8. Adobe Lightroom 2 Book

I once went for a job with a computer upstart, or should that be start up, called Riversoft.  I didn't really understand what they did, except that it was something to do with networks, and predicting where the flow of data should go.  My job, if I got it, would have been to help write all their 'literature', e.g., their website and manuals.  I bluffed a bit about CSS and Ajax, got a bit bogged down in what an IPO was (as it was the height of the boom, it seemed as though Internet and Initial had been conflated), but the crunch came at two points: 1. the salary, which I foolishly lowballed and 2., Foucault. 

What does a bald ex-French philosopher and Maoist have to do with computers?  Not much, and that may have been the mistake.  I was asked to explain something, so I chose to explain Foucault's philosophy, life and thought in five minutes with the use of a marker and whiteboard.  I can still remember, hauntingly, my drawing of a bald man in a polo neck. Needless to say, I didn't get the job, and I failed to become the next Bill Gates, or even get a wad of presumably worthless shares a couple of years down the line.  I remember being struck at how young they all were.

Since then, any explanatory literature has been attended to with a little more attention than is necessarily warranted by b2009ks.  Half the time, I'm imagining the poor hack author trying to churn this stuff out. The other half of the time, I wary of what's probably some keen enthusiast.  Which is the case in the Adobe Lightroom 2 Book, the author of which was involved in the creation of the software, and has some plugins to flog, too.  But it's a good balance of detail, examples, and some personality of the author.  And I know a bit more about how to try and get the best out of my shots, should I wish to.  Something idiotic was on the tv - 40 days and 40 nights, which is set in dotcom SF, so all very appropriate.  The worst of it, though, was that he tried to distract himself from his celebate vow with making models.  Rather like processing photographs.  

Foucault, however, would have been out there in the bath houses.