Spider and Butterfly

If you browsed my Flickr Photostream, you would find that butterflies and other insects are a favorite macro subject. There is an abundance of these critters right in my own backyard. Last night, after eating dinner on the patio, I found a spider that has built a web between the porch railing and the grill:

Then I had some fun chasing this Red Admiral butterfly around:

Lunch Walk 25 Jun 2014

The diversity of wildlife that can be seen from the small strip of land I walk at lunch never ceases to amaze me. Today, I spotted a Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker.

Lunch Walk 19 Jun 2014

Still cloudy and a little wet from this morning's rain but today's walk was fruitful for making photographs.

There were Robins galore out picking their lunch from the grass. It wasn't hard to get a couple photos. I'd have taken more but I'm kind of bored of Robins.

Lots of Red-winged Blackbirds, too. This couple were both collecting food, probably for a nearby nest of chicks.

Then, there was this Baltimore Oriole. I had to stick around a while to get these.

Some plant life:

This guy was just crossing the path some distance up.

And, finally, there were a fair number of moths, butterflies, and damselflies about.

Edited images are now on my Flickr site.

Lunch Walk 16 Jun 2014

It was around 80 degrees today during my lunch walk. Not a lot of birds today besides a few Jays that were too coy to be photographed. So today's images were mostly of flora. I did sight a moth I haven't noticed before - a Clymene Haploa Moth, it turns out. I was so focused on the interesting wing pattern that I completely missed seeing a spider in the frame until I was editing the photo for publishing (you'll probably have to expand the pic to see it).

Clymene Haploa Moth

Evening Walk at St. Hugo of the Hills

I took a walk with Kathleen to St. Hugo's - about a mile and a half from our home. It was getting late and the sun was setting. A perfect opportunity to try some low-light photography. There are a couple fountains there that I'd like to photograph at dusk, when the sky is dark, maybe using some light painting techniques. But for this walk, I was just scouting out subjects. Here are a few snaps:

Lunch Walk 06 Jun 2014

Starting to see more flowers blooming and a variety of butterflies. I haven't been able to photography any butterflies yet for a couple of reasons: 1) I haven't carried my trusty 100mm macro lens and 2) they're just too darn fast!

Lots of Robins today. One of them even let me fairly close while he posed for me.

My first Cedar Waxwing sighting of the year:

That same feisty Red-winged Blackbird, protecting the nest - got him in flight today.

And a funny little squirrel:

Also spotted a hummingbird sitting on a high-up branch - too far and too back-lit to get a good image.

Lunch Walk 03 Jun 2014

When the weather is nice, I like to take a nature walk during my lunch break. I get some exercise but my real motivation is the opportunity to make some photographs. I'll make images of just about anything that catches my eye - flowers, wildlife, objects, and especially birds. I've become increasingly interested in bird photography.

Until now, I've been using an old Canon EF 75-300 f/4-5.6 II (non-USM) lens on my new 6D body. I've got my eye on a new super-telephoto zoom and I'll most likely end up with a Canon 100-400 very shortly. I'd really like to try the new Tamron 150-600 but it just has not been available. Besides, I think I'm going to want the faster AF the Canon offers, even at the loss of reach. I've read that a Kenko 1.4X PRO extender will still allow AF to work on the 100-400, so that could be an option for regaining the extra reach.

Today, I captured a Baltimore Oriole - a new sighting for me. I also got a feisty Red-wing Blackbird, a Blue Jay, and Song Sparrow. The following images are jpegs straight from the camera - no editing whatsoever. (Check my flicker stream for more refined images.)

Baltimore Oriole

Blue Jay

Song Sparrow

 Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird - he's got his lunch!

Embedded Systems Virus?

I posted this in response to a question on the LinkedIn Embedded group:

I was thinking if it is possible to inject some virus in a micro-controller based embedded system?

As we move toward the Internet of Things (or pervasive computing, or ambient intelligence, or ...) there appears to be a convergence toward standard interfaces, whether these interfaces are widely published or not. Look at the automotive industry. Every modern car has dozens of embedded systems that are interconnected (via CAN or some other network). Connectivity with the World at large is becoming more affordable and common (e.g. GPS navigation, Wi-Fi internet, and over-the-air services like OnStar and Sync). Also consider that a computer does not necessarily have to be connected to the internet to be vulnerable to attacks -- in the "old days" viruses passed from machine to machine on floppy disks (aka "sneakernet") and today we still use portable media (i.e. USB drives). 

To answer the OP's question: is it possible to inject some virus in a micro-controller based embedded system? I believe it is *possible*. Perhaps not likely at this moment but we are fast approaching a time when the likelihood of attacks on embedded systems will dramatically increase. There have, to date, been a few academic studies on hacking into automotive systems and these have proven successful to some extent. Automotive companies (most notably GM) are now taking a serious look at cyber-security and we can expect to see stringent security (as well as safety) requirements for at least the most vulnerable modules for model years as soon as 2016. 

As far as non-automotive micro-controller-based embedded systems, they are all around us - and SPECIFICALLY connected and accessible. Every smartphone (iPhone, Android, etc.) is such a device. Also, we are becoming more and more dependent on "the cloud" -- what if a way was discovered to "poison the pool" by infecting the cloud?I'll bet there have already been some serious attempts!

All Politics is Local

It was Tip O'Neill who coined the phrase, "All politics is local." There's nothing more local, or political, than a condominium association if you own and reside in a condominium (and I do).

My condominium complex is a "conversion" (from apartments) that began about 12 years ago. There are 346 units in our development and when the housing market crashed, about many of the units remained unsold. The developer fell on hard times and the association struggled financially. The present treasurer has worked since 2007 to keep us solvent, build our reserves to the minimum required by the bylaws, and at the same time bring the quality of the property up to par with the high standards of our surrounding township. He did his job well enough to be reelected twice (our board members serve for two years). Recently, the developer (and his bank) sold his interest to a new investor, who essentially bought the 108 remaining unsold units.

Despite board members going door to door a couple weeks ago, urging owners to attend the annual meeting so that our interests would be fairly represented, the meeting was lightly attended. Our board of directors consists of seven owner/members who serve for a two year term. Four seats were up for election this year.
After the treasurer's state-of-the-association presentation, the new investor briefly introduced himself but otherwise didn't draw much attention to himself or his business partner, who attended the meeting with him. When nominations were being made for the four vacant director seats, four names were proposed by the investor: himself, his partner, and two others who were not present. There were seven nominations in total, one of which was our beloved treasurer. I don't think anyone (other than perhaps the sitting board members) realized what was about to happen. The votes were tallied and listed one by one. The first person listed received 28 votes; the second, something like 18 votes. The third person on the list was the investor, and there was an almost perceptible gasp as the number 128 was written next to his name. A silent tension filled the assembly as the votes for the next three nominees - the investor's partners - were filled in; the lowest number of votes among them was 108. We were railroaded. Ultimately, all four vacant seats were filled by the investor and his people. There was at least one irate owner who wanted to contest the results - it evidently had not yet "clicked" with her that this one person, the investor, wielded 108 votes while the remainder of the forty or so people in the room collectively held only 28 votes.

Here's the part where I rant:

• We now have an "owner" (investor) with only a 31% share of the entire property (108 of 346 units) but a majority vote on the board of directors. This situation could be even more extreme next year when the other three seats are up for election.
• I'm pretty sure the investor does not live in the complex and therefore has little interest in the community beyond his bottom line.
• I asked him if it was his intention to develop and sell the 108 units or just keep them as rental property and he indicated that selling was the "long term" plan but he didn't want to "flood the market" with all the units at this time.
• Our beloved treasurer, unceremoniously pushed out, is no longer at the helm. "Thanks for saving the world, I'll take it from here." It's unknown if his grand plan will be maintained or if the investor thinks he has a better plan (no doubt his goals are different).
• I can't blame the sitting board for this coup - they tried to warn us (the owners).

A More Compact "Pythonic" Guido Function

from random import choice

def guido2(gtxt):
    return [guidoPitches[(len(vmap)*choice([0,1,2]))+vmap[c]]
            for c in gtxt.lower() if c in vmap]