Jeff

As opposed to what?

Every phone in the world uses a "proprietary operating system". Unless you're using some definition of "proprietary" that nobody else understands...

Even Linux is proprietary. Nothing about it being open-source changes that.

I really couldn't care less if the camera auto-focuses when shooting video. Video's a bonus on a DSLR; if you want camcorder features, buy a camcorder. It's like saying you're going to trade in your camcorder because it doesn't do auto-bracketing on still images.

This camera looks like a winner to me; only concern I have is that last shot in the high-ISO test vs. the XSi, where it had trouble with the low-contrast red fabric (and it REALLY had trouble with it). But that might be because it's a beta camera too. Overall, the lack of noise at high ISO's given the sensor density is pretty amazing, especially given that there's (usually) no loss of detail evident with the noise reduction. The image quality is clearly superior to the Nikons in the same tests.

Now I just need to decide if it's worth it to me paying the extra for this camera over the XSi. Movie mode would be nice to have, but my main need right now is a new camera to take product shots for my little web store (http://www.tokyorebel.com) and also the occasional vacation photo or two. I don't have a camcorder now and never really felt like I was missing anything given the crap most people shoot with their camcorders - I'd rather just take good stills.

The only other really notable thing this has over the XSi is 3 extra megapixels, which don't really matter much... plus generally better high ISO performance. I think for me it will come down to whether the high ISO performance justifies whatever the extra cost is.

I agree with everything you've said here, *except* that I do think the simple light switch can be improved... as it has been over the years. We're not using the same switches we did 100 or even 50 years ago - they work differently both in user-facing ways and in non-user-facing ways. For example, most light switches used to involve two or more push-buttons. If you wanted the light on, you pushed a button. If you wanted it off, you pushed another button. We don't have switches like that anymore. The way switches are wired now is different as well. And we have things like dimmer switches that a lot of people say they can't live without - those didn't exist up until a relatively short time ago (relative to how long we've been using electric lights).

Another example are these big rocker switches common in a lot of houses nowadays. I thought these were stupid originally; I thought they looked like those big-button phones for old people. But it is really much easier to just slap a general area of your wall than to fumble around looking for a little switch, especially in the dark when you're doing everything by feel.

So there are improvements being made and further improvements that could be made. Remote switches are still not very common but I expect they will be in the future as costs come down and installation issues are dealt with. X10 is a great system if you can figure out how to set it up, but most people can't. Eventually, though, either it or something better/easier will be pretty standard. It's funny how nobody would even think of bothering to get up to turn the TV on or off anymore, but they'll happily do so to do the same to a light.

I think remote switches would do a lot more to save energy than this variable resistance switch. The reason why people waste energy is that they think it's too much of a pain in the ass to get up to turn off that kitchen light they left on when they went and sat on the couch. Put the light on a remote control with a button that just says "kitchen", and they'll turn it off from the couch.

IKEA does not make good quality furniture, that's the bottom line. I have one of their real wood TV stands, the priciest one they sell, and while it looks good enough, it is made from pine. Pine, of course, being probably the cheapest wood you can buy, and very soft. My shelves all have permanent dents in them just from the feet of the electronics sitting on them. And this is the *best* stuff IKEA sells.

Most of their products are made from MDF, which is a kind of particle board.

I don't even think the style of most of their products is very nice; it looks like bachelor pad apartment when you actually see it in real life, outside of their catalog or showrooms. It doesn't really project maturity and wealth. And it doesn't wear very well, which to me is what you look for in a piece of furniture. Good furniture actually looks better as it ages.

That said, I do have some IKEA furniture in my house from the various times I've needed things but haven't had money to pay for quality.

With an f/2.8 lens, you can!

Translation pages always do that for some reason... was looking at a $100 fukubukuro bag just yesterday that supposedly came with "5 million yen" worth of stuff. That's $50,000 worth... for only $100!

Of course it was really $500 worth... at retail prices. So, a good deal, but not $50,000 good!

This is not the way the system works. The signaling system is automated and always has been - it works on a block system. If a train is occupying the block ahead, the light is red. If a switch is thrown in the block ahead, the light is red. (The switches are automated too.) No human interaction is involved.

It is possible for a train operator himself to be driving too slow and hold up trains behind, and then as passengers build up waiting on stations due to the longer waits, you get a cascading effect as trains then end up stuck in stations as passengers board. And the delays increase. So that can be due to human factors in driving the train, and it doesn't take much. But the signals have never been controlled by humans. (The "hold lights" at stations are a different thing; they're not part of the signaling system, they're the lights right next to the conductor position and they are human controlled.)

You don't know how the blocks are defined, so when you say it's "impossible" that there's a train holding you up, that may not be true. For example, I think it's on the Manhattan bridge (either it or the Williamsburg) that only one train can run at a time, even though there's clearly capacity for more. It's for maintenance reasons. The bridge is a block. If one train's at one end of the bridge, a train all the way at the other end still has to wait. This is not true of other bridges.

By the way, the reason the CBTC trains can have shorter headways is that they do away with the block system. I'm not sure exactly how CBTC maintains headways but I believe it is constantly calculating both distance and time between trains to maintain even spacing and safety. So there should be fewer starts and stops in tunnels too, because you shouldn't need to be waiting for a train to completely clear the next block ahead before you can proceed. (And that happens all the time on other lines, because the blocks are not all the same length and don't all have the same speed limit.)

This technology wasn't even a glint in an engineer's eye in 1979. I can assure you the HK subway system has not been automated since then.

In fact, this article says specifically (as other similar articles also do) that the first fully automated train in Hong Kong is running on the line to Disneyland: http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/hong_kong/

And that line didn't open until 1998. That doesn't mean it was automated in 1998 either, though.

I don't know of any Tokyo subway lines that are fully automated. The only line in Tokyo that's automated is the Yurikamome line to Odaiba, and that's not part of the subway.

Tokyo subway trains may have positive train control (where the train can be controlled remotely), but that's an override in the case of driver incapacitation or something - and anyway, that's still human control. They don't use CBTC like the L train in NYC does.

Washington's subway system is completely CBTC-based.

Trains in Japan run on time pretty regularly - down to the second. (15 seconds late is considered late.) And most are run by humans.