Monday, January 29, 2007

TopGear is BACK!

My favorite TV Show is back on the air.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

My new notebook

So, one of the things I got stolen was my notebook.
I know I'm not going to get much from the insurance company for my crappy old Dell. So I just went out and got a new one. I really needed one. Especially with my new class. I decided on a small notebook as portability was more important. I also was toying around with the idea of a tablet.

I spent some time reaserching.But I ended up where I knew I would, with IBM. They (well, I guess now Lenovo) make the best notebooks. I knew this from years of working in IT at an add agency. It's one of the reasons I will never buy an Apple product (worst customer service I ever had to deal with).

I did end up cheeping out and getting an older (though still new model). Overall I would say I am happy with the purchase. I ended up with the x41. It's a bit slow, but $800 less than the new one.

How do I like the tablet part? This entire post was "written" on it.
What's this?

Thursday, January 04, 2007

eBay raises prices, again.

It must be nice to be a monopoly.
eBay, has once again raised prices.
Lets say you want to sell something that you list for a $1 and ends up selling for $20.
$0.40 to list the item (this changes if you list it for a higher initial value) and then 3.25% for the final value. so that's $1.15 so far.
But wait, you're using PayPal right (You better be, it's the only officially supported payment method on eBay now).
So that's $0.55 + 2.9% another $1.13
Hold on, you charged for shipping right? That doodad you sent will cost $6 to ship. Oh, you get nailed for that on paypal too. So that's actually $1.30 you owe PayPal.
So your $20 isn't actually yours. You only get $17.55
This adds up quick.
Sure, eBay is not technically a monopoly, but they might as well be.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Shooting Film

Since I got my DSLR stuff stolen,
I'v been shooting mostly film with MF Nikkors for the holidays.

Happy Birthday!

Choosing between shooting with my PowerShot S400, Nikon F601, Nikon FM3a or Sony Ericsson K710i Camera phone, I chose the FM3a.

My thoughts on this camera since I've spent a lot of time with it:
+ very light and compact for a full metal camera
+ with the 50mm f/1.8 AIS and CF-27 Semi Hard case it’s very compact in your bag
+ the film advance is very smooth and effortless
+ Manual Focusing even in very dark situations is a pleasure
+ self timer works great
- there is no grip on this camera which makes it hard to hold with big lenses
- manually re-winding film (Yah I know, I’m lazy)

The lenses I have been using with this camera are:
- 35mm f/1.4 AI
- 50mm f/1.8 AIS
- 80-200mm f/4 AIS

The 35mm f/1.4 is an awesome lens. I wish Nikon has something of comparable FOV and speed for their DX Format.

Got my stuff stolen

I got a lot of my stuff stolen, including my D70 and 17-35mm Nikkor, my two most enjoyable photography items :(

The scene of the crime (I got robbed)