I Finally Get to Use Yahoo! Pipes

I've been wanting to find a use for Yahoo! Pipes for a while now but I guess I'm rather unimaginative. Today, though, I removed the RSS application I was using on Facebook and entered my blog's RSS feed directly to my Wall (thanks to Friend of a Squid who alerted me to this nifty bit of functionality).

Unfortunately, Facebook only lets you add one feed to your Wall in that manner. I, on the other hand, have two blogs. What to do? Well, combine the blog feeds, of course! How to do that? Why, through Yahoo! Pipes, of course!

So that's what I did -- you can see the Pipe's output here -- and I now have both my blogs on my Facebook wall. Woo hoo!

Free Tibet?!

With all the China-bashing and Tibet-praising that's been going on in the media over the last few months -- what part of not politicising the Olympics do they not get, I wonder -- it was great to listen to Brian Dunning's recent Skeptoid podcast titled 'Should Tibet be Free?'.

Dunning probably knew he was going to get bashed regardless of what he said but I'm really glad he said all of it anyway. Too many people are going around shouting "Free Tibet" without knowing the history or the details of the situation and it's really easy to take the moral (or "we are more civilized") high ground on something that, at first glance, seems very cut and dried but, once you start examining critically, ends up being much more complex.

[Note: This bears repeating: Watch Dunning's 'Here be Dragons: an Introduction to Critical Thinking' video. Teh awesome.]

Help Needed: Suggestions for a Digital Camera

Before coming to Australia, I bought myself a mobile phone that would also double as a digital camera. This was a Sony Ericsson K750i and it had a 2.0 megapixel camera that could both take pictures and record video. I knew I wasn't getting much of a camera but I wasn't planning to do much more than upload pictures to my blog/website or e-mail photos to friends and family back home so it was sufficient.

The K750i's phone capabilities are still pretty much what I want them to be -- it stores all my contacts, syncs well with my laptop, has great reception and battery life, and so on -- but now I really want to upgrade to a proper digital camera.

My Basic Requirements

Fortunately, there are lots of good, cheap digital cameras out there that'll do the trick for me. My three basic requirements are:

  1. A resolution of at least 5 megapixels (MP); preferably over 7MP and ideally closer to 8MP
  2. The ability to record decent-quality video with audio (suitable for basic video blogging)
  3. A price tag of less than $200; preferably closer to $150 if I need to expand its memory, buy a stand/tripod, or get a good cover for it

Lots of Camera Options

Unfortunately, too many cameras fit this bill. Here's a list I compiled from some quick research on the 'net:

Make/Model Photo (MP) Video (px, fps) Price ($)
Canon PowerShot A470 7.1 640x480 20fps 150
Canon PowerShot A580 7.1 640x480 20fps 200
Sony CyberShot S730 7.2 320x240 30fps video 180
Samsung S760 7.2 640x480/320x240 30/15fps 160
Samsung L100 8.2 640x480/320x240 30/15fps 160 (online)
Olympus FE-340 8.0 640x480/320x240 30/15fps 200 (online)
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS850 8.1 640x480/320x240 30/10fps 190
Fuji FinePix F480 8.2 320x240 30fps 180 (online)
Fuji FinePix J10 8.2 640x480/320x240 30fps 180
Kodak EasyShare C813 8.2 640×480 15fps, 320×240 30fps 130
Kodak EasyShare M863 8.2 640×480 15fps, 320×240 30fps 180
Pentax Optio E40 8.1 640×480/320x240 30fps or 15fps w/sound 130
Pentax Optio E50 8.1 640×480/320x240 30fps or 15fps w/sound 180
Pentax Optio S10 10.0 640×480/320x240 30fps 180 (online)
Casio Exilim EX-Z9 8.1 848x480/640×480 30fps, 320×240 15fps 180 (online)
Casio Exilim EX-Z80 8.1 848x480/640×480 30fps, 320×240 15fps 200 (online)

Yeah. That's a lot.

Mobile Phone Options

And it's not just cameras that I need to look at since a couple of mobile phones, not only cover my requirements, but are awesome in many other ways:

Make/Model Photo (MP) Video Price ($)
Nokia N95 5.0 640x480 30fpx 150 up front + 2-25 monthly
Sony Ericsson K850i 5.0 (not specified) 150 up front + 2-25 monthly
Sony Ericss
on C905		 8.1 (not specified) (coming soon)

So I'm a little spoilt for choice.

Oh, and to make things more complicated: some of the cameras have quirks that are potential deal breakers. For example, some have limits to how long your video file can be (e.g. you can record only 10 minutes at a time), others need to reduce their frame rate if you're going to record audio along with your video (e.g. 30 to 15fps), and one or two may not be available in Australia at the listed price.

What Now?

So, what now? Well, after this preliminary round of research, I'll move on to doing in-depth research on each of those models. This will involve reading reviews, making more detailed comparisons, finding out exact prices and availability, and so on.

I'll also check online to see what other people -- particularly video bloggers -- are using and what they recommend. For example, which is better: a higher video resolution or a higher frame rate (or is there no simple answer to that)? And what frame rate is sufficient (whatever that means)? I'll also compare videos made with different resolutions at different frame rates to see how they vary.

Finally, I'll ask for advice, which is why I've written this blog post. So, does anyone have any advice for me? Any brand preferences, any previous experience with any of these products, any general suggestions? Should I forget the phones and focus on just the cameras (which is what I'm leaning towards anyway)? Any and all suggestions are welcome and thanks in advance for all your help!

New Stuff, Good Times

Over the last few months Nadia and I have slowly started to upgrade our lifestyle from 'international student' to what I would call 'student-plus' (since it'll take us a whole year to get to the 'young professional' stage).

What does a student-plus lifestyle include? Well, among other things:

  • A faster Internet connection (streaming video, yaay!)
  • A DVD player and a video store membership (YAAY!)
  • An MP3 player (for me, since Nadia already has one)
  • New furniture including a bed, mattress, sofa, and some shelves
  • A vacuum cleaner and a room lamp
  • Generally more time and money for entertainment and relaxation (i.e. using all the stuff we just bought)

Here's a picture of our new sofa (technically a chaise) from Fantastic Furniture:

Our new chaise

Cool, isn't it? Did you notice the little bean-bag foot-rest in front of it? :) Oh, and that swirly-patterned thing along the back wall is our old mattress which is waiting to be gotten rid of.

And here's my MP3 player, an iriver E100, which is awesome and is exactly what I needed and wanted:

iriver E100

Yes, life is good.

Looking Forward

We still have a few more things to get, though: like a digital camera (more about this in another blog post), a cable TV connection, and an Audible subscription. We also have a few more things to do: like taking a short vacation somewhere near by (which we hope to do next month), watching a play or attending a concert (if something exciting comes long), and hanging out with friends more often.

Of course, what I want to get most of all is new laptops for both of us (specifically, tablet PCs) but those cost a lot of money so they'll have to wait for another few months. Such is life. Still, we're loving what we have now (e.g. we're half-way through the one and only season of Joss Whedon's awesome TV series Firefly!) and, with the exception of me complaining about my laptop all the time, we're having a really good time.

Moving Photos to the Cloud

Having moved all of my e-mail to Gmail, I am now ready for my next move-stuff-into-the-cloud project.

This time I'm moving all of my photos to either Flickr (where I already have a small presence) or Picasa (which I haven't yet installed on my current laptop). I don't know which I'll end up going with but I'll start by giving both a try and seeing how things go.

I'll keep y'all posted on what I'm up to.

Lifehacker's Outlook vs. Gmail

Jared Goralnick recently posted an excellent comparison between Microsoft's Outlook and Google's Gmail on Lifehacker.

Having recently shifted all of my e-mail to Gmail you can image which side I'm lean towards...though in all fairness I chose Gmail because I wanted all of my e-mail to be in the cloud and not because I thought Outlook wasn't for me.

I actually think Outlook is great. I don't like it's search capabilities all that much -- though maybe that's because we still use Outlook 2003 at work -- but otherwise it's got everything (and more) than I need.

That said, Gmail is awesome: I love everything about it and, now that Google is moving towards letting you bring some of its capabilities offline, I'm sure I'll soon like it even more.

Feature on Asim Butt & His Art

Raza Rumi recently wrote a good feature on one my LUMS BSc classmates Asim Butt on the 'All Things Pakistan' blog:
What distinguishes Asim Butt from his generation and perhaps the preceding generations of artists is the sheer originality of his vision and an iconoclasm that is neither trumpeted nor made visible until the subtext of his lines is closely studied.

More on Asim:

Ramchand Pakistani

Speaking of stuff that's related to Pakistan (see my previous post), I'm really looking forward to watching Mehreen Jabbar's film 'Ramchand Pakistani' which I've heard good things about.

Ramchand Pakistani is derived from a true story concerning the accidental crossing of the Pakistan-Indian border during a period (June 2002) of extreme, war-like tension between the two countries by two members of a Pakistani Hindu family belonging to the 'untouchable' (Dalit) caste, and the extraordinary consequences of this unintended action upon the lives of a woman, a man, and their son.

I don't know when we'll get to see it in Melbourne but I hope it's sometime soon.

[Also see 'Ramchand Pakistani' on IMDb]

Jazbah.org

Laila Kazmi's Jazbah.org -- a site about "Pakistani women who have worked hard to achieve great goals and made significant, positive impacts in their societies" -- has been around for a number of years but I've never gotten around to mentioning it on this blog. That's mainly because, even though it's a great resource, it's not updated very often and most of the profiles on it are a few years old.

However I visited the site again recently thanks to the Muslimah Media Watch -- I was commenting there on how it's only blogs like MMW and PakPositive that ever seem to talk about all the good things going on in developing countries -- and figured I should give it a mention. It's a good site and the events and books sections seem to be active, which is cool. Make sure you take a look.

Here Be Dragons

I don't have the time or the energy to write more about this, though I really want to. Instead, all I'll say is that you really must watch Brian Dunning's 'Here Be Dragons' video. Here's what it's about:
'Here Be Dragons' is a free 40 minute video introduction to critical thinking. It is suitable for general audiences and is licensed for free distribution and public display.

Most people fully accept paranormal and pseudoscientific claims without critique as they are promoted by the mass media. 'Here Be Dragons' offers a toolbox for recognizing and understanding the dangers of pseudoscience, and appreciation for the reality-based benefits offered by real science.

'Here Be Dragons' is written and presented by Brian Dunning, host and producer of the Skeptoid podcast, author of 'Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena', and Executive Producer of The Skeptologists.

It's awesome. Enjoy.

[Via the Bad Astronomy Blog]

I Really Liked 'The Happening'

A lot of people disliked M. Night Shyamalan's 'The Happening'. A major reason for that, in my opinion, is because bad marketers keep trying to promote Shyamalan's films as spooky, summer-blockbuster thrillers like 'The Sixth Sense' when, in fact, they're far from it.

Take for instance the tag line for this movie: "We've Sensed It. We've Seen The Signs. Now... It's Happening."  WTF?! 'The Happening' is not a paranormal thriller or alien invasion movie. Why the heck is it being marketed as one?

It is because of all this crappy marketing that viewers go into cinemas expecting to be frightened or, at the very least, weirded-out. When that doesn't happen (on doesn't happen in the way they were expecting it to happen) they get upset. Hence the poor reviews.

Not a Spooky Movie

I, on the other hand, really liked the movie. Before I explain why, let me clarify a few things. This film is not a spooky, supernatural thriller (like 'The Sixth Sense'). It is not a hero movie (like 'Unbreakable'). Heck, it's not even about faith (like 'Signs').

It is, however, about a bunch of regular everyday people trying to stay alive when the world around them is going to hell and they have no idea why. In many ways, it's like Steven Spielberg's 'War of the Worlds' (another film that many critics and viewers didn't like) in which Tom Cruise's character -- a not-so-bright, not-so-smart, not-so-successful regular Joe -- does the best he can given the circumstances he finds himself in. And one of the main reasons he stays alive is because he gets lucky; i.e. it's not because he's a great leader, quick thinker, or is otherwise larger than life.

'The Happening' is, in fact, very much a good old-fashioned science fiction story. And I don't mean a Hollywood 'sci-fi' story but a 1950s or 60s classic 's.f.' story. One written by H.G. Wells or John Wyndham. Or of the kind that Clarke and Asimov might have written: an understated, cerebral, but still oh-my-god-what-an-awesome-concept type of story.

Very Real

So, keeping that in mind, I loved how the movie was done so realistically. I mean, seriously, if something like this was to happen in real life, would you expect to find yourself in a typical Hollywood action-thriller-disaster movie or in one of Shyamalan's? I know I'd expect to find myself in the latter.

There's a point in the movie, for example, when people coming from four directions meet at a crossroads. They're all running away from 'attacks' that have occurred just a few miles behind each of them. When they get together and try to figure out what to do next, the person who gets to be in charge is the obviously out-of-his-depth but still barely still-holding-it-together Army private who's the only formal authority figure there. Everyone automatically turns to him for leadership. That's probably what we'd do in real life as well.

In most other Hollywood movies this scene would have been dramatically different. That's actually a pun because it would, indeed, have been a very 'dramatic' scene. There would have been a heated argument and two clear leaders would have emerged with strongly differing opinions on what to do next. There would have been lots of shouting, panicking, and pleas for sanity. A couple of idiots would have snuck off and, as expected, quickly gotten themselves killed. Eventually, they would have split into two groups with our hero feeling terrible about the people who didn't listen to him and will surely die. Think, for example, the library scene from 'The Day After Tomorrow'. Did something like that happen in 'The Happening'? Nopes. And that's what I loved about it.

Oh and there were no obvious "No! Don't go in there!" type moments, either. I really appreciated that.

Atmosphere

Shyamalan did a great job with the atmosphere throughout the film -- starting, literally, from the first scene -- and the overall feeling was of great disquiet tinged with ohmygodwhatthefuck?! Both the acting (everyone was appropriately tharn) and the musical score (particularly the cello solos) really did that justice.

And even though I watched the movie a few days ago, some of those feelings still linger. That tends to happen with Shyamalan's films, doesn't it?

A Different Movie...

Ultimately, though, what I like about Shyamalan's films is how they're different from the usual Hollywood fare. Their locations are different (he insists on filming in Philadelphia, where he lives), their pacing is different, and though the stories themselves are not always ground-breaking they don't follow the usual Hollywood cliches.

...But Not a Really Great One

That said, they do tend to follow the usual Shyamalan cliches. Which is what makes this a less-than-great movie. Still, as Chris Hewitt from TwinCities.com says: 

Shyamalan movies demand that you surrender to his way of telling stories. If you're up for that, you should go.

Since I am more than happy to enjoy films the way he makes them and I don't go into his movies (or any other movie, for that matter) with any preconceived notions of what they should be like, I generally have a good time. And that's exactly what happened with 'The Happening'.

So, be warned: If you don't generally like Shyamalan's movies, you won't like this one either. But if you do like his movies, then you should really enjoy this one as well.

Others Views & Reviews

Roz Rows the Pacific

The TWiT Netcast Network just launched a hugely inspirational new show called 'Roz Rows the Pacific'.

The show is about Roz Savage, a former management consultant and investment banker who, at the age of 34, "decided she'd had enough of her conventional London existence and wanted to do something special with her life" so she bought a rowboat and rowed solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Okay, so it wasn't quite as simple as that but you can read more about that journey of hers on her Wikipedia page or on her own website.

Now, though, Savage is rowing solo across the Pacific Ocean -- from the US to Australia -- and, if she succeeds, will become the first woman to have done so (she was the 5th to row across the Atlantic). She left San Francisco on 25 May, 2008 and hopes to arrive at Cairns some time in 2010. Yes, that's 2010.

During that journey, Leo Laporte will be talking to Roz three times a week on the RRP netcast so you can follow her progress there and, of course, on her website.

Funny thing: before she left, Laporte gave her an iPod full of books from Audbile.com. In the last episode of TWiT, he mentioned that it had taken her just three days to get through all of 'Bleak House' so I'm not sure how long that's going to last! :)

I wish Roz all the best and hope she has an awesome journey.