HoodedHawk

Apple, the world’s most valuable company, hit the $600 billion level for the first time Tuesday.

-Washington Post

*sigh*. I can remember when the stock price was ~$5.00 back around 1996 or so, and I’m fairly certain it hit a low around $2.00 prior to that. Now it’s over 100x higher (at $600/share)! Hindsight…

The Walters Museum in Baltimore has some leaves from the Archimedes Palimpsest on exhibit (through Jan 1, 2012). I took the kids to visit the exhibit today.

Very nice venue, and the exhibit was well laid out. While the museum is kid-friendly (they hand out satchels with crafts/activities related to the exhibit for the kids to work on), looking at “old books” didn’t hold the attention of a 5-year old for more than 30 minutes (which I thought was a lot). Granted, about 10 of those were a video presentation. Little Olivia fell asleep in her stroller…

The Archimedes Palimpsest is a Medieval parchment manuscript. The currently visible part of the manuscript is a Byzantine Prayer book, written around 1229 AD. What makes it interesting is that the parchment used for the prayer book is actually comprised of previous manuscripts from about the 10th century. The scribe in the 13th century used a knife and scraped off the older text so as to reuse the parchment for the prayer book (“Palimpsest” is from the Greek, meaning “scraped again”). You can do this with parchment (sheep skin) as it is quite durable. The previous manuscripts comprise some 7 treatises by Archimedes – and for 2 of these there was no known existing text. Now there is!

The underlying Archimedes text is revealed via a technique called “multispectral imaging”. Basically, many digital images are taken of the parchment, each at a different wavelength of light – some in the ultraviolet, invisible to the eye. These images are further processed to get the best resolution of the underlying text. Not every page of the manuscript was in great condition, so sometimes images were enhanced by using high-intensity X-rays (which would basically scatter off the iron in the older ink). All-in-all this was a very time-consuming process, not the least of which was actually dismantling the palimpsest so the imaging could be done.

Non-flash photography is allowed, so:

Archimedes Palimpsest
Normal (left) and multispectral (right) image of a leaf from the Archimedes Palimpsest. Archimedes’ hidden text shows up in red (in two columns, vertically) on the multispectral image. In the right-hand image you can make out a mathematical diagram in the bottom of the first column. Click to enlarge…

Why is the older Archimedes text perpendicular to the overlaid text? Because the previous manuscript was folded/creased, so the scribe would cut it in half for re-use, then re-fold it again after turning it.

Right. Last Wednesday some Verizon workers were installing/burying my neighbor’s fiber cable, and they (I assume inadvertently) damaged/cut/frayed ours. Ick. Call to Verizon Wednesday night basically resulted in a work order for MONDAY, 8a-12p. No way they would get here sooner. I called Friday to confirm. Yes, still on. Monday came around, 12:30 hit, and no Verizon. I called, and after 30 minutes on hold (I am patient :) ) I got a live person and they basically said, oops, looks like the dispatch was cancelled. Great. They set me up with one for today, between 8a-8p, but “no guarantee someone will come”. Again, great.

Anyway, a technician showed up this morning, and laid new fiber. He called me to let me know he was on his way around 9:15a, and then called once he was done. The new fiber line is laying on the ground, and it “may be some time before it can be buried”. That’s an understatement as the neighbor’s fiber has been exposed for months. Still is (I have no idea what the heck they buried last Wednesday).

Due to the strike, it appears Verizon is calling in techs from, er, far away. The tech who fixed our problem was “on loan” from Verizon California. His business card even has a CA phone number. It appears that he will be around awhile, as he said to call him if an issue arises and he’ll come back to fix it.

I have to say, that we have had no problems with Verizon FIOS in the several+ years we have had it (Internet/TV/Phone). I’ll forgive them the delay in fixing the issue as they have a strike on their hands, and all the actual people at Verizon I have spoken with have been courteous and professional. But if I have to wait months to have the cable buried and it gets damaged in the interim (or when they bury it!), I’m not gonna be happy. At all.

So how is the service now? Just great (back to normal): 30Mbit download and 18Mbit upload, to a server 3000 miles away, on the left coast!

(speed test is via Speakeasy.net’s Speed Test)

For the past few days, as most people in the country know, we’ve been having a heat wave. Wowsa! This was the reading from my car as I was driving home tonight…The “heat index” temperature was 121 degress (a record High for MD). Sticky too – feels like a sauna just walking to the car. What’s even more sad? I had to wear a sweater at work today as my office was waaaay too cold. :(

I typically get to play golf about once a year. This year, twice in a month!

Last week on vacation at Chautauqua, NY: I shot a 133; losing ~ a dozen balls.

Chautauqua Golf Score

This week locally in Elkridge, MD: shot 80, only losing about 10 balls (we played Captain’s choice/Best shot :) )

Timbers at Troy Golf Score