Original Posts
Original content, projects, and other stuff
A while back I posted a glowing review of the video performance of the T2i / 550D camera. I'm coming back now to review the audio quality and frankly there is not much to say.
The external microphone jack works well, and the T2i still uses AGC (Auto Gain Control) that automatically increases the gain (volume) on the microphone when things are quiet. That's fine for impromptu video where you don't necessary know what the noise levels will be, or aren't using an external microphone. The 7D also forces use of AGC but the 5D2 does not since 2.0.4 of the...
I got my hands on the Canon T2i and I ran it though it’s paces, the things I was most interested in was the video modes and low-light performance.
To see the HD version downsized to 720p, you have to load the video from vimeo directly: Canon T2i, 550D Practical Video Tests.
T2i Vs. 7D
First a quick word about the T2i vs. the 7D. The T2i does not have that pro-feel that the higher level cameras have. The body is fairly light and it is most defiantly made of plastic, and you can tell when you hold it. For me...
Every year I release a small “Image Book” of my favorite pictures, images and art. Some of the images I’ve published here, some are new to you.
To see last years edition see: Image Book 2008
As always I’m releasing the PDF for free, download and enjoy it.
I also have a printed version in limited quantity, and if you like my work and want to support what I do. I’m offering a printed version of this book as a thank-you for US donors, while I still have supplies.
Soon I'll be buying a new camera, my old camera is now about...
Over the last week I’ve been working on the next version of the Jansen Walker, this will be the 3rd release.
The goal is to make it much easier to assemble, faster, and 1/3rd larger using 3mm (1/8in) material.
The biggest change is that instead of using modified servos, which seem to scare a lot of people off, use geared motors which are about the same price. That will make the electronics side easier, perhaps slightly more expensive depending on your controls.
The new version will use the Tamiya Twin-Motor Gearbox, that has a good 203:1 ratio that is ideal...
For Christmas this year I made some custom toy blocks with friends and family initials. The blocks were cut from square wood stock into 1.25in cubes. The stock I used was indented for banisters, and had peg ends, but they were easily cut off. I made a batch of both Oak and Fir. Oak turned out fine, and is what is pictured here. The Fir blocks came out with a more slightly more desirable finish since the end grain was more smooth after sanding. Setup First I taped down a...
Recently, I posted a article about how much computational power it would take to emulate the human brain, and my calculations were off by a factor of 10. I've corrected my estimates and here are the updated sections:
Emulating the Human Brain
The Blue Brain Project has successfully simulated 1 cordical column on the Magerit super computer (100 TeraFLOPS), and human brain has an estimated 1,000,000 columns.
So with 5.2 ExaFlops, one could emulate 52,000 cordial columns. And that’s 1/20th of enough power to emulate a human brain.
To emulate the entire human brain you would need approximately 100 ExaFLOPs
That's a lot of...
'Stel' is a song I've been meaning to make a music video for since I released it in 2008, and with a few effects I wanted to experiment with and the short length of Stel made it an ideal test.
I used 2 effects pretty heavily, Adobe Premiere's "Time Warp" effect and PSCombine in video mode.
I used Time Warp to "morph" between stills, and all the video you see here, is actually still images taken with my still camera imported as video. Once the stills are imported as video I used Time Warp to slow them down by 200-500%. The result...
As a brain exercise I decided to try and estimate the total processing power of all the computers on the entire internet, and see if that is enough processing power to emulate the human brain.
Since this is an estimate, I will try my best to figure it out with public data.
Here was my process:
Total Number of Computers
No one knows exactly how many people (computers) are connected to the internet since a single IP address can be shared with any number of pc’s, but the best estimate I was able to find was here: Internet World Stats
They use population statistics...
This past week I was at CES doing market research, and I'm sure everyone reading any of the tech/gadget blogs have had a overload of CES related coverage. I’m not going to talk about any of the things that got major coverage, but here’s some general thoughts, and a couple things you probably didn’t see anywhere else.
3D TV is coming at you like a 900lb gorilla
Pretty much every TV/Monitor manufacturer has a 3D version of a product coming out, and with Blue-ray updating it’s standards to...
Every now and then everyone needs to take a photo of something small, there’s an easy (and cheap!) way to get a great looking photo with a white background. As soon as you see the technique, it’s hard to forget, it’s a plain white poster board propped up against a wall or whatever you have handy. Fill your camera’s view with the poster board and take the photo. For lighting you’ll need a reflected flash or some bright lights, but that is not the focus of this article. I’ll soon do an article on my...
a3o Studios, the company that I do my professional work though will be at CES in Vegas this week, and I’ll have some laser-cut trinkets to give away and a distinct lack of definite plans.
I suspect most of the readers of my blog are of the technical persuasion and out of any group of people I would think that at least some of you are going to be going to CES. A chill meet-up wherever would would be cool, so leave a message, or send me an email.
That is all.
The holidays are a undoubtedly a a big cost every year for me, but this year I decided to try something different, I wanted to make all my gifts, or give things that are new but unused. My quest was a success, I effectively bought no new packaged items. I did buy some raw materials, but no packaged things. Thingiverse.com was a big help, and I also produced a few things I designed, including: Earphone Holder by 4volt Gothic Bookends by 4volt Little Business Card Stand by oomlout DIY iPhone stand... by...
For Christmas this year I’ll be giving out inexpensive things I’ve cut with my laser, here’s one of the original designs I’ve come up with, a small holder for earbud style earphones.
Other earphone winder designs make you wrap your chord around and around until you’ve wrapped the whole chord. That way is pretty aquard, and I never end up using them. It really is quite a bit faster to “fold” then to “loop”.
This winder/holder is designed for that with a hook on one side, and a strap in the middle. Although, you can still wrap them the other way...
At the beginning of December each year I start collecting material for an anthology of my work of the year, the last couple years it’s been largely photography, but this last year I’ve taken less photos and produced more “things”, many I’ve posted about here. You can download the PDF of last-year’s book at: Image Book 2008 So how many files is a year’s worth of work? This year for me it’s 25,470. Now, if I could only post more often. If you are interested in this years book, please leave a comment, so...
If you follow this blog you’ll know I do a lot of stuff with my cheap $1,000 dollar Chinese laser engraver/cutter. I’ve had it for almost a year, and I think I can clearly define all it’s shortcomings.
Cutting area is small (8x8in)
Controller software is poor
Laser power control is manual
Poor ventilation for fumes
Poor/no laser cooling system
Not very fast with engraving tasks
Keeping all those things in mind, I’ve decided to start planning a re-build of my laser using...
After having the new Motorola Droid for about a week, I've been very impressed with it’s features, usability, and experience.
Previously I was using a windows mobile phone, and as far as usability goes, Android is leaps and bounds better then even the latest (6.5) version of Windows Mobile.
Although, when I show my phone to an iPhone users, they generally complain about the lack of multitouch, especially in the web browser, and the on-screen keyboard. I think that feature alone will end up being a major sticking point when people talk about switching from the iPhone to the Droid.
As you...
With the glorious re-launching of my laser, I broke it in with a new design. This is a design meant mostly for small books and is inspired by Gothic Architecture.
This is a design meant mostly for small books and is inspired by Gothic Architecture, inspiration drawn from Cologne Cathedral, and Church of St Barbara Kutna Hora. There are several flying buttress and the "windows" are done in the style of a Flamboyant arch. The small gargoyles are designed after the hunched Notre Dame gargoyles.
Lately I've been doing mostly mechanical projects, there satisfying to build, but usually very time consuming....
Last weekend I started a little project cutting some arts and crafts (1920’s) style address numbers for my house, the test numbers came out fine but when I started cutting a slightly larger set my laser just stopped cutting. I found some obvious electrical burn marks on what looks like the high-voltage transformer on the laser tube power supply. So, until I can replace the part or get a new power supply, I'm out of business with the laser. If you have any comments or ideas...
There's been a lot of scarification type "tattoos" done with lasers over the last couple years. But, this is a temporary alternative that is not new, but still involves lasers. Temporary airbrush tattoos have been around for a while, and there's even an entry in Wikipedia, but all the airbrush stencils I've ever seen have been pretty lame. Enter the laser, where it can cut custom stencils on demand. Seen above: an electrocuted man stencil. For a short film project I'm currently working on, there was need for the main actress to have...
Lately I’ve been playing around with generative art for framing and hanging, this is a collection from some code I wrote in Context Free. I’ve also recently discovered the function to render at high resolutions and really adds another dimension of detail in this kind of recursive art.
The frames you see here are cropped sections of one of the renders I found interesting.
If you want to explore one of the 5000x3500px high-res frames, it’s here: Missile Cloud 8 – VBX (7mb). I also have a 10k pixel, 22mb version, if anyone is...
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