Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

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I sometimes really hate the initiative process. So many things to do, yet voting is also important and this is a big one given the big regional transportation bill (we have to get out of gridlock). It is amazingly hard to find endorsements or any definitives. I used to have the Seattle Weekly but since…

With the Canadian dollar actually above the US dollar, going to Whistler has gone from being really cheap to going to London. The fate of those with lots of American dollars I fear. One way to save is the “EDGE”:http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/winter/index.htm?crmcontact=4875060&crmevar=EM_CRM_WB_PFC_05_E3_071031 card which gives you some discount. The 1 day ski rate is a whopping $70…

Well, I’ve had three really powerful bike lights over the last couple of years. First the Light & Motion Cabeza which was lightweight but too dim really. Then after getting hit by a car, I went whole hog and got two HID (high intensity discharge) systems one for the handle bars and the other for…

“Engadget”:http://engadget.com points out that “Ars Technica”:http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/ has a great review of Leopard. I’m inclined to agree. Great analysis of the user interface and the move to gratuitous but highly demoable features like “transparency in Aero”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Aero and I hadn’t realized that Apple’s user interface guidelines were so out of date, there is actually a “wiki”:http://indieHIG.com which…

Finally got around to going through clippings, here are some from Macworld: * “Imagewell”:http://xtralean.com is a nice photo resizer. A little faster than the 30 seconds it takes to boot up Photoshop CS2 🙂 Powered by ScribeFire.

It is rebate time in the camera world, so if you want to get something now is a great time: * “Canon”:http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=PromotionsAct has rebates and most shops like “Canoga”:http://www.canogacamera.com/ and “B&H”:http://bhphotovideo.com are including instant rebates. These work better than mailing something into Canon and praying. Actually I’ve had great luck with Canon rebates and terrible…

For some reason my home directory just went completely invisible. You can’t see it in /Users. The Mac OS X has no way to change this from the user interface, so you have to use a third party utility to turn it on. The cheapest and easiest solutions are: * “X Code”:http://apple.com. Use the command…

Calvin says they are studying the first Americans that crossed the land bridge in about 11,000 BC according to “Sangres.com”:http://www.sangres.com/history/firstamericans.htm. They used a spear and a sprear throwing stick called “atlatl”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlatl. The bow and arrow didn’t show up until 1,200 years ago. They hunted probably “mammoths” (and not mastodons which are older relatives apparently but…

“Modmyiphone”:http://modmyiphone.com has figured out how to downgrade to 1.0.2 and then upgrade it. There are four steps, but the documentation is at least clear: # “Downgrade 1.0.2 Baseband”:http://www.modmyiphone.com/wiki/index.php/Downgrade_1.0.2_baseband_OS_X_iPhone by loading a package of software called Virginize. You then use sftp to copy to your phone over wifi with a freeware utility called Cyberduck # “Upgrade…

Arrgh. Why is color management so complicated. Finally figured it out for the Canon i9900, now it has changed for the later Canon Pro9000. It is complicated and there is no documentation. Fortunately, the bright souls at “Photography-on-the.net”:http://photography-on-the.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-29530.html have figure it out. The key thing is that there is actually a guide that they don’t…

Got a great tip from the comment on low light lense. So if you have Canon here are some good choices: h2. Less than Full Frame prosumer * “EF-S 17-55mm F2.8 IS USM”:http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-S-17-55mm-f-2.8-IS-USM-Lens-Review.aspx. It isn’t an “L” lense only because it works only with non-full-frame cameras. So Canon 40D and below. However, it is sharper…

Well at least for this release, the “modmyiphone.com”:http://modmyiphone.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page reports that you can now unlock it. The only real hangup is that you can’t unlock 1.0.2 first as the “guide”:http://modmyiphone.com/wiki/index.php/Dev_Team_Jailbreak_1.1.1_OSX says you need to start with a virgin 1.0.2 build without any new firmward in 1.0.2. So the steps are to take a vanilla iPhone with…

Wow, “Apple”:http://www.macrumors.com/2007/10/22/apple-4q-2007-results-conference-call-6-22-billion-revenue-904-million-prof/ announced really impressive July-September 2007 results. They did $6.2B vs. $4.8B for the same quarter a year ago. To me the most amazing thing are Macs sales. They are up 34% sequentially (2.2M vs. 1.8M a quarter ago) and most interesting, their direct through retail store sales rose from 57% up from 53%…

Since I had to swap back my 24-105 F/4L for repair, it gave me some time to reflect on the right lenses. Also Canon is having its usual “Fall Rebate”;http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=PromotionsAct program that includes $125 off of their 70-200 F/2.8L and 85 F/1.2. Lately I’ve been taking lots more photos in low light (e.g., rainy days)…

After waiting all summer for a good hard disk HD camcorder, you either had the convenience of hard disk, but bad AVCHD quality or really great HD, but you had to use tape with the Canon HV20. Used in 1080/24p mode, the quality is very much like film. Well, with the introduction of the Canon…

“Ludwig”:http://www.theludwigs.com says that I should run not walk to get “Bioshock”:http://pc.ign.com/articles/813/813641p1.html. It certainly sounds fun. In the FEAR genre. Personally, I kind of like the pseudo realism of Call of Duty. It isn’t so accurate as to be hard, but a good combination. I would only say that even Call of Duty 4, doesn’t quite…

!<http://www.south47farm.com/IMAGES/2007/2007%20maze%20low.jpg! Time once more for figuring out where to get a nice pumpkin. Around Seattle, “Remlinger Farms”:http://remlingerfarms.com is perhaps the biggest and most famous. It opens at 10AM on weekends. “Pumpkingpatchesandmore.org”:http://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/WApnw.php actually has a self listing of you pick sites in the the state of Washington. Another good one is “South 47 Farm”:http://south47farm.com which is…

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!<http://www.dxo.com/design/dxo_int/images/0/pix.png! The latest version of DxO (my favorite image editing tool), won’t display properly on the latest Mac OS X 10.4, it used to work with 4.5, you just have to turn off the GPU Acceleration option. On the Mac, this is in DxO/Preferences DXO – Simply better images Since version 4.5, the acceleration function…

OK, I have a UV filter to protect all the lenses, but there is one filter called a “circular polarizer”:http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/filter/polarizer.html which most folks will tell you should have. It has a couple of purposes. When taking pictures of fish in water, you can actually see the fish !http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/filter/filter-polar-fish-wo-pl-icon.jpg! !http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/filter/filter-polar-fish-wi-pl-icon.jpg! And when taking landscapes, it makes…

Apple – Mac OS X Leopard – Up-to-Date Customers who purchase a qualifying new Macintosh computer on or after October 1, 2007 that does have not Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard included can upgrade to Leopard. Powered by ScribeFire.

I’ve already mentioned that the Nikon D40X and their 18-200 lense are a wonderful travel kit, but what about the Canon user? For the Canon photographer, there is no equivalent until now. The new “Sigma AF 18-200 f/3.5-6.3 DC OS”:http://www.popphoto.com/cameralenses/4603/lens-test-sigma-18-200mm-f35-63-dc-os-af.html seems to have lots of sample to sample variation, but at least PopPhoto.com found that…

In Windows, there are a zillion ways things can start. The registry can do it, there is a special group in Start Programs that does it. You have to always look carefully to make sure not to be too slow. The Mac OS X isn’t any different. Here are the places you need to look…

!<http://www.myjones.com/gifs/orangecream2.jpg! People have been talking about customization a la “Cafepress”:http://cafepress.com for mugs and t-shirts, but what about ordinary things like M&Ms: Now “My M&Ms”:http://mymms.com let’s you write messages on the back of the tiny M&Ms themselves. How cool. Expensive at $12 a 7 oz bag, but fun! “My Jones”:http://myjones.com let’s you do the same with…

!<http://images.appleinsider.com/leopard-preview-time-machine-10.jpg! Until I read this piece, I thought of Leopard (OS X 10.5) mainly as eye candy, now I see that this Time Machine is a truly elegant way never to lose a file. Basically, you stick an extra hard disk into a USB drive and you get a back up of every file in…

The main bad news is that it relies on an easily closed exploit in Safari, so the next update will close it. At least though there is hope to get to the 1.1.1 feature set. I must say that it looks like Apple is going to win this arms race to close their system. Too…

Mac Rumors: Mac OS X Leopard on October 26th? Appleinsider believes that Apple is preparing for announcements late in October, specifically between the 22nd and 27th of the month. They specifically point to October 26th as the likely ship date for Mac OS X Leopard, but don’t rule out the possibility of additional announcements near…