Everyone knows that leap years come once every 4 years. Unless the year is divisible by 100, then it’s skipped. Unless, of course, that year is also divisible by 400, then there is a leap day. (For example, 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not.) Confused? It’s simple really. 365 + 1/4 - 1/100 + 1/400 = 365.2425, or 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 12 seconds. Got it now?
I nearly forgot about last night’s lunar eclipse, had it not been for a reminder phone call from Leah. The moon was a wonderful rust-brown color; and the eclipse, at the time of the photograph, was almost full.
The photograph of the moon shows the outer limits of the Leica D-LUX 3’s lens and zoom capabilities. This image was taken at full digital zoom: 16x magnification. I’d like to say outright that the blurriness is due to the extreme magnification; however, during the 8-second exposure even the slightest wind-induced wobble of the tripod would have greatly diminished the sharpness of the image.
Leica makes a mount that allows the D-LUX 3 to attach to a Leica spotting scope. This would have been a great, albeit costly, tool for capturing a sharp image of the moon.
If you need something to pass the time today, check out the Web site Will It Blend.com. There you’ll see videos where Blendtec blenders are puts to the test. Exactly what kinds of things can you see blended? Marbles, magnets, a tape measure, light bulbs, and most recently, an iPhone. These aren’t your average blenders. The Blendtec blenders comes with a 1500 watt motor, which is far above the standard 300-400 watt blenders you’ll find in your average department store. Of course, the $400 price tag is a bit above average also.
Happy Thanksgiving to all! Hope your day is great with love and joy, and that you have much to be grateful for. Eat lots of turkey!
Originally I had planned on purchasing a TiVo, complete with its monthly service plan, once the Series 3 HD DVR was released. However, when that day finally came, the price tag of $800 for 20 hours of HD recording made me decide that having a home HD DVR was just a fantasy. While relating my woes of household electronic despair, a friend recommend I look into MythTV, a free, open-source, Linux based program, and build my own HTPC.
As it turns out, I had recently decided to downsize my personal computing. I had a desktop, a Linux based server, and a laptop. I switched from using my desktop full time to using my laptop, and had plans to use the desktop as a new Linux server, getting rid of the old one. The desktop machine was certainly powerful enough to handle MythTV, and I could still use it as a personal file server and downgrade. So, I figured, why not give it a whirl! Read the rest of this entry »
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