jims musings

I like photography, and I’ve been using a Nikon LS-5000 scanner to bring my old slides and negatives into the digital world.
Nikon, on the other hand, hasn’t been cooperating. I’ve been using 64-bit Windows 7 for, wow, nearly a year now. No updates from Nikon for anything beyond 32-bit. Great scanners, Nikon, it would be nice if we could use them!
Anyhow, I found a great site that tells how to get your favorite Nikon Scanner (LS-40, LS-50 and LS-5000) working on 64-bit Windows.
http://axelriet.blogspot.com/2009/10/nikon-ls-40-ls-50-ls-5000-scanners-on.html

Tags: Photography, Technology // Add Comment »

Saw this in my local grocery. Somehow, I was reminded of “Where’s Waldo?”

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Did you know the future gets closer- every day!
By the end of 2009, around 4.6 billion cell phones were in use- nearly 70% of the world population, and nearly the entire adult population. This is an amazing statistic! In product terms, cell phones rival food. Only oxygen and sunlight have a solid lead on cell phone use.
Currently, most of these phones are pretty basic- phone calls only. This will change rapidly. Soon, more than half of cell phones will be internet-capable. They will have cameras, GPS receivers and all sorts of doodads. They will also be programmable, with thousands of downloadable applications. These applications are the key to success of these billions of mobile devices. They will cater to the myriad needs of mankind- whether it is helping a New Yorker find a great new place for lunch or a Nigerian dry farmer plan his crop and coordinate a planting schedule with nearby farmers.
In terms of ‘survival of the fittest’, these devices help make us ‘fitter’. Combining substantial computational power, internet access and the need of the moment, these devices allow us to respond more powerfully to our momentary needs.
I foresee not only GPS and camera ubiquity in these phones, but also barometers, thermometers, inclinometers, and magnetometers. Possibly some sort of laser or sonar-based measurement capability as well. Also, there will be built-in networking of substantial sophistication. Phones will be able to ‘talk’ with one another, sharing user data, position information and perhaps even using shared signals. In many places, you will be able to use your phone like a remote control- ordering a soda from a vending machine just by pointing and clicking (there’ll be an app for that). Also, data collected by these devices (barometric pressure, for example) will be sharable with the NOAA or other trusted organizations.
There will be interesting social effects. Parents will be thought odd if their children do not have a cell phone. “How do you know if they’re okay?” will be the question. Governments everywhere will seek the ability to push and pull data from these devices. Emergency broadcasts and even ‘a direct line to the people’ will be the reasoning. We may even see true democracy-style remote voting tried in smaller populations.
Get set, these phones are gonna be everywhere.

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Okay everyone… we’re well into the 21st Century. It’s time to figure out how to store all that digital media.
For most of you, this currently means digital photos, but digital media means all sorts of stuff, including audio, video and documents. Let’s discuss how to handle all this stuff.
Back in the day (the 20th Century), people would stuff their photo negatives into shoeboxes and stuff the boxes into a closet. Slides- often in carousels- would live in the closet, too. Those ‘Super-8′ movies would also be stuffed in there, perhaps with a projector and screen. Documents would live somewhere else, usually in a filing cabinet or desk drawer. Music was stored elsewhere, usually with the record player or stereo. Finally, video tapes or (gasp) laser discs would be kept near the TV or player.
In short, things were kept all over, and rarely organized.
Now, with all this stuff converging to the PC, it is critical to keep it organized. I personally have about 40,000 images using 280 GB of disk space. This amount of material must be organized.
Thankfully, the organization is simple.
First, you must break out of the Windows ‘My Documents’ or ‘My Photos’ structure.
On your hard disk, create a folder to hold your data. I’m a geek, so I named my folder ‘Data.’ You can call it ‘Personal’ or even ‘Sally’ if you’re feeling friendly. The name doesn’t matter, but the location does. It needs to be outside of the ‘My Documents’ structure (so everybody who uses the computer can get to it) and easy to find.
Inside of the data folder, I have more folders, each folder being named for a year, like this:

C:\
   +- Data
       +- 2009
       +- 2008
       +- 2007
       +- 2006

Within each Year folder, I have more subfolders which represent the dates and events that pictures were taken, like this:

C:\
   +- Data
       +- 2009
           +- 2009-04-05 Kindergarten play
           +- 2009-06-17 Yosemite Trip
           +- 2009-08-21 Disneyland
           +- 2009-09-03 Cousins Party
           +- 2009-11-26 Thanksgiving
           +- 2009-12-25 Christmas
       +- 2008
       +- 2007
       +- 2006

You place your photos and videos into these dated folders. I actually have an additional level, since I have multiple cameras. Under each dated folder, I have another folder for each camera involved, like so:

C:\
   +- Data
       +- 2009
           +- 2009-04-05 Kindergarten play
           +- 2009-06-17 Yosemite Trip
               +- Canon XSi
               +- Canon SD880
               +- Casio ZX-55
               +- Apple iPhone
               +- Processed
           +- 2009-08-21 Disneyland
           +- 2009-09-03 Cousins Party
           +- 2009-11-26 Thanksgiving
           +- 2009-12-25 Christmas
       +- 2008
       +- 2007
       +- 2006

The final breakdown may seem unneeded, but it helps keep things organized. My cameras do automatic file naming, and occasionally there are name collisions (where the file names from different cameras match). Keeping the photos seperate prevents overwriting pictures.
You’ll also noticed the ‘Processed’ folder. This is where I keep photos that have been altered in some way- thus I always have the original.
Hope this helps everybody. This structure keeps my pictures organized, allows me to find things very quickly, and makes backups easy to do.

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Recently saw Cameron’s Avatar.
The story is quite simple and is rightfully compared to Dances with Wolves, but that is not why you see this film.
In a sentence, Cameron has turned film-making upside down. There is no longer any limitation to telling a story, none. With this one (very expensive) film, Mr. Cameron has:

1. Single-handedly brought 3D film into the mainstream. Starting now, non-3D movies will be passe, like black and white.
2. Nearly obliterated the need for sets or even actors. Sure, cost will continue to drive the use of physical sets and breathing people, but their days are numbered. In a decade, a high school senior will have access to similar capability on his home PC, whatever that looks like.
3. Won himself another pile of oscars.

Prediction: This film sets a new standard for ‘the viewing experience’ which will not be surpassed until direct sensory input is created… giving an Avatar experience to each moviegoer.

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Here in America, we have certain rights. Most of our rights are individual rights, as opposed to group rights, where the right is meaningless or non-existent without the group.
Anti-discrimination laws, for example, are an example of group rights. So is the constitutional right to a jury trial. The President believes in a right to health care, which would also fall into the domain of group rights. In the case of a jury trial or health care, you have the right to call upon the time and resources of your fellow citizens and require something of them- which certainly interferes with their individual rights. However, we feel jury trials are so important that participation and service on a jury is seen as a duty of citizenship.
There is a story floating around on the interweb about a Vermont state representative who has a unique alternative for gun control. (The earliest version of this story dates from 2000, and I cannot find any information about Rep. Fred Maslack.)
As the story goes, if a certain piece of legislation passes, Vermont citizens who choose not to own a firearm would be charged a tax of $500. The foundation of this idea rests on the 2nd Amendment and Article 9 from the Vermont constitution:

That every member of society hath a right to be protected in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and therefore is bound to contribute the member’s proportion towards the expense of that protection, and yield personal service, when necessary, or an equivalent thereto, but no part of any person’s property can be justly taken, or applied to public uses, without the person’s own consent, or that of the Representative Body, nor can any person who is conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, be justly compelled thereto, if such person will pay such equivalent; nor are the people bound by any law but such as they have in like manner assented to, for their common good: and previous to any law being made to raise a tax, the purpose for which it is to be raised ought to appear evident to the Legislature to be of more service to community than the money would be if not collected.

Certainly, a bill requiring a tax, fee, fine or other punishment for those who choose not to participate wouldn’t stand a chance of passage, despite the constitutional mandate to “pay such equivalent.” A lien of that sort runs counter to our sense of liberty and freedom.
So why does the health care bill, currently before the senate, have such a provision for those who do not maintain ‘acceptable health insurance coverage… as determined by the Secretary of the Treasury”? (See “TITLE V–AMENDMENTS TO INTERNAL REVENUE CODE OF 1986″ in H.R. 3962)

Tags: Health Care, Politics // Add Comment »

Winding down on a project that has consumed nearly an entire year, and I’m in the death-march phase. For those that don’t know, this is the fun part, where I work lots of hours to finally- finally!- get the program out the door and into the hands of my breathless public.
For those interested, we took some family photos a few weeks ago while the leaves were turning. I’ve posted those in the photo album. Look for the ‘Autumn 2009′ album in the Photo Album section.

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I don’t get out nearly as often as I’d like, but yesterday I was able to sneak downtown and take a few shots around sunset.
It had been stormy all day, but the clouds were breaking up around dusk and I was able to get some nice color in the sky. These shots were all taken handheld with my Canon XSi at ISO 800. I used my 50mm f/1.4 lens, stopped down to f/2 or so. The first two pictures are actually three photos stitched together with PTGui. The last picture is nine exposures. I ran a couple of the images through Noise Ninja to remove low-light noise and grain.
Aside from a strong breeze, it was a great evening to shoot.

Salt Lake Temple 1

Salt Lake Temple 2

Salt Lake Temple & Reflection

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The push towards ‘Fixing’ health care has nothing to do with health care, improving it or even helping the poor. There is only one reason why liberal politicians are pursuing this goal: political power.
Think: there is no good reason to rush into changing some large fraction of the US economy. There is no good reason to extend health care coverage to illegal aliens while at the same time reducing border patrols. There is no good reason impose a new Federal bureaucracy and threaten jail time for those who do not have health insurance.
Surely, if The Plan was so great, there wouldn’t be any need to threaten jail?
The only reason to pursue expensive, poorly-reasoned legislation as congress is currently doing is to further expand the number of voters (we’re not even people, just ‘voters’) who are dependent upon a government program, and thus a political philosophy.
There are ways to provide payment for health care for the poor without costing trillions and without constraining economic freedom. America cannot afford a mistake of this magnitude, and certainly not for a “Health Insurance Plan For The Re-Election Of Congress”.

Tags: Health Care // Add Comment »

Solutions. We all want them. Here are some broad strokes to some problems we face.

Health Care
I reject the idea of a “Health Care Crisis.” A crisis as such simply doesn’t exist. Go to any hospital, urgent care center or what have you, and you will receive the care you need. Nobody is turned away.
What we do have is a problem of payment, which is tied to our insurance, which is tied to our employment. Note the two-step linkage; this is also a problem.
Solution:
1) Revoke, amend or repeal the federal legislation which encourages receiving health care through an employer. HIPAA only went a small way towards portable health insurance; we need to completely decouple health care from employers altogether. (Doing so would also reduce the overhead of running a company.) This probably means losing the pre-tax exception on health care premiums, and it means people begin paying the true cost of their health coverage. This would be painful, but with a transitory period (say, 24 months) it would be doable.
2) Now that insurance is truly portable- like auto insurance- and costs are more transparent to the consumer, we can work on what insurance is for. Namely, health insurance is for emergencies. Heart attacks, cancer, broken bones and that sort of thing. Insurance companies can also offer additional plans for those willing to pay more. The point is, for the millions of healthy people and families out there (whose demand is currently hidden by the ‘pools’ of employees in company insurance plans), plans with low premiums and high deductibles will be offered. This is true insurance and differs greatly from current plans, which are more akin to pre-paid medical care. Interestingly, plans like HSAs would probably transition quite well.
3) In no case is additional federal involvement needed, except perhaps to allow (under the Commerce clause) insurance companies to operation across states. This legislation shouldn’t vary much from the fundamental rules which govern interstate banking.
4) Medicare and Medicaid can be modestly expanded to cover basic premiums for citizens who do not work, similar to other government plans which cover auto insurance.
There. We end up with a health care system which is available to all without government managed care (so-called ‘Death Panels’).

The Middle East
If I were suddenly made King of the United States, I would adopt a simple plan for the middle east. The plan is simple, and one that we westerners are good at: ignorance.
The problem with the middle east, you see, is oil. They have lots of it, and currently we need it. We pay through the nose for it, too- not only at the gas pump, but in military involvement in silly places. These conditions need to change, and the only way to do that is for the United States to become sovereign in its energy needs.
Conservation is good, but doesn’t solve the fundamental problem: we simply require unholy amounts of energy. Therefore, we must produce more. More oil (gasp!) for the near-term (1-7 years). For the medium-term (7-30 years), we need nuclear power. We have about 100 nuke plants today. We should have 500. This would produce cheap, clean energy for our entire nation- not to mention the construction, engineering and other ancillary jobs. You want an effective ’stimulus’ bill? Take half that $787 Billion and build nuclear plants.
Now, that we’re independent of the middle east, we have a free hand to act in a manner that is meaningful to us and clear to the rest of the world. If we then choose to continue supporting Israel, we can do so without fear of the oil weapon.
They can drink their oil. And, if they happen to develop nuclear weapons, we can deal with that threat as a sovereign nation, instead of as a dependent client state.
For the long term, we need to develop technologies which allow us to preserve our hydrocarbon supplies, rather than burning them. Oil is far too useful as a chemical feedstock for us to be burning it.
Perhaps one of these future technologies would be space-based solar power, but we need cheaper access to space for that to work.

The Environment
We’ve made some silly moves recently with regard to the environment, the most noteworthy of which is the politicization of ‘climate change.’ This is not a venue for me to discuss my views on this matter, but I will say that changes such as this have occurred and will continue to occur regardless of what we do- I’m sure the Polar Bears will survive.
I do fully agree that dumping billions of tons of CO2 in our atmosphere is a bad idea. Since much of this CO2 comes from burning hydrocarbons, shifting to a nuclear-centric power grid could only have good effects for our environmental impact.
We should also consider National Oceanic Preserves- places where fishing is not allowed, and where marine life can find refuge for breeding and migration. Ultimately, these areas will also help support existing fisheries and species diversity.

Education
The federal government should not be involved at all in primary education. Universities, as research institutions, can very much use federal dollars. Educational assistance programs- Pell Grants, Student Loans and such, should be eliminated. Yes, I know all about the costs of college- and the primary reason for these increasing costs is the availability of government money. Think of the housing bubble, but applied to classroom seats. The myth that everyone needs or deserves a world-class education is a fantasy. At some point, if we continue on our current course, the economic benefit of a college degree will be outweighed by the debt of acquiring such. What will happen then?
Best to get out now and let the bubble deflate.

National Debt
This is the Mother of All Problems. Our debt load limits our flexibility and saps future capability. My personal inclination, if I were King, would be to follow the path of cutting business regulation (see the Health Care comments above) and eliminating most corporate income taxes. For citizens below a certain income level, mortgage payments and perhaps even rent payments would be entirely tax deducible.
Corporations which provide funds to support National Parks, Preserves and other such spaces would be allowed certain exemptions in their operations. (This would be extended to corporations like Google, which uses tremendous amounts of electricity.) In short, I would do everything possible to encourage long-term economic growth. Short term ’solutions’, like raising taxes, only damage long-term growth trends and make the debt more difficult to pay off.
Paying off the debt would increase the strength and buying power of the dollar. As this occurs, I would require a general import tariff- perhaps 5-10%- to hold ultra-cheap goods at bay. My goal is not protectionism, but to level the playing field so US manufacturers have a competitive chance.

That’s the short story, ladies and gentlemen.

Tags: Climate Change, Education, Health Care, Politics, Technology // Add Comment »