Anonymous asked: Wow - I considered going to Taxi Driver yesterday but it's a 90 minute train ride and I've already seen it on the big screen. Had I gone with just enough time to go right into the screening room, I might not have seen PTA at all anyway. Let me ask you: what time did you run into him? Did anyone else seem to recognize him?

I wandered into the lobby right about when the last few were scrabbling to get into the screening room for ‘Taxi Driver’.

There were plenty of others, casually walking around the museum and none of them seemed to even notice him, let alone recognize him. As a matter of fact, after I was done chatting with him, a few people there asked me who he was. (It’s always a tricky situation when you have to explain who P. T. Anderson is, although reference to “Boogie Nights” definitely came in handy.)

dnnyca asked: Have you ever contemplated creating a
thatsher.com

I haven’t actually. But I like the idea. May be one of these days I’ll get on that. Thanks for the nudge btw!

Anonymous asked: How can I make you love me?

I already do. When it comes to strangers and the anonymous, that’s my default stance on matters of the heart.

dnnyca asked: I got the Samsung Focus, the only problem is that it doesn't come with an sdCard and only certain types of cards work with it. Once that card is formatted by the phone, it is permanently integrated and cannot be removed. Well it can be removed but it will be useless as the phone actually changes the card. The phone then cannot be used with any other sdCard and the card cannot be used with any other phone. It's a major fallacy.
This has to be intentional engineering.

I wasn’t aware that removing the SD card prevents you from using other SD card with the phone. Bummer!

There’s a bit of confusion out there when it comes to using SD cards w/ WP7, since it works a little differently than say more other smart phones. The whole idea behind it, as you described already -  isn’t so much that its ‘replaceable’ but rather a tightly integrated ‘add-on’ memory that just happens to be ‘removable’. (Though they deliberately make it less user-friendly by making you open up the back, and take out the battery before you can access the card, rather than much easier side-loading like most phones that accepts memory cards)

The upside of this is: performance and quality of OS operations. By having the card tightly optimize at the systems level AND by having a strict requirement on the type of SD card you can use (determined by the “number of random read/write access/sec”, rather than the usual speed class) -  ensures that it works identical to an actual on-board memory, thus bypassing any of the short comings of a typical external memory where access is often a bit slower at best and worse - you can’t install apps on external memory, only store data (ie. Android).

The downside, of course is what you’re experiencing: they can’t easily be swapped/upgraded/replaced the way you can with Andriod phones. And as much as I agree with the overall philosophy behind it - they should really address these issues better. For starter MS can work with the manufacturer and make sure plenty of ‘WP certified’ SD cards are out there (or provide one themselves - a la Xbox HDs). Second - allow an easy way to format the used cards so that they can be used with other devices. (The notion that once you use an SD card with a WP - you can’t use it anywhere else is ridiculous.)

Having said all that - congrats! I don’t know that many people (that count is close to ‘zero’) who actually owns a WP7 (that might change overtime but for now it’s always exciting anytime I hear someone getting one for real.) WP experience is about to get a whole lot exciting with the upcoming ‘Mango’ release. (The whole ‘App Shortcut’ ting into Live tiles is nothing short of genius!)

p/s: If only there could be a phone with ‘Mango’ soul,in a iPhone 4 body…with WebOS notification sprinkled on top (why not!)  - I’d get that in a heartbeat.

dnnyca asked: Just to make a note on David's little comment on Microsoft, the company is actually [for the first time in years] making several smart and key moves to establish themselves in this modern "Apple" society.

Well put. And that’s certainly one way to look at things as they’re now (Bing, Kinnect, Xbox Live, Photosynth, WP7, Windows 7 to name a few). In general though, Microsoft’s contributions to the tech industry as an innovator and a facilitator (in creating standards across platform so that others can built upon) - has been grossly ignored - and worse - mis-characterized by most for ages. If nothing else - it’s one of the very few tech titans that does deep research/basic R&D, unfortunately none of them has to do with bringing the next shiniest toys to the market that we, the consumers can lust after; and the fact they have a lousy marketing/creative dept to begin with - it’s not hard to see why. But that’s only part of the story. 

thebenefitofyou asked: Hello, I saw the post you made recently about the Square for iphone/ipad, and I was wondering what you think of it. My friend is an artist and really would like to get one to start up his personal business, but he wants to make sure it's completely legit before he gives all the information required. Any feedback would be really helpful. Thank you!

Square is great! I highly recommend it. I got one just to try it out but It’s actually perfect for people like your friend: artists, street vendors, small business owners who’d like to accept credit card payments from their client base without having to go through the hassle of opening up a merchant account, dealing with the wait period, not to mention the hidden fees. The kit (card reader) doesn’t cost you anything (even the shipping is free) and you only pay a flat 2.75% per transaction. No other, extra fees. (They used to have a flat fee of $0.15 per transaction - but got rid of recently). All your friend has to do is sign up here. (And yes, it’s totally legit. As legit as any business can get.)

In case your friend is curious - Intuit and VeriFone also offer copycat mobile payment systems, a la Square but they both charge additional fees; not to mention the actual readers aren’t as elegant looking as Square’s if not straight up ugly.

dnnyca asked: Have you seen this?
ambientrecordings.com
I trust you have brotherman, hope all is well.

I have not. This is lovely. Thanks for sharing. Wish there were more clips though. (Kind of made me want to share a few of my own random recordings.) It’s fitting to see this came from the same guy behind muxtape.

lizyang asked: I definitely have to find you on a train one day.

dnnyca asked: I agree with you on the Interpol album. It was less than expected however being biased towards the band we can find subtle beauties in it. I suppose.
Side note: Yesterday my girlfriend had to video tape a mile in each direction of a particular intersection for architecture. Of course, I manned the camera. I felt like the uncomfortable taping all those people and the environments. How is it that you take your photos? Is it a "would you mind if i...." or you simple sneak it?

It depends. There are times I’d simply go up to them and ask… Other times I’d deem being a ninja is the best policy. It really boils down to what environment I’m in, what it is that I’m hoping to capture. For starters, if its a public space - its mostly a moot point. Other times, I’d run the risk of drawing unnecessary attention and more importantly breaking the natural rhythm of the moment that tempted me to press the shutter in the first place. And then there are times - its simply not possible even if I wanted to. The moment will be long gone. Either way - the bottom line is I don’t let ‘formalities’ get in the way of a good capture. ;)

At the end of the day though, it all comes down to how I feel about it. For every single photo that I post here, there are 10 others that never see the light of the day.

dnnyca asked: I've been meaning to ask you, and can't believe I hadn't before; what is your take on Interpol's most recent of albums?
Also, never failing to be late, happy new years brotherman!

This is difficult. I don’t think I can ever be entirely objective when it comes to Interpol. That said, I must admit - I was a little disappointed. It has its moments - but overall it didn’t come close to any of their prior releases - at least accordingly to goosebump, restlessness, nostalgia inducing scale that I often measure my Interpol experiences by.

Happy New Years to you too!

danielcab-deactivated20110111 asked: sir, did you honestly go tornado chasing [emphasis on the word tornado please].

I can’t say I have though I’ve often fantasized about it. I did however experience my fair share of ‘close encounters’ back when I lived in tornado ridden parts of the Southwest.

dnnyca asked: If I may, what is this project about? The entire riding with strangers documentations.
Is it merely a journal of yours? Everything is just so interesting.
Apologies for the prying words.

Good question. Wish I had a good answer for that.

It started out as a place to document my daily commute. I’d plans to open that up to the public: accepting submission from anyone w/ an interesting capture and a note; turning this into a quasi crowd sourced street photography site. (I tend to romanticize the anonymous crowd that roam the big bustling cities around the world, every day.)

Frankly I wasn’t sure how well I was going deal w/ the curation process. I can be quite particular (anal, to be precise) – and running a blog is the epitome of activities most susceptible to that trait. I still might do that. But for now - it’s serving as a place to rest my mind. An unadulterated mashup of things I create, consume or simply appreciate. 

Hope this answered your questions in some way.

dnnyca asked: You have one of the best blogs and taste in music that I have seen in a great while brotherman.
Very cool of you. Cheers

Glad you enjoyed. Thanks for visiting. Cheers to you too, brotherman.