lactose

Lens trading

2011-06-03T15:24:00.003-05:00

Quick reviews on some lenses i have played with lately:

Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Bought: $1300
Sold: $1670

Usage:
This lens is a head turner, it's also built to last. Rubber bumper on the front, metal latch for the hood, tripod mount has 2 holes, either for better balance with differen weight bodies or use of tubes or simply when one wears out. Focus is perfect, not as fast as cannon but deadly accurate.

Image Quality
I've noticed a treand with the newer lenses, I think a side effect of asyncrnous lenes, the transition from sharp to bokeh is unnatural looking. This lens doesn't have that. IQ is as good as it gets, really.

Nikon 105mm f/2.0D AF DC-Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Bought: $835

Sold: $865

I really wanted to like this lens, it's the fastest tele prime there is. Good images were tough to get, especially coming off of the 105 micro VR. Defocus control was interesting but not an effect i was looking for. AF was not greatest, this might be good lens for studio work, but not for moving people.

One interesting usage is macro with cheap extension tubes, at f2 you can easily see enough light to manual focus, even with a full 12" of extension tubes, and the presence of an apeture ring, no longer found on nikon lenses, lets you easily adjust the apeture even with cheapo tubes.

Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor Lens

Bought: $800

Sold: $990

By far nikon sharpest lens, i think this is one of the cheapest nano crystal lenses. Macro images were immaculate. As a portrait lens it was a bit of a let down because at the distance for a head shot the biggest apeture was F3.5 which was too much DOF for a pleasant background. At 200mm F3.5 is fine but at 100mm it's too distracting. and 85mm1.8 or a 135mm f2 would be better for portraits, personalty i like 200mm 2.8 or 50mm 1.8

The lens was not too heavy but the hood is huge, with good reason, having the element right on the front means flare is an issue. AF is ok but not as good as the 70-200

Tokina 12-25mm F4

Same as the nikon model but not as sharp, and a little more distortion.

Tokina AT-X116PRDXN AT-X PRO DX 11-16mm Ultra-wide Angle Lens for Nikon

Bought: $634

Sold: $700

Excellent lens. Construction is just as good as nikon. The af/mf clutch system is very intuitive and works perfectly. AF is fast and accurate, but on a lens this wide the DOF is huge anyway. Awsome lens if you need 11mm. I only sold it becasue the 17-55 2.8 goes wide enough for me.

This lens wins the DX wide angle prize for image quality for sure.

Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S VR Nikkor Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Bought: $300

I got this lens to compare to my dads canon 70-300 L lens. To be fair the nikon one costs 1/5th of the canon version. The nikon one is much smaller and lighter, and more plastic. The sharpness, and bokeh are similar, but the overall image quality is not as good as canon, the canon IS worked better than the nikon VR but that could be the added weight helping. AF was a little slow at 300 and picture is a little softer.

The difference in image quality is the way the bokey changes on the nikon from the center to the edges, making it look like tunnel vision, even though there is no distortion or vignetting , the cannon on the other hand is great looking at any focal length. Great lens, especially for the price, but i'll ditch it when i get a 180 2.8

Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S DX Nikkor Zoom Lens

Bought $800

It's in for repairs right now, but it seems like a great lens. It's heavy and the zoom ring is stiff and not ergonomically placed, but the images look right and the zoom range is huge. This lens is very expensive especially given it's age, one of the first DX lenses ever, and one of the first AF-S lenses. The AF sounds unrefined compared to the newer Silent Wave Motors. It's the perfect DX walk around lens. I've also used the cannon 17-55 IS, it's lighter, sharper, cheaper, and having IS at 17mm lets you shoot long exposures hand held.

Bottom Ten Android Apps

2011-01-25T10:31:00.006-06:00

Everyone knows what the top 10 are so thats boring, also this isn't the Top 10 worst apps on the market, because the muck at the bottom is too mucky to be distilled to 10. It's the bottom 10 of the hand full of apps that make it from the millions of apps on the market to my Android and are still installed, this is starting to sound like the birds and the bees, so i'll get to it.

(I recommend QRDroid App to turn the barcodes into links if you are reading this on your phone)

Bottomest 10:

GStrings : A chromatic tuner for any musical instrument. I use to keep my whistle in perfect pitch.

GassApp: Tracks your fuel consumption and expense on a monthly basis derived from info at each fill up at the pumps.

Chroma Doze: Generate continuous colored/white noise by sketching a spectrum on the screen. I use it for waking up animals at the zoo with the annoying high pitch sounds, makes for better pictures.

Audalyzer: displays sound readings from the microphone as a waveform display, as a frequency spectrum, and as a dB meter. I use it to identify the frequency of annoying buzzes, or to see how high a pitch i can whistle.

Antennas: Plots the cell towers that are in your area on a google maps map. I use it for debugging my cell connection issues.

Caffeine Tracker: Tracks your current level of caffeine. Great way to make sure you have let your body metabolize enough caffeine by your bedtime.

Police Radio: Lets you listen to police, emt, and fire radio broadcasts, it really good, i'd say the delay is less than 10 seconds.

Ring Droid: recording and editing sounds, and creating ringtones, directly on the handset. I use it to cut clips from MPSs and make them into ringtones.

Thats only 7, deal with it.

The best phone on the market

2010-08-26T16:50:00.005-05:00

Period. The Samsung Vibrant is superior to my Nexus One in almost every regard.

When my wife and I are ~~lying in bed~~ watching TV and hear the notification chime, that both of us are to lazy to change, we wouldn't know whose phone it was save for the lightup track ball on my N1. Ericcson got this right, back in the day, with the t39 that had an LED with different colours for battery states. Flashing LED makes it a breeze to find the phone the dark. The N1 trackball LED has different colors for emails, vs IM, vs missed calls. It also has an LED to indicate charging status AND and LED as a flash. The vibrant has none :(

LED's, baby, are the wave of the future (not the google wave, mind you).

N1's other better features: metal frame, @cyanogenmod focus, 2 microphones, and maybe FM radio.

Fantasy phone: iPhone with lots of LED's and running Android.

The end of a period

2010-04-01T09:47:00.007-05:00

It has become clear to me now that the dichotomy of computing devices (eg: apple vs. PC) is a relic of geeks like me being resistant to change, a case of the early adopters failure to adopt. There was a certain pride in being the only one who knew how to reinstall windows for my Mom and find all of the drivers for her pervasive yet poorly supported peripherals, why would i want to let that joy in labor be lost?

I've seen the light, it's crafted from a single billet of aluminum and bears a glowing symbol of wholesomeness and the future. It doesn't allow multitasking, it can't get viruses* and it is really well marketed. I'd like to apologize to folks who may have been deterred by my counsel to cling to open platforms with less DRM and a larger choice of third party software. So from now on:

I will be using a Mac.

Friday Wrap Up

2010-01-29T14:50:00.004-06:00

Nexus One

T-mobile had some issues that looked like they were going to try force everyone to pay the WebConnect dataplan, but i bet google put some heat on them becasue it was causing major bad PR. A reboot of the phone brought it all back to normal ( think my 3g might even be faster now).

Apple

iPad fail, maybe some moms out there will like it, but the only way to reach them is by selling it in in a big display at Target, (cuz so many moms love to read engadget, or voluntarily visit the apple store.).

Google Wave

It looks the same, boring.

Honda SI

The super cold weather seems to make the VTEC about twice as loud, I LOVE IT!

HTPC

Just ordered an ATI 5750 to play NFS Shift, it's also officially supported by PowerDVD unlike the 4200HD so hopefully it will have smoother BD playback. It also has bitstream TrueHD Surround audio, which should sound exactly the same on my stereo speakers.

Monday DL

2010-01-25T14:21:00.004-06:00

Cars: Finally a stock turbo that puts out some real HP
http://www.motorauthority.com/blog/1035199_vw-officials-confirm-2010-golf-gti-r-for-u-s

Speakers: I love DIY audiophiles (not the ones that use monster cable): This guys sub registers on the richter scale 5.2!
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=295-420&vReviewShow=1&vReviewRand=9695061

Mobile: Today's Nexus One Notes:
- Scrolling is subtly lurchy like the sensitivity correlates to the space between sensors: http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/09/iphone-droid-nexus-one-touchscreen-performance/
-Rhapsody works really well on N1 (i'm a beta tester) no crashes, stereo bluetooth works perfect.
-Still longing for Flash and Google Earth...
-Loving new Live Wallpapers
-Screen is glorious and i prefer the double tap zoom multi-touch but i with it was smoother.
- Disabling 3g makes the phone last forever. Thank you Amir!
- Adding contacts seems to be flaky when adding from email or Bump app, but perfect from Facebook.

2009-07-01T11:20:00.001-05:00

Post from phone

How to spot a CraigsList scammer email

2009-03-11T08:32:00.004-05:00

So you just posted an ad on CL and you get like 5 emails 10min later asking if the item is still available....SCAMMER.

So after posting things on CL for sometime i have come to learn what separates the real interest from the bots and broken down the detection methods by sections of the email. I haven't listed the basic stuff that CL puts in every email about WesternUnion... but please don't ignore that:

Body
1. If the email says "is this item still available" it's a scam, why, well because, it doesn't mention the item, the cost, and it's the most common phrase in the scammer software out there.
2. If the body makes no indication as to what the item is...
3. If the body indicates an offer to pay more than the listed price, don't be greedy

Subject
1. If the email includes the exact copy of a detailed description, it was probably copied by a bot so a subject like "D80 10MP, 17-55mm f/2.8, 70-210mm f/4" is pretty much non human typed, You may think that people copy the item name and paste it into the subject, but they don't they copy the email address to paste into their email client and sadly we have only one clipboard.

Name
1. This is a more intuitive thing, but if the name looks too random, it probably is. Remember, parent pick out names, nobody names their kid "dickey frank", and most people don't enter their name into an email app in all lower case. If you are unsure then do a white pages search, easy as that, if the person doesn't exist in your city or state, then it's a scammer.

Timing
1. if it comes in the first 5 min of posting the ad...
2. If you have multiple listings and get an email for each of them at the same time, it' not an overeager customer, it's a spammer.

Most of this stuff is common sense an you would only get sucked into it if you were (a) Really busy and not paying attention. (b)So greedy that you think that you can take advantage of your customers. If you are that busy, hire someone to sell stuff for you, and iff you are greedy, well it's time to learn your lesson, simple supply(of scammers) and demand(greed).

-peace

ps: (i'm a bit greedy(i'ts human), but i've avoided the scammers so far)

Web apps, digg 'em (or reddit, whaever)

2009-02-10T19:48:00.004-06:00

I hate sign ups, especially just to try a new web 2.0 app, some of them even require getting on a invite list blech!

I do want web apps usage to take off MORE, like iPhone apps do but for browsers. I know everyone uses facebook and twitter, but only a fraction of that use edgier tools like google docs, gliffy, remember the milk, and so on... I see the barrier to entry with some of those apps so i want to help people start small by highlighting some of the "zero config" apps out there. By zero config i mean, no barrier to use, as in no interstitial sign up page or other prerequsites.

Ajaxload - Ajax loading gif generator
http://www.ajaxload.info/
Animated gifs are cool and all, but with youtube came the death of animated gifs, except for loading images. This site makes these images in your choice of colors all in one page.

Let me google that for you
http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/
If you read my blog you've seen my post on dealing with peoples computer questions. This site is a good choice for both comic relief and really helping the horse that you bring to water actually drink!

Colour Lovers
http://www.colourlovers.com/
I love Colour Lovers, not least of which because they spell color correctly. It's handy for getting color pallets, some of them are so well done that they casue viceral reactions. The coffee color makes me think that i smell a fresh brew. A vary theraputic site, as well as helpful.

Nizzote
http://nizzote.com
This is one of mine, it's like a super portable notepad, actually i think it loads faster than notepad.

NotifyURL
http://notifyURL.com
Also one of mine, it's basically the classic tinyurl.com but it sends you an email when the person you send the link to clicks on it.

Now Do This!
http://nowdothis.com/
At first this seemed too basic, it lacks portability... But i never use other to-do lists because they have too many features and i hate logging in, this one is awesome because it's so simple and the impact is huge.

Hmm... Thats all i can think of for now, and googleing "no sign up required", and the like, didn't turn up much. If you have some please add them in the comments

This is why i like Dr. House

2008-12-01T12:14:00.003-06:00

Being technically minded, people bring questions to me when they have a technical problem. This is great, it's my job and i usually have the answer; as it's my job to know. So why am i complaining?. Well the other day I get an IM from a client, the dreaded words: "does my new site support safari?" so i prepare to arm myself expecting that some huge functionality has proven to be incompatible with Safari and it's probably one of our biggest clients that needed the feature, "I don't really test much on safari, so some things may look different but it should work" as i write that IM i scramble to gather browser statistics and brainstorm on what elements are most likely to fail, i should have used jsLint.com more... no reply ... "why?" i finally ask. Reply: "oh, i got this message from someone: 'Safari can’t verify the identity of the website. The certificate for this website was signed by an unknown certifying authority. ..." . Ahh the actual error, an expired SSL, nothing to do with browsers, if only they said that in the first place.

In most cases the challenge lies not in solving the problem but in solving what the problem is. Non technically minded folks don't know what information is needed to diagnose a problem so they try to shape the information to either save face by hiding info, or they add superfluous info to show that they have been working on the problem before bothering me, which is nice as they do that out of respect for me, but really it just lowers the signal to noise ratio for me. There are also the folks who are just plain frustrated and don't care what i think so they simply show me the error and leave, i like these folks the best becasue by removing themselves it eliminates a barrier between me and the problem and then the solution.

So what i envision as a remedy is some sort of definable framework for collecting the nessesary information of an error, but thats another post. - Peace

Data Object C# Generator

2008-09-04T16:12:00.003-05:00

Since i can't afford a fancy code generator i've been using a SQL query based on one that i found on SQLservercentral by Cade Bryant which uses the system schema tables to generate some simple data objects in C#, there are a few glitches that requre tweaking the SQL result, but overall it makes for quick work, (please feel free to use your SQL prowess to incorporate the twaks into the query, oh and let me know)

Your PK for the table has to be called tableName + 'ID', so a table called [Person] would have to have a Primary Key called [PersonID].

run the query then copy the column with C# into visual studio where you can make the following changes before applying automatic formating to clean it all up.

The query leaves a bit to clean up:

1. in the paramter list of the input method you have to delete the last comma.

2. Delete the last comma in the SQL strings where colums are listed.

3. Delete the primary key from the update SQL query and from the insert query

Syntax highlighted HTML generated on http://tools.devshed.com/webmaster-tools/syntax-highlighting/

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[usp_TableToClass]
/*
Created by Cade Bryant.
Generates C# class code for a table
and fields/properties for each column.

Run as "Results to Text" or "Results to File" (not Grid)

Example: EXEC usp_TableToClass 'MyTable'
*/

@table_name SYSNAME

AS

SET NOCOUNT ON

DECLARE @temp TABLE
(
sort INT,
code TEXT
)

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 1, 'public class ' + @table_name + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '{'

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 2, CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '#region Constructors' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)
INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 3, 'public ' + @table_name + '()'
+ CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '{'
+ CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '}'

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 4, '#endregion' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 5, '#region Public Properties' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)
INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 6, 'public ' +
CASE
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%CHAR%' THEN 'string '
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%INT%' THEN 'int '
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%DATETIME%' THEN 'DateTime '
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%BINARY%' THEN 'byte[] '
WHEN DATA_TYPE = 'BIT' THEN 'bool '
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%TEXT%' THEN 'string '
WHEN DATA_TYPE = 'MONEY' THEN 'decimal '
ELSE 'object '
/*END + '_' + COLUMN_NAME + ';' */
END + COLUMN_NAME + ';'
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = @table_name
ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 7, '#endregion' +
CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 8, 'public ' + @table_name + '(int ' + @table_name + 'ID)'
+ CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '{' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '
using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["YourConnectionStringKeyValue"].ToString())) {' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '
using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("Select * from '+@table_name+' where '+@table_name+'ID = @id", conn)) {' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("id", '+@table_name+'ID);' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '
conn.Open();' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '
using (SqlDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteReader()) {' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '
if (dr.Read())' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '
{'

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 9, 'this.' + COLUMN_NAME + ' = ' +
CASE
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%CHAR%' THEN 'Convert.ToString(dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"])'
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%INT%' THEN 'dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"] == DBNull.Value ? new int() : Convert.ToInt32(dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"])'
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%DATETIME%' THEN 'dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"] == DBNull.Value ? new DateTime() : Convert.ToDateTime(dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"])'
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%BINARY%' THEN 'dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"] == DBNull.Value ? new byte() : (byte[])dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"])'
WHEN DATA_TYPE = 'BIT' THEN 'Convert.ToBoolean(dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"])'
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%TEXT%' THEN 'Convert.ToString(dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"])'
WHEN DATA_TYPE = 'MONEY' THEN 'dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"] == DBNull.Value ? new decimal() : Convert.ToDecimal(dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"])'
WHEN DATA_TYPE = 'DECIMAL' THEN 'dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"] == DBNull.Value ? new decimal() : Convert.ToDecimal(dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"])'
WHEN DATA_TYPE = 'FLOAT' THEN 'dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"] == DBNull.Value ? new double() : Convert.ToDouble(dr["' + COLUMN_NAME + '"])'
ELSE ' --check: ' + COLUMN_NAME
/*END + '_' + COLUMN_NAME + ';' */
END + ';' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = @table_name
ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 10, ' } } } } } '

/* insert */
INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 11, 'public int insert('
INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 12,
CASE
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%CHAR%' THEN 'string _' + COLUMN_NAME + ','
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%INT%' THEN 'int _' + COLUMN_NAME + ','
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%DATETIME%' THEN 'DateTime _' + COLUMN_NAME + ','
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%BINARY%' THEN 'byte[] _' + COLUMN_NAME + ','
WHEN DATA_TYPE = 'BIT' THEN 'bool _' + COLUMN_NAME + ','
WHEN DATA_TYPE LIKE '%TEXT%' THEN 'string _' + COLUMN_NAME + ','
WHEN DATA_TYPE = 'MONEY' THEN 'decimal _' + COLUMN_NAME + ','
WHEN DATA_TYPE = 'DECIMAL' THEN 'decimal _' + COLUMN_NAME + ','
ELSE ' --check: ' + COLUMN_NAME
END
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = @table_name
ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 13, ' )' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) +'
{' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) +'
using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["CONNSTR"].ToString())) {' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) +'
using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(@"' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) +'
INSERT INTO [' + @table_name + '] (
'
INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 14, '[' + COLUMN_NAME + '],'
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = @table_name
ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION
INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 15, ' ) VALUES ('
INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 16, '[' + COLUMN_NAME + '],'
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = @table_name
ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION
INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 17, ' )
SELECT SCOPE_IDENTITY() AS ' + @table_name + 'ID ", conn)) {' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) +'
'

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 18, 'cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@' + COLUMN_NAME + '",' + COLUMN_NAME + ');'
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = @table_name
ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 19, '' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) +'
conn.Open();
return (int)cmd.ExecuteScalar();' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) +'
}}}' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 20, '
public void Update()' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) +'
{' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) +'
using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["CONNSTR"].ToString())) {' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) +'
using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(@"' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) +'
UPDATE
['+ @table_name +']
SET

'
INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 21, '[' + COLUMN_NAME + '] = @' + COLUMN_NAME + ','
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = @table_name
ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION
INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 22, '
WHERE
['+ @table_name + 'ID] = @'+ @table_name + 'ID
", conn)) {' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) +'
'

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 23, 'cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@' + COLUMN_NAME + '",' + COLUMN_NAME + ');' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = @table_name
ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION

INSERT INTO @temp
SELECT 24, 'cmd.ExecuteNonQuery(); ' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + '
}}}}'

SELECT * FROM @temp
ORDER BY sort

Chrome Inspector - Dom Explorer - JS Console

2008-09-04T14:57:00.005-05:00

To see it right click on, say, an image and choose "Inspect Element".

The console lets you run commands that interface with the elements on the page, so it works with the Jquery library, and it has autosuggest. Here I entered a jquerry command to edit the value attribute of the input variable thats it highlighted in yellow. You can dbl- click on the css to edit it and see the results live.

UPDATE: Try out firebug in Firefox, it does most of this and more!

Shreenshot of the element inspector.

Shreenshot of another cool Chrome Feature. To see it right click on, say, an image and choose "Inspect Element"

JSON by - Jquery - C#

2008-06-05T12:06:00.006-05:00

First i tried consuming web services that serialized structs into XML but now I got it spewing JSON which means no more escaping strings for javascript. When dumping large bits of content into a page XML made sense to me since it was already HTML escaped, but if i wanted to send commands in the same message i would have to make sure it was JS safe too, Having an un-escaped string will kill the JS but a pooly formatted HTML will probably survive (nat that its then a an excuse for pooly format HTML), in fact it may make sense to return an XML type in the struct, i'll have to look into that. So here is how to make it workie:

in the .asmx

using System;
using System.Web.Script.Services;
using System.Web.Script.Serialization;

namespace mcpV2
{
///

/// Summary description for WebService2
///

[WebService(Namespace = "http://tempuri.org/")]
[WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)]
[ToolboxItem(false)]
[ScriptService]
// To allow this Web Service to be called from script, using ASP.NET AJAX, uncomment the following line.
// [System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptService]
public class WebService2 : System.Web.Services.WebService
{
public struct tests
{
public string thestr;
public int theint;
}

[WebMethod]
[ScriptMethod]
public tests HelloWorld()
{
tests ttt = new tests();
ttt.theint = 9;
ttt.thestr ="hello worls";

return ttt;
}
}
}

This will spit out:

{"d":{"__type":"mcpV2.WebService2+tests","thestr":"hello worls","theint":9}}

I called it with the JQUERY .ajax method :

$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: "webservice2.asmx/HelloWorld",
beforeSend: function(xhr) {
xhr.setRequestHeader("Content-type",
"application/json; charset=utf-8");
},
dataType: "json",
success: function(msg) {
// Insert the returned HTML into the .
$('#Div1').text(msg.d.thestr);
}
});

I added some other stuff for error catching but you get the idea. I had some trouble with Web services making huge memory leaks with the XMLserializer, hopefully the .NET AJAX serializer is not a memory hog...

Rendered useless

2008-05-29T12:02:00.003-05:00

To render, or not to render. So for some reason i have a stigma against having HTML in my c# code, i still do it all the time, but i get a bit ashamed and hope no one is looking over my shoulder. It stinks because to make changes the application will have to be recompiled , but since the web is stateless it's not a huge issue to replace the DLL every now and then, it's still clunky. There is the alternative of putting the HTML in a Database.

Note for a large section of HTML I always put it in a file and simply read it from file.

There is another alternative for HTML, using the .net HTMLControl.RenderControl, in which HTML is at least guaranteed to be valid and it looks better in the code. I tried it out and you have to do this to get the HTMLControl into text:

public static string RenderWebControl(HtmlControl html)
{

string htmlContent;

using (MemoryStream dataStream = new MemoryStream())
{

using (StreamWriter textWriter = new StreamWriter(dataStream, Encoding.UTF8))
{

using (HtmlTextWriter htmlWriter = new HtmlTextWriter(textWriter))
{

html.RenderControl(htmlWriter);
textWriter.Flush();
dataStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);

using (StreamReader dataReader = new StreamReader(dataStream))
{
htmlContent = dataReader.ReadToEnd();

}

}

}

}

return htmlContent;

}
Not terrible but still a quite a few loops to jump though, way more than using string builder to build a table.

So what about the database option, i guess it's ok, it's a performance hit compared to having it in the code, but it allows for changes to be made to a live system, i guess it depends on how many string your going to need and what the focus of the system is. But after trying to render the controls i feel a bit better about poisoning my code with some foreign matter.

Model for sending XML to jquery in C#

2008-05-13T17:05:00.003-05:00

.net web services can return structs of any simple datatypes as nicely serialized XML and jquery can consume that like this

struct usefullStuff {
string[] commands;
string content;
}

$("commands string", returnedXML).each(function() { eval($(this).text()); });
$("content", returnedXML).each(function() { $("body").append($(this).text()) ; });

Nascar Fans vs Steve Jobs

2008-04-09T15:13:00.003-05:00

Amir: while(vista !=crashed)

me: not everyone OS can run on steve jobs majical farts

Amir: heh

you're so right

me: while(appleuse=stoned)

appleuser

Amir: lol

while(vistauser=virgin)

me: "this os is so cool man look at all the rounded corners"

while(appleuser=hiv)

Amir: lol

while(vistauser=liveswithparents)

while(vistauser=watchingnascar)

while(vistaboughtat=walmart)

muayahah

i win!

me: windows95 user watches nascar

Amir: heh

me: vista bought at costso

and lets face it, apple user is WAY more likely to live with parents

"my dad bought me my macbook and pink nano"

Amir: yeah cause they're under 18

heh

me: touche

Amir: and for vista it'd be like "my babies daddy bought me my brand new HP"

me: ok i have to go back to work

hah "bought" = lifted

Amir: lol

so right, back to work

Jokes

2008-02-21T21:42:00.006-06:00

Read this list with an expression of comic disdain, pshhh.

Broadband in the US is a joke,

Voting in the US is a joke (it's rigged),

Windows Media Player is a joke,

the {FDA, FCC } is a joke,

TSA is a joke (i t would have been with the array above but it deserved it's own line),

higher learning is a joke,

the Dentist is a joke,

insurance is a joke,

farming subsidy is a joke,

all doctors except surgeons is a joke,

medicine is a joke (except Ibuprofin),

30 year mortgage is joke,

the political delegate system is a joke,

the Police are joke,

US 'news' media is a joke,

Homeland Security is a joke,

9/11 is a conspiracy (along with the '69 landing on the moon), i'm doubtful about area 51 i think aliens are smarter,

spelling is a joke,

This blog is joke,

In the spirit of the joke please add your own in the comments. (comments are not a joke)

-updates:

bluffs are a joke (hello mountains)

Lens Reviews

2008-02-21T14:23:00.008-06:00

I've become a bit of a lens dealer lately, sometime owning a lens for as short as 1 day. In most cases i break even and in a few cases i've made a profit, the only case where i lose money is in buying new lenses and eating the new-> used depreciation.

On D70 (Paid 750, sold $500):
50mm f1.8 AF D (paid $125 new, sold $100), Noisy AF, distortion free, very neutral lens, not really sharp or soft.

70-300mm (paid $80 sold $120) Decent bokeh, but other wise a cheap plastic lens with a ton of chromatic abberation and very poor contrast, blurry at 300.

24mm 2.8 (bought and sold twice $275 - $270) prime, sharp, distortion free. contrasty, fast, sharp. light solid metal build.

on D80 (paid new 900 with 18-135 which sold for 200 bringing price of d80 to 700)
18-135 OK lens, medium build, AFS zoom was ok, shap, medium distortion, contrasty, medium bokeh.

18-200 (paid 725 new sold 600) decent build, zoom creep, AFS accurate, VR effective but adds unnatural quality to images, terrible bokeh, very convenient, all round one of the most useful lenses, it doesn't do anything bad but it doesn't do anything great, just does Everything ok. Longest owned lens.

24mm 2.8 ( $180 - $180 ) prime, Second time owning this lens, i bought it and a 50mm again becasue i was tired of the poor quality of 18-200mm images so i went the opposite route and got 2 primes. They are both great, but changing lenses on the job it a pain.

50mm AF (non d) ($65, 70), better construction that the D model but optically identical.

80-200mm AF-D ED ($650 - $700) Sharpest bloody lens I've ever used, insanely sharp, focus was always spot on beautiful bokeh, no, the best bokeyh i have ever seen. I worked with this lens and 24mm prime and loved it. it was almost perfect. It's just too big and heavy and a bit tele for a digital sized sensor. It also only focuses down to like 3 feet which is useless when kids are climbing on you. I will buy this lens again someday, it so sharp and yet natural.

17-50mm Tamron Di II. (paid $300-$30 sold 270) i bought this on ebay and it had some crap between the internal two elements so i got a discount, cleaned it, which fixed it, then sold it. It was actually a perfect lens for digital, close focus, creamy bokeh, decent focus speed, sharp. Build was junky. I guess it get really soft at higher apertures, but who cares. I almost bought another one, but after using the 80-200 i couldn't bring my self to use another non pro lens. I might have made a mistake.

28-85 3.5-45 AF Macro (paid $95, on sale now), optically great lens, but the AF is inaccurate in low light, ruins otherwise great shots) close focus is a bit to far, i need to be able to shoot someone accross the table, about .5m.

28-70mm f2.8 AFS (paid $900, unsold (possible keeper (update sold for $900 becasue it was hit or miss AF)) I was able to live with the focal length of 28-85 but i needed it in a better package so this is what i got, i would have gone for the 24-70 but it was too expensive. Anyway i find most of my photos are between 30mm and 70mm anyway so it should be perfect. I still need a like 17mm prime and a 180mm prime or something similar for those occasional landscape or close candid.

17-50mm Tamron Di II. (yup i got another one for around 200, on my D80 now) So this lens is actually perfect for DX, at 17mm no one really noticies the distortion anyway. It focuses REALY close which is perfect for kids and at 50mm on DX it's basically a portrait lens. 2.8 is sharp enough but has very poor exposure accuracy, which on digital is easy to correct with visual feedback from the LCD. At F4 the exposre error is gone. The lens has issues at small apertures, but that not what i ever use this lens for so i don't care. So basically it's perfect for what i use it for but sucks at everything else. All i need now is for my 70-200 F4 to have VR. The color is a bit strange at f2.8, makes skin kind of peachy.

70-200mm F4 AF. Paid ($180) This is a pro quality lens that doesn't weigh as much as the 2.8 but has 99% of the quality. The bokeh, sharpness and AF are not quite as amaizing but they are not distracting at all either so it's a good middle ground for now. I really like it now that i got a 35mm camera too. I got it from a Japanese guy on Craigslist, he bought it when he lived in Japan, it is in absolute mint shape, the zoom ring is so smooth it's ahead of it's time, it's a really well crafted lens.)

Rented: 12-24: great lens image quality is great, weight and size are good, close focus is great, i just hate to spend a grand on it when canon has a 10-20 thats so much better. It's also not as good investment since FX is out now, but i see the price has dropped to 800 used now that FX is out. I may get this someday if I'm still using aps-c.

N80 (paid $60 from Ebay). My previous experience with film cameras has been with manual focus ones or disposable, so compared to my DSLR they seemd like a step down. Boy was i wrong, the camea is every bit as good as my D80 the main difference is that you trade a large LCD for a large viewfinder and a larger image (35mm)

Tested:

70-30mm AFS VR: Someone at the Como zoo had this and let me try it on my camera. MUCH better than the cheap g version. creamy bokeh, i almost got this lens but I've learned that i need 2.8 and a pro lens.

17-55 2.8 AFS. Great lens but i cant handle the poor distorion performance or the $ for a lens that won't work on FX.

55-200mm VR (Paid 225, returned 30min later) AF to0 slow, close focus sucked, plasticly, useless lens. the 18-200 was miles better, faster. Even bokeh was better on 18-200 because you could focus closer.

34mm PC, i wouldn't mount on my D80 but it tried it on a f100 it was really cool, i need one. I tried making one out of a 24mm prime but had focus trouble. I will need one of these lenses, need. The new 24mm PC looks sweet.

I just got the 28-70 2.8 and really like it so far, i think it may be a keeper. So we'll see. I though it would be heavier and bigger but it's not too bad.

Flashes:
sb-600 (gift, retuned) optical TTL rocks. It's a cool flash to accompany and DSLR that can control it you get instant seamless bi-directional light by putting this thing ona tripod on the the otherside of the room, works perfectly. I only traded for becasue i could get 2 sb-28 for it's price.

sb-800, rented twice, when i need another flash i rent them.

sb-400 (paid 125) best on camera flash ever, tiny, fast, quiet, cheap, TTL works perfectly. Doesn't work with my wireless ebay triggers, boo.

sb-28 paid $90 for each of my three. Work horses, I'll buy more when i break them, powerful no nonsense light.

Truffle Gels

2008-01-22T17:35:00.000-06:00

Unable to find some colored cellophane anywhere I had an aha moment over Christmas while playing with the wrapper of a delicious lindt truffle, while playing with it the fail backing came off to reveal an almost perfect CTO gel.

Total Cost $2.99, and you can eat the leftovers. Go on, get your SO some chocolates!

unwrapping

'Gel' on the flash

Molly

Raw Foodie

2008-01-10T13:19:00.000-06:00

So ever the seeker of a clearer mind i saw steve pavlina go raw and i have to give it a shot ( i tried poliphasic sleep a while back becasue of steve too). Raw has been MUCH easier than i thought. I'm only on day 2 but already loving it. Yesterday i ate 6 banana, 10 clemetines, halve a bunch of celery, half a pack of grape tomatoes, 1/4 a cucumber and some nuts and (cheated on some grains) today i have been faithful, 2 bananas, 2 clemetines, and large naval orange. I'm not hungry at all and the fruit are delicious. I think that eating all that salty oily food that i normaly eat makes me forget how delicious plain fruit is. It kind of reminided me of that movie Rattatoulle where the mouse tries to teach taste by comparing the taste of eating two items seperatly or together, tomato and orange are really good together.

Amir pointed out to me that a my consumption of bananas is unsustainable for the environment, that is if everyone ate 8 bannanas a day we would run out. I think he may be right since the current allocation of farm land is too arid for bananas but great for grains, I'll have to do some research on that. Anyway I'm not totally doing for the environment, It's mostly for me. So keep eating your grains becasue i don't want the bananas to run out.

Beat RSI / Carpel Tunnel with 1 simple adjustment

2007-12-12T15:36:00.000-06:00

By definition to get a Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI) you have to make be doing some repetitive motion, like using a computer mouse. I've tried mouse pad wrist support, but those just forced me to bend my wrist more because my arm was anchored to the support. I've tried switching hands for a few days and it helps but it's very distracting. Then I had an aha moment that addresses the root cause and changes the motions that you make with your arm/wrist:

Change the mouse speed, every now and then.

The speed difference forces you to have to either move your whole arm or just move the mouse with your finger tips (i find this is easiest with a small form factor wireless mouse like this one Microsoft Optical Wireless 4000 and a nice mouse pad, like the pro gamer ones Fragmat.

Oh and for the love of god don't enable pointer trails, its soooo Win 3.11

Ikea Photography - Tent Softbox

2007-11-27T00:05:00.007-06:00

Try NizzOTE
Web based napkin / post it

Use NotifyURL
track your links

Materials:

Ikea Tent $9
Bit of wood,
Ikea Shower Curtain Liner $3
Mylar/ Foil $5
Spray Adhesive $5

Store bought equivalent cost +$500

Last time i made a softbox out of tinfoil and card board, the result worked (and got front page of digg.com) but it was a little small for anything larger than a face so i wanted a bigger one, but these things don't scale as well as expected (think a second about a 5' cardboard box.

My kids have this tent from Ikea which is very basic since it's not meant for sleeping in, but perfect for re-purposing! I didn't have the heart to take away their tent so i splurged on a new one for less than 10 bucks. They got really excited when they saw me getting interested in their toy, so we played a bit while i built my plan of attack.

The execution was simple, i cut out the blue stuff from the bottom and sewed it over the 'door' way on the side. Then i turned it inside out and used spay adhesive to glue down the mylar foil (from ax-man surplus). Then i placed 4 bits of velcroe to the edges and placed the shower curtain liner over it to trim to size. The bracket i made is a bit flimsy but consists of some squares clamping the cross of the tent poles and a ball bunjee to hold the flash in place.

Here i am cutting up the sheets of mylar to be spay adhered to the inside of the tent, while wathing some videos. Libby is playing classic gameboy Tetris on a gameboy that has a backlight. The cats being lazy.

I used little bits of Velcro to stick the the front diffuser on. This way i can remove the cover for whatever bizare reason, i haven't thought of yet.

Ring Flash Classic

2007-11-26T23:48:00.000-06:00

So i distilled the the elements of my first
DIY ring flash (cardboard and duct tape hobo version) into a more compact version that not only gets the cool catch light but also does the shadow halo effect (the large ring flash didn't do the shadow because the light source was larger than the subject, making the shadow hidden behind the subject). I also removed the diffuser material which was unnecessary in the first place and was only diminishing efficiency. This version is very similar to other models with one major distinction, this has a non-concentric construction which is responsible for a perfectly uniform light distribution without the use of diffusers or fancy prisms, just mylar, plastic, tape, and glue. Here is the construction sequence:

First I cut a strip from a sheet of acrylic,
i first cut with a scissor but found it easier to just score with a blade then snap
from behind. The thickness should be the thickness of the flash head that you'll
be using. Cut a similar strip of foil then use spay adhesive to join the two.

2. Cut to a length that when rolled
up will fit around your lens. Then use some super glue to syick it in place as seen
on the right.

3. Now place it on a sheet of foam core
and draw a circle thats the diameter of you ring plus 7.5" that way if you have
the inner ring 1.5" from one side it will be 4x that distance from the other side.
This is non-concentric placement of the inner ring is what makes this ringflash
give a uniform light distribution, that sounds good to me.

4. Cut out the panels and cover with
foil. Then cut a hole for the ring an a larger hole in the other panel that .5"
larger. 5. Cut out another strip as in the first step but make this one long enough
to wrap around the outside. Then tape it all together.

Here you see the classic halo shadow.
NEXT UP: Make a giant softbox from an Ikea tent.

Develop An Artistic Eye

2007-11-20T13:17:00.000-06:00

I saw an article¹ that compared the way several experienced artists eyes tracked an image vs the eyes of self proclaimed 'non-artists'. The difference was striking, the difference was compounded when the groups were asked to draw the images that they had looked at.

The non artists eyes focussed on the center and the details, eyes, lips, nose, sun, moon and when asked to draw a duplicate there rendering had disproportional details like large eyes, lips sun, moon and were poorly aligned.

The artists eyes uniformly tracked the image with a random tracking pattern, seeing the 'big picture'.

So for me I'm always trying to re-learn to look at something not for the details but for the larger shapes and proportions and when looking through a viewfinder I "frame for the edges", I practice by looking quickly at an image then close my eyes and try to rebuild that image in my head.(Ken Rockwell?) With photography it's easy to just try and just compose to get everything in the shot, but removing items is what makes the shot interesting, keep you guessing. In your head re-framing objects becomes effortless and you have to think about whole objects not just the details. Oh and skip rule of thirds!

1. Eye tracking article scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2007/03/artists_look_diff...

Also Check out this Flickr discussion on the topic, some Great tips!

"Choose a single subject and shoot it every day. Flowers, building, your kid... it doesn't matter, but you gotta come up with 60 different shots of the same thing."
"Get Learning to See Creatively: Design, Color & Composition in Photography

Ring Flash, Around the Lens Or Around The Subject :)

2007-11-12T16:22:00.000-06:00

Get the flash off the camera, even a ring flash!!!

The Ring Flash / Ring Light is a unique light source since it gives you a hard light but because the light comes from all around the lens the only shadow is a darkened halo around a subject, but the subject it self is uniformly lit.

My favorite effect of a ring light is the ring in the eyes and the topographical effect of the highlights it creates on the face, normally a head on light source would flatten a face but the ring flash makes highlights on relief areas of the subject. I fell in love with the effect in this image by Janosch Simon (this images is SFW but his full portfolio may not be if you live in the US)

Creating a ring flash can either be done with expensive flash units that are actually capable of a circular arc in a circular flash tube/bulb, or by modifying the straight round beam of a hot shoe flash unit.

There seems to be two ways to go about it, diffuse the source then mask it, or use precise reflections to redirect the beam. The second would result in higher efficiency and a higher "focal length" of the flash since there would be more direct light.

In order to control the size of the ring on the face you have to change the distance of the ring or the size of the ring. Having it off camera would allow you to take telephoto shots and still have large ring in the eyes ( a telephoto shot with a tradition on camera ring flash would be far away enough to reduce the reflection of the flash in the eyes to a bright dot)

What i did was adapt this great design by The Feral Photographer and made the following changes.

1:made the circles NOT concentric, the light escaping from the diffuser causes the light level to get dimmer at the end opposite the flash, similar to , here it comes, the inverse square law. So i sized and located the inner circle to so that the distance at the far end was four times less than the flash end this would result in a uniform distribution of the light.

2: Made it larger, this means that i could use longer zoom.

Materials:
2 sheets of cardboard
mylar/tin foil
Tape, Knife
Diffuser material is a Target plastic bag

Final Effect:

click image for super hi-res image (copyright yo)

So Alexander Johnson took my image and had is skilled way with it creating this image:Post Processing by Alexander Johnson - Thanks!

learn to light on strobist

Apple TV in a USB stick!!!

2007-11-05T13:15:00.000-06:00

the Take TV is a flash drive that decodes a xVid, Divx, mpeg4 and outputs to a s-video under $100! And it's controllable by remote.

It's made by the folks who made my Sansa Express which has proven to be my favorite mp3 ever becasue its nononsense bright OLED Screen, cableless useage, ans seamless Rhapsody support. If the Take TV works this well i will be very pleased.

Right now every time i have a video that i want to watch on TV i have to haul my computer next to the TV to connect the video and audio. The take TV come in 4/8gb flash stick shape and has a remote and TV dock, this totally rocks because it doesn't require a full blown HTPC but delivers 99% of what i would use a HTPC for. 4gb is about 5hours which is about double my usual tv episode serving.

I could see this working great with those 'second car monitors' made to extend a portable dvd players screen. You would be able to load a few movies on the device and not have to burn them to DVD. If i'm not mistaken an iPod that has video would be able to do most of this except remote control, and of course would require a proprietary cable and iTunes to download from the PC. A nano video is only $149 and has a screen, but doesn't support xVid and Divx or have a remote, so if all you do is use it play stuff on your TV (oh hate iTunes) then get the take TV, other wise get a player that also has a screen.

http://take.tv

Fix Reddit RSS Feed especially on NetVibes in FireFox

2007-10-15T23:14:00.001-05:00

** update ** looks like reddit has fixed this now, oh well it was fun to make.

New Reddit seems to have mucked up the links in their feed which means i cant right click on a title to go straight to it on a new tab which is annoying enough for me to scrape the feed and generate a new one here:

~~http://www.truthfulness.net/reddit/reddit.ashx~~[they have fixed it now so i killed this]

Enjoy!

"if you haven't done it by the time your 17 you'll never do it"

2007-10-15T15:54:00.001-05:00

This line haunts me to this day, uttered by my 7th grade math teacher who's teaching style made him the only teacher that i ever respected. (He did things like throw kids out of class, via the window; pretend to take 'pills' (mints); threw my slide rule back at me; pitched a cricket ball at top spin at the black board to wake everyone up; held a kid over the garbage can to make him pickup and eat his the lunch he wastefully chucked; gave me the day off when i aced tests; and finally called other teachers philistines) , hmm those things don't really give him much credibility do they? It wasn't a big deal to me when my 17 b-day passed but as time goes i on i get more and more worried that my time is out, especially when i see kids do amazing things like this, things i still dream of doing but never imagined were possible at 17:

joey(17) - world traveling commercial photog, with people skills and business smarts (sells a $300 training book)
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2007/10/young-blood-chat-with-photographer-joey.html

and this 17 girl making $70k/month on myspace
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/118/girl-power.html

I feel like i am totally capable of doing these things but as time goes on i haven't made them happen ( sounds like i need an infomercial or something ) at 17 i had the time and drive but i didn't have the business sense or the people skills, over time I've rounded out my people and business ability but now i have precious little time.

Polyphasic sleep is looking good again, I've quit caffeine addiction (including chocolate) and aiming at minimizing meat, i exercise every day and would be able to nap at work, but while taking naps every 4 hours would give me 6 more hours of waking time a day it's cost is 2 hours of time i usually spend awake with other people, and that is the hardest thing to overcome.

I'm sure that I'll figure something out, so here's to proving my math teacher wrong while still putting my people connections first.

Flywheels are cool

2007-10-15T15:43:00.000-05:00

dont take my word for it

Gyroscopes are like little anchors in the universe, screw the road: steer your car with relative inertia! driving on ice just got wayy better. Imagine doing donuts in a car with a central axis flywheel, just hit the brakes and drop the clutch on the flywheel for instant spinning action.

It just so happens that these dynamics already come into play in existing cars, there's lots of stuff thats spinning wheels, engine flywheel, steering wheel (when I'm driving). In fact a large engine needs to have balanced piston action to keep from twisting the car.

(next post: how your HDD iPod can screw up your balance)

Day 3 - caffineless

2007-09-10T14:48:00.000-05:00

Mood: Elevated.
Stress: Reduced
Digestive System: Happy

I'm far less stressed out since quitting but i have a MONSTER headache. The substitution of caffeine for theobromine (chocolate) hasn't abated the headaches, but has certainly been a tasty.

How to quit coffee: Theobromine

2007-09-07T17:10:00.000-05:00

So, i do my best to avoid unhealthy things, for my general well being, and it just seems logical. I've quit artificial sweeteners, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Hydrogenated Oils (it's even in laffy taffy), and coffee. Ive relapsed on the coffee, which is strange because its the one drug that goes against everything i try to do (be alert more) in that it causes progressive sleep deprivation resulting in being awake more but being groggy during that wakefulness, and it makes reprogramming my circadian rhythm to adapt to poly-phasic sleep impossible because I don't fall asleep for the nessesary naps. Finally it contributes negatively to my only heath concern: high blood pressure.

It is more addictive than nicotine because the social barriers for consumption are lower (i obviously don't smoke), but the withdrawal headaches and reduced focus in the morning seem overwhelmingly counter productive. My problem is that I'd rather be alert than alive.

So i've noticed that cocoa has similar effects on me as coffee (actually i only drink espresso) but i always assumed that there was caffeine in cocoa, until an article on Reddit surfaced about the true chemical composition of the "caffeine" in cocoa. It's not caffeine it's Theobromine which is structurally similar methylxanthine but has very different effects on the body: (quoted from above link)

Theobromine
gentle
mild effect
very slow onset
long lasting
50% in bloodstream after 6 to 10 hrs
increases feeling of well being
mild antidepressant
gentle, smooth, sensual stimulation
stimulates cardiovascular
system
stimulates muscular system
mild effect on central nervous system
almost no one is allergic
not addictive
no withdrawal symptoms
mild diuretic
stimulates the the kidneys

CAFFEINE
intense
strong effect
fast acting
rapid dissipation
50% in bloodstream after 2 to 5 hrs
increases alertness
increases emotional stress
jagged, nervous stimulation
stimulates cardiovascular system
stimulates respiratory system
strong effect on central nervous system
many people allergic
physically addictive
many proven withdrawal symptoms
extreme diuretic
requires large intake of fluids to balance the diuretic effect

So today I had no caffeine, i had a lot of chocolate though(I'm to embarrassed to say exactly how much) but lets say more than one bar, this is dark chocolate though, it has much less fat and suguar than milk chocolate. When i say dark i mean at least 85%, really the rest is just something to stick the cocoa powder together so that its practical to eat. I'll eat 99% as soon as i get some more from Lindt it only has like 100cal per bar as opposed to 240 in milk chocolate. The result, lets call it
Day1: a work day (workdays include 7miles of intense cycling, i basically push my pedals until my legs go numb, or i get to work)

I had some chocolate with my breakfast cereal, lunch and a snack(2 dove bars). The effects were intresting, on the one hand i suffered no headaches and i wasn't narcolepic at any point in the day, on the other i had no super clarity or rapid speech that i'm used to in the mornings. I feel no "withdrawl" or cravings but i am noticibly less alert. I'll try this out for as long as it takes to get a better idea of the effects, i may even invest in a blood pressure cuff.

Chochcolate is supposed to have lots of other benefits:
relaxing
fight diabetes
benefit the brain

and Coffee has these problems:
blood sugar

*i obviously have no major medical proof of shiz, but what to most people look like obvious connections the medical establishment calls "Not a definitive causal correlation" (translation: "I'm too scared to say anything i wasn't taught in school")

I'm back

2007-08-27T17:02:00.000-05:00

Where have i been!? Online, offline.

Online: What happened is that i got sucked into http://reddit.com, which is full of politics and i became very cynical/depressed about the chances for this country, my wife pointed this out to me, that although i now actually knew who karl rove was, that i was not the better for it. It is a difficult thing to balance staying informed of the current world and staying enthusiastic about making better, it was very easy to get sucked in, to get out i had to simply stop reading it. I actually now still read it, but just for the funnies, i skip the "bush did this WTF" sensational tag lines.

Offline: Biking, my new obsession has become biking (don't worry still obsessed with sound and studio lighting) i've pimped out my bike with clipless pedals + shoes + cleats, a trunk, pro-bar tape, bike computer, sport gel seat, gloves, tuning. Broke my top speed record at the green lake WI Baha'i conference by going 37.6mph following baseem. I've biked to work (3.7mi) everyday for the past 3months. I don't know if i'm in shape yet, but i feel pretty good, my blood pressure is down, my mood is more stable, my weight hasn't changed but i'm a little more stable. The only issue i have now with biking is my hands go numb, i've tried several things (gloves, changing positions, seat height, using core body..) i raised the bas a little today, hopefully that will make a little difference.

I made a new portrait soft box, its 2 feet by 6 feet so it, i'll try and make a write up for it soon.

here is some funny stuff:

http://irregardable.com - some friends new blog

Apple iPhone Release in Rosedale Mall Minnesota

2007-06-30T12:11:00.000-05:00

I sent a letter to the owners of the Rosedale mall to ask for permission to shoot the crowds waiting for the iPhone. I only got a reply the next day, after already getting tons of photos, but he was more interested in my opinion of what he describes as Apples 'unconventional methods'

Here's a link to the VP and General Manager of the company that owns Rosedale Mall:
http://www.myrosedale.com/go/services.cfm?type=cu

Here is his reply

"Riaz, if you have the time to do it and wouldn't mind, I would love to hear some of your impressions of the day. The whole approach Apple had to their launch was on many levels unconventional, and the thoughts of one who had been there would be interesting, to say the least." ~ Rollin Hunsicker

and my impressions of the day:

"It was expertly handled i thought. Apple had a large countdown clock
in the window to keep everyone informed. They handed out tickets that
looked like iPhones to guarantee the people in line that they would
receive one, preventing anyone from waiting in line for nothing. The
lines were quiet and didn't seem to bother anyone else.

A few other vendors, with some entrepreneurial spirit left in them,
capitalized on the crowd with hand out pamphlets, but no one except
caribou coffee free water had any thing to offer the crowds.

When the countdown reached 1 minute the crowds were getting ready to
be excited for the opening when preemptively, before everyone got all
hyped up, they opened the doors and allowed a counted number in at a
time, thus diffusing any wildness from waiting till the end of
countdown. I was expecting a audible countdown but they opened the
doors a minute early before any got over excited, very clever.

I saw a few people being told not to use cameras, but critical mass
won over because there were hundreds of people with cameras. So i
would say that the guards were a little too anxious, which is not good
for a crowd, the Apple employees were very well prepared for the crowd
dynamics. So it went of without a hitch. The other neighboring vendors
got free extended exposure from the people sitting there and interest
generated from them.

I got my iPhone after waiting in the line for about 20min after the
opening and have it now listed for sale on eBay where they have been
selling for around 20-30% higher.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120137543966
"

And the Photos:

iGoogle

2007-06-19T15:21:00.000-05:00

Hmm, looks like when i'm logged into my google for domain services that it now gives me an iGoogle page when i just go to iGoogle. It's ok, except it still isn't integrating with my domain services, i won't check my domain email, it want to create a new email account using the same email address, dumb, legacy safe trap that microsoft fell into.

Wow

2007-06-13T13:44:00.000-05:00

"The mental processing required to perceive images is so great that it represents about 40% of the body's at-rest caloric consumption. This is why it's so resting to close our eyes for a moment. (I forget the citation for the 40% number, let me know if you have it exactly.)"
~ Ken Rockwell

Eyes resolution: 1/60th of a degree (Google converging lines test pattern)
Eyes effective shutter speed: 1/30th of a second. (video is like 1/48th of a second)

I agree with Ken's complaints about the state of HDR images, they've become ubiquitous since Adobe added an automation feature in PhotoShop, but they still have weird artifacts. What we need is a camera sensor that is able to adjust the gain on a pixel level, mapped ISO, or a high resolution LCD screen that could act as a masked ND filter. Heck i should patent that! They make those sun-glasses that have light sensitive darkness to them, they should put a really thin on over the sensor of a D-Camera

This is great example of decent HDR, where the images is appealing and doesn't have the weird highlights of an auto HDR job. Here is another great one, where it still looks somewhat realistic. And one more from wikipedia

Sometimes you've got it...

2007-06-08T13:57:00.000-05:00

Previous post got one Digg, and it was me, bummer. I guess I missed the target on that one. "What there's no mouse mod niche market out here", "Oh there is." If only i had had this idea:

via ~ http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9902727147.html

Give Your Mouse a Tail to Improve it's Electromagnetic Wave Propagation

2007-06-07T15:10:00.000-05:00

(Disclaimer: this probably voids your mouses' electromagnetic interference levels, according to the FCC but who believes them anyway)

So i don't need to convince you on the convenience of a wireless mouse, but i may need to sell you on using a laptop mouse for a desktop.

The main reason: Size, they are small so you can move the mouse with your fingers rather than moving your whole hand+wrist.

The problem: Range, they usually use a USB dongle that you'd plug into your desktop, which in many cases is under the desk stretching the range to the usual 3ft claim (2ft in reality). I was frustrated by the number of times I'd have to click to double click, and lack of responsiveness.

The Solution: Bigger Tail, antennas inside the mouse are effectively shielded by your hand which absorbs a lot of the EMF and almost creates a Faraday cage around the mouse. Adding an external antennae will give the transmitter a bigger antennae and prevent the signal from being shielded so much. Since the deal is a one way communication (from mouse to dongle) we will see results even though we're only extending the one antennae. (when trying to increase range on two way communications you have to do both because increasing the size of the receiving antennae can also increase the noise being picked up)

Microsoft Notebook Optical Mouse 4000- Dark Gray ( B2P-00006 )

A great feature of this mouse is that the mouse and dongle can become one for transportation, which means that you won't lose the dongle, and the little protruding button get depressed when you fit the dongle into the bottom of the mouse, which turns it off. For once M$oft got it right!

So to upgrade the range on this little rodent, you'll need a screwdriver (i used the one on my cute pink leather man ) and a twisty tie, like ones that come with any gadget with wires.

First pick of the pads off with whatever then unscrew all 4 screws.

Near the front there is a stiff wire, unsheathe some of the twisty tie and twist it on there. Make a little notch for the wire to escape when you close the mouse up. Keep the notch small so that it holds the twisty in place.

Then close it up, thats it your done! The range should now be about 3x so around 9ft though i was able to double click from much farther when line of sight with the dongle. Polar antennae, like this one, have a doughnut radiation pattern, which means that the signal is strongest on the sides and almost zero on axis, so don't point the antenna at the dongle, rather have it parallel.

Other DIY articles

Shrute Buck

2007-06-04T16:11:00.000-05:00

"The Baha'i Faith is one of the most disorganized religions on the planet! NOT."

Dwight from The Office did an interview on the US Baha'i Site, I didn't see who the interviewer was, but they did a great job. I really like the responses Wilson gave to what role the Faith plays in his life, especially the reference to digging latrines in Honduras. Having a socialy responsible mindset can easily encourage thoughts of doing thankless menial labour, but Wilson proves that you would be doing it at the cost of contributing to society with your unique talents. If your not sure what those talents are, then menial labor can be invaluable at drawing them out.

"My favorite quote from the Baha'i Faith is from Abdu'l-Baha: "If religion be the cause of disunity, then irreligion is surely to be preferred." For the disenfranchised to know that Abdu'l-Baha is a proponent of having no religion if there's disunity... And for those who say they don't like "organized religion," don't worry: The Baha'i Faith is one of the most disorganized religions on the planet! NOT."

Enjoy it Rainn Wilson: Hollywood’s funny guy talks straight about being a Baha'i via Bahai.us

Wiki Entry

First Impressions 18-200mm Nikon Lens

2007-05-18T12:39:00.000-05:00

First of all it works. I can shoot 200mm at 1/50second which is perfect, because thats long enough to get some light in the lens and freeze most subject motion. A non VR lens would have to be shot at least 1/150s to compensate for lens motion(depending on current coffee consumption levels). The lens work really slick overall, the manual focus override ring is perfectly intuitive, the lens doesn't creep/slip at all. It is a bit heavier than my other lens, but still much lighter than an 80-200 F2.8. It's a lot like using a digital camcorder image stabilization, except this is actually moving the lens so you can see it working through the viewfinder, this instant feedback lets you learn to work with it. It also looks hard core with lots of switches, gauges, gold lettering and what-not.

FedEx vs. UPS

2007-05-17T13:32:00.000-05:00

So i frequently have to pick up packages from UPS terminal because i miss the drop-off, it's usually no problem, i just call them up and ask them to hold it for me.

This happened with Fed-Ex today, and they told me that it wasn't possible to pick it up! I pushed on, asking why i couldn't go to the terminal after the driver returns, she said she would have to ask the terminal, so i got the number and they were much more helpful, saying that i should call back later to see when the driver is back, but that all drivers return by 8pm and they close at 9pm so ultimately i will definitely get it.

Get what yo may ask, only the coolest lens in my (extended) price range: 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 DX VR2 ED AF-S IF G, yeah all those letters actually mean stuff:
18-200mm: Focal length its 11.5x zoom
f3.5-5.6: Size of the aperture.
DX: Size of the projected image will cover a APC Sized Sensor ~1/1.5 size of 35mm
VR2: Vibration Reduction Two, allows shooting at 4 stops faster, take that Canon IS (3stops)
ED: Coated glass equals less chromatic distortion
AF-S: Silent constant fast focusing, allows instant manual override with ring)
IF: Internal Focus (doesn't get much longer or shorter to focus and doesn't turn front element)
G: Conveys distance info and other stuff to camera.

Wow, some quotes from Ken ~ "It's a miracle!", "8-200mm VR is more than just a new lens. It's changed the way I live and make photos." totally hear you Ken.

It focuses down to 20" at 200mm, thats right infront of the glass at 200mm!! Macro for free! with VR that means still insects will be sharp! Stay tuned for images.

I got mine from Ritz, i ordered it 2months ago, they had issues with handleing paypal and then visa, weird, but got it right in the end.

It's been Too Long:

2007-05-17T11:18:00.000-05:00

Whats Happened?

Pictures taken: Took some more night shots after rainy day, will post soon!
Went to peoples graduation parties: Go Amir and Everett!
Crime: Speeding and Late Tabs Ticket
Material: 18-200mm Lens gets here today. Got new Express jeans.
People Visited Us: Bahiyyih came over for a week - it was super great!
Cars Test Drove: Altima, Santa Fe, Golf Gti, Passat Sedan, Passat Wagon, Mazda5, Ford Freestyle.
Stuff for sale: 24mm prime, 18-135mm zoom (nikon)
Politics: who cares.
Internet: Did the facebook friends competition, my wife beat me.
Sports: Played some tennis, need practice.
Looking For: A bike.
Thinking of: Making my own soy milk.
Espresso shots consumed today: 1 (homemade latte with soy)
Monetized: http://www.truthfulness.net

Sunset vs. Sunrise

2007-04-16T14:58:00.000-05:00

Saturday night i chased the sun and the photo ops it leaves in it's wake. When you shoot with the sun to your back the scene become very evenly lit which allows you to crank saturation and contrast without looking too fake, I'm amazed with the color effects that i can get away with post processing a picture taken in twilight versus a picture taken in the day where small color changes are very obvious. Huge shout out to Ken Rockwell for giving me the courage to max out saturation and wake up at 6 in the morning to get those shots.

I found a lot of new places by just driving towards the sun away from the skyline trying to find fresh perspectives with great lighting.

There was a huge difference in the vibe of shooting Saturday night versus Sunday morning. The night was a rush of a adrenaline running from one spot to the next with party people and the homeless and a few other photographers making me a spectacle, "hey that photographer guy is still there". It's hard to be low key while carrying an extended tripod. Shooting in the morning was a totally different experience, it was colder but extremely peaceful, i saw nobody pre-sunrise and then only three joggers in the following hour. I felt like i had the city to myself while the sun rose forever with no sounds like the most under noted event. I wasn't as blown away with sunrise photos as with sunset, and subsequent long exposure night shots, but i still got some cool pictures that i couldn't have gotten any other time of the day, now i just need a nude model to lay in front of the pictures. Notably the river was much stiller in the morning, i think that the absence of the sun slows the wind which adds to the peaceful state.

I also ran into a guy that i used to work with who is an incredible designer and he happened to be taking pictures that morning as well! Small world! Here are the rest of the pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/riaz/

You probably also want to read about Diy Soft lighting which got Dugg over a thousand times.

Multi-Level Marketing / Network Marketing - Lies, Lies, and More Lies

2007-04-02T15:15:00.000-05:00

What do most people tell you when they hear that "losing weight and making money can be had through Network Marketing"?

Lie #1: "it's a scam!"
Truth: Not even close! Everyone that I've seen use Network Marketed Weight Loss Products have lost weight, often quite a lot too. And everyone that i've seen join Herbalife has made money even me.

Lie #2: "it's Illegal / pyramid scheme"
Truth: Only if you don't pay your taxes on all of the money that you make. Actually this is a throw back from a time when people sold business opportunities and made more money from the membership fees than the product sales royalties. It is an important distinction to make but if your going to join one of the big ones like Herbalife, Mary Kay, Avon they have already got a good reputation so you don't have to worry about anything being shady. In fact some of them are publicly traded companies which means that they get very closely scrutinized by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Check out the stock (NYSE : HLF), I wish that i had bought some.

Lie #3: "Only The people at the top, who got in early, make any money"
Truth: In most plans you start making money as soon as you start to sell and the amount that you make is only self limited. The residual income builds up a over time but every year is seeing More people qualifying for the big bucks then every previous year.

Lie #4: "It expensive and most people give up anyway"
Truth: These days the joining cost is way down, with Herbalife being one of the cheapest, and the retention rate is near 50% after 12months!

Don't Believe me? Check my facts:
Wikipedia Entry on Herbalife
Wikipedia Entry on Multilevel Marketing

Believe Me? Click these
Home Business Solution
Weight Loss Solution
Online Mall

Reciprocal Love

2007-03-23T10:58:00.000-05:00

So this week has been a week of reciprocal love on many fronts, not the least of which is my 4 year wedding anniversary. I was an active on the blogger/commenter and it paid off big time 40,000 hits and the front page of Digg(thanks to some rose-power), granted 'content is king' but a little back and forth goes a long way. I also got a special shout-out from a blog that I'm am a loyal fan of, Urban Monarch, thanks greg and cash. Articles got featured on LifeHacker, Strobist and a few others (see trackbacks below).

I'm not quite making 'second life' revenue on my ads but enough to take the family out to dinner, thanks again world (except Nascar fans. F1 Rulez!)

Happy Naw-Ruz

2007-03-22T11:13:00.000-05:00

Holy cow it's been a good new year! Made the front page of Digg, Lifehacker, and Strobist snagging me 33,000 hits and my Tweeter(TWTR) stock went up 30%.

Have a wonderful new Baha'i year! -
via Wiki entry

Also Happy Anniversary to my beautiful wife and I, 4 wonderful years today, we've been so blessed with two cute kids, supportive family nearby and sufficient material means to keep us off the streets :) Every year has been more fun , and work(kids) than the last.

Hobo DIY Softbox for Perfect Portraits

2007-03-14T21:48:00.000-05:00

Holy Crap Kevin Rose of ~~Dugg~~ Digg, dugg this article, thanks for the heads up Amir I owe you a latte, unless i ever manage to beat you in Desktop Tower Defense

The silent Server
make a quiet PC box from scrap wood

So I've spent about a grand on my camera equipment (body, lenses) and forgot to save anything for the lighting equipment, doh!

Basically (though you should already know this) a camera is only as good as the light that comes into it, cameras capture light and make a mess when they try to amplify the dark. When I made the move from a point-and-shoot to a SLR I figured I'd get a 50mm lens because it was the cheapest lens that opened up to f1.8, and i wanted to be able to take pictures in the living room (ok my kids) without a flash. Jump to 6 months later I now know that 50mm lens lets in just as much light as a 24mm lens but needs to be shot at least 1/60th of second to be in focus whereas a 24mm lens can be shot at 1/25th of a second, even at f2.8.

The crux of the problem is still that at f2.8 a full face is unlikely to be all in focus until about f8 on a 50mm and f5 on a 24mm which means i need a flash. I used a bounce flash (old school flash aimed at the ceiling or wall) and loved the soft light or occasional color cast from the paint on the wall, but the shadows made dark wells under the eyes.

So i need a soft box which should eliminate shadows from the area that it covers, but, i spent all of my money on the SLR and lenses.

Solution
Cardboard box, tin foil, tape, knife, wireless flash kit,

I got the wireless flash from Ebay with two receivers ($20) which i use with old flashes from my wifes old SLR setup. The trigger just attaches to the camera hot show and the recivers are like little hot shoes them selves.

I upgraded the antenna to extend the range and reliability.

For the softbox i got an office max cardboard box and some reynolds tinfoil. i used the size of the box as a template and cut some pieces. Remember to cut a mirror image because they are Diastereomers , so two of each hand (lateral inversion). Also make them so that the sum of two wider ends equals the size the to opening of the box, measure this by placing to strips next to each other and marking where they overlap:

It is much easier to score then cut with scissors than knife. I also taped all the sides to prevent the foil from tearing, it made it much more durable. When tapping two pieces together the tape can electro statically attract the foil which can muck things up, so i found it easier to pre-tape with small pieces of tape before applying wider tape.

Look kind of like a NASA heat shield.

Now it's ready to fold and tape into the box like a funnel (after cutting a hole in the box of course) This hole is where the flash gets tapped in.

I taped a garbage can bag to the top and then started shooting:

I'm in love with the quality of soft light i and the sharpness that it allows. I put a handle on the top of the box (cut a hole in it, and basically strapped the flash to the hole in the back.

This is at 300mm F22 1/125sec, with a Nikon D70s (which is for sale here ) You can click on the image to see full version. Its amazing how much more detail comes out of the shot with soft light.

Other DIY articles

Pressured Extraction

2007-02-07T22:33:00.000-06:00

Everyone should own a real espresso machine. I got mine here. The only problem is that you need to have coffee that is precisely ground so that the pressure gets to the right level to emulsify the oil in the coffee. This machine has a 17bar pump which is 8 more than needed but only if you have the perfect grind. I put in some coffee that was ground as fine as flour and the only thing that cane out was oil, even after 30seconds, pure coffee oils. Too course and all i get is regular coffee but ground a notch courser than Turkish and you get beautiful, aromatic, crema on a rich double shot.

It took me a few weeks to get a good feel for the grind settings and the tamping (usually as hard as i can press, unless the pump is smoking or nothing is coming out). I tried out a $24 Black and Decker burr grinder from Target, but it was lame, it claimed to be able to make turkish grind but it was barely fine enough for filter coffee. I'm on the lookout for a real grinder i'll report back when i find a solution.

The Office
Jim is so cool i wish someone would set my stuff in jello. I like jello.

Music
Been listening to Feist and Converting Vegitarians on rhapsody. Not much else new on the sound front.

Computers
Vista: why bother, if i wanted to work with a softy GUI inspired by fisher price I'd use a Mac.

The Googlebot
is crazy.

Musings

2007-01-18T00:10:00.000-06:00

MUSIC

Been jamming to Tiesto and ATB today and noticed a definite increase in productivity, or at least it seems that way since I'm coming to the end of a site project and finally getting to see the product of my labor, submitted 6k pages to googlebot...

LIFE

Dark Side:
Can you backup gmail?
The iPhone is only a 2G network phone

Light Side:
t-mobile + samsung have phone that does unlimited wi-fi calls (via GQ)
fergilicious is not promiscuous it's just fictitious

COMPUTERS

yo yo yo. I scoped out specs for a new xp-box to run visual studio and photoshop and decided to do a dual everything machine, it came to $1k for the box and $600 for two Flat Screens :
CPU: dualcore-e6300 with arctic silver and stock fan-sink
Mobo: MSI Platinum with dualcell
Ram: 2 sticks (matched pair) Corsair 800mhz ddr2
HHD1 and 2: WD Raptor 10.000RPM SATA
Monitor 1 and 2: 20" Dell Digital LCD (DVI)
Video: MSI nvidia 7600gt 256mb with dual dvi
500watt PSU in a box with a 10" fan

First impressions, holy crap it's fast. It installed XP in 15min. thats the good news. Bad news is that even though TomsHardware was able to get the FSB on this CPU and chipset up to 495Mhz which translates to around 3Ghz CPU clock (from 1.86ghz base) i was only able to the Mobo to post at 350 (base is 266) and it wouldn't even boot to windows at anything over base. I tried pumping up the voltage to the northbridge and ram, but no dice. If i build new machine soon i'll use the gigabyte mobo for this chipset, it's what toms used to crank this core up. Other wise it's been perfectly stable and still much faster than my 2.2ghz laptop (overclocked from 1.8 or 1.6ghz i can't remember). I also had some trouble configuring the video to instantiate two screens rather than span them and report to XP as one screen, this is annoying becasue new windows pop-up split between the two screens. Installing the latest drivers automatically casued two separate screens to show up in the display properties which allowed me to set one as primary. that plus grids = multi-view bliss.

COFFEE

My Gaggia espresso machine came today with two tins of Illy all straight from Italy (via amazon.com). It is my first real espresso machine and it's the real deal, 17bar pump, 1300watt heater, brass boiler, commecial 52mm portafilter with clip in basket (so you can knock the rind out without losing the basket). The only thing this doesn't have that comes with a LeCimabli is a solenoid valve, which doesn't really bother coffee quality just life span. I would also have liked a built in temp gauge rather than just an LED indicator. It even came with a tamper and an instruction DVD. My first few pulls are little lacking in creme and body but are not bad, certainly better than Caribou and maybe on par with Dunn bros, but not a Starbucks doppio, yet. I picked up some distilled water this evening so i'll try that out for style tommorrow morning, I've got two cans of Illy put i have a feeling that they are too light roast for espresso or just too old ( I mean it's vacum packaged in Italy). The shnazy frother arm is very effective with my Soy milk which usually gives even the SB baristas a run for their money. I'm using just regular Silk Soy, but i'm going to try Garden of Eden too. The manual says that the frothing ability is related to the fat content of the milk, less is better, i'll have to see if the same is true for Soy milk. All in all this new toy should save me from my $4latte+$1tip/day = $100/month habbit. I'll even do some yoga while i wait for the Boiler to prime, what a positive lifestyle change just from a new espresso machine.

SLEEP

zzz...

Blog Pimping/Monetizing Tools Reviewed

2006-11-06T11:29:00.000-06:00

So I'm trying out a few blog monetizing tools i though i'd give a run down of my experience with them.

Of course the first that i tried was google because they have button in the blogger tool which allows you to just turn the ads on. I bumped it up a bit by adding some custom ones from their home page which were longer and more color matched. They do the whole associative / suggestive advertising selection which is great because i don't get ads for diapers or something embarrassing on my suave and manly site, but i think that this might also be a down fall, because i think that the demographic that reads my blogs is represents the least likely people to even read the ads. I need some Nascar loving, cheese curd eating, niche market, baby bouncing, self help seeking ads, but with my content, it's not likely to happen. In fact the biggest problem is that the ads that i see on my blog are to well targeted to me that i want to figgin click on them.

The next type of tool that i tried is amazon affiliates, they have a similar html generator which makes it pretty easy to use. Their ads don't seem as well targeted, but as i pointed out in the previous paragraph, that might be good thing. A few days after putting up amazon ads i saw that they had this tool for making a custom mall, this is great because you can pick the products and add a custom description without having to write any code. This is actually a great service because when a friend asks me what are the best headphones or camera or whatever, i can just sen them a link to my mall which has a review that already wrote and then i actually get a cut for making the suggestion, which beats recommending a product and not getting anything in return.

The final on that i have tried is text-link-ads this seems to be a competitor to google but they also have an affiliate system for referring other people who will put their ads on their pages. I just put this on today, seems simple enough, I wasn't able to put actual ads on because they have to review your site first.

Blog Pimp - My way of paying google for all of the services that i use

2006-11-06T11:13:00.000-06:00

If you have seen goog latest stock price and are not sure if its a justified value then you should look at its revenue, about 6billion in 2005, which is amazing sice i dont even know of anyone who has given them money yet just about everyone i know has used one or many of their services and many people who have recieved money from them, that represents an incredible value for money. I beleive that adding such huge value to society deserves to be rewarded by $500 stock prices.

Google services make up a significant chink of my productivity tools (this blogging tool is one of them) so i figured that the best way to pay them back is to use the service that makes them the most revenue. So in case you haven't noticed, i am testing just about every blog monetizing tool that i come accross. Frankly i don't find them too imposing, but then i rarely read my own blog (blatant lie). I have yet to make anything out of them but when i do i will let you know which ones are most effective, i kind of have a hunch who will come out on top.

Blogger Beta

2006-10-14T17:15:00.000-05:00

Holy crap google does it again! I love this implementation of this blog engine, for most folks it will be perfect. Layout and component flexibility is great, editor is tried and trusted, instant adsense... Adding permissions to the orginal membership options is great for a private club site, the invitation system works great. Labels are super sweet, the list goes on. This tied in with picasa for image hosting leaves almost nothing to be desired.

One flaw i think is in the google adsense implementation. I would like to have google ads along the side running the full length of the page with relevant ads for each posting rather than the sum of all the posts. I'll have to look into how to do this.

My desire to create my own blog engine was a little bruised by this very slick huge implementation, but now i feel inspired by its elegance.

Picture and Picture

2006-08-22T23:04:00.000-05:00

Around 10pm ,after a long day of work, parenting, errands, cleaning, cooking, and thinking, my wife sit on the couch and i watch 'the tonight show' and 'stephen colbert' with one eye and our laptops with the other eye. I have the feeling that as we are not alone. Colbert regularly(almost every show) has websites mentioned and when ever i try to browse to those sites the servers are usually overloaded. Yhis is some seriously fast marketing dynamics. When i see a commercial of a new cola i might try it in a few days, probably weeks, not seconds.

I'm pretty sure that we are not even remotely alone in our beloved cronically attention deficit media consuming american nation who now prefer picture and picture to picture in picture. Do you multi monitor?

silent server - Quiet your PC case From scrap Wood

2006-04-17T22:12:00.000-05:00

If you've ever looked inside a dell power edge server you will quickly realize why the large panels of its case resonate so loudly, five fans and 4 drives all solidly coupled to the sheet metal case. Good for thermal transfer, bad for sound pollution. Then again most servers run in racks that are cooled by even louder air-con' systems.

My server has to run in the lions den of critical requirements, my wifes living room. It has to be quiet, wireless, invisible, and it has to work. I planned on having 3 HDD and 1 DVD drive and 3 fans (CPU, PSU, Case) This much equipment generates about a lot of noise and vibration, heat, and lacks elements of style to match our living room. Its a PIII 850Mhz 512mb Ram ATI radeon somthin' or other, it'l play DVD's and DIVX and run a Web server, print server, and media server (using VideoLan's VLC media player with HTTP interface so that i can browse the playlist on my pocketPC).

My initial concern with was with the CPU, i upgraded the thermal compound (which made ZERO impact on the temperature of the CPU), cleaned the heatsink from cobwebs (which made a drastic improvement on temperature). It turns out however that 3 HDD generate far more heat than an old PIII and I had to later rearrange the layout of the box to place the drive and PSU nearer the air vents.

To attack noise i applied ensured that all of the elements of the computer were mechanically decoupled from the case by using foam mounts. The drive bay was the most difficult to implement with this approach, because of their weight. Finally the vent ducts were folded to act as mufflers.

The case was easily hidden by making it fit inside my media center cabinet. It runs WinXP and plays sound though an external Creative Labs Sound Blaster Extigy which has remote control interface and surround decoders (to remove the burden from the CPU).

Assembly was pretty simple and i followed up with noise analysis to prove its acoustic success. And i have watched several movies on it to prove its media success. And i have listened to its music while at work though a Hamachi.cc VPN. And I am able to browse the play list and control the VLC media player from any browser with access to the network wirelessly or though the VPN. I like having a server.

Terminal Diversificaton

2006-03-31T12:37:00.000-06:00

I was walking into my local Barns and Nobles franchise and i noticed the large lettering on the buildings facade which read (in the order that I assume was intended) "Barns and Nobles booksellers, cafe, music" and i though what a load of services.
I understand that a business needs to reinvent itself to remain competitive to inevitable market entrants after their inflated profit margin, So it is understandable that a presumably stoic business owner would have had to make many adjustments to her business to remain in the market.

What struck me though was the extensiveness of the plethora of services available in a barns and nobles (all replaceable by the Internet, save the ambiance), I wont go into the full list, as i am currently not getting any kickbacks from BN, but suffice to say that every facet of the store contains more to offer than simply selling books.

All of this subtle marketing refinement is not unappreciated, as evidenced by the steady stream of customers drawn to one of BN services. However after searching through their specialized children's section for my daughter, without any help from the many helpful assistants, who thankfully don't chase you down to offer their services, I was soon to be made aware of just how extensive the "marketing diversification" had gone. I ordered my starbucks (another one of the reasons that i went to BN instead of amazon.com) and had to wait for a long time because the starbucks cafe mock up in a BN is not really a starbucks but just a cafe that uses ther coffee and logos but unfortunately not their training and service philosophy. I sat down and ate my choc brownie and noticed an ad' on the table which pointed out that my brownie was made with Godiva™ chocolate by the Cheesecake Factory™ served by a starbucks in a barns and nobles. Now that is a synergistic marketing orgy if ever saw one. It's like the Internet without pop-up blockers or spam_canners, it's like television (which according to Daft-Punk "rules the nation", according to Manson "contains god", and according to countless other bands is the source of all evil).

I feel kinda like i would have been better of making my own coffee, browsing amazon, and watching TV, too bad because i enjoy going out and that brownie was great (Lua thought so too) One day every franchise will just be a super target that knows your name and favorite color.

1095 Days

2006-03-21T23:05:00.000-06:00

= 26280 Hours
= 1576800 Minutes
= 94608000 Seconds

and 1096 days is, tomorrow, how long i will have been married to the love of my life an exquisitely beautiful, highly intelligent, bold woman with more wonderful and inspiring talents than i had ever expected. She has shown me facets of human nature that I had never known of, she is so patient, calm, moderate, and kind, genuinely loving without reservation. I am truly blessed to be the benefactor of her sentiments and a witness to the outcomes of her strong character that she displays in her recent addition to being an incredible wife, being a mother.

I always wanted to be married to someone who loved me regardless of any passing fads or phases i was in, and she does. I cant wait to find out what i will learn from you this year. Happy Naw-ruz and happy anniversary love. Thank you for all of your support and friendship. Here's to 95million reasons we made the right decision.

Polyphasic sleep(less) day 1

2006-03-11T05:44:00.000-06:00

My new approach (as of last nights failure) is to start the Uberman shedule during the day, forcing myself to take naps rather than depriving my self from sleep. Its a subtle change to the first day, but i think that it made it easier to stay awake with nothing to do till my 3am nap. My 3am nap was unsuccessful becasue i couldn't fall asleep which left me in a groggy state where i was suddenly overcome with sleep for 60min, i don't know how i woke up from it, since i hadn't set an alarm for the unscheduled 60min nap, but i'm glad it wasn't longer or i would have had to write it off as another failed start. When i woke up i was incredibly gripped by the urged to sleep, i am quite astonished at the force of it. I did, barely, escape its clutches by walking around and making some tea. I definatly need to find an activity that will keep me awake.

I already love the extra free time it has been really great to get to work on stuff without having to scrifice any family time. It is a little hard to stay awake without distractions. I have tried to adopt uberman schedule by starting the naps since this morning (or yesterday morning), I guess the tearm is going to lose relevance. I am astonished at the sheer force of the urge to sleep, the worst is when i woke up groggy from a nap that went 30min too long leaving me mentaly unarmed against the urge to sleep which is like mentaly forcing out an injection of milk of amnesia. Most of the night i have felt cold and uncomfortable, urging me furthar towards my bed. I am currently having a swinging level of the urge to sleep, which i must distinguish from a sleepyness, becasue i don't fell drowsy, just more like their are weight attached to my elelids(preventing me from seeing my spelling errors :) Well it six am so i'm going to call it day one. I'm sure that i'm going to be very tired today, i hope it goes smoothly, i have study circle at 11:30 which is right after my 11o'clock nao, so hopefully i'll be alright.

Polyphasic, Polystarting

2006-03-10T13:59:00.000-06:00

So, thursday night i tried to start, i decided that times will be 11, 3, 7, 11... so i went to sleep at 11pm but failed to wake up till 1:30am, at which point i decided to start tommorrow, which i have by taking naps every 4 hours, i'm hoping that i can keep this up tonight and over the weekend. I think that starting during the day is a better idea than trying to not sleep during the night. Most people seem to try strating out sleep deprived.

I was going to get a kitchen alarm clock, but since i don't have the spare time (yet!) to go to the store, i created a 30min mp3 of brown noise that i shaped witha parametric filter to take out some of the harsher sounds. Ithen applied an amplitude envelope so that it gets a little quieter after a few minutes then getting loud at the end before a tone repeats. I'm hoping that this will do the trick. Using my mp3 player also has the added bonus of plugging up my ears to block out external sound.

I've been met with the ususal raised eyebrows and occcasional quriosity when i tell people about this sleeping pattern. The most common response is "Man! i like to sleep!", whereby i respond in my head "dude! Sleep when your dead!"

Effects:
So far all i have done is take two naps today and convinced my mind that this is a feasable project and that i will be able to handle the adjustments, physically and socially. However despite taking two naps and getting a good night sleep last night i feel pretty drowsy, this could also be becasue i'm fasting during the day. Wish me luck!

Changes

2006-03-07T21:15:00.000-06:00

I have finally returned to this blog. I have been so busy at work because i have been learning so much. I've been given great opportunities to learn in the form of tough projects and helpful coworkers, but he itch to blog has returned (mainly becasue I've finally started allowing my self to surf the web during my lunch breaks rather than work through them). I cant wait to use some of my new skills on my existing sites, but a simple post will have to do for now.

I'm continually amazed by the sheer wealth of information on the internet and how bleeding edge it is. I could spend years riffling through dusty books of antiquated ideas or outdated science, but one google search can get me straight to the latest and greatest. My first reaction to anything that i am unsure about is to see what the internet thinks about it, most likely it's already been blogged about for years and the answer will be already tried and trusted. At work i use it every day to find out better ways of solving programming problems, at school I use it as a reffrence, at home it helps me cook, and anywhere I can rely on it for news, entertainment, finacial convenience, you name it.

My usual break time at work consists of scanning the headlines at tomshardware and lifehacker i even found my job on craigslist. I love to learn new things and today I found something I'v been waiting for ever since I learnt how to sleep though the night: polyphasic sleeping patterns. it seems to be a far more natural apprach to sleeping, whenever your tired, but on a rough schedule of 6 times a day for 20min. Do the math and this resuts in a huge surplus of conscious time for the average joe. From reading about it, it seems that it requires almost total abstinence from caffine and preferably an herbivorial diet, to match the diet of creatures who also have polyphasic sleep patterns, as opposed to our monophasic 8hour stretch of unconsciousness.

It is acheived by depriving ones self of normal sleep patterns until the body gets used to entering REM sleep immediately. The result is a sustained level of high alertness all waking hours of the day, like having that freshness of the morning all day long. Well naturally i don't think that I'll be able to resist the idea, I dreamed of being able to use my brain more hours of the day ever since i got married, and even more since I've had children. We always whish there were more hours in the day, but we barely use so many of them. I think that my life is prime for this adaptation in many ways, firstly I have learn't how to make changes to my habits, as long as I am able to identify them, this includes quitting nicotine, caffine and making jokes about fat people. I think that I will learn quickly how to slip into dream mode quickly because i already have a somewhat narcoleptic tendancy when i am even slightly sleep deprived. Finnaly I am very adapted to waking up on a regular schedule to an alarm clock (even more so during the Baha'i fasting period). The only concern i have is that my diet will be a hinderance. I like meat with every dinner, it will be difficult to minimize my meat diet or become veagan altogether because of habit but mostly (as my wife pointed out)becasue of the impact on my family, including my daughter who needs red meat to stay out of anemia. None the less i should be able to limit my consumption of meat or at least isolate it from other foods to minimize the burden on my digetive system.

I cant wait to try it, I'm trying to thing of a good time to start, some vacation would be great. I'm excited at the possibility of having free time to devote to projects that have been on the burner for too long, like my websites, speakers, and recording expreiments, as well as learning some new web technologies like .NET or AJAX.

Google SMS LifeHack

2005-09-15T20:05:00.000-05:00

Baseem showed me how to get a business listing with google.sms and like any lifehacker student i had to find a way to maximize its contribution to my productivity. I read over the instructions and even though you can just msg "help" to 46645(GOOGL) and decided that i wouldn't remember all of the options without having a cheat sheet nearby, i looked at my HPDA, seemed like a great place then i looked at the flat surface of my phone and i couldn't find a permenant marker fast enough. I crammed, in the style of organic chemistry finals, most of the commands and syntax without spilling over to the front of the phone at all.

Online School

2005-09-08T11:45:00.000-05:00

As a newly admitted student of the Minneapolis based online university Capella I thought I'd share a few of my newcomer experiences. Beginning with the admissions process, credit transfer and through to the first class. The biggest difficulty with online schools in general has been finding, online, specific details of the courses and the tuition, which is totally opposite to land based colleges which have a plethora of information on their websites. The only way to find information is to submit your email and telephone number and request a catalog, offline paper based catalog. This worked alright, the catalogs were all very informative and inspiring, but now they had my contact details and ruthlessly badgered me to pick a school before the 90 day no call rule exemption runs out, preventing them from calling me. After perusing the beautiful cellulose catalogs and realizing that only Capella could offer me what I wanted in the time that I wanted it I went to their website to see if I could at least apply online.

After clicking on the apply button and filling out all of the online forms I got to a page that said I had to pay $75 to proceed, a pretty hefty application fee compared to say the U of MN, but I remembered seeing something in the mailer about discounts to partnered colleges, my last college being one of them, I tried to do it online but no instant gratification, it said it might give me the discount later. So to my chagrin I again had to use a non online media to continue the application process and gave them a call. The nicest guy ever, Chris, became my personal "were gonna get you to graduate a.s.a.p., and a.cheap.a.p." guy which has been great, he made sure that I did every thing and kept me very updated via email and voicemail and he instantly removed the $75 fee. The rest of the application was very slick, my transcripts were reviewed in about two days and almost everything transferred, except one class.

So I wrote them an email about that one class and got a response in a few hours acknowledging it and telling me that it would be re-evaluated. Short day later I get an email and voicemail telling me that they used it to fulfill one of the class requirements, booya! I guess that is should be expected that the customer service will be great for a school that doesn't have to worry about campus issues, but it is so nice compared to working with other schools. I was really excited for class to start and all of the indicators told me it would be a very well structured setup.

The fist class is a orientation class coupled with a communications class, both are designed to get you oriented and practice working with students in their forum discussion style class layout. It took me a little while to figure out what to study, what was due and by when was it due, but after that I started chatting with other learners on the very simple forum discussion system. The class is moderately asynchronous in that if I feel like I could read or write a sentence at one moment, then fine I don't have to, I can do it when I feel like it, as long as I do it some time that day and best of all, get this, your supposed to talk in class! This is way better that real school where I would sleep through class because it was at 6:30am or get glared at for commenting to a classmate. So far so good i think that the platform has great potential and seem to be quite refined, then again being day 2, I haven't really learnt anything yet.

ColourLovers.com

2005-08-25T12:38:00.000-05:00

ColourLovers.Com is the most elegantly executed website concept since flickr and the whole database probably fits on a floppy. Perhaps it seems so great beacuse the site that I have been working on uses tables as a complex layout grid wich is terribly un-flexable and colourlovers embraces tables by using them the way that they were meant to be used. The site is a community sharing and ranking colour palette service, offering diverse user created and ranked colours with inspiring names. They save tremendously on bandwidth by suppling the colour rich palettes not with images but by using tables with custom background color and size. A huge service to the web design world. In these days of broadband we forget the utility of a very simple but emotive variable of the blank page, solid colour. Kudos to the lovers for correctly spelling colour. check out the love

rebel or a rebel

2005-08-19T22:27:00.000-05:00

Well as clearly evidenced by the number of days since my last post I am no pro-blogger. Then again, as clearly evidenced by the severe lack of comments left, no one really cares, frankly, myself included. So what is the future of lactose? When I started I thought that I had a lot to say, but in the process of thinking of something to say, I realize that I've become quite reserved in my opinions, life has made me humble(or i've humiliated myself at any rate) , but hopefully not boring. Then again I am no longer a teenager looking for a place to vent my angst. Don't get me wrong I'm not perfect, things can still make me agro (.sic) but with my ever growing respect for my blood pressure I have had to tone things down. That being said whets up with the craze over SLR cameras?

I find it far easier to frame a shot with the LCD screen rather than a view finder, plus you get live histogram (a very necessary function when using ccds vs. film due to the limited dynamic range). Size and weight, are they no longer considerations? There are 7MP cameras with plenty of zoom available that are small and light especially when compared to the honking mass of metal and plastic that SLRs take up. I understand needing one for specific reasons, like adding wide angle lenses or low light conditions or a professional appearance, but this suedo professional aka pro-sumer attitude is like playing doctor and then buying a stethoscope and lab coat. I'll be comfortably shooting for much longer and getting fresh angles while you will be getting the same old shots all the while with your arm sweating and your shoulder aching. Than again maybe I just wish that I could afford one. Alright there see, still got some angst in me. Enough with the bitterness, check out some of my photos here or here
Ok after taking a look at this camera i want one, more dynamic range(12bit ccd), faster lens, apparently has live histogram in the viewfinder, 5 shots per second, focal length multiplier only 1.6 making it much easier than older CCD's to do wideangle, shutter 1/8,000 to 30 seconds, gawk!

hipster PDA

2005-08-12T11:27:00.000-05:00

hpda 003, originally uploaded by lactose.

Many thanks to lifehacker.com for bringing to my attention the ingenious HPDA invented by Merlin Mann of 43folders.com This little joy has proven invaluable. It replaces post-its, loose shopping lists, notepads... This model has triple layer card flip cover with a protective layer of straping tape to add durability to the hinges and corners, this is a big issue when considering the frequency of butt-pocket transfers. I added the Pecil holder on the side, becasue i didn't really want another thing to find when i use the HPDA. It also fits in my clutch. Features include: unlimited battery life, upgradeable memory, accurate handwriting recognition, dirt cheap, durable, sexy(oh yeah baby, this puppys gonna suck up all the fluff!)

music station

2005-08-12T00:27:00.000-05:00

music station, originally uploaded by TRUTHFULNESS.

Those who know me are well aware of my passion for speakers, audio fidelity and the wires and paraphanaliea that come with. Two such people are my wife, and my daughter, one aware of the passion and the other quite passionate about the wires. My 8 month old daughter showed an avid affinity for wires and my +-300 month old wife insited that they be gone, the wires. So here is the new setup, no compromise on quality. My sony discman optically connected to creative extigy which sports 24bit 100db signal to noise ratio digital to analog converter and a very low distortion headphone amp, connected to some sony monitors.

Clutch

2005-08-11T23:22:00.000-05:00

I hate having to cram all the stuff that I like to have with me into my pockets. It makes me look lumpy; and I hate hunting for the pair of pants that I might have left something in. I usually make sure that I have at least my wallet and cell phone with me, keys too, but I don't necessarily have to remember my keys because by the time I get to the car I will know. But there are other things that I like to have with me, pen and paper, leatherman, gum... I tried throwing everything into my backpack, but it's big and ugly, making it difficult to take to say a restaurant or meeting. It is also tough to find stuff in my backpack, there are a myriad dark and deep pockets, folds, and zippers, easy to get lost in.

So I tried something new, a little metro, a little old school, not to daring or risky... A clutch, well, ok, it's really just a pencil bag, but it's perfect! It's semi transparent, which allows me to quickly take inventory, it is an open weave which prevents dust and junk from collecting because it just fall through, and its made from durable nylon, which is as macho as a man purse can get. Now it doesn't solve all of my problems, it is too small for everything that went into my backpack, like lunch, and I wouldn't take it into a fancy restaurant, but I can just leave it on the passenger seat of my car when I go in and take out what I need (keys and money). I like it because its light, frees up my pockets, and I think it looks cool but I might be a bit ahead of my time with that call.

CSS lifestyle

2005-07-29T16:39:00.000-05:00

I tried to edit the template of this blog, i think it taught me a fair amout of css, it's beautiful, i feel that it should have always been like this, clean cut, easy to update, one url for repeated images... Style is making consistent technical decisions, weather its color, shape, font, language, or markup tags, you really should only have to declare a style once not redecide it every time you you have a choice, what an unnessesary test of one's dicsapline!

opening comments

2005-07-29T15:14:00.000-05:00

this ain't no dear diary