Binary Day

This is a day that only happens once every one thousand years but you could say that about any specific date in a millennium. Many people like to make much of numbers and dates but really was June 6, 2006 (666) the day of the devil? Nope, don't think so. I guess the only number that will remain for some time is 911 being the day the United States was attacked by some really sick and hateful people, as well as the emergency number for help.

So today might just as well be related to the binary or base-2 numbering system. A series of ones and zeros is how you are reading this post. A zero symbolizes an off signal and a one indicates on. So why is this fundamental to Binary Day?  Here goes.

Back in the day, I'm talking 1873, Frederick 

Guthrie discovered that some elements will transmit energy when they are heated. This is known as the thermionic emission effect. It wasn't really put to use until the early 1900's when the vacuum tube was invented. The materials used in vacuum tubes required relatively (to todays microprocessor standards) high power to heat the elements in order for them to work. That's why they glowed in the back of your parents, or grand parents TV or radio receiver.

So how do we get from tubes to bits? After all, one is analog and the other is digital. Energy flows through a tube and there for it is an analog device. However the properties of the tube make it a switch of sorts that can provide either an on or off signal. Taking this line of thinking further a simple relay does the same thing. Look at the diagram below to see how a relay works electrically.

As power is applied via the control power. the coil generates a magnetic field that pulls the core of the contactor down. With unswitched power (hot) at one side of the points, when the contactor completes the circuit the power is allowed to flow to the switched side of the circuit. There are many application for relays as they allow a light power load to control a heavy power load. Again in a logical manor, a relay is either on or off, when a decision has been made to activate the relay, the circuit is on.

Moving into solid state December 23, 1947 was a significant date. It was when Bell Labs created the first working transistor. No moving parts hence the term solid state.

Looking at the diagram above, it is very similar in logic to the relay in function. The Base receives a charge which allows the flow of electrons from the Emitter to the Collector. The point here is it functions like a switch. It is either on or off. The next movement in technology was the advent of the logic circuit. As best I can describe, these function as though a number of transistors were housed in the same unit and allowed more than just a single on/true or off/false answer but also an and / or option to the logic (get it? Logic Circuit) Admittedly this technology came to being as my electronic education was tapering off. Honestly I had not kept up with this level of geekdom until mid 1980. This was the year of my computerize birth so to speak. I bought a Tandy (Radio Shack) TRS-80 with 16Kb of memory and no drives. Programs loaded from a cassette tape. Of course this was all new and exciting and to this day my wife can not understand my excitement about making the word "Hello" flash on and off in black and white. With the limited electronic knowledge I had attained, transitioning to ones and zeros was pretty easy.

Still where does all this background tie into Binary Day? 101010 is October 10, 2010, a simple series of ones and zeros (starting to get the idea?) In the digital argument world, a one is considered on or a true answer to an argument and a 0 is off or false. As only two numbers (zero is a number) are used naming it a binary order is appropriate. So lets look at the following diagram as an argument.

Given a singular argument there is only one answer, either true or false equating to on or off, or in the binary world 0 or 1. This logic is not new, in fact in the year of our Lord 1732, discrete bits were used in punched cards invented by Basile Bouchon and Jean-Baptiste Falcon. So much for new ideas! The solid state circuit and microprocessor allowed this vast amount of information to be stored and processed in higher numbers than humanly possible. I actually took a computer course in college that I dropped because I found typing up punch cards to be extremely boring.

Anyhow in the diagram above there are two sets of arguments which result in four possible answers.

The possibilities are 11, 10, 01, and 00 which define this as two bit logic. You may be familiar with 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit, and 64 bit processors. Nintendo didn't call it N64 for no reason at all. When we expand the two bit logic consider the following:

00 = 2 bit

0000 = 4 bit

00000000 = 8 bit and so on.

if you continue the logical arguments from the diagram as being four possibilities, eight bit would produce 256 different possibilities; 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 is how the math works out as bits are added. Sooo... As this was posted on 10-10-10 at 10 in the morning it is a full eight bit day. Now it would be just too ironic to see if it had 256 words.

This is a little peek (pardon the pun) into my brain so don't be afraid, no live brain sells were actually injured in this blog post.

See Ya Later... Doug

Good Bye Mr. Steinbrenner

I am not a particularly big sports nut. I do enjoy watching many different sports and going to live events but I don’t keep up with teams, standings or ratings like many do. So why am I blogging about the death of George Steinbrenner?

There was a time in my aviation career that I had an opportunity to fly Mr. Steinbrenner on many occasions, His daughter attended the Culver Military Academy in Culver Indiana. I would pick-up George in Chicago or Indianapolis and fly him into the little airport in at Culver.

On one drop off at O’Hare I was getting back into the airplane and noticed he had dropped his wallet along side the seat. I ran it into the office where we parked and caught him before he left the building. Say thanks to me he reached into his wallet and pulled out a bill and handed it to me.

Returning to the airplane I dug the bill out of my pocket to find out it was $100. For a twenty four year old charter pilot, that wasn’t too bad.

A couple of decades later I saw Mr. Steinbrenner waiting for a Southwest flight in the Tampa Airport. He was checking out the airline for a possible contract for the Yankees transportation. Anyhow, I approached him and introduced my self as the young charter pilot a couple decades ago that would fly him to Culver. He obviously did not remember my name but remembered me providing that service. Then he engaged me in conversation which I found somewhat odd until he explained it to me as we went down the jetway.

He thanked me for talking with him as it kept other people from approaching him for autographs and such. I found that somewhat funny but also understand the lack of privacy such public people are allowed.

Your welcome George and rest in peace!


Cya... Doug

Moving On

We have been working on our new softer and friendlier website for some time now and while not totally complete, there is enough there to give it a coming out party. Hard edged graphics have given away to nice calming color and a little more free spirited graphics.
As far as the blog, I have decided to bring it under the peekfoto domain to increase my search engine ranking and it is just easier to work with. Why is this a surprise, I am using iWeb that comes on the Mac. I am still exploring many of the option but right now some of the nice tool I am used to on blogger are missing in iWeb. It does however clean it up and gives it a less clunkier feel.

Here is the top of the blog, come on over and give it a read right here. We will give this a go and hopefully it will be an enjoyable experience for all. I am not sure if I will be moving all the archive posts from blogger over to the mac site. For right now I am going to leave it where it is.


Take care and I'll see you at http://peekfoto.com/Blog/Blog.html


Cya there... Doug

Tribute to a Legend

Robert Cameron

1911-2009

In September of last year at a spry 98 years old Robert Cameron was hanging out the door of a helicopter photographing San Francisco's famous Lombard street for his popular Above series.

So why am I saying anything about this guy and hasn't anyone else said something already. The answer ti the second question is yes and the answer to the first is this. I am not big on the whole leaving a legacy thing but when someone has put their life into a body of work I think a little respect is in order. Now normally the desired retirement age in the U.S. seams to be 60-65 years old. Mr. Cameron spent at least an additional 32 years beyond that. That is passion and dedication to you profession, I must say. That is why I am putting it on this blog. Here is an excerpt from his website on his bio;

Robert Cameron's photographic career began in 1933 as a news photographer for the Des Moines Register. During World War II he worked for the War Department as a civilian photographer. After a stint in the New York City business world he migrated to San Francisco where he self-published his first ABOVE book in 1969. Since that time there have been 16 additional titles reaching a total of over three million copies in print.

Here are some of his spectacular arial images, enjoy these and if you want learn more of this distinguished photographer you can click here. Enjoy the images.

Absolutely stunning images, his talent will be missed I am sure but I hope his work will inspire others to rise to greater heights in their own photography.

Take car and cya tomorrow... Doug

Happy CCD Birthday

I give you, rather a couple of Nobel Prize Winning Physics whiz kids gave us the Charged Coupled Device or CCD for short. Nikon loves these little things and Canon moved to CMOS some time ago.

Although I could not nail down the exact date by my limited research today, I was listening to a TWIP (This Week In Photography) podcast and they made mention of it. So I am dedicating today as recognition of two dudes back in 1969 that came up with a little device that could store energy on a big scale.

George Smith and Willard Boyle

There are the two geniuses, Really! George Smith and Richard Boyle. These guys spent a bunch of time with Bell Labs, you know, the place for the most technogeek people to hang around and come up with really cool stuff. The kind of stuff that either never makes it to the public because the military nabs it or it was a fizzle or stepping stone to something better.

Such was the case for the CBD. That's right in 1967 another Bell Labs pocket protector geek (I say that with all due respect) by the name of Andrew Bodeck was working on expanding the size of memory devices. The Charged Bubble Device was born, it was a matrix of CCD's. Concurrently the CCD was found to respond to photoelectric and it could travel along the surface of the CCD making it linear. In short an analog form cold be transmitted linearly and thus measured digitally. This could then be translated into values that could represent photo values. The photoly functional CCD was to be famous.

So this year Smith and Boyle were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. That's all fine and good but we must not forget that we rarely accomplish things all by ourselves. It was in a 1905 paper by Albert Einstein that would eventually prove the photoelectric effect that Smith and Boyle would validate in their research. Crazy Al would later receive the recognition he deserved. In 1921 he received the Nobel Prize for Physics.

Albert Einstein

Overall the CCD has been a valuable device for the past 40 years. Photon collecting devices continued to evolve to the CMOS (Charged Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensor we have today. Many Nikon cameras hold to the CCD over the CMOS at the a chagrin of their owners as they just love to eat up batteries. Great device but very hungry!

I',m about geeked out over this exiting topic but I just could not let this important milestone go unnoticed.

Take care... Doug

P.S. Yes I did not blog all of last week. No I was not in a funk, I was not without motivation (ok, just a little), it was just after missing Monday, I thought it would be nice to take the week off. Good thing as I was busy as a beaver around the house.

William Porter

This is William Porter. Why am I putting up a post of an individual? Actually there are three reasons why. First Bill was the one to encourage me to press forward with photography when it was a now and then kind of thing to me. So it is he that is responsible for my obsession with this wonderful craft. Secondly the pic-o-month for April is sitting on my CF card at home in the 5D2. There sits at least one great image I was abel to take last Saturday in Maryland. Finally but most importantly he is a great guy!

The photo above was take last year on a trip to Mt. Hood Oregon, it is an image of the quintessential landscape/nature photographer. Actually it amazed me that he did not kill himself walking around with his sticks open.

What is really funny is that I have known Bill for over 35 years and it was not until the past couple of years that we have really become close friends. I guess things can work out that way when you marry into a large family. Oh did I fail to mention, Bill is my brother-in-law.

So I am giving William Porter the honor of siting at the pic-o-month position on the blog... At least until I get home and find that great shot sitting in the 5D2.

Take care Bill, you are a friend.

Cya... Doug

911

I was not going to make this a 911 post but then I was watching the tube this evening with my wife and we stumbled onto the History channel which was showing a special on the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center twin towers. The video was from many individuals personal cam-corders. The editing made this presentation not only in an accurate timeline but presented it in a very personal slant.

This image is an open source image from the DOD so feel free to download it. The lights are currently shining at leas until sunrise on the 12th. A few years ago when the lights were first turned on I was flying in the New York area and it was quite spectacular. I still get an erie feeling when I fly into the New York area and see the missing twin towers.

Evelyn and I were privileged to spend a couple of nights in the Millennium Hilton this past March and saw first hand the devastation that still remains even in the rebuilding of that area of lower Manhattan. You can read my post from March right here.

Take care... Doug

NAPP... Just Do It!

In a continuing effort to put up a post at least once per day I have decided to pre-blog this coming week. If I find time I may get a [p]411 Live Update but I would not hold your breath.

For this morning though I am going to recommend to anyone who is not a member, but uses Photoshop in any meaningful way to join the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.

The folks in this association are just outstanding. I have never seen a group of individuals who are in such a competitive industry so willing to share their secret, tips, and tricks of their profession. It really speaks highly of their character. I must really credit this global attitude of warmth to one person. None other than the biological father of NAPP... Scott Kelby. While I do not know Scott personally, I have been to one of his presentations on Lightroom and have been keeping up with his blog for the past year. From every outward appearance, I can say he is one of the most genuine down to earth people. Besides he really really enjoys what he is doing. Be it photographing food, portraits, or landscapes, to conducting medium size (300-400) seminars or being on top of the world at Photoshop World Expo twice a year. He puts the Energizer bunny to shame.

Continuing with the NAPP - Photoshop - Kelby praise-athon, I look forward each week to the funny, entertaining, enlightening, and educational 30 minute video podcast that is PhotoshopUserTV. These guys genuinely have a good time on screen and I am very thankful that while they are broadcasted on the Fox Business Network they have been able to keep that light and free spirited banter alive on the broadcast. I just which they were not so time constrained. Oh well.. Such is progress.

Anyhow, like I was saying if you use Photoshop the $99 annual membership to NAPP is well worth the investment in your creative portfolio. If it were just the discounts it would be convincing enough. There is also a magazine that just blows the competition away when it comes to technical guidance (step by step). One more thing, as a member if you have any photographic, photo software, or digital photo editing questions that arise there is a plethora of information to answer you questions. If you can not find it you can ask and in a very short time someone will respond with a very informed answer to you question.

Ok... I'll nock it off. Just go check them out and you will not be sorry.

Cya (live) later this week... Doug

Number 200

I don't want to make this to much of a big deal with graphics and all but here goes.

This is my blog post number 200. That's right, I have been blogging now since January 3, 2008. For the most part there has been an image up on each one of them. I have kept it mostly about photography but have also used this spot in cyberspace to blow my horn once in a while.

Hopefully for those that have visited, and those that have on rare occasions left a comment, have seen a part of me that my not otherwise be visible. I try to be what I am but for some reason the written word digs deeper into the soul and reveals a deeper and hopefully richer aspect of the author.

Anyhow, just wanted to let everyone know that it was #200.

Cya... Doug

Cadillac of the Sky

The P-51 D model was the most manufactured of the P-51 aircraft. The one in the image is an example and was taking off from Van Nuys airport shortly after our arrival. VNY is the worlds busiest general aviation airport in the world. Located just 6 miles West of Burbank in the San Fernando Valley.

Speaking of Van Nuys AIrport. It has such a rich history there was a movie made called One Six Right which is the compass heading designating the right parallel runway

VNY has been the filming location for a number of Hollywood movies and TV series. Airwolf was based there, Alias and 24 have both shot at VNY. The most memorable images of shot at VNY were those of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in the 1942 movie Casablanca.

For more information you can link over to the airport site right here.

That will do it for today... Doug

YanniHD 7.1

I just got home last night from a week of committee meetings in Columbus OH. When completed, this product will be used by over 3,000 pilots on a daily basis. It is no surprise that the Netjets pilots are unionized but in its current iteration this is not your typical labor management relation.

We (company and pilots) al realize that we are involved in a fantastic company, working with outstanding people, flying totally awesome equipment. Those three elements have been in place since I started ten plus years ago. What is really cool is the relationship between the union and the company. It is a joint working relationship in the truest sense of the word.

It is absolutely amazing the extent of qualification unrelated to flying that exists in the pilot group. When there is a project to be completed the labor relations management people assemble a stellar group of men and women from both the company and the union to produce a product that is far and above what anyone person, labor or management could produce.

Last year at this same time I was on such a committee that came up with a solution but was later placed on the "back burner" so to speak. Through various management adjustments it was brought to the front this week and I again worked with some but not all the team from last year.

The lead gentleman from the company has an amazing vision for this product. We all sat in on his presentation the first day picking up on a new paradigm. He is from Greece and goes by Yanni. So by day two we were all talking about Yanni's vision and someone piped up with "Yanni Vision", then another came off with "YanniHD" and then added "7.1"

I must say it is very very nice to work in an environment that promotes cooperation and synergy among it's team members.

Once the other aircraft fleets are looking at this process in YanniHD, it will be a beautiful thing.

Cya tomorrow... Doug

Makes You Think!

In the lower right hand corner of the image above is a blow up of a shard of glass between two grave stones. Where did it come from... How did it get there... Why hasn't it been picked up...

This image was captured in the grave yard of St. Paul's Chapel on Church Street in New York City. It is the chapel where all the tributes were laid after September 11, 2001. You can read more about the church in A Rock In A Weary Land post. What is interesting is that it took two years to clean up all the debris from the towers and surrounding buildings. Yet here is a shard of glass that remains. Could it be a remanence of one of the towers... Possibly. I would like to think so and that it remains as a reminder of the reality of that moment in our nations history.

As time goes on we all need to be reminded of the freedoms we have in  this land that we all to often take for granted. Thank a fireman, policeman, and especially a serviceman when you pass one for giving of their selves so that we may continue to enjoy our way of life.

Take care all... Doug

Rebirth of a Giant

When people have seen my pano of ground zero they always want to know where the twin towers were and what it is going to look look when it is all done.

The two images below were taken from the current memorial plaza across from the Hilton on Church Street. The top image shows the block where the twin towers actually stood and the park that will encompass that same block. The footprint of the towers will be a set of waterfalls into obvious what is a tribute pond where the towers once stood.

The second image is of the simplified engineering plans for the entire rebuild of the area as many of the surrounding buildings had to come down due to the damage they received when the towers came down.

As far as the how to of these images; They were taken looking up and use of the perspective, and warp function of free transform took care of the shape. Levels and curves was al that was needed to richen up the look of the images.

Enough for now, it's late.

Cya... Doug

Pleasant Surprises

Here is another monument to the September 11, 2001 tragedy. This one came a little by surprise but those little surprises in life are often the most rewarding.

This was a result of our NYFD photo shoot from the New York Good Bye post. 

After the embarrassment the girls went through, we talked to the guys for a bit and they said there was a really nice 911 memorial just down the waterfront. It was positioned in front of a ball park the Yankees use to practice in. The first photo was very prominent on the waterfront and gave me the initial appearance of the tail of an airplane. It wasn't until I was able to view it from a different perspective that I realized the sculpture of the monument.

Once I came around the south side of the structure I saw how the two parts were split. In fact the bracket the location of where the twin towers used to stand.

The shape is reminiscent to me of the photos of the remaining structure in the days following 911 were the parts of the building stood crumpled but listing to one side or the other.

Finally the inside walls of the structure is lined with head profiles with names of the men and women of the New York Fire Department that were lost while trying to save others.

Some of the spouses had taped photos of their husbands by their names. There was one where a baby photo was taped. No doubt this child has never seen his hero daddy.

There are no people more honorable than those that are willing to lay down their lives for another. Be it Firemen, Police, or the Military, we can not forget what these people do to maintain the freedoms we so often forget about or take for granted in these United States.

Let honor be given to whom honor is due... You all rock!

Doug

A Rock In A Weary Land

Continuing the 9-11 tribute week:

During all the devastation on that disastrous morning or September 11, 2001, there was one location that stood fast to provide respite for the weary. You may recall in the days and weeks that followed 9-11 a sidewalk with a wrought iron fence that was plastered with flowers, stuffed animals of children form lost parents in the tragedy. That sidewalk passed on the backside of St. Paul's Chapel located on Church street which is really on the west side of the church as the front of the church faces west. Church street got it's name as it was the road at the time in 1769 when St. Paul's was built at the edge of town that led to church on Sunday morning. George Washington at the time when New Your was the nations capital would attend this church for worship.

Why the history lesson? For two reasons. First it is my Blog, and second I am going somewhere with it so stick with me here.

As firemen and rescue workers would get exhausted from the efforts in the initial days of the search and rescue of survivors and then the subsequent recovery efforts, they would seek this small chapel. The image below is an example and one of the pews that workers would sit and rest or lay down and sleep. The inside of the church is more a living memorial and museum of 9-11 but it still conducts services in the small sanctuary.

The first image was take from the Church street side in the courtyard which is actually a cemetery and shows the front of St. Paul's Chapel.

Ok... So where am I going here.

The hotel we stayed at was the Millennium Hilton on 55 Church Street and St' Paul's Chapel is just across the street to the north. On 9-11 the hotel had roughly 80% of its windows destroyed by the collapse of the twin towers. What is truly amassing is the church did not loose on single pane of glass. They say it is because all the trees on the west side of the church absorbed the effects of the buildings collapse. I say it was divine preservation... Not one pane of glass... Wow!

History class os out for the day. Cya tomorrow... Doug

911 Runs 24/7

In a continued reflection on 911 and the whole "ground zero" experience we were told when we checked in that the construction on rebuilding the ground zero site was a 24 hour a day project.

Here are three images of the same area of the ground zero site. In particular it is the quadrant of the site that the twin towers were located. Essentially the south tower was located just to the right (north) of the white building with the curved line (subway) going under it. The north tower was located on the other side of the ram going down into the construction area.

The three images were shot for our 19th floor hotel room and were taken early in the morning, afternoon, and late at night receptively. Construction continues through out the day and night to get the project completed by 2011. It was truly a site to behold and I feel privileged to have witnessed it from such a unique vantage point.

Until tomorrow... Doug

Ground Zero

This has to be one of the most dramatic hotel check-in's I have ever experienced. As we got to our room on the 19th floor of the Millennium Hilton in lower Manhattan on the afternoon of the 21st we would be privileged enough to view on of the most solemn view we as Americans can ever experience in recent history. That of the devastation of Ground Zero.

To stand there and imagine the buildings standing erect one minute, being maliciously attacked another, then to burn out of control until their final collapse. What a site... The thought of thousands of innocent people going out into eternity, falling, being crushed, or even jumping to their demise just leaves one speechless.

While this image is an assembly of eighteen individual shots, I was again taken back when I saw the final image generated in Photoshop. What a sight to behold... In the most reverent and 

respectful manor.

I'll just leave it at that.

Doug

30 Years and Still On A Roll

Today is Evelyn and my 30th wedding anniversary. I have often wondered where I would be in life if it had not been for the stability of my godly wife.

At a time where divorce rates are in the 55% range (much higher in the aviation industry mind you), we have found a way to accomplish this unique milestone. Evelyn jokes and says that as much time as I have been gone flying during our marriage it is more like fifteen years.

Evelyn wanted to get me a watch for the occasion and shopped around and ended up spending three hours at jewelry shops looking at watches and rings... Did I say that? Thats right guys... Diamonds are a girls best friend. I ended up getting a nice Movado watch pictured right.

As far as the new diamond is concerned... Well we are still working on that, but it's looking pretty good.

After that we went and had a very nice dinner at The 1913 Room in the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. Following that pleasantry we stopped by the video store and picked up a couple of westerns (by her request) and went home an couched the night away. Not exactly a night I would have envisioned 30 years ago, but then again, it has been 30 years.

Bottom line is that we are still disgustingly in love with each other and are looking forward to the second half of our marriage.

Take care all.

Doug

Easy Rider

Last sumer I had taken a ride down to Battle Creek Harley-Davidson just to see what they had in their store. The store is a rejuvenated grocery store and I might add a much better use of space. As I walked around the shop I of course lingered around the nice new bikes and then there they were. Two bikes out of the past. The first was Wyatt's and  Billy's bikes from the 60's Easy Rider cult movie. Wyatt was played by Peter Fonda and went by "Captain America". The bikes never had names but over the years "Captain America" has been synonymous with Fonda's motorcycle. This blurring probably came for the fact that the fuel tank and Fonda's helmet had an American flag motif.

There were a number of these bikes built but definitely come as a very limited edition motorcycle. This was a way cool bike. I took some snaps with the camera I keep on my bike. The image above is of the tank with Peter Fonda's autograph... Another way cool touch. Too bad at the end of the movie the bike... Oops, I had better not give it away just in case you have not seen the movie. Interesting counter culture flick that is a very big downer man.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend. 

Cya Monday!

Doug