Here are some sites about photography that I've discovered recently; not to be missed!
Lost America via Flickr.
A collection of photos that are breathtaking and haunting; shot at night using natural and artificial light sources.
Strobist
Learn how to take great shots with less gear and a little know how.
Strobist Flickr Group
See shots from people like you and read how they did it; learn flash positions and settings.
Photocritic
A do it yourself photography blog.
Does the new Chevy truck bear a resemblance to anything you may have seen (fictitious or not) in the past? National Lampoon's Vacation Family Truckster, perhaps?
Click for a larger image. Okay, maybe just the headlights, but come on!
Found a clever animated video (not official) for the song Minimum Wage by They Might be Giants.
If you use phpMyAdmin to administer a MySQL database on your server, be warned that you need to keep it up to date. Security vulnerabilities are discovered all the time so you can't rely on an obscure pathname to it to keep you safe. Below is an examtple of the paths that I've noticed are searched for. These came from my Apache log.
"GET /admin/phpmyadmin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/phpMyAdmin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/sysadmin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/sqladmin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/db/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/web/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/pMA/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/mysql/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/myadmin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/webadmin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/sqlweb/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/websql/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/webdb/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/mysqladmin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/mysql-admin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/phpmyadmin2/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/php-my-admin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/phpMyAdmin-2.2.3/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/phpMyAdmin-2.2.6/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/phpMyAdmin-2.5.1/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/phpMyAdmin-2.5.4/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/phpMyAdmin-2.5.6/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-pl1/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/phpMyAdmin-2.6.2-rc1/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/phpMyAdmin-2.6.3/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/phpMyAdmin-2.6.3-pl1/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/phpMyAdmin-2.6.3-rc1/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpmyadmin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpMyAdmin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /db/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /web/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /PMA/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /admin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /mysql/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /myadmin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /webadmin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /sqlweb/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /websql/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /webdb/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /mysqladmin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /mysql-admin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpmyadmin2/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /php-my-admin/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpMyAdmin-2.2.3/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpMyAdmin-2.2.6/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpMyAdmin-2.5.1/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpMyAdmin-2.5.4/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpMyAdmin-2.5.6/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpMyAdmin-2.6.0/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-pl1/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpMyAdmin-2.6.2-rc1/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpMyAdmin-2.6.3/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpMyAdmin-2.6.3-pl1/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
"GET /phpMyAdmin-2.6.3-rc1/main.php HTTP/1.0" 404
This spring we noticed that we had some tomato plants growing the front yard flower beds. We didn't plant them– they're volunteers and are growing vigorously, despite our lack of care over the summer. Our non-efforts were rewarded with 4 tomatoes totaling 5 pounds. They are most likely Brandywine heirlooms judging from their shape and color (I grew these last year, birds probably “deposited” the seeds).
;)
;)
In our backyard below the peach trees, we found over a dozen large white mushrooms growing in the lawn. They were gorgeous and perfectly formed and must have formed overnight as I didn't see them yesterday. I was a little concerned that the dogs might want to chow down on them but they avoided them like the plague. We plucked them up to be sure.
Mushroomexpert.com helped to identify this as the Amanita thiersii of which edibility is unknown but likely poisonous.
;)
;)
;)
Today, at work. Luckily, I didn't have to deal with this, but kudos to the Civic owner for squeezing in next.
Remember that bug I found on one of my tomatoes growing in the garden? I found it by browsing the What's That Bug on the first page of caterpillars. Yay, poisonous spines!
Saddleback Caterpillar
(08/08/2004) Hello Bugman,
My wife found this really awesome caterpillar a few days ago on her Gerber Daisies. I have been looking all over the Internet trying to identify it, when I stumbled across you site. It looks like someone has asked you about a particular “Saddleback Caterpillar”, and that seems to fit the description of the picture I'm sending you now. Is that what this is? Thanks for your help!
Gray Benton
Iron Station, North CarolinaHi Gray,
Yes, indeed, you have a Saddleback Caterpillar, Sibine stimulea. Beware those poisonous spines. They can cause quite a bit or irritation. Holland writes: “Nettles are not to be compared in stinging power to the armament of this beautifully colored larva.” Thanks for the photo and I'm so glad our site was helpful.
As an update to my previous post about how to add LAME MP3 export functionality to Quicktime Player, here's the link to the current project with an installer for universal binaries.
I've been looking for an elegant solution to the tangle of wires and bulbous wall warts that cling around the cell phones, iPods, digital cameras and bluetooth headsets whilst they are charging. One simple idea is to take a small plastic box and put the cables and wall warts inside the box and thread the cables through small holes in the top. It's very simple and uses an easy to find part.