66

via Kottke’s World Map Test. First try. Second try = 49.

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Photo Gallery

photos.jpgVIEW GALLERY

Pictures from 2006. Helen’s trip, fields, China, Moons.

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Moon Moves

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These photos were take three minutes apart. I came across this as I was importing a sequence of moon pictures into iPhoto. I used the Italian tripod to try to get more detail of the moon’s surface, but it turns out it’s just my camera and lenses aren’t that great. Anyway, as the sequence of photos imported, I noticed that moon crawling up my monitor!

I never knew it moved this fast! It moved a whole “moon” in just 2-3 minutes.

-BOB-

Power Bill

If I bought 900 KW hours for $47.00 USD, how does that compare to the Bay Area electricity rates?

Walks

path.jpgSEE ROUTE

We’re now increasing our routine to four miles a day of walking (at 4 mph walking speed.) 30 mins in the morning, and 30 mins after dinner.

YRGZ is very scenic, and I’ve noticed that a lot of people come here to do their wedding photos.

-BOB-

YRGZ Pano

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ENLARGE

Panoramic stitched from atop Fu Ta at YRGZ.

-BOB-

Capitalizin' Chuxiong

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The new YizuBucks about a block away from our house. Instead of the mermaid, we have an Yizu tribe lady.

-BOB-

Paying the Power Bill in Chuxiong

Title Power Bill
Video 1024k, 2vbr
Audio 112 AAC
Dimenions 640×320
Format QT H.264
File Size 11 mb
Length 0:36
Sound? Live Narrative
Rated G – ALL

OR

Try the SUPER DUPER CRUNCHED VERSION!
20 kpbs video
50 px wide enlarged to 640 px wide
0.1 mb

Okay, that’s a bit much, but I just ran a bunch of tests and found out that my current settings (1024 video kbps ,etc) is way overkill. Also, audio can be set at the very lowest (mono, 8bit, etc). I just did a test at 300 video kpbs, cut the dimensions by 75%, and it is almost the same as this 11 meg file in terms of video quality, but the file size is 1 meg (of course you have to resize the QT file back up, but for 90% off the file size, I’ll take it.)

-BOB-

Sunday

We entertained over twenty guests today from 1 o’clock to 11 o’clock. For dinner we went to a restaurant (this one, actually) and ate lamb hot pot. You all know what hot pot is. It was hella good. I have to say, before Cirque and China, I never had lamb. Or maybe I did but I don’t remember. Probably because we were poor East Oakland folk who only ate mashed potatoes and meat loaf, with ketchup on top. Okay I’m joking, we had our share of Cheeto’s and Top Ramen, oh and don’t forget Eric’s “Rice, Tuna and Peas” creation in the plastic Tupperware bowl with the “big” spoon. (I copied that one a few times in Boston.)

So after the delectable hot pot we all walked to the house and everyone continued to play hours of mahjong. I was on tea duty and poured over 100 little cups of tea for everyone. We served Pu’er Cha (poo-’ARE), a Yunnan specialty that is very difficult to find outside of Yunnan. (My sources tell me that it sells for 10x the price in Beijing.) It’s fermented tea, comes in green and red, and has a unique production process (involving steaming and “compressing”). The green version is caffienated, so take it easy on that one.

It was a fun day and the weather was just a touch under 70. Right now I’m going to watch a little of the 15th Asian Games with Chun Mei and then go to sleep, with hopes to get back on a normal sleep schedule. Jimmy, thanks for the call last night, you are the first one to randomly call me on a phone in China! (Sorry I was alseep! I loved the, “ALLLLLL-RIIIIIIIIIGHT!! IT WORKED!” Made me laugh today.)

-BOB-

Yizu New Year Celebration

Title Yizu NY
Video 888k, 2vbr
Audio 112 AAC
Dimenions 700×366
Format QT H.264
File Size 40.1 mb
Length 2:26
Sound? Live Narrative
Rated G – ALL

Compare, and let me know which you prefer in the future (basically the same export settings):

Flash Version | Quicktime Version

I’d be interested to see the difference in load times, picture quality, choppiness, etc. I’m on a slow connection, I can’t really test.

PS, I’m not really sure why the FLV is 18 mb and the QT is 40…

-BOB-