Apple Really, Really Clever

From AppleInsider: Apple iPad 3G uses the LCD Frame as a 3G antenna. This is an amazingly clever design. I wonder how many other tricks people use for laptop and portable antennas? Getting a really high signal quality out of a small device typically requires you to either be deviously clever (like this) or give the user instructions along the lines of "Whatever you do, don't touch this!" Score one for Apple. Too bad I'm not interested in an iPad.

Photography update - 23 Feb, 2010

Falling a bit behind in photography... Recently Urmi and I went to hike near the Skyline Highway in the Santa Cruz mountains between San Mateo and Half Moon Bay. The road was a bit muddy (which some bikers apparently saw as an advantage), but we made it to a huge sandstone structure that was pretty cool. Our pictures are here:

Back in DC, I took some pictures at the Arlington Cemetery, complete with snow and ice leftover from snowpocalypse and the sequel, both of which I was happily able to avoid seeing in person. Two weeks later, though, the snow was still deep enough to fully consume several of the tombstones. The snow made it difficult to get anywhere, but the surreal landscape was pretty nice. Photos:

Finally, I attended a Chinese New Year parade at Chinatown in downtown DC. I didn't get very many good photos of the parade because it was dark and people were moving too quickly (not to mention that it was too crowded). Anyways, enjoy:

Rosicrucian Museum

The other day Urmi and I went to see the Rosicrucian museum in San Jose, which was a truly incredible find. I had no idea that there was such a famous egyptology museum in the western US, much less in San Jose (LA would still have surprised me, but considerably less -- LA seems to get everything cool). Anyways, this museum was full of really cool replicas of famous artifacts. Everything was very dark inside, and we couldn't use flash photography, so I had a good time playing with my new DSLR's shutter speed and aperture settings to get good photos.
I put a collection of photos in my Picasa:

Enjoy!

New Digital Camera

So after many months (almost a year) of trying to coax my simple point-and-shoot camera into doing anything interesting, I finally broke down and bought a digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera. I opted for a Canon EOS Rebel XSi, which although extremely expensive, I am assured is an entry level DSLR camera.

DSLRs are amazing pieces of equipment. I learned more about photography during my first 15 minutes with this camera than I had ever even had the chance to learn before. Unlike a point-and-shoot camera, my new camera lets me control the exposure time, focus, and aperture settings manually. Of course, being an entry-level DSLR, this thing also has an automatic mode.(which I hate, because it always wants to use the flash...) Anyways, still learning how to use it, but I can already do some fun photographer tricks. For example, check this out:



Taken on the mode where I can vary the shutter speed, the photos are all taken in sequence varying the speed from 1/4000th of a second to 1/80th of a second. The best part is that it took me all of 30 seconds to take the whole series -- snap, adjust, snap, adjust. These things are fast.

On the other end of the spectrum, I took two pictures of my wife, one with a normal capture speed and the other a 2 second exposure. In the second photo, she seems to vanish because she was walking around, completely oblivious to my photographic endeavors:

Anyways, I haven't quite gotten this to do anything interesting outside just yet, but I'm still learning how to do things aside from auto-mode. I did take about 300 photos on a walk yesterday, but half of them didn't turn out for reasons I haven't figured out just yet. I'll probably organize them into another post. So, I guess for the future of this blog, look forward to more photos (or something...)

Santa Barbara Index

I think that about covers our Santa Barbara trip. In chronologic order (i.e. opposite the typical bloggish order), the posts are:

• Santa Barbara Day One: Biking on the Waterfront
• Santa Barbara Day One: Cachuma Lake
• Santa Barbara Day Two: Malibu Canyon
• Santa Barbara Day Two: Hollywood and Highland
• Santa Barbara Day Two: Mulholland Drive and USC
• Santa Barbara Day Three: Searching for Inspiration
• Santa Barbara Day Three: Around Town
• Santa Barbara Day Three: El Capitan Beach
• Santa Barbara Day Four: Leaving and Solvang

Santa Barbara Day 4: Leaving and Solvang

Our final time in Santa Barbara was spent out on Stearns Wharf, where we found a great place to eat dinner (after El Capitan) at a shellfish house. This place was incredible -- their entire menu was made with local crab, lobster and other crustaceans. Most of the items on the menu were sold by the pound. I couldn't talk Urmi into the four pound spider crab meal for two, but maybe next time. Most of the restaurant was full of tanks of live crabs, lobster and abalone. The pictures didn't turn out great, but here's a local rock crab:

The next day we hiked back out to the wharf (to the exact same restaurant, in fact) to see the Channel Islands and wharf. Along the way we passed a bizarre protest against the Iraq and Afganistan wars. I don't agree with these wars, but I wouldn't expect Santa Barbara to be a really right-leaning town. The protest had assembled a graveyard on West Beach, right next to the wharf.

Anyways, coffee in hand, we got some great photos from the end of the wharf. The channel islands are tough to see in a photo, but they were obvious in person.



Eventually, we had to leave Santa Barbara if we were to make it back in time for me to pack and head back to DC. Along the way we stopped in a little town (which they insisted should be called a 'village') called Solvang. Solvang was originally founded by Danish immigrants, and the entire city has been built in a Scandinavian style:


Note the sloped roofs -- perfect for those heavy, Southern California snowfalls. The lower building housed a Subway and a liquor store. It was pretty much just the shops which looked like this; a few of the houses continued the architecture, but not very many. The highlight of Solvang? We found a restaurant which sold Aebelskivers, a danish pancake shaped roughly like an egg. We make them better at home, but it was exciting to see a restaurant selling authentic scandinavian dishes that don't involve meat and gravy.

Santa Barbara Day 3: El Capitan Beach

There probably should be an accent mark in the name of this park, but oh well. El Capitan is a classic beach about twenty miles west of Santa Barbara, and it's quite deservedly a classic. The beach is framed by bluffs stretching directly into the ocean, and we were given an excellent view of the sunset. The beach was a bit rocky, though, so I don't know if it'd really be appropriate for traditional beach activities.
We had a great time here, even though we were only there for about an hour. We got some gorillapod work in, as well as some wading in the (freezing!) ocean:



We also took entirely too many pictures of the sunset, due to the sheer beauty of the landscape. Here's one of the best:

El Capitan ended up being a great way to close a fun time in Santa Barbara. We had to leave early the next day, so we called it a night after sunset and headed home.