Boston, Black Friday, 2009

The Friday after thanksgiving is the time to shop for the holidays season to come, there are many sales happening throughout Massachusetts area, I decided that this year, my goal was to hit the Wrentham Premium Factory Outlets.

On this rainy night, after the 10:10p.m. movie "Ninja Assassins" I proceeded to drive towards the Factory outlets. As we were driving on Rte 9 in Brookline, we were pulled over because we were going 60km/h on a 50km/h by a Brookline Police officer.

Though we were let off with a warning, the 30 mins delay was enough to force us into a massive traffic. As a result of the traffic jam, many people are driving like "Massholes" and traffic was all over the place. People are overtaking and switching lanes for no reason at all.

Finally, at 4am, I arrived at Wrentham. It was still drizzling and I started to go to the targeted stores one by one. The following stores are my favorite stores in Wrentham in 2009.

Banana Republic - 50% off everything
Tommy Hilfiger - 40% off everything
Vitamin World - 20% off most items
Adidas - 30% off storewide
Reebok - 30% off most items

Nautica, DKNY, Timberland, Merrell and Gap seemed to have pretty good deals but Sony with one of the best deals in the area seem to be closed till 5am.

After 2 hours of shopping and discovering many great gifts, I moved to my next location of shopping: Electronics.

For electronics, I discovered several places with many electronics stores close by. In Fenway, You get Staples, Bestbuy and Bed Bath and Beyond. At South Bay, I would say there are also many Big malls close by, and I expected many people to be there just because of the location and the concentration of stores, and eventually, I decided on Arsenal Mall in Watertown.

In Watertown Mall, you get,
1) Bestbuy
2) Target

And across the road, you get Arsenal Mall,
1) Filene's basement,
2) Vitamin World,
3) Gamestop,
4) Radio Shack,
5) Olympia Sports, etc.

In BestBuy, there are so many "doorbuster sales" and many extremely popular items. However, my goal was the Sony Handicam DCR - SR47. This 720P camcorder has a 60 GB harddisk, and it can record up to 45 hours of video or 15 hours of HD videos. In BestBuy, it costs $249.99 or $299.99 with a spare battery and camera bag.

There are also many good offers on memory cards, and I figured the best offer is at Staples, but failed to get them at any Staples I visit.

The other great offers include Motorola Cliq at $79.99 in Radio Shack for a new 2 yr agreement.

Well, I've satisfied with my buys and gifts I'm giving and I'd love to go to the sales next year.

-- Iron Bowl

9 h - nine hours capsule hotel in kyoto

Came across this interesing article I'd love to share

9 h - nine hours capsule hotel in kyoto

9 h (nainawasu) is a new capsule hotel that offers luxury in a minimum living space. 
the 9 h capsule hotel and all amenities were designed by fumie shibata of design studio s, 
which she founded in 1994. with her team, she defined the elements necessary for a 
'minimal transit space' in big cities in japan. the product designer has been pursuing 
the 9h project as a creative director for 3 years.

the first hotel will opened in december this year, located in shimogyo-ku, kyoto, located on
teramachi street between department store fujii daimaru and convenience store AMPM,
two minutes walk from kawaramachi station. the building itself will be 9 stories tall, 
will host 125 capsules, locker rooms, showers, and a lounge.

exhibition at AXIS gallery

exhibition view

a comfortable place to rest ... 1 hour shower, sleep for 7 hours, have a one hour break / total 9h.
guests can spend up to 17 hours in a single stay - the price for one night is ¥ 4900.

each capsule includes panasonic's advanced system for good sleeping by computerized 
control lighting.

room environment by panasonic / matsushita electric works.
according to the time set, the light will wake you up.

the bed sheets are of the same quality as those that are used in a four-star hotel

rear view of capsule

side view

graphic design by masaaki hiromura

toothbrush

shampoo, conditioner, body soap

bottled water taken at the foot of mount fuji

amenity slippers

japan's first capsule hotel made its appearance in osaka in 1979, and was designed by
architect kisho kurokawa.

Source: designboom | http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/8111/9-h-nine-hours-capsule-hotel-in-kyoto.html

Google Announces Plans to Make the Internet Twice As Fast!

Google Announces Plans to Make the Internet Twice As Fast!

Google has announced plans to make the Internet twice as fast by replacing the old HTTP protocol with a new SPDY one.

"SPeeDY" is an early stage research project which at its core is an application layer protocol for transporting content over the web. It is designed specifically for minimizing latency through features such as multiplexed streams, request prioritization and HTTP header compression.

-----
We started working on SPDY while exploring ways to optimize the way browsers and servers communicate. Today, web clients and servers speak HTTP. HTTP is an elegantly simple protocol that emerged as a web standard in 1996 after a series of experiments. HTTP has served the web incredibly well. We want to continue building on the web's tradition of experimentation and optimization, to further support the evolution of websites and browsers. So over the last few months, a few of us here at Google have been experimenting with new ways for web browsers and servers to speak to each other, resulting in a prototype web server and Google Chrome client with SPDY support.

So far we have only tested SPDY in lab conditions. The initial results are very encouraging: when we download the top 25 websites over simulated home network connections, we see a significant improvement in performance - pages loaded up to 55% faster. There is still a lot of work we need to do to evaluate the performance of SPDY in real-world conditions. However, we believe that we have reached the stage where our small team could benefit from the active participation, feedback and assistance of the web community.
-----

Google has posted early stage documentation and current code in order to obtain feedback through the Chromium Google Group.

Source: iClarified | http://www.iClarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=6054 - Friday, November 13, 2009 2:11am

Camera Lens Compatibility. (Nikon DSLR)

I own a D50, and a D3x and I'm currently shopping for lens and I came across several charts and tables which I would like to share.

The following is a very useful link for a Nikon lens compatibility table. --> link <---

For me, I'd like to get good lens, however I have many different cameras and due to compatinility issues, I'd only get what is value for money.

If you are like me, a guy who is into photography since the days of Nikon FM2 and the Minolta, you may have several lens already. I currently own a Mamiya 645 as well, and I'm saving up for more lens and a digital back, however I'd still like to shoot with my trusty old Nikon D50.

I guess as I'd like to do street photography, some of which are at night, I'd need to get fast lens, and after researching, I feel that a manual focus F1.4 lens really does make sense.

in Nov, 2009, I've searched ebay, and the prices for some digital cameras have gone down, but some lens are still quite expensive.

For under $100, you can find a Nikon 50mm F1.4 manual focus lens which is very fast at night.

You can also get a Sigma 70 - 300 F4 - F5.6 for under $100 if you search hard.

DSLRs now are very affordable and great to own!



The table below outlines which lenses support which functions with which Nikon DSLR cameras. Please note, there are exceptions to this, for example certain fisheye lenses protrude too far into the camera body, and may damage the mirror/lens, lenses designed for the Nikon F3AF system may not work, certain reflex lenses may not physically fit and so forth. Please check the manual for both the camera and lens before trying to mount.
Also note, that not all features may be supported in all modes. For example, an AI-S lens mounted on a Nikon DSLR will either not meter ("no metering" in the table below, can be used in manual mode only), or if it will meter ("meter ok" in the table below) then only Aperture Priority or Manual modes will work.
Lenses marked D or G provide distance information to the camera, so all Nikon DSLR's will meter properly in all modes with these lenses.
AF-S lenses will autofocus with all Nikon DSLR's. AF Lenses only work with bodies that have focusing motors (all current bodies except the Nikon D40, D40x and D60).

Nikon DSLR/Lens Compatibility Chart:

	Manual Focus			Autofocus
DSLR Body	Pre-AI	AI, AI-S	AI-P	AF	AF-I, AF-S	Type D or G
D40, D40x, D60	Mounts OK No Metering	Mounts OK No Metering	Mounts OK Meters OK	Mounts OK Meters OK No AF	Mounts OK Meters OK AF OK	Works OK
D50, D70, D70s, D80, D90, D100	DO NOT USE MAY DAMAGE	Mounts OK No Metering	Mounts OK Meters OK	Mounts OK Meters OK AF OK	Mounts OK Meters OK AF OK	3D Metering Supported
D200, D300, D700	DO NOT USE MAY DAMAGE	Mounts OK Meters OK	Mounts OK Meters OK	Mounts OK Meters OK AF OK	Mounts OK Meters OK AF OK	3D Metering Supported
D1 Series	DO NOT USE MAY DAMAGE	Mounts OK No Matrix Meter	Mounts OK Meters OK	Mounts OK Meters OK AF OK	Mounts OK Meters OK AF OK	3D Metering Supported
D2 Series, D3	DO NOT USE MAY DAMAGE	Mounts OK Meters OK	Mounts OK Meters OK	Mounts OK Meters OK AF OK	Mounts OK Meters OK AF OK	3D Metering Supported

Notes:

1. DO NOT USE: May cause damage to the camera body.
2. Mounts OK: Is safe to mount on the camera.
3. Meters OK: Basic metering works.
4. No Metering: Camera body supports CPU metering only, lens does not have CPU.
5. AF OK: Autofocus works.
6. No AF: Autofocus does not work, since camera lacks AF motor in the camera body.
7. 3D Metering Supported: Lenses marked D or G provide distance information, allowing 3D Matrix Metering to work.

--Reviews Guru