COMIC: Happy Movember!

COMIC: Imaginary Music

Interestingly enough, he only came in on Friday while eating cereal and left saying "baby baby baby oh!"

Top 5 Reasons why a smartphone camera is better than an DSLR

I consider myself an amateur photographer. I own three cameras; an Olympus Stylus 770SW, a Sony Alpha 100, and my Blackberry. Okay, make that two cameras and a smartphone. I love the stylus because I can take it anywhere. To school, work, even underwater (yes, its waterproof). It doesn't take the best quality pictures but it is extremely versatile and rugged. My Sony is great for taking high quality photos. It has great color response, interchangeable lenses, wonderful contrast. It's great. One thing I have found, however, it how much I love the camera on my Blackberry more than either of them.

Just in case you are interested in looking at the specs here are some links:
Blackberry Bold 9700
Sony Alpha 100
Stylus 770 SW

While it is definitively not waterproof, nor does it have a air pressure sensor, (like my Stylus for height, and depth measurement) doesn't have a 10+ MP sensor or wonderful picture quality, I found my Blackberry is the most practical camera I have.

I just got married to the love of my life and have been organizing pictures on my computer taken from about 10+ different cameras and have realized that all cameras should have the same features of a smartphone camera.

5 Automatic time synchronization

I have, on multiple occasions forgotten to set the time on my camera. When I load them into my picture the date shows up years behind of when I actually took the picture. If I am organizing pictures taken from multiple cameras, it is difficult to figure out which pictures where taken when. If all the clocks are synchronized then organization occurs automatically!

4 It is always there
When I am going about my day, time after time I find myself wanting to snap a quick picture of something. Lost a copy of a handout? SNAP! At dinner and want to remember what the food looked like before you devoured it? SNAP!

3 GPS
Most smartphone today have GPS and cell site information built in. When my Blackberry takes a picture, the file name is the city, date and the order in which it was taken. When I load the photos into Picasa a map with the precise location of where the picture was taken shows up. I can see a picture of my wife and I on the beach right beside a map showing that beach. Amazing!

2 Easy to Share

I was out looking for a new rice cooker and I was trying to decide which to buy. Since my wife was at home I was able to send her pictures of the two I was looking at. I would otherwise have to call or text her and describe what I am looking at. She could attest to me being terrible at that.

1 No extra gadgets to tote around

While the DSLR is obviously not something I want to take with me wherever I go and my Stylus is very compact, i still may not want to worry about carrying a camera around with me when I may not even ues it. Anyone that has a smartphone is carrying a camera with them. Unless you want high quality photos that you want to print off, what is the purpose of lugging an extra piece of gear around?

While I will always love the DSLR for taking great photos, I cannot help but realize that cameras as advanced as DSLRs should have a smartphone built into them. Professional photographers can use WIFI or cellular networks to instantly back up their photos to their editing station. Interactive maps could be made to view your day of picture taking. While nothing can replace a good quality camera for print destined photographs, you can't dispute that the average modern cell phone is better than in many ways than many older digital point-and-shoot cameras.

Why Earth Hour is a Bad Idea

Ok, so today is Earth Day.
Now I am by no means a tree hugger, environmental activist, or one to jump no every environmental band wagon that exists. I am also not someone that intentionally does my part to destroy the planet in whatever way I can. I do my part. I take the bus, which in Halifax is a big sacrifice, I turn my computer off or at least put it in sleep mode when not using it, I am generally light on the gas pedal and I turn off my CFL lights when I am not using them. I will say, however, that the notion of earth hour, in my opinion, is the WORST idea ever to be put into action.

Ideally, tonight, at 8:30, everyone turns off their lights and, depending on how gung ho they are, their computers, TVs, heat and other electrical devices for one hour in an attempt to either save energy or raise awareness for how energy needs to be conserved. First off; energy is always conserved. That is the first law of thermodynamics. Jokes aside, for one hour, people around the globe turn off the switch and make themselves feel good about saving the environment.

One of two scenarios will happen.


Scenario 1: Hardly anyone cares or was not informed and won't do anything. The power saved by light bulbs and other electrical devices of the people that do turn off their lights will hardly be shrugged at. Money to the cause is written off and nothing is done to "save" the environment

Scenario 2: Many people decide to participate: businesses and home-owners alike. At 8:30 the load on the power corporation's generators is drastically reduced. The boilers are still very hot and it will take a long time to adjust to the drastic change in required power as you cant stop a boiler, turbine, and generator that is used to producing hundreds of megawatts of power on a dime!





The power company has 2 options.

1. Allow the power to surge across the grid and blow up everything electrical in the city causing fires and mass mayhem.
2. Send all that surge power into the larger grid and hope that there is demand for it. causing huge transmission losses that nobody but the power company, and ultimately you, pays for.

Assume that the power company is ready to deal with such a surge, these generators are most efficient near full load. Therefore now it takes more money to produce less power for those that are still using power. Then at 9:30, hundreds of thousands of people switch on their lights like synchronized swimmers. The load on the generators go from something low to something insane.

Once again the power company has two options.

1. Fire up the generators full blast before hand and sell power to other grids in anticipation of everyone turning everything back on all at once and waste power through the transmission lines.
2. Allow the system to adjust as best as it can when it happens causing mass brownouts across the city.

For those that observe "Earth Hour," it will happen at 8:30. The sun has gone down and you will need to see for an hour. People light candles and flash lights using more expensive energy to see for an hour. The use of candles increases the risk of fire causing the fire department to get called more often using more diesel  to pump more water on more fires requiring more home repairs which require... you guessed it, more electricity and more... I think you get the picture.

Either end of "Earth Hour" inflicts pain on everyone. Like anything, if you want to do something effectively, you must introduce change gradually. Sustainability is about long term decisions, not about punching the power company in the face. The wasted power will ultimately be paid for by you whether you use it or not! The only environmentally responsible choice for tonight is to start thinking about the energy you use on a daily basis and find ways to reduce your overall energy usage.

Happy Valentines Day!

This is a Valentines Day card that I made for my fiancée last year.