Category: General

I was listening to an IT Conversations podcast on Computational Origami by Robert Lang and the designs sounded interesting so I checked out his website, Robert J. Lang Origami and was amazed at the complexity and richness of designs that can be obtained using a single, uncut sheet of paper.

Keep in mind that many of these designs take hours to fold not to mention to come up with the design in the first place. But, in making use of computers to help calculate how to work the paper, he shows here designs that were once thought impossible. Especially the insects.

If you have a moment, check this out. It’s truly amazing.

I was over at a friend’s house the other day and he was pointing out an owl (one of several) that he had in his backyard. From his deck I could eventually see the owl perched up 50 feet or so in one of the trees at the far end of the yard. He handed me a pair of Canon 18×50 IS binoculars and said “You can get a better view through these.”.

Anybody who has ever used binoculars knows that, without a tripod or some sort of bracing, looking through any pair of binoculars with over 10 times magnification is an exercise in jerky frustration. And these were no exception… until I pressed the IS button. WOW! The image suddenly calmed right down to a pristine, still image that impresses. The owl was visible in all of his slumbering glory and the view was spectacular.

Now, I’m not the worlds greatest ornithologist. Truth be told I’m not particularly interested in bird-watching. But I am interested in astronomy and a good pair of binoculars is great for someone who has such an interest – they are handy and powerful enough to see some very interesting celestial items but they are not so unweildy as telescopes and tripods tend to be. You can just grab your binoculars and head outside, no setup required.

I did some research and decided that, as lovely as the 18x magnification of the binoculars that I’d sampled was, that needed to be tempered with a reasonable field of view. It’s challenging enough finding something as big as an owl in a backyard tree through an 18x pair of binoculars but trying to zero in on pinpoints of light dozens to thousands of light years away can be pretty difficult. After doing some research (thanks Google!) I determined that the 15×50 IS binoculars would suit my purposes nicely.

I ordered them from Amazon a few days ago and am eagerly awaiting their arrival!

Huh, one of my favorite “Urban Legend” sites, Snopes.com, has the skinny on the day after Thanksgiving being the busiest shopping day of the year. Not saying the store aren’t crowded, but if you want to know what days to catch up on those chores around the home, check this out:
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/thanksgiving/shopping.asp

Definitely worth a peek, this entry from Snopes.com shows a modern men’s room with, shall we say, a little less privacy than you normally expect…

You may have noticed that I’ve made a few changes around here.

I’ve upgraded to the latest and greatest version of WordPress (this blogging software) and I’ve also upgraded to the newest version of the Gallery photo software.

These two can now talk to each other now and you’ll find the photos are integrated much more nicely into the overall web site.

WordPress now manages accounts for both of these platforms. So if you already have an account on this system you now need to login from the side panel next to the blog rather than in the photo gallery. See “Login” under “Housekeeping” to the right. If you don’t have an account, please go ahead and register and you can see all of the pictures rather than just the ones open to the public.

If you have any problems, please let me know.

The pictures showing up at the top of the sidebar (to the right) are, in order, a random picture from any of the albums and the highlight picture for the most recently created album.

I still have not ordered my tablet. Every time I go out onto IBM’s website with the intent of purchasing the unit I come away frustrated. I want the built-in biometric fingerprint reader of the lower end machine AND the much better battery and larger HD of the higher end machine. Plus I want to get a few other upgrades (memory and maybe that Dragon Dictate software) but every time I look I either cannot figure out how to do it or am hopelessly confused by the terrible way the options are laid out. I’m pretty sure that office comes with the unit but when you get down to the software options there is Office available for order for full price. I’m 100% sure that if I mess it up (double order), they won’t tell me and simply ship me what’s on the manifest.

Add to that the ongoing delay and the fact that, being mail-order every problem will take several days of mailing pieces back and forth, well… I’m not super confident that I’ll get what I want.

I’d be MUCH happier if they had a local distributor with the tablet in stock so that I can simply walk in, discuss it with the person, open it up, make sure all my pieces are there and then walk out again.

I read this blog entry on Douglas Welch’s web site and it intrigued me enough to check out the webinar.

Everybody has their own time-management systems and I don’t believe that you can really completely adopt another system exclusively as your own. However there are some very good points to be taken away from the GTD philosophy (from the David Allen Company). I’m currently trying out their Outlook add-in and am quite impressed so far. Now to decide if it’s practical enough to keep (it’s well conceived and pretty robust so far) or if I just take away some of the ideas that it promotes.

I’m thinking of picking up a laptop to replace the tired one that has been faithfully serving me for the past while. I got it used and it was a good addition to my computer menagerie but that venerable 600E IBM Thinkpad is now too slow and non-portable to be of much use anymore. The battery has been dead since I got it so it was good for using around the house but I am increasingly seeing the value in being able to take my computer on the road.

From what I’ve been hearing in IBM’s new X41 Tablet PC seems pretty ideal, if a little pricey. I first heard about it on The Tablet PC Show podcast and I’ve been doing a bunch of research at places like CNET.com and on IBM’s own website. They have a great online demo by the way that lets you get a pretty good sense of the machine and its attributes.

I have a T42 that I use at my day job and prior to that was using a T30. I have a high opinion of the durability of these machines, even with the new “Lenovo” moniker it looks like the quality of the machines is going to be maintained.

Two things are holding me back, first is the complete lack of stock. Something like this I’d be a little happier picking up in a bricks-and-mortar business. There have been supply issues and even ordering from the web site I can expect at least a month or more of delay. Also I’m having some difficulties figuring out how to configure the machine. On IBM’s website there seem to be two species and you can take it or leave it. I want to get a larger hard drive and more powerful battery but I also want the built-in biometric fingerprint reader. But this last option is in no way offered with the “better” model.

Also, is it me or do a lot of the choices on the “Customize and Buy” page not really make a lot of sense. It looks like it was programmed by somebody who believes that the consumer needs to already know everything about the machine and has very little guidance. You could easily end up purchasing two copies of office for the machine if you weren’t careful.

I think I’ll end up calling one of the online retailers and walking through the configuration with them and see if I can’t get exactly what I’m looking for.