Flickr overhaul

Flickr just got overhauled!

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As in any web service, the change is met with fierce resistance by the status quo crowd preferring to stay with the already familiar interface. They have threatened to escape to other places, but as in any, we’ll have to wait for a quarter to half year to look back and see how many found better alternatives, or they will lick their own spit and return. For Facebook layout update, most peoples fall into the later, after all, the value far outweigh their discontent.

One major different between Facebook and Flickr’s update is: Flickr is almost like abandoned after their acquisition by Yahoo. There’s no too frequent upgrade, this is the first major update after a half decade. Thus, while we have vocal users declaring end of the world Flickr, there’s no lack of vocal users who say they like the update.

What I don’t like

  • No more statistics. I like the statistic to know websites that linked to my pictures. Although in this privacy conscious age, simple HTTP referral is not dependable and you’ll need a Google Analytics class web spy network. Most of the referral data refers to Unknown source.
  • The Doublr account. But to be fair, I don’t think I’ll be able to fill the 1TB capacity for years to come. It’s just that I don’t think it’s fair to charge user $500 annually for capacity that they will only able to use less than 1% of it every year. One time payment is fine, but yearly is madness.
  • The Recent Activity page’s picture is simply too big and overwhelming for me. They could to a 2× crop to the picture and give more white space to the side of the pictures and it will feel better in my opinion.
  • No new apps for Windows Phone and Windows RT platform *shakes fist*

What I like

  • Unlimited view! No more that 200 most recent pic limit. This is likely the feature greeted by most.
  • The display of comments in the Recent Activity looks pretty with background picture.
  • An upgrade!

Many parts are obviously legacy of the old version, so there’s chance that more will change.

Glad I hold back from buying upgrade to my Flickr Pro account (mainly because I’m broke after buying the R-D1).

R-D1s hands on

After a long time wanting and saving, I finally took the plunge and get a camera I’ve been wanting for a long time. Epson R-D1s is the second version of Epson’s R-D1 series. It’s the first digital rangefinder camera in the world, back when those peoples in Solms declared that digital rangefinder is impossible. It’s possible, and they released their M8 in two years.

The R-D1 is kind of a cult camera. Not only that it’s the first digital rangefinder, this camera is like a film camera retrofitted with digital gutters. It has the unique analogue data display and that winder lever that will fool many peoples to think it’s a film camera. There’s likely no more new R-D1 camera, so this adds to the timelessness (official support for R-D1s ends on 2016 though).

Specification (as well as a lot of detailed technical instructions) can be viewed at R-D1.info website.

Continue reading →

Kit only

Well, there’s the GX1 in camera shop already but they only sell the kit. No Body only option which could shave nearly 2M out of the retail price.

It’s really annoying because I already have the 14/2.5 and the 14-45 which is said to be superior to the 14-42. Selling them in the second hand market would surely be difficult because those kit lens is not exactly sought after.

If I remember correctly, the Singapore branch does sell the body only option.

The need to annoy

Social media is on the fast lane and the only things people cared of is the latest. Not even Facebook can change that.

But for the social media savvy young people, they have hundreds of contacts everywhere, which they might only relate with small part intensely. Add that to the fact that they use Twitter to chat and retweets like machine gun, everything will fall under the fold in an instant.

In consequence, the marketer and communication folks will have to repeat their message again and again, say it like it’s the greatest thing in the world.

In contrary though… imagine having a friend that keep on telling about this great deal for the umpteenth time to you. They’ve just said it less than an hour ago and now they are talking about it again like it’s the first time. Now that’s annoyance and would warrant a loss of interest for me.

There should be a better way to send messages. Website is a good way IMO, add it with a categorized RSS feed where there’s more signal than noise. But then again, there would be people who subscribed to dozens of websites resulting in hundreds of feed each days but they only read about half of the articles posted.

A Patch

Finally they made the update, although it’s still in the queue.

Since the first time I find a way to purchase application from the Windows Phone Marketplace, this game is one of the first applications I bought. Sadly, the application has not been compatible with version 7.1 of the OS and thus crashed repeatedly (as they describe in the blog post, the only workaround is not running the application).

Now, finally it’s coming. Can’t wait to play it. Although in the mean time, had to get more time to enjoy the other game I’ve bought too.

In the other side, Microsoft Tag Reader is also made available to the 19 new marketplaces. A lot faster response than Flickr who just tell me

The Flickr app for Windows Phone 7 is not available in your country at this time. Features can be limited in some countries for several reasons. These reasons can range from legal to technical.

Which is… quite difficult to accept.

Board Express hasn’t been informative either, but at least they finally update the application and in result made the application available to the new 19 regions.

Yay! Indosat, I quit!

After having my internet back for several days last week, and the next billing arrived, once again my internet plan screwed up. Yes, few days before and after doing the automated top-up, the internet works fine, for several days. Now, I can’t connect again.

So that would mean this week I should go to Sarinah again to file my complain. After that, yes, I won’t pay the bill if they put the cost of a non-working internet package into my wallet.