Plaza de Mayo
Buenos Aires
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Photo Gallery gets own domain
My Photography Gallery, containing my complete body of work, has moved to a new domain:
http://AlexFeldsteinPhotography.com/
It is still hosted by Smugmug, a great service, but now it shows as a separate domain. It is very easy to do and professional-looking at a reasonable cost.
If you visit, enjoy the photos and please do comment if you find one you like (or dislike)!
http://AlexFeldsteinPhotography.com/
It is still hosted by Smugmug, a great service, but now it shows as a separate domain. It is very easy to do and professional-looking at a reasonable cost.
If you visit, enjoy the photos and please do comment if you find one you like (or dislike)!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Photo of the day
Green Heron in flight. These guys are very hard to catch flying. They are fairly easy to take photos of in the wild as they stand like statues while hunting. In Florida, most birds are fairly friendly and it is not too difficult to get close to most species, at least close enough for a good photo, as you can see at my heron gallery. But shooting a greenie in flight is another matter. When spooked, they take off without warning and they are very tough to get a decent shot of. This time I was lucky enough to get a good set of shots of this guy. More shots in my gallery.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Photo of the day
Who doesn't like dragonflies? A sign of summer.
Shot with Nikon D300 + Tamron 90 handheld
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The Shweeb — A Human-Powered Monorail
The Schweeb is an experimental transit system in New Zealand that combines the bicycle and a monorail track. Users lie down individual pods and work the pedals to move forward.
Via Neatorama
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
July 20, 1969 - 2009: 40 years since the first moon landing!
If you are over a certain age, you'd remember seeing the live pictures of the first moon landing of Apollo 11. It was awesome, and as kids (I was fourteen) we could not believe what we were seeing. I remember it like yesterday, even though it was very late at night and I had to go to school (it was in the middle of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, unlike the US kids who where on summer vacation). I did stay late and never forgot the moment and the live, somewhat fuzzy live images.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon surface! Michael Collins orbiting the moon.
Did you know that the Lunar Module, Eagle landed on the moon with only enough fuel to continue for another 25 seconds, and flight computers overloaded by radar data?
It is a pity we stopped going to the moon long ago. The missions were unfortunately not about science, but about politics, and the cold war. Image what kind of moon base we could have had by now. The science, and minerals we could be obtaining from there. Maybe someday, a commercial mining operation will pay for itself and allows us to man bases, and do science the way it should be done. Hopefully the next generation might get to see it realized.
YouTube video
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon surface! Michael Collins orbiting the moon.
Did you know that the Lunar Module, Eagle landed on the moon with only enough fuel to continue for another 25 seconds, and flight computers overloaded by radar data?
It is a pity we stopped going to the moon long ago. The missions were unfortunately not about science, but about politics, and the cold war. Image what kind of moon base we could have had by now. The science, and minerals we could be obtaining from there. Maybe someday, a commercial mining operation will pay for itself and allows us to man bases, and do science the way it should be done. Hopefully the next generation might get to see it realized.
YouTube video
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The emerging of a damsel in one minute
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
How does the financial system work?
Clarke and Dawe explain How does the financial system work, in their Australian TV show. Worth watching. Now I understand the mess we are in.
YouTube link
YouTube link
Photo of the day
I bought a (new to me) lens today. It is an old Nikon 28mm/2.8 Ai lens from the 1970s and manual as those lenses are pre-digital era and not computerized. These are the type of lenses I used to use when I shot film back in the old ages. The lens is in pristine condition, like new. It is my third old-manual focus (MF) lens. I love it already. It is sharp as a tack, very small, light, and unobtrusive. See a sample shot from yesterday:
Miami Beach - South Point Park
Miami Beach - South Point Park
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Microsoft Retiring Support for WinXP SP2 in a Year
Microsoft will retire support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 one year from today. This does not mean Microsoft will stop supporting XP! What it means is that it will not longer support SP2. After Patch Tuesday, July 13, 2010 you will have to have SP3 installed in order to get updates for Windows XP. If a vulnerability is found in SP2 that is not in SP3, it will not be patched.
We have also reached the end of the line for Windows XP service packs: After SP3 no new service packs are planned. Microsoft will not end support for Windows XP itself for almost 4 more years as Extended Support is scheduled to end on April 8, 2014.
The front fell off!
An old one but a good one. This is a clip of a comedy sketch from the early 1990s, the parts of the politician and interviewer being played by Australian television comedy duo John Clarke and Bryan Dawe as they discuss an oil spill that occurred in 1991 when the Greek tanker Kirki lost its bow off the coast of Western Australia.
The incident really happened. The comedy is from an Australian TV show, making fun of the political interviews of the time in a Monthy Python-esque way.
YouTube Video
The incident really happened. The comedy is from an Australian TV show, making fun of the political interviews of the time in a Monthy Python-esque way.
YouTube Video
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, July 09, 2009
That Mitchell and Webb Look: Homeopathic A&E
I can rail all I want about homeopathy not being anything more than quackery, making a solution stronger the more diluted it is. Sometimes this is the best way to show their folly through comedy, as in the That Mitchell and Webb Look show.
YouTube link
YouTube link
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Ritz is done
Ritz Camera announced their plans to liquidate by July 24th, 2009.
After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on February 22, 2009 and closing more than 300 stores, they filed a petition with the Court to close all of its remaining 370 stores and sell their operations.
After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on February 22, 2009 and closing more than 300 stores, they filed a petition with the Court to close all of its remaining 370 stores and sell their operations.
Ritz "may not have sufficient availability to continue operating through the summer as a stand alone entity and to purchase inventory required for the fall holiday season," according to the filing. "The Debtor therefore believes that the time to maximize value through a sale process is now."It is sad to see a 91 year old company go, but they could not compete with the big guys. Their stores were in high-rent mall locations and their merchandise prices were always high. Another one bites the dust.
Photo of the day
Old bakery - Distillery District - Toronto
Still have a lot of unprocessed photos from Toronto (May) and Buenos Aires (June). Here I make an interlude to show some people photos (candids - subject unaware).
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Monday, July 06, 2009
Arizona senator says Earth is 6,000 years old.
Do you have to be an uninformed idiot to be a politician in the USA? Or just in Arizona?
Here's a video of a session of the Arizona legislature where State Senator Sylvia Allen casually states that Earth is 6,000 years old. Or is it just Arizona? Including the Grand Canyon?
YouTube link
Here's Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer take on it.
If, for some reason, you the reader thinks this is correct and the Earth *is* 6,000 years old, I feel sorry for you. More so, I feel sorry for Arizonans that have to live with these idiots as their representatives. Why, oh, why do they vote them in? (and yes, we do have some of them in Florida, the State where I live, but no, I did not vote for any of them).
If you want to know how do we know the age of the Earth, please read: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-age-of-earth.html
Here's a video of a session of the Arizona legislature where State Senator Sylvia Allen casually states that Earth is 6,000 years old. Or is it just Arizona? Including the Grand Canyon?
YouTube link
Here's Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer take on it.
If, for some reason, you the reader thinks this is correct and the Earth *is* 6,000 years old, I feel sorry for you. More so, I feel sorry for Arizonans that have to live with these idiots as their representatives. Why, oh, why do they vote them in? (and yes, we do have some of them in Florida, the State where I live, but no, I did not vote for any of them).
If you want to know how do we know the age of the Earth, please read: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-age-of-earth.html
The Leica Freedom Train
 | After reading this article, I found new respect for Leica. I always liked their products, but did not know much about the company and what they did to help their Jewish employees get out of Nazi Germany during the war. |
(Photo credit: Rei Shinozuka - Wikipedia)
My blog is 5 years old this week!
This blog is 5 years old this week.
I started in July 2004. Whoohoo!
Happy Birthday Blog!
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Ukulele weeps
Jake Shimabukuro plays George Harrison's "While my guitar gently weeps" on the ukulele. Excellent performer.
Firefox released v3.5
Mozilla has released the next major version of Firefox, v3.5 It has support for HTML 5 video, security and speed enhancements. Privacy improvements include a private browsing mode that allows you to surf the web without leaving a trail in the browser's history, cache and cookies. This puts it inline with the latest enhancements to IE 8, Safari and Chrome.
Not all existing plugins have been updated so some of the programs you may currently use with Firefox 3.0.x may not work until their next release.
There are a few glitches reported. Some user said their bookmarks did not import properly. Many users reported no problems.
If some photos viewed in FF3.5 suddenly seem really dark and/or contrasty after the upgrade, there's a known bug in 3.5 that causes it to mis-display photos with embedded ICC v4 profiles on certain wide-gamut monitors. The only workaround is to disable FF's nice color profiling system until they release a fix, likely in a near future update.
Ars technica review of FF 3.5
You can download Firefox 3.5 from here
Not all existing plugins have been updated so some of the programs you may currently use with Firefox 3.0.x may not work until their next release.
There are a few glitches reported. Some user said their bookmarks did not import properly. Many users reported no problems.
If some photos viewed in FF3.5 suddenly seem really dark and/or contrasty after the upgrade, there's a known bug in 3.5 that causes it to mis-display photos with embedded ICC v4 profiles on certain wide-gamut monitors. The only workaround is to disable FF's nice color profiling system until they release a fix, likely in a near future update.
Ars technica review of FF 3.5
You can download Firefox 3.5 from here
