Thoughts and Events

A frequency counter

2012-01-29T05:28:00.000-08:00

Here is my breadboard of a cheap frequency counter. It is based on the MC14553 counter. The idea is to make the counter count the number of pulses in exactly one second, and display the number on a seven-segment display. This number would then be the frequency in Hz. The counter counts to 999, so I added another counter, which is fed with the overflow output of the first counter. This arrangement extends the measurement to 999999 which is 1 MHz minus one. Then I decided to extend the range to 10 MHz by including a divide by 10 chip (CD4017), and with that arrangement the range now goes up to 10 MHz minus one. Here is a picture of the breadboard reading accurately the output from a DDS synthesizer. It works great and is small enough to be integrated in a little nice enclosure.

Another chip used in the circuit is a CD4521 (24 stage frequency divider) which is driven by a 4.194304 MHz crystal to generate the 1 second timing signal. Actually it generates a 0.5 Hz signal to obtain a 1 second high level and 1 second low level. The frequency measurement is made during the 1 second high level. The 0.5 Hz signal is obtained by dividing the frequency of the crystal by half 23 times.
Another part of the circuit is the wave shaping circuit which amplifies any incoming signal to be measured , turns it into a nice square wave suitable to trigger the counter IC. The wave shaping circuit is implemented with a 2N2222 transistor single stage amplifier, which drives a CD4093 NAND Schmitt trigger IC, which in turn generates the neat square pulses that are suitable to be counted by the MC14553 counter chip.
Last but not least, the measured count is displayed with two 3-digit seven-segment displays that are driven by two HCF4511 decoder chips, one for each.
You can watch the operation of the counter breadboard on this YouTube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga8Sk-csiKM

Waterloo Waterloo

2011-06-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

I always wanted to bike in the Waterloo trail, and last Saturday this wish came true. We had to go there for a conference, so I carried my bike with me and I set out on the Evansdale trail heading south to LaPoint as I wanted to do. But for some reason I could not easily find the trail heading south, so I headed north instead which took me to downtown Waterloo, where I took this picture you see here. Unfortunately I had a little accident on my way back. Here is how it happened: There was a rope hanging low between two far apart trees. The first time I passed I saw it clearly, so I ducked my head and I went by without any problem. But on my way back I did not see it, and you can guess what happened. Well, since I did not see it, I did not duck this time, and therefore it got caught on my neck, just above my throat. It took me a few seconds before I realized I was being chocked, and soon after I made that realization I held the rope with both hands to ease the pressure on my neck, or my throat rather. Obviously having let go of the bike handle, the bike ran freely from under me, and I found myself hitting the ground with full force on my back, while the back of my head banged the ground and then bounced back up. I am glad I was wearing my helmet because that absorbed most of the impact and saved my head from serious injury. Fortunately the ground was grass and not hard asphalt which also helped saving me. Right after the fall I waited a couple of seconds to see if I was going to faint or if any organ in my body hurt badly, but luckily I felt OK and I was able to get up quickly. I tested my memory and my sense of consciousness and I found myself awake and sound, so I continued biking back to where I left the car and went home.
Other than at little mishap the ride was fun and the scenes were good.
I must be careful when biking in unknown territory again, for I won't always get this lucky.
Man how fragile the human being is.

Biking to Ely

2011-05-31T15:55:00.000-07:00

- She can't sink!
- She's made of iron sir, I assure you she can sink and she will.
"The Titanic."
I remembered this conversation from the movie while I was biking to Ely, which is about 15 miles from where I live. The weather was cool but humid, and sunny. I didn't feel thirsty, and I thought I couldn't get dehydrated in that weather. But I assure you if you don't drink, even if you don't feel thirsty, you will get dehydrated. You don't feel thirsty because of the humidity, but in fact your body loses lot of water and minerals, which must be replenished or else. So, remembering the Titanic, I drank water, and lots of it, and good thing I did because I was really thirsty although I didn't feel it.
Anyway, it was the first time in the season I go out biking, and it was nice. It took about 3 hours both ways, and was worth it. The picture was taken just before I reached Ely, near the Wright Borthers highway which leads to the Eastern Iowa airport.

The A Mountain

2011-04-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Nothing is better than hiking up a mountain trail when the weather is fine. Not only one gets the benefit of exercise but also gets rewarded with a beautiful scenery during the endeavor. Here is the scene from the top of the A-mountain in Tempe Arizona. Seen in the picture high rise buildings from Arizona State University and other sights of Tempe. Isn't it beautiful? To match the occasion I am wearing the Sun Devil cap to go with the atmosphere. No its not mine. I borrowed it from my friend Rafique. You can't see it in the picture but the Sun Devil stadium is on the left side of this panorama. In the neighborhood also, albeit you can't see in this picture, is the Islamic Center of Tempe, a nice mosque that looks like the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
I have great memories in Tempe, and it will always keep a special place in my heart and mind as long as I live.

Hiking on White Mountain

2011-04-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

Phoenix, AZ in March is endowed with beautiful weather. The temperature is perfect and the atmosphere is dry. Hiking through the mountains trails is a great sport there, and that is exactly what we did, hiked through the South Mountain trails, and watched the wonderful scenes from the tops of each pinnacle we reached along the way.
It is a perfect setting for retirement and that explains the large number or older folks living there especially in the winter - they call them winter birds, because they flee their harsh winters where they come from such places as far north as Canada and spend a warm winter in houses they own or rent, and then flee the harsh summer back to where they came from.
Phoenix has a unique life, with its clean streets and nice looking Spanish houses. The desert looks wonderful with its Saguaro and Yucca plants, and many other cactus varieties that adorn the landscape. I just love it. Most people here are in great shape because of the lovely outdoors they enjoy, unlike cold places where people are shut up in their houses throughout the winter suffering from cabin fever. Each place has its unique beauty, and for Phoenix it is the desert landscape that highlights its glory, and for that reason I like it, during the winter or during the summer, and for its abundance of sunshine, 300 days each year.

With the Amish

2010-08-08T08:51:00.001-07:00

In Kalona, Iowa there reside the Amish, a community of people who live in Medieval conditions without electricity or cars or phones, or any of the modern aspects of life. They live like that by choice. They still use horse buggies to move around and to carry their heavy loads, and they use Medieval methods in agriculture without any machinery or electrical appliances. Their youth go to school, but it is a different kind of school, not the public type, and by the age of sixteen they are married and have children.
People from the city like to go there and spend a day buying form their organic produce and meats. Everything there is cheaper, but you have to pick the produce yourself and you can if you like slaughter your own cow or chickens or goats or lambs then let them clean and cut it for you. You can also get fresh milk and fruits. Everything from there tastes better because they don't use any pesticides or artificial fertilizers. Now that is real organic.

Stormy Weather

2010-06-26T17:29:00.000-07:00

The weather is Cedar Rapids these days is reminiscent of that of summer of 2008 when the city was flooded. It has been storming for several days now and the river level is rising again. Although no flooding occurred yet, but it is quite possible that it can happen. Today for example is hot and humid, and storms occurred last night and are possible again tonight. This makes it hard to do outdoors activities in the summer.
In addition to the lack of outdoors activities there is another problem with stormy weather here, and that is lack of sunshine. For several days the sun did not come through the thick dark clouds and when it came out like today it was so hot and humid that you wish it did not come out.
I should not complain because it could be much worse, but summer this year is surely not as nice as it was last year. So we will have to enjoy what we can and hope for the best.

Good Growth

2010-06-13T13:47:00.001-07:00

Compared to a couple of weeks ago the deck pot vegetables had a great growth as you can see when comparing this picture with the one taken last time. The tomato plant is incredibly growing and is almost a tree now. We are yet to see some tomatoes coming out of it. The peppers are also growing albeit not as incredibly as the tomatoes. Even the ones started from seed are doing great.
As for the beds you can see they have also doing very well. We have already cut parsley and spinach for our salads from them. Both parsley and spinach continue to produce like crazy especially the parsley. As for the radishes the leaves have been growing very well but the roots did not get a chance to develop far enough to produce the actual radishes. This is because the plants are so crowded. But that is fine, because the leaves are as good as the roots if not better. Actually they contain more vitamin C than the roots themselves. Also they taste as good. So we cut many of the leaves and already used them in salads. The remaining ones are less crowded now so they may have a chance to produce some radishes in the roots.
The cabbages are growing well and I expect to have some produce in the next couple of weeks or so. Same thing for the broccoli. After harvesting the remaining radish plants I intend to grow in their place some lettuces to make good green salads.
The tomatoes and the peppers are growing as good as the deck pot plants but not enough to produce any fruits yet.
The onions are not getting enough sun so I am not sure if they will ever develop. They might but it is taking longer than thought initially. That is why the best investment in this kind of garden would be in green vegetables that don't require lot of sun. This is a lesson learned so far.

Biking to Urbana

2010-05-31T05:50:00.000-07:00

Taking advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend I biked all the way to Urbana which is about 22 miles away. It is about 7 to eight miles away from Center Point which is the usual destination for me on my biking treks. This picture shows the street that leads to the town. Fortunately the weather was good and except for scorching sun the temperature was mild.
After Urbana there is Brandon which is another twelve or so miles further north.
The only section remaining on this trail that was not trekked by me is the part from Waterloo to Brandon, passing by La Porte. The total distance from home to Waterloo and back on the trail is about 112 miles, a little too much for a one day excursion. However, it might be possible as a one way endeavor, if I can be dropped off at Waterloo and bike back home, or park the car in Waterloo and bike to La Porte and back to Waterloo. Now that is manageable and it would be about the same as biking to Urbana from home, but the difference would be riding on a different section of the trail.

Harvesting Spinach

2010-05-31T05:43:00.001-07:00

A couple of days ago we had the first spinach harvest. This picture was taken just before the spinach was harvested. It needed to be washed but it had to be stored dry so that it wouldn't wilt. It was already consumed with green salad. The taste was fresh and fine, and it is enough to know that no pesticides were used in this crop. It is said that commercial spinach contains one of the highest pesticide contamination as it is subjected to many insects that eat the leaves. That might be true but we don't use any pesticides and merely clean the leaves by hand. Some leaves get eaten partially though by the insects, and that is fine, consider it a fee you have to pay to the environment to keep the cycle going and the earth green.

Vegetables in Pots II

2010-05-31T05:38:00.001-07:00

As you see the pot vegetables are doing great. The tomato plant that was started from a seed is actually doing better than the transplanted plant in the raised bed. This is due to amply sunshine on the deck as opposed to meager sun in the shady backyard. Notice also that the peppers are growing and there are new plants introduced.
We use organic Miracle Grow liquid to supplement the nutrition introduced to the plants and that also has a great effect on the growth rate taking place.

Vegetables in Pots

2010-05-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

Since the deck receives more sunshine than the actual garden, we are trying to grow some vegetables in pots as well. The pictures shows another tomato plant started from seed inside and then transplanted in the big black pot shown. We started also some peppers from seed directly in the pot as well as a transplant bought from the nursery, the latter is the rightmost pot in the picture. The pot to the left of the tomato plant is parsley started from seeds indoors and then transplanted into the pot

Vegetable Garden

2010-05-01T16:41:00.001-07:00

Many plants have been transplanted already into the two raised beds as shown in the picture. Some plants were started from seeds, like the radishes. The transplanted vegetables so far are: Tomatoes (various kinds), peppers (various kinds), red and white onions, red and green cabbages, broccoli, spinach, and parsley. Unfortunately there isn't enough sun throughout the day thanks to the many trees around the yard, and because of that not many plants can tolerate these conditions, so I am not sure which plants will thrive and which will not. The total amount of sun needs to be at least 6 hours per day, but due to the shades of the trees we would be lucky to have four hours of total sun during the day. Other seeds did not make it like the beans, cucumber and zucchini, so we disregarded those for now. Maybe it is still too cold for them. Some plants are harder to grow than others, so it was decided to start with whatever is easier for now.

Bike Trail

2010-04-21T19:53:00.001-07:00

It is spring again and it is time to bike along the trails wherever they exist. This is the Cedar Valley trail on the way to Center Point from Robin going north. The weather is still kind of cold but is fine for biking especially when it is sunny although windy conditions can feel much cooler than it really is. My typical trip is about 30 miles from home to Center Point and back. Sometimes I do less if it is not the weekend due to the time limit before sunset after work. It is excellent exercise and does not hurt the knees like running for example.

Colors of Spring

2010-04-18T06:31:00.001-07:00

After the long winter here in Iowa spring is no doubt welcome with its colors and mild cool mornings. Unlike places that have moderate weather throughout the year, Iowa has four distinct seasons, three of which are nice and one long cold winter. You might think of winter here as a useless dead time but that is not true, because one does not really appreciate spring without a cold winter. Once the snow thaws and the grass starts to turn green again, people here start cleaning the remnant brown leaves from last fall and make way for their wonderful perennial flowers to grow again. The picture here shows some tulips that grow every year. Once you plant a perennial it grows every year on its own. So we clean, mulch, and compost for the growing seasons of spring, summer and fall. We enjoy the outdoors, and work hard in our gardens, which makes it worthwhile after all this effort to rest in the winter and prepare for the next growing seasons. This is the life of the farmers in this area.

Raised Beds Project

2010-04-04T13:34:00.001-07:00

This summer we decided to grow some vegetables in the backyard. We chose the sunniest spot which happened to be in a badly sloped section so we could not just place the raised beds on the ground but had to create a terraced structure as seen in the picture. First of all we had to make the two frames which we constructed from cedar wood so that they wouldn't rotten. We used twelve 2"x6" pieces that were 8' long each. Four of them were cut in half to make the two 4'x8' beds shown. The pieces were nailed together at the corners using one foot pieces cut from an 8' long 4"x4" cedar lumber. That was the easy part. Next we had to lay the frames in place. The top one was easy to lay down because the ground there was more or less flat. We had to dig a little around the edges to put it in place as flat as possible. The second was much harder due to the large slope in the land. We chose bricks to raise the steep end in order to make the bed flat. It took 40 bricks and lot of digging in order to construct the wall that would carry one end of the bed. On the other side of it we also did some digging in order to lay the bed as flat as possible. In the end it was perfectly flat and level to our satisfaction.

Next we had to install hardware cloth at the bottom of the beds in order to prevent burrowing animals from eating our vegetables from under the ground. Many moles live in our area and if we don't take any measure to stop them from getting to the vegetables from underneath they will surely eat all the onions, turnips and carrots from down under. Laying the hardware cloth was not that difficult, but it took some time to make sure there were no gaps from where the moles could come through. The hardware cloth is shown in the picture before filling the beds with soil.
Filling the frames was the hardest part, even harder than laying the bricks. First we had to cover the ground with newspapers and cardboard so that all grass and weeds would die. Then we used the compost that we started last September to fill in the bottom of the beds as seen in the picture. The compost was not completely ready but it will get finished in the ground as time passes as long as it is topped with finished soil and/or compost. Then we topped off the unfinished compost with organic soil as shown in the last picture. The only thing remaining is possibly surrounding the frames with some chickenwire in case we see rabbits jump over to the beds to eat the cabbage and lettuce, but we won't bother with that yet.

The project just was concluded just in time before rain starts in the next few days. Now the two beds are ready to be planted with either seeds or transplants or both. Normally the time to start planting is late May to early June here in Iowa after all risk of frost is over, but there are some vegetables that can tolerate frost and can be started earlier in spring. We are thinking of planting the following vegetables: tomatoes, cucumber, beets, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, mustard, parsley, radish, spinach, turnips, beans, cauliflower, eggplant, onions, and peppers. We hope it will be a productive endeavor, and looking forward to some rewarding produce this summer.

A Walk by Lake Tahoe

2010-03-27T14:20:00.001-07:00

With the application RunKeeper running on my iPhone I took a walk along lake Tahoe, Nevada. The path of the walk is shown on the map as taken by the iPhone's GPS. I started from the point on the right and reached the extreme point on the left then went back. It was cold, around 32 F, but it was convenient for a brisk walk. The area is on the northern part of the lake near the border between Nevada and California. Actually the walk itself was in the California side. As usual the area was covered with snow, especially on the tops of the Sierra Nevada mountains, which means in Spanish the snowy mountains. The scenes in the area were spectacular. The picture shows a glimpse of the beauty in the area. People go there for skiing even in the spring, and of course boating, canoeing, kayaking and swimming. Swimming must be in the summer only.

Walking activities

2010-03-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

It is spring again and one of the ubiquitous activities in spring is walking. It is simple and does not cost anything. I ran across this great application for the iPhone that uses GPS to track your walking path and displays your speed, calories burnt and miles you walked. It is very useful. You can even add photos along the path you're walking across.

In this example I walked for about three miles at an average rate of 21 minutes per mile. The path itself is shown in the red meandering line.

Of course it is not a big deal when you just stroll locally around the house, but if you hike in an exotic place somewhere in the nation then it would really be priceless. But even for local strolls wouldn't you like to know your speed and how many calories you burnt? I would. I think it is one of the great applications of the iPhone.

Still Growing

2010-01-02T11:14:00.001-08:00

Well, the chives are doing very well and have been moved safely to a pot as seen in this picture. The Rosemary is growing too but the stem is weak and can't hold straight, so it was buried in more soil hoping that it will get more nutrition to grow healthier. However the Thyme has died completely and has not made it.
The only source of light for these plants so far has been florescent light. They would do better in real sunshine but there isn't enough of it in the winter and therefore they will have to remain in the basement under artificial lighting for a while.

Plants growing

2009-12-09T14:10:00.000-08:00

It has been three weeks so far and the plants are growing now under neon light in the basement. As you see the chives are doing better than the others. There seems to be one healthy rosemary plant on the right, and few small thyme ones in the middle. It is difficult to predict which one is going to make it and which is not.

Seeds Sprouting

2009-11-30T14:39:00.001-08:00

After a few days, the Thyme seeds started to sprout, so they had to be taken out of the greenhouse and put under sunlight to grow. The tiny leaves coming out of the seed are called cotyledons. Soon true leaves will emerge and then the plant will be ready for potting. Once the true leaves appear the plant will no longer have energy stored in the seed as it would all have been consumed by then. Plant food needs to be supplied at this point in the soil to support plant growth. Remember plants need food and light for photosynthesis.

New Seeds

2009-11-29T07:52:00.000-08:00

The picture you see is a small greenhouse that includes three sections of peat pots. The first section has Chives seeds in it, the second has Rosemary seeds, and the third has Thyme seeds. In about ten to twenty days the seeds should germinate and become ready to be moved to a sunny spot for growth. Since there isn't enough sun in the house, usually neon light is needed to accomplish sufficient growth before potting. The final pots should be large enough to enable the plants to flourish and flower. These are useful herbs that one can actually use in the kitchen, so hopefully they will grow as planned. Other herbs that are nice to have include Nasturtiums, oregano, Dills, and Basil. The nice thing about these herbs is that they are perennials, meaning they produce every year without the need to plant new seeds. Another nice thing about them is that they can be grown in pots if they are big enough. The main challenge is finding a sunny enough spot in the house, otherwise even the pots will need to be placed outside.

Midway to Black Gold

2009-10-18T11:57:00.001-07:00

After about three weeks from the start here is how the compost pile looks now. I think it will be ready after two weeks. The original pile has been continuously turned once every two or three days since the beginning. This is necessary to keep the reaction going and to aerate the pile. Also, the layers needed to stay wet, but not too wet. I had to add water every two or three days as needed. Notice that the pile is now less than half the volume of what it used to be three weeks ago, so I added more brown leaves and grass clippings to fill the bin again. That is OK because the first batch is going to be ready in a couple of weeks at the bottom while the new batch can continue to rot. The new pile can also be ready before winter, and if not then it will be ready in spring. The picture of the finished compost (humus) will be posted in a couple of weeks (hopefully).

Making Black Gold

2009-09-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

No I am not talking about petrol. If you live in Iowa then black gold refers to this dirt that you make by composting. Fall is the best time to compost. We gather the dead brown leaves and grass clippings from the backyard and we put them in the compost bin shown in the picture so that they rotten and become black gold. Black gold is the dark soil that results from this chemical reaction. It is very rich in nutrients for the plants and the lawn.
Be careful not to add weeds because they don't die, nor rotten. Add brown leaves, grass clippings, pieces of dead wood, straw, fruit and vegetable peelings from the kitchen, and even paper and card board. Don't add animal feces, meat, bones or grease. These cause bad smell and can attract flies and other bugs.
The chemical reaction that results from the wet compost causes the mix to heat up to 130 F and it starts to rotten making the black gold. To accelerate the process it is best to turn the mixture every two to three days and make sure it stays wet. When done properly the soil will be ready in one month typically.
It is a very simple process that not only provides precious nutrients for the garden plants and lawn, but also reduces waste going to the landfill and saves the environment.
I believe in recycling and keeping the environment clean, don't you?

More on Cedar Valley Nature Trail

2009-08-15T12:31:00.000-07:00

Since I recovered from my bike accident and I have been biking on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail almost daily. My accident caused me to become leery of trails in general, being afraid of having another mishap which would not be good especially at my age, you know too many concussions can lead to some serious head injury eventually. Anyway, I thought how could I protect myself better than I used to. Well how about wearing some protective eyewear so that you don't have to leave the handle bar each time a bug hits you in the eye ... or how about not braking suddenly while looking backwards, da! Well anyway, I got bored of treading the same section of the trail each time, which is from Hiawatha to Center Point (13 miles) . This time I decided to carry my bike in the car, and ride to Brandon so that I could bike from there to La Porte City, some 10 miles each way.
I carried my bike to Brandon, which took about 35 minutes driving on the highway. It took a few minutes to find the trail there, and then some more minutes to find a place to park the car, and off I went on my bike towards La Porte. I kind of lost direction and was not sure if I was going in the right direction or if I was going south to Urbana instead. My confusion did not last long because after about two miles along the road I found that the trail was closed in that direction, so I was forced to go to the other direction. Now the sun was in front of me which indicated I was going south to Urbana. That meant I was going to La Porte the first time. I did reach Urbana from Center Point before but never went past it, so it was still a new section of the trail for me to go from Brandon to Urbana (about 9 miles). The trail in that section was a little different from the sections I was used to. Here the trail is less trodden as evident from the heavy vegetation on it with two narrow paths on either side about the width of a mountain bike tire. It was kind of hard staying on that narrow path, and I was kind of afraid I might fall if I got out of the narrow path to the untrodden terrain. On one occasion I hit a deep hole that sent my bike and I flying high up, but fortunately nothing bad happened other than some rear ache due to impact with the saddle. After about four miles the trail turned into more familiar gravel path wide enough to make the ride easier and more comfortable. After a while I passed a bridge over a small river, then some open fields with cows grazing in them. I crossed some rural roads along the way to Urbana. I was making one mile about every five minutes. At Urbana I ate a small snack that I carried with me, then headed back. Overall the ride was nice and different than before. At least I tried a different section of the trail than what I used to before. Too bad I did not make it to la Porte, but riding between Brandon and Urbana was not bad at all.
I am looking forward to riding on the rest of the trail which is about 52 miles long, one section at a time.

Bike Accident

2009-07-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

It happened on the Cedar Valley trail last Sunday (July 5th). I remember biking all the way from home to Center Point (at 13 miles north of Hiawatha). I rested there and ate some dates and drank the water I had. I filled my bottle and used the restroom there and then went on my way back home. I remember all went well, and I must have reached the last three miles to Hiawatha, because that is where the dirt road turns into asphalt. Somewhere there I had a blackout, total blackout. I don't remember what happened after that. They told me at home that I rang the door bell, and my bike was there next to me. I told them I had an accident and that I needed to go to the hospital. I don't remember any of that, but they took me to the hospital and they did a cat scan on me and then did some stitching under my left eye, under my nose and lip. I also had a long gash in my leg that was stitched as well. They said after we came back home that I was awake and talking all the time, mainly asking the same questions over and over. I went to bed but they said I kept waking up and asking the same questions again, like: what kind of bike I have, is it a black Connandale? F9 series? They said yes, and I asked again: Did we just come back from vacation in Egypt? Yes. Where do I work? Who is my boss, etc.
My consciousness came back to me some time at night, as I woke up and went to the bathroom and noticed my messed up face in the mirror. I asked a few more questions and slept until the morning. I fully realized what happened in the morning. I sent email to my work telling them what happened and that I was not coming for at least a few days. I took my pain killers and then took a shower. I felt the Tetanus shot in my left shoulder hurting a bit, but the worst thing was the burning sensation in my left eye. The eye itself was not injured, but I had stitches above and below it, and the lid was kind of sagging. Other than that I felt OK.
I am still trying to remember what happened. They say I must have had the accident close to where I live, because it seemed that I walked back home. I don't think so. I think somebody gave me a ride. I vaguely remember as in a dream somebody asking about my ID and me telling them my address. I remembered my address, and I think whoever brought me home had a GPS and also a bike rack. They must have dropped me at home and left.
Where exactly I had the accident or what was the nature of it I have no idea. I don't remember at all. Did a car hit me? The bike has no sign of any dents or scratches, so that excludes the car accident theory. Did I sleep while I was riding my bike and I fell? Did I brake suddenly and flew off the bike? I can't just remember what happened at all. I vaguely remember me stopping to eat some berries along the way. Or as if I missed the berries tree and when I realized I passed by it I braked suddenly which caused me to fly off the bike. I think that is what happened.
I hope that my memory will come back to me so that I remember what happened exactly. I just need to know. It is a period of a few hours that are totally wiped out from my memory and I want that memory back. I want to know what happened. I am lucky that I did not have a more serious injury, thanks to wearing a helmet. Imagine what could have happened if I did not wear the helmet. Wow! Its feels like a dream, except that my messed up face is a cruel reminder that it all happened for real.

Improved Passport Photos

2009-05-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

As a follow up on my previous blog, I did some improvement on the technique I described of taking passport photos at home. There were two problems with the photos in the previous article. First the resolution was low, and second the background was not quite white due to shadow in the background. To fix the first problem, I made the following modification: Instead of scaling down the image as I described before, re-size the print size of the image. The new image print size should be reduced until the dimension from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head is about 1.05 inch. The rest of the steps are the same.
As for the background problem, make sure that the person stands about one to two foot away from the wall to avoid any shadows.
After the pictures are arranged on a 7x5 inch page, use the image adjustment tools to adjust the colors as needed. For example you can lighten the background to make it closer to white than the original photo by using the Curves tool.
The resulting photo should be much better than what I described before. Try it.

Passport Photos at Home

2009-04-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

You can take your own passport photos at home and print them at any photo print shop such as Walmart or Sam's Club. Refer to the photo guidelines in your country. In the US the passport photo needs to be 2"x2" with the face looking straight at the camera with a white background, and the distance between the chin and top of head needs to be between 1 to 1.3 inch. Here is how you can take your own passport photos at home:
First make the person stand in front of a white wall, and have two lamps shining at the face as shown in the picture below. Make sure that no shadows show on the white wall and that the lighting is adequate.

Then open the picture in a program like PhotoShop or the free Gimp software (www.gimp.com). In PhotoShop or Gimp measure the distance between the chin to the top of the head with the measuring tool. In my case the distance in inches was about 7". In order to scale this distance down to about 1.1" I scaled the image by a factor of about 1/7. The new scaled image in shown in the picture below. When I measured the distance between the chin to the top of the head I read about 1.1". Perfect!

Now select a window of exactly 2"x2" with the select tool as shown in the picture above, and copy into a new frame that has the dimensions 7"x5" which is the size of the picture you will print at the print shop. Make an array of that cropped photo in the 7"x5" frame as shown in the picture below.

Finally print that picture in a print shop such as Walmart or Sam's Club using a 7"x5" size prints and you will get four passport size photos in each print. The photo dimensions will be exactly 2"x2" and the distance between the chin to the top of the head will be about 1.1". All you have to do after that is cut the four photos in each print and there you have them, cheap and clean.

Mobility

2009-03-24T13:32:00.000-07:00

There was a time when high quality audio systems were big, I mean big in size: High power audio amplifier to reproduce the sound transients with high fidelity, large speakers with deep woofers to better generate the bass notes, an equalizer to compensate for any distorted frequency components, and of course a low noise receiver for high fidelity reception of the FM radio waves. The whole system occupied a good portion of any room and you had to strategically sit in front of the speakers to receive the best sound waves for a pleasant stereo experience. That was up to the late eighties maybe, but since then audio systems have been shrinking in size and quality. Today it seems that the speaker has disappeared altogether and is replaced by the earphones. A teenager nowadays would often share his/her earphone with a peer to listen to the same iPod, and what kind of sound quality would you expect with the earphone in one of your ears and the other half of it in someone else's ear? It seems that quality is no longer important, and has been replaced by style or trend, it has been replaced by mobility.
Same goes for high quality video, now replaced with mobile tiny screen devices, telephones replaced with cell phones, and nice desktop stations replaced with tiny little laptops. It is the age of mobility, the world has become a small village, and it does not matter where you are anymore, everything is mobile, and this is the trait of this century. Is this better than how things used to be? There is definitely an advantage of being mobile, but to lose quality for the sake of mobility seems to be a drawback. Don't you agree?

Automatic Blood Pressure Monitors

2009-02-22T13:30:00.001-08:00

You might have thought of owning one of those automatic blood pressure monitors to conveniently take readings of your blood pressure at home. It is nice to have such a device at home so that you don't have to wait till you see your doctor just to know what your blood pressure is. That is why I bought one of those small compact automatic monitors. The one I bought was a generic, relatively cheap monitor ($50 or so), and it is easy to use. Just wrap the cuff around your arm, press the button and it pumps air into the cuff and displays your diastolic and systolic pressures on the LCD screen.
I used my monitor for over a year and was happy to see my blood pressure close to 120/80. However, I was not sure how accurate those readings were, especially when I found discrepancies between the readings I got at home and readings I got elsewhere. I am not talking big discrepancies, only a few points. I wanted to know how accurate were the readings I took at home, because although I knew that blood pressure varied all over the place within minutes, I also knew that there was a big difference between 126/76 and say 134/84. All I wanted to know was the accuracy window of my monitor. I surfed the internet looking for how accurate those monitors were but I did not find the information I was looking for. I found warnings about the necessity of calibrating the monitor periodically to ensure accurate readings, but of course you couldn't calibrate it yourself, you had to send it to a special lab to do that for you, for a fee of course. I was frustrated about all this, and was coming to the conclusion that the only accurate blood pressure reading was the manual one where the nurse had to listen to the turbulence in your blood with a stethoscope while pumping air into the cuff.
Lately, I found a brand called Omron that had a reputation of being accurate, so I bought one the other day. The specifications sheet inside the box said it was calibrated to be accurate within 2% of the actual pressure. Now that was impressive. I tried it instantly, and I got a reading of 126/76 the first time I used it. Within minutes, I used my old generic monitor to compare the two, and I got a reading of 134/84. OK, so which one could I believe now. Then after a few more attempts, it occurred to me that in order to have a fair comparison I had to have the same position in both measurements. Reading the booklet that came with the Omron monitor it said to sit on a chair and lay your arm on a table so that it was about the same level as your heart, and to keep your feet flat on the floor. So I sat in that position and used my old monitor again. I got a reading of 127/76. Then I used the Omron monitor in that same setting and I got 126/76! Bingo! Almost exactly the same reading. I made two more measurements with each monitor in that position and I got similar readings again. I was thrilled. This meant that what was important was the position in which you measured your blood pressure not the monitor itself. It seemed that both monitors read the same pressure when the conditions were similar. To make sure that was the case I tried both monitors again the next morning, and again I got very similar readings. So I returned the new expensive Omron monitor and decided to continue using my old one. All I had to do was to make sure that each time I used it I sat in that position on the table, laying my arm at the same level as my heart, and keeping my feet flat on the floor. That position always gave a consistent accurate measurement of my blood pressure.
So now I know that I have a means of telling within reasonable accuracy what my blood pressure is at the convenience of my home.

Home Gym

2009-02-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

Here is my experience with home gym equipment. I don't have time to join a gym for regular exercise so I made my own home gym. I equipped my basement with free weights, which consist of a barbell and dumbells with 200 pounds of various size plates, together with a good bench. The bench is sturdy enough to take 300 pounds of weights and has multiple settings for flat, incline and decline positions. For cardio routines I bought a good quality treadmill and an elliptical machine that emulates staircase climbing but the foot actually never leaves the paddle to eliminate any impact on knees or ankle joints.
I have tried some supplements advertised in the market that promised more energy and fast recovery after intensive exercises. First I took Hydroxycut and then N.O. XPLODE, and have decided not to use them anymore because they were not as effective as adverstised and they had side effects. Main side effect for me was the caffeine (more than 200 mg in each serving). Another side effect was stomach cramps when doing situps. I also tried Creatine and found that it caused me bloating probably due to liquid retention in the body. So I stopped that too. The only thing I take now is whey protein only after the exercise. I haven't found any side effects for whey protein so far.
The best exercises I found are: squats, deadlifts and bench presses of various kinds. In addition to that I add some isolation routines like curls and leg extensions.
I also like pushups, situps and pullups. Pushups don't need any equipment, although I found that the so called "Perfect Pushups" help provide more challenging pushups than the bare ones.
The pullup door bar that is advertised in TV works great and can be found at Walmart for less than $30. It is great for the lats, chest and shoulders, as well as the abs.
Usually each exercise takes no more than 45 minutes, and when done every other day it provides a great means to stay active making up for the sedentary office daily rouitne.
In short, I don't need to waste time going to a gym when I can do fine at home. Of course this might not work for a professional bodybuilder, but it works fine for a family man with a busy schedule like me. Don't you agree?

Exploring the VHF Radio World

2008-12-27T06:59:00.000-08:00

Since heavy ice broke my HF antenna pole last year I have been without any HF communications, being too lazy to repair the pole or replace it. I never used the VHF bands before, so I thought now is a good time to experiment with those bands especially that it is easy to install a small indoor antenna to cover the two bands: 2 m (144 MHz) and 70 cm (430 MHz). The antenna cost about $30 and can be installed on the top of a car using a magnet base. For now I intend to use it indoor only. The gain and VSWR of the antenna are probably not that good but I am hoping that I can communicate using one of the nearby repeaters in the city, and for that I don't need a lot of power or antenna gain.
The main advantage of using VHF bands is the ability to experiment with digital communications, such as RTTY, slow scan TV and ARPS systems. Some amateurs also use VHF bands for moon and meteor scatter, but that is not one of my immediate interests now.
In order to utilize any of the digital modes a TNC (Terminal Node Controller) is needed, or at least that used to be the case. Now a sound card of a common personal computer can be used instead of the TNC to connect with the radio, together with some special software installed in the PC, and the PC itself can then be used to operate the radio in digital mode. Well, I got a collection of digital mode communications software recently and it is time now to use them in the VHF bands.
Before the internet and email, radio amateurs used the digital modes to send text messages just like email. Now of course email is much more efficient, except of course when there is no access to the internet.
In any case, pretty soon I should be able to use the VHF bands and report on my findings. Wish me luck.

Winter Workout

2008-12-14T10:25:00.000-08:00

The winter here in Iowa is cold and snowy, with winds that can exceed 30 mph at times making the temperature feels like below zero F. In a weather like this one cannot go out to do anything, let alone exercise. But how can one stay in shape in a winter like this? I don't know about you but with the kind of stress I have at work I need to exercise regularly or else I can't keep up with life's pressing demands. So I do weight training in the basement. I found out that it is the best kind of workout I can do to stay in shape. Not only it helps the muscles and ligaments stay strong and flexible but it also provides aerobic benefits as a bonus. I do run on the treadmill once in a while, but I found out that the weight training alone is sufficient. There are a few things to bear in mind while weight training to get good benefit and see positive results: First you must warm up a few minutes before you start the exercise. Second you must use enough weights to push your muscles to the point of near exhaustion. This means that you won't be able to make many repetitions. A set of three-eight or even six repetitions each is enough. You must increase the weighs when you feel that your muscles can do more. Usually 10% increase each time is adequate.
Third, you must rest one day after each workout to let the muscles recover. This is important because the soreness your muscles feel are the result of micro-tear in them, and it is important to have enough nutrition and rest to let the muscles repair themselves and grow.
Speaking of nutrition, you will need to eat healthy to help the muscles grow. This means you need balanced meals that contain enough protein, carbohydrates and fiber. Whey protein helps the muscles recover quickly and grow stronger, so I use it after each workout. At night, a glass of milk before you sleep is a good way of providing protein for the body to repair the muscles without causing digestion problems during sleep.
Usually you can see results within a month. The important thing is to stay consistent and continue to work out regularly, three times a week. Start with half an hour each time, and slowly increase the time and weights as best suits you.
I have seen impressive results (relatively speaking), and that encouraged me to continue, so I hope I won't stop ever.

Receive HD Channels without HDTV

2008-11-02T15:34:00.000-08:00

I have decided some time ago that I was not ready for a new HDTV yet. The JVC 37" analog TV we have works great and there was no reason to replace it now. So I bought an Insignia coverter box. It costs about $60, and with the government coupon of $40 I ended paying a net of $20. They sell other cheaper boxes but I was told this one provides a better picture, and as you will see below I was pleased with its picture quality.
Initially I thought I didn't need to hook up my new converter box before the transmission went digital next February, but then I found out that there were already some high definition channels out in the air begging for reception. This evening I connected the converter box to my TV and I was in for a pleasant surprise. The converter box found four channels that it received with the indoor antenna and the quality of the picture was excellent. If I wanted to switch back to the regular analog TV channels, all I had to do was to turn the converter box off. It was as simple as that.
Of course the digital TV would have better clarity because of its high definition capability, but I am quite pleased with the quality of the picture that I receive via the converter box. I am confident that within the next several months the price of high definition TVs is going to drop considerably and the quality will continue to improve as new technologies emerge, so in the meantime the converter box is an excellent interim solution. Wouldn't you agree?

Riding Green

2008-08-30T21:44:00.000-07:00

We have abused our environment for so long. Since the Industrial revolution the human race has been generating tons and tons of toxics in the air due to the proliferation of the internal combustion machine alone. It is time we start to think of using alternatives to the fossil fuel. I see electric cars as the green future for transportation. Until the batteries are efficient enough there will be hybrid cars in the interim. I think my next car is going to be a hybrid.
When I was in college I liked to use my bike all the time. I did not ride my car except when I had to go shopping or travel. The nice bike roads within the campus made it easy for students to use bikes for transportation, and the exercise was great. I wish we had dedicated bike roads everywhere because they encourage people to use their bikes to work and school. Not only would we be solving the pollution problem, but we would also be solving the obesity problem which plagues many of our people at this age.
The problem with using a bike to work is sweating of course. That is why people prefer riding a car or motorcycle to work instead of a bike. Taking a shower at work is an option but you will also have to take with you clothes to change. There is also the weather consideration, for sometimes it will rain or snow. So granted you can't use a bike to go places all the time, but you should be able to use it at least some of the time, and that alone is guaranteed to improve the air quality considerably.
The solution to the pollution problem is in our hands. It takes simple measures to improve our air quality without much hassle, like riding bikes instead of cars, and it is good for our health too, so why don't we do it?

Inversion Therapy

2008-07-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

If you ever suffered from lower back pain as I did then you should be familiar with the inconvenience that back problems cause. Fifteen years ago I tried to lift a very heavy slab of cement and a few days later I experienced severe lower back pain that lasted for over a month. I went to the doctor, took x-rays, and found out that the disk between the last two vertebrae was compressed, but nothing unusual. There was no herniated disk or anything like that, and the pain did not shoot down my leg as sciatica patients suffer from. As a cure, I had to lay on my back for extended periods of time, or walk around. Standing or sitting were bad. The pain eventually disappeared, but not completely. I continue to have recurrences of pain now and then which usually come unannounced and without any apparant reason I could notice.
I made my first visit to a chiropractor a few months later and took another set of x-rays. I started physical therapy sessions, three times a week. The chiropractor used a special table that had a shape of an inverted V with a hinge in the middle. I would lie my stomach on the table and he would tie my ankles at one end and my wrists at the other end, then he would start a machine that caused the table to open and close, thereby stretching my spine each time it closed. He pressed the lower vertebrae with his fingers while the table was opening and closing, and man that felt so good. I could feel instant relief in my lower back each time I used that table.
Of course the chiropractor expected me to continue with these sessions indefinitely, just like the regular dental checkups, but for me the cost of those sessions was prohibitive.
With time I got used to living with sporadic backache that would appear suddenly every now and then without a notice, but I kept looking for the ultimate cure. During my quest, I discovered Aspecreme which relieved the pain as it acted as localized aspirin. I also discovered that stretching helped a lot, especially touching my toes with my palms while keeping my knees straight. I learned a few other exercises that helped some. But recently I found the ultimate solution that is better than anything else I knew before: The inversion table! This table allows you to hang from your ankles upside down, relieving the pain off your back instantly, while stretching your compressed vertebrae effectively and without the need of a chiropractor - see the picture. I bought a high quality table that can lock at different angles instead of just the upside position, and it works great. I immediately felt the relief in my back. Kudos to the inventor of this table. I wonder how the chiropractors never told me about this machine. I heard chiropractors and health physicians don't really believe that the inversion therapy is effective at all, which is quite surprising to me, because I tried it myself and I know it is effective, but come to think of it, if all their patients used that machine then they would have no business at all. Now that incentive enough for them to reject it.
Well I tried it and I liked it, and I know I will continue to use it. It is easy to use, convenient and does not cost anything except for the initial investment of its price. I had to start with low inclination angles and gradually increase the angle because the first time I tried it I went quickly all the way upside down and I felt dizzy afterwards. Beware that with the upside position the pressure inside your head rises very quickly to high levels. You have to train your head to take it step by step, until eventually you get used to gravity reversal. Other than that, I think this inversion table is the best cure for backaches, and should be considered first before any other measures are taken. I know it works because I used it. So go ahead and try it and let me know what you think.

Biking Along Cedar Nature Trail

2008-07-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

The Cedar Nature Trail is about a 55 miles long crushed-stone road that used to be a railway between Cedar Rapids and Waterloo up in north Eastern Iowa. I biked along that trail before to the end of its south side in Cedar Rapids, which is about 12 miles of hard asphalt each way (see the picture) from where I live. I also biked along the other side of the trail before (that is mostly crushed-stone), but never exceeded about 10 miles each way. Today I decided to bike towards Waterloo and reach Center Point which is about 15 miles from Cedar Rapids. I had an oatmeal breakfast sprinkled with some whey protein and mixed with molasses, then I took with me some water and I started at 9 am. The weather was hot and humid so I am glad I took water with me. I kept paddling, while listening to my iPod, and I made it all the way to Center Point, which happened to be at the 13th mile point, and I went on, to the 15th mile point, which happened to be at Urbana. At that point I decided to go back.
On the way back I stopped at Center Point where there was a museum. The museum was not open yet (it opens from 1 to 4 pm on Sunday), but it had restrooms and a water fountain which I didn't need neither. I drank some of the water I brought with me and stretched a little before I mounted my bike again and started heading back. When I reached the 10 mile point I started to feel tired and dehydrated. I realized that water alone was not going to be enough and that I needed to replenish the lost minerals from my body somehow. Unfortunately I did not bring with me any food nor Getorade, so I started looking for berry trees that I remembered seeing along the way. I found a black berry tree at the 8th mile point, so I immediately dismounted my bike and started picking the ripe delicious berries. There weren't many ripe berries on the tree so I ate also some unripe ones, a total of about 20 or so berries. I felt their reviving effect immediately on my body, and I was ready to continue paddling back home.
I stopped again at the 3rd mile point to drink the rest of the water I carried and then continued. The last 400 yards or so to my home were the most difficult because they were uphill, but I made it fine albeit I became quite tired. The whole trip took me about 4 and half hours, arriving at about 1:30 pm.
When I arrived home I drank some orange juice and then took a shower. After that I had lunch and felt much better. I slept for a couple of hours after lunch, then had to drink black coffee to get up and write these words.
I think one of these days I am going to try biking all the way to Waterloo. Granted that kind of trip will need proper supply of food and drink, and a companion or two, but I believe I can do it if I spend the night in Waterloo to come back the next day. It is good to challenge one's self every now and then to break normal routine ... what do you think?

No Urgency for HDTV

2008-07-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

It is true that analog TV is going to go away in February 2009 as all broadcasting will be digital by then, at least in the United States. But does this mean everybody should toss away their analog TV sets and buy new High Definition TV's (HDTV)? Not at all! You will still be able to receive the digital transmission using a converter that you could get from Best Buy or Walmart for about $50 to $60, and with the government giving away coupons for $40 towards that purchase, you could get that converter for as little as $10. So you can still get mileage out of your analog TV investment at least until the unit dies beyond repair. I can see myself continue to use my good old 36" JVC TV for years to come. It has a crisp and nice colored picture which, granted, not as nice as the high definition LCD or plasma new sets, but considering that a new such set would cost north of $1000, I think it is worthwhile keeping the old set. Besides, I enjoy videotaping programs from satellite using my good old VCR set. I also have a DVD player which works well with my old TV set, on which I can watch DVD's as well as my personal camera family videos. I was told that the old VCR would work fine with the HDTV, and the new Blu Ray DVD player could upconvert regular DVD's for display on the HDTV set. However, we have already seen the high def DVD lose the war to Blu Ray, and it might take some time for these standards to become fixed, so I don't see this HDTV technology as an exigency at this time nor do I see any value added beyond the higher quality picture itself. Maybe it is nostalgia, or resistance to change, but I am really reluctant to change a system that has served me well for many years to a new system that neither solves a known problem nor adds any extra value, save for better picture quality. It is just aesthetics at this point, which for some people might be worth the new investment, but for hardcore engineers like myself, it is not a good enough reason to switch immediately. The bottom line is there is no urgency in switching to HDTV. I would take my time and waiteth, for all good things happen to those who waiteth, like prices dropping down, standards stabilizing, and new technologies emerging. What do you thnk?

Finding the T-5 Bird

2008-07-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

I spent quite some time in the past couple of weeks trying to point my dish antenna to the Ku-band T-5 satellite, a task that should have been relatively easy but unfortunately turned out to be a little more involved than I anticipated. I used to blithely receive all the FTA (Free-to-Air) channels on that satellite before, but then strong wind moved the dish beyond the point of return and I lost the satellite for a year or so; I could not manually point it back to receive any signal no matter how hard I tried.
Recently I decided to get those channels back, so the first thing I did was to cement the pole in the ground to prevent strong Iowa gales from moving it again, which was the easy part. My weekend before last was lost trying to get a signal from the LNB to the receiver by pointing the dish to the coordinates of the T-5 satellite (that I got from the internet). To my dismay, and relief at the same time, I realized after all this effort that the LNB seal was broken and rain water actually filled the inside of the box making it a useless peace of junk (which explained why I was picking an erratic signal wherever I pointed the dish)! So I ordered a new LNB from eBay for about $12 including shipping and handling. When the LNB arrived, I thought that I would find the T-5 signal in a jeffy, but I was wrong again. Although I could get the signal level indicator bar to above 75%, the signal quality bar read 0 (nil, zilch, nothing). Finally I found out that the new LNB setting in the receiver menu had to be set to Universal 1 (not Standard, and not Universal 2), and only then I was able to get a signal quality of 50% or so. I tweaked the elevation to maximize the signal quality and also skewed the LNB to about 6 degrees clockwise and I ended up with a signal quality of about 60%. With that kind of signal quality I was able to receive all the FTA channels again.
Now as we enjoy watching all those international free channels in crystal clear quality I think to myself: this was all worth my effort. What do you think?

Everyone has a Cell Phone

2008-06-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that cell phones are becoming more ubiquitous than any other thing ever invented in human history. More than the car, the laptop, and the PDA. Let's face it, the PDA now is embedded inside the phone. Very few people, like myself, still use standalone PDA's. I don't have a cell phone, because I thought I did not need one. But I need a PDA to organize my contacts, databases, programs etc. However, I am starting to think this is outdated ... the Emperor isn't wearing clothes for Heaven's sake! Why not just go and get a cell phone that has computer power like the iPhone, the Palm Centro or even a Kyocera. Any one of these new phones has enough brains in it to do the PDA fnuctions and more. Besides, who said I don't need a cell phone. Well I do. How many times I needed to make a quick phone call to find out where my wife or children were inside the mall, and could not find a pay phone. It seems that pay phones have become antiquated already.
I know what I am going to do, I will get me a cell phone, and pretty soon I will buy also a HDTV since all TV transmission is going to be digital starting February 2009 anyway. I am sad to say that I will have to abandon my current PDA pretty soon, although it and its predecessors served me so well for over five years. Rate of technology change these days is about two years average. So you have to change gadgets that fast if you want to stay current. I don't know about you, but this is too fast for me. I like to stick to my gadgets longer than that, at least five years or so. How about you?

Global Positioning and Tracking

2008-01-30T06:28:00.000-08:00

It is amazing how the GPS receiver changed the way we use maps. Since I got my Garmin nuvi 660 GPS receiver I stopped generating paper maps whenever I travel to a new place. I just take my nuvi with me and it does the job showing me how to find the address I need, as well as nearby gas stations, restaurants, shops, airports, and anything I need. In addition, it shows me the direction I am moving in, my speed and a moving map that tracks my position at all times within 2 meters accuracy. Just amazing!
Recently I found a free Palm PDA application called cotoGPS that allows a Bluetooth enabled PDA to interface with any Bluetooth enabled GPS receiver to get the NMEA (National Marine Electronic Association) data from it and process them to provide additional information such as satellite positions, area, tracking paths, speed and direction and a whole new set of other information that is displayed nicely on the PDA small screen.
Come to think of it, with the 24 medium range satellites circumventing the earth and providing the position information to GPS receivers on earth, there must be infinite possibilities for what you can do with that kind of information. Google Earth is one of these applications. Not only can you find any place on earth with Google Earth, but now you can also track paths on real images taken from satellites simply by using a GPS receiver that interfaces with Google Earth.
I am thinking what's next? The earth has become such a small village now with the advent of the Internet and GPS. Is the earth going to continue to shrink in size indefinitely? There must be a stopping mechanism that will limit this trend, don't you think?

The Future of Palm PDA

2007-09-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

How time flies when it comes to technology! A few years ago the Palm PDA was a big hit. Sales were soaring and work groups were thriving discussing various ways to make new exciting applications that made our life easier. It seems that all this came to a dead end suddenly as innovation stopped and the future of the famous Palm PDA became doomed. I don't see the conventional PDA device surviving side by side to the more powerful iPhone and other PDA/phone devices. The iPhone does not need a stylus, and has similar capabilities to a MAC laptop in addition to a phone function. I am afraid to say that the conventional PDA has become obsolete. It is sad because I liked this invention so much, the Palm PDA that is, but that is the pace of technology which makes any stagnant idea obsolete in a matter of a few years. Palm needed the visionary thinking of Steve Jobs, but instead they ran out of innovation, and that made the end loom so near. I will probably still use my Palm PDA for another year or two, but sooner or later I feel that I will be switching to an iPhone, or whatever new gadget Steve Jobs is going to come up with next. Change is the only constant in life, and this is becoming more and more demonstrated with the advancement of technology. We have to continue adapting and buying new gadgets on almost a yearly basis now. How far is this going to continue? Are we going to adapt to technology on a monthly basis soon? Then on a weekly basis? Then what? There must be a self-limiting mechanism that will kick in to stop this madness. I just wonder when and how. What do you think?

RAW or JPEG Photo Format?

2007-08-29T12:58:00.000-07:00

I have been using the RAW format for all the photos that I take with my Canon DSLR camera lately, until I found out that it was a big pain to convert large number of them later on to JPEG that is necessary to share with others. The converted files are in the order of 10 MB each. If I use JPEG format at the time I shoot the pictures then each picture comes to about 2.5 MB. So what am I really gaining from shooting in RAW format? It is supposed to give me maximum flexibility in editing with software like Photoshop, and it has the highest clarity and minimum processing leading to least artifacts possible. However, after weighing the advantages versus the combersome conversion to JPEG eventually I decided that it is not worth shooting in RAW format except for special purposes. Image editing software like Photoshop or GIMP can still process JPEG photos with as much flexibility as for RAW photos, and the end result is almost identical between the two formats for the naked eye.
Recently I visited Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada, and I took this photo from my hotel room which had full view of the Falls. The original picture was shot in RAW format and was converted later to JPEG without any editing of the RAW picture. This picture was the pick of the day on the accuweather website at http://www.photo.accuweather.com.
Well, the fact that I did not need to alter or edit the original RAW photo shows that it was not necessary for me to shoot RAW in the first place. Of course this is not always the case, but as I mentioned one can still edit JPEG photos as easily and the end result is more or less the same.
So I'd say forget RAW for regular everyday shooting. Wouldn't you agree with me?

Photo Comparison

2007-06-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

I promised to show photos showing a comparison between different camera technologies. In the following are two photos of the Grand Canyon taken by two different digital cameras: An HP 3 Mega pixel camera, and an Olympus C7000 camera with 7.1 Mega pixel resolution.

The first photo is that taken by the HP PhotoSmart camera and its original size is 446 KB. The camera settings were as follows: Focal length 5.9 mm, shutter speed 1/111.1 sec, aperture f 9.8, and exposure compensation was 0.0EV. The second photo is that from the Olympus C7000 camera and had an original size of 390 KB. The camera settings were: Focal length 7.9 mm, shutter speed 1/500 sec, aperture f 7.1, exposure compensation -0.7EV, and ISO sensitivity 100.
Obviously the two shots are not the same but they were taken under similar conditions four years apart. No adjustments were possible with the HP camera as it was a simple point and shoot camera, but the Olympus shot was taken with Shutter priority setting with the above settings. The focus in both shots was automatic, although it is possible to adjust the focus manually with the Olympus camera.
Which photo looks better? It seems to me that the first picture was sharper and had fuller colors than the second one. I don't know about you but I think that the older and simpler HP camera takes better pictures than the more advanced Olympus one. What do you think?

Digital Cameras

2007-06-24T10:29:00.001-07:00

I remember the days when I had my old Pentax 35 mm SLR camera in the seventies. I always admired the Canon and the Nikon lenses long before digital photography emerged. I bought a Nikon camera in the mid eighties although I could not afford a good Nikon lens at the time, and I had to settle for a zoom Nikkor lens. I was able to take decent pictures with that camera although I always aspired for better quality photos, mainly more sharpness and richer colors.
Then came digital cameras that changed photography forever. No more you need to wait till you develop your film to see the results, and you can shoot as many photos as you like as long as you have enough juice in your battery. My first digital camera was an HP 3Mega pixel one that I bought in 1997. That one was a simple point and shoot camera that did not have any manual adjustments. It served me well until finally it stopped working in the summer of 2004 when it got wet from rain. Then I bought an Olympus C7000 with 7Mega pixel resolution. That latter camera had all the features that I had in my old Pentax and Nikon cameras. I could choose Automatic, Aperture priority, Speed priority or Manual settings, and I could switch the ISO from 80 all the way to 400 which is equivalent to the ASA settings of the old film cameras. It had a zoom lens that covered wide angle to x4 magnification, and software that made it possible to edit and even stitch photos to make wide angle panoramas. It was quite impressive for its price of $260 (refurbished). The picture quality from that last camera was not bad at all but still the pictures were not as sharp as I wanted them to be and the colors were not rich enough for me. I wanted a real SLR camera that I could use with different lenses, and at the same time make use of all the advantages of the digital technology, like Canon Rebel or Nikon D40 or D80 etc. These cameras are entry level professional grade that allow you to use many lenses just like the old professional film cameras. The Canon Rebel D400 (XTi) and Nikon D80 have resolution of 10.1 Mega pixel and all the features of the film SLR cameras, and most importantly they have a great selection of lenses from wide angle to telephoto and in between.
In particular I am fascinated with the Canon technology and lenses. I admire the Canon L series lenses and would love to own them if I could afford them. But until then I find the prime 50 mm f 1.8 lens, which has a price tag of less than $100, to be an excellent lens. It captures spectacular sharp images with magnificent color and detail. Even the 18-55 mm lens that comes with the Rebel XTi camera kit is good enough if you know its limitations, mainly avoid small f numbers and use at f 11 and higher for wide angle. The price tag for a good new digital SLR camera such as Canon Rebel XTi or Nikon D80 is about $750 without the lens. You could go cheaper with Olympus or other brands but if you are going to spend that kind of money then it is worth it to get the best, because it makes a big difference in the image quality that you will get.
So finally I decided to own the Canon Rebel XTi camera with the 18-55 mm lens that comes with it. I bought it refurbished for $750 which included the lens, an extra battery and a 4 GB memory card. In addition to that I bought a brand new Canon 50 mm f 1.8 lens for about $90, and a new 75-300 mm Canon lens for about $130. The latter lens is not the USM type (Ultra Sonic Motor automatic focus), but has the older DC motor drive. The optics is the same but the USM provides quieter and faster focusing. I think with this gear I am ready to take professional grade photos that I always aspired to. I haven't started yet because the camera and lenses won't be delivered to my house till next Monday, but I am quite excited to try this latest digital camera technology and optics. I intend to show some results in my next posting, so stay tuned ...

The iPod Phone

2007-01-21T10:37:00.000-08:00

Just as I predicted before, it was inevitable that the iPod was going to be integrated with a phone in one device. The new device is relatively big, expensive, and limited to 8 Mb memory. With time, however, the size will shrink and the price will come down and the memory will reach 30 G and beyond.
I recently replaced my old T3 Palm PDA with a new Palm TX device, which has WiFi and Bluetooth. Now I can surf the internet with my new Palm, which is a big plus, but I lost some functionality as compared to the old T3 device. The Palm TX has smaller dynamic memory, which I don't understand why. Due to this limitation in dynamic memory, I can't run some of the older applications that used to run fine with the T3 PDA, such as PalmPDF reader and ABC-Morse. The PalmPDF reader fails to open big PDF documents, which makes it useless on the new PDA, while the ABC-Morse application cannot sound the Morse characters smoothly anymore, probably due to this limitation in dynamic memory. Merely adding WiFi function into the PDA made me lose other PDA functions that ran fine on the old PDA. This is exactly what I was afraid of when they integrate more functions into the old plain vanilla PDA , such as phone or WiFi.
Now I wonder what will we lose in the iPod phone besides memory. Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting they stop the integration effort, because eventually it will work right. All what I am saying is that there is a price for this integration. I could be nostalgic defending the way things used to be, but right now a plain PDA still works better than a PDA than a phone PDA, and a plain iPod is most likely going to work better than a phone iPod. This might change in the future, but until then I will continue to be nostalgic. What do you think?

Amateur Radio and Morse

2006-12-24T05:57:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago, the Federal Commnications Commission (FCC) decided to cancel the requirement to pass a morse code test for the General or Extra license in Amateur Radio. This happened just after I passed my morse code test in November to get the Extra Amateur license. O well, I still think that it was worth it to go through the test because I had to practice the code, and there is nothing like a test to make you study.
I believe that morse code is still important and fun to work with, although many radio amateurs hardly use it in the age of the internet and digital communications. Morse code, however, is becoming more as a nostalgia commodity now than a necessity. Let's face it, nobody really needs to use morse code anymore when they can use voice or digital messaging. Still I believe there are situations when the only available means of communications is morse code. An example is moon bouncing of signals that are too weak and distorted to be intelligible as voice, but can be copied fine as morse code. Another example was an emergency situation when a person was too weak to speak but was able to transmit morse code signals until help arrived. So it seems that morse will still be alive and kicking in the foreseeable future.
I am kind of sorry that the FCC canceled the test to qualify for the more advanced licenses, but in the end those who want to use morse code will still do, because after all they are amateurs, and amateurs do things because they love to do them, not because they have to. What do you think?

PDA versus iPod

2006-11-17T14:43:00.000-08:00

I currently use a Tungsten T3 PDA with Palm OS5 operating system that has been serving me very well for the last two years. Prior to that I used a Sony Clie T655 PDA with Palm OS4 operating system which also served me very well for another two years, and since then I must admit that I have become so dependent on my PDA that I don't know how I could do without it. It wakes me up in the morning, reminds me of all my important appointments and anniversaries, has all my contacts, keeps track of my financials, tracks my car mileage, carries my various databases, has my eBooks, plays my mp3 music, and even helps me practice my Morse code skills. I also use it to do simple programming and various computational tasks. This is all fine and dandy, but I thought I needed more serious music and video storage and playback while on the move, so I recently bought a 30 Gb G5 iPod which I am falling dearly in love with. This iPod has all my music library which is over 5 Gb; it carries about 2 Gb of my personal movies that I transferred from my MAC generated DVD's, and it holds all my photos library which is another 2.5 Gb. This is a total of 9.5 Gb, and I still have over 20 Gb of memory left for storing eBooks and Podcasts if I needed to carry any, or I could simply use it as a mobile hard drive to store regular files from my computer. In addition, my iPod has all my contacts from my MAC laptop, although I cannot change or input anything from the iPod itself, and it has an alarm system that I could use similar to the PDA.
Obviously there is some overlap between PDA and iPod here but I would surely say it is far from total at present. Is it possible that some day the iPod and PDA will be one device? Right now I would say the answer is no. To merge the two devices into one you need a PDA that has 30 Gb of memory, that is slim and light in weight, and has movie play capability. Or conversely, you need an iPod with data entry and programming capability.
I posted a question in this blog before whether or not the mobile phone and PDA could merge as one device, and now I reformulate the question as follows: Is it possible in the future that the mobile phone, PDA and iPod will all be integrated into one universal device that could do all their respective functions? It is quite possible that as the level of integration and miniaturization increases over time it would be possible to have one device that can do everything the PDA and iPod are both capable of, and, in addition, has communications capability like a phone. But at least for the foreseeable future, it looks like we will still have three distinct devices: The iPod for music and video, the mobile phone for communications, and the PDA for programmability and data entry. It might be a matter of time before all three can be integrated into one slim device, but I wonder if that makes sense from the business point of view. To me it seems there will always be a distinction between the three dedicated functions that people would prefer to have separate, and most importantly that the manufacturers would prefer to produce as individual devices. What do you think?

Past and Present Knowledge

2006-09-08T18:03:00.000-07:00

When you look at the monuments that the ancient Egyptians left behind you wonder how they erected those huge structures. What tools did they have? I don't think it is known up to this day how they did it. In adddition to those enormous structures, they chiseled intricate details with vivid colors that remain until today for over three thousand years! But what really is mind-boggling the mumification process that they perfected, that kept their mummies in good condition for over two thousand years. How did they test their chemicals to make sure they would hold up over the ages? I don't know about you but I have many unanswered questions on how they did all that. Did they have technology that we don't have today? Certainly they had advanced knowledge, but what happened to it? Was it kept secret or did it simply get lost?
We tend to think today that our technology is far advanced than any previous time in history. Didn't we split the atom and release dreadful energy? We even landed on the moon and are on our way to conquer Mars and other planets too. We seem to understand better than ever before how the universe started and how it keeps evolving. We figured out how matter was formed after we examined its tiniest constituents. We have sophisticated machines and electronic devices that could not even be imagined a hundred years ago.
But in spite of all that it seems that there is a different kind of knowledge that was lost somehow along the ages. A kind of knowledge that could rival if not exceed our present day technology. One scenario comes to mind is that a nuclear war erupted and destroyed civilization on this planet once before, like in Planet of the Apes movie. There is an uncanny resemblance to our present day situation, as such a scenario is not too far fetched at all. What do you think?

Is Music Inherently Digital?

2006-05-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

Music is by default analog. Or is it? What is the most important thing in music? Isn't it the tempo? Tempo is simply a clock, and that is the core of digital! But the instruments that play are analog, you say. That might be more so for the violin or the cello, but the piano has discrete notes that the player can use, unlike the strings instruments where the player can slide his fingers between notes giving this analog feel. If you go down into the basic notes you will get into the world of digital, which I believe is the nature of all things. Any instrument can be digitized, and that is exactly what the musical synthesizer does. In the micro world, there is no such thing as continuous time, distance or energy. Everything is quantized. Have you heard of the uncertainty principle? It states that position and velocity cannot be simulataneously measured. If you try to determine the position, you affect the particle's speed, and vice versa. Same goes for energy and time, they cannot be determined simulataneously. So inherently musical energy that we hear is quantized if time is to be continuous, and vice versa. So it is either the notes' energies are quantized or the time itself is, or both are to varying degrees. In either case, deep down in the microworld, music then must be digital.
Today music is still played with analog instruments, especially classical music. Players still perform according to the sheet music that the great composers of the previous few centuries wrote. The symphonies are still conducted in real time by the maestro of the philharmonic orchestra. But that does not mean that the same music could not be reproduced digitally. It certainly could. You could have a software program read the sheet music and play it using different instruments whose sounds are synthesized with high fidelity. You could then generate a MIDI file that could be played by the computer. You could record track on top of another track and create a vast symphonic effect, and most of all you could do all that alone, without the need for a whole orchestra.
Still nothing beats the sound of the various instruments performing together in the symphony hall, which is inarguably analog. So it is not a question of is music digital or analog, but it is a question of which is better. What do you think?

The future of mobile phone

2006-05-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

First came the FM based mobile phone from Motorola, then came Qualcomm's CDMA based mobile phone which improved the quality of the signal. Then there came G2 technology with various form and shape phones from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung etc. Then while G3 phones were in the making, a transitionary state called G2.5 emerged and the market was flooded with phones that could do email, interact with the internet and take photos. Now the real G3 phones are starting to emerge from Nokia. These new phones will deliver video, and will allow you to purchase songs online in addition to other internet services. Sprint Nextel is already offering songs for sale directly online for $1.99 a song, compared to Apple's iTune $0.99 price per song. The increase in the price is worth it for those who want to get their songs immediately wherever they go.
It does not stop here, because now there is talk about G4 phones targetting 2010, that are supposed to make you even more connected wherever you are. However, based on the delays in G3, it is expected that G4 won't come to the market until much later than 2010.
I am seeing that there a merger between PDA and phone, as phones are having more PDA functions integrated into them, while PDA's are adding modem and phone functions too, which makes the distinction between the two devices become more and more blurry. I wonder, are they going to be completely blended in the future, or are we still going to see distinct PDA and phone devices?
I always felt I did not need a connected PDA, i.e PDA/phone. I was happy with the applications I had on my PDA while reading material from the internet offline. I still don't see a need to be connected, but who knows, maybe if the connection fee goes down it will be worth getting connected. It certainly is a convenience which is just too costly now. But as the price goes down, who will not want to have a PDA/phone rather than just a PDA? What do you think?

Obsolescense

2006-05-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

I keep worrying about obsolescence issues that threaten to deprive us of what we have today. Think of all the data that we are amassing from pictures, to videos to word documents to excel spreadsheets to pdf files. What will happen to all this data decades from now if the jpg compression format would no longer be there, or if Adobe changed its pdf format, or Microsoft ceased to exist? We will no longer have access to our data. Is that scary or what?
Our ancient ancestors left indelible traces behind them using indestructible monoliths and colossal granite structures. We can still read the hieroglyphic scripts on their walls today. Funny calling them scripts! I wonder how long will our JavaScripts be readable for?
My grandmother had a shoebox full of old sepia toned pictures. Those pictures still exist today, some are almost hundred years old. I wonder how long will the thousands of digital photos I am taking these days will last. I don't even bother backing up my hard drive. What if I lose all that?
I know what I am going to do. I am going to sift through my many gigs of pictures that I took, then pick the best few ones and print them at Sam's Club. This way I can keep them in a shoe box so that my grand children might get a chance to see them.
As for the other data, I don't know how I am going to prolong their existence. I feel worried that all the digital data I have is going to be lost some day. How do I preserve all my programs and documents? I hardly make hardcopies anymore as I depend only on the files I have saved on my hard drive. The most I usually do is copy the files to a flash memory or a CD. Floppies don't exist anymore, so will the CD's have a better luck? Are DVD's still going to be around twenty years from now?
The nagging question is how can I leave documents that could still be read two or three generations from now? Shall I print them on paper? Publish them on microfische?
I wish I could etch my data on a huge monolith carved out of granite. I bet you that would stand the test of time for a while, unless a nuclear war erupts. Even then, I think the monolith is going to have a much better chance of surviving than any of the electronic data saved in the forms we know today. What do you think?

Initial Posting

2006-05-13T21:52:00.000-07:00

This is my blog site that I will try to keep up-to-date as much as I can. There will be times when I will not be able to update it frequently but I promise that I will do my best.