President Buffoon... I mean Obama, is no friend of the Jewish people. He proved it again today. I've blogged about this issue before.
I always thought the US would always stand for Israel. But what President Obama is requesting is that Israel shrink itself to 8 miles wide, down from 45 miles. This would give the Palestinians fish in a barrel. They could easily lob their missiles anywhere into Israel. What's amazing is that there is at least one Jewish group, J Street, that supports "wholeheartedly" what the President has said.
As I said, I always thought we'd support Israel, I NEVER thought we'd be the ones that would enable Israel's enemies to begin the events foretold in Revelations. It would be interesting if Romney gets elected and is President during the Second Coming.
19 May 2011
16 April 2011
Thunder Over Louisville: 2011 Edition
WOW! That was a really awesome fireworks display. And I'm not just saying that. It has been years since I've been pleased with their display. What is the reason for this my previous displeasure and my current satisfaction? MUSIC. That's right, in past years the music took me out of the moment of the fireworks, but this year it was the correct mixture and the synchronization between the fireworks and music was beautiful. I'll explain.
First, one of the things that really bothers me with compilation music are the transitions. It is almost never good to go from country to rock to orchestral to soft rock and a mixture of whatever. In past years, I muted the TV so I wouldn't lose concentration on the beauty of the fireworks. This year was different. They used all orchestral, big band, and other types of music. Very few pieces had words in it. The ones that did went along with the overall theme and didn't break the flow. There were some rough transitions, but nothing like in previous years. If the Thunder Over Louisville producers want to have another successful year next year, they need to stay away from most hip hop, country, pop, etc music and stay with the classical, orchestral, and similar styles of music. Plus, it's easier to synchronize the fireworks with it - you can crescendo the fireworks in time with the music (which they did two or three times during this show).
The second reason why this year's Thunder was spectacular were the new styles of fireworks they had on display. For several years, the fireworks were mostly the same with one or two new styles thrown in. But they were difficult to see or notice because they were drowned out by the other fireworks. I saw four or five, at least, new styles this year. The ones that impressed me the most were the short shots off the bridge. At the beginning of the show, there were rockets that streamed off the bridge, then spiraled inward. There was another short shot with a nice white/blue color that mostly fired straight up, but had a bit of randomness between the different cannons so that there was overlap between the streams. This was near the end of the show. Another piece that impressed me were a couple of bloom shots. Instead of having points spots, the bloom shot I liked most had smaller, more compact blooms where each point would have been. The array of colors in some of the shots were impressive.
The third reason why I like this year's Thunder is that not only were the fireworks in sync with the music, but they were in sync with each other. Also, transitions between the different styles of fireworks was good. There was almost no downtime between shots - good job tech crew!
I have been mostly disappointed with the views the TV crews have given Thunder in the past. But they did a really good job this year. Or, perhaps, it's because I was able to watch on a large, wide-screen TV. However, in years' past, they would do close-ups, focus on a single barge too long, focus on a small section of bridge too long, something. But this year, they did a good job getting appropriate views of the entire scene (and, thankfully, no crowd shots... which sounds like a good view, but it's not.)
So, I wonder will anyone from the Thunder organization trip into my blog post and take notes? I doubt it, but it would be nice, I wrote this mostly for them. Congratulations!
p.s. I'd post some pictures of shots from this year, but they haven't been posted anywhere else, yet. And if they did, they'd probably be copyrighted.
First, one of the things that really bothers me with compilation music are the transitions. It is almost never good to go from country to rock to orchestral to soft rock and a mixture of whatever. In past years, I muted the TV so I wouldn't lose concentration on the beauty of the fireworks. This year was different. They used all orchestral, big band, and other types of music. Very few pieces had words in it. The ones that did went along with the overall theme and didn't break the flow. There were some rough transitions, but nothing like in previous years. If the Thunder Over Louisville producers want to have another successful year next year, they need to stay away from most hip hop, country, pop, etc music and stay with the classical, orchestral, and similar styles of music. Plus, it's easier to synchronize the fireworks with it - you can crescendo the fireworks in time with the music (which they did two or three times during this show).
The second reason why this year's Thunder was spectacular were the new styles of fireworks they had on display. For several years, the fireworks were mostly the same with one or two new styles thrown in. But they were difficult to see or notice because they were drowned out by the other fireworks. I saw four or five, at least, new styles this year. The ones that impressed me the most were the short shots off the bridge. At the beginning of the show, there were rockets that streamed off the bridge, then spiraled inward. There was another short shot with a nice white/blue color that mostly fired straight up, but had a bit of randomness between the different cannons so that there was overlap between the streams. This was near the end of the show. Another piece that impressed me were a couple of bloom shots. Instead of having points spots, the bloom shot I liked most had smaller, more compact blooms where each point would have been. The array of colors in some of the shots were impressive.
The third reason why I like this year's Thunder is that not only were the fireworks in sync with the music, but they were in sync with each other. Also, transitions between the different styles of fireworks was good. There was almost no downtime between shots - good job tech crew!
I have been mostly disappointed with the views the TV crews have given Thunder in the past. But they did a really good job this year. Or, perhaps, it's because I was able to watch on a large, wide-screen TV. However, in years' past, they would do close-ups, focus on a single barge too long, focus on a small section of bridge too long, something. But this year, they did a good job getting appropriate views of the entire scene (and, thankfully, no crowd shots... which sounds like a good view, but it's not.)
So, I wonder will anyone from the Thunder organization trip into my blog post and take notes? I doubt it, but it would be nice, I wrote this mostly for them. Congratulations!
p.s. I'd post some pictures of shots from this year, but they haven't been posted anywhere else, yet. And if they did, they'd probably be copyrighted.
01 April 2011
Wii Dismantled!
So, our old Nintendo Wii had bitten the dust. The disk drive didn't work, it had taken a beating from being knocked off a shelf of some height (thanks Rachel), there was now a rattling in the case, and there was no power. So I did what any sensible geek would do with a device that was out of warranty - I dismantled it to try and find out why it was not working.
After taking out the case screws, and taking out the disk drive, the nail that was rattling inside fell out. No, I didn't know it was a nail before. Again, thank you Rachel!
Well, there was still this power issue to resolve. So off came the aluminum plating that separated the main board from the disk drive and everything else. I plug everything back in and powered it up - nothing. So I pull out my trusty Radio Shack multimeter which had broken within a few weeks of my purchasing it. Yep, the thing is still broken (I've learned recently, I need to replace the fuse in the thing.)
The next thing I do, which I should have done in the first place, got the power cable from our new Wii and plugged that in. Hey! Power! Turned it on, slid a disk in the drive and everything is working well. Well, except that the disk drive sound it like an engine (not good). Granted, it was out of its natural habitat with rubber grommets for shock absorbers.
So it was time to put it all back together. I only had 2 extra screws left over. The thing still powered up, so it's all good. Now we just need to get a replacement for the old power adapter.
Next thing to do? Dismantle the Guitar Hero Drum kit. That one is a lost cause, though. (The hat's wires have been cut.)
After taking out the case screws, and taking out the disk drive, the nail that was rattling inside fell out. No, I didn't know it was a nail before. Again, thank you Rachel!
Well, there was still this power issue to resolve. So off came the aluminum plating that separated the main board from the disk drive and everything else. I plug everything back in and powered it up - nothing. So I pull out my trusty Radio Shack multimeter which had broken within a few weeks of my purchasing it. Yep, the thing is still broken (I've learned recently, I need to replace the fuse in the thing.)
The next thing I do, which I should have done in the first place, got the power cable from our new Wii and plugged that in. Hey! Power! Turned it on, slid a disk in the drive and everything is working well. Well, except that the disk drive sound it like an engine (not good). Granted, it was out of its natural habitat with rubber grommets for shock absorbers.
So it was time to put it all back together. I only had 2 extra screws left over. The thing still powered up, so it's all good. Now we just need to get a replacement for the old power adapter.
Next thing to do? Dismantle the Guitar Hero Drum kit. That one is a lost cause, though. (The hat's wires have been cut.)
11 March 2011
Cake!
Tonight we went to a Scouting dinner and cake auction. Our Scout leaders do a really good job with this. The food is donated by a local Italian restaurant (a good one, too) and they don't just auction cakes. In the line up for items to be auctioned was a repelling lesson, car washes by the scouts and service time by the scouts. The cakes and other items go from $10 to $150!
Well, I decided I would make a cake. I wanted to make a kitty litter cake, but I could not find a cheap, basic kitty litter box. So I made a normal cake...
Props to you if you recognize the symbol. (If you need a clue, hover your mouse over the image, a little text box should pop up.) My target audience immediately recognized it and were duly impressed, so I was pleased. I was hoping it'd go for more, but $15 was what it went for.
Last year, we failed to jump in early and get anything... not a big deal. But this time we got a black forest chocolate cake for $15! We got lucky :)
Well, I decided I would make a cake. I wanted to make a kitty litter cake, but I could not find a cheap, basic kitty litter box. So I made a normal cake...
Props to you if you recognize the symbol. (If you need a clue, hover your mouse over the image, a little text box should pop up.) My target audience immediately recognized it and were duly impressed, so I was pleased. I was hoping it'd go for more, but $15 was what it went for.
Last year, we failed to jump in early and get anything... not a big deal. But this time we got a black forest chocolate cake for $15! We got lucky :)
08 March 2011
Geek topic of the day: Numbering Systems.
As you may or may not know, there are many ways to count. Many of you have heard of binary, decimal and hexadecimal (sometimes shortened to “hex”). Each of t
hese are ways to represent a value. For example, if we have eleven apples, we can say we have 11d, 0xB, or 1011b apples. If the numbering system is understood between both parties, it could be written as 11, B, or 1011. Obviously, I have these numbers in the order of decimal, hexadecimal, and binary.
There are many ways to represent a number and the three I mentioned aren’t the only ones. If you want base5, your numbers are 0,1,2,3,4, or [0..4]. The number 8d would be 13 in base5. The number 54d in base 33 [0..9,A..W] would be 1L. Obviously, you have to define what your characters represent with numbers from another base. (In this case, A = 10d, L = 21d and W = 32d. 10 = 33d, 1W = 65d, 20 = 66d, and so on.)
Anyway, here is the reason this came up in my mind. There is an easy program which was needed at work. So they hacked out a simple VB (Visual Basic) script to get the necessary information. I would have preferred a “real” language which is also easy to program (such as C#). This would have the advantage of being fewer lines of code, not as bloated (still bloated), and can be compiled to an executable file (.exe).
Of course, I like to make things difficult while making it easy for others. I thought, why not do this in assembly language? It will be ultra fast and small and not be dependent on other systems (such as dotNET). So I found www.asmcommunity.net. It is a resource for people wanting to learn assembly language. The second chapter in their book is “Number Systems”
Here’s the wrap-up. The second to last sentence of their section on Base (what I explained above) is “Base-0 does not exist and you cannot do much with base-1.” Base 1 is easy, there is only one number – 0, if you will. Or 1. It doesn’t matter, there is only one character to represent the entire numbering system and there is nothing or that character – that’s it). In base 1, you could even make your only value, your only digit, Ψ.
This got me thinking about base 0, though. Base 0 has no values. It will have no characters. It is nothing – not even 0. It’s what happens when you divide by 0 – you can’t (excluding 0/0 which is ∞).
This base system is really, completely useless… except to explain it like I have here.
Surprisingly, my little thought process here is not at all off, in fact it is quite on. Here is a post by someone else who has put in a lot more thought on off-beat numbering systems (a system based on pi, e, or i?!) . Scroll down a bit, he calls Base 0 “truly worthless” where I said “completely useless”. Funny.
On dwheeler’s closing remark about base 0 potentially representing all numbers (ie. 0/0), I disagree. A base 0 system has no characters to represent it. It is nothing (which is the same as not nothing, that is – doesn’t exist).
To close this up, enjoy two (10b) videos by They Might Be Giants which do a surprising good job of explaining ZERO and ONE
hese are ways to represent a value. For example, if we have eleven apples, we can say we have 11d, 0xB, or 1011b apples. If the numbering system is understood between both parties, it could be written as 11, B, or 1011. Obviously, I have these numbers in the order of decimal, hexadecimal, and binary.There are many ways to represent a number and the three I mentioned aren’t the only ones. If you want base5, your numbers are 0,1,2,3,4, or [0..4]. The number 8d would be 13 in base5. The number 54d in base 33 [0..9,A..W] would be 1L. Obviously, you have to define what your characters represent with numbers from another base. (In this case, A = 10d, L = 21d and W = 32d. 10 = 33d, 1W = 65d, 20 = 66d, and so on.)
Anyway, here is the reason this came up in my mind. There is an easy program which was needed at work. So they hacked out a simple VB (Visual Basic) script to get the necessary information. I would have preferred a “real” language which is also easy to program (such as C#). This would have the advantage of being fewer lines of code, not as bloated (still bloated), and can be compiled to an executable file (.exe).
Of course, I like to make things difficult while making it easy for others. I thought, why not do this in assembly language? It will be ultra fast and small and not be dependent on other systems (such as dotNET). So I found www.asmcommunity.net. It is a resource for people wanting to learn assembly language. The second chapter in their book is “Number Systems”Here’s the wrap-up. The second to last sentence of their section on Base (what I explained above) is “Base-0 does not exist and you cannot do much with base-1.” Base 1 is easy, there is only one number – 0, if you will. Or 1. It doesn’t matter, there is only one character to represent the entire numbering system and there is nothing or that character – that’s it). In base 1, you could even make your only value, your only digit, Ψ.
This got me thinking about base 0, though. Base 0 has no values. It will have no characters. It is nothing – not even 0. It’s what happens when you divide by 0 – you can’t (excluding 0/0 which is ∞).
This base system is really, completely useless… except to explain it like I have here.
Surprisingly, my little thought process here is not at all off, in fact it is quite on. Here is a post by someone else who has put in a lot more thought on off-beat numbering systems (a system based on pi, e, or i?!) . Scroll down a bit, he calls Base 0 “truly worthless” where I said “completely useless”. Funny.
On dwheeler’s closing remark about base 0 potentially representing all numbers (ie. 0/0), I disagree. A base 0 system has no characters to represent it. It is nothing (which is the same as not nothing, that is – doesn’t exist).
To close this up, enjoy two (10b) videos by They Might Be Giants which do a surprising good job of explaining ZERO and ONE
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