I was downgraded in the transition from Comcast to Time Warner

No response to an email sent on 4/23, so this morning, I sent this mail:

................................................

Dear Time Warner:


How much web space is allocated/ or willing to allocate to my account?

Time Warner told me "Your existing web pages will be transferred in their entirety." (email March 14, 2007 6:48 AM, received in April)
Comcast had a web space allocation of 182 megabytes, I was using about 160 megabytes

Time Warner technical support phone contact and email response is "You are offered 25 free megabytes of web space!"

I am now told that only one of my email accounts qualify for Road Runner Personal Home Pages.
Comcast gave personal web pages to all my seven screen names. If I had a teenager, he or she would not be able to publish at all on Roadrunner.



When will I be able to view and manage my web space file structure and size from your site?

Time Warner's setup site has the following:
Where do I setup/maintain my Road Runner Personal Home Pages?
http://www.adelphiapowerpage.com/synacor/rr/test/Home_Page_Options.html and Manage your web site account at https://home.roadrunner.com
Change Personal Home Page Account Password - Temporarily Unavailable
Recover Personal Home Page Password - Temporarily Unavailable
Change Personal Home Page Account Details - Temporarily Unavailable 4/23 4/24 5/25 4/26/07



My thousands of Comcast links are now dead ( see http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=edhiker&btnG=Google+Search )
Why was the personal web page URL structure changed in the first place? Note that the host server name is ftp://upload.comcast.net
( from General FTP Setup, from http://www.help.rr.com/HMSFaqs/e_ftpsetup.aspx?topic=Personal+Home+Pages )

Please reply, sincerely

Ed
----------------------------------------------
To make me feel worse.. on 9/24/07, got two emails to my non-public Road Runner address, it said
"Comcast is upgrading the Personal Web Pages product to include up to 40 times more online storage than before! As part of the product upgrade, your online storage will automatically increase from 25 MB up to 1,000 MB per Comcast.net e-mail address - that's a full gigabyte - at no additional cost. And if you have opened secondary Comcast.net e-mail addresses for your account you will get 1 GB of online storage for each of them.

The product upgrade will take place over the next months and there is nothing you need to do to receive the increased storage."

... Called both Comcast and Time Warner, nobody could tell me what it's about or how I got the mailings.

Comcast to Time Warner transition failed in Los Angeles
Originally uploaded by edhiker.

Comcast to Time Warner transition failed in Los Angeles

Los Angeles Time Warner is being phased out by me after at least five fruitless contacts with Time Warner. They took over the Los Angeles franchise from Comcast early this year. Comcast had a web space allocation of 182 megabytes, I was using about 160 megabytes

Today, their website and email response is "You are offered 25 free megabytes of web space!" - this after they said "Your existing web pages will be transferred in their entirety." (email March 14, 2007 6:48 AM)


They say:
"Sorry for the inconvenience". I say I'm leaving after assuming that I would be locked into cable for the rest of my life. Now free to go DSL or any other ISP.

All my thousands of URLs originally on Comcast were deleted with no notice.

And on every visit, things like this "Personal Home Page Account Details - Temporarily Unavailable"

I will attempt to give a more complete story of what seems to be a poor move by Time Warner on my webpage at: http://edhiker.50webs.com/Time_Warner.html


Try Google search "home roadrunner com"
Then try search "home.comcast.net"

Shows web page usage on Roadrunner (Time Warner) and Comcast
- how about 3000:1 Looks like I'm not the only one that can't make it work.

More about Los Angeles Time Warner. I add this post after at least five fruitless contacts with Time Warner.

Time Warner took over the Los Angeles franchise from Comcast early this year.

Time Warner said "Your existing web pages will be transferred in their entirety." (email March 14, 2007 6:48 AM)

Comcast had a web space allocation of 182 megabytes, I was using about 160 megabytes

Today, their website says: "You are offered 25 free megabytes of web space!", this noticed at http://home-admin.rr.com/ while I was talking to Dave (senior technician) as he was telling me that Time Warner would only give me 5 megabytes of web space. He thought that the website was incorrect - 4/18/07

In addition, the customer "must manually edit the absolute references to point to your images or pages using a relative path. Absolute references to links or images in your html files will need to be edited and changed to relative links referring to your directory structure (see image below for an example of a directory structure). Editing the html to change to relative references in your directory structure means that you should change absolute links to images and files within your Personal Home Pages"
(My web pages, if migrated from Comcast will have thousands of these issues)

I see no good reason that personal web page URL structure needed changing in the first place, especially that the host server name is ftp://upload.comcast.net
( from General FTP Setup, from http://www.help.rr.com/HMSFaqs/e_ftpsetup.aspx?topic=Personal+Home+Pages )

The technician and I got messages like this "Road Runner Help & Member Services information is unavailable at this time" several times while on the phone, 4/18/07.

These specific questions remaining unanswered.
1- How much web space is allocated/ or willing to allocate to my account?
2- Where do I find the specifications for this account?
3- Where do I view and manage my web space file structure and size from your site?
4- Why couldn't the former Comcast web space contents be left in place? (at least for a year or two)

Comments or answers can be addressed to ed506 (at) edhiker.com

Related links: http://home.roadrunner.com/~edhiker/ http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=edhiker&btnG=Google+Search

http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-cable20mar20,1,5332870.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business

Today's Time Warner's website space hosting comments by edhiker, after four tech support calls.



Which best describes the Time Warner adventure in taking over Comcast's Los Angeles franchise?

1- A thousand monkeys...
2- How to keep a Pollock busy
3- Gross incompetents
4- Scam

Last August, I asked them in an email, .... "My home page alone has "Comcast" embedded 53 times, and that's just a start.
Your TV ads and welcome page ignores this problem.
Advise as how to proceed.

Ed "

--------- I got no answer till April when my thousands of URL's containing "edhiker.home.comcast" went dead. ---------

I called tech support three times and was assured that all would be fixed, they did the following for me - what a great favor!


You have successfully set up your Road Runner Personal Home Page!

This page is a temporary placeholder which should be overwritten with your own start, or home page, named index.html. If you need basic information or require assistance in uploading your documents, visit the Personal Home Pages topic on http://help.rr.com/ - Road Runner's Online Help Desk!

To make any changes on your Personal Home Page account, please refer to the Member Home Pages page. (very slow site)

------------
Looking further, (no small task). "You must manually edit the absolute references to point to your images or pages using a relative path. Absolute references to links or images in your html files will need to be edited and changed to relative links referring to your directory structure (see image below for an example of a director y structure). Editing the html to change to relative references in your directory structure means that you should change absolute links to images and files within your Personal Home Pages" Edhiker has thousands of URL's This is only part of the story.

------------------------

>From this page https://home.roadrunner.com/cgi-bin/ccxfer.cgi , I am sent to here:
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, root@localhost and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Apache/2.0.52 (Red Hat) Server at home.roadrunner.com Port 443

-----------------------
An email sent on 3/14/07 to a non-active address and not found till 4/17/07 had a link that says "Your existing web pages will be transferred in their entirety." I used 160 MB of space on Comcast. I now believe that the email was a lie, keep reading.


Now I notice this: "How much storage space will I have?
Your existing Comcast web pages will be transferred in their entirety, up to 25 MB, to Road Runner High Speed Online Personal Home Pages. Any new Road Runner Personal Web Page accounts created will receive up to 10 MB of storage space."

--------------------------------------

Today's news (4/17/07) Time Warner Board Could Cut Cable Stake Time Warner executives are weighing whether the company should reduce its cable-TV holdings amid competition from the Internet, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Tuesday.

.....................
My pages will be placed elsewhere

I have a new test site at Google http://edhiker.googlepages.com/

I am now free to move from what I thought was a lifetime connection to cable

Comcast to Time Warner transition failed in Los Angeles

All my thousands of URLs that were originally on Comcast were deleted with no notice.

I will attempt to give a more complete story of what seems to be a poor move by Time Warner on my webpage at: http://edhiker.googlepages.com/




Previous post follows:

I sent the mail below last Aug, but no answer, now all my many web pages are gone.


I see a nightmare (for the third time) in this conversion from Comcast to Time Warner.
I have thousands of URL's containing "edhiker.home.comcast" - try that in Google just to get a glimpse.

My home page alone has "Comcast" embedded 53 times, and that's just a start.

Your TV ads and welcome page ignores this problem.

Advise as how to proceed.

Ed

-----------------------------------------------------

Sorry for the inconvenience.

As you probably know, Time Warner Cable is in the process of welcoming former Comcast customers to our family. Recently, you and some of these former Comcast High-Speed Online customers may have experienced some service issues as we made the conversion to Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner High Speed Online service.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience. We’re working hard to make things better.

---------------------------



FAQ >> Road Runner High Speed Online

Q:		Will I be able to create a personal home page?
A:		Yes. Personal Home Pages is a free premium service offered to you by Road Runner. This service allows you to create your own personal place on the web where your friends and family can access it anytime from their computer. - .... but I can't find Time Warner's personal home page site at all for Los Angeles -------------------------------

Time warner http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/82769 http://www.timewarnercable.com/SoCal/?x=22&y=6
http://www.timewarnercable.com/CustomerService/FAQ/TWCFaqs.ashx?faqID=83&MarketID=23&CatID=748
feedback http://www.timewarnerla.com/support/feedback/

( Google email says "You are currently using 118 MB (4%) of your 2839 MB")
---------
Phoned them, they say they will work on it and let me know

Prognosis looks bad...

Any help or comments would be appreciated
email ed506 (at) edhiker.com

edhiker edhiker.com www.edhiker.com

Link


a

Vernal Fall, Map by Google

Vernal Fall, Map by Google
Originally uploaded by edhiker.

Google Maps may onto something. This is their "hybrid view" which overlays trail maps on photo. URL for this one is
maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.727426,-119.543773&spn=0.0...

The above was found from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernal_Fall

I was testing the Google photo thing at picasaweb.google.com/edhiker/EdhikerPhotosFromFlickr
... one thing leads to another.

Log_0704_19_Vernal_Fall_Map_Google

Two Computers, using one keyboard - I find it much easier to use only my detached desktop keyboard (and mouse, and copy/paste) for the laptop also. Synergy allows this.... but the latest version has a problem with Win98. The fix was time consuming to find. Here it is

---------------------------

Date: 2007-03-16 09:21
Sender: nobody
Logged In: NO

Keyboard Typing Yields Double Characters --

THANK YOU patrick123 for posting "I did not have this problem with Synergy
1.2.7"

I now have a working system using Win 98se server and either Win XP or Win
98se clients after installing Synergy 1.2.7.

If the Win98 bug is fixed, someone let me know at ed412...at..edhiker.com


Ed Johnson (on the web, Edhiker)


Date: 2007-03-15 22:31
Sender: nobody
Logged In: NO

I am having the same issue. Client is xp and server is 98se

Edhiker ed412...at..edhiker.com


Date: 2006-10-11 14:22
Sender: patrick123
Logged In: YES
user_id=1618882

Same problem with synergy 1.3.1 :
- server on Win98
- client on Win XP

I did not have this problem with Synergy 1.2.7



Date: 2006-09-25 19:46
Sender: nobody
Logged In: NO

I have the same problem if I use the 98 as server and XP as
client. The problem goes away when I use XP as server and
98 as client. Not sure sure why and not my preferred set
up so a true fix would be nice.

My letter to K-Mozart, which was the best radio station in Los Angeles ( http://www.kmozart.com/ ) 105.1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I found 105.1 playing country music, so now I find a 128Kbps stream on the net.

Sorry, 128Kbps is NOT "high-performance digital".
Have grave doubts about "HD2 Multicasting"

Sincerely, your long term K-Mozart listner,

Ed Johnson (RF engineer, edhiker on the net)
ed412..at...edhiker.com
-----------------------------------------------
More about this inferior broadcast system can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Radio
...The FM system digital audio is 98.4kbps.
----------------------------------------------
More background,

"HD" in HD radio doesn't stand for the same thing as HD in HDTV. It's "Hybrid Digital"

The Frauenhofer Institute ran tests with listening panels in 1998-1999 as they were bringing out MP4 AAC coding. They determined that only when one had reached 320kbits transfer rate could their listening panel not tell the difference between the AAC stream and a cd (16 bit).

Now Apple Computer falsely lists their default 128 kbits iTunes coding rate as equivelent to "cd quality." Read the Frauenhofer paper! ( still at http://web.archive.org/web/20060425145107/http://www.tnt.uni-hannover.de/project/mpeg/audio/public/w2006.pdf

A local station here has started touting their new HD radio
broadcasting. Not sure what that means except in my car their signal now fades 10-15 miles closer than it used to.

http://www-gatago.com/rec/audio/pro/29724628.html
.................................

My note: control + shift + a = Link

New star in the sky - Nova Scorpii 2007 - click on picture

New star in the sky - Nova Scorpii 2007
Originally uploaded by edhiker.

Nova Scorpii 2007 peaked at magnitude 3.8 on February 16th. Captured from Tujunga on Feb 21, 2007 when it was at magnitude 4.9 (below red mark). Five second exposure @ f6 , ISO 800 using 135mm lens, fixed tripod. The bright star is Epsilon Scorpii. Sky above Los Angeles not the best, naked eye limiting mag about 4. Best viewed at 1024 x 683

For more, see
skytonight.com/observing/home/Nova-Sco-2007.html

IMG_4936GC_Nova_Sco_2007_marked

Uploaded by edhiker on 21 Feb '07, 4.26pm PST.
spacer image


Some links about this nova are at:

http://skytonight.com/observing/home/Nova-Sco-2007.html

http://www.aavso.org/publications/specialnotice/33.shtml

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=5215

Rebate problems, rejection, and refused - stories to learn from

My Hewlett-Packard rebate refused because of poor copy of instructions


I just had an $80 HP rebate refused because the store (Office Depot) gave me 12 loose sheets for four rebates on a laptop system - two of them had in bold letters "mail before 1/30/07", the other two, had "45 days" buried in the other 12 sheets, in weak gray color - missed those (of course).

The rebate mail-in submission form given to me at the store was 8 1/2 X 11, single sided and had no "must be mailed within..." statement.

First call on 2/2/07... From Mr P at HP: "All HP rebates are 45 days, the store should have told you. ... nothing I can do..".

Second call on 2/6/07 - I carefully explained about the incorrect, single sided rebate form given to me at Office-Depot. Ms B at HP Rebate center made an exception and I will get the rebate.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I call this a scam, HP is aware that retail stores often make photo copies of rebate forms. The submission form given to me was a single-sided 8 1/2 X 11 with lots information, even a "must be bought by date" , but the HP "must be received within 45 days" requirement is not on it.

All about rebate pitfalls on my detailed page called "HP Rebate Scam" at: http://edhiker.home.comcast.net/rebate_scam.htm

Most important: Tell Senator Figueroa: http://www.dra.ca.gov/legissues/sb1737.pdf *** Amend SB_1737, add "mail before" and "must be bought by date"items on face of all rebate forms.

The bottom line for now is to carefully check "mail before" and "must be bought by date" before leaving the store.

Daytime Comet with clouds, the brightest to appear in 41 years. Perihelion passage, just 7° from sun.
Originally uploaded by edhiker ( Ed Johnson ) Click on photo for larger version

I like this best out of the nine posted.
Comet McNaught ( C/2006 P1 ) taken on 1/12/07 by Ed Johnson (edhiker)

Daytime Comet McNaught. The comet was visible during daytime hours for several days around 1/12/07, the day of it's closest approach to the sun.


3D orbit visualization http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?des=2006+P1

Sky and Telescope selected shots (has Ed Johnson's image) http://skytonight.com/community/gallery/skyevents/5129766.html

Comet pictures, selected by edhiker
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=353230950&size=l
http://flickr.com/photos/edhiker/357774577/ (from http://flickr.com/photos/edhiker/ )
http://media.skytonight.com/images/McNaught+070114+Karrer.jpg
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=352861845&context=pool-68076698@N00&size=o
http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/mcnaught/13jan07/Finazzi1.jpg Sun, Green Flash, and Comet perspective

Siding Spring Observatory - about the discovery and extensive discussion http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~rmn/C2006P1.htm
The real Rob McNaught http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~rmn/mcnaught.jpg

Links http://spaceweather.com/
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2006P1/2006P1.html
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/2006P1_1.html C/2006 P1 (McNaught)--Daily Ephemeris
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=comet+McNaught Google search results

Flickr

HOW TO ADD HOT LINKS Select the text you want to link and then hit ctrl+shift+a.

________________


This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Daytime Comet, the brightest to appear in our skies in more than 30 years, seen at NOON on 1/12/07 at it's closest approch to the sun.
Originally uploaded by edhiker. http://www.flickr.com/photos/edhiker/357774577/

The daytime photos were taken with a Canon DSLR attached to a 8" f7 telescope.

It was at perihelion about the time this photo was taken (around 19:00 UT on January 12th)

--------------------------------------

Daytime Comet with clouds, the brightest to appear in our skies in more than 30 years. Perihelion passage, just 7° from sun

Going through my shots of 1/12/07, I found the one in the entry above with clouds - adds some perspective. Taken midday in the city of Los Angeles, Canon DSLR, 1400mm. Home ground optics.

It was fun watching the clouds passing comet McNaught, too bad I didn't have a video camera running for this event. A time-lapse after sunset series (movie) from a local 6800' mountain (darker skies) would have been neat.

I can't ever recall seeing a comet surrounded by wispy afternoon clouds, let alone from Los Angeles California
......................
This picture is on page 91 of April Sky &Telescope
......................
Half size image, 640x478 on about page 10 at: skytonight.com/community/gallery/skyevents/5129766.html?p...

Legal contractual document - or not?

Office Depot contractual document - or not?
Originally uploaded by edhiker.

Still pending... and pending. No answer to two emails sent a month later. I have a friend who bought the same item at the same time and is still waiting for her reward. At least two employees at Office Depot encouraged us to sign up to get a rebate from the puchase of two HP laptop computers on 9/30/06. So far we have talked to three Office Depot people about this and they all say to talk to somebody else. -
Late news, there was a reply to my third email (having a link to this posting).... "we are willing to make an exception for you, since the store clerk told you this purchase would earn a reward." 12/18/06

iPod Zone ...

iPod Zone ...
Originally uploaded by edhiker.

Elaine Runs in the iPod Zone, a voice from her Nike shoe wispers in her ears how fast and far she has gone in the City of Angels Half Marathon

in the zone - In a state of focused attention or energy so that one's performance is enhanced.



Elaine_Runs_Zoned_Out in the City of Angels Half Marathon, to a happy finish

... then we hike to Mt Hollywood from Greek Theater
www.localhikes.com/Hikes/MountHollywood_4472.asp

Elaine was 6th out of 75 division finishers, don't know how many starters. Dec 3rd 2006

Results at www.runraceresults.com

Angeles Crest Highway is missing

Angeles Crest Highway is missing
Originally uploaded by edhiker.

Looks like the S2 highway will be closed for a long time. Funding for big projects is in short supply. Joe and Bobcat got special permission to walk to the site (don't know about the car in the background)
A story about the closed Crystal Lake Recreation Area is at
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/09/178176.php - Crystal Lake -- when will it open?

The Millard Sheets Gallery

The Millard Sheets Gallery at Fairplex
Originally uploaded by edhiker.

One of my main reasons for going to the Los Angeles Fair in Pomona (Fairplex) is to see Photographic and Painted Art. It was missing this year, in this building and under the grandstand. The artists and their art was not found, what have they done? I can watch art on TV, but that's not why I go to an art museum or contest.

Some links found:
Public Relations http://www.fairplex.com/2006/GeneralInformation/Contact.asp

Juried Photography Exhibition – This exhibition will feature contemporary photographs selected by a panel of expert jurors.
http://www.fairplex.com/2006/ExhitbitsAttractions/Museums.asp#ex

digitally submit their images http://www.fairplex.com/fp/Foundations/MillardSheets/index.asp

http://shedresearch.blogspot.com/ Pictures of Jan 2006
http://shedresearch.net/current.html current - a few
Many entries http://utopiano.ning.com/list.php?sort=new http://utopiano.ning.com/list.php?sort=winner

New art director http://www.fairplex.com/fp/AboutUs/Newsroom/ViewPressRelease.asp?PRelId=680

The Millard Sheets Gallery – see local L.A. artists engage the L.A. County Fair working in media traditionally associated with county fairs. http://www.fairplex.com/2006/ExhitbitsAttractions/Museums.asp#ex

Some notes about our visit to Stony Ridge on 11/11/05 - http://stony-ridge.org/index.html

Sky too bright for deep sky work, and seeing not good enough for Mars or moon.

Reticle batteries dead - Energizer 357 Button Cell Battery ?

Clear, accurate moon data is at below site:
Sun and Moon Data, Stony Ridge - and synthetic image of the Moon ("on following day")
http://cleardarksky.com/cgi-bin/sunmoondata.py?id=SROCA&tz=-8.0


The Stony Ridge telescope was running about 10% slow Friday eve, seemed less severe late in the evening. Could be case of "GLUE GREASE", like I had two years ago, picture at: http://flickr.com/photos/edhiker/62552953/

Would be nice to find a lubricant that is longer lasting, maybe:

MOLYDUVAL Soraja C 402 Synthetic Oil (PAO) Based
Transparent grease for lubrication of bearings, valves and taps. Very tacky. Strong adhesiveness. MOLYDUVAL Soraja C402 is a long-life lubricant with excellent adhesive properties.
* for lubrication of sliding surfaces in food Industry
* for slow running bearings in food Industry
* for lubrication if extreme cleanness is desired
* for packing machinery in the food Industry
-35°C up to 160°C, shortly +200°C http://www.mos2.com/data/cat/doc/en/soraja.doc.
Soraja C 403 Same as Soraja C 402, but harder, NLGI 3

.... but a nice setup, sure nicer than being outdoors in the winter.

Geostationary Satellites - this photo from Los Angeles, five marked in red

Geostationary Satellites - this photo from Los Angeles, five marked in red
Originally uploaded by edhiker.

Geostationary Satellites -
The invention of the geostationary satellite has revolutionised global communications. Geostationary satellites orbit at an altitude of 36000 km (22300 miles)

Some background on these satellites can be found at Arthur C. Clarke
The geostationary orbit is now sometimes known as the Clarke orbit in his honor.

I aimed for a group of satellites near 101° west for this first shot and got five in this 1/2 degree wide field.
The bright one could be seen with a small telescope.
The motor drive that normally follows the stars was turned off for these photos, causing the stars to leave trails, the stationary satellites to show as points. See a photo with motor turned on at: flickr.com/photos/edhiker/50627960/in/photostream/

For the mathamtically inclined, there are 700 pixels between the end red marks. Photo taken with 25 inch FL lens. Rebel has 3072 pixels, and an effective sensor size of 22.7 x 15.1mm Exposure: 91 sec
----------------
101.1W = DirecTV 4S
101.0W = GE 4
100.9W = AMSC 1
100.9W = Direct TV1
100.6W = DirecTV 2/DBS 2

GE-4, a hybrid C-/Ku-band satellite, will serve North and South America from its orbital location at 101 degrees west. Launch Weight 5,500 lbs

A series of five photographs were published on Flickr.....
IMG_4585CrSC_GeoSat_101W_Marked

Need for blink comparison software - Astronomical

I searched the web for such a program, but came up short. What is needed is the ability to take two images, taken on different nights maybe with different instruments. Orientations and scale might vary. It's quite labor intensive to resize and rotate the two images by hand. Below is what I came up with (see Related links, below)

S.B.I.G. CCDBLINK Software: Allows blink comparison with ST-4 images on PC - will it auto-rotate? $99.00
-------------
MaxIm DL allows blink comparison of two images of the same stellar field. Once the two images are aligned and the intensities are matched correctly, any new or changed object shows up as a blinking object when the two images are swapped rapidly. - What a big nothing!

-------------

Graphical Astronomy and Image Analysis Tool ( GAIA )

GAIA is a graphical image display and analysis tool, it provides the usual facilities of image display tools, plus more astronomically useful ones such as aperture photometry, arbitrary region analysis, celestial co-ordinate readout, calibration and modification, grid overlays, blink comparison, defect patching and the ability to query on-line (WWW) catalogues.

.... "Celestial co-ordinates readout." ... under "Image Analysis Capabilities"

GAIA v2.7-3 This is a major release of GAIA incorporating two new automated astrometry toolboxes, a major re-write of the blink comparison toolbox and many changes and fixes.
GAIA now offers two new toolboxes based on the Starlink AUTOASTROM program. These make it possible to provide a minimum of positional information (image centre and scale) and then fit an astrometric solution. They also make it possible, for the first time, to fit optical distortions.
The blink comparison toolbox has been substantially upgraded in this release. New features are options to alignment to NDF origins or FITS CRPIX values. This gives much better behaviour when comparing images of different dimensions. Better performance (less flickering artifacts). The ability to drag images and enter image coordinate offsets. All images can now be viewed together or one-by-one as before. Images should now always scroll and the "Refresh" button has been removed.
------------
A related subject: Determining coordinates - no easy way found, see http://groups.google.com/group/sci.astro.fits/browse_frm/thread/105fe7913d387aa5/c70cf7ece67e1a8a?lnk=st&q=%22determining+coordinates%22+astronomy&rnum=1&hl=en#c70cf7ece67e1a8a
-----
Related links - Guide to Minor Body Astrometry http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/info/Astrometry.html and http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/info/Astrometry.html#equip
Accuracy of reference catalogs - http://www.fitsblink.net/astrometry/astrometry.html
Image Processing Resources for Astronomy Teachers http://www.phy.duke.edu/%7Ekolena/imagepro.
Astrometrica is a interactive software tool - html#ipAstrometrica is a interactive software tool
-------------------
'CHARON' ASTROMETRIC SOFTWARE

With Charon, one must provide an image, specifying either the object or an approximate position in the sky. Charon will then examine the image you've taken, and will search through a star catalog (such as the GSC and Tycho databases on the Guide CD-ROM) for stars covering that area. It then will calculate the transformation between J2000 RA/dec and positions in the image.

Once it has done this, it has registered the image to the sky, and will show you the image with GSC stars superimposed as an overlay. You can move the cursor around and collect information concerning the RA, declination and magnitude of objects in the image. You can hit Tab to immediately zoom in on the target object; Charon will show both the computed, "expected" position of the target object, as well as its actual observed position in the image, and the difference (observed - computed, or "O-C", or "residual") between them. http://www.projectpluto.com/charon.htm#description

The Space Elevator - my question is how will it be assembled and erected. How does one get the "seed cable" stretched into space?

The Space Elevator will be anchored to an offshore sea platform near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, and to a small counterweight in space at 100,000 km. Mechanical lifters (robotic elevator cars) will move up and down the ribbon, carrying such items as satellites, solar power systems, and eventually people into space. LiftPort's plan is to take the concept from the research laboratory to commercial development. Countdown to Lift: April 12, 2018 How erected? - see http://liftport.com/forums/showthread.php?t=242&highlight=erection WOW!

Russian scientist, Yuri Artsutanov, made a design in 1960.

"same studies estimate that the cost of sending payloads into space could be reduced from $20,000 per pound down to $400 per pound" http://liftport.com/faq.php

"Carbon nanotubes (CNT), discovered in 1991, are almost certainly strong enough. Theory says that they are 3-5 times as strong as we need them to be"

"We plan to build a second one immediately (using the first to make it much cheaper) and expect that the second will immediately be used to build a third, fourth, etc." http://liftport.com/faq1.php#basics2

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) objects can and will pose a serious problem. Active avoidance (moving the platform) can be used for objects that would cause damage. On average, an object would have to be avoided every 14 hours.

# How many climbers may be lifted at once?
With the current design, seven. One would lift off every day, with five tons of cargo. ... Then we stop everything, and then its all 'down'.

# Will the ribbon produce an electrical current?
The last space shuttle-tether experiment, which unspooled about 19 km of cable, generated thousands of volts of electrical potential and kilowatts of power, burned through the insulation of the cable, and generated a tremendous explosive arc of electricity, that snapped the tether. ... long answer at http://liftport.com/faq2.php#science2b


Tthe below manuscript is the result of a six-month investigation conducted for NASA under the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. Even though this is the final report for that study, it is really just the beginning.
The study had the same simple title as this manuscript, The Space Elevator.
http://www.isr.us/Downloads/niac_pdf/chapter1.html

The initial "string" we deploy from orbit is actually a ribbon about 1 micron (0.00004 inches) thick, tapering from 5 cm (2 inches) at the Earth to 11.5 cm (4.5 inches) wide near the middle and has a total length of 55,000 miles (91,000 km). This ribbon cable and a couple large upper stage rockets will be loaded on to a handful of shuttles (7) and placed in low-Earth orbit. Once assembled in orbit the upper stage rockets will be used to take the cable up to geosynchronous orbit^B&D where it will be deployed. As the spacecraft deploys the cable downward the spacecraft will be moved outward to a higher orbit to keep it stationary above a point on Earth (a bit of physics we will explain later). Eventually the end of the cable will reach Earth where it will be retrieved and anchored to a movable platform. http://www.isr.us/Downloads/niac_pdf/chapter1.html

War in Space? ... or camera malfunction (double exposure)? This is IMG_4497, now look at next photo in my photostream, IMG_4498

War in Space? ... or camera malfunction (double exposure)? This is IMG_4497, now look at next photo in my photostream, IMG_4498
Originally uploaded by edhiker.

Spent about two hours on this!
I took a series of pictures a few days ago and have been pondering one intently. It's at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edhiker/51350840

The answer is double exposure. I'm not sure how I did the double exposure with the Rebel, will have to ask the Canon people.

These cameras allow multiple exposures in-camera:
Fuji S3, Nikon D2X, Pentax *ist D
"One of the cool features of the D2X is that it allows the photographer to shoot multiple exposures and save it as a single image."

See corrected http://flickr.com/photos/edhiker/51350840
--------------
We are now seeing "all sky" coverage each month to about magnitude 19.0.
"All sky" amounts to something a bit over 10,000 square degrees. The
current surveys have a resolution of a few arcseconds, or about 10^6
resolution elements per square degree. That means "all sky" consists of
about 10^10 resolution elements. It turns out that we expect around one
asteroid per square degree in the sky to magnitude 19. Mostly these are
main belt, and of course the numbers peak up dramatically within 10 or so
degrees of the ecliptic, but averaged over the whole sky, one should expect
about 10,000 genuine asteroid detections per month. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mpml/message/15781


In the middle region of the belt the density of asteroids was 160 asteroids larger than 1 kilometre per square degree.

Picasa - new version 2.1 was tried out
"A free software download from Google. Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC."

The good:
1- Opens Canon RAW (CRW)very fast and transparently. What it does with 12 bit images is unknown(no control seen with conversion)
2- Scans all drives and makes quick view thumbnail images -fast.
3- If sevral copies exist, they are apperant.
4- Histogram and some EXIF data is seen.

The bad:
1- Can't find the "Save as", the closest thing is "Export", but can't figure out how to rename file in this step.
2- EXIF data is not saved. (from RAW or all?)
3- Max resize is 1024 (but can select "original size")
4- Weard nomanclature:
Refining = reading, processing
Highlights = contrast
Fill light = brightness?
Shadows = gamma?
Warmify = adds warm color
Natural Color Picker = gray card selection
Tuning = adjustments or enhance

5- No fine rotatoon, only 90°


Picasa


There is compitition - Microsoft® Codename Max lets you make lists of your photos and turn them into beautiful slide shows to share with your family and friends. other product. That's because it's not a product. - Windows® XP and 54MB install, 200 MB HD space.

-----------------

Vibration or seeing

1/30 sec star image exposure to test vibration vs seeing. 52 arc sec wide image
Originally uploaded by edhiker.

Test to find out if soft pictures are vibration or seeing. Conclusion, it is seeing because 1/1000 sec (see other photos) gives not time for vibration cycle to occur.


1/30 sec star image exposure to test vibration vs seeing. 52 arc sec wide image

Crop = 50 pixels wide, camera array = 3072, 22.7mm. 3072/50=61.44 22.7/61.44 = 0.37mm.= Width of cropped image.
FL of scope = 57inch = 1447mm 1447/0.37= 3910 57.3/3910 = 0.0146 or 0.875 arc min wide
-----------------
22.7 = 0.89 in. Width of field of array= 0.89 degree for my 57 inch FL scope. 89/61=.0145 degree (0.87min) field for 50 pixel crop.


1/30 sec star image exposure to test vibration vs

Flickr Uploader and Set generator

Flickr Uploader and Set generator

How to do it in the most efficient way -
See my "Photo Methods" notebook, below steps are brief.
1- > five pictures, use uploader
2- put all pics in a folder in correct order
3- Drag into UPLOADER, copy any tags in case uploader fails.
4- Make sure that no duplicates and all wanted pics are in correct order.
5- To make SET, grab those just oploaded. Last pic uploaded winds up on bottom unless it is moved in organizer. Right hand pane shows grouping as they will appear.
6- Edit the set all at once, can be done later at left hand lower of SET page.

Lagoon - noise removed with NeatImage

Lagoon - noise removed with NeatImage
Originally uploaded by edhiker.

Try out Flickr Blog, links to Blogger
---------
Service: Blogger
Username: edhiker
Password: Store your password?
Weblog: Edhiker's Activities (#6048056)
URL:
Label:

Flickr Backup to local computer

This morning I had the idea to try the great new Google Blog Search on "flickr backup" and http://www.flickr.com/groups/api/discuss/83327/ java backup was on top.

The reason I did this is that I have 1000 photos on Flickr and would like a LOCAL BACKUP.
I always keep a folder with uploaded images, BUT the edited title and description are not at this time backed up.

A tool that would save a person's complete Flicker site, with descriptions would be a godsend.

Example of a (mine)description www.flickr.com/photos/edhiker/14777784/in/set-354620/

What do you think.
------------------
More - "save a Web site" "your computer" gives CuteSITE Builder 3.0 You can save your Web site in 2 ways, either as a single file in its native TLX format, or as HTML on your computer.

There is an extension called Spiderzilla that can do it: http://spiderzilla.mozdev.org/
It is based on the HTTrack Website Copier.

SpiderZilla

SpiderZilla is intended to be a Netscape/Mozilla/Firebird extension for offline browsing. Basically, it is only a front-end for the opensource command line program HTTrack Website Copier . "It allows you to download a World Wide website from the Internet to a local directory,building recursively all structures, getting html, images, and other files from the server to your computer. Links are rebuiltrelatively so that you can freely browse to the local site (works with any browser). You can mirror several sites together so that you can jump from one to another. You can, also, update an existing mirror site, or resume an interrupted download"- HTTrack description . Run SpiderZilla by Tools > "Download this site" Spiderzilla for Windows 9x/Me/2k/XP

This version SpiderZilla has Httrack inside the package. SpiderZilla is installing to aplication directory (Administrator permissions required)

Install spiderzilla.xpi (848 kb)
Download spiderzilla.xpi (848 kb)
-------------------------
Spiderzilla is an easy to use website download utility. It uses an external Open Source program Httrack Webside Copier (embedded in the Windows version). It allows you to download whole websites from the internet to a local directory, recreating the directory structure, and retrieving all html files, images, etc.
Once installed it can be found under Tools > Download This Site

Version: 1.06 Released: 2003-11-13 Size: 849KB

---------

The problem - it ran for about 4 hours, I stopped it, it had downloading lots of pages not having prefix

" http://flickr.com/photos/edhiker/ " - why not? (after 4 hr, it had downloaded 159MB with 6878 files, but only about 1/3 of my flickr site)

What a super way to install a trojan, but I searched the web and http://spiderzilla.mozdev.org/ and http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/spiderzilla - everything looks ok, except it dosen't work as I had expected.

Ed
Link

Google's Blog Search

... From a Reference Librarian "Want to find a blog on a particular topic?"
http://pfitzblog.royaltylinks.com/archives/2005/09/15/googles-got-a-blog-search/

What is Blog Search?
Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a
strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by
blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the
blogging universe more effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join
the revolution themselves. Whether you're looking for Harry Potter
reviews, political commentary, summer salad recipes or anything else,
Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any
subject of your choice.

The Case for Blogging - Explore the next frontier of authorship and knowledge management... at
Great Article

Google's Blog Search help page http://www.google.com/help/about_blogsearch.html

Google's blog search works great with Flickr photos, searching for
items in the photo description and title, and more. Try it out, start
at:
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=edhiker&btnG=Search+Blogs&scoring=d
... then click "Sort by date" at the top, it turns up the item below
that I just posted on the web one hour ago!

Advanced features allow users to narrow searches by author, date and language. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/09/15/BUG8OENLE21.DTL&type=business

More about Blog Search from Google search at: (is this incest?)
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%22blog+search%22&btnG=Search

The above blog was edited (hot linked) by Google email.

How to Setup a Blog and Insert Hot links in Blogger - from Robin

I have noticed that many of the blogs I have visited still have the Edit Me links in the side bar instead of links to other sites. I thought I would write some short instructions on how to edit Blogger links.

1. Log into your Blogger account and click your blog name to edit it
2. Click the Template tab - The code that is used to create your blog will display
3. Scroll down through the code until you see a section that looks like this:



4. You need to edit the the http: address first. Highlight the address starting just after the first / (the word help) and then type the web site address you want to link to. You want to be sure that you don’t delete the quotation marks around the address.
5. Highlight the words Edit-Me and type the name of the web site you want to link to.
6. Your final link should look something like this:



7. Click Save Template Changes at the bottom of the page and then click the Republish button

If you want to add more links, copy the last link from the <> through the < /li> and press CTRL+C to copy the code. Move your cursor to the just after the last < /li> in the link section and press enter. Press CTRL+V to paste the link. You can then edit the duplicated link.

Filed under: Photography — Robin at 8:31 pm on Saturday, June 18, 2005
-------------
More at Blogger's How to Page

ps - to get started with Blogger, go to Robin's tutorial

Adding Hot Links, edhiker method: Mozilla mail adds hot links to sent mail, so I just send a mail to me or some nobody (save to file no work). Then I copy the sent mail and paste the text into Blogger. BTW- Mozilla Composer makes no hot links automatically. See the blog "Photo Noise Filter Programs" below for example.

Edhiker 9/15/05 (a taxing day - $$$$)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Software Evaluation - Security and Photo Noise Reduction
Having a bit of spare time this week, I set about to investigate some software items. Many software offerings, the ones that want money tell you the good, not the bad. Don't want to bloat my registry (it only gets bigger, and dosen't recover when a program is removed), so I used a old spare hard drive in a plug-in tray.

The items checked out were:
1- Comcast sent a mailing offering FREE McAfee Firewall and Virus programs
http://www.comcast.net/security/

Spent a full day on this and I found:
McAfee Firewall uses too much system resources, maybe 15% (Sygate 4%) .
McAfee Firewall adds 132KB to the registry - Sygate adds 4KB
Seems to work ok, but too big of a hit on computer resources for me.
I had worked on this last June - http://edhiker.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_edhiker_archive.html#111930548761908565

There is still an issue with some versions of Sygate ( the "SMC" problem) - use V5.5b2710 http://forums.sygate.com/vb/showthread.php?s=238e233ebc6755ce154ae150c9dbe695&threadid=12573
.. NEWS August 16, 2005 - Symantec to Acquire Sygate Technologies http://www.sygate.com/news/JDS-letter-from-Sygate-CEO.htm ... and a plane English version at: http://www.symantec.com/press/2005/n050816a.html - April 1?

I looked at many reviews, few talk about computer speed / resource / bloatware issues - seems that I will stick with the free Sygate Firewall. Have12 bookmarks for Sygate.

Same results with McAfee Virus program - Too much bloat, will use on line virus scan for now. http://housecall60.trendmicro.com/en/start_corp.asp

More reading - http://www.governmentsecurity.org/archive/t1430.html and http://www.technologyevaluationcenters.com/Research/ResearchHighlights/Security/2005/06/research_notes/VN_ST_XBP_06_24_05_17.asp
and http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/AnchorDesk/4520-7297_16-5554923.html?tag=adss and http://personal-firewall-software-review.toptenreviews.com/?ttreng=1&ttrkey=outpost+firewall

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Copy-paste from sent Mozilla mail, adds hot linking in the below section).

2- Photo Noise Filter Programs
Picture cooler looses EXIF data - reject. The program does a good job on noise, but I need EXIF.
( They say the demo does all the paid version does, but adds green lines) - don't respond to emails.
Noise Ninja comes in two version. A Home Licence is available for U.S. $29 - EXIF?

Noiseware - free dumps EXIF
Searched reviews and boards on 9/13/05 - hard going for good answers.
Check NeatImage if U want to spend $60 http://luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/neatimage.shtml and http://www.photozo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5060
"I have Neat Image running in Paint Shop Pro 7 on our computers. The only problem is that PSP does not provide EXIF data fields to plug-ins (in general)". Preserving image EXIF data in processed files, all except demo.


The best one so far is Helicon Filter http://www.heliconfilter.com/pages/ it has several other functions including blue or purple fringing correction (only in the paid version). Reads Canon CRW raw files, but not the EXIF data from. 25day trial of all features, then reverts to free version. Adds 136KB to registry.
Free version outputs as 91% quality JPG with perfect EXIF.

More summery at http://www.michaelalmond.com/Articles/noise.htm and http://www.photozone.de/7Digital/noisenew.htm

Apricot - Blenheim (Semi Dwarf) -

Common Name: Blenheim Royal Apricot

Excellent quality canning apricot. Fruit is sweet and firm, top variety in California.Great as a pollinizer too.

Blenheim apricots are the most delicious apricots of all. All-purpose freestone, sweet, aromatic, flavorful. Long-time No.1 apricot in California. They are hard to find fresh because of their delicate nature so they are usually dried to preserve their distinctive sweet-tart flavor and intense color. Late June harvest.
..........

As the owner of a 3-y.o. fecund semi-dwarf Blenheim apricot,...
Our little tree produced, as of Friday, somewhat over 600 apricots,
which were small, juicy and incredibly sweet. Lost nary a one to
squirrels this year, as a neighbor doesn't bother to net her tree as we
do, which makes it much easier pickings for the local varmint....at
least this year.

The first year we had only a handfull of fruit; last year we had about
70, and this year almost a 10-fold increas over last year. What a joy to
go out before breakfast to pick fully ripe 'cots, just warmed by the
sun, to have with nice thick yogurt and a dash of home made passion
fruit syrup. Yummmm!

Ron
Van Nuys, CA

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

iandoh says: check out edhiker's astrophoto set. big telescopes = fantastic photos. Posted 3 weeks ago. ( Permalink )

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
what does Photoshop 7 do that 6 doesn't?
Several things, but most notable (to me) are:
Healing brush
Patch tool
(both great for removing blemishes without bluring detail. You have to see it in action to appreciate it.)
Crazy new brush settings. You can do all kinds of effects with the brush tool now.
Layers in the Liquify tool. Always sucked that only 1 layer at a time worked before.
Dockable UI. Not a huge benefit, but it can be a helpful.
Asset browser
Several new layer/tool blend modes (Pin Light, Vivid Light, Linear Light)
Tool Presets tab (At least I think that's new in 7)
Web transparency
Rollovers (Image Ready)
...................................
In which versions of Photoshop did each of these major features first appear?
* Adjustment Layers: Photoshop 4.0
* Tab palettes: Photoshop 3.0
* Paths: Photoshop 2.0
* Non-dialog based editable text: Photoshop 6.0
* Color Management: Photoshop 5.0
* Healing Brush: Photoshop 7.0 ( Elements lacks many of Photoshop's more powerful tools, such as the Healing brush and the automatic Shadow/ Highlight controls, but there are a few extra features designed to speed up your editing work.)
--------------------------------------------------------
I've just spent the better part of the evening reading posts on the Adobe Photoshop forum regarding the activation/reactivation process for CS. YIKES!!! :shock: (CS is version 8)
CS has - most processing functions also allowed in 16-bit mode
- Updated ACR
- a much improved file browser
- highlight/shadow adjustment function
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:InyFsyRKgUEJ:photography-on-the.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-47714.html+activation+%22photoshop+7%22+vs+%22photoshop+CS%22&hl=en
--------------------------------------------------------
FIREWALL THINGS
Zone Alarm v.s. Sygate Personal Firewall
I used to use Zone Alarm a few years ago and switched to Sygate which I am very happy with. Zone Alarm seemed to use more resources and hogged up memory. ... ZoneAlarm is more novice fireindly but sygate is easier on resources (and a little more technical). As far as protection, they are both basically equal. On my personal computers I usually use sygate, but when it's for someone else I usually use zonealarm....
Sygate is my preference......... it is user friendly, your non pingable... and the advanced rules for networking and IP blocking are super simple .. MORE at http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/archive/index.php/t-17409.html
.............
Also locate the folder named "Prefetch" in the windows directory. Delete everything in it (windows will rebuild the contents as you use programs). I had the same annoying problem and found that deleting the contents worked for me. - NOT FOUND by Ed
.............
I do Internet Security Programming for a living and I see so many suggestions mentioning pop up killers,Antivirus Programs,Spyware Killers etc. I have worked with computers since windows 3.1 was new and still have to find a combo better than the following,
panicware.com free pop up blocker,
Spyware Blaster,
Spyware Guard,
Zone Alarm Firewall
Ad-Aware se free for home,and
Grisoft Anti Virus(AVG) http://forums.plentyoffish.com/563687datingPostpage3.aspx
..................................
Your system has achieved a perfect "TruStealth" rating. Not a single packet - solicited or otherwise - was received from your system as a result of our security probing tests. Your system ignored and refused to reply to repeated Pings (ICMP Echo Requests). From the standpoint of the passing probes of any hacker, this machine does not exist on the Internet. Some questionable personal security systems expose their users by attempting to "counter-probe the prober", thus revealing themselves. But your system wisely remained silent in every way. Very nice. http://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?rh1dkyd2
80 HTTP
Stealth There is NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that a port (or even any computer) exists at this IP address!

110 POP3
Stealth There is NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that a port (or even any computer) exists at this IP address!
...Etc Etc..............................................
We have determined that your IP address is 24.127.148.215
This is the public IP address that is visible to the internet.
Note: this may not be your IP address if you are connecting through a router, proxy or firewall.

Trying to gather information from your web browser...
Operating System = Windows Windows 98
Browser = Netscape Navigator 5.0
Trying to find out your computer name... Unable to determine your computer name!
Trying to find out what services you are running... Unable to detect any running services!
We have determined that you have a firewall blocking UDP ports!
We are unable to scan any more UDP ports on IP: 24.127.148.215 . . .
You have blocked all of our probes! http://scan.sygate.com/probe.html
.....................
SMC(not responding) Sygate Firewall
You can roll back the version to 5.5 2710 if you like. http://207.33.111.31/spf/spf5.5b2710.exe
http://forums.sygate.com/vb/showthread.php?s=1f860db86e0ae172dc1c92a20b9fa52c

Link

25 free song plays each and every month - Rhapsody - READ VERY CAREFULLY the fine print.
1- Can't download the music, just listen while online - each time counts as one song
2- Must cludder up ones computer with another RealPlayer software - Beware! -
3- I remember when I downloaded their RealPlayer application, new from their site and got notices right off that I had to upgrade to new versions - they can't seem to get it right.
Read the news at Google -
http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&gl=us&ncl=http://www.time.com/time/gadget/20050427/
Link

Focuser - new "Very Low Profile Focuser" - 0.07" insertion length was made yesterday. Precise and repeatable.





Link

The SI is the International System of Units - (Metric System) Tired of waiting!

100 YEARS AGO (From Nature 30 March 1899).
A deputation of representatives from the Decimal Association, chambers of commerce, educational institutions, and trade unions, waited upon Mr. Ritchie on Wednesday, March 22, at the House of
Commons to urge upon the Government the compulsory adoption of the metric system of weights and measures on January 1, 1901. Several of the delegates described the advantages which the metric system possesses, reference being made to the great waste of timeinvolved in teaching our complicated system of arithmetic, and the loss of trade resulting from the use of a system not understood by other nations. In reply, Mr. Ritchie expressed himself in agreement with the arguments in favour of the metric system, but stated that his own view, and that of his colleagues, was that chaos and confusion would be created by the compulsory adoption of the metric system in this country, and it would be practically impossible to carry
out a compulsory law on the subject. They had not only passed a law two years ago to make the metric system legal, but they had also added to their Board of Trade standards the standards for the metric system, and only seventeen of the whole of the local authorities in the country had come toverify their standards.

Some bookmarks relating to Metric Syatem
http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/200/202/lc1136a.htm
http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/summer95/p95su14.htm
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/usmetric.html
http://www.cftech.com/BrainBank/OTHERREFERENCE/WEIGHTSandMEASURES/MetricHistory.html
Proponents of the metric system in the U.S. often claim that "the United States, Liberia, and Burma (or Myanmar) are the only countries that have not adopted the metric system." This statement is not correct with respect to the U.S., and probably it isn't correct with respect to Liberia and Burma, either. The U.S. adopted the metric system in 1866. What the U.S. has failed to do is to restrict or prohibit the use of traditional units in areas touching the ordinary citizen: construction, real estate transactions, retail trade, and education. The U.S. has not made the crucial transition from "soft metric" to "hard metric", so that "1 pint (473 mL)" becomes "500 mL (1.057 pint)", with the traditional equivalent fading into smaller type sizes and finally disappearing.
========
The use of the metric system made legal (but not mandatory) in the United States by the (Kasson) Metric Act of 1866 (Public Law 39-183) [See: Page 1 and Page 2]. This law also made it unlawful to refuse to trade or deal in metric quantities. http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/dates.htm
=====
Lack of public interest and support has prevented the metric system from being adopted in the United States. http://encarta.msn.com/text_761561345___7/Metric_System.html
========
It is the use by our modern progressive country of an ancient system of weights and measures which it is here proposed to discuss and show up as an absurdity.
The annual expense of retaining the old system of weights and measures is over $300,000,000.
http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/socl/education/AMetricalTragedy/Chap1.html

95 % of the world's people use the SI for all their measurement needs and since our international trade is a significant part of our national economy, it should be apparent that we cannot waste any more time. http://www.metricmethods.com/whatistheSI.html
========
The U.S. realized that it was very difficult for its industries to compete in a metric world. Other countries such as Japan, Britain and Germany were shipping products all over the world. It was difficult for the U.S. to compete because the standards were different and everything had to be converted to metric. Congress knew we had to change to the international standards for trade. In 1988, a trade act was adopted that made the metric system the preferred system of measurement for trade and commerce. http://www.michigan.gov/mda/0,1607,7-125-2961_2971_2972-8931--,00.html
========


Link

Things to do around Los Angeles - 2004

SWAPS - http://www.familymatters.tv/level_3/moneysaver/fleasandswap.htm

Pasadena Ciity College First Sunday, 7 to 5

Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market Second Sunday of the month 9 to 3

Glendale College Flea Market, monthly, 3rd Sunday, 7 to 3


See a calander of some at http://www.rgcshows.com/calendar.asp#OCTOBER2004

Things to Do in Los Angeles is a directory of places to eat and things to see & do in the City of Angels and the San Fernando Valley. http://www.laokay.com/

Free Saturday Morning Archery Classes, arroyo - every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
http://www.rovingarchers.com/

Electronic Surplus - listing at http://www.laokay.com/ElectronicSurplus.htm
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"Today, the dream of digital entertainment becomes a reality," Gates told an audience at an interactive presentation at Los Angeles' Shrine auditorium, where he was flanked by Hollywood music and film star Queen Latifah.

The system, operated by a single remote control, integrates multimedia entertainment and allows consumers to harness digital photos, music, movies, live and recorded TV and high-definition TV around their homes via wireless or cabled transmission from their computers.
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Link

Made a Amici right angle adaptor yesterday - used Edmond Sci. prism
Rob purchased a Canon Rebel 300D today
Link

Got a bee sting on 8/6/04 ... (stinger not attached)
Bee Sting First Aid - Advice found includes the following, but what works best ? Sounds like a good area for a controlled study.
1- Meat Tenderizer - neutralizes the venom - This sounds best to me ( have none today)
2- Wet aspirin applied to area (did next)
3- Ice
4- Wet Tobacco
5- Onion slice held on area
6- Ammonia applied to area (did first)
7- Soap and water
8- Mud
9- St. John's Wort
10- Baking Soda applied to area
Best single link = http://ny.essortment.com/howtotreatbee_prc.htm

Why am I getting email not addressed to me? - answer may be:
Blind carbon copying or "Bcc" can be useful if you are creating a mailing list, and you wish to ensure that the address of each of your recipients is kept private from the others. So a mailer can set the "To" header to be anything he or she wishes. He or she can then silently tell the mail server, by using the "Bcc," who the actual recipients are. Unfortunately, this feature can also be used by spammers for illegitimate purposes ...the "To" header on messages (the line that normally contains your e-mail address, assuming it's a legitimate message) does not really determine where the message gets delivered. What does determine the recipient of the message is a command (or commands, if there are multiple recipients) sent to the mail server telling it where to send the mail. Unfortunately, these commands are ultimately hidden from the recipient's view, and do not show up anywhere in the mail headers once the message is finally delivered.
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My next camera may be.(- too expensive!) .. News regarding Minolta's 7 D DSLR - Will use "A Mount lenses" - Pricing about as Canon EOS 10D, Nikon D100, etc. 6 Megapixel CCD APS-C sized CCD 1.5x focal factor Dynax 7 Layout Minolta A Mount Anti-Shake - 6 Megapixels, This is comparable with other models in this sector of the market. - APS-C sized sensor and 1.5x Focal Factor, a smaller CCD than the 35mm film size it extends the focal length by a factor of 1.5x, thus a 28mm lens becomes a 42mm and a 300mm becomes a 450mm. The Minolta A mount was introduced in 1985 and continues today. The product will become available in October, should there be any delays in development and testing this will be moved into early November. http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=008U15 -- The Maxxum 7000 was the very first body integrated auto focus SLR and was introduced in '85+
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First came MSNbot, Microsoft's Web-spidering content bot that is part of its new MSN search initiative. Now, MSN is powering its media partner MSNBC's beta test of Newsbot, a customized search-driven news service. http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/print.php/3386471

7-night CRUISE for $369? Turns out to be about $1100
Some details:
Service charge is (can be)automatically applied to your shipboard account. $10 per guest per day, ...
... not included, such as alcoholic beverages and soft drinks,
...Government taxes and fees are also not included.
... The current on board is 110 volts AC.
.... $3.95 per e-mail transmission, Terminal usage time $0.75 per minute
.... All suitcases are collected the night before we return to our home port, so be sure to bring an overnight bag.
.... U.S. and Canadian citizens must provide PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP and PROOF OF IDENTITY for boarding NCL cruises. PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP consists of one of the following:
Passport (preferred), (or ) Original or state certified copy of a birth certificate (photocopies are not accepted) .. and IDENTITY Valid driver's license that includes a photograph http://www.ncl.com/more/cruise_docs.htm
.... What about Shore Excursions? =DEAD LINK
... Port fee $218 - "Prices do not include taxes and port charges."
... Total > 1007 each, including air to Vancouver (+transportation to and from ship.)
... I checked Dockage and Passenger fees at San Fran, combined per passenger = $10-15.00
.... Class action lawsuits have been filed in the state courts of
California, Florida, and Washington State against seven cruise lines over allegedly over-charging port charges. The cruise lines named in the suit are Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Kloster Cruise Ltd. doing business as Norwegian Cruise Line, Holland America , Princess and Renaissance.
The suits allege that "port charges" increase the fares advertised by at least $100 to $150 per person and that the cruise lines have led the public to believe that "port charges" are costs charged to the cruise lines by governmental authorities - Ray LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL 800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
.. They do NOT pay commissions on port charges. There is one cruise line (Rennaissance) that charges $295 for port charges http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&threadm=4llnss%24iq4%40ocean.silcom.com&rnum=7&prev=/groups%3Fq%3D%2520%2522port%2520charges%2522%2520cruise%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg

Picgoo, a free web hosting service that provides free web hosting for your images or pictures for 6 months - then automatically deleted, a great way to avoid blot on my site (www.edhiker)


About Gmail at
http://www.gmailswap.com/index.html

On the Wed hike, I was asked if the North Pole was Positive or Negative. It may be a matter of interpretation -- read on...

The north-seeking end of a magnet is in English-speaking countries called the north pole and the other end the south pole; in France the names are interchanged. The reason for this conflict in terminology can be traced to the early users of the compass. Knowing little about magnetic effects, they called the end of the compass needle that pointed towards the north geographical pole, the north pole of a compass. A north pole is reckoned as positive (+) and a south pole as negative... A pole which points north is reckoned positive, one which points south negative. http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:eV2nSOlj-_oJ:31.1911encyclopedia.org/M/MA/MAGNETISM.htm+north+pole+positive+pole+earth&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Noun 1. positive magnetic pole - the pole of a magnet that points toward the north when the magnet is suspended freely http://www.thefreedictionary.com/positive%20magnetic%20pole

One of the first things we note in examining a bar magnet is that it has two region of magnetic concentration: poles at the ends of the magnet. We call these two poles north seeking N, and south seeking, S, since a compass needle was one of the earliest applications of magnetism. The N pole of a magnet, like a compass, points north, and the S pole points south. http://library.thinkquest.org/12632/electricity/magnetism.html

A magnet will align itself with Earth's magnetic field with one (the positive north seeking)
pointing towards the Earth's north pole and the other (the negative south seeking)
towards the south magnetic pole. http://www.geophysik.uni-koeln.de/studium/WS03/vorlesung/geoscience/chapter5.pdf

French magnets are marked N (being negative) and S (positive). S will seek the North and N, the south of a suspended French magnet. The N seeking pole of a compass needle will be repelled by the N marked pole of an English or German bar-magnet, and will be attracted by the N marked pole of a French magnet. http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:ajLpgs6pd7UJ:www.meridianinstitute.com/eaem/abrams1/abr1ch3.html+English-speaking+north-seeking+end+of+a+magnet&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Note that since the north pole of the magnet is attracted to the south pole of another magnet, the Earth's geographic north is actually a magnetic south. The overall geomagnetic field is becoming weaker at a rate which will cause the field to disappear, albeit temporarily, by about 4000 AD. Other sources have put the date of field collapse as early as 3000 AD. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet

Definition: POSITIVE MAGNETIC POLE [n] the pole of a magnet that points toward the north when the magnet is suspended freely. Synonyms: north-seeking pole, positive
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040510 - I found out that Google owns Blogger -- 2003 January - February Google acquires Pyra Labs, creator of web self-publishing tool Blogger.

Google - Find local businesses and services on the web. (show URL )

A purchasing manager should know about this -- works great! Gives maps.

New! Find stores in your neighborhood. Try Google Local.

Google - Find local businesses and services on the web.
http://local.google.com/local?q=pizza&num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=G&near=10426+glory+ave+91042&dm=full

Shuttle, Mars, and Hubble

Many links at http://edhiker.home.comcast.net/ShuttleMarsHubble.html

Feet, miles, nautical miles, pounds, etc. still on NASA sites! In 1902 legislation requiring the federal government to use metric exclusively was defeated by a single vote.

NASA cancels Hubble Telescope , due to directive to retire the shuttle by 2010. Hello, Mars ... Goodbye Hubble, the resources will now go into human exploration program. The decision prompted dismay and anger among astronomers across the nation. Hubble is doing the best science ever, but a shuttle is too unsafe for flight to the Hubble. NASA officials decided that a backup would have to be ready to help any shuttle going anywhere but the International Space Station. So what happens now? -- Public Bombards Operators to Save Hubble

NASA policy is confusing. Below are some points found in the many articles that have appeared following president Bush's new Space Initiative.

One less flight also means one less chance for another shuttle disaster. NASA will not risk astronauts or shuttles on another mission to upgrade Hubble Space Telescope, widely considered the most successful science spacecraft ever. The planned mission to Hubble was the only flight scheduled to go somewhere other than the station. Bush's plan is to shift $11 billion NASA is now spending on other projects to the new Moon-Mars program. Bush stated that all human spaceflight would be directed to support the effort of putting people on the Moon and Mars. The shuttle, which is the only means by which NASA could service Hubble, is to be devoted to finishing construction of the space station. The danger inherent in sending a space shuttle to maintain Hubble pales in comparison with the danger of sending astronauts to the moon and Mars. It’s as though the agency were abandoning hopscotch for fear of tripping, to concentrate instead on sky diving.

"The tragedy is that the Hubble Space Telescope is better now than it ever was before," said astronomer Tom Brown, 34, instrument scientist for the now-grounded Wide Field Camera 3. "It's like shooting a prize-winning thoroughbred when it's about to win the Triple Crown." What really astonishes me is how the president can talk about the moon and Mars while pulling the plug on the Hubble Space Telescope. Is this the Bush vision? Where is Bush's curiosity? The Hubble Space Telescope is the greatest individual scientific instrument of all time.

In a Jan. 21 letter to NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, Mikulski, the ranking minority member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA’s budget, askeds the space agency chief to reconsider his decision. Mikulski also asked O’Keefe to appoint an independent panel of outside experts to assess all the ins and outs of conducting another space shuttle mission to Hubble.

NASA is making "uneven" progress in the steps required before it can fly another mission, too soon to schedule the next flight. NASA, which first spoke of resuming flights this spring, now hopes for September or October. NASA has decided to launch only during the day. NASA's administrator, Sean O'Keefe, has repeatedly promised to follow all recommendations of the accident board. Some space experts think NASA is too stodgy and incompetent to create a new spacecraft, what type of vehicle is still a mystery. NASA officials say they don't know whether it would be reusable or single-use; whether it would touch down on land or sea; or whether it would have wings. Others say the agency has the technical know-how — just not the cash. Some former members of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel worry that too many resources will be diverted from the space station as NASA reshifts its focus.

Bush Vision Was Key to Saving NASA from Budget Cuts (political)

"The real future of the international space station is still to be determined," said Michael Kostelnik, a NASA administrator who oversees the space shuttle and space station programs.

The Hubble has done more to advance understanding of the universe than any other space mission. This is the true adventure of the human spirit.

Too unsafe to fly to the Hubble?

Was the Atlantic too unsafe for Columbus? How do we discover without taking some risk?

Ed's proposal - fly to the Hubble in two steps, first to a parking orbit where inspection takes place, then a final boost to the Hubble Telescope. Inspection at the Space Station will not work for missions using US preferred inclinations near 28 degrees, the plane change needs a velocity impulse of about 3 km/s, about ten times as much as the shuttle orbital maneuvering system has. Space Station is in an orbit inclined 51.6 degrees to the equator. (Before the Russians joined the program, the Space Station was to be in a 28.5 degree orbit, same as Hubble). The most efficient orbit out of Russia's Baikonour results in an inclination to the equator of 51.6 degrees.

Inspection of Space Shuttle Tiles in orbit -- A free-flying television camera, the Autonomous EVA Robotic Camera (AERCam) was developed to perform visual and non-visual inspection activities around orbiting parent spacecraft. I believe it may have been possible to save the astronauts if inspection showed high danger. Looking ahead to future missions, on seeing trouble, take off the astronauts and (try to)land shuttle on autopilot. More at Free Flying Servicers -- See also: PSA red globe , however, Yuri Gawdiak, the inventor of this smaller device says the PSA is designed for internal operations only. I would want to inspect my Space Shuttle before deorbit if I were flying it! (posted at http://edhiker.home.comcast.net/bestwebsites.html 2/4/03)

Ed Johnson

1/29/04

Activities- 5:18a mag8 iridium flare seen - 3" telescope view of jupiter, Saturn, moon.
940 get up to call Elaine, she calls first. setup sundial, breakfest, read paper - flu is headline - has good diff diagnosis from CDC cild vs flu. Fry's ad has several things to check.
1025 turn on computer - ck mails, news Cheaper Chiba holds its own against cute iPod