We Saw a Chicken …

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  • Lady Goosepelt Rides Again!

    Lady Goosepelt, from What a Life!

    In case anyone wants them, the 600 dpi page images of What a Life! are stored in this PDF: what_a_life.pdf (16MB). If you merely wish to browse, all the images from the book are here.

    I got a bit carried away with doing this. Instead of just smacking together all the 360 dpi TIFFs I scanned seven years ago, I had to scan a new set at a higher resolution, then crop them, then fix the page numbers, add chapter marks, and make the table of contents a set of live links.

    I’ve got out of the way of thinking in PostScript, so I spent some time looking for tools that would do things graphically. Bah! These things’d cost a fortune, so armed only with netpbm, libtiff, ghostscript, the pdfmark reference, Aquamacs, awk to add content based on the DSC, and gimp to work out the link zones on the contents page, I made it all go. Even I’m impressed.

    One thing that didn’t impress me, though:

    aquamacs file size warning

    I used to edit multi-gigabyte files with emacs on Suns. They never used to complain like this. They just loaded (admittedly fairly slowly) and let me do my thing. Real emacs don’t give warning messages.

  • ad free goodness

    I (heart) Adblock Plus: and to think it’s bad for the internet …

  • viva bus!

    I’m on a Viva bus heading south from Glenn & Mollie‘s BBQ in Aurora. The vanHool bendybus is fast and comfortable, and I like the stops with the next bus time display. Wish we had this service in Scarborough.

  • Display or hide zero values – Excel – Microsoft Office Online

    Display or hide zero values – Excel – Microsoft Office Online
    You may have a personal preference to display zero values in a cell, or you may be using a spreadsheet that adheres to a set of format standards that requires you to hide zero values. There are several ways to display or hide zero values.

  • l’air du bus

    An old open-top Routemaster tour bus turned past me onto Bay today. The diesel smell and the distinctive bogla bogla groom! as it pulled away reminded me of UK public transport.

  • go train!

    I found one of the little pluggie-innie dealies that attach to an iBook power adaptor on the GO train yesterday. This is convenient, for my own pluggie-innie dealie got bent and no longer works.

  • for Paul Carter

    for Paul Carter. Paul died a year ago today.

     The above are static images of the installation.

    (more…)

  • from The Daily Show

    Genius: Cape Wind Comedy Daily.

  • forget, forget, forget

    Well, the exam’s done. With luck, I can get on with life now.

    The gym at UofT where the exam was held was stiflingly hot. It also didn’t help that the invigilator dude made announcements through a cruddy bullhorn, so he ended up sounding like an imperative Miss Othmar.

    Ask me how I did in  mid-October.

  • cram, cram, cram

    I have my PPE exam today for my Professional Engineers Ontario licence. This is my first exam in 15 years (not counting citizenship, which was more of a test). I think it’s my first essay-question exam, possibly ever, certainly since school.

    I never was very good at studying; last minute and aim for one point above the pass mark was more my style. I’m sure Catherine can confirm it hasn’t changed.

  • Go Hamilton!

    North American Windpower: Content / Projects & Contracts / AAER Signs Turbine MOU With Positive Power Co-Op
    Wind turbine manufacturer AAER Inc., headquartered in Bromont, Quebec, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Hamilton, Ontario-based Positive Power Co-op for the sale of two A-1500-77-80 wind power turbines, worth C$4.5 million.

  • to convert a geographic shape file to a UTM projected one

    OGR seems even more cryptic than proj:

    ogr2ogr -t_srs "+proj=utm +zone=17 +datum=NAD83" -s_srs WGS84 outfile-utm.shp infile-geo.shp

    Note the weird output-first convention. Check your UTM zone and datum. This approach seem to work for GPS tracks saved as GPX and converted using gpx2shp.

  • Ripley Wind Farm

    I drove through Suncor/Acciona‘s Ripley wind farm the other night. They’re just constructing, but this summer has been almost perfect weather for building (dry, still — which kind of sucks for farmers and those of us with wind farms nearby, but it’s an ill calm …).

    I don’t usually take pictures of parked or machines under construction, but these Enercons are quite something.

    Ripley Wind Farm - under construction

    Ripley Wind Farm - under construction

    Ripley Wind Farm - under construction

  • trash

    The city decided to change its trash collection today, and most of our street (us included) didn’t know. We all got little yellow snarky notes saying that it was the wrong day. As I’ve never got one before when I mistakenly put out the wrong kind on the wrong day, they must’ve been expecting this.

    The city really should’ve waited until next month, when last year’s trash calendars would have run out. As is, the reaccoons are going to have a banquet tonight on everyone’s trash at the curbside.

  • well, there ain’t much else to do

    In a Swiss Chalet in Waterloo, bored teenage servers are abusing helium balloons so they can talk funny.

  • doesn’t rule my web

    Lots of people are drooling over the book Rule the Web. I’m not, particularly. It’s good in parts, but reminds me so much of those mid-late 1990s “Best Web Directory Ever” tomes that are currently propping up shelves in bargain bookstore, and propping up houses built on landfills in Arizona.

    My biggest complaint is its US-centric approach. Pretty much everything related to buying, selling or finding people or things mentioned in the book only applies to the USA.

    As is the way when web meets paper, some things are out of date already. It happens, but it’s a shame when the book’s pretty new in the shops.

    I did find a couple of things I genuinely didn’t know about, but might find useful:

    • Combine PDFs, for slicing and dicing PDFs under OS X. (I could do this with pdftk, but Combine PDFs is purty).
    • The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. When I next need a comic boing, I’ll know where to look.

    It also gave links to OnyX and HandBrake, both of which I already use. But that’s about it. I’d have been peeved if I bought the book (yay, Toronto Public Library!), as this is more of a basic manual than a compendium of coolness.

  • caring, sharing – and Scottish

    Strike Rochdale from the record books. The Co-op began in Scotland.
    … the cooperative movement was born nearly 240 years ago in a barely-furnished cottage in Fenwick, East Ayrshire. (And it’s pronounced ‘fennick’, before you ask.)

  • Looks like it

    It’s that time again: aelmkizk@scruss.com.

  • Just don’t call me a damsel, okay?

    dulcimer

    I bought an Appalachian dulcimer yesterday. It’s beautifully made by Peter Cox of Waubaushene, Ontario. The top is a slab of old pine that was originally a rafter in an old farmhouse.
    Despite its initial unusual appearance (played on the lap, modal frets, four strings – two of which are in unison – tuned ddAD), it’s extremely hard to make an unpleasant noise with one. Part of its charm is that it’s very quiet (so only those nearby are annoyed – and since Catherine‘s away …), but you can also pick out simple tunes easily. Less than a day after getting it, I’d picked out a recognizable version Speed of Things, my favourite-ever Robyn Hitchcock song.

    Peter recommended the book In Search of the Wild Dulcimer, which I’ve discovered is available online from the author’s site.