Here’s an interesting view of one of the six rows of gear I maintain in the datacenter. Looks kinda cool, eh? You might wonder how I created an image like this, given that the rows of servers have less than three feet between them. This means I have to make the shot from about two…
Category: Computing
iBurn For You
I worked with a 2D file provided by Andrew to create a 3D splash screen for a Burning Man mapping app called iBurn. With it, burners will always be able to tell how far they are from The 7 Deadly Gins or Hungover Camel Hydration Station or even F.A.R.T. Kamp, for when they get the…
My 3D Server Room – Yay!
What you see is a fairly accurate view of the server room at work. If you’re interested, here’s how I created this. Note that the method I use is just one way to accomplish this. There are “easier” methods, like rendering directly inside of SketchUp with any number of snap-in renderers, (I like TheaRender) but…
This is My Brain on Protein
Did you know that there are databases in the public domain with free 3D models of organic materials like DNA, enzymes and proteins? Accurate and highly detailed, these models can be downloaded from a number of sites and imported into most 3D packages, including my favorite – Cinema4D. I have no idea what I’m looking…
My First Tethered Capture
I finally had the perfect excuse to try out Lightroom’s Tethered Capture. I’ve been anxious to try this since neighbor Steve Fossum used this method to photograph yours truly. This extremely simple rig made shooting the chip much easier than ever before. The ability to view the images at high resolution on-screen as I shot…
Make it Stop Spinning!
Amazing. it never stops! Illusions like this make me question everything I see.
Oh, Yes I Did
I’ve really enjoyed my four-year-long love affair with the Nikon D3, and I have absolutely no regrets. She has served me well. I will always appreciate her superb build, her heft, her ability to see so much in so little light. I still love her and plan to keep her around – forever. But honestly,…
Buglady Logo
The original 2D artwork was created by Andrew, of course. I merely “pulled up a Z” and rendered it in Cinema4D.
thedude Meets The Man
I’m very lucky to be involved with the design and rendering of the 2012 Burning Man. I can’t show you the rest yet, but soon after this year’s Man burns, I’ll share more.
Another PGM Rendering
Most of you have noticed that I haven’t been posting a lot lately. The main reason for this is that I am so busy at work. When I’m not tending to IT tasks, I use every spare cycle rendering one thing or another. I really love doing this work, but it consumes a lot of…
An Exciting New Direction
After ten great years at Affymetrix, thedude is moving on to what will hopefully prove to be greener pastures.
Scanning — Again
Yes, Kelly found a stack of old negatives, and I’m back at it. These days, I basically have the scanner running whenever I’m at the computer. I load up the negative carrier, preview scan a bunch of images, and final scan the best ones. The process is time-consuming, but my new computer is fast enough…
UNIX Time Milestone
Were you there? Did you feel it? Did your Geekometer spike at 11? Mine did. From Wikipedia: On Friday, February 13, 2009 at exactly 23:31:30 (UTC), Unix time will equal ‘1234567890’. Parties and other celebrations are planned around the world among various technical subcultures, to celebrate 1234567890 day. Find a party in your neighborhood. We’ll…
Affymetrix Rolls Out New Web Site!
The official launch date is Monday, but lucky readers of thedude.com can take a look at the new site deign now. It’s a huge improvement over the old site, both aesthetically and performance-wise. I’m very proud to have been a part of this effort. Yay!
iTunes Genius Is… Well… Genius!
iTunes is one of the main reasons I have not switched to a Mac. I really do not like it. All I want is a simple music player, and iTunes definitely does not fit into that category. And iTunes has some of the worst UI design flaws ever. (Don’t even get me started.) Well, the…
Running Vista and Loving It
Like many of you, I have been putting off upgrading to Vista for years due to its less-than-stellar reputation. Well, my ancient Windows XP install was seriously busted, so I finally took the plunge, and guess what. I love it. I was able to get everything I absolutely need up and running in about three…
Magic Camera + ImageMagick
We’ve been spending a lot of time with our neighbors Jack Tres and Olive lately. That’s a good thing. I shot this picture at Flora on Thursday night. The light was provided by a single candle on the table in front of Tres. I used my old manual-focus f1.4 Nikkor wide open, at 1/15th of…
Best Pano Viewer Yet!
When I first used this plugin over at xRez, I was completely blown away. HDView is a must-have plugin! Get it now! Then, click on this link to get a taste of what’s to come. Amazing!!! So much to be excited about!
GigaPan Browser Embedded in a Blog Post!
It turns out it’s easy to embed a GigaPan Panorama on a web page. Hopefully, this will get more of you to check it out. Be sure to drag the the zoom slider on the left. Or, double-click on a region to zoom in on it. Looks like I have a white-balance problem in this…
First GigaPan Panorama!
My apologies to those of you who have seen pictures shot from the roof before, but this one is different. What makes this first pano interesting is that I broke all the rules when I made it. I used a very modest camera, and shot in fully-automatic mode. I set the Gigapan rig on a…
Hot Fun Actions
I use a PhotoShop Action to prepare images for my blog. My “Blogerize” action scales images for the site in steps while applying a bit of smart sharpening along the way. The action also converts the images to the appropriate color depth and color space. Since I need to do these things for every image…
The Best Wine We’ve Ever Tasted
Last night was our 6th wedding anniversary. To celebrate, I made my soon-to-be-famous skirt steak for dinner with our best friends – Chris and Ben. We opened a 1994 Coppola zinfandel with dinner, which turned out to be outstanding. (Thanks, Dave and Sonja!) But the real treat was the sensational dessert wine Chris was kind…
iBliss
Last weekend we upgraded Kelly’s computer from a Mac Mini to a fabulous 24″ iMac. I knew there’d be a difference, but this new machine is absolutely fabulous. It’s easily my favorite computer of all time. Sleek, sexy, quiet and FAST. I like the machine so much that I decided to set up the Mac…
Dude Radio?
First of all, let me state up front that Kelly is my best wife – ever. There is no second place. She totally rocks. This week she granted me 77 hours of bird-less bliss. (Thank you Darling. The kindness of boarding your four sometimes lovable, but often totally annoying critters has not gone unnoticed. It…
One More Book Under the Wire
This weekend is your last chance to get 50% off on $100 or more worth of books at MyPublisher. I made one more quick book this morning and ordered 12 copies for 75 bucks with shipping. You really should try it. It’s fun! There is no cheaper way to see a bunch of your favorite…
Everything in a Single File!
Just a quick note to ask you all to take a look at Tiddlywiki. I’m busy working on images for two other blog entries, but I just could not wait to tell you about this. When you view the TiddlyWiki site, bear in mind that you are viewing a single file. A rather small file,…
New and Improved!
MyPublisher released a new version of their cool book-making software. The new version has a few key enhancements. First of all, BookMaker 2.0 looks much more like a book. You now also have the ability to print pages with black backgrounds. YAY! There are other new features, but these two alone make the upgrade worthwhile….
Musical Keywords
The best thing ever to happen to computers is Adobe PhotoShop. Ask anyone who uses it every day. It’s mind-boggling. The second best thing is Winamp. Instant access to my vast music collection is a godsend. Winamp was such a breakthrough when I first saw it that I immediately sent my ten bucks to Justin…
Pano Tools and PT Assembler
You know I love panoramic photography. I’m always looking for tools to help me improve my results. Some months ago I downloaded Pano Tools and Pano Tools Assembler, but never found the time to try them out – until today. After my first hour with Pano Tools, all I can say is, “W-W-W-WOW!” There are…
Carnaval 2006
I can’t believe that a whole year has passed since the last Carnaval Parade in San Francisco. This year’s event must have been the largest ever. The parade lasted nearly four hours. I had planned to put a few shots up and link the rest into some sort of photo album, but after looking at…