Flickr a Day 105: ‘Mickey’s Diner Take 2’

File today’s selection under category “less is more”. Joe Dammel borrowed a friend’s Nikon D3000 to shoot self-titled “Mickey’s Dining Car” on Oct. 26, 2011. The original was a “7-shot HDR image” that nearly two years later demanded re-processing “to better-reflect my editing tastes today”—June 2013, according to the metadata. “I realized that the original single image kept all of the tones I’d ever need”.

Hence, we have “Mickey’s Diner Take 2”. He adds: “My workflow now is about isolating the subject in a more natural way, emphasizing the tonality of the image rather than tone mapping the hell out of it”. Please compare to the original; I, too, prefer the second take. Vitals: f/8, ISO 100, 1 sec, 18mm.

Money by Joe WilcoxApr 14, 20155:03 pm

What Sucks about .Sucks Domains

As someone whose name also is his brand (welcome to 21st-century journalism), I watch with interest the new .sucks top-level domain, which is available for select preregistration through May 29—the only time to surely secure your .sucks. Yesterday, i looked to a reputable registrar to see what joewilcox.sucks would cost me. Cough, cough: $3,797.99 now, during the so-called Priority Access (e.g., Sunrise) period, or $407.98 when general pre-reg starts in June.

The new TLD is just one among hundreds of available or forthcoming domain extensions sanctioned by governing body ICANN. “I think the motivation behind the release of all these new domains is money”, says Roger Kay, who describes the sellers as shady land speculators. “The .sucks domain is particularly nasty”, the president of consultancy Endpoint Technologies Associates emphasizes. “It’s pretty close to blackmail”. But is it really? This analysis means to help you decide.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 14, 20157:00 am

Flickr a Day 104: ‘Sun Over Earth’

In making today’s selection, I set out looking for a dramatic view of our planet—perhaps surging storms below. But self-titled “Sun Over Earth” wins the Day for composition, perspective, and sense of being there. NASA […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 13, 20157:14 am

Flickr a Day 103: ‘La Course’

Today’s selection is good example where black and white makes an image that color could ruin. I generally like the energy and enthusiasm of self-titled “La Course”, which Franck Vervial captured on Aug. 19, 2011, […]

News Media by Joe WilcoxApr 12, 201511:30 am

‘Trust is the Currency of the Sharing Economy’

Some days you wake up and wonder. As part of my morning routine, reading email and recent posts to my social networks and from RSS feeds is the first activity after greeting my wife. “The Risk Of Reviewing The Reviewer“, which actually published yesterday, riveted my early-day attention. For TechCrunch, Aimee Millwood writes something everyone, particularly bloggers and journalists, should read. You aren’t her intended audience, but you should be.

The headline to this post is among her key quotables and resonates with a point that I repeatedly make here on this site and emphasize in my ebook Responsible Reporting: Field Guide for Bloggers, Journalists, and Other Online News Gatherers: While inexplicably intertwined, trust trumps truth. The pursuit of truth isn’t your first ethical objective but establishing and maintaining trust with your audience—and, yes, this concept contradicts traditional journalism teaching. But it doesn’t, since truth ties to trust.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 12, 20157:28 am

Flickr a Day 102: ‘I See a Big Car and I Want to Paint It’

Our pick uses similar technique as Day 101: Selective color highlights one subject while subtlety drawing attention to another, in black and white. Both photos were also captured in 2008, this one on May 25 (the […]

Critters by Joe WilcoxApr 11, 20157:45 am

Catchella

Cali almost never goes on our bed, but she greeted me when I awoke two days back and came visiting last afternoon while I worked on Chromebook Pixel LS. She rubbed my hand for pats—and got […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 11, 20156:42 am

Flickr a Day 101: ‘Union Jack’

Decades ago, I spun vinyl records as a radio DJ. Segues between songs meant everything. For this series, so far, differences are—or have been—the priority moving from one selection to the next so as not […]

Living by Joe WilcoxApr 10, 20158:56 pm

This Sign can’t be Good

While walking I saw this sign on the Adams Ave. bridge crossing the 805 here in San Diego. What? People park cars there to sell and must be warned not to? The hazard is obvious. […]

Apple by Joe WilcoxApr 10, 20157:30 pm

What Happened to the Apple New Product Lovefest?

I typically don’t pull together review roundups, but bloggers and journalists with early access to Apple Watch and 12-inch MacBook beat the products senseless. Not even Wall Street Journal gives glowing look at the laptop; the pummeling is among the most brutal. Meanwhile, The Verge repeatedly gut-punches the smartwatch. Two themes rise from the many reviews, even those trying to cover up pooh with perfume: The devices are beautiful, but performance is a lumbering beast.

Welcome to the Tim Cook and Jony Ive era of putting form before function, and to a fault. Apple’s CEO and design chief may not be the dynamic duo shareholders hoped for. The first truly new products to emerge under Cook’s stewardship receive a collective meh, which should scare any intelligent buyer witless. Because if the past means anything, the carefully chosen coven of early reviewers embrace newfangled Apple things like the Devil clings to sinners. But not this week.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 10, 20157:28 am

Flickr a Day 100: Coachella

No single image can convey the spirit, creativity, and vitality of Thomas Hawk photography. He is the master street photographer and storyteller, who keeps his camera as nearly constant companion. Is the thing surgically attached? No effort to chose the one is worthy, so I don’t try.

Instead, for our one-hundredth selection, timeliness helps sort more than 100,000 Flickr pics to a choice of one among 880. Because, coincidentally, on Day 100, one of North America’s most popular music festivals, Coachella, kicks off the first of two weekends. I was lucky enough to buy my daughter tickets for the second year in a row. She is there now.

Apple by Joe WilcoxApr 9, 20158:45 pm

Apple Watch Social Sentiments Slump

As the clock passes Midnight and takes us into April 10, Apple Watch preorders begin. Sales start two weeks later. The buzz is big, but will actual demand be? Argus Insights, an analyst firm that is new to me, doesn’t see strong sales ahead. The metrics are interesting: 7.8 million social interactions and 65K online reviews about wearables.

“Though the Apple Watch will of course be successful, we don’t see the product to be wildly successful”, John Feland, Argus founder, says in a statement. I reviewed the firm’s report, which data is from September 2014 to end of March 2015, and it’s interesting reading. The question, and Apple Watch sales likely will answer: Is online social buzz a means for predicting a product’s success?