A couple months ago, I found a beautiful vintage camera at a thrift store. I had no idea how to even open it, or if film was still available...and the $50 price tag was just outside of my impulse buy zone. I copied down all the info I could and went home to research, and by research I mean that I asked twitter for permission.

Dieter has seen this play out before, so of course he immediately told me to buy the damn thing and get it over with, but I wanted to make a rational decision here. Yes, I could get film, but the price was a little high, especially for something that may or may not even work. But once dear friend and smart gadget nerd Greg told me to go for it, I apparently bolted out the door immediately to go snag it.

Once it was mine and the acquisition adrenaline wore off, then I started really appraising my new toy. My Land camera turned out to have a few flaws, but thankfully nothing that seems to impact operation. If you find yourself in the same adrenaline-fueled situation, here's a handy list of what you should check:

Inspect the bellows
Turn the camera upside down and flip the little switchy thing on the right side to open the back. Inside, the first thing you should notice is the nice, neat folds for the bellows. If there's a metal cartridge thing in the way, remove it but don't throw it away. If the bellows are rumpled in any way, most experts recommend passing on the camera since they're a real pain in the humps to fix. However, mine are moderately crushed and will probably get worse with time, but they aren't a problem so far.

Check for roller corrosion
Check the silver roller on the inside of the back. When pulling out prints, this roller squeezes chemicals over the paper and can get corroded.

Extend the bellows
Now look at the front of the camera and find the white arrow pointing up. From this angle it'll be right below the red shutter button. Push this piece up to release the bellows and gently slide them out until you hear a click. This piece is also labeled with the number 1, and is your focus mechanism. Move it left and right with your index fingers to adjust the bellows and focus.

Check for light leaks
With the back open, point the bellows towards a light source and look inside for light leaks. If you see holes but the bellows are otherwise sound, then this is an easy fix.

Meet the viewfinder
Now finally, look through the viewfinder! It'll be dimmer than a modern camera, but that's ok. There are actually two viewfinders, the big square one for framing and a small circle for focus. Look through the circle and move the focus levers back and forth to align your subject.

Test the battery
Land cameras have an "electronic eye" to calculate automatic exposure, so that means there's a battery in there somewhere! Pull up on the left side of the back of the camera and you'll probably find a big corroded mess. This is easy to clean as long as the connector and wires are still sound. Land cameras take funky batteries, but you can get the No. 531 used in the 100 from Amazon, or you can modify it to use AA batteries.

Fire the shutter
This step will probably fail on thrift store cameras, but it's worth a shot. To test the shutter, push down the white #3 lever to cock it, look through the circle viewfinder and move the #1 levers to focus, then look through the square viewfinder and press the red #2 button to fire the shutter. No, these instructions don't follow the clearly numbered sequence, but trust me, it's a better habit to get into. Anyway, if you hear one click that means the shutter mechanics are probably ok but the battery is dead, if you hear two clicks then you lucked into finding a working battery, and if you hear no clicks, then...well, there's probably something broken and unless you're a genius tinker type, I don't recommend buying the camera.

If your camera passes these tests and is $50 or less, then buy it. It's still an unproven gadget until you pull out a successful image, but this should be good enough verification to give it a shot. If you want to skip the uncertainty and throw down for a known working camera, you can try ebay (although most are untested) or buy a fully reconditioned and/or upgraded camera from the up and coming landcameras.com.

In my next post, I'll walk you through your first image and share what I learned while shooting my first pack. I suggest starting with Fuji FP-3000B black and white film (I buy from B&H or Amazon) since it works well in most indoor light situations, but you can also buy Fuji FP-100C color film if you know you'll be shooting with plenty of light (for scale, FP-3000B is 3000 speed film, and FP-100C is 100 speed film). You can also get film from The Impossible Project and other sources, but save the special film for when you know what you're doing.

I have a one-week opportunity to pre-order a Lytro light-field camera. It's a revolutionary way of thinking about focus, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions, and I haven't decided yet if I'm willing to bet $400 on Lytro having the right answers.

They're pitching their product as a solution for the focus problem, framing the technology to make the camera seem more accessible to the everyman. This is all wrong. Auto-focus is smarter than the everyman, and there is no focus problem. Fortunately for Lytro's marketing team, this product has landed squarely in the sights of the hardcore photography enthusiast (and based on comments on Lytro's blog today, looks like they weren't prepared for that). Hardcore enthusiasts understand that the point of this technology is to create a new photographic genre, to use interactive focus to tell a story.

I'm approaching this format moreso like video. Single images tell a story, but interactive images develop as you explore them. These storylines could consist of unexpected objects in the fore/background, different expressions on people's faces as they react to an event, a sense of moving through a scene, accentuating infinity...and I can guarantee that there will be Lytro porn.

The hardware, in this case, isn't enough. To nurture their niche userbase, Lytro also needs to create a system that connects users to share techniques and inspiration. Enthusiasts just want a creative outlet and recognition, so this could be very compelling. When outsiders stumble across this energy, they'll be drawn in and want to belong.

But there are considerable downsides. Lytro's v1 product offers no control of the image. I could live with auto exposure, maybe, but it gives me pause that these images won't be compatible with conventional photo editing tools. No brightness, no levels, no color balance, no pixel destroying Instagram filters. As much as I would love to see a revival of doing that shit with glass, Lytro would do well to release an image processing library and give 3rd party developers a place in their community, too. This has an added benefit of maintaining momentum by giving users new tools to play with after the initial novelty wears off.

And in a few years, Adobe will be able to do this with photos from your existing camera. At the Adobe Max conference last week, engineers gave a sneak peek into technology that can take a blurry image taken from any camera, apply motion sensing algorithms that detect exactly how you wiggled when you took the photo, then line those pixels back up again to create a sharp image. It's still no small feat to compile this data into an interactive file format, but the company who extends photographers' existing toolsets with a pure software play will ultimately win.

I'm eager to explore a new creative format NOW, but $400 could also buy an iPhone 4S or the Galaxy Nexus next month. Or half a Nikon 1. Like most other gadget purchases, I'll probably spend several days trying to talk myself out of it, then go ahead and buy one just so I'll stop wasting my time dwelling on it.

TechCrunch is on the precipice. As soon as tomorrow, Mike may be thrown out of the company he founded. Or he may not. No one knows. And if he is, he will be replaced by — well, again, no one knows. No one knows much of anything. Certainly no one at TechCrunch. This site is about to change forever and we're in the total fucking dark.

Don't you hate it when that happens?

I still too freshly remember the anxiety of waiting for news to unfold while the house you've poured your heart into suddenly comes crashing down, the frustration of wanting to take matters in your own hands, to DO something, say something, reach out to the people who care and ask for their help to make your story known, to say how much you MATTER...

Unfortunately, companies rarely have approved messaging ready for this kind of situation.

Emotions are high over at TechCrunch right now, and the team clearly isn't going for the standard radio silence PR play and waiting for the situation to play out. Because politics and bad decisions aside, for the people on the front lines, the world they know is fucking solid. I respect the hell out of them for standing up to their critics and saying that, raw emotions and all. Especially so.

My sage advice for TechCrunch? Focus. They will never break you if you stick together and keep telling your story.

Edited to add a comment from Scoble:

Several years ago Arrington and I were headed to some conference and I asked him about how he sees himself. Did he consider himself a blogger or a journalist, I asked. His answer stuck with me all this time: "I'm an entertainer."

After finishing this post, I was sitting here in the dark of my office thinking the same thing (but without the real life story to back it up). The web responds well to showmanship. Not that anyone should be over dramatic or start shit just for attention — Internet showmanship is a realistic balance of emotional highs and lows, and few are able to take their readers on a journey quite like Michael Arrington. I leave the discussion of whether journalism is an appropriate environment for that kind of theatrics as an exercise for the reader.

I'm having trouble finding words right now, so I'll let the post speak for itself:

"Openly admitting on her website that she is "passionate about sharing life's little details," Lisa Brewster proves her dedication with the microflashes of her life that spill out via Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter, and her personal wiki. Now she has to convince those making apps to become passionate about webOS, as HP and Palm try to jumpstart the platform. With the tech world impatiently awaiting webOS tablets and a wave of new smart phones to compete against iOS and Android, Brewster's goal of making developers "feel like they're part of something awesome" will be key."

This same page consists of an Intel fellow, a startup founder, a professor...and then me, that webOS girl on twitter. I could understand if this were a post about interesting tech women in social media, but these people are making serious change in the world. Mind = blown.

The world is watching us, guys. Everybody on.

Tools are as creative as the minds using them, and the best tools get out of the way to help us live better (inspired, connected) lives. And for all it's pixel destroying flaws, Instagram is great at that.

Since I couldn't actually use the app without an iPhone (which I later bought just so I could continue this experiment), I was racking my brain trying to figure out why everyone found it so compelling. I got in a discussion with Patrick about it during my last trip to San Diego, and he thinks it's because constraining everyone to the same set of tools essentially gives us all the same camera, and constraints fuel creativity. I feared it was an anti-web conspiracy, something about how Instagram was making itself to be a first class sharing mechanism rather than the web (which is a Thing these days, aka Path). I think both of these hypotheses play a part in Instagram's success, but what it really boils down to is the simple fact that this is the only app that nails the mobile photography workflow.

Before really letting myself get sucked in to Instagram, I tried all the other iOS photography apps I'd heard of — many, many more than I mention here. Hipstamatic is great if you're in a fiddly mood, but it's also slow and you risk losing the moment you wanted to capture in the first place. Camera+ is powerful, but I find the editing step unnecessarily complicated for mobile, I think because it offers a plethora of options but none of the ones I want. I realize this is an ironic criticism for a pro-Instagram post, but most of the time I just want to bump the sharpness and contrast instead of plastering my photos with a "look."

On Instagram, the workflow is to either take or select an image, choose one of a few filters that are way more heavy handed than I'd care for (but are defining the photographic zeitgeist of 2011), then one more screen to enter optional location, description, and toggle sharing services. Shoot, edit, share...done. I capture a moments without taking myself out of them, which leads to much more introspective results and therefore better photos.

That's what I love about cameras on Android. I can add a little punch within the camera app itself and immediately see how the settings are affecting my scene before I take the photo — 99% of the time I just leave it on +1 sharpness, contrast, and saturation. Auto white balance with the Evo is spot on. Getting basic settings out of the way allows me to focus on composition, which is the ideal way to start taking better photos instead of knowing I can rely on a vignette or leaky filter to cover up the boring spots. I don't really need sharing settings, because I email my photos to flickr and have flickr configured to post them to twitter.

webOS doesn't have a lot of play in this area yet since the camera APIs are still in private beta, but so far developers have come up with creative solutions like doing the image processing on a remote server. MOLO's filter set really stands out, and I hope that by evaluating other experiences my guys burst out of the gate with some of the best mobile photo apps on the market. PS: Even without editing apps, Palm's exposure and white balance algorithms are smarter than the average bear. Now if we could just get rid of all these fixed focus lenses...

I'm still gonna hold Instagram's feet to the fire about building a stronger web presence (and an api), but at least now I understand why they made the tradeoff to first perfect their core functionality and build an audience. In the meantime, you can check my flickr stream to see all the moments I otherwise wouldn't have captured.

9:30 pm - "On the ground in San Francisco. Nights here really are quite cool and windy. This excites me for some reason."

I wrote those words in my journal (yes, on paper) on July 19, 2007, when I decided to fly up for Wordcamp on a bit of a whim. Although my journal entry was brief, it marks a pivotal moment in my life. I remember I was in the airport and going up an escalator to get to the BART station. As I reached the top and looked out over the city for the first time, it was like I'd taken my first breath full of energy and life and possibilities, and I immediately knew that something in this city was waiting for me. The moment was so intense, the memory of it can bring tears to my eyes.

Dear friends, I am pleased to announce that I have found the opportunity I sensed that day. In just a few short weeks, I will be leaving San Diego to join Palm's Developer Relations team. PreDevCamp was the most humbling and exciting project I've ever undertaken, and I'm honored to be in an even better position to serve this new community of developers. As an application reviewer, my priorities are now to help you guys develop the highest quality apps possible, and ensure the review process treats all developers with the respect they deserve.

I'll be joining Chuq, the community manager that we already know and love, new directors Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith, and a host of other crazy talented folks. What I'm looking forward to the most about working for Dion and Ben is that they're so passionate about driving the future of the Open Web in a mobile environment. I've merely dabbled with the idea before (and listened to many of @hober's infamous drunken rants), and I'm excited to have a chance to become a participating member of this community.

As eager as I am to join Palm, departure is bittersweet. San Diego is where I discovered myself, and with the help of some really awesome friends I've learned that my truest source of happiness is to be active and genuine in my communities, and never be afraid to follow my passions. As Barcamp San Diego and twitter empowered San Diego with a thriving new community, I was empowered myself and decided what I wanted to do with my life. For that reason, San Diego — and the people here — will always have a special place in my heart.

The next two weeks will be a whirlwind of activity to wrap up my last obligations, see as many friends as possible, and ship me and my cat up to Sunnyvale ASAP. The realization that I'm really doing this comes in waves, so I'm doing everything I can to cherish my remaining time here. You will be greatly missed, San Diego, but be proud that it is your legacy that will carry me through this next adventure.

Crack your knuckles and grab your caffeinated beverage of choice, because PreDevCamp is only a week away!

When: August 8, 2009 at 10:30 am

Where: theHIVE, 777 11^th Avenue [map]

Cost: Free, but please bring $5 to chip in for lunch

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

I'm pleased to announce that preDevCamp San Diego will be hosted at theHIVE, downtown's most fashionable co-working space. Jason and the team have made a huge contribution to the SD tech scene by graciously hosting events such as SD Ruby, Django SD, SD Tech Founders, and the upcoming Ignite event. Check their website to learn about the space and the creative professionals who work there, or stop by for the next free Jelly co-working day and say hi.

Survey
What do YOU want to learn at preDevCamp? We've created a survey to get a feel for your background and what you'd rather focus on. It's also a dang good way to get an idea of what the event will be like. Click here to take the survey!

Schedule
As always, keep in mind that this schedule can and probably will change.

• 10:00 - Doors open
• 10:30 -- Introductions: Who you are, what you do, and what you'd like to build
• 10:45 to 12:30 - Intro to Pre development, SDK installfest, hello world, HTML5, services api, frameworks
• 12:30 to 1:30 - Lunch
• 1:30 to 5:30 - Open hacking and group discussion: website optimization, mobile UX, webOS internals hacking (running servers, homebrew apps, etc), whatever else comes up
• 6:00 to 6:30 - Demo your app, prizes
• 6:30 - Closing remarks
• 7:00 - Cleanup
• 8:00 - Afterparty at one of downtown's fine drinking establishments

What you can do
The conference might be a week away, but here's what you should start doing now.

• Brainstorm for app ideas. PreDevCamp San Diego will be very hands on, so start thinking about what app you'd like to build. I'll be announcing at least two contests in the next week, so make it good.

• Install the SDK, which is conveniently available for Windows, OS X, and Linux. We can help you get this set up if you need it, but it'll save a lot of time if everyone can get this done before the event. And remember to update to the latest version if you have the beta SDK installed!
• Play with the emulator. If you don't have a Pre, spend a few minutes with the emulator to get a feel for how webOS handles multi-tasking and notifications. Be warned that the gestures are rather addictive!
• Connect with other attendees. There are over 1000 people registered for preDevCamp around the world, and they're all as awesome as you are. Get to know them on Facebook or our irc backchannel at #predevcamp on irc.freenode.net.
• Help get the word out. Post about preDevCamp on your blog or send a message to your favorite mailing list. There's also a Facebook event you can use to invite your friends.

That's it for now! If you have any questions, please catch me or Dave on twitter or shoot me an email. Happy hacking!

1	Jan
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V	31

Mine was born on May 31, 2009...only a week before I bought it! Most of the dates I've seen are within the last half of May. When was YOURS born? Let me know in the comments!

PS:  And yes, I did set up a birthday remember for the lil' guy.

1. Open the Mail application and go into Preferences and Accounts.
2. Under accounts, tap your Gmail account
3. Under Default Folders, change the trash folder to [Gmail]/All Mail

That's it!  Since this hack usurps the delete functionality, I'd still prefer that Palm add a dedicated "move to folder" button.  This button could, for example, move the message to a "default" folder when tapped, or pop up a list to choose the one you want if you tap and hold.  Still, the workaround is preferable for those of us who can't live without archive.

Update: Lifehacker commenters mentioned that the Pre does allow you to move mail to a folder, but for me this would take 5 taps: menu > move to folder > scroll, scroll (I have a lot of tags) > All Mail.  Like most hacks, changing the delete folder isn't perfect but for some it may be better than the alternative.