This Old Blog

He blogged about it here:  http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2010/03/its-all-about-ruby-slippers.html He's posted quite a few shots here:  http://gallery.me.com/kirktuck#100220&view=mosaic&sel=0 Good reading.

Another Speed Trap on Rouse Road Originally uploaded by bill_beebe This particular speed trap ('speed zone') was amazing and annoying in the number of officers lined up by the road; there were at least 5. They were sitting at the intersection of Lokanotosa Trail and Rouse Road (just north of J. Blanchard). The really nasty part of this is that speeding fines are doubled in a construction zone, and all of Rouse is now under construction from Colonial north to University. So if you're in the area or have to travel through it for whatever reason, remember that it's mostly posted 35. Except for the very short section at Colonial that's posted 40.

Just a fast note on how I built PHP 5.3.2 on 64-bit RHEL 5.3 (before I forget). I'm building with: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5.3 64-bit on a Dell 690 Apache httpd 2.2.15 (built from source) MySQL 5.1.44-community 64-bit (installed from RPM) PHP 5.3.2 (built from source)  My PHP configure line: ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/php.5.3.2 --with-apxs2=/usr/local/http.2.2.15/bin/apxs --with-libdir=lib64 --with-mysql The biggest show-stopper was PHP's initial configuration failure to note it was running on a 64-bit system and failing to find various 64-bit MySQL libraries automagically (which I think it should). I had to bumble around via Google for several days (between tasks in my Real Job) before I finally found the solution . After adding 'with-libdir=lib64' it configured and built. I ran 'make test' and let the system check itself out, and it turns out I 'may have found a problem with PHP.' So I've sent in the test report. But from w...

Me by keith Originally uploaded by Kirk.rev2.0 Kirk Tuck is my new BFF. Well, perhaps my new BPFF (Best Photographic Friend Forever). Assuming, of course, that my other BPFF, Matthew Robertson , doesn't read this and decide to disown me. Or something worse. You can never tell about Canadians. Especially around hockey season. But I digress... Kirk's accomplished a lot in his professional life in and around Austin, Texas. Many of his accomplishments are documented in his books and on his blog and website, and he's posted enough of his work to drive home the point that he's a Photographer (like Matthew), as apposed to someone like me who just knows how to operate the camera. Kirk's always written his blog entries with an ernestness and honesty many of us have come to appreciate. Kirk's opened his personal and professional life up a bit in his blog, and so it's with a certain degree of sadness I read his most current entry . Kirk's been planning a r...

According to TUAW : The early adopters are out in force today. Based on analysis from Fortune's Apple 2.0 blog & the investors of the AAPL board on Investor Village, it seems that as many as 50,000 iPads were pre-ordered in its first two hours of availability this morning. That's pretty staggering demand, especially considering that on a typical day Apple only receives an average of 15,000 online orders for all products combined. Then later in the day TUAW reported " "Overwhelming" demand limiting iPad in-store pickup. " Then there are these two humorous articles from Gizmodo (one more humorous than the other) The Litany of iPad Resistance 8 Things That Suck About the iPad The second link hits on my biggest complaint about the iPhone/Touch/iPad device, and that's the "closed app ecosystem": The iPad only runs apps from the App Store. The same App Store that is notorious for banning apps for no real reason, such as Google Voice. Sure, ...

Buyer's remorse is an emotional condition whereby a person feels remorse or regret after a purchase. It is frequently associated with the purchase of higher value items which could be considered unnecessary although it may also stem from a sense of not wishing to be "wrong". This may also be described as the "ill-purchase feeling". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buyer's_remorse I've suffered buyer's remorse in the past on certain items, most notably the Nokia 770. Now I've begun to suffer from it again, this time with the Apple iPod Touch. The Touch is everything the 770 isn't; lightweight, sleek, fast, easy to operate, and capable of playing music and video. The Touch is a multimedia and technological tour de force when compared to the 770. Unfortunately there's one key characteristic where the two devices are diametrically different; the Touch is locked down, while the 770 is an open platform. Long before I purchased the Touch I wro...

I would like to thank Bill for letting me be a guest writer on his excellent site. My name's Matthew, and I'm both a photographer and a camera enthusiast. I can normally be found idly writing reviews , but Bill has kindly offered me the opportunity to add my thoughts to his discussion of the future of the E-series cameras. While I'm certainly a friend of Olympus, using both an E-1 and E-3, my primary cameras are a D700 for 'serious' and a GH1 for 'fun' photography. Those two have shaped a lot of my thinking about what works and what's important, and what I want to see in the next top-level E-series SLR. Three Things: There's currently a division between those who insist on optical viewfinders and those who think that the migration to electronic finders is inevitable. Put another way, it's between those who haven't used the EVF on a G1, GH1, or E-P2, and those who have. Having an optical finder as good as the E-3's is hardly a tragedy, bu...

Last Tuesday my wife flew via Southwest down to Ft. Lauderdale to visit a long-time friend and education associate. Both times her one piece of luggage was inspected, and this little white slip of paper was left in her luggage letting her know of this personal violation inspection. Here's part of what the Notice of Baggage Inspection says: To protect you and your fellow passengers, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is required by law* to inspect all checked baggage. As part of this process, some bags are opened and physically inspected. Your bag was among those selected for physical inspection ... (emphasis mine) * Section 110(b) of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001, 49 U.S.C 44901(c)-(e) This is minor to what others have experienced at the hands of the TSA, but it's chilling reminder of what others have experienced , far worse than what my wife experienced. This crude security has been with us since 2001, a product of the Bush Administra...