Photo by Joe Wilcox
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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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Gear by Joe Wilcox
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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.

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Sports by Joe Wilcox
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Breaking the Ice at Ice Town

This morning we returned to that rink in the mall, Ice Town, for a dramatically different skating experience. I had wondered, “Who puts an ice rink in a shopping mall?” The rink could be fun for kid and teen shoppers, but little more. My bad. A lot more.

Ice Town packs in the serious skaters. My daughter returned during the Tuesday morning Freestyle session, where there were plenty of high-level skaters, including a young man representing Mexico in world competition. 

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Apple by Joe Wilcox
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Fake Steve Jobs is Revealed!

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs is one acerbic—and hugely popular—Weblog. Also known as Fake Steve Jobs, the author has had quite a following over that last 14 months. There has been a concerted effort to reveal Fake Steve Jobs’ identity. No longer.

In New York Times story, “A Mystery Solved: ‘Fake Steve’ Blogger Comes Clean“, reporter Brad Stone reveals the identity as Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes. Today, Fake Steves acknowledged, “Damn, I am so busted, yo“. 

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Web by Joe Wilcox
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Free Themes with a Hidden Cost

About 11 years ago, I registered aroostook.org, as it derives from the name of my home county, or “The County” as Mainers call it. I later let a good friend have the domain, which I long regretted.

It’s nothing to do with him; he’s a great friend. In retrospect, I could have put the domain to good use. Today, I looked over the WHOIS record, which indicates the domain record was created in 2002. Mmmm, 1996 is more like it. He must have let the domain expire at some point.

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Video by Joe Wilcox

We Mourn

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwBIzkp4V6Q]   Overnight, one of the teens in our community died after falling while skateboarding. We can’t offer deepest enough condolences to the family, which lost their youngest child (he was 18) and only […]