Trona pinnacles, in the Mohave desert, not far from the death valley. Hundreds of tufa (calcium carbonate) pinnacles rising from the bed a dry lake:

If that looks familiar, it maybe because many movies were shot on the site, including the latest planet of the Apes:

The place was really desert, no monkeys, nobody. It is true the road that leads to the pinnacles is a pretty long unpaved road that can be a little to rough at some places even with an SUV. There are actually a lot of dirt roads and Jeep trails around the Pinnacles, a good occasion to test my SUV.
I kind of scared myself twice though, the first time when I was very close to get stuck in the sand but I finally managed to exit in reverse and another time where I under-estimated the angle of a trail going on a pinnacle slope, I really thought I was going to rollover... Anyways I am still alive but I kind of regret now my SUV is not a four-wheel drive but only a two-wheel drive.

I added as usual a few pictures to the photo album and a 360° view of the pinnacles.

A very cool software to make quicktime panorama files (QTVR): www.panoramafactory.com.
There is a shareware version that will work for 30 days on their website. It has all the features but it will add a watermark on your stuff until you buy it which I think I am going to do. I have made a quick test using with 16 pictures of my living-room. This thing is amazingly efficient, just take the pictures and it does the rest. Here is the result: (if you are not familiar with this kind of stuff, click on the picture and move your mouse at the same time)

You can also had "hotspots". Move the mouse on the TV or the fridge, it should write TV and fridge on the status bar...
It is supposely much more difficult to make a good panorama indoors than outdoors, actually the closer what you take a picture of is, the more difficult it is. But still, this one does not look bad and i did not even use a tripod. Can't wait this week-end, gonna try to make some of desert or mountain landscapes.

Another usefull site about QTVR: www.outsidethelines.com
the only problem with quicktime is I really wonder what is Apple waiting for to make a linux version of Quicktime??

The search engines world has a new baby: www.a9.com, a search engine from amazon.
The interface is barebone like google. IMO not as nice.
More importantly, it has already referenced my website:-))))

It is number one when searching for "windal", "mkthumb", "rattlesnake sycamore canyon", "snmp l2tp freebsd" (my resume), "Seb blog los angeles", number 3 for "snmp l2tp linux", number 2 for "sycamore canyon riverside", etc...
Not bad: A9.com, you just passed your entry exam ;-)

I got that thing for my birthday recently. (Thanks Caroline BTW). The problem, as usual, 10 seconds after I unwrapped it, I started by destroying it and removing the pieces without paying attention. Breaking things, I like that ;-).
I have been trying to put it back the way it was for one week, one or two hours a day, but I can't do it :-( That is really starting to piss me off. I can make a Rubik's cube in 2 minutes but that no! It had no instructions. That is killing me!!! My mental health is getting worse ;-)

How come the small dark pieces can fit into this big thing??? If you know the solution or a website specialized into that kind of things, a link would be appreciated.
I am gonna try again before going to sleep tonight. I am so happy I have to go to work during the day to take a break from this ;-)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAh!! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo, heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!!!! Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!! Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! What the f...?!? Fu...ng bulls...t, no f.....g way!!!

It is about how I fell these days when I stop to refuel my car ;-)... $2.28 a gallon for regular, this is getting too much. I remember in late 2001, early 2002, I once stopped at a gas station near Atlanta, Georgia where gas was $0.79 a gallon. Ah melancholy.....
And why is California so much more expensive than everyone else? I can understand it is more expensive than Georgia or Texas but not than the north-East, California formulas are NOT cleaner and not more expensive than in the North-East. What's wrong with California??

Hi, my name is California, I am very proud I am the 5th economy in the world, I am only half bankrupted, I am not able to produce enough electricity, I don't have enough gas refineries, I am by far the most polluted state in the US, I don't have a single freeway in proper condition and I still manage to tax people a lot! But wait, a big Hollywood star is my governor now, things will improve for sure. Anyways it does not matter cos I am very hot and I have big boobs hihihi;-)...

Grrrrrrrr.
It feels good to rumble a little :-)!