Month: April 2004

Nikon D70 — New Cheap DSLR King?

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

I’m a member of the Dallas Camera Club and, even if I neglect to read up on the latest digital camera news, I generally hear about the latest cameras just from other members of the club. And, I learned of the Nikon D70 when the club's former president and his wife each bought one (though they’ve only received one so far since there’s a waiting list).

The D70 is Nikon’s foray into the sub-$1000 DSLR market. And, from reading over this D70 review at DPReview, it more than holds its own against its chief competitor, the Digital Rebel from Canon:

Nikon have achieved three major improvements with the D70 (compared to the competition / the D100): (1) They have improved the performance of the camera, with its instant on availability, very fast shutter release, superb continuous shooting and image processing speed and smart use of its buffer. (2) They have maintained build quality while still delivering a smaller and lighter camera, the D70 doesn't feel much less well built than the D100 but is lighter, it certainly feels much more like $1000 worth of camera than the EOS 300D could. (3) They have improved image sharpness and detail, while we could niggle about moiré the compromise between artifacts and sharpness is worth it, in many instances the D70 delivering more detail than our previous benchmark, the EOS 300D / EOS 10D CMOS sensor. […]

Though the review’s comparison section focuses primarily on the (Nikon) D100 and the (Canon) Digital Rebel, I was hoping for a comparison against Canon’s EOS-10D as well (which costs more, but the comparison would be interesting nonetheless).

In any case, I’m not particularly in the market for a new camera. I bought a Nikon Coolpix 5700 last spring and I’m still pleased with it. Granted, it doesn’t have through-the-lens metering which annoys me a bit and makes the camera less useful in low-light situations, but I think I can live without that for the time being.

Badger Badger Badger — In Real Life

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

You may already be familiar with the Badger Badger Badger Flash animation. In case not, it’s a silly animation consisting of a pack of cartoon badgers bouncing to a song whose lyrics consist primarily of “Badger, Badger, Badger” with occasional interjections of “Mushroom Mushroom” and “Snake!”. It can only be enjoyed in small doses ;).

In any case, I was reading a rather inane Slashdot parody about installling Linux on a badger and one of the comments pointed a group of knuckleheads (“badgerheads”?) who decided to act-out their own real-life rendition and videotape it (complete with mushroom & snake). There’s no need to bother with the Slashdot article but, if you liked the original Flash, you may appreciate the effort put into the enactment as well.

And, the best part is that this managed to somewhat derail the Slashdot discussion as some posters commented on the relative badger-badgering skill of the video participants:

Perhaps the saddest aspect of this video is the fact that most of them do the badger dance so… poorly. The tall one on the right has the right instincts for synching up the arm waving and knee bending, so I give him credit for that, but it&Rsquo;s not how the badgers actually do it. And the rest of them do very little to dispel certain stereotypes about the lack of rhythm in the heterosexual caucasian male. […]

PS I’m heading off to Pittsburgh for the weekend (leaving Thursday), so updates may be a bit sparse until I return Monday.

Man Cave

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

I'm subscribed to The Word Spy’s mailing list — they feature new words and phrases used in print (though only those that can be substantiated across multiple sources). And I was amused by their recent entry for the “man cave”:

man cave
n. An area of a house, such as a basement, workshop, or garage, where a man can be alone with his power tools and projects.

Example Citation:

The basement or garage has become such a special place for special man-projects that DIY is even devoting special programming to it: “My Ultimate Workshop,” a one-hour special scheduled for May, looks at tricked-out garages and basements where guys hone their crafts, be it woodworking, car restoration, wine collecting or model-train building.

So how did the man cave make such a transformation? The experts said there are several factors at play: more disposable income, better gadgets on the market for trading up, keeping up with the Joneses and the post-9/11 cocooning factor.

— “Cave dwelling,” Chicago Tribune, March 23, 2004

I can really relate to the idea of a man cave. After all, with two geeks living here, just about our whole apartment is an extended man cave. Just last weekend, I transformed our living room into an impromptu computer assembly station — I built my new PC beside the sliding glass door there so that I could make use of the available light.

Diet Root Beer Floats: Not a Good Idea

Ashley Bischoff13 Comments

On Friday, Mike decided to make himself a root beer float. At the time, I resisted since I was about to eat dinner soon (it was about 6pm at the time). Mike made his float with a half-full IBC that had apparently been in the back of the fridge for quite some time. And, even though it was a bit flat, Mike said that the float still turned out well.

I went to an autocross on Saturday and, after returning, I thought that a root beer float could be rather tasty. And, I recalled that I still had a can of Diet A&W in my mini-fridge. I wasn’t sure how the float would turn out with diet soda, but I figured that I could always pour it out if I needed to.

I ventured to the freezer and took out a frozen beer mug along with some Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream (the same ice cream that Mike used for his float the day before). I grabbed an ice cream scoop and added two scoops to the mug. I then added the root beer and, as root beer floats tend to do, it foamed up easily and so it took me several careful pours to get all the root beer in the mug.

It had been years since my last root beer float (perhaps ten years), and I was really looking forward to drinking it. After all, root beer and ice cream are two great tastes that taste great together. As I lifted my glass, I pondered for a moment whether the lack of sugar would have any effect on the float; but, I set that thought aside and took a big gulp. Man, it was awful.

Somehow — and perhaps due to the combination of the frozen mug along with the frozen ice cream — the root beer had frozen into chunks of rootbeersicles. It was as if I had a mug of ice cream with some caramel-colored ice tossed in. And, the full-fat/full-sugar nature of the Blue Bell only served to emphasize the watered-down quality of this pathetic root beer.

In the end, I really wanted to like it. I even tried grabbing a spoon so that I could just extract the ice cream bits. But, the root-ice had permeated the beverage and infected all of it. I had no choice but to pour it all down the drain. So, I not only didn’t end up with a tasty beverage, but I’m still itching for a good root beer float (or even a decent one). Perhaps I’ll have to buy a real root beer so that I'll be ready for next time.

British vs American Quoting Styles

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

Reading over a Slashdot article on Google’s new look, the discussion somehow turned to quoting conventions and cardshark2001 pointed out that British and American quoting styles differ.

The site points out that in the US, “periods and commas go inside quotation marks regardless of logic”. However, the British apparently include punctuation such as commas and question marks inside the quotation when it makes more sense to do so. For instance, there’s an entirely different meaning (to me) between these arrangements:

  • I’d rather not rent “Dude, Where’s My Car?”.
  • I’d rather not rent “Dude, Where’s My Car”?

Eric S Raymond also talks more about this in the section on Hacker Writing Style of the Jargon File where he confirms that “Hart’s Rules and the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors call the hacker-like style ‘new’ or ‘logical’ quoting”. In any case, this “logical” style is one that I’ve adopted for some time and I’m pleased to learn that it has a grammatical backing as well.