In honor of Earth Day, yesterday, I would like to share my research on LED lighting, the most efficient way to illuminate space. Right now, LED’s are relatively expensive, though; but hopefully that will change in the near future, when demand and manufacturing increases. Basically, LED lighting can be broken down to these pros & cons:
PROS:

• very efficient use of energy, which means:
  –doesnt give off heat –> no burns, no unwanted heat
  –less wattage –> save money
  –last longer –> rarely need to change lamps
• easily dimmable
• directional light (can also be con, see below)
• can be made to give off any color
• LEDs do not give off nfrared nor UV light, which damage objects such as paintings and textiles

CONS:

• expensive
• hard to find, especially for regular indoor lighting
• not easy to make — need a driver for use with AC power, plus considerations about R, max current, etc
  –expensive to make for retrofitting into standard bulb sockets
  –should really be utilized in a different manner than the current standard
  –> more electrical work to convert to LEDs
  –> this is why LEDs typically only used for outdoor or accent lighting

for more general information on LEDs, check out these pages:

• toolbase.org - great breakdown on LEDs and their current benefits
• gizmology.net - more technical info on LEDs, lots of details

For LED manufacturers:
[Note: for retrofitting into standard incandescent bulb …, look for ‘retrofit’, ’standard’, ‘Edison-type’, or ’screw-in’. Also keep in mind the COLOR of light you wish to have. For indoor lighting, I would suggest ‘warm white’.]

• LEDtronics - excellent supplier, with all types of LEDs. includes an “incandescent to LED” converter
• HollySolar - page with their ‘retrofit bulbs’
• lc-LED - this page has their ‘replacement LEDs’ for halogens, standard incandescents, and more
• theLEDlight - offers various types of LED lights for the home and more

For those wanting to tinker with making their own LED lighting from scratch:

• theLEDlight - great starter page on technical details about LED circuitry
• taskLED - supplier of LED drivers
• allelectronics - link to their ultra-bright Cree LED light
• Cree - manufacturer of ultra-bright LEDs — link to their new high-output XLamp LED
• Arrow - supplier of all types of LEDs, this page searches their catalog

Straight from AOL. Funny, I never thought I’d be recommending something from them, but here it is: Send to Cell. You’ll find a helpful little list of AOL Mobile applications, such as MovieFone, Mapquest, AOL Mail & AIM, etc. Actually, these are not really applications, but links that will be sent to your phone as a text message so you can easily find them online on your cell, which you then bookmark for later access. Can come in handy, so why not?

But if you really want to hack your non-smartphone cell, check out Pogue’s post “How to make your cellphone act like a Blackberry.” There he outlines a bunch of neat tricks to make your regular phone step to the next level.

Nikon D70, that is…why?
      My main issue(among others), the one that truly irked me from the beginning, was that I could never seem to focus correctly with my D70. The screen was always dim. I could autofocus, but no matter how I did it, it wouldn’t come out perfect. By perfect, I mean that a person’s eye HAS to be in focus. To me, this is the most important thing in portrait or beauty photography. With my D70, it was a crapshoot - sometimes the front eye, sometimes the back eye, sometimes the ear or the hairline was in focus instead. Why not manually focus? Even with my 20/20 vision, that is nearly impossible with the D70’s dim and fuzzy focusing screen.
      I searched & searched for remedies, and only found a make-shift DIY screen explained here, or a D70 replacement screen here (which I ordered and found out was the exact same thing I already had). I contemplated exchanging my D70 for a film camera with complete manual control. I looked into brighter viewfinders, tested my camera for a backfocus problem here, and I worried that my standard lens(24-70mm kit lens) was too slow.
      Finally, though, I found Katz Eye Optics, a company which focuses (no pun intended ) on custom-manufacturing bright focusing screens for all the major dslr’s. [Haoda is a cheaper alternative] Even though the price is a little steep ($160 for a ‘plus’ split-prism screen with microprism collar, plus optional Optibrite treatment for extra clarity) I finally decided to give it a try, especially since my Nikon VR 18-200mm Christmas-present lens is finally due to arrive shortly.
      Oh how I am eagerly awaiting these items to hookup my Nikon DSLR system…

A while back Netgear released its revolutionary (in idea, not in practice) wifi phone, in conjunction with Skype. I watched it on Amazon where it was unavailable(sold out?) for some time, saw negative reviews, not only for its high price of $250, but also for its quality, and decided not to bother buying it. It was limited in connecting to wifi networks, so it proved to be more of a sit-on-the-shelf item than a portable voip phone.

Afterwards, Belkin released a similar phone, and now Linksys has followed suit, with its new iPhone (not by Apple, by the way) called the WIP320. It is currently selling on Amazon, right here, but as there are no reviews as of yet, I think I will wait.
In the meantime, you could do what one Amazon commenter said: just get a smartphone that can run Skype on it. This neat skype blog shows various methods of doing mobile skype. Skype mobile can be downloaded for smartphones or pocket pcs here. This seems like the best option, as the device is not limited to skype only - duh!

So the news about a wifi phone is really all just hype? Yes and no. In the future, I believe all mobile phones will be VOIP - I know Sprint/Nextel is already working towards that, and in just a few years (2010?), it will be reality.

Almost lost my finger today. I was at my studio trying to use my serger after it had been in storage for months, and I found that I had a lot of cleaning and realigning to do. When I just about got it set up for a certain stitch, the threads got stuck underneath. So I lifted the presser foot (which should automatically forbid the machine to start whether or not you press on the control foot) and proceeded underneath to get the threads in the right place, when the machine started to sew! I did not press on the control foot, nor was the presser foot down, so basically the machine started by ITSELF! 3 of my left fingers got caught in the parts underneath. 2 I got out fairly easily, the 3rd was wedged in pretty bad. I seriously thought I was going to lose it (literally & figuratively), especially since it hurt just as much to not move it as it did to try and wiggle it out… Finally, and thankfully, I clenched my teeth and just pulled it(the left ring finger) out, and tried to deal with the pain. Luckily no flesh was cut, but there was a sharp, deep indentation which slowly went away over the next half hour. It didn’t bruise nor swell, really, so there was almost no sign that it happened! It’s still sore to the touch though.
A very surreal experience.

Now, why did the machine turn on by itself? This question brings me back to about 6 months ago, when I had the serger set up and running in my old apartment. About 3 times in a row, it decided to start sewing by itself (I was sure my foot nor anything else was pressing the control foot). I thought it was a ghost (but I don’t believe in ghosts?), but then again I figured there was some electrical connection that went a-wire. Doesn’t happen very often, but it can, right? So I let it go and didn’t investigate further.

Now I wish I did. I could’ve avoided my little “accident” today, possibly.