Waxing Gibbous Moon

Playing around with my first moon shot. This image taken tonight.

Bicycle At NIght

Commuting at night on a Bicycle. Image on 8th Ave yesterday night. I was trying to catch the motion, and the danger of commuting on a bicycle at night. This shot came out better than I expected.

No photoshop corrections, this is the raw image. Hand held pan, 138mm (135 equiv), .5s exposure, f/5.6, ISO 1600.

Stereo Seagull

Today I took this stereo pair of a seagull out on the Seattle waterfront. The above image is a Red-Blue 'color' anaglyph. Wear standard Red-Blue stereo glasses to see the 3D. The next image is the right left image pair. Some people (including me) can temporarily cross their eyes and merge them into a 3D view. The lenses refraction artifacts are real and are not post processing renders. The two images were takes about 1/3 second apart.

The Zune, 0.92 years and a Major Software Update Later ...

Well honestly I was secretly hoping for a major software update for the Zune that matched the features of the new models but I didn't expect them to follow through with it. I'm pleased. The device has a better look & feel with the new software. The old features are still there and a few new ones are available. I've not tried out yet the wireless update and wireless song 'relay' between multiple Zunes but intend to use them.

New features I have tried and really like are the better 'video' indexing and the Podcasts index. WooHoo! Much better and I'm not sifting through all my video content for video Podcasts.

Something not mentioned in any of the press releases on this topic is that consecutive song playback seems to be more continious without the brief blank spot between songs on the same album.

I will note here that this Zune has not caused me a bit of problem this entire year. It has locked up occasionally for a miniute and then re-booted but that has been very infrequent and usually happend only after I dropped the darn thing.

Still kinda like it, not to complicated, my mother could still operate it. :)

PS. The user interface highlight 'click-flash' is very cool. I know it's just UI flash but I like it anyway. Thank you!

Mt. St. Helens, Nov 11th, 2007

Approaching Mt. St Helens from the north west. The mountain in the background is Oregons Mt. Hood. The debrie's field below the Mt. has taken on a dark greenish cast because of new growth and Northwest algae growing on everything. Freezing level was about 7500 ft on this day. The temperature at 9500 ft ws -10C/12F.

Mt. St. Helens, Nov 11th, 2007

Mt. St. Helens, November 11th, 2007. The top of the mountain with the lava dome and glacier clearly visible. Temperature at 9500ft was -10C/-12F. The previously all grey vally floor had a distinct dark 'algae-green/dark gray' color to it. As you can see the mountain is starting to get it's winter snow cap.

St. Helens Glacier

The St. Helens Glacier. This is the glacier that has been growing on St. Helens since the eruption. It is in shadow most of the year. The temperature at 9500 feet this day was -10 C. about 12 F. If you compare this image with the image in Google Earth you can the the glaciers progressive growth. This picture is taken over the west crater rim looking east. The east crater wall is at the top of the image. The Glacier runs diagonally through the image from top right to lower left with the lava dome in the center right.

Interesting this glacier will be turned into a Lahar and sweep away the I5 bridges (likely) over the Toutle/Cowlitz river when the dome collapses. Every year more water is stored in this glacier and the future lahar gains more force.

Saint Helens Lava Dome

St. Helen Lava Dome. Nov. 11th, 2007. Saturday afternnon. This is looking across the top of the dome from the west. The begining of the crater glacier is on the left side of this image 1/3 from the top. The south wall of the crater is to the right/top in this image.

This is the same area as in the next composit photo taken at an angle from 2 miles to the west.

St. Helens Lava Dome Nov 11, 2007

This is a composit of Saint Helens lava dome taken on Saturday November 11th, 2007. The distortion is reasonably low. If you are interested in these for a science study I can make the complete set of images available.

In this image the north crater wall is to the top. (click on image for a larger version)

The Green Ring of Life!

Got the XBox 360 back yesterday (see previous RRoD post, this blog). I'm kinda shocked since It went out UPS a week ago Monday Nov 6th and returned on Thursday November 15th. The shocking part is it has the same serial number on the case. Granted they could have just exchanged cases and sent me a new internal box but at least it gives the warm fuzzy that you got the same machine back.

This one seems better though ... like it has more cooling air flow than the last one, also included was a month of free XBox Live.

Works great! I'm pretty impressed with the service. Way better than I expected.

A little vertigo for you?

Heres a picture north of Rainer in a left turn to give you a bit of vertigo.

Out and About ...

... on a November Saturday afternoon. Went to St. Helens, Mt. Rainer, Snoqualmie Falls, it was fun. I'd not seen St. Helens up close for quite a few years. The dome has climbed up the south crater wall and the glacier is growing rapidily filling the east and north crater floor.

Thats Mt. Rainer in the background of this picture taken from the North East looking South.

Red Ring'O Death!

Uh-oh ... looks like my 360's got the dreaded RRoD. The support people were pretty efficient though. I couldn't understand the first guy ... he mumbled and I told him so then got mysteriously disconnected. The second time I called they went right through the check list and the box failed with flying colors.

MS is sending me a 360 coffin any day now. I'm feeling withdrawal, plus the dang thing was acting as my DVD player ...

The Boat

The boat sits.
It's white fiberglass hull,
bright in the sunlight,
like a whale,
dead and bleached opon the shore.

A single red stripe,
wraps around,
like a faded ribbon,
on a forgotten present.

Inside open to the sky,
Carpet once blue now faded grey,
Upholstry once crisp now faded,
eaten by time and critters.

A new chrome wrench lies there,
the deck ports open.
Parts and nuts, wires and grease.
The battery charged yet the cable connectors corroded.
An impotent key left with intent in the ignition.

But the hull is clean and white,
shining in the sun,
glowing with promise,
of what will be.

The Zune, Six Months Later ...

My desk typically has this sitting on it. The Russian doll is a software design aid, the cactus is named 'Thorn' and the Buddha/cactus combo reminds me of the Zen required in software engineering.

The Zune, Six Months Later

So I've had this Zune gadget for six months as of a few days ago. I use it almost every day, don't keep it in it's or any case, normally I keep it in the breast pocket of my jacket.

The only accessory purchased for it is a set of BOSE noise canceling headphones (the smaller ones). I would swear that the combination of the Zune and the Bose lets me hear new things in music that I've never noticed before.

It's been a pretty durrable machine. I've dropped it a few times, never on concrete or hard enough to chip it but did bang in hard on the thin carpet over the concrete floor in the office at least twice. Had to reboot it once because of the drop. It seems pretty durrable. No chips or scratchs on the case or the clear screen. Though the battery life seems to be getting shorter a bit I can still get a full day (8 hours) of music play before I need to plug it in.

I have shared music with a college at work and my son. It's nice for a few miniutes but in the end fairly pointless because the music often evaporates before I ever get a chance to listen to it. Much better to exchange CD's with mp3's or loan them the original CD.

Getting podcasts from iTunes makes me happy :) I can get videos and podcast financial radio shows and have a steady stream of new material without having to download something by hand, just subscribe to the free mp3s and new material shows up.

The Zune store stopped working for me. I can still log in but it stopped transfering content up to my Zune, even though I was paying the $16 per month. So I cancelled it. Don't need it.

Thats it in a nutshell, third party accessories are non-existant, one of the reasons I don't use a case is becase I can't get a compact one that is useable. I'm a little concerned about long term battery life but we will see how it holds up at one year.

Bottom line the Zune is fine, it's been updated once which fixed a periodic music pause that would happen infrequently I'd buy it again and am not interested in paying for any music online.

Zune, I think I'll keep it.

The Zune ... I think I'll keep it.

Why? Well ...

• I really like the interface. True there is not a spin click wheel like the ipod, the button in buttons gizmo works pretty well, and the menu velocity logarithmically increases when you hold the up or down for a second.
  
• I like the minimalistic configuration options. Hell my grandmother could have operated the darn thing. Somehow the team managed to avoid the 'control-option' bloat that so many devices suffer from.
  
• The screen is BIG, or at least bigger than the iPod. The larger the screen the easier it is to look at, Videos look better, controls are clearer, the Zune really takes advantage of it with the zooming background.
• The background is customizeable with your own image. It's a little thing that I really apperciate.
  
• I can still use iTunes for Podcasts, even video podcasts (a neat feature since MS isn't ready with that one yet.)
  
• Believe it or not the MS Zune feels like the underdog vs. the Apple iPod juggernaut. I enjoy rooting for the underdog, there always seems to be more opportunity for something interesting. I went to a cheap Fred-Meyer near my house yesterday and their iPod display, with all the options was neatly stacked and there were loads of accessories on the entire row. The little Zune display took up two shelves in a display case that inculded other stuff including portable DVD players. Yep the Zune is definatly the underdog. I think they should combine the XBox and Zune displays since the products work together.
• And hey, the thing has a decent FM tuner it it. It actually seems to be the best FM radio I've ever had.
  

Anyway I can always get an iPod if the Zune ever fails. Not much chance I'd ever own a Zune again, so I'll just keep this one and look forward to all the new stuff that MS will eventually release for it. The future is bright!

Zune Sites!

www.zune.net - MS home

www.zuneinsider.com - Zune employees site, Cesar Menendeze with Zune marketing.
www.zuneguy.com - Bill W, Zune Accessories Department
www.zunester.com - Dave Caulton, Zune software team

Fan Sites

www.zuneluv.com
www.zunerama.com
www.zuneboards.com
www.thezunebox.com

And finally

www.zunemax.com - Not sure ...

Zune!

Zune this! 

To Zune or not to Zune, what is the question ... exactly?

Zune under your tree?

I got an MS Zune for Xmas, debating if I should return it for an iPod. I opened the box anyway since I'd very little first hand knowledge of the product it would give me a chance to do some first hand research. I'd been putting off getting a Zune or iPod for a while. I play my music mp3 collection on my Rio, PocketPC phone, or iTunes/Windows media player/Mp3 cd player.

My music collection has no music purchased from an encrypted music retailer. I've converted it all directly to mp3 from my rather large CD collection with Audiograbber over several years. It turns out this is still the 'correct' thing to do. If I'd been buying any music online it would not play in the zune, likewise any music bought from the MS store would not play in an Pod. Life is much simpler if you just buy a CD, new or used, and convert it to mp3's yourself.

The Zune installs and works flawlessly and except for a hic-up when the zune PC software locked once while I was doing multiple things with it (probably a threading loop someplace). After killing and restaring it then had to rescan my entire library. The safe thing to do is to stop the zune PC software immediately after entering your initial information and after at least a partial scan of your library. This will save the config and your scan so if it does crash you won't have to start over.

The Zune sound is great, the video screen is large, the interface I like (with the background image zoom and the large letters that appear when scrolling through your music fast. It's got some tricky button combinations that are not listed in the manual that can power it off and erase all content if you want, I'd like a concise and complete list of all those sometime.

The Zune Web

The web property space has been saturated with 'ZUNE' sites, probably MS targeting that and trying to work up a buzz, www.zuneluv.com, zunerama.com, www.zuneboards.com are a few. I actually liked the hack your Zune hardware articles the best since it shows that you can change your own battery and hard drive if you want to.

Now lets focus on two things, broadcast file sharing and free news/video downloads, i.e. Podcasts.

Real World Network Test

I went to the Chargers vs. Seattle game yesterday, disappointing game result but that's another story. While I was there in Quest stadium, Microsoft central, even Paul Allen was there somewhere since it was the last regular season home game, I pulled out my Zune and had it search for another Zune. The results, in that crowd of thousands, was zilch, I was the only Zune there, not even a whisper of another zune anywhere. I imagine it will make contact with one eventually but I don't think they can find each other without some help from their owners.

Getting Podcasts on your Zune!

I don't have an iPod but have been using iTunes for a year or so to listen to free radio podcasts and video's. I like the news business stories you can't get anywhere else. Since 'free' content, or even videos, aren't available from the MS zune storefront. I can continue to use iTunes to subscribe to Podcasts and when these are downloaded they cross over into the Zune just fine without extra steps. The video isn't visible in the pc-zune program but the Zune will show the Video just fine(it converts during upload). If you want to view/pre-view the Podcasts on your computer you'll have to continue using Quicktime/iTunes for that.

Finally my Gripes in order:

1. iPod/Zune market: Purchased music is locked to one player type and can't be used on another player, even though you paid money for the music you have fewer rights to it. Buying a CD and converting it to MP3 is the only thing that really works. iPod music does not play on a Zune and zune music will not play on an iPod. Free mp3's and mpeg videos work on both so why can't the music you pay money for?
2. Zune: The file sharing network 'social' feature doesn't work, for several reasons; limited range, few other Zunes, slow xfer, limited retention, no RELAY, i.e. can't give to someone else what someone gave to you.
3. Zune: Free content, i.e. Podcasts, can not be shared freely or for indefinite periods suposedly the content you received allways evaporates after you look and it three times or in three days, even when the content is not copyrighted.
4. Zune: Files can not be copied back off of the Zune when you put them up there.
5. Zune market: Podcasts are not available, or any free video content.
6. Zune Market: It makes you log on every time you use it. iTunes doesn't make you log in and I never have. (Nevermind, this is incorrect, the market does NOT require you to log in to view the contents.)
7. Zune-computer: Doesn't have a clear 'jukebox' feature.