This page contains information on my hobbies and interests. You can find info on these topics: digital photography , chess , astronomy , home theater , smart home , and ray tracing . Digital Photography My latest hobby is taking pictures with my new digital camera. I recently bought the new Canon Powershot G1. Its a great camera and I've been having lots of fun with it. You can view some of my recent photos in my vacation photos . I don't claim to be any good, but I've been doing some reading to improve my skills. Its lots of fun because you get to see the results immediately without having to develop film. Canon Powershot G1 The product page for my new digital camera. Digital Photography Review The BEST site for digital camera reviews and information. Chess I've also been trying to learn to play chess again. Lately, I've been playing against people on the Internet but I always lose. Needless to say, I'm not very good yet. I bought some books to help out with that too. Free Chess Server This is an Internet chess server. What is that? Well, it lets you log on and play chess against other people. Its lots of fun and its for FREE. Astronomy For some reason, I have this fascination with the night skies. I like to look up and realize that the stars I'm looking at are the sames stars that people thousands of years ago were looking at. Here are some interesting links: Sky and Telescope Great magazine with interesting articles and resources. Meade Telescope I've been looking at the Meade ETX 90/EC telescope lately. Not sure if I'm going to buy it or not yet. Home Theater I love watching movies so it doesn't take much to figure that I'd be into home theater equipment. I bought my Sony DVP-S7000 when they first came out and I love it. The DVD player is great, but you definitely need an Dolby Digital (AC-3) decoder for the remarkable sound. I bought myself a B&K Preamp and a Carver 5 channel amplifier. The system sounds great. Here are some interesting links: B&K Components B&K produces (relatively) inexpensive high quality audio components. Of course, The 26th Floor has been wired for full Dolby Digital Surround sound. The preamp is from the B&K collection as you might have guessed. Sony Corporation What can I say? Sony electronics are scattered throughout The 26th Floor. Everything from digital spread spectrum cordless phones to the high end DVP-7000 DVD player. Smart Home Technology My friend recently got me into X-10 technology and equipment. X-10 allows you to control lights and appliances via remote control. My entire apartment has been outfitted with X-10 allowing me to control all my lights and appliances with one RF (radio freq) remote control. Here are some interesting links: SmartHome I've purchased some X-10 equipment from here. They also have some useful information for newbees. X-10 I've also purchased stuff from these folks too. Ray Tracing Computer graphics have always fascinated me. Ray tracing allows anyone to create stunning computer graphics with relative ease. I would suggest using the POV-Ray. Its free software. Here are some interesting links: POV Ray The ray tracing utility that I used to create the images in my gallery. This is by far the most powerful free ray tracing utility on the Internet. Moray The modeling utility that I used to create some of the images in my gallery. This is also one of the best modellers on the Internet. It integrates very nicely with POV Ray. Internet Ray Tracing Competition This is a great site. It offers lots of computer generated images created by people around the world. My Gallery Here you'll find a few images that I created. Feel free to contact me with any questions and/or comments at pete-web@kazmier.com.