Cameras don't take good pictures, people do

I've been playing with our new Sony DSC-V1 digital camera and trying to get a better handle on adjusting depth of field (DOF).  While reading that digital cameras typically deliver MUCH greater DOF than their 35mm equivalents (here's a good basic explanation of why), I started getting obsessed with my camera's features.  Then I ran across these two articles (thanks to PhotoWhat) by Ken Rockwell and Noah Grey and was reminded I was focusing on the wrong thing:  people take good pictures, not cameras.

Springfield on the Map

Just in case you ever get lost on TV, here's a map to the Simpson's Springfield: http://www.csupomona.edu/~jelerma/springfield/map/index.html

Google's Desktop Search Tool

From WinInfo Short Takes:

Google to Deliver Desktop Search Tool

And speaking of Web-based trends that aren't as big as some people think, Google.com this week announced that it would soon release a desktop-based file search tool for Windows that will bring the company's Web-based search tools to the PC. Code-named Puffin, the search tool will tackle one of the weakest parts of Windows, its search functionality. And perhaps most important, it will do so at least two years before Microsoft ships Longhorn, the next major Windows version, which will allegedly fix this problem as well. As many a Microsoft representative has remarked to me recently, "Why does it take forever for Windows to find a file that I know is on my hard drive, but I can go to Google and find anything on the Web in seconds?" It's a good question, however rhetorically it's been delivered.

It will be very interesting to see if Google can deliver a PC file search solution that really works, isn't intrusive or bog down the PC, and doesn't invade user's privacy. It's not as easy a nut to crack as it might originally appear and Google's success on the web may not translate -- Google has rooms full of servers dedicated to task of returning your search results quickly and really only focuses on a small number of mostly plain-text file formats (Adobe Acrobat PDF being the main exception I know of). 

On PCs, you have a lot of different file formats (and a search tool that only works with a handful of the most popular formats will be of little value...at least to me) and a much lower tolerance for performance-bogging indexing (which is why Microsoft Office indexer is routinely turned off).

Here's hoping though. Fast keyword access to documents would a big plus.

Hurray for a Faster Acrobat Reader

A note -- and some feedback -- on making Acrobat Reader MUCH faster.  Acrobat PDF files work great but, boy, I've always hated how s-l-o-w Acrobat Reader loads. 

Taking Note of Notepad2

Pity poor Notepad, the default text editor that ships with every copy of Windows, that lacks the oomph to handle more than the simplest tasks, and that never seems to get any better.  Everybody has it, nobody loves it.  Thanks goodness there are a LOT of alternatives.  One recent entry is Notepad2 from flo's freeware.   Small and simple, it looks just like Notepad -- but adds improvements such as syntax highlighting, line numbering, drag and drop editing, regular expression searching, block editing, and even a zoom feature.  Very nice.  I'll have to take a look to see how it compares to EditPlus, my old favorite Notepad replacement. Here's some tips for how to open multiple Notepad2 windows (read comments, you don't need to edit the Registry),and adding Notepad2 to your context menu.