Virii!!

Coolest 'computer virus' I've seen in a while:


First off, you have to agree that it's a fun idea! They're marketing it as computer virus art. But what makes a virus a virus? The replication? The infection or malicious intent/outcome? The fact that the receiver doesn't really want it and receives it unexpectedly? I tend to think of this more as a cool application than as a virus. Thoughts?

Also, I know that "virii" isn't really officially accepted as the plural of virus, but I like it more than "viruses" because it's more fun. Wikipedia has this to say:

• The form virii would not have been a correct plural, since the ending -ii only occurs in the plural of masculine and feminine words ending in -ius. For instance, take radius, plural radii: the root is radi-, with the singular ending -us and the plural -i. Thus the plural virii is that of the nonexistent word virius. The form viri would also be incorrect in Latin. The ending -i is normally used for masculine or feminine nouns, not neuter ones such as virus; moreover, viri (albeit with a short i in the first syllable) is the plural of vir, and means "men."

Words are fun. :)

Happy Easter!

My usual photography + photoshop holiday card:



:)

Mashed Potatoes!

Now, everyone knows potatoes are pretty awesome. In high school a friend and I even had something we referred to as the Potato Product of the Day! Mashed potatoes are pretty cool and all, but when you add in Paul McCartney everything gets even better. This is pretty entertaining. And educational*. Educational potatoes. Who knew?!




*unless you already knew how to make mashed potatoes.

Photographers' Rights

As an amateur photographer, I always have my eyes peeled for something interesting to photograph. Sometimes people get bent out of shape when you take pictures, especially when it involves personal property, industrial sites, airports, car wrecks, etc. After a recent experience of mine, I've decided to look into what rights photographers have. I'm not a legal expert by any means, but here are some of my findings:

What you can't photograph:

• Some military locations/operations/facilities
• Anyone with a 'reasonable expectation of privacy'
  
• Example: People in their homes. Even if you're on a public street, people expect privacy in their own homes. Use your telephoto lens for wildlife, not your neighbors.

What you can photograph:

• Anything else

So that means you can photograph infrastructure, banks, items in stores, skyscrapers, airports, people in public places, etc. If you're allowed to be there, you're allowed to take photos. Authorities can question you, but they can't take your film or memory cards without a court order.

One thing to keep in mind is trespassing. You can 'legally' take photos while being illegally on someone's property. So, if you're trespassing, yeah, you're allowed to take photos... but they can press charges for trespassing. It seems that even if you're not trespassing, if you're asked to stop taking photos or to leave and you don't listen it can then be considered trespassing. I'm unclear of the legalities involved in that...

So... what photos can you publish?
You can't publish photos that:

• Project someone in a false light
  
• Captions seem to play a big role in this.
• Disclose personal information
• Example: if someone is holding a legible pill bottle... blur out the text!
• I would think that a minor's identity in a car accident might fall under this category, as well.
  

There is also the issue of misappropriation. An example of this would be using a photo for advertising without the proper releases. Libel also comes into play with projecting people in a false light. This is pretty intense stuff, so it's best to not get involved in it!

Again, I'm not a lawyer or anything fun like that, but this is what I've gathered from various sources. If any of this is incorrect... let me know!

Sources:

• Bert P Krages II, Attorney At Law: The Photographer's Right

• Legal Rights of Photographers

• Misinformation About Your Photography Rights Continues To Spread

Hardcore Cursing, Slovenian Style!

I read from a few sources that Slovenians don't have their own curse words, they just steal Serbian words. I don't know if it's actually true, as I don't speak Slovenian...

From a blog:

• "Three hundred hairy bears. It's the worst curse in Slovene. Apart maybe from `Duck on the lake' and `You are the mother of a chicken'. We don't really have any swear words in the language."

I am definitely going to start using these 'curses'! Awesome!

Anyway, I started looking all of this stuff up because, according to my Slovenian Grammy, chuntaglava = bonehead in Slovenian! This may or may not be true, as my family likes to make stuff up, especially in other languages. Glava = head. But as for that first part, who knows what it means. If it's highly offensive... oops?

My parents are apparently big fans of using foreign words that they think they know the meaning of... but don't. Example: putz [Yiddish]. Not a great thing to have little kids calling their friends! Also, I've heard that dupa [Polish] is more... strong than mom thought...

All of this entertains me.

Blu-Ray > HD-DVD! In Other News... debris!

I find it amusing that HD DVD is now dead... and being compared to Sony's Betamax. :-P Engadget offers the Top 10 Things To Do With Your Now Defunct HD DVD Player.


In news related to my previous post about the Lunar Eclipse [TONIGHT!], there might be some debris... Apparently the US picked tonight as the night to shoot down a defunct spy satellite. Perhaps debris and such will be visible from the West Coast and... parts of Canada? I'm not there, so I don't know.

While We're Talking About The Moon...

Strand is an amazing place. Many of you know the joy I encountered back in November(ish) when I found an long-out-of-print book called "Let's Speak Rusyn" for $1, thus making Strand one of my favorite places on earth. Well, today I had another adventure in Strand! I found a few cool books, but one in particular needed to be shared. It's called "The Space Tourist's Handbook". Here is an agenda laid out within this amazing book:

Sample Moon Visit Itinerary
Days 1-3 - Travel to the moon.
Days 4-5 - Arrival. Welcome glass of Moon Punch. Acclimation to low gravity. Meet and greet Moon-based support staff ("Moonies"). Short, brisk walk on lunar surface.
Day 6 - Longer Moon walk. Rock sample collecting.
Day 7 - Free day. Send email using Moon computers. Take photographs of the Moon base. Enjoy a buffet dinner with other astronauts. Indulge in savory Moon pies.
Day 8 - Daylong hike to "highlands" and other major craters.
Day 9 - Prepare for departure. Pack souvenirs. Email your photos. Visit clinic for preflight enema.
Day 10 - Departure. Return to Earth.

This is just plain silliness. And I enjoy it.

Lunar Eclipse Time!

Everyone knows eclipses are cool. Therefore everyone should be excited for next Wednesday night! There will be a total lunar eclipse on Feb 20, 2008, and it will be visible [barring crappy weather] from our own backyards in the Lehigh Valley! NASA is awesome and has an article or two telling you all about it, including a photo diagramming the timeline.

Totality begins at 10:01pm EST, and ends at 10:51, with 10:26 being the mid point of the eclipse.

I plan on trying to find a place with not too much ambient light so I can check it out, perhaps bring my telescope, and maybe try to get a cool photo or two. This is the last lunar eclipse [at least visible in North America] until 2010.

So who wants to check it out with me?!

Transliteration (Pertaining to Eastern Europe)

I'm sure most of you won't find this the least bit interesting, but... I do! And it's not like the fact that I'm a nerd is a news flash or something.

Over the past year and a half I've done a lot of genealogical research. This has led me to many documents in many languages! These languages include: Russian, Rusyn, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Slovak, German, Slovene, Polish, and Lithuanian. I don't know anything about German, Slovene, Polish or Lithuanian yet... that's for later. Anyway, most of my research has focused on my dad's family. That part of my family comes from the Rusyn areas in western Slovakia and eastern Ukraine. If you're not looking at Rusyn names... this won't be nearly as helpful, but most of these are fairly constant.

Enough background info, here's a breakdown of a few things that I find fairly common in surnames!


*The H is mostly silent in names that begin with Hr. Stick with silent and you're likely to be closer to how it's supposed to sound!
**In most Slavic languages, Г is transliterated to a G. However, in Rusyn (where names that begin with Hr are common) Г is an H, whereas Ґ is a G.
***This isn't a single letter, it's two. Therefore, no IPA pronunciation.


So, if you know me, you know my last name. If you don't... it has a silent H and a bunch of other stuff non-Eastern Bloc people don't like to pronounce. I'm hoping that this might help people understand how to pronounce fun names like mine! :-P

New blog?! And... tea!

I think I'll use this new blog for random information that I want to share. I haven't really decided yet. I like that I can log in so easily from Google. :)

If I decide to use this blog I want to create a layout for it. You don't care.

Anyway, here is a post that will not be found ANYWHERE ELSE*! Consider yourself very lucky to have come across this blog!

Today I had hyun mi nok cha for the first time in a long time. This is because I used to drink it every day and I got kind of tired of it. But it was good to have it again today, because it is really quite tasty. For those of you who don't speak Korean, [not that I know anything more than some foods and tourist phrases] hyun mi nok cha is green tea with rice.

So, to break things down for you:

• 차 = cha = tea
  
• 녹 = nok = green
  
• 현미 = hyun mi = brown rice
• One thing I've noticed in my [very minimal] studies of Korean is that there isn't much of a standard for transliteration. I've seen "hyun mi" more frequently than "hyeonmi", but I'm not sure which is correct. If you know, tell me!
  

Now, Wikipedia has an article on brown rice tea, but the tea I have is actually a combination of green tea and rice tea. I read that this began, back in the day, as a way for the lower class to make what little tea they could afford last longer. Diluting green tea with rice eventually became quite popular, even with the ruling class! I wish I could find that article so you would not think I am making this up, but no.

So now I should go accomplish something other than writing a new blog. Yay!


*This is untrue. You should still consider yourself lucky to have found this blog.