The False Mathematics of the RIAA (An Analysis of P2P Losses)

If you are interested in the P2P music sharing debate, I encourage you to read Barry Ritholtz’s post on the subject. In a nutshell, Ritholtz suggests that by authorizing Napster To Go and Rhapsody subscription services, the maximum loss that the industry can claim per person is a mere $1000 per decade. He makes many other points that I’ve made on this blog for years — the musicians make their money from concerts not CDs, that much of the music downloaded would never have been purchased anyway, etc. It’s worth the read.

Some Pictures from Ft. Lauderdale

The family recently took a small vacation to the Ft. Lauderdale area. I shot the following pictures in the Everglades at Sawgrass Recreational Park. These images were all shot at ISO 100 in Program mode on my Canon Digital Rebel. I used my usual Sigma 24-135 lens to do the work.

This first image was taken before boarding the airboat. It worked out to be 1/320 at f7.1. The meta-data says that the focal length was 108mm. I never really looked at that number too hard, but it’s interesting that it notes it.

ftlaud-3 (43k image)

This next image of an alligator catching some rays was also at 1/320s and f7.1, but a maximum zoom of 135mm.

ftlaud-3 (43k image)

This final image was taken at 1/30s at f3.5 with a focal length of 42mm. My hands must not have been shaking that much when the shutter fired.

ftlaud-3 (43k image)

As always, the originals for each of these images are available if you e-mail me.

Google Maps

I think we now know why Google hired the lead Firefox developer. Take a look at Google Maps to get an appreciation for what Google is accomplishing in the web browser. This is not your average MapQuest or Yahoo! Maps. This is a real step ahead.

Google Maps supports dragging and is incredibly fast. The ability to interactively move a map around on a screen without waiting for a page refresh makes this tool a pleasure to use. I’d like to see the addition of a waypoint feature, where I could map a route and click to add waypoints. That’d be great for supporting my motorcycling habit — it’d be a big help for designing routes for group rides.