The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Sunday, Debtember 08, 2002

The ultimate in cubicles

Scott Adams approached IDEO to create Dilbert's Ultimate Cubicle, an attempt to address the myriad issues connected with partition-based offices. The result is a modular cubicle that allows each worker to select the components and create a space based on his or her tastes and lifestyle.

Via The Duff Wire, Dilbert's Ultimate Cubicle

I don't know if I would love to work in such a cubicle, or want to run away as quickly as possible. I mean, I love the idea of flippable floor modules and the pop-up floor storage but the sun indicator and the snap hammock are scary; a way to spend way too much time at the office slaving away for “The Man.”

And I'm still of the opinion that cubicles are eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil!


Enlightened Palms

One of the few things I actually like about this month are the lights. More specifically, the lights most people decorate their palm trees.

Driving back from dropping Spring off at work, I saw some impressive displays; impressive enough to go back and take pictures.

So I find myself parking my car at a shopping center in northern West Boca at 2:00 am in the morning, digital camera and tripod in tow as I walk a block towards an exclusive, gated community to photograph their entrace light show, thoughts of cops dancing in my head; anything done at 2:00 am can be construed as suspicious these days but the traffic is very light, which is one of the reasons I picked 2:00 am for this little outting. I setup directly across the street from the development and start taking pictures.

Of course, it was at that precise moment that traffic picked up, cars and trucks wizzing past (as you can see in the picture, which isn't a bad effect really; I like it).

Obviously, I made it home okay.


Directors commentary on “Enlightened Palms”

I'm not really thrilled with how Enlightened Palms turned out; I think Deserted Shopping Center in West Boca at 2:30 am turned out much better. Enlightened Palms is too washed out and grainy whereas Shopping Center is crisper.

I set the digital camera for night shots, indoor (artificial) lighting, no flash and an effective film rating of ASA 400, which as films go, means it's a fast film. It's the speed of film I used in college and I've had good results in using it at night, so I decided to use that setting here. Only the digital camera gives rather poor results with ASA 400 at night; very grainy and black areas tend to be a very blotchy bluish-black (which is more noticable on the original 1984×1488 images).

For Shopping Center (which was taken when I headed back to the car) I decided to see what the results would look like if, keeping the other settings the same (night shot, indoor lighting, no flash) and set the ASA to 100. The results I think look much better, so I'm thinking of doing another attempt at Enlightened Palms in the near future.

Obligatory Picture

[The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades]

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