Author: spierzchala

  • Photography: Need some help

    I am starting to play with a variety of effects to manipulate some of the photographs I am taking with my new camera. I have created four modified versions of the original below. The modified pictures can be found here.

    I would love to get comments from folks, either here, or on flickr, telling me which one they like best.

  • Mythbusters: Buster's Replacement?

    For those of you who are addicted to the mayhem and destruction of Mythbusters, Buster is a beloved, if unfortunate, member of the cast.

    Well, Buster may be out of a job.

    Apparently, a guy in Minneapolis managed to prove not one, but two myths in a single 10-12 second period [here]. Namely:

    1. A person can break through a piece of tempered plate glass with a single impact, thereby exiting the building above ground-level
    2. An awning can slow a person’s a 17-storey fall enough to prevent said individual from being killed after exiting the building through a broken window (See #1 above).

    Mr. Savage and Mr. Hyneman, give this damn lucky person an award!

  • Flickr: My Photo Mods

    I am starting to play with Gimp and some of the photos I have been taking with the new camera.

    This is my favourite mod so far. I call it Altar of the Everyday.

  • Technorati: Some days you get the bear…

    Dave Sifry and his team have been very good to me. You know, bite the hand, etc.

    But I got up from my afternoon siesta, and found this,

    GrabPERF Technorati Borked Jan 19 2007

    And when I finally did get a copy of the page…

    Technorati Borked -- Jan 19 2007

    Ouch.

    Wonder what a Technorati Monster looks like….

    UPDATE, 17:19 Jan 19 2007: Technorati sites are back up. Good to see it.

  • My code is like a tank

    Chatting with a friend in Australia, and I came up with this gem: “my code is like a tank”.

    It’s slow, but built to withstand any sort of shit and abuse. I was describing the code that underlies GrabPERF. It was built to be ignored for long periods of time, performing a lot of self-maintenance.

  • Kodak Z612: The first picture

    I am no photo geek, but we finally buckled down and bought a real digital camera: the Kodak Z612.
    And here is the first picture out of the camera.

    Kodak z612 -- The First Picture

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  • Telecommuting and Career Advancement

    The Network World article on telecommuting appears to be getting a lot of play this morning on the RSS feeds.

    I agree with Daemon at the Web Worker Daily: Yeah, and your point?

    I learned a long time ago that I would NEVER be happy as a do-nothing management hack (whoops! did I say that out loud?). Career advancement to me is an out-dated way of life, and those that are desperately hanging on to this ideal are this generation’s answer to The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit or The Organization Man.

    What does career advancement mean in a world that is mobile, engagement-based, driven by accomplishment, not by success? Career advancement is a growth in the respect in which you and your skills are held. Titles become meaningless; generating buzz and delivering on it are what define your success.

    Time to raise the controversy element: The people who see telecommuting as a career negative are those that can only survive in a herd. Those who cannot generate their own motivation. Those who need to be away from themselves, to not hear the voices in their heads.

    Cartoon: Hugh MacLeod

    Some of the people I hold in highest regard have no title, and would be seen by corporate types as “drop-outs”.

    Guess that makes me a drop-out. Bully for me.

  • GrabPERF: Digg Measurements Disabled due to Firewall

    I have had to disable the Digg measurements in GrabPERF as a number of the monitoring locations have been blocked by the Digg firewall.

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  • Flickr: Escaping Golden BC

    I spent my entire life escaping from Golden. It’s a much different place, 20 years and one massive ski resort development later.

    But, as you got on the Trans-Canada Highway to leave, hopefully for the last time as a 25 year-old grad school dropout, you looked over your left shoulder, and saw this.

    [Photo: raarky]

    An eerie beauty…the sterotypical vanishing point, where man gives up control to the wilderness he has carved a town from, where the land rises, and swallows your ego.

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  • Flickr: When the cable breaks…

    When I lived in Victoria, BC, there was always a ship idling in the harbour, engine turning over, a low steady hum that was always there when you went to the water.

    Well, they have built an on-shore power plant for that ship, and it looks like they may have brought in a new one, but the vessel is always there…waiting.

    When a cable breaks out in the North Pacific, this ship is gone in an hour. Apparently there are cable repair ships stationed all over the world…waiting.

    Here’s Neal Stephenson’s article on the first segment of FLAG, and the whole submarine cable business.