Diary of a Network Geek

Not sure who else will care about this.

I doubt most of my readers will care too much about this, but I do sort of follow what goes on at Six Apart. They were the first real blog company, I think. They made the first blogging software I used, MovableType, and, really, they were around before just about anyone else. As a company, they’ve contributed quite a bit to the blogging world, beyond their software. In short, I keep an eye on them because they’re one of the big players in the blog world.

In any case, according to this story on ZDnet, they’ve sold LiveJournal to a Russian online media company called SUP. They, apparently, are making a few changes, but the overall attitude seems to be a positive one. Personally, I wonder what made Six Apart sell LiveJournal. I don’t use it myself, but I read a couple of blogs that are on LiveJournal so I’m passingly familiar with them. I doubt that LJ made any big money for Six Apart, but, then, I didn’t think that was why they acquired them in the first place. At the time, I thought it was to convert people from LJ to Six Apart’s MovableType-based service, TypePad. Now, though, I wonder if that was it at all. If they were after some technology that LJ had, what would it have been? And, now that they have it, why dump LJ?

Not sure what’s going on there, but, no matter how you feel about Six Apart, they’re pretty savy when it comes to business and blogging, so they likely have a pretty good reason for their decision to sell LiveJournal.  And, just as likely that none of us regular joes will ever know what it is.

Okay, you’re going to see a lot of pictures.

Look, I apologize in advance, especially to the more experienced photographers who read my blog, but you all are going to see a lot of pictures here. Probably a lot of bad pictures as I figure out how to use this new camera, too. Hopefully, they’ll start getting better, but, well, I make no promises, eh?

In any case, now you all can see my new Canon Digital Rebel XTi.
Notice, I have two lenses. One small, but with image stabilization. One zoom, but without image stabilization. The CF card is in the camera, but I threw the box in the pic anyway. Oh, and notice the handy cable for getting pictures off the camera. And the software that came with the camera to install both drivers and a handy utility program that includes the ability to take pictures remotely via the USB interface. But, I can use the other cable to display pictures on a television, if I wanted. Oh, and the handy reference manual.

I have to admit, I’m beside myself with this. When my ex-wife got her digital camera all those years ago, I so wanted to play with it, but I wasn’t allowed. I mean, she paid for it and it was, ostensibly, hers and meant to improve her web mastering skills somehow. But, oh, how I wanted to use it. Especially when she let it just sit there after spending well over $1,000 for it. And, yes, I hoped that she’d “forget” and leave it behind, but she didn’t. And I am so glad because this camera is so good and if she’d left her old one, I never would have gotten this one.

Until I started taking pictures yesterday, I didn’t realize how badly I wanted a camera and to take pictures. I can even think of several little excursions into various parts of Houston that I haven’t explored that I’d like to take, just for the photo opportunities.
Now, of course, I’ll probably need to start saving for a better camera bag and a tripod…