Peenie Wallie: April 2012 Archives

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April 30, 2012

Canon EOS 50D Err 99 with Apple CCK

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 30, 2012 at 12:05 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 29, 2012

Live Video Stream of Red-Tailed Hawk chics

http://metobs.ssec.wisc.edu/aoss/cameras/hawkcam-flash.html?dontcareboutdupes=true

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 29, 2012 at 4:09 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 27, 2012

AOL - Cancel My Account

I can empathize with this guy because this same thing actually happened to me when I tried to cancel my AOL account many years ago. They flat-out refused to cancel the account. I had to hang up and call back because the first person I talked to absolutely refused to cancel my account.

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 27, 2012 at 5:06 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 24, 2012

Sailboat Runs Aground on South Farallon Island - 5 Dead

This is a pretty wild story about a sailboat race they held out here last weekend. Apparently, one of the boats ran aground and a bunch of people didn't make it. This guy describes a pretty harrowing ordeal:

"[...]Suddenly, and without much warning, the boat was in the path of a large wave.

"It's coming from the same direction as the other swells, but it's massive," Chong wrote. "I've seen large waves before, but this is unlike anything I've even seen outside of big-wave surf videos."

As the wave approached, Alan Cahill, a professional sailor who was at the helm, turned the boat into the "a wall of crashing water" to try to avert disaster, Chong wrote.

"The last thing I see is the boat tipping toward vertical with a band of water still above it," Chong said. "A single thought races through my head: 'This is going to be bad.'"

Chong was thrown underwater while the boat surfed backward on the wave, turned 90 degrees counter-clockwise and barrel-rolled.

"I was under water until the boat righted itself," Chong said. "Confused and disoriented, I looked around while water cleared off the deck. Nick (Vos) and I were the only ones still on the boat. The sails were shredded, the mast snapped and every flotation device had been ripped off."

As he and Vos, who broke his leg while clinging to the boat, tried to drag their fellow crew members back on board, a second wave struck from behind, ripping Chong off the boat and throwing him into the water.

The wave tossed the 15,000-pound boat high on the island's rocks, where it stayed until Monday, when a helicopter airlifted it to Half Moon Bay.

Chong, who like all members of the crew was wearing a life jacket, floated in the frigid, frothing waters of the Pacific for 15 minutes before dragging himself onto the island. "Those 15 minutes in the water were the absolute scariest in my life," he wrote.

"People have asked me if I swam for shore," Chong said. "The best way to describe the water in the break zone is a washing machine filled with boulders. You don't really swim. The water took me where it wanted to take me."

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 24, 2012 at 10:04 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 23, 2012

Timmy and Kitty Meet a Bobcat

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 23, 2012 at 9:32 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 22, 2012

Importing Photos into iPad 3 using CCK (Camera Connection Kit)

For those of you trying to import photos into an iPad 3 using the CCK, I've figured out what the file naming standard is. It's ########.jpg. It doesn't matter what the first 8 characters are. They can be numeric, alpha, underscore...it doesn't really seem to care. But it wants 8 characters. Not 7. Not 9. Exactly 8. So, maybe this will help others. I use IRFanView to rename my photos so that I can shoe-horn them into the iPad.

Also, I've been toying with the idea of using the iPad in the field to strip photos from the camera. This is not a bad idea, and it works fairly well. I can download them into the iPad, but leave a copy in the camera. Then, if I try to re-download them into the camera, it gives you the option to "Skip Duplicates", which I do. So, this is nice in that, at least the iPad isn't so stupid it will reimport the same photo without knowing. So, this is a nice feature, although I'm not certain how it would handle two different photos with the same file name, which can easily happen if you're shooting with multliple frames.

It also asks if you want to keep the photos in the camera or not. So, it appears to think it can delete them from the camera, although I'm not sure if this would work or not.

Tonight, I tried this and got the dreaded "Err 99" twice on a Canon EOS 50D while attempting to import photos. Yikes.

I've been told I should try using iTunes to load in the photos, and I'm not against this approach. Just didn't feel like tackling it tonight as I've got other fish to fry just now.

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 22, 2012 at 10:26 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Great Horned Owlets :)

Went back today and got some shots of the little furballs standing up and opening their eyes. Apparently, Mom and Dad have put some meat in the nest. It's attracting flies, but the owlets don't seem to mind. They reach down and tear at the animal carcass whenever they feel peckish. Possibly more than two, but I was able to clearly identify two for certain.

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 22, 2012 at 3:42 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

April 21, 2012

Great Horned Owlets?

Spotted these today in a local Great Horned Owl's nest. I believe that the small white lumps at the front of the nest are owlets, but I'm not sure of this. I suppose it could be a rabbit or something. I saw no movement. Saw no eyes or beaks. Not really certain at this point.
http://www.whatbird.com/forum/index.php?/topic/78868-great-horned-owlets/

Update: I think that these are photos of one or more owlets. I'll go back for more shots tomorrow. :)

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 21, 2012 at 10:54 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Lost San Francisco Landmarks

http://blog.sfgate.com/thebigevent/2012/04/19/gone-not-forgotten-landmarks-of-the-bay-area/#4555-11

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 21, 2012 at 10:25 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 20, 2012

WWII Spitfires to be Exhumed

Apparently, the Brits buried some WWII Spitfires with Rolls Royce engines at the end of WWII. They were still in the crates, unassembled. Still wrapped in cosmoline. And they've been buried underground since the end of WWII. Now, they're set to be exhumed and returned to England.

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 20, 2012 at 12:58 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Sh1t San Franciscans Say

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 20, 2012 at 12:46 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 19, 2012

April 19th

Today is April 19th. For those of you playing the home game, that was the start of the American Revolution, Waco, Columbine, Hitler's suicide, etc.

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 19, 2012 at 11:26 AM : Comments (3) | Permalink

April 15, 2012

Caledonia Meme

I shot this photo in Caledonia Alley in the Mission a few weeks ago. Then today, Jennifer shows me this photo that she found while stumbling around on the internet. I thought it was pretty funny. I still have no clue what the original intent was, of course.

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 15, 2012 at 10:50 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

The iPad 3

The iPad 3 is second to none when it comes to displaying photos. You can scroll through hundreds of photos in a second, zoom in our out. It's an amazing tool that's worlds above looking at photos on any other device I've ever seen.

Unfortunately, the iPad doesn't really have a champion inside of Apple and Apple isn't quite sure where it fits in the grand scheme of things. In size, it's in between the iPhone and the MacBook.

But they apparently haven't realized that they need to let the iPad stand on its own. It's nearly impossible to get photos into the iPad. The only way I can get images into the thing is by hooking the Apple Camera Connection Kit directly to my Canon EOS 50D camera.

I do all of my photo work in Adobe Photoshop CS5 on a laptop or a desktop, then I have to rename my images to an 8 character file name with a .JPG extension, copy them into the \DCIM\100CANON folder. Then, I copy the files onto my CF card. Then, I have to stick the CF card into my Canon EOS 50D. Then, I connect the camera to the iPad 3 via the Apple Camera Connection Kit. Finally, the iPad3 will see the images and allow them to be imported.

However, once they're all in the iPad, pretty much all you can do is look at them. No filenames are displayed. The only way I've found to delete them is one at a time, and it asks you three times to make sure you want to delete each one before it will allow you to delete it.

You can't use folders to categorize your images, although this would be very useful.

So, as a tool for working with images, the iPad is useless. Completely useless. But for displaying photos, it's the best thing ever invented. If only we could get someone inside of Apple to unlock the potential of this product then we'd really have something. A real game changer.

Update: OK. I found this solution which allows me to delete multiple images from the iPad at a time:

From the Photos app, tap 'Albums'.
Tap on an Album with photos to select an Album.
In the upper right corner there's a arrow with a box around it. Touch that.
Now you can select all of the photos you want to delete.
Click Delete.

So, it still sucks that I have to touch each one (as opposed to deleting an entire Album, or drawing circle around 200 of them, etc), but it's way better than what I was doing before.

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 15, 2012 at 3:25 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Oh this is rich...

So the president's secret service team is rolling around in bed with whores down in South America, but ' "It would not be appropriate" for the president to comment given the investigation.'

Different than, say, when the neighborhood watch shoots a black kid to death, at which point, instead of urging the nation not to rush to judgement...instead of calling for calm and restraint...instead of being a true leader, let's just be a shallow, race-baiting demagogue how bout it?

it's time to play the race card and beat the drums as loudly as possible, trying desperately to cleave the country into a white vs. black, rich vs. poor, us vs. them, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon Martin". Class. That's just what this country needs. Thanks, Obama. Thanks for turning out to be every bit as inept, shallow, racist, and divisive as anyone could have imagined.

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 15, 2012 at 1:36 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 14, 2012

The North Fork Fire

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 14, 2012 at 5:18 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

The Weekly Photos

Above: Jessie Street Alley at 6th Street.

Above: Mars One mural in Jessie Street Alley at 6th Street.

Above: Washburn Alley at Mission Street.

Above: 'Another Monkey' Thai restaurant on Valencia.

Above: Girl at Citigroup Plaza.

Above: Newsstand on Sansome and Market.

Above: Market Street trolley.

Above: Market Street flower garden.

Above: 2044 Bryant Street, San Francisco.

Above: Shot of downtown San Francisco from Coit Tower.

Above: An ad on the side of a muni bus.

Above: New leaves emerge on a tree at eTrade complex on Market St.

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 14, 2012 at 4:27 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 13, 2012

Yikes

"Gore was arrested in July 1981 after being found in the back seat of a woman's car. He was shirtless and had a cocktail in one hand and a gun in the other. He also had handcuffs, rope and a police scanner.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/12/fla-killer-gore-set-to-die-by-lethal-injection/#ixzz1rwU054S7

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 13, 2012 at 11:24 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 8, 2012

The gift that keeps on giving...

The guy that stole my car apparently went to the east bay, and then came back. Needless to say, if you're in a stolen car, there's no reason to pay the tolls. I just got a FasTrak Notice Of Toll Evasion letter. Thanks for that.

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 8, 2012 at 9:44 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Weekly Photos

Above: Spring snow gridlock on Highway 285 Northbound in Colorado.

Above: A few hours later, Catalina Island in the Santa Barbara Island chain off the coast of Los Angeles.

Above: The Cargill Salt Flats at the southern end of San Francisco Bay.

Above: Fresh cut flowers for sale on the corner of Sansome and Pine.

Above: Homeless man on Market Street.

Above: A man peddles his wares at a quasi-legal stand on Market Street.

Above: Charcoal sketch over a torn flyer.

Above: Random scene from Market Street in SF.

Above: Western Meadowlark near Morrison, Colorado.

Above: Jennifer took this photo with her iPhone of me taking a picture of the Western Meadowlark.

Above: The girls discover a crucified teddy bear the day before Easter.

Above: The girls decide to rescue a crucified teddy bear the day before Easter.

Above: Jennifer took this photo with her iPhone of the post-restoration Teddy Bear.

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 8, 2012 at 3:54 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 7, 2012

April Fools

Jennifer told me that we had to play an April Fools joke on her grandparents. But she was concerned that they would be expecting it on April first. So, we waited and called today.

You can here the conversation here: April_Fools.

We used Audacity to beep out some of the personal information to keep stalking down to a bare minimum.

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 7, 2012 at 1:45 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Bicylclists kill another pedestrian in SF

This guy plowed through a busy crosswalk on his bicycle, killing a 71 year old man in the process. Then posted about it online like it was all a big joke. He should be charged with manslaughter and prosecuted.

Posted by Rob Kiser on April 7, 2012 at 2:09 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

April 2, 2012

Qwest[Century Link] DSL vs. Wispertel[Skybeam]

Now that I have two internet service providers, I figured I'd do a comparison of the two. Went to http://speakeasy.net/speedtest/. Did an online speed test to San Francisco. With the Qwest/Century Link setup, my results were 1.13Mbps Down, and 0.69 Mbps Up.

With the Qwest/Century Link setup, my results were 1.13Mbps Down, and 0.69 Mbps Up.