Photo: Glass Laser Block

Photo: Glass Laser Block

It’s a glass laser block! I used my green laser pointer on glass blocks in the lobby at building 100 at Daytona State College. This was a lot of fun and I enjoy effects like these. I used a six-second exposure and positioned my Canon Rebel XTi on a makeshift tripod and used the 10 sec. timer to avoid jostling it.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 6/1, F16.0, 50mm, ISO100, 2011-01-05T18:23:13-05, 20110105-232313rxt

Location: Daytona State College, Building 100, Wetherell Student Services and Administration, Floor 1, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Endianness

A curious property of CPU architecture is the argument that datasets should be big-endian or little-endian, that is, should the most significant items be listed first, saving the least for last, or should the least significant items be listed first, saving the best for last? What if the transmission of data is cut-off mid-stream? The computer program may be tempted to accept the big-endian dataset because it contains the most significant data, but “the devil is in the details” as they say, so this could be a fatal mistake. Similarly, the computer program may be tempted to drop the little-endian dataset entirely because it contains no significant data, but the unrevealed data at the end may have led to a different conclusion.

For the purposes of computer science, it is tempting to say that endianness is a solved problem and Intel won. However, just because Intel is the largest manufacturer of computer processors and Intel’s X86 and X64 processing architectures are little-endian does not mean that is the best way to go. It’s very possible we could have much further advanced computers now if not for Intel’s choice, or much crappier ones. It’s also possible we could have big-endian computers that are just as advanced as the current ones, and it’s possible those computers would be just as advanced despite Intel, or with Intel’s help, i.e. because big-endian is very superior but Intel’s engineers persevered anyway on the hard road, or because big-endian is very inferior and Intel’s engineers took the easy road, never reaching the full potential of human discernment.

It’s also possible that neither path is correct, both are equal, or some are more equal than others, to quote Planet of the Apes. It’s also possible that different endiannesses are appropriate for different situations, i.e. big-endianness for lossy editing and little-endianness for lossless editing, i.e. the difference between editing photos, videos, and music, or text, respectively. Endianness is also known as byte order, and in a multibyte string, the preference of putting the most significant bytes first or the least significant bytes first is a product of your upbringing, whether it be your parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, strangers, environment, culture, heritage, private school, the streets, or state-run public schools. Your preference is also a product of your static and unchangeable genetics, and I may have just now subtly or overtly influenced your view of the world by writing this paragraph.

The difference between choosing big-endianness or little-endianness might just as well be the difference between being male or female, black or white, gay or straight, tall or short, right-handed or left-handed, right-brained or left-brained, or speaking English or Spanish, or both, or neither. The question isn’t “does it matter?,” because it obviously has a significant impact upon your life and behavior. The question is “why does it matter?,” because that is the only question that makes sense and has efficacy. Similarly, you can’t understand the motivations behind big-endianness without understanding the motivations behind little-endianness, and you can’t understand the motivations behind little-endianness without understanding the motivations behind big-endianness. I’m not a computer science student, so I don’t know much about it, but I could wager a bet it has something to do with the properties of silicon.

In truth, endianness is just another of life’s little arguments to either make you incredible sane or incredibly insane. No problem can be solved at the same level it was created, so you either have to choose the path of ignorance or choose the path of knowledge. The former divides you into camps of religious zealots, and the latter unifies you into the camp of humanity, not by transcending the need for endianness, but by recognizing that the worst possible action is to stagnate and refuse to make a choice, and that each road is equally valid and you should choose whatever works best for you and your mind. The choice is yours.

Photo: Glass Lasers

Photo: Glass Lasers

These lasers were made for pointing, and that’s just what they’ll do. One of these days these lasers are going to point all over you.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1, F8.0, 50mm, ISO100, 2010-12-02T20:35:17-05, 20101203-013517rxt

Location: 1985 S. Carpenter Ave., Orange City, FL  32763-7334

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Selling Ads

I’ve decided to sell out the primary ad block on my website at the top-left of every post. 300×250, text, image, JavaScript, and/or Flash.

You can have whatever non-objectionable 300×250 ads you want there with JavaScript, a static ad, or rotating ads. Tell me what you want and I’ll code it for you, or provide your own code.

I’m completely replacing my primary Google AdSense block because AdSense doesn’t pay enough. I want to increase my income. If you are interested in purchasing this ad block which gets 20,000 unique organic pageviews per month on a PR 5/10 blog, email revenue@thripp.com. I DO NOT ACCEPT SPAM.

Religion

Nobody knows the time or the hour that Jesus will return to Earth, or even what form he will choose. It could be 4000 years from now, a million years from now, or it could be that he never even left. It could be that it’s incumbent upon us to change the world and change ourselves to prepare for his arrival. But one thing’s for sure — destroying the world will not get Jesus to return. Only embracing it will, but not in a physical way — in a mental way, for even a man who has looked upon a woman with lust has committed adultery in his heart.

I grew up not believing in any particular religion, but now I see that religion fulfills a critical need in peoples life — the belief in something permanent and unchanging outside themselves in an impermanent and changing physical world. Trying to tear down religion might be the right step at the level of fear, and ignoring religion might be the right step at the level of hope, but only embracing it is the right step at the level of love, tolerating it at the level of perfection, and loving it at the level of imperfection. As in the words of Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, “to love him was to know him, and to know him was to love him.”

Therefore, it’s very important to first embrace religion, then reject it, and then recapitulate. Most people only go through this process once or twice in their lives, and if they go through it more than that they feel like a failure, when in fact they are much more successful at their human mission than people who never change mental states.

If you go through this process process too frequently, you might have a mental disease such as bipolar “disorder” or schizophrenia. If you don’t go through the process of recapitulation enough, you might suffer a midlife or even a quarter-life crisis. And if you go through it everyday, you might be a Beethoven, Tolstoy, or Einstein just waiting to emerge.

Hope is a level of consciousness lower than knowledge, but faith is a higher level than both combined. It takes courage to stay true when the whole world seems to be against you, because in truth, the whole world loves you, but this doesn’t mean you should embrace strangers, because the world commits itself to actions discordant with its beliefs. There are rights, and then there are privileges, but you can’t earn privileges — they must be given to you, and all privileges are the work of Satan, not Jesus.

Be careful in your worldly affairs, for nothing in this world can truly determine your fate in the afterlife besides your actions. Normally, your thoughts determine your actions, but in some people this isn’t true, so it may be best to just disregard bad thoughts instead of wasting time analyzing where they came from.

Photo: Raindrop Petals

Photo: Raindrop Petals

Raindrops on the petals and leaves of a tiny pink flower. :)

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/125, F3.2, 50mm, ISO100, 2010-08-24T08:17:52-04, 20100824-121752rxt

Location: Ormond Beach, FL  32174

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Photo: Stamp Collecting

Photo: Stamp Collecting

Stamp collecting is so much fun. :) This is a package Dad and I were mailing to Polyester Books in Fitzroy, Australia. It would have been more economical to mail a bigger package because 8 oz. cost us $7.32 to mail.

Canon PowerShot SD790 IS, 1/60, F2.8, 6.2mm, ISO80, 2010-11-02T12:01:24-04, 20101102-160124rxt

Location: Thripp Residence, Ormond Beach, FL  32174-7227

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Photo: Pink Hibiscus

Photo: Pink Hibiscus

Pink Hibiscus flowers at Daytona State College, against a blue cloudless sky.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/800, F4.5, 50mm, ISO100, 2010-12-02T12:31:47-05, 20101202-173147rxt

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Photo: Red Hibiscus

Photo: Red Hibiscus

A red Hibiscus in someone’s yard I found while going for a walk in October 2010.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/125, F5.6, 125mm, ISO100, 2010-10-05T18:05:50-04, 20101005-220550rxt

Location: Ormond Beach, FL  32174

Download the high-res JPEG or download the source image.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.