Not long ago I was invited by some friends to a party of which the highlight  was a live performance by “Infected Mushroom,” a trance music artist known worldwide.

To tell you the truth this was the first party I had ever attended.

I can understand why you would find this hard to believe but growing up, my highly religious education pretty much prevented me from participating in this common urban activity.

Anyway, there i was, not sure what to expect, holding tight to my loyal companion (the Canon 5D MKII), fumbling with basic parameters like ISO, shutter speed, etc. One second everything was dark (dark like, “Did I take off my lens cover?”) and the next second the whole area was flooded with colorful light beams. A few test shots with and without flash came out awful and no combination that I tried resulted in a decent photo.

Then it hit me. A lesson I learned from a book by one of the best… the legendary photographer Joe McNally. Reading Joe’s book “Hot Shoe Diaries” feels like getting a one-on-one private lesson with the master. Big words are put aside and practical advice (like spot metering is not always the best way to go or use the AV/TV modes when necessary) is what the book is all about.

So AV it was, shooting like crazy, letting the light do its magic, concentrating on getting the right angle / moment/ prespective, and leaving the rest to my beloved beast, the Mark II.

I’ve posted the entire gallery for your pleasure here and I highly recommend getting Joe’s book here.

Live long and prosper.  (Big ups to “Crazy the Big” for letting me in).

So why do I rant? The answer is simple, I own a particular version of the Nexus One phone, and guess what? My phone does not support this “unofficial” release.  Instead, I’ll have to wait for Google to send an invitation to my device in order to update. (They call it OTA).

Well… being last (or even second to last) in line when it comes to my gadgets is out of the question!

I want this update and I want it now! So I wrote some messages in Google’s support forums (some purposefully provocative). Here’s an example:

“Why did I pay for AT&T Nexus if Froyo is not released and iPhone 4 is much better?”

Anthony44 answered my rude question:

“Ur obviously still stuck in the matrix android is Zion iPhone is Mr Smith”

And I replied:

“Liked the analogy,
However I’m tired of running after the white rabbit.
The discussion is not about which phone is better, but whether Google are maintaining a transparent policy.
I took the red pill, now load the damn Kung Fu program into my N1!”

Funny or not, in many ways this discussion illustrates the difference in the relationships between iPhone developers to Apple, and Android developers to Google.

Android developers have full control over what is going on in their phone and so they feel more involved. Such level of involvement therefore requires a highly transparent policy when it comes to release dates.

Google please load the Kung Fu program, we will make it sing…

This time it happened to be a pleasant surprise (apparently Geocaching can also be musical). In fact, ladies and gentlemen allow me to introduce you to:

The Travel Bugs Band

The Travel Bugs is a band of world-touring musicians who travel from cache to cache in pursuit of music from all over the globe. And this album is a collection of songs about their favorite activity…. Geocaching!

The style of the tunes ranges from pop-rock to bluegrass to blues with just about everything in between.

You can read more by clicking The travel bugs band or you can buy the CD (and guess what? They called it “Found it!”) directly from Groundspeak’s shop:

Groundspeak’s shop

Have fun, and leave a funny comment if you like…