Hoya has sold the Pentax camera division to Ricoh. The Pentax Imaging Systems Division will be spun-out as a new company and its shares transfered to Ricoh on October 1st. The deal will also include the Pentax camera manufacturing subsidiary in Vietnam. A public announcement from Hoya explains that Ricoh is looking to build a consumer cameras business and wanted Pentax’s interchangeable lens camera technology, lens technology and sales channels. Its plans for the business specifically include the interchangeable lens camera market. Hoya will retain the other Pentax businesses, such as medical devices, that it gained in its 2007 takeover. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Japanese business paper Nikkei Business Daily reports a price of about 10 billion yen ($ 124.2 million).
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Ricoh buys Pentax to build interchangeable lens camera business
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Would it Be Ok for Me to Sue Scott Kelby for Libel and Settle for $32,500?
“The guy who did it, who originally did it, was his old roommate.”
Yesterday afternoon I noticed some unusual comments coming in on my blog. The comments were around a couple of opinion pieces that I’ve written on the Jay Maisel vs. Andy Baio case.
The comments being directed at me were accusatory and wanting to know why I had not disclosed the fact that Andy Baio and I were college roommates prior to writing my pieces defending him against what I felt was an unwarranted lawsuit by Jay Maisel.
At first I couldn’t imagine where these allegations were coming from. Andy Baio and I were never college roommates, as one commenter was suggesting. Andy Baio and I didn’t even go to the same college. What’s more, I’ve had very little interaction with Andy Baio in my entire life.
I seem to recall that I did meet him once at one of these tech press sort of junkets years ago. But I’d hardly characterize Andy Baio and I as “good friends” and I most certainly have never been his roommate.
But all of this made sense last night when I listened to Scott Kelby’s latest video broadcast which addressed both the Maisel vs. Baio case as well as the blog posts that I’d written.
And so I was surprised when listening to the video broadcast to hear Kelby state, “the guy who did it (the alleged infringer Andy Baio), who originally did it, was his (Thomas Hawk’s) old roommate.”
Now as a blogger or journalist full disclosure is important. It’s everything actually. It’s your entire reputation. For me to write strong opinion pieces supporting Andy Baio *without* disclosing that we were good friends and had even formerly *lived together*, well that would be a pretty big omission. It makes me look bad as a blogger not to have disclosed such an important and key piece of information — which is what commenters would rightly be calling me out on in my comments if Kelby’s reporting was true.
Except that Kelby’s report is blatantly false.
Not only is it blatantly false, but it’s easily verifiably false in a court of law.
Certainly as a journalist, and an important one especially in the community of my blog readers, Kelby understands libel laws. Certainly he knows that you cannot report things as fact that are not true and in fact could be verified as false in a court of law. This is not Kelby expressing an opinion. It’s Kelby stating something absolutely as fact about me and my character which is provable as false in a court of law.
So, would it be ok for me to sue Scott Kelby for libel? Or would the better approach be to simply say, hey, the guy made a mistake, no big deal, and let it go?
In Kelby’s video show he gives his opinion that Jay Maisel was just defending his copyright when going after Andy Baio with his lawyers and their whopping $ 32,500 settlement. At one point he even reads a viewer comment on the show saying that Maisel settled for too little, that he should have gone for more!
Kelby would seem to think that if the law allows it, it’s fair game. Andy’s type of use, or the fact that his use was possibly fair use and at worst a simple mistake doesn’t matter. Jay did the right thing by going after him for a pretty hefty settlement.
Just because the law says you can do something and profit from it, doesn’t always mean that you should do something and profit from it.
So answer me this. Would suing Scott Kelby for libel simply be me defending my livelihood as a blogger? Would that lawsuit simply be another source of revenue that I ought to be able to count on? Or did Kelby (or his fact checkers) just make a sloppy mistake and one that I should just chalk up to as sloppy journalism and let it slide?
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Waking Up?
For the longest while, for over a year really, I’ve felt like my creative subconscious has been asleep… but it’s starting to wake up.
I’m… excited.
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Little Krishna 01 The Darling Of Vrindavan
Little Krishna 01 The Darling Of Vrindavan very beautiful 3D animation about Lord Sri Krishna Lila. Enjoy Krishna’s pastimes from the vol 1 of “Little Krishna: The Darling Of Vrindavan”.
Video Rating: 4 / 5 -
Cool Visual Art images
Check out these visual art images:
PAINTINGS FROM THE MET’s ART COLLECTION 2011 – Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan NYC
Image by asterix611
PAINTINGS FROM THE MET’s ART COLLECTION 2011 – Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan NYCPAINTINGS FROM THE MET’s ART COLLECTION 2011 – Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan NYC
Image by asterix611
PAINTINGS FROM THE MET’s ART COLLECTION 2011 – Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan NYCPAINTINGS FROM THE MET’s ART COLLECTION 2011 – Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan NYC
Image by asterix611
PAINTINGS FROM THE MET’s ART COLLECTION 2011 – Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan NYC -
Home Soaring simulator
My home soaring sim setup with 2 projectors, 3D stereoscopic, Trackir4 headtracked, simmeters instruments. Running on Condor soaring simulator and Alpi3 scenery
Video Rating: 4 / 5 -
Saad Couture 2009
Photography & Art Direction by: N-Studio (Nada & Najwa Marafie) Designer: Sa’ad Al.Dawas Makeup and Hairstyle: Noura Al.Sayed Video Producer: Najwa Marfie Gear: Nikon D3X Lens: 24-70 mm f/2.8 N-Studio Official website: www.n-studio.com.kw © all rights Reserved 2010
Awesome!
Video Rating: 4 / 5 -
Free Software Utilities
Instant organization: Instead of clicking around in Windows Explorer to find where Windows hid your newly downloaded MP3 file, try DropIt. This open-source utility lets you set up folder associations for specific file types. Just drop files on the big target icon on your desktop, and DropIt will automatically whisk them away to their appropriate (and easy-to-find) destinations.
Cleaner desktop: Stardock’s Fences lets you create separate areas on your desktop to organize unruly desktop icons into a manageable system. Keep programs in one fence and Word documents in another, for instance, or group them any way you like.
Complete removal: No list of great free tools would be complete without Revo Uninstaller. Windows’ built-in Programs control panel simply isn’t as good at removing the bits and pieces of programs that you want to banish from your hard drive.
Smart dock: The Windows 7 taskbar isn’t bad, but Stardock’s ObjectDock replicates the slick Mac OS X dock interface, complete with snazzy magnification animations, for Windows users.
Virtual machine: Oracle’s VirtualBox lets you run multiple virtual machines on your PC, so you can have multiple instances of Windows, Linux, or any other OS installed. It keeps a working image of a machine as a backup. Then, if things go horribly awry, you can delete the damaged image in favor of the backup.
All-in-one uncompressor: If you’ve ever asked “What’s a .rar file?” you need 7-Zip. It supports all of the essential file compression formats-and more than a few obscure ones, too-so it can unpack anything you download. The utility adds file management tools to Windows’ context menus, too, enabling you to zip files, unzip files, and convert file formats on the fly.
FTP essential: People who transfer lots of files still rely on the old File Transfer Protocol to move their bits around. FileZilla remains one of the best FTP clients on the market, and it’s still free.
Display manager: DisplayFusion gives you multiple-monitor management powers that Windows doesn’t, such as the ability to display different background images on each screen or to span an image across two monitors. It also packs hotkey combos for automatically arranging your desktop, and it lets you set custom behaviors for your apps.
Easy-launch Web apps: If you spend most of your working life in Web-based apps such as Google Docs and Gmail, Mozilla’s Prism browser plug-in for Firefox can restore your sanity. By turning your favorite Web apps into separate applications that launch from Windows’ Start menu, the utility enables you to cut down on the number of mouse clicks required to get to the tools you need, while at the same time eliminating browser-tab clutter.
One keyboard, many PCs: I have three computers on my desk, running any of three operating systems: Windows, OS X, and Linux. But the free Synergy utility lets me use a single keyboard and mouse to control all three PCs, regardless of their OS. When my mouse pointer reaches the edge of a screen, Synergy uses the Wi-Fi network to take over the next machine. It’s the closest thing to magic that your PC is likely to encounter.
Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!
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Digital Photography Tricks, Advice, Tips, Tutorials And Ideas
Anyone can learn a few digital photography tricks with the right tips. Whether you just want to have better holiday snaps or create stunning landscape shots, we help you master digital photography. Great advice and tutorials from many expert photographers. Find out more at: www.digital-photography-tricks.com
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Shooting Through the Ups and Downs
It’s a fact: I haven’t been blogging much since I moved to New York City this past January. I can blame it on a all kinds of things but the real truth is is that I just haven’t really felt much like writing. My blog is a personal insight into my career which has always been very closely intertwined with my life. Of course. My career IS my life. Or a huge part of it, any way. And a lot has been going on since moving to NYC in my personal life, some things that have been very difficult to share. The biggest thing probably has been the loss of my 13 year old pit bull, Lulu. Lulu was my rock, she was my road dog, she was my friend and my companion. Last August she was diagnosed with cancer and given a death sentence of about 3 months. This was in the middle of us packing up our house in LA and planning our move to NYC. I nearly lost it. I didn’t know if Lulu was even going to make the move with us or not. But I dismissed the chemo and started her on acupuncture and chinese herbs, spoiling her rotten, giving her all the love I could give. She made it on our road trip and landed in NYC with us on January 3rd. She witnessed snow for the first time in her life and even got to visit a few dog bars in Brooklyn. She also was able to go to a few photo shoots in New York, as she was always present on as many shoots she was allowed to be on in her 13 years. My teams would often joke that Lulu was a bigger Diva than any of us!
Lulu passed away May 19th. One of the saddest days of my life. I spent as much time with her as I could and silently, quietly said good bye to her as she started declining the last two months of her life. It was painful as hell.
But life goes on. And you keep shooting through it all, through the painful moments and even the happy moments. The jobs don’t stop because you lose someone close to you. Your bills don’t stop just because you’re experiencing a difficult time in your life. But my voice stopped and my desire to teach or share or even be close to anyone, that stopped too. And I’m still shut down. It’s only been 10 days since she’s left my life. It’s going to be hard, letting her go. But I’ll get through it. And what I usually do to “get through it” is I throw myself into my work for comfort. For distraction. For salvation. I SHOOT through it. And sometimes I produce some amazing shit. Sometimes. Here’s a little story on how chaos can become alchemy in art, turning metal into gold. Sometimes.
I went through a difficult period at the end of 2003. I lost someone who I loved very much. He took his life and we were all devastated by his sudden and abrupt departure from our lives. I slept on the floor for two weeks, with Lulu by my side, because I was so numb, so torn apart. So utterly depleted. When I went to Holland to see his family (he lived in Holland), I had a chance to get to know his 17 year old nephew, Jordi. Jordi was very comforting to me when I was there. He talked to me about my ex, he got his mother and I to go out one night to a nightclub where we ended up dancing and laughing and having a good time. Through the pain, Jordi was there, smiling and happy and taking our minds off this horrible event that left most of us a bit crippled for some time. Jordi also happened to be very good looking. And from what I could tell, had a tremendous potential to pursue modeling. I told him so, and we decided to do his very first test. Right there, while grieving my ex, Jordi and I got together at a friend’s studio in Holland and shot a test. The last thing I wanted to do was pick a camera and shoot. But it was a life changing event. Because from that first shoot, I could Jordi was photogenic and definitely had the potential to go for it. So I convinced him to keep pursuing modeling and to keep me updated through the process. And you know something? He did just that. He has gone on to embrace a successful modeling career, being signed to every top modeling agency in Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Hamburg, Athens, Tokyo and now finally, New York. He has traveled the world modeling. And it was I who convinced him he had potential from that very first test where I was literally reeling from pain.
In February, Jordi and I saw each other again after 7 years, after that first test in Holland, during the time I was there to grieve with his family, collect some of my ex’s things and ashes. There we were, facing each other after 7 long years. And he’s a star! Gorgeous, fit, tall, and just the loveliest of personalities! Warm and gentle and kind. Just an all around great guy!!
Of course, we wanted to shoot again. I thought of taking him out to my friends place in Long Island on a cold March day. We brought Lulu with us and it would be her last photo shoot. We shot all over Montauk and Amagansett, in the gorgeous, natural early spring light, on a bright but cold day. The pictures weren’t for any assignment. I won’t submit them. There wasn’t a client. We just wanted to shoot with each other again. And following are the results. There’s no magical lighting set up, just the sun. I didn’t use any filters or tricks. Just my camera, the sun and an awesome model. I used my Nikon and switched between the 85mm and the 24mm lenses. There’s really not much more to write about the technical side. I thought this post could be about continuing to shoot through pain, through life events that are out of our control. Or maybe about continuing to explore models, or people or ideas, even after sitting with the ideas for years. I don’t know what this post is really about but I was ready to share a little of what’s been going on with me so the twitter and FB comments about “why aren’t you posting anymore” could stop a little and you can all recognize that even I go through shit sometimes and I have hard times. I have days where I feel like throwing it all away and opening up a Rum Bar in The Keys, Florida. Some times I want a break, hey….teach ME something! Sometimes I want to be left alone and just sit quietly with myself.
I went to Miami after Lulu died and I’m still here, writing this post. I leave back to NYC tomorrow morning with a bunch of work coming up. I have a bunch of editorial coming out in June, so I can blog about that soon. I just found out my Nike campaign is going comes out this week, so I’ll blog about that too. I’m shooting a 12 page editorial in the next two weeks, so…..yeah……Going to blog about it! Hey, you can look forward to lots of new posts coming your way. In the meantime, here’s your post now. This one’s for you. And for Lulu, most of all. R.I.P.
Photography ©2011 Melissa Rodwell Photography
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