Memex 1.1

New body, old glass

One of the downsides of digital technology is the speed of obsolescence. The great thing about having a Nikon D70 is that it enables me to combine being digital without abandoning the collection of old Nikon lenses I’ve built up over the years. I have, for example, an 85mm f2 AI-Nikkor which is a terrific portrait lens; and an f1.2 50mm (shown here) which provides the nearest thing to night vision one can get on a camera. (Well…, I think Leica do an f1 Summilux, but it costs more than the GNP of Ecuador.) Of course the effective focal lengths are different with the digital body (I’ve been multiplying by 1.5 as an approximation), but the great thing is that the old lenses work fine. Just switch the camera over to manual operation, clip on the lens and bingo! — you have a digital camera with really good glassware. I’m sure purists will point out that they’re not optimised for the new system, but the results look pretty good to me.

En passant, it’s funny the way the photo-retail industry concentrates on resolution as the defining characteristic of digital cameras. Pricing seems to be entirely driven by sensor resolution. Until recently, nobody paid much attention to the quality of the lenses. Maybe that was because with a 3 megapixel camera you couldn’t tell the difference between the results given by a plastic zoom and those produced by a proper lens. But as the industry matures, manufacturers are beginning to pay serious attention to lenses. Some Panasonic digital cameras, for example, now come with Leica glassware. And the high-end Sony cameras have used Zeiss Vario-Sonnars for quite a while.

Visual memories

Karlin Lillington has written a memorable piece about the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation set up by Steven Spielberg after he made Schindler’s List.

Apple overtakes Google as the world’s leading brand

Apple has unseated Google to become the most influential brand of 2004. According to a survey of 2,000 advertising executives, brand managers and academics, Apple is the hottest brand in the world. Hmmm…. after hubris comes, er, nemesis.

Lessig on Wilco

Larry Lessig’s column on a band that really understands the Net. Excerpt:

“The band Wilco and its quiet, haunted leader, Jeff Tweedy, is something different. After its Warner label, Reprise, decided that the group’s fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, was no good, Wilco dumped them and released the tracks on the Internet. The label was wrong. The album was extraordinary, and a sold-out 30-city tour followed. This success convinced Nonesuch Records, another Warner label, to buy the rights back – reportedly at three times the original price. The Net thus helped make Wilco the success it has become. But once back in Warner’s favor, many wondered: Would Wilco forget the Net?

We’ve begun to see the answer to this question. Wilco’s Net-based experiments continue: the first live MPEG-4 webcast; a documentary about the band in part screened and funded via the Net; bonus songs and live recordings tied to CDs. Its latest album, A Ghost Is Born, was streamed in full across the Net three months before its commercial release. And when songs from it started appearing on file-sharing networks, the band didn’t launch a war against its fans. Instead, Wilco fans raised more than $11,000 and donated it to the band’s favorite charity. The album has been an extraordinary success – and was nominated for two Grammys.”

How to record a podcast

Useful detailed guide by Glenn Fleishman.

The technology bubble

My Observer column on the redefinition of social space brought about by the Walkman/iPod and the mobile phone is here. Audio version here.

Gadget wars — new front opened

I had some time to kill before my meeting in London the other day, so I went to the new Apple Store in Regent Street (purely in the interests of scientific research, you understand). Amazing place. Should have a wealth warning prominently displayed on the door. Came away with this neat little speaker set for my iPod.

Volume and quality of sound astonishing, given its size. Wonder how JBL do it. What was also astonishing is the scale and ingenuity of the product ecosystem that has evolved around the iPod. It really is the Walkman de nos jours.

Spreading freedom

“Ukraine is the right way to spread freedom, Iraq the wrong way. Has this lesson come too late for Iran?”. Thoughtful piece by Timothy Garton Ash.

Objectivity and imperialism

The chaos in Iraq, together with the growth of Western impatience with so-called “failed states” and calls for a new kind of ‘benign imperialism’ (i.e. us telling them how to run their societies) has led to an interesting outbreak of collective amnesia in Britain about the whole imperial adventure. As an Irishman, I’ve never succumbed to the concept of the British Empire as one of nature’s Jolly Good Ideas, but feeble-minded folks in Britain — under the tutelage of right-wing media historians like Neil Ferguson and Thatcher-worshipper Andrew Roberts — seem to have donned rose-tinted spectacles when looking back at the imperial past. All of which makes this fierce polemic by Seamus Milne very timely and appropriate.

Wot — no pyjamas!

From BBC Online:

“A devout Baptist couple who bought a Doris Day DVD from a supermarket were shocked to find a sex film instead. Alan and Anne Leigh-Browne, from Wellington, Somerset, had been expecting to enjoy The Pajama Game. Instead they were confronted by Italian sex film – Tettone che Passione, which translates Breasts, What a Passion. ‘Some topless young women appeared and started talking in Italian… it’s not what you expect from a Doris Day film,’ Mr Leigh-Browne said.

Retired doctor Mr Leigh-Brown, 67, said he picked up the film, which was sealed in plastic wrapping, for £2.99 from the bargain bin of a Safeway supermarket in Taunton.”

Thanks to James M for the link.