Monday, September 17, 2007

Desktop Photos Updated

The hummingbird photo I posted recently got me going on a long overdue update to the Desktop Photos page on mathdittos2.com. I've posted six "new" photos and also did a little redesign of the page. I'd really gotten sick of the old look. I also added links where possible for 1920x1200 pixel images for those of us lucky enough to have an Apple 23" Cinema Display. The images may be used free for desktop photo. All other use requires prior permission, photo credit, and royalties for commercial use.

		The image at on the far left is a "save" from the original image on the near left. It's one I took just a few hundred yards from our house and went away thinking I had a "keeper." When I got the image into Photoshop, I was dismayed to see that my composition skills had departed me, as I'd included the drainpipe on which local fisherman stand. I actually got out on the pipe for a few shots, but none of them looked as good as the flawed image at right. I'd omitted the shot from Desktop Photos until now, as I just couldn't get over my poor composition. Maybe the mists will return someday, and I can frame a better shot of a beautiful area I'm privileged to live near.
		Of course, the images that got all of this started were the hummingbirds. I actually added two images to the Desktop Photos page. Both images here were marred by vignetting by the telephoto lens used, but had enough image space and resolution to be used.
The hornworm shown here is a tobacco hornworm. I originally thought it to be a tomato hornworm, but after perusing a number of state agricultural school websites, I found it to be the tobacco variety. Either one can devastate the foliage on tomato plants. Fortunately, parasitic wasps can help control the pests by laying their eggs in them. The larva then eat the hornworm! From the Kansas State University site: This insect is parasitized by a number of insects. One of the most common is a small braconid wasp. Larva that hatch from wasp eggs laid on the hornworm feed on the inside of the hornworm until the wasp is ready to pupate. The cocoons appear as white projections protruding from the hornworms body. If such projections are seen, leave the infected hornworms in the garden. The wasps will kill the hornworms when they emerge from the cocoons and will seek out other hornworms to parasitize. Handpicking is an effective control in small gardens. Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) and other insecticides may also be used to control hornworms. Thuricide and Dipel (trade names for bacillus thuringiensis) dust help slow down this ferocious looking pest, but handpicking has always worked best for me. Since Bt is a biological agent rather than an insecticide, I do give the tomato and potato plants a shot of it when I'm spraying or dusting the brassicas in the garden (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, etc.).
		The image at the far left is one of some flowers from our garden (near left) that I used to fill out the table row on the desktops page.
	While filling out a row, I ran across this double rainbow image. It was taken outside of Marshall, IL, in 2005. It was raining outside, while Donnie and Tess Kane hosted a baby shower for one of my daughters. Tess died in a tragic car accident earlier this year. Donnie and Tess have been "second parents" to one of our girls, and Tess is certainly missed by us all. Maybe the rainbows will help us all remember all the good Donnie and Tess have done for so many people.

Itsamac/MacHighway Web Hosting

It's not all that often that a bill comes in that makes me smile. I just received my annual billing from MacHighway.com (formerly Itsamac). I've been around the block with a number of web hosts since 1994, and I think the folks at MacHighway are the best of the bunch.

Update

All good things come to an end is the old saying. For our web hosting, our association with MacHighway ended in September, 2009. MacHighway suffered a failure of the drive array that carried our Senior Gardening site. Their backup array also failed. To compound things, MacHighway delayed informing customers for days. When they did, they did not get the server back up, but suggested customers sign up for another year on another of their servers (with a credit and discount) while they sent the drive arrays to a disk recovery firm.

I might have stayed with MacHighway if they had been willing to inform me of any significant (24 hours or so) downtime. They refused, so since October, 2009, we've been using Hostmonster.com. So far, so good.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Freebies Page Updated

After years of neglect, I finally updated the mathdittos2.com Freebies page. I've added a number of Mac OS X open source and freeware links.

If you're looking for a bargain, you can't beat free!

NASA Looking for New Astronauts (including teachers!)

According to Space.com staff writer Tariq Malik, NASA is looking for new astronaut applicants. In NASA Begins Hunt for New Astronauts he states that "applicants must hold a bachelor's degree in engineering, science or mathematics," but adds "NASA also urged educators to apply for its newest class of astronauts. Experienced teachers of kindergarten through the 12th grade level are also considered qualified."

eLearning Battle Heats Up Again

eSchool News reports in Online-learning patent dispute heats up that Blackboard and Desire2Learn are at it again. While it appeared that an August ruling from a magistrate judge in a federal district court in Texas had weakened Blackboard's claims in it's infringement suit against Desire2Learn, eSchool senior editor, Robert L. Jacobson, quotes Blackboard's chief counsel, Matthew H. Small, as saying it was still "very clear that our patent is strong and Desire2Learn infringes it." The federal agency that originally granted the patent to Blackboard has also agreed to re-examine the patent. The outcome of this case and the patent re-evaluation could ultimately have a very negative effect on users of Angel, Joomla, Saiki, Moodle, and all the other course and learning management systems . (Full disclosure note: I work for a web site that runs on Moodle, an open source course management system.)

And speaking of eSchool News, you might want to take a look at their recent page of grant offerings.

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