I’ve noticed that I’m often disappointed at first with the pics my iPhone takes in low light.

Above are two identical pics taken the other night at Smuggler’s Cove. I wanted a shot I could put on my blog, but you could barely make anything out in the initial incarnation of the picture.

Thankfully, there’s 2 solutions:

1. One’s called TrueHDR (link opens iTunes), and I’ve mentioned it before. It’s great when one part of the shot has light that drowns out the rest of your subject (e.g. a sunny window in the background).
2. The other is Photogene (link opens iTunes), which is great for adjusting color, cropping, overlaying text, etc. on the go. Use this to crank up the exposure and white level of shots taken in dark restaurants or outside at night.

Each apps cost $2, and it’s money well spent if you take a bunch of iPhone pics.

Does the shot on the right still look a little too grainy? Yes, but any camera would struggle in that environment without a flash or tripod and long exposure. I’m just trying to salvage camera-phone pics to preserve memories, not win a Pulitzer :-)

My godfather, Uncle Michael, for whom I got my middle name, turns 60 today.

I emailed him my best wishes, and he replied:

I hear all the action was on the “under 60”. Surprise!

My Uncle Michael also taught he a great party trick for SuperBowls, which I suggest you copy wherever you’re going:

• Go to any gambling website, and look up the “prop bets” for the game. A prop bet is something like “Who will win the coin toss?” You ideally want bets with 2 possible outcomes.
• Make a list of 10-30 bets in one column, than have two more columns with the possible answers. The answers are usually either yes/no or the names of the teams.
• Print out at least one version of the list for all attendees at the party. If gambling were legal, you could charge people $5 to buy a list from you, before kickoff.
• Each partygoer circles an answer for each prop bet on the page. Since they’re all 50/50 shots, everyone in the room is equally likely to win.
• If gambling were legal, all the $5 payments would go into a bowl. At the end of the game, you’d see who had correctly guessed the most prop bets, and they would hypothetically win the pot.

Gambling made easy. Sounds like fun, right?

Pro tip: Try to choose prop bets that are decided throughout the game, to keep people’s interest. If all the bets are about whether the final score will sum to an even or odd number, or which side of the field the kicking team will kick toward, you’ll lose interest in between. “Who will score first in the 3rd quarter?” or “Will the Colts punt in the 4th quarter?” are the kinds of things to include to hold attendees’ interest.

FWiW: This was my 2000th post on this blog.

Doctor casts new light on cat that can predict death

An awesome submission from my awesome aunt-in-law Alta Charo.

I think Furio has a similar 6th sense, but instead of death, he can predict the moment I’m about to slip into a blissful nap on the couch, and it’s then that he knocks something glass off a counter.

I stopped by Smuggler’s Cove, the bar where my brother Billy works. Great spot. Best Dark N’ Stormy I’ve ever had.

Saw Avatar with Lisa last night. She was cracking me up in her 3D shades. I think she should wear them with her jumpsuit on medical helicopter rescue missions so that people think they’re getting saved by a doctor sent from the future.

Also, my favorite quote about Avatar is from @CcSteff:

Avatar was beautiful, but if there was supposed to be some kind of moral message, it was way too subtle for me to pick up on.