billpratt.net » General

Scrap That

Bill — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:02:59 +0000

Ok, so my eee pc 901 is out for delivery, I’m totally excited, this day could not get better. I’m drinking my coffee and reading my email when I open up Newegg’s deal of the day email. Hey, whats that on top? Is that the eee pc 1000 for $20 less than I paid for my 901? WTF? Ok, RMA time! I called B&H first just to make sure I could rma it, they said to just reject the shipment from UPS and all would be good. I immediately ordered the 1000 from Newegg and overnighted it to be sure I would have it for the weekend. The 1000 has a much larger, more usable keyboard, 1″ larger screen, a 40G SSD instead of 20G and is only .5lbs heavier at 2.9 lbs. The ram and SDHC card I ordered will work just fine so no issue there. More to come when I get it tomorrow…

Setting Up Pool Drills

Bill — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:19:32 +0000

I have always wanted a pool table and I finally have one. I have played pool off and on since 1991 and having a table in the house is just awesome! I have been shooting a lot of practice drills from both Nick Varners Pro Skill Drills (both dvd & book) and Play Your Best 9 Ball. Besides perfecting the skill in the drill itself, the most frustrating part of shooting drills is the time it takes to setup certain drills. You have to place multiple balls in a straight line, or one on each diamond, etc. A tip I found in Play Your Best 9 Ball saved the day…use reinforcement labels! Reinforcement labels are those little “donuts” that are used to keep paper in 3-ring binders from tearing. I use them everywhere on the table and have not had any problems. They say “permanent” on them, but apparently that applies to only paper as I add and remove them all the time. The labels are so thin, that they do not disrupt the roll of the ball. I have Simonis 860 felt and they have caused no damage, but use at your own risk!

Cellino Family Reunion, Buffalo, NY

Bill — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:41:45 +0000

Jana, Tony and I all flew to Buffalo over the fourth of July holiday for a Cellino family reunion. Everyone was great and we had a blast. We visited Niagra Falls (although we almost weren’t allowed to cross the border), Tony smuggled in some Cubans, and I can’t play Can Jam to save my life (although I kick ass at Beer Pong). I have the pictures converted to Tiff’s, although none of them have been touched up yet. You can download the pictures, but be forewarned, they are HUGE. Each image is around 23MB, and the total zip archive is about 7GB. I will eventually go through these images and clean them up, remove duplicates, then post them here as a gallery. When I will have time I’m not sure (it took me this long to just get them posted!) Sorry it took so long to get them posted, but we have been really busy and this stuff gets back burnered quickly.

Let me know if you have any questions or want a particular image in it’s native .cr2 raw format, want one touched up, or want them sent to you on 2 dvd’s.

7th Computer Graphics Assignment

Bill — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:05:00 +0000

Assignment 7 required us to create a natural looking landscape that included a structure of some sort. I chose to create a mountain valley landscape with a river front cabin nestled amongst Fir trees. The cabin has a lot of detail and most of the time was spent on it. I still want to add some details to it and once I am done I will render some close-ups and publish the object file here for anyone to use in Bryce.

Download the Full Size Version of the First Render
Download the Full Size Version of the Second Render

Getting Set Up

Bill — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:19:35 +0000

I am just getting the new site set up. Please be patient while I get this site configured.