I recently exchanged some messages with Apple's iTunes Customer Care mail-reading/replying artificial-intelligence system. As one might expect, artificial intelligence systems are still not quite up to the task of replacing the cognitive powers of a human, but as you'll see in the progressively-humorous transcript that follows, Apple's artificial-intelligence system has evolved enough to mimic the quintessential nature of human cluelessness.

I contacted Apple to ask about a restriction in how one can pay for things at iTunes. Now that my PayPal nightmare has been straightened out, and now that I have an iPhone, I thought I'd get some cool apps [...]
View full post »

My lingering cold finally unlingered enough today that I could venture out for a bit: Anthony for a bike ride, and me to give my new Nikon D700 a spin. Other than the 20-minute night-time outing that resulted in the Impossible Photography post and its followup, I hadn't been outside with the D700 since the day I got it (the day I returned to Kyoto from summer travels).

I grabbed my biggest zoom (Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VR and a 1.7× Extender), and put the camera into "Auto ISO" mode such that it'll kick up the sensitivity as needed to keep [...]

Here's an effective way to ruin almost all your shots for the day, before you even start: neglect to notice a big hunk of grunge on your sensor, thereby causing a big black splotch on most of your photos.

As part of the rigorous testing I do for my readership, I embarked on a thorough test of this technique, while on vacation no less, one of the first days I was at my folks' place in Ohio this summer. It was a wonderful summer day, and a walk around outside had great potential for lots of ruined shots, and I [...]

A shot from my recent Impossible Photography outing, where I used a very fast lens (Nikkor 50mm f/1.2) and the Nikon D700's low-light performance for some night photography in Kyoto.

This was the entrance foyer of a restaurant that had plenty of light.... I only needed ISO 1100 at f/1.2 and 1/100sec for the wider shot....

It reminds me a bit of the front desk at the Four Seasons Resort, Whistler, although this was perhaps more out of place.

The low-light performance still doesn't help with the problem of dynamic range.... of being able to capture/display the detail in dark [...]

The main reason for our summer trip to Vancouver was to meet Joan, Fumie's host mother on Fumie's first trip outside Japan, about 12 years ago. Fumie spent a month in Vancouver, studying English, in 1996, and hadn't seen her since just before we were married, in 1998. Anthony and I had never met her.

Joan has lived in Vancouver for 91 years, so knows her way around. She picked us up at our downtown hotel, and amid an occasional light rain, drove us up to Queen Elizabeth Park and treated us to a wonderful meal at its restaurant, Seasons [...]