This driver can be completely omitted and your touch pad will work just fine. Windows XP comes with a driver for the Synaptics touchpad that makes all the usual mouse/touch_mouse things work. The fancy, plump, and sluggish Synaptics driver supports a couple of things I never use, like tap-to-click and pressure sensitivity. I was able to completely remove the Synaptics driver using add-and-remove programs in Control Panel. After rebooting the laptop the touch pad still worked and the machine was perceptable more lively.
In short, speed up your laptop for no cost, just remove the Synaptics touch pad driver. I did this in Windows XP, but it ought to work in Vista and Windows 7.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Kodak Z1485 IS Picture Size
This camera offers 14 Megapixels, which is a selling point. (More is better). It stores them JPEG compressed with a typical snapshot size of 6 megabytes. This is a compression ratio of about 7, quite modest as JPEG goes. Where does 7 come from? An crude approximation, assume each raw pixel is stored as Red, Blue, and Green (RGB), 8 bits (one byte) for each color. That makes 14 Megapixels into 43 megabytes. Divide by the JPEG compressed file size and you get to 7. Actually the camera probably uses YUV color encoding, which permits each color pixel to be stored in merely 16 bits, but let's stick to the crude estimate based on 24 bit per pixel RGB color encoding.
Of course, 6 megabyte snapshots are slow to upload, and suck up disk space. Plus having more pixels in the image than you have on the display device doesn't improve image quality. For instance my laptop LCD screen is 1024 * 768 or 786,432 pixels. Putting more than 786,432 pixels into the image won't improve the image seen on the screen. That's a lot less than 14 Megapixels.
So I set the picture size down to 5 megapixels and took some close up shots. This reduced the JPEG compressed image size to about 1 megabyte, with superb quality as viewed on my laptop screen. I plan to leave the camera set that way, cause the camera memory will hold more pictures, they upload faster, and it could be that the camera is smart enough to average adjacent pixels together which would reduce image noise and improve the light sensitivity of the image sensor. The Kodak documentation hints (but doesn't come flat out and say) that averaging does take place.
With a 2 Gig plugin memory card, the camera could hold 300 snap shots at 14 megapixels per shot. With 5 megabyte shots, the capacity jumps to 1800 snap shots. Which is like infinity on the smallest memory card Staples sells.
Of course, 6 megabyte snapshots are slow to upload, and suck up disk space. Plus having more pixels in the image than you have on the display device doesn't improve image quality. For instance my laptop LCD screen is 1024 * 768 or 786,432 pixels. Putting more than 786,432 pixels into the image won't improve the image seen on the screen. That's a lot less than 14 Megapixels.
So I set the picture size down to 5 megapixels and took some close up shots. This reduced the JPEG compressed image size to about 1 megabyte, with superb quality as viewed on my laptop screen. I plan to leave the camera set that way, cause the camera memory will hold more pictures, they upload faster, and it could be that the camera is smart enough to average adjacent pixels together which would reduce image noise and improve the light sensitivity of the image sensor. The Kodak documentation hints (but doesn't come flat out and say) that averaging does take place.
With a 2 Gig plugin memory card, the camera could hold 300 snap shots at 14 megapixels per shot. With 5 megabyte shots, the capacity jumps to 1800 snap shots. Which is like infinity on the smallest memory card Staples sells.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Cap and Trade according to Aviation Week
The airline community is watching cap&trade closely since they are massive users of fuel. Aviation Week reports that Rep Henry Waxman, D-Calif, bald headed twit with an attitude, and Ed Markey, D-Mass, my old rep, dunderhead supreme, have drafted a 648 page Cap and Trade bill. Right there we are in trouble. Nobody knows what's hidden inside 648 pages of legal gobbledegook, and it will take months to read and understand it all, so if it passes, we have no idea how much it's gonna hurt.
Apparently Obama would decide how much CO2 America could emit (the cap). Most likely the cap will be lower than current emissions, so we are in more trouble right there. Somehow permits to emit so much CO2 would go to people like electric utilities. CO2 emitters (just about everyone) might get permits given out for free, or might have to buy them at a government run auction. The government run auction brings in cash, so good chance the final bill will be written that way. The oil companies would have to buy permits to cover the CO2 emitted when the fuel they sell is burned. They would raise fuel prices to pay for the permits.
In short, Aviation Week sees cap and trade as a fuel tax, lightly disguised, and wrapped up in a green ribbon.
The airlines are hoping the fuel tax paid by the airlines would go to improving the airline infrastructure (airports, nav aids and such). Fat chance of that happening. The airline spokesmen admit that fuel taxes are coming, the public will allow them to pass
Apparently Obama would decide how much CO2 America could emit (the cap). Most likely the cap will be lower than current emissions, so we are in more trouble right there. Somehow permits to emit so much CO2 would go to people like electric utilities. CO2 emitters (just about everyone) might get permits given out for free, or might have to buy them at a government run auction. The government run auction brings in cash, so good chance the final bill will be written that way. The oil companies would have to buy permits to cover the CO2 emitted when the fuel they sell is burned. They would raise fuel prices to pay for the permits.
In short, Aviation Week sees cap and trade as a fuel tax, lightly disguised, and wrapped up in a green ribbon.
The airlines are hoping the fuel tax paid by the airlines would go to improving the airline infrastructure (airports, nav aids and such). Fat chance of that happening. The airline spokesmen admit that fuel taxes are coming, the public will allow them to pass
Filene's Basement up for sale
According to the Boston Herald Filene's Basement is going bankrupt and the entire chain is up for sale. Another old time Boston landmark dies. I used to buy suits there. You could get a decent wool suit, that even fit right, for a whole bunch less than the price upstairs in the regular Filenes store. Then there was that radio commercial years ago. "Here we are in a heavily fortified pill box at the entrance of Filene's basement. In just a minute the doors will open and we will be assaulted by an army of shoppers...." Can't remember what they were selling (it wasn't Filene's basement) but it was a cool ad.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Plymouth NH Tea Party
Yesterday the Tea Party in Plymouth NH went off without a hitch. Weather was superb, and the turnout was heavy. I estimated a crowd of 200 which is a lot for Plymouth, small town America, with the emphasis on "small". The affair opened with the pledge of allegiance and singing the Star Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful. We had lots and lots of great signs. Numerous local speakers lambasted wild spending, higher taxes, and reckless borrowing. The crowd was all local Grafton County types, of all ages.I can assure everyone that this was a local Grafton County affair with zip for assistance from outside the county. The TV news has been spreading a story that tea parties are Astroturf from Fox News or corporate interests. Pure malarkey. This deal was organized by, for, and in Grafton County. I know the organizers, in fact I was one of them, and we are all real Grafton County people.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
New Camera Kodak Z1485
I am getting with the times, and getting a digital point&shoot to go with my antique 35mm Kodak Retina. The Retina has been out of production for 50 years, although it still works just fine.
I started out at Staples, about the only electronicky place up here. I did the usual thing, fingered all the camera's on display, wrote down the models and went home to consult the Internet as to the merits of each one. There was an Olympus FE310 for $118, but all the internet hits bitched about short battery life. There was a Canon A590 IS which everyone on the net liked.
So next day, back to Staples intending to buy the Canon. Sorry, we are out of the Canon and that model is being discontinued. Arggh. So I settled on a more expensive Kodak Z1485 cause it was somewhat larger, offering more camera to wrap my hands around and offering some control of aperture and shutter speed. It could focus very closely, which is handy for photographing model trains.
So, I tried it out, taking a portrait of yours truly to post on Facebook. That worked out. The self timer does work, although it requires a steady finger on the shutter release. It goes like press the self timer button, then press the shutter release to the FIRST click, and then press it all the way home. Feeling that first click is delicate. The battery powered LCD viewfinder is marginally readable in sunlight. You can do it but you have to squint. If you hold the camera vertically (portrait mode) the review mode rotates the image 90 degrees, so it displays right side up with the camera held horizontally. This undocumented feature confused the bejeezus out of me until I figured out what was going on.
The Kodak supplied software to suck the pictures out of the camera onto your computer is fat, it soaked up 600 megabytes of hard drive. It also installs a plump, always resident, driver that eats up cpu time and kernel memory by constantly asking "did he plug the camera in?". Documentation and human interface have the usual computer geek obfustication. You don't download photos from the camera, you click Tools->CameraBrower->Sync&TransferManager. I still don't know what "sync" is about. Transfer does work. It has a "erase the photo's off the camera after transfer" feature which I don't trust enough to use.
The camera does accept AA batteries, but they have to be Lithium AA batteries, not something you find in the average grocery store. It comes with one NON rechargeable Lithium Battery. Rechargeable batteries and the charger are $26 extra off the net. The camera documentation (and a Google search) failed to reveal whether the camera would charge batteries if plugged into a computer. In fact the manual says nothing about battery charging or battery life. I have been unable to find a battery charge indicator anywhere on the camera. So if you care, you oughta have a spare charged battery in your camera bag.
So far, it does take good pictures. Fourteen megapixels and a 4X optical zoom. The autofocus is effective. It has a video mode, which I haven't figured out yet. It won't play video back on a TV.
I started out at Staples, about the only electronicky place up here. I did the usual thing, fingered all the camera's on display, wrote down the models and went home to consult the Internet as to the merits of each one. There was an Olympus FE310 for $118, but all the internet hits bitched about short battery life. There was a Canon A590 IS which everyone on the net liked.
So next day, back to Staples intending to buy the Canon. Sorry, we are out of the Canon and that model is being discontinued. Arggh. So I settled on a more expensive Kodak Z1485 cause it was somewhat larger, offering more camera to wrap my hands around and offering some control of aperture and shutter speed. It could focus very closely, which is handy for photographing model trains.
So, I tried it out, taking a portrait of yours truly to post on Facebook. That worked out. The self timer does work, although it requires a steady finger on the shutter release. It goes like press the self timer button, then press the shutter release to the FIRST click, and then press it all the way home. Feeling that first click is delicate. The battery powered LCD viewfinder is marginally readable in sunlight. You can do it but you have to squint. If you hold the camera vertically (portrait mode) the review mode rotates the image 90 degrees, so it displays right side up with the camera held horizontally. This undocumented feature confused the bejeezus out of me until I figured out what was going on.
The Kodak supplied software to suck the pictures out of the camera onto your computer is fat, it soaked up 600 megabytes of hard drive. It also installs a plump, always resident, driver that eats up cpu time and kernel memory by constantly asking "did he plug the camera in?". Documentation and human interface have the usual computer geek obfustication. You don't download photos from the camera, you click Tools->CameraBrower->Sync&TransferManager. I still don't know what "sync" is about. Transfer does work. It has a "erase the photo's off the camera after transfer" feature which I don't trust enough to use.
The camera does accept AA batteries, but they have to be Lithium AA batteries, not something you find in the average grocery store. It comes with one NON rechargeable Lithium Battery. Rechargeable batteries and the charger are $26 extra off the net. The camera documentation (and a Google search) failed to reveal whether the camera would charge batteries if plugged into a computer. In fact the manual says nothing about battery charging or battery life. I have been unable to find a battery charge indicator anywhere on the camera. So if you care, you oughta have a spare charged battery in your camera bag.
So far, it does take good pictures. Fourteen megapixels and a 4X optical zoom. The autofocus is effective. It has a video mode, which I haven't figured out yet. It won't play video back on a TV.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Small cars seen as safety risks
Some one conducted a series of head on crash tests, and surprise surprise, the lighter car looses in a head on crash with a heavier car. Obviously we should all drive Sherman tanks.
Or, try using the steering wheel, go hard left or hard right and avoid the head on. Hit a phone pole, hit a bridge abutment, doesn't matter, hitting anything stationary is a whole bunch better than going head on with even a SmartForTwo.
If steering is beyond your capabilities, better go shopping for that Sherman tank.
Or, try using the steering wheel, go hard left or hard right and avoid the head on. Hit a phone pole, hit a bridge abutment, doesn't matter, hitting anything stationary is a whole bunch better than going head on with even a SmartForTwo.
If steering is beyond your capabilities, better go shopping for that Sherman tank.
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