James wakes up yesterday morning, stumbles sleepily into the living room, plops down on the floor and what does he say?
“Good morning, daddyâ€? No, he says, “I want a mango smoothie.â€
Luxury!
When I was a lad, we counted ourselves lucky if we got a lump of old coal ground up in a glass of dirty water!
I’ve had iPhoto for years and, time and time again, I’ve been sorely tempted to create an iPhoto book.
In fact, I’ve started to create several – none of which I’ve been ultimately happy with and so never had them published.
They’re so beguiling, aren’t they? I’ve seen them in the Apple store and they look marvelous. You try the “make book†tool in iPhoto and almost instantly, it’s all done for you, isn’t it?
Therein lies the problem. Those books in the Apple store aren’t really done by mere mortals, are they? Those seemingly family photos are taken by professional photographers, using professional models under controlled settings and then the photos are processed and color-corrected on pro equipment, prior to being assembled in iPhoto by some professional designer.
They look great, but do they look like what the unwashed masses would get?
In the past, I’ve tried using the automatic tools to create a book out of a photo album. Initially, it looks great, but then I start to see the problems. This page chose a 6-picture layout, but only 5 pictures are of the same theme. Or, there are six pictures on the same theme but one is on the preceding page.
No problem, right? You can edit what was automatically created. That rapidly becomes more trouble than it is worth. Change this page layout here, move these photos there, add pages, delete pages. The alternating page colors get screwed up. You end up pushing or pulling an increasing number of photos to new pages as each change gets made. By the end, I’m completely dissatisfied with the result.
Finally, last week, I decided that it was now or never and I started a new book project and I was determined to let nothing stop me.
I decided to go with a theme, and took at the photos from this year’s trip to Taiwan and then pick out the ones that I thought were best. “best†being a subjective term. In this case, my idea was to document the events of the trip from a family perspective. (That may sound obvious, but in the past I’ve tended to favor my best photos from a photographic standpoint.)
I made no attempt to limit the number of pictures. The book would be as big as the book needed to be to tell the story.
I manually sorted and grouped them within the album and then I created a book without autoflowing the photos. I looked at each group, and where I was in the book, I chose the page layouts based on the number of photos in the group. I moved them, I tweaked them, I spent hours over the course of several days. Finally it was done.
Then came the worse part: waiting.
Yesterday it arrived.
I can’t show you what it looks like in a blog post, but it is pretty impressive. The pictures are not quite as glossy as I was thinking, which alters their appearance a bit, and my color-correcting wasn’t always right. But overall it’s really impressive.
My biggest complaint is that it’s too small. I ended up with just shy of 200 photos in the book. That’s about the size of one standard photo album, which would measure over an inch thick and over 12“ tall and 6†wide.
The size of the iPhoto book is spectacularly unimpressive, at 8“X11†and just 20 (physical) pages, it’s only just over 1/8“ thick. It’s about the size of a comic book.
It’s illogical, but it is hard to reconcile that size book with the price. It helped when I took Costco standard printing rates for photos and priced out a 200 photo run of various sizes. The iPhoto is actually competitive, on a cost per photo basis.
Still, I think I need to try to make a bigger book next time.
Technorati Tags: Apple, Blog, Computer, Mac, MacBook, OSX, Photos, iLife, iPhoto
Speaking of science, here’s the cool kind… or, perhaps you could say the “hot†kind.
Clemson University is working on producing more efficient thermoelectric materials. Thermoelectric materials are used to make thermoelectric generators – a solid-state technology that converts heat to energy.
Any process, such as automobile engines, that produces waste heat can be harnessed to generate additional power.
“Even at the current efficiencies of thermoelectric devices, 7 to 8 percent, more than 1.5 billion gallons of diesel could be saved each year in the U.S. if thermoelectric generators were used on the exhaust of heavy trucks. That translates into billions of dollars saved,â€
From: Scientific Blogging => Untapped Energy Source: Waste Heat From Engines
They should setup shop here in Arizona. We’ve got plenty of waste heat.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Science, Technology
Michelle has the week off from school. We’d originally kicked around the idea of going to Disneyland.
It was too expensive, so that became, “What a great week to work on the second half of the kitchen cabinet renovation.
After the car accident, that deteriorated into, “Maybe we could finish the secondary bathroom renovation.”
After termite infestation that became, “Maybe we could just get water line hooked up for the refrigerator.”
After the dishwasher died, that became, We’re just sitting around all week doing nothing.”
Still, I want to try to do some â€fun“ things with Michelle. Today was out because the termite people were coming, and she had a dentist’s appointment. The termite people miss-scheduled the date and the dentist cancelled, leaving us flat-footed, with half the day gone, and nothing planned.
We decided to take the kids down to the Arizona Science Center. I’ve been there before. it was brand new at the time and wasn’t too impressed as it seemed incomplete and had the most mind-numbingly dull exhibits, but I decided to give it another try.
I’m not really sure what to expect from a â€science center“, as I’ve only ever been to a handful of them, the most notable being the Singapore Science Centre.
The Singapore Science Centre was cool. There’s lots of fun and informative exhibits, although, as I recall, it was somewhat heavily loaded towards technology. It was great and I’d love to take the kids to a place like that again.
The Arizona Science Center is… I hate to say it, but, the Arizona Science Center is rubbish. It has loads of so-called science stations, which are really incredibly dull. Most of them seem to be supplied by local businesses. I’ve got no problem with sponsorships, but surely they can come up with some interesting exhibits.
What’s with the gallery that’s entirely comprised of explaining how a house works? Yes, I suppose making a light switch work is science, but that was the most exciting exhibit in that gallery. What’s the science lessons behind learning how to install hot and cold water pipes?
You could probably spend hours of tedium in the largest part of the center, the section on life sciences. There are completely dull displays on various aspects of the human body. Most of which are as engaging as reading a textbook on the subject, except that you get to move from chapter to chapter by changing seats, and occasionally pushing a button to hear some narration, watch a video or see a light turn on.
Earth sciences were marginally better. There was a bit of amusement to be had playing with the various exhibits that erode sand via wind, water and vibration, but for every mildly fun one, there’s another like the â€crank a wheel to make a row of lights turn on and as they pass points, a little block of text pops up to tell you about the water table.“ Ho Ho Hum!
Then there was what I believe to be a temporary exhibit on strange matter. The ferro-magnetic liquids were fun, but the display was so dirty you could barely see it. Many of the exhibits were on material stress. I suppose that might induce certain types of engineers to get a hard on, but as an interesting display for kids (or most anyone else) it was repetitive and static. Not surprisingly, the one really dynamic display, attempting to put a bowling ball through tempered glass, was the most popular.
A more interesting lesson might have been in explaining some of the mechanical processed used by the crank mechanism to raise the bowling ball into strike position, but there was nothing on that.
Where are the displays on light, sound, astronomy and physics? It’s as if they missed everything important and jumped right the whatever cheap junk they could get sponsored by local companies. Despite their colossal, expensive white albatross of a modern building, they whole place seems like it was done on the cheap.
The whole fiasco really saddens me.
I made a (small) donation to the science center. I hope they use it to go look at other science centers and pick up a few pointers.
Technorati Tags: Arizona, Blog, Natural Sciences, Science
While I’m blogging good things…
During our recent tribulations with the car accident, we’ve been being nickel-and-dimed to death with little charges here and there. The thing is, those charges begin to add up fast.
Our insurance agent gave us the names of some reputable body shops and we chose Showcase Collision Center from their list because of its proximity to us. That was a really good choice on our part.
When we initially just had no idea what was going to happen and would there be any chance of us getting the car repaired. We explained the situation to them and they helped us by giving us a very broad idea of how much cost we might be facing.
Then when it became imperative that we get a formal estimate, they took care of that for us, quickly and professionally. All the while knowing that, there was a very high likelihood we’d not have the vehicle repaired at all.
For them to do the estimate, we had to have the car towed to their shop. We had no place to take it and we didn’t know if we could dispose of it because we were still waiting for the court hearing. We had to leave the car with them for several days, at an agreed upon daily storage fee.
In the end we finally disposed of the car for scrap, which they helped us with. The final surprise came when they waived all the storage fees.
Maybe that’s common practice. I don’t know, and I don’t care to go through the experience again to find out. Nonetheless, we really appreciated that and I felt it was worth mentioning.
They were professional, helpful, kind and courteous the entire time, and should I ever be in a position to have body work done, they will get my business. They certainly have my recommendation.
Showcase Collision Center
4635 N 7th St.
Phoenix, AZ 85014
(602) 200-7137
Technorati Tags: Blog
Somedays fate gives you a lucky break. Oh, we didn’t win a million dollars or suddenly discover the guy who hit us was an eccentric billionaire who decided to give us a small private island near Aruba, but we did have a great Indian dinner tonight.
We were heading towards a Tandoori place on Bell Rd, but there have been a gruesome car accident just west of the I-17 on Bell and we were forced to turn off. As we did, we saw a “now open†sign for the India Palace restaurant and decided to give it a try.
We parked near the banner, which is right next to the House of Bombay, an Indian and British grocery store. Things looked bleak for a moment as the shop directly under the banner was deserted and up for lease. We figured it must be on the other side of the Indian Grocery because, while they might leave a banner up if the place went out of business, they certainly wouldn’t have a sandwich board sign out front, too.
We made a brief detour into the House of Bombay when I saw a display of cricket gear for sale. I never thought I’d see the like of it in a store in Arizona. Bats, helmets, pads and gloves. It actually gave me the opportunity to discuss the recent World Twenty20 championship with someone who knew what I was talking about.
After leaving the store (without having purchased a cricket bat) we discovered that the restaurant is actually in the far corner of the shopping center. I mention this because we found the banner to be a bit confusing and if we hadn’t gotten out of the car, we might not have seen the restaurant on the other side.
It was a bit early and the restaurant wasn’t very busy. We were seated right away and the staff were very attentive. Papadoms with chutney were served right away and were good.
Irene chose the Karahi Beef Palak, which is described as Fresh chopped spinach cooked with fresh beef, onions, tomatoes & Indian spices tossed in an iron skillet.
I choose the Chicken Fraizee, described as Palace specialty, chicken cooked in special gravy with onions, tomatoes & bell peppers, tossed in an iron skillet.
Irene didn’t realize she ordered a spinach-based dish, but she thoroughly enjoyed it. She did order it medium spicy, but seemed to find it a bit hooter than expect.
Mine was one of the best Indian dishes I’ve ever had. My all-time favorite dish is a hot-spiced Ginger Chicken Balti from the Copper kettle on the extreme opposite side of town. This dish was very similar in flavor, and every bit as good. I asked for it hot and it was, and the flavor was just wonderful.
Both dishes were served with long-grain rice, and we ordered a couple of naan to go with our dishes. All were excellent.
They’ve only been open at this location for about one month, having moved from somewhere else on Bell Rd. Business was slow when we were there, but with Bell Rd. closed off the whole time we were there, there was little traffic in the area at all. It was beginning to pick up as we left. I certainly hope the location works out for them as it as good as any Indian food I’ve had, even counting London and Edinburgh. (The closest I’ve been to India.)
Another plus, the food was served incredibly fast. It was less than 5 minutes from ordering to delivery. It was so quick, I thought they might be bringing someone else’s food to our table, but it was ours and everything was hot and fresh.
Like most Indian restaurants in the city, they have a lunch buffet every day, and claim to be catering specialists. I might have to give that a try for a party someday.
They also have two other locations. There’s another India Palace in Sedona and a Dehli Palace in Flagstaff. It looks like the menu is identical for all three locations.
India Palace
2941 W Bell Rd. #1
Phoenix, AZ 85032
(602) 942-4224
Strongly recommended.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Cricket, Phoenix, Restaurant, Review
Reuters => Malaysia issues guidebook for Muslims in space
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia has come up with the world’s first comprehensive guidebook for Muslims in space as its first astronaut prepares to go into orbit next week.
The book, entitled Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites at the International Space Station, teaches the Muslim astronaut how to perform ablutions, determine the location of Mecca when praying, prayer times, and how to fast in space, the Star newspaper reported on Saturday.
“The reason we formulated guidelines for Muslims in space is because we wanted to ensure our astronaut could fully concentrate on his mission, without having to worry about how he should perform his religious obligations in space,†Abdullah Md Zin, a minister for religious affairs, was quoted as saying.
That’s one alternative, I suppose. Another would be to conclude some things are just incompatible with the realities of the situation and/or the pursuit of knowledge.
Universe Today => High Energy Gamma Rays Go Slower Than the Speed of Light?
The speed of light is the speed of light, and that’s that. Right? Well, maybe not. Try and figure this out. Astronomers studying radiation coming from a distant galaxy found that the high energy gamma rays arrived a few minutes after the lower-energy photons, even though they were emitted at the same time. If true, this result would overturn Einstein’s theory of relativity, which says that all photons should move at the speed of light. Uh oh Einstein.
Well, this will be interesting if it gets confirmed…
Either way, it’s going to make for some great new science fiction movies. Just read this quote:
So what’s happening? Nobody knows, and this could turn into an entirely new field of physics. The researchers are proposing that maybe the radiation is interacting with “quantum foamâ€. This is a theoretical property of space itself, and predicted by quantum gravity theory – a competitor to string theory.
Quantum foam?!?!
What a great idea! Can you imagine it? Quantum foam arrives on Earth in a small south-western town and begins terrorizing the town, slowing people down until they become stone. This movie is going to give a good run on the classic Monolith Monsters!
Technorati Tags: Astronomy, Blog, Movies, Natural Sciences, Science, Space
BBC News => “’Gay Bomb’ scoops Ig Nobel awardâ€
Oh sure, everyone else is celebrating the military’s so-called gay bomb or the hamster on Viagra, but let’s hear a raucous round of applause for Taiwan, where this Ig Nobel award came from:
Economics – Kuo Cheng Hsieh of Taiwan for patenting a device that can catch bank robbers by dropping a net over them.
I’m not entirely sure why that was awarded for economics rather than law enforcement or live-action cartoons, though.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Loonies, Taiwan, Technology
We are operating on the new server and new hosting service. Let me know if you have any problems.
Technorati Tags: Blog