Back on my first Sideband post, I wrote that, “Sideband posts are miscellaneous thoughts that accompany the main thread of posts. Think of them as small paths that meander off the main road. Some branch off, go a short ways and die after a short while. Others are scenic trails that follow along the main road.”
They never quite achieved that vision, so this year one goal is getting Sidebands back on track with that original “mission statement.”
And I’m going to start with fun topic: computer-generated 3D images!
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12 Comments | tags: 3D, 3D images, abacus, bar stool, CGI, computer generated images, POV-Ray, ray tracing | posted in Computers, Sideband
This is a post I began quite some time ago thinking it would be a quick and easy one, since it concerns a topic I know very well.
But — perhaps due to my own inability to be brief — it turned out to be more involved than expected. Maybe I just have a hard time leaving out all the details. In any event, I set it aside until I had more time.
Then I had an idea for making this post a bit more fun (at least for me). The problem was: I needed to build a theatre! You see, this post is about color and light.
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10 Comments | tags: blue, cyan, green, light, magenta, primary colors, red, secondary colors, yellow | posted in Basics, Science
The maps you find in some buildings and malls have a little marker flag that says, “You are here!” The marker connects the physical reality of where you are standing at that moment with a specific point on a little flat map.
Your GPS device provides your current location in terms of longitude and latitude. Those numbers link your physical location with a specific point on any globe or map of the Earth.
But to fully represent our location, longitude and latitude are not quite enough. (We might be high overhead in a hot air balloon!) To fully represent our position, we need a little more ‘tude, but in this case that’s altitude, not attitude.
We need three (and only three) coordinates to completely represent our location in space. This post is about why.
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18 Comments | tags: 2D, 3D, 4D, 5D, altitude, Calabi-Yau, Cartesian, coordinates, dimensions, latitude, longitude, polar coordinates, rectangular coordinates | posted in Basics, Math, Physics, Science
Okay, so here’s a question that’s bothered me a long time.
If you sit in a chair for a while, stand up and then sit down again, you don’t notice anything unusual.
But if you sit in a chair that someone else was recently sitting in, the chair feels warm!
So my question is: why do you not notice your own ass heat, but you do notice the ass heat of someone else?
What’s up with that?
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22 Comments | tags: ass, ass heat, butt, butt heat, chair, heat, Oktoberfest, seat, sitting down, standing up | posted in Brain Bubble
This is a post I’ve had sitting on the shelf for when I wanted an easy one. I don’t know about other bloggers, but it takes hours for me to crank out a post. Some can take most of a day. (There are some where I spent days making graphics, and an upcoming one has work that took weeks! (You saw a glimpse in a recent post!))
The situation this concerns is long past. This is no rant, just a piece on a life change that surprised me a little, made me sad a little, and which doubly reflected the end of an era.
I could write this any time, but today I got another plea from Scientific American magazine. Again they beg me to come back. Again I won’t.
This, then, is an open letter to SciAm, a dear old friend with whom I’ve parted ways.
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17 Comments | tags: Carl Sagan, Scientific American, trees | posted in Life, Science
This may be the first actual Brain Bubble I’ve ever posted! The original intent was to provide a mechanism for sudden (short) thoughts I wanted to record or put out there. But the BB posts quickly turned into mini collections of thought bubbles.
But today I started trying to get into Immanuel Kant (again), and that naturally led to a bit of Wiki Walking.
It was when I got to the article about the subject-object problem that a sudden brain bubble burst!
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2 Comments | tags: brain mind problem, David Chalmers, Immanuel Kant, subject-object problem, Theory of Consciousness | posted in Brain Bubble, Philosophy, Science
I’ve been encountering a bit of blog blah recently, and it’s tempting to go on another hiatus until I retire and don’t feel the work pressure and negative energy. But I have a growing backlog — new ideas keep popping up — and I really do enjoy the writing.
Things are returning to normal around here; page hits are finally back to their low numbers. The party has died down considerably, and that lets the host leave the remaining guests so he can whip up some new treats (and maybe open that bottle of wine I’ve been saving).
Speaking of which, I meant to open two bottles this weekend, but life did one of those unexpected detour things. I’ll pour both those articles very soon, but today’s snack catches up on some things.
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16 Comments | tags: blog, blog blah, BOOL, hiatus, retirement, Sun, sunshine, Versatile Blogger Award, Winter Solstice, work | posted in Life
Another co-worker lost a battle with cancer this week. This is the second one washed off the sandbar, and the universe is now 2-0 on taking really good, wonderful people long before their time. Throw in unexpected brain aneurysms, and it’s 3-0.
(On the other hand, my mom beating it three times kind of evens the score. Throw in several strokes, and you’re talking about someone who’s pretty good at dodging bullets. Wonder Woman as a Music Teacher and she — literally — sneers at death! She’s just slightly awesome!)
But today raise a toast, shed a tear, tie one on, fly the flag at half-mast, beat the drum, read a poem, howl at the moon or hug a loved one. The fucking dragon won a round this week.
RIP, Sharon. You leave a hole.
19 Comments | tags: in memory of, mom is awesome, RIP, the dragon won | posted in Life
It happened again last month. My heart is broken, I’ve lost my love and now I have to find a replacement. I’ve been in this position before; the “good ones” are so hard to find. And even when I do find one, the relationship never seems to last.
I will admit that my tastes have evolved over time. It used to be that simple and refined… and white, very white… was my preference.
Actually, it was all I knew. Back then, it was all white. But as I matured, my horizons expanded, and I came to prefer more complexity and a darker coloration. I rarely go with white now — only for rare occasions that insist on it. I’ve learned the beauty of going brown!
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61 Comments | tags: bread, bread sticks, Brownberry, cake, frosting, ginger cookies, Hostess, icing, Natural Ovens, Nature's Pride | posted in Life, Rant
It’s been quite a while since the last Brain Bubbles. What can I say, work has been sucking the bubbly out of me these last months. It’s like when all the oxygen is removed from water. No bubbles, and the fish all die. But being, in my own weird fashion, a cynical optimist (or am I a naive pessimist…I can never keep them straight), bubbles still do happen.
It’s also the end of that whole 12 days of Christmas thing. It’s now truly all over, and you can take down the decorations and toss out the tree.
It’s time to move on to the new stuff! Today’s edition of Brain Bubbles looks at some new things…
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6 Comments | tags: 12 Days of Christmas, Christmas, Clara, Doctor Who, elephants, helicopter, Janus, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Las Vegas, Paris, Picture Paris, sculpture | posted in Brain Bubble, Movies, TV
Back on my first Sideband post, I wrote that, “Sideband posts are miscellaneous thoughts that accompany the main thread of posts. Think of them as small paths that meander off the main road. Some branch off, go a short ways and die after a short while. Others are scenic trails that follow along the main road.”
Logos con carne 