It’s like 1998 caught up with me (or vice versa), now that I have a place to share photographs. I’ve started stitching together some of the pictures I had shot with the intention of later producing panoramas. I knew softwares that simplify the process of stitching photos into panoramas existed and decided to evaluate a few of them the other day.

There are several expensive packages available for generating Flash-driven VR files that provide interactive navigation. I think the whole VR image thing is great but I’m don’t think the ability to generate such files is worth the better part of $200 (US).

On the less expensive other hand, Hugin is an open-source free-of-charge panorama photo stitcher which has its infelicities (one of these would be installation) but works fairly well. The affordable and easier-to-install DoubleTake costs a quarter of a hundred dollars (US) and implements a drag-and-drop approach. Hugin takes less time to stich together many photos, but fine control is difficult for mere mortals. DoubleTake is easier to use but drag-and-dropping more than a few files gets to be a chore.

Between these two pieces of software, I generated the following images (thumbnails link to their gallery counterparts).

On the other and opposite hand, Burroughs never warmed to the flicker of the digital display. According to Birmingham, Burroughs

remarks which ring true considering Burroughs’s dedication to the cut-up method and the themes present in Naked Lunch and The Soft Machine.

As an aside, I was intrigued by Burroughs’s bad experience teaching, one which led Burroughs to say

Not my own experience, but I can see why Burroughs might have felt that way. Teaching requires one to work with students who by definition are less accomplished and, in most cases, less capable than you.

This year Blog Action Day concerns climate change, raising awareness about it and encouraging action to reduce human contributions to global warming. Avoiding runaway global warming and the following climate catastrophe may be the greatest challenge humans have ever faced and it deserves more thought and space than I can give it right now.

My action today is to talk to you about Climate of Change: 74 Days of Action, a blog whose mission is to inspire readers to urge their representatives to craft and ratify a climate change treaty during the fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP15), taking place 7-18 December in Copenhagen, Denmark. Climate of Change is written by my partner, Pamela Snyder, who has also published a great write-up on what COP15 is all about.

Take action today.

Shameless and shameful.

Humorous, relaxing, beautiful.

At the beginning of last week, a MacBook Air I was selling sold for nearly two hundred dollars below what similar items had been selling for. I could see the trainwreck coming in the first few days of bidding: zero-rated buyers battling for dominance.

Now, I’m selling my 2005 Toyota Camry LE which has 20,400 miles on it and I figured I’d make the announcement to my faithful readers who are looking for a bargain from a blogger they trust. The car is cherry and given my asking price is fair given its excellent condition. But if you have an offer you think I can’t refuse or questions about the sale, by all means get in touch (contact info in craigslist ad).