Friday, May 28, 2004

Optical Illusion

This blog is usually pretty graphic and visually oriented, but I don't know if this will work for you or not, but I will try. I was in this new hallway in Rockville Hosp., where Martha's Mother had some therapy. Here is a pic of the hallway, and at the time of the optical illusion, I was down at the other end looking this way.


Well, the hospital wing is under construction, and I looked out the window to my right and saw what I thought was a plastic-wrapped pallet of chairs out there, waiting to be used.

But I realized it was a plastic pallet, precicely superimposed by the image of chairs inside to my left behind me in the hall. Maybe you had to be there.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Pink Dino Sighting

This is pretty funny. Sort of a "Diente de Tigre" type situation.

Inside an active volcanic crater on a remote island in New Zealand, Geologists put a remote camera to monitor the crater status. They posted this and several other webcams on this link. According to their site, "the New Zealand GeoNet Project provides real-time monitoring and data collection for rapid response and research into earthquake, volcano, landslide and tsunami hazards".

Out of the blue a pink dino appeared in one of the cameras. Some brave and sassy explorer stuck it there, apparently. They plan to leave it there to be destroyed by the hostile environment.

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Honda 600 Coupe 1972

I was not going to dwell in my past in this log, but I came across these old pictures of my Honda 600 Coupe and I couldn't resist revisiting it, since people still don't understand how great the car was. Before the civic, Honda, still a motorcylce company only, imported two 600 models this size. One was a squared off sedan, and this coupe, in green or bright orange.

I paid $1795 plus tax! It had 4 wheel disk anti-lock brakes, (comment corrected me to say it had front disks and rear drums) Michelin tires, 50mpg, hatchback, 600cc, front wheel drive, 5 speed, bucket seats, and pretty spirited. The second picture shows it beside the gargantuan Dodge Polara we had at the time. I drove it all over the state of Virginia, had very few repairs for about three years.


It was designed as a "throw-away car", according to early automotive lore. The idea was that Honda thought America was ready for a car cheap enough to drive a few years, junk it, then get a new one.
But the government spoiled that by requiring safer bumpers, lights, etc. and after adding these improvements, they had to design it bigger, forcing them to abandon these in favor of the Civic models.

Martha and Honda overlooking the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Note the spiffy flag. We drove it through the first Lion country safari at Busch Gardens before they put in the monorail and a giraffe took a bite out of that flag. I kid you not.





Did I mention that is was a SMALL car? The maneuverability saved me one time when I veered out of line to avoid a 4 car queeze-play on a on-ramp to the interstate. I know larger vehicles have a safety advantage in a wreck, but I felt quite safe in this, I remember.

Friday, May 14, 2004

Scamming the scammers?

You know about the "Nigerian Scam" or "419 scam" email stupidity. As hard as it is to believe, it must be something that people fall for, because reportedly people are having bank accounts emptied and are traveling to Nairobi and all that as the result of scams from these idiotic emails.

Well there are some clever people who have been fighting back in a very humorous way, by baiting them, leading them on, posing as willing scam-ees with names like
Klench Mychiques, Shiver Metimbers, and the like, with the goal to at he very least waste their time, and at the best, get their names and details and report them to government agencies. But it looks like making them look like buffoons and stringing them along making them reply with embarrassing photos, phony signs, and spoofs that would be obvious to a child of 5, but not to these third world scammers, has become a real sport.

There are some examples on this site: and many others.
Here is a picture of scammers in Nigeria sending a photo back to the 419 baiter to respond to the "church" of his intended victim.

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

The Louse that Roared

Speaking at an EU conference, Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi turned the tables on the world powers, calling for them to follow in the footsteps of Libya and dismantle all of their weapons of mass destruction.

Doesn't this coronation of Moammar remind you of that old movie "The Mouse That Roared" in some ways? (Everybody to get from street!) Has he figured out a chink in the world and US opinion armor that allows him, sincere or not, to be the hero of the century and an instant red-carpet-rolled-out-spokesman for the elimination of WMD? It is beyond irony, and seems so much like a movie that I can smell the popcorn.

Saturday, April 24, 2004

Ink Spots

Meredith sent me some key lines, and not all of them triggered my experience, but the one that certainly did was the Java Jive, Ink Spots. I ended up with that, and a few more of their tunes in the 78rpm collection. I finally got around to transferring a few of those to MP3 a while back, from the only old turntable I have that will play them, but I must confess I found these better, clearer, cleared up versions on the web.

If you want to listen to the classics, here are a few you can enjoy.

1. Java Jive, Ink Spots, 1940 - - - short clip
2. Java Jive, Ink Spots, 1940 - - - 2.8mb
3. If I didn't Care, Ink Spots - - - 2.9mb
4. Till Then, Ink Spots - - - 2.7mb
5. Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall,
Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald - - - 1.4mb

. . . . . . .

Saturday, April 10, 2004

Home of the TWO FOOT long hotdog

The rumor mill can stop now. Photo evidence has been turned in that Doogie's restaurant in Newington Connecticut actually specializes in 2 foot dogs! Other hand made seafood and fattening specialties are there too, but here is the evidence!

Thursday, April 01, 2004

Low-tech solution

I solved a problem that had been annoying, but I just ignored for years. That pesky CAPS LOCK key that is so close to the shift key that I LOOK UP AND FIND . . .oops thats how it happens. My fat finger taps it. I actually am a pretty adept but self-taught keyboard user, but I often look at my fingers especially when typing fast , so when I finally look at the screen, I find the reversed case mess! How many time has that happened! Arrrghhhh. I remember now that I think about it that years ago I had solved it with a utility that made the caps lock beep high and low for a warning. That didn't follow me with new operating systems, etc. I was reading about a utility that disabled the caps key, and I almost downloaded it, but got a better idea! I NEVER EVER need the caps key actually, so why have it? Here was my low tech solution:

Sunday, March 14, 2004

Lydia, The Tatooed Lady

This is from a Groucho tape that I got years ago, and it probably doesn't click unless you hear him sing it or know the melody, but I ran across the thing, and just felt compelled to post it since it makes me chuckle:

Lydia, The Tatooed Lady

Lydia oh Lydia, say have you met Lydia,
Lydia, the Tatooed Lady.
She has eyes that folks adore so,
And a torso even more so.
Lydia oh lydia, that encyclopedia,
Oh Lydia the Queen of Tatoo.
On her back is the Battle of Waterloo.
Beside it the wreck of the Hespherous, too.
And proudly above waves the Red, White, and Blue,
You can learn a lot from Lydia.
La la la, la la la, la la la, la la la

When her robe is unfurled, she will show you the world,
If you step up and tell her where.
For a dime you can see Kankakee or Paris,
Or Washington crossing the Delaware.
La la la, la la la, la la la, la la la

Oh Lydia oh lydia, say have you met Lydia,
Oh Lydia the Tatooed Lady
When her muscles start relaxing,
Up the hill comes Andrew Jackson
Lydia oh Lydia, that encyclopedia,
oh Lydia the queen of them all!
For two bits she will do a mazurka in jazz,
With a view of Niagara that nobody has.
And on a clear day you can see Alcatraz.
You can learn a lot from Lydia.
La la la, la la la, la la la, la la la

Come along and see Buff'lo Bill with his lasso.
Just a little classic by Mendel Picasso.
Here is Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon.
Here's Godiva but with her pajamas on.
La la la, la la la, la la la, la la la

Here is Grover Whalen unveilin' the Trilon.
Over on the West Coast we have Treaure Island.
Here's Najinsky a-doin' the rhumba.
Here's her social security numba.
{whistles}

Oh Lydia, oh Lydia that encyclopedia,
Oh Lydia the champ of them all.
She once swept an Admiral clear off his feet.
The ships on her hips made his heart skip a beat.
And now the old boy's in command of the fleet,
For he went and married Lydia.
I said Lydia {He said Lydia}
I said Lydia {We said Lydia}
La La!

I know I'm a relic of the boomers, but when I see a otherwise nice looking person with excessive tatoos or piercings, it makes me instinctively wince, then I think of Lydia.

Here is a mp3 of Groucho singing Lydia the Tattooed Lady.

Thursday, March 04, 2004

That 8 pound hammer ball bearing.

I heard a while back about development success in repairing dents in musical instruments, particularly larger ones like sousaphones that have to be thinner brass due to the large size. Apparently school systems with a lot of instruments, dented by parades and halftime shows spend thousands annually to have dents removed, or replacement instruments dented beyond economic repair. Traditionally. repair techs have developed special hammers and tools and sand bags and all kinds of methods involving taking horns apart to fix, a very artistic and skill-intensive, time consuming process. Well somebody found using special "Rare Earth" electromagnets and huge dense ball bearings work quickly and smoothly!

Regular magnets won't work. These magnets are STRONG. Way beyond anything normal. Warnings say to keep knives and tools 10 feet away for fear they will fly through the air, not stopping for body parts in the way. (Make a visual image of that!) The ball is selected for best size, and from the inside, rolls along at enormous pressure and simply irons out the dents! Doesn't fatigue the metal much, either, like hammering out would, so a horn can be repaired more times without ruin. The kit costs about $900, so isn't for casual buying, but a few repairs could make up for that in schools, shops or the like.
Balls
BeforeAfter

Monday, February 09, 2004

Temp Art

Talk about temporary art! This artist, Kurt Wenner, paints most of his masterful 3D paintings in chalk on the streets or sidewalks. It is worthy of the term "Awesome". In the picture below, it is hard to grasp that the walkway is flat and the art is drawn on the surface.

chalk picture

You can visit his impressive on-line gallery here. - Awesome..

Saturday, January 31, 2004

Kinzua Viaduct


As a boy I was taken on a special trip to Kinzua Viaduct by train. I was either with my Mother or my Grandmother. Through my fuzzy memory, I seem to remember that Grandma arranged for or at least paid for the adventure. The wonderful train tressel is in north eastern Pennsylvania, although it is nowhere near Mercer, Grandma's home town. I don't think all of my family was along, since I know I felt special to have the privilege of being chosen to go. I felt very grown up, though I probably was only 14 or so. I really don't know. I bet older sister Meredith can remember more about this. The tressel was extremely old and vaulted across the sky, like an Erector set, it seemed, part of the early rail system in Pennsylvania. I bet I can narrow in on the time of trip because they certainly stopped traffic over the structure not long after my visit. Anyhow, I can remember I was in my Sunday suit, and had an overcoat on. I can remember moving between cars, the sound of clicking tracks, and pressing to the window to see the valley and remember the scary feeling looking down at the green valley as we went over the Viaduct.

This memory came back because I ran across the following item:

On July 21, 2003 the Kinzua Viaduct, located in Mt. Jewett, Pennsylvania, was struck by an F-1 tornado. This act of nature resulted in the loss of 11 of the 20 towers that have supported the Kinzua Viaduct in its reach across the sky for over 100 years. Internationally recognized as an architectural and engineering marvel, the Kinzua Viaduct was one of Pennsylvania's most visually recognizable landmarks. The Kinzua Bridge Foundation is dedicated to the restoration, renovation, preservation and site interpretation of the Viaduct and Kinzua Bridge State Park.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Seems like last week

March 1989, when Tim Berners-Lee, a computer scientist at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland wrote a paper called Information Management: A Proposal. The proposal suggested a way of managing information that uses a "hypertext" process to link related documents together over a network.

Features he proposed:
Remote access across networks,
Cross-system platform compatibility
No centralization - allowing nodes anywhere
Access to existing data
Bookmarks (called "Private Links")
All basics of the Web today.

In October 1990, Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau created a working prototype of "WorldWideWeb", with Hyperlinks and HTML, file transfers, and web features galore, but in text.

In February 1993, the Web finally went from text-only when Marc Andreesen with NCSA wrote the Mosaic browser.

March of 1994, Marc Andreesen and some colleagues left NCSA to form "Mosaic Communications Corp." (later renamed Netscape Communications).

In some box somewhere I still have my Mosaic disk I used when I ditched Compuserve and the went on the internet using a free dialup connection, probably 1994. It was kind of techie, I had to write a batch file to set modem baud rate, parity, etc, and a linked text file index for outside viewers and players to be able to see most things, since viewers were not built into the browser.

Oh, by the way, Burners-Lee was a Brit, and one story said that like Mickey Mantle, whose parents put baseballs in his crib, Burner-Lee had intellectual computer nerd parents who played games around the breakfast table like "What is the square root of -4?" So inventing HTML must have been a piece of cake. He is now at MIT, directing the W3 consortium, helping set standards and protocols to keep the internet non-propriatary and open.

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

Great lyrics

BY THE TIME I GET TO PHOENIX (Jimmy Webb)

By the time I get to Phoenix, she'll be risin',
She'll find the note I left hangin' on her door
And she'll laugh when she reads the part that says I'm leavin',
'Cause I left that girl so many times before.

By the time I make Albuquerque she'll be workin',
She'll probably stop at lunch and give me a call
But she'll just hear that phone keep on ringin',
Off the wall, that's all.

By the time I make Oklahoma, she'll be sleepin',
She'll turn softly and call my name out low
And she'll cry just to think I'd really leave her,
Though time and time I've tried to tell her so
Oh, she didn't know, I would really go,
I would really go...

It is hard to really read it without emotion.

When I saw it was by Jimmy Webb, I did a search because my memory is so bad when it comes to musicians and celebrities, as I read, it got better and better-- wow, what a range this guy has. He wrote songs I recognized in all sorts of styles. He is still performing, too. He has a resume from "left the cake out in the rain" to . . .
well, If you want to read and read about him, here is a link, worth checking out.

Thursday, January 01, 2004

Microsoft complaint of the year:

Somebody at MS-land has an agenda that may have been well intentioned to simplify things for for totally ignorant users, but it actually hurts the average user. Bill must want future users look at icons instead of extensions for file types. The power user changes this right off, so is just an irritation. It is a headache on phone support. MS hides extensions to the file name as in .txt for a text file, .doc for a word file, .xls for a spreadsheet. These were essential in DOS and early windows versions for applications and the system to recognize their own associated files, and for the system to open the right application if the file is called on first. These extensions are still used extensively by all the system and programs, and users need to see them to operate beyond toaster level. However, since Windows ME forward, systems come with extensions hidden by default. The icon method? Who knows what those cryptic things are anyhow? They can sometimes be a good visual clue, but should not replace having all the information you need to control your computer.

Go to tools|folder options|view and uncheck Hide extensions for known file types to fix. While you are in there you might want to check the Show hidden files and folders, especially handy if you are trying to find and delete a virus file, but the operating system is slowing you down by hiding it from you.

Monday, December 22, 2003

"Amendment I
clause 1: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
clause 2: prohibiting the free exercise thereof; . . ."

I take that to mean that if Corgress passes a law ordering Podunk High School to put up a Christmas Tree, that would be unconstitutional. (clause 1) But if they passed a law telling Podunk High School to take one down, that would also be unconstitutional. (clause 2)

The trend in America has been to greater tolerance and diversity, and of course that is the proper thing. However the trend to eradicate Christian customs in the process, especially those that have become close to secular like Christmas Trees and carols, is not right. Look at the growth of the other faiths in the country that didn't have a hold years ago. Were they dissuaded, hurt or their faith damaged by the Christian tradition of putting "Merry Christmas" in some classrooms? I tend to say no, but even if so, we should strive to have an equal footing for these other religions and faiths, not stamp out the traditions of Judeo-Christian heritage. That is equally unfair, unconstitutional and unwise. And this is coming from me, who has not been a part of organized religion most of my adult life.

There is some good news, though. I just save a bunch of . . No, No. . Here is a link to The Liberty Legal Institute, which funds lawsuits for those defending religious freedom from attacks of this kind. They have some cases that have gone in the direction of protecting freedoms against this anti-religion trend.

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Spider Holes?

When they first reported Saddam was found in a "spider hole", I heard a commentator say he had never heard the word, and Martha hadn't either, but those of us who were in Vietnam had no trouble at all in visualizing it immediately. Of course the news shows have pretty much changed it to "rat hole" now for the masses who hate rats to better understand, I guess.

The spider holes and tunnels like those in Cu-Chi were infamous to those of us in Vietnam in 1968. The VC could pop down into these invisible holes and hide without a trace, and Americans finding them could scarcely believe a man could exist in a hole that small. The false entrances to some of them were horrible traps with sharpened barbed bungee sticks waiting.

I laughed when I looked on the internet for a picture or reminder of this, because they have made a real tourist attraction out of some of the Spider holes and tunnels. Come to tropical Vietnam, a wonderland and see actual spider holes and tunnels! Travel agents take notice. This link shows a map where the tunnels come within a couple of miles of where I was stationed near Ton Son Nhut.

Spider Hole?

I can see the souvenir shop now: Reclining GI Joe, Hanoi Jane Barbies, ant farms to simulate the tunnels?

Monday, December 15, 2003

Digital Zoom

I had to replace the Fuji camera (2mp,no zoom) I have had for a few years because it croaked. It had been a great one for me because it was easily slipped in my pocket, and I consequently almost always carried it, which I would not have done if I had to have the tourist camera around my neck routine.

It just died, and the regional repair center wanted 150 min just to look at it. Wow! As a consequence, I got a chance to study the market to see what was what at this point in time. I was either going to get (a) the best small one available out there with digital zoom that I could afford, or (b) the cheapest acceptable straight replacement I could get to replace my old one, exept add optical zoom.

I ended up getting (b) for budget reasons, (I cheaped out on Ebay, but got a great camera cheaper than a repair) but I had narrowed down high-end (a) quite a bit due to some new ideas. See below.

Sony has FINALLY, without as much fanfare on their part or reviewers, put some sense into DIGITAL ZOOM.

They have "Smart Zoom" that revolutionizes the digital and optical zoom. If they haven't patented it somehow, I predict all digital cameras will work this way soon, like they should have all along.

Regular digital zoom is no zoom at all. I will illustrate:

1. Suppose a whole house appears in your viewfinder, and you take a digital picture 1000 pixels across.
Then you use digital zoom to zoom in on the doorway, 300 pixels across.
That's all you get! A 300 pixel image, wasting all the other pixels.
It is as if you took the big picture and cropped off the fringe after you got it in the computer.
And that's what most people do, not using the digital zoom feature at all.

Enter "smart Zoom"

Simplified, this method can give you a zoomed image of the doorway packing all of the 1024 pixels into it, in reality expanding the cropped image area to fit the larger space instead of trimming off unwanted fringe.

The way Sony has implemented it, you need to have one resolution setting level above your present one to make this happen. If you have a 3mp camera, smart zoom happens at 2mp using the available ram from the higher res for the work. However, it is seamless between digital and optical - you don't have to choose - it uses the most available pixels for your picture possible based on the max setting you choose.

Talk about smart! That is the way I thought they worked when I first looked into cameras, and now, it is available, at least.

Everybody has different needs in cameras, but what was my choice for (a)?
These were MY criteria:
1. pocket sized
2. name brand
3. optical zoom
4. innovative, state of the art.
5. Best available without having features that run the price up without corresponding benefit.

Best camera available: Sony Cyber Shot DSC-V1 5.0 Mega Pixel Digital Camera (cheapest internet price 429)

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

I did a little searching and found out, as usual, more than most people want to know. Here is some edited info from megaone.com, who shows some old Yellowstone stereo images on their site.

At one time, Underwood and Underwood was the largest publisher of stereoviews in the world, producing 10 million views a year. The company was founded by two brothers, Elmer and Bert Underwood. The brothers developed a selling system of thorough canvassing using college students. They distributed stereographs for some other companies, and by 1887, they outgrew their original office in Ottawa, Kansas, and moved to New York City; By 1897 the company had a number of full-time staff and free lance photographers, and were publishing twenty-five thousand stereographs a day by 1901. The firm still canvassed and sold its own stereographs. Around 1900 Underwood & Underwood introduced boxed sets, with specific themes such as education and religion, and travel sets depicting popular tourist areas of the world. By 1910 Underwood & Underwood had entered the field of news photography. Due to this expansion stereograph production was reduced until the early years of World War I. Altogether Underwood & Underwood produced between 30 000 and 40 000 stereographic titles. In 1920 stereograph production was discontinued and Underwood & Underwood sold its stereographic stock and rights to the Keystone View Company. The negatives passed to Keystone which issued them with a "V" prefix.

The Keystone View Company was an early competitor to U&U, founded in 1892 by B. L. Singley in Meadville, Pennsylvania. This might not sound like an auspicious location, far from the photographic centers of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, and originally the operation did indeed have a "backwoods," quality, turning out distinctly second-rate stereoviews and barely making the founder a living. But it rapidly improved and eventually became not only the world's largest but also the best view company. In the formative days Singley took all the images; later there were dozens of staff photographers, and was smart enough in the early 1900s, when stereoviewing was declining and other companies were in trouble, Keystone bought their stocks and incorporated them into their own holdings. Notable amongst many such purchases were the huge and varied inventories of B. W. Kilburn, the H. C. White Company, Underwood & Underwood.

By the 1920s the Keystone Company was the sole surviving major producer of conventional card-mounted views anywhere in the world. They had offices in London, Paris, Sidney, Capetown, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. Part of this prominence was derived from the sale of World War I stereograph sets, as Keystone was one of the only publishers to secure permission to photograph battlefields and military operations. Unfortunately, permission was not granted until the end of 1918, just before Armistice, so many of the photographs depict scenes taken after the end of the war.

Sunday, November 09, 2003

I have an old stereo viewer nicely made of wood and metal, you know the kind. We had always called it a Stereoptican, and I had thought, just from the folklore, it had been manufactured in Meadville, PA where my father grew up, and I went to college, but some of this is not right. I just read the metal stamped info on the viewer, and it says Underwood and Underwood, New York, Patented June 11, 1901. I see printed on some of the stereo picture cards that I have "Keystone View Company, Manufacturers, Publishers, Meadville, Pa, etc." so either they were competitors, or something. I will investigate this. Any input?

I do like stereo pictures. Early on, my eyes seemed to synch into viewing stereo fairly easy, for instance when viewing aerial photograph pairs in Geology, sometimes I could do it without a viewer. I have some pictures I took in Germany in 1970 in the Army where I took two pictures side by side in quick succession, then pasted the photos on a card to read in the viewer. They look pretty good, and have exaggerated depth because the distance between the pictures is more than the eyes expect. I thought I had lost the ability to do this, since I could never make those silly design hidden picture things work, even after staring and staring. Since then, I found that It was an eyeglasses thing, since I have a prism type difference between my eyes. These days I can look at a stereo pair like the one below and usually make it work with my bifocals. You have to get the right distance or zoom factor, and relax the eyes so they look at the images separately. The size below works for me.




These are from the Cheeney Co. in Manchester Connecticut in 1914, very interesting in themselves. This was reported to be the largest silk manufacturer in the world for years. The silk industry was hot, and was stealing business from Japan because Japan was still doing it manually, while U.S. industry started up industrially, able to rethink methods for volume and efficiency.(roles switched after WWII?) It says on the back that the big "ferris wheel" was used for "beaming off" the silk warp from this wheel to the loom roll at the bottom. It took very watchful eyes and skill to make sure no threads were dropped or crossed.