Category: Gear

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I’m Googled Now

In 1995, I registered domain editors.com. I loved that domain, but, alas, sold it a few years back for a small sum. Had I understood then where blogging was going, I wouldn’t have let go the domain. Idiot.

Anyway, the replacement domain is used strictly for e-mail. It has seen a few hosts, including Yahoo. The most recent one has an invalid SSL certificate going on a year now. I finally got sick of repeated warnings about security cert and made a major shift yesterday: Google.

I signed up for Google Apps, so that I could host the domain somewhere else for e-mail. What a bargain. Fifty bucks a year, with 25GB of storage and a bunch of other Google services hanging off the domain.

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CES 2008 was Great

I had a great time at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, thanks to the October move to San Diego and a little scheduling assistance from Microsoft PR agency Edeleman. From Washington, DC, CES would have been a week commitment. From San Diego, Las Vegas is an hour flight. Edelman booked five Microsoft meetings for Tuesday. I snagged another private Microsoft meeting and one regular briefing with HP. I had a jam-packed schedule consolidated so that I could fly in and out on the same day.

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The D with One More Zero

This afternoon, I completed a 180-degree turn with respect to photo gear. I completely abandoned Canon and moved to Nikon. I had made a kind of switch before; this one is permanent. All my Canon equipment is gone. Timing is strange, because I passed up opportunity to buy new dSLR models from both companies.

I have used the Canon EOS 20D since 2004—with a break in-between with the Nikon D200. I eventually switched back to Canon, because of my daughter’s ice skating. A good friend had my old Canon f/2.8 L lenses, and he was willing to trade my Nikon gear. With the 20D’s lower noise at higher ISO and the amount of light captured by the f/2 and f/2.8, I got better pics from the ice rink than with the D200; I had f/3.5-5.6 lenses, and the Nikon camera produces more noise at higher ISOs. 

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A QPC-860 Story

They don’t make cell phones like this anymore.

Yesterday, as I was cleaning the basement, I found a personal relic: A Qualcomm cell phone from, looks like, 1999. The phone carries the Bell Atlantic Mobile brand, which existed until mid 2000, when the company became Verizon following the merger with GTE.

I hit the “pwr” switch, expecting no response. But, miraculously, the phone powered up. Keep in mind, this phone has collected dust in my basement for about eight years. Disturbing, however: The phone comes up with my old phone number and it makes calls. I did one test call, then stopped. It’s not my number, anymore. I’m not sure how best to dispose of the phone, because of the active number.