[Toshi]

that's pretty awful, losing money into the currency exchange ether. if the dealer accepts amex this actually would work out nicely, since they pay 1% cashback. if they don't then it'll be a headache and a half, and my 100% positive feedback on ebay might be history...

 

[Toshi]

ah, the deal is on: cc is ok, with a slight surcharge offset by the cash back i get from amex.

 

[Toshi]

hmm, just had a thought, assuming the rx-8 has summer tires on it. (the ad said that the tires were "80%" tread remaining, so at 29k miles that would mean a replacement set assuming a non-shady seller. the last part has yet to be proven so it may well be the stock summer tires...)

if i can make it through the pocatello + boise winter on summer tires then instead of getting snow tires i might just get a membership with flexcar:

www.flexcar.com

the rate for current UW students with the bus pass is $40/year, $7.70 a mile. gas/everything is included in that $7.70.

hmmmmm. the problems with this idea are:

1) making it through winter without incident.
2) not being able to ski while away from seattle.

otherwise the cars are bountiful in the seattle/uw campus area (http://www.flexcar.com/default.aspx?tabid=214), and they have an amusing variety, from priuses (priii?) to miatae: http://www.flexcar.com/CarsLocations/VehicleInformation/tabid/71/Default.aspx . needless to say, none of them would have summer tires so would be capable in the hills.

 

[WTGPhoben]

I'm going disc on the MTB...

Here's the current dilemma:

following the rule that I'm not going to make my bike any heavier, I've decided that I want Magura Marta disc brakes (180mm). It seems that the 180mm rotors are hard to find in the non-SL version, so SL and regular end up being the same price. The question is, which do I choose?:

Regular - heavier with aluminum lever (solid)
SL - lighter with carbon lever (scary)

My gut says mountain bikes shouldn't be made of anything carbon fiber, but the bling junkie in me says I should get the "nicer" one if they're the same price.

Thoughts?

 

[Toshi]

carbon!

i'd avoid splintering material for seatposts, but the brake levers should remain far from your buttocks, in theory at least...

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

hmm, just had a thought, assuming the rx-8 has summer tires on it. (the ad said that the tires were "80%" tread remaining, so at 29k miles that would mean a replacement set assuming a non-shady seller. the last part has yet to be proven so it may well be the stock summer tires...)

if i can make it through the pocatello + boise winter on summer tires then instead of getting snow tires i might just get a membership with flexcar:

www.flexcar.com


the rate for current UW students with the bus pass is $40/year, $7.70 a mile. gas/everything is included in that $7.70.

hmmmmm. the problems with this idea are:

1) making it through winter without incident.
2) not being able to ski while away from seattle.

otherwise the cars are bountiful in the seattle/uw campus area (http://www.flexcar.com/default.aspx?tabid=214), and they have an amusing variety, from priuses (priii?) to miatae: http://www.flexcar.com/CarsLocations/VehicleInformation/tabid/71/Default.aspx . needless to say, none of them would have summer tires so would be capable in the hills.

$7.70 a mile? or an hour?
for an hour, seems like an awesome deal.

 

[Toshi]

whoops, that is per hour, yes

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

oh **** it.

to make matters worst. i left my car outside of my office for a couple hours last night, and somebody stole the right blinking light (plus they put a huge dash in the quarterpanel with a screwdriver) and they popped the left one, seems they didnt have time to pull it out completely.

now am in travis bickle mode, hoping someday a real rain will come and wash the scum off the streets.
or at least a famine, the plague or something to wipe out a few million delinquents or something. c´mon god, is just one efficient epidemia all am asking for, you killed thousands of your chosen people for much less than this.

 

[WTGPhoben]

oh **** it.

to make matters worst. i left my car outside of my office for a couple hours last night, and somebody stole the right blinking light (plus they put a huge dash in the quarterpanel with a screwdriver) and they popped the left one, seems they didnt have time to pull it out completely.

now am in travis bickle mode, hoping someday a real rain will come and wash the scum off the streets.
or at least a famine, the plague or something to wipe out a few million delinquents or something. c´mon god, is just one efficient epidemia all am asking for, you killed thousands of your chosen people for much less than this.

That bites. I totally know how you feel, having left my 20D on a plane last week and instead of the stewardess turning it in like she should have, it managed to disappear. Hmm, I wonder if she takes good pictures...

 

[Toshi]

dang, that sucks, keith. what are you going to do?

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

That bites. I totally know how you feel, having left my 20D on a plane last week and instead of the stewardess turning it in like she should have, it managed to disappear. Hmm, I wonder if she takes good pictures...

geez.
that sucks even more. we should start a "this has been crappy week support thread" or something.

 

[WTGPhoben]

dang, that sucks, keith. what are you going to do?

Well, I have them listed on homeowners ins, so hopefully I can get back most of the $$. In the meantime, I'm forgetting about the camera for the moment and going ahead with the wheels and brakes. The final setup:

Rims: Mavic X317 Disc (Black)
Front Hub: Tune King
Rear: Tune Kong with custom Ti freehub (rr) (Anodized Blue)
Spokes: DT supercomp (black)
Nipples: DT Alloy (anodized blue)
Skewers: Control Tech Ti (anodized blue, actually from the early 90s)

Brakes: Magure Marta 180mm

It's too bad I couldn't get the rims and spokes in silver. I really wanted that 1992 look...

They're gonna be super light, I think.

 

[Toshi]

ah, insurance saving the day, excellent. <segue> sorta like my experience with the WRX. read about it here:

Snowbound (or, "introducing my new car")

[...]

because of the above, i was distraught but not overly so when i crashed my WRX. although it was unpleasant, took up more time and effort than i care to think of, and is not an experience i would care to repeat, it actually worked out pretty well: i had wisely purchased additional insurance coverage for the modifications to the car, and that coverage along with a generous valuation made it possible to recover most of the money i'd put into the car to that point. essentially, i was given a fresh start, which isn't too common in this world of instant depreciation and lowball valuations.

[...]

or skip right to the gallery: http://tinyurl.com/ybcza4

 

[Toshi]

oh, and here's a depiction by one of my classmates of my car situation, heh

 

[WTGPhoben]

Toshi, you must have more than two cents to offer on this:
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2374464#post2374464

 

[Toshi]

i bust out the camera for the pediatrics practice christmas party a few days ago:

http://tinyurl.com/vmu5x

the only pics i kept were from an impromptu guitar performance by the resident, dr. jackson.

all were with the 20D, 135/2L at f/2, ISO 3200, and around 1/200.

an example:

 

[Toshi]

http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/weather/snowreport/index.htm
http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/weather/forecast/index.htm

mmm fresh snow through thursday, flurries on friday. perfect! (i'd rather ski on a bluebird day and find two day old powder than slog through a whiteout)

 

[narlus]

i bust out the camera for the pediatrics practice christmas party a few days ago:

http://tinyurl.com/vmu5x

the only pics i kept were from an impromptu guitar performance by the resident, dr. jackson.

all were with the 20D, 135/2L at f/2, ISO 3200, and around 1/200.

an example:

excellent composition, but why so noisy?

here's my contribution:

50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2, 1/200th and 1600 ISO

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

iso3200????

 

[narlus]

thinking toshi could have used 1600 and had a very acceptable shutter speed of 1/125th.

here are a couple of ISO 3200 pics i took, w/ no noise reduction (i think):

i definitely didn't push the shadows, but i'd say they are pretty clean.

here's a very interesting noise test among different ISOs, mainly showing that if you get the exposure right, the noise isn't all that different from ISO to ISO (at least w/ a Canon)

http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=250056
http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=222969

 

[Toshi]

yeah, i didn't do noise reduction out of laziness, and the exposure was pushed ~0.7 stops in post production as well. with the 135mm lens i find that 1/200 is a much surer bet for sharp photos, even without the crazy hand-shakiness of fraser (transcend)

 

[Toshi]

wow, no posts for 3 weeks almost!

i've been busy. i'll be busier yet in the next 6 weeks . life is tough. oh, and i forgot my camera back at ze parents' place in oregon, so y'all will have to wait for california pics for a few more days.

in the meantime, happy new year's eve to all. don't drink too much tonight!

 

[Toshi]

good lawd

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7094235620076643101&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=undefined

 

[WTGPhoben]

good lawd

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7094235620076643101&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=undefined

yeah but he had a perfect transition...

 

[Toshi]

3 galleries from xmastime

christmas dinner and the coast: http://tinyurl.com/vm42p
fort ross state historic park: http://tinyurl.com/yyljqg
jackson state redwood forest: http://tinyurl.com/y4a4ej

 

[narlus]

cool photos...i like the mossy lushness of the redwoods, and the photo of the barn is pretty neat.

 

[Toshi]

yum

http://www.apple.com/iphone/

 

[narlus]

cingular?

verizon is bad enough, and they have by far the best network coverage in this area (and it still sucks).

 

[Toshi]

seattle has the benefit of having pretty good coverage by everyone. we get all the high speed data networks in the first round, etc. (t-mobile is based here, too). maybe if i lived in the posh suburbs my tune would be different...

 

[narlus]

seattle has the benefit of having pretty good coverage by everyone. we get all the high speed data networks in the first round, etc. (t-mobile is based here, too). maybe if i lived in the posh suburbs my tune would be different...

posh suburbs? the 20+ year old houses in my neighborhood are probably less than the condos in the yr area.

you must be confusing my house w/ yr parents new domicile.

 

[Toshi]

fine, deny it. my parents' house is in the sticks, literally, btw. their neighbors are a gravel road and empty space.

 

[narlus]

i'm sure there are plans right now for that Dunkin' Donuts franchise around the corner.

 

[Toshi]

here is my fine artistic depiction of my day

that's 3 in the morning if you're wondering, bub. grr. actually last night wasn't that late in reality at 1:30 -- it's just that i had to be up again at 4:30...

 

[Toshi]

slow day on call today. here's something for y'all to read, about robots! doing surgery. woohoo, they're going to take over the world and kill us all!

Literature Review
Surgery 665
Student Name: Toshimasa Clark
Faculty Name: Carlos Pelligrini, MD
Hospital Name: UWMC
Date: January 14, 2007



Takavoli M, Aziminejad A, Patel RV, Moallem M. Methods and mechanisms for contact feedback in a robot-assisted minimally invasive environment. Surgical Endoscopy 2006(20):10;1570-1579.



Endoscopic surgery has become the surgical technique of choice for selected procedures in fields ranging from neurosurgery to urology. Robot-assisted endoscopic surgery offers a number of potential benefits over current, conventional endoscopic surgery, namely the reduction of fatigue and physiologic tremor in the surgeon; the circumventional of human physical constraints that limit the maneuvering of the camera and instruments; and the ability to amplify or dampen the surgeon's movements at the instruments in procedures in which extraordinary precision is necessary. A significant current shortcoming of robot-assisted endoscopic surgery at this time is the lack of haptic, or kinesthetic/force, feedback. Haptic feedback (HF) is crucial to the surgeon, not only for the basic ability to palpate tissues but also for its role in avoiding the accidental penetration or perforation of adjacent structures.



In their paper, Takavoli et al present a prototype of a master-slave system designed from the outset rather than retrofitted to provide HF. The master controls are modeled after the standard endoscope layout, can provide up to 14N of maximum force against the surgeon's hand in the three Cartesian axes, and utilize the force feedback motors in such a manner that the instrument feels weightless to the surgeon when the slave instrument tip that it is controlling is not in contact with any object. The slave instrument effector is designed with the practical constraints of the operating room itself in mind: the diameter of the instrument, including force sensors and the actuator, is less than 10mm so as to fit within a standard 10mm trocar; the force sensors are proximal to the instrument's tip for greater accuracy of measurement, rather than being located outside the abdomen; and despite their proximity the force sensors are not integrated into the tip, thus allowing the tip itself to be removed for sterilization between procedures without undue difficulty. Communication between the master and the slave is at a rate of 1000 Hz, thereby improving the transparency of the system by minimizing the distraction of latency.



In addition to describing their prototype system, the authors also describe a series of experiments comparing HF to an alternative form of feedback, in which users' performance on a task of localizing a rigid lump within a soft rubber sheet is evaluated for positional accuracy, mean exploration time, and mean energy supplied to the tissue. The alternate form of feedback is visual force feedback (VFF), in which the forces sensed at the effector tip are displayed as a bar graph to the user rather than transmitted to their hands through the controls. The results were of no significant differences in the accuracy of lump localization or in the energy supplied to the tissue between HF and VFF, but with a considerably longer exploration time for VFF as compared to HF.



This article represents fundamental research in the field of robot-assisted endoscopic surgery. It is significant both for the authors' accomplishment of building a functional master-slave prototype with HF and for its demonstration that VFF can produce results on par with HF in terms of positional accuracy and energy delivered to target tissue, albeit at the price of increased time to accomplish a given task. This latter result may become significant in the interim since VFF systems are considerably less complex and less expensive than those using HF. Robot-assisted endoscopic surgery with VFF instruments may represent a way to improve patient outcomes through reduced inadvertent tissue damage, at least until true HF master-slave systems are available widely at a reasonable cost. The limitations of this study are manifold: the sample size for their trial of VFF versus HF was very small; the operators received only cursory training on each system; both systems were crude prototypes; and the task the users were asked to accomplish was arbitrary and possibly inherently biased towards one or another of the feedback methods. As such, this study should be viewed as a seminal work rather than a definitive guide around which future HF systems should be designed.

here's a current version of an operating robot that's actually used here at UW. it doesn't have this fancy-pants haptic feedback that i write about above.

 

[Toshi]

happy bday (at least on eastern time), keith.



here's your present, the gift of words!

heh

 

[WTGPhoben]

slow day on call today. here's something for y'all to read, about robots! doing surgery. woohoo, they're going to take over the world and kill us all!



here's a current version of an operating robot that's actually used here at UW. it doesn't have this fancy-pants haptic feedback that i write about above.

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

I think that robot is made by the company Amy K is going to work for in feb www.intuitivesurgical.com

 

[Toshi]

tokyo in HDR!

 

[Toshi]

this is pretty sweet, a 720p resolution video with good camera and mic work + gear indicator overlay of a track-prepped subie lapping at buttonwillow.

http://download.hspn.com/download.php?hspn_racecar_buttonwillow07.wmv
or http://www.subie.tv/player/?videoid=123&catid=1 and the 720p link at the middle-right of the page if that doesn't work

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

hey toshi.. did you evaluate/drive/dissected the mercedes slk (pre 02 200k/320) while on your car search??? what about the <99 porsche boxster??

the crazy idea of trading my 4k miles old yaris for one of those as a one and only car has been roaming my mind lately.... whats your take on those 2 cars?

 

[Toshi]

i never drove a boxster, but i did drive a SLK. it was amusing, but not a liveable car for sure: really small interior, a dashboard that rose straight up from the ground in proud defiance of modern ergonomics, a nice, beefy, traditional mercedes steering wheel, a very slow steering ratio, a power hardtop that was slower yet (did i mention it was claustrophobic when up?), and a stately but not spritely automatic drivetrain.

stay away.