Archive
Comparing Carl Zeiss lenses: Nokia Lumina 900 vs. Sony Cybershot
I am now the proud owner of a new smartphone: The Nokia Lumina 900 running Windows Phone 7.5. The primary reason for the upgrade is the fact that it has a Carl Zeiss lens, which like my point & shoot camera does (a Sony Cybershot DCS-W350).
The Nokia has an 8 megapixel camera with a fixed 28mm Carl Zeiss lens.
The Sony is a 14.1 megapixel camera with a 26mm 4x optical zoom Carl Zeiss lens.
To compare the two cameras, today at 7:53am I took a photo outside, it was cloudy (as you can see), there was no flash and I had the cameras set to "auto" for everything. That’s roughly how I will take pictures most of the time, so for me, it’s a fair test. Here’s the results:
|
Nokia Lumina 900 running Windows Phone 7.5: |
 |
|
Sony DCS-W350 point & shoot camera: |
 |
|
Nokia Lumina 900 after using the Windows Phone auto-fix feature: |
 |
Our San Francisco Escape–April 2012
We’ve been living and working in San Francisco this past week as a way to take advantage of life before the puppy arrives. Yes, there is a new dog on the way, but you’ll have to read about that in about a week.
We rented a short-term apartment for the week in the North Beach neighborhood, right next to Chinatown. If we didn’t know we were next to Chinatown, we might have wondered about a neighbor that uses their clothesline to dry fish.
The commute to the Microsoft office was unique, since we were able to catch a cable car just up the street from the apartment and take it to the office, then back home again in the evening. The apartment is even close enough that we can hear the cable car bell ring when it comes to the nearby intersection. It was a bit odd to have our regular commute also be one of the top tourist attractions, which also made the ride a bit crowded at times, but well worth it to have such a unique public transportation opportunity.
However, our biggest touristy thing we did (other than walk a lot) was to take advantage of the fact that we were staying only 2 blocks from Club Fugazi. So, we decided to invite Dan and Neely to see Beach Blanket Babylon, which is a musical that’s been running there since 1974. It pokes fun at modern politics and life and is known for some large and crazy hats.
Escaping the rain
Heading to San Francisco to work out of that office for a week.
Behind the scenes at the Seattle Monorail
Today the Seattle Monorail was celebrating its 50th birthday, so they were offering some behind-the-scene tours that the public usually doesn’t get access to. So, at noon, Lorie and I got a tour of the workshop, which is below the pedestrian platform at the Seattle Center end of the monorail line. The blue train was running as normal today, but the red train was parked with its access panels opened.
It wasn’t very exciting, but it was a unique opportunity to see the inner workings of the trains.
You can also see a video of the monorail and more information here.
Powder Mountain, Feb 2012
Long-time friends Keith and Jeff joined me (Brian) at Powder Mountain, UT for a few days of skiing and fun. Even broth Michael and nephew Haakon were able to join us for a day. It’s fun to see a 10-year-old keep up with us and ski exactly the same as I do, while also skiing with the same friends I was skiing with 30 years ago when we were about 10 years old.
Don’t tell anyone, but Powder Mountain is the sort of place that is perfect for us: a huge area to ski, great slopes, tons of backcountry options if we want it, old-school lodges (meaning there’s nothing pretentious about them) and parking lots that are too small to let the crowds get big. It was a great long weekend and I’m looking forward to next year!
Milo’s Eulogy
The thing Milo loved most was to be near.
Most people would argue that chasing a squirrel or anything small and fuzzy was more important to him. Or others might say that food was the most important to him, which includes anything from his home-cooked meals to cigarette butts to animal droppings. But at the core of this big guard dog was a giant puppy who just wanted to sit on your lap – all the time. From the way he would look at you on the couch, telling you something via his mind control abilities, insisted on sleeping on the bed or how he would crawl up between our pillows in the morning; we always knew he just wanted to be near.
When Milo was just a young puppy in 2005, had told us that he had a goal of traveling the world, which became a reality when he convinced us to drive across the US and fly to London where we all made a variety of great new friends. This is where he met his first girlfriend, Daisy the yellow lab, who happened to be an American from Washington State. Although the long hikes with Daisy outside of London were fun, walking to all the parks and through all the cemeteries (where all dogs are leashed) in southwest London were always his favorite walks.
Since he wanted to be close to so many people, he never really knew how tough he could look. Although, most of those people never saw what he looked like when taking a bath. After all, he would give a look while in the bath that certainly did not hide his mood.
It was Milo’s youthful energy (he was only 6 ½) that most people noticed. When we all moved back to Seattle, we introduced him to houseboat living and snow sports, but in his heart, he remained a lovable lap dog. Yes, he was big enough to cut off the circulation in your legs if he sat on them for too long, but he always managed to squeeze in and make himself fit on the couch somehow.
This morning, February 12, 2012, Milo suddenly died. Something ruptured inside and according to Gretchen & Michael (he was staying on the farm while we moved), he didn’t seem to be afraid or in much pain as they (and we) raced to the closest vet. Despite all of his previous self-destructive acts in life, in the end, his death didn’t involve any sort of dramatic disaster, he just dropped and died shortly before we arrived at the vet.
Milo was our troublemaker, our garbage disposal, our buddy, our best friend, the center of our family and our lovable companion at all times. And we know we will always miss him terribly.
Milo Versus Baby Godzilla
Which one is cuter: Milo eating a toilet paper roll, or baby Godzilla eating a leaf?
The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth 