Monthly Archives: November 2010

One reason for constant lighting


Ziplock Caramel

I wanted to take a picture of the bas-relief Ziploc logo. Since I am used to taking pictures of food with a flash, I whipped them out. However, capturing the minute detail is hard. Especially when you cannot see the results immediately. How does changing the angle of the light affect the image, or the camera positioning, or the light levels? This process takes time. Which was enough to allow for condensation to mar the smooth surface of the caramel. So I put the caramel back in the refrigerator and took a time out.

When I went back to it, I used my large, diffused led bank. Now I had real-time feedback as I moved the subject around the camera. So, for a time-constrained image use some bright, and constant, lighting.

A short hike

Nick was up for a hike around Lake Georgetown. Initially, I wanted to do the entire 26 mile loop in one go. But eventually decided to try an 11 mile segment. We started at 9:30 here. We finished at 13:40 here. Well, according to the mile markers. I suspect that they lie though.

BGG.con 2010

Well, for this con, I had wanted to take portraits while playing boardgames. I brought the camera and accessories and packed them in a nifty travel carry-on luggage. Which I then lugged around the con but never got up the nerve to use. Sigh.

So, instead I will post about landmarks/sights on the trip up:

And the boardgames that I wanted to buy after playing them at BGG.con:

  • Master of Economy – This game is a interesting economic engine game in two parts. You build up your production capabilities and sell goods on the market. And you buy/sell shares in the four companies in the game.
  • Troyes – This is a dice game. But there are ways to mitigate the randomness of the dice roll. It’s a meatier To Court The King.
  • Navegador – The new rondel game. It’s thematic as well.
  • String Railway – This is a cute filler game. You get the feeling that you are building a Japanese subway system at the end.
  • Poseidon – A lighter/introductory 18xx game. The theme is ancient Greece.
  • Alien Frontiers – Another dice game. I definitely want to try this again.
  • Dominant Species – A meatier evo game. This game has many agonizing choices. Perhaps too many.
  • 1865 Sardinia – Another 18xx game. The artwork is gorgeous (done by 18AL’s Koyro).

Links

Ming makes cupcakes link via

Sesame Street Cupcakes link via

Homemade is Best link via

8-bit wood link via

Creating Shazam in Java link via

Bubble photography link via

The Bit-52’s The World’s Greatest Parts Band playing The B-52’s – Rock Lobster link via

Realistic Pac Man sculpture link via

October leaves link via

My quest for the ultimate travel coffee setup link via

Leaf carving art link via

30-Minute Meals – Behind the scenes link via

100 million hand-painted ceramic sunflower seeds link via

The Grass Roofs of Norway link via

Lego letterpress link via

Cloak camera bag link via

3D Dinosaur Bones Pancake link via

Why won’t the printer take the paper?! link via

Time lapse of a construction crew replacing some train tracks in San Francisco link via

The making of Sam O’Hare’s new tilt shift film, “Coachelletta” link via

Searching mushrooms link via

Autumn colors link via

Comparing Canon glass to Zeiss glass link via

Stephen Fry on language link via

Light painting an entire city link via

I am Catman link via

Chemistry of Cast Iron Seasoning: A Science-Based How-To link via

The Making of a Mind-Blowing DIY Sun Photo link via

How to poach a perfect egg link via

A Very Model Halloween link via

The First Photograph of a Human link via

This is Halloween (Marilyn Manson) link via

Fitting a tall cruise ship under a bridge by driving fast and sucking the ship lower in the water link via

How to make fractals without a computer link via

Vertoramas link via

Testing the myth of the 12-year-old McDonald’s burger link via

This is how you should cook an omelet link via

VNC/KVM/RHEL/Win


VNC KVM RHEL Win

I got a new laptop for work today. A ThinkPad W510. It came preloaded with a version of Windows with customized work software on it (such as Lotus Notes and a back-level IE). I deleted it and started from scratch. I first installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6.0. Then I downloaded a bootable CD image of a lifeboat rescue installer. This will reinstall the work versioned Windows if you ever lose your hard-drive. I then created a new virtual machine with KVM. I attached the iso image as a virtual CD and created a 40 gigabyte blank file to act as a virtual hard drive. I then booted into it and waited a long while as it downloaded the necessary files and installed Windows. I did all this from home as my laptop was sitting in my office thanks to a remote desktop sharing protocol called VNC.

Isn’t technology cool now adays?

Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival

Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival

After disc golf, we headed to the 1st annual (I assume) Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival. I had high hopes for this festival. Trailer food is a hot trend right now in Austin. You can view a map with a lot of the trailers on it here.

Unfortunately, reality turned out to be complete and utter chaos. 🙁 Word of mouth and advertising worked much better than was anticipated. I have to imagine that there were over 20K people here. Parking was a nightmare. Jon and I parked over at Whole Foods and we walked over the bridge and down to Disch field. Once we got there, the place was already packed. Lines were incredibly long! We each split up into separate lines and waited for food. The line I was in was over an hour long. And that was just to pay for the food. I had to wait another twenty minutes for the food to cook! Also, with so many people using phones here, the phone was unusable. I could not call or text anyone. Sigh. I even got sunburned waiting outside so long…

Canon HD-SLR film crew

I even saw a film crew here using a Canon DSLR as a video camera. I wonder where that video aired…

Another round at Pease Park

Jon putting

We got in another round of golf at Pease Park today. I wonder how long the course will remain open. The city intends to shut this course down due to erosion. Here Jon was throwing while clinging to the side of a cliff.

Art construct

There was also an art construct along the river. At least I think that was what it was.

Tough tee

This hole is rather overgrown with fallen trees. You have to throw downhill through a pretty small window. Very tough.