29 1 / 2012
Exciting Times »
Here’s a quick (big) announcement: I’m parting ways with DotCloud and will join COOKPAD in February.
As for DotCloud, It’s been an interesting ride for me at 180 Sansome and I will definitely miss working with them, and wish the best luck at their challenge to be the best platform as a service. My last day at DotCloud is 1/31.
On February 1st, I will join COOKPAD, Inc. to work full-time as a senior developer. COOKPAD may not need any introduction for any Japanese audience, since it is everyone’s favorite recipe sharing website. Here’s a quick intro about the company in English.
As a weekend chef, I use the site a lot myself, and am thrilled to join the company to contribute to the growth. The company is Tokyo-based (with its lovely headquarters in Shirokanedai) but I will continue my life in San Francisco and will see my friends more often in my occasional visits to Tokyo.
I’m really excited to work with brilliant folks from COOKPAD, most notably the founder Aki Sano, and Daisuke Horie, who I enjoyed working with at Six Apart, along with very talented engineers in the team. (Oh, and I heard they’re hiring :D)
Exciting times!
Permalink 45 notes
28 1 / 2012
Lumix DMC-GX1 JPEG settings »
One of the problems I see with GX1 has been that the default JPEG output is so “flat” and it’s not my taste, especially when compared to the GF1. After a bunch of trial and errors, also with reviews on kakaku and 2ch, here’s something I came up with.
Feel free to cargo cult it, but don’t blame me for bad JPEG rendering because of that.
Mostly used with Summilux 25mm f/1.4. Some settings might not be appropriate when used with other lenses.
Before doing this, don’t forget to apply the firmware Version 1.1 update. It fixes the AWB performance and it’s really important.
- Photo Style: Custom (STD) / Contrast +2 / Sharpness +1 / 彩度 -2 / NR -1
- Aspect ratio: 3:2
- Resolution: L 14M
- Quality: RAW + Super Fine
- Intelligent Resolution 超解像: Weak 弱
- iD Range Control: Weak 弱
- ISO high limit: 800 (might not appropriate if you use the zoom lens)
This setting makes a personally satisfying JPEG rendering, and the auto white balance seems more appropriate than Lightroom in many cases with the firmware update. (Lightroom tends to color things more warm and make it look like more dramatic)
Yet, if you take shots in a dark room, shooting with RAW will probably get you a better white balance and exposure adjustments. See my photo gallery for samples - those with .JPG (uppercase) are GX1 auto JPEG and .jpg (lowercase) are published from Adobe lightroom 4 beta.
I will mostly use JPEG and only render from RAW for such underlight photos or failed shots with over/under exposure.
Oh by the way, if you render from RAW, you can still make geotagging work, if your software supports the XMP sidecar files. You still have to transfer from Eye-Fi to your computer wirelessly, instead of reading directly from the SD card though.
25 1 / 2012
LUMIX DMC-GX1 Firmware update »
DMC-GX1 firmware update version 1.1 is available from the Panasonic website.
I applied the update this morning and it’s yet too early to judge if it actually got better, but i definitely see the differences.
GX1 AWB, v1.1:
RAW Lightroom 4 AWB:
25 1 / 2012
Kindle Touch Software Update 5.0.3 »
We have a new, free software update available for your Kindle Touch that you can manually download. We will be delivering this update over Wi-Fi in the coming weeks. This update features general software improvements for Kindle Touch.
This software update definitely brings a better page turn performance on Kindle Touch.
23 1 / 2012
18 1 / 2012
Tell Your World on iTunes US Store »
Absolutely the best song ever by Hatsune Miku, produced by @kz_lt. If you haven’t, check out Google Chrome commercial featuring this song.
Thank you kz and TOY’S FACTORY for making it available on the iTunes US store. Now I can’t wait for the EP release in March that contains my fave songs such as Far Away, Star Story and Fly Out.
Permalink 1 note
17 1 / 2012
The JSON license »
I was looking at the acknowledgement screen of Apple TV today and found that the JSON license is there and includes the following text:
The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil.
a) is this license (for JSON.org parser I assume) compatible to OSI? I guess not.
b) isn’t Apple doing anything evil? Who decides what is evil anyways?
Quick google search shows the same question on Quora.
Permalink 6 notes
15 1 / 2012
Build and Analyze #58 »
06:09~
DB: Power Grid, by Rio Grande Games.
MA: Yeah, very good. The whole family enjoyed it. I think this is the first relatively complex game that … none of us knew how to play it and we learned it by reading instructions, not by like having somebody teach us..
DB: (laughter) I’m sorry, there’s a picture on the Amazon page where people can upload their own images, there’s a picture of what looks like a family playing it, and the family looks completely bored out of their mind. I’m going to try this URL in the show notes…
MA: Oh you’re right, red shirt on the left?
DB: Yeah.
MA: Oh my God.
DB: That’s a great picture.
15 1 / 2012
On the Verge 002 »
(06:05~)
JG: It ended up that, just through Email, I have written mailing lists and stuff like that, I’ve written like three or four books worth of email. That’s why I feel like…
JT: Not a narrative though.
JG: No. Not like one single thing.
JT: People were like, “I don’t understand this email”
(laughter)
JG: Right.
JT: “Chapter 4”, “I don’t get this, John”
