Can you hear me Major Tom? Chris Hadfield's Impact on Space Exploration

Earlier this week, International Space Station resident Commander Chris Hadfield, a Canadian citizen, came back to earth, but not without first creating a series of defining moments for modern space exploration. It was not because what he discovered while in his six month stay, but because he did what not many astronauts had done before: he made the ISS accessible to everyone, from the comfort of our earthly dwellings. He did a social media blitz of sorts. He would post daily pictures of fly-bys across the globe, short videos demoing how things we do on earth differ in space: how flame burns without gravity, how crying looks like in near-zero-G, how they sleep, how they use the bathroom, how they keep in shape and so forth. He did several social media live Q&A events, including a reddit AMA a few months ago.

With millions of followers across the major social media outlets, Chris Hadfield (and a small pre- and post-production team on earth), released his grand finalé, his Opus Major, if you will: a cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity, filmed and performed by Hadfield himself aboard the ISS.

To date, more than 13,500,000 unique viewers have watched the amazing video Hadfield and co. put together. And I sure hope, for the sake of awareness and education that the video continues to spread like a wildfire in a hay farm.

My description of the video, as I previously posted on Google+, goes as follows:

I don't think a music video has moved me so much as Commander +Chris Hadfield 's cover of +David Bowie 's Space Odddity. I've watched it no less than 6 or 7 times since it was first released. It really is perfect, insofar as transporting you there without actually being there. The conflict between sheer beauty of earthly backdrops with the desolate, sterile blackness of space. The human desire to reach and live in space, away from earth, in a parallel dimension unbound from gravity and other quotidian earth-bound forces. The conflicting feelings of enjoying the moment on the station while fully aware the clock is ticking and finally the bittersweet realization that time has come to re-join the human race.

Now, what really matters though, is Commander Hadfield's impact on public and political perception of space exploration. If his sharing his experience with millions on a daily basis persuaded the constituency and politicians that space exploration is a worthy expense, that it's not just for the multi-millionaire elite, or for the erudite, that tangible benefits can be drawn from the mere fact of being in space for extended periods of time, then Chris Hadfield's efforts will not be for naught. The U.S. space program is currently in a fairly poor shape, and I hope what Commander Hadfield has done is the right medicine needed to revivify it.

"Donglegate": no winners, only losers and inconvenient truths

With the brunt of "Donglegate"(hopefully) behind us, we can see there were no winners. Adria Richards lost her job and her reputation under scrutiny, one of the men who were telling the jokes is out of the job, psychopaths decided to intimidate Mrs. Richards in despicable terms, and so forth. Bad news all around. However, the ones who have lost the most (and unjustifiably and undeservedly so, if I may add) is the PyCon community.

Worse yet is the barrage of slander, character assassination, defamation and smear campaign against the organizers of PyCon. The portrayal of PyCon as unsafe, unwelcoming conference to be at. The depiction of the conference as being sexist and protecting sexual harassers. The worse part is that these slanderous claims by people who likely were not there, have never been there and could not care less about facts and are simply blindly rallying behind who they perceive to be the victim.

There's is no reasoning with them. Try and they'll throw you down and call you a sexual harasser. For the last couple of days since they have zero facts to hang onto, they have made a huge fuss primarily on Twitter about one line in PyCon's "living" Code of Conduct, meaning it's open to the public to edit and comment on -- it's not set in stone by a malevolent monarch. The said paragraph reads, "Report the harassment incident (preferably in writing) to a conference staff member - all reports are confidential, please do not disclose public information about the incident until the staff have had sufficient time in which to address the situation." That paragraph has been grossly mischaracterized to mean that the conference organizers will hush-hush about harassment claims.  The people behind the vitriol- and slander-spewing puppet accounts on Twitter have failed to comprehend the intent and the spirit of that proposed paragraph. The whole idea is to avoid future "Donglegates", to avoid people getting needlessly fired, to avoid disaffected and disturbed individuals from intimidating people and all the brouhaha that has taken place. The idea is to avoid people from getting their reputations ruined without a fair and due process. This applies to racism, sexism, religious intolerance, and to both genders. And whether you like it or not, the Internet quite possibly the worst medium to deal with issues such as this. The Internet has the nasty tendency to aggravate, augment and amplify situations, there's no mediation or fact finding. The passions run high and all sense of neutrality falls apart. If they would read PyCon's Code of Conduct in its entirety it would be painfully obvious that PyCon has a zero-tolerance policy for harassment of any kind. But I suppose that's an inconvenient truth.

Another group who got their great work somewhat tarnished is PyLadies, a Python focused women-led women's outreach group. They worked hard to reach an attendance milestone for ANY technical conference: 20% of the attendees were women. But apparently, that's another fact that has been ignored by the fervent feminists bashing the conference and its organizers. Another inconvenient truth.

They also forget to mention all the after-hour parties, benefit auctions and impromptu gatherings that took place throughout the length of the conference. Every night the conference hotel bar area was literally SWAMPED with hundreds of attendees hanging out and "chilling", hacking code or playing cards regardless of sex, gender or ethnicity. But that's also an inconvenient truth.

Also inconvenient truth is that Mrs. Richards harassment claim WAS dealt with. The claim was quickly investigated, the people involved questioned, apologies/warnings were issued.

So, if these people really wanted to improve things, you would think they would want to find out all the facts. They would like to have a dialog with all parties involved. They would like to put forth their ideas how to deal with this situation in the future. But they haven't. All they have done is be negative, spread FUD and venom and smear PyCon and its organizers and anyone who shows support for them. And so long as they keep the vitriol and baseless accusations, the less likely people will listen to them and the less likely they are to actually advance their cause, whatever that happens to be.

Be positive, stay positive and people will listen.

PyCon 2013: an exhaustive, painfully comprehensive, encyclopedic, unabridged review

Just kidding. I'm going to make it short and sweet.

PyCon was the best tech conference I've been to. The sense of community that permeated the conference is simply bar none. The emphasis on helping out/charity/education like no other tech conference out there. The sponsor-organized after-parties were a blast and by in large, the talks and tutorials were of great value. As a relatively newcomer to Python, the conference was simply a resounding success, specially when you consider the shoestring budget it runs on and that it is organized and run by small contingent of community volunteers. PyLadies, a women's pythonistas outreach organization, was in large part to thank for a rather sizable female attendance to the conference (about twenty percent). Overall, while it's entirely too early to think about Montreal next year, I'm hoping I'll be able to not only attend but also help the community and organizers in whatever extent I can.

But, I don't want to bore you any further, so below are two links. One is to see the slideshows of the sessions, the other one is to watch the videos of the sessions. Enjoy.

Slides: https://speakerdeck.com/pyconslides/
Videos: http://pyvideo.org/category/33/pycon-us-2013

A Budget-Conscious Approach for the Photo Enthusiast

I've been in love with photography since I have use of reason (or as far back and my memory goes). There have been times that I've been obsessed with it -- I remember shooting over two hundred shots of waves crashing on the Malecon in north Havana when I got my first SLR over 20 years ago (for a humanitarian trip) and loving each of those that came properly focused and exposed -- my mother, however, was not entirely happy I spent so much film and money on crashing waves instead of other, less mundane things. I remember, too, being camera-less for a long time in my college years and how frustrating that was. However, what has always remained true is that my wallet/pockets seem to always lag far behind my photography needs. I've been using a decent Tamron 28-75/2.8 for at least five years, probably longer. It gets the job done and has its moments of heroism when it simply takes the shot better than what I had envisioned. However, I've been wanting to get more than just "getting the job done". I wanted versatility, I wanted range, I wanted sharpness, I wanted ridiculous bokeh, I wanted natural softness and so forth. But, a brief look on Amazon or any other photography establishment will discourage most people with a tight budget, including yours truly. A decent lens runs at least $700, hundreds more if it's an premium line (i.e. "L" glass from Canon). So, I never really had the pockets or guts to splurge on my beloved hobby.

Yashica 135/28

Then a few weeks ago, a co-worker and fellow photo enthusiast showed me some amazing results with a lens he had gotten off eBay for relatively very little money. I was, of course, very much apprehensive of buying anything off eBay having been burned a few times in the past -- let alone something as delicate as precision optics. But, if I was to get my photography needs met, I was going to have to take some risks. After researching what were the easiest lenses to adapt to the Canon EOS system, I settled for the Contax/Yashica. I bought the adapter for a little over $10 from Amazon. I then went on eBay and looked around for lenses for the C/Y mount. To my surprise there were literally hundreds of listings ranging from very inexpensive to quite pricey (for select Carl Zeiss lenses). A bit wary still I looked around until I found a good prime lens for under $50 (shipping included). I figured even if it was complete junk, $50 loss wouldn't be the end of the world. I narrowed it down to three or four candidates. They all met my price criteria and they were the same model (i.e. Yashica 135/2.8), so I went with the seller that had the best recent reviews/ratings regarding photo gear. A few days later, the lens arrived. I did an initial eyeball inspection looking for defects in the lens or lens assembly. All checked out. That day after work, took the lens for a spin. I took a few shots and came back to pixel peep on Lightroom. I was floored. The subject was tack sharp, the depth of field amazing. Alright, I officially contracted the photo bug. I went immediately on eBay this time with loftier goals: I wanted at least one Carl Zeiss glass in my repertoire. I looked and looked until I found the lens I wanted (50/1.7 Planar T*). I researched the closing price of similar lenses and I set my bid in the vicinity. I won the auction and a few days later the glass arrived. It passed my eyeball inspection and then blew my mind while looking through some of the test shots.

Carl Zeiss 50/1.7

So, then the question became more of "what lenses do I want?" instead of "what lenses can I afford?" With the 135 prime, the 50 prime, I wanted a wider one. So, went ahead purchased a Yashica 28/2.8 and upon arrival and testing I was not disappointed. All mechanical systems worked flawlessly and the optical performance exactly as expected. After taking dozens, if not hundreds, of test pictures of different subjects, I was convinced that my investment had yielded positive ROI (in terms of satisfaction, not monetization, of course). 

All set and done, I spent less than half (!) of what the cheapest "L" glass cost (which I believe it's the non-IS 70-200/4) and have three amazing lenses to play with. I feel photographically re-awakened and with the need to take pictures and visually express myself. I, of course, while highly encourage fellow photographers on tight-budgets to leverage eBay, it goes without saying to be very careful and selective when purchasing second- or third-hand glass. So here are my rules of thumb:

• Always, always look for not just good ratings, but relevant seller ratings. I don't care a seller has a million positive feedback selling stickers, I want to see past and recent photo gear ratings. 
• Look for the item description for condition and be fast and loose to ask questions to the seller.
• Skip the canned item specs. They are of little use. Pay attention to the description as explained above.
• Be in the lookout for copy-and-paste descriptions -- there were many. And, again, if ever in doubt ask away. Most legit sellers are all too happy to answer your queries in a timely fashion.
• In order to avoid annoying and potentially expensive bidding wars, set your maximum bid to the maximum you're willing to pay. eBay's new automated bid system will always give you the lowest price up to the maximum you set.

Below is the whole set of test shots that I took with the above lenses. I have many more, but I think most people appreciate better inanimate subjects :)

http://500px.com/LosChachis/sets/lensdemos

Pebble: not quite a "smart watch" ... yet?

Sometime in the spring of 2012, myself along thousands of fellow tech enthusiasts, committed to back Pebble in their Kickstarter funding campaign. After months of delays, vitriol and nonsense in late January Pebble announced it would soon begin shipping. Earlier this week, nearly 6 months after their original estimated shipping date, my Pebble finally arrived.

The watch looks pretty slick and has a "nerdy" chic design to it. The e-paper screen is pretty easy on the eyes and the initial setup/pairing  as well as adding new watch faces with my iPhone was a breeze, so kudos to them in that regard. But, regretfully, that's all it does -- at the moment.

The watch lacks many crucial features that would make it more than a mere tech novelty. For instance, the watch is just begging for a touch screen. The whole 3-button navigation interface feels almost anachronic. Pebble also lacks comprehensive notification settings -- it currently only supports phone Caller ID and incoming SMS. The watch lacks and badly needs a recent history of notifications: how good are notifications if you can only see the latest one?

An important aspect that, in my opinion, Pebble either forgot or just didn't have the time to implement is the one-directional nature of Pebble. Pebble's use case is not very strong at the moment because of it. If Pebble was capable of, say, sending canned or predefined replies to text messages or if it was capable of sending a quick reply to a rejected phone call, it would have a place in the wrist of not only tech aficionados but also business types and the public in general.

As of right now, however, Pebble is merely an accessory; a luxury, if you will. There really isn't any feature in it that, at the moment, makes it a requisite for daily life. For instance, my smart phone, my car, my computer and so on are things that I need in order to get things done. Pebble is nowhere close to that level of "neededness" (sic) and until it does it will remain nothing more than a glorified wrist watch.

iPhone 5: a (somewhat) dispassionate review

In a previous post I briefly explained why I decided to give iOS and iPhone 5 a chance after years of using Android devices. It has been a bit more than a week since I got my iPhone 5 and I've used it extensively since then. I have to say that I am fairly impressed with it so far.

Hardware Case and Design: it's very light (and I mean about half as heavy as Galaxy Nexus) and feels super well built and durable. It feels right in my hands. The buttons are well placed and tucked away. Definitely an outstanding example of form and function.

Screen: in one word, gorgeous. Both, when it's on and when it's off. When it's off, it melds beautifully with the case design (at least with the Black version), un-intrusive and well placed. When it's on, it's even more impressive: tack-sharp, well balanced colors, contrast and saturation. Under direct sun light, it's surprisingly useful, you can still read text well and see web sites and apps (mostly) alright.

Battery Life: of all the features, I have to admit the one that has impressed me the most has been the battery life. After heavy 3G/4G usage, WiFi, camera both still and video, a few games, mobile banking plus my usual mobile activities, I charge my iPhone 5, literally, once every two days. That is approximately three times better than my Thunderbolt and about two times better than the Galaxy Nexus under similar usage.

Camera: as a photography enthusiast, the camera on my phone is a very important feature. I was thoroughly disappointed on all the cameras of all the Android phones I owned. The shutter lag made it almost impossible to shoot anything that moved, the auto-focus was always way off, shutter speed was entirely too slow and exposure would be easily thrown off (and no way to override any of these settings). The iPhone 5's camera, on the other hand, has been great. Near zero-shutter lag, auto-focus works well, not excellent, but good enough for most of my usage, shutter speed is much better (although it could be improved) and auto exposure has proven to work about as good as a point-and-shoot camera. So, overall, I'm pleased with the iPhone 5's camera -- but I will not be completely satisfied until (some day) I can manually control every aspect of the on-board camera.

iOS: is a very opinionated OS, but from my experience thus far, I'd say it has a reasonable and well thought out opinion. A beautiful, simple and intuitive UI, predictable gesture and navigation patterns, what you need right in front of you, anything you don't is stashed away. It feels very snappy and seamlessly integrated with most apps. One thing iOS lacks that Android OS is excellent at, in my opinion, is sharing assets among apps. For instance, in the Camera Roll I cannot select a picture or video to be opened with another app, be it Instagram or Pixlr and so forth. Instead, I have to go directly to the app I want to use and open the asset from within it. It's a minor inconvenience, but it's one feature I sure miss from the Android world.

A valid argument could be (and has been) made about iOS's lack of user customization and why Android OS is better in this regard; but, I'm not big on UI customization neither on my PCs nor on my phones, so the lack of UI customization is not all that important to me. Although I can see how it will be a hinderance for those who do.

Since I don't use and didn't use Apple Maps, I cannot comment on that fiasco, but I imagine that would have been annoying and disappointing to those who rely on Apple Maps. But Google Maps works fantastic, and, again, its look-and-feel is much better than Google Maps for Android (ICS and Jelly Bean).

I hope this review will be useful to those researching before making their minds one way or the other. Comments/feedback from zealots on either side of the Apple vs. Google (imaginary war) will be deleted.

Sending My Money To Cupertino (instead of Mountain View)

Let me preface this post by saying that I've owned four different Android smart phones for the last four years. Beginning with the Eris, then to the Incredible, on to the Thunderbolt and a Galaxy Nexus as of late. And also, it's worth saying that in spite of my very recent jump to the iOS world, I still think AndroidOS has a great deal of potential and unparalleled access to its development tools.

So, why did I send my hard-earned dollars to a corporation whose litigious "thermonuclear" war against all competitors I vehemently and fervently oppose?

• Because, in my opinion, they currently have the best overall smart phone. While it could be argued that late-version Android OS has a better feature set and some Android devices have superior hardware specs than iOS and iOS devices respectively, the end result of an Android device is much less than the sum of its parts.
• Android's openness is actually too much of a good thing: while open source sounds great in theory, in practice it means that Google has very little control over the OS as it cascades downstream (the exception being Nexus devices). This means that, at the very least, the OS that finally makes it to the device has been modified and/or tweaked by both the hardware vendor and the carrier. This actually is a bigger deal than you would think. Often either the hardware vendor or the carrier add unremovable UI  layers that are not aesthetically pleasing, intrusive, and resource hogs. Then, on top of that, the carrier usually loads your phone with an Imperial shittonne (pardon my French) of unremovable bloatware. So, you get a device and have to choose to either root it (and lose the warranty) or spend quite a bit of time deactivating each of the offending bloatware apps and then having to live with an inefficient and possibly unsightly UI layer.
• Rooting/Modding: if you must root and mod your phone just to get decent performance and rid your phone off unneeded vendor UI layers, you are doing it wrong. People often see rooting as a solution, I see rooting and modding as solving one and opening two different problems. For one, you'll lose your device's warranty and secondly, you are now at the mercy of a fickle and capricious "community" that at least in my experience has shown itself to be rather ineffective and hostile. 
• Uniformity and predictability: although Google has made great strides in and is pushing hard for UI design and usability best practices as of late, there is no enforcement at the app submission level. This means that adherence to their guiding principles is completely voluntary and the end result is UI chaos. Developers each do things their way and often leave outdated apps in the market with no consideration for UI looks and usability. While many developers have complained about Apple's draconian manual app approval process (including myself),  it results in a more cohesive, predictable user experience. I was a big believer of Google's "market self-policing"philosophy, but this has proven to be ineffective at encouraging developers to comply with Google's design guidelines and this very likely will remain to be the case.
• Even Google's own apps look and work better in the iOS platform. Case in point, the gmail app, the Maps app, G+ app all look and work much better on iOS than on Android! No, seriously, some of them are not even a judgement call, they simply are heads and shoulders above their Android counterparts. Not really sure why Google doesn't use that same quality and UX emphasis on the Android versions. And just like that, at least in my experience so far, many other apps that exist in both platforms, they tend to have a much user experience in the iOS world. 

There are other smaller factors, but the points above are the main drivers of my decision. For instance, Verizon thought it would be a wonderful idea to brand every single Android device with their horrible and gaudy red-black "DROID" looks and sounds. Although that's a Verizon-specific complaint, it highlights the root problem (which was mentioned above): Google has little control over the end product. And I'm guessing it has been the same issues for many people who have switched away from the Android platform. Perhaps in a few years' time Google will figure out a way to keep vendors' and carriers' hands off Android and they'll find an automated way to vet app submissions for UI/UX compliance. If and when that happens, there's a good chance I'll jump back into the Android bandwagon.