After a 10 year stint completely in the world of Windows - I have returned back to the Mac world. My newest machine is a brand new MacBook Pro 15.4" i7 w/8GB RAM and 500GB HD. This is now my primary daily machine. I am not completely able to function solely on the Mac OS, I am running Parallels 6 with a VM of Windows 7 to facilitate running Microsoft Access and a few other apps.
How did I get here? Why did I get here? I have contemplated the move several times over the last 10 years, but cost has always been the thing that held me back. Not just the cost of the hardware, but the investment I had in Windows software. The road back started last year with the purchase of an iPhone... followed by an iPad... and the need for me to buy a reliable powerful laptop.
More later.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
King of All Cars Tops 267 MPH
The Bugatti Veyron is, once again, the fastest production car on the planet.
Bugatti says an orange-and-black Veyron 16.4 Super Sport achieved an average top speed of 267.8 mph at the hands of test driver Pierre Henri Raphanel. Stop and think about that for a moment. That’s more than 393 feet per second and almost 4.5 miles per minute. Even Bugatti’s engineers were surprised.
“We took it that we would reach an average value of 425 km/h (264 mph),” chief engineer Wolfgang Schreiber said in a statement. “But the conditions today were perfect and allowed even more.”
Raphanel made his record-setting run at Volkswagen’s test track in Ehra-Lessien, Germany, in the latest version of the greatest automobile ever made. He had one hour to make back-to-back runs in each direction. The speedo hit 427.933 km/h against the wind and 434.211 with it. That came to an average of 431.072, which by our math is 267.8 mph.
And that was more than enough to take the title back from Shelby Super Cars and the Ultimate Aero, which had held the record since peeling off an average of 256 mph in 2007. Raphanel set the record on June 24; Bugatti announced it on July 4. Bugatti says Guinness was on-hand to verify the record, and we imagine the guys at SSC will not take this sitting down.
As the name suggests, the Super Sport is a hot-rodded version of a car that already has too much of everything. The 16-cylinder engine has been tweaked and tuned with bigger turbochargers (four, count ‘em, four) and intercoolers. Bugatti says the engine is good for 1,200 horsepower and a staggering 1,106 pound feet of torque.
The carbon-fiber monocoque is stiffer yet lighter, the suspension has been stiffened and Bugatti says the car is capable of 1.4g of lateral acceleration. The body has been revised, and the engine draws air through a pair of NACA ducts in the roof instead of two big scoops.
Bugatti plans to begin building the Super Sport this fall. The first five off the line will be identical to the record-setting car. The remainder will have the top speed governed at 415 km/h (257.8 mph) “to protect the tyres,” Bugatti says.
Our own Joe Brown drove the Veyron 1.6 Grand Sport last year; his review is definitely worth reading.
Photos: Bugatti
Monday, July 5, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Short Film shot and edited entirely on the iPhone 4 / iMovie App
"Apple of My Eye" - an iPhone 4 film - UPDATE: Behind the scenes footage included from Michael Koerbel on Vimeo.
This is really really cool. They used quite a few custom camera supports - I can't figure out how they achieved the shallow depth of field in a couple of the shots.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Ice Ducks at Sunset
Finally a day where there was an interesting sky that wasn't completely gray! Stopped at Kirkwood Park on the way home as the sun was setting. Nikon D90 with the 18-200mm VR lens. This was a blended 3 exposure image.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Day 4 - Orris Theater in Ste. Genevieve, MO
Old theater that is now a Restaurant and Bar in Ste. Genevieve, MO.
Day 3 - Dead Netbook...
The motherboard from my now dead Acer Aspire One Net Book. Spent an inordinate amount of time with this...
Day 1 - Numbers
I decided to undertake a 356 photo project. After the success that I felt I achieved with the iPhone 30 days last fall - I got lazy with my shooting. This time it is for the long haul. I don't feel that the first image in this series is very strong - but it got me started. This was what I saw for most of the day - just a simple spreadsheet of endless numbers. My goal with this series is mainly to document what I encounter on a daily basis and to try to see ordinary things in a creative way.
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