tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33068382011-11-27T18:18:38.407-05:00Ian Marsman's photography and technology blogIanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comBlogger2011100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-61370078333125210722007-10-17T23:16:00.001-04:002007-10-17T23:41:28.042-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } False Honey ant - Prenolepis imparis, originally uploaded by imarsman. This photo of a False Honey ant is unremarkable in that it is not too sharp and could be better lit. One thing I do like about it though is that it

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-36488969313992821412007-10-17T23:09:00.001-04:002007-10-17T23:11:43.841-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Carpenter ant - Camponotus sp., originally uploaded by imarsman. This season I've been particularly engrossed by ants. Mostly I've taken photos of the False Honey ant (in spring and fall when they are active), and the

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-40479102801066569762007-10-12T23:35:00.001-04:002007-10-12T23:35:12.829-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Obscure Sap beetle - Conotelus obscurus, originally uploaded by imarsman. Finally got another shot of the Obscure Sap beetle, again in my neighbour's front yard. It's a teeny beetle. The images I've taken and posted on

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-41249428871020749542007-08-01T20:32:00.001-04:002007-08-01T21:47:10.451-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Red Milkweed Beetles, originally uploaded by imarsman. Black-spotted red beetles are photogenic. Mating ones even more so. I was happy to find them, but the female seemed to be pretty unimpressed with the mating thing,

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-85895872692913594242007-08-01T19:52:00.001-04:002007-08-01T19:52:23.082-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Feeding katydid, originally uploaded by imarsman. This katydid was nonplussed at my presence and by the repeated photographs I took of it. I was pleased to capture it eating, pleased that it was eating from a beautiful

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-81009398445914428392007-08-01T19:42:00.001-04:002007-08-02T11:48:34.710-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Large odd bug, originally uploaded by imarsman. Here's a fun bug, large for Ontario. It's a Leaf-footed bug, one of a large variety of related bugs that suck juices from plants. It's a bug in the truest sense of the word,

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-77500434044191814582007-08-01T18:53:00.001-04:002007-08-02T11:44:57.073-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Ambush bug, originally uploaded by imarsman. Another use of bright and strong colour, though not as successful as with the Long-horned bees. I think this one doesn't work as well because the balance of bright and dark tends

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-28173512546415298392007-08-01T11:29:00.001-04:002007-08-01T23:08:08.606-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Together briefly - II, originally uploaded by imarsman. This photo of two Long-horned bees mating on a flower is one of my favourite invertebrate photos in a while. It was taken offhandedly, though with carefully checked

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-20629093358696270952007-08-01T10:46:00.000-04:002007-08-01T23:28:11.641-04:00

Though I may change my mind on this, I am switching from using Firefox to Safari as my browser of choice. Most of the reasons for this relate to aesthetics and colour handling. Safari, on my iMac, is generally more responsive and smooth than Firefox. Copied text in Safari has its formatting preserved, making the loss of the Aardvark plugin easier to live with. Passwords get saved in the system

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-90076863890308546572007-07-20T21:00:00.000-04:002007-08-02T13:35:03.508-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Sidewalk Tiger Beetle on side of dirt road, originally uploaded by imarsman. There are so many species of Tiger Beetle in the world. I hope to run across as many of them as I can. This was a new one for me, found along a

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-76787413995064109682007-07-20T20:00:00.000-04:002007-08-02T13:35:50.768-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Burrowing wasp digging nest in sandy gravel, originally uploaded by imarsman. I love photos of invertebrates doing things. Several of these burrowing wasps were busily, ah, burrowing in the sandy gravel along a roughed-out

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-17845691234195821892007-05-28T21:05:00.001-04:002007-05-28T22:48:24.307-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Red eyes, originally uploaded by imarsman. This Flesh Fly has a lot going for it, photogenically. It's got big red eyes that draw human attention. It's body is grey, allowing the red eyes to stand out even more. This shot

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-80048625621121998262007-05-28T17:28:00.001-04:002007-05-28T22:44:09.581-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Small Serengeti 2, originally uploaded by imarsman. I love this shot. Wish I'd had the flash up a bit more to get at detail for the ants close into the wood louse, but there's plenty there to tell a good story, nonetheless.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-90383766789673331092007-05-23T21:23:00.001-04:002007-05-23T21:25:03.235-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } All that I got, originally uploaded by imarsman. There's a neat bee fly in our garden. He's brown and fuzzy. He tends to stay in one place for about ten seconds, then fly to a new spot or return pretty much to the same spot

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-19723064735540837992007-05-18T21:47:00.001-04:002007-05-23T21:25:47.416-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Greetings, originally uploaded by imarsman. How can I take credit for interesting shots of tiny creatures? All I have to do is walk out my front door, sit down on an overturned bucket, and take a few dozen pictures. A few

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-51782335194093054702007-05-18T21:30:00.001-04:002007-05-18T21:49:48.159-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Aaaak!, originally uploaded by imarsman. Cant' stop photographing these little wonders. Good for both my photographic technique and my soul. Apparently, False Honey Ants eschew weather that's too warm, preferring to come out

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-28864224433824412642007-05-16T19:44:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:19:05.705-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Regurgitating, originally uploaded by imarsman. I need to learn more about what this ant is up to. It seems to be regurgitating its food. At first when I saw False Honey Ants I doing things with their forelimbs I thought

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-73843253825773544362007-05-16T19:42:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:19:30.117-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Perspective shift, originally uploaded by imarsman. I like this shot. Ants don't tend to spend a lot of time near the flower part of the Bachelor's Button plant, so getting a shot of them there takes a bit of patience and a

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-456677770915911872007-05-16T10:03:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:19:49.873-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Ant hill - 4, originally uploaded by imarsman. This is the ant very common in Ontario which one sees building and maintaining small ant hills in sandy soil. Found out this ant is a member of Lasius alienus. All-in-all I've

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-14814213932054723902007-05-16T10:00:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:20:13.178-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Browsing, originally uploaded by imarsman. This ant is found foraging all over our front yard garden and driveway, bringing home dead insects, or getting a meal of nectar, as in this photo. I've submitted it for

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-81406159976744370872007-05-16T09:50:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:23:15.031-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Communing, originally uploaded by imarsman. Here are some False Honey Ants gathering nectar from extrafloral nectaries on a Bachelor's Button plant. Extrafloral nectaries are growths that are rich in sucrose and tend to

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-70083033394388602122007-05-16T09:44:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:23:36.566-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Forager, originally uploaded by imarsman. Here's a Pavement Ant, not terribly poetically named. Its abdomen is much smaller than that of the Acrobat Ant, probably because it brings home scavenged food rather than ingested

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-64612146848095456912007-05-16T09:28:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:24:00.783-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Grazing, originally uploaded by imarsman. I found out that this is an Acrobat Ant. I imagine its propensity for stooping down to eat made those who named it think of an acrobat. It has a rather large abdomen, presumably for

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-64739233641639343732007-05-07T15:00:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:31:43.399-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Challenge, originally uploaded by imarsman. It's tricky to get a good shot of an insect in mid-flight or any sort of closeup shot, for that matter. Getting a good shot often involves a bit of understanding of insect

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-25037236656157884332007-05-07T14:53:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:34:18.871-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Eastern Carpenter Bee, originally uploaded by imarsman. Flowers and colour are great attractants for people. I may love a shot of an ant carrying a dead worm or a spider, but not many others seem to. Post a picture of an

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-55085013509273623662007-05-01T17:20:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:25:29.137-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Red ant 3, originally uploaded by imarsman.Here's a photos of a small ant I took today. It turned out quite well, much better than with my previous non-SLR camera, but it points to a few things I'll be working on with my macro

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-48586097778161607022007-04-29T01:02:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:26:00.063-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Mid swing, originally uploaded by imarsman. I took several shots of Nancy swinging from a vine at St. John's Conservation Area, having fun and reliving childhood memories. She and I both like this shot. She told me not to

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-22838314049393637722007-04-29T00:19:00.001-04:002007-05-29T06:24:46.683-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Ok, I admit now that flash is useful in macro work. I had been one to poo-poo the use of flash. Perhaps this was doe to having seen too many over-lit photos. The other day out of curiousity I decided to find out what I could

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-15089816782005006922007-04-25T11:09:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:30:35.801-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Descending, originally uploaded by imarsman. Here's an ant going down the other side of an obstacle. Amazing ability to traverse terrain. Looking at this one, you can see that ants are well designed for strength. It's body

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-76587344954428777472007-04-25T11:01:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:31:00.951-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Alone, originally uploaded by imarsman. One of my best insect photos. This ant was pausing at the crest of a plant branch before beginning her descent. Standing at the crest of a hill and looking over the horizon is

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-30189624614913696022007-04-25T10:50:00.001-04:002007-04-25T10:52:19.645-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Investigating, originally uploaded by imarsman. I like this shot. To get it I lay flat on the ground and had the lens pretty much parallel to the ground. The ant's head is in focus and her antennae are outstretched,

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-73342655666050682512007-04-25T10:34:00.001-04:002007-05-18T16:33:17.448-04:00

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Investigating, originally uploaded by imarsman. Here's one of my recent ant pictures, taken with the new Nikon D50, and just as importantly, a 60mm Micro Nikkor AF lens. I'm sure I will take many more photos, some of which

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-44507922356954420912007-01-08T21:37:00.001-05:002007-01-08T21:45:38.496-05:00

I have an IMac now. It's a 20" one with a 250 gig hard drive, 2 gigs of ram, and a nice dual core 64 bit processor. From a hardware point of view I'm very pleased with it. From most points of view I'm pleased with it. Here a a few things that I notice, coming from Linux: Lack of a unified package management system - Managing core aplications is a breeze. They're represented by litle icons but

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-75776106511469764752006-11-16T15:18:00.000-05:002006-11-16T16:13:17.474-05:00

As Brent might say. Google's sitemaps protocol, mostly just an XML schema to lay out the important bits of your site for web crawlers, is being set up as a more neutral protocol to be used by Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. I suppose this is just recognizing the fact that though initiated by Google, the sitemap files can be read by anyone. Collaboration in this is pretty easy and makes for good PR.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-46865874321972030912006-11-15T14:42:00.000-05:002006-11-15T21:44:28.606-05:00

I've been looking into the topic of how to both have an AJAX/DHTML website using a toolkit like prototype or an interface infrastructure like Google Web Toolkit. It boils down to the fact that if you need to let the web crawlers in you have to give them something non-DHTML/AJAX to consume. This can be done a few ways it seems, including intercepting page requests and directing to different

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1163471743354394802006-11-13T21:32:00.000-05:002006-11-15T14:26:59.837-05:00

Two of my bugs have made their way on bugguide.net as firsts in their category. One is a picture wing fly. I found it on the stump of a recently cut-down tree in our drive.The other is a sap feeding beetle. This one was on a moon flower in our neighbour's small but wild front yard.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1162405313874341192006-11-01T13:20:00.000-05:002007-05-18T16:35:53.223-04:00

I've not taken photos of bugs since May, but while camping at Selkirk Provincial Park I got this fluke shot of a ladybug taking flight from my thumb.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1158781322634532802006-09-20T15:34:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:59.659-05:00

Here’s some Java code I borrowed and wrote to extract multi-word tags surrounded by quotes from a string and add them to a list// Now extract all multi-word keywords delimited by spaces// but not surrounded by quotesp = Pattern.compile("\"(.*?)\"\\s*");m = p.matcher(keywordString);sb = new StringBuffer();while (m.find()) { // Get previous match and add it to the keywords list String kw = m.group(

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1156648326600382822006-08-26T23:11:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:59.432-05:00

I've been investigating (and testing) OpenID lately. The cause, by the way, would be helped if openid.org's url worked without the www subdomain. Openid is an api that allows a person to claim ownership of a url and through that to claim an identity of sorts. It's not a way to prove that a person controlling a url has a certain name, so it's not an authentication mechanism. What it allows is for

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1149099075430602512006-05-31T14:07:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:59.337-05:00

A great piece on the risks involved in building knowledge using groups. Essentially, the author seems to be suggesting that the results of consensus is not necessarily genius or deep insight, but rather blandness or at the very least, something lacking in boldness and insight. A great read.The beauty of the Internet is that it connects people. The value is in the other people. If we start to

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1142003600363813062006-03-10T09:58:00.000-05:002006-11-15T14:26:59.247-05:00

Java has a GregorianCalendar class (representing a data's year, month, day, etc.) with a get method that takes an integer argument and returns things like that instance's year as an int value. This means that the value returned will be invalid for year values beyond 2,147,483,647 (the maximum value of a Java int)! I think that's the time in Babylon 5 where humans escaped their physical bodies and

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1139926423370025392006-02-14T09:11:00.000-05:002006-11-15T14:26:59.155-05:00

You have an informative article on newly discovered species of assassin spiders from Madagascar. Unfortunately, the person writing the story chose to depict them as bizarre and ugly, with phrases such as "recognized by their peculiarly ugly, stretched-out necks and sword-like fangs" and "venom-loaded fangs, attached to the ends of grotesquely stretched-out jaws". Perhaps the author has a

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1138301347793090412006-01-26T13:45:00.000-05:002006-11-15T14:26:59.063-05:00

The Chandler project, started by Mitch Kapor of Lotus fame, is finally starting to look polished and usable. At the moment, the most polished component is the calendar, which has some beginning ineroperability with the server using CalDav. Previously, there were no screenshots of the application, mostly, I suspect, because it was so ugly. It takes a long time to get the backend for such a

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1135177959851995272005-12-21T09:32:00.000-05:002006-11-15T14:26:58.955-05:00

ars technica has a great overview of the probable technology behind the recent non-authorized wiretapping affair. I am not at all a fan of a leader, American, Canadian, or other, feeling that he or she has the authority to eavesdrop on the lives of its citizens with not even minimal oversight. However, that is not what I am most interested in here. The ars technica article outlines an

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1129898405812281652005-10-21T08:37:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:58.869-05:00

Well. Here goes. Downloaded the preview release of the Flock browser and am testing it out. Uses de.licio.us to store bookmarks and hooks into blogging. We'll see how revolutionary it is.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1124734330569020692005-08-22T14:12:00.000-04:002007-05-18T16:39:58.827-04:00

Latin name: Xylocopa virginicaBees are busy and difficult to photograph. I did however manage to get get this side profile of an Eastern Carpenter Bee covered with a remarkable amount of pollen.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1124734106793279122005-08-22T14:08:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:58.696-05:00

Latin name: Phidippus clarusThis little female Phidippus clarus was hiding out in our Parsley. The pose shown here is the typical defensive posture; crouching and ready to strike while maintaining maximal ability to view surroundings.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1124733525763051142005-08-22T13:58:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:58.614-05:00

Latin name: Phaenicia sericataThis is the unpleasant part of flies (besides their oftentimes diet of rotting flesh or garbage). The front of their heads looks like the front of a human skull, or at least the nose part.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1124733386595949722005-08-22T13:56:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:58.533-05:00

Latin name: Sitticus sp.This teeny Jumping Spider was found by Janneke on the sill of our living room picture window. It was only about 2mm in length, total. I brought it outside to our porch and took some pictures of it. It's amazing that something so small can be so complete and capable.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1124731997437207232005-08-22T13:33:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:58.451-05:00

Latin name: Graphocephala coccineaThese bugs are cute and colourful! I don't know how it's adaptive to be red and blue on a green leaf. Perhaps it's less conspicuous in the spectral range visible by its predators. In any case, they look great to humans. Teeny too (about 7mm).

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1124731777849427382005-08-22T13:29:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:58.362-05:00

Latin name: Phaenicia sericataI am not normally a fan of flies, but yet I keep on taking pictures of Green Bottle Flies. It's the irridescence. Looking at them face-on is not pretty, I think because they have indentations similar to those one might see on a human skull. Of course, the fact that they start out as maggots in rotting flesh can be off-putting. In any case, horrid or not, this fly

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1123819091356265162005-08-11T23:58:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:58.267-05:00

OldNewLatin name: Tetragnatha sp.I re-edited a shot of a female Long-jawed Orb weaver on some bent reeds to bring out the colour more (I blogged about it before). Now the colour is warmer, reminding me of how things look on moist, overcast days. What a spider!

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1123770262705197772005-08-11T10:24:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:58.183-05:00

Old (non colour adjusted)New (colour adjusted)Latin name: Platycryptus sp.Last night I used the GIMP to do more clean up an image I'd already posted to Flickr. The challenge was to reduce the visual influence of the blueness of the windshield on which the spider stands. The spider, thankfully, did not have any natural blue colouration, so turning down blue and magenta saturation accomplished this

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1123533485766402692005-08-08T16:38:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:58.100-05:00

Latin name: Argiope aurantiaThis male Black and Yellow Argiope was literally hanging around above a female in her web, waiting patiently to mate. The female is visible here as the earth is visible to an orbiting satellite. One can see the male transferring some sperm to his palps. I read that males of this species die at the end of mating to inhibit other males from getting at the female. After

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1123531064934669572005-08-08T15:57:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:58.018-05:00

Latin name: Hogna frondicolaThis Wolf Spider was wandering about on the large stone I used as a background for the grasshopper photos I took. As with the grasshopper, I used a polarizing filter on shots of this spider. This spider had a total length of about 9mm.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1123529820200878592005-08-08T15:37:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:57.926-05:00

Latin name: Melanoplus bivittatusWell, I don't get too excited about grasshoppers, but Janneke suggested I photograph one she'd caught and was keeping in her bug collection cage. She said that after release it would stick around for a while. True enough, when we placed it on a large hunk of stone it stuck around long enough to take about a dozen photos. They turned out ver well indeed. I used a

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1123090810391358342005-08-03T13:40:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:57.848-05:00

Latin name: Dolomedes tenebrosusThis is a good rear view of a female Dark Fishing Spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus). She has a missing leg. This is not as uncommon as I'd have thought before taking so many spider pictures this summer. Perhaps they lose limbs in their nursery web or in territorial combat with others of their species.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1123011020385778832005-08-02T15:30:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:57.768-05:00

Latin name: Lycomorpha pholusAlso known as the Black and Orange Lichen Moth and the Black and Red Lichen Moth. Its colour varies by region. This lovely specimen was feeding on flowers in a garden by a restored grist mill we were visiting last Sunday.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1123010893781216132005-08-02T15:28:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:57.653-05:00

Latin name: Phyciodes sp.Got just one shot of this butterfly on Goldenrod, but it was a good one.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1123009624695657162005-08-02T15:07:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:57.571-05:00

Near Brock University and the site of the War of 1812 Battle of Beaver Dams is a fully restored grist mill with accompanying mill pond. Beyond the mill is a spectacular waterfall and lovely river gorge. All of this is home to delightful insect life, including huge Millipedes and gargantuan Fishing Spiders. The skill and devotion put into restoring what once was a dilapited wreck of a mill is

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1123008682960262062005-08-02T14:51:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:57.485-05:00

(1)(2)(3)(4)Latin name: Agelenopsis sp.This past Saturday morning I put an ant in a Funnel Spider's web and photographed the ensuing subduing. The results were pretty graphic and kind of sobering. Number 3, shown here, I found especially troubling. One steps on ants, one poisons ants, one watches ants teeming about the garden. One does not always see an ant one has put in a web gaping as he's

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1123008228792871002005-08-02T14:43:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:57.385-05:00

Latin name: Tetragnatha sp.Long-jawed Orb weavers are neat, but not photogenic. They are too good at camouflaging themselves and don't look enough like regular spiders to stand out in a photo. Thus, when I post one on Flickr I don't expect lots of views, even if it's a photo I think is very good. Bright green grasshoppers are popular though and bright orange Colorado Potato Beetle larvae.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1123000461871084812005-08-02T12:34:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:57.299-05:00

Latin name: Phymata pennsylvanicaFinally! Got some shots of Ambush Bugs. They were on my list for this summer bigtime. They act a whole lot like Mantids, attacking swiftly from a position of ambush. They have a sucking mouthpart that they stab into their victims and use to suck out their body fluids. Notice the hooked ends on their forelimbs.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1122989754984912592005-08-02T09:35:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:57.206-05:00

Latin name: Dolomedes tenebrosusNancy found this huge spider on a stone in a creek where we were exploring. The creek flowed through a protected river gorge, providing a great environment for rather large insects to thrive. This is a female Dark Fishing Spider, one of three species of Fishing Spider I've come across in Ontario. It lives in North America east of the Rockies.Although this

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1122568654802466422005-07-28T12:36:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:57.125-05:00

Wired has a nice story on the genesis of Google at Stanford.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1122402540158934042005-07-26T14:29:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:57.043-05:00

Latin name: Lucilia sp.Here's another shot of a Green Bottle Fly. Flies close-up are not pretty, especially their faces. The Green Bottle Fly makes up for its fly-ness by being shiny and green and having red eyes. This photo is nicely saturated. The green-ness of the leaf is a nice touch too.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1122396440602297052005-07-26T12:47:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:56.954-05:00

Latin name: family Parandra sp.Nancy found this Pole Borer Beetle in the back yard two week-ends ago. We put it on a freshly cut stump and I proceeded to take several pictures of it. As with many close-up shots of insects that I take, viewing the photo revealed details not noticed with the naked eye. In this case, I was surprised at the sharp segmentation of the antennae and the wierd little

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1122394647867877192005-07-26T12:17:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:56.786-05:00

Latin name: family LycosidaeHere's the same Wolf Spider mother at the edge of the pool. Note how she is not carrying herself so high due to the cooler temperature at poolside.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1122394044016125362005-07-26T12:07:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:56.710-05:00

Latin name: family LycosidaeI was at a public wading pool with the kids this past Saturday. It was rather hot, over 30 degrees. The kids had a great time splashing around. While the kids were lying on their towels soaking up the heat, this little female Wolf Spider with her egg sac tucked beneath her abdomen ran out from the grass onto the cement that surrounds the pool by about 3 metres. It

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1122391923508248092005-07-26T11:30:00.001-04:002006-11-15T14:26:56.618-05:00

I have been at a loss as to the rules of capitalization for named insects. Wikipedia has a good entry on capitalization. Here is a relevant snippet:Some authors, though few if any grammar books, also treat the names of individual species of living things (animals, plants, etc) as proper nouns, and use initial majuscules for them, as in e.g. Peregrine Falcon while asserting that others, e.g. horse

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1122391817506791522005-07-26T11:30:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:56.537-05:00

Latin name: Popillia japonicaWe visited friends in Welland this past Sunday. They had a rather wild area behind the garage full of Goldenrod, Mint, and grapes that grew over the fence. These Japanese Beetles were found on grape leaves and were obviously in some state of mating. You can see some sort of discharge from the female (the one on the bottom). I am happy with the lighting intensity and

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1122062075839656022005-07-22T15:54:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:56.460-05:00

Latin name: Lucilia sp.This image was quite popular when I posted it on Flickr. Bugs on flowers are passe, but when you post a picture of a bug on a dead flower, well! Seriously, though, the lighting was pretty good for this shot and so was the clarity, without being overbearing. Looking at the phot some more, the depth-of-field worked out pretty well too. The Green Bottle Fly is also pretty, as

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1122061370133195602005-07-22T15:42:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:56.364-05:00

Latin name: Delphinia pictaThis is a shot of a Picture Wing fly (got to figure out the rules for capitalization ) that was resting on our rear deck. I was able to stabilize the camera and obtain this clear image. What an odd insect. Most of its oddness comes from its rather elephantine or Tapir-like probiscus.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1122060045590588642005-07-22T15:20:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:56.267-05:00

Latin name: Toxomerus sp.Havn't posted an image for a while. Here's one of a very small (about 6mm) Hover/Syrphid fly that was resting on a Baby's Breath (Gypsophila) flower bud in our front yard garden last weekend.I like this photo because even with the small size of the fly it provides good detail. Additionally, it is in a pretty well ideal pose, not completely horizontal but stilll giving a

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1121358724293766852005-07-14T11:44:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:44.177-05:00

Bruce himself pointed to an interview he made. A great quote: Unfortunately, there are two aspects of modern society that throw this all out of whack. The first is technology. Our security intuition evolved in a world where nothing ever changed. Fear of the new made a lot of sense in that kind of world. But the pace of today's technology means that things change all the time.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1121351431379270972005-07-14T10:29:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:44.100-05:00

Note: Corrections unfortunately not included in the email sent to John Reid in square brackets.To: John Reid, Information Commissioner of CanadaFrom: Ian MarsmanI direct your attention to the website of National Resources Canada, in particular, to the section of the site dealing with downloads of place name data. The data in question deals with populated areas and geological features and includes

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1121197309652034942005-07-12T14:30:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:43.999-05:00

Google has now made available an API to allow embedding of its maps in one's own web pages. The API requires a key, as many web service APIs seem to. Lets you do all of the things unofficial hacks did, namely fetch a map, set zoom level, place markers with accompanying text, etc. One can use the API on websites when the page containing the map does not require any sort of payment to access.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1120738377221986822005-07-07T08:11:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:43.921-05:00

Letter to the globe in response to an article published on the failure of passage of legislations allowing patenting of software in the EU."Wednesday's vote was preceded by weeks of massive lobbying between big businesses and free software believers."This is an odd way to describe people on two sides of a debate over software patents. "Big business" presumably refers to a group of people and

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1120074185648374372005-06-29T15:43:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:43.844-05:00

Latin name: Nymphaea odorataThis is the most popular of the Water lily photos I've posted. It is indeed balanced, with an inky black water region, a green lily pad region, an interesting browned lily pad section, and the lovely flower at the centre. The reflection of the sun above the flower is evocative as well. The flower's brightness makes a good contrast with the darkness of the water and the

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1120048437282567552005-06-29T08:33:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:43.768-05:00

Latin name: Tetragnatha sp.Here's a female of the same species as the one posted below. A good example of sexual dimorphism. Note the excellent match between her colouration and the dried out thistle she is on. It was really a bit of a fluke that I noticed her at all.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1120048261815860532005-06-29T08:31:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:43.695-05:00

Latin name: Tetragnatha sp.I'm pretty pleased with this shot of a Long-jawed Orb weaver. It was taken in pretty poor light I think at 1/60 sec exposure time. This is a male of the species. I'm not sure exactly which species it is. There were many of these fellows hanging out on top of the leaves of the Touch-me-nots that covered the forest floor in the hickory forest at Selkirk provincial park

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1120047994416492492005-06-29T08:26:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:43.624-05:00

Latin name: Enoplognatha ovataHere's another Cobweb spider at work. This one's captured a firefly or some other related beetle. I hadn't really known much about Cobweb spiders until this past weekend's camping trip. They are spiders that spin disorganized webs and usually have rather round abdomens. A Black Widow is a Cobweb spider. It's difficult to nail down which species a Cobweb spider

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1120047714894317792005-06-29T08:21:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:43.556-05:00

Latin name: Enoplognatha ovataNot that many people have looked at this picture on Flickr. I like it a lot though. Not surprisingly, in retrospect, pictures that seem to be popular are ones that show up well as thumbnails. I enjoy this shot because it shows a Cobweb spider about to bite into newly captured prey. It's hard to get a picture of an insect doing its thing. Mostly one is happy to

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1119279964062358052005-06-20T11:06:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:43.308-05:00

Latin name: Anthidium manicatumYesterday at around four in the afternoon I was still hoping to get some more insect pictures. However, I was unable to go to a wonderful park. Fortunately, our neighbours have a patch of Lamb's ear in their front yard. I got some photos of Wool Carder bees, including this one of two of them mating. The male Wool Carder bee will scare competition away from a nice

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1119279396974525232005-06-20T10:56:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:43.223-05:00

Latin name: Leptinotarsa decemlineataNancy and I went to a garden centre this past Saturday. While Nancy was ogling herbs and ground cover, I looked around the place for insects to photograph. In a grassy area by a pool of water in a culvert I found many Colorado potato beetles munching away on Deadly Nightshade leaves.The Colorado Potato Beetle is actually thought to have originated in Mexico

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1119279199748764032005-06-20T10:53:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:43.140-05:00

Latin name: Dolichopodid (family)Here's a female Dolichopodid fly, also known as a Long-legged fly. She was being harassed by a hovering, hopeful male.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1119274333537970732005-06-20T09:32:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:43.030-05:00

Latin name: Dolichopodid (family)I was so pleased to get some shots of a Long-legged fly in flight. This is a male Long-legged fly. He was hovering over a female hoping to mate. The light was good so I was able to have the shutter speed at 1/800 second. Faster would have been even nicer.Surprisingly, this shot has gotten little attention on Flickr, much less than an earlier shot of mating worms.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1118866344275963632005-06-15T16:12:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:42.502-05:00

I got this photo of a fly starting to bite into my leg last Sunday afternoon. I got another of a horsefly, but it was fuzzy. Have to try again for a clearer shot (cringe).

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1118847215177628282005-06-15T10:53:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:42.427-05:00

Latin name: Clubiona sp.Our house has been the home of several Sac spiders. I generally consider myself to be a friend to bugs. For the most part if we find a bug in the house we gently put it outside. Not so for the Sac spider whose bite is cytotoxic (kills cells) and painful. Putting a Sac spider outside would risk having someone get bitten there. Lewis has a small body mass and would suffer

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1118754123626112652005-06-14T09:01:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:42.357-05:00

The University of Kentucky has a great site on bug identification and categorization, including sections on plant bugs and assassin/ambush bugs. Very helpful.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1118692418239958752005-06-13T15:53:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:42.286-05:00

Latin name: Orthoptera (order)I don't much go in for grasshoppers, but the shot of this one turned out to be quite clear. Pictures of bugs on bright green foliage often get comments on Flickr from people who admire green things or things that are brightly coloured.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1118692173457733202005-06-13T15:49:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:42.210-05:00

Latin name: Reduviidae (family)Here's an assassin bug. Its abdomen seems to be filled with what looks like bright green goo. I'm not sure if this is the case as I didn't try to squish it.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1118691286093044882005-06-13T15:34:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:42.141-05:00

Latin name: Nabidae (family)I've come across a new category of bugs, namely bugs that stab and poison then suck their prey dry. This category includes Assassin and Ambush bugs (family Reduviidae) and Damsel bugs (family Nabidae). I think that the bugs pictures here might be a nymph (left) and adult Damsel bug. You can see their sucking parts, folded back in the nymph and pointed down in the adult

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1118690482302965552005-06-13T15:21:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:42.057-05:00

Latin name: Phidippus clarusI have been hoping to find Phidippus jumping spiders in Ontario and did indeed find one this past Saturday at Short Hills provincial park in the form of this female Phidippus clarus. Rather, Janneke found it and I photographed it. She's good.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1118690105316118742005-06-13T15:15:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:41.988-05:00

Latin name: Laphria sp.My first Robber fly! This one looks like a bumblebee. I saw it with Janneke in vegitation in a dry creekbed we were visiting. It was conspicuous initially by carrying around a dead bee. Bumblebees don't do that. After a moment, I noticed that it didn't bumble around as it flew but rather zipped here and there in a very purposeful manner. The light was poor, so the pictures

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1118673721014716132005-06-13T10:32:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:41.903-05:00

O'Reilly has a nice aricle on Ruby on Rails and AJAX, the hot new DHTML/remote scripting "why didn't we do this before?" phenomenon.Apparantly, the new Pragmatic Programmers book on development with Rails will do a good job covering remote scripting/AJAX. I'll be getting this when it comes out in July.The problem with DHTML and remote scripting has always been the requirement to hand-craft each

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1118417378871262122005-06-10T11:29:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:41.825-05:00

Ran across a Wikipeida article on Sudoku, a logic game that seems to have come together over time, gotten turned into a game in the US, but become a raging sensation in Japan before spreading around the world recently.It looks fun. You need to make sure that the numbers 1 through 9 occur only once in each row and column and once in each 3x3 grid. Apparantly it can be quite tricky to solve some

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1118344796868771142005-06-09T15:18:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:41.675-05:00

Cringely proposes that Intel and Apple are planning on going into an alliance to give Intel a new and more reliable chip-selling channel and Apple a massive increase in market share and both of them a chance to dethrone Microsoft. That would be fun to watch!

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1118338640409153282005-06-09T13:37:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:41.592-05:00

Latin name: Lycosa sp.Just for reference, here's a female from another species of Wolf spider. This one's carrying her egg sac as well. Took this picture a few weeks ago at Short Hills park. It was quite frisky. Note the different wrapping for the eggs and differing carrying technique.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3306838.post-1118337425491343452005-06-09T13:17:00.000-04:002006-11-15T14:26:41.514-05:00

Latin name: Lycosa sp.Nancy found this amputee Wolf spider as she was digging up the front yardette last night. We're not sure if she caused the amputation or if it was pre-existing. In either case, we did not harm the spider further and after pestering it by taking photos of it we let it go. Hope to get some good photos of Wolf spiders with young on their backs soon.By the way, I've come across

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00323792678522753698noreply@blogger.com