Robin, I Can't See

Robin, I Can't See, originally uploaded by Cale Bruckner.

Lately I've been getting a kick out of taking pictures of the toys my kids are playing with. We have a good time prepping each toy for the photo-shoot, they can be a bit nervous about all the picture taking, and the kids enjoy looking at the end result. This picture of my son's Batman action figure is called "Robin, I Can't See."

I also enjoy taking pictures of toys because it helps me appreciate the details of the design work that goes into each toy. How much time do you think somebody spent designing this Batman figure? See the detail in the ears? Somebody put a lot of effort into this and the design behind a toy often goes un-noticed by parents that are more focused on trying to keep the toys in the right bins. Spend a few minutes looking at the detail work that goes into the toys your kids play with. I'm guessing their toys are more interesting than most of the other things in your house.

More toy pictures in my Flickr "Toys" set.

Geni Launch Crashes

Yesterday a TechCrunch post pointed me towards a Flash-based family tree creator called Geni. I'm into this kind of thing so I went off to take the new product for a spin. Unfortunately, Geni wasn't prepared for the traffic that came their way when they were picked up by TechCrunch, Lifehacker, and other sites. Yesterday, I was willing to cut them some slack but they're still having problems today and I'm loosing patience as I imagine others are. Geni would have been much better off with a limited and more controlled release. This isn't the right way to do it - you only get so many chances to impress the early adopters and opinion leaders. A release like this leaves people wondering if they should trust you with their data and it will be hard for them to get past the initial bad impression. A lot of web X.0 startups are just a flash in the pan - Geni's flash is underexposing the picture.

Updated 01/19/07 - still having technical difficulties

Image: Tried to login 01/19/07

Updated 01/21/07: Arrington agrees with my early assessment - TechCrunch Geni Overwhelmed with Early Popularity - notice the last part of the permalink address "/geni-blew-it/." I finally managed to start building my family tree last night using Geni and there's a lot I like about the service. If they can get past the technical hurdles Geni is sure to be very popular.

Updated 01/22/07: mike@geni.com keeps sending me this very generic, not all that informative, automated message. I've received 3 exact copies of this message. Suggestion: make it more friendly, informative, and a bit more sincere.

Greetings,
 
We received an email last week notifying us that the Geni web site had difficulty drawing your tree.  We believe the problem is now resolved.  Thanks for using Geni!

Mike

4 Generations

Surfing kottke.org I ran into this post Think locally, act globally that talks about a collaborative effort to buy a needy family in China a water buffalo. It's a fantastic story which is told very well by  Bob Thomson (one of the collaborators) in a short movie (8 minutes) he produced to document the event. Just when you think the world is getting really crummy a story like this comes along to restore hope. Thanks guys!

Links:

Bob's post - link to movie here 

Direct movie link 1 MOV 

Direct movie link 2 FLASH 

iPhone from Apple Does it All!

"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore."

The Blog | David Roberts: Best story of the year so far | The Huffington Post

"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."

IMO, every kid in school should watch Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. I got a laugh, and a scare, out of David's post - link at the top. Do people like this really exist?

Shooting w/ a Canon Rebel XTI

Back in December I blogged about my search for a new lens for my Canon Rebel 300D. My plan was to keep the older camera for another year or two - instead, investing in a Canon L series lens. Well, the plan changed a little.

I'm now shooting with a Canon Rebel XTI 400D and I'm loving it. I was a bit concerned about the size of the camera (its grip is smaller than the 300D's) but by adding the optional Canon battery grip I solved the problem and doubled my power capacity - nice if you don't like having to worry about keeping the camera charged. I bought the camera without the kit lens - instead opting for the highly regarded Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 XR DI lens. This lens takes fantastic pictures and it covers a popular focal range even on a camera with a 1.6 FOVCF like the 400D. I also picked up a copy of Canon's 50mm f/1.8 lens for shooting the kids indoors in low light situations without my flash. The 50mm takes fantastic pictures, with excellent background blur, and it's a steal at less than $100. This rounded out my end of 2006 camera upgrade and I feel like I'm set for at least a few years. Eventually, I'm going to want a full-frame camera like Canon's 5D but I'm happy for now. I've also got my eye on Canon's 85mm f/1.8 prime as well as a their 70-200mm f/4 or f/2.8 L lens but that will have to wait for a while.

I upgraded from the 300D to the 400D because I thought the enhanced feature set warranted it. I also felt like the time was right to sell my 300D - resale value will decrease sharply this year as 10MP cameras become the standard. I managed to get $425 for my 300D on eBay - that's pretty good considering I paid about $700 for the 400D body.

I'm not going to bother with specifics about any of these products because they are all reviewed by better resources already - instead, I'll provide you with links to some of the resources I used to research my upgrade.

Related Resources: 

Lens and Camera Reviews:

The-Digital-Picture.com - great resource for Canon lens and camera reviews

FM Reviews - a lot of professional opinions here / Canon and Nikon lenses

photo.net - detailed lens and camera reviews

dpreview.com - the ultimate camera review site

Buying:

Amazon.com - always competitive, great for lenses

B&H - bought the camera and one of the lenses here 

Contributing to BPlans Blog

The Bplans Blog offers commentary on startups, small business, business planning and growth strategy.

Flickr's Best of 2006

I'm on Linkedin

Call me a late adopter, I don't care, I'm finally connected to Linkedin. Creating connections is fun - I've already connected with a few people I haven't talked to in a while.

Related: Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn - Guy Kawasaki