Digital cameras.
 

If you've ever used the screen where it maps out the image by the differing exposures throughout the picture, it can really let you do a lot. If you're doing black and whites, esp., it lets you pretty much choose your zone and adjust accordingly. I've had some shots I've adjusted by +/- 3 or 4 to nail and gotten exactly what I wanted.

Digital cameras.
 

You're in Boston, ever been to Photographica?

Digital cameras.
 

One of the many excellent features I've yet fully to take advantage of. If it weren't for work, I might know how to use all the useful tools. I am collecting all the exposure data, though, so I can go back and see what I did wrong.

Digital cameras.
 

No - details?

Digital cameras.
 

Annual show for antique/used/junk cameras. There's a bit of everything there. This year it's on October 23-24 in Waltham. There's conflicting info on the website as to location. Hunt's usually has the flyers. I've gotten some great stuff there over the years.

New iPod
 

Got one for my birthday. Why didn't you fuckers tell me how cool these things are?

New iPod
 

New iPod
 

My bad. Namaste.

Digital cameras.
 

I have an East German Pentax knock off that is pretty cool. Its an SLR stripped down to the complete basics. It has a light meter, but it's not integrated to the shutter control, so it's a bit of a pain to take action shots with. First you have to decide on a shutter speed, then adjust the f-stop, then readjust the shutter speed if you're too high or low, then readjust the f-stop. Old, old skool. It might be a Pentax K1000 direct knock off. Does the K1000 have auto-exposure?

Takes nice sharp pictures, though. And it's rock solid. It's got a mechanical shutter and only uses the battery for the light meter, so you can still take shots with a dead battery, albeit hit or miss.

Digital cameras.
 

There is nothing automatic about the K1000, which is what makes it such a great learning camera. Unfortunately they stopped production in 1997 but there are plenty available on eBay.

Lots of technical info can be found here.

Digital cameras.
 

Very interesting site. He also has a page for my Practica MTL3. Turns out it's not a Pentax clone (as it was described to me when I bought it), but rather a fairly decent camera in its own right. Has a screw mount instead of a bayonette mount. Otherwise, though, it looks like a pretty equivelent camera to the K1000, with the addition of an aperture preview button.

Digital cameras.
 

Cool. He has my Mamiya 1000 as well.

Bye Bye ATT
 

So after 10 years - 10 YEARS with ATT (formerly Cellular One) and bitching about service in the city (I get great signal strength everywhere but in the city) and waiting for GSM to roll out, I have abandonned ship and jumped to Verizon. So far, so good. I will note, that the Motorola V710 - while it has an awesome screen - has a real sweet spot on the earpiece. If it's off just a tiny bit, the voice quality drops - sounds like the caller is in a can. Same for the Samsung and LG phones that I tried out.
It takes a pretty good picture - better than the husband's Samsung. And it's light for it's size. I charged it on Sunday and still have full battery reading. It has Bluetooth capability, but I don't know whether that will be useful or not. Anyone else really use it on their cell?

Bye Bye ATT
 

Nice phone. I would check out recent press about the implimentation of BT, which Verizon has seen fit to cripple significantly.

I use BT daily, both for syncing data (I have BT on my Dell notebook at work and on my PowerBook at home) and with a wireless headset (mot hs-810). The latter is, for me, the killer app: once you use a wireless headset, you will laugh at all of the clowns using wired headsets. It's really that cool.

Using the phone as a wireless moden for a BT-enabled PC is also a terrific use, though, thanks to verizon you won't be able to do it. You get GPRS and/or EDGE speeds on GSM phones, which is about what I remember dial-up being. it's not perfect, but its better than nothing. Truth be told, I'd rather use WAP over GPRS, and leave the notebook packed until I get to a hotel/hotspot.

Google SMS
 

Google has rolled out a new service that allows you to do searches via SMS from your mobile phone: read about it here.