This is an incredible journey from the always fascinating TED.com led by planetary scientist Carolyn Porco. It shows the latest rounds of ground-breaking findings of the Cassini exploration mission in a way you are not soon to forget. Amazing imagery and some very startling discoveries! (video filmed in 2007)

The original video and details can be found here: “Carolyn Porco flies us to Saturn“

Today, I watched as my Grandfather passed away.

Monday, June 28th, 2010 at around 12pm my wife, Sara, called me at work to relay a message that the time was near for my Grandfather and that as soon as Ian (my Uncle) arrived from Nanaimo, he would be taken off oxygen. My Mother had left the message and the gist was that if I wanted to be there for his final moments I could. It took me a while to gather the courage but I headed to the hospital to be there, where I had some private moments with him as he lay unconscious with my sweet Grandmother who was always at his side.

At the hospital, time seemed to move as a ball might on an irregular, steep, yet thickly viscous surface; one moment time seemed to barely move, and at times it flew but always with a sense of foreshadowing. Nearer to his passing time seemed to disappear altogether in a peaceful way. I won’t share any further details of his passing other than it was all that any family-focused person could hope it would be, because he was surrounded and held by his loving family to the last moments.

What I do want to share, are a few memories of my Pa (as my brother and I called him) that I treasure.

To begin, I want to preface everything about my Pa with one simple fact – I have always been in awe of his powerful bond with life. I imagine that sounds really cheesy but consider this: my Pa, Ken MacNeill, barely survived Polio as a child, had diabetes, suffered multiple heart attacks resulting in open heart surgery and yet, he made it to his late 80′s and he was still walking (partially) up until just a few weeks ago when the Post Polio Syndrome took his legs. Count the fact that he helped raise 4 children, built the house he lived in from the ground up and was a wonderful, active Grandfather to his many grandchildren… need I say more?

His strength and tenacity aside, my Pa and I spent a lot of time together when I was young. He and I would take his dog Freckles for a walk through the woods nearby his home and he would regale me with stories of the area and how different things looked. I was a very willing ear. In fact, I loved his stories because I was fascinated with old Victoria, BC, and what it must have been like to grow up when the city was so much smaller. You see, my Pa was born and raised in Victoria, BC, and had some pretty great stories about growing up around the very area that I grew up in.

Pa and I would also go fishing together in my small boat or his, and on other days we would go for a drive and he would take me duck watching. In most cases, I did these things with Pa because I wanted to spend time with him. I would never have admitted this to him, but I was never very interested in ducks, and when we went fishing he almost always picked the same fishing spots that I knew (or soon knew) were no longer worthwhile. That didn’t matter though, I just wanted to be with my Pa to hear his stories and be close to him. It was always worthwhile.

Now this eulogy of sorts would not be complete without a couple quotes/beliefs from my Pa that are still with me to this day:

• “Be kind to others”
  When I asked him at one point to tell me what words of advice he would want to pass on to future generations, he deliberated for a moment and that was his answer. There is no doubt, this is far from unique but there is a reason for that.
• “When going outdoors, always wear more clothes than you need, you can always take some off.”
  My Pa always said this to me before we went fishing and to this day I hear him say that every time I go outdoors. It is amazing how simple and obvious, yet helpful such wisdom can be. I can say with certainty that his wisdom has saved me from some very uncomfortable hiking conditions more than a few times in my life.

There are many more fond memories, thoughts and feelings rushing throughout my mind right now but I think I will stop at this point. Suffice it to say that I loved my Pa very much and I am so very glad I could be there for his final moments. It was hard getting the courage to be at his bedside but once I was there, it was clear to me that I was in the very place I should be to pay my respects to my truly grand grandfather.

I am very glad you got to meet my little boy. Rest in peace Pa.

Who doesn’t love a good tease at the awesome Scottish accent? Hmm… I wonder how such an elevator would handle Newfie?

Click here to view the embedded video.

For 7 years now (or close to it) I have been the extremely proud owner of Rotel audio equipment and I don’t think I could ever go to another brand. The solidity, quality of sound, relatively low price (around $2000 per unit – not bad in the audiophile market) and the fact that they hold their value well… makes these beauties worth every penny.

The Rotel that I currently use as my core entertainment unit is pretty old now so it doesn’t have the HMDI inputs and TrueHD decoding, however, it does a phenomenal job of DTS EX and Doly Digital 5.1. Simply put, I can’t recommend it enough and I have found it on ebay for as little as $600 USD including shipping (it is a beast at 20+lbs). Here it is in case any of you want to make a worthwhile upgrade to your home system:

Rotel RSX-1056

(you can click the rear shot for a larger view)

I used to have this receiver matched with a heart-wrenchingly beautiful set of  B&W 805 speakers (aka dream speakers – the same they use at the Abbey Road studio) which I sold a couple years back because I knew my new wife and I would have a little one running around soon. Here is a shot of them except mine were a beautiful chestnut color… I will revisit this page every once in a while to remember and dream so this is mostly for my own delight.

These 805′s produced sound that rendered many of the cds I had new again. Yes, I said new. Every song came alive with sounds that I had never heard before on the radio or on my older set of speakers. These speakers were an absolute pleasure to own – even if I was constantly a little paranoid about anything happening to them

Anyway, I mostly posted this for myself so that someday, worst comes to worst, I could look back at this fondly. I also figured it might give one or two people that last push to get a Rotel or a B&W speaker set.

Did you know that multitasking is addictive? I didn’t until I read this article by the Seattle Times which I cheaply framed yesterday and posted next to my work computer.

When I look back on it I can definitely recall how good it felt whenever I was successfully juggling a number of tasks. I can only describe the feeling as pleasurable squeeze of my mind, a rush of pleasure… what I now understand may be the dopamine being released by my brain. That said, perhaps it was all in my head and I was just feeling the incredible satisfaction of being challenged. All I know, is I am trying to crack my addiction to multitasking and create a more focused work environment. I am also trying not to do so in a claustrophobic way because I have to have some freedom to switch gears without beating myself up for not “sticking to the plan”.

Anyway, I mainly wrote this post to share the article that changed my perspective on multitasking; a work ethic that I knew was not the most effective (50% less so – in fact) but I had no idea it was physically addictive.

So go ahead and read Multitasking hurts brain’s ability to focus, scientists say and let me know your thoughts.

Now, back to my other 6 ongoing tasks…

On May 6th, 2010, I joined my brother Mark, my dad Tom, and our family friend Bob Forrester on a guided fishing adventure with Beasley’s Fishing Charters based out of Victoria, BC, Canada.

The trip began with some Halibut fishing but we didn’t have the patience (which you need for Halibut in this area) and so we headed off to do some salmon fishing which Darren Beasley (our guide and the owner of the charting business) really excelled at; just 3 weeks before he helped us catch our limit of salmon in just 40 min! (that is 2 salmon per person!).

Once we got to the fishing spot, it took some time, perhaps 30 min before the first and largest salmon was caught by my brother. Soon after, we lost one, my dad caught one  and then not long after, Bob had one on and was reeling it in when my rod came to life and it was time for the battle you see below.

Before you watch the video below (or click here for the YouTube video), there are a couple of points you should read that might help you enjoy it more:

1. At the beginning of the video, I am reeling in the salmon rather effortlessly as it swam toward our boat. What you missed, however, was that I had just finished a fairly decent battle which wasn’t captured on this video.
2. Darren, our guide, grabs the net early on to grab Bob’s salmon as it gets close to the boat – it isn’t my fish in case that is confusing at the beginning.
3. After Darren gets the fish in the boat you will hear it slapping around and you will see the flasher on the fishing line from the other rod that had just landed the fish get very close to my head… it was a bit chaotic!
4. The audio is rather bad – sorry about that.
5. I have been told my bald spot is not NEARLY that bad… which is only slightly comforting after watching this video  Apparently, the sun enhances it… or maybe video enhances bald spots by a few inches just like it adds 10 lbs?

Click here to view the embedded video.

To top all of this off, here is my wonderful mug holding my trophy fish of the day  I have a lot of respect for that salmon… he really put on a show.

If you want to see an even bigger catch, and compare it to the fight I faced here, there is a 25lb Chinook that I caught 3 years before this on a fishing trip in Port Hardy, BC, Canada.

This instructional is for anyone who has a D-Link DVG-1120M VOIP Gateway and you found XBOX Live speeds to be painfully slow and/or you got the “Your NAT type is Moderate… etc.” (see the image below) warning message from your XBOX 360 Network test then you need to follow these instructions to forward the proper ports to your XBOX360.

Instructions for Fixing the NAT Error on the XBOX 360 (for the D-Link DVG-1120M)

NOTE: If you already have your XBOX setup with a static IP address then you can skip to #3.

1. Find the MAC Address for your 360 and write it down, you will need it.How to find the MAC address on an XBOX 360
   …
   i) Navigate to the “System” section of the XBOX Dashboard
   ii) Select “Network Settings” (HERE: Write down the IP address for your 360 if you want to use the same one)
   iii) Select “Edit Settings”
   iv) Select “Additional Settings”
   v) Select “Advanced Settings”: the XBOX MAC Address will be listed near the bottom of the page where it says “Wired MAC Address”
   …
2. In the D-Link DVG-1120M go to the “DHCP Configuration” drop down menu and then select “Static IP Assignment”. Here is where you will set a static IP address for your XBOX 360:i) Press “Edit” on the first available IP record. Note you can edit these at will unless you know someone has customized these for you before – you don’t want to mess up this stuff if they have – check with them first.
   …
   ii) Enter the MAC Address in the requested field (be sure to use the colons just as it was on the xbox)
   iii) Enter the IP address for your 360; it would be easiest to use the one you wrote down back in step 1.ii.
   iv) Change the “State” at the bottom from “disabled” to “enabled” then Save the settings and reboot the router if requested.
   …
   
   …
3. In the D-Link DVG-1120M go to the “NAT Configuration” drop down menu and then select “Local Server Configuration”
   Once in the Local Server Configuration, setup the following Protocols and Ports which are required for XBOX 360 to work optimally on XBOX Live.

   

4. SAVE and REBOOT your router as requested.
5. VOILA! Everything should now work perfectly on your 360… this fixed my connection 100% and improved online multiplayer game play exponentially over the old, incredibly bad setup.

As many who know me know, I have been slobbering over the idea of the Nikon D300 for a very long time; the incessant drool was quite comical – I am sure. Well, when I barely missed getting a used (meticulously cared for) D300 for just $750 I couldn’t stand the loss. It was then that my droolish desire became an obsession!!!

As a result, I used my considerable search skills to hunt and hunt and hunt for bargains while becoming intimately familiar with all of the upsides and downsides of the D300. Well, it didn’t take long before I realized that I could no longer get the D300 new and used versions were simply not a good enough bargain (which further increased my disappointment at my previous loss)… only the newer D300s.

It took some getting used to – that I would have to buy a product that was so new there were practically ZERO price drops anywhere (bare minimums in many cases). I even got close to buying the extremely nice D90… I just couldn’t get past the build quality and the other sweet differences that made the D300s a glory to behold (51 AF points, 7 frames/sec continuous shooting, magnesium-alloy body with “some” weather sealing, dual card slots…)

Anyway, I finally grew too restless and yesterday I came across a sweet deal for a newly opened Demo at Futureshop (I know, I know, I am not a huge fan either) which they were willing to give me for what amounted to $267 off MSRP (or in this case $100 off a matched sale price) and it has all of the warranties intact just as though it came out of the box. That was it… I let the whole idea settle over night and leapt for the deal today….which leads me to the specs for my new beauty, the D300s  :-D

• 13.1 megapixel DX-format CMOS sensor (effective pixels: 12.3 million)
• New 720p HD movie mode records video at 1280 x 720 (24 fps) for up to 5 minutes
• 3.0? LCD monitor (920,000 pixels)
• Dust reduction system
• 51 AF points with 3D tracking (faster and more accurate)
• IS0 200-3200 range (6400 expanded)
• 7 frames per second continuous shooting (buffer: 17 RAW, 44 JPEG fine, 100 JPEG Normal)
• Same EN-EL3e battery as D300 (950 shots per charge )
• 72 thumbnail view in playback
• Supports all Nikkor F-Mount lenses
• Sturdy magnesium alloy body with some weather-sealing; shutter rated at 150,000 cycles
• Live view supported (now with dedicated button)
• Contrast and phase detection AF modes
• Face detection available
• Optical viewfinder has 100% coverage and magnification of 0.94X
• Full manual controls
• ISO range of 100 – 6400 (when fully expanded)
• Shutter speed range of 30 – 1/8000 sec (there’s a bulb mode too)
• RAW and TIFF formats supported
• Quiet Shutter Release feature reduces sound of mirror action
• User now has the ability to bracket for Active D-Lighting, which restores shadow and highlight detail
• Hot shoe and flash sync port plus the ability to control up to 2 sets of wireless flashes
• Stereo microphone input and HDMI port
• Dual memory card slots: CompactFlash and SD/SDHC, with backup and overflow features
• Optional battery grip gives you even greater battery life and faster continuous shooting (8 fps)

I suppose it is needless to say but I am a very very happy photographer… I feel renewed and look forward to getting out and shooting again like a man possessed. See you out there!

PS. thanks to www.d300s.com for the excellent photos and the specs. Great site!

The AirStash is a personal, portable (in your pocket), WiFi storage access point.  It features the ability to extend the storage of any device that has wireless access by providing a pocket WPA2-secured access point with a basic media server accessible through your handheld/computer’s browser. The only limitation to the device is the amount of space it can hold at one time which is up to 32 gb; via a SD card that must be purchased separately.

This product has me itching to buy it because I am so obsessed with technology and the idea of having my own personal data field (yeah I figure that is the geek way of saying it is too cool to say no to!

For Apple iPad, iPhone, iPod or iPod Touch users this little unit will be your savior if you happen to have filled up the space on your handheld and you are itching for more (whether you need it or not!). Why? Well, not only does it offer unlimited storage extension (you could have a gaggle of 32 gb SD cards at hand and switch them out) to your handheld but it also comes configured with some exclusive functionality just for you! Here is the prose from the marketing material at AirStash.com:

Break through the storage limits on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad with AirStash! There’s no need to decide what files to squeeze onto your iPhone—bring them all with AirStash! Supply a single SD card for storage capacity up to 32GB, or bring along additional SD cards for unlimited storage on-the-go. Because AirStash is wireless, you can keep using your favorite case and accessories while AirStash sits in your pocket, backpack, purse, or briefcase.

Here is a demo of the AirStash by the company hosted on YouTube:

Click here to view the embedded video.

In short, I hope to have my own AirStash soon!

Note:  iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc.

I don’t know about you , but I hate having to deal with wired-only Internet at hotels and when the hotel is charging extra for a wireless connection (the Hyatt is a good example of this). Well, here is the coolest travel gadget I have in my arsenal that I just picked up  yesterday at Micro Center in Santa Clara – the TrendNet 300 Mbs Wireless N Travel Router.

My review of this product is simple… get it! It did the trick for me immediately upon plug-in and I can’t ask for much better than that. The advanced options are significant as well – this is a full featured mini router. Wicked!

Here is a YouTube intro video to give you a better idea of the TrendNet 300Mbs Wireless N Travel Router:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And here are the specs for the TrendNet 300Mbs Wireless N Travel Router:

Product Specifications