I tossed my tinfoil hat aside the day Google released the new Google Photos. I’ve tried nearly every photo storage/backup/sharing service and Google Photos is by far my new favorite. It combines drop-dead simple backup with some fancy searching and categorizing features. All for free. I started out by configuring both my Mac and iPhone to send photos to Google. The problem was that I also import my photos from my phone to my Mac so I was getting duplicates of everything.

There’s no way to write about working with a Twin Lens Reflex film camera in 2015 without it being part of a personal story. So, with your brief indulgence – some background. Source: Rediscovering Craft – Luminous Landscape Michael Reichmann, a proponent of digital before it was time to be a proponent of digital, bought himself a Rolleiflex FX. I love stories like this.

If forced to choose between keeping the Apple Watch or the Amazon Echo, the Watch would have to go.

Danger Mouse is on Netflix. He’s the greatest. He’s fantastic! Wherever there is trouble he’ll be there! http://www.netflix.com/title/70177040 (ht @peterme)

Org Mode is as good as everyone says. Maybe better. I’m going to live there for a while.

My dog Katie turned 17 last week. The above video was shot today at my parents' house. Katie can’t hear and only has one eye but she sure seems happy. I don’t expect her to live forever but she’s well on her way. Every day is a bonus.

Posting to a static blog was more work than I remember so here we are at WordPress again. Isn’t this fun?

I learned a lot about mass surveillance from Data and Goliath. More than I’m comfortable with, actually. Tell you what, watch Citizenfour then read Schneier’s book. They’ll keep you up at night, unplugged from everything.

I’ve enjoyed most of Steven Johnson’s books, and have now added “How We Got To Now” to the list. The book looks at six technologies that have “made the modern world”. The six are… Glass Cold Sound Clean (hygene) Time Light He demonstrates how each of those innovations had profound and unexpected effects. For example, discovery of microbes led to chlorinated water led to the bikini bathing suit (read it and learn how that happened).

Kelly Photobombs (2015). Hasselblad 503CXi Carrying around a Hasselblad and flash unit makes for a cumbersome kit. "Hasselblad 503CXi with D-Flash 40 See what I mean? It’s a monster. Shooting handheld with a big camera in natural indoor light makes for a nearly impossible situation. Using a flash dramatically reduces the number of blown shots and with medium format film the higher the hit rate the better.

Apple Extended Keyboard II  I’ve now been reacquainted with what might be the best keyboard ever made, the Apple Extended Keyboard II. I’ve been using one at both my home and office desks for a month or so and they are as great as I remember. The one pictured above is a filthy mess because I haven’t gotten around to cleaning it yet. Some day I may take it apart and give it a good scrubbing.

Publishing a new post to this (Hugo) blog is easy, but involves too many steps. First, I have to create the file, then open it in my editor, like this: $ hugo new post/2015/my-new-post-name.md $ vi post/2015/my-new-post-name.md Then in my editor I have to edit the title using proper case, etc. Not bad, but I can’t think of any reason it wouldn’t at least open the file in my editor as part of the “new” command.