Year: 2003

New DSLR from Canon — EOS Digital Rebel

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

I learned from the DPReview Newsletter that Canon has announced a consumer digital SLR based on their existing EOS 10D — the EOS Digital Rebel The body-only kit wiill retail for $899, while a bundle with an EF-S 18-55mm lens only sets you back $999 (!). It includes a 6.3 Megapixel CMOS (just like the EOS 10D and D60) and DCResource lists these differences with the 10D (which doesn’t seem that bad).

Differences between this camera and the EOS-10D:

  • No PC flash sync port [of the differences, this may be the most significant]
  • No ISO 3200 option
  • LCD info display on back of camera (versus the top on 10D/D60)
  • White balance can’t be set by color temperature
  • Plastic body vs. (mostly) metal body
  • Burst rate is superior on the 10D

Back when I was shopping around for my digital camera, I did consider the Canon EOS 10D for a little while since it was very reasonably priced for a digital SLR ($1499 list). However, I didn't have any SLR lenses (Canon or otherwise), so that would have added even more to the price of the camera. And, all together, it was just out of my reach.

However, with the Digital Rebel’s body & lens kit going for $999, the prospect of a digital SLR is becoming more and more affordable. I’m very happy with the camera I have now, so I don’t think I’ll be upgrading to a digital SLR anytime soon. But when I do make the upgrade, I’m pleased that it may cost only a little more than the camera I have now.

Pretend Narcotics Checkpoints Legal

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It's against the law for police to set up a narcotics checkpoint — but a pretend checkpoint is fine, the Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled.

They were driving to a music festival in far southwestern Colorado when they saw the big signs posted along the road.

“Narcotics checkpoint, one mile ahead.”

“Narcotics canine ahead.”

The passenger tossed something out the window, and they just kept going. That was only the petty offense of littering — a little crime — but it was the start of something big.

It’s against the law for police to set up narcotics checkpoints to check whether any randomly passing motorists happen to have illegal drugs.

But it’s not illegal for the police to pretend that’s what they’re doing, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. […]

I’m not sure what the laws are in Texas, but I’d presume that they’re similar. As a non-drug-user, I suppose it doesn’t apply to me anyway, but it’s interesting from a civil liberties perspective.

DFWBlogs Cocktail Event – August

Ashley Bischoff7 Comments

This month’s DFWBlogs Cocktail Event was at Old Monk. With such a name, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I became quickly intrigued as I read the GuideLive review:

The menu has only 16 items, which range from traditional pub grub such as German sausages ($7.50) and fish and chips ($7.50) to the national dish of Belgium, moules frites (mussels and french fries, $8.95). The mussels and fries are as good, or better, than versions I have eaten in France. […]

German sausages? Well, say no more! That made my entree choice very easy :). The GuideLive review also mentioned their Belgian and German beers, so I went to see whether I could find their beer list. Normally, I'd check their webpage, but a search on Google for “old monk dallas” turned up nothing.

However, I did find this Old Monk section on BeerAdvocate (Beer Advocate is apparently a user-contributed site of restaurant reviews with a focus on beer). And I was pleased to see that some of the reviewers mentioned some of Old Monk’s beers.

So, it wasn’t a complete beer list, but it was a start. As usual, I cross-referenced those beers with the ratings at RateBeer.com — the numbers below include each beer’s score (out of five) and its percentile-ranking.

There were more beers than just those beers listed at the Beer Advocate page, but I didn’t include beers that I couldn’t find at RateBeer nor those that didn’t score well. And, since some of the beer descriptions on Beer Advocate were vague, I wasn’t sure about some of the specific brews (Chimay has serveral, for instance, though only “Chimay” was mentioned).

Once I arrived at Old Monk, I ordered the German Plate and I was about to order a Chimay Bleu, but I then noticed that they didn’t actually have that Chimay variety (though they had Chimay Red, Chimay Grand Reserve and Chimay White). (I just now discovered that Chimay Grand Reserve is an alias for Chimay Bleu — oops.) However, I quickly noticed that they had Fuller’s Porter — a beer I hadn’t seen previously mentioned in any of the Old Monk reviews.

I needed no encouragement in ordering the Fuller’s Porter — I’m not only a fan of porters but the Fuller is also the top rated porter at RateBeer.com! The 16oz bottle didn’t hurt, either.

The porter soon arrived, along with the sausages. The sausages were of two varieties, though I can’t recall their names at the moment (one was pinkish while the other was more whitish). They included some mustard on the side which went perfectly with the sausages — full of flavor and spice but not too hot.

The porter itself was fantastic and I’m not surprised by its high ratings. It had almost a coffee-like taste but without coffee’s bitter aftertaste (as my roommate Mike put it). I don’t even like coffee but I still found this to be a delicious beer. This is easily my favorite porter and possibly my second-favorite beer (Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock is still first).

After the Fuller’s, I gave some thought to my second beer. Before arriving, I was all set on ordering a Chimay Bleu. But, of course, that was seemingly the one Chimary variety that Old Monk didn’t have. So, I went for a Chimay Red (“only” in the 95.4th percentile). The Red was a good beer, to be sure, though I’m not sure it lived up to its high expectations. It had more carbonation than I expected and a slight sweetness (which isn’t a bad thing, but just not what I was in the mood for at the time).

I really enjoyed Old Monk and on the drive home I was trying to think whether there were any Cocktail Events that I had enjoyed more. Up to that point, The Meridian Room was probably my favorite (their service, in particular, was exceptional). But after thinking it over, I don’t know if there’s anywhere other than Old Monk where I could get some tasty sausages along with such a good selection of beers in Dallas.

(And, Old Monk apparently has a website after all, though all I see is a broken puzzle piece <g>)

New PowerBooks Coming?

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

According to rumors summarized by The Register, Apple may be readying new 15" and 17" PowerBooks:

PowerPage claims the new model sports a 1.25GHz G4 processor and support for 800Mbps 1394, aka FireWire 800. The new 15in PowerBook presents all its ports on the right-hand side of the machine. In looks, says PowerPage’s source, the new model looks like a scaled-down 17in model — it even features the latter’s illuminated keyboard. […]

PowerBooks are really due for an update — they were last released in January and it’s been 225 days since then (the average time between PowerBook updates is 146 days). Of course, some people have been saying “any day now” since Apple slashed PowerBook prices back in June. Still, a PowerBook would be really tempting and a fresh release might be enough to push be towards one.

Man’s Signature Offends Delaware

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Charles Weinstein has an otherwise-normal signature that he’s been using for more than eight years — except that it’s upside-down. He's used it on checks, credit cards and other official documents, but the Delaware DMV isn’t accepting it:

He said he trained himself to write his name in this unusual way, working right-side up, as a way to make his mark unique. He said he has been signing his name this way for more than eight years on all official papers, checks, credit cards — even his old driver’s license. It was never a major problem until this week, he said, when he went to the DMV office on Airport Road to change his address.

Weinstein said a window clerk told him to “stop fooling around and sign it right.” When he insisted that what he wrote was his valid, legal signature, Weinstein said the clerk accused him of being a troublemaker and threw him out. […]

Writing one’s signature upside-down is an interesting trick, though I can’t imagine how long it took him to learn that technique or what methods he used to wrap his head around it.

Using an acting analogy, I’m curious whether he used “method writing” (where he actually learned to write the characters in his name upside-down and then wrote those in sequence to form his signature) or whether he merely learned how to mimic the look of his upside-down signature.

(Via the Crypto-Gram newsletter.)