Greener Pastures Dispatch

Posted some more B&W edits from Vietnam. These are all of villagers and village life in the minorities around Sapa.

http://trainyard.smugmug.com

R&R

Just posted a few B&W edits of some S. E. Asia pictures at trainyard. Check ‘em out!

http://trainyard.smugmug.com/

Gallery “SE Asia Black & White”

RKK

Just woke up and in the middle of the night I have realized I have in front of me the last few hours of hope before Steve Jobs crushes it.

In the past I have discussed with a lot of my friends what I want from Apple, a SMALL computer for travel. This year all the rumors have narrowed it down to another big disappointment for me. The iPad or iTablet (to be announced in a few hours, in case you are one of the twelve people on the planet who has not heard) will be, according to virtually ALL rumors, like a “large iPod Touch flattened with a rolling pin” and it will “run iPhone software”.

Of course for me this is not IT. I’m sure this will be a cool media player/ebook reader/mobile gaming device. This will be great for people who want a bigger iPod touch or iPhone. But I want (and have wanted for years every since they killed off the 12 inch laptop they used to make), I REALLY want, a real computer running REAL computer software. The iPhone operating system is great for what it IS but it ISN’T OS X.

But it came to me that my last bit of hope is that the R&D staff at Apple realized that you could not make one device that is the be all and end all of mobile computing, and when confronted with too many compromises, the went down two paths. Thus the desire of Apple to own two trademarks (iPad and iTablet) was not a ploy by Apple to throw people off the trail, or a sign of Apple hedging their bets, but it instead represents the fact that they have come up with TWO “next big things”.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think they could have made one thing that did it all, but I’m willing to compromise more than Steve Jobs is. I’d be willing to have the device cost more and have dual processors and run iPhone software for battery life and OS X for power computing. I’d be willing for the screen to be a bit small for work, and the device a bit large for day to day carrying around. But I have specific needs and Apple is trying to create a “new category of device”. I will loose out.

So, in desperation I have grabbed onto the last logical hope I can muster, and I will enjoy it for a few hours before Steve Jobs crushes it like a bug again, for like the 5th year in a row.

What if they want iPad trademark for the large iPod touch (duly flattened by a rolling pin) and iTablet trademark for the best darned tablet computer ever? The iPad at 8 inches or so and really thin and light and fun (and cheap). The iTablet at nearer to 10 inches and maybe half the thickness of a Macbook Pro With virtually all the Macbook Pro features but minus a keyboard (plus a great new multi touch operating system) and minus an optical drive (but plus a much larger battery for real battery life)?

The latter would BE my fantasy device, and I am well aware it is wishful thinking. But I can now spend the last few hours fantasizing about just that. Then, at about 11 o’clock Pacific when Steve jobs wraps up his presentation, and everyone else is thinking about the great new thing, I will go back to trying to decide on wether to settle for a travel computer that is too big (in the 13 inch Macbook) and to cross the line and join the “hackintosh gang” and hack a netbook to run OS X.

And if someone comes out with a netbook size computer with a real processor and some power, Apple will lose my money.

RKK

PS: if anyone missed it I posted a bunch of HDR photos on trainyard yesterday, and I couldn’t do that on an iPad.

Just a quick note to say we watched the movie Tomb Raider to see if we recognized any of the locations, as they informed us at Beng Malae and Thom Prohm that the movie shot scenes there. Much of it looked familiar, and here are some we could definitely pin down.

Tree at Thom Prohm

In the shot comparison above, the roots are more eroded since the movie (from 2001) and it appears they had an extra platform for her to stand on on the top of the wall. But the stones on the roof of the smaller building to the right are a sure give away. This was one of the easiest to spot.

Roots at Thom Prohm

Not any more difficult if you’ve been there. The lump on the left side of the root is obvious in the movie more than from our angle. However, if you look you can see it there.

Buddha

This was a little trickier. We had one closer and clearer, but the roof over the room looked different. Then I spotted these. Shot from further back, the shape of the roof was a match. They must have shot with a lens that made it appear to be a shorter distance. There were several Buddha statues there, but only the one in this position and location and scale compared to the room.

Angkor Wat

Easy one. They added a fake village for the movie, but the location was unmistakeable.

We saw several shots that looked like they came from Beng Malea, the more remote and ruined ruins. But they were used as rooftop and rubble scenes and intermixed with the Thom Prohm shots in such a way as to not be distinct.

Well, it was a fun exercise. Now we just have to watch “the Killing Fields” again. I suspect that won’t be as much lighthearted fun as this exercise was.

RKK

Got a couple of photos from a website and wanted to post them here. One stop we made was to visit Que Son in central Vietnam where Steve had served. Everything was so changed he recognized almost nothing. However, there was one hill that was particularly distinct the he immediately recognized. It was known then as Hill 51, and is now a war memorial. Some research brought an older photo to compare it to to light. I’m sharing that here for anyone interested.

Then:

Hill 51 - Then

And Now:

Hill 51 - Now

At first I was trying to figure out the angle was on the rocks to miss the one the monument is located on. Then I got into my photos and realized (as you can see here) the rock the monument is on is NOT a rock, but just the concrete base of the monument (part of the monument itself).

Close up

RKK