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Firefox 0.8

Good news from Mozilla!

Mozilla.org released Firefox 0.8 on February 9. It is a renamed upgrade to the popular Mozilla Firebird web browser. Firefox is faster, safer, and better than Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE). The speed difference is very obvious with a cable connection. With a dial-up connection, Internet Exporer crawls in comparison to Firefox.

Mozilla's web browsers have not been plagued by the security problems that have been such a problem with IE.

I really like tabbed browsing. You can CTRL click or right click on links and open them in new tabs. It is quick and fast to go back and forth between pages by clicking the tabs at the top of the page. While you are reading one page, another can be opening in the background. You still have the option of opening links in a new window.

Firefox is free. More info is at the Mozilla website. Download it and try it out. If you prefer it to IE, you can make it your default browser.

 

"Lifehouse" at SPEC. Photo (c) Jim Doty, Jr.

MORE NEW CAMERAS

More new cameras have been introduced at the big PMA show in Las Vegas, in fact, too many to mention them all here.

I will point out the new Konica-Minolta Maxxum 7 Digital, a digital version of the Maxxum 7 film body. This is a 6 megapixel camera in the same category, more or less, as the Nikon D70, Canon 10D, and Canon D-Rebel.

This new camera should make Minolta users very happy. More info is at DPReview.

A lot of manufacturer's are introducing new and hopefully better point and shoot digital cameras. You can read more at DPReview, DCResource, and Imaging Resource.

 


Canon PowerShot Pro1

Canon announced the latest camera in their PowerShot series at the PMA convention in Las Vegas. In the same category as the recent Fuji F828, this is an 8 megapixel all-in-one digital camera with built in 7x zoom lens (28-200mm in 35mm terms), with the traditional PowerShot rotating LCD screen on the back.

This is the first all in one digital camera Canon has released in over three years with a 7x or longer zoom range, and this is the first "L" series lens Canon has announced on a PowerShot camera. L series lenses are Canon's top of the line with flourite and ultra-low dispersion optical elements.

You can read the usual manufacturer's hyperbole at Canon's website.

Watch for previews (early information) and reviews (detailed testing) at Digital Photography Review and other sites linked from the DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY INFORMATION section of my LINKS page.

Canon's last two releases, the G5 and S50, were just a bit disappointing, receiving RECOMMENDED ratings from DPReview, instead of the HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ratings of the G3 and S45, the cameras they replaced.

If the image quality is up to par on this camera, it will be quite an exciting addition to the new group of 8 megapixel point-and-shoot cameras.

 


NEW NIKON D70

A quick comparison of the D70 and Nikon D100, and a few thoughts for Canon shooters.

Photographers with Nikon lenses that are thinking about going digital will be happy to learn about the new Nikon D70 digital SLR.

It will be in the same price range as the Canon Digital Rebel. At around $1000, about $500 less than the current Nikon D100, it is not a significantly dumbed-down version. In some ways it has less features than the D100 (like less ISO settings), and some costs have been saved in the design (like using a pentamirror, which is lower in price and quality than a pentaprism). However, in several ways it is better than its higher priced sibling. It has more image parameter settings, a faster top shutter speed (1/8000), faster flash sync speed (up to 1/500), and a reportedly more advanced metering system.

In continuous shooting mode (with a jpeg setting) it shoots at the same 3 frames per second as the D100, but the buffer will hold 12 shots rather than the 6 of the D100. The D70 has more LCD pixels than the D100 (130,000 versus 118,000), and the computer connection is USB 2.0 insead of 1.1.

In many ways, the D70 is equal to or better than the D100 and at 2/3 the price.

The D70 is smaller and a bit more rounded than the D100. It is solidly well built.

Initial reviews indicate that it is a better made camera than the Canon Digital Rebel, and it certainly is well ahead of the Digital Rebel in features.



The unaswered question has to do with image quality.

The Canon EOS-10D has superb image quality that is a notch higher than the Nikon D100, with better color rendition, higher resolution, and less noice. But just a small notch. The Canon Digital Rebel maintains the same image quality as the 10D. It will be interesting to see, once reliable reviews come in, if the Nikon D70 is a jump up in image quality.

In any case, the Canon 10D and Digital Rebel, and the Nikon D100, are all excellent cameras capable of taking excellent pictures. The same should be true for the D70.

For most photographers, the choice has more to do with which lenses they already own, and the money they have to spend. It is foolish to chase the latest and greatest digital camera at the cost of orphaning an expensive collection of lenses.

Despite virtually equal image quality, the Canon 10D is clearly a better built, easier to use, and more feature rich camera than the Digital Rebel. The choice here is a matter of money. In my opinion, if you can afford the Canon 10D, you should choose it over the D-Rebel. It is worth the difference in price. If the savings in cost is really important, the D-Rebel is a very fine camera.

With the new Nikon D70, the choice is not so easy. If money were no object, the D70 might still be the better choice, since the D70 is in several ways better than the D100. Even though the D100 is more expensive, it may not prove to be a better, all around camera. The jury is still out of course. Detailed reviews in the near future will tell the tale.

The new Nikon D70 is certainly wonderful news for present and future Nikon digital photographers, but it is also good news for Canon photographers. It looks like the D70 has upped the ante and put Canon on notice for future camera models. The quality and price competition has benefited us all.

DP Review has a comprehensive preview of the D70.

If you are a Nikon shooter and deciding between the D70 and D100 - WAIT! When DP Review comes out with a full review, read it and then decide.

 

Picnic Dunk Tank, Photo (c) Jim Doty, Jr.

THREE WEEKS IN THE HIMALAYAS
WITH A CANON 10D AND
NO SOURCE OF ELECTRICITY

One of the major challenges of digital travel photography is keeping your batteries charged, and douwloading or savding images from your memory card so you can erase it and take more pictures.

Jean-François Maïon from Finland spent three weeks in the Himalayas with a Canon 10D and came up with one solution to the problem that worked for him.

 

Wisconsin Sunset, Photo (c) Jim Doty, Jr.

MOZILLA FIREBIRD

I posted some comments on Mozilla Firebird on January 1, 2004 and urged folks to consider trying the latest version of this web browser. It is much faster than Microsoft's Internet Explorer and I really like right clicking to open links in tabs rather than new windows. All of my "open" pages are across the top of my browser window in a neat row of tabs; and I can quickly jump back and forth just by clicking the tabs. This makes editing between sites much faster. I can still open new links in new windows if I choose.

WebMonkey just posted and article on Mozilla and Firebird yesterday (January 30, 2004). If you are looking for something better, faster, and safer than Internet Explorer, it is worth reading the WebMonkey article. You can also go back and read my January 1, 2004 article.

 
NEW GOODIES FROM CANON

Canon has announced two new lenses and one new camera body today.



EOS-1D Mark II

This new camera body has an 8.2 megapixel sensor (almost twice as many as the EOS 1D at 4.2 MP) but the same sensor dimensions as the 1D for the same FOV (field of view) crop of 1.3.

It shoots at up to 8.5 frames per second with an image buffer of 40 frames in jpeg mode. This speed demon is obviously targeted at the Nikon D2H.

It has ISOs (digital "film speeds") from 50-3200, more than the EOS-1D. Images from the CMOS sensor are processed with new DIGIC II technology.

You can read a preview at DPReview and read the Canon press release.



Canon EF 70 - 300 mm DO IS USM

This new lens is really exciting news. It is very compact, it has Canon's Image Stabilization (IS) technology for handholding at much slower shutter speeds, and Canon's exclusive DO (Diffractive Optics) which results in higher quality in a smaller package.

At 75-300mm in focal length, it will be the equivalent on a Canon 10D or Digital Rebel of 112-480mm in focal length on a 35mm film body.

The lens is about the same size as Canon's current 28-135 IS lens. When mounted on a camera, this lens extends only 4 inches from the mounting ring on the body. It is 3 inches wide. This is quite amazing in a high quality lens that extends to 300mm in focal length. It is much shorter than my current 75-300mm IS lens.

The 75-300mm IS lens, released a number of years ago, is my light weight telephoto lens when I don't want to carry a bigger, heavier telephoto lens. It is very good at 75mm and 200mm, but only so-so wide open at 300mm. It is a little better stopped down at 300mm but still a little disappointing. This new 70-300 DO IS lens should be much better. Canon claims the optical quality is comparable to "L" series lenses due to the three layer DO lens element.

The only down side is the expected price of around $1300 USD. Perhaps it will come down in price over time.

For people who want high quality and minimal size and weight, this will likely become the portable, telephoto lens of choice.

You can read more at DPReview.



Canon EF 28-300 mm F3.5-F5.6 L IS USM

For anyone who doesn't mind paying a premium for an all-in-one, "L" series lens here it is. One lens can't really do everything, but at 28-300mm, this lens does a lot. It is reminiscent of Canon's 35-350mm L series lens but a little shorter in focal lengths at each end, and with Image Stabilization (IS) thrown in. On the Canon 10D or Digital Rebel, it is equivalent to 45-480mm in film terms.

It is a big lens at 7 1/4 inches long by 3 2/3 inches wide. It is also big in price, expected to sell at around $2500 USD.

Coupled with the Canon 17-40mm L series zoom, these two lenses would make a fine pair, covering quite a range of focal lengths.

Optical tests of both of these lenses should start popping up on the internet as these lenses become available.

You can read more at DPReview.

There is more information on both of these lenses at Canon's website.

 

California Poppies, Photo (c) Jim Doty, Jr.

PHISHING

NEVER give credit card numbers, bank account numbers, pin numbers, or any other personal information to someone that emails you and asks for it.

Unscrupulous people set up bogus sites that imitate the web sites of real companies, and then they send out emails to get people to go to the website and enter personal information. This practice is called phishing (pronounced like fishing). When they acquire personal information, they use it to open accounts in the name of the person they stole the information from.

I received this email today (I omitted the sender's email address and most of the link I was supposed to click):

**** ****

_Dear_ Citibank-Online Member_,

_This E-MAIL was _sent_ by_the_ CitibankOnline serevrs to
veerify _your_ Email addres_.
You muust ceomtlpe this psocers by clicking on _the link
below and enteering in the smal winddow your _citibank
Atm_ Card Nummber and _PIN that you use_ on_the Atm Machine.
That is done - for_your poectrtion -K- becourse some of our
memmbers no legonr have acsces to their email adeesrsds
and we must verify it.

http://citi-card.org . . . . . . .

To veerify your _E-MAIL_ addres and acccess your_ _citibank_
account, clik on the_link _bellow_.

lri89e0xgt9u7Vg

**** ****

Notice the bad grammar and spelling that indicates that this originated from a non-English speaking country. Definite tip offs to a phishing expedition. I do not even have a Citibank account.

Citibank has a link to report suspicious emails on this page. It so happens that the suspicious email I received is already on their list.

Not all phishing emails are this poorly done. I received a very well worded and well prepared email telling me my Yahoo account was about to expire. I clicked on the link and it took me to a very good imitation of the Yahoo website, complete with the Yahoo logo, colors, and page layouts. Even the website address in the status bar was a Yahoo address, but it was not a Yahoo site. It was all a fake, including the Yahoo address. Yahoo does not send out emails and ask you to go to a their website to verify personal information.

Yahoo has a page with information about password scams and how to tell the fakes Yahoo sites from the real Yahoo site. Many other companies that do business online have similar information.

When in doubt, don't click that link.

Be wary of any email asking for personal information. Someone may want to go phishing in your financial pond.

 

Green Anole, Photo (c) Jim Doty, Jr.

NEW COMPUTER WORM

A new and widespread worm is hitting the internet. Sometimes called "MyDoom", it is technically called "W32.Novarg.A@mm". I have received (but not opened) over 100 worm-infected emails over the last three days.

Beware of any emails with attachments, especially if they contain the subjects listed below. The following Subject, Message, and Attachment information is from Symantec:

*** ***

Subject:
(one of the following)
* test
* hi
* hello
* Mail Delivery System
* Mail Transaction Failed
* Server Report
* Status
* Error

Message:
(one of the following)
o Mail transaction failed. Partial message is
available.
o The message contains Unicode characters and has been
sent as a binary attachment.
o The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII
encoding and has been sent as a binary attachment.

Attachment:
(one of the following)
o document
o readme
o doc
o text
o file
o data
o test
o message
o body

*** ***

If your virus definitions are up to date, you are protected by McAfee, Norton's, and PC-cillin virus protection software.

The worm fakes the sent email address. If you receive an email message that you sent out an infected email, that does NOT mean your computer has been infected. It probably means ANOTHER computer is infected and sent out infected emails and faked YOUR email return address.

If you opened an email with one of the above subject headings and inadvertently triggered the worm, you can
remove it from you computer with the following utility from Symantec.

More information is here and here.

 


HELMUT NEWTON (1920-2004)


A photographic icon is gone. Internationally famous fashion photographer, Helmut Newton, died in an auto accident in Los Angeles yesterday (January 23). He was 83. Newton was known for his edgy fashion and nude photography.

Newton was born in Germany in 1920. He fled in 1938 to escape persecution as a Jew. After fighting with the Australian army in WWII, he began work as a professional photographer in Paris in 1957. He was published in Vogue, Elle, Stern, Playboy and many other magazines. His fashions photos were highly sought after and many books of his work are sold around the world. Much of his fashion and nude photography could be described as sparse, austere, and cold.

His book SUMO gave new meaning to the phrase "coffee table book". The massive 480 page book weighs over 65 pounds and measures 31 x 32 x 6.6 inches in size (those dimensions are not a misprint). The book sells for an amazing price of $3,000 (that is not a misprint either) at Amazon.com. Shipping is extra. The book comes with its own stand which is included in the price of the book. Such a bargain! To see and read more about this huge book, or to buy it, go here.

A much more affordable book of Newton's work is Portraits: Photographs from Europe and America at $24.50. Photos of celebrities and wannabees are done in Newton's unique style.

Australian citizens, he and his wife June (married in 1948) have lived in Monte Carlo since 1981.

At the age of 75, Newton decided he had photographed too many naked women. This was an unexpected decision. "I just had a bellyful and realized I had shot enough nudes to last a lifetime." Helmut and his wife June gave an interview about this sudden decision at Salon.com.

You can buy Newton's autobiography here.

Articles about Newton are currently posted at CNN and the Washington Post.


David Lynch and Isabella Rossellini by Helmut Newton, OCAIW Gallery

 
AMAZING GOOGLE!

Google is not only my favorite search engine, it can do lots of other things.

Where is the 303 area code? Just type 303 into Google and click search.

Want to convert ounces to pounds? Just type 897 oz to pounds and click search.

To check on a flight, type American 1257. If it is currently in the air, it will even show you where.

To check out a Universal Product Code, type UPC 034707055407.

Want to do some quick math? Type 87+36 or 512/16, or (3*46)/23.

It is 24 degrees Celsius in Tahiti. What is that in Fahrenheit? Type 24 degrees c in f.

What does a word mean? Type define: sprite.

Whose phone number is it? Type 269-349-7775.

Want to call someone? Type in John, Doe, city or John, Smith, state. Google will list addresses and phone numbers.

Want to track a Fed Ex, UPS, or U.S. Postal Service package? Just type in the tracking number.

Want to buy a nativity set from that business you visited in Alaska? Type phone Windsong Designs, Alaska.

You can get stock quotes, street maps, news headlines and more. You can even shop for the best prices at Froogle.

Pretty amazing! Learn more here.

 

Thai Dancer, Photo (c) Jim Doty, Jr.

What Time Is It?

Even though Papeete, Tahiti is slightly east of Anchorage, Alaska in longitude, and the sun rises earlier in Papeete, it is one hour behind Anchorage in clock time. Why? I don't know, but it is.

When it is 10 AM in Anchorage, it is only 9 AM in Papeete. I discoverd this on the World Clock at TimeandDate.com. It not only tells you what time it is anywhere in the world, you can go backward or forward in time, pick any location, date, and time and it will tell you what time it will be, or was, everywhere else in the world.

This site is not ultra precise. That is to say, it can vary from UTC (Universal Time Coordinated in Greenwich England) by a few seconds, but it is close enough for most people's purposes. If you want to call a friend in Kathmandu, it is nice to know they are 5 hours and 45 minutes ahead of UTC (Kathmandu is not in any standard time zone).

You can create you own personal time clock with different cities around the world. Other helpful features are multi-time-zone meeting planners, calendars, time counters and more. Type in the year you were born and look at the calendar for that year.

This interesting site can be found here.

On to part two of this article.



What Day Is It?, Photo (c) Jim Doty, Jr.

If you are really curious, pick the "USA" version of the calendar, go to the year 1752 and look at the month of September. Surprised?!

That is no mistake. Eleven days are missing from September.

Due to problems with the old Julian calendar system (dating back to 46 B.C. and Julius Ceasar), things had gotten out of kilter. By the 1500's mother nature and the calendar were off by 11 days. Due to an 11 minute and 14 second discrepancy (doesn't sound like much) between the "average length of a calendar year" (figuring leap years into the equasion) and the actual time it takes for the earth to go around the sun, things had been getting out of sync by about 3 days every four centuries. If things were not changed, Easter (on the calendar) would eventually occur early in winter. The first day of summer would occur when it always does in relation to the earth's journey around the sun, but the calendars would read September not June. Something had to be done.

Pope Gregory instituted two calendar reforms. In 1582, October 4 was followed by October 15, dropping 10 days out of the year to re-align the calendar with the actual seasons. Century years (1700, 1800, 1900, and so on), were changed from leap centuries (29 days in February) to non-leap centuries unless they were divisible by 400. 1600 and 2000 were leap centuries, but 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not.

Catholic countries made the changes immediately. Countries that were predominantly Protestant or Eastern Orhtodox did not make the changes until 170 years later.

By decree of parliament, England and the colonies made the much needed changes in 1752. In that year, September 2 was followed by September 14. People rioted, demanding their 11 days back.

Russia kept the old Julian calendar until the Bolshevik revolution in the 20th century. By then, they had to drop 13 days out of their calendar to get in step with the rest of the world.