Posts

Showing posts from December, 2013

Last I was in Aarhus, I helped Mark Byers out with some equipment and setting up a temporary farm, since he was just about the only #resistance #Ingress player there. Now he's been painting the town seriously blue.

Last I was in Aarhus, I helped Mark Byers out with some equipment and setting up a temporary farm, since he was just about the only #resistance   #Ingress  player there. Now he's been painting the town seriously blue. Originally shared by Mark Byers Here is the sitrep for our mission where the resistance covered Aarhus in 17 overlapping blue fields. Summary of Achievements * 17 overlapping blue fields over Aarhus - the second largest city in Denmark. * 975,000 Mind Units. * Aarhus covered with at least one layer of blue for 48 consecutive hours. * Fields were able to survive multiple enlightened attacks. Agents Involved @doubleshot- link clearing @GiEFHUGZ- intel operator @Jerslev- link clearing @liquidnoir- link clearing, planning, field building @MarkByers- link clearing, planning, field building Full report contained in the document. Happy New Year! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p_HEPAlg7K6hiKMGCVI1Xbix_YVGSvcJONBHVKIOUXM/edit?usp=sharing #Ingress #IngressReport

And this is why I love 3D printing: The ability to make the unexpected real.

And this is why I love 3D printing: The ability to make the unexpected real. Via aurin ræder  http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=ljk8JZFhV5EPaJ4agyxX-A&u=/watch?v%3DZeim1deM9Jw%26feature%3Dshare
Birthday fragmentation: I have had happy birthday wishes through G+, Facebook, email, Hangouts, SMS, phone, and even Geni. I think they missed telegram and carrier pigeon.

"HCI people discover bugs by receiving a concerned email from their therapist. Systems people discover bugs by waking up and discovering that their first-born children are missing and “ETIMEDOUT ” has been written in blood on the wall."

"HCI people discover bugs by receiving a concerned email from their therapist. Systems people discover bugs by waking up and discovering that their first-born children are missing and “ETIMEDOUT ” has been written in blood on the wall." http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/mickens/thenightwatch.pdf

Todays cool science: Battery research uses genetically-modified viruses to create nano-wires for much better batteries. The research listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery#Materials_used_in_construction looks promising indeed (hint: current batteries only have ~100Ah/l)

Todays cool science: Battery research uses genetically-modified viruses to create nano-wires for much better batteries.  The research listed at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery#Materials_used_in_construction looks promising indeed (hint: current batteries only have ~100Ah/l) Be our slaves, nasty little critters! http://www.rifters.com/real/articles/Science_Viral_Nanowires.pdf

Quote of the day:

Quote of the day: "More computing sins are committed in the name of efficiency (without necessarily achieving it) than for any other single reason - including blind stupidity." -W.A. Wulf If you haven't measured it, you're not optimizing -- you're just following your preconceptions. Preconceptions probably created for a different time with different systems and different trade-offs.

Haven't seen Desolation of Smaug yet, but now I know I have some much more to look forward to.

Haven't seen Desolation of Smaug yet, but now I know I have some much more to look forward to. Thanks to Jeremy Nixon for digging this up at Kimberly Chapman's request. http://vimeo.com/57813217

This is not about yoga. This is about the ability to patent a camera angle. Yes, you read that right. A patent has been issued for using a specific camera angle. Not a difficult one or an ingenious one. Just a specific, common one.

This is not about yoga. This is about the ability to patent a camera angle. Yes, you read that right. A patent has been issued for using a specific camera angle. Not a difficult one or an ingenious one. Just a specific, common one.  Via Kimberly Chapman  Originally shared by Hilah Johnson I wasn't familiar with this company before I read about this, and now I have nothing but an awful opinion of them. YogaGlo  is a for-profit, subscription-based, yoga video website that has managed to patent a camera angle (and not even a creative one, at that. Pretty much the first camera angle any amateur would set up to shoot a yoga class). They then sent "cease and desist" letters to non-profit websites who also make yoga videos.  This is a very bad precedent to set. The ability to patent a camera angle could have terrible consequences among YouTube video creators, filmmakers, documentarians, animators ...  Nasty business.  #notyogi   #patenttrolls   #yoga   #filmmaking   #yout...

It's cheating, of course. There's only two Lebküchen left in the tin, propped up with a dog treat bag. The camera always lies...

Image
It's cheating, of course. There's only two Lebküchen left in the tin, propped up with a dog treat bag. The camera always lies... I spent more time figuring out the lighting than anything else, trying bouncing my flash from several angles. Had I not been sick and about to go to bed, I would have looked at using a slave flash to bring some little sparkles to the decoration.

Today we see what happens when the peppernødder outgrow the kræmmerhus. Christmas baking is a place for tough cookies.

Image
Today we see what happens when the peppernødder outgrow the kræmmerhus . Christmas baking is a place for tough cookies. #24photosofchristmas
A big thank you to UPS for having their location selector include English versions of non-English-speaking locations.

Sticking to the food theme, here's spaghetti and meatballs, Christmas style.

Image
Sticking to the food theme, here's spaghetti and meatballs, Christmas style. #24photosofchristmas

I need to bring up more decorations before I run out of photo subjects. But here's a bit of Danish Christmas.

Image
I need to bring up more decorations before I run out of photo subjects. But here's a bit of Danish Christmas. #24photosofchristmas

Santa's little pyromaniac.

Image
Santa's little pyromaniac. Tip of the day: Your photography might improve more with a better flash than with a better lens.

From a foggy night, two shots from Odeonsplatz featuring the Theatinerkirche. Sometimes an ultra-wide leads to really freaky angles.

Image
From a foggy night, two shots from Odeonsplatz featuring the Theatinerkirche. Sometimes an ultra-wide leads to really freaky angles.

Wall decorations at Wirtshaus zur Bavariapark. This evening was an experiment in balancing natural light with a single on-camera flash bounced off a high, dark ceiling. I had to go to ISO 1600 to make it work, but surprisingly it did.

Image
Wall decorations at Wirtshaus zur Bavariapark. This evening was an experiment in balancing natural light with a single on-camera flash bounced off a high, dark ceiling. I had to go to ISO 1600 to make it work, but surprisingly it did.

Busy, busy day, hardly any time for photography. So today's Christmas picture is -- gasp -- from my phone! The conjunction of the red lights and lit-up trees was enough to make me stop, though. Now I'll have to go back with a real camera and take another shot for comparison.

Image
Busy, busy day, hardly any time for photography. So today's Christmas picture is -- gasp -- from my phone! The conjunction of the red lights and lit-up trees was enough to make me stop, though. Now I'll have to go back with a real camera and take another shot for comparison. #24photosofchristmas

Is it time for presents yet?

Image
Is it time for presents yet? #24photosofchristmas

This Christmas, really good stuff comes in really small packages. Such as this miniscule hand-made piece of confectionary brought to the office by Michael Conradt. Greenery included for scale.

Image
This Christmas, really good stuff comes in really small packages. Such as this miniscule hand-made piece of confectionary brought to the office by Michael Conradt. Greenery included for scale. #24photosofchristmas

A successful day of baking: 5 different kinds of Christmas cakes, including the traditional Nürnberger Lebkuchen, cakes you can survive on. Today done in mass quantity by Carl-Eric Menzel, who is an authentic Nürnberger and thus knows one or two things about baking without flour.

Image
A successful day of baking: 5 different kinds of Christmas cakes, including the traditional Nürnberger Lebkuchen, cakes you can survive on. Today done in mass quantity by Carl-Eric Menzel, who is an authentic Nürnberger and thus knows one or two things about baking without flour. For Danes: The cakes in front are brunkager, but made with baking soda instead of potash. Works roughly the same way, but makes them crack up when baking.

Christian Czekay and 1 other was tagged in Lars Clausen's album.

Image
Christian Czekay and 1 other was tagged in Lars Clausen 's album.

9gag might have devolved into mostly whining teenagers, but occasionally it has something great. Yesterday it pointed me at not one but two really good artists:

9gag might have devolved into mostly whining teenagers, but occasionally it has something great. Yesterday it pointed me at not one but two really good artists: Pawel Kuczynski has a sharp view on the modern world and a delightful SF-y style: http://www.pictorem.com/collectioncat.asp?author=Pawel+Kuczynski Rob Gonsalves does really fine surrealism, always a favorite of mine: http://huckleberryfineart.com/Rob-Gonsalves-prints/

One of the great joys of Christmas: Insane amounts of cooking! Here the traditional Danish "brunkage" - brown cake.

Image
One of the great joys of Christmas: Insane amounts of cooking! Here the traditional Danish "brunkage" - brown cake.  #24photosofchristmas

For those panicky moments in the kitchen when you realize you bought the wrong thing, or thought you had what you needed, or (for expats) didn't understand a word on the box. I had good use of it twice today for Christmas cooking.

For those panicky moments in the kitchen when you realize you bought the wrong thing, or thought you had what you needed, or (for expats) didn't understand a word on the box. I had good use of it twice today for Christmas cooking. http://foodsubs.com

I'm looking to get a replacement microwave, and one of my (few) options is an LG "Lightwave" microwave. I'm finding it surprisingly hard to find any real information on this lightwave technology, even though it's been around for years. Most of my searches are highly polluted with "review" sites that either just list the tech specs or regurgitate what LG says. The very few short customer snippets I found are either "it broke for me" or "it works great". Seems to me the ease of adding ads to your pages is drowning the Internet in useless autogenerated cruft.

I'm looking to get a replacement microwave, and one of my (few) options is an LG "Lightwave" microwave. I'm finding it surprisingly hard to find any real information on this lightwave technology, even though it's been around for years. Most of my searches are highly polluted with "review" sites that either just list the tech specs or regurgitate what LG says. The very few short customer snippets I found are either "it broke for me" or "it works great". Seems to me the ease of adding ads to your pages is drowning the Internet in useless autogenerated cruft. Does anyone know if this "Lightwave" technology is worth getting into or just a marketing trick?

Wirtshaus Zur Schwalbe: despite #GoogleMaps claiming they are permanently closed, they still going strong and serving possibly the best burgers in town (in sharp competition with Rotkäppchen).

Wirtshaus Zur Schwalbe: despite #GoogleMaps claiming they are permanently closed, they still going strong and serving possibly the best burgers in town (in sharp competition with Rotkäppchen). http://goo.gl/maps/3FE67

Christmas - the holiday with balls! In this case, big balls of light floating in mid-air and slowly turning off and on again.

Image
Christmas - the holiday with balls! In this case, big balls of light floating in mid-air and slowly turning off and on again. #24photosofchristmas

Today's little Christmas find was this pink ball nested in matching heather. Tomorrow I will go with my tele lens instead and get a different perspective on things.

Image
Today's little Christmas find was this pink ball nested in matching heather. Tomorrow I will go with my tele lens instead and get a different perspective on things. #24photosofchristmas

Not so inspired tonight, so while the subject is cute, the lighting is basic, the background is messy, and I suspect my new ultra-wide back-focuses quite a bit at short distances. Knitmas tree courtesy of Mickey Blake.

Image
Not so inspired tonight, so while the subject is cute, the lighting is basic, the background is messy, and I suspect my new ultra-wide back-focuses quite a bit at short distances. Knitmas tree courtesy of Mickey Blake. #24PhotosOfChristmas

Lamps and trees near Wittelsbachersplatz. I was there too late for the medieval market, so I wandered a bit away and found these pretties. I'm still getting used to the kind of perspective I can get with an ultra-wide.

Image
Lamps and trees near Wittelsbachersplatz. I was there too late for the medieval market, so I wandered a bit away and found these pretties. I'm still getting used to the kind of perspective I can get with an ultra-wide. #24DaysOfChristmas

If you're a Java programmer, you want to be aware of this: String.substring() just went from O(1) to O(n)!

If you're a Java programmer, you want to be aware of this: String.substring() just went from O(1) to O(n)! http://java-performance.info/changes-to-string-java-1-7-0_06/

Have a jolly Googley Christmas!

Image
Have a jolly Googley Christmas! #24DaysOfChristmas

In the appropriate spirit of humblility, here's our first Advent dinner. Strobists will not be surprised by what they see in the spoon at the bottom.

Image
In the appropriate spirit of humblility, here's our first Advent dinner. Strobists will not be surprised by what they see in the spoon at the bottom. #24DaysOfChristmas

The fantastic Hidden Valley hot springs. Natural forces at their crazy creative/destructive best. We were repeatedly warned to not touch the water, as it could be scaldingly hot without looking it. I'd believe it. And it wasn't just the big, open area -- in amidst the trees there would suddenly be a little steamy hole. Utterly fantastic.

Image
The fantastic Hidden Valley hot springs. Natural forces at their crazy creative/destructive best. We were repeatedly warned to not touch the water, as it could be scaldingly hot without looking it. I'd believe it. And it wasn't just the big, open area -- in amidst the trees there would suddenly be a little steamy hole. Utterly fantastic.

Time to get rid of those pesky pests.

Time to get rid of those pesky pests. http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=Ielbleh2Ygt1XAhW0LnF4g&u=/watch?v%3D2MxKbpCpf3I%26feature%3Dshare

Hej Mickey Blake, want to build some of these?

Hej Mickey Blake, want to build some of these? http://9gag.com/gag/anYgA8b