With the holiday season getting underway, I meant to feature this recent post by David Pogue, technology columnist of the NY Times since 2000. He’s debunking the age-old question of whether there is any difference between a 13 vs. 5 megapix camera:

“We blew up a photograph to 16 x 24 inches at a professional photo lab. One print had 13-megapixel resolution; one had 8; the third had 5. Same exact photo, down-rezzed twice, all three printed at the same poster size. I wanted to hang them all on a wall in Times Square and challenge passersby to see if they could tell the difference.

Even the technician at the photo lab told me that I was crazy, that there’d be a huge difference between 5 megapixels and 13. I’m prepared to give away the punch line of this segment, because hey - the show doesn’t air till February, and you’ll have forgotten all about what you read here today, right?

Anyway, we ran the test for about 45 minutes. Dozens of people stopped to take the test; a little crowd gathered. About 95 percent of the volunteers gave up, announcing that there was no possible way to tell the difference, even when mashing their faces right up against the prints. A handful of them attempted guesses’but were wrong. Only one person correctly ranked the prints in megapixel order, although (a) she was a photography professor, and (b) I believe she just got lucky.

I’m telling you, there was no difference.

Read full article 

Farecast.com is the first airfare prediction website, helping online travel shoppers save money by answering the question “Should you buy now or wait?”

I don’t know where I came across this site, but it puts you in touch with some serious data - predicting how airfares develop as a function of many variables, for example length of stay, day of travel, and where you fly. You can even slice the data any way you want, for example listing the cheapest destinations for a given day. One word: powerful.

• Know when to buy: Farecast’s airfare prediction shows if fares are rising or dropping. Based on the prediction, they provide a recommendation to buy now or buy later.
• Know where to buy: Farecast connects shoppers directly with the airlines sites. Travelers save money and get more value by booking directly - no booking fees, free bonus miles, and peace of mind with low fare guarantees.

Try it…

Iserloh Design expands its services from design & development to include business consulting services for everything you need to succeed online. The full-service agency was recently launched under the Bright Launch label.

Here is a common question that I got quite often when new clients contacted me at Iserloh Design: “I just want a website. Can you design it for, say, …. $500?”

Ahem. No.

For starters, only clients without any previous website experience would lowball the price, and merely required some quick education. But the question triggered another thought: Does the name, Iserloh Design, still adequately reflect the scope of services that the company provides?

Iserloh Design - it seemed to imply that it is all about putting together a design. Just designing the page elements. Done. That can’t be that expensive, can it?

The reality is that creating a successful website requires many components, many specialist skills, and many hours. What’s often forgotten is that a website is only one form of communication, besides face-to-face interactions and print media. To find one seemless solution working across different media, clients indeed need expert help to formulate, shape and implement a concept. Here’s where Bright Launch comes in:

With core expertise in design & programming (websites, e-commerce, bulletin and blog applications), Bright Launch’s experts can also advise you on related legal, marketing, and advertising matters. We will guide you from concept development to website launch, and help you grow your business with a clean, attractive and accessible internet presence at affordable prices.

 
Everything You Need to Succeed Online.™ Visit BrightLaunch.com now…