Forget the fake crap that passes for Reality TV these days! “I am Moving to Japan”:http://dogbonesbackyard.blogspot.com/2006/07/i-am-moving-to-japan.html links to a Japanese show presenting a game show done right; make a mistake, get hit in the nuts!
(Ya, ok, it’s not real. it’s actually a comedy team, but the idea is sound. And the inner conflict between cringing in sympathy and laughing ’til you pee is good, too!)
“Reid”:http://rae.tnir.org/ bugged me about documenting the tools I use for photo processing and publishing:
“Irfanview”:http://www.irfanview.com/ Thumbnails – autorotate. Irfanview is a very good image viewer for Windows. I’ve always used the lossless jpeg rotator in the package. Recent versions have been shipping with Irfanview Thumbnails, which lets me do bulk autorate of my photos, based on the EXIF orientation flag which is set by an orientation sensor in both of our cameras.
“Picasa”:http://picasa.google.com/ – photo management. I discovered Picasa when Google first bought it; I love both the photo browsing interface and the builtin “simple” photo editing tools, which do a surprisingly good job of basic edits (light balance, crops, etc.). One thing I like is that Picasa always keeps your original photo; any edits can be undone, even months later.
“Flickr”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/chkoch/, “Gallery”:http://gallery.menalto.com/, “Picasa Web”:http://picasaweb.google.com/harald.koch, Rogers Photos – publishing. I use each for different things. Flickr has the advantage of social networking; my friends see my pictures because they have friended me. Gallery runs on my server, and I use it for blog images (including for the “rpg blogs”:http://www.cfrq.net/~rolemaster/). Picasa Web is new from Picasa/Google; not sure if I like it yet, but it does make publishing from Picasa trivial. And Rogers Photos I use because of the “unlimited” storage for bulk pictures, like those from kite flying events.
“Unison”:http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/ – sync/backup to the main fileserver. Unison is a bidirectional file synchronization program, like rsync but it moves files in both directions, resolving conflicts appropriately. I use it so that the photo collection can be stored and edited on all four computers around here, without (too many) conflicts.
“Nero”:http://www.nero.com/ – backup to CD / DVD. Mentioned for completeness, and because the Roxio package that comes with the Compaq’s -sucks- doesn’t work for me (Nero came with both of my DVD writers).
“Ubuntu Dapper”:http://www.ubuntu.com/ – fileserver. Also mentioned for completeness :-). The fileserver currently has 200Gb of disk, but it’s filling up again; I have a pair of 320GB drives on order, with plans to RAID-1 them together.
HP PhotoSmart 7960 – printing :-). I love this printer, even though it’s not available anymore (the new Vivera-based HP PhotoSmart printers like the 8250 are even better, from what I’ve seen). The output quality is awesome. I also have an HP LaserJet 1020 for day-to-day printing; saves wear-and-tear (and ink!).
has everything:
“Monty Python’s Camelot on the Starship Enterprise”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptx98LTGyfE
Bored?
“http://n.nfshost.com/”:http://n.nfshost.com/
They gradually get harder. This may eat up your day. Enjoy!
(via “Catspaw”:http://insanecats.com/cgi-bin/single.py?month=jul06&msg=14).
*Update:* I’m stuck going from 25 to 26.
Someone sent me a link to this video:
Incredible Machines – Google Video
It’s a series of short videos of Rube Goldberg type machines; apparently they were submissions to an advertising contest. Some of the mechanisms are pretty cool!
“Anita”:http://the_nita.livejournal.com/ sent me this:
Academie Duello presents – Modern uses for Historical Swordplay
Will you be ready?
I found it wonderfully ironic that this appeared in my inbox on the same day that we are moving into a new cubicle farm:
Maybe I’m a magpie, but I think that “Google Finance”:http://www.google.com/finance?q=HPQ&btnG=Search is tres cool…
“The problem with Space Elevators”:http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/stuntmutt.html?type=main&image=187
(The joke doesn’t work for me in Firefox, because I’m missing a plugin :-(
What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
Or, as catspaw puts it, “Why do we love to hate”:http://insanecats.com/cgi-bin/single.py?month=feb06&msg=10?
bq. [stock options are] like my boyfriend’s idea of giving me a diamond. He puts a lump of coal in my hand, tells me to squeeze real tight and be PATIENT.
from Sand Hill Slave
Flickr’s “interesting pictures page”:http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/ is highly addictive…
urban art: a group built a park in a parking spot:
Jeff K says: Here in Richmond Hill, we don’t do arty nonsense on a street corner, we bring down corrupt governments, expropriate land from powerful universities and create a national park in our riding if we want a nice park to walk in:
http://www.jdipaola.com/action.php
Well, at least we dream about it, but we mark the X in 13 days.
A good overview of the subject of ordering wine in restaurants…
waiterrant.net — How to Order Wine Without Looking Like a Jerk (title slightly edited)
If our employers can outsource our jobs, why can’t we?
Another “know your rights” for photographers. The news here is slightly better than some other articles I’ve seen on the subject.
Of course, it would be more useful to me if it were Canadian… :-)
USATODAY.com – New digital camera? Know how, where you can use it
Jeff K says: Some of the best Boris Spremo news shots (cdn. news photographer) were rumoured to be taken with the cops yelling “Hey you can’t go there!”. Apparently he had a hearing problem when loud authority figures were making no sense. I suspect a press-card and a big honking news corporation standing behind him helped a bit with his freedoms, but I am only er, speculating.
http://www.phsc.ca/boris_spremo.html
[Book ref. avail. on req.]
The Globe and Mail: They’d take Halifax (then we’d kill Kenny)
bq. First approved in 1930, Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan – Red was drawn up to defend the United States in the event of war with Britain.
bq. It was one of a series of such contingency plans produced in the late 1920s. Canada, identified as Crimson, would be invaded to prevent the Britons from using it as a staging ground to attack the United States.
We were going to grab Buffalo if invaded? What if it worked? Would we have to keep it after the war?
Macleans.ca | Culture | Books | Does anybody really know what time it is?
bq. Having reworked the astronomical calculations that underlie standard chronology, [Anatoli] Fomenko argues that time is out of joint. History as commonly reckoned is about 1,000 years too long, contends the mathematician. Most of those centuries should be carved out of the Middle Ages, which barely existed as a bridge between the ancient and modern worlds: Christ, Greek warriors and medieval knights all lived at the same time.
Jeff K says: Interesting link. The journalist, the mathematician and the historian might consider looking beyond western civilization, but I guess that’s too hard. Some reviewers on Amazon call it a mere derivative work. […and besides time doesn’t exist anyway :), Er, well I at least I don’t have any. ]
A new variation on “40% of sick days” from The Angry Economist
It is gone from there and is now here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=75YM4xeEq3w
Damn that’s the funniest Youtube video I have seen yet!
Though the Chad Vader clips here are pretty funny too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mFBUil8-Z0