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Lytro: The Camera That Lets You Shoot Now and Focus Later

In the past couple of days, the tech and photography world has been abuzz with news of Lytro, the focus-free camera that promises to change how you take pictures forever. Lytro is the brainchild of a young Stanford Ph.D named Ren Ng. While the technology has existed since the mid-90s, Dr. Ng was able to take his award-winning dissertation research to adapt the imaging technique — "light field," which once meant some 100 cameras in a room — for consumer use. The basic premise of Lytro's technology is such: the camera captures every ray of light, deflecting off every object at every angle, in any given image. Where traditional camera lenses "simply add up all the light rays and record them as a single amount...

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Going Cable-Free, the Geek Way

Late last year J and I made the decision to cancel our cable. Not because we had stopped watching TV, but because we were no longer watching our favorite shows as they air. Sure, the DVR that our cable company had provided was getting a lot of mileage, but we couldn't ignore the fact that the majority of the shows we enjoy are available — for free — online. So what is the best way to live cable-free in a technologically-driven household? Well, this is how we did it...

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The Development of the Camera [Infographic]

This one is for my photographer friends. Created by Mashable in conjunction with Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom®, it sure makes me nostalgic about the cameras of my past. (Like the Kodak DX3600, which was the first digital camera I ever owned. It was HUGE and boasted a paltry 2.3 megapixels, but I was the first of my friends to own a digital camera and for that, I was proud.) Enjoy! ...

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Matilda vs The E-Reader

One of the many things I am thankful to my parents is that they never discouraged my love for reading while growing up. We were very, very poor in my early years of life but they always put aside money for my books. My mother would make time to take me and my sister to the library every week despite her 70+ hour work schedule. And they never banned genres either; I read all the thrillers, mysteries, and even comic books I liked. Sure, I was — and in many ways continue to be — a socially awkward girl who preferred to have her nose in a book than go out and interact with others. And while my overactive imagination has...

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