I bought a Nikon D40.  I found that after researching, reading, debating, and re-reading, it is the best option for me right now, as opposed to overspending on a body.  By purchasing an older body, with a kit lens, I can really test the waters of how far I want to go with this hobby.  If it turns out I take crummy pictures, I’m not out as much money.  If I fully dive in, its still a great body to learn on, and by realizing its faults, I’ll be better prepared to upgrade.  On the D40 itself, it’s a 6.1MP camera.  Now many people, including myself up until about 2 weeks ago, think that higher megapixel count automatically translates into better pictures.  Not necessarily true.  You can take a blurry 15MP shot just as well as a blurry 6.1MP shot.  Granted, getting that awesome shot with 15 megapixels allows you the flexibility to crop more, but I’d like to hope that I can grow to a point where the shot I take doesn’t require much editing.  Plus, staying with the Nikon line, I know any lens I buy will be compatible with the next body I decide (if ever) to buy.

I’m still learning about the camera, but I think the next items on my list are the following:

Nikon SB-400 Flash

Nikon 35mm f1.8 AF-S

- or -

Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6

Some sample shots that I’ve taken with the D40 and the 18-55mm kit lens.

Nikon D40 - Nikon 18-55mm f5.6

Nikon D40 - Nikon 18-55mm f5.6

(before white-balance lesson, and just a bit of blur) - Nikon D40 - Nikon 18-55mm f5

9/11 was obviously one of the major tragedies in American history.  It was a horrific event, causing thousands of people to prematurely lose their lives, led by a group of men who overtook the airplanes using items such as box-cutters, fear, etc.  What happened?  Summarizing what I understand to be the driving factor behind creation of the “Department of Homeland Security“: lack of communication and sharing of intelligence amongst government agencies.  Could the events that unfolded that tragic morning have been prevented, had proper communication channels been available?  We’ll never know.  Regardless, the American public needed to know it was safe to fly in the immediate days, weeks, months, even years following.  Steps were taken.  DHS was created.  Cockpit doors reinforced.  Additional training and ticketing procedures were put in place to raise flags.

Then, the shoe bomber.  His attempts to detonate the plane failed, but it gives the TSA another reactionary element to their scanning procedures.  We now take our shoes off to be scanned.

Enter the underwear bomber of Christmas 2009.  On an International flight to Detroit, he attempts to detonate a device he has hidden in his underwear.  The attempt to cause destruction, ultimately fails.

Now we have scanners that see through clothes.  Do you see the pattern?  Everything to this point from the TSA has been reactionary.  In the years following 9/11, were there attempted hijackings of domestic flights?  None that I’m aware of.  Were there any cases of explosive devices found in the shoes we all removed to have scanned?  Again, none that I’m aware of.  It has only been a year, but no other individual has attempted to ignite his underwear, that I’m aware of, on a domestic flight within the US, let alone another international flight.  We does the government assume that terrorist organizations will only use air travel as a means of destruction?  It happened once.  Yes, it was tragic, horrible, and inexplicably terrible.  But, does that mean we should now assume everyone is a suspect if they’re flying?  It doesn’t make sense.

Why is security so paramount to air travel to the extent it is today?  The metal detector and baggage scans appear to be working just fine.  Statistically speaking, I’m putting myself in MORE danger by choosing to drive than I am flying in a plane that is full of unscanned individuals.

As a corollary, does anyone fear entering a Federal building upon the chance that someone could park a Ryder van outside packed with explosives?  No.  Measures were taken in the months following, I believe, to ensure a vehicle could not be parked so close to the building, but no rights are violated, no one is searched beyond a metal detector as a means of entering the building.

Logically, it just doesn’t make sense that this much security is required to partake in air travel.  More people die in DUI related accidents than were ever killed in 9/11 – yet, there are no checkpoints upon entering the interstate.  There is no alcohol detection required to start a vehicle.

I took my 2005 Toyota 4Runner in for a full-set of new tires (all 4 replaced).  I was called a couple hours later, and was told by the technician that they replaced a TPMS sensor.  They did not state that it was broken prior to bringing it in, nor did they state that the technician broke it while replacing the tire.  They did state that there would be no charge to me (I assume this is an acceptance of fault).

I later picked up my vehicle, received my receipt which showed the replaced TPMS sensor, no charge.  Within 36 hours of having this work done, the TPMS system light illuminated and began flashing on the dashboard.  Upon consulting my owners manual, it stated this indicates a ‘malfunction’ of the TPMS system, not a pressure problem on the tires.  I checked pressure to validate this.

I brought the vehicle back to Tires Plus to have the light evaluated.  I was told they were booked, and to bring it back Sunday.  I did so, and was again told, they were booked, could I come back Monday.  I did.

Monday, I was told that they ran a test, and the light was signaling a problem with the spare tire sensor.  Which had NOT been worked on.  I was told that they’d have to replace it, but it wouldn’t be free since it is a sensor they didn’t work on.  They reset the indicator, and within 24 – 36 hours, it came on again.

This is extremely suspect.

a)  I was not told why they needed to replace one of the TPMS sensors.

b)  If I was given the original replacement for free, at no admitted fault of the technician, why not give me another for the spare?

c)  There was no indication of a problem prior to bringing my vehicle to Tires Plus, yet within 36 hours, a sensor dies?

For those Googling, my laptop model is Sony Vaio VGN-FZ140N.  Firmware model: R0050J7.  I modified the value ’02D3′ to ’0001′ using the symcmos tool, and all is well.

Gootimer works like this:  You already use Google Calendar to manage meetings and what not, right?  RIGHT?  Well, by simply adding additional calendars for each project you’re currently tasked with, you can track your time as easily as adding a meeting.  By having the event tied to the calendar, Gootimer can aggregate your hours spent on each project, and give you a nice breakdown of where you spent your time.  Amazing, right?  There’s more!

In todays online world, privacy has become king.  We need to protect our data, and access to that data.  At the same time, we want to be able to access that data from wherever possible, whenever we need it.  Gootimer doesn’t store your data – none.  You authorize it to access your data (kindly protected by Google) and the data is used real-time.

That’s pretty neat!

Read James’ announcement here: http://www.rodenkirch.com/2010/10/task-based-time-tracking-redux/

I found that tweaking the ‘optimizer_search_depth‘ parameter (in my.cnf) for MySQL significantly sped up the query, as it told MySQL to only go so far in finding the best way to execute the query.

You can read more about it here: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/controlling-optimizer.html

I’d recommend tweaking this variable to find the best level for your worst query.  For simple queries, they should be unaffected since MySQL doesn’t need to do much analysis on the best execution plan.  As an example, I’ve set the value to ’3′, and things are just fine.

To determine if you need this tweak, you can login to the MySQL console while a long-running process is executing and execute ‘SHOW PROCESSLIST\G‘.  If you see a query in ‘statistics’ state for more than a few seconds, try tweaking the value, and re-running the process.

RoweWare Solutions, LLC is proud to announce its first software offering! Name-O Bingo Cards is a simple application to make creating custom bingo cards an easier task for anyone that uses them.  Launch the application, edit your word lists, hit Print, and you have fresh, hot, Bingo cards!

As this is the first product, as well as the initial release, we’re offering Name-O Bingo Cards at a great discount.  $10 for LIFE!  Buy once and you’re entitled to all the updates we release to the product, forever.  Purchasing a license also entitles you to expedited support.  We accept bug reports and feature requests from everyone, but those from licensed users will receive priority.  Licensed users are also given priority notice of upcoming releases.  Buy today, it’s an easy $10 to save you the time of manually creating these cards yourself.

We’d love to hear your thoughts!  Comment here or use the contact us form on the Name-O site.

Thanks!

-Dave

You may need to logout / login to restart the clock and make the setting take effect.

iconv -f UTF-16 -t UTF-8 input_file > output_file

And you’re done! Easy as pie…when you know what the problem is.