pie and poetry

farm house pie (multi-layer leek pie) comes with a poem on the box, written in chinese and english:

preparing me chicken and rice, old friend,
you entertain me at your farm.
we watch the green trees that circle your village
and the pale blue of outlying mountains.
we open your window over garden and field,
to talk mulberry and hemp with our cups in our hands.
... wait till the mountain holiday
I am coming again in chrysanthemum time.

an amazing line from a very old SF novel

I found this amazing line seconds into skimming a very very old book. given how old this novel is, I am moved by the author's sight into the future. can you guess who the author is, and what novel this is from? if you can identify it without googling it, consider yourself extremely well read in science fiction. a hint: the book's future date is year 2000. [if you google, may get one hit: from google's scan of the original. I hid the name of the character to make guessing the source a bit harder]

"It appears to me, Miss xxxxx," I said, "that if we could have devised an arrangement for providing everybody with music in their homes, perfect in quality, unlimited in quantity, suited to every mood, and beginning and ceasing at will, we should have considered the limit of human felicity already attained, and ceased to strive for further improvements."

[of course he could not have predicted the copyright mess we found ourselves in. this was written before music cartels existed.]

recently noted quotes

let the beauty we love be what we do
there are hundreds of ways to kneel
and kiss the ground -- rumi

The message that precedes all others -- in art as well as life --
is simple: pay attention -- Harlan Ellison [slippage]

the challenge of iconic places is shooting them with fresh eyes,
and ideally with a fresh opinion. -- david duchemin

creativity needs a constant flow of possibility, and negativity
stops that flow with No instead of Yes. -- david duchemin

organization pays dividends. unless you're organized, you'll
waste time looking for pictures. -- steve mccurry

for me the camera is a sketchbook, an instrument of intuition and
spontaneity ... henri cartier-bresson

most creativity is a transition from one context into another
where things are more surprising. -- alan kay

smugness and self-satisfaction have no place in an artist's life.
-- walt stanchfield [drawn to life]

21st century problem solving requires anticipation + resilience +
discourse + art. -- david brin

creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. art is knowing
which ones to keep. -- scott adams

a photograph is a secret about a secret. the more it tells you,
the less you know. -- Diane Arbus

move your feet. it's called perspective. -- thom hogan [things
you should do but don't]

shortcuts in art lead to cliche and propaganda. -- david duchemin

creativity is one of those things you replenish by the very act
of using it, giving it away. -- david duchemin

we all try to avoid cliche shot, but the cliche comes in not what
you shoot but how you shoot it - david duchemin

the ability to concentrate flows naturally from the ability to
choose something interesting. -- david mamet

probably the most important tool in creativity is the use of an
analogy. -- richard w. hamming

stay dissatisfied with your work. but also appreciate the advances
you make. do it quietly, though. -- chris floyd

if you work too long on tedious stuff, it will rot your brain. --
paul graham [how to do what you love]

some people take pictures, i find them. -- jane bown [unknown
bown]

in essence, art lies embedded in the conceptual leap between the
pieces, not in the pieces themselves. -- bayles & orland

we are rhythmic creatures who move in patterns and feel most comfortable with those who move in synchrony with ourselves. -- b. hood

pixel peeping: LR 3 b2 and C1 pro 5

I have been playing with and testing four photography workflow tools. each one has something I like and dislike. the thing I dislike about lightroom is all the hype. It is a good tool, but not the best for everything. so now, lightroom 3 (in beta) has a new rendering engine. wonderful. it really needed one. I have been looking at that engine, and i would say adobe has more work to do. these are basic tiff extracts from capture 1 pro (first image) and lightroom 3 (b2)(second image), with no changes to images. basically: import raw, export tiff. look at the detail at both, and tell me if the difference you see is the result of sharpening or differently capable de-mosaic algorithm. I am reasonably certain it is the latter, because no amount of tinkering with lightroom sharpening tools will match the capture 1 pro image.

really. all because of the chain. you see, the faint impression you get from capture 1 pro rendering is that something with a unique structure. lightroom gives you something indistinct: a rope, or wire, or chain, whatever. the correct answer is that it is a chain with long straight pieces and loops[*], as it faintly appears to be with capture 1 pro.

is this important? i think so. beyer interpolation is a way of guessing what you don't know. better guessers produce image data that is more realistic. everything else in your digital darkroom follows from that.

[* you are thinking: you already knew this. answer: i did not. after looking at the capture 1 pro rendering and thinking "how odd" I went back and examined nearly a dozen images of the suleymanie mosque ceiling with good details of the chains that hold the giant light fixture. now I know what they look like.]

luhn validation code in go

this is the fast luhn validation code in go that uses the pre-calculated numeric transformation table, and a toggle-free left-to-right scan i came up with. details are found here. [again, i excluded the isdigit check]

var ltab = [10]int { 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 }

func luhn(s string) bool {
    n := len(s)
    if n < 2 {
        return false /* less than minimum */
    }

    /*
     * if the length is odd, add the value of the
     * first digit and skip
     */
    sum := 0
    i := 0

    if n & 1 == 1 {
        sum = int(s[i]) - int('0')
        i++
    }

    for i < n {
        sum += ltab[int(s[i]) - int('0')]
        sum += int(s[i+1]) - int('0')
        i += 2
    }

    return (sum % 10) == 0
}

autumn cleaning [haiku]

yellow leaves
on discarded chair -
autumn cleaning.

[oz/2009. all rights reserved.]

more notes coming soon.

i have been tweeting a lot lately, and not keeping my online notebooks as up to date as i would like. [my paper notebooks doing just fine] on the other hand, there are a number of ongoing notes, everything from photography to my carefully considered strong atheism, to software engineering (or lack thereof) not to mention bits of poetry that need to be finished and posted. i hope to get back to my blog late august. at least that is the best laid plan...

craigslist: ken-rockwell-obssessed husband

someone found this in craigslist. very funny. [ken rockwell. i do read some of his reviews, but rarely buy only on his recommendation. sometimes he is way over the top, and sloppy.]

    Ken Rockwell-Obsessed Husband (North York)
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    [...]

    One gently-used caucasian male. 36 years-old. Slightly defective.
    Remembers the names of Ken Rockwell's kids but not our own. Constantly
    buying high-end photo gear then selling it on craigslist the second
    Canon or Nikon releases something new. Complains endlessly about
    lowballers, tire-kickers and pixel peepers. Sold car to buy a Leica body
    and now wants to mortage house to buy lenses, all at Ken Rockwell's
    insistence. Maybe you can reprogram him. I have no time because I have
    to cart our kids around on the TTC and work two jobs while while he
    fiddles with film and DSLR to achieve super-saturated highlights.

    Reasonable offers accepted: Food, clothing, 1992 Subaru Justy. Offers of
    photo equipment will promptly be deleted! Lowball kickers are welcome! A
    swift one in the nuts will do him some good.

       * Location: North York
       * it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other
         commercial interests

    PostingID: 1239135682

paypal scam via craigslist

Subject: mint lowepro computrekker plus AW - $175 (toronto)
From: annemary
Date: May 21, 2009 12:28:08 PM EDT

Thanks for the post...I am really interested in buying this item but I am not in state for now I'm in Germany for a conference meeting...Am buying this item for my company agent located west africa....I will add $100.00 USD for the shipping cost...Making $275.00 USD... I will make the payment through my PayPal account cos is very secure and easy to receive money.....Kindly send me your PayPal email so that i can send the payment... Hope i will read from u again here soon..

this is a blatant scam of course. i did not ask for $100 for shipping, because i am not planning to ship it. the paypal payment is not very secure; credit card payments can be reversed. see paypal chargeback faq.

reflection [haiku]

wet tulips -
looking in a drop
for reflection.

[oz/2009. all rights reserved.]

frozen [haiku]

spring thaw -
in a rushing stream
frozen heart.

[oz/2009. all rights reserved.]
sometimes, what froze during the dark, cold days of winter cannot be thawed.

birch and starling [haiku]

dying birch -
one starling on a branch
now two.

[oz/2008. all rights reserved.]

recent notes, tweets and quotes

eren says [and clearly he has been watching too much kids tv and superhero cartoons]

let's face it... in the future, world may be ruled by birdbrains...

overheard in a bday party:

what manners? this is maple pie!

tweet #2858933749: we should be able to tweet straight into wikipedia so that some gems of our tweet-ergo-sum [or maybe sum-ergo-tweet] can be preserved....

"land of the goodebump and the white knuckle" no, not wallstreet... not the average north american bedroom... just mazda's imaginary world.

anonymous on ruby/rails:

it sucks mightily!

toronto star frontpage reads: "politicians chase naked truth" [leaving aside the comic mental image, which two words don't go together?]

I think I overheard someone say "we require spontaneity" ... uhh.

we arm ourselves with ideologies. -- wendy kaminer

thought of the day: familiarity invites carelessness. (familiarity breeds things too but i think this is more important)

flustered dad [me] in need of a paper towel: please bring me a ... a... child: what? an elephant?

adobe "air" ... hmm one thing to learn from car companies: choosing less dumb names.

I wonder what CNN would be like tweeting. repeating the same sniplets of "news" endlessly. or change the word order to keep it "fresh".

situation room: wow it is as dull as I remember it from the bush days. evidently, an increase in the IQ of the administration has had no positive effect on CNN talkies.

need some grounding... phew the C compiler still works! ran out to find a bookstore... where is russell? ooo... house and philosophy!

retweeting redux:. if you like tom u probably will like geoff. here Is a 15-day trial subscription...

thought of the day: if a choice is too easy, it probably isn't real. [some hard choices are not real either.]

correct math considered harmful: you are the 9,672,535,834th visitor to see this lucky banner. congratulations, you won!

plato in tech age: commentators should be required to spend a year hacking and living in the technology they want to comment on...

i wish there was an icon or some onomatopoeia that would accurately reflect a deep sigh, tightened lips, and exasperation. siiighooghummm?

shirky's coverage of linux, from what I have skimmed, is depressingly unoriginal. sigh I will have to read here comes everybody" more fully...

wow the kid can actually explain how fast lucky luke has to be to draw his revolver faster than his shadow!

have picma micron 05mm with archival ink, will travel...

thought of the day

if history repeats, by definition we did not learn from it, and each iteration costs more. [oz/0309]

recent notes, quotes and tweets

AIG... is the sound of brain matter squished underfoot...

when there is nothing to do, it's a waste of electricity to keep the mind running. -- Andre Kukla [mental traps]

I would like originality and repeat scores on my tweets. maybe numbering, indexing and concordance as well. (pat. pend)

grrrr bad enough we had to live with stupid watered-down "sci-fi" for years. now syfy? is that the sound u get when ectoplasmic goo drips?

quoth graydon hoare:

facebook users are insane. it's a web page. full of people's vague mutterings and crude party photos. get a grip.

new journalism: i wish it would be called something else, like journalism-the-next-generation (jtng)...

thought of the day: sun bleaches anything it touches, including thoughts.

so cool to find a quote i had noted from a broderick essay come back to me via my email sig line someone responded to four (!) years later:

bloat is the enemy of promise. sadly, like super-sized servings of greasy junk food, bloat sells. -- damien broderick

deleted ambiance app from my iphone. latest edition requires signup/login for sounds to put you to sleep and you have to pay for the priviledge. just what I need: another login in yet another opportunistic web service. not sure if sleeping is the expected result or the existing condition.

what would world be like without omelettes?

facebook vs twitter: re-structuring vs structuring... closed to open vs open to well... open. perennial battle of world-building. alas, twitter has a foundation made of balsa wood, bale wire and duct tape, so we'll see how easy it is to build a structure on.

thought for the morning... heraclitus was wrong: u can bathe in the same river twice. you just have to swim damned fast to catch it again.

thought of the day: when all else fails, pay attention!

nothing like an old-fashioned shave: meditation under cold steel.

readings on photography for early spring, part one

portraiture... one of the finest books on portraiture is now out of print, alas. i have studied every image in it countless times since 2000... just great portraits with short notes on the process of making the images, composition, positioning the sitter etc.

jane bown, faces

closeup... this one is a photographer scientist's exploration of extraordinary things around her, from microscopic to larger. just amazing and eye-opening work, with short, sometimes lyrical introductions to out-of-this world [yet of this world] images.

felice frankel and george whitesides, on the surface of things: images of the extraordinary in science

light... for a long time i searched for a really good book on photographing lighting that covered everything, from product to portrait. this book happens to be an indispensable reference. a lot of text, a lot of technical detail, but i think well worth the effort if one is interested in best uses of light.

fil hunter, steven biver, paul fuqua, light - science & magic: an introduction to photographic lighting

composition and design ... this one is one of the better books on the topic. covers everything from gestalt perception, dynamic tension, to graphic and photographic design elements to process. i especially like the case studies, various images made and their issues, leading to the one image that has all the right ingredients.

michael freeman, the photographer's eye: composition and design for better digital photos

law of indecision

i recently discovered this:

oz's law of indecision: when enough indecision accumulates, it collapses into a dwarf decision.

[march 2009]

recently noted quotes

must... have... sushi! - eren yigit [age 10]

ufs must die. -- casper dik

will true love conquer all? not in my show! -- joker

when in doubt, eat broccoli -- liz pearson and mairlyn smith [ultimate foods]

the wonderful thing about science is that it doesn't ask for your faith, it just asks for your eyes. -- xkcd [what about the brain?]

recently deleted iphone apps

two pieces of "free" ad-supported software deleted from my iphone: movies (flixter), and i.tv. thank you for playing. currently undecided on the movies replacement, not an important app. i.tv was quite easy to replace: napkin studio's what's on is a [says so from the start] ad-free tv guide. it has a somewhat strange initial setup sequence, but once configured, quite nice and smooth. thanks guys.

all i want

first noted quote of the new year... john shaw, from the intro to his photoshop cs3 ebook [review]:

All I want to do is make a good image. I don’t want to make a composite picture by taking a tree from one photo, a wolf from another, those humpback whales from a third, and putting all these parts into a shot of the Grand Canyon.