Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused

Posted on 12 May 2012 by SJPONeill

Unfocussed is the theme for this week’s WordPress photo challenge – I looked through the photo archives and found a whole lot of 70s and 80s party photos that were all crystal-clear while my memories of many of them are somewhat unfocussed but I don’t quite think that’s what Sara had in mind when she thought this one up. Like many of us, I guess, I tend to ditch any photos that aren’t up to speed and modern cameras make it all so easy so actually finding an out of focus photo was a bit of a challenge (which would be why it’s the weekly ‘challenge’, huh?) – if only the theme had been under- or over-exposed…stacks of material to work with there!!

Anyways, I finally found this…it’s the Esci 1/48 F-16A that I built in my brief redalliance with modelling after starting my first job and having considerably more disposable cash that I was used to – at the time I was pulling the massive amount of $67 in the hand each week so was able to splash out…this redalliance only lasted a few months, maybe until I packed up to move to Invercargill but there is proof (albeit somewhat blurred) that I did once actually finish a model build!!

I don’t think I have any photos of all the models that I built at school although occassionally I recognise a part from way back then when it surfaces in my spares box – yes, I have started modelling again but my completion rate is still no better but I’m working on it…I log my builds now over at the Unofficial Airfix Modellers Forum if anyone’s interested…still very slow and certainly not methodical but since shedding the other job that I have been covering all year I hope really hoping to have some decent spare time to devote to playing catch up…

Navy Grounds Drone Copters, Then Spends Quarter-Billion to Buy More | Danger Room | Wired.com

Posted on 27 April 2012 by SJPONeill

Navy Grounds Drone Copters, Then Spends Quarter-Billion to Buy More | Danger Room | Wired.com.

This is really my test post for the WordPress ‘Press This’ tool which embeds in one’s browser and enables a blogger to upload and comment directly on a link as a blog post…so far so good…although to include the title picture, I still had to save it to HDD, GIMP it to a maximum dimension of 600 dpi and then import it manually out of the Press This session which only allows one to embed a linked image…I hate doing this because it is all too easy for the image to go offline and leave a gaping wound in the post…

An MQ-8B Fire Scout drone copter lands on the U.S.S. McInerney after helping a counternarcotics mission in 2010. Photo: U.S. Southern Command

Anyway…I thought that this article was a good example of the smoke and mirrors games that are being played (STILL!) in the UAS game. While Firescout might be all very clever technically, I do have to question what value it brings, other than as a technology demonstrator, to the missionspace that can no be accomplished equally as well and with more flexibility with a manned helicopter. Maybe if manned helicopters crashed/malfunctioned as often as rotary-wing UAS, one could make an argument based on safety and cost savings…to argue, as has already been done, that UAS like the Unmanned Cargo Aerial Vehicle save aircrew from boredom is pretty weak and fails ABSOLUTELY to take into account the eyes on the AO lost when employing a supply UAS and also the ability to retask the ‘aircraft’ for other missions as can be done with ANY manned helicopter capable of a supply tasking…

A decade into the modern UAS generation, we really need to, with some sense of urgency, shed all the myth and mystique surrounding UAS and focus simply on developing capability where it adds the most value – or even just where it adds value…while my design for a UAS toilet roll changer is a. quite unique, b. cutting edge and c. would clearly save millions from the drudgery of bathroom maintenance, I have long since given up on it being my ticket to fame and fortune…

My final thoughts on Press This are much the same…a solution for which there is not really a problem, except maybe for the very few too lazy or otherwise incapable of starting a new post, giving it a title and pasting in a link…I may use it from time to time but certainly it’s not making my blogging any easier…Much like my last post on the glory of dumbness, sometimes making this a little harder so thatw e have to work towards them actually results in a better, more thought out product and end result…?

The information militia like all such bodies can be either useful or not and that often depends upon the level of structure within…the less structure, the more akin to a mob it may be and, for me, Press This encourages the ‘information flash mob’…

The case for dumbness…

Posted on 26 April 2012 by SJPONeill

Dean links to some sad and rather negative commentary on ‘dumbphones’ this mornng…

I like to think I’m fairly savvy with new technology. For some reason, however, I’ve resisted all attempts to get me to buy a smartphone. No amount of mocking from friends and co-workers has gotten me to budge. I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one.

I support, praise and endorse ‘dumbphoneness’…I too am a hold out, partially because I don’t really have much of a need for a mobile phone and for that the el cheapo one supplied through work does the trick. Perhaps if peeps were LESS net-enabled and had to pause (possibly even think) before twitting/posting/blogging, they might be more contributing to a general increase in the standard of online knowledge and information instead of jamming it up with bland info-custard (or substances of similar consistency). I think that there has only been one occasion in the last couple of years that a more-enabled phone might have been useful for me and that was when I found that the Mitre 10 Mega in Palmerston North (John Cleese’s ‘most boring city ever’) had shifted and I wanted to learn its new location. But instead of Google-mapping or some such, I just called directory service and rang them up…perhaps this will become more of an issue when dial-in directory services die…?

If I need a map, I plan ahead before I leave…never have I needed the flexibility of a tasked B-1B to be retasked and have to prepare a whole new mission package enroute – if I did, then someone would probably provide the tools to do the job. If stuck, the good old Wises map book is still pretty useful and doesn’t rely on coverage or batteries to function – just some sort of ambient light…

I’m rough on equipment and tools…or more accurately, equipment and tools need to be able to survive me…a $50 cellphone is not going to draw too many tears if it gets dropped in cement; on the other hand a $800 i-Thing causes trauma if there is the faintest trace of a scratch on the non-replaceable screen. While the el cheapo is obsolete before it is even bought (apparently), I don’t care but the i-Thing will be equally obsolete a few weeks/months later too…

Angry Birds Schmangry Birds…I still haven’t finished Lego Star Wars on the phone that Carmen bought me for Christmas 2006 (and which she has since repossessed for her own use)…I remember purchasing and loading that up at Waikato Hospital when the twins were born in April the next year…

One of the aforementioned twins – one day old – in 1.3 magapixels – does the trick. Apparently cameras aren’t allowed in the ICU but new nanas have special dispensation…

If I take a picture in all its 1.3 megapixel glory with my phone, I don’t feel a pressing shaft of urgency to share it with the world then and there…many people might want to learn from this before they cross the start line on a big night out…what seems like a good idea when half-cut NEVER looks prettier in the morning and that goes equally as much for those pics you posted in the wee early hours down Courtney Place…And let’s be honest about it, more many purposes a lowly 1.3 megapixel image more than suffices – what the Internet DOESN’T need is more bloated blurry megamegapixel images of the regurgitated kebab you forced down after the bars all closed…

…and the case against…

In an article titled Goodbye Michael, Carl Prine at Line of Departure kicks Michael Yon into touch – finally…I don’t really care whether Carl made this decision all on his very own or whether someone further up his food chain either made the decision or gave him the OK to call it as he saw it…either way, it is a clear sign that everyone has just grown tired of all the Yawntics and would rather see the back of him…

This, of course, led to the inevitable international conspiracy post on Mikey Yawn’s Dispatches site this morning in which everyone from Stanly McChrystal to Santa Claus gets blamed for all the woes in Yawn’s life…Mikey perhaps you need to look a little closer to home for the true culprit…I think that may be the balding Ewok pictured in the Goodbye Michael article has a lot to do with it…As we’ve all been saying (and you just ain’t been listening) you need to go offline and Zen your navel for a while to get some perspective and reinvent yourself as the kinda of photojournalist (emphasis on the ‘photo’ – you could do yourself worse favours than throwing away your keyboard for ever) that the thinking serviceperson (AT ANY LEVEL) might want to have something to do with – trying to be the military version of News of the World clearly hasn’t worked for you…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Two Subjects

Posted on 14 April 2012 by SJPONeill

The two subjects caught here as part of the Wordpress Weekly Photo Challenge are one of the quick-firing guns on the USS Olympia, one of the earliest modern armoured warships, and, across the Delaware, the USS New Jersey, one of the last of that breed where big guns ruled the waves…both are worth visiting and worth supporting as once naval heritage like this gets scrapped, it can never come back…

Trans-Pacific Movie Reviews

Posted on 9 April 2012 by SJPONeill

I bouqueted Qantas a week or so ago for the way it handled my having the ONLY dysfunctional video terminal on my Trans-Pacific flight last month…the entertainment was somewhat better on the trip back, more so because I was able to use my new noise-cancelling headphone which, to that point, had been so much dead weight in my travels…

Even though I was on the midnight flight, I still got to watch three movies while tacitly avoiding what Qantas chooses to refer to in-flight meals (no bouquets here, folks)…

More rollicking good fun from the MI team, even though it is still led by Short Stuff (who in creation decided that he could ever be a Jack Reacher in the next franchise he is about to star in?). Great to see that the writing team have taken the hint and dropped the whole rubber face ‘get out of jail free card’ which was always about as plausible and convenient as the dodgy time-travelling and transporter buffer swindles in Star Trek…A lot of fun but I would point that few if any nuclear missiles are point-detonating so that team would have run out of time about ten seconds before they actually did…

Rather ho-hum really…watching this series one would think that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle only wrote about Holmes’ tribulations with Professor Moriaty…it is really not much more than a rehash of the same gimmicks and tricks from the first Downey/Law Holmes movie – wait for it til it appears in DVD bargain bins…if there is to be a third movie in this series, it will hopefully get back on track and rethink some of the really great Sherlock Holmes tales…

Jury’s still out on this one – it is very well made but I am not sure how true to the book it is….will have to dig it out for a reread as the ending was a little too smug for me…great to see a certain actor catch a bullet near the end…can’t say who without giving the game away but he’s always struck me as just a little too smooth…The movie certainly catches the almost industrial work environment of Cold War British intelligence services and the internal wrangling that persisted over decades…definitely worth a look….

Weekly Photo Challenge: Arranged

Posted on 1 April 2012 by SJPONeill

I was fortunate yesterday to be invited on a pre-opening guided tour of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I visited the museum last year during normal hours when it is packed (8 million visitors a year!!) and found it difficult to get to all the exhibits, let alone see them or get a decent camera angle. We had just over an hour before the doors opened and the experience was unbelievable – also unbelievable was the massive leap in noise levels as soon as the doors opened…

While I’m on the road, I have to work a bit harder for photos to meet each week’s challenge and I was hoping that this tour might provide something for today’s challenge. I got lucky with not one but two (probably would have had more as all the aircraft displays are very well arranged but even without the place to ourselves, my little camera just doesn’t have the field of view to capture the true effect of the arranged displays…

The header image is from the naval aviation hall and shows three aircraft that I’ve always thought significant: the Dauntless that changed history at Midway (even though this one is a late model SBD-6); the Wildcat that fended off early Japanese attacks at places like Wake Island, Coral Sea and Midway; and the A-4 Skyhawk that is very precious to us Kiwis…

Below is the other arrangement that appealed to me…our guide explained that the entrance to the WW1 hall is based upon the legends of the WW1 ‘Knights of the Sky’ and includes a lot of memorabilia that fosters those legends from immediately after the war through to the Aurora models of the 60s. Interestingly, the Fokker suspended over this part of the display is actually not only a WW1 combat veteran but also one of the aircraft that actually flew in movies like Knights of the Sky’…from this light opening, the display then exposes visitors to the darker realities of the first air war…

PS, WordPress, I’m not a ‘change is bad’ kinda guy but I really hate the new button for new posts…too damn hard to find and select categories and tags, no option to save while drafting…if it ain’t broke…

PPS…links to Smithsonian visit slideshow

Weekly Photo Challenge: Distorted

Posted on 4 March 2012 by SJPONeill

This week’s challenge is ‘distorted’ – I’ve never really been into taking photographs of images distorted by the lens or some other direct medium so I struggled to find an approach to this theme. Then I remembered the online discussion at the Unofficial Airfix Modellers’ Forum in the lead up to the Classic Box Art display for ScaleModelWorld at Telford last year – all the build discussions are here for those who might be interested – on the difficulties being experience (and overcome) converying a 2D image into a 3D representation of that image without wildly distorting the theme and flavour of the original art work. So this won’t be for everyone’s taste’s but it’s something that rocks my boat so I’ve included rather more images than I would normally for the Weekly Challenge. Each set comprise the 3D interpretation with an image of the orginal artwork.

My favourite at Telford – yes, I was lucky enough to be in the UK over the Telford weekend and go to spend a whole day there so all the images of the displays are mine taken on the day – was JRatz’s version of the Matchbox M16 half-track – a personal favourite since I was about 10 – which offered a mjor challenge in capturing the essence of speed and urgency in the original…I think this is pretty damn good…

The trick, of course, would be to be able to photograph each display from the same perspective as the original image but the layout of the display and the sheer size of the crowd at Telford made this impossible. I think that the plan for this year’s Classic British Kit (CBK) display at ScaleModelWord in Telford is for a Part Deux of this theme as many have been inspired from he seeing how well the first attempts at this idea have turned out. Certainly, I am somewhat inspired to have a crack although it is a long way from here to Telford with what might be delicate cargo…thought this is what I might recreate:

Three or four Airfix Bloodhounds and a base board and away we go...

Weekly Photo Challenge: Windows

Posted on 6 November 2011 by SJPONeill

Windows is the theme this week for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge…this is a shot I took from our kitchen window a couple of weeks ago when it looked like spring had finally arrived – then it rained again…I was struck by this little chap’s bright plumage – he’s not something we see that often…and that’s the coollest thing about our windows where we live – we never know what we might see next through them…

I’m on the road at the moment, doing a loop up through Singapore to Europe and back over the next couple of weeks…arrived at our hotel after dark so didn’t have a chance to check out the view til this morning…and was presented with a lovely view of old Singapore…

Had a smooth flight over – is there anything else on Singapore Airlines? – managed to squeeze in four movies:

More giant machines beating each other up…good violent fun – four-engined V-22s (v-44s?) are very cool…

gl1

A lot of fun that doesn’t take itself too seriously – Tem Morrision dies early in the story (always a plus)…

Captain America is ripping good yarn and pretty true to the original ‘Cap’ story as I remember it…

The (at) last Harry Potter movie – kinda anticlimatic after all the hype and build-up to it – the whole ‘Luke, I am your father’ thing has been done before and let’s be honest about it, once it was down, any effect from using it again is largely lost…

Another long haul flight tonight but think I’ll be all nigh-nighs for most of this one…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Opportunity

Posted on 23 October 2011 by SJPONeill

Mr Pickwick's

Opportunity is the theme in this week’s photo challenge…as described, the opportunity that presents itself where your reaction is either of the ‘…wish I brought the camera…’ or ‘…naturally, I had the camera (and after I finished my reps)…’ variety…

We’ve long been in the habit of always having a camera handy – and keeping it bombed up with fresh batteries: no more rechargeables for the camera, just good old fashioned, environmentally-unfriendly lithiums for us – and so don’t have too many of those ‘…and I there was, the Yeti poised in front of me, when the flat battery alarm frightened it off…’ stories…with animals and small children here, there are too many opportunities too good to miss…

So for us, perhaps, opportunity and cameras go together in a different way…we love nothing more than to have the time when travelling to stop in some little place and spend an hour or two exploring some pokey (the pokier the better) antique or secondhand (often the distinction between the two is in the eye of the beholder) shop and we use to camera to record objet d’intereste, sometimes just for curiosity, sometimes to compare with another, and sometimes just as a memory-jogger as to where what was seen if we decide to go back for it…

We last visited Mr Pickwick’s in Christchurch over Christmas/New Year 09-10 – at the time they were unloading a lot of stock in preparation for moving to a new smaller location in order to better compete with the new business model coming from entities like TradeMe …they used to be along Cashel Street in Sydenham, about halfway between the now Red Zone and the foot of the Port Hills…hope that move went well for them and that few treasures were damaged or lost in the September and February quakes…

Bookworm traits – all 46 of them!

Posted on 10 October 2011 by SJPONeill

I scored this idea from Children’s Books & More – perhaps a clue to the blogger is in the URL ‘passion 2 read’ – after they liked my Comfort post… Bookworm Traits I think that 46 traits is probably too much for one hit but here it goes…

1. People often find your nose in a book spending hours at the library or bookstore.

Not really – I actually hate people who read books in bookstores: if you’re that interested in it, then buy it! I don’t really go to libraries that much, more secondhand book shops than anything else. I may spend hours browsing if I don’t know what I’m after of if cash is a little tight… sometimes i won’t buy at all, others I’ll walk out with am armload.

2. Amazon.com is bookmarked and frequently used when you can’t get to the library or bookstore.

The shipping cost here from the US is a major killer for online book shopping now – yay! the day that the restricted digital rights for e-books gets sorted so that geographical location is no longer a major road block. I might research through Amazon but rarely buy now unless I am passing through the US due to the shipping cost.

3. Who cares about the next DVD release? When can I get the latest book release?

Don’t really follow either…I think the last time I really waited for a new book release was for the final chapter of John Birmingham’s Axis of Time trilogy; before that it was probably Mark Berent’s Court Bannister series on the air war over Vietnam; before that it was years of fruitless waiting for Jerry Pournelle to conclude Janissaries and David Gerrold to polish off War Against the Chtorr…still waiting, guys…Not that fussed about new release DVDs either as the release price is way more than they will be going for in a month’s time…

4. Books are on your Christmas or birthday list.

Kinda but probably no more than anything else.

5. You’d rather read a book than watch television.

Often true but this may be just as much a comment on modern television that anything else – used to do both before that necessitated twp pairs and glasses and didn’t uber-challenge my ability to multi-task.

6. You argue that the books are always better than any movie based off a book.

Not sure but probably not – this is not the same as arguing that the book is always better than the book of the movie…and even then I think each has to be considered on its merits. I’m not sure that a problem really exists except for those who might believe that movie must = book .

7. You get a thrill when you open the book for the first time and feel its pages with the promise of a next favorite.

100% author-dependent – some authors can grip you in the first pages; others can take a while. for me, few books are likely to be considered for ‘fav’ status until I have read them through at least once…

8. You smile when you see children reading rather than playing video games or watching television.

Yep.

9. You cringe when you see watermarks, torn pages, and vandalism to books.

Yep.

10. It’s normal to leave the house with some reading material.

11. It’s not a vacation unless you have a supply of books. (If not, you can always visit the town’s bookstore.)

Pretty much – hooray for Nook which allows me to take so much in such a small package…

12.You listen to more audio books than the car radio.

True but again that could be just as much a comment on local and national radio…reminds me that i must get some more headphones so that I can re-acquire the Audible book habit before extended exposure to Radio Live turns me into one of those that call in…

13. You dish out recommendations and welcome any in return.

Luke-warm – happy going my own way and letting others do the same – having said that, was disappointed that Facebook didn’t migrate WeRead over to the secure site…

14. You constantly add books to your to-read list.

Kinda – refer back to walking out of the secondhand book shop with an armload of acquisitions; just as likely to have a longer re-read list.

15. You stay up past midnight to finish a great book.

Regularly – driven by my habit of making myself read just a little before I kill the light each night – started to do this when I wasn’t reading regularly to re-introduce that habit. Have to discipline myself to not burn the candle too long so as not to have a grumpy morning.

16. After you finished the great book, you wish you slowed down to savor it.

Nope – just re-read it…

17. You imagine meeting your favorite book characters.

Still enough in touch with reality to avoid this…

18. You’d like to jump into your favorite book to fully experience it.

See above

19. You don’t have enough shelves to hold all your books.

Used to not but now we have enough shelves (for now) for all books – feel sorry for people who don’t have their own libraries…it’s still a little messy as the post new shelves tidy up has yet to occur…

20. You analyze and discuss books with fellow bookworms.

See 13.

21. You look forward to school and library book sales.

Targets of opportunity but not crying myself to sleep if I miss ’em.

22. You ‘browse’ books in a bookstore and come back each week.

Absolutely – stpre books need lovin’ too…

23. You read The New York Times’ Bestseller List for new books to read.

Not ever or any other such…

24. You have a bookstore membership for book rewards.

Yes with Borders…oh, uh-oh….

25. Rainy days are good reading weather days.

Yes but also good ironing days and other hobby days – pretty good for catching up on movies too.

26. You enjoy any reading, even what some consider ‘junk mail’.

Nope.

27. You feel lost without a book to read.

Nope, can always find something to do. Having said that though, Vulcan’s Glory was the only English book I had when I was in Vietnam and I lost track of the number of times I reread it because other things to do started to run out.

28. You love hearing stories read to you.

Only by virtue of Audible books and the difficulties of traditional reading while driving.

29. A long flight, car ride, or train journey is the perfect time to read a book.

Yep.

30. You keep a journal of the books you’ve read and plan to read. (record books on goodreads)

Nope, but as at #13, I do miss WeRead on FB – will check out goodreads as I like to review sometimes…

31. You remember quotes and passages from your favorite books.

Yep.

32. You compare individuals to characters in your book.

Nope.

33. You have an endless supply of bookmarks and battery replacements for book lights.

Nope – I am one of those bad people who bends over the corner of a page as a book mark – Nooking may cure me of this.

34. You’re not afraid to laugh or cry while reading.

Laugh sometimes, cry TBC when something sad enough comes along…

35. You read the book that made you laugh or cry again.

If I enjoyed it, most likely I did – unless I was laughing AT it…

36. You spread the word to everyone to read a book.

Nope – each to their own.

37. You take literary trips that connect to your book. (Blog post about a children’s literature tour in New York, abroad a train for Agatha Christie’s Orient Express, visit Forks, Washington, for Twilight, explore Concord, Massachusetts, for Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, or even visit Hogwarts at Universal Studios)

Not specifically but it is always interesting to visit some place that one only knows from a book.

38. You cook dishes similar to foods in books. (Blog that relates books and food)

Nope, my main catalyst for new recipes if stuff I stumble across online

39. You try skills and hobbies as characters in books.

Huh?

40. You’re sadden when bookstores and libraries close.

Yes!!!! Hopefully B&N will fill the physical gaps left by Borders.

41. You have difficulties picking just one favorite book.

Does that make me a bad person?

42. You know that reading will never die, even with more e-readers and technology.

E-reading is still reading – I imagine the same question when pupled wood started to compete with papyrus and onion skins…

43. You feel bad for those who don’t enjoy a good book.

See 36, each to their own…

44. You wish you could talk to the author after finishing a book.

Sometimes but probably to suggest some improvements…

45. You attend book signings and author discussions.

No, but lack of opportunity is probably as big a reason than anything else.

46. You know that reading is your ticket to anywhere your heart desires.

No….I think that this is faux-positivism…your ticket towards anywhere your heart desires, is getting your nose out of the book and making it happen…JFK might always have been a sickly boy dreaming of Camelot…

I’m not normally a big fan of over-sciencing anything – I love to read and that’s good for me – I prefer it over some other things and that’s up to me but I think that you really do have to make sure you keep one foot firmly in reality land and be aware that because it’s written doesn’t make it any truer or any more real than reality…

Still was a good spur to take some pics of the library and play around with panorama shots – might be time for a new camera though because this one will only link three shots into a panorama and I need 5-6 to get all three side of the library…joining two panoramas didn’t come out that flash so I’ve bannered with the same shot section twice