Photo A Day

After work today went down and helped my wife in assembling some racks for an upcoming designer warehouse event.  The details are here:

http://sacloaves.org/home-page/designer-warehouse-event

Took just a few snap shots of a couple of the racks.

[Show as slideshow]

Update:

It has been a while since the last time I had a photo in a major newspaper.  While I consider this just a snapshot it is still an image.  http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/31/3141371/style-calendar-events-and-shows.html

Here is another link to the event.

http://www.sacramento365.com/event/detail/440952530/Designer_Warehouse_Event_Benefiting_Maryhouse

We happened to be in Tahoe during this years annual Salmon run.  Just amazing to see so many Fish is a small creek busy spawning for the next generation.  Most of the fish area in pairs by this point.

Kokanee salmon

Kokanee Salmon

Just pinging the blog…it has been a while since I updated anything. I took a pile of pictures of this creature but never managed to get a crisp shot of it flying.

Blue Flying Insect?

Some of you know that in a former life I used to work with GPS before it was a household name.  Today just about everyone owes a GPS set.  They are in many new phones and the GPS system is just part of our modern life.  One of the first industries that really was transformed by GPS was mapping or more formally “land surveying” Wikipedia has a history of land survey.   Priory to GPS, a person would have to go out and take days to survey a plot of land.  GPS was such a time saver that some surveyors joked that GPS stood for “Getting Paid for Standing”

Doing land surveying with GPS does take special  GPS equipment to get the accuracy needed.  Also even though GPS is by its nature a “global” system a surveyor still has to take into account the local landmarks.  Just like earth has tides, the land has tides.  This means that the dirt under your feet goes up and down due to the same forces that causes the oceans to go up and down.  The amount of movement to the land is much less than that of water but this is just one of many aspects a modern surveyor has to take into account.  To accommodate for the local variance a surveyor will establish a “local” benchmark and do all the survey relative to that one point.

The picture below is an example of one of those points.    This one is a bit interesting in that the surveyor took the time to give the exact coordinates of the marker including altitude.  The altitude is marked as “WGS HT=88.564”.  I did not take the time verify it but that is probably NOT the actual number of meters above sea level this marker is at but rather the number of meters above the ellipsoid this marker is at.   The ellipsoid is a mathematical model for sea level. This can get complicated in hurry about exactly what what the ellipsoid is and how to convert it to the geoid on the way to get the actual height above sea level that you and I understand but I  won’t attempt it here. I won’t even bother giving a link to wiki on the subject as I’m sure I’ve bored you tears already.  As the risk of having a few tears flow I’ll mention I’m assuming it was in meters since most surveying in my time was done in meters but I might just be in feet.  If I get motivated I’ll take the time to figure out what the number really is in.

GPS Monument

The actual antenna for the GPS receiver goes on the right side.  Therefore the actual lat/long given is for the screw on the right side.  The left screw is using to attach a small radio antenna that is used to send signals to the rover unit that is actually doing the surveying.

Finally managed to get the wedding photos uploaded.  Not sure why it took me so long other than the stack of broken stuff in my workshop.  My wife and I had a great time and were glad we went to witness it.

Here are a couple of shot for the front page and the next post has the gallery.

Historic Occasion

First Dance

The gallery from the amazing event. Ask me for the password.

As most of you know I can’t resist a good antenna tower.  These are the towers on Sandia Crest overlooking Albuquerque, NM.

Sandia Crest

Looking at the various antennas there are some nice new HDTV antennas in the mix as well as what looks like an fairly old original analog antennas well.  I like the number of ice breaker bars on the structures as well as the heaters around most of the FM antennas.  Looks like there is a bit of snow damage in places that hasn’t been fixed yet this summer.

Looking the other way there were a couple of paragliders enjoying the strong updrafts

Paragliding

And a silly picture of the sign in the general store.

Sign at Sandia Crest store

And while we are showing pictures of signs, I liked this one as well—though I wished I had some test equipment to see just how high the noise floor is.

High Noise Floor?

Here is your “typical” photo of Libby with her standard smile. Libby is the exec directory of Sacramento Loaves & Fishes

Libby

and a  group shot taken just a few minutes before.

Ok..this has been sitting around for a while as I’m way behind uploading images.

Wish I could say I got a fantastic firework photo but just managed to capture your basic photo.

Safe and boring firework