Category: Technik & Software

Ever wanted to know the statistical distribution of digits in π?

Just in case:

$ wget -O - http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext93/pimil10.txt | grep -v '[A-Za-z]' | sed -e 's/[^0-9]//g; s/./\0\n/g;' | sort | grep -v "^$" | uniq -c

Click here to support me being silly.

black box is now using my custom-made black box wordpress theme:

See it in action. Sorry, the theme is for schuehsch exclusively. 🙂

Very interesting experiments regarding gravitomagnetism might lead to a unified theory of quantum mechanics and general relativity. I’ll just link the papers and quote the abstracts, you can read a ‘real’ article at rapidnewswire.com:

Local Photon and Graviton Mass and its Consequences

We show that the presently accepted value of the cosmological constant and a correspondingly small graviton mass leads to considerable gravitomagnetic fields around rotating mass densities, which are not observed. The solution to the problem is found by a graviton mass which depends on the local mass density to ensure the principle of equivalence. This solution, derived from Einstein-Proca equations, has important consequences such as the correct prediction of the dark energy density in the universe solving the “cosmic coincidence” problem, a prediction of the Higgs mass in line with present estimates and a correction term for the Cooper-pair mass anomaly reported by Tate among many others. Perhaps the most interesting results are that the vacuum energy density is then proportional to the energy density of matter in our universe; and that coherent matter can be used to engineer the vacuum. Similar results were obtained for the photon mass which is then proportional to the charge density in matter. For the case of coherent matter the predicted effects have been experimentally observed by the authors.

Experimental Detection of the Gravitomagnetic London Moment

It is well known that a rotating superconductor produces a magnetic field proportional to its angular velocity. The authors conjectured earlier, that in addition to this so-called London moment, also a large gravitomagnetic field should appear to explain an apparent mass increase of Niobium Cooper-pairs. This phenomenon was indeed observed and induced acceleration fields outside the superconductor in the order of about 10^-4 g were found. The field appears to be directly proportional to the applied angular acceleration of the superconductor following our theoretical motivations. If confirmed, a gravitomagnetic field of measurable magnitude was produced for the first time in a laboratory environment. These results may open up a new experimental window on testing general relativity and its consequences using coherent matter.

Ich habe GoYellow ja schonmal erwähnt, aber vielleicht sollte ich auch noch positive Dinge sagen 😉

Also: Die Satelliten-/Luftbilder sind um einiges besser als bei Google Earth, auch wenn das gleiche Material zugrunde liegt: GoYellow ließ die Daten offensichtlich bearbeiten, und die Overlays sind um ein vielfaches genauer und lesbarer. Außerdem kennt GoYellow sich in Deutschland besser aus als das doch noch arg Amerika-lastige Google Earth, das nicht einmal “Düsseldorf” findet (dafür aber “Duesseldorf, Germany”) und ansonsten gerne mal einen der vielen gleichnamigen Orte zufällig auswählt (man versuche “Karlsruhe, Germany” oder “Marl, Germany”).

I set up a bug/feature/enhancement tracker (or whatever you want to call it) for my Greasemonkey scripts, but also for people to submit feature requests and track bug reports for deviantART itself. It’s in no way official or affiliated with dA, but I’m hoping for more transparency in the bug fixing process of dA. Of course, I also hope that dA staff actually will check it out sometimes – if it’s used regularly, that is.

So, go ahead, enter any bugs or feature requests you find in my scripts or on dA there! For dA bugs, also submit them to helpdesk, of course, and please track the bugs in the bugtracker when you hear back from helpdesk or the developers.

The latest Data update for Google Earth features a new basemap for the whole globe as well as new high-res imagery for almost all of Germany. However, it seems the new data is really only higher in resolution, but not much newer.

Die von GoYellow haben wohl noch einen Vogel, der nicht der Stallpflicht unterliegt. Man kann sich jetzt auch direkt die Fundorte der Vogelgrippe – also Vogelgrippe-Vögel-Opfern (äh, was?) – anzeigen lassen. Sinn++

On a lighter note, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has successfully entered the Mars orbit on 22:25 GMT. Besides doing an awful lot of surveying and analyzing missions, it will also serve as a test hub for the Interplanetary Internet (or InterPlaNet for short).

Obviously, Vint Cerf‘s talk made quite an impression on me.

I need a picture of myself for an accreditation.

Photographers never have ‘proper’ pictures of themselves.

I do have a remote release though.

I specifically built the remote release with a 3.5mm RCA jack so I could use any line cable to extend the cable range. The other end takes a 3.5mm-to-2.5mm-converter and plugs into the cam.

First line cable: B. tore off the plug.

Second line cable: In the car.

schuehsch took the car.

Camera: ~$800
Self-built remote release: $6
Having enough adapters to pull off shit like this: Priceless.

We’re sorry…

… but we can’t process your request right now. A computer virus or spyware application is sending us automated requests, and it appears that your computer or network has been infected.

We’ll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your computer is free of viruses and other spurious software.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we’ll see you again on Google.

It happens when searching for “TC80 N3 inurl:canon.com”, but not when searching for “TC80 N3” only. Actually, it happens as soon as I use “[term] inurl:”.

One would think that Google had the brains to make better filters. Or that they would give some means to complain about the block. I guess that means I’ll have to go back to the old days of browsing to a product page from the manufacturer’s page.

If only Canon.com didn’t suck so much for finding product info.

There is no general product information, you have to choose your region (America, Europe, Asia, Oceania). In the case of Canon Europe, you reach the Product Finder (“For Home”).

Now where would the TC80-N3 (a remote release with timer) be? Accessories? Doesn’t look like it, that only lists some consumer cameras, under the heading “Digital Compact”. Didn’t I just click “Accesories”? I’m confused, but reasonably certain that they won’t hide the TC80-N3 for DSLRs somewhere behind a link to the PowerShot A80.

Ah, so it surely must be in “Digital SLRs”! Following that link tells me that I can “stretch my visual limits” thanks to the EOS system. I’m not sure I actually want to do that, but if Canon marketing says I can, I’ll believe them. Despite their good efforts though: No, I don’t want to compare up to three cameras side by side, thanks. I just want to know where the heck you put the TC80-N3 technical information, including a large picture that shows the button layout.

Heck, just a large picture would suffice now. So, back to the “Product Finder”. Isn’t it curious how there is no obvious search functionality in this “Finder”? I suppose it’s really only meant for finding, not searching. Turns out that there is a search functionality, but it’s below the content, out of the viewport, and the link to it is hidden really well in 11px #666666 text: the “click here” in “If you cannot find what you are looking for, please click here to go to the Consumer Products search engine” is actually a link, and don’t think it’s marked in any way – it’s the same color, size, and text decoration as the surrounding text. Didn’t we stop using “click here” as link markers years ago anyway?

What keywords would you use for a remote release with timer, called “TC80-N3”? I tried “TC80”, “TC80-N3”, “TC80N3” without results, “timer”, “release”, and “remote” with a lot of completely unrelated results, and “remote release” and “remote release timer” for even more random results. The more terms you add, the more results you get, which suggests Canon use an OR relation by default.

Indeed, trying “remote and release” gives only 15 results. Unfortunately, they are all about cameras, not the TC80-N3, and they don’t even mention the terms “remote” or “release” anywhere on the product pages.

What gives?