Archive for April, 2007

The Case for Nicolas Sarkozy

By | 27 April 2007 | Politics, Rant | 4 Comments

With the second round of the French Presidential election looming on May 6th, I figured I would take a moment to weigh in on the situation.

Pros:

Long service under President Chirac

Admits that France needs radical change

He is an outsider (born to aristocratic Hungarian)

He openly admires America

Is enthusiastic about economic renaissance of Britain

Plans on early legislative blitz to take issues including labor market liberalization, cutting corporate and income taxes, and trimming public sector pensions

Cons:

Embraces traditional French interventionist economic policies (such as industrial policies, and even went as far as messing with supermarket prices)

Unattractive nativism, harshly critical of immigrants

Formally “left”

Shaking stance on foreign policy (just look at opposition to Turkey’s EU admission)

Conclusion

Despite his Sarkozy stands a much better chance of repairing relations with America, than Royal. And, he is the only one to true attack convention by saying what needs to be said and accepting the consequences.

So, basically, what I am saying, is that you should vote of Sarkozy rather than Royal on May 6th. :razz:

If you would like to read a much more research article, you can check out The French presidential election: seconds away, round two of at the Economist.

Bizzare Photoshop Issues

By | 26 April 2007 | General, Photography | 7 Comments

This is a just a quick post letting everyone know what my tentative photography plans are for the summer.

New Camera

400D

At some point I would like to pick up a new camera to use this summer. I would really like to pick up the latest 400D model of the digital rebel. If offers some features that should make the user experience quite a lot better. However, I can only get about $200 out of my 300D, and I don’t really want to drop another $600 into a camera upgrade.

SD600 Or, Whatever

The Canon PowerShot SD600 is the most popular point and shoot camera on flickr, and it looks like a pretty decent camera. However, I would have to get the upgrade for it, since I don’t believe you can get that particular version anymore. Regardless, I would really like to get a decent point and shoot that I can just take around everywhere to take a picture when the opportunity presents itself.

Adobe Lightroom

After checking out the latest version of Photoshop, and watching the video for Light room, I have decided that I will buy Lightroom at some point in the not too distant future. It looks like quite a wonderful utility and should help encourage me to take some photos, since the current process of getting them together is quite horrid.

Feedback?

Adventures at the Apple Store

By | 22 April 2007 | Humorous, Technology | 8 Comments

cs3

Today, I ventured forth into the great horror that is Grand Rapids.

My brother, Jesse, busted his iPod Shuffle, presumably by sitting on it. However, is defensive if asked directly. Technically, it would still work, but he bent the clip something fierce, so it long longer fits on the dock used for charging/syncing. As an older brother, I accordingly chuckled and said, “tough luck, should have taken better care of it.”

However, my mother was no so easily put off. So, she called up AppleCare and got forwarded to an Indian tech support specialist. The Indian did not understand what the problem was, so they just told her to take it to the Apple Store, and if the techs could not fix it, they would replace it.

Of course, when I get there, they say, “too bad so said, maybe you could cut the clip off.” However, after some coaxing, the manager finally agreed to exchange the iPod since their Indian tech support said they would.

So, while he had one of the lackeys doing the paper work, I asked another associated about getting a copy of Photoshop CS3 Upgrade edition. Ironically, this was the same girl that I bought the MacBook from. She said that she did not know if they had any, but disappeared into the back to check.

While the MacGirl was in the back, I picked up the copy on display to verify the price. Much to my surprise it was marked at 159.96, not the 199.99 that I expected. Surprised I placed the box back on the shelf and waited.

Eventually, the MacGirl wondered back out with a copy. The following conversation occurred:

Girl: You’re in luck, we had a copy
Me: Wonderful
Girl: Ok, it’s going to be 199 plus tax
Me: Interesting, I think you guys should probably fix the price on the display box
Girl: What?
Me: The price on the box over there is different
Girl: <walks over to shelf> Which one?
Me: The one on the bottom
Girl: <picks up the box third from the bottom>
Me: Nope, all the way down
Girl: <picks up the correct box> Uh-oh
Girl: <walks back over to table and proceeds to stare at both boxes for several moments, and then goes into the back to get the manager>
Manager: <looks at both boxes for several moments> What is the price online?
Girl: <looks up price>
Manager: <to girl> Great, well I’ll take care of this.
Manager <to me> I’ll price match the display box
Me: Really? Ok, I didn’t me to burn you guys twice in one day.
Manager: Yeah, don’t worry about it.

Girl: <sighs>
Girl: <begins ringing it up> What’s your email address?
Me: j-j-a-fuller
Girl: j-j-a-4?
Me: No. Fuller.
Girl: j-j-a-full-er?
Me: Yes. j-j-a-fuller-at-misled-dot-us
Girl: m-i-s-l-e-a-d?
Me: …no. That would be “mislead” not “misled”
Girl: So…
Me: m-i-s-l-e-d
Girl: m-i-s-l-e-d?
Me: Yes.
Girl: dot-com, or dot-net?
Me: dot-u-s
Girl: Ok. I’m just having a mixed up day
Me: …

Sweet

By | 20 April 2007 | Rant, Technology | 5 Comments

Well, I officially have as much memory as I had storage in my first laptop. Thus, I expect to have 120 GB of ram in six years. Micron, are you listening?

So far, for the most part the user experience is unchanged. However, I have noticed a big different in the performance of larger rosetta apps, such as image ready. Before if I used an adobe product and firefox, performance lagged when I switched back and forth between them. But, now things to be a bit smoother.

Free RAM

By | 15 April 2007 | Rant | 2 Comments

Or, at least close there to.

When I first picked up my MacBook, I was going to get a midgrade white with the 2GB memory upgrade, which was only $160 more online. However, instore the guy told me it would be $350 more. That is because the online store “buys back” the memory that is in the system, where as in the store you have to pay for that.

Obviously I said screw that, and decided to just get the black MacBook instead (a decisions I’m  glad I made, because I know I would have hated the white every moment of use). This evening I decided to do a quick check in crucial to see how much it would cost to get 2GB of ram for the macbook when/if I decided to upgrade.

Much to my surprise, the 2GB RAM kit for the MacBook was a meager $130, practically free for RAM prices these days. And, taking into consideration the ever increasing price of RAM these days, I placed an order ASAP.

Maybe after I double my memory I will be able to run a rosetta app and Firefox at the same time without lag. :wink:

Also, if anyone would like to give me a donation to offset my RAM purchase, feel free. :razz:

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