Imminent Ruminations

Life and Death

2011-06-20T16:17:00.000-05:00

K: If we are going to die, then why are we born in the first place?
A: Dont know...

Garbage

2011-06-20T16:15:00.000-05:00

V: Why isnt your whole room a garbage can? There is so much trash everywhere.
A: Why dont you clean it then?
V: We clean our room, you clean yours!

Mammalia

2009-01-10T20:30:00.002-06:00

You are a good egg, mommy!
Because I popped and came out of you!

Become an egg, Mommy!

Chicago

2008-08-23T16:46:00.002-05:00

In Chicago there is the Sear's Tower
And the Botanical Gardens with pretty flowers
Don't forget Navy Pier,
With its famous Ferris Wheel
And plus there are lots of museums,
That you won't finish till 3PM,
There are so many animals at the Zoo,
That you won't know what to do.

Tres Elephantes

2008-07-23T20:40:00.000-05:00

Tres Elephantes walking in a row (2)
Dos Elephantes walking in a row (2)
Uno Elephante waling in a row (2)

Where did they go? I don't know
Lets go find them now!

Uno Elephante hiding in a bush,
Uno Elephante between the trees,
Uno Elephante eating fruit,
We also found these!

Tres Elephantes walking in a row,
Now they wont get lost, you know!

Time

2008-07-11T16:29:00.000-05:00

The Hours, they go by so fast,
The minutes, crawl so slow.
Seems just like yesterday,
It was so long ago.
Distant childhood memories
So vivid, so real,
The present disappears,
Fades quickly to gray.
Dreams and aspirations,
Now faint memories,
The remembrance of carefree days,
Now take their place.
What has to be, has been,
And there is more to come,
For what has been will be again,
So does the circle turn.

Venice

2008-01-23T21:53:00.000-06:00

Son: Dad, why is there no time in Venice?
Dad: Huh? Do you mean Venus?
Son: No, I mean Venice.
Dad: Did someone say "Venice is timeless"?
Son: Yeah, thats it.
Dad: Oh!

Rudolph

2007-10-06T08:52:00.000-05:00

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer,
He had a very shiny nose,
Rudolph the red nosed reindeer,
You had 20 hundred toes.
Rudolph the red nosed reindeer,
You had not many friends,
Rudolph the red nosed reindeer,
Your history will never end.
Rudolph the red nosed reindeer,
You pull Santa's sleigh,
Rudolph the red nosed reindeer,
You make it such a happy day!
Rudolph the red nosed reindeer,
You had a very shiny nose!
Rudolph the red nosed reindeer,
We love the way your story goes!

Stinky Limerick

2007-09-07T20:52:00.000-05:00

Daughter's Poem:
"My mother gave me jobs,
They really weren't fair.
I had to wash her bestest dress,
And my brother's underwear."

And I emphasize, this is purely fictional

Truth

2007-08-22T23:51:00.000-05:00

"Air goes in, air goes out. Thats all the truth is."

- 2YO about the air mattress.

Twins

2007-06-28T21:15:00.000-05:00

Son1: Your office floor and me are twins.
Dad: Huh?
Son1: We are both 4
Dad: Huh!

Wind Song

2007-04-20T07:39:00.000-05:00

If the wind is blowing hard, put a plant outside.
If the plant blows away, tie it to a string.
If that string blows away, tie it to a peg.
If that per blows away, tie it to the ground.
And the ground will never blow away.

Nihilism

2007-02-17T13:32:00.000-06:00

How many toes does a fishy have?
How many wings does a cow?
I dont know, I just dont know.

-- song by the kiddies.

Blowin' in the Wind

2006-09-20T17:30:00.000-05:00

Dad: .... The Answer, my friend is blowin in the wind...
Daughter: It must be the cloud.
Dad: What?
Daughter: The Answer.
Dad: Oh...
Daughter: Or the kite...

Dead Batteries

2006-07-11T19:07:00.000-05:00

Son1: Daddy, the battery on my race car is dead.
Me: Huh... we will get new ones...
Son1: Do batteries go dead just like people?
Me: ...huh... yes, i guess so...
Son1: But we cant get new people?
Me: ...no... i guess we cant...
[ Son1 goes off to play without a care in the world ]

Norman Koren

2006-03-07T07:30:00.000-06:00

Came across this site about photography, with really good tutorials:
Norman Koren

Got Phish??

2006-03-05T13:59:00.000-06:00

It happened today! I got a mail from service@paypal.com stating that my paypal account was in a "limited" status, and that I needed to verify some information. otherwise the account would expire. Not thinking much, I clicked on the link in the page and started entering my credit card information on the page that showed up. It had an entry for the SSN, and that appeared odd, I didnt remember putting in my SSN when I opened my paypal account. I left that field blank, and put in the phone number etc., and clicked on the submit. The submit failed because I didnt put in the PIN number for my credit card, mainly because I didnt even have it.

When the submit failed, I started paying more attention, and realized that the connection was plain old HTTP, and not HTTPS. That got me suspicious, and then (okay, its rather pathetic to notice HTTPS, and not notice that the URL was not at Paypal) looking at the URL, it was at http://www.glossarybull.com/paypal. (Clickable link below)

I then looked at the HTML source for the email, and the link on that pointed to http://www.pipesabbey.com/paypal. So, I am doing what any self-respecting netizen would do. I am blogging it, with a request that all readers consider it their good deed for the day to get to the phishing web site, and submit names, credit card numbers, SSNs that are all invalid, and generally bury any data that might have been collected in noise.

And, pass this on... cant stand by watching this blatant phishing attempt...

Websites:

htp://www.pipesabbey.com
Owner according to WhoIs: mott_teresia@yahoo.com
Domain Name: PIPESABBEY.COM

Registrant:
Patrick Veltri
Patrick Veltri (325766275) (mott_teresia@yahoo.com)
44 Janet St
NULL
Buffalo
NJ,75006
US
Tel. +0.7165237771
Fax. +0.1234

http://www.glossarybull.com
Owner: Tracie Orceck
Domain Name: GLOSSARYBULL.COM

Registrant:
Tracie Oreck
Tracie Oreck (757958414) (trace_david_100@yahoo.com)
3441 N Old Stage Rd
NULL
Mt Shasta
CA,96067
US
Tel. +0.5309266727
Fax. +0.1234

Creation Date: 04-Mar-2006
Expiration Date: 04-Mar-2007

And I googled the names of the website owners... Tracie Oreck seems to be a real estate agent out in CA, somehow I dont think she is aware of the fact that she owns a phishing web site. Patrick Veltri is the Head of School Health & Wellness Ken-Ton School District, near Buffalo, and I doubt even further that he would be involved in something like this. Wonder where my name shows up...

The Amazing World of HDR

2006-02-26T12:16:00.000-06:00

Club Náutico
Originally uploaded by silentcolors.

This photo was the most "interesting" photo for Feb 25th, 2006. The image was created using the HDR technology, which stands for High Dynamic Range. The image is basically composed of a number of photos that are taken at differing exposure values to bring out the details at different levels of brightness, and then merged into a single photo. This seems like a really interesting field, and more about that at Cybergrain.

Those huge houses...

2006-02-16T18:22:00.000-06:00

While driving through downtown Naperville, one evening...
Daughter: Those houses in downtown Naperville are really nice.
Me: Our house is nice too!
Daughter: Yes, but these are nicer, so BIG!
Me:Yeah, but it takes us so long to clean up our little house, it will take so much longer with a bigger house, and we will have no time to play...
Daughter: No, it wont!
Me: Wont?
Daughter: Nope! We will still have the same number of toys!

Mountains of Clouds

2006-01-03T13:32:00.000-06:00

Mountains of Clouds
Originally uploaded by oar knevy.

Cloud formations as seen from I-57, heading south towards Champaign, IL. It was an amazing sight with what looked like inverted peaks and valleys sculpted from the clouds. Of course, the vast flatness of the prarie made it look all the more awesome. Wish I had a wider lens, and a tripod to capture a better shot! Tips on better technique welcome!

Shadow Study

2005-12-25T22:44:00.001-06:00

Shiny new car

2005-12-25T22:43:00.000-06:00

Shiny new car
Originally uploaded by oar knevy.

Tangled mess

2005-12-25T22:42:00.001-06:00

Tangled mess
Originally uploaded by oar knevy.

The Vivitar Series 1 70-210 2.8-4.0 on a Nikon D70

2005-12-25T22:42:00.000-06:00

The Vivitar Series 1 70-210 2.8-4.0 on a Nikon D70
Originally uploaded by oar knevy.

The amazing hunk of glass on the Nikon D70! Its a very interesting experience to be shooting in the manual mode with manual focus! Some other photos with this lens also posted here...

Support Strippers?

2005-12-16T16:43:00.000-06:00

DSC_08201
Originally uploaded by oar knevy.

"Support Troops", I totally understand. "Breast Cancer Research", I totally support. But what does one do about this one? Go around in tighty-whities in the middle of Chicago winter, I suppose...

Vivitar 70-210 f2.8-4 Lens

2005-12-16T11:09:00.000-06:00

Got this lens off ebay, and still waiting for shipping, but found this page, according to which I have bought myself a 3rd edition Series 1! Cant wait to take actual photos with that 860g beast!

Interesting Korean Article...

2005-12-14T08:47:00.000-06:00

Came across
this while reading some news about the Stem Cell
researcher that seems to be in some Kim-Chee himself...
An interesting perspective on adoption, korean culture.

Nikon Lens Compatability

2005-12-13T10:47:00.000-06:00

I was looking at lenses for my D70, and was getting confused with all
the different classifications for Nikon lenses. This site at Nikonians
has all the information that one would ever want!

Why, you little Gimp!

2005-12-12T21:56:00.000-06:00

Took this with my new toy, the Nikon D70! Got that from B&H Photo Video! Changed the color balance a bit on GIMP!

Christmas Tree!

2005-12-12T21:52:00.000-06:00

The hose from the ejector pump in the basement has a hole in it, resulting in water sprayed onto this tree in the freezing Chicago weather!

Jane the Teen Dinosaur

2005-12-10T21:32:00.000-06:00

Jane the Dinosaur from The Burpee Museum of Natural History, Rockford, IL

Concord 5340z - Epilogue

2005-11-02T08:02:00.000-06:00

To properly end the Concord 5340z story, I returned the camera in the original packing, and condition to the TigerDirect store at Naperville, without any problems. I have nothing to complain about their customer service.
Replacing it with the Canon SD400 for now!

Night Intersection

2005-11-01T22:12:00.000-06:00

Canon Rebel XT, Kit Lens, Tripod

Phantom Foam

2005-11-01T22:09:00.000-06:00

Canon Rebel XT, 8 sec exposure with beer being poured into the glass

Self Portrait...

2005-11-01T22:08:00.001-06:00

Concord 5340z

Noisy Sky...

2005-11-01T22:08:00.000-06:00

Concord 5340z

Fountains of Brookfield

2005-11-01T22:07:00.000-06:00

Concord 5340z, filtered in Picasa.

And Dolphins might Fly...

2005-11-01T22:06:00.000-06:00

Concord 5340z, Dolphin in mid-air hitting target during the Dolphin Show.

Snow Leopard at Brookfield Zoo

2005-11-01T22:05:00.000-06:00

Snow Leopard thru about 2" of plexiglass. Concord 5340z

Fall Colors

2005-11-01T21:59:00.000-06:00

Concord 5340z

Roger Ebert on "The Weatherman"

2005-10-28T08:51:00.000-05:00

So, this is a second order derivative. A review of a movie review. I read Roger Ebert's review of The Weatherman here, and I was struck by the fact that it takes a certain eloquence to make a good reviewer. The review analyzes the movie, presents some clues about the content, provides a judgement, and most impressively defends the proclamation, and justifies its diffidence...

Dont know about the movie, will probably see it, just because its set in Chicago, but that is a well written review...

User Experience: Concord 5340z

2005-10-28T06:44:00.000-05:00

I previously owned the Concord EyeQ 4363Z, and when the newer 5.1MP camera was available for $99.00 after a mail-in rebate, I decided it was time for an upgrade. I sold the 4.1MP 4363Z, and bought the 5340z at TigerDirect. What a mistake!

Still Photography
The 5.1MP photos that this camera takes are extremely noisy. I cannot emphasise this enough. Very very noisy. It makes the resolution of the camera pointless, when the 5.1M dots in the image are all close to the right color, but none of them are actually at the right one. You can take a picture of a clear blue sky, and looking at the image at full resolution, you will see pixels that range in color from red to blue.

Time from power up to the camera being ready to take photos is about 5 seconds (approx), which is quite a bit more that what one would expect. The time between photos is about 5 seconds, and is pretty irritating, when you have your composition framed, press the shutter button, and the camera just sits there giving you a blank stare in the face. Many photo ops missed this way, and I am just talking about general around-the-house family type stuff.

The White balance on the camera is also pretty pathetic. Almost all photos I take will this need to be modified in Picasa to change the white balance, and correct the fill light.

This camera is supposed to have an autofocus, but from my experience, it seems more like a random focus camera. About 30% of the photos are not focused right. There might be some user error contributing to this, but the user's world doesnt quite work in the slow motion that would tolerate the slow autofocus and the very long lag time between photos that this camera needs.

Movie mode
The specs on the website at TigerDirect claim that this camera can do 640x480 mpeg4 video, but I am not so sure of that. Either the camera is expanding a 320x240 image, or the mpeg4 encoding software is really lousy, so as to not overwhelm the image processing chip on this camera that all movies with this camera are extremey quantized. The movie consists of a set of about 10x10 pixel blocks that seem to move around in some pseudo co-ordinated mode, and if you were at the original occasion that was filmed (or digitized) you might recognize what was going on. Ofcourse, you need to be taking the movies in plenty of light to see anything usefull.

Conclusion
The camera looks like a great value in terms of its specs, but I would think the $99.00 for the camera are better spent on a 3MP or 4MP camera from Canon or Kodak or such. Even the 4.1MP 4353z from Concord itself performs better than this one in real world usage. I will upload photos to illustrate the problems with this camera when I get a chance...

Pat Robertson the Smoke Bomb...

2005-08-26T07:36:00.000-05:00

This is my conspiracy theory - almost as good as a plot in Wag the Dog! Pat Robertson is making absurd and totally ludicrous speeches at the perfect time that the White House needs some media attention diverted from Condy Sheehan. What better way to get the coverage off a very uncomfortable loose-loose situation than to throw the media a juicier bone? And fan the speculation and keep media interest alive in the Pat Robertson story by not condemning it outright, but just enough to generate even more media traffic!

Another instance that this administration really analyzed Wag the Dog and are treating it as a strategic guide to navigating public opinion and managing the media!

Radiator change on 1995 Acura Integra

2005-08-03T12:12:00.000-05:00

I changed out the leaky radiator on my 1995 Acura Integra with 103K miles last night. Started at about 8:30pm, and was doing the road test at about 12:30am. It took me about 4 hours, but part of that was looking for the right spanner, getting some lighting set up to look at the underside of the car, figuring out how to use the hydraulic jack that I borrowed from my neighbour :-).

Summary of my experience:

I started off thinking the extension of the front bumper below the radiator needs to be removed, but nope, the plastic sheild is further behind that, and is held in place with about 5 nuts.
Had the passenger side of the car raised on a jack (I had only one), and that was sufficient to get access to things. Not comfortable, but doable all the same.
I got my replacement radiator from 1A Auto Parts, pretty happy with the service and the product fit. Will hold off on the quality till I get some more time on this.
I didnt replace the radiator hoses, they seemed in decent shape. It was a bear getting the hose off the bottom connection of the radiator, mostly due to access issues.
I followed the directions for replacing the radiator in the Hayes service manual for the '95 Integra. The instructions were pretty clear, and straightforward.
Drained the coolant by opening the plug at the bottom of the old radiator, that plug was mostly jammed pretty tight!
Removed the hoses from the radiator
Opened the mounting screws for the fans. The book mentions disconnecting the power to remove the fans, but I found it enough to open the mounting screws, and just lean the fans backwards.
Removed the old radiator, pulled the boots off the radiator, and put them on the new one.
Mounted the fans, clamps for the AC hose etc., and reconnected the radiator hose.
The service manual reccommends flushing the system with a garden host, but at 11:30pm, that kind of seemed a waste of time...
Mixed the coolant, this radiator is supposed to take 4.6 quarts, but mine took about a gallon, so there must have been some in the engine block that didnt drain out.
Checked for leaks etc, and put the plastic sheild back, and the clips for the front bumper that I had unnessacarily taken out.

Summary:

Item	Cost
Radiator	$129.00
Hayes Repair Manual	$15.00
Coolant (Pep Boys)	$9.99
Drain Pan (Pep Boys)	$3.89
Radiator Funnel (Pep Boys)	$2.59
Total	$160.47
Time	About 4 hours
Dealer Estimate	$800.00
Pep Boys Estimate	$600.00

Bialetti Mukka Followup...

2005-07-08T22:49:00.000-05:00

The Bialetti Mukka express that I had bought is now giving me problems. The pressure valve that needs to stay raised for making regular "milky coffee", but after about 3 months of use, it seemed premeturely worn out!

I checked out the web site for LaPrima Shops where I bought the Mukka Express, and now they have the valves for sale! I sent them mail asking about getting a replacement, and I was very pleasantly surprised with the response! They replied that the replacement valve would ship out monday, free of charge! Really amazing customer service, spent some time looking for something else to buy!!

crumb - artisanbakers.com

2005-05-05T10:36:00.000-05:00

http://www.artisanbakers.com/crumb.html

New Coffee Toy! Bialetti Mukka Express

2005-04-25T21:12:00.000-05:00

Got the much awaited cuppocino maker in the mail today! Had ordered this at LaPrima Shops about a week back! This is the one with the cow print, and it looks really cool up front, more so than in the images on the web. Check out the video on the LaPrima site of the Mukka Express in action, and I guarantee you are going to want to order one! Ofcourse, I Froogle-d for this, and though some guy on EBay was listing it for $78.00, but he was going to ship it from Italy, and I was a little sceptical about the transaction across one of the seven seas!

Okay - so I paid $89.00 for the Mukka Express, and to get the free shipping for orders over $99.00, ended up ordering the silicone cutting mats, and a box of Milk Wafers!

The instructions on making the coffee are pretty straight forward - the part where this differs from other conventional stove-top expresso makers is that you put milk in the top chamber, and there is a weighted valve on top of the spout, that forces the steam/expresso through the milk, making it frothy. The weighted valve is pretty much like the pressure cooker weights in Indian Pressure cookers, and it develops some pressure, so I suppose when the steam/hot liquid gets forced through the milk, it makes it froth. It takes about 4-5 minutes to prepare coffee, and the quantity is sufficient for about 3 smallish expresso cups.

Now to the quality - I was pretty impressed! I was looking forward to coffee that resembles real South Indian Coffee, like the one in Vasantha Bhavan near the Junction Bus Station in Trichy. I must say, if I had used whole milk (I used 2%), and had gone a little easy on the amount of coffee powder, the result would have been pretty close! And if I had put sugar in the milk itself, that would have been really good!

If you are a Madrassi living in the US, craving authentic South Indian Coffee, I dont think you will be disappointed with the Bialetti Mukka Express!

Eye-Q 4363Z Digital Camera - Update

2005-04-25T21:06:00.000-05:00

Looks like the battery comsumption on this camera is not as bad as some of the others had complained about! I have 1700mAH rechargable NiMH batteries, and with those I am able to get about 50-100 photos! Dont expect more! I cannot emphasize enough how cool the video feature on this camera is... Its such a small package, and depeding on the situation, you have the choice between a still photo at 4MB, continuous images (keep the button pressed, and it goes click-click-click), or AVI video at a lower resolution.

Still very happy with the camera!

New Digital Camera!!

2005-04-20T12:13:00.000-05:00

Tiger Direct is offering the
Concord Eye-Q 4363Z camera for under $100. At that price point, I just
had to get it! And the old Kodak that I had was beginning to act a
little strange, with not turning on without a little bit of shaking and
coaxing.

This is a really cool camera! It contains 16MB internal memory, and
that is good for crunch times, I guess. Each photo that it takes
occupies about 2MB. I put in the 256MB SD card from my Kodak into this,
and voila - take pictures!

This camera features 320x240 30fps movie mode, that saves the video as
an AVI file. I read somethings about 30 second video limits, but I was
able to record about 2m50s (an then I stopped) without a problem. That
resulted in about 50MB file, so I guess with the 256MB SD card, I should
be able to record about 15mins worth of video! Pretty cool, considering
the package it comes it!

Downloading the images/videos to my XP laptop was a breeze. I use
Picassa to manage my photos (will review that another time!), and was
able to import the photos and videos without installing any of the
software that came with the camera. A big plus, as far as I am
concerned, to not have to install/uninstall software every time I change
a camera!

The zoom, auto-focus, flash seem satisfactory - at under $100,
expectations are pretty contained. Have heard about the battery not
lasting as long, but that is easily fixable with some rechargable NiMHs...

Certainly not returning this to the store!

Idiot [box] Free

2005-04-18T16:02:00.000-05:00

Apparently TV turn off week is coming up! Check out the link
TVturnoff.org for ideas on what can
be accomplished in the numerous hours of TV for a whole week!

I dont mind... the West Wing season is over, and other things I can live
without!

BTW, the Google recruitment link is back on. Guess they finished adding
the extra storage for some more resumes...

Adsense...

2005-04-18T09:26:00.000-05:00

Looks like the software has now decided that I am more interested in Minivans and GPSs, and has stopped serving up links for motorcycle apparel! Wonder how these ad links evolve...

My Odyssey

2005-04-08T00:34:00.000-05:00

I bought a brand spanking new 2005 Honda Odyssey towards the end of last year. The major selling point for the vehicle, and the distinguishing factor from the Toyota Sienna was the VCM, and the gas mileage. The published EPA specs for fuel economy according to Honda is 20/28. I have had the van for about 4 months now, and the best I get (driving 65mph on the highway, which is very irritating), is 20mpg!

I dont mind if the best you can get happens to be between the city and highway values, but when the best mileage that I can get is less than the city mileage, that gets my goat!

The other thing that bothers me is that the dealer wanted me to change the oil at 3000 miles! And this van has a meter on the instrument panel that shows "Oil Life %" that starts out at 100, and goes down. At 3000 miles, the indicator showed 35%! I decided to skip it, and wait till the indicator gets to about 20-30%. I refuse to waste the technology that some poor hard working engineer invested in developing this system, and change the oil every 3000 miles!

AdSense-ing

2005-04-05T22:02:00.000-05:00

Just got done adding Google AdSense to the blog! I put in a ad after each post, let see if Google is smart enough to put in ads that relate to the the different posts!

I see major monopolistic litigation in Google's future. Google controls the search results that you see. In theory, that lets Google sort the hits in such an order that the pages with the biggest AdSense windows are closer to the top, thereby increasing the click-through rate.

And checked out http://maps.google.com today. If you get driving directions from that, and then click on the turns in the directions, or the starting or ending point, you get an option to look at the satellite image of the location, or turn. Looks like Google is putting the Keyhole folks hard to work! Considering that Keyhole's standalone product hardly appealed to anyone (in my opinion). Very cool, and scary... I can tell the color of the shingles on the roof of my house... Google doesnt let you save addresses, so entering them every time is a bit bothersome, but only a matter of time...

And those pitiful sites trying to setup associations between people, like http://www.linkedin.com are pretty much babes-in-the-woods when compared to Google, which with its scheme of invitation-only email accounts has data squirreled away in its massive database. And based on the order in which people used up the gmail invitations, probably can draw a weighted graph for a majority of the online community!

Time to go buy some goog, and stop this envious complaining...