Joe's Amazing Technicolor Weblog » Uncategorized

Lazyweb: 5 hr layover in Amsterdam airport?

joe — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:04:53 +0000

Any readers out there who know what options exist for a 5 hr layover in Amsterdam? This is before an international flight, so it’s not like I have 5 actual hours to play with. A (not this) Friday morning.

Wikipedia claims it’s a 20 minute trip into the city, which suggests that some minimal tourism should be possible…

Q for the musicologists

joe — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:02:39 +0000

Am I crazy, or does Michael Franti’s song Hello Bonjour have a reaggeton beat? The drum sounds are a bit different than we’re used to from hanging out in Hyde Square, but I think that’s still it. Yes? No?

Lazyweb: which entry-level Nikon setup to go for?

joe — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 01:26:10 +0000

I’ve been thinking about getting a DSLR for a number of years now, and I think the market and my reluctance to buy stuff have finally converged at a point where I’m ready to dive in. Some preliminary research has me settled on the entry-level Nikons, as they’re agreed on to have a better UI, and the d60 I held in a camera store felt better than the Canon XTi.

Remaining questions, then: d40 or d60? Is the kit zoom worth anything, given its lousy low-light performance, or should I just stick with the recommended Sigma prime lens? The D60 is a bit newer, and sports 10 megapixels rather than 6 — is that worth $115?

Nikon D40 w/ Nikon 18-55/3.5-5.6 lens: $399 from a reputable seller (you can’t get just the body for any less than that)
Nikon D60 w/ Nikon 18-55/3.5-5.6 lens: $575 from a reputable seller
Nikon D60 sans kit lens: $515 from a reputable seller
Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras $375

So, the options range from $399 for the cheaper body & subpar zoom, up to $950 for the D60, kit zoom, and prime lens, with stops in between for D40 + prime at $775, and D60 - kit zoom + prime at $900.

Actually, there’s also the Nikon 50/1.8 lens for a measly $115. Good lens but a bit on the telephoto side for a DSLR to serve as an all-rounder. So forget I mentioned it.

How about it, photo fans? Any advice?

Update: Thanks for the comments! Also, I’m finding Ken Rockwell’s The Megapixel Myth to be a persuasive argument towards the d40 & the better lens.

Pizza Grillin’

joe — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:00:46 +0000

Thanks to a post on Slice, shared at an opportune time by renowned pizza guru Max, I was inspired to fire up the grill this weekend & cook some pizza. Thanks to gribley for documenting & daring to eat said experiment.

As you might imagine, it was an exciting process. Getting the heat just right in our tiny scavenged grill is pretty tough, so there was a bit more char than I would’ve liked. Flipping that dogg was a trick, too. However, the finished product was surprisingly edible. In toto, an experiment worth repeating.

cross another shared host off the list

joe — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:23:33 +0000

Just opened my first support ticket with the shared host Site5, and was shocked to see that every email generated by the process includes my username and password. Granted, these credentials only apply to their helpdesk site, but this is still so fundamentally stupid that I feel completely justified in avoiding them in the future. WTF.

Brazil women p0wn US footballers

joe — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:16:56 +0000

The four goals, alternately painful and amazing.

For those on a tight schedule, here’s just #4, which is being called one of the finest in women’s world cup history.

Not sure if I should be insulted

joe — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 02:26:35 +0000

The entirety of an email from the customer service email address of a company I just placed an order with:

Parts of this item were removed by GFI MailSecurity for Exchange/SMTP because they breached the security policy of the sending email server.

Threat report

text/plain Words in body triggered rule “CONTENT POLICY: Block Outband Profanities” (Words found: slag)

twittering?

joe — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 19:38:52 +0000

I hear that Twitter is all the rage with the kids these days, and have gone so far as to create an account & check things out. However, given that I’m not without expectations of any control of my personal info, I’m not so into publicly broadcasting my day-to-day status. Nor am I excited about the idea of inviting everyone in my contact list to twitter; what I’d really like is to find out who (if anyone) I know that’s already twittering, and take it from there.

So, to use an old chestnut, both of my readers should consider themselves invited…

What, another weblog?

joe — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:34:47 +0000

“Yeah, It’s another weblog” is one way to look at things. Another would be to look at this as an upgrade of my old one. In addition to moving to a domain name that people have some hope of remembering, not to mention reading when handwritten, this new version will let me do a few other things I’m keeping up my sleeves… stay tuned.

Threat report
text/plain	Words in body triggered rule “CONTENT POLICY: Block Outband Profanities” (Words found: slag)