I had a Nikon lens that stopped wanting to focus through the full zoom range. Since it was a work camera, we'd bought 3 years insurance on it. Unfortunately, it was 4 years old. They wanted $200 just to look at it.

@Apoc28: Except then, it just took some basic observational skills and crude mechanic work to create something extraordinary. Now it takes incredible specialization in research and machinery.

You forget his greatest contribution to philosophy: All cats look grey in the dark.

@Ubiquitous: Or he might just be incredibly frustrated that someone already came up with all the good ideas ...

Damn. I was working on a tutorial to post on my blog tonight. They beat me to it. [www.flickr.com]

@Aminpro: Maybe he'll put the battery doors on eBay.

If kids treat their Hot Wheels the way I treated mine, those screens on the bottom of the cars aren't going to last long. Shoot, I went through four General Lees before age 5.

Seems like he did it at 110% or something. Maybe he wanted to be taller.

Whoop that, Ags!

I think the Flavia machine in our office counts as a coffee robot. Seriously, if someone drew a face on that thing, it would be my best friend.

@CaptainJack: Ahhh, thank you. I'd been staring at it 10 minutes trying to figure out what way I was supposed to be looking at it.

Does anyone actually enjoy oysters? It's just like slimy, gritty, blah.

@jpaugh: If you're using a compact camera, switch it to either sport or night setting and use your flash. You may still have to raid the midtones, but the flash will provide fill light and keep the Christmas lights from being overexposed. The night/sport mode ups your ISO, so the camera can see better in the dark.

Sounds like a good read, and it might help. [www.flickr.com]

Before dialing in to play Tradewars 2012, before smutty echo-mail boards, before dialing long distance to download fake nude GIFs of Michelle Pfeifer at 1200 baud to be gazed upon in the VGA green-scale that you couldn't put the radio anywhere near or it made the screen go fuzzy.

@Philip.J.Fry: Leica only has three real cameras. The S2 is an extremely high quality medium format camera packed into the body of a DSLR, but it's about $25k.

@Bllo: I dropped $1650 on a used X1 last year to try it out. It takes the exact same photos as a D90 but without the ability to change lenses.

@Y2KGTP: The name is a contraction of Leitz Camera, so you pronounce it Ly-Kuh

@me21: Ahhh, I thought the artist just sucked at perspective on that tail. Now I see. Even so, it's still not as comforting as having the engine bolted to the main part of the plane.

Obviously they tried to move the engines to the rear to spare passengers the noise, but that Lockheed design scares me to death. I'd be worried the tail of the plane would break off.