Interesting! Check out the new energy company that launches February 24, 2010. Bloom Energy is KR Sridhar’s $400 million power generator idea that is generating lots of hype in the media right now. It sounds like a great idea, ” to have $3,000 household generators” that let you get off the grid, but I’m feeling my “Show Me” state roots dampen my excitement.
Watch the report here…
I was wondering about some of the old spacecraft that has been launched over the years. Whatever happened to ol’ Sputnik, Voyager, and others? Well, I did a little research and found out…
Sputnik 1 launched by the USSR in October 1957, burned up in the atmosphere in January of 1958 when it fell from orbit after kicking off the Space Race that put the USA in second place as the king of technology and space exploration.
Voyager 1 was launched on Sept. 5, 1977 just months before I was born and hurtled on it’s way to tour Jupiter and Saturn in a flyby. It is “currently the farthest man-made object from earth” according to Wikipedia’s entry.
New Horizons, — on it’s way to Pluto
Voyager 1, — exploring the “boundaries of the Solar System”
Voyager 2, — slowly dying
Pioneer 10 — On it’s way out of the Solar System but not communicating
Pioneer 11 — Jupiter and Outer Solar System
You can check out the mission locations by visiting Heavens Above site which…
shows the current positions and other interesting data of the five spacecraft which are leaving the Solar System on escape trajectories – our first emissaries to the stars. The graphics and data table are generated dynamically and so always represent the latest positions. The New Horizons spacecraft on its way to Pluto has been added to the table, and now the charts too.
Here’s an example of how corporations are using Twitter to handle PR problems effectively!
Southwest, apparently schooled in its social networking knowhow, responded quickly and efficiently to the impending PR disaster, contacting Smith directly through its own Twitter account with tweets such as “Hey folks – trust me, I saw the tweets from @ThatKevinSmith I’ll get all the details and handle accordingly!
Read the whole story at Death + Taxes Magazine.
Pricing yourself and your work can be a difficult consideration, but there are some good tools and recommendations out there that can help you make a wise decision when you’re trying to price your own work, photography, design work, programing or whatever art or work you produce.
One of the best tools I’ve seen is the Cost of Doing Business Calculator by the National Press Photographer’s Association. Fill in the blanks and let it calculate a basic range. You can figure out a rate that best fits you from there.
Believing in your abilities and continuing to improve yourself is an important part of pricing. I know a consultant who gave an quote to a new client. When the client came back and said it was higher than what they wanted by more than double. He confidently let them know that they will get what they paid for, but if they wanted to, he would give them an invoice for the full amount and after the day of consulting they could write in whatever amount they felt his consulting was worth. They liked his confidence and his negotiation skills, and they flew him across several states for the job.
Johnny Truant actually inspired this entry with his article. It reads in part…
There are good and bad photographers. There are good and bad coaches. Which are you? If you’re good, believe it — and then hike up your pants and price yourself accordingly.Cutting prices works for commodities, but will not win you good clients. If you’re cheap, people won’t think it’s because you’re awesome and they’re getting a good deal. Instead, they will look at your bargain basement price and will assume that you suck. via You’re worth more than you think | Johnny B. Truant.
Besides the Calculator, there is a lot of material out there that can help you price yourself. Pricing is important. Read what Laurie said at Photopreneur.com:
If you’ve agreed to accept a lower price in return for the thrill of publication, how can you be sure that the buyer wants your picture because it’s the best he can find… or because you were the only person willing to supply it at that bargain rate?
Pam Newman gave these five questions that are great to ask when you’re in the process of setting pricing for yourself and your products.
Other references worth checking out on this same topic
When it comes to passwords we want sequences that are easy to remember but hard to figure out. As Baekdal.com writes, this rock and hard place is not necessary:
Security companies and IT people constantly tells us that we should use complex and difficult passwords. This is bad advice, because you can actually make usable, easy to remember and highly secure passwords. In fact, usable passwords are often far better than complex ones.
In one of the best articles I’ve seen on password security, Baekdal.com describes an easy way to develop secure passwords…using passphrases instead.
In another one of his great Workshop posts, Dave Black reviews the capabilities of the new Nikon D3s digital SLR.
A new standard of high ISO has been set and the D3s is the undisputed king. Not only are its clean High ISO levels 1 and 1/3 higher than a D3, but I believe the D3s handles the shadow areas cleaner and with more edge detail as well. The ISO setting of 6400 is now a cleaner and almost noiseless reality
He says the new Auto ISO features and tight rendering at even high ISO settings make this a great camera for the photographer whether you’re on the sports field or shooting in intimate candle light at a wedding.
Check out these images from Black’s blog demonstrating detail that this camera can retain even at ISO 12,800. Pretty sweet!
Dave Black also gives some tips on how he banded two Nikon SB-900 Speedlights together to make his own powerful handheld flash. See images of the results on his blog.
I had an mpeg-4 file that I needed to edit in .mov, but things weren’t going so smoothly…so I searched around just a bit and came across Wondershare. I’ve been very pleased even with the free version. It leaves a watermark in the upper left corner of the screen, but is very usable and makes me want to get the full version for $39. If I needed to convert more videos from mpeg-4 to .mov or other file formats, then I’d probably own this jewel.
Wondershare Video Converter for Mac Guide – How to convert FLV video, AVI video, HD video…on Mac OS..
