Can you see the constellation Orion?
This one actually turned out much darker than I wanted. But, if you view it large enough, you can see it’s value, I think.
2010 Challenge, week #4
Here’s my submission to week #4 of the 2010 Challenge. I took this one with my T-Mobile G1, at Dargan’s Irish Pub, in Santa Barbara. It was a bit dark in there, so I had to add a little bit of light from a little LED light.
Stop. Please. Stop.
Stop what you’re doing right now and do 2 things.
- Pray for the rescue efforts in Haiti.
- Rescue teams are flying in from all over the world to help save lives.
- A great majority of the people have gone with little to no water since the earthquake. Dehydration is rapidly becoming the next disaster.
- Now take a moment to give at least $1 to the life-saving efforts.
- Seriously $1. DO IT!
Do you know what today is?
Woah! Did you know what today marks?
Only…
…more days of Barry Obama ruining our great nation.
The Kindle unboxing…
Well, I got an Amazon Kindle
My first book on my Kindle? Counterfeit Gods
What follows is a series of shots I took, whilst unboxing this sweet little device…
2010 Challenge, week #2
I resolve to write a novel.
I resolve to produce a photography book.
I resolve to read more.
The 2010 Challenge, at PhotoChallenge.org is about shooting one photo a week, following a predetermined theme. The first 4 weeks of the year are about “resolution”.
The Apple Tablet, er iSlate thingy
OK, so I’m going to go on record that I believe the alleged Apple iSlate/tablet will actually be quite successful.
Here’s why:
Before Apple’s laptops had taken over the notebook category, there were users who had great desktops, with crappy notebooks they toted around. As the expected-quality grew for notebooks, because of Apple’s great PowerBooks, then MacBooks, large quantities of consumers began simply paying the single price for a great notebook.
Oh, there’s been mobile tablet PC’s for a while, but the segment isn’t real until Apple makes something for it.
I propose that we’ll see a return to the SOP of having a great desktop at home, with an affordable netbook or tablet in tote. Yes, the Apple version will top off the scale with a Grover Cleveland, but there will be a wide variety of alternate tablets, some sporting Linux and Android, and a few cursed with the latest crap from Redmond.
But the point is that Apple will once again choose the direction of travel.
Hey! It’s on…the 2010 Challenge, that is…
In case you missed it, we announced the 2010 Challenge, back in 2009!
2010 Challenge, week #1
Resolved, I will drink less Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
Resolved, I will drink more Royal Crown Cola.
I am not too proud.
OK friends. Here’s the deal…
Google is preparing to announce an awesome new mobile phone, based on their Android mobile operating system. They’re calling it the Nexus One. I know about this Android system because I’ve been using an Android-powered T-Mobile G1 for the past year. It’s really a great platform. Of course you iPhone users might disagree. What’s great is that there really is room for both platforms, and a few others. Android has a place to browse for, download, and even purchase apps. In the last few months, many publications have been realizing that the Android Market is actually growing to the point that most of the apps you would want are probably available or will be real soon.
Back to the point of this post. Sorry.
With the upcoming announcement of Google’s in-house developed Nexus One, most see the Android platform emerging as a force to be reckoned with, and I agree.
The G1 has been a great phone. It has a slide-out keyboard, which is something many don’t want to give up on. I switched from a Blackberry Pearl, and figured that I really needed a physical keyboard. I’m not so sure anymore, but I’m glad I had the G1 to help me transition.
As the quality of the operating systems, and the processing power increases, I think we’ll all begin to see that touch input is really a great feature. The G1, is almost good enough for that.
Reading the hype for the Nexus One, I’ve been convinced. The processor is more powerful. The graphics abilities are increased. The screen itself is significantly more pretty. Yeah, I said ‘more pretty’. So, I decided I want one. One problem, my contract isn’t up for another year. No problem, right? Well, to get an unlocked Nexus One I’ve got to come up with a reported $530. Wow. The T-Mobile contract price is a reported $180. That’s a bit more reasonable, but I already mentioned I still have another year on my current one. Lame!
Then, yesterday, on New Year’s Eve no less, I prophetically broke my G1. It’s not so bad that I can’t use it. But the screen is cracked. For a short-term solution, I slapped a strip of packing tape onto it. Ghetto? Yes.
As God is my witness, it was not on fault, as has been alleged by some. This really creates a larger problem than I wanted. Sure, I’d love to be able to replace my G1 with a Nexus One. But I just can’t…or can I?
That brings us to you. Yeah, I went there. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, or followed me on Flickr or at PhotoChallenge.org, you probably already know that I’m a huge fan of trying new things, and reviewing it for you here. This past year, I’ve even taken quite a large number of photographs with my G1, even processing most of them on the G1, and uploading them for you all. So I thought, “Why not try to raise some money, and commit to reviewing many of the features of this sweet new phone right here?”
So that’s what I’m going to do.
If you think you can lend me a hand, and help me get this new phone, I’ll commit right now that I will exhaust the Nexus One through as many tests as a regular guy like myself can come up with. I’ll keep making and processing photos. I’ll download all sorts of apps, even ones you recommend, and see if they work. I’ll use it to navigate myself all over the place. I’ll do whatever you people want me to do, to test out the Nexus One.
So what do you think? Do you want to help me out? Then just hit the donate button below, or the button near the top of the column to the right.
*********UPDATE********
Well, Google announced that the upgrade price, for current T-Mobile customers is now no longer $380. That was my practical goal, with raised donations and my own contribution. With Google’s new price, I’ll only be dropping down $280 for a new Nexus One! I CAN DO THIS! With your continued help, and a bit of my own, I really think I might have a new Nexus One in a few weeks. Yeah!
Make those toy guns camo’d!
A few weeks ago I purchased my very first shotgun, it’s a Remington 887. It’s the perfect shotgun for waterfowl and upland bird hunting. My father-in-law is an avid upland bird hunter, and I’m hoping to join him next year.
One thing about this shotgun is it was much cheaper for the all black model. Camo is cool, so I decided that I’d investigate doing the job myself.
There’s quite a lot of websites teaching you how to do a custom camo job, on your own firearm. I found two that really seemed best suited for me. Following their general advice, I picked up some Rust-Oleum in the perfect flat colors; tan, army green, and earth brown.
The first thing I considered was that there’s no way I’m gonna just start, without some sort of test. Well, wouldn’t you know, my boys all got themselves some sweet Nerf N-Strike Maverick’s
What follows are a few shots of the process. Basically, I started out with my black one, keeping the black as the base color. On the Sniper’s and the Wookiee’s, I gave them a nice base color of tan. And on the Hobbit’s I started with a base of brown. This not only helps make each gun a bit different, so we can tell them apart, but it will also help me see which combo I like the best.
Now, most people will initially think that I’d need some sort of masking off, to get the standard camo orb-shapes. But, the first thing I discovered online was that many people use organic material to get some really natural-looking shapes. Guess what! We have this massive pine tree, right in our living room! So I cut off a few 6-8 inch sprigs, and I was ready!
With some leftover cardboard, also Christmas trash, I was able to set up a nice workstation in the backyard. I spent the greater part of the afternoon getting all the work done.
Once the base coats were set, I set out the use the alternating colors. I would hold a piece or two of the pine needles up close to an open space on the gun, and then spray it with a contrasting color. I made sure not to cover it too much at first. Keeping the spots spaced out kept room for another color the next time over. I kept this up until I had covered all sides of the gun, with a decent balance of the colors.
When I started out on my black gun, I did one extra thing. I added two stripes of green, to give it even more good alternating color. When all was said and done, they all turned out quite satisfying. What do you think?
Caught another bandwidth thief!
Taking a peak at my stats today, I discovered some MySpace user (does anyone still go to MySpace?) was stealing bandwidth from me. This has happened before, and I love to encourage thieves to host their own images.
So, I renamed my originals, and changed the ‘img’ tags in my own posts. Then, I created a special image, just for the thief. Here it is:
Of course I took a look at my beautiful work, on his MySpace page too!
Enjoy, Jake! Oh, and don’t steal bandwidth!
