Archive for April 2004

Fri, 30 April 2004

Friday Video

How about some more in car footage...  a supercharged Corvette running with a Yamaha R1 motorcycle.  There is a point in this video where the R1 is wide open, and the Vette is right with him.  Very fast, on rough roads, hang on!  Click Here

Car videos are like eating potato chips, one is never enough.  Here is some Corvette street racing footage.  Click Here

Thu, 29 April 2004

I happened to be trying to buy a song in the iTunes music store when they released v4.5 yesterday, weird errors, but I figured they must have changed client software and they did!  I managed to upgrade which included iTunes v4.5, a new version of QuickTime in which iTunes complained about having at install, but was not to be had until later in the day... an upgrade to my iPod, and then even later a new version of iMovie.  Typical of the way Apple releases software updates.

Anyway, all is well that ends well, and I finally did get to purchase the song I was looking for.  I like new Party Shuffle, and the ability to publish iMixes.  Here is a favorite iMix I put together.  And I also like the Top 10 RSS feed, that is not new, but I hadn't mentioned it before so I will right now.

And thank you Steve for giving us a free song to download every day this week.

Fri, 23 April 2004

Friday Video

This video was filmed from the cockpit of a GT spec Lotus Elise Exige on the Nurburgring Nordschleife.  The guy in front is in a
stock looking Euro Corvette (different tail light arrangement).  About half way through the video the Lotus driver catches the Corvette driver and they drive side by side for an instant braking into a corner and exchange smiles.  At this point the race track opens to a long straight and the Corvette just vanishes, he pulls the Lotus at speed in an amazing blast.  The Lotus driver looks down to his computer to see if his car is OK, and then the next expression and hand gesture is just priceless...  he catches a few more slower cars, but that Corvette is never to be seen again.

Thu, 22 April 2004

Jupiter: 1,000-song pocket about the right size

I read the above article on c|net today, and can't believe how far off they are on their research on that one.  (Unless they want most everyone that buys into that to upgrade in about a year)  Most of my audiophile friends have more tracks than I do, and I am at 2,800 plus on my 20gb iPod with about 5gb to spare. 

I am already considering buying a model that can hold more. 

(Check out my TuneCam to see what iTunes is currently playing on my iMac)

Mon, 05 April 2004

I remember one of the first bicycles I was really proud to have as a kid was a Schwinn StingRay.  It was metallic blue, had a banana seat, ape hanger handle bars and a slick for the back tire.  And I remember the Orange Krate, with it's springer fork suspension and shocks on the back seat, the 5 speed stick shift and it's factory chopper like look.  The kids in the neighborhood that had those, oh the envy.

Schwinn is re-releasing the StringRay, and I have to say their web site sparked a lot of old memories.  I admit it, I think this new version is pretty cool to look at.  I'd consider owning a metallic blue one again just as a conversation piece for the shop.

Sat, 03 April 2004

I planned to go soaring this morning, but 23mph winds from the north made that option not viable.  So I decided to spend a little time with my Corvette, and add another "mod" that was waiting to be installed.  I recently acquired a Halltech Tunnel Ram Air Bridge in carbon candy pomegranate, not an easy thing to find.  Thanks to Jon at ls1speed.com and Debbie Hall at Halltech, Inc. for locating one for me.

I really wasn't in a hurry, but hour and half and a large cup of coffee and I was finished.  Wasn't that difficult at all, and I like the new look.

(Click on either image to enlarge)

Thu, 01 April 2004

A slick web site can make any company look more than it is, and it is far easier to promise future products on a web site than it is to actually deliver functioning products, particularly in virtual microscopy.  At first glance, it would seem an easy task to digitize a 1" by 3" piece of glass with the resolution of a microscope, and deliver that media in a practical fashion to the average personal computer, but in fact it is a daunting task.  I can name at least three companies in the United States alone, that have claimed to be virtual microscopy companies for at least a year or more.

They all have the same thing in common, a slick web site, strong claims that their scanning will be the fastest, computer generated pictures of the scanner, and no virtual slides online for demonstration or evaluation. 

If you can't put a real picture of your scanning equipment online it's only a prototype, perhaps one or two exist, and it's obviously far from being manufactured.  If you can't put a generous amount of slides online by now, in an organized fashion where a large group of users may be simultaneously looking at a variety of different slides, your server and viewing software technology is already years behind.  And until all the previously mentioned products are solid and in daily use with a variety of different customers, you won't have any foundation let alone understanding of doing distributed digital image analysis applications with virtual slides.

These may seem like strong statements, especially if you just recently learned about virtual microscopy, but I have been in the virtual microscopy business for a decade now, and I have seen the progress of development in my company as well as my real competitors over that time. 

I should mention that I can also name at least three companies in the United States that do deliver virtual microscopy products.  And I certainly know one company that does show pictures of actual scanners and demonstrate them, that can scan slides for you today, and that has hundreds of virtual slides online that you can evaluate from your computer right now, just a click a way from my blog. A company that has considered scanning, serving and viewing virtual slides as a common daily practice for years, not as something that is new.  A company that has the industry leading viewing software which is free to download and use immediately, and does not lean on 3rd party viewing software which is not designed for virtual microscopy.  A company that has virtual slides that can be scanned as a stack and focused like an actual microscope. A company that is already delivering several distributed image analysis applications that utilize virtual slide technology, allowing people to quantitate specimen on microscope slides in ways that were never possible before.   Bacus Laboratories, Inc., pioneered virtual microscopy and happens to be one of those companies that does deliver virtual microscopy products.