Happy Halloween With 50% More Cowbell

Greetings from PhotoPlus, Part III

One of the standard features of any photo trade show is beautiful women in skimpy clothes, posing for photographers. PhotoPlus Expo was no exception. The biker above was in the Panasonic booth.

Hadn't seen this before - body-painting. Unique Photo lived up to their name by making these two poor young women suffer (naked) through hours of body make-up to pose for the masses.

Best Booths At PhotoPlus Expo

Trade shows always have really cool booths - some companies go beyond the call of duty and come up with some creative ways to showcase their products.

Canon's tongue-in-cheek tableau, which is so out of character for Canon.

Nikon set up this mad scientist tableau to show off the video capabilities of their SLRs. Felt bad for the poor actor who had to act like a mad scientist all day long. You can't do this for 3 days and not have it affect you in some way.

Not a great booth as booths go, but just great to see Kodak still alive and kicking.

Greetings From PhotoPlus, Part I

Your intrepid traveler DV Dude ventured into the heart of Gotham yesterday to visit the PhotoPlus Expo. PhotoPlus is a photo trade show open to the public, and all the big names (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic) and many smaller names were exhibiting their wares to the throngs.  Being New York, lots of people crammed into a too small space.  Due to the timing, not a lot of new products to show,  so not much new to see.

First public showing in the U.S. of the upcoming Panasonic GH3 (due in December). Camera is much larger, heavier and sturdier than the GH2 it replaces, and looks very interesting.

Lowel was showing off this new prototype LED light that looks a lot like a cordless drill. Battery or AC powered, focus ability and dimmer control. 1/4" screw on the bottom to mount to light stands, clamps etc.  Aiming to ship this winter.

Ahh, 4K. You know you want one. DV Dude wants one too. Alas, DV Dude doesn't have the $25,000 to buy one. Glorious picture though.

Timelapse Video Of The Month

What a month it has been - a man jumps 37 kms from a balloon, and lives, and the Space Shuttle is driven to its new home in California.

The Los Angeles Times has put together a terrific time-lapse video of moving the Space Shuttle from the airport to its new home. While it looks easy, it took months of prep, a lot of trees cut down, hydro poles moved, and a few million dollars. I'm sure the residents who lived on those streets never thought they'd ever look out their window and see a Space Shuttle going by.

Dude Says This Never Gets Old

Where Jimmy Hoffa Is Really Buried

Recently in the news there has been some speculation of Jimmy Hoffa's final resting place, and the FBI always concentrates in Michigan, the last place Jimmy Hoffa was seen alive. This, however, is way way off the mark.

I can now officially put this all to rest - I discovered, by accident, Jimmy Hoffa's grave site. The photo above was taken west of Oatman, Arizona, on Route 66. Your Dudeness of DV was doing a photo trip of Route 66, taking some pictures of a picturesque valley, when I came across this grave marking Out in plain view, BTW. Just sitting there.

So no, Jimmy Hoffa isn't buried in some concrete in a stadium, or under some driveway - he's buried on Route 66.

You're welcome, FBI.

Steve Jobs, One Year Later

Today is the one year anniversary of the death of Steve Jobs, and to mark the occasion, here are the Dude's thoughts on the biography that Walter Isaacson wrote:

- Having been an avid follower of Mr. Jobs for quite some time, and knowing quite a bit about him, there were not that many surprises in the book for me. Customers have come into the store quite shocked at the personality that is revealed in the book. Not this dude. I have often said Steve Jobs is best admired from a distance, not close up. Also, I have dealt with this type of personality before, so very few things surprised me in his antics.

- It was fascinating reading about his childhood, and the environment that he grew up in. His formative years were spent in what would become Silicon Valley, and you can see him thriving in that atmosphere.

- What did surprise me is what a dick he was to his parents in his youth. He realized that as he got older, but man…

- He also wasn't the greatest dad either. He seems to have really favoured his son Reed over his girls, which is unacceptable.

- Another surprise was the amount of pain he was in - he certainly never showed it publicly. That makes the accomplishments of the last few years of his life (iPhone, iPad, new Apple HQ) even more amazing. If you have ever suffered from any sort of chronic pain, you realize how debilitating it is, and how it messes up your brain and your ability to think. That he was able to overcome this is simply insanely awe-inspiring.

- As a biographer, however, Walter Isaacson gets at best, a passing grade from this Dude. After finishing this book, I started the biography of Sir John A. MacDonald, written by Richard Gwyn. Gwyn is 10 times the writer Isaacson is, and it is startling to read them back to back, and how much better Gwyn is.

- The biggest omissions seem to be lack of detail. Isaacson at times gives too many insignificant details, other times not enough. Strangely, the death of Steve Job's dad is never mentioned, and I find it hard to believe that didn't affect him in some way. Also chronically missing is how Steve felt about things. How did he feel about the sales failure of the original Mac? About how it didn't change the world like he thought? The failure of Next? The success of the iPod? We never find out how Steve felt inside on these monumental occurrences in his life. Jobs often said being fired from Apple was the best thing that happened to him, and his time forming Next and Pixar, and the failure of Next, allowed him to succeed at Apple - but one doesn't get that sense in the book, and we never learn what Jobs learned in his failures.

Two final thoughts. Like any successful venture, there is always a team, and while the world may have given Jobs the lion share of the credit, it becomes apparent that he was the conductor of a very talented orchestra. Which is how any successful venture is done, be it a corporation, or a record, or a movie.

Finally, I was surprised at how important personal relationships are at the highest levels - I would have thought at the CEO level interaction, personalities wouldn't matter so much (who likes who, who gets along), as strategic interests would be more important, but they are - a number of potential deals didn't get done, or did get done, based on two people liking each other. Who would have thought that?