Category: Leica

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 22, 20239:49 pm

Hello Samsung, Goodbye SanDisk

During Black Friday week 2022, I bought from Amazon several SanDisk SSDs—2TB Extreme Pro. The discounted selling price is even lower this year. But I have decided to retire all. My experience with the drives is nothing short of satisfaction. But throughout 2023, I have read numerous blogs, forum posts, and news stories about SanDisk drive failures resulting in loss of data. Every time I connect Extreme Pro to my laptop, I am nagged by feeling of playing Russian Roulette.

Consider this chilling headline from PetaPixel, in August: “SanDisk Portable SSDs Are Failing So Frequently, We Can No Longer Recommend Them“. Or this one from The Verge: “We just lost 3TB of data on a SanDisk Extreme SSD“, with dek “My colleague Vjeran is furious”. The big bombshell, just 10 days ago: “SanDisk Extreme Pro Failures Result From Design and Manufacturing Flaws, Says Data Recovery Firm” (Tom’s Hardware re-reporting from German Site FutureZone).

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 12, 202310:37 pm

Tangled Web

Belated topic time: Few months ago, I changed copyright on this blogsite and my Flickr from a Creative Commons non-commercial variant to All Rights Reserved. I did this in response to so-called artificial intelligence algorithms scraping content from websites for various purposes—improving learning models being one of them.

Some of that content can and likely will be repurposed for profit and in manner outside my artistic control. Software developers, many of them large tech companies—think Apple, Google, and Microsoft, for starters—can claim plausible deniability. “Hey, we didn’t know that would happen”.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 10, 20239:07 pm

The Beat is Gone

For years, we have infrequently heard the playing of drums from a garage off the alley behind our apartment building. I’m a fan, who enjoyed listening to the practice. Has that era come to an end? I ask, because of an awfully nice-looking set of shells stacked behind the aforementioned garage—sans skins—as if being discarded. I know nothing about the percussion instrument. Does that look like a good kit to you?

I spotted the set during an impromptu walk today and used Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra to mark the moment. But returning home, and looking over the shots, I decided that black and white would be better. About a half-hour later, I returned with Leica Q2 Monochrom, from which comes the Featured Image. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/7, ISO 200, 1/5000 sec. 9:32 a.m. PST.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 3, 202310:19 pm

The Big ‘Little Library’ Renovation

Whoa, something changed with the LittleFreeLibrary located on Campus Avenue in University Heights. You probably wouldn’t recognize that this is a less-decorative rendition of the one shared in October 2021. But size still commands all other curbside lending boxes situated around the San Diego neighborhood.

My wife and I first spotted the renovated enclosure on Oct. 10, 2023, while walking along perpendicular street Monroe. The Featured Image and companions come from Leica Q2. Vitals, aperture manually set for all: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/320 sec, 28mm; 11:20 a.m. PDT.

Photo by Joe WilcoxOct 31, 20238:58 pm

Calming Halloween

What kid doesn’t like trick-or-treating? For Halloween, with all the crazy decorations outside University Heights homes and San Diegans of all ages marching the sidewalks, I had planned on posting something of a montage of the Macabre.

But instead, I share something simple and unbecoming. I used Leica Q2 to capture the Featured Image on Oct. 19, 2023. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/1.7, ISO 500, 1/15 sec, 28mm; 8:04 p.m.

Photo by Joe WilcoxOct 30, 20239:22 pm

The Cross Cat and Venom

At the house where lives Daniel Tiger, one of the “Cats of University Heights“, the kids have put up drawings for Halloween. I am a big fan of spiders and the black putty-tat’s expression is irresistible—as is the uninhibited artistry of a child.

The family also keeps chickens and puts out a jar of food for neighbors to feed them. There had been three birds, but recently only two roam the yard. What happened to the other one? I must ask sometime.

Photo by Joe WilcoxOct 27, 202310:23 pm

Don’t Bite Me

I shot the Featured Image using Leica Q2, today, as my wife and I returned to University Heights from grocery shopping in Hillcrest. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/250 sec, 28mm; 11:39 a.m. PDT.

Spiders hold a special place in my heart, and something about the giant fake one demanded photographic attention. I considered close-cropping but the entire holiday decoration display deserved showcasing. So here we are.

Photo by Joe WilcoxOct 25, 20238:54 pm

Mourning Rose

I don’t have much to say tonight. This evening, Eastern Daylight Time, there was a mass-casualty shooting at two separate locations in Lewiston, Maine. I lived in the state’s second-largest city during my latter teen years and graduated from the high school. While I haven’t been to Lewiston for decades, roots there and being Maine-native twist my gut thinking about this tragedy.

As I write, the city is under stay-at-home lockdown, and the shooter is on the loose. Police have released photos of the assault-rifle-carrying suspect and (escape) vehicle taken from surveillance video.

Photo by Joe WilcoxOct 21, 20239:19 pm

Big Book Sale Surprise

My wife asked about going to see the San Diego mural from my Oct. 18, 2023 post, so today we walked to the alley between El Cajon Blvd and Howard Ave. along 30th Street in North Park. She took first photos; I shot some refreshers.

From there we headed West along Howard towards Sprouts market to buy bananas and organic whole milk. The University Heights Public Library book sale room opens into the grocer’s parking lot—and it was open. So we ventured inside for a surprise.

Photo by Joe WilcoxOct 13, 20238:54 pm

Boom Button

One week ago tomorrow, Hamas terrorists launched an assault into Israel that slaughtered entire families (yes, children included), grabbed hostages, and raped women. Need I say more? As Israel prepares to invade Gaza Strip, regional tensions rise—perhaps even exceeding the raw emotional reaction among Jews and many other human beings.

My concern: Atrocities were meant to evoke such anger that Israel acts out the script of a plan meant to give Hezbollah an excuse to join Hamas in a counteroffensive that would devastate the Jewish state and lead to global war—as nations like the United States take military action for its longstanding ally and Muslim countries like Iran directly or, by proxy, indirectly intervene for the terrorist groups.

Photo by Joe WilcoxOct 12, 20239:28 pm

Who Can It Be Now?

What to say? I don’t drink alcoholic anything, but here we are for a third time romping over Bud Light. Perhaps you know the once popular beer that undergoes the mother of all boycotts—after Anheuser-Busch made the marketing mistake of aligning with a transgender TikToker.

Previously, on this torrid topic: “‘Hey, I Thought There was a Boycott!‘” and “Delivering or Removing?” So with the beer’s sales flushing down a toilet, I was surprised to see—on Oct. 8, 2023—a bag of empties tied up nicely for someone like Pat to grab and cash in at the local recycler. The Featured Image was a compulsory capture, if for no other reason than how cleanly the cans were gathered together and neatly sacked.

Photo by Joe WilcoxOct 10, 20238:39 pm

Eye See You

The “1917 House“—as my wife and I call it—is decked out big-time for Halloween. Passing by today, I stopped for a couple shots of the most mundane, but menacing, part of the display. The place was full of “Scaredy Cats” two years ago, and I may have breezed past them on this sunny Tuesday.

The Featured Image comes from Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, but too much is lost in the busyness. Zoom in and you will see ghosties and orange lights that showed up better to my eyes than they do from the digital capture. But I am pleased enough with the crowded composition. Vitals: f/2.2, ISO 50, 1/120 sec, 13mm (film equivalent); 5:04 p.m. PDT.