Let us make it clear from the start that apart from the color and the number of wheels, those two skates have not much in common. The FSK Crossmax is my trusty urban assault vehicle, rugged, comfortable and quick to react to the unexpected. But on the open road, the Crossmax feels like short legs. So I took advantage of the winter clearance sale to acquire cheaply the Fila M100 I had been coveting. My feelings after a short test ride are about the same as anyone trying 100 millimeter wheels and carbon shoes for the first time, but I guess I’ll get used to the bigger and stiffer legs.

Since a picture is worth 10^3 words let me show you the graphical impression I had when I dropped the newcomers next to the incumbent pair :

Now you understand what I mean when I say “bigger legs”, especially if you realize that the Crossmax is anything but a toy skate.

I’m sure I’ll enjoy the potential for powerful pushes, sheer speed and efficiency in long distance raids, but I’ll definitely need to upgrade my maneuvering technique. And I’ll most certainly keep using the Crossmax for everything but the great wide open !

I mistakenly believed that the Com One Bluetooth Oneboard would probably be compatible with the Treo 680. Testing it with the latest drivers proved me wrong : no communication between the Treo and the Keyboard was ever achieved, and exiting the driver’s control panel reliably triggered a reboot.

Apparently, the iGo Stowaway is also incompatible with the Treo 680. Some further research showed that although there are plenty of Bluetooth keyboards available for the Treo 650, but none of them is sold as compatible with the Treo 680 in spite of how similar the two phones are. I would guess that the Bluetooth stacks differ enough to be a problem.

Even if there are significant hurdles that hamper porting Bluetooth keyboard drivers to the Treo 680, I am very surprised that the manufacturers have dropped the ball in such way. I would guess that the consumers are not the only ones losing patience with Palm, and that the vendors are now starting to abandon ship.

Anyway, I’ll probably have to buy another infrared keyboard to replace the Think Outside infrared keyboard I killed by over-use…

After agonizing for a few months over a lighting equipment purchase decision I finally took the plunge and bought a couple of additional Canon Speedlite 580EX, in accordance to the teachings of the guru of small shoe-mount flashes.

Even cheap AC powered lights provide more power than the Canon portable strobes will ever put out, but I can carry the portable strobes anywhere in my backpack and set the up on a whim - and that fits my lifestyle much better. As Strobist says : “larger strobes have their place, but they tend to spend a lot of time in trunks and stuffed under beds. But the small, everyday strobe is always in the waistpack ready to go“.

I began playing with my new toys on this Christmas week-end as I happened to have a willing model at hand. My first setup was definitely random and the results are rather haphazard but I have at least the above picture to be quite happy with.

After that first experience I can already say that I do not regret my decision. A bunch of 580EX are really a pocket studio all by themselves - and with a €4 screw mount adapter I can even make good use of those flimsy toy tripods given away with breakfast cereal packs and spotting scopes. I now have ample room to grow my lighting skills and have loads of fun on the way. Expect more multiple flash experiments !

Today I got a Canon Eos 400D in the mail. I could not resist playing with it this morning before heading for the office. The very first impression comes from the better quality of the finish, a mode selector that does not slip under sweaty fingers and instant power-on. The feeling that comes right next is how tiny the grip is - with the 24-70/2.8L it feels downright ridiculous. But the improvements soon let me forgive that : bigger buffer, AF mode control, second curtain flash (CF 9-1), custom function 4-3 (AF and AE on the ‘*’ key, AE lock at half shutter press, shutter priority at full shutter press), flash exposure compensation on the body and an autofocus that I don’t feel like swearing at constantly… All of the major annoyances of the 300D are gone - life is good !

In order to have some decent hardware to cover tomorrow’s soccer game, I borrowed a Canon Eos 30D from my friend Guillaume. I played a bit with it and was immediately in awe of the superior ergonomics. Bigger viewfinder, bigger grip and quick control dial make the 400D feel like a toy in comparison. Even the Canon BG-E3 I bought along with the 400D does not really bridge the gap. Apart from that both cameras actually perform similarly. The feeling of quality and the manipulation speed are significant advantages - the question is open whether you should spend the difference to get them. But the reasons why I borrowed this body are the five frames per second compared with the 400D’s three and the ISO 3200 maximum sensitivity compared with the 400D’s 1600. Five frames per second at ISO 3200… That is fast enough to catch that perfect action frame I’m after ! I don’t need that sort of speed often, but for soccer it is really necessary unless you want lots of blurry frames with no ball in them…

In “The Art of Camo” (an article for the American Institute of Graphic Arts), Phil Patton says :

Camouflage attracts modernists raised to believe that ornament is crime. Camo ornaments legally, you might say - its pattern has a job to do.

That quite nicely puts my feelings into words. I worship pragmatism and generally can’t stand pointless decoration… Camouflage is an excellent excuse to indulge in some. So maybe this is the reason why I love camo patterns… Well, that and the way I’m irresistibly attracted toward the sort of large and expensive hardware that camouflaged people play with…

Under the blazing sun during the start of the Le Mans 24 hours skating race I shot only two hundred frames before running my three freshly recharged batteries flat. I first thought that they were nearing the end of their useful lives, but during the night I managed to shoot four hundred frames on a single battery I just recharged. The intense heat from direct sunlight may have something to do with how fast power is depleted.

This comes as a surprise to me : I am used to rotating batteries in an inner pocket near my body to keep them warm in extreme cold weather but this is the first time I encounter performance degradation in extreme heat. And I have no idea how to attack this problem.

Robin Tichy mentions that “Li-ion batteries outperform their counterparts in high-temperature conditions ranging up to 40°–45°C. SLA and NiMH batteries do not perform well in higher-heat situations”. The BP511A batteries I use in my Canon Eos 300D use Li-ion - maybe I should consider myself lucky I did not use NiMH batteries…

After using Vuescan everyone realizes that scanner manufacturers should really be ashamed of what they ship with their hardware. Ed Hamrick single handedly produced the only program that really gets the best out of almost every scanners. Without him my precious Nikon LS-30 would just be about useless to me : since 1999 only Vuescan provides useable infrared scratch removal on Linux. Efforts by the SANE project to provide infrared dust removal have not gone beyond the proof of concept stage, so seven years later Vuescan is still the only one to save my negative scanning days. On top of that, support by Ed Hamrick is nothing short of exceptional - he is a highly responsive developper with great passion in his work. Add a perpetual license at a very low price and you probably understand that I’m in love with this product.

Rough handling and repeated falls took their toll on my Treo 650 : the antenna’s root broke and two screws went AWOL. I thought that naturally the manufacturer would sell spare parts but I was wrong : no amount of begging to Palm’s dreadful telephone support people could convince them to part with some of their apparently precious stock of spares at any price. Same thing with Orange who distributes the Treo 650. The only solution they propose is to send the device into the black hole of their customer support operation and get it repaired at a ludicruous price. This is of course unacceptable.

Happily I found an alternative source : PerformancePDA sells Treo 650 parts at reasonnable prices ! I do not know where they get them from - maybe they disassemble broken devices to get around Palm’s horrendous spare parts policy. Anyway order fulfillment by PerformancePDA has been fast with no problem. After tightening the minuscule TORX screws my Treo 650 is back in perfect shape. Having it inoperant for a while made me realize how much I depend on it for efficient daily operation…