Crappy digital pictures

I'm either a moron (a word I love to use when I describe someone who has no clue), or the camera I have just simply sucks. Here's the deal. I was taking pictures at my wife's 40th birthday party (she will kill me when she reads this), and the majority came out blurry, off color, and seemed to pick up every fleck of dust floating in the air. I was hoping it's the camera. It would b e easier to blame, but it's most likely my not understanding the way the camera works.

After I saw the pictures I took (see them here), I decided to head over to Darren Rowse web site Digital Camera Reviews. I thought maybe I was missing something. Maybe I didn't understand how to use a freakin point and shoot digital camera. The camera in question (oh, I'll get back to Darren's site in a minute) is a Casio Exilim EX-Z57, 5.0 Mega Pixel, 3x Optical. Nice camera, light, small, has a SanDisk UltraII 512MB (USB) card for memory. Large screen on the back to see the photos. But it still takes what I consider to be crappy pictures.There are a number, something like 20, condition settings available; black and white, night time, portrait, kids, sports, and so on. I typically use the indoor or outdoor setting.

Back to Darren's Digital Camera site. I searched for my camera, and no luck. He hasn't done a review and it's not in the online store. Probably because it's an older camera, two years maybe.But

But, I did find a couple of real good tutorials on his Digital Photography School blog. Like, 11 Tips for Better Candid Photography, here, (similar to the party pictures I butchered). I also found this great tutorial, Photographing people from different angles.

Anyway, after looking around, reading, and trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing wrong, I quit. It must be me. I'm going to spend the afternoon using each setting of the camera and taking pictures of the same subject.

I hope this doesn't affect my 356Photos Project. Because I want you all to see my good side.

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365 Photos Project

Not sure why I want to try this, but it seems interesting. Taking one picture of myself every day for 365 days. Can I do it? Not sure, but I'm going t try. I hope I can vary the location of the pictures I take. You can see all the photos here.

RSS feed of 365Project

Tags: 365Photos

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Why does Windows Live Writer do this?

I clicked on the Get Posting Style button when setting up a new blog account in Windows Live Writer. Then I noticed this entry title on my blog page: "Temporary Post Used For Style Detection (c560c898-8ea2-xxxx-xxxx-d25b48d206ed)" What the hell? That is totally stupid. If you're going to post something to my blog and not tell me about it, the least you can do is delete it when you are done. Doh! What if I hadn't noticed it for several days, what an oaf I would look like. That's a bug. Please fix it.

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Software Security Sucks

The reason software security sucks is because as a developer/architect/user, they mean different things to each one. As a developer, it's a pain to implement it. As an Architect, it's a pain to define it. As a user, I don't really give two cents unless it prevents me from doing my job.

Now, I guess I should back down from post title. But it's true. Developing and designing applications with security in mind is a very daunting task. In my opinion, and of course, it's all mine, web applications seem to provide the biggest scare to employers and users. Desktop application for some reason gives everyone a sense of security. Could it be that it's primarily self contained?

There have been hundreds of white papers, blog posts and books written about software security. A company I worked for not long ago, which sells security software, had two security experts on staff. Guys who all they do is help define the security concerns for the architecture of the software.

[just had a thought about testing and security, next post]

I know this, in the end, when it comes right down to it, most companies will bend and forgo any security in software, especially if their current development staff doesn't understand the necessity of security. Sure they may learn some, but it will be weak at best.

OK, I admit it. I'm one of those guys. As I was looking at a project I'm working on today, I was a little stumped as to where the security holes were. Or were there even any? As the leader of an enormous one man operation, I should know this stuff. So, I set off to learn more about the security of software development.

Tags: Software+Development

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Yes, Office 2.0 is for me

I wanted to jump in on this discussion, mainly because I am very passionate about these Web 2.0 apps.

Honestly, I don't care if they are aptly named "Web 2.0", or Web 3.0 or Webbies or what ever. What I do care about is they are accessible from pretty much anywhere I can get an Internet connection.

As I posted here, I'm really open to these applications. As stated in Chris's post (here), not everyone needs every feature of a wordprocessor like Microsoft Word. In fact, I don't even need all the features in a Google Docs. But I like the interface, the ability to use several document formats, and I'm sure as Google goes along, it will get better. And I'm willing to look past it.

I don't think any of these applications are ready for full Enterprise deployments, nor do I think they were intended as such. As an Enterprise user, I would feel very frustrated knowing that I must be connected to the Internet to use my wordprocessor or spreadsheet. But if you don't care or need to, then yeah, these Web 2.0 apps are fantastic.

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