AlienSplicer

Steve McCurry, who is best known for his photograph of Sharbat Gula, the “Afghan Girl,” featured on the front page of National Geographic in 1984, had the privileged of shooting the final roll of 36 exposure Kodachrome film to ever be manufactured. Kodak announced last year that it would stop manufacturing Kodachrome film and retire the name brand. 

This final roll was processed at Dwayne’s Photo Service in Parsons, Kansas.  Dwayne’s is the last lab in the world that still handles Kodachrome processing.  Since Kodachrome is no longer manufactured, there are not many rolls still in circulation and Dwayne’s is expected to stop processing it this December.

National Geographic has been following and documenting this last roll of Kodachrome film and is expected to publish both the story and some of the pictures in the Spring of 2011.

References:
kansas.com: Last Kodachrome roll processed in Parsons

Rather than let the A/C condensation that drips out to just soak into the ground, I placed a small bowl under it allowing it to collect, creating a sort of “watering hole” for the animals around the house.  Here are a couple of critters I caught with my Flip UltraHD one morning about a week after placing the bowl there.

Things happen in our yard and on our porch. We’re aware of some of it … some of it may be aware of us.

• Mozilla ships mega patch for Firefox http://ow.ly/2evfq fixing 16 security flaws, 2 that are "critical". Get those browsers patched now! ->
• Robot sets new record http://ow.ly/2evnk walks 14.3 miles on a single charge. How far would butler-bot need to walk, serving us at home? ->
• FarmVille Cash Invades Supermarkets Nationwide http://ow.ly/2eJ7F teams with Green Giant to put $5 "cash" coupons on products in 4000 stores ->

The guy in this video shows how to make a Do-It-Yourself steadycam for an iPhone in order to take smooth, jerk and wobbly free video with his phone.  I don’t have an iPhone, but I do have an UltraHD Flip — if I ever get it back from Cisco, but that’s another story — and it dawned on me that this could very easily be adapted for the flip, or for just about any of today’s micro-camcorders:

After I get my Flip back, I may have to try making one of these.  The only thing that really needs to change is the phone mount at the top, put a couple of adapters on the end of the vertical bar, reducing the thread down to a standard camera mount, and we’re in business!

References:
DIY iPhone 4 steadycam rig is simple, awesome, cheap

The trails in and around Phoenix are a great places to hike, but every summer, a number of folks over do it and have to be rescued from the trails.  In just the last week, several people were rescued from Camelback Mountain and more from other Phoenix area trails.  Including a teenage boy who was hospitalized when he became so dehydrated that he ran out of sweat and collapsed with cramps.

Worse, with an average cost of over $7K — more if a helicopter is needed — these rescues are not cheap.  Which is leading many to wonder if we need a “stupid hiker” law, similar to the “stupid motorist” law that charges motorists with the costs of rescuing them when they ignore “road closed” and “flooded” signs to cross obviously flooded washes.  You don’t want to be one of those people!  Neither does your family.

So with several weeks of triple-digit weather left to go, here are some tips to help you survive your summer hikes:

1. Go early in the morning or late in the afternoon/evening.  The coolest time is early morning just before the sun comes up, but you’ll want to complete your hike as soon as you can, before it gets truly hot.  Second best is very late in the afternoon, just before sunset.  It will still be quite hot, but at least you won’t have the sun beating down on top of your head while slogging along.  Don’t forget your flashlight — the sun tends to set much faster than most people expect.
2. Wear a hat.  Hat’s provide crucial protection to your head, neck, and face from the sun’s rays.  Floppy, wide-brimmed hats are the best.
3. Wear a long-sleeve cotton shirt.  It may be uncomfortable at first, but the sleeves will protect your arms from direct sunlight and will also trap sweat.  This helps to keep you cool by evaporating in the hot, dry breezes we tend to get.
4. Freeze a 3/4 full water-bottle before your hike and top it off with water just before you start.  The ice will melt fairly quickly, but the water should stay cooler for much longer.  Cool water helps to reduce your core body temperature and simply feels better than drinking hot water.
5. Acclimate.  It’s best to start taking hikes early in the season before it gets hot and keeping it up even as the temperature rises.  This teaches your body to react to the heat and improves your fitness level for the stresses of the late summer months.
6. Don’t take young children or pets on mountain trails when it’s hot.  Their small bodies don’t regulate temperature as well as adults do.  This goes for pets of all sizes, too.
7. Stick to the clock.  In triple-digit weather, it’s important to know how long you can hike in the heat, not how far.  It doesn’t matter if you reach the summit or not, turn around when you’ve hiked for half the time you allotted.
8. Take an extra bottle of water.  When it’s really hot, it’s recommended to take more water than you think you need.  Be sure to take a drink every few minutes.
9. Don’t hike alone.  You should always take one or more hiking partners.  This allows each of you to keep a healthful watch on the other for signs of stress or heat exhaustion.
10. Take your cell phone.  Although you may prefer the solitude of leaving it in the car, a cell phone will ensure you have a means of calling for help if the heat or some other disaster does get to you. 

References:
Should there be a ‘stupid hiker’ law?
Crews rescue 8 hikers from Phoenix mountain
Boy in Serious Condition After Hiking Camelback Mountain in Severe Heat
Dangers of Taking Pets Hiking in Heat

• Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain http://ow.ly/2bD4P – "What you do for a living is not be creative, what you do is ship." ->

Just got back from taking Son#2 out for his first driving lesson — he got his Learner’s Permit yesterday.  We spent quite a bit of time in an empty school parking lot, driving around the rows as if they were roads, learning to turn and to stop.  We’ll be back at it again tomorrow and just about every day after that.  Practice, practice, practice.

There is a very short article at MercuryNews by Jennifer Squires of the Santa Cruz Sentinel discussing a growing trend of people receiving scam calls by a purported tech support specialist from Microsoft (or some other large computer company) that offer’s tech support via phone.  However, when people follow their instructions, instead of fixing their computer, they unknowingly end up installing a remote access program that allows the scammer to gain compete remote control of their computer. 

The article discusses an example of someone receiving one of these scam calls, that its’ a growing trend, and that the scammers will sometimes ask for payment for their “service.”

Then she wraps it up with:

People can add themselves to the Federal Trade Commission Do Not Call registry to prevent phone solicitation by calling 888-382-1222.

I’m sorry, but that seems a bit detached from reality.  If someone is going to call you and try to scam you out of something, be it money or the security of your computer, they are NOT going to be concerned, one iota, whether or not your phone number is listed at the FTC’s Do Not Call registry.
 

Things happen in our yard and on our porch.  We’re aware of some of it … some of it may be aware of us.  Here is Angela’s Porch Cam, Episode #1:

I just spent an hour and a half on the phone with Dish Network and now feel like an extortion victim.

It all started earlier this week, when I got a flyer on from my employer about discounts employees might be able to get from Dish Network.  This is not unusual, it’s a large multi-national company and we’re always receiving employee discounts from places.  I didn’t think anything about it.

We’ve been Dish Network customers for the last 5 years.  Today, I looked over the flyer and, although I noticed that it appears to only offer discounts to NEW customers, some of them looked like they might be available for existing customers as well, so I called Dish to double-check.  As suspected, all the discounts on the flyer were for new customers only.

But while I was on the phone with them, during one of the several periods of “on hold” time, I logged onto Dish Network’s website to check our programming options.  There I noticed that we were paying $10/month for HD service, but that there was now another option where we could get “HD for Life” for $0.00 — free!  A definate no-brainer decision.  I asked them about getting “HD for Life.”

The problem is, there are only two ways you can qualify for free “HD for Life.”  the first one involves handing them direct access to your credit card or checking account, while the second is to pay them $99 for the privilege.  Both of these options leave a sour taste in my mouth.

To be honest, the first option actually has three requirements: sign a 2-year commitment, give them access to our credit card or bank account, and use paperless billing.  The only real issue I have with these requirements is having to give them access to our accounts. 

If it were just the 2-year commitment, it would be a done deal — it’s the same as with our cell phone carrier.  We’re long term customers, so an occasional two year agreement is not unreasonable to get some sort of perk.  But we don’t give anyone the authority to charge or draw money from our accounts as they see fit.  There are so many ways in which doing so could result in problems.

So, for those of us who wish to maintain control of our finances, they offer the other option: we can buy the discount.  I find this offer to be distasteful, counter productive, and not particularly helpful.  In order to get HD for free, we had to, in effect, prepay for 10 months, after which it would be free.  Since the goal was to reduce our monthly bill, asking us to pay this … fee … in order to do so is very unpalatable.  Especially considering we’ve already paid more than this much over the last year or more for HD service.

I negotiated hard with four different people — 2 customer service representatives, their supervisor, and their manager — to try and find a reasonable solution.  We’re long term customers, but don’t like to give up control of our finances; and that having to purchase a discount seems punitive.  This is why I was on the phone with them for an hour and a half.

In the end, I was basically told that they don’t need us as customers — long term or otherwise.  We can either continue paying the monthly fee (for a service that’s offered for free), give them our financials, purchase the free service, or go away.  It’s our choice.

Dish Network is right, it is our choice.  Direct TV and cable are not the only alternatives.  There are now numerous options on the Internet for watching our favorite TV programming and movies.  We have many choices.