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March 30, 2007
Am dusting my brain today...
Ozg, thanks for remembering! :-)
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (5)
March 23, 2007
Friday Feathers - Something Different
This image is the result of combining two photographs.
The base photograph is the Central Park Reservoir:
I want to add this photograph of a seagull:
I open both images in Photoshop and use the Move Tool to drag the image of the seagull onto the photograph of the reservoir. I remove the background in the seagull photo using the Eraser Tool, switch back to the Move Tool and put the seagull where I want it in the photograph. Voila!
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (3)
March 22, 2007
Grand Canyon Skywalk
Hualapai Indians, who live near the rim about 90 miles west of the Grand Canyon National Park, allowed a Las Vegas developer to build a $30 million Skywalk in hopes of creating a unique attraction on their side of the canyon.
The Skywalk is a glass-and-steel horseshoe -- a glass-bottomed observation deck that extends 70 feet beyond the canyon's edge with no visible supports above or below. The deck is anchored deep into a limestone cliff. As people walk across it, the glass layers creak and the deck shakes almost undetectably. The Skywalk can support the weight of a few hundred people and will withstand wind up to 100 mph. The observation deck has a 3-inch-thick glass bottom and has been equipped with shock absorbers to keep it from bouncing as people walk on it. (Photographs of the Grand Canyon Skywalk can be seen here and here.)
The vision of the Skywalk was to enable visitors to walk beyond the canyon walls, becoming surrounded by the Grand Canyon while standing at the edge of the Glass Bridge. This Glass Bridge suspends more than 4,000 feet above the Colorado River on the very edge of the Grand Canyon's West Rim. - Destination Grand Canyon
It's scheduled to open to the public on March 28. - Grand Canyon Skywalk
Posted by me, of course!
March 21, 2007
Erasing a Hard Drive
A recent post on bbum's weblog-o-mat addresses erasing your hard drive:
Me? I take dead drives apart. They have amazingly powerful magnets inside, along with all kinds of very useful screws, washers, nuts, coils, and other fiddly bits.
Perhaps, but I still have that tea-soaked dead-as-a-door-nail Titanium laptop lurking in a corner somewhere. Since the machine doesn't power up, the idea of using the Disk Utility in Mac OSX to wipe the drive isn't possible. So... do I open up the laptop and take a hammer to its innards? Carefully remove something (?) and smash that to bits? Run magnets over everything? Inquiring minds want to know!
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (4)
Lederhosen for the 21st Century
Leading the parade of gadgets are the leather trousers preferred by thigh-slapping Bavarian dancers but this time they have a modern twist: a sewn-in cellphone. The lederhosen from century-old German all-weather clothier Lodenfrey feature a mouthpiece embedded in the suspender straps and a row of unobtrusive olive green buttons down the side of the leg. - Gadget Lab
Posted by me, of course!
U.S. Postal Rates Go Up May 14
The price of a First-Class stamp rises to 41 cents on May 14. New: the "Forever" Stamp, which will sell at the new 41-cent First-Class Mail one-ounce letter rate. The value on the Forever Stamps will always be the one-ounce letter rate and can be used for any future one-ounce letter mailing without extra postage. - U.S. Postal Service
Posted by me, of course!
March 20, 2007
Spring!
Posted by me, of course!
March 16, 2007
Friday Feathers - Using Filters
I typically don't tweak photos I've taken unless the image needs a bit of fine tuning via Photoshop's brightness/contrast or the Curves tool. I never used the filters in Photoshop and one day decided to test each one using this photograph of a Blue Heron.
Though the Heron is frozen mid-flight (yay!) the focus is off and the quality of the image a bit muddy. After applying a number of different filters to the image, I then tried the Artistic/Poster Edges filter. I really liked the effect this particular filter had on the image; it made muddy areas a bit sharper and converted the image into one that looks like it was hand-painted.
I liked the effect of this particular filter so much that I tested on my entire folder of Heron photographs and plan to have one of the photos enlarged and printed for framing. :-)
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (3)
March 13, 2007
More on Zoe's Latest and Greatest
Zoe of MBIAT/3x Bloggie Award winner also has a new book coming out: My Boyfriend is a Twat: A guide to recognising, dealing with and living with an utter Twat.
Developed from the hugely popular website My Boyfriend is a Twat, this book is a glorious celebration of living with a complete twat of a boyfriend.
Zoe McCarthy has been living in Belgium longer than she cares to remember, working part-time and spending the rest of her life trying to sort out her three children and partner, the Twat. She doesn't care for politics or religion but is an expert on how to raise children badly and kill off their goldfish.
The book is available via Amazon.uk. Upon checking to see if the book was available via Amazon U.S., a search for Zoe McCarthy took me to Pearls in the Muddle: Twelve Christian Stories (published by Holy Ghost Writers Pub.) by some other Zoe McCarthy. I'll admit it. I had a good laugh over that find. The Holy Ghost Writers Pub. just cracked me up. :-)
Having badgered the author (of MBIAT, not the holy ghosts book) on numerous occasions to write a book, I wonder if there is some sort of wonderful *something* dedicated to moi on the Special Thanks page, if there even is such a page in her book. Then again, hmm. Highly unlikely. ;-)
I think this book would make a lovely birthday present. ;-)
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (2)
416 Megapixels!
... the Super10K-HS captures images with 416 megapixels of detail and includes images that weigh in at 794 megabytes and have 48-bit color detail and a built-in 40GB hard drive. Cost: $23,000. - Gadget Lab
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (3)
March 12, 2007
Hat Trick for Zoe
Best European Weblog for 2007 goes to Zoe at MBIAT -- that's 3 consecutive wins for her (2005, 2006, and 2007) -- in sports that's known as a hat trick. :-) Congrats!
Posted by me, of course!
March 9, 2007
Friday Feathers
The Northern Mockingbird is very animated and performs an elaborate mating dance. Pairs run toward each other flashing wing patches and then retreat to cover nearby.
Sits for long periods of time on top of a shrub and imitates other birds (vocal mimicry), hence the common name. Young males often sing at night.
Often unafraid of people, allowing for close observation.
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (2)
March 6, 2007
Quote for March 6
"There lies before us, if we choose, continued progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal, as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity and forget the rest." - Albert Einstein
Posted by me, of course!
More on the Russian Business Network
An organized crime network is distributing malware that takes advantage of rootkits and a state-of-the-art HTML injection to phish consumers as they browse the web, according to a new report from VeriSign's iDefense labs. The malware code operates from an IP address registered to the Russian Business Network (RBN). As a result, iDefense advised monitoring network traffic to the remote RBN server at the IP address 81.95.147.107 to look for suspicious activity related to the attack. This isn’t the first time RBN has struck innocent users. The address and the group were responsible for the Corpse Spyware Nuclear Grabber/Haxdoor attacks conducted in January 2007. - SC Magazine March 3, 2007
Previous posts: Go Away, Russian Business Network!
Posted by me, of course!
March 5, 2007
Quote
"After twelve years of therapy my psychiatrist said something that brought tears to my eyes. He said, 'No hablo ingles.'" - Ronnie Shakes
Posted by me, of course!
March 4, 2007
Quote
"As a genuine wunderkind I refuse to call tech support."
Posted by me, of course!
March 3, 2007
Review: GrendelSweets
In my blog post of February 23 I wrote about the coffee and chocolates I received from my friend Steve and his wife Elena, confections creator extraordinaire and proprietor of GrendelSweets and Caffe Lento. Today I'm registering my two cents about the chocolates.
It is a rare occasion when I eat chocolate; I don't buy it but when it's given to me I indulge! I ate two pieces of GrendelSweets chocolates the day I received Steve's surprise package. All I can say about the chocolate is that it is absolutely DIVINE. It has just the right amount of sugar and amazing taste!
Image source: GrendelSweets
The chocolates by GrendelSweets are made with organic cream and butter, organic fruits and nuts, and other all-natural ingredients and no preservatives. I attempted to limit my visits to the box of GrendelSweets in an effort to extend the chocolatey-goodness experience but failed miserably; now they're all gone. Woe is me. :-( I live clear across the country and therefore cannot physically visit the new store, otherwise I'd be a permanent fixture there, eventually not walking into the store but rolling in. It's a good thing the online store is temporarily off-line too. :-)
For those of you fortunate enough to live in/near Bellevue WA, be sure to stop by and savor the sweets yourself. GrendelSweets' new bricks 'n mortar store is located at (Caffe Lento) 509 156th Ave SE in Bellevue, Washington. Though the online ordering is temporarily suspended, be sure to check the GrendelSweets web site for updates.
p.s. ... and my birthday is 27 days from today. (hint, hint) *chuckle*
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (2)
March 2, 2007
Go Away, Russian Business Network!
Kindly cease and desist from hammering my server!
A remote misconfigured, malicious or compromised server is engaging in frequent and repeated attempts to access resources on my webserver. These access attempts are consistent with a spam bot or script attempting to compromise the server or site software.*
Based upon the raw logs, 756 attempts or more per day have been made by the following Russian Business Network IP addresses:
81.95.144.66
81.95.144.67
81.95.144.68
81.95.144.69
81.95.144.70
81.95.148.50
inetnum: 81.95.144.0 - 81.95.147.255
Russian Business Network Registry
Russian Business Network
12 Levashovskiy pr.
197110 Saint-Petersburg
Russia
***@rbnnetwork.com
The hosting company I've used for the past few years, 1&1, has been completely useless and has not made a single attempt to fix the problem. Repeated email messages to their clueless tech support staff have been responded to with nothing more than an automated reply or one that suggested I contact 1&1 UK's abuse department, which I did, and that ended up being ignored as well.
My friend Greg in Australia has been trying to help me sort this out, going so far as to compose a letter* only a technical support person would comprehend (though I did indeed 'get it') as well as putting together .htaccess code that might stop the repeated accesses (which, by the way, are all aimed at /mt/mt-tb.cgi/ (mt = Movable Type, tb = trackback.) Unfortunately our efforts have resulted in a dead end, and I'm posting this with the hope that maybe someone has a brilliant suggestion or three to help me fix this problem. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (3)
Quote
The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds. - Tryon Edwards
Posted by me, of course!
Military Websites Lacking
WIRED's Danger Room on the lack of information found in most [U.S.] military web sites:
Many military websites barely have any content at all. And what content they have is years out of date. In many cases, these sites actually inhibit the public's insight into the government, instead of enhancing it. They may make the wheels of bureaucracy turn even slower, instead of speeding them up.
... we're starting a contest to find the absolutely lamest, least informative sites on the military web: the ones that make you cringe in their total indifference to public understanding, and good government. We'll give special attention to those sites that used to be informative -- only to send all the helpful material down the memory hole. - Introducing The 404s: Military's Lamest Websites
Posted by me, of course!
Great Firewall of China
The Great Firewall of China lets you test any website to see in real-time if it is censored in China. -found via the Houston Chronicle's TechBlog
Posted by me, of course! | Comments (1)
Friday Feathers
The Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) is a round, dark-eyed bird that has a slate gray-to-charcoal chest, head and back, and a white belly.
Adheres to a rigid social hierarchy, with dominant birds chasing less dominant birds. Usually seen in small flocks on the ground, where it "double-scratches" with both feet simultaneously to expose seeds and insects. Nests in a variety of wooded habitats.
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