Off to WeSTOC!

Heading out for WeSTOC 2006 in Colorado. Like before, watch this space for SprintPCS picturemail posts, Audioblogger posts, and this time maybe even a few real photos. I have to take my laptop for my college course, so when I stop to do my quiz, I may even update the blog...

Till later,

Will

The Dot and The Line

I just bought this book yesterday, after looking off and on for the past 15 or 20 years. I had a copy when I was a kid, and fondly remember the animated special, directed by Chuck Jones. While the book is easily available, if you care to click and buy, you cannot for love or money buy the animated special by itself. However, a pointer from the Math Fiction website mentioned that a recent re-relase of an old Doris Day movie has this short included as a special feature.

So I go digging and find "The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)" at Amazon for $11 or so. They even mention in the DVD features section that it includes the "Oscar-winning cartoon The Dot and the Line"

How cool. They should reverse the text - Oscar-winning cartoon The Dot and the Line, includes a free Doris Day movie. :-)

To the vector belong the spoils!

Mathematical Fiction Homepage

Mathematical Fiction Homepage: "The Mathematical Fiction Homepage is my attempt to collect information about all significant references to mathematics in fiction."

Alec's First Day of School

Alec started Kindergarten on Monday; both his mom and I got to spend the first half hour there with him. He was really excited, and after 4 days still seems to like it. Kind of a change for him having to be to school at 8:00 AM (change for me too!)

A few photos from that wonderful day:

Here we are hard at work coloring his first project!

It's Alec!

Dem in 08? Not likely

Why? Easy. They have 18 months (less really) to build a cohesive broad platform other than "Bush is Bad". And they are rearranging the deck chairs making sure everyone has a 'special' seat to sit in.

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 08/18/2006 | Catering to constituency groups rouses friction among Democrats:

"the Democratic National Committee's Rules Committee debated and adopted two new proposals - one aimed at creating 'inclusion programs' for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and the disabled; the other designed to enforce a new party move to give African-Americans and Hispanics a bigger voice in picking presidential nominees."

Great. Include everyone. But lets hear some IDEAS. Some PLANS. A *real reason* to vote for your party. Sheesh.

I'm cranky today.

UPDATE, 30 seconds later.

I figured I should check my sources before I go off on a tangent. So I went to http://www.democrats.org/. I see 1) "Bush Sucks". 2) Send Me Money. 3) Oh - more deck chairs!

Fuck.

And these folks haven't a chance, but they're saying the right stuff...

Kung Fu Monkey: FISA in One Syllable Words.

Kung Fu Monkey: FISA in One Syllable Words.: "Have you secured the ports yet? Secured the chemical plants? Figured out a way to scan all the luggage on US flights? Worked out the kinks in the retarded 'No Fly' list? Started buying up some of the 2,000 loose nukes in Russia? Gotten first responders the equipment they need in case of emergency? Fixed FEMA and Homeland Security? Caught Osama Bin Laden? Tell you what, nail down the jobs that don't require you to wipe your ass with the Constitution first."

Elgato equips Macs with digital, analogue USB TV tuner | Reg Hardware

Elgato equips Macs with digital, analogue USB TV tuner | Reg Hardware: "TV tuner maker Elgato has announced EyeTV Hybrid, a twin-tuner - digital and analogue - dongle that pops into a USB port to deliver television programmes straight to your Mac's display."

Something to ask your childs teacher

Do you teach critical thinking, logic, problem solving, and the scientific method as applied to making everyday decisions?

Kung Fu Monkey: "Wait, Aren't You Scared?"

Must Read:

Kung Fu Monkey: "Wait, Aren't You Scared?": "Who the hell am I supposed to be scared of? Joseph Padilla, dirty bomber who didn't actually know how to build a bomb, had no allies or supplies, and against whom the government case is so weak they're now shuffling him from court to court to avoid the public embarassment of a trial? The fuckwits who were going to take down the Brooklyn Bridge with blowtorches? Richard Reid, the Zeppo of suicide bombers?"

Caves in Kansas?

Caves in Kansas?

Actually, some kind of deep underground storage cut into the limestone bluff above the Kansas River near Bonner Springs, KS (click for sat. view)

More Irish Motorcycle Road Racing

"On this page you can watch UTV's coverage of the NW200. (Broadband users only)"

Incase you didn't get enough the first time . . .

Irish Motorcycle Road Racing

http://www.u.tv/nw200/asx/liveaction-x_2.asx

wow. serious wow. Windows Media 9 or newer, or FlipMac QT plugin for Mac.

Motivational Posters from games

Some I thought were funny, from the RPG.net forums

Curiousity:



More to follow . . .

Motivator: Inspire! Motivate! Mock!

Motivator: Inspire! Motivate! Mock!: "you now have the power to turn a simple photograph into an inspirational message that will burn forever in the hearts and minds of dozens."

Make your own (de-) motivational posters. Some examples above...

Compress For The Web With 3ivx

I've been using 3ivx to compress videos for this blog - the last few have been big because I was using 1600kbits/sec, 29.97 FPS etc.

However, a (poorly indexed by google) video blog has suggested to use the following settings:

800 kbit/sec
32kbit/sec AAC audio
15FPS

I'll try that in the future; see what happens.

Cat vs. Pizza

Peridot may not be quite right in the head. But she did win the battle! Click for the 2:15 video (15 meg)




PS - an hour after I taped that she's *still* going after that pizza crust!

(download this video from google videos)

First Time in 8 Years

8 years I've been using Macintosh computers, starting with the Rev 'A' iMac. For the very first time I have had a hard crash (kernel panic for those UNIX geeks out there):


Click for an enlargement.

Wow.

Johhny Playing T-Ball (video)

Clip from Johnnies t-ball game last night. (1:36, 18 meg QT6)




(copyright 2006 w. england)

Side note - all that was shot hand-held. The zoom at the end was 10x to 4x! The optical image stabilization on the camera works really well!

First video from new Camcorder

New camcorder, new videos. First pass - works as designed. Captured 'widescreen', imported to iMovie and exported as QT .mov file with the letterbox bars as designed. Click the photo to look at the 43 second clip. (2.4 meg)



(No, I wasn't at my best when I taped that clip...)

Update: OMFG I need a *faster* mac. I imported 16 minutes of 16:9 anamorphic video. Before iMovie can do anything with it, it has to letterbox it. So far, 20 minutes later, it's less than 1/2 done with letterboxing the imported video. Argh! 866mhz just doesn't cut it anymore for DV editing...

A Picture Share!

Alec fishing at Fox Lake