The Daily Biff - 2007 06 18

Currently playing on my computer (tune in: pls, asx)

Mon, 18 Jun 2007

HDR Imaging
Inspired by a photo posted in a blog entry by Khan (that he took while vacationing in France), I read up about the methodology he used to produce the photo - High Dynamic Range Imaging or HDR. If you like the very striking picture that Khan took, then you will probably also enjoy these two HDR photo sites:

HDR Photo Group, Flickr

HDR Okinawa, Japan

This is my own first (poor quality) effort at HDR (click to enlarge):

Kristy in her home office proofreading a psych eval.

You can see a bit of ghosting is present because I didn't keep the camera completely still between the three exposures. This is because I have not yet figured out how to set up the exposure bracketing on my camera to take three exposures with just one click of the button. (Note: I have since figured out the bracketing feature of my camera... reading the manual works wonders!)

Now compare the HDR image to the "normal" image taken at just the one exposure:

Non-HDR and HDR Image of Kristy in Her Home Office

To create the HDR image from the three RAW exposures, I used Qtpfsgui on my home office box running Ubuntu Linux. Qtpfsgui installed cleanly (props to davromaniak.eu) and seems to work well. There are also Windows and Mac builds of Qtpfsgui that can be downloaded.

(Update Wed Jun 27 16:03:29 PDT 2007 // updated for clarity)

:: Posted by rus on Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:56 pm
:: Filed under /tech

[2 comments] [permanent link]

Outlaws
Berkeley and Olivia are going to be sharing a birthday party this year. I'm against the idea, but Kristy says neither kid will mind. The theme of the party is going to be a cowboy hoedown. The party announcements will feature a picture of the two little outlaws, like this picture below:

:: Posted by rus on Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:37 pm
:: Filed under /daily_journal/2007

[0 comments] [permanent link]

Bribes of the Last Resort
I can't really remember how long now we have been trying to potty train Eliana. I have a blog entry dated from September 2006 that appears to indicate that we are going on about nine months. It has been a challenge to say the least and frankly we are both tired of fighting her about it.

We have tried all kinds of positive reinforcement and encouragement. None of it has worked. I just don't think she really cares if she goes in the toilet or in her underwear; despite the fact that most of her peers (well, except her cousin Isabella) are all potty trained. Even Emily is better than Eliana at going potty in the toilet... argh!

This morning, I pulled out the big gun - the granddaddy bribe of the last resort - Chuck E. Cheese's; a place she asks to go to at least once per week, if not more. I mocked up a simple sticker chart with seven spaces below a Chuck E. Cheese's logo. Then I printed out a couple of Chuck E. Cheese's coupons I found on-line and called them "tickets" and taped the chart and the tickets up next to her toilet. I told her if she can go seven days without an accident (day and night), then we will reward her by going to Chuck E. Cheese's.

If this doesn't work, then nothing will.

:: Posted by rus on Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:59 pm
:: Filed under /daily_journal/2007

[0 comments] [permanent link]

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