GX Remotes

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As some of you know, we have been working on the GX at Matrix Orbital for some time. Well, today we received our samples of the remote control. I am very proud of the design, we did have to use an off the shelf remote, do to the prohibitive cost of designing one ourselves. The button layout is not optimal, but I think we did very well with the limitations we had. The remote design is aimed at MCE, but we are focusing on the MythTV people as well, adding an arcade button and the GX button (which will be for system stats, and GX configuration). Ray has also been working with Microsoft/Philips on using their remote control, and we might be able to offer that in the near future as well, so with out further ado, the GX remote.

New Winter, New Jeep…

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It is here, the snow, the cold the Jeeping FUN! For those who keep up with my life, I got a new Jeep. It’s a 1998 5.9 Limited in silver. It’s the one I have always wanted, the perfect Jeep. It is fully loaded except for one thing, it is missing hooks and under body protection. I am not overly happy about that, but out of all the things about this Jeep, it worries me the least. It cost me $8000 even, that’s about $3000 less then it should have, so I’m extra happy. And with that, today we got a dump of snow, and with that the yearly curling ring on my hill. Today there was one near accident of a guy in a small car trying to drive down and almost hitting a parked car. From the looks of it this must have been his first year in Canada and his first winter. There was a guy in a Pathfinder trying to help him out and was pulling him out with those red little tie straps. Seriously, if you are going to be driving a SUV, and trying to pull people up slippery hills, get a real town line, they are not that expensive and much safer!!!

Anyway’s, here is the add for the jeep I got!

Now it’s time to start buying some of my new parts for it. The first this is a locking differential from Auburn. It is called ECTED and is a electronic locking differential and a limited slip when it is not locked. After that a minimal lift kit and then some real bumpers!!!

Genographic Project part II

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Today the DNA kit came for the Genographic Project from National Geographic after many many months of waiting. The problem was that it was shipped to the wrong address so I never received it. I e-mailed National Geographic and it was sorted right away and a new kit was shipped. 

 

 The kit contains a DVD with a National Geographic episode detailing the human genome project and information on how the test works, such as what DNA markers the test looks for. It also contains the necessary cell sampling equipment. There are two swabs and two tubes to store them in.

 

The idea is to scrape the inside of my cheek on two different occasions to gather enough cell samples to get enough DNA to test with. Then it’s time to place the swab inside the container, and tomorrow do it again for the second sample.

The rest of the pictures are here…

HDR Photography

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With Jamie and Mike getting their cameras, my interest in more technical photography was aroused. A new trend of High Dynamic Range photography has taken off. HDR has been around for almost ten years now, but has taken off recently with easy to use software and the wide use of digital cameras. The concept is you take a number of photographs, each with a different exposure setting. You begin with the ideal picture, lets say at 1/8 sec, then you would take one at 1/60 sec and one at 1/2 sec. This will give you a wider range of colours and tones then you could get by just taking one image.

1/60 sec 1/8 sec 1/2 sec

One of the most important things is to keep the camera very still for these! I took a total of 12 images for this as this was my first experience, from the 12 I chose these three images, plugged them into my HDR software and here is the result.

HDR Sunset

This technique is very useful for taking pictures inside churches and anytime you wish to take a picture in an environment where you have a bright light in a dark room, like stained glass windows, or from doorways facing outside. I look forward to testing this in November!

{edit September 30}
Today I did two more pictures with HDR.

 

{edit October 05}
Today I did one more picture with HDR.

New Macbook

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I bought a new Macbook for the office for sales, one of many new ones I hope to get. The price is amazing for what you get, Dual Core 1.83GHz, 512meg DDR2 RAM, 60GB HD, 13.3″ 1280×800 LCD, iSight at 640×480, DVD-ROM/CDRW and a 5.5 hour battery life. The battery life is the part that really catches my eye, it’s to the full day at the office or school level, but I won’t be happy until it’s at 12+ hours. I digress, the point is, you get all of this for $1250CND, a price per hardware ration unmatched by anyone else.  This bundled with OSX, iLife, iWeb, iPhoto and other integrated applications which for the most part work seamlessly makes it a perfect computer for a. students b. new computer users and c. any family members you want to stop calling you for technical support. One of the greatest things about a Mac laptop is how well it works for suspend mode. Too many times my Windows laptop has drained its battery because a Windows popped up a message balloon letting me know my network cable has unplugged, where are the Apple would gracefully go into sleep. As well how fast the Mac wakes up, it’s instant, none of this waiting for 10-20 seconds.

Now the things I hate, from talking to people I seem to be the minority when it comes my my “issues”. First of all, enough of this wide screen crap. The main purpose of my laptop is not to watch movies, but to work, to browse the Internet and to type. So having a wide aspect ration screen does not help me and makes the laptop wide and rectangular in shape. I really enjoy my 4:3 ratio screen, it gives me lots of work area, in a nice confined environment. So please, Apple, make me a new 12″ laptop, like your old G4 ones which was the perfect size. GIVE ME A BACKLIT KEYBOARD!!! I hope that’s clear enough.

Things I would like, mostly a SD Slot, as all new cameras are SD, and not having to lug around my camera cable to plugging, hell I haven’t seen that cable in two years! Like I said at the beginning, 12+ hour battery life.

Macbook

Birthdays

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As my birthday approaches faster then a speeding bullet, which contrary to popular belief you cannot dodge “matrix style” got thinking on the whole concept of getting gifts from friends and family. It seems almost silly to me that they are the ones giving me presents for putting up with me for another year. I should be the one giving presents to them, for another year of misery I have administered to them from me waking up each morning.

Sunridge Store

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The new location is now open in Sunridge. We are doing well so far, but the demographic is totally different then the people around Kensington. Things I have learned so far.

  1. Everyone seems to carry cash, where in Kensington it's very very low.

  2. WAY more ethnic/immigrant crowed.

  3. Very low high end tea sales, and when it is it‚ by Asians

Posted in Tea

Cryptography

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I came accross a cryptography page recently, and decided to give it a shot. This was a basic letter replacement one, which was made fairly simple because word spaces were included. Here is the first one I did.

MTF IWNNXK ZJ TZM HZO DWQI GVQ ZWM.  TWQOGK JVQI TVH MZ TZXH MTFYG HZOI YQ HYIPVGHFH EWMWFX MYPUFMI.

It took me a hour and a half to solve, but was happy that I did manage to do it. Here is another interesting thing I found, it seems Poe enjoyed Cryptography a fair amount.

http://www.bokler.com/eapoe_challengesolution.html 

Knight Rider

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So over the last month or so I have been watching Knight Rider… and now watching Knight Rider 2000. The show is entertaining… and I am having memories triggered to Austria. Anyways… it's all fun, watching Season 4 right now. Need to get the other three seasons.

knight rider thumb

{edit} 

HAHAHAHAHA, they had Scotty there, they zapped him and he began to talk just like he was still on-board.

{edit}

OMG KITT is dead, deleted, short circuted… eeeeeeeek 

{edit}

Now Devin is dead… wow, talk about getting rid of the cast quickly. 

{edit}

OK,finished… not a great movie… not bad either… one of those, I'll probably never watch again. 

Spidermand 1 and 2

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So tonight I saw the Spiderman movies. Yes, I do realize they have been in theaters and out now for some time, but do to circumstances, which I do not at this moment know what they are, I did not see the movies. So Adam and I made a date and we watched them back to back. Allow me to say, I did enjoy the movies a fair amount. The only Spiderman comic books I ever read involved Venom, so I was not too familiar with the villains I did not bring any expectations to the movie. As the movies rolled out, they were fast paced and true to their origins, even if the stories were not cannon. I though all the casting was done very well, and each actor filled the role very well. When I saw the actor, I believed I was looking in the comic book. Over all, the movie was fun, and a good watch. I would give it a 8/10.

As for Spiderman 3. This upcoming movie is supposedly featuring Venom. Venom being one of my favorite characters, and one of which I do know a fair amount on, having spent lots of money when I was younger buying up all the original comic books. Now the main problem I see is that the original symbiont comes from a different planet, during a strange story line. This has a simple solution…

During the night a meteorite is seen enter the atmosphere and impacting. As the camera gets close to the crater, smoke is coming out and upon further inspection there seems to be a black liquid bubbling to the surface. If begin to gather and congeal. It slowly takes shape of a blob that moves around just a little. This black blob is discovered by a scientist who scoops it into a jar and takes it with him to a laboratory. During his experiments, he begins to observe it reacting and adapting to external forces around it. Upon further discoveries it is shown that the black blob will cover a living animal and give it extraordinary strength, but after a while the symbiont will kill it's host and move on, especially of there is a stronger host to attach to. At this point we find out that the scientist works for Osborn and decides to show his discovery to Harry. Harry still vengeful the death of his takes this opportunity to exact his revenge. Seeing what the black blob will do, he has it attached into a self discentigrading mesh that gives it a form of a suite, a new Spiderman suit to be specific. Harry then calls up his friend and tries to berry the hatchet and make amends and offers a new suit to Peter as a showing of good faith. He accepts, and takes the suit with him and begins to use it, thanks to the enhancements it provides.

From here other stuff happens and a good movie is made.

FIN