Props to Fossil

One one of my last business trips, I accidentally tore the stem out of my watch while shoving my arm through a heavy backpack. I asked the jewelry store near my workplace how much it would cost to repair the stem. They quoted me $40. Fossil will fix anything not covered under warranty for $25, which includes return shipping. I sent the watch to their third-party repair facility and got it back today. I think it took about two weeks or so. Not too long. Not only did they replace the stem and the scratched crystal (crystal scratched a few years ago), they also replaced the watch band with a shiny new, clean one. Yay.

Had a lovely visit with my Mom, sister, bro-in-law, two of their kids on Easter. Deb was pretty cranky for the car ride portion, but enjoyed the visit. She hasn't been to Tullahoma in years. Mom woke up to find 13 deer in the back yard right outside the window. I wish she'd woken me up to see that. Ten of them came back through the yard later and went across the street back into the woods for their mid-day rest.

We drove home through some bad weather, but made it okay.

Have set up a blog for mom. I hope she uses it. It would be nice to read a daily diary from her. She does such interesting things. She's seen the whooping cranes in her area four times now and has volunteered to help with some sort of migratory assistance program where they escort the cranes with ultra-light aircraft. She won't be flying the aircraft, of course. She's also been observing harriers at the local airport. She says they take off just like the eponymous aircraft.

I'm doing a tour of Gold's Gym today. Chances of me signing up are pretty good, but I may try to get a free week of working out first to see if I'm comfortable at this facility. It's here at our office towers, so it couldn't be any more convenient.

Insane bikers

Want to watch poetic insanity in motion? View href="http://digave.com/videos/red-web.mpg">bike messengers in a race through
NYC and just try to stay off the edge of your seat. About 8 minutes long.
Thanks to Ellis for sending me that.
Check out the parent directory for
more fun insane biker videos.

__________________________________
Celebrate Yahoo!'s 10th Birthday!
Yahoo! Netrospective: 100 Moments of the Web
http://birthday.yahoo.com/netrospective/

Pocket Review Concord DVx installment 4

Okay, the video function is really cool. Especially when you strap it to the sun visor of a MINI Cooper. I'm trying to figure out how to post a Windows Media .asf video clip. I can't play one on the Mac with the latest Mac WM application.

My wife Deb's verdict: That thing's freaking adorable.

Tomorrow: Basset cam experiment.

Pocket Review Concord DVx installment 03

Piffle to the Concord's claim that it is not Mac compatible. I've been hooking it up, throwing files onto the card. Erasing things. I got MP3 files from my iTunes library to play on it (though not M4P files).

And the photos aren't too bad. Not so great on the sharpness, but I can fix that in Photoshop. Here's the full frame of an image:



100 % view of segment the file, unmodified, saved for Web at 80 quality in Photoshop.



It's a little noisy in the blue channel, as you would suspect, but not as much as you'd think.



And here's the cropped, prettified version. This was taken in mixed flourescent and daylight, so not the best circumstances. The highlight on my face goes up to 254/254/254, but I can't find a COMPLETELY blown out spot.

Pocket Review Concord DVx installment 02

Well, apparently it was charged up. It just takes a greater-than-1-second hold-down on the power button to get it turned on. The SD card is a little tough to get in its slot; I don't think a big-fingered person could do it.

However, once I got it going (which took no time at all), I was playing with it and having a good time taking self-portraits.

I have made an end-run around the DVx's nefarious Mac incompatibility by using my Delkin BurnAway as an SD card reader. Any SD card reader would do, but the BurnAway CD/DVD burner is what I've got to work with.

Pocket Review Concord DVx installment 01

The Concord DVx is a combination MPEG-4 movie camcorder, 2-megapixel camera, MP3 player, LED flashlight, voice recorder, and an SD (Secure Digital)/MMC (Multi Media Card) card reader. They call it the "Swiss Army Knife of digital cameras," which I imagine the Swiss Army Knife people might object to considering this device is all plastic and doesn't strike me as being that rugged. It sells for $199 and comes with a 128MB SD card.

First disappointment: it's not compatible with Macintosh, which makes it pretty useless to me on the whole. I will have to find a friend or coworker who's using a PC to let me install software and download images and such when I have them.

The first step: battery charging (6 hours for first time, according to documentation; I started at 11:46 a.m.). Taking the battery door off is easy enough, but putting it back on needs a gentle understanding touch or I could see the thin plastic face getting cracked easily on the upper left where the door fits around what I assume is a speaker. The plastic has a delicate feel to it, and I didn't dare test its limits of robust-ocity.

Red charger backlight went off sometime before 1:00 p.m., which was only a little more than one hour of charging time. Unplugged and replugged in USB/AC connection and the red light came back on.

So, six hours from now, I'll be able to play with it a little.

Roombunctious

I have been searching for a way for Molly to get exercise, and now perhaps I've found it. The best reason to get a Roomba ever.

May have to investigate eBay and Craig's List for used models.

Insane bikers

Want to watch poetic insanity in motion? View bike messengers in a race through NYC and just try to stay off the edge of your seat. About 8 minutes long. Thanks to Ellis for sending me that. Check out the parent directory for more fun insane biker videos.

Super-eruptions on BBC

Look for Supervolcano on the BBC, March 13 and 14.