To those skeptics who might have been skeptical of my earlier claimed fuel mileage post, I give you the results of my last two tanks of gas:
5/14/06 … 12.799 gallons for 384.1 miles = 30.0 MPG
5/17/06 … 10.348 gallons for 297.4 miles = 28.8 MPG
Long live my fuel-sipping Intrigue! 
[Of course, as I type this we've just returned from a trip to the local Chevy dealer to check out Trailblazers and Equinoxes!]
Wireless Internet is a wonderful thing – thanks to the magic of my cell phone and a $5 USB cable, I’m updating from the passenger seat of Dad’s Tahoe at 65 MPH!
Unfortunately, my laptop’s battery is nearly dead, so I guess now would be a good time to check the weather and get the heck off the computer. But it’s so nice and toasty on my lap! (Dad insists on keeping the sunroof cracked…)
A couple weeks ago, I posted a freshly-brewed review of the LumiQuest 80/20 strobe diffuser/reflector accessory for shoe-mounted flashes. I had purchased an 80/20 to use aboard a rented Canon Speedlite 580EX, and the results (at the 50th-anniversary party that I photographed the following day) were wonderful.
Lately, in parallel with my expanding photographic interests, I’ve been watching a couple of photography blogs, namely Digital Outback Photo and The Online Photographer. Both are excellent streams filled with commentary, experiences and quality references to other sites.
One such reference that I’ve enjoyed exploring thoroughly is Strobist, a combination web site and blog that’s 100% dedicated to the virtues of using small, inexpensive strobe units to create unique and effective photographic lighting arrangements. Between regular updates and a comprehensive series of tutorials on all manner of equipment, accessories and techniques, this site is a gem.
I’m looking forward to adding more photographs and more equipment reviews here at daverea.com, too – the first of which will, I hope, be some head-to-head comparisons of Canon vs. Tokina pro-series lenses. Now if only I could get a few more items ticked off my wish-list!
Well, at least nothing that most folks would be interested in… So I’ll blatantly yank something from Wikipedia that I find very interesting, and that’ll just have to do for now…
In signal processing, a window function (or apodization function) is a function that is zero-valued outside of some chosen interval. For instance, a function that is constant inside the interval and zero elsewhere is called a rectangular window, which describes the shape of its graphical representation. When another function or a signal (data) is multiplied by a window function, the product is also zero-valued outside the interval. All that is left is the “view” through the window. Applications of window functions include spectral analysis and filter design, as well as audio data compression such as Vorbis.
It can be shown theoretically that the Fourier transform of the function: cos(omega*t), is zero, except at frequency omega. But many other functions and data do not have convenient closed form transforms. Or we might be interested in their spectral content only during a certain time period. In either case, we have to perform the Fourier transform (or something similar) on one or more finite intervals of the waveform. So in general, the transform is applied to the product of the waveform and a window function. But any window (including rectangular) affects the spectrum that we are trying to measure.
There now, wasn’t that fun? Now, just in case you find yourself cornered by a gang of mathematician thugs in a dark alley somewhere, and the only way to get out of it is to bust out some spectral analysis trivia (to prove that you’re one of them and shouldn’t be beaten to an even-more-uncalculative pulp), you’ll be all set.
Y’all can thank me later…
So there’s a bunch of people living in the shadow of Mount Merapi, an active volcano in Indonesia that’s about to erupt … and despite the fact that the mountain is belching smoke and flowing lava has already reached out a mile from the peak, these folks aren’t going anywhere.
They say they “believe that spirits watch over the peak and will warn them of an eruption.”
Perhaps, by some tiny shred of possibility, or some mammoth strech between the spiritual and the practical, could these spirits maybe be warning you to get the hell out by – um – sending plumes of black ash into the sky?!
Just a thought.
So everyone’s all hot-under-the-collar about the latest US government “intelligence” gathering project to reach the light of day – evidently the NSA got their hands on a whole nutload of phone call records from North America’s “big-3″ of the telecom world. Supposedly, this was to try to extract suspicions of terrorist activities from calling patterns.
Let’s put this issue in perspective, and not to diminish or distract from just how serious a violation of privacy it is. There are plenty of overpaid politicians on both sides of the aisle doing that already. The perspective I’m talking about is more along the lines of: open your friggin eyes, people! Gene Hackman’s character in Enemy of the State said it best: “The more technology you use, the easier it is for them to keep tabs on you.”
But just who is keeping those tabs? It’s natural to get all hot ‘n bothered over the NSA learning about your telephone habits. But how much other personal information do we give away without getting the least bit upset? Here are some hints:
- Thanks to spyware and adware that most people unwittingly welcome onto their computers, companies (not all of which have noble intentions) monitor your product purchasing habits, your credit card transactions and your porn preferences. You gladly give up this information in exchange for the ability to pirate music, have a pouncing animated kitten waste processor cycles at the bottom of your screen, or have the weather report sitting in your system tray.
- You’re outraged that the government knows how frequently you call your grandma in Tulsa, yet every April you’re forced to fork over every intimate detail about your financial life, your salary, your employment, your charity affiliations and your medical expenses – at least, if you don’t want to go to jail for tax evasion!
- People’s forehead veins are popping because the government decided to listen in on some international calls. Yet these people volley sensitive information around the glove – often deeply personal communications – through an unencrypted, clear-text, easy-to-intercept e-mail system every day. Strong encryption software is freely available to plug into every respectable e-mail program on every operating system, yet no one uses it. Unfortunately, on the flip-side, even if this software is used, it only secures the content of the communication – but the source and destination of encrpyted e-mails is still easily discernable.
Again, I’m not trying to diminish or draw attention away from the seriousness of our phone records being handed over to the government without our permission or knowledge. What I’m pointing out is that government surveillance is only one of many, many magnifying glasses that are focused on us. And, though I’m sure my words will stir few if any fires, just how open we leave ourselves through our use and endorsement of the very technologies that betray us.
Evidently, some wasps got the bright idea to “colonize” our barbeque grill. And evidently, they found it rather unpleasant when I lit the sucker up to cook some sausages tonight! There were only two or three around, so I didn’t get stung or anything – and evidently from here on in I’ll have to be sure to put the cover on!
Fluffy (a.k.a. my buddy Jason) and I headed out to Dryer Road Park again today, to spend some time on two wheels. As it has done since we fixed that pesky little accidental-handlebar-removal problem, my trusty Trek held out just fine. We did about five miles worth of trail riding, then spent some time in the park’s “practice area” taking pictures. The duet of rented Canon 70-200mm image-stabilized zoom and sexy 14mm rectilinear ultra-wide lenses with my 20D made for some fun shooting.
The day’s only mishap happened early – Jason managed to pop a spoke while sliding over a big root in the trail, so we spent a few minutes re-truing the wheel before pressing on. In record time, I’ve even managed to post a gallery!
Now. Regarding that little handlebar mishap I referred to earlier … The photo above shows me riding over the first in a series of closely-spaced bumps in the practice area. It’s possible to catch a little air on these if you move fast enough, but I’m content to ride them planted on the ground to practice canting the bike forward and back (and moving my weight to match) to clear obstacles. A few weeks ago, however, one of my practice runs went sufficiently wrong as to cause me to (for lack of a better term) completely bite ass on the third bump: as I pulled up and onto the bump, my handlebars came out!
This doesn’t bode well if your goal is to not crash. Of course, my front wheel officially went its own way once the handlebars were out of the picture, and as a result I found myself rapidly plowed into the dirt. Not that this stopped us: a few scratches and bruises later, we fixed the handlebars and hit the trail!
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