weschan.com

Google & GrandCentral

2007-07-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

Google just announced the acquisition of GrandCentral Communications. It's one of the coolest services I've ever encountered, and one that I am proud to have bought into Google.

What camera should you buy?

2007-03-25T22:58:00.000-07:00

As the unofficial Google Photographer, I get numerous emails from many of my colleagues about which digital camera they should start out with. I got another one yesterday:

Wesley,
What are your thoughts on Canon Rebel XTi Vs the Nikon D40X. This will be my first real camera, so looking for something that doesn't overwhelm me, but does let me explore some of the fundamentals of photography.

Thanks,
[name redacted]

I thought I'd share my thoughts on this topic since I get asked about this so often. My assumption if you're reading this is that you're new to photography and/or you're looking to upgrade to a more sophisitacted, dSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera like the Canon EOS-30D or Nikon D40x.

(1) Canon or Nikon? There are two dominant camera "systems" on the market today that manufacture over 80% of the cameras and lenses that pros use: Canon and Nikon. You have to decide which one to go with since once you make an investment in one system, it's really difficult to switch. The lenses also aren't interchangable: a Canon lens won't fit on a Nikon camera body, and vice versa. If you really get into photography, you could very well invest in over $10,000 in lenses, so choose wisely.

I exclusively use Canon bodies and lenses, and am extremely happy with my choice. I have close friends that swear by Nikon and have made an equally large and expensive investment in Nikon lenses. You have to pick one, and there have been endless debates about which brand/system is better. (I chose Canon, so much of what I speak below will echo this).

(2) Lenses. Most people fail to realize that the glass (lenses) that you buy is probably more important than what camera body you start with. Almost all dSLR camera bodies are sold without the lens. And (good) lenses are not cheap.

What lens you choose to buy depends on what type of photography you choose to do. I personally use a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens ($1700) for 70% of all the photos I take, but switch out to other lenses (such as the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS, $1800) as the situation dictates.

Most people starting out usually photograph people or landscapes, so a lens I recommend starting with is the Canon 28mm-135mm f/3.5-f/5.6 IS lens ($425). First, it is both a wide-angle lens (28mm) so you can take great photos of landscapes, as well as a telephoto (135mm) lens, so you can zoom in on your subject if you want to take a portrait of someone. Second, it has something called an Image Stabalizer built in which helps compensate for camera shake by reducing camera blur. (This is probably one of the coolest technologies to hit photography in the past decade). The 28-135mm lens is a great start and can give you great photos in a wide variety of situations if used properly.

(3) Buy a camera body. I'm really agnostic about what body people buy since a new one is released every couple of years (so you have to upgrade often), and the quality of your photos is really affected more by what lens you use than how fancy your camera body is. I take crappy photos when using a crappy lens and a state-of-the-art body, but have spectacular photos when using a great lens (and having good lighting) on a several-year-old, obsolete dSLR body. The current "starter" dSLR bodies on the market today that are worth checking out are the Canon Digital Rebel XTi (10 megapixels) and the Nikon D40x (also 10 megapixels).

You can't go wrong with either body, but you can go wrong by choosing the wrong lens to start with.

(4) Pick a project to learn how to take great photos. Phil Greenspun has some great advice about building your first dSLR system: choose a couple of photo projects to start with. Photograph your dog or your kids, go take a trip and take some sweet photos of a waterfall--the possibilities are endless. Post the photos up on the web to share with others and enjoy the results of your new camera.

Random Encounters on the Playa

2005-09-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

One week has past and I'm still nostalgic for Burning Man. Here's the final installment of more of my favorite photos from Black Rock City 2005. (You can find the full gallery at http://photos.weschan.com.)

Words of wisdom tacked onto the wall at the Shinto Temple.

Romer & Brooks whacking each other with foam bats in the Thunderdome (don't ask).

My friend Dan on the playa, ringing the Virgin bell signifying that it's his first Burning Man ever.

Jeremy Mungle (L) making a phone call (on a satellite phone) while Roxana Smith makes sno-cones for everyone at the "It's Your Birthday" theme camp.

Friends of mine having a bit too much fun on a random trampoline. (There are tons of trampolines everywhere in Black Rock City.)

James Abele juggling during a dance party at the House of Lotus camp.

In what was probably the most bizzare spectacle ever, GI-JOE figurines march hundreds of plastic barbies into an oven at the Barbie Death Camp & Wine Bistro art display.

Adam admiring Alton Parker's art installation in the middle of the playa.

Ring charms spin in the desert wind.

A rememberence for a passed-away loved one at the Shinto Temple.

One of the coolest costumes ever!

The front of the lamplighter procession, which happens every day at sunset.

Burning Man on Fire!

2005-09-10T14:20:00.000-07:00

Fire Sculptures are perhaps one of the coolest nighttime things that you'll find on the playa at Burning Man. Here are some of my favorite fire sculptures from this year.

Random gathering around fire-spitting horns.

Black Rock Hoedown around the fire-spitting horns. The Space Cowboys unimog showed up at the horns and for the entire night, pumped out dance tunes as several hundred people partied around some awesome fireballs.

The fire pendulum: flames from 4 jets would propel this pendulum to spin around as hundreds of people stared in awe.

The fire pendulum in action.

Green flames from the chimney of a fire sculpture.

Fire spitting out an art installation on the playa.

Not quite a fire sculpture but equally as cool: the charred remains of the man during the ritual burning on Saturday night.

Picture Perfect Playa Wedding

2005-09-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

Lots of people get married every year at Burning Man. I was lucky enough to stumble onto one such wedding, and acted as impromptu wedding photographer. I have no idea who the lucky couple are.

I thought the wedding offciator in the gold outfit was a nice touch, as well as the bunnies acting as the groomsmen and bridesmaid. (Note that some bunnies have beards).

On that note did you know that in the state of California you marry ONE couple for a day even if you're not clergy or a judge? All you need to do is to be deputized to perform the ceremony. (I may do this for next year's burning man!)

My favorite part of the wedding: when the gold dude said "you may kiss the bride!"

Afterwards, the wedding procession walked down the playa with everyone cheering behind them.

Ending a picture-perfect wedding, the bride and groom hop on the wedding art car to be pushed off by a flock of bunnies into the sunset.

Want more 2005 Burning Man Photos? Get them at http://photos.weschan.com

Parade of Burning Man Art Cars

2005-09-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things to do at Burning Man is to chase after the hundreds of art cars on the playa and take photos of them. There were some awesome ones this year.

A robotic dinosaur trying to actually "walk" across the playa. This was one of the more complicated art cars I've seen on the playa; there was a person riding on the back of the dinosaur controlling the various motors to get the art car to "walk."

The Nekobasu (or CatBus), from My Neighbor Totoro.

The cup cakes, back this year in force!

Eyeballs at night.

Circular saw car slicing thru the playa at night.

Driving a couch on the playa.

Snow-cone serving locomotive stopped on the playa for an impromptu boom-boom dance party.

The Swan, an origami inspired artcar by Adam Smith and team.

Middle eastern palace-inspired car.

Glow-in-the-dark Pac Man!

"Sailing" down the playa.

Dragon Limo

You can find more 2005 Burning Man art car photos at http://photos.weschan.com.

Burn the Man!

2005-09-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

At my last night at Burning Man this past week, 35,000 people gathered around "man" at Burning Man to watch it burn down. This year, I was lucky enough to have a front row seat for the huge ten minute fireworks-laden bonfire.

Before the "man" exploded, nearly all of the fire dancers in the US converged upon the playa to give us a spectacular show of light and sound.

Then the fireworks went off on the "man."

I had a hard time getting some good photos this year because the fireworks appeared to light the man up prematurely. The man instantly erupted into a gigantic fireball. There was smoke everywhere and many of the fireworks exploded on the ground rather than up in the air.

Still some of the fireworks made it up above the smoke and chaos.

At some point, the smoke cleared away and you could see that the man had caught on fire.

At this point, everyone started cheering and yelling "burn the man." After about 5 minutes, the structure holding the "man" collasped and the man came tumbling down.

Once the man fell, everyone started rushing into the center. The chaos has begun. Several thousand people began running around the corspe of the man, jumping up and down as if their favorite team had won the Superbowl.

I made my way to the center and got some spectacular photos of the charred remains of the man, still burning after its very public collaspe.

It was so hot in there, and combined with the fact that there were still thousands of people trying to push their way into the center, my camera nearly melted. Thank god I was wearing a fire & heat resistant flight suit.

I can't wait to next year's burn.

Back from Black Rock City

2005-09-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

I'm back from the playa, still covered in several layers of dust after spending four days at Buring Man. Trying to clean all the dust off of myself and my crap will be a huge pain.

I've taken over 2000 photos, and still need to go through them all. In the next several days, I'll be posting many of my favorites here, but in the meantime, for some really awesome photos, you can visit my burning man gallery.

One of my favorite experiences this year was seeing these gigantic smoke rings erupt from out of nowhere on the playa. I'd be riding along while the sun was setting, and these black smoke donuts would rise up from afar. It was an amazing sight.

After biking around some more, I found a truck towing a fire contraption that was roaming around the playa creating these huge smoke rings.

Every five minutes or so, someone would pour a special mixture of fuel into the fire contraption.

The contraption would ignite and create a huge fireball, which would in turn create this big blob of black smoke.

After about a minute, the smoke would expand out and create these really big, really awesome smoke rings.

Three words to describe what I saw: absoultely f*!king incredible.

Black Rock City or Bust

2005-08-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

I'm off to the playa, this year, more prepared than last, with more glowy stuff than last, and with the ability to keep in touch with a shiny new satellite phone. For those that want to find me on the playa, I'll be at the Happy Birthday camp at 4:30 and Amnesia.

Here's one of my favorite photos from the burn last year.

I'll be back in a week, hopefully with a ton of spectacular photos.

Trade You a Tribonium for Two Unethical Items

2005-08-23T23:02:00.000-07:00

As part of the Mooncurser's Handbook, a crazy 30 hour road rally that I wrote about yesterday, we had to take part in a "trading game." This was something new and drastically different from anything that we had experienced in The Game before.

The "trading game" involved collecting items at each of the various clue locations we visited. We were seeded with an initial set of items. Various pieces of information--about how much the items were worth (e.g. vegetables were worth 2 points), special bonuses that we would get if we had certain combinations of items (e.g. if you had four identical items you'd get a bonus of 25 points), and trading restrictions (e.g. if you turned in any more than 12 items at the final location, Game Control would randomly throw items out until you had 12) would be revealed to us as we finished solving each puzzle as well.

The goal of the "trading game" was to maximize the number of points you thought you could get relative to all of the other teams. Since your ranking in the "trading game" amounted to 37.5% of your final score in the Mooncruiser's Handbook Game, all of the teams really wanted to do well in the trading aspect of The Game.

There were many complex bonuses and trading rules that we learned about over time. For example, if you had four "Tribonum" items, which were classified as "rare" and "dangerous", you could get a bonus of 40 points. Or if you were the team that had the most amount of items classified as "drugs", you would get a point bonus that was equal to the square of the number of item that were classified as "unethical." (So if you had 10 "unethical" items, you would get an extra 100 point bonus since 10-squared is 100).

Upon learning how the trading game worked, our team quickly formed an alliance with several other teams in The Game. Our plan: have one central third-party trading coordinator handle the distribution of items. We would reveal all rules to the trading coordinator and all the items that our team had. Since he had a global view of all the items that every team in the alliance had and understood all the bonuses and rules, he could distribute the items so that we would optimize the score for ALL the teams involved.

Furthermore, the coordinator would be able to figure out what items we wanted to trade with other teams so that we could optimize our collective set of items even further. Each of our individual teams had a designated broker that was instructed to try to obtain certain items from other teams NOT in the alliance, and the coordinator provided us a list of items that we could part with in order to trade.

In theory, this would have worked very well if you had enough teams in the alliance and every team cooperated with the rules we had initially laid out.

In practice, this didn't quite work out the way we wanted it to. We still got a better ranking and item distribution by being part of the alliance than not, but several teams dropped out before we handed in our items.

This screwed up what we calculated as the optimal distribution sending the remaining teams into a frenzy to try to fend for themselves right before the trading deadline). We still did well in the rankings, and much better than the teams that dropped out (oh what poetic justice), but not as optimally as we had hoped for if all the teams stayed in the alliance.

We also found it difficult for each team's brokers to conduct trades with non-alliance teams during the Game. First, some brokers weren't really motivated to trade (they were too busy solving puzzles). Second, we wound up continuously changing our optimization strategy and became too greedy with our trades--we tried to trade for certain items at the last minute and wound up not getting them. Our assumption that we could get these items really messed up our optimal distribution; this in turn screwed over a couple of teams.

That said, we found the trading game to be fun and interesting. It added much more intrigue to The Game and made the experience rather interesting. The trading game did make our experience in the Mooncruser's Handbook much more stressful (especially since we had a small team and having to broker cards and conduct trades often distracted us from puzzle solving). Nonetheless, it was a grand experiment and we enjoyed having the opportunity to participate in it.

Thirty Hours of Nonstop Fun

2005-08-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

We were in Seattle this past weekend and for thirty hours, we played in a wonderful "Game" known as Mooncurser's Handbook. This is the seventh* "Game" I've played in. For those of you who don't know much about the Game, it's a grueling mobile road rally where you drive around in big white vans (full of crazy gadgets) and solve puzzles and challenges at different locations. The solution to each clue leads you to the next destiation. You're up for thirty hours or more, and tempers flare at 3AM when your team can't agree on how to decrypt a message hidden in a Monopoly board game.

Over 120 players on 22 teams lined up to get instructions from Game Control this past weekend before getting the next challenge.

Twenty-two teams played, and we finished in the top third, despite having two players drop out at the last minute, having two members who have never experienced one of these intense adventures before, and having a team where most of the players have barely met each other.

It takes a massive amount of effort to organize the game, and the organizers (aka "Game Control") usually spend six months to a year to get everything in place. In addition to the large amount of time to create the puzzles, Game Control even runs a couple of beta Games to iron out the kinks and minimize the amount of snafus that happen in the field. We clearly noticed all the planning and foresight in the Mooncruser's Handbook when we played it as nearly everything appeared smooth and well-thought-out when we played.

Our team assembling a "cube" puzzle at 2AM underneath the Space Needle at the Seattle Center.

The Mooncurser's Handbook had a couple of different aspects from previous Games I've played in.

First, there was a "trading game" where you had to "trade" items of various values with other teams out in the field. This aspect was designed to increase team interaction with all the other teams in the game. Various pieces of information would be revealed to you at different times about the values of these items and "bonuses" payouts you would get if you had certain combinations of items. We enjoyed this aspect of the game, despite it distracting us from solving the puzzles. We also found it difficult to manage this process because our team was small and we couldn't dedicate a single broker to conduct trades with other teams. [We formed an alliance with several other teams to minmize the time we needed to spend on this. More about this in a later post.]

Second, this Game actually had a scoring system, which emphaized the competitive aspect of this activity. I'm a competitive person by nature, so I loved being able to see where we ranked and how we were doing. Finish time and the ability to finish solving the puzzles quickly accounted for 62.5% of your score; how well you did in the "trading game" compared to other teams accounted for the rest. Mystic Fish [our team] did resonably well in the trading game and this helped boost our final ranking a bit.

Our team trying to solve a DNA-inspired puzzle at UW Bothell.

Third, this Game actually fed us food at three different "pit stops" throughout the adventure. We found this to be a welcome relief and enjoyed our ability to mingle with other teams playing (and also conduct trades with them so that we could increase our ranking in the "trading game.")

Fourth, Game Control implemented a bunch of mini-challanges before the Game began and during the pit stops. We had to play with and compete against other teams to jockey for starting positions and other advantanges (like extra items that we could trade with). We loved the Galactic BlackJack where we had to earn the most chips to get a huge starting time advantage after one of the pit stops. One difference between Galactic Blackjack and Vegas BlackJack: all the cards had symbols on them instead of numbers so you had no clue initially what each card you were dealt were worth!

Finally, this Game had significant interaction with many of the clue sites. This was something that I've found previously lacking in many other Games I've played in. There's just something really cool about going to a bowling alley and having to bowl a game where you have to score 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, STRIKE, and SPARE to get the data you need to solve your clue and where you had to inner-tube down a river to copy down the ciphertext of another clue. This is a welcome relief from having to spend 3 hours in your van once you get a sheet of paper and trying to brute-force solve a bunch of what appears to be random text.

Team Golden Nugget playing Limbo in order to read pieces of the puzzle off the stick. The lower you went, the more pieces of the puzzle you got. [Each time you went under the stick, you got words like NAVY, WAX, HARBOR, EASTER. Answer: SEAL (e.g. WAX SEAL, NAVY SEAL, etc.)]

The Mooncurser's Handbook was one of the best I've played to date. The site interaction at each location was fantastic--being able to run around a park and use the direction that sculptures were facing and finding your way through a 2-acre cornfield maze to find parts of a clue was phenonmenal. All the clues were well designed and nearly all of them were bug-free (you could tell that Game Control tested them extensively before deploying them in the Game).

There were a couple of things we thought could be improved.

First, teams with a larger size (7+ players) had a distinct advantage--data gathering at many clue sites could be done in parallel and the more people you had, the quicker you could get the data you needed to solve each clue. As a smaller team with only 5 players, we felt the crunch of not having enough people particularly hard.

Also the clues weren't as challenging as other games we played in. While we enjoy an easy clue every once in a while, it would have been good to have more of a mix of clues that focused more on the actual solving of the clue than on data gathering. (We spent more time gathering Community Chest cards for a Monopoly clue than actually solving the puzzle, for example. Once you noticed the pattern in some of the clues, the solution came very quickly). Finally, the trading game, while fun, was extremely overwhelming and very sophiscated; with a small team, we would have prefered something that was a bit simpler and less grand.

That said, we had a wonderful time. We were fortunate to have been able to play in the Mooncurser's Handbook and we tip our hats to Game Control for all their effort in entertaining us and provinding an experience that will be hard to forget. If we had to pick a moment that we thought best exemplified the essence of the Game, it was that, despite being up for more than 36 hours and tired as heck, Game Control cooked us burgers at the end party.

I'll be posting some more thoughts about the game in the next couple of days.

*The other six Games I've played in include:

Griffiths Collection (Bay Area, CA)
Genome (Bay Area, CA)
Justice Unlimited (Bay Area, CA)
Goonies (Bay Area, CA)
FoBiK (Bay Area, CA)
MSIG 1999: Mythos (Redmond, WA)

Building a Burning Man Theme Camp

2005-08-10T21:36:00.000-07:00

I'm helping to build a theme camp at burning man this year. We've decided to have a birthday theme since one of the campers going this year is turning 30 while we're out on the playa. We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate than to have a birthday party every night (complete with 7-foot inflatable cakes) and to build a theme camp around that.

Gooferville - Karaoke Crazed Camp at Burning Man 2004

Building a camp isn't trivial, especailly if no one in our camp has really done it before. (We've all been part of a theme camp at some time or another, but this is the first year that we actually have the fortitude to create one ourselves). There's a lot of infrastructure to invest in, and collecting the necessary items (like a $20 used couch) involves a lot of creativity and combing thru the used crap listings on craigslist.

Here are some of the things we're trying to figure out for our "It's Your Birthday" camp as Burning Man 2005 approaches:

Shade structure - The desert is hot, and every camp needs to have a shade structure. We've discussed everything from building our own parachute-covered-geodesic-domes to renting a yurt. In the end, we're leaning towards buying our own festive candy-striped color canopy.
Something fun for visitors to do - Burning man is participatory, so every theme camp should have something that visitors can do. We're going to have several birthday parties at random times during our camp, as well as random birthday-party activities (like birthday spankings--I kid you not) that we'll try to keep up and running throughout the day.
Decorations & lighting - 7 feet inflatable birthday cakes, rope lights, EL wire, and a really cool sign. Not to mention party favors and birthday party hats for camp visitors joining in the celebration.
Booze - cheap vodka, kool-aid mix, fruit, water, and water coolers for mixing. Need I say more?
Power and Gas - renting a generator is key. And they're super-loud, so you want to figure out the total wattage (we're planning on drawing no more than 1000 watts peak) and get the lowest you plan to draw. You'll need gas to power the generator (about 1 gallon per hr at 1000 watts) and containers to store the gas in (the most expensive part if you don't own this already)
Furniture - cheap used couches, chairs, and carpets, found on craiglist keep everyone happy and comfortable on the playa.
Music - every camp needs something to blast some tunes on. A 250W+ stereo would be ideal, but given that there is a high likelihood that it may get ruined, this isn't an easy item to rent or otherwise obtain cheaply. We're still trying to figure this out.
Food and something to cook with - every camp needs a grill and a stove that everyone can share to grill a steak or to cook that box of mac and cheese. We're still scouring the web for a cheap bbq grill, and we're
Shower - the official burning man prep site recommends:

Bring a shallow crate (like a painting would be shipped in) about three feet square. Line it with slit open garbage bags so it will hold water and used it as a pan/pad under the solar shower. It caught the shower water that then evaporated during the day. No muddy spot in camp. No soapy water (gray water) dumped on the playa. The crate somehow later caught fire.

To save on camp costs, we're requiring that everyone bring their own water for showring, drinking, etc. Hauling a ton of water for the camp is painful and expensive, so distributing this function seems to make the most sense.

How to Take Good Photos of Most Things

2005-08-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

I take lots of photos at parties and work events. Nothing freaks me out more than when a bunch of friends insist that I be in a photo with them. I have to hand my camera over to a stranger who doesn't know the difference between aperature and sutter speed. These photos often wind up misframed and poorly exposed. I usually delete them afterwards and pray that my friends won't ever ask me to e-mail these hideous photos to them.

So I thought I'd write up some photo-taking tips. In the likely case that I'll have to hand over my camera again to someone at a future event, my hope is that they will have read this and take awesome shots as a result.

Tip #1: Frame the image properly. Framing is everything, but don't frame everything. You can fix exposure problems in Photoshop, but if you frame your image poorly, your photo is ruined. A couple of basic tips:

Use the rule of thirds when framing your photo--make sure your subject is in the top/bottom or left/right third of the photo. Off-center is key. Never have your subject smack-dab in the middle. (This is by far the most common framing error of novice photographers).
Fill the entire photo with your subject for a more dramatic shot.
"Aim for the Chest" - if you're taking a group shot of people at a party, then aim the center of the camera at someone's chest. That way, the heads appear in the upper third of the photo, and you've filled the photo with people rather than the ugly dark background of a room that your flash couldn't capture. I quickly delete photos off my digital camera where the photographer put our heads smack dab in the middle of the photo: you get the bottom half of the picture with people in it, and the top half of a background of who-knows-what.

Tip #2: Take lots of different shots. Where possible, take a lot of shots with different settings. You'll have a lot of crappy pictures, but your odds of getting that one "great" shot increases dramatically each time you press the shutter button. (To get the "great" shot of one of my friends water skiing above, I had to click the shutter about 35 times!) Try taking each shot with a different setting. Some things I do to vary my shots include:

Changing my exposure compensation to -1 and +1 stops. In fact, if you know what you're doing, you can even vary the exposure to try to get that perfect shot where everything is lit up properly and the photographs are vibrant and compelling.
Changing how much I'll zoom into the subject: I might take a bunch of shots capturing more of the background than the subject, and vice versa.
Changing the aperture to vary how much I want to blur the background

Tip #3: Pick an interesting vantage point. Try shooting the photo from different points of view. Experiment around. Be creative. Some of my best shots are from the ground up (my party photo above) or when i'm lying prone on the floor (my puppy photo below).

Tip #5: Blur out the background. When used appropriately, nothing looks cooler than having a photograph where your subject is in focus and your background is slightly blurred. This draws attention to what you want your audience to look at and elimiates that confusing "busy" factor where you have way too much detail in your photograph of things that you don't care about. (Notice how in my photo above, your eyes are drawn to the puppy's face since the background is out-of-focus. This makes the image so much more exciting).

Here's where aperture comes into play: to blur out your background you need to use a large f-stop (e.g. f/2.8 if you have a fast lens). The larger the aperture (you'll need to read your camera's manual to learn how to change this setting), the more blurry the background. But beware--if you don't focus properly on your subject, your background will be sharp and your subject will be blurry! Caveat lector!

Want to learn some more? Check out some of my favorite tutorials (which I still find useful every once in a while):

Phil Greenspun's very comprehensive photo.net tutorial
Kodak's photo tips for beginners.

Ode to My Roomba

2005-08-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

I recently brought a Roomba Discovery robotic vacuum cleaner off eBay. I was looking for a new toy to play with, and heck, for $150, I just couldn't resist. I've been running this thing continiously for the past day and I've become quite attached to it.

Roomba just randomly moves around the floor picking up whatever crap it finds. It's kind of like a cat, but instead of shedding hair everywhere, it picks up dirt and leaves my carpet happy and clean.

Apparently you can hack Roomba. iRobot, Roomba's maker, will soon release an API that you can use to create random Roomba accessories--including attaching a digital camera (so you can photograph all the crap your vacuum is sucking in).

Either way, digital camera or without, I hopefully won't find myself in the nasty situation where I haven't vacuumed for 6 weeks anymore. All I need to do is to press a button, and voila!, Roomba chuggs along and automates my cleaning.

The gadget gods are smiling today.

Wesley's List of Stuff to Bring to Burning Man

2005-08-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

I wrote this as a personal list of stuff you need to bring to Burning Man. I assume you are going to be part of a camp so I didnt include a bunch of community things normally supplied by a camp (e.g. shade structures, furniture & chairs to sit on, grill, camp shower, etc.). If you are going as an individual without the support of a camp, you should check out one of the links below for a more complete list of things to take with you.

Cargo Van full of Burning Man Crap on the Playa

Remember everything you bring to the playa will get covered in dust no matter what you do. Whatever you bring may get trashed or lost, so don't bring stuff you're too attached to. And washing all of the playa dust out of your stuff is nearly impossible.

Transportation, Shelter & Sleep

Sleeping Bag (get a cheap bag; Costco or WalMart sells cheap ones for $10)
Pillow
Air Mattress & Pump
Place to sleep in: Tent, RV, Cargo Van, or SUV
Eye mask
Earplugs (everyone around you will be partying and w/out this you won't get any sleep!)
Heavy-duty aluminum foil (if you plan to sleep in your vehicle, you cover your windows to keep the light out)

Food, Water, & Personal Items
Water (2 Gal/Day per person in addition to what your camp will provide) & containers to hold them
Food (non perishable/canned tems are key; stuff you can boil in a pot or heat w/ hot water works well)
-Mac & Cheese (makes a great casserole if you mix in tuna or salmon)
-Cheese, Crackers & salami
-Cup-O-Noodles
-Beef Stew
-Red Bull and other drink mixers
Googgles (you will need this when the dust storm mits)
Face Mask or bandanna (again, helpful during duststorms)
Water Bottle
Camelback or other water-holding backpack
Suncreen (SPF 30 or higher)
Plates, bowls, cups, forks, spoons – things you need to eat with
Plastic zip-lock bags to store all this stuff to keep some of the dust out
Trash Bags (we need to pack all the trash out)
Plastic Drink Cup (you bring this with you on the playa at night to parties for alcohol) that you can attach to your costume
A couple of rolls of toilet paper (there are porta-potties but they run out of TP frequently)
Your own stash of alcohol – for the pre-parties and for new friends
Gifts for your new friends – BM is a barter economy; those asian lycee jello things are really popular at night on the playa
Chapstick
A couple of towels
Handy wipes
Moisturizing lotion
Vaseline

Getting Around on the Playa

Old, trashy bike (you'll be unhappy without one)
Extra tire tubes and mini bike pump
Headlamp, EL Wire, LEDs, or whatever else you want to light up your bike (you don't want people running into you at night)

Clothing & Costumes

Sunglasses (bring 2 pairs, one will break or get lost)
Costumes (jumpsuits or flightsuits are key; they have lots of pockets to hold stuff
Clothing you need to wear on the playa: shorts, shirts, pants, a couple of sweatshirts, etc.
Wide brimmed hat and baseball cap
Lots of costumes made of fake fur
Light-up stuff and blinky shit (EL Wire, glow-sticks, etc.)
Shoes (trail running shoes work well)
Socks (bring several pairs
Flip-flops

Other Things to Bring

Camera (disposables work best unless you have a trashy camera you don't mind breaking)
Flashlight & extra batteries

I'll be updating this list at http://www.weschan.com/burningman.html

Taking Photos at Burning Man

2005-07-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

I took a bunch of great burning man shots in 2004 with my trusty $1500 digital SLR camera. If you're into taking photos, here are some issues you should think through as well as a list of things you should bring.

Note that you should only bring prime lenses; forget bringing anything with a telephoto zoom as it will never work the same afterwards as dust gets in and clogs the zoom mechanism.

Wesley's Self Portrait on the Playa

Trusty digital SLR camera (Note your camera will never be the same, the dust on the playa is evil and gets into every nook and cranny of your camera. It took me 5 hrs after burning man to clean my Canon EOS-10D out and I wasn't able to get everything out.)
Wide Angle Lens (I usually bring my 24mm f/2.8 lens)
Medium Zoom Lens (I usually bring my 50mm f/1.8 lens)
UV Haze Filters for your lenses (if you don't have these already, get some. Spend the $30 to get filters to keep your expensive lens from getting scratched up)
Lens Caps (both ends, keep these on at all times when you're not using the camera)
Light Weight Tripod (Using a flash is lame as you have so many "light up" displays at night where a flash would ruin the scene. You'll need a tripod you can carry around the playa easily)
Padded Camera Bag or Backpack (to protect your camera and lenses when you drop them)
Lots of heavy-duty zip lock bags (you want to keep a much of the dust out as possible, so every time you put your camera and lens back into your bag, you should zip-lock your stuff up first. It's extremely inconvenient but very necessary given all the dust on the playa)
Moist Lens Paper Towlettes (you can buy this at your local camera store. You'll need this to wipe the dust off your lens and camera)
CCD Cleaning Fluid and Swabs (dust will almost certainly get into your camera and on your CCD. The swabs you need to clean them off are expensive but you will be really be upset when you see black blobs on your photos caused by dust and figure out that there is no easy way to get them off.)

I'll be posting more thoughts and updating this list at http://www.weschan.com/burningman.html.

art cars galore

2004-09-08T14:35:00.000-07:00

There were over 800 "art cars" at Burning Man. I couldn't believe the amount of time and energy people spent on creating these cars. I snapped photos of some of my favorite ones below.

Wagons in tow.

Cupcakes. 3 of them. Floating across the playa.

Bunny slippers. Always driving around the playa in a pair.

Jellyfish car. At night.

Driving around in the moon.

The party unimog. IMHO one of the most awesome vehicles I've seen. Strapped to it is a 7.5kW sound system and 2 projectors and screens. A DJ sits inside spinning tunes that go bop bop bippy bop boom. Hundreds of people followed the party unimog around the desert in an all night dance party.

Space Cowboy's fire truck, with an attached flamethrower synced to the music of the party unimog.

You can find more cool art cars on my online gallery.

burning bicyclist

2004-09-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

Random awesome nighttime moment on the playa: chasing after a dude on fire while trying to snap a photo of it. I think it turned out pretty well.

There's nothing more crazy than hopping on your own bike, on a moment's notice and in the middle of the night, and giving chase to this guy while trying to snap a ton of photos in hopes that one turns out well.

back from burning man

2004-09-05T14:49:00.000-07:00

I'm back home from Black Rock City, still covered in a thick layer of dust, and I saw the man burn. It was awesome.

Fireworks immediately before the man goes up in flames

I bought two cameras with me and returned with over a thousand photos of some of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I'm way too exhausted now to write much more so I'll let my pictures speak for themselves.

The Temple of Stars (made out of scrap toy wood cutouts), by David Best

Dust storm dance party by a pink art car

Lamp Lighters Procession emerging from a dust storm

My 3 favorite art cars

Electra, a fire sculpture that shoots flames 150 ft. into the air

You can find the rest of my burning man photos at photos.weschan.com.

playa bound

2004-09-01T01:08:00.000-07:00

I'm about to leave for Black Rock City, which exists only for a week in the middle of a Nevada desert for Burning Man.

I'm not sure what to expect, as this is my first Burning Man. I've heard it described as everything from a "giant hippie fest" to the most spectacular party with 30,000 other people that I will ever see. All I know is that when I return in 4 days, I'll be covered in a half inch of playa dust that is nearly impossible to get out of your clothing.

Whatever happens, Burning Man is an adventure I look forward to. And the best part: no phones & no internet or email--just me, the sun, and 4 days of partying.

dinner

2004-03-25T23:42:00.000-08:00

"We don't normally eat at places like this."

--Lary Page, describing a product management dinner we had tonight at Asia SF.

time flies

2004-02-29T21:37:00.000-08:00

I haven't written a post in nearly two months. Things have been quite busy the past two months. Lots has happened but for the most part, I've been working, sleeping, and taking pictures.

I'm not sure what I've done in the past two months that merits much attention. I could spend some time blabbing about the ski trip that our whole company went on, or about my first time touring the California Coast in a Cessna 172, or about the numerous parties I've been to, but my photos can tell a much better story than I ever could here.

In any case, the past two months have been busy and fun, and I couldn't ask for too much more.

we made it

2004-01-04T22:35:00.000-08:00

We finally made it to Tahoe on Saturday and the weather and skiing was amazing. Fresh powder, sunny weather--you couldn't ask for much more!

(Taken from the slopes at Sierra-at-Tahoe)

new years blizzard

2004-01-01T17:32:00.000-08:00

Here's what the road conditions looked like on Highway 88 to Kirkwood near Lake Tahoe right before we decided to return to the Bay Area. There was so much snow on the road (and so little visibility) that we had to follow a plow to get down the mountain.

Every single road was closed to Lake Tahoe from the Bay Area due to the New Years blizzard that dumped 15 inches of snow on the ground. Our ill-fated adventure to reach the slopes ended in an 8 hour round trip drive through 6 or more inches of snow cover at certain times. (Thank God for all-wheel drive!)

No matter; this just means wonderful fresh powder for the weekend when we make another attempt to reach the slopes this weekend when the blizzard subsides.

indestructible packaging

2003-12-30T20:47:00.000-08:00

UPS just delivered my new electric razor that I ordered off Amazon.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to open the razor; it came in this indestructible plastic packaging. I tried cutting it with a pair of scissors to no avail, then I tried sticking a kitchen knife in it (no luck either), and my attempts with a box cutter yielded no satisfactory results. After about 10 minutes, I finally found a hacksaw and that was enough to create a big small hole for me to pry the razor out of the package.

Seriously, I don't understand the rationale of putting so much packaging around a razor and making it so insanely difficult to open. Are they trying to play hard to get or something, making it ever so much more special once you've gone to great lengths to figure out how to destroy the packaging to get to the item inside? Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't get why my razor has to come in a bulletproof container when a nice, colorful cardboard box would suffice. Oh well.