The ride home
For some reason, I look pissed off in this picture despite the peaceful ride home. I was listening to the Rock and Roll Geek Show.
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May 31, 2005
Literacy in New York
Ya gotta love dis…
May 30, 2005
Spiders
A few weeks ago, I took this footage of a spider nest that had recently hatched. Pretty neat stuff. There are HUNDREDS of them!
I set the video to some ominous music from the Diablo 2 PC game. Let’s hope their lawyers don’t come after me.
Making the video was a bit challenging with my current toolset. I wanted to keep the resulting video cross-platform so I did my best to use QuickTime as my output media format. However, the QuickTime encoder that I was using didn’t seem to let me export the video at full 720x480 resolution. I wanted that resolution since there is a lot of detail to these little spiders and I wanted to capture as much of it as I could while still allowing the video to be streamed… if not simply downloaded and played back.
I played around with the settings for a while and was able to coax QuickTime into producing the format I was looking for. It’s a bit of a large file (43MB) but that was the only way to capture the detail. Sorry, no streaming.
Watch the Video (No spiders were harmed in the shooting of this video.)
Enjoy.
May 23, 2005
New Orleans
I went to New Orleans this weekend and spent three of the craziest nights I can remember in years on Bourbon Street. If that shit happened in New York, society here would crumble. Here are some of the safe pictures. I might be tempted to send you the deluxe zip file if you’re depraved enough to ask for it.
A live band at one of the many, many bars I crawled into.
Someone’s house.
Cafe Du Monde is at the end of the building on the left, which I didn’t stop into since, golly, I’ve been there and done that on previous trips. Jackson Square is beyond it.
As mentioned in the previous post. Yeh, I got them there. It actually made a loud noise and I thought I might get arrested.
Test of Bitmaps
I have a camera on my new phone and the picture quality is pretty lame. I save images as a lossless bitmap to try and squeeze the most amount of image data I can out of the CCD.
I wanted to post this test picture to see if Blogjet is going to convert it to a “proper” format for platform-independent consumption.
I am confident that the thuimbnail will be converted, but I fear the linked full image will remain a bitmap… which doubles my posting effort. Maybe I’ll just switch to the JPEG encoder if this doesn’t work.
Yeh, I threw those beads onto the top of that bus.
Doppler
I switched to Doppler Radio, an iPodder client, for my Podcasts. I’ve been using iPodder Lemon for months and months but it consistently screwed up. In addition, I highly suspect that it was causing strange permission problems with my NTFS file system (huh?) since iTunes would regularly say that “My Music Library could not be saved because I have insufficient permissions.
What the heck?
Anyway, those problems have completely gone away, knock on wood, since I switched.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Dopper supports feeds that have BitTorrent links. I could be wrong, perhaps I have not discovered how to get this to work. Anyway, I still have iPodder Lemon hanging around downloading the Evil Genius Chronicles BitTorrent feed, like a good boy.
May 19, 2005
Revenge of the Sith
I saw Star Wars ROTS last night around midnight. I went alone, which is pretty lame, but I pushed passed that and went anyway.
It was tragic, as we all knew it would be. There was a lot of good humor at the beginning. Excellent acti on scenes. The clone soldiers were half-cgi half that actor’s head and those scenes seemed very fake.
The fall of Anakin wasn’t as dramatic as I had imagined but old George may have made it anti-climatic on purpose. In the end, Anakin’s fall to the dark side was kind of pathetic in that he went into it “half-assed” and before he knew it, he had no where else to go.
Still, a pretty awesome movie.
May 14, 2005
Bloglines woes
<rant>
I have some problems with Bloglines. I got thinking about this after reading this post by Richard MacManus (a Web 2.0–focused blogger).
Hands down, I prefer server-based news aggregators for their shear convenience at keeping me in sync wherever I go. I use NewsGator for Outlook for the blogs inside my company’s firewall since a server-based news aggregator can’t see them.
Simply put, bloglines has been stagnant for a while. This is dangerous for a market leader.
Bloglines also claims to be HTML 4.01 Transitional compliant and it’s not. This means trouble for non-standard browsers. Not that this will really drive boardroom meetings, but it’s now affecting me more.
Bloglines doesn’t support CSS so when I try to read my blogs on the train via my wireless PDA, I’m stymied by the default layout which simply doesn’t work with a small screen.
Bloglines doesn’t allow me to interact with my own blog. Bloglines creates a blog for you and allows you to blog about entries your reading but your posts can only be directed to their blogging service. I would love if they could plug into the other systems out there like Flickr does.
Plus, services like Flickr are improving every day! Just recently Flickr responded to user demand and changed their architecture away from Flash and toward DHTML. I haven’t inspected this yet, but the point that they are listening is what I’m speaking to. Flickr also added support to map tags to IPTC keywords, which are “tags” embedded in most or all JPG files. I should know more about IPTC, but alas that’s another bookmark I’ve buried.
Why isn’t bloglines improving? Are their hidden features that I’m missing?
</rant>
May 13, 2005
Apple Mouse
In a bout of insanity a few months ago, I bought an Apple Wireless mouse for my Mac G4. I bought it with a wireless keyboard thinking if I was going to have so many PC’s, at least I wouldn’t have to have so many wires.
The G4 doesn’t see much use and neither does the mouse… until yesterday!
I just got a new Thinkpad Windows XP laptop that has bluetooth. I thought to myself, why can’t I try to use the Apple Wireless mouse on this XP machine? I tried and the mouse was recognized but it didn’t install properly.
I left this alone for a week or so before I got all fired up again, annoyed that my laptop didn’t have a dedicated mouse while I was at home. Google to the rescue. All I had do to was set the passkey to “0000” and viola! A new mouse is in town.
Of course, I still don’t have a right mouse button but I have the laptop’s right mouse button. This is obviously a decent alternative and something that simply wouldn’t work on a PC that lacks this alternative method.
I also don’t have a scroll wheel, but the laptop also kind of handles that with the UltraNav pad thingy. Instead of using it as a pointing device, I have programmed it to scroll as I stroke it up and down.
May 10, 2005
Oh yeh, I forgot about that...
Oh my golly gee. I can’t believe I forgot to ask for a payment for my work in Nigera. I am so absent-minded. I better act on this fast.
——
PROF. CHARLES C. SOLUDO. (Governor)
CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA ADD:
CBN HEADQUATER- ZARIA STR,. GARKI-ABUJA, NIGERIA
DATE: 10/05/2005YOU’RE PAYMENT CONTRACT NO: 043WX/NNPC/FGN/PH-KADREF/2001.
FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION: PRESIDENT / CEO.Honorable contractor,
From the records of outstanding contractors due for payment with the Federal Government of Nigeria your name and company was discovered as next on the list of the outstanding contractors who have not received their payments in respect of the contract which you executed here in Nigeria. I wish to inform you that your payment is being processed and will be released to you as soon as you respond to this letter. Also note that from my record in my file your outstanding contract payment is US$16M (Sixteen Million United States dollars). Please re-confirm to me if this is in line with what you have in your record and also re-confirm to me the followings.
(1) Your full name.
(2) Phone, fax and mobile #.
(3) Company name, position and address.
(4) Profession, age and marital status.
(5) Copy of international passport.As soon as this information is received, your payment will be made to you .Please note that all payments is strictly by telegraphic transfer. Get back to me through my alternative Email (guvsoludoc@yahoo.co.uk) or kindly call me, as soon as you send email to me.
Regards,
Prof. Charles C. Soludo, (Exec. Governor).
DL-TEL: 234-803-302-2409. ADD: CBN Headquarter- Zaria Str. Garki-Abuja, Nigeria.
May 8, 2005
The Mystery of Baby America
One day late last summer we bought three little hermit crabs. Each had a painted shell. The largest of the three was painted like Batman, so we called it “Bat Crab.” The middle-sized one was painted with the Superman “S” so we called it “Super Crab.” The smallest of the pack had an American-like flag painted upon its shell and we called it “Baby America.”
One day, my oldest son was checking out the habitat when he knocked over the table the little home sat upon. The table was narrow since it was meant to fit against a wall and expand when needed. It’s not all that stable in its closed configuration, so it’s no wonder my son tipped over the whole thing.
With a crash, everything spilled out. The crabs went flying, the rocks and fake trees when flying, and the kitchen was covered in crabs and crab accessories. Bat Crab and Super Crab were shocked and moving quickly in opposote directions. I swept them up to safety and looked for Baby America, but the little crab was nowhere to be found.
Afetr much stress and searching, we never found Baby America. Its whereabouts was a big mystery and something that made my wife and me very sad. We knew Baby America was going to starve to death.
Zoom forward to the present, 8 months after the incident, and Baby America was found. Inside was the dried out husk of the poor little crab. His painted shell serving as his tomb. My wife removed the crab’s former earthly form and threw it in the garbage. I would have buried it and held some kind of ceremony, but she was more concerned with not having the kids see Baby America in such a sorry form. We wept, but were relieved that the mystery was finally solved.
Know this, Baby America died free from the bondages of his habitat and that must be worth something. As they say in New Hampshire, Live Free or Die.
Memoirs of a Monster
I’m reading some twisted blog called The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster, which is basically a blog written by Darth Vader himself where he candidly recaps the events of the Star Wars movies in his own words.
One of the more recent entries had a cool description on Darth Vader’s ability to use the force to feel what might happen:
Okay, I admit it. I cut off the kid's hand. Everything went downhill after that.
Blast! Blast! Blast! I am such an idiot.
I surveilled my son as he walked through the city, my eyes closed, my back to the security monitors. His spirit danced and rained, his emotions farting out bright, flickering clouds of micro-causal flotsam in every direction. Lumbering arcs of probability swung around him in sick, drunken orbits, any one of them threatening to actualize at a sneeze.
Quite a lightshow, really. People who cannot see the Force have no idea what they are missing.
Help in Visual Studio .NET 2005 Beta 2
I’ve been playing around with VS .NET 2005 Beta 2. The MSDN Online help integration is amazing. In the previous betas it started to become amazing. They allowed you to integrate help from multiple sources for your search terms.
Notice how in this first search window, I can choose to see help on the MoveWindow API from multiple sources:
When I click on MSDN Online, I get many choices (since MoveWindow() is such a common function):
I can click on the one that I’m interested in, namely MoveWindow() from the SDK:
I could also have seen results from the CodeZone community, a source that I’m not terribly familiar with, but I can certain guess as to its purpose and utility:
May 7, 2005
Near death, a last attempt
So, we’re playing D&D again tonight and I found a way to simply create a shared map that we can use. I simple export my postscript map from Adobe Illustrator as a PNG file on my desktop. I then switch to my attachment upload page and upload the new file. The whole process takes about 40–60 seconds… maybe les.
At the point that you see here, my character Kyrun is near death with only 2 hit points left. However, the giants we’re fighting are kind of wobbly (we already killed their pet polar bear which was hugging Mel for 5 rounds!). So, I prepare this next version of the map and when asked what I’m going to do on my turn, I asked everyone to refresh their sessions page.
Everyone knew what I was doing after seeing the yellow cone so everyone laughed. The yellow cone is a blast of fire which my character’s sword can spew forth once per day.
As it turns out, 2 out of 3 gianst were fried (they were frost giants and kind of allergic to heat attacks). The last one was quickly finished off by Jade.
May 5, 2005
Gang of Four
Tim Germer writes about the Gang of Four, which seem to be some kind of music group. To solidify the fact that I am a computer geek (or is that computer nerd?), when I hear “Gang of Four” I think of something differerent.
I wanted to know who was more popular. Google seemed like the best bet. Well, looks like Tim wins.
http://www.google.com/search?complete=1&hl=en&q=gang+of+four&btnG=Google+Search
It’s nice to see that my GoF rates second in the above search.
PS: As many of you can tell, I’m making up for lost time tonight.
May 4, 2005
Ring-on
APOD had a pretty cool picture of Saturn today, taken by the Cassini spacecraft, where the rings are edge-on and nearly invisible. The moons visible in the picture are kind of neat.
Now playing: Northwest Noise - NWN-2005-04-25
Cherry Springs Star Party
In early June, I’m heading off to Harrisburg, PA for the Cherry Springs Star Party. It’s basically camping with telescopes. Some of the people I know who are going say they stay in motels, but I’ll probably pitch a tent somewhere.
I started reading up on the event and what I can expect. It seems like there are a lot of rules of etiquette surrounding star parties. Google pointed to this top-ranked link.
My favorite section is the contentious section:
Here are some of the more contentious issues and Bill Arnett's comments on them:
- Children -- some folks welcome them, others don't. If you do bring a child make sure that he/she acts like an adult. (OTOH, many adults could use a dose of childish wonder at the beauty of the sky.)
- Pets -- some places ban pets, some allow them. If you bring your pet make sure it is firmly under control.
- Music -- some places ban music altogether, some are less strict. Just remember that music that you love may be extremely irratating to others. When in doubt use a headset.
- LX200s -- some people really dislike the noise an LX200 makes when slewing. LX200 users should make sure that they're not offending their neighbors. Reducing the slew speed helps a little. So does arriving early so that those who might have a problem can set up at some distance away.
- Smoking -- smokers should stay downwind of non-smokers and their telescopes. Just because you're outdoors doesn't mean your smoke isn't annoying (and unhealthful, dirty, disgusting, ... you get the point :-)
- Alcohol -- some ban it; some almost require it. If you do drink (at a party that allows it) make sure you don't violate the "loud and boisterous" rule. And be aware that alcohol may adversely affect your night vision, body temperature and ability to drive home.
A few notes on these:
- I have three small children… but I think only the oldest would appreciate and have a chance at behaving himself.
- I have an LX200 and it’s noisy as hell! When you slew it at slow speed it’s quieter, so I guess I’ll have to be patient. Plus, I’m better at locating stuff by hand now. I can always get the scope in close and slew it precisely once I’m in the general area of the sky of my target object.
- Alcohol… I sure hope the CSSP is the latter kind of party, but one can only hope. Plus, alcohol affects my regular vision as well as my night vision so I’m not sure what the point is.
May 1, 2005
Saw Hitchhikers
I saw Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy yesterday. It wasn’t terrible, but a huge amount of humor was lost in the translation from book to film. They made good use of narrated cartoon graphics during storline intermissions that helped dampen this loss.
I would rent it.