Mike is vindicated, consumers want specs, not quality.
Also there's the second article about diffraction.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
RED and obsolescence
Jim Jannard writes about obsolescence on a forum.
Just the fact that the founder of a company writes and reads on a user forum is remarkable. I don't think we'll see Canon's CEO do that any day soon!
And next, that they strive hard to make obsolescence (dang, hard word to write) as easy on their customers as possible instead of profiting on it, is fantastic.
They make each bit upgradable, and they have a great trade-in program. Very kool.
Soapy water
Since yesterday the root of one of my fingernails (I'm not sure if this is an English term also... I mean the section of skin just above the nail, where the nail is growing from) had been irritated more and more. I kept pushing back the cuticle, but no avail. Then I noticed the skin had gone red: dang, infected.
I made a glass of hot water and dissolved a bit of scrapings from a bar of soap in it. (I don't know if detergent or dishwash fluid would work, doubt it.) And I'd heard salt helped, so I put a little bit of that in it too. Then I sat with my finger in it, but only for maybe five minutes before I was interrupted.
And yet, next I looked at it, the redness had gone, and all the pain too. That's pretty durn amazing. (I'll probably have to do it again of course.)
It's good for an ingrown toenail too, they can be very painful, I had one last year. That takes several days and applications though, and it's good to start early.
Pascal, MD, says:
Hot water in itself is a very good remedy against infection. Simply from the temperature. Add to this that salty water AND soap each have an antiseptic effect. (Clean sea water is always good for cleaning a wound.)
Temperature had an amazing effect on immunity. The main reasons why we often fall sick in winter are:
- Cold weakens our body defenses
- Being cooped up inside because of the cold allows for germs to get concentrated by poor ventilation, increasing contamination
- Cold and moisture favor the growth of many germs in nature; not all of them like warmth
Fever is a classic response of the body to microbial agressions, be they from a bacteria or a virus. A few added degrees boost the efficiency of our immune system, antibodies, phagocyte cells, etc. As doctors, we were taught very early to RESPECT fever, and to not insist on "treating" it as such, because not only is it an indicator, it's also a good help with the healing process. The only two downsides of fever are:
- Above a certain threshold, it becomes harmful to the body. 40°Celsius is OK. 41°C is a problem. 43°C can kill a person in perhaps a couple of hours, exactly like heat stroke. So fever needs to be kept under control.
- It makes you very tired. All that extra heat is produced, of course, by an increase in body metabolism, like running your engine on neutral to warm it up. A lot of extra lassitude comes from the fact that the immune response in itself is an intense invisible metabolic effort. Lots of antibody proteins and lymphocute cells etc. to produce. This is why ill people NEED rest, and to be kept warm for a double reason: temperature itself, and saving on the energy that being cold uses up to keep body temperature.
Pretty much stating the basics, but they're not always obvious to the lay man.
So, fever needs to be lowered if it becomes dangerously high, or if it causes real discomfort to the patient. There IS no third reason.
Some cancers of the limbs are very difficult to treat with classic therapies. Among these, osteosarcoma, a very nasty malignant bone cancer that typically hits the young. Like, double "ouch", dude. In the past, fatal issue was usually averted by amputation, which is pretty radical. But limbs have one great advantage: they contain no highly specialized neurons, unlike the brain. Heat kills us by hurting the brain cells, essentially. The viscera also don't fancy it too much.
But the limbs? They're made of skin, muscle, bone, nerves, blood vessels, connective tissue. Pretty basic stuff, and all very resilient to heat. Can withstand 45°C with no problem. Think about when you dip your feet into very hot water, that ALMOST burns you, but if you can withstand the pain it soon goes away and makes your flu feel SO much better.
This is used against the terrible osteosarcoma. Provided the patient can tolerate the discomfort, their limb is put in a heating system that maintains a temperature of 45°C for a few hours, rinse and repeat every day. Wreaks havoc on cancerous cells. Because, although they're originally our own cells, by turning cancerous they become abnormal. 90 to 99% of cancers are naturally eliminated by the healthy immune system and we never even feel them. Heat helps it destroy a limb cancer.
Reversely, AIDS patients, whom by definition have a breakdown of their immune system, encounter a very high rate of cancers, including some which would NEVER evolve in a normal person. Typical example: the famed Kaposi sarcoma, incredibly rare before 1981.
As a conclusion: when using heat (along with salty or soapy water) to snuff out an infection, you just have to make sure you don't give yourself a burn by overdoing it. Burned tissues don't defend themselves very well.
Eolake's method should, by all acounts, also work wonders on warts.
I made a glass of hot water and dissolved a bit of scrapings from a bar of soap in it. (I don't know if detergent or dishwash fluid would work, doubt it.) And I'd heard salt helped, so I put a little bit of that in it too. Then I sat with my finger in it, but only for maybe five minutes before I was interrupted.
And yet, next I looked at it, the redness had gone, and all the pain too. That's pretty durn amazing. (I'll probably have to do it again of course.)
It's good for an ingrown toenail too, they can be very painful, I had one last year. That takes several days and applications though, and it's good to start early.
Pascal, MD, says:
Hot water in itself is a very good remedy against infection. Simply from the temperature. Add to this that salty water AND soap each have an antiseptic effect. (Clean sea water is always good for cleaning a wound.)
Temperature had an amazing effect on immunity. The main reasons why we often fall sick in winter are:
- Cold weakens our body defenses
- Being cooped up inside because of the cold allows for germs to get concentrated by poor ventilation, increasing contamination
- Cold and moisture favor the growth of many germs in nature; not all of them like warmth
Fever is a classic response of the body to microbial agressions, be they from a bacteria or a virus. A few added degrees boost the efficiency of our immune system, antibodies, phagocyte cells, etc. As doctors, we were taught very early to RESPECT fever, and to not insist on "treating" it as such, because not only is it an indicator, it's also a good help with the healing process. The only two downsides of fever are:
- Above a certain threshold, it becomes harmful to the body. 40°Celsius is OK. 41°C is a problem. 43°C can kill a person in perhaps a couple of hours, exactly like heat stroke. So fever needs to be kept under control.
- It makes you very tired. All that extra heat is produced, of course, by an increase in body metabolism, like running your engine on neutral to warm it up. A lot of extra lassitude comes from the fact that the immune response in itself is an intense invisible metabolic effort. Lots of antibody proteins and lymphocute cells etc. to produce. This is why ill people NEED rest, and to be kept warm for a double reason: temperature itself, and saving on the energy that being cold uses up to keep body temperature.
Pretty much stating the basics, but they're not always obvious to the lay man.
So, fever needs to be lowered if it becomes dangerously high, or if it causes real discomfort to the patient. There IS no third reason.
Some cancers of the limbs are very difficult to treat with classic therapies. Among these, osteosarcoma, a very nasty malignant bone cancer that typically hits the young. Like, double "ouch", dude. In the past, fatal issue was usually averted by amputation, which is pretty radical. But limbs have one great advantage: they contain no highly specialized neurons, unlike the brain. Heat kills us by hurting the brain cells, essentially. The viscera also don't fancy it too much.
But the limbs? They're made of skin, muscle, bone, nerves, blood vessels, connective tissue. Pretty basic stuff, and all very resilient to heat. Can withstand 45°C with no problem. Think about when you dip your feet into very hot water, that ALMOST burns you, but if you can withstand the pain it soon goes away and makes your flu feel SO much better.
This is used against the terrible osteosarcoma. Provided the patient can tolerate the discomfort, their limb is put in a heating system that maintains a temperature of 45°C for a few hours, rinse and repeat every day. Wreaks havoc on cancerous cells. Because, although they're originally our own cells, by turning cancerous they become abnormal. 90 to 99% of cancers are naturally eliminated by the healthy immune system and we never even feel them. Heat helps it destroy a limb cancer.
Reversely, AIDS patients, whom by definition have a breakdown of their immune system, encounter a very high rate of cancers, including some which would NEVER evolve in a normal person. Typical example: the famed Kaposi sarcoma, incredibly rare before 1981.
As a conclusion: when using heat (along with salty or soapy water) to snuff out an infection, you just have to make sure you don't give yourself a burn by overdoing it. Burned tissues don't defend themselves very well.
Eolake's method should, by all acounts, also work wonders on warts.
Ministry - Lay Lady Lay (updated)
Like most Ministry videos (for some reason) the video sorta sucks, so just ignore it and listen to the music, it's a great Dylan cover.
I like this amateur video better. It's for Scarecrow, another favorite from that album.
Here's another good one, more recent:
I like this amateur video better. It's for Scarecrow, another favorite from that album.
Here's another good one, more recent:
Funny kids
Saturday, November 15, 2008
MovieLens
I remembered that I heard years ago about software which takes your movie preferences and compares them to many other people's and makes recommendations from it. It's supposedly surprisingly accurate. And I found MovieLens.org, which seems to be that. So I'm trying it out.
Apparently I'm a snake.
Apparently I'm a snake.
Edit video file
I have a video file (330MB MPG) which needs 40 seconds cut off the end. And I think it can be smaller without image quality compromise. But it's corrupted somehow, and my QuickTime-based Apple editing apps won't open it (even though it will play in Mplayer). Can somebody help?
Quotes, power
Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.
-- James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
-- Thomas Paine
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.
-- Stewart L. Udall, commencement address, Dartmouth College, June 13, 1965
-- James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
-- Thomas Paine
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.
-- Stewart L. Udall, commencement address, Dartmouth College, June 13, 1965
Red articles
Two cool articles, one and two, about RED and its founder.
"I had been thinking about this project for a long time," Jannard says. "As a camera fanatic and a product builder, this was something I seemed destined to do." When businesspeople talk destiny, it can sound like bullshit. But at Oakley, Jannard not only ran the company, he personally shot one of its two TV spots and all of its print ads from 1975 to 1995. He owns more than 1,000 cameras, both still and motion picture, several dating back almost a century. "I have a Bolex, Aaton, Arriflex, Eyemo, Filmo, Mitchell, Photosonic, Beaulieu, Keystone—just about every movie camera you can think of."
People like this are interesting, Jannard and Steve Jobs and any number of prominent personalities: who accomplish great things despite, or because, money is a secondary consideration. Or tertiary, or not even considered except as a means to a greater end.
"Even so, traditionalists cling to film's reliability. Film is tangible. Hard drives crash; files get corrupted. "You put film in a can and stick it on a shelf, and it costs $1,000 a year to store," says Stephen Lighthill, who teaches cinematography at the American Film Institute. "With a project that starts as data, you have it on a hard drive, which has to be nursed and upgraded. It's an electronic, mechanical device that can't be left unplugged." Preserving a 4K digital master of a feature film would cost $12,000 a year, according to a report by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences."
Whu? A hard disk can't be unplugged? $12,000 a year? That has to be total BS. You back it up on a couple of different media in a couple of different places, and you're done. If you wish, you make a physical master print on film also. Simple.
There are some interesting points about film. Did you know that each (big, expensive) projection copy of a film has to be taken in to be cleaned/restored after a few dozen screenings? Incredible.
What form digital projectors will take in the future is interesting though. It'll be hard to make them so they won't be outdated very soon.
But I find it interesting to think about how clumsy and expensive it is to distribute the huge film canisters. Today I can download HD movies to my Apple TV... as fast as I can watch them! And that is essentially the same resolution as the "2K" digital projectors they use in some theaters. So even though they may want a bit bigger resolution, they wouldn't even need a special pipeline to get movies delivered fully digitally, only an ordinary commercial Internet connection, and some security measures.
This is cool: Brits are planning use of the economical nature of digital distribution to get more UK-made out to the public. Much as I like Hollywood movies, it's excellent that both digital production and distribution will allow for a much lower entry level and thus much more choice for movie audiences in the future.
"I had been thinking about this project for a long time," Jannard says. "As a camera fanatic and a product builder, this was something I seemed destined to do." When businesspeople talk destiny, it can sound like bullshit. But at Oakley, Jannard not only ran the company, he personally shot one of its two TV spots and all of its print ads from 1975 to 1995. He owns more than 1,000 cameras, both still and motion picture, several dating back almost a century. "I have a Bolex, Aaton, Arriflex, Eyemo, Filmo, Mitchell, Photosonic, Beaulieu, Keystone—just about every movie camera you can think of."
People like this are interesting, Jannard and Steve Jobs and any number of prominent personalities: who accomplish great things despite, or because, money is a secondary consideration. Or tertiary, or not even considered except as a means to a greater end.
"Even so, traditionalists cling to film's reliability. Film is tangible. Hard drives crash; files get corrupted. "You put film in a can and stick it on a shelf, and it costs $1,000 a year to store," says Stephen Lighthill, who teaches cinematography at the American Film Institute. "With a project that starts as data, you have it on a hard drive, which has to be nursed and upgraded. It's an electronic, mechanical device that can't be left unplugged." Preserving a 4K digital master of a feature film would cost $12,000 a year, according to a report by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences."
Whu? A hard disk can't be unplugged? $12,000 a year? That has to be total BS. You back it up on a couple of different media in a couple of different places, and you're done. If you wish, you make a physical master print on film also. Simple.
There are some interesting points about film. Did you know that each (big, expensive) projection copy of a film has to be taken in to be cleaned/restored after a few dozen screenings? Incredible.
What form digital projectors will take in the future is interesting though. It'll be hard to make them so they won't be outdated very soon.
But I find it interesting to think about how clumsy and expensive it is to distribute the huge film canisters. Today I can download HD movies to my Apple TV... as fast as I can watch them! And that is essentially the same resolution as the "2K" digital projectors they use in some theaters. So even though they may want a bit bigger resolution, they wouldn't even need a special pipeline to get movies delivered fully digitally, only an ordinary commercial Internet connection, and some security measures.
This is cool: Brits are planning use of the economical nature of digital distribution to get more UK-made out to the public. Much as I like Hollywood movies, it's excellent that both digital production and distribution will allow for a much lower entry level and thus much more choice for movie audiences in the future.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Camera comparison
This is a fantastic idea: a Quick-Comparison page for image quality between cameras. Well done to Imaging-Resource.
(The page does not work for me in Safari, but it does in Firefox.)
I find the target setup with the wine bottles to be particularly helpful.
(The page does not work for me in Safari, but it does in Firefox.)
I find the target setup with the wine bottles to be particularly helpful.
Kate bush: Nocturn
Amateur music video based on Kate Bush's song Nocturn.
The album "Aerial"* is not easy to get into, which seems to fit Kate fine. But one of my favorites is Nocturn. It's a very long one, though, and gets better as it goes on, I think.
I'm a big fan of Kate from back in the seventies.
She has said that her own favorite music is the stuff it took her a while to get into. Fair enough, some art is worth some work. But some of my own favorite stuff I did like immediately too. And the thing is, if you don't like something immediately, why would you want to put in all that work just on the off chance that it grows on you? I think an artist does well to meet the audience half way.
* Dictionary: aerial (âr'ē-əl, ā-îr'ē-əl)
adj.
Of, in, or caused by the air.
Existing or living in the air.
Reaching high into the air; lofty.
Suggestive of air, as in lightness; airy.
Unsubstantial; imaginary.
The album "Aerial"* is not easy to get into, which seems to fit Kate fine. But one of my favorites is Nocturn. It's a very long one, though, and gets better as it goes on, I think.
I'm a big fan of Kate from back in the seventies.
She has said that her own favorite music is the stuff it took her a while to get into. Fair enough, some art is worth some work. But some of my own favorite stuff I did like immediately too. And the thing is, if you don't like something immediately, why would you want to put in all that work just on the off chance that it grows on you? I think an artist does well to meet the audience half way.
* Dictionary: aerial (âr'ē-əl, ā-îr'ē-əl)
adj.
Of, in, or caused by the air.
Existing or living in the air.
Reaching high into the air; lofty.
Suggestive of air, as in lightness; airy.
Unsubstantial; imaginary.
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