Mike Cohen

A new lens for my D40x

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I got a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens for my D40x, which I ordered a few days ago from Amazon. It takes amazingly sharp pictures, especially in low light, since it’s a lot faster than the kit lens. Unfortunately it doesn’t support auto-focus on the D40x, since it doesn’t have an internal AF motor. Even with manual focus it’s pretty easy to use with the AF indicator. This is an excellent basic lens. At $109 it’s also one of the least expensive.

New Lens

Here’s the first picture I took with it.

DSC_0003.JPG

I did some more experimenting with HDR this evening, with slightly better results.

HDR 2

Steve Ballmer gives Jerry Yang a Bear Hug

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Steve Ballmer lays it on thick in a letter sent to Jerry Yang of Yahoo before going public with the offer:

“Together we can unleash new levels of innovation, delivering enhanced user experiences, breakthroughs in search, and new advertising platform capabilities. We hope that you and your board share our enthusiasm.â€?

This was no love letter. Mr. Ballmer was following a storied tradition on Wall Street: the bear hug letter. Before mounting a hostile bid and going in for the kill, suitors send a bear hug — named for a popular wrestling maneuver — to their targets.

One part Emily Post and two parts Machiavelli, these oh-so-cordial notes are sent by unwanted suitors in an attempt to broker a peaceful deal. But they always carry an implicit threat: Rebuff this advance and you’re in for a fight.

Of course, less than 24 hours after sending the letter to Yahoo, Microsoft made it public, just in case there was any confusion that it was a private correspondence among old friends. (At least Mr. Ballmer was kind enough to give Mr. Yang a courtesy call before going public with his $44.6 billion bid.)

Some bear hug letters are kept from public view and are sent in confidence, in hopes of bringing a company to the negotiating table. Those are known as teddy bear hugs. But others, like Mr. Ballmer’s, are written for public consumption. Those are known — less politely — as grizzly bear hugs.

Please get the nauseating image of the big sweaty ape of a man giving Jerry Yang an actual bear hug out of my head!

New Theme

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I upgraded this site to WordPress 2.3.3 and changed the theme to veryplaintext, which is the cleanest looking theme that supports widgets. I will probably add a bit of color to the sidebar and make a few tweaks later.

Another endorsement for Obama

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Dave Matthews endorses Barack Obama.

Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you well.

A question, a reflection, and an endorsement.

Why is our country divided?
Why has this division been growing?

Can we not all agree that we are a country that supports its families, that protects its citizens and respects its neighbors?
A country that educates its children?
Are we not a country that can lead by example rather than by force?
Is ours a government of the people, by the people, for the people?

I would like to think so.
But I believe that corporate greed and its involvement in policy making, along with political cronyism have made it nearly impossible for the people to govern.
So we fight amongst ourselves over the spin of political slogans and half truths.
And so we are divided.

It is time for a change and that is why I support Barack Obama for President.

Respectfully,

Dave Matthews

5-year-olds repair OLPC laptops at Nigerian "hospital"

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Via Engadget:

During the recent Greener Gadgets Conference in New York, former OLPC CTO (and XO challenger) Mary Lou Jepsen discussed the real-world difficulties with using the kid-friendly laptops, including the creation of an XO “hospital” used to repair broken computers. Apparently, in the crowded conditions of schools in places like Nigeria, the little green laptops have a tendency to be jostled around and even knocked on the floor from time to time. As there’s typically no repair shops nearby, the kids have learned to fix the systems themselves, setting up a “laptop hospital” where they can repair what’s broken using simple tools and cheap replacement parts. Mary Lou says the company designed the systems to be easily fixable, including extra screws embedded in the computers themselves, and allowing for quick changes of the LCD backlight and other components. The in-house repairs cut down on shipping, promote reuse, and increase kids’ understanding of ownership and responsibility, thus furthering the OLPC mission, and making everyone generally want to hug.