Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Happy Saint Joseph's Day! La Festa di San Giuseppe







favorite one: delicious zeppole!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Happy St Patrick's Day! March 17, 2008


Happy St Patrick's Day!, originally uploaded by shannonpatrick17.

Fun Links for St. Patrick's Day:

History: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick
St. Patricks Day information and celebrations worldwide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick's_Day
My Favorite "Irish" music:
Brendan Perry:
Brendan Perry myspace
http://www.brendan-perry.com/journal/

Kila:
http://www.kila.ie/default.asp

Music Videos:








2008 St Patricks Day Celebrations:










Friday, March 14, 2008

Unlock the potential of your Canon digital Camera: chdk Canon SD1000


chdk Canon SD1000 ixus70, originally uploaded by shannonpatrick17.

(((Use a free firmware update and unlock all kinds of capabilities you probably did not think your Canon point and shoot consumer digital camera was even able to do! This is not endorsed by Canon but if you do not like it simply erase it off your sdcard and your Camera is completely back to normal (crippled?)).

A. After loading of CHDK program you can get the following functionality:

* Shooting in RAW
* Live histogram (RGB, blended, luminance and for each RGB channel)
* Zebra mode (blinking highlights and shadows)
* DOF-calculator
* Battery indicator
* Scripts execution (exposure/focus/... bracketing, intervalometer and more)
* File browser
* Text reader
* Calendar
* Some fun tools and games :)

Q. What camera models are supported by the CHDK program?

A. Currently, the CHDK program is available for Canon digital cameras of the following models:

* A460, Fw: 1.00d
* A550, Fw: 1.00c
* A560, Fw: 1.00a
* A570, Fw: 1.00e, 1.01a
* A610, Fw: 1.00e, 1.00f, (1.00d with CHDK version for 1.00e)
* A620, Fw: 1.00f ( 1.00e is not compatible. You must upgrade to 1.00f first (see here))
* A630, Fw: 1.00c
* A640, Fw: 1.00b
* A650 IS, Fw: 1.00d
* A700, Fw: 1.00b
* A710 IS, Fw: 1.00a
* A720 IS, Fw: 1.00c
* S2 IS, Fw: 1.00e, 1.00f, 1.00g, (1.00i with CHDK version for 1.00g)
* S3 IS, Fw: 1.00a
* G7, Fw: 1.00e, 1.00g, 1.00i, 1.00j
* SD450 (IXUS55), Fw: 1.00b, 1.00c
* SD500 (IXUS700), Fw: 1.01a, 1.01b
* SD700 (IXUS800), Fw: 1.00b, 1.01b
* SD800 (IXUS850), Fw: 1.00e
* SD850 (IXUS950), Fw: 1.00c
* SD1000 (IXUS70), Fw: 1.01b, 1.02a

In theory it can be modified to support any camera based on the DIGIC II or DIGIC III platform. (How do you do this?). See Firmware Comparisons to identify which build will work for you.

(((set with my first photos using chdk including RAW photos:)))
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonpatrick17/sets/72157604095336885/
 Beatrice City Library

Lamps made from sheep's stomachs:

http://www.julialohmann.co.uk/pi_ruminantbloom.php
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/14/lamps-made-from-shee.html

(((Kinda Gross but cool at the same time)))

Happy Pi Day!


Happy Pi Day!, originally uploaded by tonibduguid.

Learn more here: www.piday.org/



Thursday, March 13, 2008

Etch A Sketch Clock

New Five Dollar Bill Enters Circulation Today

Every person or business that gets a counterfeit bill experiences a real economic loss, and in 2007, $61.4 million in counterfeit money was passed in the United States. "Everyone who uses U.S. currency is on the front line of defense against counterfeiters," said Michael Merritt, Deputy Assistant Director, U.S. Secret Service. "The best way to protect yourself is to learn the security features. It’s simple, it’s quick, and it can save you from accepting a fake."

www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney/

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Big Youtube News turns out to be: extended API, YouTube Everywhere

"YouTube’s big announcement today is more open API’s that will allow developers to upload videos and video responses from any where."
TechCrunch: Anticlimax: YouTube Announces More Open API’s
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Now if YouTube would just embrace H.264 video encoding for hi-def quality videos (or at least the On2 VP6 codecs that Vimeo uses), the site would, by our estimation, be virtually unrivaled in both features and quality"
WIRED Blog Network: New YouTube Developer Tools Turn Any Website Into a Video Sharing Hub
---------------------------------------------
http://www.youtube.com/blog

YouTube Everywhere


  • Upload videos and video responses to YouTube
  • Add/Edit user and video metadata (titles, descriptions, ratings, comments, favorites, contacts, etc)
  • Fetch localized standard feeds (most viewed, top rated, etc.) for 18 international locales
  • Perform custom queries optimized for 18 international locales
  • Customize player UI and control video playback (pause, play, stop, etc.) through software

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

RateMyCop.com Good Or Evil?




http://ratemycop.com/
Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I can't even get the website to load today so I'm unable to check it out, tell me what you think.

Update: I was amazed by reading some of the stories on Cops Writing Cops,here:
http://www.copswritingcops.com/

hulu.com Video on Demand Launches Tomorrow

Hulu launches Tomorrow
I got my private beta invite in January and so far have watched 49 shows on here. It was cool to watch as they kept adding more networks and content, there is no question this site is going to be a big hit. One piece of advice is to use firefox and get ad block plus then you don't have to watch the short commercials, man I hate commercials! TV on the internet seems like it is becoming more mainstream and I don't think it will stop anytime soon.
The good thing about this is that once the genie is out of the bottle there is not much that corporations can do to try to control how people view the content they make available. This site http://www.openhulu.com/ has already mirrored the content from Hulu so people without a invite have had access to it.

from wikipedia: Hulu allows users to embed their videos on external sites. A user in the private beta decided to scrape all of their videos and make a public site called OPENhulu.

There was no response from Hulu as to the legality of this, but many blogs covered the issue creating quite an uproar in the online video scene.

Networks now available on Hulu

Henry Blodget's laundry list of why Hulu will not
be a success, Hulu: The Modern-Day @Home:
Hulu Launches: Great Product, Still Screwed



Monday, March 10, 2008

Samsung L74W Touch-Screen Digital Camera

If you've never used a touch-screen digital camera before, it's definitely a different sort of experience than your typical digital camera. The 7.2 megapixel Samsung L74W offers a 3 inch touch sensitive panel with which to change the shooting settings. The only "real" buttons used during image capture are the shutter release and zoom control (for the 3.6x optical zoom).


Link to full article: http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/default.asp?newsID=3119

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

History of the Reuben Sandwich

Here is a link to my first Squidoo Lens. It is all about Reuben Sandwiches.
http://www.squidoo.com/reubensandwich
With lots of different recipes that might inspire you to try something new or just help you perfect your own Reuben sandwich. There is info about the controversial history of the Reuben, also some amazing flickr photos of Reubens from all around the country. Last but not least, there are some links to really interesting youtube videos about famous Deli's and how to make your own sauerkraut, thousand island dressing and even a Reuben strudel video.