Greg In The Desert

• OmniVision lands CIS orders for next-generation iPhone – OmniVision has received 3.2-megapixel CMOS image sensor (CIS) orders for Apple's next-generation iPhone, according to market sources. The company is also said to have secured 5-megapixel CIS orders for another Apple product expected to be launched later in the year

  [I would like to point out that 3.2 megapixels is approximately HD video resolution]

• Former California Homeowners Lash Out at Builder – NYTimes.com – [KB Homes} A state lawmaker from Southern California, where home values have plummeted and foreclosures have skyrocketed, has introduced a bill that would prohibit builders from lending money to homebuyers.

  “Builder-originated loans create an inherent conflict of interest,” the lawmaker, Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez, a Democrat, said in an e-mail message.

  No state has such a law, said Sue Johnson, the executive director of the Real Estate Services Providers Council, a trade group.

  “It would be disruptive to the home-building industry,” Ms. Johnson said, adding that most home builders had loan arrangements with financial institutions.

• Human Evolution and Frameshift Mutations | gmilburn.ca – How did humans evolve from early primates? How did “human like” traits such as a smaller jaw relative to apes and hairlessness pop up when they don’t appear in the wild in any real frequency? The typical explanation for why humans have smaller jaws than early primates is that our diets changed, and so we didn’t “need” bigger jaws. The only issue with this is that there is no real selection pressure for a smaller jaw – a large jaw works too! My appendix is unnecessary, and can even be a liability due to infection – but it’s still there. There are more factors in play. The old-school view of evolution as tiny little changes over a ridiculously long period of time is turning out to be not quite exactly true.
• How they make bi-metallic coins – Core77 – If you've ever wondered how they make bimetallic coins, here's the process. They start by punching a hole through a coin blank, or planchet. The core will be remelted for another batch, and the remaining part becomes the "ring," or outer, planchet.
• Time Warner rationale for bandwidth caps doesn’t add up – Ars Technica – Britt's rationale for the change—infrastructure is expensive—is tough to understand. Cable's physical plant has been in the ground for years; even hybrid fiber-coax systems have been widely deployed for some time. Internet access simply runs across the existing network, and one of cable's big advantages over DSL is that speeds can be upgraded cheaply by swapping in new DOCSIS headend gear, with DOCSIS 3.0 the current standard. Compared to what Verizon is doing with fiber and AT&T with its quasi-fiber U-Verse, cable Internet is a bargain (well, for the operators).
• Cats’ nervous systems able to repair themselves | Science Blog – Knowing that the central nervous system retains the ability to forge new myelin sheaths anywhere the nerves themselves are preserved provides strong support for the idea that if myelin can be restored in diseases such as multiple sclerosis, it may be possible for patients to regain lost or impaired functions: "The key thing is that it absolutely confirms the notion that remyelinating strategies are clinically important," Duncan says.
• Luxury resort bargain shopping | The Movable Buffet | Los Angeles Times – But consider the price difference in the basic Web rate for Mandalay Bay on a weeknight compared with a weekend. For $110 you can have a room on Thursday, April 23. But if you want the same room on Saturday, two days later, you will have to pay $350. And, that isn't the final twist. Saturday, April 25, is marked as a "No Arrival" day for Mandalay Bay. That means you would have to arrive at least a day before — that extra Friday night will cost you an additional $210.
• Geithner On Ousting CEOs, Reviving Economy | – CBS News – Days after GM's CEO Rick Wagoner was forced out by the Obama administration, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner left open the possibility that such moves could happen again.

  In an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, Geithner acknowledged the government has had to do "exceptional things" – citing AIG as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

• Joseph Stiglitz: "It’s going to be bad, very bad" | Salon News – In an interview, the Nobel Prize-winner and former chief economist at the World Bank talks about the Great Depression, Obama's stimulus package and today's financial crisis.

  Many people are comparing the financial crisis to the Great Depression. Will it really be that bad?

  It's going to be bad, very bad. We're experiencing the worst downturn since the Great Depression, and we haven't reached the bottom yet. I'm very pessimistic.

• Teen Commits Suicide Due to Bullying: Parents Sue School for Son’s Death – ABC News – Eric Mohat, 17, was harassed so mercilessly in high school that when one bully said publicly in class, "Why don't you go home and shoot yourself, no one will miss you," he did.

It’s been over a year since I last wrote anything about my aquarium set up and the last few posts were about my issues with keeping algae under control. Since then I’ve had a problem with a particular gold gourami that became extremely territorial and quite the bully. It didn’t matter what fish I put in with him, short of smaller fish like zebra danios, he would eventually kill them all. Not knowing what else to do with the little shit, I left him in the tank by himself (with a few zebra danios)

My last post was on my troubles with the Otocinclus cat fish. Despite my best attempts they just would not live more than a few weeks. I decidied to try something I never did before and stock the tank with a few cherry shrimp. I purchased 10 of them from a person on the aquariacentral message boards and they arrived as tiny little clear animals. After the first month I thought they had all died off. After the second month I started to see a few full grown adults. A year later I have hundreds of them living in the tank. After the population began to boom they literally stripped the tank clean of algae.

They don’t keep the tank 100% clean however, there’s still a fine layer of algae on the glass. I also made the mistake of putting the java moss that came wit the shrimp in to the tank and now it’s just a grown all over the place. The shrimp eat it but don’t keep it under control which requires me to pull as much of it out of the tank that I can ever few months.

The shrimp also make a good meal for the fish. I don’t feed the fish at all, they eat the plant materials and the shrimp. Even the zebra danios can been seen pooping red (the adult cherry shrimps are red).

The Gold Gourami died a few months ago and I’ve done very little tank maintenance during its life. With that much water and so few fish not much waste is produced but there was still a some of cleaning to be done before I start stocking the tank again. Besides the filter, gravel cleaning and algae scraping I’ve reduced the amount of time the lights are on from 12 to 8 hours and will run the UV sterilizer for a few weeks.

The Hydor Prime 10 canister filter I bought many years ago is under sized for this tank. I like the filter, it’s completely quiet and does a good job but its not going to be enough when I have a few dozen fish in there. I’m looking at the Eheim Pro 3E or the Lifeguard system. That will be a post for another day and another budget.

I couldn’t agree more with Alton Brown when he says (June 10th, BTW).

“I?m just saying that people with authority should have to play by a set of rules…published rules. If as a nation we?re going to have to tolerate being probed, scanned, profiled and frisked before we can get on an airplane, so be it. But it seems to me that we deserve a little consistency. Otherwise we open ourselves up to a whole new brand of bully…bullies with badges…not to mention really nice omelet pans.”

(TSA = Transportation Security Administration)

In the year before September 11th, 2001 I was working away from home in California. I flew back and forth for 9 months and got quite familiar with the airport system. I was luck that my assignment was over just before those planes crashed into the towers. At the time I thought it a good idea to turn over security to the feds. I mean, they should be doing for the safety of the citizens instead of for the money (not that “for the money” is a bad thing). Having been through security since then I can think that it is nothing more than a joke. They have random searches of peoples shoes? Give me a break.