While most people get it, some people still leave their dogs in the car on hot days.  Many people are still under the impression that if you crack the windows on your car that will be sufficient, but that is just not the case.  The website My Dog Is Cool, has some great resources to explain the dangers to other people. All it takes is a day with the ambient temperature to hit the low 80's to literally cook a dog sitting in a car. 

(Photo Courtesy of Sidereal on Flickr)

There are a lot of great PDF files that can be printed out as flyers to leave on offending cars or given out to increase awareness.  You wouldn't leave your infant in a hot car, so why would you do the same to a dog?

Link:

• http://www.mydogiscool.com/
  

Posted by spectrox at 07:49 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Last Saturday was a day of a lot of big changes.  J.D., our lovable cat and companion, passed on peacefully while surrounded by friends.  He has been a big part of my life since I met my wife, but he had been with her since 1995.  The cancer that took his life moved so fast.  Even with several rounds of chemotherapy and a fighting spirit didn't stop the growth of his Lymphoma.  Over the weekend I thought about all the good times and stories that center around that cat.  He could be full of piss and vinegar sometimes, but was a sweet soul, sometimes waking me up in the middle of the night as he was grooming my scalp with his sandpaper tongue. I really miss his trilling meow and all of his tomfoolery that usually involved him dry humping pillows.  What a character.  I will never forget him.

The other big change is that Mr. F, who was with our family for exactly one year and one day, has moved to a new home.  He had been struggling with the fact that he was not the only cat for several months.  His new home will allow him to be his lovable over-stuffed self.  I am going to miss him, but I am happy that he has a home that will give him more attention and love.

Rusty, my in-laws wonderful dog, unexpectedly passed away on May 9th.  She was a sweet girl and a frequent visitor at our house.  The house seems suddenly so much quieter. 

Posted by spectrox at 07:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

When you think of photography and cameras these days, most people think about nifty little digital cameras that pop into your pocket. The funny thing about physics and optics, is that it can scale quite easily to a larger format.  Shaun Irving decided to scale the size of a camera up that of a large box truck.  Being incredibly experimental photographer he bought a truck on eBay, he converted the truck into a large mobile camera.  That is the funny thing about art.  Sometimes it is so impractical that it draws you in.  He is not creative when it comes to naming a project, as it is called: CAMERATRUCK.  To the point, but not exciting.  On the other hand, the pictures are amazing and simply huge.  The average size of his works are 7 feet by 3.5 feet.

(Photo Courtesy of The Joy Of The Mundane on Flickr)

Links:

• http://cameratruck.net/
• http://shaunirving.com/
  

Posted by spectrox at 04:12 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I found this guy floating in my pool on Mother's day. He didn't move for the first ten minutes, so I figured that I better scoop him out before he got sucked into the filter, but it turned out he was alive. For a suburban house, we have a freaking jungle in our back yard.

Posted by spectrox at 11:31 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

After a hefty download, DVD burn and install, I'm playing with Windows 7 RC, release 7100.  Seems to be as stable as 7000 was on decent hardware.  The only thing that I find amusing is that my Windows Experience Index increased by .3 without any hardware changes...

Even if I don't end up using the final release, I won't have to think about reinstalling until June 1st, 2010 when this Release Candidate will expire.  Previous review link below.

• http://blog.spectrox.com/2009/01/windows_7.html
  

Posted by spectrox at 12:12 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

While the instant Polaroid film is becoming a thing of the past, a new application for Windows and Mac OSX called Poladroid allows you to process graphics files to get the look and feel of Polaroid film.  While you could have always done this using a host of image editing software such as Photoshop or The Gimp, this software has the sound and feel of a Polaroid.  You have the ability to watch the picture appear, to shake it, and to develop it early to get the effects that you want. 

It is prettty simple... you drag your file to the virtual camera and watch it develop.  There are a few variables you can adjust, but it is pretty basic.  As much as I like Web 2.0 applications, it is nice to have an app like this that can process images on your local machine.  The only thing that would be cooler is that if the application set the EXIF data on output file.

Step 1 - Drop it here:

Step 2 - Watch it develop.

Step 3 - All Done! (or Profit?!?!?)

The image before:

The image Poladroided:

It turns out that Fuji still manufactures compatible film in the Polaroid form factors and a version of the Holga camera, informally called the Polga or Holgaroid allow you to take pictures with the same dreamy feel as a Polaroid.

Links:

• http://www.poladroid.net/

Posted by spectrox at 05:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

Who would have thought that Michael Jackson's usage of surgical masks would have been some forward thinking fashion choice.  If SARS and the Avian Influenza were not bad enough to scare you, the Swine Flu is here to stay. While many would shrug this off as crazy, if you look at the history of the 1918/1919 Spanish Flu outbreak, approximately 25 million people died in the first 25 weeks of the pandemic.  That is in the age before same day transit between continents via commercial airliners.  Scary. 

(Photo Courtesy of sarihuella on Flickr)

A great resource on the subject is the CDC Swine Flu page.  This is a clearinghouse of information and links about the current outbreak.

Link:

• http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/
  

Posted by spectrox at 07:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)