At 3:00

At 8:00

Another busy day today. This time we’re clear-cutting the backyard, which I’m sure is going to go a long way towards contributing to the global warming problem. So now you’ll know who to blame.

If you’re wondering how I manged to pull off such a superhuman feat in such a short few hours, no I wasn’t out there with an axe for the whole five hours. It was all done with the help of our new friend, Number 216.

Here’s only here visiting for the week, but like any good hosts we’re putting him to work right away. I did about half the yard today, and I’m hoping to get the rest of it tomorrow. Then we’ll have to get creative, and find more for him to do the rest of the week. I’m sure it won’t be hard. Once you have one of these in your yard you suddenly think of a hundred things you can have it do.

Never thought I’d have a camera good enough to take this kind of picture of the moon.

Now I do.

From Neatorama: 13 Photographs That Changed the World.

Another baby?

So it’s not one disk, it’s really two hard drives in a RAID array. But it’s still the biggest drive I’ve ever gotten my hands on, and I just installed it in the server at work. Let’s see the engineers fill this one up!

Here’s something I’ve been trying to work out for a long time, as a photographer. Is it better to take pictures on a sunny day, or on an overcast day? Take a look at Exhibits A and B here:

The same subject, taken on two different days. In the first one, the sun is shining and where the colors pop, they really pop. But the shadows are kind of hidden, and all over there’s almost too much contrast in the picture. The second one is on an overcast day, and all the colors are more muted and more even. The contrast is spread out here, so you don’t have the really dazzling whites washing everything out. It’s a more relaxing photo with softer edges. But at the same time you don’t have the green in the trees popping out at you, you don’t have the blue skies to set everything off.

So which is better? Would the first one be better framed, hanging on a wall, because of how crisp the colors are? Would the second one be better to put in an architecture book, because you’re better able to see the details on the house? Is there a right answer here?

Here’s another angle to give you more to think about.

I don’t have an answer here. I want to hear some.

This is the gazebo.

I built it myself, years ago.

But, as part of our backyard beautification program, it had to go. You may have to look closely at these pictures to see it, but it’s developed a bit of a lean. So we gathered a three-man crew.

And we pulled.

And we puuuuuulled.

And although it was built like a tank, after several hours we finally got it to topple.

The once-proud structure had fallen, and the victors enjoyed their spoils.

King of the world!

How To Run TivoToGo 2.4 on Windows Vista. I just upgraded my home computer to Windows Vista, only to find out that the TiVo Desktop program’s support for that OS is less than stellar. As in, it actually pops up a box when you’re trying to install it that says “You cannot install this on Vista”. So I’ve been trying to get earlier versions to work, and they’re not. Now, I need my TiVo To Go, that’s what lets me download shows off of the TiVo and onto the computer so that the TiVo can stay uncluttered. Without this software working, things are getting kind of backed up lately.

So it’s good to see these instructions on how to get rid of that “cannot install” box. There are quite a few steps, and it involves stripping out the OS checking routine with a piece of software called Orca. But if it works it’s worth all the hassle.

It’s surprising, with over a year of public betas how much software still hasn’t been updated to run on Vista. It’s not like they didn’t know it was coming.

At Slate: The strange history of racist spokescharacters. Aunt Jemima wishing times were more like they were before the Civil War, and Uncle Ben being an Uncle Tom. Plus lots more characters that have disappeared over the years.

Also read (or listen to) an interview with the author of the piece.