[cross-posted from Orcmid’s Lair: I have found superior ways to use Windows Live Writer, now in version 14 beta, together with my own web sites and Flickr, for posting images of all kinds.  Because that also allows me to have backups on my own computer and backups for any need to recover or move a site, I will be winding down my use of Orcmid’s Live Hideout.  This cross-post is my offering and invitation to explore my other blogs.]

I envy Dougerino’s proficiency with High Dynamic Range (HDR) photographs.  On a photo-walk with him at the Seattle Aquarium on Saturday, 2008-09-20, I figured this was my best chance to get some tips and try the technique myself.  I also figured that the garish lighting and colors in aquarium displays would grant me license to mess up color saturation and other aspects of HDR that would be unreal for many other subjects.  I’m using the subject to cover up my inexperience with the technique.

My first non-trial effort is the photograph of sea anemones in captivity, above.   The HDR image is produced from three separate digital exposures using my Nikon D80.  It took a while to learn how to set the D80 to automatically take three successive pictures at –2ev (2 full stops under), +0ev (normal metered exposure), and +2ev (two stops over), but I finally got it working.

The downside of this arrangement is that it takes a while for the camera to grab the three separate shots, I can’t see what is happening (the SLR mirror being raised) while the images are being taken, and the +2ev exposure is noticeably slow under low light conditions.  Keeping the camera stable is important.  I was hand-holding my camera, with my back against a wall.  That, combined with using a Vibration Reduction (VR) lens had the images be more stable than I deserved. 

While I and the camera were still enough, the anemones were not motionless as sea water circulated in the tank.  Look closely at the full-size Flickr version and you will see what looks like multiple-exposure effects in the tubes of the center anemone.  The tops of the tall anemones are also fuzzed because of movement there.

Now that HDR images, not to mention saturated color and extreme Photoshop effects,  are becoming popular on Flickr and photography web sites, it is easy to suspect HDR where it is not present.  Sometimes, the clues are pretty subtle.

Beside the hands-on tips from Dougerino, I found Trey Ratcliff’s Stuck in Customs web site with great examples and tutorial information.   Because Ratcliff offers many HDR images, I thought that was before me in his “Some of my favorite shots of children.”  Ratcliff’s HDR tutorial illustrates the use of PhotoShop layering techniques to eliminate blurred images in the combined separate exposures.  I thought I was seeing that in the image of the girl in this detail:

 

No.  That is not an HDR image.  My suspicions were groundless.  Some photographs are richly hued and at the right moment without requiring doctoring, at least not of the HDR kind.

The following image from the same set is an HDR image. 

If you look at the largest image on Flickr, you can see that there are indications of skater motion in comparison with the clarity of the ice surface.  I also suspect there was not a 4-stop range.  The D2X might have been working in a faster range of shutter speeds, too.

That’s all guesswork.  It is valuable to be able to discern how a photographic subject was lighted, an unaccustomed test that I seldom pass.  Now I must also train my photographer eye to discern how HDR was used, if at all, along with other digital-processing effects.

Meanwhile, I am able to enjoy and learn from the wonderful images that appear in daily Stuck in Customs posts.  You can too.

---

Suonare is the Italian verb for “to play” in the sense that a pianist plays a keyboard.  With the advent of computer-based music and photographic-image processing, I extent the notion to similar play via my computer keyboard, not just my MIDI controller.  Suono is “I play.”

Technorati Tags: Google, Lively, VChat, interoperability, discussion

Thanks to some mentions in Twitter, I have found myself a lively place, a new Google property.  I need to figure out how to get the image and entrance to the room to be more impressive.  We'll see.  The name of the place is Orcmid's Lively Interoperability Zone.  Sort of like "islands of interoperability" in the Asteroid Belt.  I have no idea what I am doing here, but I can't always be a late adopter, you know?

So, does anyone remember VChat?  That seemed like a long time ago.  I think there may still be some VChat servers around.  Look at how much easier this has become? I don't want to keep this web page open all of the time, so I will have to figure out other ways to notice when people arrive and leave and attempt to communicate here.  I also need better furniture, but you wouldn't believe the freight charges.  This makes the gas-price inflation look like pocket change. Finally, in Windows Live Writer, this image looks terrible.  It is all pixel-blocky.  I will look at it in the blog to see if there is anything different to be done about it.  It might render more appropriately in my browser. I also need to figure out how to get the iframe to appear in Spaces Live.  Ah hum ... Looks like a big empty space over there.  Oh well, it does appear on the page here.

Ed Bott has published a pre-holiday Random 10 and a new Uncensored Jukebox Challenge.  Ed reports that it is Judy's birthday so this seems like a great way to wish Judy happy birthday.

In celebration of all things romantic, tomorrow, the Saturday of U.S. Memorial Day weekend 2008 is the 13th anniversary of my meeting Vicki in a parking lot and asking her to coffee.  We will go out to coffee again.  Our 13th wedding anniversary will be this New Years Eve.

1. Elton John: Believe.  Love Songs.  Amazon MP3.
     
2. Edvard Grieg: Anitra's Dance.  Peer Gynt Suite.  101 Great Orchestral Classics, The Slovak State Philharmonic.  MSN Music (DRM doomed to be non-transferable any day now)
     
3. Bob Marley & The Wailers: Waiting in Vain.  Songs of Freedom.  MSN Music (DRM doomed to be non-transferable, so this is an appropriate album for a selection and I guess you could say I have an attitude about this ... definitely)
      
4. James Galway: Un-break my Heart.  Crazy .  MSN Music.  Hmm, didn't even know I had this weird album of flute with swing orchestra.  I have no idea what selection on the album inspired this purchase.  I'll have to play it through and see.
     
5. Kimmie Rhodes.  Windblown.  Windblown.  Windows Media Center Sample Music
     
   J Allard of Microsoft on the Launch of Zune (pod cast)
     
6. Edvard Grieg: Solveig's Song.  101 Great Orchestral Classics, Czecho-Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra.  MSN Music
     
7. Elton John: Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word.  Rocket Man: Number Ones.  Amazon MP3.
      
8. James Taylor: Steamroller Blues (live).  One Man Band.  Amazon MP3.
      
9. Ozamati: After Party.  The Heartbreak Kid: Music from the Motion Picture.  Amazon MP3.  I'm not sure what led me to this either, unless it was the two David Bowie tracks (though Tales of the Horny Frog might be the subliminal appeal)
      
10. Marc Broussard: The Beauty of Who You Are.  Carencro [full length version].  MSN Music.  Time to listen to this one all the way through too.  You know, before I have no machine that it can be transferred onto.  DRM thing, you know ...
      
    Will it go to 11?  Let's see:
      
11. Marvin Gaye: How Sweet It Is (to be Loved by You).  Every Great Motown Hit of Marvin Gaye.  MSN Music (dang!  Well, transfers onto Plays-for-Sure devices seem to work without counting against the number of machine registrations.  I wonder if that's just an illusion ....)
       
    Wow!  Bonus Track for Ed Bott and Judy:
      
12. Acoustic Alchemy.  Santa Cafe.  The New Edge.  MSN Music (geez, I'll miss you guys)
      
    Well, uh, I thought the title was Santa Fe when I first looked.  Then I guess it would be for Ottmar too, huh?

I'm liking this.  I think I'll stop logging and just listen. Let's make it a mellow and cool overcast evening in Seattle.  Cripes, George Michael duet with Elton John, ... mellowing out for sure ...

I was sitting quietly in the local Starbucks, jacking into T-Mobile Hot Spot from my brand new T-Mobile Dash Windows Mobile instrument.  It took me the bus ride from my favorite Barnes & Noble Starbucks to my local one to figure out how I was unable to log on to Windows Live though.  I was eager to try logging in again and doing my first blog post from a phone.  I was able to get through the Windows Live ID Logon the second time.

I specifically wanted to see what this blog looked like when accessed via mobile.windows.live.  It takes a lot of navigation, but the post texts show up all right.   There are tiny versions of the pictures, too.  So it is a nice feature.  I haven't tried looking at any of my web pages yet.  I'm apprehensive about that.

Well, this is not the post I made on the phone.  Somewhere around clicking the Publish button the post disappeared, never to be seen again.  My thumbs were too tired to figure out how to correct it.  So I didn't frustrate myself with a do-over. 

The Dash has a tiny QWERTY keyboard.  It was amazing to learn that even my thumbs know their way around QWERTY, but it is a painful process just the same.  I have been watching my fingers, because the keys are easy to miss, so the automatic word-completion suggestions are often wasted on me (and I have to take my thumbs out of QWERTY position to select one).  I will practice more and see what improves.

I compose my web pages and blog articles for reading from full-up PC displays.  It is way over my head to figure out how to target my sites to mobile devices.  If I was going to the trouble to make all that work, I think the time would be more valuable invested in accessibility.

Now that I think about it, maybe making web pages and blog posts amenable to mobile access is a way to approach having the material be accessible.  OK, I'll look at that then. 

Meanwhile, I'm grateful that mobile.live.com and the MSN counterpart (even better, actually) do present fairly nicely.  CNN has some work to do, but MSNBC has it figured out.  I just installed Yahoo! Go also, and there is a special MSN install, but I am yet to explore those too.

I'll try another post from the phone, some day, but for now I am happy to be home and keyboarding away in Windows Live Writer.

---

I figured I'd attempt to upload pictures and also blog posts from the new phone because now I can.  This is the first phone I've owned that could take advantage of those features of my wireless service.

Last week at ODC2008 I lost my Nokia Communicator.  It was on T-Mobile wireless but unsupported for their Internet access and other goodies (ring tones, MP3s, photos, videos, and all the other silliness).  Fortunately, the phone was off and I lock my SIM cards as well as the keyboard.  There has been no attempt to use the account and I have kept my number.    I also had no unfulfilled subscriber commitment, so I could do a phone upgrade at no penalty. 

I have set up my new Dash with the same precautions.  I also don't keep anything on the phone that I am worried about losing.  My contact list is synchronized with my Outlook and there are no secrets there.  And yes, I signed up for the insurance too.  The deductible is more than I paid for the phone after discounting, but much less than buying a full-price replacement.  When I complete my two-year commitment I can cancel the insurance because the upgrade price will be less than the deductible anyhow.

I have resisted three whole days without adding the data plan.  The T-Mobile Total Internet plan, which is what I apparently need, also bundles T-Mobile Hot Spot.  I already have about 18-months of free T-Mobile Hot Spot left to use as a promotion for buying my two Give 1 Get 1 One Laptop Per Child computers.  It irks me that I can't buy a data plan that doesn't bundle Hot Spot (and I don't need access to an Exchange server either).  I am throwing in the towel though.  I do want the GPRS/EDGE capability that some features require.  As much as I like hanging out in libraries and coffee shops, it is even nicer to be able to access the Internet wherever I happen to be sitting at the moment, even at home.  I can't resist.  I think of it like buying a couple of premium channels on cable TV, but cheaper.

This may be the beginning of something terrible ...

Every Winter there are swarms of birds outside of my basement-office window.  They arrive suddenly, pecking the heck out of my lawn (but leaving the sprouts of my late-season re-seeding alone) and making off with various bugs and worms.  Suddenly, the dense flock will take flight and land somewhere else in the yard, repeating the process until they disappear until the next year.  The entire episode is just a few minutes.  This particular visitation was on December 1, 2007.  They disappeared an hour before the first snow-fall of the season.

All I know about the birds is that they are speckled and about the size of robins but sleeker (and my robin sightings happen in the Spring and early Summer).

I was reminded of this phenomenon on seeing the similar birds photographed out Doug Mahugh's window on January 26, 2008.  I asked about these on Doug's post and I now know they are newcomers to this part of the world, European Starlings.  That explains why they are a novelty for me. 

I also remember seeing smaller versions of these getting tipsy on some berried shrubs outside a local McDonalds.  I suspect they were juveniles out on their first toot.

Although we are still having unusual occurrences of snow, without accumulation, at the end of January, there are more active birds than I would expect with this unusual incidence of freezing conditions.

You can understand that when I saw these fellows hanging out in the neighborhood earlier this week, I couldn't help but think of the Pixar video, "For the birds."  (The "sneak peak" is definitely for the birds, but the old postings of the full Pixar short with the correct audio have been ordered taken down.  This YouTube mashup may serve better.)

Although I was excited when Pandora began to provide classical selections, I was quickly disillusioned.  The biggest problem is that classical pieces don't break down nicely into radio sound-play excerpts.   When I hear a movement from a symphony, concerto, or other suite, I usually long to hear the rest.  It is not equivalent to different tracks on an album.  The situation seems to have improved but I find that I am spending more time on other stations on my Pandora Custom Stations list.

That's Pink Floyd?

Occasionally it is very difficult for me to establish a genre on a Pandora station.  I first learned this when I set out to create a David Bowie station.  All I learned was how much David Bowie material there was that I didn't like.  I woke up to Bowie, as it were, with Ziggy Stardust.  I obtained a few other albums and I Bowie perform on the Serious Moonlight Tour at the Carrier Dome.  So there is a Bowie sub-genre that is what works for me.  I despaired of training Pandora to find the spot for me and I haven't visited that station in some time.

Another station worked quite differently for me.  I am also a Pink Floyd fan.  There is also Pink Floyd that I don't like.  I now have my station trained to play practically every version of Another Brick in the Wall they have recorded.  That's great, although I would really like more on the Distant Sound of Thunder groove. 

No, the problem with my Pink Floyd station is that Pandora keeps suggesting songs by other artists that I do like but that I don't associate with Pink Floyd at all.  I can see what might be the connection, but the associations are not what puts me in a Pink Floyd state of mind.  Billy Joel, Steve Perry, Tom Petty, and Genesis just don't fit for me. 

Pandora allows a selection to be moved to a different station.  That was a problem.  I liked these non-Pink suggestions, but I didn't have a station that was always appropriate but I didn't want to lose the recommendation.

Finding Classic Album Rock ... My Number, at Last

So far, I have solved my problem in having Pinkness on the Pink Floyd channel with two smart moves.

First, I added some artists to my Pink Floyd station that I figured would give me more-likely Pandora Picks.  The first artists that I added are Emerson, Lake & Palmer, King Crimson, and Yes.   You might be starting to see my warped musical background at this point.

Secondly, and this is a terrible disclosure, I created a Classic Album Rock station.  That title doesn't work with Pandora, so I created an REO Speedwagon station (really) and renamed it to Classic Album Rock. 

Pandora does a kind of training by playing a song from the selected artist.  I gave "Can't Fight This Feeling" a thumbs up.

Next, Pandora offers a different artist that has a strong genre match.  I gave Boston's "More Than a Feeling" another thumbs up.

So far I have not put one selection on the Thumbs-down list.  Here is the subsequent play list that Pandora offered up:

• Huey Lewis and the News: Do You Believe in Love
• Eric Clapton: Let It Rain
• Jackson Browne: Walking Slow
• Fleetwood Mac: Monday Morning (thumbs up)
• The Open Mind: My Mind Cries
• The Kinks: You're Lookin' Fine
• The Rolling Stones: Wild Horses (thumbs up)
• Fleetwood Mac: Gold Dust Woman
• Cat Stevens: Wild World (Live)
• Scott McKenzie: San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers in Your Hair) (wow, really takes me back)
• Little River Band: Lonesome Loser
• Journey: Feeling That Way
• REO Speedwagon: Keep On Loving You
• Scorpions: No One Like You
• Van Halen: You Really Got Me (David Lee Roth version)
• Kansas: Carry On Wayward Son
• Boston: Peace of Mind
• Collective Soul: Shine
• The Cars: Tonight She Comes
• Queen: You're My Bestfriend

Wow, it's like listening to Philadelphia's WMMR in the 60s and, later, to Brother Weez in Rochester, without the commercials and the chatter.  What a win for a peaceful Sunday noon while I prepare to take my OLPC XO-1 out to play. 

I wonder when I'll hear from Foreigner and Jethro Tull.  D'ya think Motown is unlikely?  Heh.

I hate to confess that Pandora now has my number.

Out my basement-office ground-level window, I often see birds, squirrels and the occasional passing cat.  Most cats scurry out of site once they notice me in the office.  Other critters scatter when they detect motion, hear my shutter click, or otherwise decide there's some reason to vamoose. This visiting kitty (upper right) came around underneath the plants at the corner of the house, taking in the view along the side in front of my office.  When I captured the first picture, I expected the cat to flee.  Instead the cat seemed indifferent, moving down to the window and peering into my office.
The cat took its time and moved along the wide window to the far side, seeming puzzled by the screen arrangement at the left. By now I was working at capturing the cat's attention.  It ignored me, finally loping off back the way it came, vanishing back under the shrubbery.
	Not until the cat was completely out of my site did Prince Teh Amor, our household male cat, arrive.  He hopped up onto one of my computer towers and launched himself up against the window, standing on the sill to express his upset with the stranger. I don't know whether the other cat was even in view.  He offered his yowling complaints just the same. I'm doing everything I can to not distract him while I work to get his picture.  I figure he'll hop or fall off the narrow sill real soon now.
Well, he manages to stay on the window long enough to express his displeasure to me as well. I've had neighborhood cats at the window before, but rarely at the same time that one of ours has noticed.  In both cases, so far, there was unexpected behavior. This time, it was the late reaction of Teh Amor that took me by surprise.

---

I was not set up for nature photography from some remote-controlled blind.   I happened to have my camera at my desk, and I used the opportunity to grab several shots very quickly without moving around much and shying the cat away.  Teh's arrival was also sudden and unexpected.  I wasn't sure how long he would stay on the narrow window sill.  I shot very rapidly and did not adjust the exposure or focus at all.  I was never sure when either cat would bolt from the window.

With CaptureNX,I now know to go through the basic setting first, thanks to the second day of Nikon School.  Because I use Nikon's RAW format all of the time, I was able to over-ride some of the exposure adjustments that were made in the camera.  I changed the exposure compensation to over-expose the images and bring up the shaded foreground as much as was safe.  The white balance was adjusted for cloudy daylight.  This was all after the fact.  To rescue the Teh Amor pictures, I also needed to be extra-creative with brightness and contrast.  Seeing them together I see that it would have helped to take the contrast down some more and dull the back lighting to match the first image.  I may try that again just to see how much better I can do. 

I still don't have an efficient workflow, but I notice that I am learning to avoid experimenting with adjustments that won't be useful in a given situation.  That picks up the pace, but there is still a great deal of trial-and-error, as you can see.

I am a Nikon School graduate.  I spent Saturday and Sunday in back-to-back one-day seminars, starting with Introduction to Digital SLR Photography and wrapping up with Next Steps in Digital Photography: Streamlined Workflow Techniques.

These unique weekend seminars are now in the midst of their 2007-2008 schedule, begun in October 2007 and continuing to June 1, 2008.

Who Are Nikon School Students?
  

The Saturday DSLR Introduction Class

The introductory class is designed for beginners and digital beginner-intermediates such as myself.  At one point it was emphasized that you can make digital photographs without ever using a computer or having your own color printer.  For those who want to understand what deeper involvement entails, there was an introduction to basic photo editing software and some of the thrills that a computer-based digital workflow makes possible.  This is useful as something to grow into if you're not there yet (or your current computer doesn't have the muscle that is required).

If you are considering a digital single-lens-reflex (DSLR) camera, the Saturday introduction seminar is a great choice.  I sat next to some people who were looking for understanding before upgrading from digital point-and-shoot to DSLR.

If you have begun using your first Nikon DSLR and you want an in-person, all-day intensive on what it is all about and how to grow with it, the Introduction Course is definitely for you.  New DSLR users will value the run-through of features and settings beyond the basic point-and-shoot automation.  Settings and their effects are illustrated using live demonstrations of Nikon cameras, capturing the camera's video output connection on the big screen. 

Although bringing your camera is not required, many of us brought ours as a way to follow along with our particular model and to have a hands-on sense of the menus and feature controls.  For this level, it is important to already have a novice understanding of your digital camera's operation at the point-and-shoot level.  Although you can get assistance from the more-experienced attendees, it is better to take advantage of free getting-started training offered by dealers, provided with your camera, and available on-line from the manufacturer.  There are also good books and DVDs available for DSLRs and I had already accumulated some favorites for my Nikon D80.

The introductory course will work for users of non-Nikon DSLR brands, but it will take more effort to translate the details from the Nikon examples to their counterparts for your camera.

I was surprised to learn that there were many of the roughly 250 people there who were in this course for the third or fourth time.  The consistent comment from experienced DSLR owners was their finding something new each time (and digital photography technology is advancing very rapidly).

By the way, this course fills up.  There was a waiting list and walk-ins "on standby" for the January 12 Seattle class.
  

The Sunday DSLR Workflow Class

The second day, on streamlined workflow, digs deeper into the digital darkroom/photo-finishing end of the digital photography process. There are also demonstrations of what is possible with deeper understanding of lighting (looking at white balance and the use of multiple flash units, for example).  

There were fewer people in this class (somewhere around 150 based on all of us fitting in one side room for the luncheon), with a majority having been in the previous day's class as well.  Walk-ins were being admitted, although I would reserve early.  Also, arrive early to have better up-front seating.

I already use Capture NX, the Nikon photo editor package, and wanted very much to understand what the various settings and controls actually do for me.  The features were all mysteries for me even though I'd finally found a book on the software the week before.  The in-person, on-screen demonstrations were eye opening, and I immediately raised my proficiency. 

If you are not a Nikon DSLR user, and you don't use a serious package like Capture NX or the advanced Adobe products, there is still value in this session as a survey and as a way of deciding how to go further on the workflow side. 

I think the greatest value of the second class is when you have worked with a DSLR enough to begin to notice workflow issues, problems of getting prints that match what you see on your display (or vice versa), and yearning for better quality pictures both technically and creatively.

It looks like one strategy for those not quite ready for this level would be to take the Introduction now and take the workflow class a year later.  Because of changes and the value of having a refresher, it might be very valuable to repeat the Introduction when the second class is taken.

Preliminaries

This was my first Nikon School event.  As a 9-month Nikon DSLR owner I had heard of it although I wasn't very curious.  I expected that Nikon programs would be seriously professional and seriously expensive.  I found out I was mistaken about the expensive part.  Also, the delivery is very professional, but the content is designed for all levels of amateur who are keen about improving their photography.

As a registered owner, I received a December e-mail indicating that Nikon School was coming to Seattle.  I visited the web site immediately.  The description of these one-day classes was detailed enough for me to see that both covered topics that I had been bumping up against as I sought to have more mastery of my camera and of the software for managing and manipulating my digital photos.  I also realized that these were very affordable compared to smaller, hands-on and in-person courses and the occasional Nikon photo safari.  I signed up immediately.

I received the announcement because I had registered my Nikon D80 with Nikon shortly after I purchased it.  Nikon maintains a database of owners and their camera serial numbers, of possible value if a camera is lost and ends up at a Nikon dealer or service location.  You can also record a profile of all Nikon equipment and software that you own in order to receive information about updates (yes, to your camera software too) and new offerings.  This is one of the few cases where I registered a product on-line and felt that there was something in it for me.

Nikon also makes a great deal of information about creative digital photography available on-line.  We were provided notepads at the class, and the first two sheets were pre-printed with Nikon contact information, Nikon online resources, and a brief Frequently Asked Questions on file formats, Capture NX, white balance, and wireless flash.  Here are resources for everyone:
  

• http://NikonUSA.com about overall products and a portal to other sites.  There are digital tech support and on-line knowledge base about Nikon equipment and software.  This is where you will find free software downloads that work with Nikon digital cameras.  It is valuable to visit this site from time to time because of the rapid evolution of the software and information about particular digital products.
       
• http://NikonNet.com online "community" with brief articles, access to educational materials (including some inexpensive DVDs), and Nikon's PictureTown free photo-sharing site (no, they don't seem to be clear on what they want to call it yet).  There is more here than meets the eye: Follow the Learn, Inspire, and Share links for more extensive content.
    
• http://NikonWorld.com on inspired photography with on-line versions of print articles, reviews, interviews, slide shows, and videos.  This is a slick site providing coverage from the print edition and with archives that should not be overlooked.
    
• http://Flickr.com/nikon is more like a community.  The moderated group is tied to the Nikon School and the Nikon Digital Learning Center, providing additional resources for learning and practice along with 10,000 contributed photos by members of the group.  There is a forum for questions and discussion.  There are assignments and critiques available, although I haven't spotted any specific assignments.  There are other Flickr photography groups and you can selectively explore Flickr for photos that were created using particular equipment.  Check out the resources on the bottom of the the Flickr.com/nikon page for other groups of interest to Nikon-owning enthusiasts.  I've joined the Nikon group and the Learn the D80 group.  If you are interested in lighting (and there's no way not to be at some point), I also recommend David Hobby's 20,000-member Strobist group.
     
• http://CaptureNX.com is devoted to the CaptureNX editor product, a commercial offering with 30-day trial downloads.  In addition to promoting CaptureNX, the site provides tutorials and support information that are valuable for those using the product.  This is another site to revisit from time to time to learn about changes and download updated manuals and other materials.  I acquired CaptureNX 1.1 (1.3 is now current) on the trial, opting to purchase it because it already provided far more than I knew how to use and was also very economical in comparison with market-leader products like Adobe PhotoShop.  Although Capture NX will edit JPEG and TIFF files from any camera or scanner, its support for Raw files is limited to and optimized for the Nikon Electronic File (NEF) version.  A key feature of CaptureNX is that it is completely non-destructive (like some of my audio and video software too).  The edits do not touch the original digital-image file.  At the same time, if you add metadata about the image, that is incorporated in the digital-image file, to be carried with it and all of its derivatives except as you change it for those.  These are both critical features for my personal workflow.

Preparation

Immediately after registration, I received an e-mail with links to Working Notes for Nikon School of Photography.  The Notes are PDF files that provide coverage of the topics:
  

• Working Notes: Introduction to Digital SLR Photography, 17 page PDF file, provided to registrants in the Introduction class.  I downloaded this material immediately, but I didn't print it out until a week before the class.  But I hadn't read it by the time I walked into the class.  I didn't realize there were some suggested exercises; I have started on them now.  This is great material and it is not a script, even though it covers the same topics as the class.  I made my notes on the backs of the printed pages, roughly in the same place as the topic being covered.  It is clear on reviewing them together that the working notes are complementary and work best as a guide and supplement to the actual presentation.  The PDF has links to web sites for the resources mentioned in the notes.
    
• Working Notes: Next Steps in Digital Photography--Streamlined Workflow Techniques, 23 page PDF file, provided to registrants in the Workflow class.  I left my copy at home, so I used the notebook provided at the class.  Reviewing the working notes afterwards, I confirmed the complementary nature and usefulness of this material as well.  The Ten Steps to Digital Happiness are killer, and the material builds and deepens from that one-page summary.

I also took along my two favorite Nikon photography books.  These provided reading material during the bus ride to the class each day:
  

• David D. Busch: Nikon D80 Digital Field Guide.  Wiley (Hoboken NJ, 2007), ISBN 978-0-470-12051-4 pbk.  My favorite on the camera itself.  It ties the camera feature to illustrated picture shooting situations and suggests practice exercises.
    
• Ben Long: Real World Nikon Capture NX.  Peachpit Press (Berkeley CA: 2007), ISBN 978-0-321-48999-9 pbk.  I had just found this book, which covers version 1.1.  It acknowledges the technical review by Bill Durrence, one of our instructors, and Bill autographed that page for me.  I had just read the color management section when I walked into the second day's coverage of end-to-end subject-to-camera-to-printer color control.

At the Class

Early Arrival

The weekend bus schedule had me arriving well ahead of the 9:30am start time.  The doors into the hotel ballroom of the class opened before 9:15 and it was valuable to be in line earlier than that.  I maintained the same schedule the next day just to obtain comparable up-front seating.

Outside the classroom, two local Nikon representatives had set up tables with some of the latest equipment for students to examine.  The representatives answered technical questions and there was a crowd around the tables before all sessions and during all breaks.  Free copies of the Fall 2007 issue of Nikon World were also provided.  There were no sales made outside the room and there was no selling of equipment, software, or accessories in the classes.
  

Facilities

Arrival was also the first example of the high level of service provided by the Marriott Hotel.  A hotel representative was outside the meeting at start-up and all breaks each day, providing tickets to the parking garage for a class-special $4 daily rate.  

The luncheons, included in the tuition fees, were extraordinary.  One attendee that I had been sitting with was a complete vegan and she returned her Caesar salad because of the cheese.  The servers politely returned with a plain version and later brought a plate of lightly-steamed vegetables in place of the chicken main entree.  The service was extraordinary on both days, the menu was varied each day, and the desserts were memorable too.  If you're ever at a banquet table with me, guard your dessert.

There was a stage set up at the front of the long room, with a giant rear-projection screen behind the stage.  I suspect this is all part of the traveling gear of Nikon School, and it was impressive that it was there and that the facility accommodated it.

I figure that the tuition must go entirely into the expenses of the classes and their logistics, considering the quality of the hotel arrangements, the materials available, and the expertise of the instructors.
  

More Materials

At the door on the way into the room we surrendered our class-registration tickets and received a Nikon School Guide and spiral notepad.  There was a different Nikon School Guide each day:
  

• Nikon School Guide to Digital SLR Photography was provided to Introduction class attendees. This 148-page booklet is full of examples and tips, with an Appendix containing exercises.  It is different than the working notes and it is different from the presentations in the class, although all address the key points of DSLR photography.
    
• Nikon School Guide to Creative Lighting was provided to Workflow class attendees.  Some of the tips in this 60-page booklet are adaptable to other DSLR cameras, but the features of the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) and wireless control of multiple flashes is relatively unique.  Again, this illustrated booklet is different than the working notes and provides more coverage of lighting with many suggestions.

At the end of each day, there were additional hand-outs outside of the room:
  

• Capture NX 1.2 Fully Functional Trial Edition on CD-ROM.  Version 1.3 was newly-released and we were informed that the update can be downloaded and used as part of the trial.  (All downloads are of fully-functional 30-day trial editions so the CD-ROM is more of a welcome convenience rather than a necessity.)  A registration key is provided when the product is purchased on-line, removing the time limit.  Future updates installed over earlier versions are automatically under the same registration and key.
    
  I recommend that freely-available tools be used first, to develop comfort with basic workflow.  Install Nikon's free (and Nikon-specific) View NX and Transfer NX software to get started.  I have also had great success with then camera-agnostic Windows Live Photo Gallery (on Windows) with Nikon's Windows plug-in for NEF format.  They all interwork with Capture NX.  Install the Capture NX trial when you're ready to use it and are willing to start the 30-day trial-use period.
    
  Unless Photoshop is already used, I suggest using Capture NX first and expanding to Photoshop later on, depending on interest and your desire for some different features.
    
• Our diploma for each class.

There were also door prizes on the second day. 
  

The Instruction

Each day is broken up into four periods, punctuated by 20-30 minute breaks and 1-hour luncheons.  There was coffee in the mornings and water at the back of the room at all other times.

Our two instructors were Bill Durrence from Savannah, Georgia, and Nick Didlick from Vancouver, British Columbia.  (The other instructors are Reed Hoffman, Bob needs-a-website Pearson, and Michael A. Schwarz: find the work of some at Blue Pixel too.)  The instructors alternated through the periods, with Durrence kicking-off the Introduction class and Didlick starting-off the Workflow class.  Durrence claims that his out-of-date web site will be updated real-soon-now.  Didlick recommends his site's digital info page as a great resource.  What he didn't tell us is that there is also a great camera setup page for suggested beginner settings of camera features and also setting up wireless remote/multiple flash.

Great features of the instruction:
  

• No one was reading PowerPoint or following the working notes in some slavish way.  The presentations were spontaneous and fresh while covering all of the promised topics to varying degrees of depth.  Durrance was using a presentation mouse and Didlick preferred to use a Nikon DSLR with attached video cable to the room projector when he wasn't doing a software demonstration.
  
• The instructors are light-hearted and humorous.  The banter between them is a little edgy but clearly between people who like and respect each other.
    
• There were great slide shows and some humorous videos (including some famous Molson Canadian Beer commercials).
    
• Although the second day is more focused on technical matters than the first, there was a refreshing acknowledgment of the importance, and the interplay, of art and craft from the beginning.  In these sessions, Durrence brought out more of photography with art and heart while Didlick delved deeper into exposing us to the craft, especially around workflow.  They are clearly both amazing photographers and this role-playing worked well to keep our attention and to lift us up out of one focus into the other and back again.

Take-Aways

The web-based materials and other on-line resources provide enough about the content.  Here are some highlights from my notes:
  

• On the first day, there were two attendees who had never used film cameras: a youngster and one of the oldsters.  This will only increase.
    
• Laptops were used for demonstration and presentation.  They were Apple Macintosh computers with Boot Camp and Windows Vista.  The presentations were done from Vista, including the slide shows, controlled with a Presentation Mouse.
   
• Durrence: "Photography has always been a process."  Digital photography makes us more aware of it.
    
• Durrence on how adults learn and how we tend to avoid starting what experience warns will be lengthy processes: "Just get a little better every day.  There is no finish line."
    
• If you find there is new firmware for your camera:  First make sure the change is something that matters to you.  Then follow the instructions exactly.  Print out the steps and don't skip any.
    
• Digital photography is not really easier and it is not really cheaper.  But there is no per-picture cost to pressing the shutter button.
    
• A FEW things you have to get right: Focus, Exposure, and White Balance (with guidance on each)
     
• Levels of Learning: Ignorant (don't know what it means to answer the questions presented by the technology), Getting it Right (competence with equipment), Doing it "Wrong" on Purpose (mastery)
    
• The importance of adding the metadata at the time of upload and archiving, incorporating the metadata into the digital image file.
    
• Backup, Backup, Backup.  Don't delete images (although I still will), and never work on the original.  Storage is cheap.
    
• Digital images require some form of cataloging and consistent identification system.  (I'm anal-retentive enough to have one already, but I am refining it as a result of this class.)  You can't look through a file of prints or slides any more as a way of finding the image you want. 
    
• Digital images are fragile and easily lost forever.  (The digital storage paradox -- the fidelity is great but bits when broken are broken forever.)  Have backups away from home/office.
    
• "Accept that there are no secrets, only things you have yet to learn,"  from the Ten Steps to Digital Happiness at the beginning of the second day.
    
• I could never figure out what the color management system on the computer does and how to use it.  I have a glimmer now.  I must learn to use it.  It is all about achieving appropriate fidelity among what you saw, what the camera got, what your computer displays, and what the printer prints.  The second day was the first complete-enough explanation of this that I have ever found.
    
• There's nothing like a few well-chosen videos to liven up a long day.  There was a great rant about how your cat picture is not your cat and provides no experience of your cat and we should get over it.  (I must put up more Friday cat pictures in compensation for this.)  This video is not about that, but I had to find it on the Internet after seeing it on the big screen in the class:

 

  

 

• Eliza Gauger: Herding Cats, Table of Malcontents (web log), wired.com, 2007-01-07.  Here's a little background on the commercial.  I haven't watched a Super Bowl in a very long time and I missed this.

---

[update 2008-01-16T17:57Z I spelled Bill Durrence's name incorrectly in one place, so I also took the opportunity to tweak a few other statements.]

Friday's Uncensored Jukebox: What Tunes Do You Really Like?  Well, Ed Bott has done it to me again.  Ailing after the Consumer Electronics Show, Ed is soothing his self with random selections of his favorite music downloads.  It wasn't until he asked for Random 20 Play Lists last November that I even knew that Windows Media Player would shuffle play through an entire set of songs.  Within the past week I figured out that I could do the same with a group of songs all having the same ratings (1 to 5 stars).  Now Ed wants to know what's in there.

I don't have that many five-start tracks in my collection, and I have not been attentive to providing my own ratings.  To select a random 10, I used the 4-star ratings (mostly not my personal ones) of all of my Windows Media Player tracks.  This is what I ended up with in my first ten:

1. Abba: Take a Chance on Me, Abba Gold: Greatest Hits
   This is the first song on the alphabetical list.  I played it to start off because I like it.  This is one of the songs I downloaded from MSN Music after hearing it on MSN Radio Plus while exercising.  I like exuberant music to exercise by, and this one certainly fits the bill.
     
2. Ray Charles with Van Morrison: Crazy Love, The Best of Van Morrison, Vol. 3
   This album is an Amazon MP3 download that I obtained shortly after Amazon MP3 started up.  There are some great duet bonuses, and this is one of the best.
     
3. Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B Minor: Dona Nobis Pacem, 25 Bach Favorites
   In other moods, I wood listen to Classical genre station on MSN Radio Plus.  For collections, I found that I almost always purchased the entire album, simply because they were bargains and filled in for the large CD collection that I disposed of before a major household move, and the LPs that I disposed of before that.
     
4. Van Morrison: Shenandoah, The Best of Van Morrison, Vol. 3
   I bought this album in large part because this track was on it.  It carries me back to a film score that featured the song.  I'm no longer sure of the film, many years ago (though it might have been How the West Was Won), but the song calls to me.  I don't like this version enough to give it 5 stars though.
     
5. Fabio Vicentini: Lieti Pastori, Garritan Community Christmas, vol. 4
   This is software-instrument music (based on sampled elements) arranged by computer.  It is provide as a freely-downloadable album that demonstrates the versatility of the compositions arranged by users of GPO, the Garritan Personal Orchestra.  Beautifully done.  You have to listen closely to hear the software on this one.
      
6. Johann Sebastian Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D: Air, Discover the Classics.
   Here's Bach again, this time out of coincidence.  There are many more other songs on Discover the Classics and Discover the Classics 2.
7. SoundDogs.com: Ceremonial Music, Brass.  This is from a set of sound effects and sound track overlays.   I didn't realize that the material was on my machine and that it has ratings.   I worried where it had come from until I found the files in a "Creativity Fun Pack" that Microsoft provides as a free supplement for Windows Movie Maker.  I'll have to find an occasion to use this with a video.
     
8. James Taylor: Fire and Rain, One Man Band.  I just downloaded this outstanding live-performance album.  It was featured while I was on amazon.com looking for St. James Infirmary recordings.   Amazon is starting to indicate when there are MP3 downloads available for its listed CD recordings, and this was one of those.  Amazon MP3 is definitely shaping up.  I just downloaded three Led Zeppelin albums that I have missed having.
     
9. The Band: Ophelia, Greatest Hits.  I can't hear hits from The Band without thinking of The Last Waltz and wanting to spin it up on my DVD player.  So these are mostly five-star recordings for me, ones that I have to stop and listen to when I hear them.  This is also an MSN Music find.
     
10. Mendelsson: Incidental Music to 'A Midsummer Night's Dream': Wedding March,  Discover the Classics.  I can see that I need to be more systematic and rate my downloads rather than relying on the average ratings that were provided with the material.

Ed Bott added a Van Morrison recording of St. James Infirmary as a bonus at the end of his list.  I have always loved that song, and I didn't have it by any performer.  The Van Morrison version is not available on Amazon MP3, but I found several others.  These are the ones that appealed to me at least enough to download the single:

• Billy Lee Riley, on Billy Lee Riley in Action
• Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie, on The Gifted Ones (instrumental)
• Dr. John on N'Awlinz Dis Dat or D'Udda
• The Joe Krown Trio on Old Friends (compare the lyrics with the others)
• Phil Wilson - NDR Big Band on The Wizard of Oz Suite (instrumental)

I've heard Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, and Artie Shaw versions.  I also learned that the song is traditional, with the Irving Mills  lyrics/arrangement apparently registered under the pseudonym Joe Primrose.

As my bonus selection, here's a fascinating session with some people rarely seen on stage together:

The performance was apparently on June 5, 1986 at Storyville Hall in New Orleans.  Recognizable personages include Paul Shaffer, Ron Wood, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, and Carl Perkins.  Best of all, we get to see accomplished artists doing what they love.  (Perkins and Lewis figure in The Million Dollar Quarter, a theatrical production that I've seen performed twice.  Now I'm waiting for the movie.)

Video: Toolcraft #1: Getting Recharged Up

In the video, I keep mentioning "Eveready" but the actual brand I am using is "Energizer."  Sorry about that.  As far as I know, Eveready batteries are not rechargeable and there is no relationship to Energizer Holdings.  It took me this long to notice, and it is painful to fix the video, though it would be appropriate for me to do that at some point.  OK, I will fix it.  I don't want to abuse anyone's brand.  I'll issue a patch.  Heh.

I finally switched over to using rechargeable batteries where my greatest use of disposable batteries has been in the past:
  

• AA batteries in camera speed-lights and computer mice
• AAA batteries (now) in computer mice

Other units already have custom batteries and special rechargers or recharge via USB 2.0 ports:
  

• digital cameras
• digital camcorders
• cellular telephones
• laptop computers (don't forget those)
• MP3 players
• LED flashlight radios with hand-crank recharging

For AA and AAA rechargeable batteries, I have the following tips:
  

• After purchasing sets of rechargeable batteries (usually in groups of four), label the batteries so that the sets are kept and used together.  Do not break up or combine sets after they have been used.  (via the Strobist, David Hobby).  I use a CD-marking pen, but a Sharpie permanent marker should also work.  My scheme goes A1 .. A4, B1 .. B4, ..., E1 .. E4, .. Z1 .. Zm, AA1 .. AAn and so on.  (I don't expect to get beyond Z but you never know.)
    
• Check to see if the the packaging of new battery sets can be used as a convenient reclosable container for batteries that are ready for use, standing by outside of the charger and your speedlight or other application.  I notice that my Energizer battery packs come that way.  I didn't notice soon enough so I don't have enough containers for all of my batteries.  I'll end up putting them in freezer bags when carried in luggage.
    
• Use NiMH batteries whenever possible.  The latest ones do not fatigue, and they hold their charge longer well when not in use, and they cannot be over-charged.  [update 2008-01-03: According to an account on Wikipedia, it is possible to over-charge NiMH batteries.  So using chargers that shut off when the batteries are fully charged, and that are designed for NiMH batteries.  It is also important for more-recent rechargeable batteries that they not be fully discharged.  This is an area that I must obtain more accurate information about.]
     
• Battery chargers usually come with sets of batteries and may be offered as special low-price deals.  The most compact and fastest recharging unit I have is a Power2000 XP-375, one that seems quite popular with photographers, along with the Power2000 1.25V 2700mAh NiMH AA batteries.
   
• Also worth considering are the low-voltage Energizer chargers which convert either pair of slots between AA and AAA.  My latest unit takes a painfully long time to charge a full set of AA batteries (8 hours or longer), but is otherwise very handy around the office.  I probably wouldn't take it on the road, so I have to remember to take a charged backup set of AAAs along if I intend to be using my presentation mouse.
    
• When choosing chargers, notice where the plug connection is and consider how it will be used in available outlets, on power-strips, and folded in for transport.  The large Energizer unit is narrow enough at the top that it will fit on the lower corner of a 4-way outlet.  The compact Power2000 folding plug is offset into the top right corner of the rear, so it fits nicely in the lower-right corner of my most-convenient outlet plate, coincidentally the unused one that is reserved for other chargers and my vacuum cleaner too.

---

[update 2007-12-28-20:46Z I did issue a patch after taking down the original version.  That was tedious, but easier than reshooting the thing, which was done very spontaneously in the first place.  I also have some problems getting the video frame completely on the page and I had to fiddle with the table width to get it.]

 

The first thing I looked for when I tried out Pandora was classical music.  A search for Beethoven only found popular-music references and no source for Ludwig himself.  That changed today.

Now I get to create my B-Greats station (once I rename the one above), and load up on Bach, Beethoven, Brahms (and yes, Berlioz, but I think not Bartok).

This could completely change my on-line listening habits.  I wonder.

The Special Get One Give One Get One offer for an XO, the computer of the One Laptop Per Child project, started today.  There are 14 days left.  The program continues until December 31, 2007.

The idea is that you buy one but pay for two, the second to be donated to a child in one of the recipient countries for the G1G1 project: Haiti, Afghanistan, Rwanda, or Cambodia.

I ordered two for me, two to be donated.  They arrived on Wednesday, December 19.  I will write more about my experiences in separate posts.

Not just because I am a big kid.  Also because part of the feature set of these marvelous devices is the ability to communicate with each other as part of a wireless grid when there is not a wireless Internet connection directly available.  (Another machine on the grid might have an Internet connection, and then it can be shared.)

Although there is no support and I don't know what the documentation will be like, whether printed or on-board, I intend to explore.  If the keyboard is not too cramped (being designed for use by children), I will have my wife try one.  Our son Doug is a musician and he may be interested in the music software that is included and in other music projects that might be great for this device.

I have two kinds of projects in mind.  The first has to do with the grid and connection into social networking systems.  Then there is, for me, the second possibility of providing useful document processing software that's completely standards based and usefully-compact for this device.

More than that, the OLPC organization is interested in building expertise in the developed countries that can provide more support and creativity for those youngsters using these machines world-wide.  The idea, of course, is to reach a point where most of the creativity comes from the kids.

I don't know when my two will arrive.  I was disappointed that it was extremely easy to place my order about five hours after they threw open the on-line doors.   I figured there'd be a rush.  Maybe it is yet to come.  And maybe they were well-prepared.  There is a lot of clear deliberateness in this effort.

I'll keep you posted.

---

[update 2007-12-19: My two XOen have arrived.  They are cute little things.  I am still making my first impressions.  The unit is 9" wide by 9-3/4" deep and 1-1/4" thick, closed up.  The display is 4.5" high by 6" wide in landscape orientation.  The entire keyboard surface is 3" deep and 8" wide, with 6 rows of keys and 15 keys wide.  That keyboard is too small for my hand and finger size.  I will find a way to have that work anyhow.  Without the battery in the unit, all of the weight is in the display section.  With the battery, the unit weighs between 3 and 3.4 lbs, the closest I could get with my digital bathroom scale.  I wouldn't be surprised to find that all the smarts are in the display/cover - it is the thickest part of the computer.  I powered up but didn't create my user account or do anything else until I can find more start-up information.  I'm on the wiki now, looking to find missing information, add information I discover, etc.  Pictures and more are to come.

 update 2007-11-13: I found the badge for G1G1 and added it to the page.  I also think they were prepared for whatever volume they received, and I suspect that the initial production might well sell out.  There is some lamentation that this is not a kids-ready supported system for US consumption.  People need to understand that this is a seeding process and in the US the appeal is for bleeding-edge early adopters and those who want to help build the world-wide community of knowledge around the system and what can be done with it.  Oh, and you can tell what my attention was on. It is Give One Get One, not vice versa.  I had the nagging feeling I should look it up, but didn't.  The badge straightened me out.]

Until I saw Ed Bott's Random 20 challenge, I didn't realize that I could shuffle through my complete digital music collection using Windows Media Player.  

[Tip: open your library to "Songs," click "Shuffle" in the player control, then click "Play," switch to the Now Playing and watch them go by.  If you have "Show List Pane" set you can see the list of randomized selections in the right sidebar of the Media Player Window.] 

Here are the first 20 selections that came up, with my commentary as I listened to them and checked to see what they were. 

1. Piano Quintet in A D.667 "Trout" Theme: Andantino, Franz Schubert, Guarneri Quartet / Emanuel Ax.  I have this because it has Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik on the album.
     
2. The Thin Ice,  Pink Floyd,  The Wall.  When Amazon MP3 launched, Pink Floyd quickly rose to the most downloaded.  For all I know it was all of us filling in our collection of long-abandoned LPs.  This is the 1994 remaster.
     
3. A Conversation with Brian Jones about Office and XML, Jon Udell (podcast).  This is an interesting podcast because there is some talking past each other around what interoperability is.  When I last spoke with Jon he claimed not to be a geek, but in this conversation he does speak of himself as a toolsmith, and he is certainly a power user, so there.
     
4. Running Away, Bob Marley and The Wailers, Songs of Freedom.  What fascinates me is the number of familiar tunes that have been performed by Bob Marley.  This is not one of those, but a nice reggae with great backing and horns.  
     
5. Help Me Find My Way, Rooney, Calling the World.  I just heard a tune by Rooney on Pandora yesterday and I tracked down this album on Amazon MP3.  I downloaded it on spec., based on the reviews.
     
6. Sun Shines on OpenID, Eve Maler Interview, Identity Management Buzz from Sun (podcast) Eve Maler is the singer for Mud Cat in real life, but this pod cast is about her day job at Sun Microsystems and her work on digital identity, single-sign on, and the Liberty Alliance.
     
7. The Pusher, Steppenwolf, Steppenwolf Live.   This group was one of the first live performances that I went to in Philadelphia after my rock-concert inauguration at a performance of Iron Butterfly in Columbia, Maryland, around 1969-70.  I hadn't listened to their music much in recent years and then I found this Amazon MP3 album while looking around through some blues selections.  I just learned from the metadata on this track that the song was written by Hoyt Axton.
     
8. Massachusetts, Bee Gees, The Record: Bee Gees, Their Greatest Hits.  I still like them and this was a not-to-be-passed up MSN Music full-album download.  I play the album sometimes while working out on my rowing machine or just when I want to mellow out.
      
9. Time to Kill, The Band, The Band: Greatest Hits.  My favorite Band production is the Last Waltz DVD.  If I spin it up, I can't help watching it.  This is good background music though, and that is why I downloaded it from MSN Music.
     
10. Nights on Broadway, Bee Gees, The Record: Bee Gees, Their Greatest Hits.  A duplicate on this list, but this is much stronger for me and I wanted to hear it anyhow.
       
11. Six O'Clock News, Kathleen Edwards, Failer.  A new performer for me, discovered via my Grace Slick station on Pandora.
      
12. Don't Take Your Guns to Town, Johny Cash, Johny Cash Willie Nelson.  An MTV-unplugged acoustic event with the two singer songwriters has this standard Western form.  Some nice duet guitar picking and chatter between the two performers.
      
13. Golden Gate, David Benoit, Professional Dreamer.  I go through bursts of enthusiasm for smooth jazz, which I set aside for classical, rock, and, lately, ballads.  Not my favorite from this MSN Music album, but it has some wonderfully mellow bits.  There was a smooth-jazz station that billed itself as the soundtrack of Western New York.  When I hear these, tunes it puts me back there.   The Pacific Northwest and Puget Sound country have a different tone.  Not sure what it is.
      
14. Web Inventor Tim Berners-Lee Unplugged: Semantic Web (interview), David Berlind, IT Matters (podcast).  This downloaded with my RssBandit feeds, but this is the first time I listened to it. 
      
15. Midnight Lightning,  Jimi Hendrix,  Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Jimi Hendrix.  I did not know about these sessions (or mash-ups) until I was looking at blues recordings that interested others on Amazon MP3.  I started down that road looking for Peter Green and wanting to understand the early life of Fleetwood Mac as a blues band, not the differently-unique performers they were to become.
       
16. Acadian Driftwood, The Band, The Band: Greatest Hits.  This representative Band arrangement delivers a song that refers to the great upheaval in pre-Revolutionary North America where acadians were expelled from Canada, some settling in Louisiana.
      
17. Medley (Slow March & Walk), The Pipes and Drums and Military Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, Amazing Grace.  There are no pipes on this track, but there are plenty on the album's title tune.  Good wake-up music, this.
      
18. Please Read the Letter,  Robert Plant and Alison Krauss,  Raising Sand.   I was unaware of this amazing project until the amazon.com page for the album and its wonderful promotional video was pointed out by Bob Sutor.   This has quickly become the most-popular download album on Amazon MP3.  It's a touching gift and demonstration of virtuosity.
      
19. Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, Elton John, Rocket Man: Number Ones.  I think Elton John videos and concert performance DVDs are some of his strongest performances.  But again, when I want a soundtrack to my evening without visual distraction, this works just fine.  It's good exercise music too.
       
20. Introduction by Alex Cooley/Workin' for MCA, Lynyrd Skynyrd, One More For From the Road.  A little ragged but gritty enough.  This download of a two-CD set of live performances replaces a long-gone "Best Of" vinyl album.
      
21. Philadelphia Freedom, Elton John, Rocket Man: Number Ones.  It's amazing the number of tracks that are repeat appearances from the same performer.  This is the third.  I am playing them through because I like 'em.  Classic Bernie Taupin.
      
22. Say Hello Wave Goodbye, David Gray, White Ladder.  There's a beautiful love song, The One I Love, that was repeated constantly on the MSN Radio Plus "Sounds Like the Mountain" station.  That led me to download the single and this separate full album.  I was so proud of my discovery only to learn that Vicki knows his music well and has tired of it.  I haven't.
       
23. Nowhere Man (Album Version), Paul Westerberg, I Am Sam: Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture.  This arrangement lacks the liveliness of the Lennon-McCartney tune as performed by the Beatles, but the sorrowfulness is deeper here.  I downloaded the complete Amazon MP3 album after listening to the Ben Folds treatment of Golden Slumbers repeatedly on Pandora and thinking it was the Beatles every time.  I must arrange to see the film.  I'm told it is outstanding.  I avoided it after seeing the trailers, thinking it was about the serial killer. 

Well, I added three tracks to make up for the duplicates and the pod casts.

I have three lessons from this experience:

• I have many podcasts that I have never listened to.  This is an interesting way to have them inserted into my day.  It also provides a break from/during solid coding and other solid computer activities. 
    
• I am not so attentive to my relationship to music.  I see here how personal it is for me.  That is somehow uplifting for me.  It gives me a sense of all the ways that music is personal for others.
    
• I would not have learned this except for responding to the challenge and choosing to say something about the random selections as they came up.

Playing out with

Captain April, Liz Story, 17 Seconds to Anywhere.  An impulse purchase I am quite content with. 
 
Bigger Situation, Leo Kottke, One Guitar, No Vocals.

Think back ...

Do you remember six-pack weekends on your favorite album rock station?  You're driving and there's a marvelous long cut that you love and you're waiting for the end of the pack to here the announcer say who performed and what the titles are.  I first heard Jukebox Hero that way, driving late one Sunday on the Thomas E. Dewey, returning to Rochester from Philadelphia.  [Hey, I liked it! You don't have to.]

You didn't catch the identification of a tune?  So you called the station and they actually told you what they had played?  (Who knew from playlists and why they have them back then).

Now flash forward to Internet Radio and and all of the broadcast stations with Internet streams.  You can hear content from anywhere on the planet, such as one of my favorites Radio L'Olgiata (32kbps stream in Media Player here: I love the funky station jingles) or one of Rick Segal's favorites, The Wave (great 64kbps stream). 

Nostalgia for the Past

Once upon a time (three years ago, an Internet generation) there was a wonderful service called MSN Radio Plus that provided radio streams in my Windows Media Player.  There were no collisions with my browser and I could keep the player completely separate and nestled at the bottom of my screen.  Better yet, the album art for every tune showed up in my player along with an option to purchase downloads of single tracks, full albums, and also explore other work of that artist and of others that I also like.  It was wonderful.  The $12.95 annual Radio Plus subscription was nominal.  I accumulated a fair amount of licensed content that works on all of my household computers and my plays-for-sure Sansa player too.  The scheme for sharing licenses on up to 5 machines works perfectly.

Back to the Present

Microsoft recidivism struck at the end of 2006. MSN Radio Plus vanished, the ability to purchase easily from the connected MSN Music disappeared.  The only alternatives that worked within Media Player were cumbersome systems like Urge and Real's Rhapsody (with their own player), all at greater cost and, for me, less convenience, especially for the equivalent of radio that let me purchase downloads on impulse without other costs and purchase nagging. 

There was (and still is) integration with other Internet radio streams, but they don't integrate with convenient purchase sources and many services are scary with their intrusiveness and animated GIFs.  Ick.

Whatever Department-of-Justice wariness led to this exit, the alternatives were more expensive, less functional, and careless of whose computer they were running on.  Sometimes the success of a Microsoft venture for some consumers is because the competition sucks.  Somebody listened to the complaints.  No one seemed to bother checking with the satisfied customers.

A New Dawn?

Now I listen to Pandora for free.  I was led there by the MSN Pandora arrangement.  I stopped using that URL when MSN removed the option to open the separate mini-player. 

What I really want:  Pandora operating inside my Media Player in the Now Playing window.  Then I want to be able to click to their artist, track, and album information in a way that lets me (by preference setting) click through to Amazon.com's MP3 (256kb!) listings where I can quickly make a purchase and roam around further while the radio plays on.  I want this to be friction-free and without too many clicks to the point of purchase.  If I could marry Pandora smoothly to the Amazon MP3 service and its downloader, that would work.  I bought DRM-protected downloads this way, why would I resist MP3s the same way?

Bring back my past!

---

What Others Are Saying

Rick Segal: So Close and Yet.  The Post Money Value (web log), 2007-10-22.  "This seems obvious: You are listening to a radio station and you like a song. You want it."  Segal points out how much distance there is between hearing a song and being able to purchase your own copy.  These posts reminded me that I have had this pent-up blog urge since I started using Amazon MP3 downloads.  Here it is.  [The recommendation for 94.7 the Wave is one that I've added to my favorites.  I do have a weakness for modest doses of smooth jazz and the Wave does it well. The station site is not as ugly and frenetic as some.]

Rick Segal: Peter White - I Have Your Forty Bucks.  The Post Money Value (web log), 2007-10-22.  "I believe that if there was a single, simple, friction free way for people (like moi) to pay for stuff, like songs, we'd do it."  Rick notices how few ways there are to pay for downloaded music when you want to, and how much friction there is in making music available in a form that works when it is wanted.  [With this much focus on Peter White, I had to find out who he is.  Peter White music is available on Amazon MP3.  It is the kind of new-age guitar and backing that Vicki can't stand (along with most smooth jazz).  I am more inclined but I didn't tip over for Peter White.  I purchased some rich blues compilations though.] 

---

Listening to: Ten Years After, Live at the Filmore East, in Windows Media Player, via Amazon MP3.  KTWFM Smooth Jazz (in my browser), Radio L'Olgiata (Internet playlist into Media Player)

There is a slippery tug-of-war going on between Microsoft and third-party application developers.  This even has Microsoft application-product and developer-product development teams fighting/ignoring/neglecting/throwing the mud that is piling up on the user doorstep. 

I'm talking about the effort to have users operate safely and snuggly in Standard User Accounts (SUA) and the actions taken by application developers and their employers that completely fail to respect the user in this matter.  No matter how much has been said and published about how to deploy applications in a way that works easily for standard users, there are continuing expectations that users run as administrator all of the time.  This is made the simple case, reinforcing a practice that we all know to be unsafe (although Vista has a mitigation that some people insist on disabling). 

Picking on Second Life

Here's an example of what I mean.  I choose it because it is typical and because it all happened while I was looking for a way to illustrate this.  Second Life is representative (although no less disheartening).

The Setup: I haven't been on Second Life for a while, which means there is doubtless a mandatory update that I'll be required to install before I can get "in-world."  This is so predictable that it actually keeps me away from Second Life even longer once I have been away for more than a week.  I start putting off the pain of downloading and installing another release.

Today I was doing some system clean-ups and celebrating the new power-backup unit I installed after a series of storm-related power hits defeated my old battery backup.  As a reward, I was tidying up some loose ends after running system tune-ups and catching up on important things like my Facebook presence.

Nice New Update Announcement

I decided to check into Second Life and see what's new.  When I brought up the application (and I was running as administrator because I had been installing some other updates), I found a message that I have never experienced before.  The message was in a corner of the Second Life client user interface.

I hadn't logged-in yet, but the application apparently checked on-line for an update and it had that message for me.  I went ahead download the 1.18.3.5 release into a location on my computer where I save Second Live releases.  (I usually keep the current one and its immediate predecessor, along with screen shots of my experience.)  Now, I usually don't turn on any automatic check for updates, and I don't recall ever being offered an option in the matter.  Since Second Life is an on-line application, I am not surprised.  I am surprised this showed up before I opted to connect to the on-line system though.

Not So Fast There, Sparky!

I downloaded the announced update while still elevated to computer administrator, but I didn't install it.  I was excited by that "now the choice is yours" phrasing.  I wanted to see that in action.  I clicked the Connect button to sign into Second Life.  Oh, what have we here?  The usual.  Not exactly a choice, huh?  This is the dreaded message I have come to expect. 

Since I don't want to do this as an on-line administrator, I clicked Quit.  I already have the update.  I can install it when I am good and ready.

My previous experience using the Download button is that Second Life will download and attempt to run the install.  Because my computer account is normally set to "limited account" the install will fail and I will still have to go to the Second Life site, log in to that site, download the new version, and then install it myself while temporarily upgraded to a computer administrator account.  The new Update Available notice has saved me the need to hunt down the download on my own.  That is a nice improvement.

Say Stranger, New in These Parts?

I wanted to demonstrate how painful it is to go through a 33-megabyte download only to be told the install can't be done.  I switched from Computer administrator back to Limited account to demonstrate what happens.  I haven't taken this path since March 2006, the first time I discovered that Second Life does not have a non-administrative way of updating itself.  (This was no surprise, but I tried it to be certain.)  [This is from a photograph of my screen, slightly defocused to avoid interference patterns in the image.  The OneCare pop-up refuses to be screen-captured with the software that I use.  The yellow-alert condition there is because I need to run backups.  I have to be elevated to administrator to do backups and also to have the correct account data be backed-up too.]

When I opened the Second Life client and got to the download button again, the download didn't even start: Second Life tripped over my firewall.  That's interesting because my firewall is already conditioned to allow Second Life access to the Internet.  What's even more interesting is that whatever program is being used to install the download, it is one I (and OneCare) have never heard of.   I can go no further without checking with OneCare. 

I could take Second Life's advice and install using the download that I already have.  I certainly don't want the auto-update to succeed.  I do want to understand why it failed in this particular way.

I switch users and quickly log into a computer administrator account to consult with OneCare on the matter.  I do so, and OneCare's notification comes up immediately.

Uh, I Don't Think So

As a computer administrator, I now have something to say about the program that was blocked.

Now, what program is that exactly?

Let's see, it is not signed code (that's what Publisher Unknown means).  There is no version or company identification.

The name of the program is a made-up tmp.exe with a random name.

In fact, the program is in my user-account Temp directory.  None of this is reassuring in any way.

My intention is to block this program forever, assuming that it ever runs again, but I'm curious to know if it will still attempt running.  [Next I have second thoughts and block it permanently on the second notice which was apparently already stacked up.]

There are two things going on here.  First, I am willing to believe that the Second Life client creates a copy of a down-loader in the Temp directory so that the install can happen atop the Second Life location without weirdness.  I am almost willing to give that some credence. 

Secondly, I am satisfied that the update would attempt to run automatically.  There's no danger that the down-loader can accomplish anything, however.  Writing to C:\Program Files\Second Life\ on my machine can only be done under an Administrator account.  I'm not operating in one of those, which is what I had started out to demonstrate until the firewall intervention occurred.

Reviewing the Situation

So, the easiest way to install all of those interminable Second Life updates is to be running on-line as administrator without a firewall. 

Cool huh? 

Clearly, the Second Life folk know that and they design that as the inviting case.  Look, they suspect that their connection attempt with this weird little program is blocked by a firewall. 

That's what I mean by the slithery tug-of-war.  I also hate it when applications check automatically for updates and then nag me about it.  Being denied access to the service until I install one of the interminable updates is worse.  Of course, the fact that I put up with this in order to enjoy Second Life eye candy and all the in-world denizens just shows how tempted I am.  Even I, a devout Standard User.

Apparent convenience trumps security and safety.  Almost all of the time.  And we mostly put up with it.

Installing the Usual Way

Today's experience has me thinking that I would be better off not playing in this game with the Second Life developers, regardless of any seductive appeal of their application.   But let's see how well I do when I employ my safe practice to install the update and finally return in-world. 

This is the file I downloaded earlier.  The message applies to that file.

See how complacent I am?  The code is not signed, and I don't do anything about refusing to accept unsigned software, especially when downloaded from the Internet (although probably under safe conditions). 

As you see, I am going to go ahead and install it.  I am now running with my account switched from Limited User to Computer Administrator.  I am not on-line, although I am connected. 

My intention is to install and run the application once while I am administrator so I can condition my firewall for the new version of the application.

Oh yes, installers have a habit of wanting to access the Internet too.  I often experience requests to condition my firewall before a Setup program gets very far.  That is also true here.  No surprise.  We haven't even started up the program and already there is Internet activity.

On continuing, the revised Second Life version starts up for the first time.

Oh, What's this?  We get all of this way and now I am given an absolute click-through requirement to accept a lengthy Terms of Service agreement.  That seems to be one of the improvements of this release.

I couldn't even get it onto my clip board for closer review later.  You can see I selected the text, but I couldn't get it where I could preserve it.  And it is long.  And mind-numbing.  The part that I have scrolled to is section 5.3 where I am informed that everything that I have done on Second Life, any Linden Dollars that I happen to have, and any credit for any purchases can disappear at any time for any reason whatsoever.

Well, I'm certainly happy that they require me to promise to have read this terrible document before I am allowed to continue on and connect into Second Life, the world. 

After my exploration was over, I went to the Second Life site and did manage to find a web page with the Terms of Service at  http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php.  I can't testify that it is the same document, but Section 5.3 is definitely the same and I did download a copy for my reference.

About now, I am wondering why I am continuing to put up with this.  I wander around in-world for a while, mainly pruning my list of landmarks of places that seem to be dormant or not that interesting.

The Prize in the Bottom of the Box

OneCare let me know about a second program not long after I allowed the main Second Life program to have access to the Internet.  For some reason, the extensions to allow direct voice audio in Second Life are provided or installed using a second program, one that my firewall wants me to consider whether or not to allow. 

I opt for the program to run.  I didn't put on my headset and microphone nor did I find any avatar to talk to this way. 

I am grateful for this little addition though.  When I closed Second Life, I experienced a frightful system slow-down.  Everything turned to molasses.  Windows were blank and took forever to paint, that sort of thing.   At the end of that prolonged seizure, I received a wonderful message. 

I have been waiting almost two years for one of these.  It is worth a completely separate blog post by Professor von Clueless, but here is the message.  I wanted a real-world example of one of these and now I have it.  Thanks, Second Life developers. 

[Dear developer: This condition may be a consequence of the temporary blockage that OneCare instituted during the first-time execution of the new version.  If the program never noticed that the block had been removed, or was somehow derailed by the block, this Runtime Error might be a consequence.  I did run Second Life one more time after restoring to a limited account and there were no further errors and no unusual slow-down conditions.]

---

A little more background:  Even though my main development system runs Windows XP (Media Center Edition 2005), I operate in a Limited User Account (LUA) whenever possible.  I have an administrator account that I use only when I need to perform a purely-administrative function (including allow Microsoft Update to install goodies it has ready for me).  I'm effectively implementing the equivalent of User Account Control by manual procedure.  This is in the spirit that Dennis Wallentin expresses in his 2007-10-20 blog post on being UAC Compliant:

"UAC stands for User Account Control and is the new technology in Windows Vista to provide users with different level of administrative rights and privileges. UAC main purpose is to support a more secured environment then what Windows XP offers.

"Microsoft has a good white paper that covers UAC in detail and therefore I have no intention to cover it here:

• The Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Developer Story: Windows Vista Application Development Requirements for User Account Control (UAC)

"Most developers I know have intentionally disabled it because they found it to be rather annoying, time consuming and too restrictive.  [orcmid: my italics]

"Although I can agree with these opinions I try to have it enable as much as possible simple because that will be the most likely scenario for many of my customers. In addition, from a general point of view I support it because by default all users (except Guests) are logged on to Windows Vista as standard users and get extended rights only when needed.

When I need to do something different, such as install new software or update downloads from other sources, I will carry out the download, parking the file in a safe place that I can use for any future re-install.  Before installing, I switch my normal account to being a computer administrator and I install under that account.  This is to ensure that the software installs properly for operation under that account and not all accounts, if possible.

Second Life, as do many other applications, installs for all accounts on the machine, including all Administrator-group accounts.  When I detect this, I remove all icons, shortcuts and start menu occurrences from "all users," confining them to my normal account instead. Automatically installing for use from all accounts on the machine is another action that punishes my efforts to be a Standard User and only allow pure administrative activity in my separate administrator account.

[update 2007-10-21T16:59-0700: I provided a link to the detailed post about Visual C++ Library runtime error messages and also cleanup up some rough edges in the text of this post.]

On September 30, we took the Argosy Cruises Jazz Brunch voyage featuring Michael Powers.  This was the occasion of my sister-in-laws birthday and I fancied the presence of a jazz combo as a nice addition, but not particularly special.  That was, until Michael Powers started playing.  I knew there was no pianist, and I couldn't figure out where the keyboard player was hiding -- the grand piano in the boat's lounge was covered and serving the combo as a coat rack.  When the horns started, I figured this was some new form of jazz karaoke until Michael held up his amazing instrument and said "that's me."  You can see that his guitar is unusual, but the sounds are interesting too.

Listening to how much fun Michael Powers was having with this instrument, and how convenient it was for this small performance setting, I experienced serious geek envy (though not enough that I have mastered any instrument).  The variety and creativity that is available, along with the clear enjoyment of the combo, led us to plan our New Years Eve celebration where Powers will be performing.

I am puzzled by the different ways you must learn to finger the instrument to provide appropriate sound patterns depending on the choice of synthesis off of the guitar pickups.  It is very impressive and looks to be a lot of fun.   The power of this solo instrument is amazing, although it is richer to have accompanists rather than attempt a one-man-band (except in your own basement or garage, of course). 

As much as I marvel at how much digital and synthesized music instruments have advanced, there remains a great deal to appreciate in ensembles of acoustic instruments and the fascinating mixtures that are possible, as this reminded me today: Hip Hop Violin (via Doc Searls via Scobleizer).

---

We enjoyed the two-hour cruise, the music, and the great company so much that, beside planning to reconvene on New Years Eve, Vicki and I finally planned to take an Alaskan Cruise in Spring 2008.

Listening to: Peter Green, Supernatural - An Anthology followed by The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers, all on Windows Media Player via Amazon MP3.

I was thrilled to learn that writer Ed Bott would be in the Redmond gravity well, having a Geek Dinner in nearby Kirkland Center.   Not living near the epicenter, I have to plan cometary approaches from my West Seattle Oort zone via clever public-transit routings.  In this case, it was great to arrive in the center of suburban Kirkland with its delightful town center, reminiscent of the pedestrian centers that are common in parts of California.  Having been a fan of the books and blogs that Bott publishes regularly, I had a little list of questions and topics for this greet-and-meet opportunity.  I was also delighted that this was the second recent Geek Dinner that Media Center guru Charlie Owen organized.

Unpredictedly, this turned out to be a small, casual pizza dinner that extended past closing to the Starbucks at the corner.  Beside myself and Charlie Owen (not pictured), there were BjarneD, bringing a server-side performance slant to the conversations, and Intel's Alan Cheslow, with long experience in digital media.  Ed Bott was still decompressing from the strenuous fact-checking series that he's concluded on how DRM actually works in Vista. 

The conversation naturally revolved around digital media, its protection, and the different business models that do or do not work now and may work less in the future.  One interesting question was whether music (e.g., radio and MP3s) and video (e.g. television and movies) are comparable in terms of how listeners and viewers rely on the different forms.

This was the same day that Amazon MP3 was announced, so we had little information yet.  There was discussion of Media Center, Media Extenders, the soon-to-arrive Windows Home Server, and Vista, always Vista on my mind. 

---

Afterwards, I had a difficult time with my few photos. I had some setting problems with my camera and flash that led to extreme ruddiness of the kind that only medical journals might prefer. I struggled to clean up the images but the result is still unsatisfying. It is clear that the Nikon D80 "vivid" setting doesn't work so well under artificial lighting and high ISO setting. It looks like a kitchen science project for Mr. Wizard to figure out how to avoid this.

I'm pleased to have my Windows Vista Inside Out autographed now.  I have difficulty finding material in the tome, and I need to actually read it.  In addition, it didn't dawn on me until this dinner that the obvious thing to do is put the PDF from the CD-ROM on my hard drive and let Windows Desktop Search provide full-text search into it.  That along with PDF search should be very handy.  Duhh.

 

When I installed OO.o 2.3 on my sister's computer, I was disturbed that it kept offering her admin account as the single account it would install under, even though we were not running the installer under that account. 

At my XP SP2 system at home, I installed the same version and I did not have that problem.  This time it did name the account I was using, even though it was not my normal administrator account.  It was, however, the first account that had been set up on my machine, as was the case for admin on my sister's machine.

So I tried again, this time on my Tablet PC and Windows Vista Ultimate.  For variety, I also used the OO.o 2.1 Novell edition, installing from CD-ROM.  There, I ran into exactly the same problem.  I was presented with this dilemma:

Once again, me is not admin.  I am doing this install from my standard-user account (SUA).  But just to see what would happen, I took that option anyhow.  Guess what: This dialog is lying.  It will install only for the account being used.  The bug is that it doesn't present the correct account name.  The behavior is actually correct.

So if you are attempting to install OpenOffice.org 2.3 (or the 2.1 Novell Edition) only under the account you are running in, you can ignore the incorrect account name.  It will do the right thing. 

---

The next time I assist my sister in adding an OpenOffice.org update, I'll be sure to uninstall the current version and then install the new one only for her standard account.

Now, you might wonder what the fuss is all about.  If you are as obsessive as I am about computer security, you might want to omit all but pure administrative applications from the administrative account, and only ever use the administrative account for essential administrative operations.

This means that to have ordinary applications install properly in the ordinary accounts where it is safest to run them I elevate my standard-user account to an administrator account just long enough to install the software and run it the first time under the standard account.  This gyration is required because many programs expect to perform final administrative setup operations on the first execution.  Setting of registry entries and creation of application data, plus other details, may be specific to the account that is used for the install.  I will usually discover the firewall conditioning that is required upon the first execution.  From then on, I can use the program as a standard user.

When certain programs (e.g., Second Life) install for all users with no other option, I will remove the shortcuts and links placed on the "All Users" desktop and startup menu and place them in the profile information of my standard user account.  This is just a little preventative against my foolishly using recreational software from my administrative account.

Usually when I am working close with my 105mm lens, the cats don't give me eye contact long enough for a clean photograph.  This one (cropped here) shows my good fortune.  I love that the surrounding fur frames the eye of little Princess Psyche. 

I think some of the clarity of this image is attributable to the Nikon SB-600 flash with Omnibounce on a side bracket, the closest I could match the pistol-grip flash handle used with my analog camera (shown to the right in a photo taken with my webcam).  I looked for a digital-camera-qualified version of that flash and none of them work with this handle.  I may end up scavenging it and kit-bashing it at some point, turning it into a bracket for shoe-mounted flashes like the SB-600.  I might even use a Nikon cord to for the extension from my D80's hot shoe. 

This shot doesn't qualify as a Strobist submission because the SB-600 is tethered and not far off the camera.  It also has an interesting defect, although Vicki thinks it adds something to the image: the photographer, camera, and speedlight are all visibly reflected in the cat's eye.

But I do like the result.  Yes I do.

Reflections: My 1992-purchased Nikon 8008s (pictured) was already smarter than its owner, as was almost the case with the 2020 before that.  This year's purchase of a D80 shows me how much smarter it is than the owner: It embarrasses me with the raft of features and settings over which I have no comprehension.  Once I obtained the SB-600 speedlight, it was clear that the flash is smarter than me too.  I have lots of practice to make up before I can again utter that I once (over 50 years ago) fancied becoming a photographer.

Modern photographic equipment: Whether or not the D80 and newer high-end cameras like the D3 are too feature-laden with too many options (sort of the Microsoft Office of its breed), it is clear that the digital era has revolutionized photography and creation of other electronic media.  In addition to easy entry levels, the affordability of high-powered equipment for amateurs and enthusiasts is telling.  There is another phenomenon.  The capabilities and economy of competing high-end Nikon and Canon digital SLR lines is leaving little room for after-market suppliers.  I don't think anyone can price-compete with the SB-600, for example, and the loss of functionality for lower-priced alternatives is pronounced.   I think this has a giant impact on the market, even in the (vanishing) stores where professionals shop.  (The difference for the pro seems to be ruggedness, durability, and extreme optical quality.)  OK enough pontification. What's needed from me is more pictures and more experiential mastery of my tools.

Yesterday, I gave my tale of woes around installation of OpenOffice.org 2.3 on my sister's (and then my) computer.  Here's the key take-away as a Hot Tip!

1. When you are installing OpenOffice.org 2.3, the current latest-and-greatest from the download site, you will eventually run into this dialog.
     
2. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.  YOU NEED TO PUT THE INSTALLATION FILES IN A SAFE PLACE.  NOT YOUR DESKTOP.  The  installation of OO.o is going to remember where the installation files have been placed.  OO.o software depends on being able to find the Installation Files in the future if you ever want to uninstall or upgrade your OO.o software.  Be warned!
       
3. Use the Browse ... button to find a safe place to keep the installation files.  Do not accept the default as I am doing in this screen shot.
     
   I recommend a location that is backed-up and restored and is otherwise in an out-of-the-way place. 
     
   I keep all of my downloaded software in folders of a special directory, so that I can reinstall if I ever need to rebuild my system.  I changed the destination folder path to be under that directory, in an "\OpenOffice.org 2.3 Installation Files" subdirectory. 
     
4. It is a great waste of space to keep all of this around when apparently it is just the .msi file that will be needed in the future.  But to be safe, I recommend keeping all of the files.  You might want to delete or archive the downloaded .exe file that the Installation Files are unpacked from, though.
      
5. Update 2007-09-27-12:22: Another option is to back up both the downloaded .exe file and the folder of OpenOffice.org 2.3 Installation Files onto a CD-ROM or a backup service.  When the Installation Files are needed again, it should be sufficient to access them directly on the backup CD or remote folder.
     
6. An Alternative: [added 2007-09-27]:  The OpenOffice.org 2.1.0-12b Novell Edition downloads as a CD-ROM .iso image.  You can burn this to a CD-ROM and install it whenever and wherever you like.  The setup.exe of this version does not require your cooperation in creating and preserving an Installation Files folder.  I don't know whether uninstall requires the CD-ROM, so hold onto it, but I somehow doubt that will be a problem.
• I don't know if this variant of OpenOffice.org 2.1 is subject to the TIFF exploit that applies to the Sun-sponsored OpenOffice.org 2.1 release and that does not apply to their release 2.3.  I am willing to risk that because I am not expecting to be receiving and ODF documents containing TIFF images.  Also, I don't use office productivity software in anything but limited-user accounts.
• My interest in the Novell version is the greater attention to Microsoft interoperability and the availability of an early OOXML-conversion plug-in.  I also have an interest in products that support ODMA.  Novell is adding that to their Windows edition with initial presence in the OOo 2.1 Novell edition.

[listening to: Pink Floyd, The Wall (1994 Digital Remaster) from Amazon MP3 in Windows Media Player 11 on Windows XP]