Free Jays Tickets August 13-15

Hey all,

If you're interested in free Jays tickets on August 13-15, sign up for their newsletter and you get two decent tickets free:

http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/tor/ticketing/connect_form.jsp

Enjoy!

Wishin' I was in Toronto then...

Nicholas

Thanks Paul!

Hey all out there,

Just pasting for fun, since writing emails and researching info can help everyone. Helped out my friend Marty with the Canon A75, and was just price shopping for him, so I thought I'd post the results here. Remember, we're on the east coast, so the selection is a little slimmer. Oh, and the interesting note was that Futureshop has a black version of the A75. That's all for now folks - well, except that I was poking tubes down peoples throats and up people's bums today, and the view wasn't half bad ;-)

Nicholas

Thanks for calling - it's always nice to "talk shop" for a bit, and always good to be able to help out. Just remember, you don't have to take any of my suggestions at all - that's all they are, suggestions, and I won't be offended if I see you with another camera.

That said, I took a quick look around at prices for your memory card. Unfortunately, with your time frame, you won't be able to get a really really good deal on the card. The best I could find was at futureshop, the Sandisk 256 mb card, for 79.99
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&dept=2&WLBS=fsweb9&sku_id=0665000FS10013481&catid=&newdeptid=2
That's the link for it. Now if you really want to save money, and are willing to put a little effort in, Staples has a pricematch policy. What that means is that they have to beat the price of any competitor. They sell the same Sandisk 256 mb card for 99.95.

http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=,&webid=497976&affixedcode=WW

What this means is that if you tell them that futureshop sells it for 79.99, they sell it for 99.95, they have to match and beat the price by 150%, so they sell it to you for 70 bucks plus tax. That's probably the cheapest you can get right now, unless Carsand mosher or any other store has a better deal in store.

As for the Canon A75, the best price you'll probably find is Staples, at 384.52

http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=,&webid=562526&affixedcode=WW

However, there is an interesting note - futureshop is somehow selling the Canon A75 in black - if that's your color, check it out. It may be more interesting for you. I don't think Carsand mosher carries it in that color.

That's all for now. Just remember, these prices are only here for comparison. If you want to ask, there's always a chance they can throw in another little discount. For example, if you buy the camera, card, and a case from Carsand mosher, and they match this price, you can mention that you're a student, and if you can get any little deal at all. They may throw in some rechargeable batteries if you're lucky.

more on cameras

Heya,
 
This one is for my friend Paul, but hey, anyone who's looking for a camera can use it!
 
For compact digital camera's, which seems to be what you're looking for, the number one thing to do is figure out what it is you want.  What's the most important - cost, features, form, function, manual control, movies, picture quality, brand name?  There's something for everyone out there.
 
The next step would be to go to a nice camera store - around Ottawa, not sure where they'd be, where you can pick some up and play with them.  That's the only way you'll know how compact a camera you want.  The Canon A70, 75, and 80 actually fit quite nicely in the hand, although they sound much bigger.  The Elph's look much sleeker, though some people actually find them too small.  Then, for those with a fatter wallet, the Canon S60 is coming out, a successor to the very popular S50.
 
As for objective reviews, you can usually trust Camera shops, or there are a few good review websites.  For professional camera's
 
www.dpreview.com
 
for most everything else
 
www.steves-digicams.com
www.dcresource.com
 
both are fairly good, although their reviews aren't as objective, so may not be as helpful in deciding what you want.
 
Personally?  I'm a big fan of the Canon A75.  Relatively cheap (under 400), compact, big LCD, full complement of manual controls, and yet an easy point and shoot.  An overall performer.  Those looking for fun and some control.  I also really like Nikon's and Olympus's, the former having excellent macro (close up) abilities and the latter having their stylish water resistant ultra compact camera's.
 
The Minolta G400 sounds quite nice, having not looked at it before.  In Steve's conclusion, from www.steves-digicams.com, it reads

With its small, stylish body, 4-megapixel imager, impressive shooting performance, high-quality outdoor images, and street price of under $300, the Minolta DiMAGE G400 has a lot to recommend it. If you don't do a lot of indoor flash photography, the G400 would be a fine choice as a travel and outdoor camera. However if your family is like most, a camera will see most of its use for portraits indoors using flash; the limited flash range and poor auto focusing in dim light make the G400 a poor choice for this purpose.
 

With that in mind, only a little playtime will give you a better idea.

One last note - when buying a camera, you'll also need memory, batteries and a case.  For memory, compact flash is the cheapest, and you can get 256 mgs for 50 or less, for SD, slightly more expensive with 256 coming under 65, and memory stick being comparable to SD cards now.

Enjoy Paul, and looking forward to comments.

Nicholas

 

Wisdom from doctors

Last post of the day:

Dr. Declan Fox, family physician from Ireland "Remember that the weight of the medical community does not rest on your shoulders. Be sure that things will continue despite your absence, so take as many breaks as you need to be happy with life."

Dr. Laukannen "always have an approach when you see a patient. Try to develop and stick to a systematic approach, always improving on it to be more complete. The biggest mistakes in medicine occur when people don't have an approach, jump around, and inevitably miss things. Even the best of us forget some things sometimes, but we can minimize this risk by using a standard approach."

Health Canada and Population Health

Here's a ite from Health Canada on what's new in population health. Hoping that it's mighty interesting...will be looking into it, and will report on it soon!

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/pphb-dgspsp/new_e.html

Here is the article on the new public health agency

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/pha/releases/2004_26.html

And for you keeners out there, here's the link to the STD self-learning module...I just tried it out, and it was quite good!

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/pphb-dgspsp/slm-maa/index.html

Enjoy,

Nicholas

3 mp cameras and portable storage

Hmmm...an interesting comparison of 3 cameras that should be very popular with consumers. They compare the Canon A75, Coolpix 3200 and the Olympus Stylus 300. They're not very conclusive, but they do give a nice table comparing the three.

http://www.digitalreview.ca/cams/3MPCameras.shtml

Looking at portable storage devices for pictures for my dad, so I thought I'd share the info with all...

Taking a look at the reviews on hand, it looks like the market for portable digital storage is quite vast, and unfortunately, quite unregulated. There are reports of good, bad, and indifferent, and it is difficult to find any reputable reviews. The most interesting upcoming product for you would be the Nikon Coolwalker, but it doesn't come out until possibly September, and it looks like it will cost between 700-800 canadian.

Aside from this, the best two products I have run across are the flashtrax portable storage,

http://www.digitalreview.ca/cams/Smartdisk.shtml

This however, is quite expensive, and having only found it on american sites sofar, looks to cost about 520 american including shipping for the 40 gig model. The company website, which has reviews and awards can be found at

http://www.smartdisk.com/Products/DigitalMultimedia/FlashTrax.asp

The other one, the APACER disk steno, can be bought at Henrys

http://www.henrys.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/PageDisplay?dest=frames.jsp¤cy=CAD&storeId=10001

This is a cd burning unit, quite portable, with good reviews. It may or may not be what you are looking for. The price of 399 is much more reasonable (canadian), but again, I'm not sure if it fits your needs.

Buying books? Save money!

Hey all,

My dad was just asking me about ways to save money buying books online, so I thought I'd share the secrets with all. There's a great site out there to help promote book buying and literacy, and publishes coupon codes, etc.

http://www.bylo.org/literacy.html

Check it out...it even has some links to help you comparison shop.

As well, Amazon has a refer a friend program on now, where if you refer a friend, you get a 10 dollar gift certificate, and they get a 10 dollar gift certificate. Woohoo!

http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/subst/partners/friends/access.html/ref%3Damb%5Fright-2%5F81035%5F1/702-8089317-5928841

Enjoy - and if anyone needs to be referred to Amazon, let me know ;-)

Nicholas

Word of the day

ob·lo·quy ( P ) Pronunciation Key (bl-kw)
n. pl. ob·lo·quies
Abusively detractive language or utterance; calumny: “I have had enough obloquy for one lifetime” (Anthony Eden).
The condition of disgrace suffered as a result of abuse or vilification; ill repute.

Funner way of thinking

Here's nicer fun quote to sum things up possibly:

"Your freedom to swing your arm ends where my nose begins."

Pushing the envelope even further

Want to think even more. Take a look at these two diverging points of view, and then think where you lie in this spectrum of responsibility.

"The idea of individual responsibility has been submerged in individual rights or demands to be guaranteed by government and delivered by public and private institutions. The cost of sloth, gluttony, alcoholic intemperance, reckless driving, sexual frenzy and smoking is now a national and not an individual responsibility. This is justified as individual freedom--[but] freedom in health is another man's shackle in taxes and insurance premiums. I believe the idea of a "right" to health [ought to be replaced by an] obligation to preserve one's health--a public duty if you will."

-John Knowles, physician and Rockefeller Foundation President, from his essay "the Responsibility of the Individual"

vs.

"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of the civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because in the opinion of others to do so would be wise or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him or reasoning with him or persuading him or entreating him [but not for] compelling or visiting him with any evil in case he do otherwise. To justify that, the conduct from which it is desired to deter him must be calculated to produce evil to someone else. The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over its own body and mind, the individual is sovereign."

-John Stuart Mill's essay "On Liberty"

Ethics of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

yo all,

Relating to my work in population health ethics, I thought I'd share a fun quotation with everyone. It's from Howard M. Leichter, Free to be Foolish:

"There is now widespread agreement among both the general population and health professionals that a good deal of disease is self-inflicted, the product of our own imprudent behavior. The premise that individuals contribute significantly to their own ill health or premature death appears unassailable in view of the mounting evidence relating various personal habits and lifestyle choices, such as poor nutrition, smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, failure to wear seat belts, and unsafe sexual practices, to major causes of morbidity and mortality.

While it is generally accepted that each of us is, to a certain extent, "dangerous to our own health," there is far less agreement on what can or should be done about making people less foolish. In particular, there is the question of how far government should go in fashioning lifestyles to minimize the physical and mental harm we inflict upon ourselves and others in society through risky personal choices. Where does personal choice and collective responsibility begin? How we reconcile two of our most prized social values, personal freedom and good health?"

Fun thought for today - enjoy!

Nicholas

How Cell Phones Work

Here's a great site for checking out how things work

www.howstuffworks.com

Here's the link for the cell phone article

http://www.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone.htm

First Post

A new blog, named after my soon to be built car, the Mazda 3s, in Winning Blue Mica. Booyah!