Ah, I finally ordered a lock picking set. Southern Ordinance’s Outlet has blemished 14-piece (MPXS-14-O) set for just over US$30 after shipping.
Now I can stop screwing with bent paperclips, T-pins, and screwdrivers when playing with lock picking.
Digital ICE on the Nikon Coolscan V ED works rather well.
For example, here is a single frame scanned both without and with Digital ICE, set to remove dust and scratches. The negative wasn’t removed from the scanner between scans, the option was simply turned on and the frame re-scanned:
· Without ICE. Note the dust on the mountain, and small scratches on the house at the right side of the frame.
· With ICE. Aforementioned dust and scratches (and other bits) are just simply gone.
Here’s the lazy mushroom and cheese quiche I made today. Here’s how I made it:
· Chop an onion and some garlic.
· Put 3 tbsp of butter in a pan, along with the onion, garlic, and a good size pinch of oregano and basil. Add some black pepper.
· Sweat things together until the mushrooms are just beginning cook. Pour it all in a strainer over the sink to allow the liquid to run off.
· Whisk together four eggs and 3/4 cup of 2% milk. Add a tablespoon or so of Clancy’s Fancy and some salt.
· Put the mushrooms and such in a thawed, docked pre-made pie crust. Stir in a handful or so of shredded cheddar cheese.
· Pour the egg mixture on top. Add a bit more cheese.
· Bake in a ~375°F oven for ~45 minutes, or until the top is just beginning to brown.
· Remove from oven and allow to cool down before cutting and serving.
Just another photo of Molly and Tobi playing, as they had been doing yesterday.
Two hours, twenty six minutes, and sixteen seconds (2:26:16) after starting the Apple Hardware Tests, my machine can finally be said to have received a RAM upgrade. For the last three years I’ve been running it with 1.5GB of RAM, and that had been enough. Until I tried to work with 4000dpi scans of 35mm slides.
I must say, things run much better now. Especially with my compliment of other apps running, including Safari, Mail.app, Adium, SSH Agent, iTunes, Xjournal, Obsession (LJ Checker), Terminal, Gallery Remote, Vienna, and a few others.
What an excellent afternoon snack on a day when I returned from a rather lengthy lunch, only to be told that I can leave if I want.
Now I’m sitting here waiting for 2GB of RAM to show up for the G5 so that I can scan negatives. I was able to scan the 110 slides with the 1.5GB in here now, but it was pushing things. Opening the 45MB TIFFs in Lightroom with the current amount of RAM causes the machine to chew on the disk for 2-3 minutes per image. This needs to change before I tackle ~1000 full-frame 35mm negatives.
Also, my site, any I host, and email is down right now. I’m upgrading MySQL, so it’s not currently running, making things which are backed by it not work.
Email is still coming in, it’s just being queued up. Once MySQL is back up things should be back to normal.
UPDATE @ 09:43 EST: MySQL upgrade done. Email and sites working again. Time to do the PHP upgrade, which will break all websites for a while. Sorry.
UPDATE @ 11:16 EST: All updates complete. Everything should be back to normal. Let me know if it isn’t.
All previous speakers returned, original speakers reinstalled. Played with the amp enough to realize that the ‘High Cut’ setting is not a low-pass filter as I would have expected, but is instead a high-pass filter. Therefore, having it set too high basically keeps appropriate bass from going to the speakers at all.
I’d had some difficulty adjusting this previously, but after replacing the speakers and retuning things, everything is MUCH better. I’ve got the filter letting everything possible go to the rear subs and the missing bass is now there. The rear levels have also been adjusted at the amp to be appropriate, although these may need a wee bit more tweaking. This remains to be seen, though.
Other tasks I have successfully completed tonight:
· Returned both pairs of crappy Pioneer speakers.
· Acquired Thai food.
· Ate Thai food with Belgian beer.
· Watched Frontline’s A Hidden Life
· Balanced my checkbook.
· Washed my sheets.
I guess that’s a plenty full night.
Tonight’s project-cum-technical disappointment was what you see above. That is, my fitting some aftermarket Pioneer TS-G1341R 5¼” into the shells of Honda OEM speakers from the rear deck of my car.
See, ever since installing the Bass System Kit (photo gallery retired) a year ago, I just haven’t been wholly satisfied with the sound in my vehicle. The bass was improved over the factory bass, but it still sounded rather warbly and distorted even with ‘normal’-ish bass, such as the guitar in some pieces. Much electronic stuff was just right out.
Earlier today I decided that I’d pick up a cheaper, but likely decent set of speakers as replacements for the ones which shipped with the bass system kit. So, poking around, I came across the Pioneer TS-G1341Rs which are fairly widely available. So, at lunch I swung by Best Buy and grabbed a pair for just under US$50.
By gutting the leftover original speakers and some ¼” MDF I was able to nicely fit the new speakers in, and even wire them up to use the original Honda connectors. This is good because I can easily swap my new speakers in and out for the ones from the Bass System Kit.
Why would I want to swap them? Because the new speakers sound like crap. They sound worse than the ones with the Bass System Kit. In fact, they are more in line with the very original OEM speakers.
So, I don’t know what I’m going to do right now. Probably return them, and possibly acquire some (better 6½” speakers and an aftermarket mounting bracket. Or… something. I don’t know.
Bah. At least it only took a few hours.
Today’s Breakfast:
· Trader Joe’s Dark Roast (Sumatra, I think?) brewed in a Bialetti Moka with organic 2% milk in a Bodum Canteen.
· Two Eggland’s Best Organic Eggs hard boiled to perfection. (No green skin on yolk, even.)
· Two bars of Weetabix with organic milk.
For one I finally feel like I’m eating a wholly healthy breakfast. Also, the only non-organic food here is the coffee itself. I’ll have to try and change that.
