The Futura-S : not just another rangefinder

Futura S with lens hood

The history of the Futura camera line starts during the second World War with Optische Anstalt, an optics factory that produced equipment for the German Military. Unfortunately the factory was destroyed during the war, so after the war ended the founder Fritz Kuhnert built a new factory and by 1947 was producing the Efka 24. … Read more

The ultimate power ride : Specialized Turbo Levo Comp

Specialized Turbo Levo Comp

I’ve been riding & racing bikes since I was 15 years old. My love affair with two wheels started when my best friend’s brother came home with a custom 10 speed that weighed less than half of what my Sears Huffy weighed in at. I couldn’t believe the way the bike rode. Every time I … Read more

Navigating the murky waters of restoring an iPhone with a lost passcode

I guess this is intentionally kind of hard to figure out, it kinda makes sense but even a visit to the Apple store didn’t illuminate enough light on how to do this. So, a little history. I set a restriction passcode on a phone we had in the house for my kids to use, and … Read more

Reviewing the Dart-XT : Doug Marcaida Signature knife

Dart XT Karambit

Having been a fan of the TV Show Forged in Fire for a year or so now, I’ve been amazed and amused by the antics of blade-smiths having to forge a functional knife in under 6 or 7 hours. It’s always amusing who talks it up and who goes home early, but when I dug … Read more

Panasonic Lumix LX-10 | Far more than just a Point and Shoot

Not too long ago I purchased the Panasonic Lumix LX-10 making it the third Lumix camera that I have owned over the last several years. This one lives out its life as the replacement for a Fuji X100s that was my EDC camera for about 2 years. The LX-10 was the most likely suspect to … Read more

Are digital images still “Plates”?

It’s funny to hear people speak of images created digitally as “plates.” You could argue a digital reproduction from a plate or negative is still a plate, but I wonder why. To me it seems like a hold over from the artistic world trying to hold of to what photography was and not embrace what … Read more

Veteran’s Day

In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the … Read more

Rally to Restore Sanity

Old Glory at the Rally

I’ve never been one to join causes, or attend rallies of any nature, but this one stood out to me for a number of reasons. Being so close to D.C., and having extended family there, the reasons to go outweighed the reasons to not. I like Jon Stewart, besides being extremely funny, his intelligent, his … Read more

REWORK : Essential reading for… everyone.

Rework is one of those books; you know the ones. The kind of book that opens your mind to ideas. Changes your attitude, and brings you a clarity of thought that you have not had in a while. Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (you know, the guys who started 37signals?) knocked this one out … Read more

Apple could learn a thing or two from Microsoft

Apple takes a lot of heat from it’s developers for its processes and rules regarding iPhone application development mainly because of poor decisions, lack of communication and the simple fact that they don’t embrace their developers. This is further emphasized in section 3.3.1 the new version of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement which developers … Read more

Website Killswitch – Freelancer tool or unethical tactic?

I’ve been making a living as a web designer now for around 8.5 years or so, and I have to say this isn’t the first time that the idea of having a killswitch has crossed my path, but seeing CSS Killswitch showcased in the first Smashing Magazine newsletter lends credence to an idea that I … Read more

Against Digital Photography

Within the last decade, photography has seen an enormous influx of people and expansion at a rate that is very much akin to that experienced in the early 1900’s when Kodak actively marketed the Brownie, making photography accessible to almost everyone. Digital cameras are the new Brownie, and they have quickly nudged out film cameras … Read more

Web design & the other dude’s code….

As a corporate designer part of what I do occasionally is wade through other peoples code and fix it. Not that this is my favorite thing to do mind you, but we buy 3rd party solutions as bolt-ons from time-to-time, and that means those solutions get to be molded into the corporate brand, transforming it … Read more

Desktop tweeters | Tweetdeck & Seesmic

I came across Seesmic the last week in a Mashable article, and decided to give it a try since they were talking it up quite a lot. As a bit of background I have been using Tweetdeck for a few months. I have it on every computer I own, including my iPhone, and I like … Read more

Wild Beauty defines the artistic image of the Columbia River Gorge

Wild Beauty

I recently received my copy of Wild Beauty which is a book that has an accompanying show at the Portland Art Museum. I came to know this wonderful book because of my friend Terry Toedtemeier, who unfortunately recently passed. Terry was an amazing person, photographer and historian – without whom this book would not be … Read more

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