Flickr Camera Finder

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This has to be, by far, the best consumer guide to digital cameras EVER....the Flickr Camera Finder takes all of the EXIF data that are stored in most pictures that modern digital cameras record to compile statistics on ALL digital cameras that are used by Flickr's users.

Almost all new digital cameras save JPEG (jpg) files with EXIF (Exchangeable Image File) data. Camera settings and scene information are recorded by the camera into the image file. Examples of stored information are shutter speed, date and time, focal length, exposure compensation, metering pattern and if a flash was used.

With this tool it is easy to see which cameras by each brand people are using most. It also can sort whether they're SLRs, Point and Shoots or Cameraphones. In addition, you may take a look at the data on a particular model and see that less and less people are using this camera daily, while, more and more people may be using another model....this may indicate that one model is older and "on the way out" while the other is a newer and more desirable model.

Powershot A700
Powershot S3 IS

Patriot Act makes it harder to get real Sudafed

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Courtesy of BoingBoing:

After Paul Boutin cured his blocked sinuses with one does of old-school Sudafed, he looked into the reason why it was taken from the shelves, and learned that Senator Diane Feinstein decided to make it harder to get as part of the PATRIOT act.

To buy original formula Sudafed, Wal-fed, or other pseudophedrine sinus medicine that actually works (not the new Sudafed PE), go to your supermarket or drugstore and look in the cold remedies sections where it used to be. They now have little fake boxes or cards you take to the pharmacist to say "I want one of these." The pharmacist checks your ID and you sign for it.

Why can't you buy Sudafed over the counter anymore?

The renewed USA PATRIOT Act signed into law in March includes a "Meth Act" aimed at reducing production of methamphetamines, which can be manufactured from pseudophedrine, aka Sudafed. That's why Sudafed changed their over-the-counter formula to Sudafed PE. You can still buy Sudafed original if you go to the pharmacist at Safeway or Walgreens. But you can only buy one box a day and three a month, and you need to present a photo ID and sign a log for the pharmacist. The idea is to keep meth dealers from buying Sudafed in quantity to cook it into methamphetamine. The bill was attached to the Patriot Act after co-authors Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Jim Talent (R-MO) were unable to get it passed by other means.

Several people have emailed to let me know they think that people who suffer from debilitating sinus headaches should stop whining and let the government do its job ridding the planet of drug abuse. (Because the government has a really good track record in the War or Drugs.) I disagree with these people.

For one thing, I'm one of those crazy (small l) libertarians who thinks drug laws, on the whole, hurt society more than they help society, so I don't like this law. It's a shame that some people ruin their lives and their families' lives by using meth and other drugs, but the innocent people killed by muggers who need money to buy expensive drugs, the enrichment of street gangs and organized crime rings that sell illegal drugs, the corruption of government officials who take bribes from smugglers, the people who are falsely arrested on trumped up drug charges, the people who are killed by crazed bounty hunters and police raiding the wrong houses, the seizure of property belonging to people who didn't know there were drugs on their property, and the imprisonment of non-violent drug users amount to a bigger problem, I think. I am in favor of abolishing all drug laws.

For another thing, the meth epidemic has been hyped out of proportion. Jack Shafer, editor of Slate, did a nice job debunking the meth epidemic myth last year.


Read entire post & read comments of their own horror stories.

Penny Arcade on the PS3 Launch

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It was good news there for a little while, when PS1 games were five bucks a pop and you were changin' out that hard drive and still retaining your warranty - big, generous moves that asked hard questions of their primary competitor. Just days later, it's weird rumor after dark rumbling after grim report.
The cruelest speculation is that the launch figure is something like half of what was promised - 150,000 to 200,000 units, says one analyst. I am not an analyst, but when I scour the launch list for a reason to wait outside for days in a fucking line, no klaxons sound and no lights begin to blink or flash. Motorstorm and Lair - the games that really sold people the system at this year's Tokyo Game Show - are nowhere to be seen. There are, of course, those distant ultrabrands - the ones that start with Metal and Final - but buying a system at today's prices, under today's conditions is on that basis is... unwise. Unwise is the diplomatic word I have chosen.
The launch is full of... Well, Launch Titles. It sounds like Insomniac did what Insomniac does - deliver spit-polished hits. Past that, you've got Genji (rank), Untold Legends (just... no) and Gundam (daemonic). Everything else is something that
(a) already came out, and

(b) most likely runs better or has more features on existing equipment. Seriously, read the reviews.

This is beyond insulting. This is beyond ridiculous. It is farcical.

With the Playstation 2, we ascribed the spotty launch supply to monstrous intent. We were young men, though, and young men often feel the weight of unaccountable oppressors bearing down on them. Speaking today, it seems clear to me that Sony would not want to launch under these conditions if they had any choice in the matter. Not with this anemic supply, now reaped by speculators. Not with these titles. But they have done it, singing all the while, making a stupid pageant of the whole affair with their petty sniping. Well, you have not succeeded, not at anything laudable. You've kept young people in out in the elements for days through your ineptitude, this is true, but that is worth negapoints - a reverse scoring method exclusively for jackasses that starts at zero, and actually goes down from there.

(CW)TB out.