The T3sk3y Defenestrator

This is post #400.  It’s amazing looking back that the Defenestrator made it this far.  Whether it makes it beyond post #400 remains to be seen.

I’m going to talk for a bit about the value of focus.  Since the start of the Defenestrator, the focus has been simple - whatever is interesting to me.  The only forbidden topic is politics - which isn’t interesting to me.  Major exemptions were granted for elections and tax days, but that’s it.

The problem is that it was always kind of easy to find topics since there was no focus.  The downside is that it was sort of everything to some people - and nothing to most people.  My photography friends don’t care about pinball.  My pinball friends don’t care about my travel adventures.  My family doesn’t care about either photography or pinball.  Well, they do - but not enough to go to my blog every day.  When you know nobody’s reading - it’s tough to stay motivated to post!

Back in November I decided to focus.  I launched a new blog over at T3imagery.com to be tightly focused on being a photo blog.  The idea is simple - one photo per day, every day.  This gave me the opportunity to showcase my favorite pictures and tell a little story about them.  That way, people that are interested in that topic will continue to find interesting stuff every day.

The results?  Three months in, I’ve found it to be really rewarding.  I’ve had a nice boost in hits due to cross promotion on Facebook and Twitter.  And - in the thing that means the most - I’ve had more nice comments from people in three months than I got in five years of the Defenestrator.  It’s also challenging me to create content - one picture per day eats up your good stuff really fast!

So, what now for the Defenestrator?  I’m certainly going to keep the lights on.  It’s minimal effort to keep things running.  Honestly, it’ll probably continue to be a little more sporadic in that I’ll only create content when something blogworthy happens.  I just don’t have time to blog for blogging’s sake.  I’ll still probably post travelogues since that serves as a great way to capture memories for the future.  I’ll also probably continue to show off pinball things since that’s a big chunk of what I do.  I suspect though it’ll never be as rewarding as the focused effort I’ve got going at T3 Imagery.

So - if you lose your way - focus!

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Christmas night, the T3sk3y family had game night in the Chaska Pinball Shrine.  For old time’s sake, my wife and sister decided to fire up Dance Dance Revolution on the Dreamcast.  Before long, William wanted in to the act.   Hilarity ensued..

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As many of you have seen on Twitter, I was the lucky recipient of a much-heralded Canon 5D Mark II for Christmas.  The reviews of this camera have been righteously positive - with a couple of cautionary tales around some early firmware problems.� Since I’ve been nothing but happy with my 40D since I got it a year ago - I wanted to do a stress test to see if the 5D lives up to the hype.

This is really unscientific.� I’m not using a tripod.� Heck, I even shot the pictures a day apart.� It’s also not fair - the 5D Mk II is about double the cost of the 40D.� But, is it 2x better?

For the test, I set both the 5D Mk II and the 40D to ISO3200.� On the 40D, I had to enable a custom function to get 3200 (shown as ‘H’ on the LCD).� In both shots, I used Canon’s superb 24-105L lens.� Here are my results:

Canon 5D Mk II @ ISO 3200

Canon 40D @ ISO 3200

Exif info:

5D Mk II version: Canon 24-105mm @ 105mm, ISO 3200, f/4.0, 1/80 sec

40D version: Canon 24-105mm @ 58mm, ISO3200, f/4.0, 1/125 sec

Clicking on either picture will open up the original (note: careful, they are BIG - especially the 21.1 megapixel 5D image!).

My impressions?� Wow, is 3200 good on the 5D Mark II.� I’d totally use that shot.� It’s clearly better than the image taken with the 40D.� The 40D image shows a lot of noise in the red portion above the Christmas balls.� The balls themselves look ‘crispy’, as does the ironwork on the 40D shot.� I gotta say though - the 40D shot looks way better than I would have guessed.

I also printed each @ 4×6 with my Canon i9900.� The shot from the 5D Mk. II is noise free and looks great - very vibrant and lifelike.� The shot from the 40D looks very noisy, even in print.

Conclusion?� At least in terms of low light performance - the 5D delivers.� I’ll be looking forward to finding out what else it can do.

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I’m happy to announce another site that I’m starting - T3 Imagery (www.t3imagery.com).� Up until now, this site has been the place where I posted cool pictures.� I really wanted a site that could serve as an online portfolio of my photography so that people that are only interested in that don’t have to wade through my other nerdy adventures.

The idea is this - it’s going to take the old “A picture is worth 1000 words” adage to heart.� It’s about the image, the story behind it, and way it was made.� There will probably never be more than a couple of quick sentences each day, text isn’t the point.

Here is the way it will work.� I’m going to post one picture per day posted at 8 PM.� It’s only going to be my favorite stuff - landscapes, portraits, travel shots, whatever.� It’s something that catches my eye or something I want to share with all of you.� The front page will only show one shot - but you can navigate to see the archives on the left side of the page or by the arrows on the bottom.

So - if you don’t mind - please check t3imagery.com each night after 8.� Better yet - set up a reader to get the RSS feed (available on the home page) to get the daily post delivered to you automatically.� And, if you forget how to get there - I’ve created a link on the right side of this page.� Check it out - and while you are at it, please check out some of my friend’s sites.

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.. ‘cuz it’s done.

After 9 months and more orders from Pinball Life, Marco Specialties, Bay Area Amusements, and Pinball Resource than I care to count, I crossed the last to-do off the list of restoration tasks.

�

Restore White Water - playfield view

I’ve had a bunch of pesky little tasks for the past couple of weeks to resolve - like coloring the white edges of the decal with a blue paint pen. �It’s a little detail, but it really makes it look professional. �

The last task was to do something I’ve never done in pinball restoration - weaken the flippers. �Everything I’ve learned has been how to make the flippers nice ‘n strong. �This machine had the wrong flipper coils when I bought the machine - but they were okay with the worn linkages. �Once I rebuilt the flippers, the flippers turned into cannons that threatened to destroy all the expensive new plastic parts. �To rectify, I went one step weaker with the coils and that did the trick.

�

White Water - Upper playfield view

Pictures from the entire restoration odyssey are here on my SmugMug site: Whitewater Restoration

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The victor is not victorious if the vanquished does not consider himself so.

-Ennius, circa 200 BC

One of the Golden Rules of the Defenestrator is “Thou shalt not talk about politics except on April 15th of each year”.� I suppose major elections are an acceptable excuse as well.� I’ve got a few thoughts that I want to share - then I’ll go back into my self-imposed political cone of silence.

As somebody with right-of-center values, it’s a little tough to share the enthusiasm so rampant in our political mindset.� However - for better or for worse - it is change, and I’ll at least give it a shot rather than assuming the sky is going to fall.� I just hope it’s change for the better.

The complete lack of unity and harmony in our country over the last eight years have been disgusting.� (i.e. “He’s not MY president”)� Though the victors of the current election wouldn’t have been my choices, I’m going to try my best to not continue the hate for another four years by supporting our leaders and our country.� I think it’s our duty.� Obama is my President.

I’m also really dismayed by the number of “sore winner” attitudes I’ve seen in the past day.� I’ve seen everything from “I’m laughing at everyone who voted for McCain” to “Suck it Republicans!”.� It even seems like there’s a sense of “Because we didn’t win every single election, there MUST be cheating!” Give entitlement an inch and it’ll take a mile.� Look, I really don’t agree with Obama’s policies - but I think he won fair and square.� I think in his heart he’s a decent and honest person.� Why must we always assume the worst in everyone?

On to a funny note.. my favorite moment of the election was the all-night hype of the “HUGE crowd numbering ONE MILLION in GRANT PARK!!”.� About eleven o’clock or so, we got to hear about the “HUGE crowd numbering UPWARDS OF FIFTY THOUSAND in GRANT PARK!!”.� Uh, hello?� Over optimistic by a bit there, aren’t we?� All twenty of us writing this article think that’s funny!

There are some things to be thankful for.� The Democratic Supermajority was averted.� A dear friend of mine was very concerned four years ago - maybe rightfully so - that the right was gaining too much power and the left no longer had a voice.� The shoe still fits when it’s on the other foot.

Senator Coleman is getting lots of flak about calling for Franken to concede in the face of a mandated recount.� I know nobody wants to hear this - but he’s correct.� The recount will be a waste of our time.� Ignoring politics or the politicos, it really comes down to math.

Nationwide, elections are virtually never turned over.� Modern elections are 99.99% accurate.� Across 2.5 million votes, that’s a swing of up to 250 votes if they ALL go to one side.� That never happens.

If votes are wrong - they fall into two major types of errors.� The first is a random error - where the machine/human just plain read the ballot wrong or a ballot box was lost.� These random errors favor both sides equally.� Case in point?� Since the ballots were counted, the number HAS changed.� The media is reporting that it’s down to 336 votes.� The Secretary of State’s website has it back up to 590.� Some for Franken, some for Coleman, repeat.

The second type is a systematic error.� Computers are prone to this, and it usually takes the form of “I’m ignoring all votes for candidate X”.� These type of problems are very easy to spot - because it looks pretty obvious when all votes come in for one side.� The other problem is they can be impossible to fix.� For example, the vote got miscounted.� Great - what *should* it be?� In a purely electronic voting machine, there’s no record!

So - at the end of the day - the odds of Coleman not being the winner are on the level of lightning bolts and winning the powerball.

On a final happy note, I believe that Senator McCain’s concession speech will go a very long way to cementing his legacy as an American hero.� It had all the right stuff - sacrifice, humility, sincerity, and honor.� We could all learn from him on how to lose with grace.

Mr. Franken - I’m looking in your direction..

With that little jab, it’s back to photography, pinball, travel, and other funny nerd related crap that I think is cool.� That’s more fun to debate anyway..

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I really don’t know if this is legit - some posters have claimed this is from a recent movie - but I think it’s really funny.� If it’s real, it’s so Soviet Union.� If it’s not - it’s so Soviet Union.� To me, that sort of negates the importance of the authenticity.

Either way.. here’s the footage of the mortar launch system test.� Click on the thumbnail to get the full-sized images.

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I was forced to cry uncle this weekend on the topic of Facebook.

Truthfully, I hate it.� But - I realized that I’m missing out on a big chunk of the Web 2.0 experience, so I’m giving it a whack.� It’s also really useful fo publicity when you are a photographer.

So - I’m trying to figure out how to glue the Defenestrator with Facebook and not having much luck.� There’s an official plugin, but it only works on blogs hosted at Wordpress, not self-hosted ones.� There’s a plugin called Wordbook - but that apparently doesn’t work with the version PHP/XML (or something) installed on here.

Now I’m down to a straight RSS feed.� We’ll see if it works!

In the meantime - send me a friend request to Mark Teskey!

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Since we’re talking about Hell on Halloween..

I’m going to briefly break ranks on my pledge to never talk about politics except on April 15th.� Since apparently the frontrunners are allowed to go back on pledges, I’m going to do the same and utter one short statement.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PEOPLE, SAVE YOUR DAMN MONEY AND STOP SENDING ME CRAP AND POLLUTING MY TELEVISION.� I’LL VOTE FOR ANYBODY.. AND I MEAN ANYBODY.. THAT PLEDGES TO CONSTITUTIONALLY LIMIT CAMPAIGNING TO ONE MONTH.

Yep, one month.� That’s it.� If you can’t get your message out in a month - you either don’t really believe in it or you aren’t persuasive enough to win anyway.

Who the heck has been running the country for the past fourteen months, anyway?

Rant off.

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