24
Aug
IN-12 NixieKits.eu Preview
I just got my new IN-12 Nixie clock in the mail from NixieKits.eu and this thing is impressive. I will be doing a full video review over the weekend and posting it on tubeclockdb.com. Trust me, you will like this one…
Tubes: IN-12 Nixie tubes, 18 mm digit height, decimal points with flashing LEDs.
Background lighting: brightness adjustable.
Alarm: adjustable time, snooze and tone.
Time format: 12- or 24 hour mode. Read more
8
Jul
Time Lapse Experiment
This is a time lapse experiment that I have been tinkering with for the last month. I wanted to try a new work flow based around raw images instead of JPEG images. Every frame was captured as a raw image and imported in to an Aperture 3 library. From there, I batch processed the images to achieve the desired look and from there, exported the images as uncompressed TIFF images, scaled to a more manageable size. Finally, I exported the intermediate file as an insane bit-rate MP4 file and uploaded it to Vimeo. Read more
17
Jun
Old School Daft Punk
I have no idea who originally created this. If you do, please leave a note in the comments! Read more
22
May
Flash on the Nexus One running Froyo
Well, I manually updated to Froyo on my Nexus One and some video sites, like South Park Studios, work great. After upgrading to Froyo, you have to manually add the Flash beta plugin but after that, you’re set. Sadly, Hulu and ABC don’t work. If you find more video sites that work, please post them in the comments so I can add them as well! Read more
9
May
Apple Keyboard + UV Light
I have a question for all material scientists & plastic experts. I have an Apple wireless keyboard and a near-UV LED flashlight. As one would expect, many things fluoresce: tee shirts, white paper, etc. What is odd, is that only some of the keys on my keyboard do this. I would expect this to be an all-or-none type deal but specifically the F,J, arrows, Cap locks, function, alt, control and return keys glow while the others do not. Under normal light these keys look identical and feel the same. Read more
3
May
Minneapolis Clouds
I’ve been experimenting with ways to take the best time lapse using the Canon 5d Mark II and I’ve come up with two distinct methods that are worth sharing. The first method involves shooting normal video and speeding it up while the second involves a more traditional approach of shooting frames and combining them to a final video. Each method has its benefits and I’ve tried to summarize them below. Read more
1
May
World’s largest ball of twine
On a whim today, we went to the world’s larges ball of twine wound by a single person. This monstrosity is located in Darwin Minnesota is is clearly the center of this god awful little town. The inspiration for this odyssey was Sam and Max Hit the Road. Read more
1
Apr
Numitron Tester
I found this great little RCA DR 2000 / DR 2010 tester on eBay. For $4.99, it was worth every cent. I cannot find much information on this device other than the markings on the markings on the device itself. ”RCA Numitron Digital Display Device Demonstrator 1g1308″
The controls are pretty simple – the knob controls the brightness and power. The switch has three positions. In the center position, the numitron counts through the digits. In the upper position it illuminates all of the segments of the display while in the bottom position, it only illuminates the decimal point on the display.
The power supply itself is odd. I cannot tell what type of cells it uses. The internal mechanism supports 5 cells that seem to be narrower and longer than a C sized cell. To make it work, I wired a 9V battery to the internal terminals. (Oddly, this thing draws so much current that a single 9V battery cannot actually power the device. As the display begins counting, it seems to reset at the 8 position. To get around this, I had to wire three batteries in parallel to support the load.)
Click to enlarge
8
Mar
Foggy night in Minneapolis (Video)
This is a video I made while out taking photos this evening. The original duration was about 14 minutes and was sped up by 3,000% to a final duration of just under 30 seconds. It was filmed with my canon 5D Mark II and Sigma 1.4 50mm and post processing was done in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3.
In this shot are the 10th Avenue Bridge, Interstate 35W (Blue) and the Stone Arch Bridge.
4
Mar
Minneapolis Moon Time Lapse
This video was shot between 10:30PM and 1:30AM starting on 3/3/2010 from the Minneapolis Grain Exchanging looking east. Shots were taken at 10 second intervals and the final playback speed is 30fps. A Sigma 50mm 1:1.4 was used at about f/2.8 allowing for 1/40th second exposures. The frames were rendered in to a high quality H264 video and uploaded to Vimeo.