Leaf Pickup
November 4, 2009
I guess the boy in me still loves big yellow machines.
Is hands-free really safer?
October 30, 2009
The National Post asks Is hands-free really safer?.
Actually holding a cellphone to your ear to conduct a conversation would, at first blush, not appear as dangerous, but then you do often have to avert your eyes to manually key in a phone number, so the loss of the traditional phone call while driving is not to be lamented. In fact, were our provincial legislature more brave, it would have banned an even wider list of activities all too common to modern motoring such as applying lipstick, reading the newspaper, editing manuscripts and even changing diapers (yes, indeed, I have seen that one). The common thread to all these activities is that they require diverting your eyes from the road ahead, which is very dangerous when you’re driving.
Hands-free regulation bugs me. I think people should be safe and use hands-free technology whenever possible. The key is increasing overall safety. I use a bluetooth headset when making calls in the car. My LG Chocolate is brain-dead and does not allow me to use voice dialing through the bluetooth headset so I use speed dials on the keypad which I can do by touch.
Incoming calls and unplanned outgoing high priority calls are another matter. I’d like to think that I am capable of weighing the safety costs rather than have a well-meaning but sometimes misguided law that states that if I’m holding a cell phone to my ear I am breaking the law. I understand that a clear-cut law is better than the subjective opinion of a police officer and/or judge, but the regulation still bugs me.
Perhaps its just my own conceit to believe that I make above average cell phone while driving decisions, above average LCBO bottles in the blue bin decisions, above average incandescent light bulb decisions, and above average grocery plastic bag re-use decisions.
Hidden Tax Collection: CRTC LPIF
October 29, 2009
Rogers Cable has the following to say about the CRTC LPIF (Local Programming Improvement Fund):
New Fee on your Bill
Beginning September 1, 2009, customers will see a new line on their invoice called CRTC LPIF Fee, and a corresponding charge of 1.5% of their recurring TV monthly service fee. Rogers Cable does NOT benefit from the LPIF fees collected. These fees are directly remitted to the CRTC’s Local Programming Improvement Fund, for the use solely by broadcasters like CTV and Global serving markets with less than 1 million people.
The CRTC has the following to say about cable companies passing on the LPIF fee to customers:
Several cable and satellite companies want to increase their customers’ rates by 1.5%. Can the CRTC prevent this?
In Public Notice 2008-100 (paragraph 357), the CRTC indicated that in light of the performance2 level of the cable and satellite sector and the benefits accruing to broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs) as a result of other changes being made to the regulatory framework, the Commission saw no justification for BDUs to pass along any increased costs relating to the LPIF to their subscribers.
This is an example of a non-intuitive economic principle. You can not tax companies. You can only force companies to collect tax from customers on behalf of the government. Not only do you have hidden taxes but you also have hidden tax collection.
Actually, Rogers is making it a little less hidden but the principle still holds. Consumers always pay one way or another.
UnicornCam: Lumix GF1 (Gee a Flat One)
September 3, 2009
Panasonic has announced their new Lumix GF1 camera and I believe this one is close to the mythical UnicornCam that I’ve discussed over and over and over again.
Panasonic already comes close to the UnicornCam with their baby SLR the Lumix G1 and later with the HD video enabled Lumix GH1. The GF1 is a close sibling that is housed in a flat range-finder like body rather than the baby SLR look and feel of the G1/GH1.
As mentioned in one of the comments, the Olympus EP-1 has a similar form factor. All of the almost-there-unicorncams are based on the new Micro Four-Thirds standard so this seems to be the sweetspot for the tradeoff between sensor size and image quality.
So why am I posting about the GF1 rather than the EP-1? Simple, Panasonic seems to have nailed fast autofocus with a live preview camera. It also has a built-in flash which the EP-1 lacks.
Two new lenses were also announced, a Leica f/2.8 45mm (90mm equiv.) macro and a lovely little f/1.7 20mm (40mm equiv.). If you add the f/4 7-14mm ultra wide angle lens you have a pretty decent system.
Together with the macro and the wide angle lenses, I think the GF1 may be the starting point for another mythical beast that I’m truly interested in…. the Underwater UnicornCam. Hopefully one of the underwater housing manufacturers will target this little beastie. The remaining question is how the flash system works (pre-flash metering or TTL) and whether it will work well with the existing TTL underwater strobes on the market.
Graffiti or Vandalism: A Tale of Two Stories
September 2, 2009
Yes the title is a little “cutesy” and from the department of redundancy department but let me explain. This is a tale of two newspaper stories about graffiti. The first story is a follow-up to the Graffiti Photophrapher vs. Virgin Mobile article I previously mentioned. In the post I noted that I found it ironic that the image in question, that was supposed to represent transient street art, had the URL of an art gallery named Thisisnotashop painted above it.
I sent e-mail to Thisisnotashop with a link to the Toronto Star article. The reply I received caught me off guard. Read the rest of this entry »
Slice of the Kidney Pie
August 29, 2009
Will Wilkinson and Bryan Caplan are debating why people oppose organ markets. Caplan believes that all (or effectively all) people that understand the economics behind organ markets support it over, I’m assuming, the current heavily altruistic system. Wilkinson attempts to summarize the moral argument against organ markets as follows:
Human beings have a certain dignity that is central to the value of human life. That dignity ought to be respected, preserved, and protected. Allowing the sale of human body parts diminishes the dignity of those involved in the transaction and erodes respect for the dignity of human beings generally. Therefore, markets in body parts ought to be legally prohibited.
Copyright
August 27, 2009
The Toronto Star as an article about Virgin Mobile using this image without permission:
McDermott, 38, was strolling down a lane in the Irish capital when he spotted a visually stunning piece of street art – a young girl releasing a heart-shaped balloon – that closely resembled the work of the renowned British graffiti artist known as “Banksy,” despite a misspelling of the shadowy figure’s moniker.
A hobby photographer, he snapped a few pictures before the mural was scrubbed away. He later touched up the picture using a computer program and uploaded it to the photo-sharing website Flickr.
While he knew the photo was good, he was still shocked to learn this week that the same picture was being used by cellphone giant Virgin Mobile in its latest Canadian ad campaign.
“Virgin is a multibillion-dollar company,” McDermott said in an interview, adding he never gave anyone permission to use his image. “They should know better.”
McDermott believes he should be paid $US 1000 for the use of his photograph. The thing that I find most interesting is that this “visually stunning piece of street art” that we are told was going to be “scrubbed away” has a URL above it:
If you click through you will find that thisisnotashop.com is a not for profit art gallery. There is a Contact page with e-mail addresses and phone numbers. Somehow I don’t think the stunning piece of street art on the front of an art gallery is a coincidence.
Yes, “They should know better”. Virgin Mobile. McDermott. The Toronto Star. Chris Sorensen (the journalist). The only ones that seem ahead of the curve are the people who painted the URL above their gallery entrance.
Life Through Polarized Sunglasses
August 24, 2009
There are not many things that can enhance the moment when I’m out on the lake in a canoe. Polarized sunglasses unobtrusively do just that. A big sky with fluffy white clouds are made more perfect with the clarity and extra saturation the polarizer provides.
The added bonus is that I can scout out scenes that will look great when I add a circular polarizing filter to my camera/lens.
Alas, I was cameraless so word pictures will have to do for this post.
Screech Jays
August 22, 2009
Blue jays make an awful racket. They sound like crows being strangled. Such lovely birds to watch but it is excruciating to listen to them.
Orchid
June 18, 2009
I like these kind of macro shots taken with a flash. I’m using my new Canon 270EX flash with an off camera shoe cord. This is effectively the technique used for nearly all underwater macro shots except I use two strobes underwater which minimizes the harsh single source shadows. The technique is simple and you don’t have to depend on good ambient light or a tripod. Flowers, just like many underwater critters, sometimes reflect light in interesting ways when lit up with a flash.
Sunset
June 16, 2009
Voting Signals and GTD
June 14, 2009
Robin Hanson over at the Overcoming Bias blog has a post about What Voting Signals. He links to a NY Times article that describes a change in Switzerland in which every “…eligible Swiss citizen began to automatically receive a ballot in the mail, which could then be completed and returned by mail.” The result of this natural experiment was that the voting rate unexpectedly declined.
Bug On The Edge
June 10, 2009
