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February 26, 2007
Ikea Update
Taking the white Apple theme to a ridiculous extent ... I've done more work on the loft office.
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| Cable nest before condoms. | Cabling after obscuring. Can't see the wires! |
I put all the cables into white cable "condoms" to visually obscure them. I added a white cylindrical trash can to match. The black file cabinet has been retired (donated to Boyd HS Band hall to house the future media archive), and a 12" round-cap replaces the end of the table edge.
Final result -- work area deluxe!
Posted by Steven at 08:51 PM | Comments (2)
February 22, 2007
Family Slide Archive
I've started scanning the slides I collected from Susan, John, and Leigh Anne that were taken by my parents in the 1960s. I had begun this project back in 2004, when I was in Toronto, but I found that it was much slower going that I expected. I've sorted the slides and stored them in acid-free, relatively air tight sleeves, but they still need alot of cleanup before scanning. For now, I am just brushing and dusting them, and hoping the Nikon Coolscan V ED's ICE technology will see through the scratches.
I'm also using iWeb to publish the images, since it's so easy to do something that looks pretty good with little effort. I'll add a few slides every day in the evening. Eventually I'll get them all done.
These images are 60+ Mb in size on my hard drive after being scanned to JPEG. The images on the website are greatly compressed, after I work some image clean-up magic on them.
Posted by Steven at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)
February 21, 2007
Minuet, A Profile
We have two insane cats. One has a problem with plastic, and the other, with laser pointers. Today, we focus on the laser-obsessed cat.
One of these cats thinks it's an otter. An otter with fangs (actually, I think otters do have fangs). Another thinks it's a big game hunter. The last one thinks I'm food some of the time, and is willing to "show me the fangs!" to make the point. These are, of course, all the same animal, a pet slavishly obsessed with a red laser pointer dot.
It's her whole world, reason d'etre, &c. She lurks around my desk during the day, hoping to hear the quiet but distinct click of the laser pointer coming on, and the dot on the floor (don't cats have trouble seeing red?). She has a fixed pattern I must follow, and that she tears through chasing this dot she can just barely see. When I don't give her enough "laser time", she starts crying like a Siamese cat in a voice from deep inside, a baleful voice of dispair and angst. Or, sometimes she'll just get in my chair and not yield until I "make with the laser". I think in all four of these images, she was just thinking and planning new ways to get me to bring out the laser.
Crazy kat.
Posted by Steven at 08:09 PM | Comments (0)
iMac and iKea
After seeing what 'Soyburger' did with his Mac collection, I was inspired to update my own work area, especially for the new iMac. I knew that I wanted white desktop and I wanted more space to accomodate the HP LaserJet, NeXTStation Color Turbo, and the iMac Intel Dual Core 2 system with two displays. I also wanted to have room for my Epson flatbed scanner and my Nikon Coolscan V, so I could resume the slide scanning project I started in 2004. I knew I probably wanted to use Ikea for the furniture.
Last night I went out to Frisco and bought two desktops in the GALANT line from Ikea. I got the "corner desk, left" and the "desktop" (47") surfaces, and eight A-frame legs to hold them up. I bolted the two sections together, for a larger, sturdy surface that dwarfs what I originally had (6' x 2' rectangle). The results speak for themselves:
New "Shrine to Steve Jobs" work area featuring NeXT and iMac computers
I also got the PC bracket to hang under the right side of the desk, where I've currently got the Macintosh Quadra 840av. Next to it is the Silicon Graphics Indy, which didn't fit in the bracket (feh!). I plan to divest myself of the black filing cabinet, and when I do, I'll put a rounded corner end on the desk to compliment the rest of the desk.
I've also begun binding the cables under the desk to minimize their visibility. I hope to have them sequestered to trunks and tied to the A-frame legs (eventually) so no one need see them. About the only clutter on the desk is now associated with the iMac and the fact that I have three external hard drives attached to it. Eventually I'll move one of the SATA externals to the iMac (and blow the warranty) and lose the third drive leaving only one external. I got all the scanner s working last night, and I received Final Cut Pro today so I have a full multimedia development suite!
Posted by Steven at 07:55 PM | Comments (0)
February 16, 2007
Anne's Newest Student
No, not really. I can just imagine Minuet learning how to do this ... at 2am every night.
Posted by Steven at 05:38 PM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2007
Latest Trend of the Rich and Stupid: Homemade Snow
The New York Times has an article about home snow making.
Snowmaking, since the mid-1960s the provenance of ski resorts and, more recently, some party planners, has gone domestic.Companies like Snow Economics, a maker and inventor of resort-quality snow machines in Natick, Mass. — from which Mr. Heaven bought his two Backyard Blizzard snowmakers a few years ago — have been selling home snowmakers since 2000.
Snow at Home, a Cheshire, Conn., company run by Matt Pittman and Ken Jackie, has been shipping snowmakers for use in backyards from New Jersey to New Zealand for four years; sales are now “in the hundreds,” Mr. Pittman said.
“We’ve hit every state but Hawaii,” he said last week.
Mr. Pittman, who was speaking by cellphone, was with a client near Morristown, N.J., helping to put the finishing touches on what was essentially the client’s personal resort, he said: a 200-foot-long slope behind the house with a warming hut at its foot and two snow machines at its peak. The previous summer, trees had been cleared and water and power lines buried below the soil’s frost line, ready to hook up to two of Mr. Pittman’s machines. “New Jersey is a big area for us,” Mr. Pittman said. “There’s no snow, and lots of disposable income.”
Two observations come to mind quickly.
First, we have a new data point on the classic WRPI "Coke Scale" (i.e. an exponential scale of income, based on being able to afford continuous consumption of Coke™ or Cocaine (the two major reference points on the scale). I think this falls between Coke and Cocaine, but I could be wrong about the cost of "the other snow" (with apologies to Pork).
Second, New Jersey? That's where the ridiculously rich are now? Or is it merely that, thanks to Global Warming (there, now I've said it), Jersey no longer gets a reliable snowing, but it's still cold enough to harbor snow like some seasonal crop? Either way ... what a screwball response to explosive wealth and climate change.
Posted by Steven at 05:38 PM | Comments (0)
Why I Use Macs
From Ken Rockwell's website, a great summary of the reasons why using Macintosh is better than Windows. Rockwell is a digital photography reviewer.
Posted by Steven at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)
February 13, 2007
Glowlaces: Found!
Many moons ago, I found a product called "glow laces" -- a "Y" shaped pair of electroluminescent blue plastic wires that blinked blue in the dark, and powered by small watch battery modules. I threaded them into my Riedell Carrera skates, and had cool glow-in-the-dark skates that caught everyone's eye. Sadly, the product is no longer made, and I couldn't find anything like it ... until:
This is Glowwire from Solution Industries, and for all practical purposes, it's the same as the original glow laces. I paid $24 for these two powered blue wires, and that included batteries. I haven't added them to my Riedell 395 skates yet, but hope to this weekend before the regular Sunday skate at White Rock Skate Center.
Cool, huh?
Posted by Steven at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)
Leo Commended for Academic Honors
Tonight at Dowell Middle School, the A and A-B honor roll students were honored in a ceremony that filled the cafetorium. Leo was recognized in the AB Honor Roll.
Posted by Steven at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)
Seeing Double
Today I delivered my iMac G5 to Dan Bailey, and began the tranistion to the newer iMac Intel Dual Core 2 (2.0 GHz, 1 Gb, and 8x DVD-Dual Layer burner).
Dualing iMacs ... can YOU tell which is which?
Dan bought my 2 yr. old iMac G5, enabling my upgrade to the Intel model. It becomes the primary video editing suite machine in my arsenal, and continues to be Leo's primary computer. Since I made the jump to the MacBook Pro, I've been watching the rise of "universal binaries" and there seems to be a critical mass of software that runs at full speed on the Intel Mac now. Leo is also looking forward to some kind of Windows compatibility, but Parallels doesn't really run 3D games very well yet. I'd still rather run the Mac version of high end stuff.
Posted by Steven at 10:26 PM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2007
Leo Earns His First Music Competition "1" Rating
Tonight Leo competed UIL Solo and Ensemble Contest at Scott Johnson Middle School and earned his first "1"! Anne accompanied him on piano in their first successful collaboration.
Posted by Steven at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)
"Introduction of Book"
Check out this YouTube parody of the "Introduction of the Book".
Posted by Steven at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)
February 04, 2007
HP Calculator Manuals on DVD
I got my copy of the Museum of HP Calculators DVD of all the manuals (v5.00) today.
This is an amazing collection of literally every HP calculator product documentation since the '60s. Most of the manuals are scanned at 150 dpi in harsh black-and-white, but they are all there and all the text is clearly readable. It's an amazing library of information about the greatest calculators every made.
Joe Bob sez, "Check it out!"
Posted by Steven at 12:23 AM | Comments (2)