Canon Rebel T2i - Audio Hack (Disable AGC)

So a big annoyance to 7D and T2i owners is when there is no audio, the automatic gain control kicks in and raises the noise floor.  This dude in the video figured out that you can just feed a pure tone into the left or right channel and this will effectively keep the Automatic Gain Control from kicking in.....  This is super hilarious because almost every argument for 5d mark ii (other than the full frame/better low light etc) is this 'manual audio control' ability.  So $3000 for a 5d mark ii, $1500 for a 7D, and then $900 for a T2i.... since the T2i and the 7D apparently have almost the same Sensor.... (all the reviews i have seen seem to show that 7D video is effectively the same as the T2i video) it's interesting to note that you can get rid of the annoyances that the 'manual audio control' gets you... with this simple hack....
thumbs up to the guy who made this video.... clever observation and experimentation...

So I read on a post somewhere else that someone said this wouldn't work because the T2i only records mono.... well apparently it records mono if you use the built in mic... but when I plugged in an external input... it totally recorded left and right channels separately....  here is a shot of the audio off the T2i from final cut..

So the next question is to find out if there if I can find my ipod mini that I lost somewhere in my car to use as a tone generator.... alternatively if you got the levels right... you could use a 555 timer with the appropriate output voltage range...  but honestly.... his ipod shuffle solution is probably the least ghetto and most elegant.

T2i + iPod shuffle 1G (cheap but small version) + Prime value EF 50mm f/1.8 lens FTW

      
















Here is a dude with a nice example of actually showing the 'disable' in real time.. pretty cool

OLD SPICE EPIC VIDEOS

You have to watch this epic video playlist... ALL THE OLD SPICE RESPONSE VIDEOS

Also here is a great video remix...

Neyo Beautiful Monster cover 3x

God of War the Movie Trailer

I saw this EPIC trailer on metafilter.com... check out the majesty
http://www.gamervision.com/users/00_19/articles/god_of_war_movie_trailer

Left 4 Dead Survivors Rock Band Videos

Yearbook Photos...

Anderson Silva as Michael Jackson

SUPER GHETTO DIY giant beauty dish

There are alot of DIY beauty dishes on the interwebs.... this is perhaps the cheapest.
I give you khappucino's SUPER POOR MAN's Beauty Dish Mod


Step 1. reflective umbrella (i'm poor and all i have is a shoot through but you get the idea)
Step 2. paper plates mounted on umbrella shaft behind the flash head to remove center hot spot
Step 3. step back and look at the majesty. 

Reflective Umbrella = Efficient yet you get a hotspot
Add plate... and you have a reflective umbrella with the hotspot blocked out....

Now you have something that at resembles a gigantic beauty dish...  (2 cent hot spot remover)

Dolphin Escape

Totally Sweet Cold Steel SPARTAN Kopis knife

THIS IS MADNESSS!!! NO... This is Cold Steel!!!!  Great Anti Zombie / Anti Pirate knife =p

My boy KillerB

Kafka style - Rising Youtube Comet

So this girl Jenna just got ~1.5 Million views on youtube in just 2 days.... this has to be some sort of record....

LOL - Ichiro Attack

HAHA I saw this on boston.barstoolsports.com

OMG.... Oil Leak Might be on top of VOLCANO

I found this and Fark.com and almost fell out of my chair...

Oil Leak may be on top of VOLCANO....

Excerpt:

Mississippi Canyon Block 252 in the Gulf of Mexico is a deep core monster. Seismic studies done (link has vanished since last week)  in 2003  showed huge pockets of methane gas under volcanic pressure; up to 100,000 psi. Pressures that high are beyond human technology and we have no way to control them. There is evidence to suggest that BP should never have been allowed to poke a hole in it. A 1997 MMS report explains the reasons in detail.

After reading the MMS report, it is obvious that BP knew the risks of tapping the Macondo field were huge. But the financial rewards were too tempting; the Macondo reservoir holds the second largest deposit of natural gas and oil on the planet. And there is scientific evidence to suggest (See video below)  that it is virtually bottomless, through deep channels to the largest reservoir in the world - near the Yucatan peninsula. To an oil company, Macondo is the black gold dream they would sell their souls for.

Photoshoot with Iphone

I found this video off of strobist.com. Pro fashion photographer does a photoshoot using hot lights and an iphone 3gs.... totally sweet.

Share Carwin: Classy Loss

Here is an interesting post fight chat with Carwin:

Check it out here.

Excerpts:

“Brock was a good guy through this entire fight,” Carwin wrote. “He did not talk a bunch of smack and he fought like a warrior. He did what he needed to do to keep his belt, and that is what being a champion is all about. I am going to have to claw my way back to the top, but I wouldn't want it any other way. I know I belong with the very best; all I need to do is prove it again.”

Why people get granted/denied Security Clearances

I saw this on metafilter.com and thought I'd share...
Check it out http://www.dod.mil/dodgc/doha/industrial/2010.html

Here are some EPIC examples:  (btw I don't recall having a family member involved in running a pornography website as a question on the EPSQ form...)

Applicant failed to advise his employer and the Government that his wife maintains two pornography websites, which include hardcore pornography. This decision places him in a position to be exploited, coerced or forced to provide classified information. He has not mitigated the government's security concerns. Clearance is denied.

Applicant is 35 years old and employed as a Program Manager and Consultant for a defense contractor. His history of excessive alcohol abuse to the point of intoxication continued off and on from February 2000 until at least December 2005, and resulted in three alcohol related arrests and related misconduct. Since then, the Applicant has significantly reduced his drinking and has had no further encounters with law enforcement. There is sufficient evidence of rehabilitation. Clearance is granted.


Applicant misused his former employer's company van and was involved in an accident while drunk in December 2007. He complied with all subsequent court and alcohol treatment requirements, and demonstrated rehabilitation and mitigation of resulting security concerns. Eligibility for access to classified information is granted.


Applicant is 34 years old and employed as an Administrative Assistant by a defense contractor. The Applicant's history of delinquent indebtedness, caused by a separation, divorce, and being a single mother, has been resolved by a good faith effort to resolve her indebtedness. Her deliberate attempt to conceal her financial indebtedness on her 2006 and 2007, security clearance applications has not been mitigated by sufficient evidence of reform and rehabilitation. Clearance is denied.


In 2007, Applicant wrongfully obtained an access badge, which allowed him access to the United States Embassy in Baghdad. He was also aware another person had obtained a similar access badge. Applicant has rebutted or mitigated the government's security concerns under personal conduct. Clearance is granted.


Applicant accumulated a significant amount of debt after he divorced in 2000 and lost personal property in Hurricane Katrina in 2005. To date, he failed to provide evidence that he has taken any steps to resolve or pay his debts, including a 2001 tax lien. He failed to mitigate the security concerns raised under the financial considerations guideline. Clearance is denied.


A former honor student and exemplary teen, Applicant moved from cigarettes to marijuana to other vices between his final high school years and college. He hit his nadir toward the end of college. He struggled to regain his faith and overcome his vices. On February 14, 2008, he quit using drugs. Since then, he has matured, regained his faith, become active in his church, involved in community outreach for troubled youth, mended relationships, excelled at work, and successfully built a strong network of mentors to help him maintain his current spiritual, personal, and professional course. Applicant mitigated drug involvement trustworthiness concerns. He has no intention of ever using drugs again. Eligibility for a trustworthiness determination granted.


Applicant accrued significant delinquent debt between 1998 and 2006 because his live-in girlfriend was forging his checks and running up his credit cards. She has a history of larcenous conduct and they have not been together for over three years. Applicant has paid or resolved all but two of the debts alleged and he is not likely to experience such circumstances in the future. Clearance is granted.

Tribute To Chicken Song

Man this is the best ever.... I love chicken!!!!!!!! I think people are crazy if they don't like chicken... this kid is awesome.

Below is the 'Complete Encyclopedia of Chickens' if you actually for some reason want to know more about chicken. All you ever wanted to know about chicken.

LOLZ - Reporter messes with Machida and Shogun

LOL!!! at 3:33 "Watch out I don't wanna hurt ya... I can take two of you guys... Wham! and Wham! LOL"

Dramatic Toilet Paper

A shot I took yesterday after a brilliant flash of inspiration.... "Codex of Infinite Knowledge"

My new Photo Website

I haven't populated it completely yet but I will be migrating my stuff over from shutterfly to here.

Check it out... blacksapphirestudios.com, the branding is way better on smugmug than on shutterfly.

Miss Ohio 2010

So my friend Audrey's (the techsocialite of techsocialite.com) cousin is now Miss Ohio 2010.
Small world.

Flaming Gulf Tornado/Hurricane?

So apparently there is oil raining down parts of the Gulf Coast... this made me think of the possibility of a flaming tornado/hurricane.... here is a pic from IGN's review of the game Disaster Report 3.

SkyyJohn on the iPhone 4 - We be lying

hahaha new use for this video i made

Steven Seagal and Anderson Silva

Sweet Faux Film Trailer: Lovecraft's Mountains of Madness

Babies, Dogs, and Weddings: The keys to Internet Win

Here is an article I wrote for techsocialite.com on the subject of "Babies, Dogs, and Weddings" and how they can help you get internet win! and like billions of dollars and stuff...

Here is an excerpt:

Basically I think that if you want internet win… the trifecta of puppies (or other animals, preferably cute), babies (dancing, singing, or dressed like Hitler), and weddings (wedding dances, songs, dresses… I mean there are entire shows dedicated to this stuff) is the way to go.  Specifically… if you can come up with something that would be of interest in one of these three topics… you may have some ‘solid content’ on your hands… the interest level is peaked for these 3 because people seem to be pretty determined when they are doing the information search for babies, puppies, and weddings….  So if you have a baby that can ride a puppy and hand out flowers down the aisle of a wedding ceremony on film… or you can write about how to do something like that… you might be the next internet phenom…

Tim Vs Wild Update: Boulder Survival School

Looks like our hero Tim made some new friends. Boulder Survival School check it here!!!

ChiaroScuro lighting =p

Some ChiaroScuro lighting I did... it reminds me of when Strong Sad talks about ChiaroScuro shading...

Shane Carwin - Full Time Engineer - Part Time UFC Champion

hahahahahahaha

BADASS OF THE WEEK

Courtesy of badassoftheweek.com via fark.com

Check the story here of how a chinese farmer defended his land against enforcers and bulldozers with homemade rocket towers...

Carvaggio - The Original Photoshopper

So to most photographers... the most important piece of photography beyond the subject itself is light and shadow.... today's photography owes a debt to the old masters...

in fact many photographers regularly discuss studying the great masters such as Rembrandt, Vemeer, and Carvaggio for some inspiration on the use of light and shadow.....

well here is the funny part... there is a theory that Carvaggio was the first photoshopper.... using technology + painting to render beautiful and dramatic works .. check this story out...  The technology in question is a version of the Camera Obscura that Da Vinci is known to be familiar with.  The theory is that he used a camera obscura to project his subjects onto the canvas (while the canvas is covered in photosensitive material) thus perhaps painting over a photo.... (which is ironic because some of my friends made fun of me for my idea to oil paint over photo's printed on canvas.... ha ha guys... the old masters did the same thing.....)  Anyhow I think if this is true that it's even more epic because he decided to be smart and use technology where it made sense.

Here is another link to the discussion of Carvaggio who is celebrated for his mastery of light and shadow in painting.

IPAD / IPOD WALKING ROBOT

Old Soviet Propaganda Video for Nuking Gas Well

This is interesting. Of course every soviet usage of a small nuclear device was for gas vs oil, every successive fail of plugging the hole is bringing this originally out of the question method.... a little more relevance... this is interesting considering who Obama picked for his A-Team as well.. Here is a recent story on the NY Post talking about the current status..

Get your bomb shelters ready and some potassium iodine pills ready.

EPIC TRANSFORMING OWL

Just watch it... he's a triple changer!

NEWSWEEK.COM Konami Code

Turns INTO

Go to newsweek.com type in the konami code, up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start....

boom!  I saw this originally on fark.com... here is the npr link.

New Hot Track for the Summer

I love this song... and I seriously hope this takes off in the club/bars. LOL

Recruiting 2.0: Pillaging talent has never been so easy

An article I wrote for techsocialite.com on the subject of Recruiting 2.0: Pillaging talent has never been so easy.

Here is an excerpt:

So here is an interesting scene, I roll into work to find an interesting set of IM’s from a few different friends.  They all have hyperlinks to a particular website… What is this website you might ask? Well, it turns out that it’s a link to a job posting on one of our competitors websites… the rub? Well interestingly enough they actually have information like Signing Bonus on the job requisitions they have listed, which is kind of unheard of in my particular industry. Anyhow.. the reason this is interesting is two fold, #1 a few of my friends scoped this out on Facebook of all places 

A good shot: A GREAT short film

So I randomly came across this fantastic short film on youtube.... enjoy

Ok this is totally epic: 1 boxer beats 4 attackers on the street

I don't know the cause... but that one dude totally hosed the 4 other guys.

BONUS!