reboot95

I have seen the Lord

2010-04-03T14:16:00.000-05:00

“I have seen the Lord” these words that are recorded in John 20:18. These words are the Hallmark of Christianity they are one of the prime characteristics of the Christian religion and experience. They are spoken of the very Deity that is the center of our Faith. A Deity that was fully God and Fully man who dwelt among us and gave up His very life for our benefit. The grave held Jesus with utmost tenacity. Yet that grip of the grave was not sufficient. In Glorious Triumph He burst the chains of death.

“I have seen the Lord” signifies that we serve a living God not a dead god hidden in a grave somewhere, trapped in stone, nothing but an image, a recollection. Our God has lived with us, triumphed over death and dwells in glory. Our religion is of a relationship with a loving, living Deity. One Who desires to bridge the gap between humanity and Himself. Instead of mankind reaching into heaven, instead of mankind trying to make themselves acceptable, God reached down to us and lifted us up with the Lord. We have seen Him.

“I have seen the Lord" proclaims the hope of all Christianity. The knowledge that the grave is not absolute. That our God and Redeemer has power even over what we see as completely final. The Resurrection of Jesus is a precursor to what awaits those who are redeemed, those who are buried in the same death as Christ, Death to Sin. We will also share in His resurrection. In His Everlasting Life.

“I have seen the Lord” is the personal testament of the Christian. Each who have known redemption and been freed of Sin can proclaim boldly they have seen the Lord in their own life. We know the working of a Risen Lord in the conviction that brings repentance, in the sorrow that accompanies realization, in the comfort of forgiveness, in the joy of triumph. We have seen the Face of God and have known the truth by faith we have seen the Lord.

It Is Finished.

2010-03-28T20:29:00.000-05:00

It is Finished! The words recorded simply in John 19:30. Echo down the corridors of History. These words announce with absolute finality with no room for doubt. It is Finished. In all of History these words are among the most important ever uttered by anyone. These words ushered in a Covenant made by God with mankind.

The Genesis of this event goes back to the beginning of our time. When Holy God in His wisdom created a Man and a Woman knowing that they would reject Him. God knowing the awful price that would be required to reconcile that relationship gave the Man and the Woman freedom to make their own choice. In that moment of decision they rebelled and were exiled from the fellowship of God who loved them.

Yet at that moment Holy God decreed a promise. He told the Man and the Woman that a child would rise up to crush the head of the serpent and pay the debt for sin. Then History waited, and waited. At the appointed time a Woman conceived a child that was in nature fully man but also by nature fully God. God had sent His son into this world.

God in the person of Jesus Christ dwelt among men. He taught us many things. He established His Church to carry on His Word and Work. He Healed the sick, and sinful, He forgave the guilty. But most important of all He came to a place and time. Where Man in his own wisdom cried out crucify Him. Our very creator came to be with us and we in our own wisdom cried out for His death. Oh, Shame on all of mankind, when confronted by God we wish to destroy Him.

The Cross where Christ died in agony brings us to these words. These Precious words, where a Holy God in the person of Jesus Christ paid the debt of Sin. Where the Son of God took upon Himself all the sins of the world, all the sins ever committed all the sins ever to be committed. There on a hill in this small insignificant world the Creator took the burden of Sin upon Himself. When the transaction was complete he uttered those three words “It Is Finished” and mankind was redeemed. By nothing good in our self, no act was capable, only by the Blood of Jesus and the words “It Is Finished”.

Now what will you do with these words? Will you accept them, in your life? Will you take this healing blood and cleanse the stain of sins from your entire life? Or will you reject the Holy God that offered Himself up, on that cross? Will you reject Him and make the choice to walk into Hell knowing that so long ago “It Was Finished”?

Words

2009-10-28T11:02:00.002-05:00

There are many important words in our lives. Some words are nonsense others convey great meaning in our lives. Of all the words that we can focus on in all of history the three most important words ever uttered were “It is Finished”. Without context these words may mean little. In the context when they were voiced by a bruised and bleeding man hung on a cross they become the most important words to Human Kind ever. It was in the person of that Man that the Creator of the Universe paid for the sins of us all. It was there where my sins were redeemed. Those words echo across history calling out to the lost and dying world that Christ came to purchase with His own life.

In each of our personal lives there are words of significance. Perhaps the most important of my life were tied to the three words of Christ. They were “Jesus please come into my heart” Those words occurred in my mind one night as a young boy. That was when I accepted the gift purchased for me by the life of Christ. It took me years to realize just how significant those Words were for me. That they would be forever etched in the fabric of my life. They have set the course of all the Chapters and Sentences to follow.

A few days ago there were words given to me that will change my life once again. They may be the second most important words of my life. Strangely they are tied to the other words I’ve talked about. The Words of Jesus on the cross and the Words thought by a small boy in his bed. The Context of those words are rooted in the leading of God in two different lives of two different people from opposite sides of the world. Both share a love of God and His redemption. Both have sought the leadership of our Great Creator and Redeemer. The words were in answer to a question. Those Words were “Yes I’ll Marry You”.

Reflections on the Third Cross

2009-08-26T23:27:00.003-05:00

Luke 23
32Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.
...
39One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"

40But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? 41We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."

42Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.[f]"

43Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

Think about this.
Here is a man that has wasted a life, he is now near the end, he stands accused and is sentenced to die. We don't know much about him. What exactly were his crimes? We know from Mark at one time both men heaped insults on Christ. We know that one of the criminals expresses the desire for his life to be spared. But then he mocked Christ, little did he realize the power right beside him. However this other man eventually defends Christ. Admits that he himself is being punished justly getting what his deeds deserved. Then he proclaims this man (Christ) has done nothing wrong though. Only by the Holy Spirit could this man have known what to do next. It defies all logic. He looks at the man hanging beside him. Seemingly powerless, dying as well. And says to Him "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom". Jesus replies "today you will be with me in paradise". Oh the joy at those words... Did this common criminal understand the full meaning of what he had just heard. Today even you who are a sinner condemned by your sin to death. Today you will be with me the King of all Heaven today you will join me in my home...!!!!

There are a great many things we can learn from this....

It was not the righteousness of the criminal that saved him. He starts by hurling insults on Christ. He had no chance to do good works. He repents and admitted his evil deeds. All he could grasp a hold of was the grace and mercy of Christ. That was all the he could claim.. And that was more than enough.

Baptism was not required. Although our faith stresses the importance of baptism. This man entered the Kingdom of Heaven with out it.. He received assurance from the ruler of heaven that he would be with Him without undergoing any ritual. Once again the grace of Christ was all that was required. No ritual needed.

Even on his death bed so to speak the criminal found mercy in Christ. We should never give up on anyone. We should continue to tell them of Christ up until the last moment of their lives. This man wasted all of his years and in the last hours he accepted Christ.

The Love and Compassion of Christ goes beyond our understanding. Here is Christ hung on a cross in agony. Suffering the turmoil and punishment of our sins. Bearing the burden for all of us. Standing in our place so we could stand in His. But in the very midst of that he reaches out to this Criminal and draws him to Salvation. Oh the Love Christ has for the lost.. And the desire He has for them to be saved is marvelous.

The criminals are a picture of all of us. We may think of ourselves as having lofty thoughts and mighty deeds. We might see our selves as John standing there at the foot of the Cross with Christ's mother. But we are truly represented by these criminals. Sentenced to death by our sins, rightfully so. Heaping insults on the Creator of the universe. No way of denying our guilt. We are completely and totally dead in our sin.. But there just beside us reaching out to us is Christ. There are no acts of righteousness on our part. We don't have anything to bring to impress the Lord of Creation. We are nothing but Criminals. However the King of all Heaven reaches out to us and says I have a gift for you. All you have to do is receive it. One of the Criminals brazenly rejects that gift and hurls insults at the Lord and stays condemned for all eternity. However the other Criminal humbles himself repents and begs the forgiveness of the Lord and resides with Him to this day in Heaven.

Grace Mud and The Living Sacrifice

2009-08-19T01:46:00.005-05:00

We are sinful we reject God. While we were still sinners God dwelt among us walked with us and loved us. He then gave up His life on the cross to redeem us.. God comes to us with the gift of Grace but we still want more... We ask what is it God wants for us.. I think we really are asking a lot of times why doesn't God give us what we want... What we really need to be asking is what does God want from me...??

We so often want a complicated answer something that we have to search for and work long to find. But God gives us a simple answer. Romans 12: 1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. (NLT). This is how I picture it... We crawl off and sit down in the Mud and go wow I'm in mud how did I get here. What is God doing in my life. I wonder what it is He wants for me.. I wonder what it is God wants to give me.. Then God appears to us and we say God look I'm in the mud.. Why did you put me here? What is it you want to give me. God holds out the hands that were pierced for our Sins and says "I have given you my Grace it is sufficient". We would reply but God I'm in the mud please what do you want for me. God would then point to the the alter and tell us "Give your life to me dear child". I think at that time most of us say well God that is not really what I had in mind. I would like to go over there and sit in the field under that tree. It looks exciting... Please God I "want" that excitement.

This made my mind turn to the statement I've heard over and over.. God has a wonderful plan for your life. I realized that God does have a wonderful plan for my life. But it is from the viewpoint of God that it will be wonderful. I think I have a hard time seeing how wonderful it is because I don't have the viewpoint of God.

The Nature of Worship

2009-05-27T22:52:00.001-05:00

What is the nature of Worship? It is a question that has been on my mind a lot lately. Really the last few years. The word Worship is used to refer to a great many things. But what does it mean to God? That is the question that concerns me.

A few years ago I heard a definition that probably put me on to this line of thinking. "Worship is a personal expression of the Love we have for our God and His son Jesus". An expression of gratitude for the reconciliation offered through the sacrifice of Jesus. The word that really struck me was personal. It is what I myself do. That has been a revelation, one of the good ones. It tells me Worship is first between God and me. Worship can take place at any time and any place! It can be expressed in many ways!

But what has Worship come to mean in the modern Christian Church? My thought is we have come to think of it as the part of a Church service where we sing or listen to someone else sing. Christians are starting to call this part of the service Praise and Worship. To a lesser degree Christians might call the part of service where a, Pastor or Preacher delivers a message, Worship as well. Christians are even calling the place this occurs a Worship center.

Why does this trend cause concern? Foremost is confuses the nature of Worship. Actually it constrains the nature of Worship. It promotes the idea that Worship occurs in a certain way, at a certain time. It even goes beyond that it changes Worship into something we watch for the most part instead of taking part in. I believe that these ideas are contrary to what God desires of us to experience in our time with Him.

Now to be clear watching a music performance that is of a Christian nature or listening to a Preacher expound on the Bible and the nature of God can certainly be parts of a Worshipful experience. There are many times I have heard a song that impacted my thoughts of God at that moment or heard a Sermon that helped me to have a profound appreciation and Love for God. I have always been a person that has filled their life with music. If I'm not listening to music I'm usually humming a tune or two. But sometimes we do need to turn that off and know God in the Silence.

So if Worship isn't these things or if these things are only a part of Worship, what is it that God desires for us? My personal thought is that God desires every activity and event in our lives to contribute to Worship of Him. God desires to be with us in everything we do. When we go in and come out, when we are in our rooms alone, when we are in a crowded school or workplace. God desires for us to express our love and adoration for Him in a personal way at all times of our life.

Macbook Pro 15 Inch Unibody

2009-04-02T14:29:00.004-05:00

_MG_4126
Originally uploaded by reboot95

I recently purchased the Macbook Pro 15 Inch at the Applestore. The buying experience was very good. If you are employed by a large company or the Government make sure you inquire about a discount. Also remember that Students and Teacher get a discount as well. These discounts can range from 6 to 8 percent.

The technical specs of the laptop are impressive. The performance is extremely snappy, but it is hard to see a difference between it and my old Macbook. However the screen is noticeably brighter and richer than any laptop I've ever looked at. Now every laptop looks like I'm looking at it through a layer of dust.

I have noticed that at low screen brightness there is a very annoying flicker visible. My understanding is that due to the nature of LED back lights to get a dim light they are cycling the LED's on and off very fast. Some people can see the flicker. I'm one of them.

Carrying the Laptop is a joy compared to anything else I've every picked up in this screen size. It is sturdy and light. I really don't notice a difference in weight between it and the old white Macbook.

PROS: Light weight, beautiful screen, Sturdy construction, lighted keyboard, processing power to spare.

CONS: Expensive, screen flicker at low brightness.

Nutshell: If you can afford it, this is a great laptop.

DD-WRT Linksys Wrt-54gl slowdown

2009-03-11T13:27:00.002-05:00

I have a fairly complicated wireless set up in my home. My device of choice has been a Linksys WRT-54GL loaded with dd-wrt. Recently I noticed that my transfers over wireless were running about half the speed they should be. I was actually at the point where my Charter Cable connection to the internet was faster than my wireless connection. After verifying that the problem existed for multiple laptops I started trying to track down the cause. Switching wireless channels, simplifying things a bit, going back to WPA from WPA2, switching to G only. By the way the G only broke my WRT-54GL that acts as a client for the TV computer downstairs. None of the changes fixed the problem.

I finally ran across a post on the DD-WRT forums that talked about a similar problem. Their solution was to restore to factory defaults and set the router up again. This solved the slowdown problem! It also prevented the downstairs WRT-54GL from working with the newly factory defaulted router upstairs. To solve that I had to reset it to factory defaults and set it up again. When all was said and done I'm back to transfer rates around 2 Megabytes per sec. Which is about the best I ever get out of wireless G.

They Speak English Here Right?

2009-02-11T15:11:00.002-06:00

I've discovered that one cultural myth about foreign countries is true, every one does speak English, however the part they don't talk about is none of them understand English... The airport in Japan had a very nice lady holding a sign that said United Bangkok and kept saying "Bangkok, Singapore" and pointing to a line. But when you asked her if this was the line we were supposed to be in she would repeat the speech say "ANA" and nod emphatically. I guess it worked I ended up in Thailand not Singapore.

Pack Rat

2009-01-21T13:49:00.002-06:00

I'm preparing for a large long trip overseas well it will be about a week and a half which seems a long time for me having never really been out of the country. Well there was that trip to Canada but that doesn't really count does it.

I have found that for the last two weeks I have been obsessively going over the things that I should take and the things I should leave at home. Like which clothes I need to take, which chargers, will they work, which cameras, how much does this weigh, on and on. So the virtual duffel in my brain has been filled and emptied many times. Now I just need to do that in real life...

The clock is ticking.

Exceeding Expectations

2008-12-31T13:17:00.002-06:00

With this post I make this my most prolific year of Blogging. Sure it might seem unfair to make a post about exceeding my previous number of blogs for a year the one that pulls ahead, but hey it is my blog I set the rules.

This year I refound the joy of taking pictures, so many of my posts were about this picture or that. Digital makes taking photos so much easier and cheaper in the long run. I think I grew weary of it in my film days mainly because of the cost of developing pictures. But being able to take multiple shoots to see what works at little to no cost is great.

The year of Geotagging. I'm addicted to geotagging photos now. I love being able to pull a picture up on a flickr map and go oh so that is where I took this.

This is the first year since 2002 or 2001 I have not bought a new computer. Well if I can just hold out a few more hours it will be :-)

Empty Mart

2008-12-29T18:47:00.003-06:00

Empty Mart
Originally uploaded by reboot95

This is a photo that can only be taken one day a year.

It is so odd to see the parking lot of a Walmart complete and totally empty the doors all shuttered and the carts stowed away. I saw this a few years ago on my way out of town. This year I purposely drove by in the afternoon to capture this shot.

Incidently when I turned in to the lot three cars followed me. Each person drove by the door with a look of anticipation on their faces. They slowly left the lot in disbelief that a Walmart could be closed. While I was taking the pictures four more cars came through the lot and repeated the ritual.

Amazon the only way to Shop

2008-12-21T13:54:00.004-06:00

I Had the occasion to go out to the local Mall on Friday. I and a friend both live pretty close and know the back ways in so getting into the parking lot is painless for this time of year. Also I had a great experience at the Apple store talking to a sales person about Aperture and the new MacBook Pro's. Barnes and Nobles check out line was a bit on the long side though. But that works as long as you are willing to get a Hot Coca and check out in the cafe. As painless as all this was I still really prefer to shop by internet.

It really is no surprise that I prefer shopping on the internet at Christmas I usually shop that way all the time. I sort of like coming home and finding boxes on the doorstep. When it comes to giving gifts I just go in pick out what I want to send, put in the shipping address and it shows up two days later at the recipients home. That way I can spread around some of the joy of finding boxes on the doorstep.

What makes Amazon the best for this? There are actually a number of things. One is the Prime Membership I have, free two day shipping, this includes items given as gifts. Amazon's selection of items is nearly unsurpassed buy anything. Their price is generally the best. The wishlist feature that allows you to view friends desired items. And when you need them their Customer Service is pretty customer focused. All of this combines to make Amazon the perfect shopping experience.

Oh and by the way I just ordered light bulbs from Amazon...

One Lonely picture

2008-11-26T12:18:00.006-06:00

_MG_3004_corr
Originally uploaded by reboot95

I'm really getting interested in Geotagging photos. This is accomplished by syncing the time between your camera and a GPS device. Then using the tracking feature of the GPS to keep a log of your coordinates. I then use Gpsphotolinker to match the log file with the pictures and presto you now know where your pictures were taking.

I took this particular picture of an old Baptist Church out in a rural area called Handy. This is near Doniphan MO. When I started to look at the map data on flickr I realized this was the only picture geotagged in a large area. Sort of cool to be the first someplace.

Niagara Falls and the Scam.

2008-11-25T11:45:00.007-06:00

Recently I was on vacation and ended up at Niagara Falls. There are a few things people really need to know about traveling there. As you get within 100 miles you start to see these little road side dumps that claim to be the "Niagara Falls Visitor Center" avoid these they are trying to sell you very over priced tour packages.

As you approach the State Park that is the falls you will notice a big glass building with an international food court. There will be some one with a tan shirt and a flag waving you into the parking lot. Pass them by... This is not the park these are people that are trying to make money on tourists. Once you have passed by you will see a nice paved lot that is part of the Park. It still costs $10 but I would rather my money go to the park.

Here is the other thing everyone will be trying to sell you some sort of tour package. Just walk past them go through the visitors center and take a look at the falls. After you have done that you can decide what sort of tours you want to take and then pay for them.

It is free to look at the falls it is free to walk over to Goat Island and get a much better look at both the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls. I would advise walking around the park and taking the grandeur of falls in before you fork over any more money. It is an awesome sight and well worth the trip.

Mac OS X Your network has been compromised revisted

2008-11-24T14:26:00.006-06:00

To see a description of the problem check out this old post.

Mac OS X Your network has been compromised

It appears one of the latest updates to Mac OS X has fixed this problem. I can now have my MacBook remember networks that have multiple access points under the same SSID.

I think the specific update that corrected the problem can be found here AirPort Extreme Update 2008-004

This has been a problem since around the First of 2008. Little bit slow on the old repair.

Road trips in the age of Starbucks

2008-10-26T17:07:00.005-05:00

Let me start off by saying I don't drink coffee, I don't understand people that do. But I like a glass of Coke with my breakfast to each his own I guess.

But a few of the friends I like to travel with do drink coffee. I recently took a long road trip with one of those friends and witnessed what is like to travel with someone that really I mean really likes Starbucks. The first thing I started to notice was the intense attention to road signs and strip malls next to highway exits. There was the constant look from side to side the brow furrowing in frustration then their face lighting up, the look of calm when their eyes fell on a Starbucks sign. I'm sure if you think back you may have witnessed this too.

Maybe I exaggerate just a bit but I was astounded at my friends ability to spot any Starbucks within a mile of our route. Then there would be the sort of nonchalant "oh hey look there's a Starbucks, lets just swing by". Needless to say I never realized just how infested our country has become with these oasis's of coffee goodness.

Unsharp Mask I see Clearly now

2008-09-29T15:59:00.005-05:00

Before Unsharp Mask

After Unsharp Mask

You really need to look at larger sized images to see results.

I have learned one of the most important aspects of taking photos with a DSLR, they inherently make soft looking photos. But I've seen pictures that people have taken that look crystal clear. I was always disappointed that my pictures were just a bit less clear. I figured I was just not very good at selecting the aperture or my focus was off a bit or I was jerking a bit when I pushed the shutter button.

Then I read this article Understanding USM started playing with Unsharp Mask in Photoshop and it was like a veil was dropped from my pictures. All of a sudden I too had those Razor Sharp images that I was so envious of.

Go ahead click on the link understand the mystery that is Unsharp Mask and you too will be amazed at the results.

Img_0232 and post processing

2008-09-06T22:19:00.004-05:00

Okay here is something I've done more than once get my camera out play around with some settings on it then put it back in the camera bag. Soon after that I'll grab the camera bag to go out and shot some picutres. Usually after 10 or so shots I will figure out something doesn't look exactly right. The pictures might be a bit too light or a bit too dark. Maybe they are all a bit fuzzy or other some defect. This is usually due to the fact I left the exposure compensation a few clicks off 0, the iso some where around 1600 or I've gotten creative with white balance. While these little issues can be a pain they may not have to ruin a great photo especially if you are shooting in RAW format.

Here is an example of such a photo. The night before I went out to the St. Louis Zoo I was playing around with my camera in my office trying to see how exposure compensation effected my photos with a flash. I deleted the test photos and put the camera away forgetting the exposure compensation was a bit off.

Next day I walk into the zoo pull out my camera get the lens cap off and see a Grizzly Bear posing for photos. Here is one of the photos I snapped.

I bit over exposed this is the jpeg off the camera
Well that was not what I was hoping to capture.

Enter Adobe and Camera Raw here is that example.

Better I think.

Then tonight I was playing around with the photo in Canon's Digital Photo Professional. Here are the results from that tool.

The Best?

Something about the third photo just freaked me out. The Bear's eye seems to be penetrating right to the core of me. This is the emotion I wanted to evoke with one of these Bear images.

This was all made possible because I was shooting in RAW and had the best source to post process. I used to think that working with a photo after you had taken the picture was cheating. I'm quickly changing my mind about that.

A trip to the zoo

2008-09-02T15:03:00.005-05:00

Bear2_IMG_0224
Originally uploaded by reboot95

I took a trip to the St. Louis Zoo Saturday. Another opportunity for the Canon 40D and Geotagging. I had a great time and my friend turned out to be an excellent guide.

We started off on a trip to the Japanese Festival at the Mo. Botanical Gardens but there was just no parking what so ever. So I dropped some friends off at the entrance and the rest of us headed to the Zoo.

One thing of note about the St. Louis Zoo is the fact they do not charge anything to enter. This is a one of the great things about living in St. Louis. They also have a pretty good amount of free parking around the Zoo. If that does not work out there are some big lots that charge a fee.

You might think that a free Zoo would not be that good. Not so, from what I understand the St. Louis Zoo is on par with any other Zoo in the Country. So all of you that live in other cities, it is alright for you to feel just a bit envious.

If you would like to see some of the pictures I took head over to my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/reboot95

St. Charles Photowalk 8-23-2008

2008-08-28T13:23:00.004-05:00

IMG_0002
Originally uploaded by reboot9I too5

I took Part in Scott Kelby's nation wide photowalk. Saturday Aug. 23. It gave me an opportunity to make use of my new Canon 40D (I bought it for my upcoming Birthday). It turned out to be a very enjoyable experience. I met some nice people from around the area, there was a group from the O' Fallon Camera Club.

The Photowalk in St. Charles only had about 18 people sign up for it so it was a very small intimate affair. I think that worked out a bit better than the other walks that were full to the brim.

If you get a chance to go on a photowalk take it.

Sigma 18-200 OS

2008-08-20T13:45:00.010-05:00

I've been using the Sigma AF 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS since June now here are some of my thoughts.

Pros:
Optic Stabilization
Lowish Cost
Comes with Lens Hood
Great Zoom range
Compact size.

Cons:
A bit heavy
Slow Auto Focus
Can't nudge the Auto Focus

Nutshell:
With an 18-200mm zoom range this works well as a lens that can stay on the camera most of the time. This is a good thing with the "dust on sensor" problems inherent in a DSLR. The lens ends up being a number of compromises. The price on Amazon is great, the Optical Stabilization works well and is a real plus in shooting. The Autofocus is sort of slow and hunts a lot in low light. The lens could be a bit faster but all and all for the Amazon price of around $462 it is a good buy, and has become my primary lens. Oh yeah, and the pictures turn out pretty good too.

Shooting Raw

2008-08-15T16:32:00.003-05:00

IMG_3462_bw_red_blue
Originally uploaded by reboot95

After hearing over and over again just how versatile shooting in RAW can be I decided to give it a try. Friday 8-8-08 I headed up the river road with a friend to do a bit of photography and outdoor fun. I purposed to shoot all my photos in raw format and try different things in the editing process.

I've been using the Digital Photo Professional software that came along with my Canon EOS Rebel XTi. It has a few features that I like. And works really nicely with raw images that come out of the canon. The software allows you to choose different picture styles that mimic the ones available on the camera. The feature I've liked the best is to switch the picture to monochrome and then apply filters to give it different "Black and White effects".

Another thing I have noticed shooting in RAW with JPEGS turned on sure makes a 4 Gig card seem small. My 8 Gig card arrived a few days ago.

With this picture I selected monochrome added a red filter which really made the clouds look great. I then added a bit of blue tint to it. I sort of liked the effect and the way the picture turned out. A number of people have looked at it with puzzlement and asked why it was Blue.

This photo started life as a Canon Camera Raw image with these settings.

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/9
Focal Length: 154 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV

It is all Black and White

2008-08-14T00:05:00.005-05:00

IMG_3599_bw
Originally uploaded by reboot95

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/9
Focal Length: 200 mm
While on a road trip I happened upon this cemetery in IL. The starkness of a Tombstone with the word Wedding on it captured my attention. I felt it would look better in Black and White. I used Canon's Digital Photo Professional to create the Black and White image.

Photoshop Recipes

2008-08-06T15:48:00.004-05:00

img_1547_pinhole
Originally uploaded by reboot95

I've taken a class in Photoshop I've played with photoshop, I've read blogs on photoshop and listened to podcasts about it. Yet I have no clue what I'm doing. Still I like the way this turned out even though it was mainly a photoshop recipe I followed.

Take a look at this post from the Photowalk pro blog. If you would like to try it yourself http://www.revellphotography.com/blog/?p=982

I did not follow his recipe exactly I exercised some creative license and I'm sort of happy with the way it turned out. I sent it to a friend and he thought I had gotten a pinhole camera.

Still on the quest to be comfortable in Photoshop. But for now I am happy to follow recipes.

Know any good ones?

Canon Rebel XTi one year later

2008-08-02T14:17:00.005-05:00

I have now owned the Canon Rebel XTi for a year now. Here are some thoughts.

Pro:
Features both full automatic modes and a full manual mode with various in between modes.
Self cleaning Sensor.
Wide array of available lens.
Takes very good Pictures.
Good Battery life.
Widely used.

Con:
It is like a gateway drug to more and more accessories, lens, bags, etc.
Could be a bit more rugged.
Tends to get bits of stuff on the focus screen.
Did I mention you end up spending a lot of money on it.

Nutshell: Despite it's expensive care and feeding this is a very good starter Camera for the aspiring/consumer photographer. It allows you to stretch your creative side but you can rotate the dial and have all the automatic features of the best point and shoot available. There is the instant satisfaction of looking at a photo on the 2.5 inch LCD and going "oh yeah nailed that" or thinking ick glad I can delete it.

This is no lite weight point and shoot when you start toting it around with you. You will want a nice Camera bag. I've become a big fan of the Lowepro Slingshot series of bags I went with the 100 model since it forces you to stay sparce. You will still want a stick it in your pocket so you can snap photos whenever, compact.

With the new Rebel XSi prices should be dropping on this model. If you are wanting a camera that allows a lot of creative options here is a purchase you won't regret.

Drobo + Droboshare

2008-07-30T12:13:00.008-05:00

This is my new Drobo sitting on my poor mans computer rack in my office. I've had it about two weeks now.

This is the older USB 2.0 only model. When the new model with Firewire was introduced this model had a price cut. I was all ready to buy it off the Drobo site with a promo code when I realized that once that added shipping on I could still get it cheaper from Amazon. I also purchased the Droboshare attachment to turn it into a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. I ordered two 750 Gig drives from Newegg to complete the set. Newegg has consistently had the lowest prices for drives. I've since added a 640 Gig drive to give me a bit of boost in redundancy. I've also added a Dlink Gigabit Network switch to try and improve transfer rates. The one computer I have with a Gigabit card in it only saw modest speed increases.

All my experiences have been with the Drobo in conjunction with a Droboshare so keep that in mind. Expansion of the device is really the hallmark of it's simplicity you just add an additional SATA drive and you increase your redundancy protection and over all disk space. With two 750 Gig drives and one 640 Gig drive I have access to 1.26 Terabytes of redundant data storage connected to my home network. Any one drive can fail and I will have no data loss. This is a comfort since if I have a single drive failure in my Linux server the whole data volume is gone.

One important item with the SATA drives you place in it. Make sure the are set to work at high transfer rates. You might have to fiddle with jumpers to turn this on. SATA drives come in 1.5 and 3.0 Gigabyte transfer rates. Some of the 3.0 Gigabyte SATA II drives are configured to run at 1.5. So make sure you are getting your moneys worth and get the jumpers right. Honestly I did not see a difference in transfer rates but I feel better now.

My purpose for this device was to provide redundant storage from my digital pictures. A 10 Megapixel camera can eat up storage fast. And a place to protect all my music library. I have started using the Drobo as the primary storage device for the pictures but just a backup up for the music. I want to keep the music on the Linux server for now as the primary source.

Transferring vast amounts of data over the network takes time. My transfer rates are much slower than I would have expected I'm not sure if this is because they are coming off a volume group in Linux of if I have an issue with my network. The data is moving at 10 Megabit speeds even though I'm on a 100 Megabit line for the Linux server. The iMac is transferring at acceptable speeds but it is on Gigabit and should be faster. Maybe the USB 2.0 connection to the droboshare is issue.

Pros: Setup is easy, expansion if totally easy. Footprint is small and you don't have to worry about configuring a RAID array on your computer. Your data is protected from hard drive failures. You get a lot of usable storage considering it is also providing redundancy. The set up was fairly easy but some of that will make it into the cons. The tool to manage the device is pretty straight forward and effective. To your computers it shows up as a standard SMB (Windows) file share pretty easy to access. I have a mixed environment to so my Mac's, Linux Boxes, and Windows machines can all see it, use it, and share files. Double plus good.

Cons: You still have to understand about drive formatting to get it up and going but you can get a geeky guy or girl to help if needed. You should just plug it into the network and the client tool supplied with the Droboshare is supposed to find it. I had to plug and unplug and reset and fiddle a while before it finally came up. I have the same problem if I place it in standby mode it really does not want to come back to life. I've had one power outage where it can back fine I had an accidentally unplug where I thought I would have to send it back but it finally woke up and the client was able to see it. That has been the biggest issue I've had with it. Also the Drobo client install keeps wanting to make it load on startup I don't want it to and have to convince it of that every update. Oh yeah it really is an expensive solution.

Needs to have: The Droboshare really really needs to support some type of rsync capability. It based on Linux and they just released an SDK someone really really needs to compile rsync for it. This would make transferring files to it so much easier. My 100+ Gig music library takes over 26 hours to transfer. This is due to the slow transfer speeds off the Linux server but rsync would really fix that.

Nutshell: If you have digital bits of data that you want to share and protect this is the device to buy. It excels at simplicity (when compared to other solutions). Allows you to maintain control of your media. If you are buying music, movies are taking hard to replace photos go buy one today. With today's hard drives it is not if you will have a failure it is when. Remember though it is just an onsite backup if your house burns so does your data, to be truly secure you will also need some sort of off site backup. Like Jungle Disk or Mozy.

Computers are hard

2008-07-29T23:17:00.005-05:00

I've been working with computers since the Apple IIe. I've owned more than I will take the time to count up. My circle of friends all have some bit of computer literacy and yet day after day I'm amazed at just how hard it is for people to use computers.

In the days before the Internet people could get a computer take it home put their check book in an application keep track of lists and print out letters. The computers all did that pretty well. There were problems getting the printers hooked up sometimes and you would have to buy an application or two for the balancing of your check book and the keeping of that list or two. Computers were expensive and not that many people had them. Software was expensive too.

Today a computer is a much more versatile tool. It is a digital dark room, a high tech video phone, a music studio, an entertainment center. They cost a fraction of the old one's their power is astronomic compared to what we had in the 80's or the 90's and we are connected to the world.

And there in lies a large part of the problem. We have to get them connected to the world. This entails cable modems, dsl modems, home routers, home switches, wireless access points, wireless cards, network cards, firewalls. Then all this has to be configured to work together and allow communication in certain directions and block communications in other directions. This has happened to me over and over someone says hey this does not work. Heck I've said hey this does not work. And realized hey that can't talk to that, I wonder why? Duh somehow a firewall got turned on. This happens over and over again. And I understand networking. To most people it is something akin to brain surgery or maybe rocket science.

Here is another common occurrence. A hard drive eats a file (consider this hard drives now rely on error correction to read files back) maybe it is a little file may seem unimportant, but too Windows it is one of those critical files required to get going. And there you have an expensive door stop that goes into a blues screen that isn't even animated or it reboots over and over again. If it is under warranty the maker might give you a new drive. But you will have to surrender your old drive and you will probably be told there is no way to get those 10,000 family photos off of there.

How do you keep that stuff safe then. Well there is external hard drive's I've had a friend that has had three of them fail and I think I have had one fail and another is acting strange. There is the Drobo. Wonderful bit of tech I will be writing about later. It is easier than some things to use and offers data redundancy. Here it is in a nut shell if you have digital items that are important get a Drobo and figure out how to store those important digital bits over on it. But then if your house burns down it is not going to be much help.

What about apple one might ask. Well Apple makes a very nice, powerful computer it has a lot of great features and they have done some very smart things. But honestly it is really not that much easier to use than a Windows machine. Sure there are some things that it does to help you out but it is still a mystery to a lot of people. But a geek moment here Unix is cool and OS X is based on Unix. So therefor it is cool.

So how did we get here and where do we go. Computers have a lineage that goes back to when they were used by very geeky people that understood the inner workings of them and they based there development on that understanding. Knowing the end users had the same understanding. Today it is hard for people that have an in depth understanding of how computers work to design things in such a way as to make sense to those people that don't live bits, bytes, or and xor's . Sure we have trained people to use them a certain way and like Pavlov's Dog people have come to expect a certain result from a certain action. If that doesn't work then turn it off and on again.

However computers are still very hard to use, set up and get connected. These things are all done in a way that is not very geared for common people. The terminology while correct means nothing to people outside of the discipline.

Maybe some day we will have devices that can self configure and can be worked with in a more natural way where the interface will make sense with out training. My hope is it won't be through voice commands though. If you think your office is annoying now with just the clicky click of keyboards wait till everyone is trying to talk their computer into doing what they want. Yeah, especially that guy that sits two aisles over is hard of hearing and rattles the windows when he talks on the phone. Yeah that is going to be fun............

Fountain at Tower Grove Park St. Louis Mo.

2008-06-02T00:34:00.004-05:00

IMG_3015_Darkened
Originally uploaded by reboot95

I've changed the balance of this photo using photoshop express. It did a nice job but did not copy any of the Exif information so I lost the Geo Tagging. This is the same photo as img_3015 from this set.

So what did I do to get this. I set my camera on an old cement railing set the timer so I would not jar the camera with the shutter button. Set the shutter speed to as slow as allowed by light went to where the F-Stop Flashed then back a notch and took the picture. It was washed out some so I used photoshop express to fix it.

Oh yeah the the Gorilla Pod was in the Explorer. Duh

Update:

I've been playing around with the orginal picture a bit in Photoshop Elements. I know I needed to adjust the levels to darken it a bit. Now I really don't know much about how to use Photoshop Elements but I was never really able to make it look as good as the image that Photoshop Express produced. Go Figure.

Still really disappointed that Photoshop Express killed all of the Exif information especially the Geotagging stuff. But I was able to use flickr to at least get back the location stuff but placing it on the map.

Laptop Quality

2008-05-05T12:26:00.006-05:00

I was reading this post When buying a laptop, make sure to look for build quality at the digital kitty blog. She talks about how great the Apple laptops are in form and function even though she is not crazy about the GUI.

If you have been reading here you might realize that I've personally had a very different experience with the build quality on my Consumer grade Macbook. My iBook was a bit better but something flipped out in it's logical board rendering it unusable so maybe it is not as good as I thought it was.

This has brought me to the conclusion most Consumer grade laptops are really junk. Even though we are paying upwards of $800 to $1200 for them they really do not hold up very well. Cracking cases, dead pixels, failed hard drives, memory failures, logic board failure, driver issues, etc. I have come to the point where for laptops the extended warranties are a requirement. Pushing up the cost another $200 or more. Extended warranties are generally a rip off for the consumer though.

My experience on Business model laptops is a bit limited, being mainly Dells. But then again they have not been the most robust. There were the C series latitudes that continued to break the latches. The other C series I bought off of e-bay with the keyboard that continually repeats characters. The C Series at work with the failed sound card on the logic board.

As I write this the conclusion I reach, is that modern laptops (since 2000) are just not built very well at all, Consumer and Business. They are just not made to stand up to the stress of being dropped in a bag and carted around every where.

Given the widespread use of laptops in today's world manufactures need to do one of two things price them as truly disposable items that are meant to last for a for a year or two and be trashed. That is a pretty stupid plan given how they need to be disposed of. Or match the build quality to the price and the consumers need, make sure they last about five years and can handle being carted around everywhere.

The Lord's Prayer

2008-04-19T18:15:00.001-05:00

Could be the cutest thing ever..

Why

2008-04-15T01:22:00.002-05:00

Now Why did the Bible Gateway have to make this today's verse?

“This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.” (Romans 13:6-7)

I really wanted to not like today you know April 15.....
Oh yeah, I guess that is why.........

Extreme Annoyance MacBook Cracks

2008-04-12T12:55:00.007-05:00

Have any guesses as to what this is? Yep it is a big old crack on the palm rest/edge of my Apple MacBook. The thing that has pushed this into Extreme Annoyance is this is really the third problem I've had with cracks, dents and such on the MacBook. First there was the crack on the hinge for the screen and then the micro cracks around where the hinge attaches. When I had it in for repair there were also dents forming on the front of the palm rest from where the screen closes. Now I have this big old crack in the palm rest where the screen closes and micro cracks along the front of the machine. These are all parts that were replaced during the first go around with cracks less than a year ago.

Just to head off some thoughts you might be having right now. First Google cracks macbook and see what comes up. This is a laptop, a device designed to be "portable" so I take it pretty much every where with me. Inside a nice "incase" designed specifically for this particular laptop. So yeah it does not set full time on a desk it gets used like a laptop is meant to be used. I have an iMac to set on the desk.

I have the suspicion that the magnets designed to keep the lid closed, cause the lid to slam down to hard every time I close the laptop. This is starting to really annoy me.

Otherwise I really like the OS X operating system. I like the technical performance on my MacBook and the price was in the park with a similar Dell but the build quality is really lacking. Or perhaps it is a design flaw in using the magnets.

I suspect this will be covered under Apple Care but I'm hoping the parts hold up a bit better this time around. Oh and I will be back to using my old Dell for the week the apple store will want to keep it. ICK.

One other thing, the dark spots on the palm rest seem to be more of a stain or discoloration since everything I've tried well not clean it. And the Apple Store said they would clean that up when I took it in for a non-ejecting Super Drive. And guess what, it came back with the discoloration still there. There is also some discoloration around the apple logo on top as well.

Oh did I forget to mention that the power cord burned through the insulation right where it connects to the little power brick.

Great laptop from an Operating System and performance standpoint but not put together very well.

Update:
The MacBook will be out for repair for about a week. They were sort of like oh yeah crack on palm rest and cracks in bottom case. Fill this out, have you backed up your data. Should have it back in a week.

Update2:
Macbook is back appears to be repaired. I think the area impacted is a different plastic.

Panorama of the Concord

2008-03-20T11:49:00.001-05:00

concordpano2.jpg
Originally uploaded by reboot95

Here is a panoramic picture I took off the Concord at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

2 Gig

2008-03-13T16:41:00.002-05:00

I just updated the memory in my iMac and Macbook. The physical process is fairly easy except the macbook needs a really really really small Phillips screw driver. I used one of the blades on a multi-tool but it was not ideal.

The performance increase with 2 Gigs of memory over 1 Gig is nice but most noticeable in the Parallels Virtual Machine. Before if you were running one of the Virtual Machines it pretty much locked up the rest of the machine. Now the rest of the machine is running just fine and the Operating System running in Parallels is very snappy.

Purchased the memory from Crucial. I was just poking around and looking at what the price would be to upgrade. When I realized it was really not that much I decided to go ahead and purchase the memory. Cost about $21 on the iMac and $46 on the Macbook. I had to replace both memory chips in the Macbook. The iMac only needed an additional 1 Gig chip.

Nearly a Foot

2008-03-04T20:50:00.005-06:00

Well I'm sort of thinking that Spring might get skipped this year. This is probably the most snow I've had at one time since I moved into this house in 2002 nearly as much as we got in 1989. Take note this is March 4 !!! All I can say is yikes.

Is Spring coming

2008-03-03T16:28:00.000-06:00

Well here we sit in the month of March. Looking forward to the
flowers poking through and coloring our world again. But wait we live
in the mid-west so we are going to have our world colored but it is
going to be a different color than most people had in mind. It is
going to be white. Yes a major winter storm is winding up to hit us.
Go figure.

Apple Store and Genius Bar

2008-02-20T12:48:00.005-06:00

I've had to have my Apple Macbook in for a few repairs in its first year (Great OS and features but build quality is lacking). There was the issue with micro cracks in the case. Ok right now go look at your Macbook in good light and see if you can find any hairline cracks in it. Go on I'll wait....... Then there was the issue with the Superdrive, it stopped ejecting disks. You know Apples really don't have a mechanical release I can find. I finally had to resort to turning it sideways and shaking it while repeatedly hitting the eject button. Then the latest was the power adapter burning a hole in the wire. OH FUN.

Here is the problem, each of these were a definite visible hardware issue. Yet each and every time I had to go to the silly Genius Bar to get the privilege of leaving my Macbook with them while they fixed it. This is really really annoying. The one in St. Louis West County Mall really seems to be backed up. You usually have to schedule the meeting a day ahead for the next afternoon or evening then you have to wait while the two Genius' on duty wade through iPod problem after iPod problem with a couple of iPhone problems thrown in. The list for iPod is like 10 people long and there are three of us waiting to get our computers looked at. Hey I got an idea I'll tell the iPod folks this is how you reset it, or you need to let the battery run all the way down then recharge it all the way to full, or you just need to resync it. Then the Genius could do the paper work so I can drop my laptop off.

Apple needs to rethink the way they are doing the Genius bar for hardware issues. The Genius bar is okay except for the wait and the fact they really have never given me a definite answer when I've asked questions.. But if each and every item that is any sort of repair or issue has to go through the Genius bar they really need to increase the staff, maybe promote a few of the floor folks to Genius, they don't usually seem all that busy. Or if it is a hardware issue that requires leaving the computer give me somewhere to just drop it off, hey you are going to be keeping it a week or so why do I have to wait 45 mins to an hour just to drop it off. UGGHHH!!!

Has anyone else had this issue.??

Mac OS X Your network has been compromised

2008-02-14T14:28:00.006-06:00

Gee so glad to know that my network has been compromised. I now need to jump up and run around in circles going crisis crisis crisis. Wow I feel much better now.

This has been plaguing my Macbook every time it wakes up from sleep since Leopard 10.5.1 came out. I have not tested 10.5.2 yet to see if it fixes the problem. It seems to occur when I am connecting to WRT54G's running the DD-WRT firmware using WDS. This allows multiple wireless access points to look sort of like one access point and extend the range of your access point. It also appears to be centered around using WPA.

My solution. Well running around in circles going crisis crisis crisis can be fun but it really did not solve the problem. Rebooting would fix it but gee that takes a bit. Googling came up with a forum on Macrumors that suggested deleting the saved password. I can't remember if I found another link or just did it wrong but here is what I did.

Removed the offending network from the list of preferred networks. Now when I put the Macbook to sleep it wakes up and asks which network do I want to connect to, I double click on the one I was using and bam I'm on the network again no silly error.

Update
Nope 10.5.2 does not fix the problem.

Let it snow let it snow

2008-02-01T16:01:00.000-06:00

And man did it snow.

It actually snowed enough I did not have to go to work today how cool is that.

Adding Verse of the Day to your website

2008-01-27T09:50:00.000-06:00

You might wonder where the Verse of the Day is coming from that is included on this blog. I'm using a free bit of HTML code provided by the BibleGateway project. If you use the following link you can easily generate a snippet of html that can then be included in your blog or website.
How to do that is an exercise left up to the student.

BibleGateway.com: Build custom Verse of the Day HTML code

Rocky Creek Falls

2008-01-14T15:46:00.001-06:00

IMG_2282.JPG
Originally uploaded by reboot95

Yes believe it or not that really is a falls in the State of Missouri. This is a little out of the way place in the Missouri Ozarks outside of a little town called Winona

Seneca Rocks, Dolly Sods

2007-10-17T22:03:00.001-05:00

Want to see what mountain bones look like? Take a trip to Seneca Rocks West Virginia. This is a place where the backbone of the mountain has worn through. Sort of a spectacular view but if you want to get good photos you need to be careful with the lighting. I'm thinking afternoon lighting will give you the views. I took my photos in the morning so the lighting was not as good.

People even like to climb up the rock faces but nope not me. I get dizzy on the top step walking down the the viewing area.

One of the nice out the way places to visit is Dolly Sods. Head north on 28 out of Seneca Rocks

and look for Jordon Pond Road. This will take up to public road 19 then FR 75. FR 75 takes you through Dolly Sods. This is definitely a wilderness area, no McDonalds. You also want to be

careful if you decide to really do some serious hiking in here. There some unexploded artillery shells left over from practice during

WWII. I mainly just stuck to driving through and checking out the overlooks. Also check out the Northern Loop Trail. Although the loop does come out down the road from the parking lot. I'm thinking loops should come where they start....

A must see is the last overlook of the area "Bear Rocks" you can see all the way to Virginia from there. Isn't that cool?

Roadside Cafes

2007-10-17T21:51:00.001-05:00

You know when you stop at little out of the way places on little out of the way roads you can end up with a gem of a meal or maybe not. Probably best to go with your instincts, even if they are really proud of what they are serving unless it looks like a Bar-b-que place their Bar-b-que will probably not be good. So go with what it looks like they might be good at regardless of what they are proud of.

New River Gorge

2007-10-15T22:51:00.001-05:00

The New River Gorge known as the grand canyon of the east. Sort of a cool stop along highway 19. As long as you are going by take a stop at the visitor center and check out the New River Gorge bridge from the outlook below.

Also as long as you are there go ahead and drive down to the bottom of the gorge to see the bridge from way way down there.

You can see the old bridge that has been replaced.

And take a look at the gorge framed by the new bridge.

This area is sort of famous for white water rafting. Ummm Yeah you're not going to be seeing any pictures of that :-)

Babcock

2007-10-15T22:14:00.001-05:00

Babcock State Park, home to probably the most photographed grist mill in the world. The Glade Creek Grist Mill. Here take a look.

Took these pictures today. I've visited this park several times, the have some cool cabins you can rent but you really need to reserve them ahead of time. I've only gotten lucky once and that was because someone had canceled. Really a must see in South West Central West Virginia.

Definition of Morning

2007-10-15T08:56:00.003-05:00

How come every time you go on a vacation you just can't sleep the night before. So the next morning instead of getting your clothes together and car packed you are just wanting to sleep. Well 11:30 is still morning right?

Needless to say we did get a late start this morning but we are now in a Quality Inn in West Huntington West Virginia. Yeah I know we were supposed to be camping but hey it is nicer in the hotel and it will give us the chance to get up and out in the morning and hit some of the cool areas in West Virginia.

A simple camping trip

2007-10-15T08:56:00.001-05:00

Amazing what it takes to go on a simple camping trip.... Oh yeah and we still need to stop at WalMart.

Vacation.

2007-10-13T13:58:00.001-05:00

Getting ready. The air smells right. Clothes are being washed. All electronics are charged and all the camping gear is in a closet waiting to be tackled. Yep it a vacation. More to come.

iPhone and terms of service

2007-10-04T12:16:00.000-05:00

Most people have heard about the iPhone "update" that bricked (technical term meaning it is broke) any iPhone which had been manipulated to unlock it from the AT&T carrier. This reaction and remedy by the combined legal, technical power known as Apple, AT&T causes one to ponder when did terms of service start allowing a company to come into your home (virtually) and destroy your personal property.

Now a lot of people on the net have been proclaiming loud and long that you bought it you agreed to the terms and you got what you deserve nah nah nah. Okay I'm game what subsection of the terms of service allowed Apple, AT&T to destroy equipment (virtually). Yes I know they had a warning "oh thank you mighty Apple, AT&T". Where is Apple, AT&T's proof that everyone who had equipment destroyed agreed to those terms. Say they did not activate through iTunes and used Tmobile as a phone carrier would they have ever agreed to those terms. Is it okay to sell a device that has such terms of services if the consumer can not view and agree to said terms prior to plunking down cash and walking out of the store. When did it become okay for a company to provide a "software patch" that destroys a device and not have responsibility for said destruction. And so what if the software patch did have terms of service as well what the heck gives a vendor the right to destroy things. Is there a clause that goes

i Blah da Blah
ii. Oh and hey if you have fiddled with this thing in a way we don't like we reserve the right to kill it.

This is where it leads folks. Microsoft has terms that states Vista home can not run under a Virtual environment. So say they detect they are in a virtual environment and if they are say the running Vista zaps the hard drive of the Operating System running the Virtual environment. Or if Sony had its way when you tried to rip a CD little spikes would come out and turn the inside of your CD drive to shreds. Actually they might even be happy if some of the little spikes flew out and did bodily harm just to teach you not to steal.

Consumers need to wake up and take a look around realize this goes way beyond cows and cheese (Read Leo Laport's blog) it goes to the heart of ownership and what it means to "have" things. If we don't pay attention some of the Sci/Fi stories about consumers existing only to support large companies might come true. Where ownership is taboo and all you are allowed to do is lease items for a "reasonable" rate and if you are not willing to lease things, well there is a van down by the river for "those" type of people.

Canon Rebel XTi

2007-07-17T16:07:00.000-05:00

It is a joy to take pictures with. Settings are easily changeable and the basic shooting modes do a good job. In the creative modes the photographer can control just about any aspect of the shot they desire. One miss though is the control over the flash. In the basic shooting modes it does what ever the heck it wants. So you have to switch to the creative modes to force it on or off. Maybe this is something they can fix in firmware. It seems like an odd feature on such a user controllable camera otherwise.

The shake the sensor to get rid of dust spots does seem to work. And yes dust spots are a huge problem on DSLR's. I will probably be investing in a cleaning kit for the sensor at some time.

My old EF lens work great. My 200mm with the 1.6 multiplier of the DSLR is effectively a 380mm which is pretty nice. It allows you to get in real close on anything.

The weight of the camera is just about right, it has a nice heft to it, you won't forget you are carrying it but it does not weigh you down.

The function for the most part is a lot like my old old Canon Rebel EOS so it took very little time to get comfortable with the camera. And the magic of digital shows through in that you can snap off as many pictures as you want with out worrying how much it is going to cost to get them developed. You end up with a lot more bad shots but hey you just through those away and you end up with a few spectacular shots that you would have missed with a film camera

I've put up a flickr gallery of what I think of as some of the best shots I've taken with it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/reboot95/sets/72157600506124069/

IMG_0098

2007-06-26T17:32:00.001-05:00

IMG_0098
Originally uploaded by reboot95

Picture of a iron bird about to take flight. Don't blink, don't look away, blink and you are Dead.

Check out this blog

2007-06-25T02:04:00.001-05:00

Check out my friend Stephanie's Blog.

She is spending a year teaching in Taiwan.

http://stephhendrix.blogspot.com/

All Things Cool

2007-05-24T10:16:00.000-05:00

I am becoming more and more frustrated with the drive in American Business to grasp on to the the latest Cool things. This is most likely exacerbated by the fact I'm taking a very boring online course dedicated to the Japanese concept of Lean manufacturing. This is being presented as the answer to all business woes. Well why not a few observations.

Oh where to begin. We are taken into a fantasy land of a Major cooperation and follow around a new hired Product manager who is a intolerable suck up. He is given a troubled division and soon is being indoctrinated (brainwashed) into lean concepts. I really wish training creators would stop trying to be clever with these silly things. Oh yeah they come up with what they believe to be clever scenarios situations that will engage students. Then they get some of the most dull and flat voice actors in existence. Yep that works....

Next on my list. The training essentially formalizes a concept of organization, simplification, reduction. Wow there you go genius why hadn't anyone thought of this before. Well we have. The key to what is being presented is to wrap it up in a new box so people will think it is revolutionary and will make changes in the way they do things. But any system can always benefit from those concepts. The key is just to do them, so I get a bit aggravated at something that is being sold as revolutionary just to get people to do things they already know is the right way to do it.

Another fallacy is that all cultures are the same and concepts that are key in one culture will work in another. We have a lot of basis and patterns dictated by the culture we are a part of. Philosophy that might be somewhat predicated on the culture doesn't always work in another. Let's have a reality check. Japanese companies are based on a culture that has a different level of commitment to jobs and work that the American culture does. When a workforce is completely dedicated to there job above all else there is a great potential for success regardless of anything else. American culture is no longer that job focused, we are more self absorbed. For us a job pays for what we do, for the Japanese culture the job is what they do. Given what I've read though the next generation in Japan is more self absorbed so we will see what happens.

So come lets' just say hey these have always been good ideas and lets figure out how to organize simplify and reduce with out acting like we have been on a mountain and received some new stone tablets.

Snow_plow

2007-02-14T13:53:00.001-06:00

Snow_plow
Originally uploaded by reboot95.

So don't you think the cars below are about to get a big surprise.

Brrr Brrr Ice (Originally from 1/16/2007)

2007-02-07T23:14:00.000-06:00

We had a pretty major ice storm hit the old midwest. And you know what that means don't you. One you better go to the store and get your bread and milk. It is a midwest thing. Anytime we have snow or ice or the predicition of snow or ice we have to stock up on bread and milk. Man you if you don't have bread and milk you could die. Second power outages.

Yep power outages. The ice covered trees amy be pretty but those limbs snap like tooth picks and take out any power lines that happen to be near by. I thought I was doing good until Saturday night. As I drove up to my house I noticed hmmm lots of dark houses. Pushed the button for the electric garage door to go up nothing, pushed again, nothing. Pushed it with more force nothing. Got closer nothing. Stared at door in disbelief pushed the button again. In resignating started digging in my pocket for the manual over ride device (ie keys).

It was dark and cold bummer... Okay lets start bringing in firewood. While my fireplace is a really pretty little fireplace in the basement it does lack a bit in the heat the house department. It is more of a ohhh what a pretty flickering there is there in that there fireplace. So time to cart out the camping gear and climb in the 20 degree mummy bag and stoke the fire all night long. Not a bad night but was a might chilly. I also have a new appreciation to how much work my Dad put into heating the house with a fireplace.

And brrr taking a shower in a house that is 50F is a challenge. But don't want to smell on Church Sunday morning now do I. And the old wood fireplace makes everything in the house smell like smoke...

Stayed the next night at a friends house. Did not want to do with out the CPAP a second night. You can wake yourself up snoring only so often before you cry out enough I must do something else.

Power came back on Monday afternoon huray.... Given that the temps were in the Teens F wow that would have taken a lot of firewood. And if I had not been at home the cat would have been mad and very cold. And I'm already concerned that she might be trying to kill me. Leave her one more night in a freezing cold house and it might just push her over the edge.

iPhone

2007-02-07T23:13:00.000-06:00

Eh.

I'm not exactly impressed by the old iPhone. One issue two year contracts, most people are currently tied up with a two year contract on their existing phone and service and breaking those contracts are really expensive.

Next it costs a lot of money, man is it expensive. Not sure I buy the idea that most people that have a smart phone have an iPod. I don't think they bought them at the same time.

Really disappointed that Apple choose to bring out a wide screen video device on such an expensive low memory platform. I was thinking about getting an iPod but not the iPhone. I'm in a two year contract.

It looks like an okay PDA with innovative features, but I already have a PDA that I paid less for and there are tons of third party applications for. And more importantly I can read a lot of books in the Microsoft reader format. Which for me is the killer PDA app.

What it did do right? I think they got the concept that these devices are for consuming data not creating data. That is where I think the PDA market has made a huge mistake in building devices that you are supposed to take notes on, put contacts in, and do you scheduling. PDAs excel at reading text and that is about it. So as a book, Bible, text web snippits reader they are great, data entry not so much.

HAMSTER DANCE VIDEO

2006-09-23T02:12:00.000-05:00


Hamster dance...multicolour style. I a remember back when the little guy was just a set of animated gifs in a row

Openvpn with Clarkconnect 3.2

2006-08-06T14:39:00.000-05:00

I recently installed and configured openvpn 2.0.7-1 to work on my Clarkconnect 3.2 firewall.

Here is what I did.

Down load the openvpn rpm from:
http://dag.wieers.com/packages/openvpn/
The specific one I downloaded was:
http://dag.wieers.com/packages/openvpn/openvpn-2.0.7-1.el3.rf.i386.rpm

Down load lzo from:
http://dag.wieers.com/packages/lzo/
The specific one I downloaded was:
http://dag.wieers.com/packages/lzo/lzo-1.08-4.1.el3.rf.i386.rpm

Then install both RPM's with rpm -ivh
lzo needs to be installed first.

Okay then the configuration part.

Take a look at the documentation for openvpn
http://openvpn.net/howto.html#install

The first thing I did was cd to /usr/share/doc/openvpn-2.0.7/
Then cd to easy-rsa

And follow the instructions on creating your on PKI from the openvpn howto guide.

After that cd back up one level to /usr/share/doc/openvpn-2.0.7/

Then cd in to the sample-config-files directory

Copy the server.conf file to /etc/openvpn

You will also need to copy the the following files from /usr/share/doc/openvpn-2.0.7/easy-rsa/keys folder
ca.crt
dh1024.pem
server.crt
server.key

Then you will need to modify the server.conf file in /etc/openvpn to reflect your set up.

The conf file has a pretty good set of comments to tell you all about what needs to be filled in and how it needs to be set. I really did not do anything special for the Clarkconnect firewall.

I did set
push "redirect-gateway"
So all traffic would go through the vpn and be encrypted.

Okay here is the magic part for Clarkconnect

You need to go to the clarkconnect web admin. Select the network tab under firewall select incoming.

You want to allow incoming connections port 1194 (or what ever port you set up in your /etc/openvpn/server.conf file) for UDP or TCP depending on how you set up your server.conf file.

Here is what stumped me for awhile.

The problem is with all the iptables examples that are given on the openvpn site use the A option which is append. This errrr appends the rule at the bottom of the table the problem with this is it places the new rule after the very useful for a firewall rule that says "deny anything from anywhere" the packets hit the deny anything and boom they get dropped on the firewall floor.

So to get around that do this.

cd to /etc/rc.d
vi rc.firewall.local

I added something like this
iptables -I INPUT -s 10.8.0.0/24 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I FORWARD -s 10.8.0.0/24 -j ACCEPT
Okay I changed that entry a little.
iptables -I OUTPUT -s 192.168.7.100 -d 10.8.0.0/24 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -i tun0 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I FORWARD -i tun0 -j ACCEPT

On iptables -I OUTPUT the -s (source) address is the ip for the internal interface on your clarkconnect box.

~~where 10.8.0.0/24 is the subnet for the openvpn connections. I guess it would work with the interface instead of the source port~~
The -i tun0 worked except for the output rule

This way the rule gets added higher in the iptables and the packets are passed on instead of dropped. Also by using the rc.firewall.local the rules will survive a firewall restart.

That pretty much configures the server.

For clients I used.
For OS X tunnelblick
http://tunnelblick.net/
Go right for the version 3.0 product (it was rc3 when I grabbed it) the 2.0 version just did not work.

For Windows Openvpn Gui for windows :-)
http://openvpn.se/

You will need to check the instructions on where to copy the client certificates that you created in /usr/share/doc/openvpn-2.0.7/easy-rsa/ folder.

That pretty much is all I did to get it to work.

~~I'm still having a problem with routing to the CC box using the inside interface, when the tunnel is up.~~ I can now get to the internal interface after entering the OUTPUT iptables rule shown above And anything to the outside interface, the public IP is unencrypted I think. ~~This means any service I normally get from the clarkconnect box is not working right.~~

Oh yeah and it really does not work to good when I'm trying to connect from the inside you really need to be on the outside connecting to get a good test.

So far though it seems to work.

Lightening

2006-07-30T01:42:00.000-05:00

This was from a strom that came out of the North East on July 19, 2006. It is one of the few storms I can remember that followed that track. There were 90 mph winds recorded.

One of the things that was unique was nearly constant lightening for a period of time. That is what made these shots possible.
... See my Tabblo>

The joy of a Digital Camera

2006-05-31T19:35:00.000-05:00

CIMG1760
Originally uploaded by reboot95.

Hey check this photo out. I have the plant in front of my house one evening when I got home I thought I would take some macro photos of it.

Well this Bee kept buzzing around and around. It was pretty hard to catch it still long enough to snap the photo. That is one thing nice about digital cameras even if you take 8 shots to get one good one you don't feel so bad because you can only print off the one good one.

Oh go check out the big picture on Flickr it looks pretty cool

Disney

2006-05-04T16:15:00.000-05:00

I'm in Florida we arrived about 12:00 on Southwest. Had a nice stroll through the airport. Rented a Red Saturan Vue. Nice care. Had lunch and we are now at the condo. Pretty nice and every things is going very well. We will be hitting EPcot in a little bit.

I'm on Dial up so I'm having flash backs 1993..... :-)

New 2006 Explorer Limited

2005-11-06T23:35:00.000-06:00

CIMG0351
Originally uploaded by reboot95.

I did it, I really did it I have bought a new car. It is a 2006 Ford Explorer Limited. A really good looking and performing vehicle in my opinion.

The Good

The V8 really does have more power than you think.

The Gas mileage is as good as my V6 98 Eddie Bauer Explorer

It has a great ride for an SUV

Still set up high

Nice Styling

DVD based GPS navigation with first in class Street names announced for turns

Roomy

Heated Steats

A whole set of electronic stability, traction control features

Some misses

Door handle in a strange place, but it is there because of new side impact beams

A bit pricey

Still not great gas mileage

I've heard it does not have any skid plates

Speed electronically limited to around 100 mph

My 98 has a few features that this one does not.

They moved the place you put gas in to the right side, I keep pulling up on wrong side.

So what is the final verdict this is a good successor to my existing Explorer. I feel like I've taken a step up and am over all happy. None of the other SUV's I looked at had the right mix to make me plop down my money. The V8 at first does not really feel like it is that much stronger than the V6 in my 98, but when you have the right combination of speed and gear selection it will throw you back in the seat with some authority and you think yeah this engine did come out of a Mustang. The engine is a 4.6 Liter 3 valve per cylinder variable timed V8. The 6 Speed automatic is a bit slow and misses some punch at certain speeds. But once you get it right you go yeah it does have nearly 300 HP! The DVD Based GPS navigation system is pretty cool it has a bright readable screen only direct sunlit with the moon roof open makes it hard to see. It has voice prompts and will give you street names for turns this is supposed to be another first in class. It is very comfortable and the ride is a lot better than the 98. I'm looking forward to the first snow to see how the electronic controls systems help out with less than optimal traction. I've had it out in a hard rain and there was really no issue with traction or handling. Over all it had enough features to convince me to spend the money

Click on the picture at the top of the post to see the flicker gallery.

GeoSpinning

2005-08-16T13:47:00.000-05:00

GeoSpinning it's a long road to nowhere.
Okay this probably is not a new thing but it was new to us and turned out to be fun.

Requirements:
GPS
Laptop
Mapping software
Optional, car power for laptop.

Set your mapping software to only use secondary roads.
Pick a point on the map that you have not been to.
Then let the computer pick a route for you.
Final step follow the route.

Did it this Saturday we ended up seeing Turkey, Buffalos and a really big storm. Turned out to be a nice day all in all.

In an effort to reduce confusion

2005-08-04T13:38:00.000-05:00

Just so there will be no confusion on it's origins Microsoft has once again renamed its upcoming Windows release.

It will hence forth be known as OS X Tiger.

First Bike ride this summer

2005-06-12T01:04:00.000-05:00

Made my first bike ride this summer. You know you just forget how much that darn seat can hurt. So now I'm walking around really really slow and going ow a lot. But it will pass I know that. Well it did last year didn't it. Few things happened that were note worth.

First flat tire. Lucky it was not my tire but Amy's tire went flat. Dave did a pretty good job of fixing it up had it repaired and we were on our way again with out any trouble. Used the Co2 pump I have, you just put the little air cylinder in there push the button and you are well on your way to having the tire aired up. Have to say I wold recommend one but you should buy a pack of cylinders. I would say it would take two or three to air a tire up. But the flat tire turned into a non event.

We did have another really really odd experience. As we were pedaling along we saw to guys coming at us and I was thinking you know they should wear shirts not everyone wants to see some guy with out a shirt. Then I sort of was thinking man those are tight shorts and they are a funny color. Hey wait a minute something just does not look right but what is it I can't really put my finger on it. There is something really odd about those two. So as I turned around to see what it was, did you guess it they were biking nude. That is just really really wrong hey people bring their kids out here. Put some clothes on idiots.. Guess they lost a bet. But how stupid.

2005-05-26T14:39:00.000-05:00

130,000

2005-04-22T15:15:00.000-05:00

Just turned over 130,000 miles on my Explorer this morning wow I've been here and back again in it.. I've been pretty happy with mine. It has performed well never gotten stuck and only need two major repairs. But man 16 to 18 miles to the gallon is not so good when gas is $2.18 gee whiz.

Now do I just keep it till it drops or should I start looking a new car/suv. I also really like an SUV even with the gas mileage. But I'm not sure I want to keep paying so much for gas. I've set in a new Explorer and I'm not sure I like it as much as mine. I've looked a the VW Toureg and like it but gosh it costs a lot I mean a lot. Like $56,000 that is to much money.

If I had a two car garage I might just get a newer car to drive to work that got good gas mileage and keep the Explorer or get a new SUV. Oh well decisions.

2005-03-12T20:05:00.000-06:00

2005-03-12T02:01:00.000-06:00

Rio Audio : Rio Carbon 5GB Player

2005-03-04T13:07:00.000-06:00

It is here!!

Okay nice features. You plug it in and it shows up as a hard
drive. Start dragging mp3's to it and you are good to go. This
is a requirement for any mp3 players I get again. My MPIO FL100
is okay but that one feature really kept me from really liking
it. And many of the other players in the space have to use a
proprietary app. to put music on them, the Creative Zen, the
Ipod family, and the Dell DJ's. So drag and drop the Rio Carbon
has!!.. Oh Yea..

Also 5 Gig is a lot. I've got it nearly full now and I have 4.4
days worth of music on it.. I like that. And it doubles as a 5
Gig portable hard drive. And with USB 2.0 it can accept
transfers faster than I can pull the songs off my file server.
When the MP3's are local it is really fast.

Battery life seems to be pretty good. I've been trying for a
couple of days to get it discharged so I can give it a full
charge. Since I had it plugged into to various computers
uploading 4.4 days worth of songs I've already given it a fair
charge since it charges over usb. But I also have this nice
little plug in that you hook the usb cable up to for charging as
well.

I can make playlists in winamp and save them on the player and
boom they work. I've not been able to figure out how to make
playlists on my Mac OS X IBook yet. The best I can come up with
is to use VLC drag the files to it save the playlist (comes out
as .m3u) and then edit the playlist to pull out the directory
entries that I don't need, you know the /volume/carbon stuff.
Need to write a script for that.

Not to many misses. Would have like to pay a little less for it.
Can't make playlists on my Mac, well if you know how let me
know. And the silly case they sent with it. It protects it
nicely but it covers up the controls and the read out. Duh...
Some one was napping there. Anyway give it a thumbs up. And a
better than IPod rating, because I can drag and drop songs to it

Rave-MP SPORT Flash based digital audio player 128MB and 256MB, sleek pocket size

2005-03-01T21:46:00.000-06:00

This player looks like a great player from a specs stand point and price. What with being able to expand it with a SD/Media card, FM radio and voice recorder. Then it has the old Microsoft Playsforsure logo on it.. Well let me tell you looks can be deceiving. The firmware sucked on this. Had some real major problems. It continually locked up and you would have to pull the power on it.. Also some of the features it was supposed to have did not work. I mean they really just did not work. So back to Amazon with it.. I've order a Rio Carbon. It has gotten some good reviews we will just have to see. Will post again when I get it.

Trying w.blogger

2005-02-24T20:56:00.000-06:00

Just started using w.blogger. In fact this post is with w.blogger. Hope there is no spy ware in here. But thought I would give it a try and just see how it works. Sort of like the idea of being able to do posts offline and then put them up later. Thinking about doing that for vacation mainly. Well back to TV.

E-books

2005-01-21T15:50:00.000-06:00

Check out Baen publishing. They have a large number of pretty good FREE e-books on their site. They are mostly Sci-Fi and Fantasy action adventure novels but if you are into that, they are one of the leading publishers. I would recommend Keith Lumar, David Drake, John Ringo, Mercedes Lackley just to name a few. Just be warned they are a lot of books that are the first of a series so if you like them you will probably end up buying some books from them too. So it is a good marketing technique.

I have to say that I would prefer to read E-books now. As long as you are not a speed reader, reading on a 3X5 screen is really pretty easy. You can carry around 60 or 70 books on a device half the size of a paper back.

I recommend using a cheaper general use PDA for this instead of a dedicated book reader. I'm finding the Pocket PC Windows to be a pretty good bet. I have not look at a later generation palm so I really can't tell

Any how fire up the browser get over to Baen down load some books put them on your favorite PDA and enjoy.

Aximsite - Axim Freezing or Sticking

2005-01-07T00:03:00.000-06:00

Aximsite - Axim Freezing or Sticking

Thought I would throw this in for all you Axim users out there (you can see a picture of mine in an earlier post).

I had this problem with my Axim. Spent a few months with on off reset wiggle poke and stuff. Finally decided to fix this problem so I went and backed up all the data with the old back up facility. Went and walked around and stuff. Then came back and did a hard reset. I originally thought that it might be driver problem or something. Well I got stuck in the align your screen forever function. Okay time for google.

And I came up on this link I've included. And sure enough there was a worn spot on the mylar ribbon cable. Followed the instruction in the link an YEA!! it was fixed... So if you are having problems with your Axim not clicking where you poke the stylus check out this link. It is not as hard to do as it looks.

Cold

2004-12-23T12:02:00.000-06:00

Cold
Originally uploaded by reboot95.

Okay so if the roof came off the world and all the heat escaped would it be any colder. I know it sounds wierd. But I just read a story about it and I don't think it was much colder in the Story.

Just a couple of hours south of here they have massive snow falls like 10 or more inches. Mo. is not set up to handle that. But up here we had no snow none, nada, not a flake. But it sure is cold brrrrr

Merry Christmas

Joy of Trout Fishing

2004-12-18T01:09:00.000-06:00

Ahh the joy of casting your fly line in to a bucket of fish and still not being able to catch one. That is what Trout fishing is all about. The sheer frustration of being able to almost reach out and touch one of the little beauties but still having them come up, look at your offering, taste and spit it out just as you get ready haul him in. Or worse yet the crafty devils that seem to be able to untie fishing line just as you find a fly or lurer that really is working and you are down to your last one along comes that magical fish that can untie the line and run off your your prized fly. What a bother.

Well as you can see I did not leave empty handed this is from the catch made Friday afternoon on our trip to Rockbridge Mo. (http://www.rockbridgemo.com/) this Oct. I would really recommend it as a place to learn to trout fish. They have some pretty nice places to stay New House being the best. And the staff are always friendly and helpful. And even though you are in effect fishing in a bucket. You quickly realize that even with that you are at a disadvantage.

It is catch and keep so only catch as much as you can afford to buy and store. Helps to get a few people lined up before hand to pass the fish off to.

Fun time was had by all.

Moon Lit

2004-12-11T10:42:00.000-06:00

Moon Lit
Originally uploaded by reboot95.

Are we on the edge of a field looking at a normal night sky or about to embark on a mystical adventure into a land where fair maids require rescuing and great wrongs are in need of righting. A place of daring deeds where strangers are not afraid to cast their strength to an impossible task because the land cries out against evil and wrong.

Are we men to undertake such action to rise up and go forward. Or should we cower in the darkness afraid of what the next step holds. Afraid of the terror in the ghostly forest. Afraid of the whispers in the dark. Afraid of the very inaction that we take.

No, I say rise up stand for what is right and true go forth to battle go forth to mighty deeds go forth to strive what ever the outcome may be go forth.

My Axim

2004-12-10T00:29:00.000-06:00

dellaxim
Originally uploaded by reboot95.

Like to introduce you to my Axim and try out flickr. This is a neat little computer. Has all sorts of features. The thing I use it for the most is to read books on. www.baen.com has some wonderful free books that are really easy to read on the Axim. The other killer app for it is advantgo. I really don't use it that much for a pim. I think the Palm is still better for that. Microsoft took office and tried to cram it into a pda, it did not turn out that great but as a book reader it is great.

Well here we go

2004-11-25T01:33:00.000-06:00

We just had our first dashing through the slush in a well you know the rest. Was not to bad we only had a short period that it was nasty. That was the time I was driving. And idiots taking pictures did not make it better :-) er well I thought the picture looked good and captured the fun of driving to work in the snow. Here's looking lots more winter driving.

Remember Beauty

2004-11-05T01:21:00.000-06:00

Really like this image. Thought it was a reminder of the beauty in the world. That we should take time to see the little objects along our path appreciate what we usually over look. Try to take some of the beauty along with us as we walk away.

Mouthing the Words

2004-10-26T01:28:00.000-05:00

Been reading about this Ashlee Simpson or what ever getting caught lip syncing on Saturday Night Live. And how it has lite up the phone boards so to speak on the old internet.

This gets me thinking to my self what the heck is going on in this Country. We are in a war for our very way of life for our very beliefs. We are at a critical juncture of that war we will be voting in about a week on which way we want our Country to go and people are more interested in some silly little kid Mouthing Words on a silly little TV show. Come on it is not even real like Star Trek is (that is an old private joke).

More thinking on my part, we are a nation that is just mouthing the words we don't care about any thing but silly stupid little fluff. We act big we get up on stage and say what we have heard other people say. We are in effect lip syncing our way through our lives and maybe that is why we are so interested in seeing some one getting caught we don't want to give away our own act.

Remember in the end we stand before God at which time we will stop mouthing the words and confess what we really did in our life. Will our lives have counted for any thing or will we have just immersed our selves in whether or not some teenager was using her real voice or memmorex.

How would Jesus Vote.

The Key to Job

2004-10-12T23:47:00.000-05:00

Think about Job, how he spends nearly the entire book complaining about what had happened. Seeking counsel and comfort from his friends. And he had the idea that if he could just present his case to God, God would see the validity of his claims. Now remember Job was probably the man closest to God on the earth at this time.. He understood that he would see God even after he died. He wished for an advocated to plead his case before God. So close to God that God remarks about it..

However when God confronts Job it is so much more than Job had ever guessed. All Job can say is "I am unworthy-how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer- twice, but I will say no more." I just think it is most truthful moment in human history. That when confronted with God in truth all our complaints all our wishes all our arguments about how things should have been, just become nothing, in the face of who God is.. Pretty cool and reassuring that even in spite of this, He loves us so much that He sent his Son to redeem us..

New Cube

2004-09-09T22:17:00.000-05:00

Moved into a new Cube at work. Pretty much like a ledge hanging on a cliff feel like I need to tie myself in so I won't fall out. I've been working there for 15 years I think my cube would be fine for an intern or someone that has been there for a year but at 15 years you just have to much stuff to fit in one of these things. Oh well I'm sure thing will change. And at least the cube walls aren't short so we don't all look like a whack a mole game.

Stop the insanity of Electronic packages

2004-08-23T23:20:00.000-05:00

Okay how many people are like me they get home with some new keen thing they just picked up at Best Buy or Comp USA, or yes even Walmart. Say your first thumb drive, or maybe that neat new MP3 player you have been wanting. So there you are standing in your home going "cool" can hardly wait, but before you can use your new wonder toy you have to tear your way through it's tamper proof, child proof, open proof plastic encasing. DOH!!!!!

Come on what gives with this, I own the product why do I need a hack saw and a blow torch just to open the silly thing. I don't really thing this industrial strength Kevlar impregnated obstacle slows down thieves that much but it sure is annoying to us consumers when we get the product home..

See I'm a country boy at heart and still carry around a pocket knife (except at airports now, stupid terrorist). Anyhow even equipped with one of the most wonderful inventions made of man, right up there with fire in usefulness, I still struggle and strain to get at my new toy.. I've even sliced open my hand with those silly packages (never the knife just the package).

So here you have it an open letter to manufactures to make it a tad bit easier to get past the packaging of our favorite new gizmos. Come on Please..

What am I for

2004-08-12T13:17:00.000-05:00

I've been looking at some of the stuff on the Internet regarding
people running for office. And just to start this off I'm going
to vote Republican (I can explain later). But I noticed
something about both parties that is showing in the ads and
blogs. It seems that people define their idea by how bad the
other side is not by how good their side is.

Most people that support Kerry spend more time complaining about
Bush than they do extolling how good they think Kerry is. But
the same is true from Bush supporters they tend to speak more on
how bad Kerry is than how good Bush is.

It really made me question somethings. I don't really want my
position to be defined by being against the other party. I want
to be voting because I'm for the party and the ideas of the
person I"m voting for. Not just because I am against what the
other guy stands for.

Seems that the candidates and the people that support them have
bought into the idea that people are only choosing the lesser of
two evils.. So they work to make the other guy seem more evil.
Not convince people that they are better.

So I guess I need to think in terms of what I'm for, not what
I'm against.

So why am I going to vote Republican. I can think of reasons
why not to vote Democrat but I want to think of why to vote
Republican..

One I got a lot of money back on taxes this year. But I pay a
lot I mean a lot in taxes. So anyone who can lower that tax
burden for me is a plus.

I believe that we should not fool around with gun control. In a
society that is only allowed to have sticks and stones the man
with a gun is king. And by definition is someone is going to
use a gun for a crime they are already a criminal so why would a
low against guns make them less inclined to use one. They are
already committed to breaking the law.

I believe that the whole sale destruction of unborn children is
destroying this nation. We need to slow or stop this. Just
think of the number of children killed each and every day. I
have to take the position because I believe that even though
they are unborn they are living aware children. And there is no
way to be comfortable with what is happening if you believe they
are children. If you don't believe they are children then I
guess you can live with what is happening but just think what
public out cry would be if someone was killing that many puppies
or kittens a day. Aren't unborn children worth more than
puppies or kittens. Save the Unborn Child.

Okay I guess I get to allow one thing that I'm against in the
democratic party to define why I vote the way I do. They tend
to be focusing on this us against the wealth. Pitting one class
of people against the other. The have's against the have not's.
This tactic has been used by way to many really bad people over
history.. The whole idea that the have not's should rise up
and over throw the have's is not a healthy idea for our nation.
And just think about this. From a global stand point all of
America is wealthy, and all of America are the have's..
Remember all American's are in this together and we don't need
to be splitting along class lines.. Oh and if the Democrats are
the party of the have not's and champion of the poor then why do
the richest of the rich, why do the wealthy celebrities support
them so much.. Hmmmmmmm

Okay so to turn that last one in to what I'm for. I'm for
people that do not promote class strife. For a party that will
foster they idea that we are all American's and we are all in
this together and we need to stand up for each other.

So there I've done it. I've tried to define why I'm voting the
way I do because of what I'm for in the party I'm voting for not
because they are just a little less evil than the others.

IBook

2004-08-02T21:58:00.000-05:00

Well I finally went ahead and did it. I now have an IBook, and I am a
impressed. UNIX with a cool GUI. It is missing a few unix things and I
think I will still have Linux on my other laptops. And I still think my
Dell insprion 8600 is going to be my favorite but this thing is very
easy to carry around super lite and very full featured. But old Steve
Jobs needs to take a clue and put two mouse buttons on here it really
needs it. You can get a two button mouse with scroll wheel which I did
but when you are using it on you lap the sec

Yahoo! News - 'Fahrenheit' Sets Stage for New Crop of Documentaries

2004-07-21T11:08:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! News - 'Fahrenheit' Sets Stage for New Crop of Documentaries

Oh great now we will have reality tv cloggin up the Theaters now.. I go to movies to see unreality I have enough reality at work and out the window at home. Okay I do like some real documentaries on like the History Channel or Discovery Channel and the Shakleton movie was interesting. But I really don't need to see that stuff on the big screen. And I really figure this is going to be more like Reality TV than real Documentaries. That is all we need is Survivor on the big screen. Come on give me fantasy. I'll stick to the real world for reality.

What is that Dark spot

2004-07-20T19:27:00.000-05:00

I think you all have already heard about the new speed-o-meter for the bike. The first time I rode with it though I noticed this dark spot on the display that was really annoying. But when I got home and in the house it seemed to be gone. So I thought well maybe it was a one time thing or maybe heat related. I'll see what happens next time. Well went biking Saturday with some friends and I noticed that the spot was back. I decided I was going to have to take the speed-o-meter back and get it replaced. I went to show it to my friend Dave.. I said see this here spot I guess I have to take this back. And Dave was like what spot.. I'm like this Spot right here can't you see it.. I moved it around it was plain as day to me.. Why couldn't he see it. Then the little light in my head went off. Let me take my POLARIZED sunglasses that I wear for fishing but like also for biking because they have a strap on them OFF. Lo and Behold the Spot disappeared... Put the glasses back on Spot reappeared. Spot on Spot off.. Hold up glasses so friends can see spot....... Problem solved....

Biking

2004-07-12T19:51:00.000-05:00

Hey got a new Bike seat, no more numbness... If you have not ridden a bike as an adult you may not know what I mean if you have then you know.. The only prob is the new seat is sort of slippery with the bike pants and all so I have to keep moving back up the seat... Oh well but the new seat with no numbness is pretty cool.

I also got a speed-o-meter. That is really really neat. Cool to be going along and look down and see how fast you are going. Sort of mesmerizes you kinda of going along oh look I'm going 12 oh look 10 oh look 11 oh look 9 so cool so cool.

Biked on Grant's trail was pretty nice. It is all paved well at least the part I rode on was. Lots of bladers and walkers and kids. So you sort of had to weave in and out of the.. Got to see the Clydesdale out at Grant's farm..

On that home ownership is a pain thing

2004-07-09T14:13:00.000-05:00

Well for the last few weeks I've heard the sound of water drip
drip dripping.. After a little looking I found that the the
toilet was running running running. Turns out that the little
thing that shuts off the water in mine is not made very well.
Lots and lots of complaints on the toilet forums (yes there
really are such a thing). So got a new fulidmaster 400a and put
it in. It was pretty easy. I'm turning in to a regular handy
man.. Well if the women don't find you handsome they should at
least find you handy.

Trees and wind

2004-07-09T14:10:00.000-05:00

Well I'm a bit tired of wind in the trees. I had another tree
top come out of a silver maple and go cart wheeling through the
air. This must have been one heck of a wind (happened the night
of the ice storm). Snapped the tree off clean, and then carried
it about 20 or 30 feet through the neighbors carport. So after
talking with my law inclined friends it is the storm that did
the damage not the tree. And I don't have responsibility for
the damage it is all up to her insurance... But per her
insurance agent it is my responsibility to clean up the junk.
Oh well got the tree guys to fix everything up in my yard too
and now I have a little pile of firewood. You know home
ownership is sort of a pain..

Ice Ice

2004-07-05T22:37:00.000-05:00

Well just went through the first hail storm at the house. I think the biggest it go was jelly bean size. Which by the way make a terrible racket when you are in the house. But it does not appear to have caused much damage. We also got a lot of rain and it is still thundering in the distance. And oh year I'm in the dark which is a real pain since tonight was the Star Gate SG1 to Atlantis special. Got to watch about 10 minutes of it then boom into the dark.. I'm only able to be on the Internet thanks to a big old back UPS.. I had one on the tv computer but it lasted only about 10 minutes before it went down hard. So I'm ready my the lantern and hoping the power comes back on soon. It is not to fun to sleep with out the CPAP any more. And I have a 9:00am meeting oh bother... Don't even have a working alarm clock..

Steve

The Chronicles of the Unbeliever

2004-06-26T21:05:00.000-05:00

I've decided to try and read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. I've really not read it since the first time through. And they I went about it backwards I think. I read the second Chronicles first. And even though they stand alone there are a lot of things that are confusing.. Really like Stephan R. Donaldson but man is he long winded. I've read the first few chapters of Lord Fouls Bane a few times but sort of drift off to something else. But really want to try and make through all six books this time. I guess I'm reliving my childhood (teen hood) somewhat again..

Any how decided to let the Xanth novels set for a bit before I get back into them.. Fear that the last book may be a cliffhanger and would hate to get there before the next one is written ;-)

Wired News: Florida to Tax Home Networks

2004-06-25T00:24:00.000-05:00

Wired News: Florida to Tax Home Networks

Okay I can not really think of anything more annoying than to have someone tax my network attached computers in my own home. That uses equipment I bought and that I installed. What the heck is up with this. I can understand taxes that are translated into some service some benifit but this tax is insane.

I understand that it was started for business that used their own infrastructure to do telephone calls and don't use the phone system. I'm sort of thinking that this is a protection for the phone system.

There is also the thought that it would go to schools. What is going on with that. How does my having a network in my home require me to be taxed at a higher burden for schools... Do not understand this at all

Xanth

2004-06-22T21:30:00.000-05:00

I've been reading the Xanth novels again. Well some for the first time.. I read them many years ago when I was a kid. The were released on scrolls at that time. The newer book form is much nicer to hold in bed. And with electric lights it is so much easier to read after dark.. I still find them very entertaining. They are not exactly children books but they are really clever and funny.

I have just complete the isle of view.. I'm glad to see that Dolph's dilemma was finally resolved. And glad to see that Electra lived through the experience.. It is amazing to realize that, that book was written 15 years ago or so. Man do I feel old since I consider Xanth to be a part of my adult life. I probably read the first book before I could drive though..

I also have to say that the books that go with Split Infinity are really my favorite by Piers Anthony. Anyhow it has been nice to get to know and old friend and realize I still have more books to go than I have read. That is a big advantage of going back to a multibook Piers Anthony trilogy years later. I only have to wait as long as the Barnes and Noble's order to go thorough to read the next book.. Not years...

An ocean of meetings.

2004-06-22T13:37:00.000-05:00

When I started out as a kid programmer some 15 years ago I never
really thought my job would consist of shuffling from one
meeting to another. I figured it would be some heroic last
minute debugging endeavor. It is 12:54 and I've already had two
meetings and will soon be heading for another. Now Meeting can
be okay. It is nice to set there and let your brain wander
around.. You know get some exercise feel the freedom of being
outside of your head and all but enough is enough I feel I
should accomplish at least one thing a week. If nothing else so
I have something to write in a status report..

You know what the worst is, it is the phone, webex meeting. You
always get to some point where you mind is completely absent and
all you here is blah blah de blah de blah right Steve. Then
there you are trying to play back on the blah and figure out
what the heck it was you just agreed to.

AAAAHHH The modern work place a cornucopia of meetings..

Oh well I'm about to be late have to go.. Trudge trudge trudge

Do I look fat to you ;-)

2004-06-18T11:45:00.000-05:00

Been trying to walk every day this week. I have a Dr. appt. next week and he is going to wonder why my weight is going the wrong way. Then he will look at me with a disapproving scowl and say you need to lose weight. Am I over weight??? Well in a modern America I'm not the largest person you are going to meet but with all the lung problems and circulation problems caused by the icky fungus of the mid west (I'll tell you all about that sometime) I need to be a lean mean walking machine instead of a eating machine.

I'm back eating chicken sandwichs for lunch probably not the best but better than what I had been doing. Also working on eating less and walking walking walking...

Problem is I'm really busy lately and feel guilty taking out the time to walk. And even 30 mins of walking really makes the old calves hurt. Wish there was a quick way to get this done, but there isn't so walk walk walk walk walk.. Good luck to me..

Can you hear the Music.... Can you hear it now... How about now....

2004-06-18T11:42:00.000-05:00

Well I dug out my HipZip and charged it up got it working started messing with it and got to the point where it would play music the first time I turned it on and then it would continually state that it the disk in it did not have any valid music files. Finally decided that it might be time to update.. So started searching for something that I could stick SD cards in. Man are MP3 players expensive and very few of them are expandable. Found the Digitialway MPIO FL100, it seemed to have nice features so I fired up Amazon and ordered one. As an mp3 player it is pretty cool but does suck up the old AAA battery pretty quick (Packages of NiMHs fixed that) has good play back, I'm not really into a lot of base. And took SD cards.. But the software for it is el stinko.... You know how you should plug in a usb device and it shows up as a drive and you just drag and drop simple.. NOOOOOO They have there own little retarded program for putting files on it.. I loaded looked at it and started searching for an alternative. There is a plug in for Windows Media but it seemed to lock up. Looked at a Screen Savers recommendation called SVETA part of DB Power amp. So far that is the tool I'm going to go with.. So as a player it is pretty nice but the tool for putting stuff on it gets an el-stinko rating... So if they would come up with some drivers for Win XP so it would look like a drive would be double plus good. Oh I have a Dazzle and can use that to dump songs on the SD. The Dazzle is USB 2.0 where the player seems to be USB 1.1 sort of slow to copy 384 Meg (128 Meg Internal, and 256 Med SD).

Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow

2004-06-07T12:23:00.000-05:00

Saturday was a great day for being outside. Fairly cool, lots
of nice things to do and see. So do I stay in andw slave in a hot
computer room all day? Strangely enough I didn't...... :-)

Got up about 5:00am (yeah I really did) and got all my bike
stuff together and picked up Dave and headed out to the Katie
trail. Got there about 7:00 am or so (Hmmm really thought it
was still dark at that time of night). We biked a total of 16
miles and I came to the realization that bike seats hurt more
each year. You would think that at some point you would get
used to the terrible shooting pains caused by a bike seat that
after a couple of summers biking you would be able to just hop
up there and take off no pain. Well let me tell you that ain't
the way it is.. It hurts more and more.. But the time we
finished off I was reduced to limping along beside my bike
waving at the deranged horsefly buzzing wondering when the
hurting would stop. All in all it was a great biking day and I
can't wait to go again..

Also went out to St. Louis Mills and walked around. Wow is that
place big. Lots of stores, strange stores, why would you need a
place that only sells purple stuff. And I was once again
attacked by the mad buffing booth
weasel. Do I really look like someone that likes to have buffed
nails. I don't think so.. Also I think I'm going to have to
try Tony Romas again. Not as good as the Hickory Log in Dexter
but not to bad... Good help....

Well enough for now..
Steve