Prashant Vaibhav

mercurysquad

Indian/South Asian buyers beware: Canon EOS 1000D

Tagged as

  1. canon eos 1000d india south asia caveat emptor buyer beware image stabilizer lens camera dSLR

8th Feb

Canon EOS 1000D If you are buying the Canon EOS 1000D dSLR camera in India — keep in mind that Canon doesn’t bundle the Image Stabilizer lenses in South Asia. Instead, they include a 2GB SanDisk SD card and the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II lens (the 2nd edition). Taking shots is mighty difficult if you don’t have a tripod and are photographing in low or indoor lighting without a flash.

To add insult to injury, they also conveniently include 2 booklets and a CD containing promo material about their IS and macro lenses and other accessories.

My wishlist

24th Jan

Giving in to rampant consumerism, I decided to compile a list of all the things I would like to buy, so that when it’s actually possible to buy them I don’t have to do all the same research again.

They are not in any order of priority.

Music/audio equipment

  • Fender Stratocaster - Standard — €515 — Mahogany fingerboard, 3 single-coil pickups, candy red finish. Rest of the specs are pretty standard for a std. Mexican strat.

  • M-Audio Keystation PRO 88 — €448 - This is freaking expensive, but it has hammer-action weighted keys! Might need to revise this choice, step down to a semi-weighted one like 88ES (€178), or perhaps just get a digital piano.

  • E-MU 0202 USB audio interface — €99 - 2 input, 2 output, 24/192 (!), mic pre-amp, USB powered and OS X support. What more could I need at this price point! But may not have phantom power. (note to self: M-Audio interfaces apparently has driver issues with OS X). Also look at Edirol UA4FX, has MIDI ports too.

  • t.bone SC400 condensor mic — €59 — Cheap! Large gold diaphragm condenser mic which is getting great reviews everywhere. I WANT! So I can finally move away from crap mics..

TheSixtyOne site redesign

Tagged as

  1. thesixtyone redesign sub-genres usability

13th Dec

They redesigned their perfectly fine website and now I cannot access sub-genres. Whoever came up with this brilliant idea? Anyone know how to access sub-genre lists (like electronic > drum n bass, instead of just electronic).

15th century erotic literature

Tagged as

  1. 15th century erotic romance literature poetry

10th Dec

A friend of mine (an English major) sent me this on the eve of his examination. I thought I’d share. It’s really nice in my opinion, though often times funny.

Unpin that spangled breastplate which you wear,
That th’eyes of busy fools may be stopped there.

Unlace yourself, for that harmonious chime
Tells me from you that now it is bed time.

Off with that happy busk, which I envy,
That still can be, and still can stand so nigh.

Your gown going off, such beauteous state reveals,
As when from flowery meads th’hills shadow steals.

Off with your wiry coronet and show
The hairy diadem which on you doth grow:

Now off with those shoes: and then safely tread
In this love’s hallowed temple, this soft bed.

In such white robes heaven’s angels used to be
Received by men; thou, Angel, bring’st with thee

A heaven like Mahomet’s Paradise; and though
Ill spirits walk in white, we easily know

By this these Angels from an evil sprite:
Those set our hairs, but these our flesh upright.

License my roving hands, and let them go
Before, behind, between, above, below.

Ghent! One of the coolest Belgian towns. It’s where I spent the summer of 2007 and would love to go back.

Tagged as

  1. ghent belgium summer 2007 european town

9th Dec

I guess you'll do

Tagged as

  1. relationship satire words

5th Dec

Kind of accurate yet satirical representation of the modern mundane relationship. While the overall idea is kind of correct, the author misses two important points:

  • Not everyone has no aspirations or big dreams in life
  • There are lots of little stupid moments in a relationship, the collective experience of which makes up for the overall dullness

Great read, however. There is a narrative video of it on YouTube. I don’t quite like the silly sounding narrator, but if you don’t like reading, this might be a better option.

Switched over to Tumblr

Tagged as

  1. blogger tumblr mercurysquad.com switch

Tumblr seems to have easier and cleaner support for semi-hosting your blog on your own domain/website. So I decided to ditch blogger in favor of Tumblr. Hopefully this turns out to be as good as people claim!

The address of my blog (as hosted on my own website) is: http://blog.mercurysquad.com

In the next hour or so, my older blog posts from blogger.com should be imported into my Tumblr blog.