Tempus Fugit

Why American automakers have to fail

This automaker giveaway nonsense has to stop. Note that I don’t call it a “bailout” or a “rescue.” These words imply that it will work. It won’t. Oh, it may stop the companies from failing for the next few months. And a constant flow of our cash into their business can keep them limping along indefinitely. But it isn’t going to turn them into successful companies. When has rewarding failure ever resulted in success or self-reliance?

Why failure must be allowed

Failure is part of life. It’s part of capitalism. Without failure, there is no incentive to succeed. The whole idea of a free market — of ideas, cars, or anything else — is that things people embrace and support succeed, and things they reject and avoid fail. It’s about people freely choosing how they want to live their life. What they want to believe. What kind of car they want to drive.

If failure isn’t allowed — if we take money from people who have earned it and give it to failing companies, we are deprecating every company who has succeeded on their own merit, and we dishonor the choices freely made that resulted in their success.

If your company will survive regardless of how well it is run, why bother trying to excel? Excellence requires effort, and it is far easier to live on the taxpayer’s dime. Not that it matters a whole lot — even if your product truly is excellent, you’ll be a price disadvantage against all companies who get taxpayer-funded subsidies.

In a way, it doesn’t matter what you drive (I drive a Toyota, and my wife a Volkswagen), because if the makers of (to put it nicely) objectively shitty cars aren’t allowed to fail, we’ve created an environment where, eventually, everybody will make shitty cars. You might as well buy a piece-of-crap American car now, so at least you’ll be used to operating it while the rest of us fumble to adapt to cars made with the ergonomics and functionality of a cactus.

What the proposed giveaway says about Obama

During Barack Obama’s campaign, the senator called for a “windfall profits tax” against oil companies, which, due to the high price of oil, have seen record profits. He’s reversed himself on this, recently dropping the call for such a tax. And why would he do this? Well, because gasoline prices have dropped, which means oil company revenues have dropped.

Obama has been a leading advocate of the automaker giveaway, saying that he doesn’t think we can “simply let [American automakers] collapse.” Taking his changing position on oil companies and his position on automakers, it would be accurate to describe Obama’s policy towards large corporations as: punish success, reward failure. This isn’t anything new — this is how governments expand their power over the marketplace. Just don’t kid yourself thinking that Obama is anything other than more of the same.

What about all those jobs?

Toyota is opening more American auto plants. They’re probably not the only foreign auto company doing so. Skilled auto workers should apply there. The rest can go find a job that pays them what their labor is actually worth, not their union-inflated wage that is a big part of why these companies are failing.

Obama, of course, feels differently. Obama values employment as a goal in and of itself. Why then not just have the government hire everyone without a job to dig holes for no discernable reason? Don’t joke. Replace “dig holes” with “build cars” and you’ve just described GM’s current business model.

Can our economy handle it?

Yes. We’ve survived worse. But the real answer is that it doesn’t matter. It isn’t the government’s job to prevent market failures. Once you start subsidizing failure, it’s hard to stop. So let’s start stopping now. Someone I know once said “we are the change we have been waiting for.” He’s a charlatan, but he was right. We can do this. It’s time to stop this nonsense and have the courage to live in a free world where failure is tolerated and business success means something other than skill at wooing politicians.

Dear Pownce: where is my export file?

Pownce, the micro-publishing web service with great media support and social sharing controls had its technology and staff acquired by web publishing company Six Apart, as announced on December 1st. The service is scheduled to be shut down on December 15th.

In order to allow people to keep their content after the service shuts down, Pownce has allowed users to export their data.

Since we’d like for you to have access to all your Pownce messages, we’ve added an export function. Visit pownce.com/settings/export/ to generate your export file. You can then import your posts to other blogging services such as Vox, TypePad, or WordPress.

Pownce blog

I’ve not yet received my export file. A Google search doesn’t reveal anyone that has, and lots of people who haven’t, including people who asked for their export file on December 1st.

There is only one more week until the service is set to be shut down. In order for users to have their exported Pownce content up on another system, they really need to be getting their export files soon.

Update

Anil Dash from Six Apart says in the comments that they are still working on exports and that Pownce won’t shut down without making sure that every person who requested an export gets one. Good to hear. He also says that the export format will be “a custom XML format, old mtimport format, Atom feed, and FOAF for friends list.”

Update 2

I received an e-mail at 12:04am today (the 9th) saying my Pownce export was ready. It also said “Please stop by as soon as possible to pick up your files. Once Pownce is closed, on December 15, these files will no longer be available.” That rather implies that people who ask for their export file late on the 14th may be out of luck, which seems to contradict what Anil said about making sure that everyone who asks for an export will get their data. Or maybe it’s just meant to scare people into downloading their files ASAP.

Reconsidering my computer strategy

For the last four years, my computer strategy has been to have a single high-performance notebook machine. First an Apple PowerBook G4, and currently, an Apple MacBook Pro. I’m reconsidering that strategy for two reasons:

Portability

My 17-inch MacBook isn’t the most portable machine. Even though it is one of the lightest and smallest 17-inch machines on the market, it still weighs 6.8 lbs and is 10.4 by 15.4 inches. I’ve been traveling more, and the weight and size of the machine have been restrictive.

Power and expandability

While my machine (even as last year’s model) is quite fast as far as portables go, it’s nowhere near as fast (or as future-proof and expandable) as a Mac Pro tower.

While traveling, I never need all the power of my MacBook Pro. On the road, I’m mostly doing e-mail, web browsing, presentations, and light web/WordPress development. The stuff that I do that requires a more powerful machine (photo processing, massive multitasking with multiple monitors) is done at my desk at home. And when at home, I work from home, in my office — not at Starbucks or Panera or anything like that.

The plan

So for 2009 (read: Q2-Q4), I think I’m going to trade in the 17-inch MacBook Pro for a 13-inch MacBook (or maybe MacBook Air), and get a Mac Pro tower for use as my main machine.  While the MacBook/Mac Pro combo would run about $1,500 more than a MacBook Pro by itself (considering that I already have a monitor), it’d likely be less expensive over the longer term, because upgrading the Mac Pro would be less expensive than getting a new MacBook Pro every two years, and I could likely use the relatively inexpensive MacBook as my “road” machine for 4 or 5 years (performance not being such a big factor on the road). Plus, I’d have a much more powerful primary machine for home use, with the ability to upgrade things like memory and storage incrementally.

What do you think? Have I missed anything? Has anyone else made a similar transition?

Tech, back under this roof

I’ve decided to resume writing about technology on this site. Right now it’s all going to show up all lumped together, but I’ll be offering a way for you to view only my political posts or only my tech posts.

Birds in flight photography, Nikon D700

I spent an hour today stalking a Red-shouldered Hawk trying to get a good shot of her in flight. Here’s what I learned:

Shoot in Manual or Shutter Priority mode

I had plenty of light, and a fast (F/2.8) telephoto lens, but I had the camera in Aperture priority at F/4.0, so my shutter speeds were in the 1/1000 to 1/1600 range most of the time. I thought that was fast enough, but it wasn’t.  If I had to take the shots over again, I’d have it set to 1/4000 or maybe even faster.  Remember, Vibration Reduction or Image Stabilization only helps counteract hand shake. You’re still tracking a fast-flying bird with a long lens.  I had plenty of ISO “to burn,” so I should have used that to get a faster shutter speed.

Use 3-D tracking for autofocus

Obviously I was in “C” Continuous focusing mode, but I had selected the “use all points” mode for picking the focusing point. That’s the one that looks like a white rectangle. It wasn’t fast enough, and it got confused by things like trees and power lines that came into the scene as I tracked the hawk.  I got some much better pictures of another bird using the 3-D tracking mode, which looks like a cross-hair. How that works is that you have a focus point highlighted in the viewfinder (it defaults to the center one). As the action starts, put that focus point on the subject, and press and hold the AF-ON button. That tells the camera what you want to focus on. Keep that held down, and track with the camera. Watch as the focus point moves around, following the subject as it moves around within the frame. Shoot away.  I found this mode to be extremely accurate, and it didn’t get confused when a bird flew over a power line.

Before and After

Here is a shot of the hawk at 1/1250 with “use all points” AF selection:

And here is a shot of a Blue Jay at 1/2500 in the 3-D AF tracking mode:

Obama - my hopes and my fears

As I write this, the networks are calling the US Presidential race for Obama. He wasn’t my choice (neither was McCain), but he’s what we have. So what does it mean?

Hopes

I hope that we’ll have our troops out of Iraq within the first year of Obama’s presidency. This is one issue where McCain was out of sync with the American people, and it was probably the issue that gave Obama the nomination over Hillary Clinton.

I hope that the war on medical marijuana will be called off. It is insane that the Federal government thinks they have the right to ignore State laws and raid marijuana dispensaries that are completely legal.

I hope that the Federal government will refrain from interfering in people’s private marriages.

I hope the government will stop illegal warrantless wiretaps on American citizens, and will reconsider giving immunity to telecom companies who illegally assisted them in these efforts.

I hope that the days of hearing about how America is racist will be over and we can move into a new era of colorblindness.

Fears

I fear that my taxes are going to go up and that financial success is going to be punished.

I fear that we are going to see an increase in deficit spending.

I fear that individualism and self-interest are going to be deprecated in favor of collectivism and altruism.

I fear that we are going to continue interfering militarily with the affairs of other countries. Particularly: Iran, Pakistan, Sudan.

I fear that our health care market is going to continue to become less free.

I fear that I’ll have to continue to pay into a Social Security Ponzi Scheme that won’t be able to pay me back.

Sarah Palin on freedom and foreign policy

Sarah Palin’s stock response to hecklers is to make a remark about how our military is preserving their right to protest.

Palin stopped her remarks briefly and looked toward the commotion.

“I hope those protesters have the courage and honor to give veterans thanks for their right to protest,” she said.

WTOP News

And here again:

“You know, bless your heart, sir. My son’s over in Iraq fighting for your right to protest,” she responded to loud cheers.

CNN

What a sad and Orwellian view of today’s military. It seems that no matter what pointless war of choice they are fighting, no matter how many countries’ affairs they are interfering with, no matter how many silly “humanitarian” missions they embark upon, everything our military does is blessed with the crown of “fighting for [our] right[s]” by the Right’s fearless champions of big government foreign policy. Palin insults the memories of those who actually fought and died for our freedom.

The “war on terror” and our military operations in Iraq have decreased our freedom and encroached upon our rights. Now that’s not the fault of our veterans — it’s the fault of the government of this country. But Palin should think twice before raising every misguided military conflict to the level of “fighting for our rights.”

Nikon D700 (and D3) tips and tricks

I recently decided it was time to upgrade my Canon Digital Rebel XT to something more powerful. I’ve been using the Rebel XT for a year and a half, and have come to the point where it was holding me back. That’s not to say that it’s a bad camera. It’s a great starter DSLR, and I I’ll be keeping it in the family by giving it to my wife, Sarah. I decided to “switch teams” as it were, and go with a Nikon. I deliberated between the D300 and the D3 for a while. Every time I’d convinced myself that the D300 was the right choice, I’d run into Matt Mullenweg at some conference and get to play with his D3. That full-frame clarity and low light performance is incredible. I just couldn’t justify spending that much money on a body. And then the D700 came along with 90% of the features of the D3 at a $2,000 discount. So I got it, and I absolutely love it.

Here are some of the tricks I’ve learned after putting a couple thousand frames through it. The vast majority of these tricks apply to the D3 as well as the D700.

ISO

ISO performance is amazing from 200 to 3200, good at 6400, and okay at 12800 and 25600. I try to avoid anything past 6400 if I can avoid it. This matters for Auto-ISO, which is next.

Auto-ISO

Auto-ISO is one of the features I was most excited about. Auto-ISO allows you to set a base ISO, a maximum ISO, and a minimum shutter speed. ISO will default to your base ISO. If the shutter speed is at the minimum and the camera still needs more light, it will then raise the ISO. If it reaches your maximum ISO and still doesn’t have enough light, only then will it start to lower your shutter speed below your minimum. This beats the pants off of manually setting your ISO, but there are some pitfalls. First of all, auto-ISO should NOT be used in Program mode! My low-light lens is the 50mm f/1.4. In Program mode, with Auto-ISO set to min 200 max 6400 and a minimum shutter speed of 1/100, what happens more than not while indoors in medium-good light is that the lens opens all the way (1.4) and the shutter speed goes down to 1/100, and the ISO will hover between 200 and 1000. What ends up happening is that I’ll get someone’s nose in focus, but not their eyes. Or one eye, but not the other. Snapshots of people do not look good at f/1.4. So forget about program mode with auto-ISO.

Auto-ISO in Aperture Priority mode

Aperture Priority mode is your friend. It’s better to let the ISO go up towards 6400 than to let the lens open up all the way. Set the aperture to f/4, or higher if you can get away with it. It’s better to max out your ISO at 6400 and even to drop down to 1/40 or 1/30 than to take the shot at f/1.4. Obviously, anything slower than 1/30 is going to seriously reduce the number of usable shots you get, so if your light is that bad, you can start manually opening the lens up a little more.

Manual mode rocks with Auto-ISO!

I never used manual mode on my Digital Rebel XT. It was too much work. With Auto-ISO, the camera isn’t really in manual mode any more, even though you have full control over the shutter speed and the aperture. This significantly reduces the amount of work you have to do to shoot in manual mode! An auto-ISO range of 200 to 6400 gives you a lot of protection against over- or underexposure. Just keep an eye on that exposure meter. You’ll only be in trouble if your auto-ISO hits your minimum or your maximum. I can see myself shooting in Manual mode a lot more now that the camera will handle the ISO for me.

Settings you might want to change

Some of the default settings are really silly. Here are the settings I’ve changed, along with my reasons for doing so.

Playback Menu

• After delete — I use Continue as before. This is a very handy feature. How it works, is that it will note direction you were going before you deleted a photo, and after deleting the photo, it’ll let you continue on your way, instead of possibly reversing directions. This makes deleting a string of bad images a one-button affair, no matter which direction you were going.

Shooting Menu

• JPEG compression — I set it to Optimal Quality. I shoot in JPEG Large Basic. This allows for the smallest possible file size, by starting at basic and letting the file size grow if the complexity of the image demands it.
• Active D-Lighting — I turn this to Auto. That way it kicks in when it is needed.
• Auto-ISO — As discussed above, I have it range from 200 to 6400 with a minimum shutter speed of 1/100.

Custom Settings Menu

• a1 — Release plus focus. If you don’t do this, you’re going to have a lot of blurry shots in Continuous tracking mode.
• a3 — 51 points, 3-D. I don’t use this mode a lot, but when I do, this allows for great 3-D tracking of subjects
• a9 — Off. It annoys the hell out of people, and it’s not really needed.
• c2 — 8 seconds. I like to have a little extra time.
• c4 — 20 seconds for playback, 20 seconds for menus and shooting info display, 4 seconds for image review. Make these as low as you can stand them, to save battery life.
• d1 — Off. Again, it is annoying, and if you need it, you probably need a cheaper camera.
• e4 — Off. The third annoying option that you should turn off.
• f1 — Both. Might as well give yourself the option of looking at the info from the back.
• f2 — Playback mode: zoom on/off, medium. Pressing the center button zooms in on the area that was chosen by the AF system. This is critical for making sure you got the shot in perfect focus.
• f5 — I set the function button to activate the top item in My Menu, which is changing the shooting menu bank. I have a bank for low-light (allows ISO to go up all the way, once the shutter speed hits 1/80, and another one with manual ISO control)
• f9 — I turn it on for menus. This allows you to zoom in during playback, and then change to the next/previous photo while staying zoomed in. Great for A-B comparisons of a burst. It is also easier than repeatedly pressing left/right on the d-pad.
• f11 — Please turn this to Lock. You don’t want to shoot without a memory card. This default is so you can play with it in the store.

Usage tips

If you use the vertical grip (or even if you don’t), it can be helpful to activate AF with your thumb instead of partial depression of the shutter button. The vertical grip one is a little sensitive, and holding that button down halfway can be tedious. I find that it is more comfortable to use my thumb.

Upgrade the strap. I got the Op/Tech Pro Loop Strap and am loving it.

Note that while you need 8 AA batteries or an EN-EL4 battery in the vertical grip to shoot at 8 frames per second, you don’t need any battery in the grip in order to use the grip. I don’t use the EN-EL4 (because it requires an additional charger and a lot of expense), so I just use that battery insert as a dummy if I need the vertical grip but want to shave about half a pound off of the system’s weight.

I hope you found this useful! Big thanks to Ken Rockwell for his D700 Users Guide that gave me a running start.

Words I use on this site

Created at Wordle.net

Here’s a heat/size map of this blog, courtesy of Wordle. My favorites: think, want, make, know. Looking forward to having “Bush” go away, figuratively speaking. Or actually, not figuratively speaking. Up and onward to the next presidential catastrophe!

“A heartbeat away from the presidency” alternatives

I’ve really grown tired of the phrase “a heartbeat away from the presidency,” used describe the office of vice president of the United States of America. And with bloggers and the media trying their hardest to paint Sarah Palin as inexperienced and unprepared for the office, it’s getting absolutely used to death. Plus, it makes me think about how my own heart could just stop at any second, which isn’t exactly a comforting feeling.

We can do better. Let’s come up with alternatives to “a heartbeat away from the presidency” that still convey the idea that if the president dies, the vice president becomes the president.

Here are my contenders:

• A car ride with Ted Kennedy away from the presidency
• A third-rail urination away from the presidency
• A three-named political malcontent encounter away from the presidency (lets be realistic: this is how our presidents usually die)
• A miscalculated B.A.S.E. jump away from the presidency
• An Abu Ghraib interrogation away from the presidency
• Canadian healthcare away from the presidency (with apologies to my employer)

What do you suggest? Bonus points for humor, political jabs, and cleverness.