Core Dump

So I picked up a new toy attachment for my camera today – a Canon WC-DC58A wide-angle lens adapter.

I had wanted one of these for a while – I always feel like my indoor photos don’t quite capture the “scope” of some of the places I’ve been.

So, when the opportunity arose, I picked one up. If you do a little searching, you’ll find that these adapters aren’t cheap – they range from $150-$175, depending on where you go. And that price shows in the packaging – the lens comes in its own protective bag, with a cover for both the front and back of the lens. It’s also quite heavy – but then again, there is quite a bit of glass in this little lens!

This fun little device screws onto the front of the Canon LA-DC58E Conversion Lens Adapter, which itself snaps onto the accessory ring around the front of the Canon Powershot S2, S3, and possibly other S-series models’ main lens. And I have to say, it looks quite impressive there!

Though, the weight of the lens makes me worried, since the conversion tube is plastic after all… but I think as long as you’re not unnecessarily rough with it, it’ll be fine.

Of course, the most important aspect of the lens is not how it looks, but how it performs! So, I had to try it out.

Fortunately, I have a very useful test subject right here – my home office. My office is quite small & narrow, so it’s a perfect place to try out some wide-angle action.

Here’s a reference shot of my office, standing in the doorway to the rest of the house:

With just the stock lens, you can’t really see much of my office at all – the view is just too narrow.

Now, here’s a picture from the exact same position, but using my new wide-angle lens adapter:

As you can see, you can… well, see a lot more of my office (except for the floor, which is dark, because the light in my office is terrible).

In the first picture, you can only just see the very edge of my computer’s monitor, while in the wide-angle shot, you can see the whole monitor (and a little bit beyond). Also, you can see the bookcase on the left-hand side, which really helps show how narrow/cramped/small my office is – something that’s lacking from the first picture (where you might think the office is much bigger, and you’re just seeing a corner of it).

There is a very slight amount of distortion around the edges of the photo, but I had to look for it, because I didn’t see it at first.

All-in-all, I’m quite pleased with the results – and I can’t wait to give it it a try someplace more exciting than my home office!

This is a little late for Valentine’s Day, but I thought I’d post it anyway, because I’m really into Lucky Star these days.

Ah, Valentine’s day. Some people claim it is an invention of chocolate manufacturers, others the greeting card industry. Others take offense to the idea that they need a special day to be nice to their significant other.

And of course, still others just get pissed off because they don’t have a significant other, and the whole day and everything associated with it seems to be just rubbing that fact in their face, making them very bitter and cranky.

Around here, I sort of have a tradition of mocking Valentine’s Day in the strongest way possible. And this year is no different. (There’s a bit of strong language on this image, so you’ll have to click on that link to see it.)

Enjoy.

For those people who actually “celebrate” Valentine’s day, here’s a couple of sappy, lovey-dovey, deeply “red” wallpapers for your (or your significant other’s) enjoyment.

This article, Terrorism Derangement Syndrome, hits a lot of good points. In particular, it talks about how what we once saw as a “reasonable response” to terrorism right after 9/11 is now seen as “too weak.” It seems like we just keep getting more and more afraid:

It’s hard to explain why this keeps happening. There hasn’t been a successful terror attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. The terrorists who were tried in criminal proceedings since 9/11 are rotting in jail. The Christmas Day terror attack was both amateurish and unsuccessful. The Christmas bomber is evidently cooperating with intelligence officials without the need to resort to thumbscrews. In a rational universe, one might conclude that all this is actually good news. But in the Republican crazy-place, there is no good news. There’s only good luck. Tick tock. And the longer they are lucky, the more terrified Americans have become.

Some of this can be explained as simple one-upmanship; when your political platform is “fighting terrorism,” each time you run for re-election you kind of have to vow to “do more” than you did last time (or more than your opponent did), which leads to “more security” and “tougher stances” and so forth.

The problem is that the American public is going along with this. That’s what really worries me. It’s like the whole country is infected with some sort of “fear disease:”

We’re terrified when a terror attack happens, and we’re also terrified when it’s thwarted. We’re terrified when we give terrorists trials, and we’re terrified when we warehouse them at Guantanamo without trials. If a terrorist cooperates without being tortured we complain about how much more he would have cooperated if he hadn’t been read his rights. No matter how tough we’ve been on terror, we will never feel safe enough to ask for fewer safeguards.

You may agree or disagree with his policies, but you can’t argue with the truth in what Franklin D. Roosevelt said during his inaugural speech: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

I think it’s time and past time we all remembered that.