In case you actually follow this blog, just a note that I’ve pretty much consolidated my entire online presence to Google Buzz. Posts on this blog will be fed into my Buzz, and anything I tweet will also hit Buzz first. Some thoughts and links, additionally, will only live on Buzz.
Opticrop is a PHP script I wrote to crop a thumbnail of a specific width and height from a full-sized image.
Unlike most cropping routines out there, Opticrop uses edge-detection to find the most “interesting” part of the image to crop, so you won’t get a useless thumbnail just because the top-left corner of your image happened to be a big patch of featureless sky. This post is a big-picture discussion of my method. If you just want the script, see the post on Opticrop’s usage and implementation. (more…)
Opticrop is a PHP script I wrote to crop a thumbnail of a specific width and height from a full-sized image.
Unlike most cropping routines out there, Opticrop uses edge-detection to find the most “interesting” part of the image to crop, so you won’t get a useless thumbnail just because the top-left corner of your image happened to be a big patch of featureless sky. This post is an overview of usage and implementation. For a more general discussion, see my post on the methods behind the script. Also check out the live demo of Opticrop, with a slick jQuery interface. (more…)
Get a whole fish, cleaned of guts and scales. A 1ft rainbow trout is good. Cut slits into it every inch or so along both sides, and place into a shallow bowl. Finely chop about 2 tbsp scallions and 1 tbsp ginger, and sprinkle this under, over, and inside the fish. Drizzle soy sauce over fish (about 1 tbsp). Place entire bowl with fish in it in a wok 1/3 filled with water. Cover with a lid, and place on high heat. Steam for 15 min. Remove bowl, wipe the bottom dry, and eat.
After a bout of reminiscing about the homeland tonight, I decided to make a soup I recently learned from my mom. Here’s the recipe, along with a recipe for an accoutrement, garlic cucumber salad, and an important condiment, chili oil.
This recipe, which makes roughly 2 servings, is a variation on the classic Chinese egg drop soup. Adding tomatoes, black rice vinegar, and chili oil augments the savory, light taste with a tangy spicy kick, a flavor profile typical in Northern Chinese cooking.
The key to this recipe is the combination of traditional Chinese ingredients, so it’s to your benefit to get ahold of as many of these as you can. In a pinch, though, it’s possible to do this soup with a few Western substitutions. Some ingredients are more crucial than others, and I’ll point out the essential ones below. (more…)