Jan 24: Mame panel
In addition to my MythTV box, I've always wanted to build a Mame box. Mame is an arcade machine emulator that you can use to play all the old arcade games (like my personal favorite, Rolling Thunder). A bunch of people build arcade style cabinets to house them, complete with authentic controls.
But for me, space is a huge problem. I live in a townhouse and have a couple hobbies that already take up a lot of space (computers and photography), not to mention Cyndi and 3 kids. So, a full-size Mame cabinet is out of the question right now.
Then, today, I found this:
Mame Panel (via)
It's basically an entire Mame computer, complete with real arcade joysticks and buttons, but in a little box that can be tucked away when not in use. Now that I've seen it, it's so obvious it's killing me.
One photo is below. Click the link above for more, including some showing the inside and the wiring.
In addition to my MythTV box, I've always wanted to build a Mame box. Mame is an arcade machine emulator that you can use to play all the old arcade games (like my personal favorite, Rolling Thunder). A bunch of people build arcade style cabinets to house them, complete with authentic controls.
But for me, space is a huge problem. I live in a townhouse and have a couple hobbies that already take up a lot of space (computers and photography), not to mention Cyndi and 3 kids. So, a full-size Mame cabinet is out of the question right now.
Then, today, I found this:
Mame Panel (via)
It's basically an entire Mame computer, complete with real arcade joysticks and buttons, but in a little box that can be tucked away when not in use. Now that I've seen it, it's so obvious it's killing me.
One photo is below. Click the link above for more, including some showing the inside and the wiring.
But for me, space is a huge problem. I live in a townhouse and have a couple hobbies that already take up a lot of space (computers and photography), not to mention Cyndi and 3 kids. So, a full-size Mame cabinet is out of the question right now.
Then, today, I found this:
Mame Panel (via)
It's basically an entire Mame computer, complete with real arcade joysticks and buttons, but in a little box that can be tucked away when not in use. Now that I've seen it, it's so obvious it's killing me.
One photo is below. Click the link above for more, including some showing the inside and the wiring.
Jan 20: Shooting the moon, take 1
Inspired by this photo and the fact that I have a new long lens, I've been thinking about photographing the moon--which I've never done before. I had thought about and then dismissed the idea of doing it tonight earlier. But, then I took some photos of some flowers that Cyndi had bought (look for a couple of those shots on 18percent soon). When I was done, I still felt like taking pictures so I threw my camera and tripod in the van and drove around until I found a suitably dark place and took some moon photos.
My best shot from tonight is below. As you can see, the focus is a bit off. Also, this is cropped and displayed at 100% (the original image is like 3000 pixels wide). Even at full zoom (about 450mm--the lens tops out at 300mm, but it's for normal 35mm cameras, and my digital has a 1.5 zoom factor) the moon's pretty tiny in the photo. I'm pretty pleased with the size displayed here, so I think that next time, if I can get the focus right, it could be a pretty good shot.
Update: I thought about it a bit more, and I think the fuzziness was from camera shake, not focus problems. Gary and I talked about it, and he thinks that too. I was just pressing the shutter release, but should've been shooting with a remote release or using the timer.
Inspired by this photo and the fact that I have a new long lens, I've been thinking about photographing the moon--which I've never done before. I had thought about and then dismissed the idea of doing it tonight earlier. But, then I took some photos of some flowers that Cyndi had bought (look for a couple of those shots on 18percent soon). When I was done, I still felt like taking pictures so I threw my camera and tripod in the van and drove around until I found a suitably dark place and took some moon photos.
My best shot from tonight is below. As you can see, the focus is a bit off. Also, this is cropped and displayed at 100% (the original image is like 3000 pixels wide). Even at full zoom (about 450mm--the lens tops out at 300mm, but it's for normal 35mm cameras, and my digital has a 1.5 zoom factor) the moon's pretty tiny in the photo. I'm pretty pleased with the size displayed here, so I think that next time, if I can get the focus right, it could be a pretty good shot.
Update: I thought about it a bit more, and I think the fuzziness was from camera shake, not focus problems. Gary and I talked about it, and he thinks that too. I was just pressing the shutter release, but should've been shooting with a remote release or using the timer.
My best shot from tonight is below. As you can see, the focus is a bit off. Also, this is cropped and displayed at 100% (the original image is like 3000 pixels wide). Even at full zoom (about 450mm--the lens tops out at 300mm, but it's for normal 35mm cameras, and my digital has a 1.5 zoom factor) the moon's pretty tiny in the photo. I'm pretty pleased with the size displayed here, so I think that next time, if I can get the focus right, it could be a pretty good shot.
Update: I thought about it a bit more, and I think the fuzziness was from camera shake, not focus problems. Gary and I talked about it, and he thinks that too. I was just pressing the shutter release, but should've been shooting with a remote release or using the timer.
