Christopher Mackay's Blog » Cameras

Trailer — yes, trailer — for Robert J. Sawyer’s novel Watch

Chris — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:58:38 +0000

I’ve read Wake, the first of Sawyer’s WWW (Wake, Watch, Wonder) trilogy, and am nearly finished Watch. They are, as always with Sawyer, excellent.

In the WWW trilogy Sawyer’s exploring the meaning and consequences of several varieties of consciousness — human, primate and artificial. Throw in BlackBerrys, EyePods [not a typo], a LiveJournaling blind-from-birth teenage math-wiz protagonist transplanted from Texas to Kitchener-Waterloo and artistically-inclined webcam-chatting primates, and you’re getting the idea.

It’s a little weird seeing a trailer for a novel that isn’t also the trailer for a movie, but Sawyer’s work is such a natural fit for the screen, that it only makes sense:

Plus it makes it look like the web’s made of electic jellyfish, so how cool is that?

Visit Sawyer’s website: sfwriter.com.

PictureCode’s Noise Ninja upgraded to 64-bit for Aperture 3

Chris — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 02:28:17 +0000

The folks at PictureCode have released a 64-bit version of their outstanding Noise Ninja plug-in for Aperture 3. They didn’t waste any time getting this into users’ hands.

Even better, when I hadn’t seen any mention of a forth-coming upgrade on PictureCode’s web site after Aperture 3 let me know it would have to run Noise Ninja under 32-bit mode, I emailed them to ask about their plans.

Not only did Bill Smith, their senior programmer, get right back to me, letting me know a release was imminent — he attached a beta version of the plug-in.

How cool is that?

Recover from digital photo disasters | Digital Photo | Macworld

Chris — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:45:27 +0000

Excellent article from Derrik Story at Macworld.com:

Recover from digital photo disasters | Digital Photo | Macworld: “”

(Via @macworld.)

Aperture 2.1.2 doesn’t support Canon EOS 50D’s RAW files

Chris — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:13:33 +0000

Adobe Lightroom does, via the Camera Raw 5.1 update, released on October 22 — almost a week ago.

Here’s hoping Apple gets an update out soon; the 50D’s been out for a couple of weeks now. For now, it’s not listed on Apple’s Raw support page.

Update: Adobe Photoshop CS3 (10.0.1, from 2007) opens the 50D’s files without issue, and I’ve only got Adobe’s Camera RAW plug-in version 4.6.0.30.

At least Aperture shows thumbnails, and lets me export the images so I can work on them in Photoshop.

Schneier on Security: ‘Digital Manners Policies’

Chris — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:17:23 +0000

‘Digital Manners Policies’ is a marketing term. Let’s call this what it really is: Selective Device Jamming. It’s not polite, it’s dangerous. It won’t make anyone more secure — or more polite”

Best argument for open-source software; now what about open-source hardware?

Why Does Windows Still Suck?

Chris — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 19:22:42 +0000

Why, indeed? Why Does Windows Still Suck…?

Delicious Library is the Bomb!

Chris — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 21:58:15 +0000

Delicious Monster’s Delicious Library is amazing. Worth every penny. You’ll also need an iSight, a Mac and OS X. And a bunch of stuff (books, DVDs, VHS tapes, CDs, games). And high-speed access to Amazon.com won’t hurt, either.

Iloca Stereo Camera

Chris — Mon, 06 Sep 2004 16:50:04 +0000

Yesterday I was poking around Carsand-Mosher’s Moncton store and found a fifty year old Iloca stereographic camera. How could I resist?

Since I’ve been photographing 360-degree images using QuickTime VR (see Tantramar Interactive’s VR Gallery for examples) since the mid-1990s, I thought it might be fun to try a different type of immersive imaging.

I’ll try to post some examples in the next little while (for those who are able to view stereo pairs without the aid of a stereoscope or viewmaster)…