Archive for the 'Life' Category

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Tech Things (I Know) I Don’t Understand

Published on 2007/7/5 in General, Life and Link. 0 Comments

  • Lisp and Functional Programming – Reddit collectively says it’s so great
  • Semantic Web – I just finished my entire senior project at University on processing websites and I have had the sneaking suspicion that Semantic Web might be The Proper Way to accomplish my goals. That said, no tools from that camp presented themselves in research. More on that project later perhaps.
  • “Web Services” – Mashups are one thing, but where do you draw the line? I love dapper which makes RSS/XML from bloody ugly old fashioned sites!
  • Unix (not Linux) – It always feels wrong. Props to Stallman and GNU, there is something to those tools.
  • YouTube

I do get:

  • Twitter (I like the Group Instant Messaging idea)
  • Google Reader (Podcasts, News, Blogs)
  • IMAP – Store email on the server so it is always in the cloud, Gmail works too, less personal with the benefit of free backups.
  • Google Desktop- Google for my mind. Now on Linux, Mac AND Windows. I hope that they have porting tools to move the data files between platforms!?
  • Greasemonkey – I should do one of those cliched posts where I list all the scripts I use.

Further explore and accept:

  • RAW camera formats - Here I come Nikon D80.
  • FreeBSD – Installed but it’s still not me. Gentoo makes more sense.
  • Grandcentral.com – Route all your calls through one number? Google just bought them.

Facebook might be like AOL but College students have free audiences there, more than can be said for most blogs.

Home again

Published on 2005/7/4 in General, Imagery and Life. 0 Comments

!http://www.thadk.net/~thadk/photos/fireworks%2005/qdig-converted/med_100_25331.jpg!

Fireworks on my return

“My favorites of the shoot”:http://www.thadk.net/~thadk/photos/index.php?Qwd=./fireworks%2005&Qif=100_25431.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=M

I got to test out the “Digital Photography Hacks”:http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/0596006667 book I read on O’Reilly’s Safari free on campus. It gave some tips on the counter intuitive shooting of the bright things. Conveniently the fireworks were right out my third story bathroom window, no water to play with but you can’t have everything.

Now, set your aperture to f-8—even more counterintuitiveness, I’m afraid. If you were to open it up all the way to something like f-2.8, something you’re probably inclined to do, your fireworks would actually be overexposed, thereby producing that sickening feeling in your stomach and waves of bitter disappointment. Avoid all of that by starting with f-8.

Once the fireworks begin, take some initial shots. You want to anticipate the action. When you think a series is about to begin, put the black cardboard or baseball cap over your lens and trip the shutter. As the explosions begin, quickly pull back the cardboard and let the camera capture the action. I like this technique because you can control the cardboard faster than you can the camera. … As the fireworks explode, move the cardboard aside. Put it back over the lens until the next series appears, and then remove it again. This way, you won’t overexpose the image with the ambient light in the scene; you’ll record only the bursts of fireworks. What you’re really doing is creating a multiple-exposure shot. Try it; it’s really fun.

I think I overexposed a bit. Ah well.

Home was nice, I probably won’t be back until the middle of October. Played with my collge-bound younger brother’s new mac quite extensively. Also went on a four hour bike excursion, eating all sorts of glorious fruits the whole way–we brought blueberries, plums, and nectarines, and found blackberries, sour-sweet cherries, and bing cherries. Mm. And then returned for a full summertime harvest meal, corn, beans, the fixins. Nice being home.

Now I’m back, which means back to calculus, wee. Off I go.

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