Evolve TV show

The history channel has a really fascinating show out called Evolve. We've only caught two of them so far (I'm typing this while we are watching one about sealife. The Indonesean mimic octopus is just amazing). Catch the show if you can!

PS I'm testing writing and posting this from my iPhone. So far, so good; I'll see how the browsers render it tomorrow one the laptop. >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

Success with iPhone Provisioning Profiles

I spent all day (literally, all day) trying to setup my iPhone app such that it would run on my physical iPhone. For those of you who have problems, some of this may help you.

My application has always run OK in the simulator. Since I've had the phone for a few months now, and I'm recently a certified Apple iPhone Developer (paid the $99 too) I thought it was about time to get my app on my iPhone.

I just didn't think it'd take me an entire day. And by entire - it was actually more then a day; I had setup my 'Team' and done the root CSR request about a week earlier. Over the span of the week, I had skimmed the documentation. And I had scheduled today, the entire day for iPhone stuff. Meaning code, and putting the app on the phone.

I started this morning. Followed the doc's in the how-to tabs. And had absolutely no luck. From the dreaded (0xE800003A) error, to (0xE8000001), "handle_install: Installation failed", (0xE800003A) Verifying Application, etc etc. "

Late this afternoon I gave up; I shut everything down, rebooted, deleted /Developer, rebooted, then downloaded Xcode 3.1.1 and the 2.1 iPhone SDK. And proceeded to start over.

After all the installations, then I went into Xcode "documentation" and let it "download" . Then I devised a strategy - I had been doing bits and pieces of trying different things all da long -- things people suggested in Apple's Developer Forums and many other "non-official" sites (easily findable via the Google). I decided I would start completely over with my developer setting as well. Here's what I did:

Deleted Xcode and iPhone SDK (mentioned above) and reinstalled. I don't think you must reboot, but after an XCode installation your boot cache's will be updated so I think it's a good idea to do the reboot.

I deleted ~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles/*.

I went into the iPhone Developer Program and revoked my certificate and re-did it, as well as deleting all of my provisions.

Then I created a new app ID. I called it "My Application Suite App ID" . I gave it a wildcard. Why? Well, the more I'd read, the more I decided this was the correct way to do this. It would let me put any iPhone app that I compiled on my iPHone. Oh, and don't use the "App ID Name" of "test". I spent the afternoon getting frustrated trying to get all this to work. The system does not seem to like things named with 'test'. YMMV.

Once the Privisioning is approved and you can download it, drag and drop the file onto XCode. That installs it.

Now, take the iPhone, goto settings:general::profile and delete any out of it. reboot the phone. launch xcode, then plug the phone in. switch xcode and goto the organizer (cmd-control-o) and make sure your provision is added (checked) to the iphone device. One the phone it'll look like this:

Now we create a simple Xcode app to see if it'll even run on the phone., In Xcode, cmd-shift-n for a new project. It will be of type iPhone Navigation-Based-Applicaiton. (The following is in the iPhone Develper Docs, but I'll quickly summerize for the sake it): Call it 'Foo' or whatever. Expand the Targets folder in "Groups & Files". Click on 'Foo' within the Targets folder. Click the "info" blue-circle icon in the top bar of the window. Switch to 'Build' Tab. There's section called "code signing". You want to change the "iPhone Developer" to "iPhone Developer: Firstname Lastname" and they "any iPhone OS Device" to the name of your provision, namely in my case "My Development Provisioning Profile". Close the window.

Then test it all cmd-r. In a minute or so the app should be running on your phone. Not that it'll do much, but that's left for you to hack at :)

There were a few sites I found helpful in figuring all this out: preflightingapplication errors (0xe8000001), mac rumors forums, Debugging iPhone provision profiles/certificats and Apple's discussion forums.

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Apple iPhone Developer Tech Talks

Apple Launches iPhone Developer Tech Talks.

I suppose that explains why Apple held that NDA out so long. By doing so, no one could have possibly usurped Apple with their down Developer Conference/Talks. >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

5x5 week 3 review

I'm a little late posting my week #3 results. However, I made it to the gym everyday and added cardio...

I added 10 minutes of cardio on an eliptical machine after the workout. I did it twice. On Friday, I ran out of juice and skipped it. But to make up, over the weekend I went and did about 45 minutes worth of cardio.

Is it working? I think so. I'm feeling stronger. My shorts are now nearly falling off me (I'm going to have to buy some belts). I'm not going to bother posting the weights, since I'm on track (or better). The 5x5 suggests only measuring your fat/weight every 2 weeks. Given that, and the fact that I forgot to do that this past weekend, I'm got nothing to report on that front either.

I intend to do that this Saturday morning, however. I will post the information hopefully Saturday morning.
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Ohio would be PERFECT for this

There is one project that would jump-start the Ohio Economy and put Ohio on the map for some years; High Speed Rail.

California is attempting to build a high speed train system that would connect Anahim, Los Angeles, Fresno and San Francisco. They have launched a $9.9 billion state bond offering to finance the proposal.

Ohio needs to do the exact same thing. Such a train system would connect Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Phase two could connect Toledo, Akron/Canton and the South-East Appelachian area. Phase three could go to Indianapolis, Detroit and Pittsburgh.
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This is what's wrong with blogging

People post crap. They make a "huge issue" of "something important" yet don't do due-diligence to research it. Then they look like idiots for barking about something that is a non-issue.


Case in point: Ars's Apple's patch release policy is a concern for enterprise IT (be sure to see Gandhim3
's comment further down the page). Anyone who has a responsibility with managing a bunch of machines (whether Windows, Mac, Linux, Sparc, etc) has the responsibility to read the documentation and learn the recommended methods of management. It's called common sense and "Best Practices".

In this case, anyone w/o their head up their ass would know about ARD. And if you team it up with a neat little piece of hardware called an Xserve with OSX Server and a little bit of reading you find out there's an entire community of people doing this. And they have discussion forums too: Apple Remote Desktop Forum, Mac OS X Server Forum.

Neat, huh?

It's articles like these that remind me why I quit reading Ars a few years ago. Maybe I'll delete it from my rss feeds yet again.

P.S. I love that "Dear sophisticate IT manager morons..." :)


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My photo at the Rubin Museum of Art

One of my wildlife photos is being used with an exhibit at the Rubin Museum of Art, in New York.

It's in their "Family Programs" Bhutan exhibit The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan.



For those that have never heard of a "Takin"; Takin Information.
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My Photo's famous!

One of my Portland Photo's has been used in a local visitor's guide!



Personally, it's not "one of my best". It was early in the morning, hazy. But the Eco-Tour was an absolute blast. I'd do it again in a heartbeat the next time I'm out west.

Here's a link to the visitor's guide.
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2nd week of Stronglifsts.com 5x5 Report

This is my report after doing 2 weeks of the Stronglifts 5x5
Beginner Strength Training Program. I intend to post regular updates that detail how it's going.

Oh Gawd I'm sore

My whole body is sore; legs, ass, back. The only solace I have is it's a "good sore". It wears off late in the the 2nd day (ie the day after you lifted).

Realizations

Some things I've learned:

• Make sure you have everything in your gym back the nite before. (I lift first thing each morning)


• Don't leave home w/o your notebook to know which routine you should do, and the weights you should be using (I did)


• My gym needs another squat rack


• People that use the smith machine for squats, I have to try not to look at them like they are chumps


• My gym needs more 2.5lb weights


• That prone position for 90 seconds makes my whole body shake! It literally pulls all the last remaining energy I've got straight out of my body

Goals

How'd I do with my basic goals?

I did not miss a workout! Check!

I did not falter and mis a rep! Check!

While both of those made me feel good, I have to realize I'm using extremely light weights; the level of impressiveness is directly relational to the amount of weight you are using :)

I made 1 consequential mistake this week. I forgot my "gym card" so I didn't know what weights I should be lifting. Rather then drive all the way back home @5:15am, I guessed; luckily I guessed high, and was able to do the weight. This made my squat and bench jump more then it normally would have from my week 1 results.

Overall, I'm having difficulty not adding more weight. I am feeling very confident I could do significantly more weight on the deadlift. I have to work hard to resist the temptation not to throw another set of 45's on there. I keep telling myself "use light weight to learn proper form, and build slowly. The thing is, I'm not conditioned for slow. I want my code compiled quickly. I want to drive vehicles quickly. I want to see my fat be 10% and my squat near 300lbs and I want it now! ;)

I am also having difficulty deciding on the weights to warm up with on the squat. Friday, I did: bar-barx5,bar+20,+20,bar+45 x 5,bar+45+20 x 5,bar+45+40 x 5. I think those were too much. I was more worn out by the time I completed the 5x5 squats then I've ever been. I don't know if it was because I did too many warmups that sapped my energy; or maybe it's because of the additional weight, or maybe it was because it was Friday morning and I was just plain tired from the week of work. I don't know.

My progress

Pre-Start specifics

My Weight and Fat Percentages

Week	Weight	Gut	Body-fat [1]
PRE	250	43"	20.0%
1	245	43"	19.6%
2	241	43"	18.6%
[1] using healthcentral.com's measurement method

5x5 Week #2 Results

Here is how I managed to do, weight-wise:

How much I've lifted

B	lbs	A	lbs	B	lbs
Squat	165	Squat	175	Squat	180
Press	80	Bench	175	Press	85
Deadlift	145	Inverted Row	3xF	Deadlift	155

Overall

My muscles are harder, sorer. My legs are stronger - I've noticed I'll do stairs 2 at a time like when I was much younger, without thinking about it. Though my fat percentage says it's lower, I'm not feeling it. I'm not seeing it either, my body looks as fat as it's looked for many years now.

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1st week of Stronglifts.com 5x5 Report

This week I started the Stronglifts 5x5 Beginner Strength Training Program. I intend to post regular updates that detail how it's going.

Why?

Because I'm out of shape. I'm in my late 30's. I feel like I have a body of someone in their late 40's. I sit at at desk all day writing code. When I do get out (to mountain bike, hike, hunt, gardening, housework, whatever) I'm sucking wind and my back is sore.

I know my core is out of shape. I can feel it.

When I've tried some of the stretches that are recommended in the 5x5 forums I've found that I have great limitations in my lower back, hips and thighs. My range of movement in all of them is pathetic.

I think all of this is related to me blowing a disk out a few years ago in my lower back. I believe my body wasn't meant to sit as much as I regularly do. I'm trying to undue years of this and institute a framework that I can exercise by for the rest of my life. ie "fix the core".

My Goal(s)

1. First one: just to do this, 3 times x week, like you are supposed to. That means waking up on time, getting to the gym on time. Going to bed on time.
   
2. Second one: increase strength 5x5 @200lbs squat (or more) at the end
   
3. Third one: use this to work toards decreasing my fat percentage to 10-12% over the next year or two.
   

Starting weights?

My first difficulty has been determining what starting weights to use. When I looked at the spreadsheet that people often use to track their progress (downloadble from the Stronglifts website on the 5x5 page, the bottom), I felt I could definitely lift more then it's starting weight on all exercises.

The question remainde: could I complete a 5x5 with a heavier starting weight? It doesn't matter if I can squat a max of 250lbs. If I can't do it 5x5, that's not where I needed to start. And if I can't do it with proper form, it doesn't count either.

I decided to go with the bar and 2 45's. That's 135lbs total. I figured "I should be able to do this".

After reading the stronglifts website, I found the mantra "Start light, focus on correct technique and add weight progressively. " so I knew I was on the right track.

At the moment I'm more concerned about form. I know I can lift more weight than this, but I want to train myself to have correct form and posture. Yes, I'm trying to undue years of messing around in the weight room (ie smith machine) off-and-on.

Starting Information

Pre-Start specifics



Pre-Start specifics

Weight	245
Height	5'9"
Gut	43"
Body-fat	19.6% ([1])

5x5 Week #1 Results

5x5 Week #1 Results

A	lbs	B	lbs	A	lbs
Squat	135	Squat	140	Squat	155
Bench	135	Overhead Press [2]	140	Bench	155
Barbell Row [3]	100	Deadlift	135	Barbell Row	135

Fat Results

Week #1 Fat Results

Weight	242
Height	5'9"
Gut	43"
Body-fat	19.6% ([1])

Overall

Overall I feel good that I completed the first full week. And I feel great. Friday taking the stairs at work, my legs didn't burn. My back didn't ache at the end of the day from being in the chair so much! I noticed I think my posture throughtout the day might have been more upright. Forcing myself to get out of bed @5am (and go to bed @9pm Sunday evening) is rough. There sure is a huge difference in the amount one can squat using the smith machine and not. I am glad I am finally not using it.

There is a new guy at the gym, doing a similar workout. We are intersecting on the gym's loan squat rack M&F. Not good. It slows me down.

I've found the B-workout, with the deadlifts, is a much faster workout then A. The dips, holy hell, do they end up zapping every once of energy I have left at the end of the workout (and by then, there's not much left let me tell you).

I'm sore. Yes, I admit it. I lift first thing in the morning. I get up @5am and drive to the gym. The rest of that day, I've not been sore. But about the afternoon of the next day, my ass my ass my ass!! So that evening when I get home from work I stretch and stretch and rub and stretch. I'm considering trying to implement some stretching/cardio/yoga on the Tuesdays/Thursdays inbetween each workout to help.

I did not "watch what I ate", however I did try to eat something more then 3 times/day. Which, by the end of the week, I had to! I was hungry about every 3 hours. Not the "I'm bored" hungry, the "my stomach feels empty and is now growling" hungry. I'm not too concerned about what I eat. My meals usually consist of:








My normal daily diet

Morning	Afternoon	Evening
Bowl of oatmeal, glass of v8, green tea	Leftovers from prior evening dinner or a baloney/turkey sandwhich, apple, banana, veggies, yogurt	Roast, Chili, Grilled Chicken, Grilled Pork, Spaghetti, veggies (steamed++), salad. Rarely desert.

So now I'm supplementing with a piece of fruit and maybe a granola bar @10am and 3pm. One day I ate a pre-dinner at 5pm. Dinner's normally at 6:30 (depends on when I get home from work too).

This week was also more difficult on the diet; my wife made a pan of Apple Dumplings the Sunday before I was to start this. It's a rare thing - about once every year or two. So each evening through the week we had Apple Dumplings ala-mode for desert.

[1] using healthcentral.com's measurement method

[2] I actually did Power Cleans here (ie going from the floor, all the way above my head, on each rep). Woops!

[3] Barbell Row or Power Cleans, your choice according to 5x5, just remember to alternate

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A PhD qualifies you!

Re: The Global Warming Petition Project

It would seem a PhD instantly qualifies you for a hell of a lot outside of your area of expertise.
Compare this to the people who actually study this stuff full-time: Climatology (40), Meteorology (341), Atmospheric Science (114). LOL.
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Chuck Norris can fix everything

This is classic: "Chuck Norris"-ing code >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

cuil must be better

www.cuil.com must be a better search engine -- when you search for "Miserable Failure" you get both GW Bush's white house page and Jimmy Carter's page as well >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

AT&T's direct fulfillment deal for iPhone

My wife's iPhone came in this week (Tuesday, infact). We picked it up last nite. I had ordered it from the closest AT&T Store 2 saturday's ago.

The direct fulfillment process was great. No long lines. No BS. When the phone shipped, I received an email notice. When it arrived at the store, they emailed me. We went it with her (now old) sprint phone. The guy ported the number. Tried to sell us accessories. And we were on our way home.

The next time we upgrade iPhones, I'm doing it w/ the fulfillment process. No lines, no bullshit.

So far she seems quite happy with it. Now she wants her own iTunes account, Jotta account, etc. >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

Everything's a changin'

Of late, I've been geeking out. We are in the midst of changing everything. We've moved from CVS and CVSweb to SVN with Mantis and ViewVC (integrated, of course). We've moved from physical hardware to VM's. And we're moving from Perl and LAMP to Objective-C (Cocoa) and C# (.Net). Obviously I've been doing a lot of reading lately. These are huge changes and often by the end of the week my brain is fried. So far I'm hanging in there. We'll see how well this all works out in a few months. >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

iPod Touch app bundle solution

A while back I posted about not being able to reinstall my iPod Touch's application bundle.

If found a solution....

Sell the thing on Craigs list and buy an iPhone v2 :)

The trouble is, after seeing the new phone, my wife wants one too.
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iPod Touch application bundle won't reinstall

I bought my IPod Touch 16GB new in Fall 2007. Loved it. When the January Application Bundle became available, I paid up and got the new apps. Loved 'em. Been using it ever since.

This week I needed to wipe all my information off the iPod. So I hit http://www.apple.com/support/ and started reading. I found HT1376 Installing, verifying, or reinstalling the iPod touch January Software Upgrade. Perfect, I can wipe it via a factory-reset and it'll reinstall the new apps. Just what I needed.

Ah but no. The new application bundle doesn't reinstall. I filed a support by clicking 'support' within iTunes itself. No answer.

So I went to the Apple discussions boards and found this thread: Restored iPod, can't get january software update.

Apparently I may not be the only one with this problem.

Since I've yet to receive a response from Apple wrt the support request filed in iTunes, I went ahead and sent email to support@apple.com explaining all this today.

We'll see if Apple's support responds and what they say. I've asked them to either send me the app-bundle, or make my iTunes account show it in the queue or tell me what to do to make the application bundle be reinstalled. That's all I want - the app's that I paid for!!

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iPhone Orig vs iPhone 3G Cost comparison

Erik doesn't like the iPhone 3G Pricing. So I thought I'd compare the numbers...

I put together a quick cost comparison spreadsheet on google docs. The way I see it, the new phone cost $6.00/mo more then the old phone did.

IMHO, If that's a deal breaker, you shouldn't be spending anywhere near $80/mo for a phone.

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Ohio's Strickland is screwing up

Re: State shouldn't limit flexible workweek

Strickland is screwing up (see Strickland takes away flexible hours and State workers back to 8-to-5). He's messing with state worker's schedules. He's making it more difficult for people with kids (single parents even more so), unionized workers and people taking classes to stay employed with the state.

Why does it take Strickland's office to deem such policies down upon management of State Agencies. Can't those whom run each agency not manage their own employees time, schedule and workload? Don't they know their own employees the best to judge how to handle them? Really, is the state going to lose money if an employee leaves for an hour to go to a dentist appointment and then work an hour late to make up the work?

With the brain-drain of higher-educated people leaving the state for jobs why would one create rules that prevent them from shifting schedules to take classes and/or training. That seems counterproductive to keeping a highly educated workforce.

If Strickland's moves are meant to drive people to leave state employment, it's working. Those that can leave, will. Those that can't leave, won't. Let's be realistic, those are the bottom dwellers that private employment would never employ in the first place. He'll claim that his leadership has saved the state vast sums of money. In reality, he's driving away from state employment those that are most wanted. He'll claim up front goals and savings. But just a few short years from now all state agencies will feel the pain two-fold.

I'm beginning to regret having voted for him. And that's saying a lot, because Taft's administration was a total flop. And they mention this guy from Vice President with Obama? The thought makes me want to scream!

Also related: Ohio State Workers Are Coping: It’s Now 8 to 5, With a 5-Day Week and Strickland Diet to Slim Down Government, Gambling Machine Expansion to Fatten Coffers


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Why is China still a 'developing country'?

So why is China still referred to as a "currently developing country"? (1/4 way down ) when they manufacture most of the goods that are purchased in the US? I mean, really, if a country has the infrastructure to produce that much, and the people enough to produce that much, and the infrastructure to keep all those people alive, they're no longer developing.

You can't argue that "the country is so vast that populations/parts don't have running water and electricity. Well, technically you can argue whatever you'd like. But the US has parts where there is no running water, and no electricity.

You can't use Government as a factor. They have one. It's stable. There are many countries that wish they had this.

If it's because parts of their population are uneducated (the same can be said about the US, honestly) - that's by choice of their government. Their government's making fistfulls of money yet they chose to only spend $19/student on textbooks. Does that make them a developing country?

So why is this? Will someone from the lazyweb please explain this to me? >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

You've got friends!

Recall, from the sys-admin days of ol' (yes, we know you did your due and did the peon job years ago) the AOL sound "You've got mail!" that you'd hear buzzing from people's machines?

I saw the following picture in my email inbox. It made me think of that damned annoying "You've got mail" sound, but instead "You've got Friends". It seems in Ohio, once the weather gets a bit warmer everyone gets their camera out.



I guess on one hand it's "nice to have friends". The funny thing is, look at the dates. That second weekend in may there were a lot of shutters 'a clickin' :)
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Lessons learned from a Nature Photography Newbie

This past winter marks the second season which I have ventured out into the wilderness to photograph turkeys. This year, I made the trip out to the woods a number of times yet I had success on only three of those trips. Here are a few things I've learned which I think are the most important when attempting something like this.

Timing

Based upon my analysis, some of the trips were too soon - they weren't close enough to their mating season crazyness. In Ohio, March seems to be the month. January and February are too soon. You might see some then. But you won't see 50 birds at a time. April's no good too, the spring turkey hunting season starts. Depending on your location, these times will vary.

Competition

I also found evidence that someone's poaching on our land. We found black shotgun shells on our land near the house where the turkeys come up to. These shells are not our "color" nor our "brand" that we typically use. If I hit the lottery I would love to invest in some cameras to catch this person or these people!

Then there's the coyotes and the cats. Yes, I mean bobcats. Yes, they're in Ohio. Get over it. (so are small bears, for that matter). Apparently they enjoy a good turkey dinner as well. We've found a number of carcasses leftover in the woods nearby. Not much was ever left except feathers and claws. Nearly all were hens, for the curious.

Tips

So after sitting through sun, sleet, rain and snow, here are the top few things I learned while trying to photograph wildlife this year:

1. Always use a tripod. Don't leave home without it. If you do, drive back and get it. Just because your eyes think there's enough light outside that morning doesn't mean your lenses, filters and magnifiers will. Add in possible low-light and motion from the animals and you've got one thing - blur if you don't have a tripod.
   


2. Bundle up! It's far colder sitting in a metal chair outside in a blind then it is standing outside the house. The longer you are out there before the sun comes up (you are out there before the sun comes up, yes?) the colder it becomes, quickly! Like everyone says, wear layers. I found bringing different hats helps; as it becomes warmer I can ditch the thicker ones for thinner ones.
   


3. Valley's are cold! If you start at the top of a hill when you get to the bottom and setup your blind and equipment it's going to be colder down there!


4. Condensation kills! Be careful about condensation from your heat, your breath, the sunshine coming in and your camera. Especially if there's a frost and/or dew. If the tip of your lens is outside the blind, or near the opening and it's temperature is different from the rest of the camera you can end up with water where you don't want water.
   


5. Cold kills batteries! If you hadn't heard this before, then you've not been doing photography long or you live where it's not cold. Either way, the cold will suck the energy from your batteries like you cannot believe. Bring extra's. During the long lulls where you aren't seeing much action of your blind, don't hesitate to pull the camera from the tripod mount and stuff the body in your jacket.
   


6. Cold messes with LCD's. The LCD in the viewfinder on mine started acting up. Instead of f4.5 it looked more like f4.L. I've not figured out yet whether this is a flaw, or it was from the cold, or both. Nor have I decided whether or not to send the body to Canon for a fix. When the camera body's temperature was raised, the problem went away - that's why I suggested putting the camera body in your jacket (someplace warmer) when not being used. (If I knew of a way to get a picture of the LCD in the viewfinder, I'd be able to show this to you).
   


7. Diet. Don't eat that huge steak and potato meal the night before. And stay away from a lot of beer. Oh, and beans too. The next day in a small blind isn't pleasant. It can be extreme in a two person blind with two people! The point I'm getting at is you may have to adjust the size of your urin bottle and other necessary equipment to handle the fallout of the previous night's festivities. Use your best judgement here.
   


8. Stretch before you go out to the woods. You will be cramped in a blind for at-least half a day, maybe an entire day. If your body is nice and stretched out you won't cramp up being stuck in a chair in a small blind in a tiny space for hours on end. During the day try to stretch your limbs too. If you google on "office stretches" that people do in their office chairs, the premise for your situation in your blind is the same. Stretch as much as possible. You will be thankful you did it once you finally stand up and have to walk your gear back out of the woods.
   


9. Bring a watch, pen and paper. When you start seeing eyes and heads popping out of the brush, note the date and the times. Animals tend to be cyclical, especially if you are routinely spreading food out for them to eat. They'll come back and make your location part of their routine. Over time, adjust your estimated times based on sunrise and sunset. Some magazines, like Field & Stream will publish sun tables Solunar Tables that you can analyze and possibly use. (see Field & Stream Interactive Weather and Wildlife Best Times to Hunt & Fish as well as Sunshine Applet)


10. Lens cleaning equipment. You're bound to drag your nose across your lcd screen. You're bound to breath towards the camera thereby fogging up the lcd screen and viewfinder (note that this is the exact time the animals will pop out of the woods on you, when you can't see squat). If you'll be changing lenses you're bound to drop one on the ground it'll roll through the grass, weeds and snow. So bring a towel. Bring the normal lens cloth and other misc gear to clean them. Nothing kills the spirit worse then going back to camp, looking at your pictures and finding out there was dirt somewhere that's in every single frame you snapped.
    


11. Know when to leave. If you've walked in with all your gear, don't wait until you are bone tired to packup and leave. Leave sooner. There's no reason to be that tired when you've still got to packup and haul all your gear out of the woods. My gear isn't light, I can't afford those sweet lightweight tripods in the B&H catalog, mine's from eBay. So don't wait. Leave while you are ahead, especially if the walk is long and up hill.
    

The main thing is have fun. If you are lucky enough to have picked a good spot, you'll capture what you came for. If not, well then there's always everything else out in the wild.



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America Celebrates Tax Freedom Day

It seems today is Tax Freedom day.
I'd settle for it being a national holiday so we all get the day off from work. That'd make it something meaningful for me. >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

Blackberry server names

The person at work responsible for ditching these Godforsaken Motorola-Q's did a trial period with an iPhone. But couldn't get iMap to work. And since it doesn't do native Microsoft Exchange (yet), it's been deemed we should all switch to something that does - so we are to have Blackberry's. Needless to say, this has had some in the IT department jabber channel bemoaning a bit. Consequently, being the good selfless IT staff that we are, we were helping our server minion setup the required-in-house-blackberry-server. (No, we didn't do any physical work, not even any clicking on 'install.exe', that's his job!) Here's what we came up with:

• Elderberry


• Shrubbery


• ElderBerryShrubbery


• wishiwasaniphone


• whenIgrowupIwannabeaniphone

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I don't understand Twitter

There, I said it. I don't understand Twitter. Or more accurately, I don't understand the need for Twitter.

Ya see, I don't want everyone on the earth knowing what I do 24/7. I sure as hell don't want to have to go and type what I'm doing, in, all the time, either.
And honestly, I'm not sure that I want, nor need, to know what all my friends are doing all the time, either. I'd much rather be sitting down having a beer with them, or chatting on IM/IRC with them. I'd even settle for talking on the phone, which I thoroughly loath talking on the phone. But it'd be better then getting tweets from all of them.
Am I becoming an old curmudgeon? Or lazy? Or am I just being a realistic non-geek who has better things to do with my time?
Update: apparently I'm not the only one: Twitter Away Your Life With Social Networking.
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Printing a photograph for above-the-mantel

I have only "professionaly" printed one of my photographs. I think the term to use is "Large Format Printing". I think the final size was 30x20. It was a request from someone who wanted it above their mantel. For this article's sake, let's assume it was similar to this one:




My problem was I knew next to nothing about printers. In fact, we have multiple color laser printers at work that do 8.5x11 normal sheet prints. Every single time I've attempted to use them, I had different results. Whether it was printing from driver version X, Y, Z, or color detail "high" or "photo" or printing straight from Photoshop or from Photoshop through Aperture. It all frustrated me enough that I've always tried desperately not to print anything. It's easier to email, post to flickr, .mac or just make a website/webpage to share the photos.

Then it just so happened that I went to a The Columbus Digital Photography and Photoshop Meetup Group meeting at a coffee house one evening and found out the organizer prints out many different photographs, some in very, very large sizes. I thought I'd hit the jackpot of knowledge! He recommended Signway Graphics . After much procrastination and surfing trying to figure out color spaces, bleeds, dimensions, pixel rules, etc, I relented and contacted Signway to have my print made.

And it turned out fantastic! Signway was great. The cost was very reasonable. You can take your photo(s) in on a USB drive/CD or email them. The owners are very, very, patient. I didn't know that much about how all this "print stuff" works.

Here are some of the things I learned through the process:

• Just because an image looks good on a screen, doesn't mean it'll make a good print


• Dark things on a photo on the screen will probably look even darker when printed. And unless that is the affect you are going for, lighten it up in Photoshop


• color calibration with your computer screen(s) is imporant. If you find yourself saying "but at home it didn't look like that" you need to be calibrated!


• Don't shoot JPG, Shoot RAW. When you shoot in-camera JPG's, the camera lets you choose the "quality", meaning it lets you choose the level of compression. Resizing, or up-sizing, a compressed JPG isn't all that much fun. Maybe if you know Photoshop better then I do. But the quality you'll get resizing a JPG versus resizing a RAW is not comparable. Use RAW!


• Color mode: Always use sRGb color space, since that's what most printers use


• Delivering the file: If you give a printer a PSD they seem to like that. Always save yours in compatibility mode incase you have a higher version of Photoshop then they do.


• Resolution (Pixels/inch) versus print-size, you generally want 300, however, for a big print that you won't be physically close to you can go lower because the detail in the print doesn't need to be as clear. Your printer will be able to tell you what Resolution you should really be using.
  


• The pixel-depth of your camera directly affects the maximum size you can print. (If you Google it you can find many charts that show estimates). The guyst of it is something like this:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Megapixels	File Resolution	Print Size
  		High Quality (300dpi)	Max(150dpi)
  4	2664x1632	8"x5.5"	16.5"x11"
  8	3264x2448	11"x8"	22"x16"
  10	4290x2800	13"x8.5"	26"x17"

  
  

So, when I compare my Canon 40D I get 3892 × 2586 (or 3888x2592). Which if you take a Pixels-per-Inch (PPI) of 300 that's 3888/300 = 12.96 inches wide by 2492/300 = 8.64 inches tall.

Whether I alter the PPI, downsize the photo, upsize it, or any combination thereof depends on the physical printing device that's being used.

You can use Photoshop or any image editting program to resize your digital file so you can print it bigger. Here is a link to a free how-to (using Photoshop). If you don't have photoshop, you can probably very easily adapt it to whatever image editting application you are using:

Resizing Practice Exercises for Photoshop CS2 Basics Lesson 2

This resizing seems to be an art in and of itself (like everything with this digital photgraphy stuff eh?)

I hope this helps someone. I'm definitely not an expert regarding any of this. But I spent a good bit of time surfing and skimming books at the library and Borders (and drinking coffee with the group!) trying to make heads or tails of it all. Hopefully this saved you some time.

One last prop: Signway Graphics.

Credits:

  Canon 40d photo
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Single parents cost taxpayers bazillions

CNN posted an article from the AP titled Study: Single parents cost taxpayers $112 billion. The gist of it sponsors of the study are recommending lawmakers invest more money in programs aimed at strengthening marriages. Others, not associated with the study, question whether that's a good idea and instead recommend investing resources into programs for things such as job creation.

Such a program [bolster(ing) marriages] has been in place in Oklahoma since 2001; Texas last year earmarked about $15 million in federal funds for marriage education.

Let's see, what does a single parent need? Money? Yep, a job would help that (ignore child support). What about... oh... day care?!?. These states spending money on marriage-programs are fools. I wonder if those programs are being pushed by the religious right. The two states they mention, Oklahoma and Texas sure aren't known for their bible-beltedness.

Let me say it again - day care. A big third is education. And they can't take courses if they don't have day care. And most of them can't have day care without money.

Well, in Ohio single women used to have dirt-cheap near-free daycare if they were in school too. But our recent block-head governor got rid of that.
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But what about Vermont?!?

I have not seen a single poll regarding tommorrow's primary in Vermont. As an Ohioan, I am truly concerned about what's happening in Vermont. Obviously, their results are going to influence so much of our future.

heh >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

I was kicked out of the Arnold Classic...

I was kicked out of the 2008 Arnold Classic's Amateur IFBB International Female Bodybuilding competition because I didn't have a "pitpass".



Now, minutes before I had sat in the press area (for about an hour or 2) taking photographs of the Men's and Women's Arm Wrestling championships. I was watching the 2008 Arnold Classic Armwrestling Challenge (ACAC). I'd never been that close to something like that in my life. It was also my first time ever seeing true arm wrestling "done properly". Here's one of my frames:



I was right smack at the front of the stage. It was sweet!! (btw, the bearded man on the left side of the picture, George Iszakouits, has won the competition for six straight years now).

Then it was over and they started gearing up for the
female competition. And that's when they started asking for these damn passes.

Which ironically I didn't happen to have ;) Arg!

See more of my Arnold Classic 2008 pictures in my Arnold Classic 2008 Flickr set.
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Easy Rider Bike Expo and Concert

This weekend I went with Croz to the Easyrider Bike Show at Vet's in downtown Columbus. This was my first time at the show. I don't recall ever hearing about it in the past.

It turns out a friend of mine had his bike in the show and it took 2nd place in the Spectator's Class!



Here's a picture of just-the-bike:




Then we caught a concert by a band called Toyz. They

played some good ol classic rock tunes and were quite good.

Of course, we snapped some pictures :) I'll be putting them up on Flickr as soon as I get done editting them. I didn't realize they had concerts and events and stuff at a show like this - so I didn't bring the 70-200 lens :( Croz had his and was getting some sweet photo's of the band. My 17-55 just didn't have enough range to get in close :( I'll have to bring it with me next year! But it was the first time I'd ever sat in the front row for a concert!

Flickr Meet - CMH Bike Show Discussion
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Photography Blind

This weekend I did some "prep-work" to prepare for Turkey pictures this spring. I wanted to see how the Canon 40D would do w/ the Sigma 70-200 and the 2x converter. Here's a picture of the blind:



What I found out was the range I have w/ this camera and lens isn't much better then the 300D w/ the 70-300 Sigma lens (which I gave to my mom). However, since the 70-200 is a quicker lens it did better in low-light.

Oh, and watch out for condensation dripping off the top of the blind onto the lens, camera and yourself. Not fun. Very cold. And mice seem to like blinds that aren't used all that often :(

For the interested - some of my prior turkey pictures.
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Flickr Meetup - Ohio Theatre Statistics

Apparently a few of you liked the Flickr group meetup stats I posted yesterday (see prior article). So much so that it was requested I run the stat-beast against the second tour, the tour of the Ohio Theatre.

Here's the nitty gritty:

There is a total of 210 images tagged with
flickr tag 'cmhflickrmeet092207', posted by
20 different people (ie flickr accounts). Average ISO Speed was 390.

The distribution of make of Cameras:



What modes were their cameras in?



Was Exposure Bias used?



And the top few Exposures used:



And the top few Apertures used:


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Flickr Meetup - Statehouse Tour Statistics

In May, 2007, our local Flickr group Flickr Meet - Columbus Ohio did a group tour of the Columbus Ohio StateHouse. Then in September we did a Tour of the Ohio Theatre. Now, thanks to croz1007 we are gearing up to do a tour of the Columbus Ohio Southern Theatre.

After seeing many of my photos that did not come out so well, and many more from others that came out great I was wondering what they did differently, that I didn't do?!? Then the thought occurred to me that I could look at the EXIF information from their photos. By looking at the photo to try and determine the circumstances of it's unique situation, and the EXIF, maybe I'd learn something.

And so I began clicking. And clicking. Then realized there's atleast 50 or more photos, and this wasn't going to work. Perl to the rescue! I spent part of yesterday's NFL football games tinkering with code and readin the Flickr and misc documentaiton. I ended up with a small perl script to generate some statistics. Here is what it found:

There is a total of 381 images tagged with
flickr tag 'cmhflickrmeet063007', posted by
17 different people (ie flickr accounts). Average ISO Speed was 550.

The distribution of make of Cameras:



What modes were their cameras in?



Was Exposure Bias used?



And the top few Exposures used:



And the top few Apertures used:



I don't know that this information will help anyone. Hell, I'm not sure it'll help me, since I spent all my time reading the Flickr API Documentation and poking around with a perl script instead of analyzing the pictures/data. Hopefully this week I will find the time to look through all the pictures and compare all the numbers.

Special thanks to the authors of the Flickr API as well as the 100% free-as-in-beer Perl Module Flickr::API and GD::Graph.

If you have any thoughts on whether this would be worthwhile to run after each meetup, or how it could be improved, please post a comment. Thanks!
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Music Labels scream Steal Our Tunes

Ok, I'll admit it. I like iTunes. Infact, I've purchased quite a bit of music from iTunes over the past few years inorder to feed my iPods. Some people, mostly geeks, sometimes ask "Why?" What they are really asking is is "Why would you purchase music from iTunes, that's DRM'd?"

My answer to this is fairly simple:

1. iTunes is easy.


2. iTunes is convenient.


3. iTunes "just works".


4. I've never been inconvenienced by iTune's DRM.


5. Unless I've wanted to share music (illegally?), I've not been inconvenienced by iTunes.

Now when I say "illegally share music" it's mainly when one of my kids comes over and says "Oh you have the new Korn CD. Can you burn it for me?".

It was one thing when the kids were younger and living at home. We all shared tapes, cd's, vcr movies, dvd's. ¹ But now that they don't live here, I don't think that "sharing" is right. It's a different location (in our case, cities now). If they want a cd, they should purchase it just like everyone else in the world.

Or, when I am listening to something and a friend says "Oh, I love that song. Oh you have the entire CD, can you burn it for me?"

I want to scream "no!". ²

The point that I'm trying to make by all this typing is that the music industry is really screwing themselves by trying to obfuscate iTunes. When I've had friends ask me to burn them something I'd say "Sorry, I bought this from iTunes, it's encrypted, it won't let me share it". ³

That used to be the end of the discussion. Now they follow up with "Well, why didn't you just buy it from Amazon, stuff from there isn't encrypted."

And you know, they're right. The music downloaded from Amazon isn't encrypted. I can burn it, copy it, ftp it, nntp it, scp it, rsync it, share it, copy it to USB keychain devices, etc. Neighbors can come over and grab a copy and I can go over to their house and get a copy of what they just bought.

And the labels are trying to obfuscate iTunes? What complete idiots they are. I'm at the point where I think the labels get what they deserve. They finally had a system where most people using it were not hindered by the DRM. It's a popular online system, there is a lot of people using it. One would think the Music Labels would be extactic about this. People purchasing music that they can't so easily "just share with anyone".

No, instead the Music Labels are once again showing their greed. They want to distrubute the music on their own and garner all the profits from that. I cannot blame them from wanting to maximize profit from the content they own. However, it took them so many years before they finally had a system like iTunes. And now they are screwing with it.

I think the Music Labels are idiots.

• ¹ When the kids were in middle-school and high school, cd's were easy gifts for them. And they'd listen to them for hours, and hours. Sometimes (dreadedly) the same cd over, and over, and over. But if they both wanted some CD by {insert artist here} there's no reason for us to buy two of them. It's simply unaffordable, and to be honest ridiculous to think we'd do otherwise.
  


• ² Some of have said that though it's technically illegal to share music, the labels are such asses that, well, go ahead and do it anyway. I dislike the idea of that way of thinking. I try not to use that way of thinking to justify sharing anything. However, with each bone-headed decision by the big-4 Music Labels, it seems more and more difficult to not think like that.


• ³ Yes, I know this isn't exactly true. Yes, you can burn any purchased music to CD. However, you are burning an MP3 to CD, not the Audio track back to another CD. The quality of the CD would be, in my opininon, 'lame'. Rather then try to explain this (to some that will just look back with a glassy-eyed-stare) I just lie. It's easier that way.

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Hayden Falls Photos

For those of you who are always saying "I should stop at Hayden Falls" and never have, here's a picture of it for you:



I've been in Columbus for a number of years, kept telling my self I'd go there. And never did. The falls are smack in the middle of suburbia and easy to get to. When it was in the 60's earlier this week I couldn't resist finally going. It was late in the day so I had to be careful trying to pick an aperture/shutter/iso to get enough light at the bottom of the canyon. I treated the whole thing like an exercise from my new book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson.

I also attempted to "stop motion" of water:



Though that didn't come out so well. >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

Richardson calls it quits?!?

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson quits his Presidential Bid. His campaign didn't do all that well in Iowa nor New Hampshire.

I first heard mention of this while listening to the local NPR station on the way home from my CMH Digital Photography and Photoshop Meetup Group meeting at a local coffee place. It wasn't suprising, considering he'd not done that well in the primaries.

Earlier, before I left for the meeting, during Hardball someone piped up that Richardson was never in it to be the President - instead his goal was the vice-presidency. I'd never heard that before. I don't know whether to chaulk it up to Hardball BS or what. Who knows. I guess time will tell.

I had always assumed that there'd be a large part of the population that won't vote for a black man. Then another large part that won't vote for a woman. (Note: I'm not advocating either way of thinking, but I've travelled the US and though no one seems to want to say it, those two Democratic front-runners have an uphill battle in parts of the US, misguided the reasoning may be). Therefore this situation would leave Richardson set for the position (besides the fact that he seemed to have a lot of experience and knowledge w/ foreign policy).

With Richardson out, maybe Edwards will be in this so-called pole-position in waiting out the struggle between Obama and Clinton.

Oh, CNN is running similar so it must be true. ;)
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Real Life Mobile Penryn vs Merom Benchmarks

Mac Rumors has an article saying there will be new MacBook Pro's with the just-released Penryn processors. According to Anandtech this will yield up to a 40 % increase in some applications.

This all figures, seeing as I just received my new 17" MacBook Pro 2 weeks ago. >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

Poor Hugo Chavez

Poor Hugo Chavez. He just can't win. He tried to use a hostage situation to embarass Columbia. Even Oliver Stone joined in the frey, hoping to embarass the Bush Administration. It turns out it was a setup - he was totally played by the jungle rebels.

But ya know what? When you go to bed with dogs, you generally wake up with fleas.

And that's exactly what happened. Chavez has to feel like he was played the fool - because he was.

The true winner in the whole ordeal was Oliver Stone - he walks away with a Movie deal.

Political hostage's son found in Bogota >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

Battle-Tested and the NFL?

I think the NFL should ban the word "Battle Tested" from all game announcements and broadcasts.

• they aren't fighting in a battle (infact most of the current players probably never have)


• they aren't having things shot at them


• they aren't fighting (for democracy)

Maybe, just maybe, if a player is playing in Cleveland, they are battle-tested. Afterall, they do on occasion have illegally-smuggled-contraband thrown at them.

Oh, and Andrea Kremer's nose and mouth look exactly like Edie Falco's. >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

Brandweek and Chevy Malibu

Brandweek says "GM Can't Stock Malibus".

I wonder if the thought "A good product sells itself" ever crossed their minds. Or here's another: "Gee, a link to the product we're referring to would be great". Maybe Chevy told them not to link directly to the Malibu, fearing even more backorders for the vehicle.

Did you get that not linking to the product you're discussing annoys the crap out of me?

The funny thing is, I saw an add for the car yesterday and I thought "Now that's a sharp car. I wonder how Chevy came up with it?". Then today I saw the article in Brandweek's RSS feed.

It's ironic how a branding website would determine GM can't stock the car because of Marketing success.

Links: Motortrends Malibu 2008 pictures and Google Image Search. >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

Realtime wildlife watching (deer/turkey)

Today I first read about "The Bug" over at Engadget's CES coverage website. Their article about The Bug's Announcement got my curiosity going. They didn't have a link to The Bug's website in the article, so I found it.

All I can say is this thing looks cool! My first thought when I read this was "I could build a realtime deer/turkey watching device!" I couldn't find the exact specs for the camera on their website. I don't know if that's because there aren't any specifications online yet, or the fact that I gave up looking fairly quickly because I can smell the food my wife's preparing for dinner.

But the bug's apparently got it's own rechargable battery. If it's waterproof, and the battery is big enough (your you can wire it to a big d++ battery(ies)) then you could leave it broadcasting to your wifi unit and pickup relatively live camera feed from it. Toss in some motion detection analysis of every-few-frames and it would be very cool. On one of the pages they advertise a developer-kit. I think I read it's free. Well, if they have any common sense it'd be free. Oh, and work on OSX, too :)

Concerns for now: waterproofedness, battery life, cost, developer tools and framework, convincing my wife this is worth shelling out large cash for it

Update: Subversion checkout: svn://bugcommunity.com/ >>Keep Reading: Full Post and Comments

Everyone's leaving Ohio!

Our local newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch, has an article titled "More people leaving Ohio". Basically, the article is stating that more people are leaving Ohio then coming here. This claim is based on the fact that United Van Lines says for the 15th consecutive year, 57% percent of the moves they have made are out of Ohio.

No one should be suprised hearing this news. That's right, absolutely no one.

Ohio's Economy sucks. We have auto plants closing, or near-closing every year. Many of those who worked in the manufacturing industry that we've known over years, are gone, retired (not by choice) or are working in jobs that are no where near as advanced (nor well paying) as what they were doing in the steel and auto industries. Some of our cities don't rank well. Topics of discussion with family members are often dominated with the debate of whether to accept the then-current early retirement package being offered by insert manufacturing company with a union here.

We in Ohio cannot seem to keep religious matters from imposing upon everyone in the state. We seem to have religious wacko's coming out of the wood work (ahem, from the Cincinati area) working to tell everyone how to act. Will the young people in our state stay in such an environment? No, they won't. Look at the populations of some states out west. They are closing grade schools because there is no young population base that's marrying and having kids to supply the schools. They're all leaving or already left (we have family in Oklahoma, someday I'll write about that).

The higher-education situation in Ohio sucks too. For a few years now, there've been a lot Ohioans going to North Carolina (and obviously other states). Why? Because it's cheaper to go there in-order to send their kids to college. Yes, for a few years they are paying NC's out-of-state tuition rate, but it's far cheaper to do so then stay in Ohio and pay Ohio's in-state rates. Obviously, after you've moved down south to educate your family, and enjoyed the warmer temperatures, why would you move back to Ohio? Answer: you won't.

The last 15 years of "Republican Control" have stagnated Ohio's Economy. The decision to cut higher education funding (hence force the Colleges to significantly increase their rates) immediately started killing Ohio's economy because it's becoming near impossible for many people to send their kids to state schools. Prior to this, in-state schools were always the cheaper schools to send your children to. Another boneheaded cut - From 2001 to 2003 Ohio cut $268 million out of their child care assistance fund. If you have a part of our population who aren't making squat, have children, want to goto college and will eventually have a decent income from having gone to college why would you cut their knees out from underneath them? If they cannot afford childcare, they won't attend college. It's that simple; Help them help themselves to earn a decent income and fuel that tax base.

Thankfully Ken Blackwell didn't win the election. We'd already discussed how soon we could relocate out of the state if he'd won.

This all lends itself to a higher-education brain-drain throughout the state. Who thinks that will help attract industry? (I will admit the decision to drop Ohio's Tangible Personal Property Tax was a smart, belated, move).

If you have no people, you have no tax base. That's a brow-raising thought isn't it? Look out west for what Ohio could easily become.
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