Is the iPhone camera the only camera you need? Not me

WSJ has a post on how the iPhone is dominating digital photography.

Is the iPhone the Only Camera You Need?

If you're armed with the right photo apps, editing tricks and shooting know-how, it just might be

By KEVIN SINTUMUANG

F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal (cameras, phone); Lisa Corson/The Wall Street Journal (sunset)

The iPhone simplifies the photographic process—you can shoot, edit, share and order prints using one device.

I, POINT-AND-SHOOT, hereby call to order the inaugural meeting of the Secret Society of Digital Cameras That Are Sick and Tired of the iPhone. Ultra Zoom. Micro Four Thirds. Budget Digi Camera that takes AA batteries. Thanks for coming.

I think everyone knows why we're here in the basement of this abandoned Circuit City in Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J. I mean, it's in the name of our club: the iPhone. A lot of you have been sitting in junk drawers, so I'll bring you up to speed. It ain't just a phone. It has a camera. And not one of those 1.3-megapixel numbers from a decade ago. This is the real deal. People have already started documenting their breakfasts with it. We're in trouble.

Have you checked out Flickr lately? The iPhone is the site's most-used camera. Instagram, an app that let's people share photos, reached 27 million users to become one of the world's biggest social networks. It hit that milestone purely with the iPhone. Last time I checked, we took photos. Where is our piece of the zeitgeist pie?

For many, who are not camera snobs the iPhone works fine.

I am a camera snob and use a Canon S100 as my pocket camera.  It takes awesome shots which gets close to the quality of Canon 7D where I use mainly 24-105 f/4 L IS lens.  One of the things I learned working with Professional photographers is lens makes a big difference.  This lens is $1,000 and I am spoiled.

651 of 669 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Canon EF 24-70mm vs. 24-105mm IS: Read this if you are a hobbyist, November 19, 2009

By

va1800 (Baltimore, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens for Canon EOS SLR Cameras (Camera)

I am a hobbyist and this review is for people like me. What I mean by that is that I take pictures for fun and nobody buys my pictures. I mostly shoot landscape, nature, and portraits of family, friends, and relatives. I will refer to 24-70mm as the 70, and the 24-105mm IS as the 105. I first made the mistake of buying the 70, then I returned it with a hefty restocking fee and bought the 105 - I don't have the slightest regret and I could not be happier. I'm taking my time to write this review so that you can spend your hard earned money wisely. Let's analyze the trade-off between the two:
* Both lenses have excellent build and image quality. So these are not differentiating factors.
* The one and only advantage of the 70 is the one smaller f-stop. For me, this means more blur when I shoot portraits, so this is all good.
* The advantage of 105 over the 70 are as follows:
- You get an extra 35mm, which is 50% more zoom. I like this.
- You get a 3-stop IS. For me, this is a great advantage, because I rarely use tripods and IS saves the day. I would choose the 105 over 70 for the IS alone.
- The 105 is 10 ounces lighter and close to half an inch shorter.
The last part is the most important part: that additional 10 ounces make a heavy lens TOO HEAVY, and that extra length makes a big lens TOO BIG. Carrying the 70 on my 50D was a pain. I can assure you, the 70 is just too heavy to walk around and take pictures for fun. The keyword here is "fun". The 70 is a pain, the 105 is fun. The 105 is still heavy, but not too heavy. It's still big, but not too big. After having the 70 for a few weeks, I lost all my joy for shooting. It just made me very uncomfortable (and I'm 6-foot 2). When I replaced it with the 105, it did make a difference. I enjoy taking pictures now, once again. Pros might like the 70 because they need it for their professional work. But if you're shooting just for fun, stay away from the 70 and get the 105.

The iPhone camera is with people all the time.  But, if you want to print a photo you'll want something better.  Yes, my wife likes to frame the family pictures.

I shot this with the Canon 7D at 8 frames per second.

and he scores

Are Data Centers and the Cloud close to being regulated? Mike Manos discusses challenges with Governments

Mike Manos is one of the data center executives who I always enjoy chatting with.  We chatted over drinks and dinner a few weeks ago in LV, and I am looking forward to when we are both in Santa Clara for Uptime.  One of the things I enjoy is reading one of Mike's post, and thinking about what he says and what I would say if we were drinking a beer.

Mike has a post on some observations he has collected.

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Open Sourcing our Operational Scale Tools–Meet Trigger »

Cloud Détente – The Cloud Cat and Mouse Papers

April 2, 2012 by mmanos

Over the last decade or so I have been lucky enough to be placed into a fairly unique position to work internationally deploying global infrastructure for cloud environments.  This work has spanned across some very large companies with a very dedicated focus on building out global infrastructure and managing through those unique challenges.   Strategies may have varied but the challenges faced by them all had some very common themes.   One of the more complex interactions when going through this process is what I call the rolling Cat and Mouse interactions between governments at all levels and these global companies.

Having been a primary player in these negotiations and the development of measures and counter measures as a result of these interactions, I have come to believe there are some interesting potential outcomes that cloud adopters should think about and understand.   The coming struggle and complexity for managing regulating and policing multi-national infrastructure will not solely impact the large global players, but in a very real way begin to shape how their users will need to think through these socio-political  and geo-political realities. The potential impacts on their business, their adoption of cloud technologies, their resulting responsibilities and measure just how aggressively they look to the cloud for the growth of their businesses.

Mike shares where he is going with future posts.

The articles will highlight (with some personal experiences mixed in) the ongoing battle between Technocrats versus Bureaucrats.  I will try to cover a different angle on many of the big topics out there today such as :

• Big Data versus Big Government
• Rise of Nationalism as a factor in Technology and infrastructure distribution
• The long struggle ahead for managing, regulating, and policing clouds
• The Business, end-users, regulation and the cloud
• Where does the data live? How long does it live? Why Does it Matter?
• Logic versus Reality – The real difference between Governments and Technology companies.
• The Responsibilities of data ownership
  • … regarding taxation exposure
  • … regarding PII impacts
  • … Safe Harbor

One of the things I enjoy is listening to Mike and seeing where I have made the same observation. I wrote back in June 2010 that Government Regulation is coming to Google, Facebook, or Apple.

Who will be next for Government Regulation? Google, Facebook or Apple

FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 2010 AT 12:03AM

One side affect of the Microsoft anti-trust action is the governments of world feel good about taking on technology companies with regulation.  You go throughout history and technologies at first were not regulated - auto mfg, power generation, oil & gas, and healthcare.  And, there is still people arguing there needs to be more legislation in these areas.

The Data Center industry is one of the youngest industries that has little regulation.  When you look at the Mobile carriers they have dozens of years of regulation (remember how AT&T was broken up).  Can you foresee a future where data centers and the data in them is as highly regulated as mobile carriers?

Keep in mind Mike's warning of the coming regulations to the Cloud and Data.

My hope is that this series and the topics I raise, while maybe a bit raw and direct, will cause you to think a bit more about the coming impacts on Technology industry at large, the potential coming impacts to small and medium size businesses looking to adopt these technologies, and the developing friction and complexity at the intersection of technology and government.

\Mm

Google updates data center locations info with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan

Google has updated its data center locations with its newest construction in Asia Pacific.

The Taiwan site is the only that looks big enough for the thermal storage units given it is 5-6 times bigger than Hong Kong and Singapore.

Hello Taiwan!

In September 2011, we announced that we had acquired 15 hectares of land in Changhua County, Taiwan, with plans to build a data center. We’re now busy building, and we plan to start limited testing and bringing the facility online by the second half of 2013.

Building this data center in Taiwan is an exciting step for us. More new Internet users are coming online everyday here in Asia than anywhere else in the world. They are looking for information and entertainment, new business opportunities and better ways to connect with friends and family near and far. We’re building this data center to make sure that our users in Taiwan and across Asia can do just that, with the fastest and most reliable access possible to all of Google’s services.

Here is more information about the other sites.

Hong Kong

Located in the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate in Kowloon, this facility will sit on partially reclaimed land and will be one of the most efficient data centers in Asia (in stiff competition with our upcoming facilities in Singapore and Taiwan).

Read more about our Hong Kong data center

Singapore

Our first data center in Southeast Asia, this facility will be one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly in Asia - an exciting design challenge given Singapore’s year-round heat and humidity, located just 137 kilometers north of the equator.

Read more about our Singapore data center

Changhua County, Taiwan

Located about three hours down the coast from Taipei, in the shadow of some of the 100 meter wind turbines that dot the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, this facility will be our first to save energy through a nighttime cooling and thermal energy storage system.

Read more about our Taiwan data center

Google plans use of thermal storage for Taiwan Data Center

Google's Asia Pacific president, Daniel Alegre says that Google plans on using thermal storage to reduce cooling costs.

Google center to adopt green solution amid energy price hike concerns 2012/04/03 22:01:37

Taipei, April 3 (CNA) Google Inc. said Tuesday it will incorporate energy-saving solutions into the design of its new data center in Taiwan, amid local concerns over a possible increase in electricity rates.  "We've taken that into account, into our investment in this data center, which is actually one of the reasons why we are very committed to a green solution to minimize our energy consumption," Daniel Alegre, president of Google's Asia-Pacific division, said at the groundbreakin

A bit more details are shared.

One way that Google will increase energy efficiency at its new facility is to adopt a nighttime cooling and thermal energy storage system, according to the company.

The world's largest Internet search engine explained that the data center will cool large quantities of water at night while temperatures are low and power is more plentiful, storing it in insulated tanks where it will retain its temperature.

During the day, especially in the summers when Taiwan heats up and power is more expensive to produce, Google will circulate that cold water throughout the facility to keep it cool.

Google Taiwan Managing Director Chien Lee-feng said the nighttime cooling system, the first of its kind to be used at any Google data center, will enable the Taiwan center to use 50 percent less energy than typical facilities.

The new facility in Changhua will be one of the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly data centers in Asia, with each element

If you are not familiar with thermal storage here is an Intel paper.

5 parts of a Successful Team, ideas to think about in your data center project

There are a few enlightened individuals who have focused on building better data centers teams to transform their IT services.  I found this presentation that articulates an approach that I think some of these people use.

The above link has a video with this framework.

1. The team is a Real Team

-       Clearly bounded task and everyone on the team has a clear idea of who the team members are
-       Team member have the authority to manage their own work
-       Stable membership
-       Clear model of working with their task structure (shared, independent or interdependent)

2. There is an Enabling Structure for task achievement

-       Task design that supports completion of work and is intrinsically motivating and meaningful to team members
-       Team members have strong task related skills
-       Team members have adequate interpersonal skills
-       Team is the right ‘size’ for the task
-       At the group level the team has a good balance in terms of heterogeneity and homogeneity
-       Team norms to shape and support behaviour

3. The team has a Compelling Direction for task achievement

-       Clarity in terms of the task or outcome of team work
-       The outcome or direction is both challenging and consequential
-       The task objective is clear
-       Means of achieving the task is self-directed or managed by the team
-       Clear measures of success

4. There is a Supportive Organizational Context that ensures team success

-       Team identity reinforced by the organisation e.g. rewarding and reinforcing excellent team performance (pay, benefits)
-       Information system that makes data required to plan team work easily accessible to the team members
-       Educational system that provides training [interpersonal and technical expertise] when required
-       Team is provided with sufficient material resources to do their work

5. That Expert Coaching is available and delivered by both the team leader and peers to:-

-       Improve group process
-       Reinforce individual behaviour
-       Improve interpersonal relationships
-       Eliminate unhelpful interventions

Whether you are a team leader, coach or consultant we can offer you expert supervision so you can learn how to set up and use the TDS. You will then be able to implement successful team interventions using the TDS Team Report as the foundation of your own team feedback process.