We Saw a Chicken …

Author: scruss

  • Yay! Even better panoramas with enblend


    (Click the image to see the original in its full 1.1MB, 7264 &times 992 glory.)

    I’ve been working with Hugin for a while, but found its colour matching when stitching less than perfect. I just built and tried enblend, which promises much better quality stitching — at the cost of some serious CPU usage.

    The above is 8 images, taken when standing at the near the bridge over the Ottawa River. It was handheld, with just a basic Nikon 2MP digicam in auto-everything mode. Can you see the joins?

    Hugin just got a load easier to build on Gentoo. You no longer have to jump through hoops of tweaking source to get things to compile. I like the package a lot, and I look forward to using it with my Kaidan panoramic tripod head.

  • Oops …

    I think a CN freight train has just derailed on the spur behind our house. Last time that happened, Kennedy Road was closed all day.

    Nice day for it, tho’.

    Update, 11:20: Nah, it was just having a wee sleep on the tracks. It was making noises that a train shouldn’t make, though. Let’s see if the tracks make it through this summer.

  • Tsars and Priests

    tsars.jpg
    “There seems to be a nasty excrescence on our image of America …” says the artist, ‘Aunty Waihola’.

  • Happy Canada Day!

    I’m just about to eat burnt meat in a bun whilst drinking beer on the deck. Have fun!

  • Images By File Number

    Further to ‘The DSCN0001 Project’ yesterday, Ken suggested looking at CIMG0113.JPG from Casio cameras, as “… You might want to try a file a little higher in number. The first might not be very interesting for any camera, you know?” There is at least one blank CIMG0113 there, though.

    James added that his method is to google for a topic that may have pictures of groups of people, distort the image in PhotoShop, then paint the results. Here’s an example: Sara @.

  • The DSCN0001 Project

    dscn0001_project01.jpg
    Digicams produce sequentially-numbered picture files. Every camera has taken a first picture, and quite frequently these pictures and their original file names make it onto the web.

    Inspired by a conversation with James Dignan and Ken Weingold, the above is a collage of nine images originally named ‘dscn0001.jpg’ by the owners’ cameras. These thumbnails were found on Google Images, and have been scaled and tiled in a pseudo-random selection.

    I don’t who these people are, or what the images are from. The selection and arrangement is arbitrary. The only thing that they have in common are the file names. Somehow, despite their differences, they are strangely related.

  • e-mail contact

    Since someone gave me a Gmail invitation, I’ve decided to use it as my website feedback address. You’ll find the address on the sidebar (if you’re reading from the main page), or it’s the inevitable scruss at gmail dot com.

    I may not check this very often, but I will do so at least weekly. The Gmail user interface is pretty good; some clever use of JavaScript there.

  • Two differences

    There are two differences about me today. I’m sure you can tell what they are straight away:

    1) I’m now a part of the OMC Gas Grill family. All my life there was a gas grill family I didn’t know I had. We’re just like any other family, except that we don’t know each other, and all we do is barbecue things.

    2) I’m now the proud owner of a Faber Castell 57/87 Rietz slide rule. Watch me multiply with uncanny ease!

  • iRiver standard cable, yeah!

    I may eventually stop raving about the iRiver H120, but not any time soon.

    One of the only annoyances I have with the H120 is that I’m nearly always leaving the USB2.0 cable for it at home. I was running an errand in a nearby computer store, and found that they had a USB2.0 to digital camera cable. It looked similar enough, so I bought it.

    And it works just fine. Maybe I’m too used to old and weird proprietary cables from the past.

    Anyway, if you want a spare/replacement cable for your H120, you want a “USB2.0 A to Mini USB2.0 5 pin” cable.

  • Say no to Bonsai tomorrow, okay?

    Please don’t vote for Stephen “Bonsai” Harper tomorrow. I don’t think we need a very small version of a Bush for PM.

    Mind you, I could still be all riled up about seeing Fahrenheit 9/11 last night. Or as it’s called in Canada, Celsius -1715/99, since we’re metric.

  • I think I’ve got my thunder, thank you

    Ah, a Scarborough dinner: mutton koththu roti and a bottle of Thums Up Indian cola. The soft drink tastes exactly like the colas I used to remember in Scotland, especially Barrie’s Old Time Cola. It’s slightly more spiced than that plain old brand from Atlanta.

    Thums Up’s rather improbably tagline is: “Thums Up, I Want My Thunder.” After that much spicy food and soft drink, well …

  • An improvement, wouldn’t you say?

    a parody of the MS background, improved for wind energy types
    Of course, really savvy windfarm management software would have real clickable turbines on the desktop that would show you the state of the whole windfarm …

  • The Mayor McCa Experience

    Since I had no success/interest when I tried to torrent this show on sharingthegroove, I give you: Mayor McCa Live at Lee’s Palace, 18 June 2004.

    1. I’m So Poor. Buy My CD
    2. That’s A Wrap
    3. Hey Man, You Gotta Nice Job
    4. I Got A Haircut
    5. Funky Fresh Beets
    6. I Can’t Pay The Rent
    7. You Better Watch Out

  • It’s gettin’ so you can’t say thank you no more

    It’s my birthday today; call me Jean-Baptiste (a fête worse than death) …

    Anyway, I wanted to thank my folks for sending me a card and a gift certificate, so I sent this message:

    Subject: thank you!
    Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 06:53
    To: Mum & Dad

    I got the Amazon certificate and the card — thank you so much!

    Best Wishes,
    Stewart

    What did I get a few minutes later?

    Action: failed
    Status: 5.1.1
    Remote-MTA: dns; mail-in.freeserve.com
    Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 Error: Message content rejected

    That’s right; I triggered a virus filter. So all because of bugs in an expensive operating system that I don’t use, I can’t say thanks to my parents.

  • Getting (Not Very) Political

    Canada goes to the polls soon. For the last month, the papers have been filled with the minutiae of the candidates and their policies. As a Canadian Without A Vote™, I feel strangely detached from this. Having an opinion on the candidates would be like me judging a beauty contest for slugs.

    But people keep asking for my opinion, so here it is: Anyone but Harper. Stephen Harper reminds me a lot of George W. Bush, minus the intelligence and charisma of the southern leader. I’ve seen sharper hockey pucks than Harper, who always seems to be photographed with that glaikit (see extended entry for definition) open-mouthed expression on his face.

    Martin looks like he’s got terrible halitosis, and is permanently worried that we’re on the verge of finding him out for some nefarious act. Layton’s a bit full-on for a successful leader. And that green party guy just looks uncomfortable in a suit.

    None of the parties have innovative sustainable agendas, so I can’t recommend any of them. But if Harper wins in June, all those friends of ours in the US who want to inhabit our basement should Bush win in November might as well stay home.
    (more…)

  • The Multi-Talented Mayor

    mcca_colour.jpg
    One-man band singing sensation. Tapdancer. Comic book artist. Sometime mayoral candidate in Hamilton Donut Rock City. Is there no end to the talents of Mayor McCa? Why is he unknown outside Ontario?

    I was on the guest list for his show at Lee’s Palace on Friday. CA was on first, so there wasn’t much of a crowd. This is the first time I’ve seen him in his one-man band persona. Much fun was had.

    I recorded the show with the Mayor’s permission. I had the files online, but took them off when I ran out of space. Let me know if you want to hear them.

  • Happiness is not …

    … coming home to find someone’s run up several thousands of dollars of unauthorized transactions on your credit card.

  • linux allofmp3 downloader

    I use — and quite like — AllofMP3.com. While it’s good that they don’t require special software to download the songs, clicking and saving each link on a page is a pain.

    If you save the download page basket.html, you’ll be able to run the following one-liner to get all the files from it:

      tr ' ' '

    Update: Well, as you can see, the above code is all munged, but it’s moot since allofmp3 is basically dead and gone. If the service still works, one of the wget tricks in the comments will work as expected.

  • Welcome to Big Turtle Country

    We stopped in Madoc on Highway 7 last night for refreshments, and there in the Tim Hortons car park was a huge turtle. With its snake-like neck, thick bowed legs and saurian tail, it looked like an animated gothic footstool.

    Just a little down the road, there was another similarly-szied beastie. I wonder if they were calling to one another? Maybe the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

  • and the groundhog shall lie down with the cat

    groundhog_cat.jpg
    A sign of peace, or something, at the Parliament Hill Cat Sanctuary in Ottawa. We went up with Paul and Caroline. We stayed at the Auberge des Artes again. We ate too much. It was good.