Looking for a Camera?

There is a lot to look for besides the usual color and design. The first thing you should do, ask yourself, “What am I going to use the camera for?”
If you are going to use your camera for basic use at social gatherings, vacations, documenting products for eBay etc. You might want to take a look at a “point and shoot” camera.
“Point and shoot” cameras have evolved a great deal over the past few years. In 2007, the 7.0 mega pixel was the common/standard. The year before that was the 6.0 mega pixel. Lately I have noticed that newer models are moving to make 8.0 mega pixels the new standard. I think that anything higher than an 8.0 or 10.0 mega pixel camera is excessive for a “point and shoot” camera and a basic consumer. With more mega pixels one can do more editing and cropping on the computer. The one thing that has not really changed over the years for digital “point and shoot” cameras is the optical zoom.
The average optical zoom for them is 3.0x. Some very low-end digital cameras do not even have an optical zoom and only carry a digital zoom. There is a number of high-end new models that carry an optical zoom up to 5.0x. If you are looking for a camera with more zoom you should look at “high zoom” or Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras.
“High Zoom” cameras are always larger than “point and shoot” cameras. These cameras will carry an optical zoom anywhere from 8x to 15x. Most models you will find in an electronics retail store will not have the ability to interchange any lens. The size of the camera can range from a small SLR to the size of a four-year-old “point and shoot” camera.
Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras have the benefits of having the ability to manually adjust aperture, shutter speed, and many other advanced features. The larger lenses can capture more light and thus have a greater resolution. SLR cameras are all about the feature of interchangeable accessories, whether they be zoom lenses or advanced flashes.
There are two other things to look at when looking for a camera. One is the feature of a high ISO and the other is the type of battery the camera uses. An ISO is a sensor that deals with three different aspects when taking a picture. New cameras have the ability to shoot at high ISO or higher ISOs than their predecessors. The lower the ISO the better the camera will be for taking pictures in darker settings. The sensor in the camera will help so that dark pictures do not turn out grainy. The ISO on a camera will also help with shutter speed and image stabilization as well. For the topic concerning what type of battery the camera takes depends on personal preference. Cameras with Li-ion batteries have the ability to be much more sleek and compact. If lost, they are not cheap to replace and can very difficult to find. There is often confusion of the difference between lithium and lithium-ion batteries. The difference is that lithium batteries are one time use and are not rechargeable like lithium-ion batteries. However, both can last up to many times longer than standard batteries.

Terabyte

I was recently reading the headlines of Google News Sci/Tech and I thought about how terabyte hard drives will come sooner than I thought.

I realized this when thinking about HD DVD and Bluray. Since Hi Def is the must have of today I would expect to see more terabyte hard drives soon.

A 60GB hard drive can only hold about 14 hours of DVD quality video and about 5 hours of HD quality.

Opera Browser = Amazin'!!!

WOW!

I just downloaded the Opera Browser for my Windows Mobile 5 PPC - 6700. I am amazed by how fast and intuitive the software is.

I normally use the WM5 version of Internet Explorer (IE) and have been let down by Mozilla's Mini browser, Minimo. Minimo had the right idea of tabbed browsing and cool buttons. But when I went to a site that Minimo did not like it would randomly close and I would have to start all over again. Also the program ran very slow for a PPC with a 416Mhz processor and 64 MB of RAM.

IE also sucks (not as much as Minimo) since it too does not like certain sites and sometimes freezes.

My device is old but was ahead of its time when it was released (early 2006).

Conclusion: Opera Browser>IE>Minimo.

(Sorry Mozilla, I still love you for your Firefox and Thunderbird)

New stuff

I have not posted in a while. Wow!

A few months ago I was behind a mediocre car that had a purple bumper sticker that said, "Jesus is the Answer." This person was about to turn right to get onto the 101 and head South. When I was sitting patiencently, I noticed that she was smoking and as she was turning she littered her cigarette butt. I honked at her and thought about how her lord and savior Jesus H. Christ would be unhappy.

**Side note (Jesus' middle name = Horace?)

I still have been going to research meetings with Jeff Hester for researching star formation. I am still not being paid. I had my parents fill out the FAFSA to get paid for a work study job. I am also waiting for another key to the workroom since the first key that they gave me did not work.

I will try to post more frequently.

History Months

Practically everyone in America knows that February is Black History Month. Has anyone ever thought about the other months? People don't even seem to care!

	Black History Month February 2007
	Women's History Month March 2007
	Asian Pacific American Heritage Month May 2007

	Hispanic Heritage Month September 15 - October 15, 2006
	American Indian Heritage Month November 2006

IDL > MATLAB 7. . .Plus flowing liquid on Mars in Last 5 years!

Yesterday, Kayla and I went to another research meeting. Prof. Hester helped us create accounts and showed us some features with IDL. He also said that we could purchase the student version of IDL on their site. The version is $90 and he said that we could give him our receipts and that he could figure out a way to get us reimbursed.

Kayla and I also went to the SES 101 review for the final. It was very helpful. I also brought my laptop and found out just in time that their was a conference on the NASA channel about recent water flowing on Mars. I quickly found a link that provided streaming video of the NASA channel and Kayla and I watched it. It was very exciting and we saw our teacher, Dr. Christensen talk among others about the findings on Mars.

Research Meeting

Today I went with my astronomy teacher, Jeff Hester, to a research meeting. Kayla and I will be learning IDL (interactive data language). This is the same software that NASA uses. Today I listened to the grad students ask their questions. One student asked about her project which is on star formation and the magnetic polarity. The other asked about the visible part of the Crab Nebula. I was having a hard time wrapping my head around all this. Next week Kayla and I will get a chance to sit in front of a computer and create IDL accounts and start learning the basics. In the spring we will be setting up our space grants from NASA!