Bokker’s Neighborhood

Happy Holidays!

Team Vox
Yesterday
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6acardVOX

3 comments

Happy Holidays to you, your family, friends and neighbors from all of us at Vox.
See you in 2010!

No Smoking

Jazz
Dec 16, 2009

Posted outside Java cafe bakery in Twin Falls, ID. Love this place!

Sent from my iPhone

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I've deactivated my FB account. It's a time-waster, although I've found many people I haven't thought of in years. I have a storage tote full of greeting cards and in the process of digging out Xmas ones, I found an old Hello Kitty phone book. Wow, what a journey through the past. Now that that's out of the way, I freaked out and started cleaning up my profiles. At this point I want to disappear into the woodwork. Alas, I think the web might be rife with all manner of inaccurate (and correct) info linked to my name. Scary. I just want to shake it off. Maybe I'll change my name to something like Tuesday Friday...

As for sending out cards...just not feeling it. The hubby thinks I'm insane - he hates cards (and I mean HATE), it's certainly time-consuming, but it's nice to send them to relatives and folks I don't communicate with regularly. I have to do them when he's gone, otherwise I have to bear constant taunting. It's fun to receive pretty ones...he thinks it

creates clutter. He's not big on photos, either, but I think it's just a display issue. (If it doesn't look artistic, don't bother - he is most unsentimental)

Sigh. I've got to get in the right frame of mind!

It's cold

Jazz
Dec 8, 2009
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Biggest snow in 5 years and I'm out in it. Go figure.

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Donner Pass

Jazz
Dec 7, 2009
1 comment

Trucks chaining up for the snowy passage. It's 27 degrees! Brrrr!

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Will wonders never cease?

Jazz
Dec 5, 2009
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$4.99 for 12. Not fantastic but I've had worse (farmer's market).
These are in the freezer section. The chocolate ones are better.

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Fun with digital photography

Alex
Dec 5, 2009
1 comment

Recently I've been diving into High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. Initially I used Bracketeer to combine three photos that had been taken with different exposure (-2, 0, +2 stops). But very quickly I became unsatisfied with the output from Bracketeer. After a little research, it turns out Bracketeer only fuse photos with different exposures. Whereas other HDR software also perform tone mapping. After listening to a TWiP podcast about HDR and read through the HDR tutorial by Trey Ratcliff, I decided to try Photomatix Pro last week to see what different result I would get.

To demostrate the difference between Bracketeer and Photomatix, here are two identical photos processed by each software (Bracketeer on the left, Photomatix Pro on the right):

As you can see, the result from Photomatix is so much more natural looking (though it can also produce extremely psychadelic version) than Bracketeer. And more importantly, I get to this very good photo very easily, whereas the options in Bracketeer are extremely technical and confusing.

For comparison, here is the raw photo from the 0 stop exposure of the same scene:

Lower East Side Synagogue

Both are commercial software with Bracketeer a little bit less expensive than Photomatix. But judging from the output quality, I would thoroughly recommend going straight to Photomatix if you want to experiment with HDR.

Weird dream

Jazz
Dec 4, 2009
3 comments

This morning I awoke recalling a wonderful dream of an old friend Sara Burks, my brother's ex-girlfriend from Cal days. In the dream, we met at a scooter rally, and she beamed as she passed around her newly published monograph, which placed her among the - unbeknownst to me - many others in their crowd who were authors. (I've lost contact with her)

As dreams go, they never make any sense. My brother, sister, mom, and husband were also in the picture, playing all their usual roles - hubby had built a beautiful garden trellis, mom was admiring it, sister had something to do with food, and brother was frenetically digging up the crab grass with a shovel and mumbling to himself.

I always try to recall more of the dream, in this case the parts about the scooter rally. I enjoyed scooter rallies in my youth, and until recently, had a Vespa (now in my brother's scooter graveyard - another story). Out of nowhere, and very suddenly, came the memory of a horror! An old boyfriend - the one I blame for developing several of my personality flaws - had stolen a GS (the earliest Vespa model, now a collector's item) in San Francisco and transported it to his parents' house in Sonora...

It says something that I didn't leave him at that point. I had somehow become the worst incarnation of myself. He continued to commit unforgivable crimes - unmentionable acts - and yet I stayed, and suffered, and became an unwilling accessory by being an innocent, and victimized, bystander.

I shrink with disgust at the memory.

It's hard to imagine anything good about that relationship, now that all the bad bits have tainted the whole - even the beginning when it was innocent and true. He became such a monster, I was amazed every time I saw him. His mantra at the end was, "I'm not a bad person." He said it continually, as if to convince himself after every horrific deed. The very worst thing was, this went on for years. I wasted years (and my entire college career) fretting about this guy.

Anyway, I'm on to more and deeper thoughts and anxieties. It must be the Christmas season, bringing memories to the fore. I'm longing for some sort of closure and it's an itch I can't scratch. Just can't put my finger on it.

Extending iPhone battery life

Alex
Nov 27, 2009
10 comments

Since my first iPhone, I've never had any issue with its battery life. As long as I get access to the charger by the end of the work day the battery life on the iPhone 2G or 3G have been perfectly adequate. That is until I started working on a project down in Atlanta and my weekly commute now extends to around 6-8 hours, depending on flight delays.

I began looking for battery extender for my iPhone. Initially I wanted a battery extender that can charge the iPhone 3G and 3GS, as well as possibly the Kindle. This means the ability to attach different cables to the battery. Also the 'green' side of me wanted a solar charging battery so that it'd be possible to charge the battery up using solar energy alone. Unfortunately after perusing iLounge's extensive list of battery extender reviews, it was pretty obvious that there weren't any battery out there that would satisfy my initial list of requirements. The closest one is the IceTECH Solar i9005. With its large solar panel, large battery capacity (2500 mAh), and large collection of connector tips, it would be ideal. The only issue is it doesn't currently support the iPhone 3GS, as Apple in its infinite wisdom has changed something with regard to charging on the 3GS.

So the search was back to regular battery extender. There are plenty of options out there but none of them really excite me. At least not at the price they are charging for. That is until I came across MonoPrice's iPhone backup battery. With a rather large capacity (2200 mAh *) and very affordable price (~$15, depending on quantity purchased), it is perfect.

It arrived two weeks ago and I have so far used it twice. From about 10-15% charge in the iPhone, it would take about two hours to fully charge the phone from the backup battery. During that time, I was able to continue to use the iPhone with podcast playing in the background while online twittering and browsing. The only thing that is annoying is the 'cyclon'-like blue LEDs in the front which move from left to right during the charging process (both from main to battery, and battery to phone). They are very bright and very distracting while using the phone with the battery attached, especially in a dark backseat of a taxi! To charge the backup battery, simply plug the iPhone cable to the bottom of the battery and charge it just like the phone. Unfortunately the battery does not pass the data through to the phone so you can't sync with iTunes while charging both the phone and the battery.

But overall, the MonoPrice iPhone backup battery is priced just right and perform as advertised. High recommended if you are looking for a simple backup battery for your iPhone.

* For comparison, iPhone 3G battery capacity is 1150 mAh which means the MonoPrice battery can potentially charge the iPhone from 10-15% charge to full twice!

Happy Thanksgiving

Jazz
Nov 25, 2009
15 comments

I'm sitting in Barnes & Noble, trying not to be overwhelmed by another materialistic holiday. I used to love Christmas, but these days it seems to have become one giant shopping/marketing frenzy. Makes me want to give everyone mathoms.

I want to withdraw from the madness and try to remember what the season's supposed to be about. I don't have kids, but if I did I'd want to take them to someplace beautiful, emphasize togetherness, and teach them charity for the poor by going to work at a food bank or something. I think I'd emphasize making crafts for presents, defining them as tokens of meaning, remembrance, and craftsmanship. That's what you do when you don't have money. Often a much more appreciated gift, especially now, when the economy is on the skids. Or (and I have many treasured gifts of this nature) hit the thrift shops and recycle.

All the spending makes me want to throw up.

This Thanksgiving, look around the table at your friends and loved ones, look into your heart, and give thanks for just how lucky we all really are.

This is my 4th Thanksgiving since being diagnosed with terminal cancer. I'm grateful beyond belief to be here, and thankful for all of you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sent from my iPhone