Jay Lagare – Page 235

Pentax Optio WPi

By Jay Lagare on Sunday, February 18, 2007

The Pentax Optio WPi is a camera you can bring almost anywhere, almost anytime. It is small, compact, and waterproof! (up to 5 ft for 30 minutes). Wrap it in the optional silicone rubber skin and it’s also reasonably rugged, too. It’s got good camera specs too: 6 megapixels, 3x optical zoom, and 2″ LCD monitor. The picture quality is pretty good. At the default setting, pictures are on the soft side but this can be adjusted easily. Quite good enough for snap shooting use.

This is the second of the “h2o cameras”. The first being the WP. The W10 was already available when I got this camera then but decided to get the WPi because of its slightly more compact size and lower price. As of this writing, the WP and the WPi have been discontinued and the W20 is out.

One gripe I have with the WPi is that it doesn’t have an autofocus assist lamp and thus does poorly at focusing under low-light conditions. Good thing there’s a manual focus feature. Another is that water drops sometimes sticks onto the lens, causing smudged pictures. But that’s what you get for using a camera in wet conditions. You just have to wipe the lens before taking shots.

Rating: 4/5

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It’s Over

By Jay Lagare on Saturday, February 17, 2007

The last exam was finally done. After a quick snack courtesy of the MBA Program Director, after hasty goodbyes, after three years of studying, taking exams, discussing cases, MBA is finally over. In a way, it was a bit sad. Despite the adversity, it has been quite fun and enjoyable so how could it be happy? But I guess there are no happy endings, only happy beginnings. So here’s to a happy beginning!

General

Apocalypto

By Jay Lagare on Monday, February 12, 2007

In Apocalypto, Mel Gibson brought to life the Mayan civilization and used it as his setting. Novel enough in itself. Like The Passion of The Christ, he uses an archaic language. In this case, Mayan. Like the previous movie there are English subtitles. And that’s where the similarities end. Make no mistake: This is purely an action movie. And you get loads of gripping, adrenaline-pumping action especially during the long, extended climax where the escaped protagonist was being hunted by his former captors as he makes his way back to his village to rescue his family. Good enough for an action fix.

Rating: 3/5

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Brain Power

By Jay Lagare on Sunday, February 11, 2007

Yesterday, some of my classmates and I were having a post-exams dinner at Gerry’s Libis when the question of why we were all drained, tired, and famished after the exams. I mentioned that I read somewhere that the brain consumes a lot of energy. But how much exactly I didn’t know. So I did a quick look up and found the following (from Power Of A Human Brain):

The brain makes up 2% of a person’s weight. Despite this, even at rest, the brain consumes 20% of the body’s energy. The brain consumes energy at 10 times the rate of the rest of the body per gram of tissue. The average power consumption of a typical adult is 100 Watts and the brain consumes 20% of this making the power of the brain 20 W.Glucose is the main energy source for the brain. As the size and complexity of the brain increases, energy requirements increase.

The human brain is one of the most energy hungry organs in the body thereby increasing its vulnerability. If the energy supply is cut off for 10 minutes, there is permanent brain damage. There is no other organ nearly as sensitive to changes in its energy supply.

Incidentally, the question why some people get chubby at MBA also popped up. My theory is that people usually eat a lot after brainwork. Thus they tend to eat more but the energy is no longer needed so it gets stored as fat. The solution, I think, would be to eat a bit before doing anything majorly cerebral :D

General

Crash

By Jay Lagare on Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Crash has what’s got to be one of the most powerful scenes in a movie. It’s worth watching if only for that. But it is a lot more than that. The movie is about the interleaving stories of several characters as they go about their lives in downtown LA. It is a story about racism, how it’s not limited to just one group, and the animosity it generates. It is a story that, amidst all this, there are redeeming human qualities that give us a glimpse of hope. All these was very well told. Paul Haggis (story, screenplay, and director) rocks!

Rating: 5/5