Wordpress has released an app for iPhone which allows full posting capability including categories and tags from anywhere. Pretty neat. I’m posting from it now so we will see how this goes.

Actually I just wanted an excuse to publish this photo of a fish I shot last year.

Couple of notes:

• I’m still sick
• iPhone 3G launches in just under 6 hours here where I live in DC.
• I like iPhone 3G

Now, some people ask me, “isn’t that just a trendy phone that isn’t actually any better than others?” The answer is no. Here’s why:

• Fast 3G Internet Access (and regular data, and EDGE data, and WiFi)
• App Store - a collection of free and low-cost applications developed for the first time for iPhone. This includes games and fun things, but also useful apps that let you use Twitter, Flickr, view movie listings with ratings from Rottentomatoes, etc without having to use the web browser
• A web browser that actually works and is easy to use/zoom/type in
• Google Maps with GPS
• GPS works with photos taken with the onboard camera, as well as iPhone apps to determine where you are for movie listings, social networking and much more
• Push/Activesynch Calendar, Email and Contacts from Exchange
• It’s an iPod, and that functionality works just as well as it always has, which is to say amazingly well.

This has been out for a few days now but got mostly buried in the D700 buzz.  The D300 has received a firmware update to 1.03 from Nikon and supposedly the battery reading dead when it is not dead issue has been resolved.  I have seen this happen a few times with my 70-200 lens but was able to resolve it myself by cleaning the lens contacts.  Perhaps this update makes such failure less likely to happen.  If you are having this problem I would suggest you try this firmware update and also wipe clean your lens and body contacts.

A Masterpiece

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner.  Check out Nikon’s D700 page or DPReview for info.  Full frame D3 sensor in a compact D300 style body.  Will I be getting one?  Eventually.  Right now I *love* my D300 and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Also announced, the new SB-900 flash with more power, faster recycle time, and - praise be to God - a hardware master/slave switch.  I might look into this one.

A Little Dusty

Maybe a Lot

Had some trouble with my workstation today.  It’s a pretty nice rig that I built myself almost 2 years ago, running a core2 duo processor, 4 gigabytes of ram and an Nvidia 8800 GTS graphics card.  As a whole I keep my operating system, drivers, software and files in great shape and usually have no problems.  It has an amazing cooling system with many fans assaulting the CPU and graphics card with cool air.

Today, however, I noticed a number of slowdowns and lag with visually intensive applications.  I thought, perhaps, that I had a virus or that I had somehow ruined one of my drivers.  I spent about 2 hours downloading various antispyware and antivirus software packages and updating each of my drivers looking for a solution.

At some point my wife suggested that the computer was just plain dirty and that I ought to take it outside and clean it out instead of looking for hidden viruses that weren’t there.  A tornado of dust (including some golf ball sized chunks of it) came out of the machine when I finally set it up on my balcony and used compressed air from every imaginable angle to clean it.

I’m back up and running now smoother than ever.  Keep those computers clean and listen to your wife!