Foreign Dispatches

The Possibilities of DSLR Video

Having recently made my case at such length for passing over the Nikon D800, I can see how anyone reading my little essay would have been left with the impression that I have no interest whatsoever in the new developments being made possible by the addition of video capability to higher end digital cameras. Such is not the case: while I personally have no interest in being a filmmaker, I'm still able to appreciate the incredible things that can be done with these new tools when in the right hands. Take the video below, for example, shot entirely with Canon's 5D Mark II.

Even Better than the Real Thing

If you have 15 minutes to spare, I suggest you sit down and watch this short film: if possible, click through to the Vimeo site to watch it in HD resolution.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Even Google is Afraid of Islam

If Google's "auto suggest" feature is any indication, even the folks at Mountain View have a "respectful"* [sic] view of the Religion of Peace. Think I'm kidding? Take a look at this picture and see for yourself. Better yet, why not go ahead and try typing "X is" for any number of religions "X" and see which ones come up curiously empty? Supposedly the people in charge of Google Suggest have claimed that this is just a "bug", but it is rather strange that this particular "bug" should be restricted to one religion whose adherents turn up frequently in the news for all the wrong reasons ...

[Via Digg.]

*See CNN's shameful display of cowardice for what "respect for Islam" means in journalistic circles.

Who wants to be on Google Wave?

I have a bunch of invites to hand out, so anyone who's interested can either send me an email message, or leave a comment on this post.

Audiophile Madness

How far are you willing to go in the search for the perfect listening experience? Not anywhere near as far as these folks, I'll bet.

Google Wave: Pulp Fiction Edition

Have you heard about Google Wave and wondered what exactly it might be for? Here comes enlightenment, courtesy of the following video.

So, now you know!

Why Twitter?

Farhad Manjoo asks a question I've long been meaning to myself: what exactly is the reward in using Twitter? I've never been able to come up with a good answer to this question, which is why I've never ever bothered to use my Twitter account even once after creating it. 140 characters doesn't suffice to share all but the most banal thoughts, and when I look at what active users of the Twitter service actually put out, I find myself scratching my head as to why anyone would care to follow such material. Is it really news to anyone that politicians and celebrities engage in all the same mundane daily activities that the rest of us do? I could care less that Ashton Kutcher is mowing his lawn or that Lindsay Lohan just bought an iced frappucino, and if the minutiae of the lives of these famous individuals are of so little interest, I fail to see why anyone - other than  perhaps a stalker - would care about the many non-events that make up my typical day, which might look like this in all its gripping detail:

Hello World in Java

Here's a joke only the software developers among you are likely to appreciate, but which will likely hit close to home if you're a member of the target demographic. Ordinary human beings with lives outside of their monitors can safely skip this post.

Obscenity Filtering Gone Amock

Take a look at this interesting neologism and take a second or two to try deciphering its origins; it reminds of Fark's "attractive and successful African American" filter ...

[Via Reddit.]

Building Search Engines is Hard

Having built a search engine from scratch, I can verify that the task is far harder to do right than most people assume, and that's even leaving aside the need to do something cleverer than everyone else with all of the data you're busy gathering and indexing. Rather than go on at length about the precise whys and wherefores, I'll let this ACM Queue article do a little of the work for me; I say "a little" because it addresses only the basic technical aspects of the exercise, while even a stirringly successful development push will still leave the daunting task of commercializing the product. There's nothing to sour one on the competence and vision of the supposed leading lights of the financial world like dealing with venture capitalists who insist on telling you that "search is dead" just 2 years before Google goes public ...