Fooled by marketing – again

A lot of people believe that their camera phone is actually a camera. They assume that a mobile phone with 3.2 megapixels and a Carl Zeiss lens is a great camera.

Film based cameras compared to digital cameras

I think it is fair to compare an analogue and a digital Single-Lens Reflex (SLR) camera. I also think it is fair to compare an analogue and a digital compact camera. But very few (if any) camera phones hold any comparison to any of the above. Camera phones can at best be compared to the cheapest and crappiest digital compact cameras.

If we continue the comparison of modern cameras to analogue cameras, I would say that todays camera phones compare in image quality to analogue disposable cameras. Even though camera phones like Nokia N73 and Sony Ericsson K800i have specifications that look great on paper, the images you can take with them do not look great on paper.

How can so many people be fooled so easily?

I believe most people with camera phones are a little like digital compact camera users: The pictures are mostly viewed on cellphones or relatively small home computer screens and they are rarely printed in large scales. The users never inspect the images in Photoshop or any other image processing program (have you seen the quality of the blue channel of a camera phone image?).

So all in all, people are happy with crappy images – until the day they take a picture that they really like and wish they could have made a big nice print out of it…

image © Apple

Different places, different needs

Startup Items lets you open the same applications every time you log in, but that is not necessarily what you want. I have different uses for my MacBook Pro depending on where I am, and I want different programs started and different servers mounted at work than I do at home.

Removable hardware and networks disks are not always available for a portable computer. If you try to mount disks when they are not available, you are causing unnecessary delays, and you get annoying error messages. And if you do not have a solution for mounting the disks automatically, you have to do it manually every work day.

The solution

I have made a small applescript that solves most of these problems. Just download the script here and double click it to open in script editor. Then follow the instructions in the comments inside the script.

The script works by assuming that you get assigned an ip address within different ranges in different physical places. You tell the script where each range belong, and what you want done when you are at that place.

It’s easy!

If you are new to programming, I can promise you that this sounds a lot harder than it is. Applescript is made for non-programmers like you, and you will easily understand what is going on. At least take a look at the script before you give up!

Update: Alternative solution

I started working on making a more user friendly application to manage locations, but I put that on hold when I found that WiLMa – The WIreless Location MAnager may do the trick. I will try it out, but my guess right now is that WiLMa may be easier to use, and that the above script gives you more control.

Update II: Added functionality

You may now switch behaviour using the Airport network name in addition to the IP address.

Digg this article!

Technology often acts really strange, and sometimes makes us act strange too.

My three year old Powerbook G4 suddenly got into the habit of turning itself off a few seconds after I turned it on. Technical support told me it’s probably a failure in the power management unit that makes it sensitive to heat.

Since I was in a hurry to get the Mac up and running to meet a deadline that morning, I put it in the refrigerator for five minutes – and voilá, it started! But that was a temporary solution for me – I have now ordered a new MacBook Pro.

Powerbooks in refregerators seem to be “hot” these days: here’s an article about a guy using the same solution to fix his dvd player.