Tweets posted by @echeng during the week of 2011-12-26. (read more »)

My most-published picture is a picture of a juvenile loggerhead turtle being released into the wild just off of Palm Beach, Florida. It is commonly referred to as “the screaming turtle“. According to Google, it is being used online in about 21,200 locations. One day, I will unleash an IP attorney to hunt down all unauthorized commercial use. I don’t care about the personal use, as long as people attribute me and leave my watermark on the picture (which many do not).

Hint: to see where your pictures are used, go to Google Images and drag a JPG into the search field!

Tweets posted by @echeng during the week of 2011-12-19. (read more »)

Last month (November, 2011), 11 people at our office in downtown Mountain View were hit with credit card fraud. Most of us eat at the same group of restaurants on and around Castro Street in Mountain View. I was out of town, and was thus spared being a victim. However, I returned in late November and resumed using my credit card for lunch in downtown Mountain View. A couple weeks later, my American Express was shut down for fraudulent activity. It had been used at two Home Depot locations: one in Pennsylvania, and one in New York. One charge was for over $700, and the other for $450.

That makes 12 credit card fraud victims at our company—a significant percentage. The logical conclusion is that a someone who works at a restaurant in downtown Mountain View is stealing credit cards. If you’re headed to Castro Street to eat, it may be prudent to either 1) go somewhere else, or 2) pay in cash.

Tweets posted by @echeng during the week of 2011-12-12. (read more »)

• Hello, friends! Please vote us (@Lytro) for the Crunchies! (Best Tech and Startup) http://t.co/ahbfWpmt and http://t.co/ZKoPHkxE #
• GMail's new look: less information! same space! why?! #
• @dane Quick update: they turned line 2 back somewhere (not at my place), and original modem works again. Looks like it has to be bonded. #
• Just bought $20 of Skype credit for $10 via LivingSocial (thanks, Mom). Hope it works! :) http://t.co/r5g5lYZA #
• RIM bringing email service to iOS and Android via Mobile Fusion—very interesting, for international travelers. http://t.co/55m0DOKY #
• When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality? http://t.co/kdEf7H58 (via Instapaper) #
• Light reading during lunch: "When did the GOP lose touch with reality?" (David Frum) http://t.co/0vRgdh83 #
• To Have and to Hate « Zócalo Public Square http://t.co/Ae4TMU4G (via Instapaper) #
• American Airlines Now Charging Fees To Non-Passengers http://t.co/XAceWjHe #
• Siri hasn't worked for over 24 hours (but still works on Pam's phone). #
• R.I.P., Yahoo billboard (in a couple of days) http://t.co/zvwyAEtz #
• MarineLife Keywords is 10% off this week (very useful for underwater photographers). http://t.co/u0htKokk #
• I just heard "mos' def'" used for the first time outside of television street dramas. I am so sheltered. #
• @grantshirk Siri tells me that she can't do anything now. Generic error message. #
• @henrik_pejer yeah. I will try that. Annoying, though. #
• Domenick Scudera: My Gay Lifestyle http://t.co/SzRKnuDi (via Instapaper) #
• Monstrously massive mammals in the murk! – Wetpixel :: Underwater Photography Forums http://t.co/0bsP0OdK (via Instapaper) #
• The YES! Breakthrough 15: Ai-jen Poo — YES! Magazine http://t.co/bnbCFzFc (via Instapaper) #
• http://t.co/gNFIOVos chats with Stephen Boxall and Richard Koci Hernandez about shooting using @lytro cameras. http://t.co/fsbATIXv #
• The view from Yelp. Happy mood at their HQ! @ Yelp HQ http://t.co/iS0H71gL #
• A rather magnificent magnificent ceratosoma nudibranch. Slugs are purrrty. http://t.co/xdyeuTkM #
• I made a little video out of the the underwater footage I collected last month in Indonesia. Enjoy! :) http://t.co/bTvnzyja #
• Photo: back-lit soft coral crab in Indonesia. http://t.co/3q1ORc0T #
• I want a juicer. #
• There is very little overlap in suppliers and clients between the ferry building and Alemany farmers market. #
• The cute Asian girl is the universal attractant of Ferry Building stalls. If you don't have one, you're losing business! #
• Ever seen the effects of dynamite fishing? We came across a recently-bombed coral head in Indonesia last month (photo: Frank Baensch)… #
• @littlemster I suppose you could just use a fork, and I could just use a blender and strainer, eh? ;) #
• Got sister on iPhone. Mom will be onboard in a couple months. That's pretty much everyone, unless my dad decides he wants one. #
• Perhaps the most epic cello duet ever performed: Cello Wars http://t.co/SxBXLdTT #
• Interesting. I always thought it was the bacteria that killed Komodo dragon prey. This report says that it is venom. http://t.co/F6jRu57y #
• A lovely walk through the Tenderloin at midnight. Just kidding–avoid it at night, if you can. http://t.co/wLomQiQ6 #
• Alien spider crab (known as the "xeno crab" to underwater photographers). http://t.co/hR5jYHlG #
• Underwater macro shooting tip: strobe positioning for black background http://t.co/6bdMZFID #
• We had dinner with a friend's friend from the UK last night. When we referred to Siri as "she," he chuckled because Siri is a dude in… #
• USPS will be eliminating overnight first-class mail this spring (closing half of its processing centers). http://t.co/av7LdIpy #

I have an iPhone 4S on Verizon. Last week, I asked Siri a question, and she responded, “I’m really sorry, but I can’t take any requests right now.” After 24 hours, it was clear that Siri was broken. I looked only, and there were dozens of support webpages offering various tips on how to get the service working again; apparently, it is pretty common for Siri, clearly labeled a beta product by Apple, not to work. This is unfortunate because the iPhone itself is clear NOT a beta product. For any Apple-branded service not to work taints the entire iPhone experience.

Here’s how I finally managed to get Siri to work again:

1. Settings->General->Reset->Reset All Settings. This will reset things like your Desktop background, notification settings, and network settings, but will not delete any applications or user data. After I did this, Siri worked, but there were still a few problems: Siri refused to call anyone, and all phone numbers in my address book seemed to want to be 9 digits instead of 10. For example, if I entered a normal, 10-digit phone number like (415) 123-4567, Address Book would display it as “4151234567″. However, if I removed the last digit, it would display, “(415) 12-34-56″. Truly bizarre.

2. I turned off Siri.

3. I dialed *228 and selected option 2 to update roaming.

4. After updating roaming, I turned Siri on again and waited for the phone to connect to the Verizon network. At this point, 10-digit phone numbers were again recognized and re-formatted to the proper “(xxx) xxx-xxxx”. Siri was again able to dial.

I hate wasting time trying to get services to work properly. One of the reasons I have an iPhone is that I just want things to work, and all of the effort expended to figure out a way to get Siri to work was not fun. If I wanted to endlessly tweak my devices, I’d still be on Android!

Anyway, I hope this post helps folks out there to get Siri working again on their Verizon iPhones.

Underwater footage from a 26-day Wetpixel underwater photography expedition to Alor and Komodo, Indonesia. Footage taken by me, with Canon EOS 7D, Tokina 10-17mm fisheye zoom lens and Canon 100mm macro lens. Macro footage was lit with dual Light & Motion SOLA 1200 video lights. Additional footage captured with GoPro HERO cameras in modified Eye of Mine underwater 3D housings.