Monthly Archives: June 2010

The Tadich Grill

Photographs

165 years and counting.

San Francisco is blessed with several traditional eating places in the financial district which date from the days when men were men, drank two large Bloody Marys for lunch and women were not welcome.

The standout is the Tadich Grill on California Street which remains standing at its original location despite an earthquake or two, the Great Depression and Jimmy Carter. If you can survive that lot your future is likely assured.

As you can see, the city has grown up around it but the Tadich Grill remains stubbornly unchanged.

G1, some messing with perspective and processing in LR3

A lucky break in traffic and a mysterious absence of parked cars allowed me to snap this yesterday on a simply glorious, sunny San Francisco morning.

The regulars would have it that the place is not what it once was. After all, women are now not only admitted, they are now served as courteously as men.

So what if the market went to hell in a hand basket yesterday? Like a real man I was manfully short, if you get my drift.

Tips for the Daguerrean

iPad, Photography

From Stanza.

I count no fewer than four book readers on my iPad:

  • Apple’s iBooks – best UI, lousy title selection
  • Amazon’s Kindle – improving UI, huge title selection
  • Border’s – a work in progress, but promising a large selection
  • Stanza – the nerd’s choice, with easy access to 30,000 books on Project Gutenberg among many others

I was noodling through Stanza on my iPad (also runs on a Mac) and came across this intriguing 1849 book on the Daguerrotype process:

And some details:

Seems to me that advice is as pertinent today as it was in 1849. Maybe more so. And you are unlikely to find such elegant writing in any modern tome on electronic this and digital that, whose authors’ written skills generally stop at “click the mouse”.

So if you want to discover your inner Daguerrean, download the free app and book and give it a shot!

By the way, I’m using the gorgeous Georgia font in the above illustrations – Stanza has a large selection of fonts and colors, more than any other reader.

Just avoid holding it that way

Hall of Shame, Hardware

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

David Pogue, technology maven at the New York Times, is in what can only be called Desperate Back-Track Mode over the iPhone hold-it-wrong-and-it-dies design debacle. The poor schnuck failed to realize that his perfectly performing “free-for-as-long-as-you-want-it-David” iPhone4 tester was likely a carefully pre-screened model not some of the shelf POS you and I buy. Fair enough. Would you risk any old specimen assembled by one of a long line of suicidal Foxconn workers when your reviewer has an audience of millions?

Pogue backtracks, while still stepping in it.

So how should we hold it, Mr. Jobs?

Ummm …. you mean not this way as in the video at Apple.com? Better check it out quick before they change it.

Or this:

Or even this:

Hand on the antenna seam, every time.

Yeah. Sure. I know. It’s an isolated occurrence.


An isolated occurrence.

Maybe a spot of the Old Bard is called for:

I know BS when I smell it and this one reeks to high heaven.

Disclosure: No AAPL position. You think I’m stoopid?

Why I cancelled my iPhone 4 order

Hall of Shame, Hardware

A deeply flawed device.

I was hoping about now to be regaling readers with my experiences with the much improved 5 megapixel camera in the new iPhone, available today for those lucky enough to get a reservation:

Well, that is not going to happen.

Just about the time young Winston and I were getting ready to ride our bikes to the Apple Store, what comes across the wires but this story?

A moment later and I watch this shocking video.

So we do three things:

  • Cancel the trip
  • Cancel the order
  • Sell all my AAPL stock

Subsequent stories are confirming the issue is not isolated yet not universal. Mossberg of the WSJ made a vague reference to the signal strength bars fading occasionally, but made light of it – he’s not especially objective about AAPL so cannot be trusted.

It seems to me that there are three possible causes:

  • Sporadic manufacturing errors dictating a limited recall – an embarassment for Apple
  • Egregious design error requiring a total recall – a big ‘no confidence’ vote in the stock
  • Software glitch fixed with a new online upgrade – an irritation

None of these is good for a stock approaching nosebleed territory, no matter how attractive the fundamentals.

I have no idea which applies, but as my 3G iPhone is the only phone I use, and as I have no landline, it’s nonsensical to contemplate an upgrade at this juncture.

I’ll let others complete the discovery process and continue to enjoy my obsolete 3G iPhone in the meanwhile.

Talk of dodging a bullet! My advice to any prospective iPhone4 buyer is simple. Wait. Let someone else do the bleeding for you.

Note on older iPhones: You get the same effect, but less so, with older iPhones. My 3G shows 5 bars of signal lying on my desk, dropping to 2 or 3 once in the hand, after some 30 seconds. I can reliably replicate this behavior and it’s the same with iPhone OS 3.1.3 or iOS 4.0 – I tried both. After trying iOS 4.0 on my 3G iPhone I reverted to 3.1.3 – 4.0 adds little to a 3G iPhone (folders and a useless digital zoom for the camera) and unless you are really comfortable with use of Terminal and entering cryptic, high risk commands, think twice before upgrading to 4.0. My downgrade went well, but I know what I am doing – it’s anything but plug-and-play.

The loss in indicated signal strength seems absolutely related to hand contact with the rear and sides of the iPhone. When I place my 3G iPhone in its auxiliary clip-on battery pack, which doubles its battery life, thickness and weight, I lose no bars, so it very much sounds like an electrostatic design fault to me.

Be sure to check Comments for my analysis of the reason this poorly designed iPhone 4 is to be avoided until the hardware issue is fixed. Apple’s advisory today as to how to hold the iPhone is akin to the government telling you how to bend over before increasing your taxes. Unconscionable. Another Hall of Shame entry for the fruit company,

I figure the costs at $4.20/share – 3mm handsets recalled @ $300 + $600mm in legal fees + triple damages at $2.7bn = $4.2bn for 1bn shares. However, the reputational damage and lost sales make this sum insignificant by comparison. The Android crowd must be partying.

Disclosure: Sold all my AAPL position just before writing this.

National Geographic Traveler

Photographers

A source of inspiration.

I was leafing through (OK, flicking through, on the iPad) the current issue of National Geographic Traveler, much inspired by some of the great photography, when I came upon this truly stunning image.

A face of rare warmth and beauty. No surprise that it was taken by master French photographer, Eric Lafforgue, profiled earlier in these pages.

You can read electronic versions of the magazine on your desktop, laptop or iPad for the princely sum of $11.50 for one year’s worth, and have an endless source of inspiration. They are accessible through Zinio , a well supported site and iPad app. Forget the poky iPhone’s screen, for it cannot begin to do the work justice.