"Stone knives and bearskins"

The Verizon DSL line went down Tuesday morning. It may not be back until Thursday or Friday.

This is the first problem I've had in almost two years of service.

Fortunately, the "new" Macintosh has a built-in modem.

I had forgotten how slow a 56k dial-up connection is.

Another Panorama

I am having too much fun with this!


Taken a few days ago from the center ("Halfway To HELL!") of the Harvard Bridge, a sweeping view of the Charles River, the Longfellow Bridge and beyond, and both the Cambridge and Boston sides of the River.

Taken with a Kodak 'point and shoot' digital camera, and automatically "stitched" together with an all but automatic application, I am amazed at just how well it came out.

Click on the image to see the 1.6 MB full sized version.

Returning the favor

Weblog of an old friend back in Rhode Island.

Bob Ruzzo is an original. Creative and talented as all get out.

I was very impressed with this particular entry about finding the wedding license of his great great grandparents.

I was fortunate indeed some years ago, to find his email address via Google.

One of these months, I AM going to get him up here on the right Sunday to hit the MIT Flea Market. If for no other reason than to see that he gets a replacement Macintosh.

Boston has the best trash!

I scored an Apple 21" CRT Studio Monitor off the curb today.

I will not relate the tale of getting this 77 pound monster home. The horror... the horror!

So, I move the ViewSonic monitor and eventually manhandle the "new" monitor into place. Hook up the power and connect it to the computer.

I push the power button. Will it light?

YES! It's orange. The monitor is in standby mode, awaiting a video signal.

I push the power button on the computer. I wait.

The power button on the monitor glows green!

We get signal!

MAIN SCREEN TURN ON!

(sorry about that.)

I had to mess with the monitor settings a bit. However, I am now at 1600 X 1200 resolution @ 85 Hertz, on a monitor with an almost flat screen.

As an added bonus, it's got 4 USB ports on the side. Just the thing for the mouse, the PowerMate and the trackball.

Pictures will be posted shortly. I need to recuperate after getting this thing home.

(edit) Here's a photo of the monitor in place.

Jamiaca Pond Panoramas

Each panorama is made up of 4 individual images, automatically stitched together with a Mac OS X application called "DoubleTake".

The shareware fee is US$21.95.

Sure, I could do all that manually in Graphic Converter or PhotoShop. However, if there's an application that'll do it for me, almost instantly.

Well, computers ARE supposed to be 'labor saving' devices, right?

(edit May 11) Yes, there are obvious exposure differences in the panoramas. I'm using Double Take in its free demo mode. As such, the more sophisticated options are, as yet, unavailable to me.

Once I pay the shareware fee, however...

But right now, for quick creations of impromptu panoramas, this IS a pretty spiffy application.

Wally Schirra

Mercury, Gemini, Apollo.

Wally Schirra, one of the original astronauts in the Mercury 7 project, died Thursday at age 84.