I think I did the same mistake, again. Rewind. It all started back in 2006 when for no reason I wanted a cell phone with a good camera, so I can always have it with me. I got a Sony Ericsson K800i which was the first phone branded Cyber-shot, the leading compact camera brand from Sony. It was quite annoying at first for others to see my crappy photos taken with a cell phone on Flickr. Everything got better over time, I started to get that desire that drives you to get the perfect shot, no matter the camera, lens or lighting. In the end, I think I got a few decent shots for a phone. The need for a real camera was driving me crazy for a few years. Finally, I gave up after Nikon announced its last P-series cameras. The Coolpix P300 was looking so good that I couldn’t help myself not buy it.

Actually, I think it all started back in 2004 when I got a Sony Handycam, a consumer friendly camcoder with a really small sensor. I will always hate that small resolution clips. The same thing happen with the K800i and I promised myself not to get a camera with a small sensor ever again, but I did, because good cameras are for rich persons. Who in this world has money for a Leica X1, FujiFilm FinePix X100 or anything full-frame from Canon or Nikon? I know that quality comes with a price, but I think the price is too high. C’mon, it’s 2011, the glass is still made of SiO₂ and the sensor technology didn’t change much in over a decade — I know this because I study it in college. Why the prices didn’t go down? Is it all about keeping a brand alive even it’s dead in the water? Or do these brands think photographers are stupid enough to pay a high price for a brand new camera?

My new camera is like my old camera, it’s light, black and has that small sensor that makes pictures dirty when you need them clean and sharp. Nikon Expeed 2 doesn’t exceed my expectations at all. The water looks like plastic, people faces are so smooth you can’t see the pores even if you take a macro shot. I really hope for a new firmware to disable some of these insane noise reductions features. The 1080p recording feature of the camera is actually great and you can even record directly in an high contrast black and white mode.

I started a new photoblog on Tumblr to show case the pictures I take from time to time. I will try to keep my journal free of photos so I won’t disturb my readers with dirty pixels when all they want to do is to read my thoughts. Some people where hoping for a detailed review of Nikon Coolpix P300, but DPreview already took care of that for me. People are starting to follow me on Tumblr, I hope you do to, if you have an account there.

0 replies August 8, 2011 Coffee in the Morning

After my trip in Germany was over, I made myself a present: a compact camera, a Nikon P300. Then, by taking a picture in low light of some books, I noticed that in our small library there’s a special book. This book is called Berlin Alexanderplatz and was written by Alfred Döblin. After this coincidence occurred, I decided that Berlin deserves an article in my journal. Why? Because Alexanderplatz is one of the nicest places in Berlin and before I left the city, I went back to Charlie Checkpoint, somewhere near Alexanderplatz to buy some souvenirs.

Berlin is called the City of Stones and the City of Smoke by Jason Lutes in two of his comic books. I will use the same names to describe the Berlin I saw and I liked and somehow, disliked.

The City of Stones

This is the bright face of Berlin, the one that can make you think that this big city can change your life once and for all. The truth is that it can change your perspective of seeing things.

From the impressive Fernsehturm, the TV tower, down to architecture of each church and cathedral, Berlin has lots of things to offer to its visitors. There are lots of museums, but I didn’t have the chance to visit them because of the short time I stayed in the city. All those museums looked great from outside; I still wonder what amazing things they were hiding inside. I can go on and describe everything I saw, but that wouldn’t be much fun.

The City of Smoke

What I didn’t like about Berlin is maybe the american influence. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against americans, I’m against their influence in some parts of the world. What I wanted to see in Berlin was people coming from multiple parts of the world and get along with each other. But, I didn’t like the fact that all those people were embracing the american culture, instead of joining the german culture which in fact has more to offer that the other one.

Walking down the streets of Berlin I was amazed to notice muslims, jews, black people and going to Alexanderplatz there was very few people speaking German. I was listening to people speaking French, Italian, Spanish and lots of people speaking English. I was thinking… how many Romanians are living in Berlin?

I also took some pictures along the way, which are in fact two collections posted on PicPlz: Berlin and German Countryside. For those pictures I used just a cellphone, a Sony Ericsson K800i — I think I pushed it to its limits. That’s the reason why I wanted to buy myself a real camera when I went back home.

10 replies May 4, 2011 Reciprocal Affection

Sourcefabric organized a book sprint near Berlin, where an international team wrote a book in just five days. The book is actually a manual for getting started creating templates and using Newscoop at its full power. Newscoop is a content management system (CMS) specialized for news sites, magazines and mass media publications. Of course, my theme “The Journalist” is already ported to this new CMS.

The Book

Newscoop 3 Cookbook can already be order from Lulu and will be available for free on FLOSS Manuals. I wrote a full section describing the best practices for designing websites. Here I talked about templates grids, golden ratio, typography, article and comments design for Newscoop. I also wrote a few other sections regarding Facebook, HTML 5 and best practices for SEO.

I designed all the diagrams used in the book. I used a black and white style on a math paper. I tried to simply and clarify every step showed on each diagram. It’s not an easy process as it seems. You have to conceptualize the whole process and then create each step displayed in the diagram. Of course, the team helped me where I got stucked and in the end, I manage to finished them all.

The Team and the place

Each member from the team was from a different country. New Zeeland, USA, Romania, Belarus, Serbia, Columbia and Germany were the countries that we originate from. We stayed at Schloss Neuhausen where a few black cats entertained us and blossoming trees put some light on our faces. I’m not sure if it’s important, but I got the biggest room and I enjoyed each moment spent here.

0 replies April 27, 2011 Meaningful Labor

The problem here is that the arrow doesn’t point the center of the icon highlighted on Dock. It only appears on Exposé mode of the Dock, when you click and hold an icon in the Dock. The UI glitch was introduced in 10.6.5 update of Snow Leopard and I reported it on my Twitter account in November last year.

After 10.6.6 update of Mac OS X, I looked to see if this was fixed, but for my surprise, it wasn’t. How come a company that emphasis the design of its products as a feature, doesn’t care for small details like this? I looked to see if this bug was reported on any Apple related blog and I didn’t find any related stories. How come nobody noticed it and report it to Apple?

I thought Mr. Gruber will be the first person to report this, but lately he’s more preoccupied with what Google or Microsoft does. Also, I wonder if this bug will still be present on the next version of Mac OS X named Lion.

4 replies January 13, 2011 Coffee in the Morning

In the picture above you can see what we call Romanian Airmen Heroes Memorial, located in the Aviators’ Square, on Aviators’ Boulevard, Bucharest.

This photograph should have been posted five days ago, but somehow I manage to forgot about this draft. Yes, I started writing a new draft for my birthday which, guess what, was also postponed. Now let me explain. Great Union Day is the national holiday of Romania and it’s celebrated on December 1st. My birthday was five days before this event, enough time to lose track of the things I have to do and care about.

0 replies December 5, 2010 Les Fleurs du mal