I bought a camera! An actual DSLR camera, like a grown up might have. I decided on the Canon Rebel XSi (known to the rest of the world as the Canon EOS 450D). I had been wanting a new camera for a while but couldn't really justify the purchase until last week, when my point and shoot camera just stopped working. Poor little thing.

Previously I'd been looking at the recently released Canon XS, which is their entry level DSLR. Despite getting good expert reviews it doesn't seem to have generated much excitement, as you can see from the very few user reviews at Amazon. Many places suggesting the XSi (which is the slightly older brother than the XS and came out in January of 2008) is worth the money for the few slightly better features. So I took a look and discovered that Amazon was selling the XSi for only slightly more than the XS.

update: from the time I started writing this the XS price has gone from $640 to $600, and the XSi price dropped from $660 to $655. A lot of the research I did suggested the price for the XS would drop even further in coming months, and if I didn't need a camera now I would have waited it out to see how low the XS price might get.



I did a lot of research and what I turned up is that the XS is very much the same camera as the XSi but with a few features that aren't quite as good. I can say with some confidence that in moving up from a point and shoot I never would have noticed the difference in the features except for one thing, the LCD screen in the XSi is 3 inches whereas it's 2.5 inches in the XS. I don't even consider that a deal breaker but while the price difference was so small I went for the XSi. I found two articles that compare the models in a helpfully concise way: Gizmodo and Digicamhelp. The other thing my reading turn up is that when compared to the older entry level model XTi it appears both the XS and the XSi are well-worth-it steps up.

Annoyingly specific notes and a few of my first pictures follow. (more...)

the only way the iPhone can live up to the hype, hee hee, at Unplugged

Pattern Tap at Swiss Miss

What are some good online games for my 84 year old grandmother? at Ask Metafilter

Taking the Plunge: Learning CSS at Swiss Miss

The Classic Tales podcast. at Bookshelves of Doom

BatRest iPhone stand at Swiss Miss

Finding Your Signature Font at The Boss of You

Introducing Ubiquity at Mozilla Labs

DIY light tents at Ikea Hacker

Cupcakes and Cameras at Bakerella

Gosh I live the interwebs. Yesterday I was looking through free applications for the iPhone and came across something called StitchMinder, it had a pictures of a ball of yarn in the little button and I did a little dance for the intersection of knitting and technology. It's a well thought out application but could use a few changes.

StitchMinder gives you four areas to work with, you tap them and the number increases by one. You can edit the label on each area to suit what you currently need to keep track of. Doing a hat with four sets of decreases? Label all the sections Decrease Row and tap after each decrease. You'll be able to see how many you've done. Set all the sections to count in descending order, and set the start number to the number you need to do, then tap away as you knit and you'll be counting down instead of up, which can be handy to see how much you have left (or simply for motivation). For each counting area you can choose a label - Rows Completed, Pattern Row, Pattern Repeats, Increase Row, Increase Repeat, Decrease Row, Decrease Repeat - so you can keep track of different areas of the pattern on the same screen. You don't lose your numbers if you close the application, turn off the phone or set it to sleep mode.



StitchMinder is not perfect though. There are Edit and Reset buttons right there next to the area you tap, it's far too easy to tap those by mistake and lose track completely. If you you enter the Edit screen your numbers will be lost when you return to the main screen, so Edit is really only meant for initial set up. The Reset button just sets the number to zero. There is no way to undo if you accidentally tap an area twice or tap the wrong area or accidentally reset.

This is what I'd like to see: One tiny Edit button to the right of each tap area which would take you to an Edit screen. You wouldn't lose your information when you return to the main screen. On the Edit screen could be a +1 and -1 button so you can adjust your current number if you need, I'd keep the initial set up options that you see now and place the Reset button at the bottom of this screen. I'd like the main screen to have a nice big Lock toggle button so that cats/children/other people bumping the screen couldn't cause you to lose your place. This could simply throw up a Pause screen like on a game.

As it is I don't see myself using StitchMinder much, it's too easy to lose track. Still, there is hope at the where knitting and iPhones collide.

update: The creator of StitchMinder wrote in to let us know that there will be a few updates to the app, including a confirmation message for the Reset button so you cannot lose your information so easily. Thanks!

Oh baby, I've joined the future, or at least the present. Last weekend Scott and I got up early to arrive at an Apple store before it opened in order to get iPhones. Was getting there early entirely neccessary? Not really. At 45 minutes until it opened were we the first ones there? Nope. Did being there early cut down on our wait time? Yes, there was a slightly miserable looking line that had formed by the time we were leaving the store.

This is how we justified the cost of this little luxury: instead of paying a whole lot for cell phone service we barely use, we're paying a whole lot more for mobile devices we'll be using all the time. During the last few months, which I like to think of as our Justification Period, I've been noting all the moments where having an iPhone could solve problems. Small problems, problems like: Are the I-5 Express Lanes open right now? Who was the actress in that movie? How much yarn do I need to buy to make that sweater again? Are we going to talk those eight blocks just to discover Stellar Pizza is closed today? Is this cheaper on Amazon? What was that third thing I needed for the recipe? Why don't we have any music to listen to right now?

This is the advice we were given by friends upon announcing we were getting iPhones:

- After 9 p.m. you can check if your Apple store will have your phone in stock the next day.

- Go to the store earlier in the day to get a voucher. You can either stand in line right away, or come back later in the hopes the line will be shorter. The voucher will assure that they won't sell the last 8 GB iPhone to somebody else. We didn't encounter any mention of vouchers, but when the store opened the group of early customers wasn't quite a mob yet. We heard from other people that in the middle of the day they waited between 45 minutes and an hour.

This is the advice I have after:

- Bring a current cell phone bill with you so you you have immediate access to your account number, at least around here were they can port your current number over to your iPhone right away. I blame our lack of a current cell phone bill on the early hour. They said it might take six hours for our phone numbers to transfer but ours were both working in an hour or so. Apple said that the process would automatically cancel our old service, but we're bracing ourselves for a little confusion in that department.



The iPhone is smaller and more slippery than I thought it would be. We bought crystal film for the 3G to protect the screen, but the store didn't have the PixelSkin in black that I was hoping for so I went home without a skin. At home I found I was terrified of dropping the phone while trying to type into it so we were off to find a skin I liked. I settled on the Incase protective cover because a friend has one and I like how simple it is. I got it in black and find it downright sexy.

The afternoon was spent setting things up, porting contacts over from old SIM cards, installing apps and discovering that it's all as easy as everybody said it would be. I'm so very happy.

Here are the applications I've installed so far, all of these are free:

- WordPress
- Twitterific - makes Twitter on a small screen nicely viewable
- Pandora - since I don't know much about music, or even have a music library of my own, this is perfect. You type in the name of somebody you like, say, Matt Nathanson, and it plays music that other Matt Nathanson fans like. It's so convenient.
- Urbanspoon - You shake your phone and it gives you a random restaurant in your area. You can also see the regular listings, but they're not as fun.

I'm considering using Things - clutter free productivity.

This is also very useful information to have: How to charge your iPhone in the car, update one and update two by Carl Jonard, via A Whole Lotta Nothing.

So, any recommendations for applications I might love? Games? Particularly cool things of any sort?

geek gang signs at Unplugged. (Scott and I also invented a gang sign, it's for those who get sleepy a little earlier than they used to: oLd.)

I want to punch something in the face at Ask Metafilter. I'm less amused by the question than the fact that there is more than one site doing exactly what the person was hoping.

Where are the user-ranked laptop reviews? at Ask Metafilter

free wood grain textures at How About Orange

SurfaceClean All-Purpose Electronics Cleaner at Cool Hunting

Previous/Next and Back/Next pagination links considered harmful at A Whole Lotta Nothing. I've been thinking about using "in the future/in the past", would that work?

Is it possible to run a search at Amazon that excludes "Used and new" items? at Ask Metafilter

I think I've finally found the DSLR I'm going to buy: Canon XS, at the NYTimes. It has Live View (though I know, that drains the batteries) and does better in low light, high motion environments than previous models (so I can take pictures of the actual Scott while he is on stage, not the Scott-shaped-blur I've been getting so far). And still, it's entry level and smallish and not devastatingly expensive. Thanks to Cinnamon for sending along a recommendation and the review at Photo Junkie.

TrackThis, track your packages over Twitter, via A Whole Lotta Nothing

Things for iPhone at Culture Code.

8 Cool Things You Can Do With Your iPhone 2.0 at Webmonkey

Yelp Brings Location-Aware Reviews to Your iPhone at Lifehacker

Interesting stuff from the App Store debut for iPhone and iPod Touch at Penmachine

How to find images on the internet, via Kottke

Are there other documented cases of people finding themselves on Google Maps Street View? at Ask Metafilter, very interesting how many people have found themselves.

Help me with Wii + Projector + 18 foot wall = Massive Fun at Ask Metafilter

I'd like to get an entry level DSLR with *only* a basic prime lens for under $600. Is this doable? at Ask Metafilter

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3S 7.2MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver), a friend of mine had this and I was jealous of the zoom capabilities. It also has a Leica DC lens, combined with the image stabilization and I'm nearly sold.

My German car is ruining my perfect American Date, cute, at Ask Metafilter

What is that new open source tool for audio recording amd processing? (answer: Reaper), at Ask Metafilter

Book I want: Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda, via Uncrate.

More on why we don't need two spaces after a period anymore. At Word Wise. Also see, style guides at Grammar Girl.

Flip Video Ultra Accessories at NOTCOT

Garmin Nuviphone looks to Take On the iPhone at 37 Signals

HTC Touch Diamond

Google Maps bicycle route petition

"Dear people who learned to type in school; Typographically, you do NOT need a double space after a period." at onmysleeve. This has been bugging me lately as well.

Milliways: Infocom's Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This was huge, huge news a few weeks back. Unfortunately what was produced is barely playable, but it's a fascinating story.

Top 10 science hoaxes of all time, at the Discovery Channel

GREENHOUSE Eneplug USB to AC Outlet Adaptor, straight from plug to USB, no cord, nice. At Unplugged.

Podswollop, Textism recommends podcasts.

Upgrading to a DSLR camera for the first time: how useful will an additional lens be? at Ask Metafilter

Mac Buyer's Guide: when to buy an iPhone

David Lebovitz's food photography gear

Wikiquote, found while trying to figure out the whole stopwatch thing from season one of Torchwood (don't ask).