There is some information in the Wetpixel forums about the Orphan Works Bill, a revived copyright law bill that is on its way through US Congress at this very moment. Some folks are vehemently against this bill.

Should you wish to support the fight against this bill, please start by educating yourself. Read the bill and related commentary (links are posted in the discussion) and then go here for editable form letters that allow you to send an e-mail protest in less than 2 minutes.

Holy crap.

(Livia posted this on her Facebook).

I spent half of Sunday helping Adam and Rae film the largest scene in their upcoming documentary on Qui Jin.

Li Jing flies above the Women’s Army (photo: Adam Tow)

Although my allergies made it a painful few hours, I enjoyed manning the second camera at Tilden Park and taking stills of the production. 34 extras put up with bitterly-cold wind, filling out the “army” and learning martial arts moves for the training session scene. It was fun to meet Li Jing; she was really funny.

My friend, Cor Bosman, recently put some time into building the Wetpixel People Finder, which allows members to register their location on a Google Map.

I have really enjoyed being a part of the Wetpixel community because its global community facilitates meeting up with other underwater photographers while on location or during transit. Through Wetpixel, I’ve met a great group of people in various locations around the world.

This article on WebMD should be of interest to folks who are taking Pepcid to combat Asian Blush.

Aug. 3, 2007 – Long-term use of H2 blockers, including Axid, Pepcid, Tagamet, and Zantac, may increase the risk of mental decline in later life…

The study showed that after taking into account other factors, elderly people who reported “continuous use” of H2 blockers had a 2.4-fold higher chance of some form of cognitive impairment.

The article cites a study on 1,558 over-65 African-Americans, and only concludes that more study is needed.

Last night, I divided 240 by 4 and got 80. The curse strikes again!

Roaming around San Francisco has been a lot of fun. I pick a random restaurant within walking distance of wherever I end up sleeping and go hang out there to work on my computer for a few hours. Because my friends who aren’t on normal working schedules have either moved away or had babies, I live mostly in solitude during week days. And so, I wander around and hang out with the people around me (even though I don’t actually talk to anyone except for wait staff).

Yesterday, at Yummy Yummy (in the Sunset), two of the guys who work there saw a big photo of a shark on my computer screen and had a conversation about it. Here’s how I imagined that it went:

Waiter 1: “Whoah! Check out that shark! That’s really cool!”

Waiter 2: “Are you crazy? That thing would bite your head off in an instant.”

Waiter 1: “Whatever. That’s the coolest thing ever.”

Waiter 2: “Hmm. I’m getting hungry…”

I recognized one of the waiters as having been there when I was a regular customer 8-9 years ago (when my ex-girlfriend lived out in the Sunset). Dave says there is a guy there who will talk your ear off while you eat, but I haven’t met him, yet.

O’Reilly’s Big Book of Apple Hacks, by Chris Seibold, is now available in bookstores! The book includes 100 software and hardware hacks for Apple computers and Mac OS X / Mac applications.

A few of the hacks are mine, which is exciting. One is a tutorial on how to put a second hard disk into a MacBook Pro. The other two are short photography tips with iPhoto in mind.

Eli and Courtney Woolery at Moxi [see all photos]

Elijah Woolery, my friend and co-editor of Wetpixel Quarterly, had a small show and auction yesterday at Moxi Salon (show benefits the Surfrider Foundation). I had never been to a show in a beauty salon before; the owner and employees made it into a nice, cozy space. I really liked their take on the ubiquitous salon mirrors, and each station had hanging hair dryers that activated when pulled on. Congratulations on the show, Eli!

I had a good time meeting some of Courtney’s co-workers, and it was great to see Alissa, who stopped by on her way to dinner (or, I should say, on her way back from Africa before her trip to Turks & Caicos — her schedule is eerily similar to mine!).

me ‘n alissa, self portrait

I’m not sure how long the prints will be up on the walls, but if you are interested, you should stop by. Moxi is at 1980 Union Street #8. It’s up the stairs on the right, past the snowboard railing.
[see all photos from the show]

Also, Eli has some work online. You may want to check out his online gallery with prints from the show. He also has a more extensive gallery from the Revillagigedos / Socorro trip.

UPDATE: Eli has posted a photo of me from the Revillagigedos trip. I definitely look better in black and white. :)

these people are 10 years younger than I am [see all photos]

A week ago, Peter and my cousin, Charlotte, invited me over for a barbecue at their place in Mountain View. Man, did I feel old. Most of the people there were software engineers, still young enough to have that sense of excited empowerment — like they could take over the world one day. I hope they hang onto that energy!

And Peter — nice steaks, even though I didn’t eat one. You’re a natural. :) [see all photos]

I love my polarizers, and use them often. But sometimes when I’m out in the field, people ask, “Why are you using a polarizer? I just do it in Photoshop.”

Here’s an example of why you can’t just do it in post. (read more »)

My friend and business partner, Elijah Woolery, is having a show / silent auction tonight at Moxi Salon, which will feature black-and-white underwater photos taken in the Revillagigedos Islands, Mexico.

25% of the proceeds benefit the Surfrider Foundation. Moxi Salon is at 1980 Union St. #8, San Francisco, CA - (415) 775-1980.

See you there!

my shark mural, used in extreme makeover home edition

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition used some more of my images to produce the Latif family shark room for one of the sons. There is a house tour on AOL’s website that shows the shark room starting at around 1:35.

The mural was printed by Murals Your Way, who represent some of my work.

I like this room better than the one they made last time, which was a bit too bizarre for my tastes (scary, deep-see fish over the bed??).

This is too hilarious not to post.

I am (in general) a happy Mac user, but it is good to maintain a sense of humor… and as soon as that X300 fired up Vista, it would have ruined everything. ;)

This is really, really annoying. My parents have internet service provided via DSL from the convoluted company that is/was Yahoo!/AT&T/SBCGlobal. In the past, if I wanted to send email from my mail client while I was at home, I had to change my SMTP server to match AT&T’s supported server and use my parents’ account for password authentication. This is annoying enough. But recently, Yahoo!/AT&T/SBCGlobal has started requiring sender email registration to send e-mail from their already-locked down SMTP server (!). (read more »)

I just installed Fring for iPhone, and it is the best community messaging application I’ve seen for the device (what is Fring?). AND, it supports VoIP in the form of Skype and SIP (!). This is the application I’ve been waiting for, and is a really compelling reason to jailbreak your iPhone.

I fired it up and gave Victor A. a call using SkypeOut. Other than the standard latency that one expects from a Skype -> mobile phone connection, everything worked perfectly, and the sound quality was quite good.

Fring even runs in the background, which is really cool. I’m not sure how much battery power the thing sucks down, but it certainly is really great to be able to use Skype on my iPhone! I’m sure the 3G version will give the iPhone enough bandwidth to be able to take advantage of VoIP when out of WiFi range.

Fring supports Skype, SIP, Yahoo! Messenger, AIM/iChat, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, and Twitter.

Congratulations, Fring developers! You get a spot on my iPhone’s home application page.

I am searching for the best car mount for my iPhone. In my old Subaru, I used a cheapie $4 vent mount from the local carwash to hold my (old) Blackberry. Unfortunately, that sort of aesthetic doesn’t match my current car (and, it rubbed the paint off of the contact areas). :)

I tried an iGrip cigarette lighter adapter mount, but it was so tight fitting that it pulled the metal ring of my cig lighter adapter right out (!), and now, I have to bring my car in to get it fixed. The suction cup version is more ghetto, but might look and work fine. I think I’ll give it a try.

Anyone have a good solution? I know I shouldn’t be using the phone in the car, but the stupid iPhone doesn’t have voicedial.

Funny sign at an airport in India

I don’t remember at which airport I saw this sign, but I think it was the airport at Varanasi… or Chennai (more likely, since it was a passport check). It made me laugh out loud and sneak a shot with my camera phone (you aren’t allowed to take pictures in India airports or airplanes).

honor code flyer at Caltech (photo: Jeff Laity)

Anastasia saw this flier posted up at Caltech somewhere. The screaming turtle lives on!!

There is tremendous irony in ripping an image off of the internet for use in a flyer about an honor code survey. :)

Flickr is now allowing the uploading of videos. The video quality is really good, but they limit your videos to 90 seconds (a mistake, I think). In any case, I just just found a replacement for Veoh for videos under 90 seconds! YouTube’s video quality is subpar when compared to Flickr’s, and YouTube’s community is terrible (for comments, I mean).

Check out the video in fullscreen. It’s not bad. It also isn’t obvious how to break out of fullscreen mode if you don’t read the instructions :) (hit ESC to return).

Baby Jack watches the game with Dad

Being pseudo-homeless at the moment, I spent the last two days down at Stanford with Geoff, Livia, and Baby Jack (Palo Alto: so clear! so cold!). I felt very domestic, even though Geoff and Livia never let me do any work when I’m at their place. Baby Jack is learning quickly; it’s a lot of fun to hang out with him now because he understands pretty much everything you say to him.

Mandy and Elliot came by to see Jack, and Jack instantly fell in love with Mandy. It was funny — he started acting really weird as soon as Mandy walked in the door. (read more »)