Morning. Everything is covered with ice about a quarter inch thick. Platforms essentially became skating rinks. Metro-North workers heroically clean platform… on New Haven-bound side, which will not be used for the next few hours while passengers on New York side are risking falls.
Just leaving this snapshot for the next time I complain that it is hot.
Also that was the day when the train was running particularly late.
It looks like there are some significant changes coming to my life in the next few months, and to accommodate them, I need to do some remodeling in my house. In particular, I need to:
1) Resurface the kitchen cabinets – the current kitchen is fugly – dark wood which has accumulated some grease on the surfaces.
2) Remodel first floor bathroom – it’s a half-bathroom, and it (still) has popcorn ceiling and vanity cabinet that seems to be from the 70-ies.
3) Remodel second floor bathroom – full bathroom with sick looking blue-colored bathtub, toilet and sink. No comments needed.
Of course, my current financial situation does not allow me to simply hire contractors, so I will have to do all (or most of it) in a DIY fashion. Time to break out those tools!
Kitchen Cabinets are the first in line – I can start working on them immediately without significant expenditures on materials.
Today I had another opportunity how great the guys at www.newegg.com are.
In search for a better storage solution for my home, I decided to purchase a NAS appliance (QNAP TS-210) with 2 x 2Tb Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS SATA drives. True to my luck, after placing an order, and going to QNAP site, I find out that those particular models of WD drives are not recommended for use with TS-210 appliance. I call newegg, but as I am waiting for customer representative (maybe a minute or so), my order enters the warehouse which means it cannot be changed. Oh well, I’ll return them – i’ll have to pay for shipping, but it’s not the end of the world – afterall, I should have checked the model compatibility myself. In the meantime, I place another order with the drives that are recommended.
Yesterday, I received the first package ($0 shipping and it arrived the next day!!), and this morning I requested an RMA online. One thing that I did not like was the $30 restocking fee, so I called the customer service explaining the situation and asking to waive the restocking fee. After asking me if the drives were still sealed, not only did they waive the restocking fee, they even sent me a pre-paid UPS shipping label, so now I really don’t have to spend money.
I just wish more retailers were as good as these guys. Every time I order from them, the stuff gets to me faster than I expect, and if there are problems, they go out of their way to help. Good Job, Newegg!
Yesterday, I received my long-desired Canon 7D EFS 18-135 IS kit.
Amazing camera – I have not even explored 10% of features, but i’m already blown away. I love the custom menu and custom modes!
I also bought Flashpoint Vertical Grip and EF 50mm f1.4 lense.
Now, I need to figure out what lense(s) to get rid of, since I have EF-S 18-13 IS, EF 28-135 IS and EF-S 18-55
I am sitting here smiling like an absolute idiot and just need to share the excitement with somebody. I recently was looking for some inspiration in photography and bumped into Matt Richardson’s video on how to make a sound-activated flash trigger for high-speed photography (such as pictures of a bullet going through something, or a glass being shattered) based on Arduino chip.
I realize for some, this may not be a reason for much excitement and Arduino chips are nothing new to them, but keep in mind, I’m no engineer, I barely understand electronics, but i do like little DIY projects.
Because the trigger is Arduino-based I can just write code to perform tasks (turning off lights then arming the trigger then waiting for the sound, triggering the flash, closing the shutter and turning the lights back on)
I’ve never heard of Arduino before, and yesterday after getting it in the mail, I started reading up on it, was playing around, and that thing is amazing – I just can’t believe how easy it is for somebody who doesn’t know the inner workings of IC to make that chip perform tasks according to program. I have not assembled the trigger yet, but I did figure out how the Arduino needs to be connected to the rest of the parts by looking at the code and i got all the parts working – Now it’s just a matter of putting it all together.
Now I have whole winter to figure out what kind of Arduino-based mod to make for my bike. Last winter, it was my own LED brake light repeater/blinker, this time, i’m getting into programmable stuff!
Microsoft executives met with Adobe executives, and apparently, topic of merger was discussed.
Makes sense,from business standpoint, but I get chills once I imagine the result:
Microsoft Photoshop CS7 Service Pack 3 build 4398
I can see a mass suicide by photographers and designers, lead by the especially sensitive/creative souls (the Mac users of Photoshop soft) 😉
So appropriate:
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=13
Apparently, President Medvedev was impressed by the “free spirit” he found during his visit to California. And now, he wants to “import” it into what Russia hails as their version of Silicone Valley. Best of luck, Mr. Put Medv Putvedev- aside from the choreographed and scripted orgasmic flashes of admiration of Mr. Putvedev himself, the concept of “free spirit” is generally associated with a result of distillery, not a philosophical and social concept.
Andre Geim, this year’s Nobel Prize laureate in Physics, poured some cold water on the overheated russian PR machine which was flying colors along the lines of “Russian scientists win Nobel Prize”:
“…in an interview with “Ekho Moskvy,” the Sochi-born Geim — who holds a Dutch passport and works at a British university — said he had no intention of becoming Skolkovo’s poster boy.
‘It’s stupid to import big names,” he said. “You need to grow your own.'”
Yes, this year’s Nobel prize laureates were born in Russia, and while one could credit the education system they went through as the main contributing factor, that system doesn’t exist anymore, and no misguided attempts to resurrect it will help.
Unfortunately, “growing your own” would take time, and time-consuming investments are not very popular among politicians.
Steve Ballmer thinks that tablets are tomorrow.
“Tablets are clearly an important piece of the consumer puzzle. You guys have had tablets forever, but one of the things that makes the iPad compelling is its really long battery life and instant-on abilities. Can full-blown Windows slim down fast enough or do you see a need for, say, a grown up Windows Phone device that is bigger?