Author Archives: sameer

Super Blue Moon rising over Lake Michigan, Chicago

I got this picture from on-board a boat on Lake Michigan. This was the closest the moon will be to the earth in a while. The next time the moon will come this close will be in 2037! I’m not entirely sure what kind of optical illusion(s) caused it to look like a mushroom cloud:Continue reading “Super Blue Moon rising over Lake Michigan, Chicago”

Documenting California Precipitation 2023: Full Lake Folsom and Snowcapped Sierras

The effect of all the precipitation in the past 5 months in California can be easily seen in this pic. That’s Folsom Lake. That tree has been on dry ground for the past few years when you could hike up to it just walking on the lakebed of rocks and pebbles. Now a good chunkContinue reading “Documenting California Precipitation 2023: Full Lake Folsom and Snowcapped Sierras”

Mt Shasta juxtaposed with our consumerist selves

Mountains can be teachers. They can show us our place, help keep our ego in check, and give us the dose of awe we need to stay grounded. We were driving back from Mt Lassen when we stopped for a coffee and from the parking lot of a Starbucks I caught this view of MtContinue reading “Mt Shasta juxtaposed with our consumerist selves”

Why I now believe that Bitcoin introduces catastrophic systemic risk rather than mitigating it

I have been a very strong believer in Bitcoin. First for transactions. I even sold a robomop to someone on Craigslist back in 2014 and got paid in Bitcoin for it. I used the first Bitcoin ATMs in Belgium and Amsterdam to withdraw my BTC in Euros in 2015 and really believed BTC was goingContinue reading “Why I now believe that Bitcoin introduces catastrophic systemic risk rather than mitigating it”

People swimming inside an energy reactor: Stable Diffusion AI to

I had tried a similar prompt to evaluate Dall-E earlier. So wanted to see how Stable Diffusion worked for it. The difference here is that all these images were created locally on my machine (not in the cloud). It’s getting easier and easier to run advanced AI models with limited technical knowledge thanks to workContinue reading “People swimming inside an energy reactor: Stable Diffusion AI to”

Testing how DALL-E layers on to prior art

DALL-E is quite impressive and it’s been fun to see all the different images it has been conjuring up. I am still on the waitlist but a few friends have access to it. One of them helped run a couple of queries on my behalf and it was quite interesting to see the result. SoContinue reading “Testing how DALL-E layers on to prior art”

Using a mirror effect on drone footage

I was out on a hike recently with my folks and took some drone footage of the area. I decided to try out a mirror effect on the drone footage and it came out rather nice. This is a first rough cut at it on a low resolution version of the footage. The entire thingContinue reading “Using a mirror effect on drone footage”