On a recent trip to Washington DC, I took this shot. Pretty happy with it. But the color version is good too. Which one do you like? See this black and white larger as well as some of my other black and white photography here.

Finally, a simple way to explain what software is...

This could very well be one of the first signs of a mid-life crisis. Those milk crates of records I've moved from college dorm rooms to a fraternity house and countless apartments before getting shelved in the garage for the last 11 years have at long last seen the light of day again.

Not only that, but I've "put a needle on the record" (name that tune) and starting recording all of them and cleaning them up -- courtesy of some great audio algorithms from a guy who comes from a land down under (yeah, another 80s music reference). And now, I have started researching some of these artists and songs and posting info about 'em in my 80s Vinyl Archive. What's more, for you 80s alternative music lovers who live in Orange County, California I have also created the OC Concert Calendar for keeping track of all these folks as they pass through the OC.

ValleyInsider.com posted an interesting story yesterday. They contend (based on some publicly available financial information) that the New York Times could save half their production costs if they literally gave everyone of their subscribers a Kindle for free and stop printed the paper. Sure, not everyone wants a Kindle -- or knows what one is for that matter -- but it is still a very telling perspective on what I really believe is a medium bound to (ahem) go outta print soon.

In fact, Molly Wood at cnet.com suggested in the Buzz Out Loud 2009 Predictions podcast that we will see a major metropolitan newspaper fold this year and limit itself to only online publication.

Newpapers are hosed.

Bad form, Kenneth Cole. Not only is this bad ad copy, it's a bad idea.



According to Adfreak.com, this billboard is currently located on the West Side Highway in Manhattan.

I read about this movie about a year ago when it was still in development. This is a story, taking place in 1998 before the release of Star Wars Episode I, of several Star Wars fans who want to break into Skywalker Ranch to steal a copy of the movie still in development because one of the friends has cancer and thinks he won't live long enough to see the final release.

The WIRED magazine article I read about this movie indicated that when George Lucas first heard about it, he offered his full support for the movie and even granted the producers of the movie access to sound effects and other assets to help out with this movie. Here is the trailer for the movie:

dpreview.com recently completed a very detailed review of the top-of-the-line digital point-and-shoot cameras from each of the major manufacturers. In this analysis, the following cameras are evaluated:

• Canon G10
• Kodak Z8612 IS
• Nikon P6000
• Panasonic LX3
• Ricoh R10
• Panasonic TZ5
• Canon SX110 IS

If you're thinking of buying someone you know a great, "high end" non DSLR camera for Christmas, you'll be doing yourself a big favor by reviewing this report first before buying.

Happy day. I learned today that mint.com has released a free iPhone / iPod Touch client [iTunes App Store link] this week. If you're not familiar with mint.com, it is a great (free) way to manage your finances. According to their site, Mint downloads, categorizes, and graphs all of your finances automatically every day— so you don’t have to. Know where you’re spending, without spending any effort.

The iPhone client provides access to all of your relevant Mint information, including:

• See balances for all accounts (checking, savings, credit cards, etc)
• Income vs expenses across all accounts
• Real-time budget status
• Performance of all brokerage accounts (401K, etc)
• Spending reports: Itemization of what categories where monthly spend takes place

As someone that used Quicken for nearly 15 years, I am so, so happy with Mint. I will never touch Quicken again, that's for sure. And now with all my financial info available on my iPod Touch, I'm a happy guy.