This will probably be my weekend project.
Camera Hacks: Turn Your PAS into a Super Camera
It wont become a DSLR, but it looks like it adds some useful functionality to the hohum “point and shoot”.
UPDATE: Well, it looks like my project will have to wait. I’m having some difficulty getting access to the root of my SD card. I’ll have to obtain a card reader or delve deeper into mounting the camera.
Lately, I’ve decided that my computer should be doing something.
When on the computer, I just surf the web, listen to music, and watch video. (That’s all I bought it for.) It’s not CPU intensive or working to it’s full capacity. Often, I allow the computer to run when I’m not using it directly. I bittorrent overnight, but still the computer isn’t really doing anything. I’m not using any CPU power or being productive. Until, now!
I decided to do some folding.
Folding@Home is a project from Stanford University that uses millions of networked PCs to form a supercomputer for protein folding simulations. The client software is loaded on a PC, it contacts the central servers, and receives “work units”. The client then runs on spare CPU time, and uploads finished work units to the server. ~Folding@Home
I first set it up using Windows. The client was hassle free, but then I watched my folding in progress. I realized that folding my protein would take hours (or days) to finish. I don’t like using Windows for that long. So, I had to research the Ubuntu alternative.
With Ubuntu, I dread installing anything that’s not in the Package Manager (automated installer). It’s a bit of a hassle to find an up to date tutorial, and I’m not a linux wizard. Luckily, installing the folding program didn’t take too long (~2 hours).
This is protein p2526_AM22-43. Thus far, it’s taken a day for my P4 3GHz Dual Core CPU to get half way through this beast. But, now, I can actually put my computer to work for something useful.
This year, I’ve decided that its time that I give back to the software, the websites, and the artists that are making a difference.
So, I’ve got $20 in my paypal account that I’m going to divide amongst four services, which I use most. No, $5 isn’t much, but “A journey of ten thousand miles begins with a single step.” And, this is a first for me.
Can you recommend anything else?
Since living in Korea, I’ve been trying out some new software and web apps. The biggest software change was the Ubuntu operating system. I played around with it before, but I could never shake off Windows XP as my main operating system. (Recently, there was a major upgrade to Ubuntu called Gutsy Gibbon. Maybe you heard about it.)
The second change I made was Gallery. This is a photo gallery, which I can run on my web server. I’ve been using this in lieu of Flickr, Photobucket, or Google’s Picasa because… Well, I dont have a good reason. I was going to abandon it many times, but I kept working with it. Those other services have better functions and faster bandwidth. But, it seems redundant for me to pay a web host for servers and bandwidth, and then pay Flickr for their servers and bandwidth.
Though, Ubuntu and Gallery have been relatively easy to set up they’ve had their share of problems. My biggest problem with Gallery was the uploading tool. Using the web interface, I could only upload photos manually and 8 MB at a time. This took hours considering that I’d sometimes take over 100 photos per trip. There were, supposedly, some better uploaders for this task, but I was never able to get them running. Luckily, I was able to find a new feature.
I was messing around with F-spot, a pre-installed Ubuntu application, for viewing photos. I was looking for easy ways to rotate vertical photos. Luckily, I was in the menu bar and noticed the exporter. It listed Flickr, Picasa, and … Gallery as possible exports. ORLY? Could this really work with my Gallery installation. /cue the Kool Aid Man.
OH YEAH!
It works. Now, I don’t have to manually sit at the computer and upload photos five at a time. Ron Popeil must have created F-Spot, because I just have to set it and forget it! A time consuming job, now, easily takes care of 100s of photos at a time. Thank you to whomever added that functionality
I’ve been using Google personalized homepage since it first rolled out, and now I’m loving the new themes feature. I got off work today, logged into my gmail account, and noticed some new text on the personalized homepage. Hello, “Select theme!” How long have you been there? Not long, I see.
I like Google. They’ve been my only search engine since my early college days. I’ve always had them as my default homepage. So, it made sense to use the personalized page and add my own customizations. It’s now my web portal with the awesomeness of google search. (Though I usually type search into the Firefox bar. Maybe there is some web psychology behind that). Anyhoo, eventually, I did get tired of the white background. Firefox has a couple plugins called Greasemonkey and Stylish. They add some ways to change the look of the personalized page, but they were never that great. They usually changed a few text or background colors. On certain holidays, you’d see a new Google logo replace the original, but it was still the plain white google page.
The new themes add a lot more liveliness to the basic google page we’ve grown up on. There are currently 6 themes, but more have been proposed. They add a spiffy dynamic graphic to the top background and it will blend the colors to the rest of the page. The dynamic graphics will change accordingly to the conditions of your area code: day, night, cold, hot, season. Personally, I like the Tea House theme. Green is so calming and the Asian fox dude is cool.
I think the old guy is checking if he’s “Sure” or not. Apparently he isn’t, because no one wants to be around him. =P
EDIT:
After the first 24 hours of using the new themes feature, I was sure that I had seen all of the backgrounds for the “Tea house”. I thought it might be an neat idea if there was a special picture that would only load on a specific time and disappear the next second. Well, apparently there is: Themes Easter Egg. You need to reload the page at 3:14AM. (Pi Day!)
There is also a css edit to make the image appear without being on the 3:14AM time. It shouldn’t be long before people make their own backgrounds. (if they aren’t already)
