Waterfront Fireworks

Here are a few photos of last night's fireworks, in case you went to bed early or whatever. I like to think these compare favorably with last year's attempt. I like to think this means I learned at least one thing over the last year -- although the real difference comes from buying an el cheapo tripod this time around, and tinkering with manual, and counterintuitive, camera settings instead of trusting what it calls "fireworks mode". I don't want to totally nerd out on you here, so if you're really curious about how this stuff works, your favorite search engine is just keystrokes away. Or check out the photos' EXIF data, if you prefer (and if Flickr preserves it; I haven't actually checked).

As you might've noticed, much of last year's post is a rant about Dubya & friends. I haven't done a lot of that recently, and I keep speculating about why I haven't felt the need of late. I think I know what it is now. Ever since the 2006 election, what I feel about those guys isn't so much anger as impatience. I've written off everything until January 2009 as a total loss, politically speaking. Bush & cronies are going to run wild until then, and nobody's going to stop them. On the bright side, their hourglass is running short on sand, and if we can just avoid getting tricked into any more wars for the next year and a half, we just may be OK. Eventually.

So anyway, enjoy the photos, or whatever.

Saddle Mountain: Flowers, etc.

Gentle Reader(s), I recently semi-promised you more photos of Saddle Mountain, but of flowers and other small stuff this time around. I semi-promise lots of stuff, and a number of those semi-promises are still in the, uh, pending category, but this time you're in luck.

I didn't do my usual search of the library's Oregonian database for the previous post. As you might expect, the O does a story about the place every few years, letting people know it's a good day hike reasonably close to town. For example, here are the 1993 and 1998 versions of the story. The place doesn't really change much, so either story still makes a good introduction to the place.

Anyway, here's more of those photos I mentioned:

Tanner Springs in a new light

So I figured I'd take my new $14.99 digicam and wander through the Pearl, taking bad and/or artsy photos of stuff. As I usually do, I ended up at Tanner Springs. The little camera's growing on me. Maybe it's just the weird colors, but these have a cool sorta mid-60's Instamatic look to them. Enjoy, or whatever.

Unboxing a $14.99 VuPoint digicam

So I was in the mood for a new toy, and I remembered the camera store down the street had these $14.99 digital cameras that fit on a keychain. You can't go wrong for $14.99. Crappy image quality is fine. Crappy image quality is great, actually. Call it Holga envy if you like. Dealing with camera film is annoying and tedious, and I'm not, not, not going to do it, period, no matter how funky and weird the results are. I'd still like funky and weird results, though. And like I said, you can't go wrong for $14.99.

So the top photo is of my new VuPoint Solutions DC-ST12G-VP, with the single AAA battery out. AAA batteries are pretty tiny, so you can tell this is a very small camera.



And here's the packaging. I'm proud to report I've opened at least one modern made-in-China product package without a knife of any kind. I just improvised with my keychain bottle opener instead.

Oh, and there's beer. You can't unbox a new toy without beer. It's a McMenamins Firefly Kolsch, with a lemon wedge. Hey, it's hot outside.

It's kind of fun making a big production out of this at the same time the world's alpha nerds are unboxing their shiny new iPhones. I don't think this qualifies as satire, exactly. There's probably a word for it, which either escapes me at the moment, or I've just never heard of.



The pamphlet on the left is the manual. If you want to read the whole thing, such as it is, you can find a color version here. It's delivered as a PDF inside a ZIP file for some reason. Don't ask me why.

So I'm trying to see what else I can learn about the thing. I suppose with the idea I might take it apart and tinker with it eventually, or possibly buy another one to tinker with. The Windows desktop software installs to an odd location, C:\WINDOWS\twain_32\MyDSC2 instead of under Program Files. So I suppose it's using TWAIN to talk to the camera instead of one of the usual digicam interfaces. TWAIN's mostly used for talking to scanners, although it supports cameras too. So that's kind of peculiar.

The apps and DLLs in the folder indicate the software comes from another company, Service & Quality Technology Co. Ltd., based in Taiwan. Their website lists a variety of image sensor chips and whatnot, although the lowest-end one they list, the SQ905C, says it offers VGA resolution, not just the CIF mode my camera claims. The other details look about right, though, so it's possible the camera just doesn't expose the VGA mode. In which case enabling it might be an interesting project.

Updated: Ok, the SQ905C is the controller & platform the camera's based on, and the sensor's a separate item. Actually it could be any one of a short list of separate items. The tech docs (see below) list a few supported sensors: Hynix HV7131R, PixArt PAS202(B?) and PAS302B, something just listed as "106" which (I think) is supposed indicate PixArt's PAS106B, Micron's MI-360, and PQI's SOI763A. So it's possible that while the controller can support slightly higher resolution, the sensor in the camera may not be up to the job. The PAS106B supports only CIF ( 352 x 288 ) resolution, while all the others support VGA (640 x 480). So I probably have a PAS106B inside; if not, tweaking the max resolution may still be a go, not that I have a clear idea how to accomplish that right now.

I suppose there's always adding memory, although I imagine that would increase the drain on the poor little battery.

The SQ905C page links to a pair of PDF files with loads of technical data. There's a single ASIC inside that implements nearly the whole package, right down to the interface on the little LCD status screen. (It's just status, none of that fancy preview nonsense.) If this isn't precisely what's inside my camera, it may be the next generation, and mine uses a discontinued version. Which might explain the price, I suppose.

Actually one of the apps isn't from SQ. Judging by a quick Google search, TransTWAIN.exe seems to be a common tool for transferring files over a TWAIN interface or something like that. It's freely distributed in binary form, but it's not known who wrote the thing. Jeepers!

So here's the first photo from my shiny new $14.99 camera:



Pretty cool, huh? That's full size, without JPEG compression enabled. The camera can hold about 18 photos in this mode. It's SDRAM-based, so if the camera loses power, your photos go poof. That also means the camera constantly draws current if there's a battery present, since otherwise the contents of memory would go poof. So you'll want to take the battery out once you've downloaded the camera's precious cargo.

No camera unboxing would be complete without a photo of the camera you used for the start of the process, taken with the new camera. So here ya go:



Yes, yes, I had a kolsch and a light summery pasta for lunch. Did I mention it's really hot outside?

---

So here are the functions exported by the DLLs and kernel drivers that came with the camera, for you tech dweebs out there. Obviously I don't know what they're all for, but some of the names sound interesting.


TOYCAM.DLL: (you gotta love that name.)

DSCClear
DSCEnd
DSCFreeJPGBuf
DSCGet
DSCGetImage
DSCGetJPGImage
DSCInit
DSCIsReady
DSCStart
GetToyCamInfo
InitHW
PCCEnd
PCCGet
PCCInit
PCCIsReady
PCCStart
ReadLanguage
ResetHW
ResetHW1
ResetHW2
SQImageOption
SaveToAVI
SetDSCParam
TCamIsReady
TCamSetWiaMode
TCamWorkingPath
doRGBAdjust


USBDSC.DLL:

SQAreReady
SQBulkRead
SQBulkWrite
SQFreeDS
SQInitDS
SQInitWorkingPath
SQIsDriverAlive
SQReadDSC
SQReadDownloadPAT
SQReadFirmwareVer
SQReadPAT
SQReadPCC
SQStartDSC
SQStartPCC
SQStopDSC
SQStopPCC
SQVendorCommand
SQWriteData


SQDLL.DLL:

CheckMMX
CheckSSE
ColorMatrixMul3s
SQAG_020515_UP
SQAWB_020605_UP
SQAWB_030827_8b
SQAWB_040210_8b
SQBLD_020606_UP
SQBrightness_UP
SQColorGain
SQContrast_UP
SQCutBadPix_020605_UP
SQDeBadPixel_Kernel_v031223
SQDeBadPixel_Kernel_v040212
SQEnhClr_UP
SQFastSaturation
SQGainAdj_030722
SQGbGrBalancer_030611
SQGbGrBalancer_040422
SQGetProcessedImage
SQInitialize2
SQInt_020605
SQInterpolateNrml
SQMakeInvGammaX
SQMakeInvGamma_905c
SQOffsetAdj_030924
SQRestoreDefaultParameter
SQSaveUsrParameter
SQShadow
SQSharpenMP_UP
SQSharpen_020508
SQShp_020521_UP
SQShp_020625
SQShp_020820
SQShp_031003
SQShp_040109
SQSmooth3C_UP
SQSmoothCbCr_v040218
SQSmooth_020604_UP
SQSmooth_030414
SQSmooth_030502
SQSmooth_030923
SQSmooth_Wavelet_040128
SQSmooth_Wavelet_040128_v2
SQUnInitialize


SQRS.DLL:

Fast_Bicubic_x2_MMX
SQBicubicResample_020925
SQResample_030218
fnDownSample_20021001


Compress.dll:

ADPCM_DeCode
ADPCM_EnCode
AnalyzeJPEG
BMP2JPG
JPEG_Decode
JpegRelease
Jpeginit
VLCADPCM_DeCode
VLCADPCM_EnCode
VLC_Decode
VLC_Encode

Camd905c.sys (905C, eh? I thought so...)

USBCAMD_AdapterReceivePacket
USBCAMD_ControlVendorCommand
USBCAMD_Debug_LogEntry
USBCAMD_DriverEntry
USBCAMD_GetRegistryKeyValue
USBCAMD_InitializeNewInterface
USBCAMD_SelectAlternateInterface

There's also a Capt905c.sys file that appears to not export or import any symbols. That doesn't seem right to me, althought I've been wrong before.

The Painted Hills

Today's mini-roadtrip photos are from Eastern Oregon's Painted Hills, about 50 miles east of Prineville. You've seen photos of the place before, no doubt, and no doubt those photos were better than mine. But that's never stopped me before.

The Painted Hills are part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, which is part of the national park system. Technically there are some fossils here, but the hills are the main event, with those weird multicolored bands.

The Wikipedia article on the hills describes them thusly:

Painted Hills is one of the three units of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, located in Wheeler County, Oregon It totals 3,132 acres (12.7 km²) and is located 9 miles (14 km) northwest of Mitchell, Oregon and 75 miles east of Bend. Painted Hills is named after the colorful layers of its hills corresponding to various geological eras, formed when the area was an ancient river floodplain. The black soil is lignite that was vegetative matter that grew along the floodplain. The grey coloring is mudstone, siltstone, and shale. The red coloring is laterite soil that formed by floodplain deposits when the area was warm and humid.

Lignite is very low-grade, low-value coal, and laterite is basically what's left after rainfall leaches all the soluble minerals out of soil. As you can see, not much grows on the hills. They're surrounded by forests and farms, so it's not for lack of water. It's just the soil, three kinds of bad so far as plant life goes. Here and there you see a spot where there's a layer of different soil above the Painted Hills material:

The photo above also shows footprints from where some idiot decided to climb the hill. It should be clear why you're not supposed to do that.

If you look closely, you'll notice the surface of the hills is dry, cracked mud. That sort of dents the mystique of the place a little, but it's kind of fascinating in its own way:

A nearby farm, with the hills in the background. Makes for an interesting contrast.

Naturally I had to bring my alter ego along for the ride:

I don't know why it is that barren, badland-like places like this capture the human imagination. Not to get all touchy-feely about it, but you get the feeling you're in a very simple place, with the bones of the earth laid bare, and only the essentials remaining. I don't know if it resonates with some sort of deep-seated desert nomadic impulse, or what. It feels compelling, but I can't put my finger on exactly why.

If you want to see more of the place, or, hypothetically speaking, you found my photos unsatisfying, here are a few other sites with photos:

• Ragged Cloth Cafe, with paintings as well as photos. Very cool.
• Golden Gate Photo
• Enigmaterial
• Two pages at Webshots.com
• A photo on Flickr
• Panoramio
• Northwest Pages
• GalleryPlayer
• Oregon Icons
• Max Lyons Forums
• Southeast Main

And if you just can't get enough of the hills themselves, the Nature Conservancy owns a chunk of similar terrain at their Juniper Hills preserve. FWIW.

Saddle Mountain

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More pics from the recent mini-roadtrip, this time from Saddle Mountain State Park, out in the Coast Range. Saddle Mountain is north of US 26, a few miles east of where 26 joins with US 101.

There's a narrow side road that meanders up to the park, where there's a small parking lot, a few campsites, and the trailhead for the trail to the top. The trail's only a bit over 2.5 miles, but it's steep and treacherous in parts. Here's a good page about the trail if you're interested, and there's even a site offering VR panoramas of the place.

The top photo, for a little perspective, is Saddle Mountain from the Astoria Column, which is about 15 miles or so north of the mountain. (Some similar shots from various locations can be found here.)

Below is a shot looking up the mountain from the parking lot. Yes, it's up there somewhere. As you can probably tell, these were taken on different days.

I saw this and decided to hike up into the mist anyway. I'm not sure what that says about me.

The views start pretty early on the trail, and get better as you go up. You probably don't think of the Coast Range as a place where there's much of a view, but check this out:

(Oh, and the place is packed with wildflowers too. But I'm saving most of those for another post.)

I'm a little embarrassed to report that I didn't go quite all the way to the top. This is pretty close, but not quite all the way there. See the tree in the mist, off in the distance? That's the point where I turned around. The trail is hacked into open, rocky slopes at this point, and they lay down a wire mesh over the rock to keep the trail in place. This gets slippery when wet, and it was quite wet, and I decided I just hadn't brought enough traction to proceed with confidence. Which means I'll have to go back some other time, I guess. I did notice the clouds and fog seemed to start clearing out as I headed back, per my usual luck. I thought about turning around and heading back up, but I was getting hungry and trail nibbles just weren't cutting it, plus I was running low on camera batteries. But next time I'll go to the top for sure, definitely, probably.

On the way down, I encountered a number of people heading up the trail with large dogs on leashes. Some of them were wearing flip-flops. I didn't stick around to see how that turned out.

If you're like me, you're used to thinking of the Coast Range as an obstacle, not a destination. The roads are narrow and windy, and you inevitably get stuck behind a Winnebago with Ohio plates doing twenty mph under the speed limit. You probably spend most of your time in the Coast Range swearing under your breath and looking for a spot where it's safe to pass the damn geezers, already. And you've seen the constant news stories about gruesome head-on crashes through here, vehicles crossing the center line and wandering into oncoming traffic at least once every weekend, or so it seems. So chances are you drive with your fingers crossed, and you don't spend a lot of time just enjoying the scenery. There aren't a lot of places to stop and have a look around, either. This one, at least, is worth the trip.