Yokimbo

Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape recently read one of Ken Rockwell’s masterpieces and wrote the rebuttal most of us have wanted to write ever since having the unfortunate coincidence of coming across Rockwell’s site. In the brilliant, “Your Camera Does Matter“, Reichmann writes,

Discussing the merits of one tool over another is relevant. Some lenses, cameras and other photographic tools are better than others. In some cases they are objectively better, while in others their degree of betterness will be subjetive and will depend on the specific needs of a particular photographer.

Um, Rockwell writes camera and lens reviews, albeit not very good ones, but he writes them. It seems contradictory to then write an essay arguing, in Ken Rockwellian style, that your camera doesn’t matter.

Compare this with Reichmann’s sage advice,

When a person asks these type of questions let’s be generous instead of snarky. Let’s ask them the type of photography that are doing, or plan on doing, and then if we have anything worthwhile to contribute, do so. But to spout holier-than-thou cliches one more time is simply the sign of either a lazy or an angry mind.

In an update to his essay Reichmann writes of Rockwell,

Unfortunately, from what I have seen of his writing in the referred to essay, as well as the rest of those on his site, consistency of thought and clarity of expression are not hallmarks of his writing style.

I have to agree that Rockwell is not a gifted writer (not to imply that I am). While it’s easy to say “just ignore his site if you don’t like it”, the fact of the matter is that a newbie photographer wouldn’t necessarily know that Rockwell’s advice is crap, even if he/she Google searched, if people like Michael didn’t write rebuttals. I think Michael has performed an important public server for newbies. And for my own sense of humor I say thank you, Michael.

That’s crazy! The game isn’t even out yet and it isn’t even the full game, yet it’s sold over one million pre-orders. I’ll probably buy my copy from the PS Network (Luddite translation: online).

The software update recall is for LR 1.4 and ACR 4.4. The problems with the software were: EXIF Time Stamp Error, DNG Conversion Error(Windows Only), and Olympus Conversion Error.

I’m glad I waited to install this one. I usually follow the rule of “wait and see” before updating software, but not always. I’m quickly learning that with Adobe software, it’s typically best to wait a week or so. Let other people find the new problems and (now) wait for potential recalls. I’m not sure what’s up with the Lightroom team’s QA department, but it doesn’t seem like they’re doing a very good job. Although, it may not be their fault. QA typically gets software late, has to qualify it like last week, and is usually short staffed. So, maybe the program management should be to blame instead.

Regardless of who’s to blame, Adobe really needs to be more careful. They may be the only game in town for Windows users, but Mac users have Aperture, which is starting to look really good with their latest update.

Steven Frischling of Flying With Fish: “Theft At Airport Security Check Points - Don’t Be A Victim!“

Texas school board narrowly holds on to a pro-science majority.

Develop Mag gives the low down on one of the best series in video gaming history, Grand Theft Auto.

From the release of the first GTA title in 1997 until the end of October 2007, the GTA IP generated $2.1bn in net revenues for Take 2.

… in a cave … with bats. Or, “Del Sol Trash the Dress | Bat Cave” (via Strobist). The is of a truly amazing video of a photo shoot in a cave filled with water and bats. And the photos are amazing. I wish he showed more of the light setup.

Mac OS X Hints has a very interesting tip for those of you like me who want Spaces in OS X 10.5 to behave like multiple desktops behaves in Unix/Linux distros (at least the ones I used). Namely, switching from one application to another using Cmd-Tab shouldn’t switch Spaces. Thank you Anonymous for submitting that little tip.

The command, in case you were wondering and are too lazy to read the article, is:

defaults write com.apple.Dock workspaces-auto-swoosh -bool NO

killall Dock

The End

On the last minute amendment of adding “the scientific theory of” before evolution, cell theory, atomic theory, etc, in the new and improved Florida state education science standards, the NCSE writes:

“The revisions, in any case, were obviously not enough to satisfy Florida’s creationists, including board member Donna Callaway, who was pressing for a so-called academic freedom amendment which, the Miami Herald (February 19, 2008) reported, would have given teachers the explicit permission to engage students in “critical analysis” of the evidence for evolution.”

Perhaps Callaway should give the overwhelming evidence for evolution some critical analysis. I seriously doubt she has.

Here’s more on the proposed legislation, “The Academic Freedom Act.” What a name. Right out of the Republican playbook for naming bills for the support of the masses.

A Florida House of Representatives bill identical to the above Senate bill. The Tampa Tribune denounced the bill in an editorial, “If Florida lawmakers really want world-class curriculum, they’ll let education experts — not politicians — build them.” Amen to that.