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Day 3: It’s day three of my workterm in Seattle and I’m enjoying Seattle already. The weather may not have been that favourable yet, but it’s what I expected from Seattle. All the comments I made previously from my Microsoft interview trip still hold (everything’s so green, the air is so crisp, etc.). And with that, I’ll just head into a jumble of unorganized observations and points from leaving Toronto to getting settled in here.
- I pretty much packed everything in a last minute fashion in the last two days. I reformatted my computer the night before I left, attempted to do a massive Windows update at about 1am on Saturday, and then got a blue screen. Luckily a quick repair from the Vista install DVD reverted any major issues.
- Arrived at the airport about 1.5 hours before the flight only to realize I had forgotten to print off anything with my US address on it. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wants to know where you’re staying while in the US, and so I was stuck. Having ditched all my Canadian currency except for a $50 bill, I had to use my credit card to call home to get my address. Pearson Terminal 3 doesn’t have unsecured wireless to steal off of like Terminal 1 did back in December, 2007.
- DHS Customs processed me in like 5 minutes without any questions, so my previous concerns about being detained at the border for free thinking were unwarranted. Then again, I do have my skin colour to thank for that.
- I flew a Canadian Regional Jet from Toronto to Minneapolis-St. Paul, where the Republican National Convention is being held. It was also weird to see signs for public transportation and other areas of the airport subtitled with Chinese. There’s a large Chinese population in Minneapolis-St. Paul?
- I had a two hour layover and not having installed VLC or Xvid made the movies I brought with me useless. I caved and bought some wireless Internet with Boingo at the airport. That was the slowest piece of shit ever. I couldn’t upload more than one photo to Facebook without it timing out constantly. I definitely regret buying that for about $8 USD, but I did get VLC and Xvid… and Daemon Tools and Flash 9…
- The flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Seattle was on a Boeing 757. I chose a window on the second last row because it was empty at selection time, but the airplane was fully booked by takeoff. I had a trio of pre-pubescent girls behind me gabbing and pulling at my chair the entire flight. I also had a fat ass in front of me that made his chair recline another 3-4" whenever he sat back in his chair, hitting the top of my laptop which I was using in my already restricted space. I shall rant about fat people at another time. I did land Seattle just in time for the most amazing sunset though. That’s a nice consolation prize.
- I got assigned a Jeep Compass for the weekend here. I thought it was a decent choice until I got to the house where PK, a housemate, had received a Mercury Milan Premier V6 decked out with Microsoft Sync and leather trim. Later on Sunday I would learn Miron, my other housemate, got a Nissan Altima Hybrid. Good thing I opted for the bike plan, otherwise my Compass would feel inferior.
- I chose the second living room / third bedroom for my stay. It’s got a convertible couch / pull-out bed. It’s firm enough and the added benefit is that there’s a 24" or 27" TV in this room with a DVD player I will never use. The room is fairly generous in size but that should be expected for what I’m paying. When the landlord said everything is included, she literally meant everything (pots, pans, dishes, linens, etc.). I’ll create a Synth of this place later.
- This being my third day here, it’s the second day of waking up at about 6am. Jet lag… It’s Labour Day so everything should be closed. Don’t know exactly what we’re going to be doing yet, though PK and Miron want to go to IKEA to pick up desks for their rooms.
Work, rather training, starts tomorrow. I’m excited.
Originally published at Richard Shih. Please leave any comments there. Tags: co-op
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So after the past two days of digital camera releases by both Canon and Nikon, I’ve had a chance to look into both releases a bit more and muse about how they’re each going to affect the digital camera industry. To get a summary of each new release, check out DPReview.com’s "What’s New" sections. They do a great job at summarizing the new features, so here are the notables for the Canon 50D (MSRP $1,399 kit) and the notables for the Nikon D90 (MSRP $1,300 kit). My initial amazement of the Nikon D90 from yesterday has faded, but Nikon is still doing a lot to drive the industry forward.
As was the 40D to the 30D, Canon has taken the evolutionary approach, as opposed to the revolutionary approach, for the 50D. It ups the resolution of the sensor, increases high ISO performance (yet to be seen…), and deepens the buffer depth. The new screen is a 3.0" VGA resolution screen, rivalling the Nikon screens and supposedly even besting them due to more anti-reflective coatings. As for my comment on it needing weather-sealing to compete against the D300, even though it is priced to compete with the D90, it sounds like Canon worked on it. DPReview.com reports there’s "better environmental sealing" than the 40D, but there are no rubber gaskets to report of, only "tighter seals".
Any camera released these days will be an upgrade over my current 300D, and the 50D is as capable a camera as ever, but there just isn’t that much that gets me excited. There isn’t anything (like a full-frame sensor…) that is making me clamour to swipe my credit card. It’s a good camera for those buying their first camera, but with technology being the way it is these days, I’d personally wait a year and see what they release. In the meantime I’d use the money to maybe purchase a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L…
Nikon’s offering, the Nikon D90, is no slouch either though. Aside from its movie mode, I would still consider it an incremental upgrade over the popular Nikon D80. Along with the 50D, it receives a resolution and ISO bump. It has yet to be seen if the same image processing engine, Expeed, that powered the D80 will be able to handle the tighter pixel pitch and higher max ISO; the D90 maxes out at ISO 6400 and the D80 maxed out at ISO 3200, both on boost.
Unfortunately Nikon skimped out adding more RAM to the shot buffer. The buffer still stands at 6 RAW frames, even though the frames per second rate has gone up to 4.5 from 3.0. That means that within about 1.5 seconds, the D90’s buffer will be full and about 6 seconds will have passed before the buffer is cleared. This is hard on sports shooters. There have been times when I was shooting sports where I would’ve loved a high frame rate and be able to shoot before, through, and after a play. Just shooting casually, I’ve come up against the 4 shot buffer limit of my 300D, and I know I could have shot much more than 6 frames in that sequence. Still, the 50D’s buffer of ~19 RAW images at about 6.3fps trumps the D90.
It is a trade-off for sports shooters though. On one side, you have the higher resolution and better high ISO performance of the 50D, but on the other side you have the autofocus performance of the D90, which it inherited much from the D3/D300/D700. It has 3D tracking AF and tracks using colour, and it has 11 AF points compared to the 50D’s 9 points. Either way you swing, concessions will have to be made - either shoot tighter to compensate for the lack of resolution or anticipate more to compensate for the slightly poorer focusing system.
And then there’s the movie mode…
Yesterday I was praising Nikon for their movie mode and today, I’m commending them, but the praise has left the building. It is an industry first and it is nice of them to make it 720p, but the number of limitations just keeps on increasing as I do a little more research:
- Movie clips are limited to 5 minutes in length
- No autofocus when shooting
- Mono sound from the built-in microphone. They should have at least used a stereo microphone
- The file format it will use to record the movies is Motion JPEG (MJPEG). If anyone still uses a Canon digicam, they’ll know the horrendous file sizes of those MJPEG videos
- Still pictures taken when recording video are limited to the 720p resolution the movie is being recorded in. I suspect it’s something to do with the sensor actually only recording 720p as opposed to the 12MP sensor downsizing into 720p movies
At this point, the Nikon D-Movie mode seems more like a strong gimmick. I’m sure there will be many great movies created when it comes out, as there are always great photos and videos taken with less expensive equipment, but they will be working heavily around the limitations of the D90. I think the killer of the D90 is its mono sound. I haven’t read any indication that you can plug a quality microphone into the D90 to get that stereo sound it’s lacking. So as of yet, it won’t be challenging the Canon XL2. Even though the XL2 is about $2,300 more than the D90 body, once you throw on a 20x zoom quality zoom lens and a stereo mic in, the price evens out. Until the 2nd generation movie DSLR comes out, DSLRs should stick to taking pictures and movie cameras should stick to taking movies.
On a more interesting note, I swear I was at Gasworks Park in Seattle that Saturday when I was there interviewing when they were creating test footage for the Nikon D90’s video mode! I remember seeing a bunch of videographers creating footage of BMX bikers. I could’ve had some leaks that were way ahead of the game had I a) known who the professional photographer doing the video was, b) walked in the background of the video, c) hung around closer to the shooting party, or d) had a super telephoto of my own and stalked them from afar. Oh well. It’s still cool to see that they were shooting that footage.
Originally published at Richard Shih. Please leave any comments there. Tags: photography
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Secrets in the photography industry are no longer safe these days it seems. It was rumoured for weeks that Canon was going to announce their new line of digital cameras, headlined with the Canon 50D, on August 26, and subsequently Nikon was going to announce their new digital camera(s), headlined with the Nikon D90, on August 27. Well yesterday, Canon announced the expected upgrade to the Canon 40D, the Canon EOS 50D, and today, Nikon announced the Nikon D90. It had been rumoured also for weeks that Nikon was going to bring video to the D90, and the Internets were exclaiming, "Nikon wouldn’t do that!" Oh, but they did, and they did it well*. Wow.
I’ve got to head to the beach now, so I’ll continue this later, but wow is Canon lagging behind Nikon at this point. Makes me almost want to switch…
The Bayview bus comes only once an hour during midday. Absolutely shameful. I need to live in a big city with decent public transit after living in London in the Winter.
* Note: No auto-focus, only 5-minute clips, and only matrix-metering, but still it’s 720p and 24fps.
Originally published at Richard Shih. Please leave any comments there. Tags: photography
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Well even though the rumours say there is going to be a major announcement by Canon today (Monday) or tomorrow (and then followed by a major announcement by Nikon the day after), the leak machines and rumour mills have been churning up some juicy information, though unfortunately very little of the Canon 5D’s successor type.
Canon’s 40D successor, the intuitively named Canon 50D, can be seen Photoshopped at Engadget. There aren’t a lot of cosmetic changes with this reported body shot, but that wasn’t to be expected. What was to be expected though doesn’t seem all that interesting. 15 MP with a higher ISO range, 3" VGA LCD to match Nikon’s offering, larger buffer, tweaked auto-focus, etc., etc. I just don’t see how it will compete if it doesn’t match or exceed all the offerings of the Nikon D300, the camera it’s being built to defeat. Even if they don’t include weather-sealing, there’s only so high you can sell the camera for before people decide otherwise. And then if they price it too low, then they’re really not coming up with a true competitor for the D300.
The remainder of Canon’s digicams, the SX1100 IS (Canon’s budget superzoom upgrade), A1000 IS, A2000 IS, and E1, all look like the diseased, pastel-coloured unicorn vomited all over them. When Canon introduced the SX100 IS, it looked like a trimmer version of the S5 IS, its beefier, stronger brother. It looks like they only flattened out the battery compartment to make it look more flush with the body, though at the expense of the handgrip.
Now whoever designed the A1000 IS, A2000 IS, and E1… what were they thinking. The A1000 IS and A2000 IS don’t look that bad I suppose (with the A2000 IS winning between the two in this writer’s opinion), but they still look too round with their styling. And then there’s the E1, which will obviously be marketed towards children, but if I were a child, I’d be insulted that they thought that ugly child was marketed towards me. Then again, I’m not a child and my first digital camera was my Digital Rebel.
What’s interesting if these rumours are true is that all the digicams rumoured above use the DiG!C III image processing chip, while the 50D uses the DiG!C IV image processing chip. What Canon has done in the past, unless I’m mistaken, is introduce its new DiG!C processors in their compact line-up and then once the technology is proven, they migrate it to their top-of-the-line DSLRs. This seems to be a reversal of the trend. Some speculation is that the DiG!C IV processor will allow the 50D to reach the stratosphere-blowing ISO 12,800 (or higher) levels, while the compacts are perfectly happy with the DiG!C III chips. That’s just pure uneducated speculation though. And that’s the last about that since it’s even worse typing DiG!C than a novel in sticky caps.
And that’s it for the rumours so far. The only rumours I’ve read about the Canon 5D’s replacement were as a footnote on CanonRumors.com, but hopefully it will show up (with EF-s lens support… yeah right). It’s been far too long and the market needs Canon to step in to drop the price for full-format yet again. Nikon’s D700 is currently sitting comfortably at $2,999. Yikes.
Originally published at Richard Shih. Please leave any comments there. Tags: photography
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People have been giving John McCain quite a bit of flak for flip-flopping and misspeaking lately. On more than one occasion, he has made the mistake of saying that Iran is training al-Qaeda in Iraq. For those that aren’t aware of the gaffe, al-Qaeda is headed up by Osama bin Laden, a Sunni Muslim, while Iran is a predominately Shi’a country. The two major denominations of Islam, Sunni and Shi’a, are as hateful of each other as are Catholics and Protestants. But even though Islam is front and centre in the US’ foreign policy, maybe we should forgive John McCain of his flubs. He’s among a large percentage of people in the US that weren’t even aware what a Muslim was until September 11. I didn’t even know of the difference between the words Islam and Muslim till after that date. What I can’t forgive McCain is his utter senility when it comes to basic details you should know as a homeowner, car owner, and a citizen of the country you live in.
The most recent flub was when McCain was asked how many houses he owns by politico.com. He was not able to answer. It’s somewhere around 7 or 8, depending on the technicalities. His exact answer to the question was, "I think - I’ll have my staff get to you. It’s condominiums where - I’ll have to get to you." McCain is either hiding the information to maintain his non-elitist image, or he was too old and forgetful to know how many houses he owns. It wasn’t the first because his staff ended up releasing how many properties he owns, so he was too old and too forgetful to know basic details about his own life.
This is unforgivable because this is information that you should just know by living your life. The Islam flub could be forgiven because that was knowledge he should have known, but I don’t think he encounters the minor differences between Sunni and Shi’a on a daily basis. I’m concerned that he wouldn’t even be able to say how many vacations he’s been on in the past year, or how many properties he visited in the last year? Myself? From September, 2007 to August, 2008, I’ve lived in three cities and three properties. It’s not that hard if you live your life and you’re not senile.
The next flub McCain was he didn’t know what car he drives. For the record, it’s a Cadillac CTS. This only compounds the fact that even though he’s advocating off-shore drilling and reducing the US’ dependence on foreign oil (which the majority comes from the foreign country of Canada) and talking about $100+ barrels of oil, he doesn’t know when the last time he pumped gas and how much it cost.
McCain’s attack ads also paint Obama as someone that doesn’t have to worry about family budgets, which he probably doesn’t, but this is a little pot calling the kettle black, no? A Democratic source stated that McCain spends $55,000 more on staff for his houses than the average price of an American home. Houses and household finance, two things that you’d know the ins and outs of if you just lived like a normal person.
Oh, and then there’s McCain’s $520 Ferragamo "Pregiato Moccasins" he wears. Again, I don’t hate the man for ditching his first wife to marry rich (isn’t that something all women at least joke about?) and spending the money he "earned", I hate the man for not being accountable and knowledgeable enough to know how he spends the money. If he doesn’t know enough about his own houses, then how can he upgrade to the White House and follow all the little details of an entire country.
In all seriousness, how rich do you have to be that you don’t know, even a ballpark, how many houses you own; which of the many cars you drive; and how much you pay your staff? How do you not know how much the suit you wear and the shoes you wear cost? Then again, I’m not rich. They should interview Bill Gates (I’ll send him an inter-office mail) and Warren Buffet and see if they can answer those questions. Maybe it’s a rich thing that I’ll just never be able to understand. Or maybe it’s something a little more serious and telling of John McCain’s lack of attentiveness to detail. This kind of senility is not a quality I’d want to see lead the USA.
But I’m a crazy terrorist-in-training Canuck. What do I know? (I questioned actually writing that sentence for fear of not being admitted into the US for my co-op term, but then wouldn’t the terrorists have won if I censored myself?)
Originally published at Richard Shih. Please leave any comments there. Tags: politics
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Something that I never understood about John McCain was why he was considered a "hero" after being held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for five and a half years. He was merely performing his job by piloting his plane; he failed at his job by getting shot down; and then he was only following his training by giving his name, rank, and serial number. It was an honourable thing that he did not accept the Vietnamese’s early return without being accompanied by his fellow prisoners of war, but to say that he was a hero because of this? I never understood this.
When General Wesley Clark, the former leader of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, questioned McCain’s military leadership skills, McCain’s PR team and the Republicans jumped on him, saying that he was attacking McCain’s service. Here’s the quote for you to make your own judgment:
"I certainly honor [McCain's] service as a prisoner of war," Clark said, "but he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the navy that he commanded–it wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been in there and ordered the bombs to fall." When moderator Bob Schieffer noted that Obama had no military experience to prepare him for the presidency nor had he "ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down,” Clark responded that, ultimately, Obama had not based his presidential bid on his military experience, as McCain has done throughout his campaign.
[source]
It’s comical how the right ignore the first words out of his mouth. I worry when a foot soldier is able to claim that he has the military experience to lead a country to peace (and not another 100 years in Iraq), when a man of clearly superior rank and leadership experience says he does not. I am also concerned that McCain’s camp is able to so quickly dismiss the opinion of a general that once held some of the highest positions in the military. And the last thing I am concerned about for the face of the geopolitical landscape for the next 4-8 years is when a presidential nominee is basing so much of his campaign on his military experience, when the U.S.A. needs a smarter president to focus on the housing foreclosures, the slowing markets, health care, education, and other domestic issues. Much of the US’ foreign image as well as domestic stability has been undone in the past 8 years. Unfortunately, the American south is so populous, so xenophobic, and so openly racist that they may just elect the McCain as the next President of the United States on the fact that he’s the white candidate.
I’ll leave you with the projected electoral college numbers from CNN.com. I took the liberty of rounding the "leaning" states to their respective favourite, but if you want to see the unedited version, head over to CNN.com.
Originally published at Richard Shih. Please leave any comments there. Tags: politics
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