April 2008
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April 26, 2008

Cures for the Second Child Syndrome

Filed under: Geeky and/or Technology — davidv @ 9:29 pm

Evan truly is the second child. Not only does he get pretty much only hand-me-downs (with the exception of clothing), but he also is in far less photos than his sister. And many of the photos he is in also include Brynn. So what better way to fix this then buy Claire a new camera? There’s a Sony Style store in a mall near me and I was instantly intrigued by the DSC-T300. First of all this camera has a touch screen LCD on the back. So now instead of pointing the camera at what you want to focus on and moving it to get the right scene, you just point to the object on the touch screen and it automatically focuses on it. Now for those of you that are not familiar with the people recognition that the newer cameras have you will be impressed to know that this camera can tell the difference between adults and children (and inanimate objects) and you can choose which ones you want it to prioritize its focus on.
But here’s where I flipped- the T300 also has “smile recognition”. You can put it in a mode where only when you’re actually smiling does it take the photo. And it has this awesome meter that shows you the smile level you’re at while you’re pointing it at someone. Of course this had me instantly intrigued. How does it measure a smile? Is it the amount of teeth? Is it the crescent shape of your lips? Is it the twinkle in your eyes? I have tried all kinds of smiles, frowns, blank faces, etc. So far I’m still figuring it out….

Deranged Evan - One of the First, but definately not the last of best photos of Evan

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April 18, 2008

Last Day at JP Morgan Chase Private Bank

Filed under: Random — davidv @ 2:14 pm

It’s been almost 8 years now, and I’m finally leaving the Private Bank.

I will now cast away all my worldly possessions and go walk-about, starting in Siberia. I’ll be growing a big shaggy beard as well.

Just Kidding! I’m starting at Citibank in early May. I’ll be doing a lot of the same stuff I was doing at JPMC, but in an environment where there is full senior management support of SOA, 3 tier architectures, and other technology built in the last decade. Gotta stay current!

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April 13, 2008

We’re going to the Circus!

Filed under: Family — davidv @ 9:59 pm

My mom and Andy were in town this weekend before they jet off to Italy for a few months. And we decided it was time to take Brynn and Evan to the circus for the first time. It was the typical Ringling Bros circus with one exception that annoyed me- no jugglers. What kind of circus leaves out the jugglers? Still the elephants, tigers, trapeze, and motorcyle sphere were pretty cool and we all had a good time.
So everyone knows the metal cage sphere where 7 motorcycles all zoom around together at the same time. It looks amazing that they don’t ever end up crashing into each other. My theory is that there actually is quite a lot of space inside that cage- a lot more than it seems. This is because the shape is a sphere with more surface area than any other shape, and the motorcyclists are taking advantage of the full z-axis. So it looks amazing, but it’s really a piece of cake trick. But of course you’ll never catch me doing it!
Ringling Bros Circus 2008

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