I don't know what's wrong with Picasa2's JPEG export feature, but here's why I like the application but will never use it to post pictures. Evar.

On the left is a crop from an image that I exported with Picasa2's "Make a webpage..." feature. It has been contrast-enhanced to bring out the JPEG-artifact nastiness that was done when the image was written. To compare, I created a JPEG of the same portion of the image size in Photoshop, carefully matching the output JPEG to the size of the one Picasa2 created and did the same contrast enhancement. The difference between the two should be visible even to people who don't care about image quality.

Making the JPEG immorality all the more egregious is the fact you can't change the quality setting when outputting a gallery of images. Strangely, you can -- if you just want to spit out one image -- but the JPEG quality setting here too is wonky. A setting of 90% creates gross looking small images while a setting of 100% creates nice looking images with obnoxiously huge file-sizes.

I'm such a snob.

I finally accomplished something I'd been meaning to do for a while now: I hooked my Mac Mini up to my TV. Oh yes, I feel waves of the jealousy emanating from my monitor from all the poor saps unlucky enough to lack a DVI input on their TV.

• Can sit on couch with wireless keyboard and mouse and surf.


• DOSBOX is available for OS X so I can play my favorite PC DOS games on a TV courtesy of Apple.


• Nintendo emulators give me the power to stomp Koopas awkwardly with the keyboard.


• I can pipe music from any computer in the house through iTunes into my surround system.

• It's impossible to read text. It's too small and the resolution of the TV is lousy. (Made worse by the rear projector's long, slow slide into astygmatic miscalibration.) Browsers make it easy to make text on web pages bigger, but this usually destroys page formatting.


• Turning the TV on and off while the Mini runs means that the screen will suddenly "roll up" so that the top is in the middle of the picture. It's impossible to fix without a reboot.


• DOSBOX and the SNES emulators will try to change screen resolutions to match the original content. TV balks at displaying 320x240.

Cruise baby name puzzles Israelis

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Suri, the name chosen by Hollywood couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes for their newborn daughter, is raising more than its share of interest in Israel.

It means "get out of here" in the local language, Hebrew.

News of the naming puzzled even those Israelis who thought they had seen it all after pop diva Madonna turned the ancient Jewish mystical tradition Kabbalah into a faith for the famous.

"I really don't know what they were thinking when they chose this name. It's a term that denotes expulsion, like 'Get out of here'," said Gideon Goldenberg, a linguistics professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "It's pretty blunt."

In other news, is it a good sign that Israelis have enough time to worry about what Cruise named his kid and not other nuclear-trimmed problems?

Spring is the best time of year. Long days, cool temps, no bugs. Evening colors have been putting a smile on my face lately.

I guess it's just me, though. Last night I had the muncipal beach in Buffalo entirely to myself. I guess "lonesome beach" and "friday night" are generally not a popular combo.

Catching sight of a pretty woman really is enough to throw a man's decision-making skills into disarray, a study suggests.

Men about to play a financial game were shown images of sexy women or lingerie.

The Proceedings of the Royal Society B study found they were more likely to accept unfair offers than men not been exposed to the alluring images.

The men's testosterone levels were also tested - by comparing the length of the men's index finger compared to their ring finger.

If the ring finger is longer, it indicates a high testosterone level.

ATF agents are always on alert for anything suspicious — including ninjas.

Jeremiah Ransom, a sophomore from Macon, was leaving a Wesley Foundation pirate vs. ninja event when he was detained.

After being held in investigative detention, he was found to have violated no criminal laws and was not arrested.

“It was surreal,” Ransom said. “I was jogging from Wesley to Snelling when I heard someone yell ‘freeze.’

• Precise Modelling - Mil-24V Hind - It took 15 years to build this non-functioning model of a helicopter. The least you can do is take a peek!
  
  
• David Copperfield's Flying Secrets - I was 10 when this special came on. I knew he wasn't actually flying, but it was more than a little bothersome to not know how he did it. Now I know. With diagrams.
  
  
• South Park: Trapped in the Closet [Link to bittorrent] - Everything you needed to know about Scientology. Tom Cruise refuses to come out of the closet. Plus, R. Kelly with a gun and an homage to "Trapped in the Closet" which wikipedia says is described as the "Plan 9 [from outer space] of music videos".

KCFE 091755Z AUTO 16011G18KT 10SM SCT110 13/M01 A3004 RMK AO2 T01281006 10128 20015

MoonPhaseImage.aspx?BG=Red&FG=White

A Crow Wing County sheriff's deputy stopped the woman at a highway intersection in Brainerd, where she was arrested for disorderly conduct. Bolduc says the woman said she was very sorry. But he says the joke wasn't a good idea.

Well guess what? Vlad has finally released his "next level" in Russian fighting. I call it "Russian Disarming" and it's an astonishingly advanced and easy-to-learn program based on a 10th century Christian Orthodox fighting system.

...

Okay... I'll admit, this "Russian Disarming" fighting style looks weird — loose and wild -- but man does it work like crazy! Easy to learn... simple... and brutal. Believe me, this will work for you too... if you let it.

Because (and this may sound strange) with "Russian Disarming"...
The "Power Base"
Comes From LOVE.

That's right... I said love.