When the angry robots defeat us they will wear our heads like pairs of shoes. We will have deserved it. But they don’t have to gloat, really. It’s rude.
Author Archive for JP
My son Ronan and I were looking through an old ViewMaster (it was my dad’s when he was a kid) yesterday, and we decided to shoot our own stereographic image.
The idea behind shooting 3D images is to take two identical photographs offset horizontally by approximately 2.5″. This is the average interaxial distance between human eyeballs. If this website were visited primarily by hammerhead sharks I’d have to widen that separation distance.
Fancy stereoscopic camera rigs have two lenses on a single camera body, or two bodies and set of mirrors and lenses to achieve that distance. Or, you can simply take a photo, slide your camera sideways and take another. This works for still subjects only.
I build this simple rig out of chemistry lab equipment. (Yes, it’s the same bar stand and clamp set I used to build my Florence Siphon vacuum coffee brewer apparatus.) I pulled my focus and other settings, took a photo, slid it all about 2.5″ to the left and shot a second photo.
Next comes the image processing. What we need to do is paste the left eye image on top of the right one, then line the photos up so that they line up exactly at the point of zero stereo effect. I chose the button protruding from the far side of my typewriter. This is the plane on which the viewer sees the image, and there should be no difference between the left and right images.
Next, I cropped the image to remove the offset edge difference. If you don’t do this one image seems to float in front of the other at best, and at worst, the person viewing will get a mild headache and bleed out of their eyes.
To fool the brain we need to show only the right image to the right eye and the left to the left. There are many ways to do this. The ViewMaster displays two images through two lenses, one for each eye. The method I chose here is called an anaglyphic image. To make this I used Photoshop levels command to remove all the blue and green from the left image and all the red from the right image.
I used the screen compositing mode on the left image, and the result is an image where the common pixels are seen by both eyes, while the differences are only seen in the appropriate eye when you wear red/cyan 3D glasses. This site has a good step-by-step of the Photoshop side of things.
Inspired by Brookelynn and Becky! blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/08/brandied_cocktail_cher… I simmered up some water, raw sugar, cinnamon bark, lemon juice, and vanilla.
Added cherries (I left the pits in out of laziness and in hope that some of that almond flavor will be imparted), simmered another five minutes.
Then bottled the cherries in the syrupy juice and added brandy. In a day they should be ready, but I added one to a Manhattan tonight and loved it.
This is on top of a fridge in a break room at work.
The kids and I came up the escalator at Barnes and Noble to be greeted by this DIY Guides endcap. They recognized Jane and Sarina’s dad, Mark, right away, and then pointed out that I have most of those other books on my bookshelf, including the excellent Make: imprinted books.
This is the glorious result of my first ever attempt at making my own tonic syrup. It tastes delicious — better than nearly any other tonic I’ve had. The chinchona bark I started with is a bit more floral than I’d prefer, but I have a few other kinds on order to play with.
I followed Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s basic recipe, and it couldn’t have been easier. First, I pulverized the chinchona bark in a coffee mill. Then I added it to a sauce pan with water, citric acid, salt, allspice berries, and the zest and juice of a lemon, lime, and orange (I had no lemongrass, but will next time). Brought to a boil, simmered covered for 20 minutes, and then strained through cheese cloth and a french press.
Once strained, I reheated and incorporated the agave syrup. The taste is bitter, tart, sweet, and awesome. I don’t have any seltzer or sparkling water on hand, but that’s fine. My first goal was to recreate the fine Tonique Gin cocktail Ed made for me at Bar Tonique in New Orleans last year. Mission accomplished! I used 3/4 oz. tonic syrup, 1 1/2 oz. gin, stirred with ice. Delicious.
I ordered a few different sources of quinine to make my own tonic water. This is the first to arrive! Chinchona bark from Tenzing Momo in Seattle. It’s almost exactly a year since our gang from DisneyToon Studios descended upon Ed’s Bar Tonique in New Orleans to be educated by the man himself about homemade tonic. I’m finally getting around to making my own. Will update as I go.
Make: television is up for an Emmy award and the winners will be announced tonight! We’re up against Martha Stewart, This Old House, and two Style network shows. Wish us luck!
Producer Richard Hudson, Make: publisher Dale Dougherty, myself and my wife Erin will be attending. I’ve got a tux and everything! I’ll be tweeting @johnedgarpark and try to get some photos.
I’m almost done packing for Maker Faire. So excited to see lots of friends, meet people, learn new skills, and see what amazing project people have been cooking up. I’ll be bringing a few projects to show at the Make: Projects Stage and Maker Shed, including the Arduino Nerf Sentry Gun. Hope to see you there!
I just picked up 70lbs. of green coffee beans that I’m splitting with a friend of mine. Sadly, a friend of a friend’s roasting business just went bust, so they had quite a supply of beans to sell off at bargain prices. Normally, I pay about $6 per lb. for beans, I got these for $1.50 per lb.
It’s going to be fun roasting them over the coming year. Left alone they should keep for a year, and I can get another 6 mo. to a year out of them if I bag and freeze them.
