Quote of the year, probably

If we can’t catch a Nigerian with a powerful explosive powder in his oddly feminine-looking underpants and a syringe full of acid, a man whose own father had alerted the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, a traveler whose ticket was paid for in cash and who didn’t check bags, whose visa renewal had been denied by the British, who had studied Arabic in Al Qaeda sanctuary Yemen, whose name was on a counterterrorism watch list, who can we catch?

Found on dear old reddit, of course. http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ajtox/if_we_cant_catch_a_nigerian_with_explosives_in/

FFFFFFUUUUUUUU shirt

I made an 8.5 x 11 in, 300dpi version of the FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUU face. Great for shirts and the like.

The effects of rolling shutters – not even Google Earth is impervious

That can't be good for the pilots.

A brief description of rolling shutters is given by Wikipedia:

Rolling shutters are found on video cameras using CMOS sensors. While some CMOS sensors use a global shutter^[1], the majority found in the consumer market utilize a rolling shutter. This method of image acquisition records each individual movie frame not as a single snapshot of a point in time but by scanning the frame line by line from top to bottom. The result is that not all parts of the image are recorded at exactly the same time though the frame is stored as a single still on the storage medium. This produces predictable distortions of fast moving objects or when the sensor captures rapid flashes of light.

This image-capture method has recently attracted more attention due to none other than the iPhone. The groovy, and sometimes bewildering to those unfamiliar with the technology, smooth wave effects the device has snapped have naturally been shared all around the tubes. The creative potential of this quirky flaw has  been duly recognized, with some more imaginative individuals cleverly setting up shots like the plane below.

Where we're going, we don't need turbo props.

I was delighted to discover that even Google’s expensive licensed imagery is susceptible, among other artifacts, to this very effect. After managing to suffer an engine failure shortly after takeoff in the awesome flight simulator X-Plane and subsequently smashing into Long Island, I decided to check out where a massive, smoldering crater would be had this happened in reality. Low and behold, I am greeted by the unnatural regular zig-zagging of the southern coastline. A second later I was at a broader altitude and snapped the following shot.

Long Island — when no one is looking.

Take note of the fact that this may not in fact be a direct result of the rolling shutter effect. It doesn’t show the smooth, gradual wave distortion of exhibited by real photos, but it’s bizarre enough to tangentially associate with the effect. I admit fully to the presence of regularly repeated patches.

Either that, or Google just decided to get lazy when stitching together the shots (and yes, I know all of this is automatically done by software).

Bumper sticker

Saw this while driving through downtown Newark. Bill might like this.

Wisdom teeth removal followup

So much for daily updates. I failed to factor in the total stupor my extremely light diet induced on me. Just as I had read elsewhere, the worst part of the process was not the actual procedure, but the recovery. Particularly, the immediate two or three days following extraction.

Days 2-4

The misery begins. I awoke around noon on day one. Tooth brushing took ten minutes, with my painstaking confinement of the brush’s movements to only my teeth and avoiding the healing scabs aft. In the first 24 hours following the surgery one is at the risk of dislodging a blood clot, effectively reopening the wound. This uncapping of the gums, called a dry socket, can be amended with gauze. I was cautious enough to avoid a dry socket.

Over the last 36 hours my total food consumption had likely equaled that of an injured, shipwrecked person floating in the salty sea for the same length of time. This is no hyperbole on my part; I really was that undernourished. The night before (day one) I had slurped some mashed potatoes and jelly, and gone promptly to bed. My breakfast consisted of the same exact food. Instead of going about my usual activities, I colloquially collapsed into a nearby sofa. The absolute exhaustion that possessed me was not fun, to say the least.

For the rest of the day I alternatively sleep, consumed painkillers and antibiotics, and feasted on the oh-so-exquisite offering of yogurt, mashed potatoes, and fluids. My lackadaisical condition allowed me only several hours of total wake time per day; I likely slept about 18 hours. As was prudent, I also did several saline rinses to help ward off even the faintest beginnings of infection.

Pain was present, and still entirely manageable, but the raw feeling in my mouth was most definitely not enjoyable. On day three my face became swollen. To properly visualize what I looked like, imagine someone who’s jaw has appeared to have been inflated and cheeks have been stuffed with cotton. You would have assumed I had gained weight, when in fact I probably lost several pounds in those hours.

I tried watching a film, but found myself unable to comprehend the plot long enough. My computer, for the first time in years, remained off for most of those days. The energy required to sit in a chair did not manifest itself, so I was reduced to miserably loafing around while staring around the room. My mood was that of being irritated; occupations I usually enjoyed were impossible. Concentration was hard to achieve, and the most I did was calculate when my next round of antibiotics would be.

Days 5-8

It was on day five that I finally started eating actual food again. The effects were plain. I once again took interest in my surroundings, and over the next few hours even resumed the film I had tried earlier. By the next day I was returning to normality. Pain killers were unnecessary, although my weeklong antibiotics course was still incomplete. Sometime around day 6 the white granulation tissue, the equivalent of scar tissue on the gums, fell off one of the sockets. I had a gaping, 3×5 mm hole on one side that was even more sensitive to possible infection. In response I increase my saline rinses to around ten per day, opting to carry around a large bottle of salty water. Another peculiarity of the gums is that blood clots, or scabs as it were, are actually black in color. This added to the interpretation that there was a gaping hole in my wisdom tooth socket. I may post some images later on, but I’m sure it isn’t difficult to visualize this opening.

I again was brushing as vigorously as was my custom, and the swelling went away on day six. The recovery took exactly one week, just as I hoped it would. My gums back there are still healing, but it isn’t any different what you’d have after biting your tongue. There is still a crevasse on one side that I have noted is starting to be replenished with tissue.

Coda

I’m not so sure anymore if I should have decided to undergo the procedure. On one side of the argument, I was young, unemployed, on school holiday, and had financial coverage. However, from a clinical standpoint extraction was completely unnecessary. My wisdom teeth had never given me any issues, and they appeared to me to be growing normally.

As for anyone who is found this post because they may be considering it, I suppose if it is within your bounds you can go for it. There are several others who have published their own accounts, so you have plenty of material to act on.

Wisdom teeth removal experience – Day 1

Introduction

Today I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed. The purpose of extracting wisdom teeth is purely prophylactic. These dentures may lead to a variety of more complicated problems in the future. Impacted wisdom teeth, for instance, can result when these pesky wisdom teeth fail to properly erupt from within the gum. As you might have guessed by the nomenclature, impacted wisdom teeth gradually push against the rest of one’s teeth, eventually damaging other local structures like nerves, jawbone, and the adjacent teeth. Infection, accelerated tooth decay, swelling, and other general orthodontic maladies are  complications wisdom teeth may create.

Day 1: Surgery and initial recovery

I first heard about wisdom teeth removal from my dentist. Being in my late teens, I am at the age where the wisdom teeth begin erupting from the gums. A brief explanation was given to me as to why I should get mine pulled. At the time I dismissed the whole thing, proceeding to ignore it for a few weeks.

Figuring the two-month Summer season holiday was the perfect time to carry out this procedure, I eventually did some research and read firsthand accounts of others who had done it. Based on these findings,  a week before my removal I concluded that pulling my wisdom teeth would be a prudent action.

I was not to consume any food or drink in the twelve hours preceding surgery (this is, technically, a surgical excursion). At 11:00 I checked into my dental office. By 11:20 the usual patient information paperwork had been filled and I was hooked up to the customary monitoring systems. Because I knew exactly what would happen from this point, I was perfectly calm during the this pause. The surgeon and support crew were ready to anesthetize me, but another delay was caused by my father’s last-minute concerns regarding my lungs. You see, several months earlier, I had undergone minor lung collapse treatment. He insisted that my lung doctor approve my wisdom teeth removal, so we waited a few minutes while contact was established and to go-ahead by my pneumologist was given.

It must have been about 11:50 when the anesthetic was intravenously introduced into my system. This was the first time in my life that I was to be under general anesthesia. Within seconds I was unconscious, and the next thing I know I’m sitting in the recovery area with my mouth  having the consistency of rubber and a large patch of gauze stuffed inside it. Still under the influence of the anesthetic, I presume I stumbled to through the premises and toward my father’s car. My recollection of the trek through the facility is nonexistent; I couldn’t tell you if I took the building’s main exit or back door. Memory loss is fun.

At around 12:30 I arrive home. I then drowsily floundered into my house and went promptly to sleep. An hour later I was awake again, and subsequently replacing the bloodied gauze every half-hour. I also dozed off a few more times, but finally got up around 15:00.

It is now 18:00, six hours after the procedure. The pain has been uncomfortable but bearable, and my verbal communication has been hampered by the load of gauze my bleeding sockets necessitated. In those six hours I have only consumed two acetaminophen#3 tablets and the bleeding has decreased significantly. As for nourishment, only a glass of milk. My last meal was 22 hours ago, so I should probably eating some of the recommended soft foods my dentist suggested.

The next update will be tomorrow.

Songza skin – Soothing, dark maroon

Songza’s only official color combination is a glaring orange, with slightly lighter white text and the occasional black labeling. While this design might seem quirky to some at first, it can quickly become blinding.

Of course, thanks to the Stylish Firefox extension users can effortlessly customize the look of web page to their hearts’ content. Userscripts.org, the extensive community-generated Stylish database, contains several Songza styles, but I found that none suited my vision of what the site should really be.  Soothing, Dark Maroon, of my own creation, is what resulted after some tinkering.

Before

After

Installing Wi-Fly without iTunes

The iPhone app Wi-Fly by Daniel Dickison allows one to control X-Plane’s throttle and yoke. It is currently in development, so you cannot buy it in the App Store yet. The only option you have right now is to manually install by dropping the app file into iTunes and syncing.

I have found that iTunes can be bypassed entirely and Wi-Fly installed right from the device. The only requirement is that your device be jailbroken. After giving Daniel your UUID, do the following:

1. Download the latest build of Wi-Fly and extract its contents. Make a new directory, name it “Payload”, and stick the extracted files in it.
2. Repackage the Payload folder into a zip file and append the “.ipa” extension the the end. The directory structure should be

   Wi-Flywhatever.zip.ipa
   - - Payload
   - - - extracted contents here.

   You can call the zip/ipa file whatever you’d like.

3. On your iPhone, install the MobileInstallation Patch and Installous from Cydia. You may have to reboot afterward.
4. Transfer the .ipa you made to the iPhone directory /var/mobile/Library/Downloads.
5. Launch Installous and install the ipa from the Downloads tab. If it fails, change the install method to Dirty in the Settings tab.

Alternatively, you can carry out the entire process right on the device by using the Cydia app iFile to zip and move around files.

That is all! This works on all iPhone OS versions.

Apple Congurency 2.0

So here it is. As you can see above, it is now available in black. Since my last post several versions have been released. Minor adjustments make up all but one or two of the iterations. For a detailed changelog go to the theme’s root directory, or download and extract the DEB package directly to you computer.

Popups on iPhone

Clicking the various links on this page will prompt a popup that renders like so:

http://www.basicjokes.com/dtitles.php?cid=93

I’m likely not the first to discover this, but rest assured I’ll be performing some experiments later…