<p>A question was asked on a dgrin <a href="http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=95977">thread</a> about whether the <a href="http://www.smugmug.com/">SmugMug</a> API supported building a tag cloud – it doesn’t. A responder suggested it would take far too long to generate one from the API since you’d have to trawl through every photo. This is indeed true, but you don’t have to do it serially. I consider the <a…

<p>Sunday found yet another day blanketed under clouds but the budding naturalists ventured to the <a href="http://www.thelercenter.org/wetlands/index2.php">Theler Wetlands</a> despite the gloomy weather. The wetlands promised some outstanding birding, a chance for our daughter to run around and some photo opportunities for me among its 75 acres of trails and wildlife.</p>

<p>We went <a href="/2008/06/04/low-tides-starfish-and-nudibranch/">back</a> today to the beach, no rain, more people. Nonetheless, we saw more creatures and captured the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoduck">geoducks</a> spouting forth on film.</p>

<p>Growing up in the Midwest my experience with big bodies of water is mainly with the Great Lakes; the continual change in the tides of Puget Sound being one of the many differences from our former environment. This week we’re fortunate enough to experience the lowest tides in 50 years according to some reports, exposing sea-life usually covered in several feet of water.</p>

<p>We accepted <a href="http://www.islandwood.org/">IslandWood’s</a> invitation today for a bird walk, our first foray into proper birding with a guide, binoculars, book and camera. Actually arriving on-time for the 8 am start was accomplishment enough; had we not seen a bird at least the get-everyone-ready time trial resulted in victory.</p>

<p>Our land – one of the primary reasons we moved – slowly creeps towards summer.</p>

<p>The video and transcript of an interview I gave at <a href="http://qcon.infoq.com/sanfrancisco-2007/speaker/Brian+Zimmer">QCon 2007</a> are now <a href="http://www.infoq.com/interviews/Architecture-Brian-Zimmer">available</a>.</p>

<p>There’s been a lot of talk about the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7312358.stm">demise</a> of the honey bee, but we’re fortunate to have a swarming yard.</p>

<p>We had the good fortune this weekend to see a number of birds of prey, including quite a few Bald Eagle sightings. There is something inspiring about seeing a Bald Eagle launch from its perch and soar over-head.</p>

<p>I decided tonight was the night to try <a href="http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.6/">Python2.6a3</a> on my macbook pro with a goal of getting <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pysmug/">pysmug</a> to run on it.</p>