Monday, August 13, 2007
Sharpness
If you are interested in picture sharpness and camera sensor sizes, there are some insightful comments to an article by some very sharp people here.
Grey pigeon, red berries
BTW, about focus: this is actually shot through my vertical blinds! Due to the long focal length (again image stabilization helps immensely, couldn't have taken this picture without it), depth of field is so slight that the blinds in the foreground are so blurred as to be virtually invisible. I shot it through the blinds, because as I suspected, as soon as I drew them, the bird flew away.
By the way, "to draw the blinds" (or curtains), does that mean to close them or open them? ... (looking it up) According to the dictionary, it means either. A bit messy that. Like "to tie up" and "to tie down" meaning the same thing.
Download speed
I have been bitching a little about the poor internet connections I have available where I live. But I am suspecting more and more that it is not a matter of the pipe into my house, as much as a matter of the larger picture. One reason for this realization is that sometimes downloads are very fast indeed. For instance Apple.com downloads. A couple days ago I downloaded a TV episode (Heroes), half a GB, in fifteen minutes. And today I had a download from Rapidshare.com clocking in at 800kb/sec! This is a first for me, usually I consider anything over 200k to be fast.
But my point is, the variation is just immense. It seems to be large parts of the Net making those variations. Because with the right server my connection seems very capable.
But my point is, the variation is just immense. It seems to be large parts of the Net making those variations. Because with the right server my connection seems very capable.
F.Y.I.
I was just thinking today: the term "F.Y.I." (For Your Information) is really redundant, isn't it? What other reason do you have to tell somebody something other than to inform them?
And in that vein, I just got this:
----
Stephen Wright Musings
Here's a few amusing thoughts, tidbits and nuggets that have been rolling around in the mind of comedian Stephen Wright:
* I planted some bird seed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it.
* I had amnesia once - maybe twice
* All I ask is a chance to prove money can't make me happy.
* What is a "free" gift? Aren't all gifts free?
* They told me I was gullible... and I believed them.
* Two can live as cheaply as one. For half as long.
* Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone.
* What if there were no hypothetical questions?
* One nice thing about egotists, they don't talk about other people.
* When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.
* What was the greatest thing before sliced bread?
* I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.
* The high cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.
* How can there be self-help "groups?"
* The speed of time is one second per second.
* Is it possible to be totally partial?
* What's another word for thesaurus?
* Is Marx's tomb a communist plot?
* If a number 2 pencil is the most popular, why is it still number 2?
* It's not an optical illusion, it just looks like one.
And in that vein, I just got this:
----
Stephen Wright Musings
Here's a few amusing thoughts, tidbits and nuggets that have been rolling around in the mind of comedian Stephen Wright:
* I planted some bird seed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it.
* I had amnesia once - maybe twice
* All I ask is a chance to prove money can't make me happy.
* What is a "free" gift? Aren't all gifts free?
* They told me I was gullible... and I believed them.
* Two can live as cheaply as one. For half as long.
* Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone.
* What if there were no hypothetical questions?
* One nice thing about egotists, they don't talk about other people.
* When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.
* What was the greatest thing before sliced bread?
* I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.
* The high cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.
* How can there be self-help "groups?"
* The speed of time is one second per second.
* Is it possible to be totally partial?
* What's another word for thesaurus?
* Is Marx's tomb a communist plot?
* If a number 2 pencil is the most popular, why is it still number 2?
* It's not an optical illusion, it just looks like one.
Fun videos
Meryl Streep accepting an award for Emma Thompson.
"Ellen": Emma Thompson on Potter and Pole Dancing.
Meryl Streep on "Ellen".
Emma Thompson about Stranger Than Fiction. (A wonderful movie I saw recently.)
"Ellen": Emma Thompson on Potter and Pole Dancing.
Meryl Streep on "Ellen".
Emma Thompson about Stranger Than Fiction. (A wonderful movie I saw recently.)
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Out of Sale
On the chest of a barmaid from Sale
Was tattooed all the prices of ale
Whilst on her behind
For the sake of the blind
Was precisely the same, but in braille.
Was tattooed all the prices of ale
Whilst on her behind
For the sake of the blind
Was precisely the same, but in braille.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
The quest for sanity
The quest for sanity takes a lifetime. If you don't make it, you may have to take one more.
- Stobblehouse
---
Just for instance, I'm only now noticing that I'm a bit obsessive. Far from OCD territory, but enough that I know I would be well off with less. For instance, I will spend hours finding a bit of software that I well know I may never actually use. Just because I got it into my head that I want it. (As was the case with the texture making software a few weeks ago.)
Recently I am also noticing how all actors in the past decade have gotten their teeth whitened. It looks odd when they are playing people in historical times. (Example: Tom Cruise in "The Latest Samurai".*)
Also, the line "let's get out of here" in films. It's rumored to be the most used line ever, and I can believe it. I notice it now all the time. :)
* Or whatever it was called. Not too exciting a movie. It was about "honor". Apparently that concept means to kill those opposing your friends, until you discover that your friends are worse, then you kill them instead.
-----
TTL injected:
Sanity is other people's idea of how you should act and behave. Why would you want to quest for that?
Good point. This is often how "sanity" is perceived. And funny enough, this is of course an insane idea of it.
I'm not talking about behavior. And definitely not "normal" behavior, whatever that is. I'm talking about clear thinking and clear perceptions, free from the robotic endoctrinations and emotions that we are under from society and from our very humanness.
Don't ask me what totally clear perceptions would reveal. Perhaps one would not even be really human if and when one has them.
---
Michael said:
Mark Vonnegut's book is about himself. I believe he suffered a form of schizophrenia. It got particularly bad at a time when the counter-cultural acceptance of individual difference was at its height. As a result, he thinks that slowed recognition that he had a serious problem.
As he tells his story, it becomes increasingly clear that he was not just expressing his unique world-view -- he was seriously, seriously ill.
In the end, he still embraces the "live and let live" counter-culture acceptance of individual differences, but he has shown that, yes, it really is possible to be insane. And it's terrifying.
It might not sound like it, but I thought it was a very uplifting book.
Yes, insanity is indeed frightening.
Slightly related, I recently read Carrie Fisher's book The Best Awful, partially about a nervous breakdown.
The film Vampire's Kiss with Nicolas Cage is one of the best films I've seen about a man going insane. Although it's very unusual, it can be seen as a comedy or a fantasy film or whatnot.
- Stobblehouse
---
Just for instance, I'm only now noticing that I'm a bit obsessive. Far from OCD territory, but enough that I know I would be well off with less. For instance, I will spend hours finding a bit of software that I well know I may never actually use. Just because I got it into my head that I want it. (As was the case with the texture making software a few weeks ago.)
Recently I am also noticing how all actors in the past decade have gotten their teeth whitened. It looks odd when they are playing people in historical times. (Example: Tom Cruise in "The Latest Samurai".*)
Also, the line "let's get out of here" in films. It's rumored to be the most used line ever, and I can believe it. I notice it now all the time. :)
* Or whatever it was called. Not too exciting a movie. It was about "honor". Apparently that concept means to kill those opposing your friends, until you discover that your friends are worse, then you kill them instead.
-----
TTL injected:
Sanity is other people's idea of how you should act and behave. Why would you want to quest for that?
Good point. This is often how "sanity" is perceived. And funny enough, this is of course an insane idea of it.
I'm not talking about behavior. And definitely not "normal" behavior, whatever that is. I'm talking about clear thinking and clear perceptions, free from the robotic endoctrinations and emotions that we are under from society and from our very humanness.
Don't ask me what totally clear perceptions would reveal. Perhaps one would not even be really human if and when one has them.
---
Michael said:
Mark Vonnegut's book is about himself. I believe he suffered a form of schizophrenia. It got particularly bad at a time when the counter-cultural acceptance of individual difference was at its height. As a result, he thinks that slowed recognition that he had a serious problem.
As he tells his story, it becomes increasingly clear that he was not just expressing his unique world-view -- he was seriously, seriously ill.
In the end, he still embraces the "live and let live" counter-culture acceptance of individual differences, but he has shown that, yes, it really is possible to be insane. And it's terrifying.
It might not sound like it, but I thought it was a very uplifting book.
Yes, insanity is indeed frightening.
Slightly related, I recently read Carrie Fisher's book The Best Awful, partially about a nervous breakdown.
The film Vampire's Kiss with Nicolas Cage is one of the best films I've seen about a man going insane. Although it's very unusual, it can be seen as a comedy or a fantasy film or whatnot.
Icon wars
I'm sure some of you have seen this one before, but I think it's fun. Icon War.
I love how the neighboring icons are bothered by the fighting.
(Notice that the pictures seems to stretch, following your window.)
----
Update: Hannah pointed to this wonderful animation.
I love how the neighboring icons are bothered by the fighting.
(Notice that the pictures seems to stretch, following your window.)
----
Update: Hannah pointed to this wonderful animation.
An oddity
Here's an odd thing: in the past few days I have noticed an odd smell around here, almost subliminally. Like rotting fruit or something.
I've also noticed a much stronger smell in my refrigerator. But I can't find anything having gone off.
And now I talked to Steve, who lives upstairs and on the other side of the stair well. And he tells me exactly the same thing! He's been trying like mad to track down this smell, up to cleaning his fridge.
I mean it's odd enough that this smell is there (I think I've felt it outside too), but why the heck should it be stronger in a refrigerator, and in two different apartments?
I've also noticed a much stronger smell in my refrigerator. But I can't find anything having gone off.
And now I talked to Steve, who lives upstairs and on the other side of the stair well. And he tells me exactly the same thing! He's been trying like mad to track down this smell, up to cleaning his fridge.
I mean it's odd enough that this smell is there (I think I've felt it outside too), but why the heck should it be stronger in a refrigerator, and in two different apartments?
Confused...
Am I the only one who is totally baffled about "web 2.0" sites like MySpace and their ilk? You know, where all the under-thirties hang out. Each page has hundreds of links and pictures and comments and connections. It is not explained what anything is about. It is not clear what the page itself is about. And everything about it is soooo superficial, nothing of meaningful interest...
Is it just me getting middle aged, or what?
Is it just me getting middle aged, or what?
Friday, August 10, 2007
Hands over the blankets!
Up to three years in jail for masturbating in a porn cinema?
I love America and Americans, and most American culture, but I have to say, sometimes it's just a bizarre place.
Granted, some other countries, like Singapore have some of the same traits in common, like this fantastic fascination with victimless crimes, and the harsh punishments of them. But I still can't wrap my head around it. If you were caught masturbating in a porn cinema in Denmark, heck even in a normal cinema, it would be embarrassing, but nobody would even get the notion that you should be punished for it.
I love America and Americans, and most American culture, but I have to say, sometimes it's just a bizarre place.
Granted, some other countries, like Singapore have some of the same traits in common, like this fantastic fascination with victimless crimes, and the harsh punishments of them. But I still can't wrap my head around it. If you were caught masturbating in a porn cinema in Denmark, heck even in a normal cinema, it would be embarrassing, but nobody would even get the notion that you should be punished for it.
Steampunk by Datamancer
Richard "Datamancer" Nagy is designing retro-tech machines.
Isn't that laptop awesome?
I've long thought that an aesthetic has been (temporarily?) lost when machines took over building everything. To build machines like they built them in the eighteen hundreds would be impossible today, by and large, simply because wages are much higher, particularly for the skilled craftsmen who would be needed.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a great loss compared to the great enhancement in overall economy and quality of life the industrial revolution has engendered.
By the way, Richard is building me one of his keyboards, I ordered it last month. I'm much looking forward to getting it.
Richard likes inventing terms like "The Nagy Magical-Movable-Type Pixello-Dynamotronic Computational Engine".
Perhaps I should get him to write lyrics for my band Rust City Neo Dada Post Punk Sunrise Orchestra.
(Formerly the Fish Out of Water Musical Time Control Coalition.)
Wayne commented:
I think we have lost much with the plastic mass-produced 'machines' we have today. The artistry of the victorian era is long gone, and what little is left, is priced way beyond the ability of the common man to own.
eolake said...
To be fair, it also was so back then.
Today's average citizen in the west can own far more nice things than he could in the victorian era. You can debate the aesthetic of many of them, but that's rather esoteric for most people.
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