Panoramas

I just stumbled upon a free photo stitcher called Hugin and have been using it to redo the panoramas I have taken over the years.  I previously used Photoshop Elements 3 (which must be around 10 years old) and I have not been very impressed with the results.  Hugin has been great, though.  The software is quite complex and there are settings and options far beyond my comprehension.  Thankfully, there is a three-step bozo mode that by-passes most of the mess and seems to just work, most of the time.  The results are great and I am enjoying being able to breathe new life into these photos.  

Pike's Peak (part-way up)

Pike's peak (almost at the peak).

Kuaui, Hawaii

Kuaui, Hawaii

View of the refineries on the north side of Baton Rouge

Garden of the Gods, near Colorado Springs

MagicJack Tech Support

This is one for the nerds.  If you've ever been frustrated by technical support that seems to know less than you, you're going to be able to relate.  I just ended my technical support chat with MagicJack, an internet phone company.  The support chat ended when I was informed the chat had ended; this is prior to finishing our trouble-shooting.  Even though I think they were headed down the wrong path I learned what I needed to know and managed to make the changes on my own.

Please wait for a site operator to respond.

You are now chatting with 'Marianne'

Your Issue ID for this chat is XXXXXXXXXXXX

Marianne: Hello, how may I help you?

Trevor: My USB Magicjack is constantly giving me the "Error 1 - No network connection message" even when I know I have an internet connection.

Marianne: May I have your Magicjack phone number please.

Trevor: 316-XXX-XXXX

Marianne: Please wait while I check that for you

Marianne: May i know  what device do  you  have a problem  with? since   I have check it here  you have 1  mj plus  and 1 old  mj device  here  in your account

Trevor: MJ Plus.

Marianne: May I know where did you used to plugged in your mj plus device in the computer or to the wall?

Trevor: Not plugged into my computer.

Trevor: Its plugged directly into the wall for power and also to the internet.

(I was trying to keep things simple at this point and answer the question the support person was trying to ask. The plug "to the wall" doesn't really describe the device well.)

Marianne: May i know if  you  have a  router there?

Trevor: Yes, I have a router

Marianne: May i know the   router  brand  model   that you are using please?

Trevor: Router is an Apple Airport Extreme.

Marianne: I   need the  exact  model  please

Trevor: The device identifies itself as an "Airport Extreme 802.11n (2nd generation)"

Marianne: One moment please...

Marianne: This issue is fixable, please allow me to guide you, so we can trouble shoot on your computer

Marianne: Please plug in your magicjack plus   device now to your computer.

Trevor: OK

Marianne: Please click the link to download and run the magicJack upgrade:

Marianne: http://upgrades.magicjack.com/upgrade/magicJackSetup.dmg

Marianne: Please inform me if you see dial pad after you run the upgrade link.

(This was helpful.  I had forgot to try a firmware update and having the link handy is great.)

Trevor: Running the installer now.

Marianne: Okay

Trevor: I see the dialpad now.

Marianne: Please  check if  you see  “   stock symbol Call’ there?

(I saw something that said Stock Symbol:Call" so I answered "yes".  I think this was the correct answer.)

Trevor: Yes, I do.

(At this point I plugged in a phone and tried to make a test call to see if things were working.  They were.  The support person doesn't seem to want to check this right now so I keep playing along.)

Marianne: • Please click the MENU on your SoftPhone dial pad and choose "VOLUME/HEADSET CONTROL." then tell me if you can switch between telephone or headset/other

Trevor: Yes, I can check either of the two boxes ("Telephone" or "Headset/Other") and the settings in the window change.

Marianne: Please  set it to telephone there  

Trevor: Done

(I don't know how this is going to fix my the connect problems but, oh well.)

Marianne: . Please click Apple menu at the top-Left corner of the screen and choose"System Preferences." Then open "Sharing" Icon.

Trevor: Done

Marianne: The first section that appears is the "Services" settings, Please check the entries that says Internet Sharing, Web Sharing, Windows Sharing, File Sharing and XGrid Sharing.. And click Start if you have a start button...

Trevor: Done

(This is crazy.  None of these services are necessary for this device to work properly.  This is like saying you need to open your windows, tilt the rearview mirror all the way down, and sit in the passenger seat when you start your car.  I know this because my Magicjack used to work just fine even when it was never plugged into my computer.  By starting up all these services I am (marginally) decreasing the security of my computer.  This is time-wasting, unnecessary, and slightly scary.)

Trevor: How will settings on my computer affect the MJ when it is not going to be plugged into my computer during normal use?

(Yeah, so this is the my big complaint.  My Magicjack is the kind the plugs directly into the router rather than into a computer.  We established this at the beginning of the chat.  It doesn't seem like I should have to make any changes to my computer to get the device to work properly. )

Marianne: We are doing  fixes  now. Please    just  follow the  steps   I gave to  you  

("Fixes". Got it.  I guess I'm just going to undo everything after this chat.)

Trevor: OK

Marianne: 5. Please click on the "Firewall" tab.

Marianne: 6. Please check if it says "Firewall Off" or "Firewall On".

Marianne: 7. If it says "Firewall On" please click on the button "Stop"

Trevor: I see no "Firewall" tab in the Sharing Preferences.

(The reason I don't have a "Firewall" tab is because I'm not running Windows.  Somehow the support person copied and pasted the wrong script into the chat.  Didn't even bother to take the step numbers out of the document she's looking at.)

Marianne: Okay..

Marianne: Please click Apple menu at the top-right corner of the screen and choose "System Preferen

Marianne: I  mean for  "System Preferences."

Trevor: Done

Marianne: Please open Network then click on your active Network Connection (Example: airport, Ethernet) and tell me the IP address

Trevor: IP is 10.0.1.107

(Uhmm, I don't think the IP address for my computer is going to fix this because, as I've mentioned, the Magicjack is not normally plugged into my computer. This is fixing a problem that doesn't exist.)

Marianne: . Please open up the Finder on your Mac task Bar and click theApplications button near the left of the page.

Trevor: Done

Marianne: Please click the Utilities button near the right of the page and click theAirPort Admin Utility button near the right of the page.

Trevor: Done

Marianne: Please Select Apple Base Station from the Select Base Station list. >>> Click the Port Mapping button near the top of the page. >>> Then click the Add button near the right of the page.

Trevor: Done

(These instructions are awful but I have had enough experience with my router that I knew what needed to be done. I pity the less educated who must try to decipher these obtuse and misleading instructions.)

Marianne: Please type in 5060 on both Public and Private Ports, The type 10.0.1.107 _(use the IP address) for Private Address and click OK

Trevor: Done.

Marianne: Please click the Add button. again and type in 5070 on both Public and Private Ports, The type 10.0.1.107  (use the IP address for Private Address and click OK

Trevor: Done

Marianne: When you're finished, please click Update near the bottom of the screen to save your changes.

Trevor: Done

Marianne: Please restart your Magicjack device. Just unplug then replug it after 2min

Trevor: Waiting 2 min...

(2 minutes!  I have no idea why we would need to wait that long.)

Marianne: Okay

THIS CHAT HAS ENDED.

So, from this chat, I learned I needed to update the firmware on the MagicJack and what ports I needed to set up to forward to the MagicJack when its plugged into my router.  No explanation as to why it stopped working a few days ago.  For now, we're back up and running.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I don't recommend Magicjack.  Its cheap but you get what you pay for.  Since we hardly use this phone, its OK that it seems to hardly ever work.  I'm probably not going to renew after the first year.

Baton Rouge Plantations

My wife was very interested in visiting plantation during our trip and even though we went to three, I think she would have liked to see many more. She and her family are very history-oriented and the continued existence of these old buildings over a century old have great appeal.

Though I do not share her great interest, I did have some mixed feelings about visiting these sites. Not growing up in the South, this was my first direct contact with the pre-Civil War era and, arguably, the root of that war, the in humanity that was so tied up in it: slavery.  I grew up far removed from the troubles our nation's legacy of slavery have and continue to create; I didn't grow up in the South and this is not a part of my cultural identity.  I do appreciate, though, that these plantations can easily be seen as a symbol of that dark mark on our history and it seems awkward to make them historical sites and museums, tourist destinations.  By the same token, they are historical sites, they are significant artifacts of a former time.  Removing or ignoring the buildings serves little purpose and may not be beneficial; ignoring the past gets us nowhere.

I'm embarrassed.  Even though I had nothing to do with it, I'm embarrassed that this is a part of our history and I wish it had never happened. Its like being reminded of some foolish choice made in adolescence or dealing with that drunk uncle at your wedding who has lost all inhibition.  Its true, it happened, it can't be denied; I just want it not to be so.

And make of this what you will: during our time touring these three plantations, I only saw one African-American and she was working as a tour guide.

The philosophical misgivings aside, the plantation complexes and the central homes that are its focus are truly wonderful old buildings.  As all our tour guides said, these plantations were owned by the supremely wealthy of their day.  This was not their only residence and they may or may not have been living there year round.  The United States has largely rejected the more class-based cultures that have been a strong part of Europe's past but these plantations were truly a mark of the aristocracy of that day.  The owners needed and lacked for nothing and had the finest available in all respects.  Who else pays for hand-painted wall-paper murals to be custom-made and imported from Europe?

The age of the plantations is echoed in the age of the trees.  Though not as old as many of the forests I grew up around, the branching, reaching, canonpy-ing of these centurion oaks was impressive. This kind of beauty can only come with time; there's no rushing the slow majesty that is old growth.

There is so much of these houses that exudes the wealth of their creators.  The expansive gardens, the architectural details, the size of the houses in what were very rural settings.  Its hard to imagine having so much material means that your country home could easily house multiple families.

One of the plantations we visited was unique from all the others: it was only forty years old.  All except the columns of this building had burned in the 1950s and over the 1960s the home was rebuilt to its former glory.   It is an ersatz plantation which brings with it a distinct advantage: the building has all the modern benefits of appearing to be a planation with none of the burdens of historical preservation.  The current owners live on the third floor, there are some out-buildings that are rented as a bed-and-breakfast, and receptions are frequently held on the lower two floors.  Though the house is populated with period furniture, it is all reproductions and can be used practically.  When TV or film productions need a planation home, this is the place to go as it can be entirely redecorated as needed. The owners make their entire living by providing this fake plantation for use by whomever needs it.  In my mind, this is an ingenius use of the home and grounds.

Radioactive CFL

If you have very many compact florescent light (CFL) bulbs, you may have noticed that they glow for a while after you turn them off. The above is a ten second exposure in such a situation.  I didn't expect the green color.

Bueracracy Frustration

This past week had been a week of delays for me as the bureaucracy that is Wichita State has been dominating my attention. That I even have time now to voice my complaints and frustrations when I should be busily solving the world's energy problems (at least a small subset thereof) is evidence enough.

Item 1 - New computers
I came to school on Monday to find the new computer I will be using in my simulations had arrived.  By "find" I mean "eventually find somewhere on campus" as it took about an hour to locate them and get them moved to my desk.  I spent the morning unpacking them, scrounging for a monitor that will work, and installing basic software.  By the afternoon it was time to move on from basics and get the big, expensive software I'll be using installed.  I go to the IT department to ask for the disks and find out that my work this morning has been out-of-bounds.  Only the IT department can set up computers and I needed to turn them over for processing along with the list of software I would like installed.

I feel all hope draining from my soul.  I'm ready right now to work on getting my computer up and running and am confident that if given this opportunity, I can be done by the end of the day.  The IT department, on the other hand, has many other jobs on their plates (some with higher priority than mine) and may have the job done by the end of the week.  Additionally, some of the software I would like installed is not available for general use, despite indications otherwise.  Oh, and they need me to generate a work order so they can officially take on this task.

With heavy heart I wheel the computers to the IT department, like a father watching his children being sent off to a labor camp or prison.  I might see them again, someday, and maybe they'll be better for it, but they won't be the same anymore.

Item 2 - Network access
This computer I just got is the first one I've had at my desk.  When I was clandestinely setting it up Monday morning I discovered the network port at my desk didn't work.  I submitted a work order to have the port activated and in the mean time, used  a fifty foot cable to connect to a known working port elsewhere in the lab.  Today I received an email today stating that this work order was being cancelled and I needed my supervisor or the department head to authorize the work.  My supervisor is out of town and the department head probably has better things to do than submit work orders for network ports.  We'll see when it gets done.

Item 3 - Timesheets

I don't know if something has changed recently but I also found out that this week that as a Graduate Research Assistant, I will now be required to submit a timesheet.  I felt like the protagonist from "Office Space" as I received multiple emails each from a different person informing me of this, each with slightly different instructions for completing the form.  The form needs to be printed out and signed by my supervisor who is out of town for a few weeks.  The form needs to be turned in on Friday and include the time worked on Saturday.  The form has no easy way of indicating that I have gotten very little done this week as IT has had my computer except to write in "0" hours for each day.

I'm in favor of accountability and actually appreciate the discipline of having to document the time I spend working for the school; I am being paid for this research I'm doing.  I think this paper form is not the best way of going about this.  This fall when I teach, I might be on the "supervisor" side of the form if I'm managing lab assistants.  I doubt the experience will be any better.

Baton Rouge Capitals

Baton Rouge is the capital of Louisiana and it has a fantastic capital building.  Actually it has two fantastic capital buildings and both are impressive in their own right.  The old capital is a smaller, castle-looking building that has been turned into a museum.

The interior of the building is equally impressive, very ornate, sparkly, and colorful. The main lobby area has a steel staircase winding up to the second floor which holds exhibits and a portrait gallery of former governors.  The staircase, though, gathered my attention immediately.  Because it was made of steel and felt very different than the stairs I normally tread.  It took up much less space than concrete or wood staircases which lead to a small magical feeling, like it was impossible that something so insubstantial could possible support my weight.  And stepping on the stairs had a different tactile feel; no thud of concrete or squeak of wood but a slightly springiness and vibration.  The stairs felt responsive and nimble, not monolithic.

There were several examples of stained glass wonderfully made.  The ceiling above the central staircase was all stained glass and several windows in both legislative chambers were done as well.  Both of these rooms were beautiful and we were told that they were often used for receptions.

The other capital building, the one where the politics gather to work, is an art deco tower  similar to the capital of Nebraska, at least on the outside.  In fact, it was noted in several places that the Baton Rouge has the tallest capital building in the world, Nebraska's is second.

The main lobby of the capital is a barely lit place.  It seems almost every surface is covered in dark marble, dark stained wood, or bronze.  The day we toured was a working day at the capital and there was a constant flow of professionally dressed people in and out of the building.  The lobby was busy and loud; I felt out of place as a tourist, as if I somehow was intruding or getting in the way.

At either end are the legislative chambers, equally ornate but much better lit.  The Senate was not in session but the House was very busy passing legislation.  In the twenty minutes we were there about eight bills were passed.  It was all very perfunctory, so much so that most legislatures spent most of the time talking, ignoring the proceedings, or not being present.  This didn't keep them from voting, though.   The voting used electronic devices at each representatives seat with a big display at the front of the room showing the status of each representatives vote.  On several occasions I saw representatives voting for those around them who were absent.

And there were the pages.  Most say off to the side with nothing to do, waiting to be called on and be made useful.  The only two I saw busy were those assigned to the printers on either side of the front of the chamber.  When a representative printed a document, the page delivered it.

I have no reason to believe that what I witnessed is abnormal in any way as compared to other legislative bodies in this country.  Compared to what is normally airing on CSPAN, the attendance here was quite impressive.  It seems that there is something fundamentally wrong with how our country governs itself when laws are created in such a manner, when the act of governing is given is little attention.  This is easy for me to say, though; I've never had to do what these people do.

Lastly, like Nebraska, the Capital had an observation deck at the top of the tower. The view of the area is impressive: the Mississippi river, the refineries north of town, the downtown area, the LSU stadium and arena.  And the surrounding jungle/bayou/swamp, the ever present explosion of green.

Baton Rogue Landscape

My wife and I just returned from a brief trip to visit family in Baton Rogue, Louisiana where I had my first up-close experience with the Cajun south, the swamplands and bayous that make up the low-lying Mississippi basin. Its easy to under-appreciate the rampant life that this land breeds. From insects to alligators to ancient oaks to strangling vines the whole region explodes with growing things; its probably most accurate to think of the area as a less temperate jungle. one that occasionally almost freezes in the winter.  Its easy to see why agriculture took root down here.

The Mississippi river enables all of this growth and the seasonal floods that we have mostly contained with levies still drive the ecology of the area.  The water table is always just below the surface; I have no idea how they build houses, bridges, and skyscrapers with soil that is always so saturated with water.  The water is always in the air, as well.  The humidity allows the famous Spanish moss to grow of the oak trees and caused me to sweat whenever outside, even when the temperature was not very high.

Our more structured human life is also enabled by the River.  the Mississippi is famous for the commerce it enabled and the area plantations all took advantage of it from the beginning.  We still use it today, but for more sophisticated goods like oil.  North of Baton Rogue is a large oil refinery complex that receives tankers coming in from the Gulf; I don't know if the refined product is similarly transported out the way it came in but it easily could be.

The most exotic creature I experienced was the famous alligator, living in a wildlife refuge we explored.  Most of the time all we saw of them were the famous pair of eyes, watching us watching them.  We were also luck enough to catch sight of one fully out of the water, hiding in the shade of a tree.  None of these animals were very large (by Hollywood standards) but all seemed more than capable of defending themselves from pesky photographers like me.

That same refuge had a bird sanctuary; large platforms several feet above the surface of the water to provide a place for the birds to roost and be protected from the previously mentioned predators.

More to come in the following days ...