Digital cameras are cool. And they are on Moore’s curve. The way I figure it, you’ve got to own four if you are really, really into it. Disclaimer… I only own one, and it is so "old" that it’s not even on this list. The four are: a cellphone, a small "real" one, a prosumer model and a body-is-basically-free-the-lenses-are-not DSLR.

Why four? You’re always going to have your cellphone. The small "real" one when you think you might take some shots or want some decent video. The prosumer when you’ll probably take some shots. The DSLR… ok, you’re really, really, really into it (or spending money).

• The cellphone - I don’t think it matters much, since they all seem to suck. So the purchasing decision should be made on how good a phone it is, not on how good a camera it is. Next year they’ll be some good ones, and very soon it will be your most important camera… you take the most shots with the one you have.
• The small one - Canon SD300. I’ve never gone wrong with Canon. You can even get a water-tight case for it. 640×460 30fps video. Sure, no problemo. ‘Nough said.
• The Prosumer - Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20. 12x image-stabled-DPReviewed-at-highly-recommended wonder. Just get it.
• The DSLR - Three out of four ain’t bad. I really don’t know which DSLR is "it" right now, but I do know it’s made by either Canon or Nikon, so I get partial credit.

Now get out there and shoot!

When you install a fresh version of Window XP, I like to change some of the default settings back to the "classic" settings.

• Win2k Style Login - From the Control Panel:
  Goto User Accounts then Chage the way users log on or off and uncheck Use Welcome
• Win2k Style Search - Regedit to the following key:
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState
  Right click and add a new String Value with properties 
         Value Name: Use Search Asst 
         Value Data: no
• Removing Extraneous Startup Programs - Lots of programs like to jam stuff in the startup folder. Hate it. I pretty much remove everything
  from this folder:
  C:\Documents and Settings\your_user_name\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
• Turn Microsoft’s ClearType on (especially for LCD displays). This is an ActiveX control, so you have to do it from IE.

Sony, what have you done for me lately? I mean besides selling products that break (my friends hella-expensive receiver, my hella-expensive CD changer, etc. etc.)? Sony’s been off buying media companies (MGM was the latest), while falling asleep at their core consumer electronics wheel.

MP3 players? Apple, you take that market.
Plasma/LCD TVs? I guess we should get into that market!
Flash Memory? Here, have some proprietary, expensive, low-storage (compared to other market solutions), late-to-market MemoryShit.
Cellphones? Hum.. we fucked this up so badly, we had to dilute our brand with Ericsson’s. OK, they have been making some good "Sony Ericsson" phones recently, but how could they possibly have screwed up such an important market up to begin with?

This is how you ruin a brand. This is how you become a Harvard B-School case study on how not to manage a company. But no worries… plenty of companies would love to become the next Sony (OK, I do admit that Sony’s doing the best job of trying to create some cool desktop computers and notebooks as well as some interesting MemoryShit-plagued digital cameras).

Samsung is one of those companies wanting to be the next Sony. Already their market cap ($62 billion or so) has surpassed Sony, while their brand is closing in on Sony. As described in a recent Economist Article (you gotta play to pay), Samsung’s brand (yes, another Economist article you gotta pay for) is device driven, not overall brand driven. By this they mean that when a consumer thinks of a purchasing a cellphone for example, they don’t think "Samsung," but if they see a cool Samsung device, they’ll probably be comfortable with the brand. So comfortable that in 2004, Samsung became the number two cellphone manufacturer behind Nokia with Motorola now third. A little more "cool" in the brand… you Fins watch out.

Hey Sony, check out the new MacMini. Now Steve’s gunning for you too. Oh, and that cash-cow know as the PlayStation… if Microsoft beats you to market with their next-generation game console… I guess there are always more media companies to buy.

Update: 2005_01_21
A couple of articles in the New York Times. The first:

TOKYO, Jan. 20 - The Sony Corporation warned on Thursday that sales and operating profit would probably fall short of its forecasts because of rapidly declining prices for DVD recorders and video cameras, as well as stiff competition from Apple’s popular iPod.

And this with a golden master-of-the-obvious statement:

TOKYO (AP) —  Sony missed out on potential sales from MP3 players and other gadgets
because it was overly proprietary about music and entertainment
content, the head of Sony Corp.’s video-game unit acknowledged Thursday.

Lovely. No net access for almost two days due to "technical difficulties" at Charter my high-speed provider. Yes, I tried calling their circular-loop phone system only to get some lame-ass recorded-at-12kps-by-some-virgin-engineer voice prompt telling me that they didn’t know what the heck was wrong, and hell no, they didn’t know when they would get around to fixing it. Thanks you, and have a happy day.

The situation on their website this morning was not much better. Plausible deniability? Ignorance is bliss? I want my triage report about what went wrong, how it will never happen again, who got fired and how the CEO won’t get that new Maybach this year ‘cause he lost his bonus. Not even a peep about any sort of outage. Whatthefuckever. These idiotic cable companies think they can offer VoIP. Hello… it’s called availability.

Rest assured, no ClueTrain going on here. On the bright side of broadband, Comcast is upping the speed of their service with no price increase. Charter… you listening?? Bueller… Bueller… Bueller…

Update 2005_18_01:
six apart has a clue. New world order.