Canadian election

Results are in...

A Price Above Rubies

Following on from the 24-hour rule from the previous post... tonight I learned Ruby in about an hour, including some exploration of branches like XML processing, Ruby on Rails, and RubyCocoa for the Mac. Takes me back to the days of Scheme and SNOBOL back in university. Since the advent of Java I've gotten bored with memorizing a zillion variations of IF syntax or array notation. But the way I could immediately grok Ruby made me think it really will be worthwhile to pursue.

John's 24-Hour Rule

One of my most cherished maxims is that anything that's worthwhile to learn or implement, you should be able to do within 24 hours. I've found it's true for everything computer-related. If you get an idea in the morning, you should have a working prototype that evening. If you start researching a subject at lunchtime, by lunchtime the next day you should have developed some expertise in it.

Conversely, if you can't get something working within 24 hours, whatever system you're working with is too user-unfriendly, or the idea is a dead end, or the methodology doesn't match up well with your mindset.

300mm of Fun

This year, Santa brought a new Canon lens, 70-300mm to go on the Canon 20D that was last year's gift.

Recently, we took a vacation down to Santa Cruz where I took pictures of butterflies clumped together on tree branches, and wetsuited surfers riding the waves. In each case, I got some good pictures but only by extensive cropping, losing enough detail that it would be tough to enter those pictures in competition or get good prints.

Hoping to use the new lens soon for some birdwatching pics along the SF Bay shore!

This lens is the mid-range of Canon's 300mm lenses for mere mortals, that is, the ones without "L" glass. The highest-priced one is the super-compact DO model, which uses some optical engineering to give the same amount of telephoto without actually extending the lens. The lowest-priced one is actually a very inexpensive model without Image Stabilization (IS) or Ultrasonic motor (USM). I couldn't justify twice the $$$ for the DO lens just to make the camera easier to handle. I was very tempted by the cheapest model -- it should be affordable for anyone with a Canon SLR -- but the bigger and heavier the lens, the more important the IS and USM features are. No point in having a 300mm lens where I couldn't handhold a steady shot at full zoom!

Tags: photography, Canon, cameras, digicams

The End of Wisdom

Over the Christmas vacation, I had all four wisdom teeth taken out. You'd think after 25 years of peace in the mouthal area, there would be some statute of limitations, but no. Luckily no complications, and I've noticed that I'm a bit lighter due to the week or so of cautious eating.

Prius first impressions

Here are my initial thoughts on the Toyota Prius (2002 4-door model), which we got a couple of weeks ago and just took to Yosemite National Park and back on one tank of gas...

It's whisper quiet. At a stop light, or backing up, it's like the car has run out of gas and is just rolling in neutral. I like that I can roll the window down and hear things other than my own engine. It's relaxing in residential neighbourhoods, and useful in busy spots because I can hear if something's coming at intersections with bad visibility. (Well, I guess I could be smashed by another silent Prius. :-)

Getting about 47 MPG. Gas today was $2.99/gallon at the best(!?) local station. With the Mustang, one trip to work and back = exactly 1/4 tank. I've now done 2 such commutes, plus a moderate amount of driving around town since Saturday, and have used less than 1/4 tank. There's an elaborate dashboard display that can show the current MPG, plus a graph of how it goes over time. This is the same display that shows
maps, directions, etc. when using the built-in GPS. (Not sure if this is optional anymore or if they're making it standard.)

[More recent update: to Yosemite and back, including lots of up/down mountain passes, we averaged 48.1 MPG. Commuting to and from work, I can get 52 MPG if I'm careful.]

The tax breaks you hear about only apply when buying new. We should be able to get the carpool lane exemption though.

Roof is a bit low, I have to tilt the seat back same as my old Tercel. It's very nice to have 4 doors. I'm not wildly impressed by the trunk space. Rear seats don't fold down, although in recent models they do. They've only had a true hatchback since the 2004 model, but all the ads say hatchback even if it isn't true. Next step is to investigate roof and/or rear bike racks.

Brakes are good. Turning radius is good, especially in reverse for parallel parking. Acceleration is OK, even from a standing start where the engine has shut off. I have one intersection where I have to cross 4 lanes and jog left, with traffic coming fast from both directions. Even a momentary slowness would be scary, but the Prius scooted right through from a seemingly inert start. It strains a little bit to accelerate as it approaches top highway speeds.

6 CD changer, not MP3 CDs unfortunately. Luckily it has a cassette player so I can use my adapter with the iPod. No line-in on the built-in stereo. Lot of dashboard buttons and touch-screen controls for the navigation system.

Air conditioning top-notch, lots of nice extras like dialling in the actual temperature and a setting where it adjusts the airflow based on how much cooling is actually needed. The speed and car condition is all on a digital readout just below the dashboard, I prefer it to the normal dials, although in bright sun it can look like you're going "188" and all the warning indicators are on. :-)

Because the car and windows are a different shape than I'm used to, I'm still adjusting to the visibility. Apparently the hatchback has significantly worse visibility. I'll have to check how to turn off the dash display, because it reflects in the windshield at night. Some of the dashboard controls (like volume) and particularly the mirror adjustments are obscured by the steering wheel and gear shift. The gear shift is a stick coming out of the dash near the steering wheel, a
little bit retro.

Tags: Prius, hybrid

Birding in the Bay Area

I know a 135mm lens isn't enough for serious birdwatchers, but in the San Francisco Bay Area there are plenty of places to get up close and personal. Case in point.

A Matter of Millimeters

My birthday gift this year is possibly the finest piece of engineering that I've owned -- a 28-135mm image-stabilized, ultrasonic motor (IS, USM) Canon zoom lens. Took it for a spin on my commute to work and around the Berkeley marina. Even in Canada after the metric system came in, I never thought in metric: 75 is a hot day, not 25; I still have no idea how many centimeters tall I am, somewhere between 100 and 200 I'd guess. But for cameras at least I'm starting to think in millimeters!

First Post - the Origin of BaySquared

I had a dream last night where several interesting things happened, and in the dream I thought, "I'll just write about them on my blog". Whoops, no blog. Time to take care of that.

I love coming up with names for things, but not names that define me -- I'll happily enter a naming contest that someone else has set up, but I don't like to distill my essence into a license plate or online nickname.

BaySquared represents the Then and Now of my life -- growing up in Newfoundland, Canada surrounded by Conception Bay, Trinity Bay, St. Mary's Bay, Bonavista Bay, etc., and now living in northern California where I commute to work over San Francisco Bay (I actually cross the bay 3 times on the way to work), and on vacation head to Monterey Bay, Bodega Bay, and Tomales Bay.