It wasn't THAT long ago..when pretty much all we had were 33mm film cameras, and no one bitched about carrying a SLR camera and a lens (or maybe two).
Nobody bitched, because nobody carried them. To be fair, that's partly because nobody could afford to take 300 photos in a weekend - film & processing costs were too high. These days 300 photos costs an hour in Lightroom tagging the 290 that you want to delete again.
Check flickr, facebook, twitpics.. how many of those photographs were taken with SLRs (digital or film)?
Those photos will also be around forever, and there are rather more of them..
In the days of film photography I'd have agreed with you.
These days the sensor matters a lot. I agree entirely you still benefit from an excellent lens, and you're right on the longevity of lenses, but the "lowest end body" is too low end. Come in above the minimum bar and get a good sized sensor that can actually use all that light your excellent lens is giving to it.
Some of us like a large shutter speed range, good ISO mix and fast autofocus too, but that's a separate discussion.
My Sony SLT-A55 has more than one "Auto" mode -- there's "Auto+", which tries (and does fairly well) to detect what you're trying to photograph, and adjusts the settings accordingly. There's "Scene", which is the same as Auto+, except you tell it you're trying a portrait, low-light landscape, etc. You can see what it's doing, and apply the same settings in a manual mode.
My point & shoot compact camera has those capabilities as well, in a smaller form factor. Auto, scenes, colour modes, AP, SP, P, manual (even manual focus) so you could start with a compact camera and still learn the technique without needing a DSLR.
The DSLRs benefit from the broader lens choice (I have an excellent lens, but I can't swap it out for something faster than f2 or higher zoom than 90m equiv) and a better sensor than most compacts.
I'd love a DSLR or Leica M9 with its range of capabilities, lens choice, etc, but I know it just wouldn't leave the house often enough to justify buying it.
Can anyone recommend a good place (website / book) to learn more?
Best bet is to hit Google and search for terms like 'landscape photography forum', maybe add the manufacturer or model of your camera in there, and see what comes up.
street scenes
http://www.85mm.ch/Book/Books.html I'll admit it, I'm too shy to step right up to a stranger and photograph them the way he does. But I'll build myself up to it..
I expect a physics teacher to know more about physics than the syllabus covers. I expect a foreign language teacher to be conversationally fluent. I expect an English Lit teacher to know how to construct poems, stories and books.
I expect someone teaching programming to be able to be able to at the very least install and configure software.
You may argue that the App Inventor is teaching how to use a graphical tool to make apps. For the people using it that may well be the case, but for the person teaching it, they're teaching a programming language. It may be a drag & drop fluffy friendly one but pretending it isn't a language does a disservice to the people being taught, and demonstrates ignorance by the teacher.
seemingly daunting task, especially considering App Inventor's target audience
What the fuck is a school trying to teach the use of App Inventor for if the teachers can't do something as basic as set it up?
It might not be entirely straightforward but pretending to teach people how to write software while knowing fuck all about it yourself is disingenuous and borderline fraudulent.
I haven't been a hands-on software engineer now for 8 years. I am indeed utterly out of touch with the current technologies, languages, libraries, platforms, etc.
Recently I attended a software engineering event - best practices, coming innovations, current trends. It was interesting to find out that most of my experience and knowledge remains useful, relevant and valuable.
So counter to your suggestion, I'd say that a genuine software engineer has a lot going for them. They know how to deliver working, maintainable software, in a specific industry/context, and (should be able to) demonstrate success in doing so.
That's bloody valuable. That's something a recent graduate just can't compete with.
So a few weeks/months learning a recent language or two, building/contributing to something open source, getting the right keywords into a CV and being able to demonstrate proper understanding of the relevant language at interview, there's no reason someone in their 50s couldn't get a job.
Even if your code is good, and you know the proper way to do things, I suspect you're too expensive per hour
Sadly it does come down to this. Fulltime software engineering is a young men's job. The pay hits a ceiling and stops, unless you're working for a handful of tech giants and innovators. So accept that you'll get paid no more than a 28yo, or go contracting.
If we agree that:
a) a lifetime that is a valid length of time for copyright
I don't even agree with that. Where's the incentive for you to continue creating and contributing to society and culture if you're able to retire after one successful production?
Why should you be given the exclusive right to profit from your work yet nobody else be allowed to use it as influence, build from it, incorporate it into their own work, for their entire life?
I agree that 14 years or so is plenty of time for a copyright
I concur. That feels reasonable. It's still too long for Internet related materials but on the whole somewhere towards the lower end of a 10-20 year range is where I'd like to see copyright terms end.
the current generation of new recruits having been raised on shooter titles from both the Call of Duty and Battlefield series. This means they've gotten used to high-quality first-person shooter games. Taking a step down in graphics and immersion is hardly a way to train a soldier
Unless, I don't know, you want a soldier to know how to react to a situation in a professional, reasonable, efficient, safe, appropriate and lawful manner.
All the games will teach him is "Don't touch the door until your sergeant tells you to open it", "headshot the bad guy at the first opportunity" and "don't use your initiative because we didn't program in that path of action".
Please, if you're not the UK, do use MW3 as your military training aid.
The UK has the Direct Debit scheme, which provides guarantees to consumers and numerous quality guarantees that benefit merchants.
Direct bank transfers are also possible, but usually used for private transactions or by very small businesses that don't have access to the Direct Debit scheme.
I got my boss a coke once when he asked me once, because he's older and was polite about it.
I spend £10 or more each week buying coffee for my boss, my teammates, my colleagues in other parts of the business. It helps justify why I need to bring my own cup of coffee to a meeting, it helps build relationships, it offers a chance to get them away from their desk and into a more informal setting where they'll talk more freely and be more receptive to anything I'm saying.
Technically I should claim all of it on expenses, but I can't see my boss signing off that one.
My contract includes a term that paraphrased reads "and any other work that might be required".
So if the data centre was flooded, and we needed all hands to the mops, sure, that's reasonable and I'm going to help out. However, I get assigned to toilet duty for the next six weeks and there's a constructive dismissal claim being made.
In between, there's a ton of shite I deal with daily that isn't in a strict definition of my role. A bucket load of management overhead, a fair bit of internal PR, joining/leading virtual teams on unrelated tasks. Sometimes it's fun, sometime's it's nice variety and sometimes it's an irritating distraction from the work I want to be getting on with. I get paid all the same, and I'm in constant discussion/negotiation with my boss to make sure the balance is squarely on the side of "stuff I want to do". If that "stuff" starts to diverge from the goals of the organisation then it's time to find a new job.
What really gets on my goat is people being so fucking stupid as to believe in pink unicorns despite the utter lack of evidence that they exist.
What also seriously pisses me off is the indoctrination of children into damaging cults through dissemination of lies - as practiced by many major world religions.
Why are you so upset that some people draw attention to this malicious, depraved and selfish behaviour?
The god of science - whether called Science or not - is distinct from science.
Atheists don't believe in a god. They don't worship the god Science. They may think that scientific processes and methods hold some validity, and concur with various laws and rules, but that doesn't require any worship, faith, adherence to scripture or other religious trappings.
So while you may well be correct regarding the theistic nature of Science, its existence in no way overlaps with the world view of atheists.
The issue is that the competitive market breaks if one company prevents other companies from implementing equivalent capabilities in their own devices.
Although you could argue that's the purpose of patents, my understanding is that patents are intended to protect a specific way of doing something, not the idea of doing it. Software patents (which are primarily the ones being used) are inherently flawed in a number of ways.
Giving all of the control to one company inhibits progress by everyone else, slows the breakneck pace of innovation we're all enjoying and takes our toys off us. Why wouldn't there be a strong stance on this?
My Samsung Ace doesn't have flash either! Why bash Apple for not including Flash?
My Samsung phone has Flash v11 installed. But the issue isn't Flash, it's the intentional prevention of competitors providing software that people owning hardware want to run on it.
Most Macs are made of standard PC components, buy them, make your own hackintosh, intalling Mac OS X isn't exactly rocket science.
But is technically illegal - try selling them as completed systems..
So you think it's worth spending the man hours to ensure your spam block is done right too?
Yes, I do. Which is why I don't use heuristic spam detection software.
At the moment I'm receiving approximately two spam emails a week and discarding no false positives.
If you claim copyright on my media, causing detriment to me, that should be actionable. Just because it's hard to tell the truth doesn't excuse telling lies.
trained dancing in a dancing school as opposed to humping with 50 cent in the background
I go to dance classes that _teach_ humping with music somewhat better than 50 cent in the background - try blues dancing to Popa Chubby's "Sweat" or swing dancing to Touch and Go's "Tango in Harlem".
Lots of scope to wriggle, play and (if she wants to) grind.
Thank you for sharing your bigoted and inflammatory opinion with us.
Please be assured that even if "the nearest bunch of hippie travelers" were responsible for stealing from my garden, torturing them with electric shocks is still the wrong response.
Rare, but yes, it's happened. Maybe I'm glancing in a mirror, maybe they can see past a vehicle that's blocking my view, maybe I'm distracted by something.
Normally though I'm already aware.
if you have enough attention to notice the person you are talking to in your peripheral vision tensing
Bear in mind that we're hardwired to notice movement in our peripheral vision. I'm more likely to notice my passenger flinching than I am a car drifting across my lane if I'm looking in my rearview mirror at the time. I'm also more likely to escalate my risk assessment if my passenger's reacting strongly, even if I've already spotted the thing causing them concern.
Slashdot Mirror
It wasn't THAT long ago..when pretty much all we had were 33mm film cameras, and no one bitched about carrying a SLR camera and a lens (or maybe two).
Nobody bitched, because nobody carried them. To be fair, that's partly because nobody could afford to take 300 photos in a weekend - film & processing costs were too high. These days 300 photos costs an hour in Lightroom tagging the 290 that you want to delete again.
Check flickr, facebook, twitpics.. how many of those photographs were taken with SLRs (digital or film)?
Those photos will also be around forever, and there are rather more of them..
In the days of film photography I'd have agreed with you.
These days the sensor matters a lot. I agree entirely you still benefit from an excellent lens, and you're right on the longevity of lenses, but the "lowest end body" is too low end. Come in above the minimum bar and get a good sized sensor that can actually use all that light your excellent lens is giving to it.
Some of us like a large shutter speed range, good ISO mix and fast autofocus too, but that's a separate discussion.
My Sony SLT-A55 has more than one "Auto" mode -- there's "Auto+", which tries (and does fairly well) to detect what you're trying to photograph, and adjusts the settings accordingly. There's "Scene", which is the same as Auto+, except you tell it you're trying a portrait, low-light landscape, etc. You can see what it's doing, and apply the same settings in a manual mode.
My point & shoot compact camera has those capabilities as well, in a smaller form factor. Auto, scenes, colour modes, AP, SP, P, manual (even manual focus) so you could start with a compact camera and still learn the technique without needing a DSLR.
The DSLRs benefit from the broader lens choice (I have an excellent lens, but I can't swap it out for something faster than f2 or higher zoom than 90m equiv) and a better sensor than most compacts.
I'd love a DSLR or Leica M9 with its range of capabilities, lens choice, etc, but I know it just wouldn't leave the house often enough to justify buying it.
Can anyone recommend a good place (website / book) to learn more?
Best bet is to hit Google and search for terms like 'landscape photography forum', maybe add the manufacturer or model of your camera in there, and see what comes up.
street scenes
http://www.85mm.ch/Book/Books.html
I'll admit it, I'm too shy to step right up to a stranger and photograph them the way he does. But I'll build myself up to it..
I expect a physics teacher to know more about physics than the syllabus covers. I expect a foreign language teacher to be conversationally fluent. I expect an English Lit teacher to know how to construct poems, stories and books.
I expect someone teaching programming to be able to be able to at the very least install and configure software.
You may argue that the App Inventor is teaching how to use a graphical tool to make apps. For the people using it that may well be the case, but for the person teaching it, they're teaching a programming language. It may be a drag & drop fluffy friendly one but pretending it isn't a language does a disservice to the people being taught, and demonstrates ignorance by the teacher.
I fucking hate ignorant teachers.
seemingly daunting task, especially considering App Inventor's target audience
What the fuck is a school trying to teach the use of App Inventor for if the teachers can't do something as basic as set it up?
It might not be entirely straightforward but pretending to teach people how to write software while knowing fuck all about it yourself is disingenuous and borderline fraudulent.
Forgive my utter lack of sympathy.
I haven't been a hands-on software engineer now for 8 years. I am indeed utterly out of touch with the current technologies, languages, libraries, platforms, etc.
Recently I attended a software engineering event - best practices, coming innovations, current trends. It was interesting to find out that most of my experience and knowledge remains useful, relevant and valuable.
So counter to your suggestion, I'd say that a genuine software engineer has a lot going for them. They know how to deliver working, maintainable software, in a specific industry/context, and (should be able to) demonstrate success in doing so.
That's bloody valuable. That's something a recent graduate just can't compete with.
So a few weeks/months learning a recent language or two, building/contributing to something open source, getting the right keywords into a CV and being able to demonstrate proper understanding of the relevant language at interview, there's no reason someone in their 50s couldn't get a job.
Even if your code is good, and you know the proper way to do things, I suspect you're too expensive per hour
Sadly it does come down to this. Fulltime software engineering is a young men's job. The pay hits a ceiling and stops, unless you're working for a handful of tech giants and innovators. So accept that you'll get paid no more than a 28yo, or go contracting.
If we agree that:
a) a lifetime that is a valid length of time for copyright
I don't even agree with that. Where's the incentive for you to continue creating and contributing to society and culture if you're able to retire after one successful production?
Why should you be given the exclusive right to profit from your work yet nobody else be allowed to use it as influence, build from it, incorporate it into their own work, for their entire life?
I agree that 14 years or so is plenty of time for a copyright
I concur. That feels reasonable. It's still too long for Internet related materials but on the whole somewhere towards the lower end of a 10-20 year range is where I'd like to see copyright terms end.
the current generation of new recruits having been raised on shooter titles from both the Call of Duty and Battlefield series. This means they've gotten used to high-quality first-person shooter games. Taking a step down in graphics and immersion is hardly a way to train a soldier
Unless, I don't know, you want a soldier to know how to react to a situation in a professional, reasonable, efficient, safe, appropriate and lawful manner.
All the games will teach him is "Don't touch the door until your sergeant tells you to open it", "headshot the bad guy at the first opportunity" and "don't use your initiative because we didn't program in that path of action".
Please, if you're not the UK, do use MW3 as your military training aid.
The UK has the Direct Debit scheme, which provides guarantees to consumers and numerous quality guarantees that benefit merchants.
Direct bank transfers are also possible, but usually used for private transactions or by very small businesses that don't have access to the Direct Debit scheme.
Therefore, the second option (rewriting on company time) would have to compensate that other project (i.e. me)?
I think you'll find the term generally in use is "salary".
Must admit, I was struggling to reconcile 'plenty of downtime' with 'so I had time to write something in my own time'.
Maybe you're as old and cynical as me.
I got my boss a coke once when he asked me once, because he's older and was polite about it.
I spend £10 or more each week buying coffee for my boss, my teammates, my colleagues in other parts of the business. It helps justify why I need to bring my own cup of coffee to a meeting, it helps build relationships, it offers a chance to get them away from their desk and into a more informal setting where they'll talk more freely and be more receptive to anything I'm saying.
Technically I should claim all of it on expenses, but I can't see my boss signing off that one.
My contract includes a term that paraphrased reads "and any other work that might be required".
So if the data centre was flooded, and we needed all hands to the mops, sure, that's reasonable and I'm going to help out. However, I get assigned to toilet duty for the next six weeks and there's a constructive dismissal claim being made.
In between, there's a ton of shite I deal with daily that isn't in a strict definition of my role. A bucket load of management overhead, a fair bit of internal PR, joining/leading virtual teams on unrelated tasks. Sometimes it's fun, sometime's it's nice variety and sometimes it's an irritating distraction from the work I want to be getting on with. I get paid all the same, and I'm in constant discussion/negotiation with my boss to make sure the balance is squarely on the side of "stuff I want to do". If that "stuff" starts to diverge from the goals of the organisation then it's time to find a new job.
What really gets on my goat is people being so fucking stupid as to believe in pink unicorns despite the utter lack of evidence that they exist.
What also seriously pisses me off is the indoctrination of children into damaging cults through dissemination of lies - as practiced by many major world religions.
Why are you so upset that some people draw attention to this malicious, depraved and selfish behaviour?
The god of science - whether called Science or not - is distinct from science.
Atheists don't believe in a god. They don't worship the god Science. They may think that scientific processes and methods hold some validity, and concur with various laws and rules, but that doesn't require any worship, faith, adherence to scripture or other religious trappings.
So while you may well be correct regarding the theistic nature of Science, its existence in no way overlaps with the world view of atheists.
The issue is that the competitive market breaks if one company prevents other companies from implementing equivalent capabilities in their own devices.
Although you could argue that's the purpose of patents, my understanding is that patents are intended to protect a specific way of doing something, not the idea of doing it. Software patents (which are primarily the ones being used) are inherently flawed in a number of ways.
Giving all of the control to one company inhibits progress by everyone else, slows the breakneck pace of innovation we're all enjoying and takes our toys off us. Why wouldn't there be a strong stance on this?
Apple couldn't make it utterly impossible to put OS X on non-Apple hardware
By selectively quoting, I've made you answer yourself.
My Samsung Ace doesn't have flash either! Why bash Apple for not including Flash?
My Samsung phone has Flash v11 installed. But the issue isn't Flash, it's the intentional prevention of competitors providing software that people owning hardware want to run on it.
Most Macs are made of standard PC components, buy them, make your own hackintosh, intalling Mac OS X isn't exactly rocket science.
But is technically illegal - try selling them as completed systems..
So you think it's worth spending the man hours to ensure your spam block is done right too?
Yes, I do. Which is why I don't use heuristic spam detection software.
At the moment I'm receiving approximately two spam emails a week and discarding no false positives.
If you claim copyright on my media, causing detriment to me, that should be actionable. Just because it's hard to tell the truth doesn't excuse telling lies.
You can, they just can't easily do anything about it.
trained dancing in a dancing school as opposed to humping with 50 cent in the background
I go to dance classes that _teach_ humping with music somewhat better than 50 cent in the background - try blues dancing to Popa Chubby's "Sweat" or swing dancing to Touch and Go's "Tango in Harlem".
Lots of scope to wriggle, play and (if she wants to) grind.
After a couple incidents like that, you'll never leave prison.
Meanwhile, back in the real world..
He got prosecuted for assault. But only because one of his fellow officers actually reported him.
Thank you for sharing your bigoted and inflammatory opinion with us.
Please be assured that even if "the nearest bunch of hippie travelers" were responsible for stealing from my garden, torturing them with electric shocks is still the wrong response.
Rare, but yes, it's happened. Maybe I'm glancing in a mirror, maybe they can see past a vehicle that's blocking my view, maybe I'm distracted by something.
Normally though I'm already aware.
if you have enough attention to notice the person you are talking to in your peripheral vision tensing
Bear in mind that we're hardwired to notice movement in our peripheral vision. I'm more likely to notice my passenger flinching than I am a car drifting across my lane if I'm looking in my rearview mirror at the time. I'm also more likely to escalate my risk assessment if my passenger's reacting strongly, even if I've already spotted the thing causing them concern.