Taking advantage of a foggy night to have some fun with my green laser pointer
8s exposure of the laser being waved around randomly
1s exposure of the laser being swept across the camera's field of view. Slightly enhanced with Gimp to make the beam more visible.
Slow sync flash and 1s exposure
Came in to work today to discover that a video driver update turned my dual monitor setup into a non-dual monitor setup. Upon rebooting to try and fix said video problem, 2 sticks of RAM (512MB worth) decided to go belly up on me.
Not the start of the work year I was looking for.
Luckily I was able to scavenge a couple of 1GB sticks out of one of the old computers, so now my computer has twice the memory it started with.
Still haven't fixed the dual monitor problem though.
The laptop I use for work is getting a little long in the tooth (about 5 years old now), but still pretty functional, aside from having to have Windows on it. It's time to make it more functional with some much needed and long overdue upgrades. Windows has been behaving pretty dog slow on it for a while now and is way past time for a fresh install to get rid of 5 years of leftover software crap that's built up.
2GB RAM - $51
I originally asked for a laptop with 1GB RAM, but for some reason it turned into 512MB when the order was placed. How I've been limping along running Windows in 512MB of RAM for all these years, I have no idea. The extra memory will definitely be nice though.
6600mAh battery - $72
About a year ago, the original battery went belly up and stopped holding any significant charge. The battery would last about 10 minutes before petering out, so I was restricted to only being able to use the laptop whenever I could plug in. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a laptop. New battery will make me portable again.
120GB hard drive - $60
I'm nowhere near running out of space on the original 60GB hard drive, but a larger hard drive will give me the chance to set up a dual-boot Linux/Windows system, which is something I've always wanted to do. The original drive I'll pop into an enclosure and use it for portable backup.
Considering the fact that I apparently lost one of the DVI outputs on my work computer video card, on top of the earlier computer fail that happened Monday, I may be tempting fate with all of these upgrades. The way things have been going so far, with my luck some other component in the laptop will die and kill the thing shortly after I get all of these upgrades installed.
Today's meetup at Amazon Grill was nice with 9 people showing up and a few new faces, which is always nice.
Bacon wrapped chicken for Heather
For the record, @mydwynter wants a karaoke meetup one of these days. I'm pretty sure it could be arranged. There's been talk about a potluck meetup on the twittertubes. Karaoke would probably make a fine addition to that meetup.
Every pocket you reach into has at least one (unused) poop bag
Yay, my 10th anniversary mega uber UserFriendly collection has arrived!
The t-shirt is pretty slick too. And the book is even autographed.
I'm going to enjoy reading this.
Phase 1 of the laptop refresh project (replacement battery and new RAM) has gone off mostly uneventfully so far. My initial test of the battery gave me a bit of a surprise when the laptop shut itself off after 30 minutes and 86% capacity. For a while I thought I had a dud battery until I realized that it was probably the laptop power profile setting that caused it to turn off. Resetting it to a different profile that didn't automatically hibernate or shut down gave me much better results, with the laptop running for about 3 hours doing distributed.net work (with the CPU throttled down to half speed on battery power). After a couple of tests, I'm much more confident in the battery now.
The added RAM has done much to improve the performance of the laptop. No more green disk like blinking on constantly while Windows shuffles memory pages in and out of virtual memory. Althought Windows still acts pretty dog slow, it's much better than it was.
The new hard drive arrived today, so phase 2 can begin any time. Probably won't do anything until the weekend though. The so far plan is to:
The new hard drive. It still amazes me that something this small can hold as much as it does, and it's not even the largest capacity drive available. Quarter presented for size comparison.
I was crunching some numbers with my calculator when it suddenly dawned on me that I've been using this calculator for 21 years now. 21 years! I know people who weren't even born when I bought it!
My HP 28S, purchased sometime around 1988 when I was just a lowly undergrad student in my first year of school (could have been 1989, which would make it only 20 years old and me in my second year of school) .
I think it was actually the first purchase I ever made with my very first credit card. I remember one of my engineer friends had one, and after playing with his for a bit, I decided I needed one too. It turned out to be probably the best $280Cdn that I ended up spending during my school years.
These days it doesn't get used nearly as much as it used to and the calculations it does get used for aren't nearly as complex. It's still pretty reliable though and does everything I ask it to.
HP 28S circa 1988 serial number 2933A03136. I even have the manuals for it too.
No, you can't have it.
An essential component of any gamma camera is the collimator. Essentially a hunk of lead with a bunch of tiny little holes in it (modern collimators are made from ridged sheets of lead bonded together to form hexagonal holes like this one).
The purpose of the collimator is to restrict the direction from which gamma rays are detected by the gamma camera. They operate like blinders and make it so that the gamma camera can only see gamma rays coming from a particular direction (usually straight ahead perpendicular to the face of the camera). Collimators are necessary because by itself, the gamma camera has no idea what direction a detected gamma ray came from. By limiting the direction gamma rays are detected from, a useful image can be created by the computer.
This image I took by placing the collimator up against the front of my camera lens and a wide open aperature (f3.2). You can see just how limited the field of view becomes with the collimator.
An 8 shot panorama image of the Arthur Ravenel Bridge that I took this afternoon from the SC Aquarium.
I also put together a 5 shot panorama of the USS Yorktown from the same location
A new screech owl. Isn't he cute?
The new touch tank up on the second floor, built to replace the old one which was removed to make way for the penguin exhibit (coming in March or April 2009)
Abstract
Recently, #meatwaffles has become a prominent hashtag in the Lowcountry Twitterverse. While there is much speculation on just what #meatwaffles are and what the term might mean (physically and metaphysically), there is the obvious interpretation: a waffle made of meat. The method of creating a literal #meatwaffle was investigated and found to be a very efficient method for cooking and consuming meat. However there are several disadvantages mostly relating to the waffle iron used.
Materials and Methods
Two types of ground meat obtained from a local grocery store were used for the #meatwaffle experiment. The first was a package of prepared meatballs similar to what you would make for spaghetti and meatballs. The second was a tube package of the house brand hot italian sausage.
One of the prepared meatballs was split in half to create two smaller meatballs. A small portion of the italian sausage was extruded from the roll to create two small balls. Once the waffle iron had finished it's heating cycle, one of each type of meat was placed into separate waffle wells as shown below.
The lid was closed and the #meatwaffles were left to cook for two (2) minutes. At the end of the two minutes, the lid raised and the two mini #meatwaffles were removed. The remaining two meatballs were cooked in the same manner.
Discussion
The mini #meatwaffles made in this manner did not differ in taste to their non-#meatwaffle counterparts, but did have a nice brown and crispy seared exterior. Because of the wells created by the waffle iron, the ratio of seared exterior to #meatwaffle size is significantly greater than that for the non-#meatwaffle counterpart. For those people that appreciate this, the #meatwaffle cooking method would seem to be ideal. Cooking time is reduced significantly because of the dual heating surfaces. The mini #meatwaffles prepared in this experiment took only two minutes to cook. Since the waffle iron creates a #meatwaffle of more or less uniform shape and thickness, cooking time should not depend significantly on the size of the #meatwaffle created. Only the end thickness of the #meatwaffle should affect cooking time.
The concept of the #meatwaffle is an interesting one. From a practical standpoint, the wells created by the waffle iron allow the #meatwaffle to hold any desired condiment, such as ketchup, relish or gravy, in the same manner as regular waffles do. For example, with a traditionally made burger, only a certain amount of condiment can be added before it becomes too messy to eat. Condiments can ooze out of the side, and slippage between the burger and bun can hamper eating efforts. A burger made using the #meatwaffle method would cook significantly faster, could hold a significant amount of condiment (ketchup, relish, mustard, etc) which would be held in place by the waffle wells, and because of its flat shape would not have any burger-bun slippage.
While the #meatwaffle cooking method proved to be very efficient and practical, a standard waffle iron is not the most optimal instrument to use for the #meatwaffle method. Since most waffle irons do not have removable surfaces, cleaning the the waffle iron afterwards is somewhat difficult and tedious. Also, depending on the type of meat used for creating #meatwaffles, there can be a significant amount of grease created in the cooking process. If the #meatwaffle is made too large, there is possibility of grease overflowing out of the waffle iron and creating a fire hazard.
In light of this, the ideal #meatwaffle cooking appliance would be something similar to a George Foreman Grill designed to allow grease to drain out of the unit, and with removable cooking plates for easy cleanup. To our knowledge however, George Foreman does not make a unit with waffle pattern cooking plates.
Conclusion
The #meatwaffle cooking method is an efficient and practical method for cooking meat. However, the designs of existing waffle irons is not optimal for cooking meat, but these issues can be resolved with some simple design changes.
We want #meatwaffles too!
PetSmart is voluntarily recalling seven of its Grreat Choice® Dog Biscuit products that contain peanut paste made by Peanut Corporation of America (PCA). PCA is the focus of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation into potential salmonella contamination of peanut butter and paste made at its Blakely, Georgia facility.
Although PetSmart is not aware of any reported cases of illness related to these products, it has removed these products from its store shelves and website and is conducting the recall as a precautionary measure.
The recalled products include only the following types of Grreat Choice Dog Biscuits sold between Aug. 21, 2008 and Jan. 19, 2009:
Customers who purchased the recalled dog biscuit products should discontinue use immediately and can return the product to any PetSmart store for a complete refund or exchange. Customers can visit www.petsmartfacts.com for more information or contact PetSmart Customer Service at 1-888-839-9638.
The end-of-the-month Lowcountry Blogger/Twitter/socialwhateveruser meetup is upon us. Sesame Burger and Beer (4726 Spruill Ave, North Charleston) is the proposed location. January 29 is the scheduled date and 6:30PM is the time to be there.
12 shot panorama image (stitched together using Hugin) of the Cooper River taken from the top of the Ravenel Bridge. Here is the full 15858x2027 px image from Friday's bridge photowalk.
A new Pooch Planet ThermaCare memory foam pet bed was one of the items I won in the CSCLRC raffle at the dog show today.
Nala's been curled up on it ever since I brought it home this afternoon. She hasn't even gotten up to follow me around the house like she usually does. I think she likes it.
It's a pretty nice pillow that contains chips of memory foam (the package calls it MemoryLoft™) that would otherwise have been disposed of in a landfill, making it a reasonably green product. The pillow is baffled with about 5 chambers to prevent the foam chips from getting bunched up and lumpy. The outer cover is removable and can be machine washed.
I think the fact that Nala hasn't gotten off the bed in the past 4 hours attests to the comfort of the bed. It's quite a comfortable bed, and I'm halfway tempted to use it for myself.
I may have to find a couple more of these for the other dogs.
Ok, so I've been tagged a few times by this now, so I guess I might as well do it. In no particular order:
