Daniel Von Fange

Cameraless.

(Warning - this post rambles.)

After evening church and spending time in the playground swapping jokes with kids, I walked away into the sunset - and into the grey Mercedes. Hand-Sanitizer was on my list of things I needed to buy before heading off in the morning for a week of hiking. I plotted a course to Wal-Mart.

Fwoosh! My rearview mirror reflected a white sedan arcing around behind a U-Haul truck and into my lane. Some mental computation comparing it's velocity and mine showed that we were about to attempt to occupy the same place in both space and time. This was unacceptable. So I floored the 5-Cylindar Turbo-Diesel. Collision averted. I looked into the review mirror to see who the driver behind was. A black person with a huge, white, Sunday-Go-To-Church hat on was behind the wheel. I took my exit. They took it too, and ended up behind me at the stop light. When they felt the light should turn green, the white hatted being started driving. Though at first I thought this was just a short hopeful move forward in anticipation of a green light, I soon realized that they were in ernest. More quick math reveled that another collision was imminent. I began moving out towards the empty intersection to prevent it. The light turned green, and again I stomped on the gas peddle. They passed me - after pulling out in front of a battered blue car with at least eight inches to spare between bumper and bumper, made a prompt right turn, and vanished.

At wal-mart, teen-agers looked out into the parking lot while rocking in the rocking chairs for sale and yacked into their cell phones.

I passed a Cemetery on the way home. A tan four-door car was parked on the little road that wound through the cemetery - the head-lights were on and the drivers door open. A white haired lady stood five feet away from the car, looking at grave marked with white flowers. She didn't move.

Going back through the mill houses in Fort Mill, I saw several Fort Millians had taken an old TV out on their porch, placed it on a chair, and now they sat in lawn chairs in the the driveway, watching NASCAR in the twilight.

Shooter.

Photo: Dog, Duck, Lake.

It's our Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Company Mascot, and He-Who-Must-Know-Who-Comes-And-Goes, staking out a place that allows him to see into the shop, keep an eye on the painters, and definitely know if anyone drives up.

Went and looked at ducks on the way back from work. And picked out my lens cap that I lost by the lake Sunday while taking pictures of twilight.

Wild Flowers.

I read an article today that recommend walking to prevent memory loss. That was the excuse I needed to grab the camera and go for a walk. :) The powerline behind our house is liberally endowed with wild flowers this time of year.

Linville Gorge.

Went out to Linville Gorge this weekend. Recommended.

Access Keys in Rails.

Access Keys allow you to assign a keyboard shortcut to hyperlinks. HTML for using an accesskey looks like this:

<a href="http://www.google.com" accesskey="google">Google</a>

To use an access_key in rails, added to the html options of the link_to helper method. For example:

link_to "Edit",{:action=>'edit',:id=>@product.id},{'accesskey'=>'e'}

Today I've been using access_keys to speed up the admin interface on a site that I maintain. Smashing ctl-E (or alt-E on windows) is faster than clicking the link to edit a product's information.

Out the window.

I recently moved my desk over in front of the window. It's so more enjoyable to work now.

Needless to say, it's green this time of the year in the Carolinas.

My car interior.

From iPhoto to Website.

Photon is an iPhoto plugin that will directly export a picture from iPhoto to your blog. This saves me several steps.

Fork lift tire.

Digital Rebel XT.

I'm now the proud wielder of a Canon Digital Rebel XT. Which rocks.

Try to meet her twice.

For a slightly different twist on dating advice, remember there are someplaces in the world where it's a good to meet your future wife at least twice before getting married - if that's possible, of course.

Question:
My parents have selected a bride for me. I've also seen her photo and bio-data and am interested in meeting her. Now we'll go to her place to see her. Since I have no experience I want to know what I should ask her to know her personality? How do I judge her? Should I meet her alone at her work place or elsewhere?

Neeta Raheja answers:
Meet her with your parents at her place. Tell your parents to request her parents to let you both talk for sometime alone, at her place. If you enjoy the experience ask to meet her again, at a coffee shop. I have no idea what you mean by "judge her?" All I can say is don’t judge her by her looks alone, the idea is not to "judge" anyone but to get to know each other well, share your hobbies, interests. Talk about some general interest topics and you'll soon be comfortable. Once you feel you like her and there is some chemistry try and meet each other once more or if possible, even a couple of times before you take the plunge.

--- from Neeta's Advice

Dual Photography fun.

This paper on dual photography explains how it is possible to look at a scene from the point of view of a controlled light source. (The video there page explains things pretty well.)

I wanted to try this, but since I didn't have a LCD projector, I used a flashlight. And I only worked at a resolution of 5×3 pixels.

Here is the scene from the camera's viewpoint:

Scanning in progress:

Final computed "projector's" view:

It's really low res! I probably need to shoot an 8×8 to get anything recognizable.