Some day you may find this useful like I did.

The new MacBooks have internal iSight cameras. While this is an excellent tool, it may not be desirable in all situations (such as classrooms or labs) You can disable it in software by removing…

/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer.component

…applications will complain that the camera is already in use by another application.

If you want to make sure they also can't use an external Firewire iSight remove…

/System/Library/Extensions/Apple_iSight.kext

I moved the component rather than deleting it so I could re-enable it again. Link.

Wow, a lot has happened in 3 days. Yesterday, the blossom head took a turn southward, bending down to the ground in typical banana bloom fashion. Today, the first petal opened up to reveal the top-most row of flowers and ultimately fruit. In the pictures below, the stamen (contains the pollen) sits around the pistil which sits atop the soon to be fruit. I expect there to be more petals opening below in the next few days.

Click the pictures for a larger image.

Jeff spotted two original Austin Mini Coopers while in D.C. The green one is a Mini Cooper Truck! Click each one for more photos on Flickr.

The banana tree in the back yard is going to bloom this year. It was planted there three years ago and has been protected from cold each winter up to the top of the stalks. This will be the first time it has bloomed. It's definitely an odd plant to have in this location.

Here's a website with some pictures of the snow banana bloom. Link. It's very alien looking indeed.

Click for a larger view.

This service allows you to convert Flickr images matching a series of criteria (user, tags, etc) and funnel them into iPhoto as a photocast. This goes one step further than the Flickr RSS feeds already available in that it gives you the high res versions of the images rather than the low to medium res versions.

Link.

The party is over, the cheering gone but everyone is going to remember this one. The photo booth turned out to be a smashing success at the birthday party where I unveiled it.

Tim Hunkin, writer of the series The Secret Life of Machines is also a bit of a tinkerer and engineer. He created his own photo booth with a PC, webcam, printer and custom controls designed to illicit certain reactions from people (i.e. blowing a puff a air to get a surprised look).

Link.

For the structure of the photo booth, I need something that is light weight, easy to carry, comes apart easily, is sturdy and packs very flat. The obvious choice for this is always the adult version of the erector set– PVC pipe.

To control the photo booth (i.e. the “shutter” button) I decided to use the I-Pac VE. It’s original intent was to use for another arcade cocktail table. It’s a small breadboard with two rows of screw terminals that sends a keystroke when the pins are grounded. It’s powered via USB and sends the events as “keyboard” strokes. I’ve wired a switch to the player 1 start button (sends a “1” key).

In order to make the application Photo Booth take a picture, I’ve had to modify the shortcut key of the “Take Photo” menu item. This is accomplished by using the developer tools (Interface Builder) to modify the .NIB file. Now whenever I press “1” on the keyboard or close the switch on the I-Pac, Photo Booth takes a picture.

Link

We bought some fabric that will become the curtain of the photo booth. Hancock Fabrics are going out of business so I got 10 yards of a black fabric that hangs really well– on sale at $6.29/yd.

Also, we picked up plastic grommets to use when hanging the fabric on a rod so it can slide open and closed. They are two parts and snap together sandwiching the fabric. An X-acto blade cuts the center fabric out well.