Nice idea, but as soon as I tried to warp the thing around the tripod leg, one of its legs busted off.

I tried using gaffers tape to reattach, but wasn’t comfortable it would be stable enough to hold the camera still for the several minutes that would be necessary. I ended up using another shorter one that has a similar type of legs, but is only designed to sit on something instead of attach to it. With no platform available to rest it on, the ground was the best I could do. The video turned out better than I expected in that “happy accident” way, but I would have much rather had it taken from above the weeds instead of in them.

When I returned the broken FlexPod, the guy at the camera store asked me if I wanted to swap it out for another one. I suppose it’s possible that I got the one defective one they had, but as far as I’m concerned it’s just a crappy product. Needless to say, I got a refund instead.

Time to get a Magic Arm

The other locations are the positions I’m looking to shoot from and Launch Pad 39a where the shuttle will blast off from. By sticking a protractor on the screen, I get the angles of view which I cross reference with either this chart or this tool.

Hopefully, we’ll see how this all pans out tomorrow night.

Just a few quick links that I’ve found useful when trying to figure out details about attending a Space Shuttle launch. (Of course, if you can’t attend, there is always NASA TV streaming on the web.

• NASA Launch Blog – Note: it would be nice if this page auto-updated, but it doesn’t appear to.
• STS-128 Launch blog RSS feed – It looks like this will disappear after the current launch, but new ones should pop up for each launch. They also keep clearing it out which sucks.
• Kennedy Space Center launch viewing ticket info
• NASA list of "off-site" viewing locations
• Article from phototrek.org about launch photography – lots of really good stuff in here.
• Launch info dump from sworld.com.au – Tons of stuff here. To the point of information overload, but it’s worth digging through for specifics.
• Wiki article on STS-128 – There’s one for every mission.
• Awesome looking graphical representation of the launch before it happens – Shows maps of where/when you can see the shuttle from different states. I’m glad there are people out there that can and do make this kind of thing.
• Communication frequency list
• Another frequency list with some additional stuff on it – This one lines up more with what I’ve seen in some other places.
• List of retransmissions in other locations – if you want to tune in from elsewhere.
• My question to Ask MetaFilter about scanners – got confirmation that the ones RadioShack sells are speced to pick up the retransmissions.

These are the frequencies I’ve seen listed for tuning into the shuttle communications prior to launch via HAM repeaters. These are all pulled from the links above, but they are spread out. Just listing them here to make them easier to find.

• 146.880 MHz (FM) – KA9SZX retransmission
• 146.940 MHz (FM) – K4GCC retransmission
• 145.170 MHz (FM) – WA4VME retransmission
• 296.800 MHz (AM) – Air-to-ground & Orbiter to EVA-Suit
• 279.000 MHz (AM) – EVA-Suit-to-EVA-Suit & Orbiter to EVA-Suit
• 243.000 MHz (AM) – Standard UHF Mil emergency Freq.
• 442.6 MHz (UHF) – NASA audio
• AM 1240 and AM 1350 – Local station WMMB. These weren’t broadcasting the launch when I was there, but they are still listed by NASA.

There aren’t that many Shuttle missions left after this one. Here’s the list as it stands right now.

• STS-129 – November 12, 2009 – 4:11PM
• STS-130 – February 4, 2010 – Time TBD
• STS-131 – March 18, 2010 – Time TBD
• STS-132 – May 14, 2010 – Time TBD
• STS-133 – July 29, 2010 – Time TBD
• STS-134 – September 16, 2010 – Time TBD

The last one, STS-134 isn’t certain yet. It has to get budget approval. As it stands right now, either that one or 133, is going to be the last launch of the Space Shuttle program.

If it’s simple enough, it might also be a nice transition for someone who’s not that computer savvy as well. That could make for a smoother transition for those folks that are still hanging onto their file point and shoot cameras.

If things get corrupted, there is also TestDisk, which is bundled with PhotoRec. I haven’t used it, but it’s worth a shot if you run into real issues with a card.

Other than being Free Open Source Software, these apps have the added bonus of being available on multiple operating systems including Mac and Windows.

This is the tail end of the crowd leaving Bryant-Denny after the 2008 Iron Bowl where the Tide beat the stew outta Auburn. Final score, a 36-0 shutout. Watching the fans move at roughly the same speed across caught my eye and I decided it would make a worthy video. This was after most of the fans had already filed out. Next time I’m there, I’ll see if I can get on the ramp earlier and see what it looks like with more people packed together.

Zoom on in, and then zoom some more.

Update: check out the snapshots on the GigaPan site. Helps to key into the level of detail as it zooms.

I can not imagine having to look out over all those people and trying to speak.

One of the first examples of this are the set of photos from 1878 called “The Horse in Motion.” by Eadweard_Muybridge who was the first person to prove scientifically that a horse has all four hooves off the ground in a gallop. Fast forward 130 years and the technology has, unsurprisingly, improved significantly. Today, anyone can buy a consumer level camera that shoots at 1,000 frames/second. The sample videos I’ve seen from this camera aren’t studio quality, but are certainly an example of how far technology has come.

Professional grade cameres are even more impressive. Take the self-promotion piece created by the production company Action Figure. The video is a series of people getting punched in the face by a boxing glove with the Action Figure logo. Since it was released, this video has spread all over YouTube and similar sites, but all those versions seem to be compressed to the point where they loose the sharp details. The original QuickTime movies on the Action Figure site really highlight the quality.

When I was trying to dig up the link for this post, I came across a few supplemental videos on the Action Figure site as well as the main one.

• Main edited piece with funky track (quicktime .mov)
• Directory of all clips, including individuals
• String of the punches with out additional editing or sound (quicktime .mov)

While I like the main video with the tune (Shazam’s remix of “Sweaty” by Muscles), I am more mesmerized by the sting of individuals where you see each punch uninteruppted. Watching the way everything moves provides a glimpse into time that feels almost supernatural. Also, it’s good motivation to try to keep from getting punched in the face.

If you’d like to see some more examples of this, check out Discovery channel’s new show “Time Warp” that is centered around high-speed camera work.

One of the key reasons I treat e-mail like this is that in order to make progress on anything other than the smallest of projects, I need blocks of uninterrupted time. There is a nice three part entry over at 43 Folders that is right in line with my thinking on this type of stuff. From the introduction:

“Making Time to Make” is a 3-part series about attention management for people who do creative work. It’s designed to help you firewall the time and attention you need to get out of the lite communication business and into your studio.

For me, one long block of time is much better than two or more smaller blocks even if they add up to the same (or possibly greater) amount of time. The first part of the series has a quote from Neal Stephenson who shares the idea:

Writing novels is hard, and requires vast, unbroken slabs of time. Four quiet hours is a resource that I can put to good use. Two slabs of time, each two hours long, might add up to the same four hours, but are not nearly as productive as an unbroken four. If I know that I am going to be interrupted, I can’t concentrate, and if I suspect that I might be interrupted, I can’t do anything at all. Likewise, several consecutive days with four-hour time-slabs in them give me a stretch of time in which I can write a decent book chapter, but the same number of hours spread out across a few weeks, with interruptions in between them, are nearly useless.

My favorite quote comes from the second part. “Put plainer, my sense is that western culture would be a damn sight poorer today if John Lennon had been forced to carry a goddamn BlackBerry.” If you create things, it’s well worth the read.

Making Time to Make – Part 1
Making Time to Make – Part 2
Making Time to Make – Part 3