Here is a photo I like

I took this photo at Starbucks this morning, and I really liked the way it turned out.  The lens is the amazing 10-17 fisheye, I'm sitting inches from the table and the lens captures everything.  The lens captures 180 degrees from corner to corner, so the greatest spherical distortion is at the corners.  The paper is thusly huge.  My model is in the center, where the distortion is minimal, which is the best place to put a person.  The two cups of coffee look really big and the baristas can be seen serving a customer — all impossibly far away.

I have about one ounce of art in me.  I'm sure there are a million things wrong.  And most people really dislike fisheye because it distorts things.  Oh well, I still like it.  Rectilinear lenses also distort edges, preserving parallelism at the expense of relative size.  We're just used to seeing it.  My subject is blinking too.  Tough.  I like it.

Ever tried a Mac? I hope you didn't use MS Word.

I avoid Microsoft Word, because it is horrible.  But I need to work with a partner, so I need to use this vendor-locked abomination because it is easy for me to adjust, and harder to ask my partner to try something new.

When I set out, I thought it was bad enough to be writing .doc files, depending on Rosetta (because MS is too busy to compile their code), and looking at the various indecipherable mystery-meat buttons taking up half of my screen.  I thought my problems would be limited to autocomplete, autocorrect, and clippy the wonder helper.

I was wrong.

It turns out, Microsoft decided to break every other standard for human interaction.  Selecting text grabs whitespace on both ends, option doesn't function normally, forward-delete-word doesn't work, and the program had annoying habits of splashing toolbars outside of the program's allotted focus area.  Come to think of it, delete-word is probably the most useful command they could have supported.  They have made a program which, if used regularly, completely fails to "get" human interaction within the environment.

I honestly believe that MS intentionally set out to provide stupid and useless control mechanisms for Word for Mac, just so they could confuse everybody on how the system is supposed to respond.  And they probably don't recompile because they like slow interaction.  And they use custom menus for stuff like printing that doesn't support keyboard interaction, and their preferences are all goofy, and their help system is the usual Worthless Windows baloney instead of useful, contextual help.

How did such a horrible company fool so many people into using their junk?

One Coincidence Does Not Give Rise To Another

I enjoy a good logical fallacy.  They sound convincing and authoritative, but when fully considered amount to nothing.  I want to provide some examples, but the wikipedia article linked above does a much better job.

December 21, 2012 is coming, and the latest internet fad is to wear a Nostradamus hat and proclaim "the end is neigh!"  This is a simple non-sequitur.  The neat-looking date "12 21 2012" must be ominous, so naturally the end of the world must be neigh.  Whatever that means.  Oh, the Mayan calendar, which you no doubt use every day, happens to "end" on that date (I haven't checked for myself).

The way I see it, when you use a wheel for a calendar, it will occasionally go 'round.

What's even better is that the argument is supported by the true claim that , "the Sun and the Earth will be aligned that day."  It turns out that the Sun and the Earth are always aligned, because two points always describe a line.

Most people discussing this are probably not actually expecting the world to end.  They probably know how bad the conclusion actually is.  All well and good, and the broader topic is interesting in a Schneier "risk assessment" kind of way.

Whatever you do, keep your fingers crossed just in case (which is another interesting topic, if you know what I mean).

Homemade Carrot Cake

I baked a carrot cake this afternoon!  It was pretty fun to see all the ingredients make a cake.

The process is long.  Building a cake from scratch takes a lot of elbow grease – especially sifting the flour mixture using a tiny wire screen that isn't made for sifting.  But the results are much more satisfying than buying a cake at the store.  Natasha was nice enough to do all the cleaning, and she shredded the carrots.

The cake tasted great, especially with a hot cup of French Roast coffee (thanks Scott).  The icing is far more delicate than carrot cake you'd find at the store.  And the cake itself it more moist.

On a different subject, I've been battling allergies for the last two weeks.  Yesterday was particularly debilitating because my nose wouldn't stop running.  So I've once again started over-the-counter allergy medication.  I've tried to avoid the meds because their side effect is insomnia, and I already have trouble sleeping.  As with all medications, I've got the weigh the benefits against the burden.

Tonight Natasha and I will be going to a big charity auction hosted by our school's Public Interest group.  We'll get dressed up and bring out pocketbook, but traditionally the items cost more than I'm willing to spend.  Plus, I'm not looking for new things to buy – my list is long enough as it is.