http://feed.nixweb.com Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:38:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Want a good view of the storms hitting California and willing to work a bit for it? Download and install WeatherScope. This is a free application for looking at the huge quantities of free weather data out there. The user interface isn't great but the functionality is. The most frequent updates ... http://feed.nixweb.com/2010/01/18/watching-the-storms/ Got the dynamic range right on the shaded relief. (Click image for 1024x1024 version): [caption id="attachment_132" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Alpine Lake and Bon Tempe Lake (CC-by-SA license)"][/caption] I've spent several days trying to figure out why the roads in the MRLC land cover data don't line up with the OpenStreetMap roads. The creeks ... http://feed.nixweb.com/2009/12/29/bad-data-at-bon-tempe-lake/ North flank of Mt Tamalpais I've been playing with making topo maps using elevation and land cover data. Enough is in place now that some of the bugs look interesting. My initial take on light and shadow turned out to be a bit aggressive. At full size this image becomes very abstract ... http://feed.nixweb.com/2009/12/14/mt-tam-chiaroscuro/ On my last day at the old job I brought You are Here in for a demo. The software hasn't changed much recently but the new tablet pc sure improves it. Kirrily had a video camera handy and did this off-the-cuff demo/interview: http://feed.nixweb.com/2009/10/22/another-you-are-here-video/ Assembled from bits found cleaning up a campsite this summer... http://feed.nixweb.com/2009/10/02/redneck-windchimes/ Another chapter in the improbable history of Cataclysmic Megashear RaNCh. Yesterday a four-alarm fire destroyed four warehouses and damaged three others on our block in Bayview. The rAnch was unburned, in spite of fire burning on two sides. Water damage was minimal, in spite of the ladder truck overhead ... http://feed.nixweb.com/2009/08/31/the-ranch-moist-not-crispy/ [caption id="attachment_100" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sand from the base of Eureka Dunes"][/caption] Desert sand has sharper edges than water-tumbled beach sand. More exotic sand photos at sandcollectors.org. http://feed.nixweb.com/2009/03/30/sand/ This is the most pronounced cloud shadow I've ever seen. The cloud in question appears to be the bright white streak near the horizon, which is almost but not exactly lined up with the shadow. But why the strange alignment of the original cloud? It could be a contrail, ... http://feed.nixweb.com/2009/02/25/cloud-shadow/ Sometimes people refer to time as a "fourth dimension", which is true in some sense but also misleading since time is qualitatively different from the three spatial dimensions. You can rotate an object so its height becomes its length or width, but in the real world you can't rotate duration ... http://feed.nixweb.com/2009/01/04/rotating-time-into-space/ Here's a nice year-long timelapse for the new year. You may prefer to watch it in high-def. One year in 40 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo. One technique I haven't seen before is the use of tone mapping to prepare each frame. Tone mapping is usually used to compress high dynamic ... http://feed.nixweb.com/2009/01/02/a-year-long-timelapse/