it was broke, but they didn’t fix it

My Canon Powershot S200 broke a few weeks ago (hence the sad, sad little flickr picture of my car). I discovered that my model was part of a recall, so I sent mine in to see if it qualified, and it did. The camera’s sensor had fallen prey to a manufacturing defect, so they even paid for shipping and everything.

Canon told me the repair would be done in about a week, but after two weeks it still wasn’t done. Then, a few days ago, they emailed saying my camera shipped, via FedEx 2-day! Since this was a free repair, I was impressed by the service, and happy about the timing, since that meant I could take it to Wisconsin after all.

Not that FedEx played its part. By now they should have the technology to provide a smaller window of time in which a person needs to stay at home to accept the signature-required delivery. But they don’t; when they showed up, no one was home, so I had to drive to Santa Fe Springs to pick it up.

I opened the box, and lo and behold….it was not my camera. They couldn’t fix my old one, apparently, so they gave me a better model!

It’s refurbished, and doesn’t look nearly as nice as my old one. The LCD screen is huge, which does nothing but suck battery life like crazy, and make it more susceptible to scratches. It’s already sporting some dents and things because it’s refurbished. Also, the front, side, and top are made of that cheap-looking silver-plastic stuff, rather than the solid metal my old camera had.

Third, it doesn’t use my old CompactFlash card, so now I have to go and buy a new memory card. Also, I have no way of getting my pictures off my old Flash card. I now have a de facto “Archive” of the last fifty pictures I took on my old camera, only inaccessible. *Sniff*

On the plus side, it’s a Powershot SD600, and 6 megapixels to my original 2, so it’s at least a few years newer (though it’s the same price as my old one was when I bought it, natch). I guess I can’t complain too hard about Canon’s customer service. And I won’t need to buy a new camera for a few more years.

That old camera was a real workhorse, though. And I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye!

Filed under: photo

moving (pictures)

I just remembered that Yahoo!Photos was closing so that Yahoo could “focus our efforts on Flickr.” No comment on whether that’s the best thing they could be doing with their resources, but I had a few things up on Yahoo photos, and while naturally, I have copies of these photos in various places, I didn’t want these to get lost in the dead-service ether.

Luckily, they provide a number of options for you to take your photos with you – you can export them to flickr, but also to Shutterfly, Photobucket, Snapfish, and another I’ve forgotten. You can also get a 3rd-party service (whose name I also forgot) to sell you a cd of the photos in your old account. I hadn’t realized how many photos I had on there. I thought I could use their one-by-one download tool, which they recommend if you have around 20 photos. I had 129!! I have no idea why.

So I chose the flickr option, but only because as a thank-you, they offer 3 free months of Flickr Pro account status! I received that once before, with the clogged-tubes contest, so I know flickr pro is great (I’m just too cheap to buy it myself).

And after I give my approval to have the photos moved, they’re like, “We’re so glad you picked us! thank you! yippee! (or should that be ‘Yahoo!’?)” Flickr’s always been kinda cutesy, but in a fun way, and (usually) not in that overly contrived, insincere way. More like, in an unabashedly enthusiastic glee that I find sort of endearing.

Anyway, they seem to promise an easy-to-export experience, so I hope to find that they make it clear which ones were imported from Yahoo (the better to tag them with), and that the photos transfer okay. I don’t doubt they will, though.

update: Grrrr, I am disgruntled! Flickr sent me another happy email yesterday morning saying the migration had been completed, but I’ve been checking my Flickr intermittently since then, and my photos have yet to arrive! And I can’t login to my Yahoo! Photos account anymore, as they say it’s been locked for migration. So where the heck are my photos, flickr??

A quick check of the forums reveals this isn’t an isolated problem, so I won’t be shooting off an angry email just yet. But seriously, if this is a known issue, can’t they just delay sending that happy “We’re Done Moving your Photos!” email until, like, you know, they’re actually done?

On the plus side, I do have Pro now. Yay.

Filed under: flickr, photo

4 month old pandas!

4 month old pandas!

Originally uploaded by jadekingsley.

So, the next picture in my flickr faves is another one of pandas. As you can see, I was going through a bit of a panda craze at the time.

But can you blame me? First there’s the lovable, homegrown Butterstick, and then comes news from China that there was something of a panda baby BOOM over there, with 18 adorable furballs! [The sad part is that I think all of them were brought into the world via artificial insemination, because grown pandas kinda don't know how to go about it the natural way, and don't really even want to.]

Anyway, I liked this picture the best because it’s somewhat mysterious. Why is that little baby panda so dirty, when the other ones are clean? Still, he looks even cuter for it.

Filed under: faves, flickr, photo

An apprehensive Butterstick

An apprehensive Butterstick

Originally uploaded by randomduck.

Oh, Butterstick! This name, as far as I know, was first used by Wonkette, I think, which was obsessed with the panda, probably because it lives in the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

Actually, the moniker was inspired by one of the zoo’s press releases around the time of its birth, as it was noted that a newborn panda is about the size of a stick o’ butter. This, of course, was a strangely evocative and memorable name – perfect for an irresistible baby panda!

Seriously: I remember reading that press release, and finding links to these pictures many weeks later (pandas are definitely not this adorable when they’re newborn!), yet I still knew exactly what they were referring to when they called him Butterstick.

Of course, the zoo later gave it its real name, Tai Shan, which means like, mountain or something (I’m too lazy to look this stuff up right now, so I’m pulling these facts randomly. I’m sure you’ll find the real ones, or maybe just more fake ones, if you search either name on Wikipedia), but he’s always gonna be Butterstick to me and thousands of other panda-lovers!

Sadly, it’s been about two years now since its birth – Butterstick’s probably ginormous, lazy and not that cute anymore.

Filed under: flickr, photo

look! famous!

I’m at my parents’ house tonight. When I came home, I saw the computer was on suspend. I turned it back on, and the first thing I saw when the monitor came back to life was an Internet Explorer window (boo!) open to this article in the Korea Times.

Now, I’m as good as illiterate when it comes to Korean, so unfortunately I have no idea what the article says, or what it’s even about. But I could still see why the window had been left open: if you scroll down, you’ll see that that lady in the picture is my mom! Oh, what the heck, I’ll just copy it here too:

I should go ask her what the story is all about, and who that strange man is. I also love that the KAL HQ has 9 gazillion of those model 747s strewn all over the place – this definitely isn’t my mom’s office, but I know she has one behind her desk too.

update: My sis tells me it’s about Korean Air’s plans to expand service – not coincidentally, there was an article about this in last week’s LA Times. The article even explains who the white guy is. Not that anyone cares.

Filed under: personal, photo

NYE 2006 Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam

For want of better things to do (oh, except those 3 giant papers), I’m going start blogging all the photos in my flickr favorites. You’d think these would be self-explanatory, but I’d still like to explain why I faved them, or why I liked them.

NYE 2006 Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam

Originally uploaded by katielips.

1st Favorite: I found this photo through flickr’s “explore” feature, shortly after I discovered said feature. I faved it because I’d discovered flickr’s “fave” feature mere minutes before finding “explore.”

I like it because of the atmosphere it evokes…it’s festive, but still kinda cozy. It’s totally got the “New Year’s” thing going, too – a microsecond’s hush as the seconds count down, and then explosions of happiness and good cheer all around. The blurs only make it look more lively.

Also, it reminded me of Montmartre, for some reason.

Filed under: photo