Re-enable Apple remote control after installing Boxee: After I installed Boxee alpha for Mac OS X, my Apple remote control stopped working in other applications (like Front Row and Plex). It’s nice that Boxee makes the menu button on the remote launch the app itself, but having it hijack the remote control completely by default is not nice. In order to re-enable Apple remote control support for other applications, run Boxee, go into “Settings”, and then “System”. Uncheck “Always Running”.
Steve Drogin’s family and a couple hundred of his closest friends congregated today at the Robert Paine Scripps Forum at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to celebrate his life. The afternoon air was clean, brisk, and full of tears and laughter; it was the perfect celebration for a man whose friendship and generosity touched so many people all over the world. (read more »)
I took 7 friends to see my good friend, Vienna Teng, at Yoshi’s in Oakland last Friday. Vienna is currently on tour promoting the recent release of her fourth album, Inland Territory. The new CD is great, and I highly recommend it.
The Yoshi’s show was incredible; it was probably the best Vienna Teng show I’ve ever been to!
Unfortunately, it was a madhouse and I missed her SMS invite to go backstage. It has been nearly three months since I’ve seen her, which is way too long.
Incidentally, I’m playing the cello on the CD. I’m just a single voice in the small chamber orchestra, but it’s fun to listen to the album knowing that I contributed in my little way…
I’ve been using the WordPress ViewLevel plugin for years, but during a recent WordPress update, the vl_restricted function (used for inserting a visual notification that a post is restricted) broke. I finally took the time today to fix the problem. (read more »)
breakfast with Lucien @ the Westin in Union Square
My dear friend Lucien had an overnight stopover in San Francisco last week. Luckily, I spotted his arrival by happening upon his Facebook status update, and we were able to meet for breakfast before he headed off to the airport.
Dinner with IMAX / underwater video legends Howard and Michele Hall
Pam and I stopped by to see Howard and Michele Hall on the way to the airport this afternoon. We only had three hours to catch up; it flew by way too quickly, and I was left wanting more…
decapitated, decomposing dolphin in cardiff, san diego
I was walking on the beach today in Cardiff by the Sea and discovered a dead dolphin lying in the sand. It looked like it had been there for some time and had several holes in it where innards were spilling out and bubbling from bacteria generating gas. The strange thing was that the poor cetacean’s head was missing (!). The cut was clean and was not jagged in the way it might be if a large animal had bitten it off. I wonder who would cut the head off of a dolphin??
I called Scripps Institute of Oceanography and the local Sheriff’s station. Hopefully, one of them will haul it away…
There are some photos here in this entry; don’t look at them if you can’t handle photos of dead things. (read more »)
I’ve discovered that my MacBook Pro 17″ (late 2009) has screen issues that have also been plaguing other owners. I have a screen flicker that is easily noticeable on this very journal page:
It can be hard to see on a small image like the one shown above, but is very easily noticeable on a large version of the image, especially when it is moved to the lower part of the screen.
On the “better battery life” option for video performance (when the MBP uses the NVIDIA 9400M graphics card instead of the NVIDIA 9600M GT), I see visual artifacts when scrolling in applications like NetNewsWire. So far, that’s the only application I see artifacts in, but I suspect that there are artifacts in others as well. The artifacts go away when I switch to the 9600M GT.
I tried installing Apple’s recently released MacBook Pro Graphics Firmware Update 1.0 for early 2009 17″ MacBook Pros, and discovered that I’m already running that version of the firmware. Fail.
The Shark Angels have released a new pilot video about sharks and the threats they face today. It features Alison Kock, Kim McCoy and Julie Andersen, three women from three different conservation organizations: Save Our Seas, Sea Shepherd, and Shark Savers.
Check it out — it features fantastic footage of sharks in the wild as well as footage of the threats that are decimating their population today…
The world’s most feared and misunderstood animal is also the most hunted. The frightening reality few of us know is that sharks, the creatures we fear most, are battling for survival. Over 100,000,000 sharks will be killed this year – that’s 11,432 sharks killed every hour. And, there is no telling what will happen when we remove these critical apex predators from the world’s largest and most important ecosystem – our oceans. Like them or despise them, we need sharks on this planet.
The sharks are in desperate need of guardian angels, and we just might be their last hope. The Shark Angels represent three different conservation organizations, Save Our Seas, Sea Shepherd, and Shark Savers, that are working together, in an unprecedented way, to prove that regardless of approach, we can all work with one another – and that there are many ways to make a difference for sharks. The Angels are leading a grassroots campaign – combining their respective organizations’ strengths in awareness, education, science, grassroots activism, and enforcement – to combat the myths about sharks, to expose the sad truth that many sharks are being chased towards extinction and to stop the global slaughter before it is too late. Simply put, we aim to save sharks… and we need your help.
My good friend, Cor Bosman, recentlyposted two videos his company produced. One is about co-location at their server facility, and the other talks about modern privacy issues (and might scare you). I’ve embedded them here. (read more »)
It took me awhile to realize that the notorious two-finger pinch-to-zoom feature on the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros was what was causing Firefox and Mail to freak out every time I tried to use the trackpad. Worse, you can’t disable just the zoom; in order to disable it, you have to disable all two-finger trackpad support.
The pinch zoom feature was horribly implemented, and should be either be killed off or modified to allow for selective enabling in specific applications.
Eric Cheng’s presentation at the Bay Area Dive Show (photo: Adam Tow)
I gave a 25-minute presentation last Friday at the Bay Area Dive Show, splitting my talk into two slideshows. The first was a narrated show about my experience aboard the Steve Irwin during Sea Shepherd’s anti-whaling campaign this season. The second was a slideshow to music, which presented some of my favorite images mixed with images from the recent Wetpixel trip to Indonesia.
Other presenters included Richie Kohler (the host of Deep Sea Detectives on Discovery Channel), Berkley White (Backscatter), and two local photographers who featured fantastic underwater images taken in central Californian waters.
Luckily, Adam Tow came to the show and took some photos of us with his new Canon 5D Mk II, which produces images that look fantastic even at ISO 6400! (read more »)
Here’s a quick reminder that Wetpixel publisher and editor Eric Cheng will be giving a talk at Sports Basement in San Francisco on Thursday, April 23, 2009 from 6:30-8:30pm as part of a series of events by Wetpixel Quarterly magazine.
16 underwater images by co-editors Eric Cheng and Eli Woolery will be on display. The event takes place downstairs in “The Grotto” and parking is easy in the Basement garage (access on Florida Street). This will be a repeat of the talk that Eric gave at the Bay Area Dive Show film festival in San Jose last Friday night, so if you missed it, here is your second chance to hear all the stories about his time with Sea Shepherd on this year’s anti-whaling campaign in Antarctica.
In addition, Eric will present his most recent underwater photography expedition to Indonesia, and will take questions and offer insight on his underwater photography technique.
Cold beer, refreshments and snacks are free! The event takes place at the Mission / Portrero location of Sports Basement, at 1590 Bryant St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. The event starts at 6:30pm, and Eric will start the presentation at 7pm. All attendees get a 10% off coupon at Sports Basement – and wetsuits are currently on sale! We look forward to seeing you there!
I’m going over my Operation Musashi journal from this winter, and I came across this little excerpt, which made me laugh out loud. Thought I’d share. :)
Enhance!
The other day, I was looking at a screen of some sort (I don’t remember which screen), and I exclaimed “Enhance!” and then chuckled. I don’t remember who I was with, but she was really confused and didn’t think it was funny.
“Luke would have thought it was funny.” I said.
Last night, Luke was watching me work on my images. I zoomed in to check something out, and he exclaimed, “Enhance!”
Delta Airlines has published an image I took of Daryl Hannah and Captain Paul Watson in Australia during the first few days of Operation Musashi, Sea Shepherd’s anti-whaling campaign in Antarctica. Thanks to Adam Lau for spotting it and sending me the photos! (read more »)
After three years on my old MacBook Pro 15″, I purchased a new MacBook Pro 17″ unibody. It’s gorgeous. I elected to get the glossy screen because I often work outside or in areas with bright light streaming in from windows (e.g. boat salons). Matte screens simply don’t work in those environments. Go ahead — tell me I’m wrong, and I’ll ignore you as I continue to be productive.
Anyway, continuing on my path to create the ultimate mobile computing platform (prev: RAID 0 in MBP, OCZ RAID 0 SSD in MBP), I shoved two Intel X25-M 160GB SSD into my new MBP 17″, again, using the MCE Tech Optibay. On these newer MacBook Pros, the Superdrive is (finally) SATA. I benchmarked the Intel X25-M SSD in both the standard internal SATA bay as well as in the SATA Optibay, and there was no performance hit like there was with the old Optibay, which used a IDE-SATA bridge.
So, why did I purchase the Intel X25-M over another drive, like the OCZ Vertex, which has also been favorably reviewed? (read more »)
I will be presenting a selection of my underwater photographs this Friday, April 17, 2009, at the 7:30pm evening film festival of the Bay Area Dive Show.
Friday Night Film Festival Presented by Backscatter
$10.00 Entry Fee, includes two Glasses of Wine or Water
Presentations:
Expeditions to the Britantic “Sistership of the Titanic” by Richie Kohler and Michael Barnette
The Best Diving of Monterey Bay by Clinton Bauder & Robert Lee
Black and White in a Blue Sea by Berkley White
Recent Adventures to the Edges of the Globe by Eric Cheng
Bay Area Dive Show will be held at:
San Jose South Hall, 435 South Market St., San Jose, CA 95113
I have finally replaced my 3 year-old MacBook Pro 15″ with a MacBook Pro 17″ unibody. When opening the machine up to replace the hard disk, I noticed that the area around the SuperDrive looks different than it does in earlier disassembly photos.
. The new CD is great, and I highly recommend it.
Journal RSS 