Iconic Monkeypod Tree Being Felled Despite Resident Opposition

 The iconic monkeypod tree, a beloved landmark for many in the community, is currently being felled by a contracted crew ( Tree of Hawaii Inc.) despite opposition from some board members. This ongoing operation has left many residents feeling blindsided and frustrated by the homeowners' association (HOA)'s lack of transparency.

Here are links to previous posts on efforts at saving the tree:

https://hodentek.blogspot.com/2024/10/it-was-sad-day-at-3138-waialae-avenue.html

https://hodentek.blogspot.com/2024/09/if-community-is-strong-and-connected-we.html

https://hodentek.blogspot.com/2024/08/if-manoa-could-save-their-trees-so.html

https://hodentek.blogspot.com/2024/07/save-regency-parks-trees-honolulu.html

Neither the condominium owners nor the car owners who parked beneath the tree were informed beforehand of the impending removal, specifically the exact date and time of the operation. This lack of communication, coupled with the history of past disputes over tree removal within the community, has led to exclamations of  "sneaky, underhanded, etc." operation.

Furthermore, residents question whether the condominium management company was aware of the planned removal and, if so, why they failed to inform the unit owners. This raises concerns about the communication channels and decision-making processes within the HOA.

Here are pictures and video of the tree removal:

There is a clear evidence that this region of the Chaminade area is the breeding ground of the Fairy Terns. Zoom in on the blue ribbon.

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Watch this video:

https://youtu.be/TJ8hP36PgWE

Status at 1:30 P.M.

The work had stopped and this is a picture of how it is now.

I asked the office manager who was walking near the tree, if the work will continue next day. He said yes.  I wish the manager is wrong. Only tomorrow can tell.

Very important where you save your SQL Server Installation media files

  This is a very important question. when I began using SQL Server for writing as well as for teaching, I used to take this for granted and used to store at the default location. Sometimes, I used to get into difficulty accessing the installation media as it was needed after a long interval and I would have made changes to my directory structure, or moved them to other places. However, it is very important where you save your SQL Server Installation media for a couple of reasons.

What's the need to save?

1. It provides a means for you to reinstall or repair your installation. You cannot do this task, if you do not have your installation media. 

2. For Off-line installations, it is essential to have this media.

3. If you are having multiple installations, it ensures consistency. I used to have this media on a memory stick and have all my students install on their work stations.

What are suitable locations to save the media?

There are couple of options. Choose one that best suits your needs.

1. Local Drive: When you start installing you will find out how much space is needed on your computer's local drive. At a minimum, you need 6 GB of disc space for the custom installation with most options. If you include all extras it is about 8GB. In order to work comfortably, it can be about 10GB depending on the databases you are considering. Herein, some sample databases are assumed. The installation process brings up the space requirements during installation. 

2. On a Network share. I could have set it up on the network share for my students, but I decided to give them a copy, if they wanted to play with it when not connected to the network.

3. If installation is on a virtual machine, an ISO would be suitable.

4. Mapped drive is another option.

5. On the Cloud: Cloud storage is yet another option. However, there may be cost in storage and data transfer involved. Latency is yet another factor to consider. Internet availability is most essential during the installation process.

The installation media folder can have any name of your choice. I usually accept the default name.

The SQL Server 2022 installation center's Option node is where you specify location of the media during installation.

I originally saved this media (SQL2022-SSEI-Dev.exe, 4191 KB) on my Download folder of the local drive.

On this blog (http://hodentekMSSS.blogspot.com), dedicated to SQL Servers you will find installation of SQL Server from SQL Server 2012 onwards. Even earlier ones are on my other blog, http://hodentek.blogspot.com

DeepSeek, How much tech is packed in?

  The emergence of DeepSeek AI, a powerful Chinese language model, has sent shockwaves through the US AI industry. Developed with a focus on cost-effectiveness, DeepSeek reportedly functions effectively on lower-end hardware, a stark contrast to US models heavily reliant on high-end chips like Nvidia's. This revelation triggered a significant sell-off in Nvidia stock, highlighting the potential disruption to the current AI landscape.   

https://site.financialmodelingprep.com/market-news/nasdaq-futures-plunge-amidst-concerns-over-deepseeks-impact-on-ai-chip-demand

Last night, I downloaded DeepSeek to take a peek and lo and behold, at first sight, looked as good as the Copilot, Gemini AI, and others I have come across.

Well, what does it lack?

 However, a notable limitation became apparent: DeepSeek lacks robust image generation capabilities. While it can provide code snippets (like Python with Kivy) to generate images, this approach is less user-friendly and may be hindered by the limitations of lower-end hardware in processing and rendering graphics. In contrast, US models excel in not only creating images but also seamlessly modifying them based on simple text prompts.   This is clearly beyond low-end chips.

This development necessitates a renewed focus on innovation and optimization within the US AI sector. US developers must prioritize improving model efficiency and exploring alternative hardware solutions to maintain a competitive edge. While DeepSeek presents a significant challenge, it also serves as a valuable catalyst for further advancements in AI technology.

Any other disquieting news?

DeepSeek did not do so well in "misguided attention evaluation" and performed answering only 22% prompts in 13 test questions. Here is a comparative test using others at the Github site ( https://github.com/cpldcpu/MisguidedAttention/tree/main/eval#readme):

Read more here: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/1hpjhm0/deepseek_v3_performs_surprisingly_bad_in/?rdt=52935

https://blog.heim.xyz/deepseek-what-the-headlines-miss/

Slowing down a GIF has merits

 

GIFs are very engaging and dynamic images and they can run at a speed set at the time of creation. Well, some GIFs may look way better when run at a slow speed. 

You can use Python code to slow down a GIF that is too fast for your liking. In the previous post, you learnt how to make a GIF from scratch using Python. In this post, you will use Python code to slow down a GIF. The post shows an example.

Here is a GIF that is somewhat fast. It is copied from a website. 

Now here is the Python code that you can use to slow it down. The code shown is copied from my PyCharm user interface. If you copy and paste make sure the indentation requirements are satisfied.

from PIL import Image, ImageSequence
# Open the original GIF gif_path = 'lawn-time-lapse.gif'
gif = Image.open(r'C:\Users\hoden\PycharmProjects\exploreImage\Images\lawn-time-lapse.gif')
# Create a list to hold the frames
frames = []
# Loop through each frame in the original GIF
for frame in ImageSequence.Iterator(gif):
# Append each frame to the list
    frames.append(frame.copy())
# Save the frames as a new GIF with a slower speed
frames[0].save('slowed_down_1_gif.gif', save_all=True, append_images=frames[1:], 

duration=200, loop=0)
print('Slowed down GIF saved as slowed_down_1_gif.gif')

The fast GIF is in the project folder in the path shown. The ImageSequence is the key. You get a sequence of images in the frame that you append to a list. Save the frames as a new GIF with a slower speed. Duration in PIL is absolute in milliseconds.

The code before the print saves the first frame(frames[0]) and it saves all the frames slowing down to a duration of 200 seconds and appends the rest of the frames starting from frame[1], the second frame in the sequence.

Here is the result of slowing down the original GIF.

Since we have a handle to the sequence, we can find the original frames and the original duration as well.

Do you know how to create a GIF?

   You have seen a GIF image and enjoyed it. But have you created one.? There are software programs to create GIFs and perhaps many online sites help creating GIFs.  Here is one for example, https://www.canva.com/create/gif-maker/. Animation akin to GIFS can also be created using javascript although there may not be resulting image with a .gif extension.

GIFs are like very small duration video clips but they are really a composite of many small images flipped rapidly, in-situ to create the illusion of motion. They are made to impress you by their motion.

Why GIFS?

Imagine bringing life to a still photo of a sunset by animating the clouds. An image may be worth a thousand words, but a GIF is worth a thousand images. It adds dynamic movement to static images, unleashing your creativity. If you're active on social media, GIFs are an invaluable tool for self-expression, offering endless possibilities. They bring humor, emotion, and laughter to any page, transforming a collection of static images into a vibrant and engaging experience. With GIFs, you can elevate your storytelling to new heights!"

Here is a simple GIF image copied from a web site  (display gif on web browser - Search):

Ins and outs of using Python to create GIFs:

GIF images have the .gif extension which stands for Graphics Interchange Format. 

In this post, I show you how to create from scratch a GIF using Python. Python uses a image library such as PIL to get the images into the program such as PyCharm. Once they are in the program, you need to use another library to do the flipping action. This library is called imageio, image input/output program. For GIFs this program takes in the images (a number of them) and then it customizes the duration each image is shown; whether the gif repeats itself and how many times it does, etc. Note: if you are new to PyCharm, read up my other Python/Image related posts in this blog, http://hodentekhelp.blogpost.com.

The program presented here also goes through the indexing of the images (as there are many images) which necessitate calling yet another useful library called NumPy. The imageio program cannot accept a image list, but a Numpy list and hence the use of the NumPy library.

In order to create a gif file in a python program, you need the following:

1. A set of images. 

2. Importing libraries PIL, ImageIO and Numpy.

Here is are some five image files I am using in the program:

These are not the best, but enough for the purpose.

Here is the python program that creates a GIF image taking in the images shown here:

----------------------------

BirdsGIF.py

-----------------

# Import libraries used to create a GIF image

import imageio

import numpy as np

from PIL import Image

from PIL.ImageFile import ImageFile

# Load images

image1: ImageFile = Image.open(r'C:\Users\hoden\PycharmProjects\exploreImage\Images_3\Bird1.jpg')

image2 = Image.open(r'C:\Users\hoden\PycharmProjects\exploreImage\Images_3\Bird2.jpg')

image3 = Image.open(r'C:\Users\hoden\PycharmProjects\exploreImage\Images_3\Bird3.jpg')

image4 = Image.open(r'C:\Users\hoden\PycharmProjects\exploreImage\Images_3\Bird4.jpg')

image5 = Image.open(r'C:\Users\hoden\PycharmProjects\exploreImage\Images_3\Bird5.jpg')

# Resize images (optional)

image1 = image1.resize((200, 200))

image2 = image2.resize((200, 200))

image3 = image3.resize((200,200))

image4 = image4.resize((200,200))

image5 = image5.resize((200,200))

# Create list of images

images = [image1, image2, image3, image4, image5]

# Convert PIL image  list to NumPy arrays

images = [np.array(img) for img in images]

# Create the GIF using the image list

imageio.mimsave('my_animation.gif', images, duration=2000.0, loop=5)

----------------------

The above program creates a image file with .gif extension and images show for 2000 milliseconds and the GIF image runs five times in succession. If you have time elapsed stills of any event you can easily turn it into an amazingly dynamic image.

That is all there is to creating a GIF. If your images are made with care and are of good quality you can indeed create a good GIF.

The GIf file created, my_animation.gif can be seen in Photo app on your windows computer device, however you can just drag and drop the image on a browser should also work.

Mahalo for staying with me. 

p.s: For these holidays, you can create your greeting card with a GIF. Try it!