I was a die-hard Canon man until this camera came into my life.

What sold me on the Nikon D5000 was that — right there in the store, standing in a Costco in Warrenville, Illinois — I took test photos with just about every camera they had on display.  All showed nice, crisp photos, some better than others, and then I picked up this bad boy.  Took a shot – the same shot I was taking with all the others – and looked at the screen to see how it turned out.

I exclaimed, out loud in that store, with enough emphasis to startle people standing next to me:  “Whoa!”

I took a couple other pictures with the same reaction, then compared them with the two Canon DSLRs I’d been playing with.

Wow.  The depth of color, the crispness, the sense of presence, it’s unmatched.  The test photos weren’t only better, they were all a whole other level of better.

See for yourself.  Here’s a few examples of what I’ve taken since then:

I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of all the features.  I’ve found that when you put it into black and white mode, you get by default a very nice, high contrast shot – as opposed to the washed out B&W shots I’ve gotten with my other digital cameras, which you then have to photoshop afterwards.

Un-retouched black and white image direct from camera:

Other things I’ve found (but have yet to use) include an intervalometer setting that will allow you to take time lapse shots (which you can put together to make time-lapse movies, or even animation) and a stealth mode that makes the camera very, very quiet.  Couple that quiet feature with the fact that the screen opens and swivels, and allows you to take photos from around corners, and it’s perfect for spies, paparazzi, or perhaps even war correspondents.

For an in depth review of all the features, check it out here:  Nikon D5000 Review at Digital Photography Review

What it boils down to is that Nikon took the guts of their D90 professional camera (the outstanding image sensor and much of the features) and put them in this high-entry-level package.  The disadvantage of this camera is that you must use lenses that have the various motors for the auto-focus and anti-vibration control built into the lens itself, whereas if you go with the pro D90 model, the motors are built into the camera body.  Having them in the camera body gives you a much wider selection of lenses.

This is actually the second Nikon D5000 I’ve had.  Unfortunately there was a recall, and the serial number of my original camera fell into the recall range.  But instead of sending it in to a Nikon repair center, I took advantage of Costco’s 90-day no-questions-asked return policy, got my money back, and bought another one (for $100 less – they were on sale!) and the serial number of the new one was not on the recall list.

That was a happy day.

And, recall or not, this is one groovy camera.

If we actually do develop a true AI that can think for itself and is self-aware, and combine it with the next generation of robotic hardware developed from that shown in the following video…

…the Terminator robot could be a reality.

This is one of the coolest little gadgets I’ve seen in a long time and it doesn’t take any electricity, wiring, or anything to work.

It’s a horn.

That’s right, a horn.  Ancient technology, right?  Channeling and amplifying sound with nothing more than a shaped chamber.  It’s so beautiful an idea they actually made it translucent so that you could see the internal workings for yourself.  Pop your uber-high tech iPhone into this ancient-tech AirCurve acoustic amplifying horn and gain a full 10 decibels from the existing speaker at the bottom of the device, channeled artfully in a curve and out through the trumpet-like opening at the front.

Kudos to Griffin for coming up with something so foolproof that you can’t possibly screw it up without, say, running it over with your car.  And kudos to Griffin for it to actually work and sound good.

It comes with two different soft form-fitting cradles and will accept your existing charge/sync plug through a artful hole in the bottom.

This is one of the grooviest gizmos I’ve seen so far this year.  Here is something that applies the KISS principal perfectly.

It appears Microsoft is catching up to the closed-wall fruit company.

Now this is just too cool.

Take a poor mobility-challenged kid and fit him with one of these suits, and what do you get?

An instant Power Ranger.  Just look at the thing, its right out of a Sci-Fi movie.  Sure, it could have been some utilitarian aluminum tube thing with clamps and soulless motors — but no, they put style into it, flashy blue lights, and made it look like a toy.

Any kid wearing this to school would be the star of the show.

And I think that’s wonderful.

“HAL” stands for Hybrid Assistive Limb, which makes sense, but methinks Cyberdyne just liked the name HAL (as, it seems, do a lot of companies) because of the 2001: A Space Odyssey namesake.  Which is weird, because that HAL went psychotic and murdered nearly everyone on the spacecraft.  Yet, companies love naming their products after it.

Anyone remember Lotus HAL?  No?  Oh well.

Helping disabled people is only one of the multifaceted plans Cyberdyne has for this technology.  They plan to market it — in a sort of true life “super suit” fashion — for heavy labor support and also in rescue situations.

Can you just see that?  Put on the suit, jump into the disaster area, and lift cars off of the trapped families, etc.  Real superheroes.

Um, put me down for one.  I’ll be Captain Geek, CyberKnight.  Available to FEMA and also children’s parties.

More information can be obtained directly from the Cyberdyne site:  What’s HAL?

And need I say it?  This is one groovy gizmo!

I have been dabbling with this Facebook / Twitter phenomenon for a while now, probably not as long as most, but longer than some.  What really pulled it together for me is the free software called “TweetDeck” which is (in a strange, spreadsheet kind of way) the closest thing we have to an actual hive mind.  Especially over the last two weeks, when I am at home and the computer is on – and it is most of the time – I have TweetDeck open full screen as my backdrop to everything else.  Instant Twitter / Facebook updates from just about every friend and family member I have will appear in close to real time.

So I’ll be working on a novel, or an article, or a short story, and then get this trilling sound from TweetDeck announcing a new message.  It gives me a little jolt of pleasure, and I alt-tab over to see who is doing what.  And since it’s usually 140 characters or less, I absorb it in an instant, then happily alt-tab back to what I was doing.

I live alone now, in a new place.  I don’t know many people here yet.  Occasionally I feel lonely.

When TweetDeck is up and running, though, I don’t.

This would probably be interesting fodder for some University psych study.  I can’t be the only one who finds companionship in TweetDeck.  When it’s running I don’t feel alone.

Case in point:  The trill just sounded.  I alt-tabbed over.  My cousin Traci, who was one of my dearest childhood companions, is going to see Aerosmith and ZZ Top tonight.

For some reason, just knowing that makes me happy.

I use TweetDeck on both my computer and my iPhone.  It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.  It’s free.  And it’s hereby officially proclaimed groovy.