Reader gallery: Look at these awesome dog photos | Popular Photography

Posted on August 29, 2018 by Brian Wengenroth

Source: Reader gallery: Look at these awesome dog photos | Popular Photography

Here are some photos to unleash your inner puppy love given that this weekend is National Dog Day. I don’t normally post other peoples pics, but these were just too adorable to pass up.

Those of you who know me, know that I love Golden Retrievers, having been owned by two. Make sure you scroll down through the photos to theadventuresofsuperneo who reminds me so much of my recently departed Rusty, although he would never have tolerated all those goofy hats and things. Click on the link and scroll through his photos. He’s so adorable!

 

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Apple’s desperate Mac damage control message hints at a divided company | ZDNet

Posted on April 6, 2017 by Brian Wengenroth

I’m not going to repost, relink all that’s been written about the extraordinary meeting between  4 Apple senior execs and 5 journalists earlier this week, but I’d love to know what you all think of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes’ take. It sounds a bit like click bate to me, or at best a rant by someone who not so secretly prefers Windows over macOS. It sure doesn’t gibe with the logic in Gruber’s piece. Comment below.

Opinion: Apple’s attempts at reassuring customers that it hasn’t forgotten about desktop Macs hint at divisions within the company as to what direction the company should be going in.

Source: Apple’s desperate Mac damage control message hints at a divided company | ZDNet

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Best Review of MacBook Pro with Touch Bar: Jason Snell – Six Colors

Posted on January 27, 2017 by Brian Wengenroth

I know, I know…the new MacBook Pros with Touch Bar and Touch ID were released to the wild last November. But I am catching up on my podcasts and came across Jason Snell’s review, which I think is by far the best, most informative review of Apple’s latest laptop hardware. And since not all of us have been able to run right out and buy a new $1,800 – $2,500 computer, it is still very relevant. You can read his review here:

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar review: Keyboard chameleon – Six Colors

BTW, if you want to learn  more about how Jason made the video demonstrating the Touch Bar features, catch his interview with John Gruber on The Talk Show. They talk about his video starting at about 45:30

Shout out to Gruber and The Talk Show and Daring Fireball for the information on the new MacBook Pros.

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Yeah! It’s 1928 All Over Again!

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Brian Wengenroth


coulter

So much for “draining the swamp.”

BTW, do Republicans really want to highlight the period when they controlled both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue? As Karoli Kuns at  Crooks and Liars points out, 1928 was the start of the Great Depression. She also points out that Coulter got it wrong. Republicans were also in control of congress and the White House from 2002-2007, the end of which was the start of the Great Recession (selective amnesia?).

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President Obama Names Grace Hopper Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Posted on November 17, 2016 by Brian Wengenroth

This evening the White House announced the 2016 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

Most notably Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, the “first lady of software” aka “Grandma COBOL,” was one of the recipients. She invented the first compiler leading to the development of COBOL (yes Millennials, I am showing my age here). More interestingly, Admiral Hopper is famous for her nanoseconds visual aid. When asked why satellite communication took so long, she would pull a piece of wire out of her pocket that was just under one foot long (11.80 inches)—the distance that light travels in one nanosecond.

Admiral Hopper was not the only “technologist” honored. President Obama also named Margaret Hamilton, a mathematician and computer scientist who led the team that created the on-board flight software for NASA’s Apollo command modules and lunar modules, and Richard Garwin, a polymath physicist who earned a Ph.D. under Enrico Fermi at age 21 (!) and subsequently made pioneering contributions to low-temperature and nuclear physics, detection of gravitational radiation, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computer systems. He also named Maya Lin the designer of  the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.

For a complete list of the 2016 recipients see the White House announcement:

President Obama Names Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom | whitehouse.gov

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Why Apple Didn’t Buy Harman

Posted on November 15, 2016 by Brian Wengenroth

Just this morning, I have read at least three articles prophesying gloom and doom because Apple didn’t buy Harman (the basic theme is that Apple needs to grow…can no longer grow organically…so just buy anything…but BUY something). This article from ZDNet is representative:

Why Samsung’s Harman purchase will be seen as Apple blunder decades from now

But the reason, I believe, that Apple didn’t try to acquire Harman is clear from this exhibit in the article (which is from the handout in Samsung’s investor call)

samsungelectronicsharman2

  • Apple has 2 brands: Apple and Beats
  • Apple essentially makes just 4 products (computers, tablets, smart phones, and TV/set-top boxes…OK, if you want to separate out desktops from laptops and music players from smart phones you can go all the way up to 6), plus accessories
  • running just 3 operating systems: macOS, iOS and tvOS

This kind of smorgasbord is not in Apple’s DNA.

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Jeff Jarmoc 💠 on Twitter: “In a relatively short time weve taken a system built to resist destruction by nuclear weapons and made it vulnerable to toasters.”

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Brian Wengenroth

https://twitter.com/jjarmoc/status/789637654711267328

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How switching to Macs is paying off for IBM | Macworld

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Brian Wengenroth

I have always said that it is the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). And this just reinforces that point:

Last year, IBM made a bold decision. The company let its employees choose between a Windows PC or a Mac for their own work machines. IBM staffers prefer Macs, so the company bought up 30,000 of them. This year, IBM has 90,000 Macs in use….IBM said Wednesday at the Jamf Nation User Conference that it’s actually saving money on each Mac: $273 to $543 per Mac over four years, compared to a Windows PC over the same time period.

Source: How switching to Macs is paying off for IBM | Macworld

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Don’t Be A Lazy Blogger Reposting Out of Date Posts

Posted on September 16, 2016 by Brian Wengenroth

RE: Reposting Out of Date Posts

The following post appeared in my email this morning:

The Pros and Cons of Mirrorless Cameras :: Digital Photo Secrets

I clicked on the link to read the story because I am seriously thinking of replacing my aging DSLR (Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi/400D, c. 2006). I have read of several professional photographers who have added or switched from DSLRs to mirrorless camera systems, most commonly the Sony A6000 series and the higher end Sony A7 series (Why One Pro Photographer Switched from DSLRs to Mirrorless,  Top Reason Why I Switched from Canon to Sony,  Thomas Fitzgerald Photography Blog: A Year with the Sony A6000, and here Who Are the Pro Photographers Who Switched to the Sony A7 Series).

The review didn’t add up. The shortcomings were too numerous for any serious photographer to consider giving up their DSLR. Then I realized there was no date on the post. When I got down to the comments, I saw that they dated back to 2013. His review was probably right in 2013, but was way out of date for today’s mirrorless cameras. Quite frankly I would have skipped reading this if I had seen the date of the original post and no reference to an update.  (PROMISE: I will never repost an article without referencing the original post.)

Blogging is hard. I know; I get it. Look at this blog–posting is erratic at best. But he just wasted my time this morning; and it’s a shame, because David Peterson posts lots of good tips, techniques, etc.

Don’t be a lazy blogger!

Update: Noon

To demonstrate how out of date David Peterson’s post on mirrorless camera was, this just arrived in my mailbox from Popular Photography:

Canon Announces EOS M5 Flagship Mirrorless Camera

It will be interesting to see how it compares with the Sony A6300 mirrorless cameras. The Canon mirrorless cameras have more of a DSLR look and feel compared to the more point-and-shoot appearance of the Sony, which is an objection that some professionals have to the Sony.

While Canon’s EOS M series use a different lens mount (EF-M), Canon does make an EF-M lens mount adapter for Canon EF/EF-S lenses, which means I wouldn’t have to replace all of my Canon glass.

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Apple ‘AirPods’ to target high end of headphone market

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Brian Wengenroth

Apple’s new wireless earbuds, expected to be announced this week as “AirPods,” are said to feature a custom-designed wireless chip that will be “Bluetooth-like” … targeting the high-end market, with Beats  positioned in the midrange market [emphasis mine]

Source: Apple ‘AirPods’ to target high end of headphone market with custom ‘Bluetooth-like’ low-power tech

Like John Gruber,

Ming-Chi Kuo: ‘Apple Planning Wireless Headphones to Target Higher-End Than Beats for iPhone 7’

I saw this report and had the same reaction–This makes no sense. Beats is already positioned as a high end headphone compared to Apple’s EarPods (regardless of where you stand on the audio quality of Beats). How much more expensive are “AirPods” going to be!?

Personally, while I think there will be some kind of wireless Apple headphones, branded “AirPods” based on Apple’s trademark filings [Leaked Apple trademarks reveal iPhone 7’s smart button, MacBook Pro’s touch bar and more], I don’t expect Apple to ship wireless headphones as the standard headphone with the new iPhone. I expect that they will ship a wired headphone which uses the Lightening connector. “AirPods” will be an optional accessory, but more than Beats, I think NOT.

But with today’s special event about to start, we’ll soon see if I am right.

UPDATE (2:27 PM EDT): New iPhone 7/7 Plus ship with Lightening headphones. But surprisingly, to me at least, Apple is also including a 3.5mm to Lightening adapter. I guess that Apple was worried about the feedback/resistance. Also introducing AirPods.

UPDATE (3:30 PM EDT): AirPods to go on sale for $159, Beats are $199-$299. So it looks like Beats are still positioned as the higher end headphones. Phil Schiller’s description of the technology and functionality of the AirPods is amazing. Can’t believe how they packed it all into a pair of earbuds.

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