Baron's Blog

Construction work ahead

I'm moving to a different publishing program for this blog, I'm kind of done with using Blogger and its problems. You may see construction going on in the meantime (i.e. weird shit). And stuff may go missing, or in the worst case I may just start from scratch. Also my host is planning an early morning outage on Monday April 3rd so don't be alarmed if this site is out of commission.

Eclipse in RL and SL

The eclipse in the live video stream from Turkey.

The venue for the eclipse viewing party in Second Life was a colliseum just like in Side, Turkey.

Here are more snapshots taken by folks at the event. Yes, you can take photos while in Second Life.

Eclipse viewers in Second Life.

The very cool Exploratorium that has all kinds of very cool displays. That display of the solar system isn't a photo on the wall, it's a model that you can fly around it and view it from any angle. A model that's animated as the sun's surface moves.

Second Life has so much potential. I want to see a gallery showing by a photographer on there, now that would be cool.

Totality Cool

One more thing, there's going to be a total eclipse of the sun. You can watch it via the web at:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/2006/index.html

I'm going to try and be in Second Life to watch it streamed via video. They're going to start the video presentation at 12 midnight tonight Hawaii Standard Time Click on this link to see the corresponding time in your area.

I got to see the total eclipse on the Big Island and if you ever get a chance to see one do so, it's incredible. For those photographers shooting the eclipse, make sure you check your focus often. The 800mm 5.6L lens I was shooting with kept going out of focus as the lens elements cooled down and contracted during the totality. You have about five hours from now to prepare.

I spy, with my eye, a camera in the sky

If you've got a fairly modern computer and a broadband internet connection you really should download and use Google Earth click on the image above to download the .kmz file to take you to the West Hawaii Today office. I must admit that most of the Big Island isn't well represented in Google Earth as the images are lower resolution and the placemarkers are off a bit. The WHT office should be right on as I did it manually.

Here's the .kmz file for Sekiya's Rest. on Oahu. My dad's old car is in that sat photo, it's the white one parked on the NW side of the lot. Amazing stuff.

New Tube

Finally got around to getting a new TV. Not a flat panel TV (note that these days flat screen means a CRT TV with a flat screen face while a flat panel TV means LCD or plasma display) but a Toshiba 20" flat screen with DVD player. I must admit at this point that my old Sony TV has a better picture as it had a smaller dot pitch (those little spots of image on the screen). I may have to get a new RF cable and/or connector as this TV shows more electronic noise than my Sony set.

But this set does have a headphone jack on the front so I can blow my ears out while keeping the neighbors at peace. The DVD player appears to work well. The TV was not much over $200. I can't see spending the money on an LCD/Plasma TV until it gets cheaper.

I'm melting....

Got to the new office space up north to test out the network connections and I found a big puddle of water under a table and the mini fridge. It had been raining like crazy recently, could a leak be the cause? The table has some five-gallon bottles of water under them, could one have leaked and been the cause?

Mystery solved, the power strip on the left was accidently turned off so the fridge, which probably had over a year's worth of frost built-up in the freezer section defrosted overnight causing the flood of water. So I got to play janitor and clean it all up, good thing we don't have a union or I'd have to wait around for a cleaning crew huh?

Oh, and the network connection? It worked fine when I tested it later.

You're such a tool

Forbes Magazine ran an article on the 20 most important tools in history, click on the image above to check it out. But what other tools should go on the 'I could've been a contender' list?

Twist-off caps for beer bottles
Those cup holders at the end of the theater seat arms
The microwave oven and that frozen pizza they sell that actually does get a crispy crust cooked in there. Amazing
Condoms, for your tool
The bong
Those automatic infrared toilet/urinal/faucet sensors. Don't you like a fresh bowl?
The George Foreman Grill
Velcro

Friends For Fatness

Ah yes, today is the day that the big boss at work treated the team members who participated in the Friends For Fitness corporate walking/walking challenge to a catered lunch from Teshima's Restaurant. Lots of deep friend shrimp tempura, sushi, teriyaki, potato/mac salad, fried chicken and other un-healthy but ohh so good to eat food.

Here's Darrell as he comes back for more, maybe he's scolding me with my plate of food above as he loads up on green tossed salad for a healthier lunch. But hey, consider it carbo-loading for next year's challenge.

My office for today

My office for today
Originally uploaded by MediaBaron.

A view out on the 11th hole of Hokulia. Covering a golf tourney today.

TV or not TV, that is the question

Went to Costco today to check out new TVs. I currently have a Sony Trinitron 19" TV that has a busted tuner so the only way I can watch TV is to change channels via the VCR. I actually don't watch that much TV but it would be handy to not have to deal with the VCR biz. Also it would be nice to be able to plug in headphone should I want to crank up the sound late at night, like if the Xbox is on.

This sucker is expensive. For some reason I can foresee some burglar sneaking off with it. I doubt a burgler would even bother with my current TV. I like the idea of an LCD TV. Lighter, smaller, flat screen, hopefully less power draw and widescreen 16:9 viewing aspect. But still we're talking at least a 'G' to get one this size.

Also note the asterisk in the upper right of the tag, I heard that if you see an asterisk or plus sign in the upper right corner that means something like it's discontinued, or what you see on display is all they have, something like that. In other words, if there's a * or + in the upper right corner and you want it, you had better buy it.

I also saw a Sony I kind of liked for about $5 cheaper but the picture looked rather anemic, not enough color saturation.

This was interesting and seemed to have a good picture. Widescreen CRT TV, VCR and DVD player but a review online noted two faults: Can't watch one channel while recording another, no headphone jack.

Looks like I'm hanging onto my junky TV for awhile. Anyone got any good TV suggestions for a nice TV under $1K? At least 20" diagonal, stereo, not bigger than 26", headphone jack, built to last. I've read about some of these Toshibas crapping out on people if the power goes out while it's on, something that happens often on the Big Island.