Found on BBspot - the iSmack nano

BBspot on the iSmack

first impressions from Stavanger

Here are some first phonecam snaps and impressions from Stavanger where I spent a few weeks recently to study the stress level (really!) in small critters living under the ice (click this link to a previous post if you want to know how they look like). It turned out my stress level was a lot higher than theirs, but then I could not blame them. They had been stored on liquid nitrogen first and later at about -80°C so they were pretty cool about the whole procedure *cheesy sitcom laugh* while I was working up a sweat jumping around between the different analysers, homogenisers, autosamplers, microplate readers, multipipette robots etc.

I first thought of showing some pics of these wonders of scientific high-tech but decided against it for now. (I first have to figure out how I can in uplink some mpeg movies that I shot of the robot systems in action).

Instead, here is a view from our lab's window on an oil rig dismantling unit.



Moored to it for some time was SAIPEM 7000, apparently the world's biggest, largest, heaviest-lifting floating crane rig, sporting twin cranes capable of 7000 tons each (hence the lyrical name) as well as a number of smaller "feeder" cranes to shuffle smaller things around on deck. It moved in and out of the fjord at astonishing speed (I guess some 6-8 knots) and "swerved" sharply to lay to the pier without any tug assistance, which makes sense if you have to move in close to large offshore constructions to take them down. And then it started to unload parts of a platform it had been taking apart some place out in the oil fields onto the large pier in front of the lab. Like a giant "grown-up boy's dream toy" come true!

Here is another shot:



If you piched your eyes, you could see small ant-like creatures crawling around on it, the deck crew. The cranes swung around more or less simultaneously to avoid too much veering on the deck, since they were "riding high" i.e. had not flooded the huge tanks in their legs as they would do once they were stationary and anchored "in the fields". With empty tanks the rig has a lot more freeboard i.e. a lot less bulk to push through the water when "sailing".

So even though Stavanger really is just a sleepy little town loosely strewn over a few islands and along the fjord and sounds, which reportedly have some of the oldest (known) human settlements of Scandinavia, it also happened to be situated closest to the largest (known) oil reserves of western Europe.

And by the way: parts of that pier the SAIPEM 7000 was moored to originate from the BRENT SPAR (ring a bell?), i.e. its concrete legs were modified into a pier extension while the metal superstructure was cut into scrap iron on the flat expanse between the lab and the fjord. I would love to dig up pictures of the thing, apparently the rig was tugged around in "Byfjorden" for some time while the authorities were still contemplating to sink it some place convenient to avoid the costly deconstruction.

video-blog/podcast - what's the deal?

Judging from this blog's header, you will have guessed it already:

I am an iPod owner. Do I use it a lot? Nah. Not any more. And I guess I am not the only one in this.

I bought it a year ago to bring all my (digitalized) music with me on a 3-month shipboard expedition to the Weddell Sea. It was great, I could listen to every track I owned (and soon to a few new ones - figure it out yourself...) without having to bring stacks of CD's or other media in my already extensive personal baggage. For some time, I was even running games from it taking advantage of the FW/USB connection, which was surprisingly decent even for a 1-person-shooter that I did not have enough disk space for on my (work) laptop. And of course I could save backups of all my data to the drive as well (my initial excuse to buy this in the first place ;-)

I admit that I am a great fan of multi-purpose devices and purchases. Things that DO more than one thing are definitely cooler than things that do only one thing. So I admit to be a follower of the "swiss army knife faith" ... ;-)

But now I am one of the Lost Generation, together with (probably) millions of other people:

a pre-photo (ugh!) pre-video (argh!) iPod owner - who doesn't even use the darn thing a lot any more. Outdated.

And that got me thinking:

Really? Should I now be a Good Consumer and Update Myself?

_____________________________________________________

So let's see:

The iPod photo cannot only play music and store files but can also show all my (stored) pics. Hm.

The iPod video can all that, PLUS let me watch video clips. Er, okay. Its screen is bigger and better, too. Nice.

____________________________________________________

I have to say that I'll pass on the photos - I really do not see the point, I am sorry - reduce a pic to THAT size and look at it there, instead of on a proper screen? Why would anybody want to do that?
I was also sceptical to the video part, although I thought "well, maybe blogs or podcasts might work". So I started looking for an interesting example to watch (on my PowerBook) to see whether it was all worth it. Or at least any good. The following example is a video blog/podcast about a guy driving to work. And back. With videoed monologue or interview sequences. Judge for yourself, here it is:

DriveTime

For me this resulted in one basic observation: the content (the blog) is low-res standard and semi-interesting material (sorry, Ravi) and not suitable to watch on a "big" screen (it all breaks up in swaths of pixels). I do not mean to say that this is a representative sample of what video blog (vlogs, I hear they call them now) content is about, but it probably represents the style and certainly the technical specs and standards available to the, right!, the vloggers (yeah, I know how it sounds...).

So is the iPod principle - making a 'superior' music player/storage device/photo+video display unit - really just a rip-off as people say? High-priced packaging for low-quality content? Wouldn't a cheap plastic USB stick with a phone jack (you know, the sort of thing that looks like a disposable lighter, only bulkier) do just the same job, play low-def tunes downloaded from the net while working out/commuting/jogging/walking the dog etc.?

Looking at the numbers of purchased songs from iTunes compared to the number of iPods sold I would always have rejected that idea: there are WAY too many iPods around for that given amount of (legally) downloaded and shared music from iTunes and others. So people were presumably loading their own music (let's hope in the highest available encoding quality) on their players to carry them all around in a pocket. I really bought into this idea (having 400$ worth of proof in my hand ;-)

But a 'new' device capable of displaying mediocre-to-poor-standard video looks like a bad deal to me.

Maybe the swiss army knife that cuts, files, pulls screws and opens beer and wine bottles is a great invention.

But a portable music player that runs video sounds like a pocket knife that also is a chain saw: you can cut your toothpicks into smaller toothpicks. Half a toothpick, anyone?

even more on misguided beliefs

From the product Description:

(found on version tracker: Faith Converter 2.0)

"Found an admirable tome but it's in praise of the wrong god? Faith Converter is a godsend for priests, vicars, rabbii and holy men of all descriptions. Preach next Sunday's sermon from the Vedas, Noble Eightfold Path, Torah or Das Kapital!

The premier theological plagiarism solution for OS X, Faith Converter converts text between twenty-seven different religions, encompassing Atheism, Biopsychosocialism, Buddhism, Christianity, Communism, Confucianism, Druidism, Falun Gong, Hinduism, Islam, Juche, Judaism, Keynesianism, Linux, MacEvangelism, Mahanism, Maoism, NIMBYism, Roman, Scientology, Shinto, Sikh, Stalinism, Taoism, Thatcherism, Trotskyism and Veganism.

Converted text can be copied, saved or printed.

Sample Conversions:

"Attend church at Christmas or else God will send you to Hell, with Satan, for not reading your Bible."
becomes:
"Attend collective farm #897 at Leninmas or else Dialetical Materialism will send you to the poverty-striken capitalist democracies, with abundant consumer goods, for not reading your Manifesto."

"If you are a true bodhisattva, you will also appreciate the insights into the Three Baskets (Tripitika) presented by the monk. Be warned not to be a heretic or sell your soul to Mao, as this usually ends badly."

I knew it!

I knew it!

Steve Jobs has fallen into the dark side!

one more thing on misleading (religious?) belief systems

Another point for the "cult of mac" side of this blog (okay, this is a total rip-off from a blog which is actually called just that).

devoted1.com


And must say, you lost me there: and iPod - crucified? On a chain? Hanging upside down? *frown*

Just kidding... ;-)

sunburnt critters

In case you ever wondered how these little critters that I hunt under the ice look like, here is a taste:



Here comes some more:



Aren't they cute? And whoa, wasn't it so that they were getting sunburnt every spring? Remember what I rambled on about in
my previous post on that subject?



Well, I eventually worked out a method to establish whether they did get a sunburn or at least a tan. Turns out, some of them even "eat" and accumulate some sort of "sun lotion" (okay, I realize that the picture of a tiny invertebrate rubbing lotion on its exoskeleton with a claw is pushing it too far...) and guess what, they even have learnt the value of antioxidants...

And now to something completely different

Okay, I realize looking back on the list of previous posts, that my bold 'blog statement' of "Polar travels" and "pack ice" is dramatically underrepresented, while "cult of mac" and to some extend "cult of volvo" have taken up most of the space.

But don't you worry, it is just "low season" for that sort of thing. I will be back in the Southern Ocean as early as February, as scuba guide for two trips to the Peninsula (yeah, that's what we call it, or the AntPen ;-) or "first rocks after the Drake..."

I was looking forward to blogging from Antarctica already in January from the US base in McMurdo, but some "higher-ups" decided otherwise, so this will have to wait.

So what about "having a normal life in between all that"?

Well, er, there is none, really. Because you see, working as a PhD student and being with another PhD student does not allow for that sort of thing. You don't believe me? Just visit my girlfriend's blog for once, a site that was meant and initiated to be running commentary on her PhD finishing phase.

Let's just say that while being a commentary, it was not running too far - rather, it was beamed right out of time and space (probably into a parallel universe or something) just to be - ZAPP!! - back all of a sudden again...

So if you still wonder why PhD students do not seem to live like "real people" I recommend to register with the nearest university and start a PhD yourself (don't go for Biology or Geology, though, there is neither money nor any future in it...;-(

Antioxidants to the Rescue

This is a cool article to an unexpected use of antioxidants: book preservation.

Considering that antioxidants are part of my work too (hey, don't you laugh; I even have a colleague who is working on the antioxidant content of *broccoli"!) I found this pretty slick. First we learnt that antioxidants were good against cancer, ageing, wrinkles, you name it, now they will even save our cultural heritage. Wow.

tiger on wallstreet - unleashed at last

After having installed 10.4 (Tiger) on my Powerbook Wallstreet just a few days ago (BTW: installation and and configuration was done on the original G3/250Mhz processor with 256MB RAM - and it worked...!) Why? Just to prove the point: IT WORKS;-)

And although I was expecting some trouble with all of my (exclusively third-party) peripherals, it turned out of all things only the wireless card was not supported any more (duh...).

So here I was: finally able to synchronize every last email file, every password, widget setting, you name it...and I was tied up again by the ethernet cable, forced to sit in the corner of the living room, on the floor, with wires in every direction and about two inches of "wriggle room" ;-(

Fortunately, though, I managed to dredge up another driver for my suddenly useless wireless card. The only disadvantage over the (freeware) sourceforge version that I had been using in Panther (although this was not supposed to be supported either...) is that suddenly I am requested to register that product - I am not going to tell you who is the extortionist - or else the driver stops the card after 30 minutes of use, and only becomes "alive" again after reboot.

Well, maybe this will help keep me focused and stop the long nights spent browsing and surfing and mailing and chatting.

Rationing is the new style! There is a thesis to write, a car engine to fix, dishes to be washed...

buy mac - it's safer...

During breakfast this morning, I was called by my colleagues and told that we had a massive break-in last night. And guess what: although every single door in the house, locked or not, had been forcibly opened, our entire desktop computer hardware inventory (only PowerMac's and only a single Dell workstation) is still intact!

First one might believe that was due to the wise idea to put a Kensington lock on each and every desktop machine (the SysOps even put a massive chain through the handles of some PowerMacs) but it turns out that several iBooks and even one brand-new PowerBook, which were not secured like this but locked away in cupboards, were all found, opened, and left behind;

On the other hand, several Dell laptops which were the "expedition workhorses" for windows-based sensor systems (and which were subsequently quite scratched and banged-up) and one private Acer laptop are stolen, together with some cash and stamps.

So go ahead and buy Apple: the Bad Guys don't know what's Good!

P.S.: I had my iMac secured and my PowerBook with me at home, but my Expedition Dell was taken, too, along with a Sony CyberShot DigiCam.

finally the tiger roars...

...on my good old Powerbook G3 Wallstreet (1.edition) ;-)

Yesterday, my crusty but trusty Wallstreet (1998 ed.) was finally upgraded from Panther to Tiger and from 20GB to 80GB in one go!

After I had dodged this step for months now, although it was inevitable to enable me to sync with my desktop (iMac G5) in every respect, I decided to give it a go, and here we are (that is, me and my BOOK ;-)



Admittedly this was achieved after some (cheap!) upgrades had already been installed earlier to make Panther run smoother on the 6-year-old hardware, i.e. new G4 processor card and more RAM. I also bought a few peripherals to get if not up to date so at least on the level that I need to use on a daily basis.

So I got a USB CardBus card, a FW and a Wireless (802.11b) card, a BT dongle, and finally a DVD drive to finish things. All for the total investment of ca. 250 (okay, maybe a few more) bucks.

My brother (yo, pete!) just invested in a brand-new Pb 12" as he got tired to tinker with his slightly newer Lombard powerbook that started to get old (well, REALLY old as in "several years" not like "last year's rev.)

And what does Apple do immediately afterwards: announce the next generation (duh...)

I must say that I will await this "one more thing" event (get a new line, Steve!) with a wide grin and a t-shirt:

"hardware from 1998 (500$). upgrades for 250$(ebay). Runs Tiger. Any questions?"