Quick and Dirty Product Review
I got my new camera last night. Its a Canon Elph S400 and it is definitely an evolutionary step beyond the S230 (much to Paula's chagrin).
Here's a pic of the pretty little beast.

In use its a lighter but no less substantial unit than the S230 or S200. The edges are rounded nicely so that the camera hides in your pocket a little better than the more squared off S200 or S230.

Physically it has just about the same dimensions as the others but it feels and looks like its both bigger and smaller. And no, I'm not quite sure how Canon pulled that off either.

The controls are straight forward though updated since the S230's release. I guess the best way to call it is simplified. A dial replaces the multi-position slide so now there's record and play on the slide and auto, manual, panoramic and movie mode on the dial. Most of the other controls are straight off the older models.

This camera's cooler features include: an 11x total zoom that actually works very, very well, its a 3x optical zoom and a 3.4x digital zoom; the camera can be customized to make different sounds when actions happen, like a bird chirping instead of a shutter click; the focus flash beam is an orange hue on this camera, kind of funky but cool; the resolution is astounding, twice the information in the same size package is impressive; also, they got rid of some of the metal on the last frame so the camera doesn't get fingerprinted quite so easily; and overall, its a superb little package for users like me.

Now I've gotta get my hands on one of those huge 512 MB compact flash cards so I can take pics until my fingers fall off. Or maybe even one of those new 1 gig cards! Oooh yeah.

Definitely an upgrade from the S200 and well worth the money as far as I can tell. First pics from the camera will be up online tomorrow most likely (oh yeah, another advantage of sticking with the Canon line, iPhoto picked up the new camera easily and downloaded the test pics without any hassles whatsoever!).

War News
We, the USA, are now at Terror Alert Level Yellow. I guess that's a good thing but yellow? That and they caught the "mastermind" behind the hijacking of the Achille Lauro and the guy who killed an invalid, Leon Klinghoffer (nice work on that one, dude!). What I don't get is why the guy was hiding out in Baghdad. Was he unaware that the coalition forces were using the city as a target range? Was he unaware that Iraq had pretty well ceased to be as it had been? Anyway, ShrubCo could make some decent foreign relations strides if they deal with this one properly but I'm not holding my breath.

In What-The-Fuck-Were-You-Thinking News
Back-from-dead saga grips nation tells the story of a 14 year old girl gone missing five years ago and presumed dead. Someone was even tried for the crime of killing her and then the truth finally comes out. She was hiding in a house not two kilometers from her home. For FIVE YEARS.

Why? "Because the lie had become too big," she said.
Umm, whatever. Hope that was a good five years because you don't get them back now.