Some of the recent news by Canon on the 50D and Nikon with the D90 has definitely been interesting to read and to disect.

Canon has chosen to to be more of the “same-same”. There’s a lot to the 50D and I’m definitely interested in the camera due to “investments” in lenses, but its really comes down to more megapixels, better ISO capability, and a better LCD display. It’s a significant upgrade from the 40D, but it really isn’t necessarily “innovative” in of itself.

Nikon immediately struck back with their D90 which falls between Canon’s Digital Rebel series and the 50D. Most of the specs were “so-so”, but was really innovative was coming out with a movie mode – the first of its kind for a DSLR – and the start of trully blurring the line between photography and moving making with quality output. The movie mode was also at a 720 HD resolution level.

Both Canon and Nikon are making things interesting for the consumer ….

First off, let me just say that China did an amazing job with the Olympics. It will be hard for future host countries to even begin to match the resources (human, monetary, and control) that China was able to put towards hosting a very successful games. It also demonstrated that they are very much a force to be reckoned with when they apply those resources to solving a national problem. This display also highlights a pit that the United States has been stuck in since Sept. 11, 2008. We’re unable to apply our national resources appropriately and truly try to move things forward. Instead, we are stuck in an inappropriate war/peacekeeping mission in Iraq.

Another article that really shocked me was on the technology front where there are aiming to have built a petaflop supercomputer in 2010. This really demonstrates how far they’ve come in catching up to other countries’ technology. Their growing chip production capacity from their own companies will certainly lead to some interesting dynamics in the next few years in the personal computer space.

Shot this past week -

Well, since really no one reads this blog (and quite frankly, I really don’t worry about that) – I don’t have much power or opportunity to make money. However, what was interesting from reading a couple of blogs in my rss reader (Google Reader), how both authors were able to use their blog to highlight how they felt they were wronged. In both cases, it was interesting to watch how quickly readers took to each cause as well as how the stories spread throughout the blogosphere. In case, one man’s online identity has been forever linked to what was probably 10 minutes of adrenaline-rushed behavior. And Google has made sure the world can find it.

My rule – probably need to wait 24 hours before hitting that “Post” button. It’s not something you can readily take back and although you may have won the battle, you may lose the war in the hearts of your readers.  (I’ve lost before in email and chat.)

The stories:
http://thomashawk.com/2008/08/simon-blint-director-of-visitor.html
http://www.fatcyclist.com/2008/08/11/the-first-30-seconds/

My take – Thomas Hawk probably over-reacted. He’s a well known activist for photography rights and he was probably already well known to the senior staff members of the SF MOMA. For “Fatty”, I can forgive him. I can’t even begin to imagine the stress of what he’s lived through this year with his wife’s cancer. The start of amatuer races are some of the most dangerous times and the other guy was inexcusable with his behavior.

Taken this past Saturday on the way home. The light in the sky made one of those moments you just need to stop and take pictures.

Tucson is a photographer’s paradise. May not have the majestic landscapes of Monument Valley or the Grand Canyon, but there are endless possibilities.

The best place to get start is the Metropolition Tucson Convention & Visitor’s Bureau at http://www.visittucson.org . Specifically, they list out day trips for photographers at http://www.visittucson.org/daytrips/index.cfm?action=summary&daytripID=11&menuID=10. Don’t forget to check out ideas from the “Day Trips” Home.

Some of my favorite places:

• Tumacacori National Historic Park
• Mission San Xavier del Bac
• Arizona Sonora Desert Museum – esp. “Raptor Free Flight”
• Saguaro National Monument

Delta sent me an email today “offering” the “perfect time” to buy Skymiles…. Geez, I want to pay them for points so I can earn enough mileage to try and qualify for a free ticket that’s not available? All for the low price of $0.0275 USD per mile and a 7.5% tax. To buy a free ticket, I would pay $740, (25,000 miles plus 7.5%). I can find fares cheaper than that – no thanks.

One more scam. I really would prefer to see airlines honestly charge what’s needed to keep themselves in business.

From the Sarah P. Duke Gardens in April of 2008 -

Ads appear on the wrong sites…..

I don’t think Travelocity will get much business from most of the views of NDNation.com, although it did provide some amusement.

Due to an unexpected problem with one of the servers, email forwarding was down between last Thursday evening (July 31) and Saturday morning (August 2). Email forwarding is back up and functioning properly now. During the period that the problem occured, email messages that were sent to any alumni.XX.edu email address were bounced back to the sender. Unfortunately there is no way to recover any messages that were sent during the outage period.

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We apologize for the disruption to your email delivery. If you have additional questions about the email forwarding service provided by the Alumni Association, please email onlinehelp@alumni.XX.edu.
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