Jul 3
Yeah, about that coding problem. More of the same. This one is about generating temperature and humidity estimates with a single latitude / longitude input using the point measurements of the National Weather Service nearest the point of interest, and interpolating in a useful and hopefully likely manner. As a project, it gets its own static page, right here.
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May 29
Aw, man, I got this… this… coding problem. I keep finding myself writing things that only I would have a use for. So on my iPad, I found this App called “Emerald Observatory”, and I was so, so impressed. First, it’s pretty. Really pretty. Second, it’s full of astronomical data, useful stuff. And I thought to myself, wow… I really like some of this.
Then (oh, no…) I began to think about what parts of it I would like to use, that is, have directly available to me. So I wrote those nice folks, complementing them sincerely on what a nice App they had come up with (check it out, you won’t regret it), and suggesting they write what I had in mind, because actually, they sort of had the data in the app already, it was just a matter of organizing it differently. I got a nice reply, thanking me for the suggestion, but allowing as to how they had a lot to do, and so it would be “on their list.”
Well…
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The Supreme Court ruled on May 17th, 2010, that federal officials can indefinitely hold inmates after their prison terms are complete. The high court in a 7-2 judgment reversed a lower court decision that said Congress overstepped its authority.
Ex post facto laws are explicitly forbidden to the federal government and the states by two separate and quite specific clauses in the constitution, the government’s authorizing document:
The federal government: “Section 9 – Limits on Congress – No … ex post facto Law shall be passed.”
The states: “Section 10 – Powers prohibited of States – No State shall … pass any … ex post facto Law”
You may be asking, “What is an ex post facto law?” The legal definition is given by Calder v Bull (3 US 386 [1798]), in the opinion of Justice Chase, which defines four classes of laws:
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Much as I like you, Mr. President – and I definitely do – you have really put yours foot in it this time. I’m not a sycophant. I don’t agree with all of your positions. For instance, I think your stance on gun control is outright unconstitutional, while at the same time, I understand why you’d prefer that it were otherwise, and, since the system itself is corrupt and largely unconstitutional these days, why you’d be willing to violate your oath in order to see things done the way you’d like them to be done.
This isn’t stupid; it’s calculating and it is very much political, “just the way things work today.” For instance, if you actually think the government presently is authorized to restrict citizens from owning arms, I’d love to sit down with you and show you why you’re 100% wrong. I think you’re far too smart to buy the standard arguments for your own position, though, and I suspect that in private, you’d simply admit that is the case. I understand political expediency. I also understand an urge to do good, and that the legalities of the system can frustrate that urge if not pushed to the side.
But this time… I’m disappointed in you.
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In e-tech, publishers look to be an obsolescent cog. They exist(ed?) with books in a legitimate role because someone needs to take on the cost of printing a physical book, shipping it to a store, etc., and your typical author can’t afford to do that. With an e-book, the costs – such as they are – are handled by the retailer (Apple, Amazon, smaller sellers – even the author.)
Speaking as someone somewhat familiar with the industry, publishers, long known for providing only minimal advances and the smallest possible royalty to the actual artist (the author(s) and illustrator(s)), appear to have no role in the e-book ecosphere.
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Trying to figure out if there is an aurora, and if it can be photographed, really requires looking at some different kinds of data. One is the earth’s magnetosphere; how disturbed is it? That’s what causes auroras. That information has to be obtained from the GOES satellites, or magnetometers on the ground (I find the satellites to be a better indicator.) Another is the weather – if it’s cloudy, give up now. Then visibility comes into play – fog will kill the opportunity just as quickly as clouds. You can get that from NOAA (or whoever is your local weather provider if you’re not in the US.) But what if the moon is above the horizon? That’ll kill it too, at least, if the moon is showing any significant crescent. And of course, along those same lines, the sun has to be below the horizon. The moon and sun information can be calculated.
After repeatedly looking all this stuff up, and occasionally forgetting an important issue (like, is it cloudy?) before I drove out to my dark viewing area with my camera gear, I finally decided to pull all the information together into one handy place. And here it is, sized to fit on my iPod’s display, too. Further, since all the data is in one place, I have the underlying engine SMS me if conditions are right for an aurora; also, as long as I keep a browser open to the page, the page auto-refreshes.
The underlying processes keep an eye on things for me, updating their snapshots of satellite data and weather and lunar and solar states every five minutes. So I can be out and about, and if things look hot, I’ll get a text message on my cellphone. How cool is that?
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Apr 23
So Deb and I don’t go to theaters any more, we wait for the Bluray. Today was the big day that Avatar arrived, and instead of chess night, we had a movie night (usual suspects.) Brian, Evan, Deb and myself settled in after a nice dinner to see what all the fuss was about.
If anything, I think the movie was under-rated. What a feast for the eyes, and what fun, too. I was able to ignore the silly native-American and global-warming themes and just dig on the whole sci-fi-ness of it; the only thing that sorta bugged me was the musical portion of the sound track, which I can only describe as the Lion King on crack. But the rest was so good that mostly, I just ignored the silly drumming and the crazed new-age sing-a-longs. Which, thankfully, didn’t make up a large part of the movie.
There was quite a bit of other eye candy of numerous kinds — the biota of the world, the corporate headquarters virtual mapping system, the blue folk themselves… really a tour de force. I am so glad we bought the hi-def Blueray; it looks bleeding awesome on our 1080p home theater.
I really loved the ‘Mechs, larger-than-human armed and armored exoskeletons that remind me of baby MechWarrior or MechAssault ‘Mechs from the video and table games. I have a pretty good collection of Mechs (about 2…3 inches high, from the table game) and it tickled me to see things like them handled so well in a movie — definitely for the first time.
There have been some rumblings about DRM incompatibility with el-cheapo and/or poorly supported Bluray players out there; I’ll repeat the advice I give everyone about Bluray players: You want a Sony PS3. You don’t want anything else. Period. There is no doubt, no decent competition, no comparable bang-for-the-buck. The PS3 is it. And the PS3 will play the Avatar Blueray without any problems whatsoever.
Anyway, just thought I’d throw this out there. Great movie. On the (very) off chance you haven’t seen it, you should. This one goes to eleven.
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Apr 6
This is 40 still frames from my EOS50D, taken the evening of the onset of the April 3-4-5-6 geomagnetic storm, all from the same point and with the same camera settings. I used Canon’s 50mm ƒ/1.4 lens, wide open, after manually focusing it on a star. All these shots were taken at ISO 3200, 4 seconds exposure, then combined using the Mac’s movie software and converted from .dv to .mp4 using Handbrake, and from thence to flickr.
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![fyngyrz posted a photo: Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], hooded Sigma EF-S 30mm ƒ/1.4 EX DC HSM prime [ø62mm] w/B&W 62mm IR/UV cut filter #65-014691 ISO 100, ƒ/5.6, 1/1600th sec. exposure, handheld. RAW to JPEG and processing in Aperture 3.](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4095/4807124493_a3699fe686_m.jpg "fyngyrz posted a photo: Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], hooded Sigma EF-S 30mm ƒ/1.4 EX DC HSM prime [ø62mm] w/B&W 62mm IR/UV cut filter #65-014691 ISO 100, ƒ/5.6, 1/1600th sec. exposure, handheld. RAW to JPEG and processing in Aperture 3.")
![fyngyrz posted a photo: Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], hooded Sigma EF-S 30mm ƒ/1.4 EX DC HSM prime [ø62mm] w/B&W 62mm IR/UV cut filter #65-014691ISO 100, ƒ/3.2, 1/60th sec exposure, handheld, hooded. RAW to JPEG, cropping in Aperture 3.](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/4803875418_a78b664a66_m.jpg "fyngyrz posted a photo: Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], hooded Sigma EF-S 30mm ƒ/1.4 EX DC HSM prime [ø62mm] w/B&W 62mm IR/UV cut filter #65-014691ISO 100, ƒ/3.2, 1/60th sec exposure, handheld, hooded. RAW to JPEG, cropping in Aperture 3.")
![fyngyrz posted a photo: One of our local bars, the Hangar, is notable for (at least) two things. One, it's needed a new coat of paint for some time now. Secondly, there's an aircraft, or the remains of one, sticking out of the side of the building. Inside, there are various R/C aircraft hanging from the ceiling. It's a theme, you see. I've looked at that blue aircraft fragment for many years now, and finally decided they weren't going to paint the building no matter how long I waited; here you have it, ladies and gentlefrogs, the hanger, the best it has ever been. Because they re-painted the aircraft.:o)Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], hooded Sigma EF-S 30mm ƒ/1.4 EX DC HSM prime [ø62mm] w/B&W 62mm IR/UV cut filter #65-014691; ISO 100, ƒ/11, 1/80th sec exposure, handheld. Processing, cropping and RAW to JPEG conversion in Aperture 3.](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4101/4784967996_f379881ff7_m.jpg "fyngyrz posted a photo: One of our local bars, the Hangar, is notable for (at least) two things. One, it's needed a new coat of paint for some time now. Secondly, there's an aircraft, or the remains of one, sticking out of the side of the building. Inside, there are various R/C aircraft hanging from the ceiling. It's a theme, you see. I've looked at that blue aircraft fragment for many years now, and finally decided they weren't going to paint the building no matter how long I waited; here you have it, ladies and gentlefrogs, the hanger, the best it has ever been. Because they re-painted the aircraft.:o)Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], hooded Sigma EF-S 30mm ƒ/1.4 EX DC HSM prime [ø62mm] w/B&W 62mm IR/UV cut filter #65-014691; ISO 100, ƒ/11, 1/80th sec exposure, handheld. Processing, cropping and RAW to JPEG conversion in Aperture 3.")
![fyngyrz posted a photo: I wondered if the current crop of sunspots would show up in broad spectrum IR; there's a big one on one limb right now. Answer: just barely. You really need an hydrogen-alpha-only-pass filter. So most of what I got was a the chromosphere and the corona roiling about. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, tho. :)Don't try this at home, folks. It requires some tricky camera work (which I'm not going to describe to you... like I said, don't try this) to keep the sensor from going up in a puff of smoke, you need a modified camera like mine, and you can't look at anything while you're working. Plus, all you get is this, which is not, as it turns out, really worth the time or the risks, which are considerable to both your eyes and your camera if you don't know precisely what you're doing.Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], hooded Canon EF 200mm ƒ/2.8L USM II prime [ø72mm] with Hoya R72 IR-pass Visible-cut filter. ISO 100, 1/8000th shutter, F/32.Processed and RAW to JPEG in Aperture 3.](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4081/4781019708_3141c7e62f_m.jpg "fyngyrz posted a photo: I wondered if the current crop of sunspots would show up in broad spectrum IR; there's a big one on one limb right now. Answer: just barely. You really need an hydrogen-alpha-only-pass filter. So most of what I got was a the chromosphere and the corona roiling about. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, tho. :)Don't try this at home, folks. It requires some tricky camera work (which I'm not going to describe to you... like I said, don't try this) to keep the sensor from going up in a puff of smoke, you need a modified camera like mine, and you can't look at anything while you're working. Plus, all you get is this, which is not, as it turns out, really worth the time or the risks, which are considerable to both your eyes and your camera if you don't know precisely what you're doing.Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], hooded Canon EF 200mm ƒ/2.8L USM II prime [ø72mm] with Hoya R72 IR-pass Visible-cut filter. ISO 100, 1/8000th shutter, F/32.Processed and RAW to JPEG in Aperture 3.")
![fyngyrz posted a photo: Shot looking west-ish from the west side of Fort Peck.Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], Canon EF-S 18-55mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 IS zoom [ø58mm] @ 28mm, ƒ/7.1, 1/1000th sec. exposure, 2 sec. holdoff, ISO 100, tripod, -1 EV to keep the IR-driven reds from clipping.Processing and RAW to JPG conversion in Aperture 3.](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/4780850614_b0b64df0a5_m.jpg "fyngyrz posted a photo: Shot looking west-ish from the west side of Fort Peck.Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], Canon EF-S 18-55mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 IS zoom [ø58mm] @ 28mm, ƒ/7.1, 1/1000th sec. exposure, 2 sec. holdoff, ISO 100, tripod, -1 EV to keep the IR-driven reds from clipping.Processing and RAW to JPG conversion in Aperture 3.")
![fyngyrz posted a photo: The unusually cold, wet climate this year has brought up the level of the lake quite a bit, at the same time encouraging the vegetation on the shores. Deb and I went out there today for a picnic lunch (homemade Reubens, greek salad, pretzels) and we were greeted with a very pretty vista, as compared to the usual almost-parched look the area has by most Julys. Notice there are no boats out there? Lots of wind... the water was rough, and the air temperature was about 68°ƒ, not exactly swimming or skiing weather. I bet that water is seriously cold, too.Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], Canon EF-S 18-55mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 IS zoom [ø58mm] @ 22mm, ISO 100, ƒ/7.1, 1/640th sec, multi-point AF on horizon, tripod, 2 sec. shutter holdoff (though I think any gain from that was probably lost in wind induced shake.)](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/4765009913_758d885d70_m.jpg "fyngyrz posted a photo: The unusually cold, wet climate this year has brought up the level of the lake quite a bit, at the same time encouraging the vegetation on the shores. Deb and I went out there today for a picnic lunch (homemade Reubens, greek salad, pretzels) and we were greeted with a very pretty vista, as compared to the usual almost-parched look the area has by most Julys. Notice there are no boats out there? Lots of wind... the water was rough, and the air temperature was about 68°ƒ, not exactly swimming or skiing weather. I bet that water is seriously cold, too.Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], Canon EF-S 18-55mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 IS zoom [ø58mm] @ 22mm, ISO 100, ƒ/7.1, 1/640th sec, multi-point AF on horizon, tripod, 2 sec. shutter holdoff (though I think any gain from that was probably lost in wind induced shake.)")
![fyngyrz posted a photo: July 4th, 2010 - Glasgow, MT small town display.Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], Canon EF-S 18-55mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 IS zoom [ø58mm]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4101/4763199424_a24951b431_m.jpg "fyngyrz posted a photo: July 4th, 2010 - Glasgow, MT small town display.Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], Canon EF-S 18-55mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 IS zoom [ø58mm]")
![fyngyrz posted a photo: July 4th, 2010 - Glasgow, MT small town display.Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], Canon EF-S 18-55mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 IS zoom [ø58mm]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4117/4763198126_5bf24652b3_m.jpg "fyngyrz posted a photo: July 4th, 2010 - Glasgow, MT small town display.Canon EOS 50D [modified IR response in Hα range], Canon EF-S 18-55mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 IS zoom [ø58mm]")