The only response I received from my request for photo assignments lead me to a local car cruse. I got some great shots. Because of the cluttered location I couldn't get many nice wide shots. But I was able to grab some great details.

Widescreen Monitor : Old Monitor : HDTV

My favorite is this new desktop wallpaper. It's clean, simple... and very powerful, I think.

This is not a prediction merely a wish. A vision that I believe will be the best solution to the communication infrastructure and market. This is not it.

Currently I buy electricity from Central Hudson. They are a government regulated monopoly that maintains the local electric grid. They buy power from anybody who wants to start a power plant. They sell to anyone who wants the power, or people can pay the power plant directly to try for a cheaper rate. The state decides what the prices are. Central Hudson has to ask to change the rates, and they need to have thorough documentation to support the request. The system works. The whole national power grid works this way. My contention is that the national Data Grid should work similarly.

Verizon is currently running all purpose fiber optic data lines, directly to people's homes and business (FiOS). It is capable of carrying massive amounts of data. Enough to bring superbroadband internet, HD video on demand, HD video phone even! With this they transcend the concept of a phone company, they become the data company.

The job of the Data Company is simple. Give people access to any data they want. as fast as they want, anytime they want. Just like you can pay the power company for giving you access to electricity, you pay the data company for access to data. And just like the power company, it needs to be a government regulated monopoly.

The rules would be pretty simple. People pay for bandwidth, not bits. All bits are equal, none get any preferential treatment. People pay for two things, guaranteed bandwidth, and possible bandwidth. Guaranteed bandwidth is exactly what it sounds like. You are always guaranteed at least this level. Flexible bandwidth is possible, but if used too much, may be temporarily limited. The rules for exactly how much guaranteed and possible bandwidth would cost, and how they would be regulated, would probably best be decided by others. But I would imagine that if your flexible bandwidth is maximized for more than a two hours, you may be throttled down until its no longer maximized for six hours. The price should probably be something like 10 to 1. As in $10/month if X bandwidth is guaranteed and only $1/month if it's flexible. Oh yah and one more rule. The direction of bandwidth doesn't mater. Both directions would be the same.

This would work because the data company doesn't care about what data they are delivering. Their only concern is that it gets delivered well. As technology evolves people will want more bandwidth, and so the Data Company has incentive to upgrade their network to supply it. The local or state government would dictate the profits allowed. So the consumer demand for bandwidth would balance with the amount spent on infrastructure.

Sorry this post was so long.

I found my new camera. The Canon 50D will be available in October. It really is everything I want.

The high ISO and high resolution will allow me to use natural light in all but the darkest places. It supports the full speed of my Extreme 4 memory cards. It has a big, brighter, high resolution screen. It just does everything I want.

I was waiting to see the specs of the 5Dmk2, but It pretty well out of my price range any way, and the 50D is plenty for me.

Official Specs

• 15.1 Megapixel, 14bit, ISO 100-3200 (H1: 6400, H2: 12800).
• DIGIC 4 Image Processor, 6.3 fps, up to 90 JPEGs w/ UDMA CF cards; 60 JPEGs or 16 RAW w/ standard CF cards.
• 3.0-inch LCD (920,000 dots/VGA) with coatings for improved viewing and smudge protection.
• Enhanced Live View shooting includes Face Detection Live mode.
• Lens vignetting correction.
• EOS Integrated Cleaning System with a fluorine coating for better resistance to dust.
• Creative Auto goes a step beyond full auto with on screen setting display.
• HDMI out, for displaying full high-resolution images on a HDTV.

Of all the new shows coming up this season, for some reason, I'm looking forward to Terminator: TSCC the most. The first season could be best describes as not great, but showing potential, and slow improvement.

It suffers from large gaping holes, big enough to drive freight trains full of physics professors through. Holes like a Terminator lifting a couple thousand pounds of metal like it was an empty cardboard box. And again when a couple of Ts fight in a moving truck. It gets thrown around the road as they pound on each other inside. If they really weighed enough for that stuff to be possible, they wouldn't be able to walk in normal buildings, or sit in normal chairs, for fear of breaking everything.

Also the action scenes in the first episode are too large for the modest budget the show has. As a result they look cheep and cheesy. It was a good call to dial down the action for the rest of the season. The idea of a machine trying to adapt to living with people, was something I always thought was the best part of bringing Ts in to fight for us in the first place. It provides a good story mechanism to show us how irrational, and illogical we all are.

But for all it's faults I still find it entertaining, and frankly, riveting. Plus... You will have to forgive me for being a guy for a moment. But isn't that the hottest machine you have ever seen? Kristanna Loken is was great also, but Summer Glau I think just slightly edges her out. Maybe because she is a little funny looking. Imperfections make people more human. The proportions of her facial features are kind of strange, but they work great anyway.

the first season was only 9 episodes. For now at least, you can see them on Hulu. So give it a shot.

I may be crazy, but I had what I think was an interesting idea. We'll find out soon enough which is right. I posted an add on Craig's List offering custom photos of any person, place or thing. There are some rules of course. But I don't want to have to say no to any responses I get.

It's a kind of test, or exorcise. The point of which is to force me to take photos of things I haven't thought of. So anything I skip is like getting a test question wrong. Then again, in the past I have had some strange responses form Craig's List, so we will just see what happens.

Of course any ideas any of you may have, are also welcome. And I plan on posting all resulting photos here as well.