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Friday, June 26th, 2009
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2:00 am - Something pretty awesome in the digital camera world
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For the past three years or so, nothing interesting has been happening in the world of non-SLR digital cameras. "Improvements" were limited to cramming more smaller pixels on the same size sensor (often leading to lower picture quality and slower operation), and bigger LCDs. I've needed a replacement for my little SD200 which has a cracked LCD (oops), but haven't seen anything compelling.
Olympus recently announced the EP-1, a camera that uses the same size sensor as their DSLRs, but in a camera roughly the size as the Canon G10, Canon's best compact camera. The EP-1's sensor is 5x bigger than the G10's! Its lenses need to be heftier and autofocus becomes tougher as depth of field gets smaller, yet they fit it into a similar sized package. Plus, it takes interchangeable lenses of an open standard (micro four thirds). When I visited B&H in New York last month, i tried out Panasonic's micro four thirds camera. It was only slightly smaller than my D40 SLR, so it was not impressive, but the EP-1 is a different beast.
The EP-1 is a bit pricey , and i probably won't get one because it lacks a built-in flash, but i'm sure it's just the first of many cameras of this design. I would not be surprised if in a few years this type of camera outsells SLRs.
Cameras can still get a lot smaller with large sensors. In college i used an Olympus Stylus Epic, a film camera that was pocketable, still much smaller than the EP-1...and of course, the 35mm film is 4x the size of the EP-1's sensor! I've read that the reason today's larger digital sensors can't be put into cameras of this sort is that digital sensors can't handle light at sharp angles well, but that's bound to change in the future. After that, maybe we'll get some cool flexible or liquid lenses that are more eye-like. And the best would be a smart dude in the camera to give us photography lessons.
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| Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
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1:23 am - xkcd and girl
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| Friday, May 1st, 2009
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9:12 pm - Something that i thought only i cared about ...
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but i suppose class action lawyers care about more!
I like shopping at Costco...well, at least, at non-peak hours. The problem is that i certainly don't get my $50/year's worth out of it (especially now that i've found out that you can buy booze without a membership at costco with cash, per California alcohol law), but that isn't really a big deal. Since we only go 4-6 times a year, it really annoys me that they always renewed my membership based on the month i joined rather than the month when i paid for renewal.
For example, my membership started in aug 2000, then i would pay in dec 2000, and my membership would expire in aug 2001 rather than dec 2001. This annoyed me enough that one of these times i actually asked at the membership desk why their policies were so dumb, and told them that if i were a more patient person i would have just signed up as a new member.
Today i was emailed this pdf, a Costco Class Action Settlement Notice, Rhonda Dupler v. Costco Wholesale Corporation. The legal settlement basically says that Costco will give all people who renewed after expiration credit for the months they lost...and in addition, they'll pay the class action lawyers $5M in addition to whatever they owe their corporate counsel.
If Costco had listened to me, they'd be at least $5 million richer.
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| Saturday, April 25th, 2009
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8:46 pm - Why the web started out grey
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Ever wonder why old web pages all defaulted to a grey background (~1991-1997)? The simple answer is that most of the browsers of the era all defaulted to a grey background. Plus, if i recall correctly, web pages couldn't actually specify a background color until Netscape 2.0 (1996?). I never liked the grey, and always set my browser default background color to be some cold-blue shade of white.
Why did browsers default to the miserable grey background? I just made this connection today while reading a page on the history of GUIs. Tim Berners-Lee developed the web on a NeXT cube (aka "great mudding box" or "worst print spooler in the history of earth"), and Nextstep, the OS, was predominantly black text on a medium grey background in presentation.
Steve Jobs was the founder and CEO of NeXT. I can't say with absolute certainty that Steve Jobs was directly responsible for the grey Nextstep interface, but he certainly wouldn't have allowed it to be released if he didn't approve of it. In other words, Steve Jobs is why the web started out grey!
[Admittedly, grey on black looked great on NeXT boxes because of their high resolution displays and fancy font rendering. Most other systems of the day lacked anti-aliasing and decent fonts, so grey on black looked horrible on them.]
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| Thursday, April 9th, 2009
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9:56 pm - fiber cuts today, and how to fix a seized spice grinder motor
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People who destroy base infrastructure are nearly the worst people in the world. Unlike some common thief, they don't gain anything through their actions, unless their goal is to cause extra work and annoyance for average people. Unlike someone with a revenge motive, they inconvenience many, many people, not just their target. Last night between 2-5 AM, someone(s?) cut fiber at two different locations in the bay area, two in San Jose and one in San Carlos.
What does "cutting fiber" mean exactly? Well, when telcos lay fiber optic cables, they typically put down big bundles of it even if they only need a few strands of fiber, because it's more cost efficient. These bundles can be up to the hundreds of strands of fiber. The rest can be used for future expansion or sold to people who need the bandwidth. You've probably heard of "dark fiber"; those are the strands that aren't used.
In last night's incident, at least 5 bundles were cut completely through, with over 500(!) strands of fiber being disconnected. That means around 1000 Gbps of communications may have been disrupted, or the equivalent bandwidth of around 700,000 home DSL lines (assuming zero oversubscription). These lines are used for internet, telephone, cell phone, private networks, and anything else people want to send over fiber. All of this communication was disrupted for the day, or maybe longer, by one bad apple. What a ridiculous waste. AT&T, the owner of these lines, but only one of many users of them, is offering a $100k $250k reward for information leading to the arrest of the troublemaker.
In more entertaining news, today I fixed Linnea's spice grinder . The motor had seized, meaning that when you plug it in and run it, the motor buzzes but doesn't rotate, so the grinding blade doesn't rotate. Many people on amazon seem to have had the same problem with the Krups grinders. Cleaning and lubrication of the motor fixes this in >95% of cases. I unplugged it, then pried open the plastic case to get to the motor. I tested it out by using a screwdriver to rotate the shaft; the shaft only rotated after applying a lot of force. I cleaned out the insides, then applied light oil to the bearing (where the rotating and nonrotating pieces meet), let it soak for a couple hours, then tested it out. The motor could now spin more freely. Getting the plastic cover back on was the hard part--the plastic had odd clips that were near impossible to get back on, so i ended up using lab tape to secure the case.
The motor on this grinder is rated at 200W, a large amount of power for such a small motor. That's nearly as much as some stand mixers . Be careful, and don't run it with the cover off.
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| Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
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12:06 am - Three Movies set in Manhattan [possible minor spoilers]
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1. Manhattan - Not much to say here; if you like Woody Allen, you'll like it. The only thing that puzzled me was why Mariel Hemingway's career seems to have been a string of mediocre movies and TV since...(Superman IV?)
2. Enchanted - Surprisingly entertaining in its disneyish mockery of disney princessness. Needed more music! I miss musicals. A bit slow towards the end.
3. I am Legend - Fun action flick, up until the end. The ending seemed shallow and empty. After watching i knew there must be more to it. I found out that there was an alternate, far more interesting ending, which followed the book more closely. In this alternate ending, we find out that the alpha-vamp was looking for his mate which Will Smith had captured (the one with the butterfly tattoo), and alpha was seeking to free her. Immediately following was the horror as Will Smith looks at his wall of experimental subjects he's killed and discovers that he's the real "Legend", a mass murderer of the planet's dominant sentient species. I can't believe this ending got cut; i would bet that the movie could have been a bigger repeat draw (like say, the sixth sense) with this ending.
Bonus review: Bridge to Terabithia - This was the frowniest book i ever read in my life, and I think i had it blocked out of my memory since elementary school because of that. When i saw the trailer for this movie a couple years ago, i was horrified. WTF did they do, turn this into a bad CGI action animated adventure of stupidity, and ignore the entire story? Luckily, the CGI stuff was only a very minor part of the movie. I feel really, really bad for any parents who brought their kids to the movie only knowing of the trailer (IT'S A TRAP!!!!). Movie--as sad as the book. It makes me sad just thinking about it. Geez.
Back to reading our lovely tax code...
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, March 27th, 2009
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12:13 am - Quote of the month
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| Thursday, March 12th, 2009
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2:11 pm - Defeat the tyranny of rounded corners on the new facebook home page
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To stop the roundification of user icons on the new facebook home page, do this:
1. Install Adblock Plus and Firefox if you don't already have them, then restart/start firefox.
2. Open Adblock Plus' preferences, then select "Add filter..." In the box for the new filter, enter "http://www.facebook.com/images/ui/UIRoundedImage.png"
No more rounded corners!
(Next up, shrinking my user icons so they don't get rounded)
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, February 26th, 2009
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2:40 pm - Things we learned today
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1. Rats and quail can't throw up, but shrews and chicken can.
2. The guy who played the oafish assistant coach "Dauber" on the TV show "Coach" is the voice of Patrick Starfish on "Spongebob Squarepants"
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, February 19th, 2009
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11:13 pm - Dear Amazon
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This should not be the amazon search result for "book" or well, everything else.
"Your search did not match any products."
[cue sounds of scurrying engineers and business folks pulling their hair out]
and while you're at it can you stop showing me ads for the Kindle?
five minutes pass
Ah, that's better. Thanks!
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(comment on this)
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| Monday, February 9th, 2009
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2:04 pm - Dear webster word of the day, thank you
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| Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
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9:59 am - unawkward turtle
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| Thursday, December 11th, 2008
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11:23 pm - Ways to spend an FSA
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It's the end of the year and you have money left in your FSA. Your eyes have been lasiked, you've bought prescriptions for the next three months, and have a clean bill of health. What else can you use it for?
In-home pole dancing! Thanks costco!
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
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3:24 pm - Squirrels are evil
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Turn on gas grill. *click*. *click**click*. Starter is not working. Smell gas. Hear leaking hiss sound. Shut off gas. Look down. Curse at squirrels. Order new regulator/hose.
This is what happens when you're too nice to squirrels. They get to eat loquats, apricots, tomatoes, and lemons from our yard, but apparently that's not enough to quench their appetite for rubber. Maybe i need to attract some of the local stray cats to our yard.
Anyone have some pipe tape/dope that i can use? And/or a slingshot?
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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2:24 pm - Our new 518 lb. black baby
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| Saturday, December 6th, 2008
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2:38 am - one for the alcoholics
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Cabo Wabo reposado tequila is selling at Costco (Sunnyvale) for only $28! Tasty tasty, almost feel guilty using it for a margarita.
They also have the biggest beer selection that i've ever seen in any costco:
- Newcastle, which only shows up once in a while
- an odd holiday variety pack of sam adams that includes a porter, cream stout and a cranberry semi-lambic. bought this.
- the terrific Sierra Celebration Ale
(along with the usual suspects)
Avoid the place like the plague on weekends. The one time i went there on a Saturday i went temporarily insane. The MV Costco is much better, but i haven't checked it out recently.
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12:26 am - Web merchants that pick the worst time for downtime
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When Amazon goes down for a few minutes, it's big news. That's because they're the probably the best run shopping site on the net, and one of the best run operations on the web.
Other merchants are not so lucky. A couple weeks ago i was trying to find parts for my gas grill, so I visited weber.com, and they had a "SYSTEM MAINTENANCE" message at their store. I looked a day later, and found the same message. Now it says, "At this time we are upgrading our site and we are currently unable to take orders. The new store will open for business in January."
Taking down a site during the busiest shopping month of the year? Well, maybe Weber doesn't do much in the way of direct sales through their web site, and they still have terrific phone support/sales.
The worst I've seen is Walmart.com. It's been down about half of the times that i've visited it (including right now). Now, maybe i tend to visit late at night, and not very often, but a company that size should be able to keep their site at least partially up during maintenance, right? It's not a new problem for Walmart.
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, December 4th, 2008
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11:29 pm - The second most useless thing i've ever received in the mail
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Today i got this flyer from Circuit City in the mail, which included some coupons, with the following disclaimer:
Offer excludes Bose, Element, Outlet, Open Box, Red Dot Clearance, Red Hot Value, Kicker, Apple, Velodyne, Polk, notebooks, desktops, all DSLR cameras, sony camcorders, sony camera accessories, PC software, all vacuum models, preorder/backorder products, coming soon models, music, movies, game hardware, game software, select Garmin GPS models, and circuit city gift card purchases.
That's about 75% of everything they sell. Circuit City - no wonder they're filing for bankruptcy.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Monday, December 1st, 2008
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6:03 pm - How to fix firefox 3 bookmarks
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Ever since i've upgraded to firefox 3, the bookmarks have been acting oddly. Each submenu in the bookmarks menu would only show the first ~22 bookmarks, and bookmarking all tabs would only result in those first ~22 being saved. I checked the bookmarks.html file in the firefox profile directory, only to find that it had not been updated since the upgrade.
It turns out firefox 3 switched bookmarks to use sqlite for bookmark storage. It keeps backups around in json format, so you can rebuild the sqlite bookmarks db by doing the following:
1. Quit firefox
2. Delete the "places.sqlite" and "places.sqlite-journal" files in your profile directory
3. Run firefox
Now, if i could only figure out why printing hangs (one of the top crash reports), this browser might be usable.
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
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2:25 am - The sad state of journalism
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Dear Associated Press,
Seriously? Umm...seriously? Your idea of journalism is a story about a guy who managed to get rid of something for free on Craigslist?
At one time I had been concerned about the cuts going through pretty much all of the old news media, but this is some reassurance that yes, we'll be ok without some of them.
"Plenty of takers for man's basement pile of coal"
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A ton of coal was just taking up space in the basement of Steve Hronek's 90-year-old house, but to other people it was an alternative-fuel treasure. The knee-high pile of anthracite coal was down there in 1997 when Hronek bought the house, which once was heated with a low-tech coal-burning furnace.
He turned to a high-tech solution, offering the coal in an online classified ad to anyone who wanted it.
One dealer said that type of anthracite coal, higher in heat and lower in soot than common bituminous or soft coal, sells for $220 or more per ton, but Hronek just wanted his basement cleaned up.
The ad he posted Nov. 17 offered the coal for free — to anyone who was willing to haul the big, heavy chunks out of his basement in Cleveland Heights.
Responses from people looking for fuel started coming within 15 minutes and continued for two days, and people showed up with trucks.
Hronek says all the coal has been spoken for.
[yes...coal: the new alt fuel!]
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