the darkerside to rants

There always seems to be confusion about what Atheism is or why it is a valid position to have. This nice, 10 minute video is a really good introduction to the “atheist dilemma” if you want to call it that.

There are problems, the AF mostly not to mention the low resolution. I am trying again right now with MF and will “borrow” a better camera and see if I can get it working. If it does, I may end up setting up a webcam again

So it seems ICP is a Christian “Rock” Band? Who’d thunk.

If you don’t know them, here’s one of their videos:

And here’s Saturday Night Live’s “version” of it:

Clearly my “Huh”? For the weekend.

Bonus Video:

Makes me want to do my own.

I have not owned a notebook in almost three years. My last one was a Powerbook G4 bought in 2005 just before Apple dropped the PowerPC platform and went all Intel on us.

I kept using the Powerbook for a while longer, but it becamse clear quickly that Apple was doing their best to try and force people into the Intel fold ASAP. With 10.6 they effectivly have achieved it.

I did buy another Mac though, a new MacPro as I had done most editing / working from home anyway and the need for a portable computer didn’t seem that pressing.

Then Apple decided to turn all of the Notebooks into appliances, fusing the battery with the Computer, this killed it for me. If I am on a mobile computer I want to have the ability to swap out the Battery when need be, I am not a Hipster who uses his Computer to importantly type away at a coffeeshop pretending to be writing the next great Canadian Novel about the hardships of today’s 20something.

So I abstained.

Over the last few months though there were a few times where I could have really made good use of a mobile computer. As technology goes though, things are quickly progressing and as such I was holding out. The iPad looked interesting but suffered from the same "Apple disease" they seem to have acquired ever since the iPhone really became a hit, plus it is in essence an Internet Consumption device, not a mobile computing platform (and yes, I know a-many will disagree with me on that one).

Netbooks had fascinated me for a while, small, powerful and exciting. Only problem was, the ones I tried weren’t really powerful enough for me, main problem being memory, or rather lack thereof.

On the weekend though I finally bit and bouth a Netbook, two actually.

The first was a Toshiba 305N, at $450 quite an expensive netbook. My joy lasted all but an hour, as I installed the tools that I needed I realized quickly that the thing was way too underpowered, no way that I could do even basic photoediting on it. So back it went where it came from.

In it’s replacement I bought an acer Aspire 1830T.

To call it a netbook is probably a bit of a "lie". The little thing is quite well equipped. 11.6" screen, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB HDD and even an HDMI output.

It works very well indeed, I did some on the fly photo editing in Lightroom with images from my Panasonic GF1 and it did it well.

The small trackpad is a bit of a concern for me though as especially the gestures don’t always seem to work. Apparently the driver supplied by Dell works better but I haven’t installed it yet. The problem could very well be the touchpad, mine is made by Alps and online many people complain about the funcationality of it, while the ones with the Synaptic verson seem to be happy as clams.

This being a netbook and going with the latest style it has, unfortunately, a glossy screen. If I would hate myself I would very quickly need to overcome this, even as I type, in a semi dark room, the screen and bezel are so shiny that I can see myself. Oh, I need a shave I guess, thankfully if I am ever stuck at the side of the road with no mirror this won’t be a problem. The Computer screen will do just fine.

Another point of complaint for me is the keyboard.

Firstly, the keys are flat, which makes it hard to "feel" where you are, but this you can get used to.

Worse is how the keyboard has been laid out. For some reason someone at Acer thought that having a full sized CAPSLOCK key was necessary, but the shift key on the left hand side was cut in half. The end result? I often hit the \ key instead of the shift key, which then has me struggle back the text and fix it.

On the right hand side a similar brainfart seems to have occured. Instead of having the return key wide at the bottom (you know, the way IBM original laid out the keyboard on the Selectric typewriters), the Acer engineers thought it should do so at the top, instead in the lower par they squeeze in the copy of what they had done on the right, meaning, more than once instead of a line break, I get this: \

Yeah, nice, if I need to escape that would be handy, but mostly I write texts in an editor, not computer code or on the shell.

I am sure in time I will get used to these quirks, but honestly, if Acer would have addressed these it would be THE perfect computer to take with you, the build in SD card reader has proven useful as well, no juggling with card readers or USB cables, just pop out the SD card from the camera and plug it into the notebook and you’re good to go.

Pros:

- Small Form Factor, light too.
- Powerful, can replace most notebooks "on the go".
- Six hours of battery life (they claim 8, but I think that would only be possible without any wireless.
- Large HDD and screen resolution (1366×768)

Cons:

- Glossy Screen (not only reflective as hell but also fingerprint attracting)
- Awkward Keyboard layout
- Temperamental touchpad.

Verdict:

If you are looking for a small, portable computer with lots of power you probably will be hard pressed to find anything similar for the price. My model comes with the i3-330UM CPU but in the US they will also sell you one with an i5 and 500GB HDD.

As of yesterday I own an Acer 1830T, testing a variety of tools. I haven’t worked on a Windows machine in almost a decade (as in: owning my own) and it is an odd sensation to come back to it.

The main gripe I have with the Asus so far is some of the keys are set in odd places, resulting in some accidental key presses. I am sure I will get used to it sooner or later. Otherwise it’s fast and can even 1080p video.

So yes, finally I do own a notebook again, has been three years, wonder if I’ll regret that sooner or later.

Or rather the tired and old “Film vs. Digital” cost thing.

Last week I was asked to put in a proposal for film photoshoot. This was supposed to be a whole day affair with up to 15 models doing “lifestyle” shoots for a product. Groovy.

My initial proposal came in at $2510 plus HST.

The breakdown was as follows:

Basic Shoot cost (up to 8 hours): $700
Film (20 rolls total including processing): $400
Scanning ($0.50/frame): $360
Post Production (estimate 90mins per roll at $35/h): $1050

Today then I was told that the shoot was delayed and that my pricing was “too expensive” and that the budget is $500 (something I didn’t know initially, if I had I wouldn’t even have bothered) and as much as they like my film shooting style, they will have to go with someone who does digital (as it was implied, this HAD to be cheaper, no film, you know) and also can bring a whole pile of lightening equipment.

Wow. I am not sure if I should shake my head or feel insulted.

Let’s look at this from a business perspective. My total time commitment on this shoot would have been at least 38 hours, that is the 8 hours for shooting and the 30 hours for post processing, not counting me going to the location, the cost of equipment etc. You get the idea.

The cost for equipment isn’t any lower shooting digital, if anything because digital equipment is expected to be replaced every two to three years the cost for equipment has to be recovered much quicker, say, within a year. On a $3500 digital camera (with an okay lens) that means for those $500 shoots you need to do an awful lot, and there aren’t any time savings, I already calculated less than 3 minutes per frame in post and considering the shooting environment and the ideas that were presented to me this could be underestimated.

Add to this that the expectation is that whoever will do this gig for $500 will bring along a whole whack of light equipment which is not cheap and will also take a long time to set up. Meaning: most likely much more than eight hours on location(s) (yes, that’s a plural S, the idea was to shoot at several different locations, which also means all the equipment needs to be broken down and transported to a new location, then set up again).

So, whoever will be doing this for $500 will, at the end of the day, have earned nothing beyond a warm and fuzzy feeling. S/He may have paid of a bit of the equipment, but there will be zero profit, zero eating too.

The funny thing is, the guy who asked for the quote produces an actual, physical product. He would not just hand it out to people on the street for free, he wants to make some money. So he calculates his cost, then adds a percentage on top and then sells it for that price. Meanwhile, he expects the photographer to work for some charity money.

This is why I think photography as a line of business is dead, as digital downloads have destroyed (or at least badly injured) the music distribution industry, so has the idea that “digital is cheaper” and “everybody has a camera”. I have heard this a few times before where people put in proposals for wedding shoots only to be told that it was too expensive and that Uncle Herb has a Digital Camera and he’s not that bad, so he’ll do it instead.

If you look at my above list I do have $750 in direct film related cost (film + scanning), but the reality is that if I would shoot digital I would have worked this in via “equipment rental”, because those HDDs, Memory Cards and new digital bodies every few years aren’t free either. It IS a business and if I do it, I do it to make money, not to get a warm and fuzzy feeling about being allowed to work for someone for nothing.

Am I miffed at being not hired? Not really, it isn’t my line of business per-se. I make money somewhere else at a much higher hourly rate, but I am somewhat surprised (okay, not really) that a business person who should know about cost and profit margins, thinks that for $500 someone could do this shoot for him and make money off of it.

Obviously there are always people out there who will try to get something for nothing, but I have the feeling that this is more the rule than the exception these days when it comes to photography, unfortunately.

Still mesmerized with the 20mm lens on the GF1. Time for a shave?