-mcb's blog/

In order to get an oral examination done I've read stuff about

• Roenten tubes: Operating voltages: lets say 15 to 80 kV (yes, k is for kilo and that means: *1000)
• CT Scanners: Operating voltages 60 to 120 kV
• MegaVolt CT Cancer therapy device: Operating voltages up to 6 MV (= 6000 kV)

Tried to start my car without success: Operating voltage of the battery in my car: 0 V

(Yeah, I know, that's probably not correct, though it's a nice story.)

Today I cleaned the CCD of my D70. On the test shots I made before and after, I found (at least) 3 "over sensitive" pixels. It's not hot pixels, I guess. Until now (more accurate research on this topic is still to be done) my first impression is that these pixels do not depend on the ISO, nor do they depend on the exposure time. They are just brighter (and a little more red) than the pixels around them. They're invisible when located in black/dark areas.

I just hope this isn't gonna develop into a more annoying problem...

Ok, maybe this is a kind of fun for freaks - but I'm sure you all read my profile yet, haven't you? ;)

Ever thought of how it is when you take LSD or such stuff? Tasting the geometry of the things around you? Or hearing images?
A few guys gave it a try and developed this little Java Applet: upload images of 64x64 px^2 in size and listen to them. First I thought they'd perform some 2D FFT, but they are not. Just go there and find it out for yourselves!

http://www.artificialvision.com/javoice.htm

That comes quite close to listening to fractals (go and download fractint.exe - somewhere among the tons of options you can switch on sound - quite cool stuff!) - There is even a fractal on this site (the fractint stuff is much better, though): www.artificialvision.com/sierpinski.gif

Ok, the title might be a bit strange, but when thinking about this you might realize, that this is really a hard issue.

Ok, short prehistory: Today I was eating a Caesar's Salad in an American Diner around the corner. I ate this kind of salad a long time ago and the two where quite different. Searching wikipedia.org and the net I found some recipes and discussions about which one is the "real" one.
The same thing at cocktails: What is a genuine Mojito, or genuine Caipirinha? Mojito: spearmint or peppermint or just mint? White sugar or brown sugar? This brand of rum or the other one? How many mint leaves? Or the whole mint with leaves and peduncle? Crushed ice or ice cubes? There are thousands recipes and thousands of people claim that their recipe is "the right one"!
Or Spaghetti Bolognese: When is a sauce with minced meat allowed to be called a "sauce bolognese"?

And after all these questions: Is there, or is ther not something like an "original recipe" at all?

It will still take me a few days to get "online" again. At the moment I'm spending some time at home with my family. IperMails etc. will be answered soon :)