Monday, May 26, 2008

]All Cats Have Asperger's

This book looks interesting. It tries to explain Asperger's without technical jargon to help kids understand what it means.

Amazon.com: All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome: Kathy Hoopmann: Books

5-yr-old Kid Voted Out of Class by Students


A kid with Asperger's was voted out of a class because the kids didn't like his behavior.

Teacher lets Morningside students vote out classmate, 5 : St. Lucie County : TCPalm

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Encyclopedia of Life



Found this on a NOVA special. The ultimate goal is to have a page for every known species.

Encyclopedia of Life

Friday, May 23, 2008

CrossOver: Play Windows Games on a Mac



I'll have to check this out. Windows games are the only reason I have a Windows XP partition on my MacBook Pro. If I could install the games on the Mac side then I could save a few GBs of space from the Windows XP install.

Windows Games Seamlessly Integrated on Mac or Linux - CrossOver Games

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Archlord is Free



I hever played this game, but for free I'll have to check it out.

Archlord - www.mmosite.com

"Bug" Macro Pictures

Here are a couple of new macro shots of invertebrates:

Wolf Spider with Babies

Grub Eating Aphid

Pangolyn/G7 Photos - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Monday, May 19, 2008

G7 Photos

We camped this weekend, which meant I took lots of nature shots. The macro capabilities are fantastic and allow me to get to within a couple of centimeters of the subject.

The following are some examples:

Drops on Blade of Grass

Purple Flower

Fern Spores

Dewey Fringe

Tiny fruit

Moss

Spider

Drop on End of Blade

Boiling Clouds

G7 Photos

Friday, May 16, 2008

Silly Cats!


We have wild bunnies in the juniper in front of our house. Our back porch winds around the back of the house far enough that we can see the edge of the juniper island. Earler this week my wife noticed a neighbor's cat patiently waiting by the juniper. Not long after she turned away she heard a sqeak, turned back and saw the cat running with a bunny in its jaws! She yelled for me to come over so she could explain what she saw.

I went to the neighbor's fence where the cat was standing with the bunny still in its mouth. As I approached it got scared, dropped its prey, and ran under their porch. The terrified bunny hopped away a small distance, but something didn't look right. Its back leg was sort-of sticking out of its back. It kept trying to move but it just looked awkward. I thought its spine was broken, but then how could it move its back leg? Eventually it straightened up. I clapped a few times to alert it and it finally bounded into another neighbors yard, away from the cat.

This morning I looked out on the porch and saw a cat walking along the top of the wooden 6 foot fence where the chipmunks go. It traced the path normally reserved for small rodents, jumped down, and trotted away. I didn't see any animals in its mouth, but it was still odd to see a cat up there.

Friday, May 09, 2008

MMMM!

Two FARKs in one day? I need to go to bed.

FARK.com: (3592420) The greatest idea any one has ever had about anything ever

Wii Fit?



We're starting to get excited about Wii Fit. I wasn't sure about my wife's eagerness until this afternoon. We went to Blockbuster after dinner and I asked if they were taking preorders for Wii Fit (they were). As we walked out my wife said that everyone's going to be sold out of that one. We watched the promo on the new Nintendo channel on the Wii, as well as the free DVD from Blockbuster that promotes the thing. I'm personally excited about the skiing and tilt-to-move-the-ball minigames.

We are trying to eat better and exercise more. This is a tool that we will at least use for a month, so the $90 price will be worth it. We'll probably reserve it this weekend to make sure we get one May 19th.

Wii Fit

Underwater Photography

I recently purchased an underwater rig for my Canon G7. I browsed through the yahoo G7 group and came across a link to this guys' gallery. Absolutely amazing photographs. I hope I can make a couple of shots close to his quality.

EdvinEng.com - Gallery

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Golden Books that Never Were

I normally don't post pure FARK comment pages, but this one is really good (NSFW):

FARK.com: (3580744) Photoshop some Little Golden Books that never made it. (LGT inspiration)

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Blue Man Group

I wrote this a while ago but never posted it:
Slothful Geek: Blue Man Group

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Quick Review



Very, very funny. I put it up there with 'Something About Mary'. Much better than his other movies ('40-yr Old Virgin', 'Knocked Up', etc.) The plot is extremely predictable, but it's just the vehicle used to support the humor. If you liked 'Mary' then you must see this film.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Biking in Orlando - West orange Trail

I wrote about this a few weeks ago but never published it.
Slothful Geek: Biking in Orlando - West orange Trail

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Canon PowerShot G7



I've been wanting a 'G-series' Canon for a long time, the G7 for a couple of years. MicroCenter is having a sale on all cameras this month, and the sale apparently applies to clearance items.

I went there to look at the Canon A720 IS (around $180). While I was there one of the salesmen started talking to me.


He pointed out the Canon G9 but I couldn't bring myself to spend over $400 on a camera, no matter how nice it was, but I did tell him that I thought it was very nice. I was thinking of getting a G7, and the only real differences are slightly more pixels (yawn) and the ability to save RAW (I later found a hack to make the G7 save to RAW, so this is moot).


He mentioned that he had a few cameras on clearance (returns), so I walked over with him and saw a (gasp) G7 box. The clearance sticker on the box stated $280 but in reality it was only $211! I gave myself a limit of $200, but I could go without lunch for a couple of days to make up the $11. Unfortunately, the box was empty! Someone stole the camera out of the box.

I was sad, and didn't care about getting any camera since I came so close to the G7. Eventually he went into the back to see what else they had. He came back with another G7 clearance, apparently never opened (battery, neck strap, cd, cable, memory were all still sealed), also for $211. I bought it immediately.

I showed my new find to a photography nut at work who was also wanting a G7. He went to the same store, even though I told him the other box was empty, just so he could have a chance at getting the same deal. Unfortunately, they still were unable to find the camera, so he left empty-handed.

Curious, I looked around online to see if I could get him a similar deal from somewhere. No luck. Ebay was the cheapest, with auctions for used ones over $250. Online stores still have it for over $400 (it was around $600 when it came out).

I'll post a review of the camera after I've used it for a few days.

Canon Powershot G7 digital camera