Mike Cohen

What do do with your old cameras

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If you have an old camera you’re not using, consider donating it to LOVE – Lens of Vision & Expression. I donated my Canon S100 and A75 to them today.

LOVE partners with non-profit organizations by providing cameras and digital photography workshops to marginalized children in third world countries. The children from LOVE’s workshop have documented their lives photographically and the issues surrounding them: their living conditions, environment, work situations, as well as their dreams for the future. Proceeds from the sales of the student’s work are used to further their education and realization of their dreams.

You can visit their Flickr stream here.



Pisoth 2, originally uploaded by LOVE_LensOfVision&Expression.

Google Chrome

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Google released their new browser today, but only for Windows. The Mac version is supposed to be available soon, so I tried the Windows version under VMware. Even in a VM it’s blazingly fast. Despite the speed, Chrome is ugly. The tabs are much too big. It lacks a menu bar and it isn’t too obvious where to find your bookmarks. It feels more like a toy or something you would use on a web appliance than a real browser. Chrome seems more appropriate for a kiosk or web-enabled device than a desktop browser.

Chrome looks like it would be great for someone unfamiliar with computers or web browser, but for anyone who’s used other web browsers, it just feels so different that you have to stop and think about how to do basic tasks.

Google Chrome
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Gustav & Hanna

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Gustav missed us, but it’s heading for New Orleans and looking pretty grim there.

Although we dodged another one, Tropical Storm Hanna is out there and heading in our direction.

Ashley's Dakar Adventure

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One of my favorite people, Ashley Maher is leaving Monday for Dakar, Senegal to record her 5th album at Jimi Mbaye’s Studio Dogo.

Ashley bought Jimi a new Mac Pro for his studio to help pay for her studio time. Getting it there was quite a saga. Jimi was supposed to pick it up in Washington, DC when he was supposed to perform with Youssou N’dour, but he was randomly denied a visa. It ended up flying to Paris before finally arriving safely in Dakar. I’m sure Jimi will do some great work with it.

Ashley is a great dancer as well as a great singer. Her Sabar dancing skills have made her a star in Senegal. Her dance videos are some of the most popular at Seneweb.com.

On a related note, I finally watched Xala by Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene, one of the movies on my “bucket list”. Even though it was in French & Wolof, I enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately in a few scenes the white subtitles were on a white background, making them difficult to read. The music was great, featuring Star Band de Dakar.

Spambots running rampant?

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I noticed something very unexpected in my MediaTemple account GPU usage report: an unusually high number of hits for /user/register and /user/login, which I would expect to account for little or no usage. The only explanation I can figure is spambots attempting automated logins & registrations.

GPU Usage Reports
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Links for 2008-08-28 through 2008-08-30

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Links for 2008-08-28 through 2008-08-30:

Posted by Postilicious

A few favorite photographers

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Since I’ve been writing a lot about photography lately, I’d like to showcase a few photographers that inspire me.

  • Trey Ratcliffe makes some of the most amazing HDR images.
  • Thomas Hawk creates some of the most eye-catching compositions.
  • Paulo Jordao, the leader of our local photo walks, always captures the perfect moment.
  • Michael Mistretta is one of the best young photographers I know. He does amazing work with light and perspective.
  • Jordan Chark, another young photographer, makes excellent use of color and depth of field.

Click the links for their Flickr photostreams.