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[02 Jul 2009|11:12pm] |
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I just posted to my flickr account a selection of photos from an Arizona trip sometime last year.
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[09 Jun 2009|04:59pm] |
hrmm... ganyweb is acting wierd.
www.ganymeta.org does not resolve; ganymeta.org does.
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[16 May 2009|12:06am] |
I saw the new X-men movie this evening.
I thought it was cool. Pretty aligned with the comicbook storyline, at least enough for me. ;-p
The Terminator movie trailer looked reeaaallly cool.
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| dinner |
[04 May 2009|11:40pm] |
steamed manila clams: 1lb.
sliced honeydew melon.
chocolate milk.
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[30 Apr 2009|01:42am] |
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I've posted some more seashell pattern simulations at my flickr page.
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| more plants |
[27 Apr 2009|01:27am] |
If you're in the hotter/drier portions of the US and like large colorful flowers, I can advise collecting Echinopsis hybrids.
I live in Minnesota, so I get to live vicariously through Google.
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| Steganography, sort of. |
[25 Apr 2009|10:58pm] |
If you to a 2D Fourier transform on a picture, then imbed some text that is barely above background in color, then reverse transform the picture... It is not apparent anything is embedded in the image.
You do have to take care and not place the text over any obvious features in the Fourier spectra. It also seems to help if you have the character of text alternating in color/shade and/or not all in a straight line. The larger the image, the easier it is to do this.
Resizing by 50%/200% results in mirroring and/or duplication of the text.
Cropping by 50% removes about 50% of the image making up the characters. It is still apparent there is text, but it may not be legible.
JPEG compression down to 20% still leaves legible text. At 10% the text is not legible, but it is easy enough to tell there was something there.
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I suspect this is what some of the image watermarking software is doing. I expect they are using a non-text image pattern which can more readily be automatically identified even with significant loss of the image.
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| yay! |
[24 Apr 2009|02:47am] |
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My second batch of blue-cheese spread is almost ripe.
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| experimental biology quiz. |
[22 Apr 2009|02:08am] |
Assuming I'm not insane, why would I place a bannana in a transparent box with an Echinopsis hybrid cactus?
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Our current players, Mplsmononoke and Rabbitucker have both provided insightful and amusing answers... but I had a more biologically plausible reason in mind.
So, the first hint is a question: What is it that causes bannanas to ripen?
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| desert plants of interest. |
[19 Apr 2009|02:37am] |
A couple unusual shrubs for those living in desert regions.
Oxalis gigantea
Oxalis herrerae
They both have succulent stems. O. herrerae seems to even have succulent petioles to its leaves.
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I just identified an unknown succulent I have as Tacitus/Graptopetalum bellus. The genus assignment has been variable, thus the unusual nomenclature. Mine bloomed wonderfully when I had it, but has not bloomed the few years since. It is growing well, however.
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| plant link |
[22 Mar 2009|09:39pm] |
Lotus tetragonolobus
My dad tried to grow this a few years back. It didn't grow too well up here in Minnesota, but it did have vibrant little red flowers which made it stick in my memory.
I expect this is one of those plants I will try to grow once I have the space for it.
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| dinner |
[21 Mar 2009|01:44am] |
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littleneck clams, steamed ~5 min.
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[02 Mar 2009|02:11am] |
Oh yes. I posted a couple new shell pattern simulation images at my flickr page.
These are produced from some software I've been translating from basic to the much nicer, more modern, programming language of freepascal. The original software was written by Hans Meinhardt and discussed in his nice book, "The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells".
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[02 Mar 2009|01:37am] |
Amanda noticed the mountain dew cans have shortened the name to "Mtn Dew"... so I went to the obvious website: http://mtndew.com/ and got a pleasant surprise.
completely work-safe.
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