V-day
Valentine's day is in a couple of weeks. I guess I'd better figure out something nice to do for the wife.
Imablog Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
2007 blood donation schedule
This year's blood donation schedule. Six donations this year. Next year will be another seven donation year.
Jan 31Mar 28May 23Jul 18- Sep 12
- Nov 7
Raytracing is hard work
This POVRay raytracing took 9 days and 15 hours for my laptop (Dell Inspiron 5150, 3.2 GHz) to render. It's not mine (if I could do stuff like this, I'd probably be in a different line of work), just a very cool image that caught my eye while I was browsing the POVRay Hall of Fame. I thought it would be fun to see how long it would take a scene like this to render. I figured a few hours, couple of days at most. Boy, was I wrong.
I love the things POVRay is capable of. If I had more time on my hands I'd probably spend some of it playing with POVRay some more.
Simba's so helpful
Simba's figured out that when we go to the dog park, I grab his favourite blue football out of the trunk of the car. So now instead of waiting for slowpoke me to grab the ball, he'll just hop into the trunk, grab the ball and jump out. The people at the dog park thought it was pretty funny when they saw him jump into the trunk.
What's even better is that sometimes when we're leaving, he'll jump into the trunk to put the ball back and then jump back out. Most of the time though he'll just jump in to try and grab one of the other toys we stash in there.
Safe Vista upgrade guide
While I'm probably a ways away from attempting a Vista upgrade or buying a new machine with Vista, Tom's Hardware has a very good article that outlines a number of things to consider and steps to take when you go for the Vista upgrade plunge. If you're contemplating Vista in the near future, it's definitely worth a read.
Blog search spamming
My MT activity log shows several days worth of high volume searches for random names which makes me suspect someone's bot is trying a DoS attack against MT blogs (or blogs in general) using the blog's search service. MT's built-in search script is pretty painfully slow, so a high enough search volume can potentially bring a server to its knees.
Fortunately for MT, an easy way to mitigate this type of attack (if that's what this is) is with the Fast Search plugin, which mostly replaces MT's built-in search script. It's not a complete replacement because it doesn't handle tag searching, but for the plain old Search box for your blog it works quite nicely.
More RAM than my computer
Wow, I must have totally missed the RAM specs on nVidia's new GeForce 8800 graphics cards. When did graphics cards start needing 768MB of RAM? I know the new games are pretty GPU intensive, but wow.
Graphics cards have gone from being just a peripheral to practically being a whole other computer embedded in another computer (and costing about as much too).
February blogger gathering
Before everyone forgets, the question of where and when a February blogger gathering might occur still seems to be up in the air.
I'm up for something going during the next couple of weeks at 10-17 over in West Ashley by Citadel Mall. It's a nice non-smoking joint that serves some pretty decent food. Big John's Tavern on East Bay was also suggested as a possible venue. The Blind Tiger Pub might also be a good spot to have a gathering.
The 17-19 weekend is out for jj and myself. Any preference for a weekday or weekend gathering? If not I'll just pick a time and place and see if anybody shows up. You guys can just meet me there :)
Review: Glyph from Astraware
After playing the demo mode for a little bit, I couldn't help but add Glyph and My Little Tank (I'll review that one later) to my T3.
Astraware is well known in the handheld world for producing some really visually stunning games, especially considering the limitations of the hardware (320x320 screens, 16 bit colour, etc). Two of my favourites are Bejeweled/Bejeweled2 and now I have Glyph to add to that as well.
Anyone who's played Bejeweled before won't have a hard time figuring out Glyph. Like Bejeweled, the object is to match 3 or more crystals of the same colour to clear them of the board. The difference is that Glyph has a story behind it. By removing the crystals, you uncover various elemental symbols (glyphs) which you need to piece together to save the world of Kuros. There's a different pattern for each level and different challenges. Helpful artifacts such as items that convert all the crystals to a single type, eliminate entire rows or columns or of a single type pop up now and then to help you along the way. After unconvering 4 glyphs, you have to 'reassemble' the glyphs by replaying a pattern of tunes 2 or 3 times, very much like playing the old Simon game.
Like Bejeweled, it can be surprisingly addictive and fun to play. It's got a nice little soundtrack of soothing electronic music playing in the background that can be muted for more discrete playing. Like most of Astraware's offerings, the graphics are very nice and continues Astraware's tradition of bringing high quality game to the Palm platform.
So far the only downside I've encountered is that the crystals are all on the small side, so you tend to get a bit of eyestrain after playing for a while.
Review: My Little Tank from Astraware
My Little Tank (MLT) is another cute little game from Astraware that has a very simple premise: destroy all the other tanks. Nothing complicated about it, but it is a fun little distraction. You drive your little tank around looking for other tanks to destroy. Some tanks can be taken out with just one shot while others take more. Several different power-ups pop up in the game to give you weapon or speed upgrades, freeze or destroy tanks or to restore the health of your tank (even you can only take so many hits before getting wrecked). Getting past each level requires you to destroy a certain number of tanks and/or destroy one or more buildings.
For $10, it's a nice cheap game you can add to your PDA and play while you're killing time waiting to meet someone, at the doctor's office or waiting for your next flight. Now what would make the game even better is if the Astraware folks could figure out a way to make the vibrating alarm go off when a tank was destroyed.
Dog logic
"Apply Dog LogicSpotted at Mutt Lynch Winery
to Life:
Eat Well, Be Loved,
Get Petted, Sleep a Lot,
Dream of a Leash-Free World"
-SARK
Meeting? What meeting?
Don't you just love it when you run into colleagues in the hall and they tell you "Hey, we just got out of a meeting you probably should have been in".
Usually it also means I'll end up with more work dropped into my lap at some point, and much scrambling later to resolve issues that probably would have been easier to take care of if I actually was at that first meeting.
Does that ever happen to anyone else?
Scary new radiation symbol
There's a new radiation symbol that's been introduced by the ISO and IAEA which is meant to alert people that whatever they see this symbol on is a potentially lethal source of radiation. The rationale behind developing the new symbol is that while the old symbol marked the presence of radiation, it didn't provide any indication as to how dangerous the source might be. The new symbol with the addition of the skull and cross bones should definitely indicate to everyone that the source marked by the symbol is dangerous.
From the IAEA press release:
With radiating waves, a skull and crossbones and a running person, a new ionizing radiation warning symbol is being introduced to supplement the traditional international symbol for radiation, the three cornered trefoil.
The new symbol is aimed at alerting anyone, anywhere to the potential dangers of being close to a large source of ionizing radiation, the result of a five-year project conducted in 11 countries around the world. The symbol was tested with different population groups - mixed ages, varying educational backgrounds, male and female - to ensure that its message of "danger - stay away" was crystal clear and understood by all.
It's a decidedly scarier looking symbol than the classic yellow/magenta radiation symbol (right), which is probably a good thing considering the class of radioactive materials the new symbol is meant to warn people about. The new symbol is meant to be used on what the IAEA classifies as Category 1, 2 or 3 sources. These are the kinds of sources that nobody really wants to be around when they're shielded (although perfectly safe to be around when properly shielded), and definitely not when they're unshielded. Category 1 sources include RTG sources, irradiators used in sterilizers and teletherapy sources. They contain activities in the TBq (tera-Becquerel) or MCi (mega-Curie) amounts. Even brief exposure to these sources would probably be fatal in a matter of days or weeks. Category 2 sources cover industrial radiography sources and usually have activities in the high GBq (a few hundred Ci) range. Certainly less lethal, but still not something you want to be around for any length of time. Category 3 sources include calibration sources and sources for gauges and well logging.and have activities in the low GBq (a few Ci) range.
Fortunately, I will never have to see the new symbol because the activities I'm around are in the MBq (mCi) range. And if I ever do see the new symbol, I'm definitely not sticking around.
Meme filled
Nabbed these from Uncle Zoloft
| You Are The Hermit |
 Your fortune: It's possible that there is a unknown guiding figure in your life, ready to help you. All you have to do is find this person and seek their advice. It's also possible that you need to start seeking the meaning of your own life. Either way, there's some deep thinking you need to undertake, and it needs to be done soon. |
| You Are From Pluto |
 |
50/50/90
The odds of guessing correctly are 50/50, but the probability you will get it wrong is 90%.
Happens to me more often than I'd like.
Is it time to give her back yet?
Dog park today with one neurotic ball obsessed beagle, one intact male lab (for now) who's decided he wants to be the boss dog, and one only slightly less ball obsessed girl lab was enough frazzle even my nerves today. It's usually not too much of a problem for me to keep an eye on Nala and Simba, but dividing my attention three ways today to make sure nobody wasn't getting into trouble was a little tougher. There was Sam howling at me to throw the ball and howling at everyone else to stay away from her ball and Simba trying to mix it up with the other dogs. Poor little Nala ended up getting neglected and didn't get the ball thrown like she normally does.
Sam goes back to her owner in two weeks, and Simba goes in to get fixed on the 1st. It's going to be a very long two weeks...
Happy Birthday Simba!
Today is Simba's 1st birthday!
Simba was whelped by Castlewood's Kiss and Tell and sired by Valleywood Blackthorn Brier. He's certainly grown up a lot since the tiny little puppy we brought home with us 10 months ago. It still amazes me how different his personality is from Nala's. Simba's all goofy happiness and all he wants to know is where his next treat is and when you're going to throw or kick the ball for him. If you have a treat or a ball, you've got his undivided attention, unless he happens to see someone else that he thinks might throw a ball before you do.
ME LaZerte '87 reunion news
In the unlikely event that any of my old high school classmates happen to stumble upon this, a date has been set for the 20 year reunion!
We have set a date for our 20 year reunion! Mark your calendars for Saturday, September 22, 2007. Please spread the word. Full details will follow. We would like to collect as many names and contact numbers of our (grad) classmates as possible to streamline our communication with everyone over the next few months.
Zooming house prices
Two years ago the houses on in my area were being sold in the low-mid $200s. Now there are two houses on the market listed for a hair under $300k, and one that just went on the market for a a little over $300k.
Zowie. I never would have thought it would take less than two years for houses around here to break the $300 mark.
Guess it's time to start thinking about getting some of those upgrades done that we couldn't afford to do when we bought this place. One of my goals this summer is to finish the hardwood flooring project and fence in the yard. The dogs will like being able to run around in the yard without having to be staked out.
Yard sale weekend
Our next door neighbours were having a pre-moving yard sale this weekend that we decided to join in.
They left us a note a few days ago telling us about it, but I'd forgotten about it until I looked out the window this morning. At 8AM there were already lots of people gathered around checking out stuff while the neighbours were scrambling to set things out. I guess they weren't expecting garage salers to be out quite so early. All the traffic explained why the dogs were unusually bark-y this morning.
Got dressed and started going through some of our crap to see what was suitable to set out. Ended up with about 3 card tables full of stuff, mostly books, knick knacks, a few sports things and some of the dog stuff that the dogs had outgrown.
I was quite surprised at just how much stuff we ended up selling. By the end of the yard sale, I think about half the books were sold and most of everything else had been bought. I think we ended up selling about half to two thirds of the stuff we set out in the morning. Everything was priced to move, so we didn't make a great deal of money and probably not as much as we could have, but did manage to get rid of a lot of stuff we didn't need (isn't that the point of a yard sale after all?) Made a bunch of free space on the bookshelves (for more books naturally) and managed to empty out a couple of the boxes of stuff we still hadn't unpacked from when we moved in to the house.
Day two of the yard sale is tomorrow morning. I don't think we have too much more stuff we want to get rid of, but I managed to collect a few more items to set out for tomorrow. We'll see if I can make a few more bucks to help fund some of my house projects.
Yard sale day 2
Today's yard sale was a bit of a bust compared to yesterday. Had a few people stop by early, but the rest of the day was pretty dead. Maybe it was the threat of rain. Maybe people around here are just Saturday yard salers. Still had a good time hanging out with the neighbours though.
Still managed to sell a few more things this morning. I think we'll try to get together with a few more of the neighbours and try to organize another community yard sale in a couple of months. Might make a good discussion topic to bring up at the next HOA meeting.
A new old hobby
Today I spotted a viola the neighbours were selling at their yard sale, so on a whim I decided to pick it up. Unfortunately I missed out on the Lemond road bike he was selling yesterday, otherwise I could have started up two old hobbies.
I used to play viola for about 7 years between grades 4 and 11. I enjoyed playing but being somewhat tone deaf (although I can tell when something doesn't sound quite right or is out of tune) and somewhat lacking in the rhythm department, I think I had gotten about as good as I could get by the time I reached high school. And by then my interests were starting to diverge to other things like cycling and running.
I hadn't touched a viola since then but always thought about getting back to it. When I saw the neighbours set one out this morning, I just thought it would be too good of an opportunity to pass up. It's in reasonably decent shape and sounds decent despite having a thin crack along the top of the body. It's missing a G string, needs a new bow and maybe some new pegs but those things should be easy enough to find somewhere.
I wonder if my viola books are still back home sitting in the closet.
More blogger gathering pics
More pictures from yesterday's blogger meetup. It was another good time hanging out with local bloggers.
Even a couple of the cameras decided to get together
Brian, Jarod and Chuck chatting at the end of the table
Joan, Windviel (Mustang Rolling) and Dan chatting at the other end of the table.
Geoff prepping his camera
Joan showing off the group photo she took.
In search of musicy-bits
Ok, so now that I've got this spiffy viola, I need to find a place around here where where I can get:
- a new bow (or two)
- rosin
- some strings (C, G, D and A)
- music and instruction books
- something to help me tune the viola
This should be interesting. Simba was a total spaz yesterday when I was checking out my new toy and plucking the strings trying to tune it. I bet it will be even more entertaining when I actually start trying to play the thing.
Anybody know of any good local music shops that carries stuff for string instruments?
Committees
A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.
- Sir Barnett Cocks
More on the viola
Inside the body of the viola, there are two stickers. One sticker says
A. R. Seidel
Mittenwald OBB
Handmade copy of
Antonius Stradivarius West Germany
This sticker has 1986 written on it.
The other sticker says
Glaesel Shop Adjusted in Cleveland Ohio
and indicates the model number of this particular viola is VA10E, Reg #M7890 and is dated 9-86 which, coincidentally enough, is right about the time I stopped playing.
It's a 15" body, so it's a little bit on the small side for me (a 16" or 16.5" would probably be more my size). The edges are a little beat up and there are a couple of thin cracks and a few scratches on the body, but nothing that seems to affect the sound (yet). I'd say the viola has seen its fair share of use and abuse at the hands of many students before falling into my hands.
Peeping into the brain
BrainMaps.org is totally cool. 50 TB of images of the brains of 12 different animals (so far). You can zoom in to see microscopic structures with a resolution of just under 0.5μm per pixel. One of their recent papers in NeuroImage describes the technique they used to acquire and assemble the images. Pretty cool stuff.
BrainMaps.org is an interactive zoomable high-resolution digital brain atlas and virtual microscope that is based on over 15 million megapixels of scanned images of serial sections of both primate and non-primate brains and that is integrated with a high-speed database for querying and retrieving data about brain structure and function over the internet. Currently featured are complete brain atlas datasets for various species, including Macaca mulatta, Chlorocebus aethiops, Felis catus, Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus, and Tyto alba.
Found via ScienceDaily
Neutering day
Tomorrow morning Simba gets dropped off at the vet to get neutered. We'll drop him off first thing tomorrow morning, the vet will do his snippy-snippy thing and then we'll pick him up toward the end of the day.
Hopefully it won't take too long for all that excess testosterone to get out of him. I've heard it can take a month or so for some of those hormone-driven behaviours to go away. Although he's still a happy and playful dog, he's been getting more defensive about his toys with other dogs around. He and Nala will play just fine with their toys and have no problem with a good game of tug, but if another dog tries to do the same he freezes and growls at the other dog. I'm hoping that's one of the behaviours that will go away. I'm also hoping he calms down a little afterwards too so we can have them out of their crates at the same time.
Nala goes in tomorrow as well to get updated on her shots. She won't be staying for the day though.