leap years.
2008, I look forward to visiting with you for 12 months. May you be a delight.
After a stressful and full last half of 2007, I decided to go semi-offline in the last week. I have blissfully caught up on novel reading, walking, cooking, cleaning the house, blog reading, going out to see Royal Crown Revue on Friday and the Irish Brothers on Thursday, and otherwise vegging out. I had only one client meeting and I have completed very little of any "GTD" on my computer.
This has been good. But odd.
Before my little love - The Silver Princess - died an untimely death at the Philadelphia airport in late April, it was hard to pry me away from my 12" Powerbook G4 computer. Then when the June Death of my Nokia N80, I found myself a bit soured on technology and machines as tools to create. Yes, I now have *supposedly* superior replacements in the 15" MacBook Pro and the Nokia N95, but I have found my joy in using my machines has dissipated rapidly, esp. with the MacBook, as the months have worn on.
I don't know why, but I don't enjoy using the MacBook Pro as much as my beloved Powerbook. As a result, I don't enjoy designing or coding as much as before. Odd how a tool can effect ones work and passion.
I am not the only one who loved their PowerBook, as Ian Lloyd has Tweeted about it and told me in person that he still loves his 12" PowerBook even with the MacBook as his primary machine.
I don't know what it was. Maybe the 12" PowerBook was smaller yet chubbier and easier to fetishize. Or maybe the small toy-ness of the laptop fooled me into thinking that every activity was a game and fun. Maybe the small screen and heavy size were comforting, I don't know what it was, but I have taken the dead Silver Princess to two different repair places this fall to see if someone can resurrect her, to no avail. And both times I was very upset to find out that nothing could be done. And then spent time on eBay wondering how I could justify the expense of a PowerBook logic board...
I don't have any such affection towards my Chick-a-Poo the MacBook Pro. I wish I did, but I don't. I don't find each day to be a new adventure in computing with MacBook Pro, and thus, I have a hard time getting excited about working on a machine that leaves me relatively cold. This effects my output, trust me.
I love web design and development, but my love for the tool that helps me create and code is lacking. Lately, I have wished for a direct brain to server link, as I have been thinking up code and designs in my head, but have not wanted to open the MacBook to make it happen. When I do open the machine, I don't want to work on it.
In 2003 and 2004, when I was having issues and productivity problems with my digital photography never making it online and my computer's hard drive as a black hole, the introduction of a Nokia "smart" camera phone with an unlimited data plan made all the difference in my life. Instead of frustration at the process of getting my digital photos to the web, the lovely Nokia 7610 allowed me to snap a photo and send it directly to Flickr or a blog with no permanent stop at the black hole of my hard drive.
I am yearning for such a leap in my web design and dev life. A device that so entrances me with its design and its leap in process that I am once again in love with what I do, rather than in frustration and self-condemnation.
Apple, please make a lovely work / life machine that is delightful, possibly another 12" laptop with all of the power and guts of the MacBook Pro but with the cute factor of the PowerBook G4. Add a revolutionary fully working voice recognition system so that I can move about hands free and talk my code to my machine. Help me to fall in love with my computer again. Thank you.
10 New Year’s Resolutions for the Freelance Developer
Best bird sighting of the Week: An owl sitting on a big bough of an old oak tree at Irvine Regional Park.
The Lifeblog on the Nokia N82 seems to be faulty. It will let me post to Typepad, but not to Movable Type. I have checked my blog settings on the N82's Lifeblog, as well as access point settings, many times over in the last few days, and I have not been able to post to this blog from the Nokia N82's Lifeblog, but I am able to do so from my N95's Lifeblog.
Odd but true.
Why would Lifeblog have a different version pre-installed on the N82 from the version that comes pre-installed on the N95? I am able to send and receive emails on the N82, so it is not a data or email/ISP issue.
What makes it more frustrating is that the N82 takes kick ass photos that I would like to moblog here, but to no avail. To add to the frustration, Nokia does not have a mobile version of the Lifeblog site (yucky Flash) where I can go to download the newest version of Lifeblog. And as stated on this blog before, Lifeblog does not have an application updater on the phone as many mobile applications do, nor do they have an about button where I can see which version is currently installed on the phone, which makes troubleshooting more difficult.
Dear ShoZu, please allow for a generic Atom script Share-It destination (like Flickr does), where I can input the url of my blog's Atom script, the username and atom password, so that I can use Shozu to post directly to this blog from a Nokia Nseries phone and give up Lifeblog which seems to have been deserted by Nokia.
1) Insane Traffic, which for SoCal is saying a lot. Crabiness. Parking lots. Crankiness.
2) While waiting in long check out lines, having one's eyeballs assaulted by tabloids and "celebrity" rags. Really, who are these people and WHY SHOULD I CARE???? Am completely UNCONVINCED that I should care for any reason whatsoever.
3) Obviously, this week's lesson in the tabloids & mags in the check out line is that if you want to get pregnant without modern medical wonders & petri dishes, please disregard any and all family / societal warnings and make sure that you fuck like a bunny at 16 w/o contraception. If you are dumb enough to finish high school, go to college, have a career, and actually wait to make an adult decision about a good and wise marriage then you get what you had coming to you. Really.
4) Sitting next to a cop at a party and regaling him with tales after some lovely wine. Too bad he was so white and uptight.
5) Wondering what to do with the turkey carcass when one does not like turkey soup. Or generally does not really like soup at all.
6) Thinking it would be a good thing to make gifts this year. Decide to make gifts that take at least 3 days to make, due to the need to let the glue dry between each step. But is too busy to start on the making until Xmas Eve. Oops...
A solar PowerMonkey for recharging one's Nokia N95 or iPod on the go. Yeah!
Wed. 12.19.07 - The Finnish exchange student, the Nokia N82, has arrived today from the lovely folks from WOM World for her 2 week stay in Seal Beach with Ms. Jen with our friend the DHL delivery guy plopping the box down in a rain puddle (again) and not knocking on my door.
Rather than boring the reader with the now cliched "unboxing" photos, I started out by pulling the little baby out of her box, inserting a sim chip (back to the 7610* style sim holder - W00t! - none of the N95 struggle and nail breakage!) and battery, gave her a charge, and then engaged Scruffy McDoglet in a game of tug-a-war all the better to take comparison photos with...
Thus, here starts the N82 v. the N95 trial photos. In the comparison photos, both the N95 and N82 are set to no flash and close up mode. Scruffy was moving at high speed in both photos trying to steal the green stuffed rabbit from me.
Now I expect the N82 to be worthy competition to the N95 in the photography department. Let the photo games begin... ;o)
* Surprising amount of physical comparisons with 2004's Nokia 7610 (my precioussssss) in terms of size and and few other details, but the N82 is no where near as cute and well shaped as the 7610.
A camera is a tool. A tool to help actualize the photographer's vision, what is seen right there and then. depending on what the photographer wants to capture is which camera tool she/he will use, be it film SLR, digital, mobile, pin-hole, toy, point & shoot, etc.
As high megapixel digital prosumer cameras have become common, many people are switching back to film or to toy cameras (such as the Lomo or Diana or pin-hole or...) or to mobile camera phones to achieve different effects and to impose a system of constraints. Many times the best art happens within the boundaries of constraints as one is forced to push the medium.
I love mobile phone photography. I love the immediacy, the ability to send the photo to the web right on the spot, the ability to not worry about f-stops and focus but instead to shoot frequently and often. I have a lovely Nikon FM-3a manual film SLR camera, but I use my Nokia camera phone to shoot about 98% of all of my photos. There are shots I can take with my Nokia mobile that it would be quite difficult due to size and weight and mass to get my my Nikon.
To this end, each iteration of the Nokia camera phones does not necessarily mean* that the camera is better with each additional megapixel or new imaging algorithm or sensor chip.
Each one of the Nokia mobiles I have owned has had the ability to take photos in a different way than the next one. The 7610, while only 1 megapixel, could capture close ups in a way that the 6680's 1.3 megapixel never could. The 7610 also has a lovely dreamy without being pixelated effect that many photographers have to use vaseline to achieve. The 6680 had its charms and so did the N80. The N95 can capture closer to real life purples than any of the previous mobiles (purple is difficult for digital sensors to get right without a lot of software and algorithm bulk). The 7610 and N95 v. 1.0 are my favorite Nokia camera phones to date, for very different reasons.
When WOM World offered to send me the Nokia N95 8GB (v. 2.0) for a 2 week trial, I said yes, as I really wanted to see how the photos would differ from the first iteration of the N95. Initial reports and reviews of the N95 8GB indicated that there was a slight change in camera speed and possibly in the algorithm. As seen from the photos above, there is a slight difference - an increased saturation in the N95 8GB photos.
When I put the N95 and the N95 8GB to their paces, I made sure that I was able to stay in the same place and attempt to shoot the photo from the same angle (exceptions with the ship photo while driving and the dogs as they were moving) to be able to increase the accuracy of the comparison. I also shot all the above photos with the flash off.
From the photos above it is obvious to me that the N95 8GB mobile camera takes photos that are a wee bit sharper and a bit more color saturated, but that the N95 handles direct sunlight (ocean view), strong back light (Xmas tree), and night colors (sphere lights) much better. Some photographers may prefer the more pastel effect of the N95, whereas others would prefer the deeper color saturation of the N95 8GB.
It is up to you to determine what you prefer and which device you would rather shoot photos with. As I look at both sets of photos, I am divided as to which camera I prefer, as it would depend on the situation. But as I detailed out in yesterday's review of the N95 versus the N95 8GB, the 8GB device is a wee bit too big for my hands and caused a bit of cramping. Thus, color saturation or not, I will stay with my N95 and pull out the 7610 when I want a bit of good distortion.
*****
Footnotes:
* In Jay's N95 v. N82 camera comparison, while the N82 may have a faster shutter speed and be able to "stop" the fan in its place, the N95 actually took the more visually pleasing photo.
Sun. 12.16.07 - Unique Bird Seen Today: Male common yellowthroat warbler bipbopping about the bird of paradise across from my front door. Lovely.
Top Ten Astronomy Photos of 2007 : (via Backup Brain)
Static on the Dream Phone : Tim O'Reilly on Verizon and open mobile networks in the NY Times editorial section (via atmaspheric)
While the original Nokia N95 (aka "The Classic" or the N95-1) was released to European and Asian distribution in March of this year, I did not order mine until July of this year due to my Nokia N80's meltdown. I have truly enjoyed and loved my N95, it is a great machine - the 5 megapixel camera, GPS, internet, and all. I have a 2 GB microSD chip in the add-on memory slot and have not filled it up as I download my photos and videos every day or two to my laptop.
When WOM World's Donna offered to send me the Nokia N95 8GB (aka the N95-2) for a two week trial, I took her up on the offer. I had read many reviews comparing the two devices (pretty darned similar but a few tweaks - bigger screen and more memory on the #2) and wanted to try out both devices at the same time.
Two days after I returned from England, when SoCal was getting a much needed rain storm, the DHL fellow dropped of the package in front of my door step and did not knock to see if I was in. Luckily I heard him and rescued the box containing WOM World's £500 phone before it was soaked through! I quickly evacuated the N95 8GB box from the soggy shipping box and there it was! with a Mobile Video Hat (?!?!?)*.
Over the course of the last two weeks, until shipping the N95 8GB back to the UK yesterday, I have had the opportunity to use both devices at the same time and give them a good comparison. The short version of my review is this, I wouldn't trade in my Nokia N95 v. 1.0 for the 8GB model, as there are not enough new features to entice me and the 8GB N95 is a wee bit too big to fit comfortably in my hand.... -->
Mie at Kokochi linked to this TED talk by Larry Lessig as the best so far of the TED talk videos that she and Dav have watched. I have watched a few of the Ted talk videos and agree with Mie and Dav on the above Larry Lessig talk.
I saw Lessig speak on Copyright and CreativeCommons at SXSWi 2003. He is amazing in person, on topic, on track, personable, convincing and knows how to pack a punch. Per his style, Larry gives great examples in the above video, stays on topic, and really convinces one that read/write or (re)creativity is the way to go. I agree. To an extent.
I returned home from SXSWi 2003 all fired up about the brave new liberal world of creative commons and set most of my websites to a "Share-Alike" Creative Commons "copyright". All was well until this last year when I have noticed a number of for-profit folks violating this charter with my photos and text, ie using it for their website that they are making a profit from (either it is a business where the photos are a part of a sold product or a website with a lot of ads) and not asking permission for the use of the photos or text.
I don't mind if folks remix/reuse small bits of photos or text if it is for fun/art and they give attribution, or for fair use, but the wholesale lifting of photos and blog posts with no links back has forced me to drop the Creative Commons attribution on this site and my Flickr page and revert back to an "All Rights Reserved" copyright. I don't like it, but after consulting the two lawyers and one US Patent Agent in my life, it is the only way under the current law that I protect my claim.
I would love Lessig's ideas on the creative commons to come into widespread use, but it means that all of us have to agree to respect the Creative Commons and unfortunately there are many who willfully abuse it or are ignorant to the contract and under current US and EU law the only way to really protect it is to have a copyright.
In the beginning of this video, Lessig talks about his attempts to change ideas and laws at the governmental and legislative level but that he is no longer doing so as it is un-effective. For Creative Commons to be more than a lovely idea-set for the liberals and creative-minded amongst us, we do need governmental and legislative back up so that over time we can protect our art from the occasional or rare case of abuse.
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Update: Sun. 12.16.07 - Tara Hunt of ::HorsePigCow:: more accurately gets at the essence of what I was trying to say in her blog post the "Tragedy of the Commons".
For neck or waist?
Sat 12.08.07 - I drove by to see if Renu Nakorn was open yet and as you can see the answer is no, the center is still under development. It will be a wonder if Renu Nakorn ever opens again after 16 months of closure, which is an eternity in the restaurant business.
In other parts of the world, people decorate their lawns year round with gnomes and other bits, in Seal Beach there are lots of seals - cement seals, plastic seals, stone seals, etc. As the Christmas house and lawn decorations came out, at least four homes with 3 blocks of my house now have Christmas seals on their lawns.
Welcome to Seal Beach, we like our kitsch in pinniped form.
Belle bewildered by sounds coming from my computer.
I think AT&T's database is having a bit of credit card reflux. During this morning's big adventure in watching folks scramble all over each to ride a wave, I noticed that my sim chip was reporting a fail and could not find the network. Hmmm... I haven't had that problem before down at the beach.
Upon returning home, I logged into my AT&T wireless account to discover that I was "suspended" due to a bad credit card... Odd, I have room on my credit card. When I went to look at what card they had on record, for some reason, they had a card number from four years ago from before their switch to Cingular, and not my most recent card that has been working up to now...
AT&T, did your database take a dump or is it having a reflux issue and burping up numbers from years past?
Wed. 12/15/07 - 7:20am (PST) - A big storm north of Hawaii has created some lovely waves for the coast of California with Mavericks and Pebble Beach up North getting the BIG waves, but here in SoCal Seal Beach and Sunset Beach were the best positioned for the waves (LA beaches in the lee of the Channel Islands).
Last night at 10pm was the peak of the swell, but this morning was the last of the big waves, so out we went to watch. Most of the swells and waves hitting Seal Beach south of the pier were between 8-12 ft with an occasional peak at 14-16ft. Due to the beach and ocean floor, most of the waves were shore breaks, bad for surfers but decent for the body boarders.
A crowd of hundreds sat or stood up on the sand berm watching about 100 plus surfers and body boards attempt to catch a ride. It was mayhem, waves changing direction, sand bars causing them to gain or lose height at odd times, and too many surfers out on top of each other.
All photos & video taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95. Flickr photo set at http://www.flickr.com/photos/msjen/sets/72157603381800174/
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From the surf forecast reports:
Surfline calls today's swell: "Epic". (Ms. Jen says: Not quite epic for No. OC)
Pacific Storm & Surf Forecast says:
On Tuesday (12/4) Northern CA surf was 6 times overhead with washing machine conditions and fog with light wind. South facing breaks in Santa Cruz were triple overhead and somewhat warbled with fog. Central California surf (Morro Bay) was double overhead and on the way up. Surf in Southern CA from Santa Barbara to just north of LA was up to 1-3 ft overhead early and building steadily.The LA Area southward to Orange County was chest high and clean. South Orange County down into San Diego best breaks were chest to head high and building. The North Shore of Oahu was double overhead, maybe a bit more. The South Shore had locally generated windswell. The East Shore has surf to 4 ft overhead at select breaks.
North/Central California was getting pummeled by the meat of Swell #9, even at protected breaks. An epic Mavericks sessions was reported in the afternoon with supposedly 60 ft sheet glass faces ridden by paddle-in surfers. On a sadder note there was reportedly a death at Ghost Tree. Southern California was getting fun sized preliminary energy from Swell #9, but the real core of the swell was still 8 hours off. Hawaii's North Shore was starting to settle dow a little with the trailing edge of Swell #9 in effect, but down considerably from Monday evenings ragged peak. The big story remains Swell #9, with much size still poised off the California coast and taking aim on Southern CA next. A downward trend is forecast starting Wednesday, but a pair of gales are scheduled to develop, one just north of Hawaii pushing south almost over the Islands mid-week and another off the Central CA coast late in the week setting up raw proto-swell in both locations. After that a much calmer pattern is expected over the entire North Pacific, so get it while it's here. But be safe, especially in regards to Swell #9. See details below...
(Ms. Jen says: 60ft at Mavericks? Now that is Epic.)
When Apple announces or releases a product, it is at a big Apple convention with great fanfare and under plexiglass. No touching, no trials, no sending out of the new device to the serious Apple fan bloggers. Apple is big on design, genius and promotion, but very short on getting down with their purchasing public. A definite wall between the design aristocrats and the hoi-polloi.
Nokia on the other hand makes great products and includes their fanboys and fangirls in the process before and during the mainstream release. Nokia takes their phones out to the public and creates fun projects for artists and bloggers to participate in around the device release time.
Apple creates buzz via exclusivity and untouchable-ness. Nokia creates buzz with inclusion and creative fun. When Apple released the iPhone, it was behind glass and closed doors - really how many bloggers got a pre-release to run the iPhone through its paces? When Nokia releases an Nseries mobile phone / multimedia computer, is in the reach of the public and pre-released to a number of tech and creative bloggers who let the rest of us know what the device is capable of. Two completely different approaches.
I like inclusion. I like touching. I like play. I like Nokia.
To that end, Nokia is putting together a mobile blogging global travel adventure / challenge to celebrate the release of the Nokia N82. During the months of January and February 2008, Nokia's WOM World has asked 4 bloggers to participate in the Nseries Urbanista Diaries, where the bloggers will have 2 weeks with the N82 is 2 different cities meeting challenges before passing the phone on to another one of the bloggers. A moblogging relay event, if you will.
Mobile is not about consumption. Mobile is about connection and creativity. Nokia gets this. Apple maybe kinda does, hopefully in the next iteration there will be more creation.
The Nokia Nseries mobile devices are about connection and creating. I have with my N80 and N95 been able to take kickin' photos, capture hour long video, record sound, as well as write. Sometimes I read blogs on the web browser, but mostly I create with my Nokia.
I am quite excited to announce that I will be participating in January 2008 in the WOM World / Nokia Nseries' Urbanista Diaries mobile blogging / relay challenge with the Nokia N82. I don't have all the details yet, but I will be receiving the mobile device in one city and then traveling to another to pass of the phone to another blogger all the while completing set challenges and moblogging, taking photos & video, geo-tracking it all with a modified version of Nokia's Sports Tracker and the N82's onboard GPS.
Basically reprising AroundIreland.net with better technology and in new locales! Yeah! I love doing photo-walkabouts and moblogging. Ms. Jen will be one happy creative come January.
The other Urbanista Diaries participates are Devlin of the Nokia Guide and Jay of My Nokia Blog. Who shall be the fourth?
The best part of it all is that we don't know where we are going yet.... I told Siobhan from WOM World that she should either start or end me with Punk Rock Bowling.... ;o)
Ernie was kind enough to post this great version of Boogie Woogie #5 by Puffy Ami Yumi on his Tumblrblog. I love how Puffy Ami Yumi have taken the spirit of boogie woogie and completely updated it. Very nice. And cute dancing boys. ;o)
I have two blog posts to be posted today, one on Nokia's Nseries Urbanista Diaries and one on the photo / camera comparison that I put my "classic" N95 and the WOM World trial N95 8GB through this weekend, but before I can post either, I have to return to and finish in the PHP / PEAR salt mines by the end of the day.
