Yokimbo

Jenny and I recently watched the documentary, War Photographer (IMDb), directed by Christian Frei. The movie, a recommendation on Strobist, is about famed, award winning, war photographer James Nachtwey (Wikipedia). It was a powerful, sometimes moving movie. I highly recommend it.

Nachtwey is generally regarded as the best war photographer to date. His dedication and devotion to what he does is simply amazing. Instead of shooting events from a safe distance with a 500mm lens, even dangerous events, he earns the respect and trust of those around him enough to get in close. This makes all the difference in the world, although I don’t recommend you try it. Watch the movie and you’ll discover just how difficult this job is (not too many people are cut out for this type of self sacrifice). It made me want to go read about some of the events he covered.

In case you missed this yesterday, Amazon launched a new music store, Amazon MP3, to better compete with the 800 lbs gorilla, Apple (iTunes). I won’t go into a ton of detail here, partly because other people have already done so, notably John Gruber (here and here), but mainly because of time constraints (this is the “Life at f/2.8 blog after all). A few quick facts about Amazon MP3:

• 2 million songs (iTunes has 6 million)

• high bit rate 256kbps (more on this later)

• typically $.89 - $.99 per song (depends on length) (iTunes costs $1.29 for 256kbps aka iTunes Plus, $.99 for 128kbps)

• $4.99 - $9.99 per album (cheaper than iTunes)

• Best of all, no DRM!!!! It’s also free of personal information (unlike Apple’s DRM-free iTunes Plus songs)

One thing to note is the difference between the format Amazon is using (MP3) and the format Apple is using (AAC), AAC offers higher quality compression. So, a 256kbps MP3 is not quite as good as a 256kbps AAC. Will you notice the difference? Maybe not. It depends on a multitude of things, your hearing, what you’re playing the music on, the room your listening to it in (or the headphones you’re using), and the source material (loudness war) for starters.

Is this the be all, end all of music stores? Will it put Apple’s iTunes out of business? No and no. What it will do is provide the type of competition people have been looking for, namely decent quality DRM-free music at an affordable price.

I recently purchased the new KT Tunstall album, Drastic Fantastic. It’s available on Amazon MP3 for $8.99. iTunes has it for (I think and I’ll double check tonight) $9.99. Were that “all she wrote” I would have purchased the album on Amazon MP3. However, iTunes also has a “Deluxe Edition” of the album that includes two books and five music videos (worth $1.99 each) all for $14.99. Since getting an AppleTV as a wedding gift, I’ve actually been more inclined to watch or at least play music videos. (They’re great for parties.)

Amazon MP3 won’t keep me from making iTunes purchases, but I will certainly check it before making any future music purchases.

[ updated 28-Sept-2007 to add a link to Schneier's blog ]
In the completely-useless-policies department, Thom Hogan and Scott Kelby have recently and independently pointed out that TSA screeners are making people take their DSLRs (actually anything larger than your first) out of their camera bags and send them through the x-ray machines in their own gray bins, just like laptops and video cameras.

When will the habit of adding even more inane rules to the TSA policy stop? Would writing Congress help? Maybe we should try and find out. If enough people complain, maybe it will get them to change policy.

What’s sad is that there are people out there who believe they’re safer by following these rules. Do yourself a favor, educate yourself and read a few posts on Bruce Schneier’s blog.

These instructions weren’t written very well. They’re not sequential, and are therefore confusing. And if I found them to be a little confusing, you can bet peoples’ parents and grand parents will find them confusing. Does Apple need new technical writers?

Here are the instructions for the recent update that only affects mid-2007 MacBooks and MacBook Pros:

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer then restart the computer while holding the “C” key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (You must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your internal hard disk drive volume. This is usually Macintosh HD but your internal hard disk drive may have a different name.
6. Click Repair.

The problems start in number 2. Disk Utility isn’t under the Installer menu, it’s under the Utilities menu (sorry, no screen shots). And, unless my Mac is different than the other Macs affected by this, which were all purchased in a 2 or 3 month period of time, then the instructions need to be updated for accuracy.

Number 2 also has the not-to-be-missed step in parentheses, “(You must select your language first.)” How about making that the step before number 2, since it’s the first screen you see when you start your Mac from the install disk.

Step 3 should start with “In Disk Utility, click …”. It should be obvious, but think about your grandparents here. Make it as clear as possible. Additionally, to access the First Aid tab you have to click on the First Aid button.

Step 4, what disclosure triangle? Unless your disk utility works (or is set up) differently than mine, all partitions are automatically displayed.

Step 6, there is no “Repair” button. However, there is a “Repair Disk Permissions” button as well as a “Repair Disk” button. It’s a good thing they show a screen shot, but not everyone has 20/20 vision. Call out the button name as the user will see it. Assume they don’t know the difference between these two operations.

Here’s what the instructions should have read like (note: I forgot the name of the button in step 2 below, but I believe there’s only one):

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer then restart the computer while holding the “C” key.
2. Select your language and click the button.
3. Choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu in the menu bar at the top of your screen. (See screen shot below.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
4. In Disk Utility, click the “First Aid” button to access the First Aid screen of Disk Utility.
5. Select your internal hard disk drive volume. This is usually “Macintosh HD” but your internal hard disk drive may have a different name.
6. Click the “Repair Disk” button.

That’s my three minute fix. I’m sure it could be even better / clearer, but the point is that this should be written for the lowest common denominator.

AppleInsider has an interesting rumor piece about an upcoming Apple PDA. They state the unit will be like the iPhone and iPod touch in appearance, but about 1.5 times larger than the iPhone. It will allegedly sport a 720×480 resolution screen and be available in 2008.

My opinion, I wouldn’t be surprised if they came out with one. But, I sure as hell would be excited.

Arizona followers of Dave Hobby’s Strobist website are holding an “Arizona Shoot Day” in Jerome on Saturday, October 20th.  More details can be found both on Don Giannatti’s Strobist page and the Flickr Strobist forum page.  I’ll update this page with more details as they show up.

Here’s a great story about Bob and Marsha McClendon who grow organic fruits and vegetables in Peoria, Arizona. They work with some of the top chefs in the valley and even have some wait listed because they simply can’t fill the demand. It’s nice to see some of the farmers actually care more about the quality of our food than about their pockets (too many farmers have sold their land to developers). Note: they sell to the public every Wednesday morning, between October and June, at the farmers market at Town & Country Shopping Center in central Phoenix.

Award winning pizza maker Chris Bianco had this to say about McClendon,

“I do weekly orders with Bob,” Bianco said. “But when you’re on the phone going, ‘I’ll take 5 pounds of this, 5 pounds of that,’ that’s not the same as picking up two handfuls of something and actually feeling and smelling it. It’s an emotional thing; it inspires me. Plus, I’m always attracted to people who don’t have to do things but do them because they’re passionate about it. And that’s Bob. He needs this farmers market like he needs a hole in the head. He could sell his land to a condo developer and never have to work again. But he does it because he loves it, and that’s inspiring to me.”

I have a few links I’ve been dying to post here, but I’ve been crazy busy. Luckily, I have a couple of minutes to catch up this morning. Here are your Links of the Day (LOD), morning edition.

Remember the Nikon D3 (drool) that was announced a few weeks ago? DPReview and Scott Kelby both have some hands on experience with one. Kelby also has some Q&A of his experiences with it. Of note, he didn’t try any ISOs higher than 6400 … WTF!?!? That’s the second thing I’d do with it (right after wiping my drool off it) because I know that would be one of the most frequent questions asked about it. He did have this to say, “I can say with certainly that on the D3 I would shoot at 1200 ISO without hesitation.” That’s good to know.

Photographer Margaret Singer has a few photos up from Reuben and Retsina’s pre-wedding and wedding in Gloucester, Mass. (one, two, three). Great work Margaret! Jenny and I had a wonderful time at RnR’s wedding. I was honored to be their MC.

John Gruber linked to an incredibly funny e-card website the other day, SomeCards. Some of it is fairly crude, pee-your-pants funny.

Amazon launched it’s new music store yesterday, Amazon MP3. It should help the market in many ways by offering lower priced, DRM-free music. This is definitely a step in the right direction. Gruber has a couple of write-ups on it (one and two).

That’ll do it for now, but don’t go too far, more is on the way soon.