My first review for PhotographyReview.com is up. Hopefully the first of many. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

I reviewed Phoxle's white balancing products, which I was first introduced to when I attended a Camera Owners of the Bay Area meeting. I was impressed with their ingenuity and sought them out as a review target. If you're wondering what the big white disc is that I have with me when I'm shooting, you can checkout the review for more. Chris Pedersen of Phoxle was a stand-up guy throughout the whole review process and his presence on message boards out there showed that his friendliness is not reviewer-biased. So, to summarize the review before you read it, buy the SpectraSnap.

It's been pretty busy between reviewing camera equipment, reviewing bikes, reviewing pens, and writing web sites to collect cycling links. I've also been doing more studio work with bikes and holding down the day job building robots. I was a bit ashamed to have to use official shots of the Phoxle equipment instead of taking my own, but the time is just crazy hard to find I say, crazy. Of course I'm not complaining because all of this is a lot of fun.

Photo via bennest karate

Update: NONE of my thirdparty apps load now. They all crash on startup (fixable by redownloading each app from the app store again)

Thanks to the Apple-fu of m, my iPhone has been unbricked from its mysterious "unknown error (6)" issue. The highly technical of releasing it from its bricked state? I don't know if I should share it, but here goes:

Plug it into a different computer

Perhaps Apple is too embarrassed to publicly suggest this as a workaround, but it seems better than being telling me to piss off with an error number.

I used a MacBook Pro at work with the latest iTunes to try and perform the restore operation instead. It took awhile, but my iPhone breathes once more. Afterwards I had to plug it back into my normal computer so that the my iPhone would actually have stuff on it. The total time to perform this operation: just under four hours.

If I'm not answering your calls, I can't.

The iPhone 2.0.1 update bricked my phone. It gives me an 'unknown error (6)' every time it attempts to finish the update, so instead I have a fancy touch screen that displays a logo telling me to plug it into iTunes.

I like Japanese pens. A lot. Last time I was in Tokyo, the Sekaido stationary store was at the top of my list of places to visit. I can't help it -- fascination for pens is the sort of thing that's ingrained in you growing up in Japan as half of your gifts are ultra-fancy pens. You come back to the United States and you feel impoverished in the land of Bic.

So, imagine my excitement when I found out that there is an importer of Japanese pens right here in United States. Mountain View, in fact. They have a Web site so I don't have to drive down the street and offer with free shipping on orders over $25. It even has tutorials on how to modify your pens. JetPens, how could you have eluded me for so long?

I received my care package today courtesy of Lily containing some of their top products. I haven't had much time to try them out but I'm already over the moon. Here's the rundown.

• Uni Jetstream Alpha Gel: the cool metal body meets a squishy grip for some of the comfiest, silky smooth writing I've experienced. It may not be the prettiest ink, but this is the sort of pen that's with you for the long haul, keeping that writer's cramp at bay.
• Pilot Hi-Tec C 0.5: popular and precise, fine and finesse. The Hi-Tec C's aren't the most comfortable pens to write with, but performance requires sacrifice. I got an 0.5 but these puppies go all the way down to 0.25. If you've been wondering where you can find these in the United States, you have your answer: JetPens.
• Uniball Signo Bit 0.18: Uniball is just showing off here. I'm already a fan of the Signo line, but this is just ridiculously awesome. I was told it can write on a grain of rice -- long-grain/short-grain not specified -- so I tried it out on some Japanese short-grain. I was able to scribble out a 'kwc' before I ran out of room on the grain.
• Hinodewashi Electric Eraser: I can decide if I like enough to overcome the embarrassment of using this in public. I mean, being too lazy to wave my hand to erase pencil marks? Oh Japan, what will you automate next? I was a bit surprised to examine its guts and find the same little electric motor that powers the Tamiya Mini 4WD cars. I'm tempted to purchase a more powerful motor to give it more oomph.
• Uniball Signo DX 0.38: this is another pen I can see using on a regular basis. It puts out a solid, clean, dark black line and feels comfortable in the hand due to its rubber grip. It does offer a little bit of resistance due to the relatively small 0.38 tip -- you can get an even smaller 0.28 version.
• Pilot Fure Fure Shaker Pencil: Shaker mechanical pencils rock. Instead of clicking a button on top, you just shake it to get more pencil lead. It's oddly satisfying. I was fascinated as a kid when I received my first shaker pencil. It was large and solid black, so the secrets of its mechanism had to be worked out by carefully listening as I shook it back and forth. The Pilot Fure Fure is much more compact and clear so you can be visually fascinated by the weight moving up and down.

Randall Munroe showed extreme patience and goodwill to fans as he endured a long line of fans waiting for sketches and didn't skimp a bit. Stick figure art may not be trying, but try drawing Sierpinski's Triangle to five levels of recursion and tell me whether or not you feel like doing that all day. He humored my request for a 'KWC' doodle, ala his doodle he did for Google. The W and C gave him pause until he tied it together as a person climbing up on to something (W) and then jumping off (C). He also did a quick handwritten note for a colleague simply stating, "Python: It Works Bitches."

A crazy looking Leeroy Jenkins drawn by Mike Krahulik (Gabe) of Penny Arcade and, for good measure, a 2007 sketch as well.

I love Cheek's (Sean Galloway's) character designs for the Hellboy and Spectacular Spiderman. I picked up a copy of his new art book, "Spread the Cheeks," and he did a sweet Hellboy sketch for me.