Mysterious Lake Baikal Ice Circles Visible On Google Maps!

In a recent Wired article, I read about a circular region of melted ice that ISS astronauts spotted from space in a Siberian lake. It's almost certainly caused by some upwelling of heat from the Earth's crust, however no one really knows what's going on. For grins, I went and checked out the Google Maps sat view of the region and it's not during the winter. Instead, it shows lots of dark blue water. But when I took a screenshot and ran it through The Gimp's "Colors -> Auto -> Equalize" filter, I got the picture to the right, showing that the region appears in a slightly different color, even when the ice is melted! This is probably due to differences in dissolved gasses or salinity caused by the heat, but I'm no geologist, so I'm not sure. It's just interesting that Google Maps has had this data all along and no one knew.

You'll notice a region to the lower right that is a very different color of blue. It looks like this is a seam between two different sources of images. That's where a more detailed set of (probably aerial) photos begin. The main region is a lower-rez and probably older set of photos that I believe were from the original satellite images that Google Maps began with.

Update 2009-05-27: Similar features can be seen around the northern circle that was identified in the Wired article, when using the Google Maps images. However, much more telling is the fact that the location pictured above was the epicenter of a magnitude 6.2 earthquake late last year. I think that makes it fairly likely that this is a geothermally active area and that the circles could indicate escaping gasses or related events.

Note: the image to the right is from Google Maps, and reproduction of the image is governed by Google's copyright and licensing. It is used here only to illustrate a matter of academic interest.

I'm In Love With the Maine Coastline

A view from the Maine coast. From Misc Photos

There's so much to love about Maine, but I'm always amazed by its coastline. The jagged rocks and sandy beaches are as wonderful a contrast as the weather which ranges across the full gammut of New England's "if you don't like it, wait a minute" patterns.

The picture above was taken at the Fort McClary State Historic Site in Kittery. Too many people go to Kittery for the outlet stores. I think that visiting the nearby coast should be required of anyone shopping at those stores.

Ogunquit Breakfast: Bread and Roses Bakery

I'm in Ogunquit, Maine for a wedding and popped into Bread and Roses for a bite to eat.

I've been here once before on a previous trip and I'm just in love with their muffins and little quiches. If you're on the streets of Ogunquit and find yourself looking for food, skip the big restaurants and try something simpler.

If you ask for a plate, they'll give you one, which makes it easier to take your goods out to the small tables on the side of the building and watch the foot-traffic go by.

Mt Welch In the White Mountains: iPhone Panorama

View from Mt. Welch and the Waterville Valley From Mt Welch hike 2009-05-17

This lovely picture was taken from my favorite mountain in the White Mountain chain in New Hampshire. The mountain is called Welch and the spot is on the Dickey / Welch trail loop. The high point that you can see in the picture is the summit of Mt. Welch and the low point is a cliff that overlooks the Mad River and the Waterville Valley. I just love to go to this mountain, and I try to make it at least twice a year. It's a wonderful spot for just hanging out, taking night photographs, watching meteor storms, and the like.

What really pleases me about this photo is that it was taken with my new iPhone (the old one just died a month after its warranty expired). It's a composite panorama of over 30 individual pictures that I took immediately on arriving. I stitched them together using the free autostitch demo.

CHDK for PowerShot Cameras

A sample of what CHDK can do in a darkened room. From CHDK

Last night I tried out CHDK for the first time. This is a third-party software suite for the Canon PowerShot line of cameras. It allows all sorts of interesting things that the PowerShots don't allow by default. For example, the picture to the right was taken in a nearly pitch-dark room with an 80-second exposure. The PowerShot can only do 15 seconds out of the box.

But there's far more. CHDK includes tools for multiple histogram modes, "zebra" flashing of blown-out regions, and even a scripting language in which you can write your own code to control the camera! For anyone who wants to be able to carry around a small camera that's capable of taking complex shots, this is the tool that will let you do it.

Wrong Again: The WoW Arena

Long ago I swore I'd hate World of Warcraft Player vs Player (PvP) combat. Then I discovered battlegrounds. They're fast, fun and a great group activity. I was hooked.

Years later I'm doing the arena for the first time, and though I still feel that tactical play is not as fulfilling as strategic play, I was wrong about the arenas having no appeal for me.

Blizzard did a great job putting this together, and the only complaint I have is that your first day will suck, as the system callibrates your level of skill and gear. Once again, WoW is a better game than I gave it credit for.

A Licensing Primer For Gamers

For those who aren't long-time open source software developers, especially gamers who write mods or addons (see my previous article) I'd like to provide a quick Q&A to answer some of the questions (and misconceptions) I've seen come up recently. I want to emphasize that I am not a lawyer, but these topics are fairly general, and I believe I'm fairly safe in providing a basic intro. You should read the licenses you apply to your software before you do so, of course.

Question 1: "Are open source and public domain the same thing?"

Answer: Not at all. Public domain works are works that have had their copyright expire, revoked or were not eligible for copyright protection in the first place. Open source software, on the other hand is copyrighted and that copyright has one or more owners who retain the rights with respect to that software. Just because you've allowed others to copy your work doesn't meant that you don't retain control of it. For example, you're the only one who can offer that work under other licensing terms or transfer the copyright to another party.

Public domain licensing (see below) is not open source licensing, though it has some properties in common. That's important to remember.

Question 2: "But don't you give up your rights when you license something as open source?"

Answer: All licenses (regardless of how proprietary they are or are not) represent compromise between the copyright owner and the licensee, but copyright status of a work doesn't change because it was licensed under open source terms. It only means that you've allowed re-distribution and modification of the work.

Question 3: "Can I change the licensing terms of my open source software?"

Answer: You can if you are the sole copyright holder. However, if your software is made up of code that you wrote and code that others wrote, unless they signed ownership of their changes over to you, you do not have sole ownership of the final result, and any change of license must either be allowed by the licensing terms under which they made their changes or must be agreed to by them.

Question 4: "Can someone modify my program / mod /addon and redistribute it without my name"

Obviously, this depends on the terms of the license, but in the case of all of the open source licenses that I know of, no. One exception is public domain software. There's some controversy as to what constitutes public domain software and if you can, in fact, release your own code to the public domain, but as so many developers claim that their code is PD it should be noted that PD software has no copyright, and thus can be claimed by and controlled by anyone.

Question 5: "Why would I want to open source something I worked so hard on"

That's a question no one can fully answer for you, but there are some advantages: it makes it easier and more attractive for others to contribute to your software; if you ever stop maintaining your software, others can pick up the ball; having an open source project under your belt is a nice resume item; and mostly, it just helps to build a sense of community around your software.