Y Strap: First Impressions

The Problem

One huge difference between SLR and point and shoot cameras is that you can't just store the SLR in your jeans pocket. If you want to carry a SLR around ready to shoot, you'll want a strap of some sort.

The neck strap that arrived with my Canon 40D dSLR camera drives me bonkers. It's ugly, to start, with lots of colorful branding calling attention to the camera. It gets twisted up, it blocks the viewfinder when I try to take photos, it makes my neck sore, and it makes me sweat on hot days. In some ways, a simple rope might be better.

If I actually wear the strap, it bounces and smacks me in the chest while I walk. Sometimes the bounces activate buttons on the camera. It protects my camera from drops, but not from smacking tables when I lean forward. It does prevent the camera from hitting the ground, but so would gluing the camera to my hand.

The R-Strap

I've been searching for a replacement strap ever since getting the camera. I strongly considered getting a Black Rapid R-Strap. Instead of going around the neck, the R-Strap goes over a shoulder and across the chest. The camera clips to the strap via a threaded bracket screwed into the tripod socket. It sounded great until Scott Bourne published his Black Rapid RS-2 review on TWIP.

Scott had such a bad experience with his RS-2 that he intentionally destroyed it. Scott had two incidents where the strap malfunctioned and dropped (or nearly dropped) a Nikon D700. In one case, the clasp holding the strap together accidentally opened. The other time, the camera actually fell off the clip. He felt that the strap was so dangerous that he destroyed it to prevent further mishaps. I immediately scratched the Black Rapid from my list.

The Y Strap

I learned about the Y Strap at my Austin flickr meetup. An attendee uses the strap on his tiny Leica M8. Like the Black Rapid, it's meant to be worn over the shoulder and across the chest. Unlike the Black Rapid straps, which monopolizes the tripod mount, the Y Strap attaches to one of the normal strap mount points on the camera.

The Y Strap is handmade by Stephen M. Schaub. It cost $25 + shipping at the time of this review.

The Construction

The Y Strap is very simple: there are four parts. There is a loop of nylon webbing, a slide for adjusting where the camera hangs, and two key rings. One large key ring is attached to the webbing, the other is shipped loose. The optional smaller ring can be used as an adapter for certain cameras, like my 40D (see photos).

The camera attaches on one side to the key ring -- the maker suggests attaching the camera on the same side you wear it. The strap goes over the shoulder and across the chest. When you raise the camera to take a photo, the key ring slides up the strap.

Unlike the R-Strap, the Y Strap can't become unbuckled. There are no fasteners holding the strap together, just an adjustment slide. In the unlikely event the slide were to fail, the camera won't fall. The ends of the strap fed through the slide are sewn together so that the nylon makes a continuous loop even without it.

The point where the two ends of the strap are sewn together is quite clever. Others might just overlap the ends and sew, rivet, or buckle them together. Instead, the ends are stitched together a few inches shy of the ends, and the loose ends are sandwiched into the stitching, forming a tiny "Y" shaped tail (see the photos). This construction means that there are no exposed rough ends to fray or irritate your skin.

Do it Yourself?

The beauty of the Y Strap comes from the simplicity. There are no complicated moving parts. There aren't even any markings except for a hand-written serial number hidden inside the "Y" where the ends are sewn together.

Not everyone likes simplicity though. They point out -- correctly -- that most anyone could probably make an approximation of the Y Strap for much less than $25. You can find plans out on the internet for DIY straps. Most of them seem to imitate the R-Strap.

I'm okay with paying for labor, craftsmanship, and design though. Considering the thorough stitching holding the strap together, I'm surprised it's worth Stephen's time to sell these at $25 -- around half the price of the Black Rapid straps. The materials seem good too. The strap has a pleasantly soft and smooth texture. It's not the rough nylon strapping that you might use to lash a kayak to your car.

If you don't care about the details and just want something better than a normal neck strap, the DIY option will probably work fine. Just be careful to choose a design and materials that won't drop your camera on the pavement.

Possible Issues

My one reservation about the Y Strap was the reliance on key chain rings. I've never heard of a normal key ring failing, but it felt weird hanging an expensive SLR off of one. Incidentally, most of the reviews of the Y Strap are from users of the Leica cameras, not large SLRs. I'll be monitoring the condition of the rings closely.

I haven't spent much time using the Y Strap in the field, but my initial impressions are good. If the strap length is adjusted correctly, the camera doesn't move too much when walking.

With shorter lenses, like my 50mm f1.8, the camera tends to prefer resting with it's back against my side instead of, say, the back facing forward. This has resulted in accidental button presses. Since my neck strap had the same button issue, I won't call it a deal killer.

Longer lenses seem to do fine pointed backwards along my side. More field use will tell if walking around will cause zoom lenses like my 20-135mm to telescope out.

The key ring slides smoothly up the strap, but the strap still shifts some. Since there is no padding on the Y Strap, this isn't too big of a deal. The little tail of excess strap material does work lower and lower as the strap rotates. Field use should reveal if this is problematic.

The Advantages

Just to quickly sum up, here are my initial thoughts on why you might want a Y strap:

• Simplicity & elegance. The Y Strap doesn't attract attention (unless, maybe, you get it in red) or look goofy
• It doesn't put pressure on the neck
• It makes the camera less conspicuous
  
• It keeps the camera near your hands
• The camera bounces less
• It interferes with camera operations less
• It supports craftsmanship

I'll give more impressions later when I've actually had time to live with the strap.

Scary Stories from the Interwebs eBook

In total, I have now collected 72 stories of a person's most frightening experience. Since 72 scary stories would probably be too much adventure and not enough engineering for this blog, I have collected those stories into a nicely formatted PDF that you can download from my publisher.

You can read samples of these stories in these previous posts:

It Came From the Interwebs: the Mechanical Turk Tells Scary Stories

Scary Stories From the Interwebs: Part 2

You can download the book here: Get Scary True Stories from the Interwebs

Scary Stories From the Interwebs: Part 2

If you are easily disturbed, please skip this entry. It features a terrifying story.

Here is another scary (but true, I'm told) story I collected using Mechanical Turk. I find it quite creepy.

You can find the previous stories here. Thanks to everyone who responded to my surveys. I really enjoy reading the responses and hope to get more.

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What is your gender? Male

Write two or more paragraphs about the most frightening thing to happen to you. "When I was 13 years old, I was home alone listening to music on my stereo via headphones. My mom and step-dad were out having dinner/date/movie night. It was winter, so it was dark outside even though it wasn't that late. I was sitting on the living room couch, and out of the corner of my eye I saw something in the hallway directly to my right. I turned to see what it was and froze.

There, hanging in the hallway, was an wispy ghost form of a human. I could see the head and arms and chest and then it gradually faded into the darkness of the hallway floor. I screamed and ran to the TV room at the end of the hall. To this day I do not know why I decided to run through the area where the ghost was hovering. I slammed the door to the TV room, turned on all the lights in the room, turned on the TV all the way up, and flopped on the couch with an afghan over my head.

As I lay there crying, I could hear above the noise of the TV the sound of dishes breaking in the kitchen. It sounded like someone was throwing them up against the wall. I do not know how long this lasted. The next thing I remember is my mom and step-dad coming home and pounding on the locked TV room door. They were scared for me and did not know what was going on. I told them what had happened. I was shaking all over.

My mom forced me to leave the room and come to the kitchen. I was sobbing. She showed me that all was well in the kitchen and nothing had happened. This was my first experience with the spirit world. It would not be my last."

Is there anything else we should know about the story or being scared? "Since this time, I have had multiple experiences with the spirit world. Also, after my step-dad left for the evening (we were living in two different houses at the time), my mom told me she believed me. She too had experiences with the spirit world."

Do you have any feedback for this HIT? "Fun to share my story. Thanks!"

The Joel on Software MBA: Peopleware

Not long after I graduated from college, I stumbled across a book which explained exactly why my employer's quarterly performance reviews felt so frustrating and useless. The authors of Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead went to great length to demonstrate that performance reviews were worse than useless.

When I told my supervisor about my discovery, her reaction surprised me. Rather than being interested in the book or the findings, she was totally ambivalent. If anything, she seemed to believe more strongly in the value of performance reviews. The reviews made sense to her. It didn't matter that there was research and data indicating otherwise.

I suspect that Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams* falls into a similar category: books big companies are immune to. Having read Peopleware for my virtual Joel on Software MBA, I'm confident that the book's ideas would work great. I'm sure Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood agree -- they advise managers** to staple Peopleware to their face.

Like Abolishing Performance Appraisals, Peopleware resonates with me, but doesn't mesh well with the status quo. This sort of book would interest and inspire the engineers, but -- at large corporations -- ultimately let them down: most managers couldn't implement the suggestions if they wanted to.

For instance, about 58 of the 174 pages concern the work environment. If you work in the typical large office, this third of the book will explain how you couldn't design worse conditions for productivity. Cubicles? Noise? Interruptions? You might as well have your developers code from the local Jiffy Lube. Think of the money you'll save on office space and free Folgers coffee!

Peopleware explains why Joel Spolsky went to such great lengths to give his developers Bionic Offices, complete with windows and closing doors. Good luck convincing your typical corporation to give their engineers offices with windows. They'll have all sorts of excuses explaining why offices are a perk for management, cost too much, or don't allow for proper teamwork.

Aside from environmental issues, Peopleware addresses how to motivate developers, hire the best people, retain them, build awesome teams, and fight counter-productive bureaucracy. In other words, it's more about the engineers (and sociology) and less about technology.

This might seem like an indirect approach to productivity. It doesn't involve bossing people around, demanding long hours, or hiring consultants. You won't find justifications for treating your engineers like factory workers, buying fancy tools, or flying to exotic locations. Instead, it advocates making engineers happy and simply making productivity possible. Psychology and sociology do the rest of the work.

Unless you work at a very progressive company, Peopleware will have you constantly fighting bureaucracy, trying to fix the office environment, and struggling to make time so you can have conversations with your team. Worse, your peers probably won't understand or appreciate what you are trying to do.

Ultimately, you may find it easier become an entrepreneur and start your own people-friendly and productivity-friendly company. But maybe that's the point.

* I'm reviewing the first edition of the book, but there is a second edition of Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (Second Edition) available as well. You can help me and my publisher by purchasing from these links. In association with Amazon.
** Peopleware concerns the field of software development, although I believe it applies equally to other engineering fields. It probably applies to just about any intellectual and creative effort, especially those requiring teamwork.

It Came From the Interwebs: the Mechanical Turk Tells Scary Stories

If you are easily disturbed, please skip this entry. It features true stories of actual humans who found themselves in frightening and terrible situations.

I have vivid memories of reading scary stories in bed as a child. I would lay in bed holding a book under my lamp, the rest of the room lost in strange shadows. As I became more and more involved with the story, the shadows would take on a sinister appearance.

Is that a ghost in my closet, or just dirty laundry? Is that a murder's eyes, or just a reflection off a window? Logically, I knew that I was just on edge from the story, but that didn't lessen my fright.

Despite my fear, or perhaps paralyzed by it, I often continued reading my stories late into the night. The terror was exciting and fun, but maybe just because I knew it was irrational.

In the spirit of Halloween, I used Mechanical Turk to request real-life scary stories from the internet. Like the books I read as a child, some of the responses feature supernatural encounters, while the others involve threatening, but otherwise more ordinary seeming circumstances.

Unlike my scary novels, these stories are true -- as far as I know. I can't rule out the possibility that a story was invented, nor the possibility that the writer misinterpreted the events. Maybe that ghost really was a sheet drawn down an invisible string. Perhaps the light switch wasn't flipped all the way when the author was plunged into darkness. And maybe that man trying to break in just mistook the place for his own house. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Thanks to the Mechanical Turk workers who shared their personal scary stories! I hope your future frights are fun, not serious.

Here are two samples from the 40 I have received:

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What is your gender? Female

Write two or more paragraphs about the most frightening thing to happen to you. "My husband and I had moved to Northern Virginia, and were settling into rented rooms. Strange, odd things began to happen, that we dismissed initially. Over a period of two months, things progressively got stranger and creepier. It culminated one night in August. My husband and I had dozed off reading in bed, with the lights still on in our room. The next thing we knew, we were both on the floor.

Something had pulled us out of bed, and threw us on the floor. Both doors to our room were closed- the interior door was closed, and the door leading outside was closed and locked from the inside. There was no one there but us. We both wound up bruised from hitting the floor, and we each had scratch marks on our calves where we had been grabbed. Those particular marks took a long time to heal, and they had a burning sensation that lasted for days.

Talk about scared? We were terrified. That night we grabbed some clothes, stuffed them into a bag and took off for a motel for the night. Two weeks later we moved. I have seen some spooky things, but I have never been so terrified in all my life. "

Is there anything else we should know about the story or being scared? "Fear is an odd thing. Neither one of us slept more than a few moments at a time until we moved, and there are times still that we wonder what happened, what "it" was, and will it happen again?"

Do you have any feedback for this HIT? "It will be interesting to see the other results. Thanks for the HIT!"

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What is your gender? Female

Write two or more paragraphs about the most frightening thing to happen to you. "It was the middle of the afternoon my husband was in the living room checking his email, my children were playing in the living room. It was pretty loud in the house due to the kids playing. I had walked down the hall to change the laundry on my way back through to the kitchen I noticed a shadow on the walk-in porch. I stopped dead in my tracks staring through the window into the man's eyes that was standing on the other side of the door into my living room like he was just waiting for ample opportunity.

Absolute terror ripped through my bones, and I just let out this scream that could have woke the dead. My husband was like "What,What!" He had no idea what I had just seen. By the time I got the words out of my mouth the man on the inside porch had turned and ran, he was no where to be found.

I went down to the police station to file a report, and they showed me a bunch of different mug shots. Come to find out the man that had broken into my house and was waiting to do god only knows what was a homeless man. The police officer told me to make sure that I lock my doors at anytime I am home, and assured me they would look for the man.

They ended up catching the man a week later after he broke into another home. It still scares me to death to think of what could have possibly happened. People that break into your home when you are there and they know it are not in their right mind."

Is there anything else we should know about the story or being scared? "I would never have thought this would have happened in a small town in the country but it did."

Do you have any feedback for this HIT? "This was an interesting hit."

Our Best Habits According to Mechanical Turk

I'm not too surprised that my good habit survey on Mechanical Turk hasn't been as popular as my bad habit survey. People find bad habits more fascinating that good, I think. And yet, the good habit survey still has many more responses than my survey on engineering books. Go figure.

I have received 100 responses to my good habit survey. As with the bad habit survey, the quantity of data doesn't fit well into a blog post. I quickly picked a sampling of responses to post below.

Thanks to all the workers who completed my Mechanical Turk surveys!

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Habit I admire in other people: “Standing up when an adult enters the
room, especially if the child has yet to meet him/her. When the child gets up says hello and shakes his/her hand it’s a sign of respect.”

Do I have the same habit? “yes”

Do other people like this habit? “no”

How could someone learn this habit? “Teach their children.”

Will I try to learn this habit? alreadyHave*

Comments about this habit: “Adults react with noticing the kid has respect and is polite. The habit is a pleasent suprise.”

What is my best habit? “Always saying hi to people when I see them, standing up when an elder enters the room and great posture.”

How did I get my best habit? “My parents taught me it, when I was very young.”

Comments about this habit: “People are happy and answer back positively.”

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Habit I admire in other people: “The most wonderful and universal behaviour is to smile, a good habit is to be courteous.”

Do I have the same habit? “yes”

Do other people like this habit? “yes”

How could someone learn this habit? “Just be aware of your surroundings and take the time to notice your fellow man/woman and remember we are all in it together.”

Will I try to learn this habit? alreadyHave

Comments about this habit: “In most cases, if you start off with a warm, welcoming smile you get one in return.”

What is my best habit? “A genuine smile”

How did I get my best habit? “It was my mother’s advice and has worked for me.”

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Habit I admire in other people: “Whistling.”**

Do I have the same habit? “yes”

Do other people like this habit? “no”

How could someone learn this habit? “Practicing mostly.”

Will I try to learn this habit? alreadyHave

Comments about this habit: “”

What is my best habit? “Whistling.”

How did I get my best habit? “It mostly started out with calling to horses, then I just practiced after that.”

Comments about this habit: “Most people I think find it annoying.”

Do I have any other feedback for these questions? “Thank you.”

*This question was multiple choice, hence the machine-generated symbol in camelcase.
**I like whistling too.

Our Worst Habits According to Mechanical Turk

My survey of habits that drive people crazy has been a hit on Mechanical Turk (see my earlier post on Mechanical Turk). Unlike my survey on the best engineering books, I've received more than 130 responses!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with so much data. The responses are fascinating to read, but it's way too much data for a blog post; I'll have to find another way to publish the data.

In the mean time, here are a few randomly chosen responses. I've abridged the questions to save space, but the quotes are unedited.

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Habit that drives me crazy: “People who panic over nothing are draining and shouldn’t be allowed to work.”

Do I have the same habit? “no”

Are other people usually annoyed by this habit? “yes”

How could someone change this habit? “Firing the employee.”

My worst habit: “Being stressed out.”

What could I do to change my habit? “Meditating”

Will I take action to change my habit? “no”

Do I have any other feedback for these questions? “kudos”

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Habit that drives me crazy: “Lying, especially flattery.”

Do I have the same habit? “yes”

Are other people usually annoyed by this habit? “yes”

How could someone change this habit? “It’s hard to tell the truth in part because we may not know it ourselves or we may feel that it will hurt the other person. But in the long run, lies hurt more.”

My worst habit: “Lying”

What could I do to change my habit? “Taking the risk of telling the truth.”

Will I take action to change my habit? “yes”

Do I have any other feedback for these questions? “Very interesting. Sort of transformative.”

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Habit that drives me crazy: “when people call and do not leave a message on voice mail they just hang up.”

Do I have the same habit? “yes”

Are other people usually annoyed by this habit? “yes”

How could someone change this habit? “leave a message when they call even if it is just to say their name”

My worst habit: “The same thing”

What could I do to change my habit? “leave messages even if it is a call just to chat and not something important”

Will I take action to change my habit? “no”

Do I have any other feedback for these questions? “It makes you think about how the things that annoy you most in other people you do yourself”

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Habit that drives me crazy: “Overall, generalized stupidity - think of the examples outlines in “Here's Your Sign” by Bill Engvall” *

Do I have the same habit? “yes”

Are other people usually annoyed by this habit? “yes”

How could someone change this habit? “Stopping to THINK before they say and do obviously stupid things.”

My worst habit: “Talking too much, and with too little tact. My problem is that my lips move when I think.”

What could I do to change my habit? “Just stay quiet... preferably with my mouth full of water or something.”

Will I take action to change my habit? “yes”

* You can help me and my publisher by buying the book using this link. In association with Amazon.