How The Mile 23 Got Its Name

Submitted by Mile23 on Tue, 2005-07-12 01:55
Topics: 
Misc.

Don't expect this to make any sense.

A mile is one minute of arc in latitude. That's the nautical mile, anyway. The other mile is about 200 meters shorter or so. But I prefer the definition of one minute of arc... It seems somehow less arbitrary. Only as arbitrary as the size of the earth and its speed of rotation, and the decision that there should be 360 degrees in a circle.

A knot, by the way, is one nautical mile an hour, which is a highly recursive definition.

But anyway. A mile is a large unit of measure. It's a semi-big distance. A motivated person could walk 23 miles in a day, couldn't they? So the distance isn't insurmountable.

Join Up Today!

Submitted by Mile23 on Mon, 2005-07-11 20:06

Anybody who wants to can get a user account here, subject to approval. With that comes a 'blog and the ability to comment, but no guarantee.

That last bit about guarantees comes from the fact that I'm not sure what's in store for this little web site.

Don't let sean be the only one. :-)

Topics: 
Administrivia

Pentax Links

Submitted by Mile23 on Sun, 2005-07-10 16:16

Some web sites dealing with Pentax equipment.

Bojidar Dimitrov's Pentax K-Mount Page is a very thorough and detailed source of information about every piece of Pentax K-mount hardware imaginable. The problem is that the information stops at the *ist film camera. Apparently, this site was in jepaordy of being shut down by Mr. Dimitrov, but the hue and cry of his fans has purchased a reprieve. He says he's going to start updating the information and adding new entries, but it'll likely be slow going.

Topics: 
Photography
Links

Using The Pentax *ist DS With A Manual Lens

Submitted by Mile23 on Sun, 2005-07-10 16:07

Note: I wrote this a while back, when the *ist DS wasn't three product cycles ago... However, the advice should still apply, even to the K100D, the K110D, the K10D, and the Samsung GX-10. In the case of the K10D and the GX-10, stop-down metering is accomplished with the green button, rather than AE-lock.

The *ist DS is a nifty neeto digital SLR camera made by Pentax.

Topics: 
Photography

The Photography Book

Submitted by Mile23 on Sun, 2005-07-10 14:48

This is an online book about photography. It appears here as I write it.

What will happen is that as I learn things, or as I explain them to others, that information will end up here. It will get re-sorted and re-organized as I go along.

Comments will be evaluated and added into the material, and thus it will be a collaborative effort. I'm just the instigator and editor.

Topics: 
Photography