How Now Brownpau

Space Image Processing Tutorials [del.icio.us]

2009-11-16T13:31:37-08:00

Webex recording of Emily Lakdawalla's Space Imaging class. For later reference and education.

Mockingbird [del.icio.us]

2009-11-16T13:24:10-08:00

Wireframing web app. Free for the moment.

Free "Gallery" WordPress theme from Smashing Magazine [del.icio.us]

2009-11-16T05:22:18-08:00

Executive Suite (on Money Matador) [del.icio.us]

2009-11-04T13:50:48-08:00

1982 text-based business simulation game. I played this endlessly as a kid, and the 5.25" floppy is still lying around the house somewhere. Entry includes link to downloadable DOS executable.

Internet Archive: Free Downloads: Film Noir [del.icio.us]

2009-11-03T08:11:51-08:00

Beautiful Soup [del.icio.us]

2009-10-27T18:35:05-07:00

Python HTML parser for screen scraping.

Telegraph Mention

2009-10-23T21:05:43Z

I have been mentioned in the fourth rule of an article in the Telegraph by Tom Chivers on "Internet Rules and Laws." Greetings, Telegraph readers! To be clear, yes, I used "ignoramii" with a sense of deliberate irony, and the quoted text was part of a larger venture on Begging The Question -- the site being an old April Fool's Day prank which continues to this day as a facetious outlet for mock outrage.

If you enjoyed that brief snippet of text quoted from my [currently-rather-dormant] weblog, you may also enjoy following me on Twitter or Tumblr. Optionally you can wait around here till I actually have time to whip this site back into something even remotely engaging.

Update: Heh, Anarthrous Dane has pointed out in a Facebook note that Tom Chivers' misspelling of my name ("Paul," my name is Paulo) while using my quote as an exposition of Skitt's Law is itself an example of Skitt's Law in action.

History Cookbook - Cookit! [del.icio.us]

2009-10-18T22:15:25-07:00

FRONTLINE: Obama's War [del.icio.us]

2009-10-15T22:10:31-07:00

PBS Frontline on latest developments in Afghanistan under Obama as commander-in-chief. Saved to watch later.

SiteSucker [del.icio.us]

2009-10-06T11:44:28-07:00

OS X GUI to make local archives of websites. Donationware.

The new rules of news, by Dan Gillmor [del.icio.us]

2009-10-04T05:59:48-07:00

A list of best practice recommendations for the practice of modern journalism.

Wild things: 16 films featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls | Film | A.V. Club [del.icio.us]

2009-09-28T12:54:58-07:00

I'd noticed the pervasive "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" (MPDG) archetype in films, but it only works on screen. Someone like that in real life would probably be rather annoying.

Arcana Research - StartupSound.prefPane [del.icio.us]

2009-09-24T07:35:01-07:00

Adds preference pane to control Mac startup sound volume.

Demystifying

 and  [del.icio.us]


2009-09-23T20:25:56-07:00



Create Animated GIFs From YouTube Videos - GIFSoup.com [del.icio.us]
2009-09-21T21:51:59-07:00



Caturday!
2009-09-19T19:59:36Z


Here is Pandora at rest. You'll note that her pet bed (a prickly discount blanket from a linens shop in Baltimore) also consists of an old pair of jean shorts. She really likes jean shorts, as you can see by how she sleeps with her head rammed into them.

By the way, this photo was taken with my new phone, an HTC Magic (also known as MyTouch).
        
    
   



The AHT Guide to Hamburger and Cheeseburger Styles | A Hamburger Today [del.icio.us]
2009-09-18T14:13:37-07:00



Cory Aquino
2009-09-09T22:02:22Z
Another sad obituary from the Philippines: Cory Aquino, wife of Ninoy Aquino, heroine of the EDSA People Power Revolution that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and President of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992, died from complications due to cancer on August 1st, 2009. She was 76. 

 As wife to Marcos' most dangerous political opponent she saw her husband imprisoned, tortured, exiled, and finally assassinated; as rallying point for the 1986 revolution she took the reins of power with humble reluctance; as President she survived through seven military coup attempts, and while not the best president, she did work hard to help preserve the democracy that she had helped replant in the Philippines.

I have heard tell that her son Noynoy Aquino plans to run for president -- he still has a bullet in his neck from when he was attacked during one of the coup attempts against his mother. One of his possible choices for running mate is another presidential hopeful, Mar Roxas, grandson of former Philippine President Manuel Roxas. 

Meanwhile, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo continues to advocate measures to extend her power, the Marcoses continue to roam the political landscape, and Joseph Estrada is thinking of running for president again. It makes me wonder whether EDSA and its sequels were really just proxy battles to maintain existing Filipino political dynasties, and how much of Cory's legacy is left after two decades of squandering.

More stories from Cory's passing:

Cory Aquino and the people's triumph over tyranny, by Fatima, a classmate from college now teaching in Australia.
Reports from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and a photo of Cory lying in state from Inquirer's Twitter.
Time Magazine's obituary, with the cover photo from when Cory was Time's 1987 Woman of the Year.
More obituaries from ABS-CBN News, Foreign Policy Passport, CNN, NYT, SFGate, and LA Times.

For a flashback to 1986, check out this amazingly detailed timeline of events, assembled from interviews and eyewitness accounts from the EDSA Revolution.

(Tangential note: I'm obliquely related to Cory Aquino, since I have a first cousin who married her niece. I guess that makes her a second aunt-in-law once removed or something -- or, as Filipinos all called her, "Tita Cory.")
        
    
   



Uncle Tito
2009-09-02T06:13:38Z
 Uncle Tito, pictured at right, died last month. (Tautological name, I know, since his nickname "Tito" is Tagalog for "uncle," hence our use of the English address.)

I remember him most fondly for lending me his violin when I needed one for lessons back in my teens. This was not just any violin; it was a 1734 Giuseppe Guarneri violin from Cremona, wonderfully deep and resonant, still in good enough condition to play. I had it refurbished, rebridged, and restringed by the famed and now-late Filipino violin builder Alejandro Cruz, and took lessons for two years before college got in the way. The violin went back to Uncle Tito. I don't know where it is now, and I forever regretted not continuing with those lessons.

Uncle Tito was a TOYM awardee for Agriculture in 1965. He lost his wife, Tita Lourdes, several years ago, and now leaves behind four children, my cousins, all now married with children. They have a villa on the family farm in Laguna, with a geothermal swimming pool.

Earlier this year at Tito Cesar's wake I saw Uncle Tito walking slowly towards the driveway at Santuario de San Antonio. He had grown frail, and I wondered if this was the last I would see of him on this side of the veil. It was.

I hope to see him one day on the other side. Maybe there will be violins.
        
    
   



Caturday!
2009-08-30T03:59:59Z
There's a lot I want to write about, and a lot I need to do, but time is short and work is hectic and things are changing and sometimes all you need is a short video of a cat licking at a piece of prosciutto.

    
        
    
   



Ghosts Of My Friends
2009-07-25T14:00:18Z
    

There was lots of interesting old stuff in Amy's grandma's basement: newspapers from 1963, a haunted chest belonging to Waylande Gregory, cassette tapes from the Apostolate for Healing and Evangelism, a phonograph with one of those trumpetlike speakers, an Apple IIe, dozens of neon beer signs -- but the most striking historical artifact was "The Ghosts of My Friends," a creative autograph book in which the owner's friends signed their names with a blotty fountain pen, then folded the markings in half to form ghostly images. 

   

The dedication in this "Ghosts" book was to Edith from her Mother for Christmas of 1909, making this book just under a hundred years old, with the dates on the signatures going till 1920, and many empty pages left after the last signature. Most interesting to me was the name "Ethan Allen," left the same day the book was given to Edith; and "The Cheerful Idiot" who adorned his autograph with devil tails and a dedication to Wallis, "Oh! those eyes they go thro' me and button in the back."

(Photos of ghostly signatures in the book after the jump.)
                

Others have come into possession of copies of this book via estate sales and such: design sponge, edition of one, and someone on the Fountain Pen Network. Were I in possession of a blotty fountain pen I'd have added myself to this ongoing record of historical whimsy. 
    
   



Signs of Fleetingness
2009-07-22T03:19:14Z
 

Seen in New Jersey over the weekend: a cicada's shed shell hanging on to a blade of grass, a cemetery on a hilltop in Warren.
        
    
   



Caturday!
2009-07-11T23:00:08Z
I have not had a Caturday post since that grooming appointment over two months ago; indeed I have been too busy to post much of anything for some time. But for now let us catch up on cat photos with this series of Pandora pictures. She turned 18 last month. Eighteen! That's the equivalent of 88 in cat years.

    

 



(The first photo in this series was one of the last taken with my old Nokia 6120 Classic, and the last large photo was one of the first taken with my new phone, a Nokia 5800. More on that in the future.
        
    
   



Fourth of July 2009
2009-07-09T18:55:24Z
Fourth of July long weekend was spent largely in domestic relaxation, but we went out on Friday to hike around Theodore Roosevelt Island a bit. While there we got to see three blue herons chased around the marsh by someone's golden retriever: 

    

Then on Saturday we ventured out to the National Mall to see fireworks. Unfortunately we only made it up to the Red Cross building before the fireworks began (the same thing happened in 2007) but the Red Cross lawn proved a decent vantage point anyway, and I got this time lapse video with my SD 1000 on a Gorillapod:

    

(Additional Sousa courtesy the US Marine Corp Band and the Internet Archive.)
        
    
   



Amy at Artomatic
2009-06-26T04:27:20Z
Artomatic, the ever-famous DC community art event that fills just-constructed buildings with rentable artists' walls, is up at Navy Yard, and this year Amy took the leap and got space to show some of her paintings and drawings, with a focus on her mushroom works. The show is up till July 5th so if you're in DC, do check it out. Amy's on the fifth floor.





Her parents came down to DC last weekend to check out the show. Here's Amy and her dad with a giant Peep, and a couple of my favorite Peeps dioramas:

 


        
    
   



Feed Flood Warning
2009-06-14T02:00:14Z
Your Attention, Please! This site's RSS feed is currently on OMG SUPER FLOOD WATCH WARNING ALERT LEVEL TWO BILLION as I am about to click the "Move Feeds" button on feedburner.google.com, and commence any number of feed-maintenance activities. This may cause downtime, or it may cause everything to suddenly be marked unread, or it may cause both. Apologies in advance if your feed readers are suddenly flooded with old content marked new from my various forms of online presence. 

Update: Changes done. Carry on.
        
    
   



Blue Heron Flyby
2009-06-07T04:32:48Z
Friday morning brought me to Arlington before work, so I made my way to the office in Georgetown via Rosslyn, Key Bridge, and the C&O Canal towpath. Walking down the towpath somewhere between Key Bridge and Wisconsin Ave NW I happened across the blue heron. It spooked and flew before I could get close enough for a photo but I did get this video with my phone as it flew right by me:

    
        
    
   



London: First Time
2009-05-29T12:27:57Z
 First, some important links:

My London photoset.
Amy's London photoset.
Castleton Hotel, where we stayed.

Now, to the travel log:

Before this month I had never been to London, and Amy had only ever seen the inside of Heathrow Airport, so we used some United promo miles to book a "free" (after $212 booking fee) flight, reserved a room at the Castleton Hotel, and took a slow week off from work to hop over the Atlantic and do a cheap sightseeing trip.



Day 0: The Trip

I'm normally used to peak-season, two-day, multi-leg, marathon trans-Pacific flights on crowded 747s, so the non-stop seven hour Wednesday flight from Dulles to Heathrow aboard a spacious and relatively empty 767-322 felt positively luxurious. On arrival, Heathrow Terminal 1 struck me as a bit run-down and oppressive, an impression not helped by the fact that only three immigrations representatives were on hand to handle a planeload of visitors -- and when our turn came to be processed we were greeted with "Go back to the head of the line" by an unpleasant immigrations official who decided it was time to leave just as we reached his booth. Thankfully after a few more minutes we ended up with a much friendlier representative who gave us a more proper welcome to the Kingdom.

 

From there, the Heathrow Express was a quick 15 minute train ride to Paddington Station, a lovely rail terminal amidst a neighborhood of shops, restaurants, and rows and rows of boutique hotels along narrow, tourist-crowded streets. Castleton Hotel was at the corner of Sussex Gardens and London Street, just a block down from the station. The hotel had no lift or porter, and our tiny room was on the top floor, but we managed, and though it was midnight, restaurants and shops in the area were still open, so we managed to dine on a decent curry and buy some living supplies (bottled water and paper towels) before retiring to bed at almost 2AM. 



 Day 1

Thursday. We planned to do the Old Westminster walk at 2PM but the day was yet young. We started with a hearty English breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, and toast in the hotel restaurant (free with the cost of the room), then got some British pounds at a Bureau de Change, bought Oyster cards at the Paddington Underground station, then headed down to Waterloo Station, where we rode the London Eye.

 

The Eye, a giant ferris wheel resembling a spoked bicycle wheel decked with spacious glass viewing pods, gave us a 30 minute ride providing excellent panoramas of the Thames, Westminster, Waterloo, and the rest of London for miles around. Even the Eye itself is a marvel of engineering to behold, the view of the wheel and neighboring pods giving a majestic sense of airborne scale.

After the Eye, we had about two hours left before our walking tour, so we went to see the South Bank from London Bridge to Tower Bridge, with stops at Hays Galleria, Tooley Street, and some lunch at Cafe Amore. Then we crossed Tower Bridge, to Tower Hill Tube Station, and headed to Westminster to join the walking tour group.

 Ironically, the walking tour guide was an American from Wisconsin. We saw Westminster Bridge, The Palace of Westminster and Clock Tower, St. Margaret's Chapel and the Jewel Tower, Victoria Tower Gardens and the Buxton Memorial, and Westminster's inner residential depths to see homes occupied by famous persons through history. After crossing the Westminster School campus we ended right in front of the Church of St. Peter at Westminster Abbey -- which I did not realize you can enter. Instead, enticed by a group discount from the guide, we entered the Churchill War Rooms and Museum, and learned some British WW2 history. At the end of it all I had a greater appreciation for Winston Churchill but decided I would probably not have enjoyed knowing him personally, and in retrospect we could have skipped the War Rooms and just gone straight into St. Peter's at the Abbey.

We returned to our hotel to rest a bit,during which time watched some BBC Parliament and Coronation Street. Afterwards, a rather greasy dinner of fish and chips, and then off to Empire Cinema at Leicester Square to catch Star Trek on their giant screen. (More on that in another entry.)

    

 Day 2

Friday morning saw us at St. Paul's to meet Mark. The Cathedral was sadly closed that morning for a Royal Navy event, but as we waited outside we got to see the arrival of HRH Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. I managed to get a photo of some Royal Backs before they disappeared into the nave. We walked over instead to The Monument, where for just 3 quid we could climb 311 steps to the top of the world's tallest free standing Doric column to survey the city from 202 feet up.

 

After descending from The Monument we crossed over London Bridge to Borough Market, where we bought sandwiches to eat in the courtyard of Southwark Cathedral. From there we walked over Millenium Bridge (in wind and rain, quite an experience!) back to St. Paul's, which of course opened up just a few minutes after we parted ways with Mark. We entered the cathedral anyway, marveling at the paintings and mosaics all over the nave, and climbing up to see the Whispering Gallery and Stone Gallery. (The higher Golden Gallery was closed, but we got good views from the Stone Gallery anyway.)

 There was time left in the day, so we got back on the Tube and went to the British Museum to look at Mesopotamian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Egyptian, and Greek stuff, as well as The Intimate Portrait. The afternoon light in the Ancient Egyptian hall was especially nice for photos of artifacts and tourists. After we'd had our fill of history, we went to Malabar for a dinner of curry and bread, then returned to the South Bank to do the rest of the walk from London Bridge to Waterloo before Tubing back up to Paddington to rest our tired legs. We must have done every single spiral staircase in London.



 

Day 3

We had intended to do the Tate Britain first thing Saturday morning, but it was so nice out that we decided to go the long route and stroll through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park first. Along the way we saw geese and swan chicks and the Albert Memorial, and just before we descended into the Tube at Hyde Park Corner the Queen's Life Guard paraded past on horses.

 At the Tate Britain, we didn't have time for the whole collection, so we focused generally on our preference: works from the 16th through 19th centuries, and JMW Turner. We then wandered a bit along the North Bank, looking for food, and settled for Pizza Express in Millbank, which turned out to be a good choice for their cured meats platter. Properly stuffed with pizza and prosciutto, we walked a bit further and found ourselves back in Westminster, and after a nice, relaxing sit on the grass in Victoria Tower Gardens, headed for the Abbey to see the parts of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter which we had missed two days prior.

 Westminster Abbey was amazing. Historic people buried all over (rather, under) the floor, the stones for the oldest ones worn smooth by centuries of footfalls. Here lies St. Edward the Confessor. Here is Henry III. Here are Queens Elizabeth and Mary, side by side. Here are Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Burns, and Hardy. Outside, the Cloister, the Chapter House with the remains of its medieval wall paintings, even England's oldest working door. History, moving and humbling, was all around and under foot.

There was still some day left, so we headed for Buckingham Palace, hopefully with time enough to check out The Queen's Gallery, but a wrong turn upon exiting Victoria Tube Station left us lost for long enough to miss closing. We did eventually find the Palace, however, and got photos of the Queen's Guards and the Victoria Memorial. 

 

Feeling rather hungry by this point I got it into my head that the Portobello Road area would be a good spot for a bite -- I was wrong. It was a bit late Saturday evening by the time we got to Notting Hill Gate Tube, and most Portobello Road establishments had closed up, except for one or two crowded pubs. We walked the area for almost an hour before I acknowledged to myself that perhaps Portobello Road is nothing like what was depicted in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Instead we found some excellent pasta at Sugo right near Notting Hill Gate.



 Day 4

Tube to Charing Cross Station, ascend into Trafalgar Square, and we entered into the National Gallery. Even the non-modern art collection was far too large for us to view in a day, so we focused on medievals, Italian and Dutch masters (Vermeer and Rembrandt, especially), and Turner and Constable -- with a break at noon to walk over to Leicester Square and lunch on fish and chips at a nearby patisserie. 

This took much of the day, but there was still time to check out The Tower of London in the afternoon. This took some Underground hackery, as the entire Circle Line and parts of the District Line were closed for weekend work. Instead we took the Central Line to Bank and walked the rest of the way to the Tower, with about two hours left before closing.

This turned out to be enough time, however, to see the main sights: the Crown Jewels, Medieval Palace, White Tower, and some ravens. The Crown Jewels were shiny and well-guarded, the Medieval Palace an interesting look into 11th Century royal living, the White Tower was being used for a display of Henry VIII arms and armour, and the ravens were eating garbage.

 

After the Tower of London closed, we looked a bit through the souvenir shop, then, with Tower Hill station still out of order, hopped on a Thames Clipper to Embankment, and strolled around Victoria Embankment Gardens a bit before getting on the Tube to Piccadilly Circus. Some wandering ensued, at the end of which we found an excellent pie house above The Crown pub on Brewer Street, where we ate hearty steak pies with mash and vegetables and bottles of Bulmer's to wash it down -- a perfect final London dinner.



Day 5: Return Trip

Checking out of Castleton Hotel, we learned from the front desk that they would have a lift installed by summer, which was good news, as it was the only drawback to an otherwise excellent stay. After some coffee and one last stop at the Paddington Bear stand, we got on the Heathrow Express to the airport for a smooth check-in. Security at the United terminal was excruciatingly punctilious, with a personal private one-on-one search of every passenger in a booth after the standard security cordon. I chatted a bit with the coffeeshop attendant, a longtime Filipina immigrant, before we got on the 777 to Dulles -- a flight that was significantly less luxurious than the flight coming over, but we made it home intact.

Five days in London, absolutely packed with things to do. We missed a lot of stuff on our "to-see" list (The Queen's Collection, National Portrait Gallery, Windsor Castle, other MeFites and fellow internet friends -- plus I hear the East End is so lovely that there's a TV show about it), so you can expect that we will be back for more, hopefully soon and repeatedly. 

 
        
    
   



Swan Chicks and Tower Ravens
2009-05-28T12:57:29Z
It is taking me an embarassingly long time to get my travel log entry for London up, but it is almost done. In the meantime, please enjoy these videos of cygnets preening in Hyde Park and the resident ravens of The Tower of London:

    


        
    
   



Over the Atlantic
2009-05-13T00:28:25Z
Amy and I have just returned from a short London holiday. We walked through various historic landmarks, saw much art, climbed several spiral staircases, rode the Tube, met up with Sparticus and even got to watch Star Trek at Leicester Square a full day before its US release date. I'm uploading the photos right now, and will have a full travel log entry up soon, but for now please enjoy this brief time lapse video from the flight between Dulles and Heathrow, taken just as we were heading out over the Atlantic: