Wow... what an amazing evening. Rob and I turned up about 6.30pm to set up his laptop, the projector and have a look around. After a lot of trouble we finally managed to get the setup going and at 9pm half of the venue was still not ready... not good when people are starting to file in.
I have no idea quite how it happened, but the few of us there (others had gone to get changed) managed to pull it all together and the DJ got things going pretty quickly.
The evening was absolutely great, the room we were working in (the Lighthouse in the basement) won the award for best venue... those 5,000 glowsticks did the trick then!
Rob and I got some pretty cool shots, although I still haven't yet got my files as they're on his laptop. I get the impression that they will all be pretty soft, out of focus and blurry, but it doesn't matter too much -- they all looked amazing on the projector, which is what they were for.
Good job I had that little 50mm f/1.8 prime with me -- shooting without flash at 1/50th of a second in a club is impressive, to say the least.
The shots are all green, blue, red or orange -- every one has a specific RGB channel totally blown-out, but still they look cool.
I think I'll get over how cool everything was in a couple of days...
Sunday, 29 January 2006
Thursday, 26 January 2006
Pangaea
The student union is having its big end of exams party on Saturday. The name is Pangaea... I have no idea what the significance of a super continent is supposed to mean... maybe that it's a big party?
Anyway. I've got some special VIP tickets, or something, along with Rob. We're going as "official photographers" for one of the rooms (I think it might be a VIP area). The details are still a bit light (I need to find out some more soon!) but this room seems to have pole dancers (yes, good!), lots of lasers, smoke, etc. None of these seem ideal for photography: pole dancers don't help with concentration; lasers might play buggery with light meters; and smoke... well, I have no idea how well flash will work with that! Makes me wonder... if there is smoke do I need to be doing anything special to protect my lenses? I don't have a UV filter for the little prime... might be an idea (even if it increases flare).
The official period is 9pm-4am on Saturday, but Rob and I have to be there from around 6pm-ish. No idea why. We'll need a bit of time to figure out how best to shoot in the environment... I'm hoping my spot metering will come into its own!
Otherwise... I don't know a great deal. Could be good fun, or it could be hell. I'll know whether or not to volunteer next time ;)
Anyway. I've got some special VIP tickets, or something, along with Rob. We're going as "official photographers" for one of the rooms (I think it might be a VIP area). The details are still a bit light (I need to find out some more soon!) but this room seems to have pole dancers (yes, good!), lots of lasers, smoke, etc. None of these seem ideal for photography: pole dancers don't help with concentration; lasers might play buggery with light meters; and smoke... well, I have no idea how well flash will work with that! Makes me wonder... if there is smoke do I need to be doing anything special to protect my lenses? I don't have a UV filter for the little prime... might be an idea (even if it increases flare).
The official period is 9pm-4am on Saturday, but Rob and I have to be there from around 6pm-ish. No idea why. We'll need a bit of time to figure out how best to shoot in the environment... I'm hoping my spot metering will come into its own!
Otherwise... I don't know a great deal. Could be good fun, or it could be hell. I'll know whether or not to volunteer next time ;)
Wednesday, 25 January 2006
Bad time to buy lenses
I was looking in awe at some of the amazing lenses you can buy... and more importantly the amazing amounts of money you can expect to part with!
But since the announcement that Nikon will be discontinuing all but the latest film body... isn't now a spectacularly bad time to be buying the likes of the 17-35 f/2.8 AF-S and other high-end lenses? I'm talking about the full-size 35mm lenses.
Give it a year and they'll come out with brand new versions, that weight half as much, are half the size and focus faster.
That is, unless a D3 comes out with a full-frame sensor.
But since the announcement that Nikon will be discontinuing all but the latest film body... isn't now a spectacularly bad time to be buying the likes of the 17-35 f/2.8 AF-S and other high-end lenses? I'm talking about the full-size 35mm lenses.
Give it a year and they'll come out with brand new versions, that weight half as much, are half the size and focus faster.
That is, unless a D3 comes out with a full-frame sensor.
Tuesday, 24 January 2006
Goooooooooood morning Manchester!
This is not a test!
It seems my readership may have increased to the rather whopping count of four people, yes, you heard it right, four people!
It seems my readership may have increased to the rather whopping count of four people, yes, you heard it right, four people!
Spy rock
This whole British "spy rock" that's been in the news recently is pretty amusing. Quotes such as: "Any gadget that can swap data wirelessly would be able to work with the rock", "those who allegedly stole the confidential information walked close to the rock" and "the FSB has accused British agents of storing and exchanging classified information using a fake rock on a Russian street" can be readily found on the BBC News website.
Genius.
Next thing we know and it will turn out that Roger the Whale was a spy device sent by the Jamaicans. They couldn't afford "advanced" Japanese technology as used in the British rock (i.e. a Linksys WRT54G wireless router and car battery covered up with a bit of papier mache) so they sent a whale, including a precautionary self-destruct system, should the British public decide to rescue it. Bit of a shame it didn't splurge whale blubber all over Piccadilly Square. That'd've given them something to talk about and then the story could move away from Penguin's Batman Returns and head straight into Ghostbusters!
Genius.
Next thing we know and it will turn out that Roger the Whale was a spy device sent by the Jamaicans. They couldn't afford "advanced" Japanese technology as used in the British rock (i.e. a Linksys WRT54G wireless router and car battery covered up with a bit of papier mache) so they sent a whale, including a precautionary self-destruct system, should the British public decide to rescue it. Bit of a shame it didn't splurge whale blubber all over Piccadilly Square. That'd've given them something to talk about and then the story could move away from Penguin's Batman Returns and head straight into Ghostbusters!
The Quest for the Holy Grail*
If only buying a camera bag in England was as easy as buying a cheap cotton satchel bag in Dali.
I've been wandering around three camera shops now -- the London Camera Exchange (where each time I go, hopefully look at the Crumpler bags, only to walk out disappointed), Jessops and Jacobs (who have a surprisingly good stock and very helpful staff). It's probably been a good month, maybe two, since realising that a new bag is in order, but only now have I decided to really give it some thought.
As ever, my requirements are very specific: must be able to hold a D-SLR with lens attached, a couple more lenses and the OM-10, which also has a lens. I don't really have anywhere near enough to fill these requirements, but camera bags are not cheap, and I don't want to be scrapping it to buy another later. Oh, it needs to be able to holy my laptop too... it's not big (in fact it's tiny), but it does make finding suitable candidates difficult.
I've got this really cheap shoulder-bag I bought in China now... it just about does the job, but the compartment bits are really crap and I managed to 'ding' my brand new 50mm prime about five days after I received it for Christmas -- it's a superficial 'ding', but very annoying nonetheless.
I've got travelling in my mind now, so the bag I pick must be suitable for trekking around Asia, Africa, Europe and the States, as well as wandering around Manchester on my tod ;) It seemed to me the only solution was to buy a rucksack type bag with compartment for laptop, about a million bodies with 800mm f/1.0 primes attache and so on, as well as flash guns, portable studios and all that gubbins. Cool, definitely (so long as nobody finds out you've only got 10% of the space utilised ;), but very impractical. Domke is a bag company (named after some guy who made his own bag) that are highly regarded for making bags that are easy to work from -- i.e. that require little effort for getting access to, for switching lenses, filters, etc. But I honstly don't think these are suited to backpack photography, nor are the Billington bags.
Once I managed to rule out the rucksacks (good luck changing lenses with one of those), I began to consider these fangled new waistbags... some of them are massive. What caught my eye was the Lowepro Orion AW -- a wastbag with built-in rucksack. Brilliant for trekking, I'm sure. But the rucksack was a bit small and flimsy. I'm actually not keen on the waist straps either and while you could mostly tuck this away, the shoulder strap was pretty thin too. Nice concept, but bad end result.
Just to explain it works in such a way that the rucksack is on your back at all times (unless you left it at your guesthouse) and the waistbag sits below; to the casual observer it looks like a large rucksack. But you can obviously spin the waistbag around and get access from your side or front (just like a shoulder bag), which makes it very easy to work from.
A bit more time and I began to realise that the waistbags were a bit limiting, the range to small, and no space to slip a laptop. Enter the shoulder bag!
What I didn't realise is that the many different shoulder bags Lowepro make are really excellent. The price is good (but not quite right and it never will be), they look strong and have plenty of space and come with really good, thick padded shoulder straps. Great, but as I discovered on my travels, not always very handy when you need to travel. But... (and this is the work of pure genius) Lowepro provide extra waiststraps for their shoulder bags! Yes! That makes it all perfect. The shoulder strap can be tucked away and the back can be secured around the waist (and twizzled for quick access, just like the waistbags). This means it will work with any old small-medium sized rucksack (a lot cheaper than the packs from Lowepro ;) with all the benefits they bring.
So now my plan is to pick up either a Nova 5 AW or a Stealth Reporter 400 AW. Both are from Lowepro and come with space for at least two SLR bodies (one digital and one film, for me) and loads of space for lenses, filters, CF cards, film, notebooks, cash, and all the other stuff. The AW stands for All Weather -- they include an easy-to-use waterproof cover for extreme conditions (they are already water-resistant and capable of withstanding rain, snow, sand, etc.). And they both sport a big at the back for a waistbelt to pass through.
So I'm happy that if/when I get one of these bags (assuming I can fit my laptop in, which judging by the measurements, I should be able to) I'll be able to upgrade my shoulderbag to a full photography trekking kit by simply buying a strap and another small rucksack.
One thing I learned from my last trip... if you can carry a pair of jeans, three or four t-shirts, two pairs of shorts, a jumper and a light raincoat... you have all you need. Next time I go travelling, I'll be travelling with light clothes!
I've been wandering around three camera shops now -- the London Camera Exchange (where each time I go, hopefully look at the Crumpler bags, only to walk out disappointed), Jessops and Jacobs (who have a surprisingly good stock and very helpful staff). It's probably been a good month, maybe two, since realising that a new bag is in order, but only now have I decided to really give it some thought.
As ever, my requirements are very specific: must be able to hold a D-SLR with lens attached, a couple more lenses and the OM-10, which also has a lens. I don't really have anywhere near enough to fill these requirements, but camera bags are not cheap, and I don't want to be scrapping it to buy another later. Oh, it needs to be able to holy my laptop too... it's not big (in fact it's tiny), but it does make finding suitable candidates difficult.
I've got this really cheap shoulder-bag I bought in China now... it just about does the job, but the compartment bits are really crap and I managed to 'ding' my brand new 50mm prime about five days after I received it for Christmas -- it's a superficial 'ding', but very annoying nonetheless.
I've got travelling in my mind now, so the bag I pick must be suitable for trekking around Asia, Africa, Europe and the States, as well as wandering around Manchester on my tod ;) It seemed to me the only solution was to buy a rucksack type bag with compartment for laptop, about a million bodies with 800mm f/1.0 primes attache and so on, as well as flash guns, portable studios and all that gubbins. Cool, definitely (so long as nobody finds out you've only got 10% of the space utilised ;), but very impractical. Domke is a bag company (named after some guy who made his own bag) that are highly regarded for making bags that are easy to work from -- i.e. that require little effort for getting access to, for switching lenses, filters, etc. But I honstly don't think these are suited to backpack photography, nor are the Billington bags.
Once I managed to rule out the rucksacks (good luck changing lenses with one of those), I began to consider these fangled new waistbags... some of them are massive. What caught my eye was the Lowepro Orion AW -- a wastbag with built-in rucksack. Brilliant for trekking, I'm sure. But the rucksack was a bit small and flimsy. I'm actually not keen on the waist straps either and while you could mostly tuck this away, the shoulder strap was pretty thin too. Nice concept, but bad end result.
Just to explain it works in such a way that the rucksack is on your back at all times (unless you left it at your guesthouse) and the waistbag sits below; to the casual observer it looks like a large rucksack. But you can obviously spin the waistbag around and get access from your side or front (just like a shoulder bag), which makes it very easy to work from.
A bit more time and I began to realise that the waistbags were a bit limiting, the range to small, and no space to slip a laptop. Enter the shoulder bag!
What I didn't realise is that the many different shoulder bags Lowepro make are really excellent. The price is good (but not quite right and it never will be), they look strong and have plenty of space and come with really good, thick padded shoulder straps. Great, but as I discovered on my travels, not always very handy when you need to travel. But... (and this is the work of pure genius) Lowepro provide extra waiststraps for their shoulder bags! Yes! That makes it all perfect. The shoulder strap can be tucked away and the back can be secured around the waist (and twizzled for quick access, just like the waistbags). This means it will work with any old small-medium sized rucksack (a lot cheaper than the packs from Lowepro ;) with all the benefits they bring.
So now my plan is to pick up either a Nova 5 AW or a Stealth Reporter 400 AW. Both are from Lowepro and come with space for at least two SLR bodies (one digital and one film, for me) and loads of space for lenses, filters, CF cards, film, notebooks, cash, and all the other stuff. The AW stands for All Weather -- they include an easy-to-use waterproof cover for extreme conditions (they are already water-resistant and capable of withstanding rain, snow, sand, etc.). And they both sport a big at the back for a waistbelt to pass through.
So I'm happy that if/when I get one of these bags (assuming I can fit my laptop in, which judging by the measurements, I should be able to) I'll be able to upgrade my shoulderbag to a full photography trekking kit by simply buying a strap and another small rucksack.
One thing I learned from my last trip... if you can carry a pair of jeans, three or four t-shirts, two pairs of shorts, a jumper and a light raincoat... you have all you need. Next time I go travelling, I'll be travelling with light clothes!
Sunday, 22 January 2006
Multi-spot metering
Spot-metering is dead! Long live multi-spot metering!
Okay, this is wrong on two counts; 1) I've already used this phrase today; and 2) I've never used multi-spot metering.
I've used spot-metering though, and it works pretty well. I've been researching the OM-2S (which features spot-metering) and the OM-4 (which features multi-spot).
Basically multi-spot allows you to select n different light meter readings that the camera then averages out and makes a perfect exposure.
I have no idea how this works but judging from some of the very informed posts on forums, websites, etc. as well as people who clearly have no idea what they're doing, I assume it must be good as both end up with "perfect" results.
How can that be?
No idea, but I want to find out. Maybe multi-spot is the one true path to perfect exposuredom? Maybe not. But there's only one way to find out.
Annoyingly it seems that none of the Nikon D-SLRs support multi-spot. Well, that sucks. Gleefully I discover that the Canon low-end 350D and mid-range 20D don't even do single spot metering (hah!), while the super-high-end 1D does multi-spot (and presumably single-spot too). Come on Nikon... let's see some multi-spot in the D3x and next low-end DSLR! If not, maybe I've sided with the wrong Giant?
Okay, this is wrong on two counts; 1) I've already used this phrase today; and 2) I've never used multi-spot metering.
I've used spot-metering though, and it works pretty well. I've been researching the OM-2S (which features spot-metering) and the OM-4 (which features multi-spot).
Basically multi-spot allows you to select n different light meter readings that the camera then averages out and makes a perfect exposure.
I have no idea how this works but judging from some of the very informed posts on forums, websites, etc. as well as people who clearly have no idea what they're doing, I assume it must be good as both end up with "perfect" results.
How can that be?
No idea, but I want to find out. Maybe multi-spot is the one true path to perfect exposuredom? Maybe not. But there's only one way to find out.
Annoyingly it seems that none of the Nikon D-SLRs support multi-spot. Well, that sucks. Gleefully I discover that the Canon low-end 350D and mid-range 20D don't even do single spot metering (hah!), while the super-high-end 1D does multi-spot (and presumably single-spot too). Come on Nikon... let's see some multi-spot in the D3x and next low-end DSLR! If not, maybe I've sided with the wrong Giant?
Saturday, 21 January 2006
Nexenta
I don't know how I overlooked the Nexenta release announcements plastered all over opensolaris.org at the release time, but now I've finally had a look I'm seriously impressed.
The current Nexenta alpha release could do for Desktop Solaris what I believe Ubuntu has done for Desktop Linux.
I've been using Ubuntu for probably around a year now, running the development version most of the time. It is constantly getting better, although lately I have been a little put off by some of the changes in terms of reduced or forced options. This is the GNOME way and some I have been happy to accept but others, such as the recent gnome-screensaver fiasco, whereby all screensaver options and power management settings have been removed, are a little odd.
But the best thing about Ubuntu is the community that supports it, the fast-paced development and the cutting-edge (most of the time) packages.
Nexenta aims to build a community in a similar fashion, and Ubuntu is the definite influence. Nexenta is essentially the recently open-sourced Solaris kernel (OpenSolaris) plus many of the community related addons (e.g. drivers, etc.) wrapped up with apt-get from the Debian project. apt-get is a powerful package management system (the very same used by Ubuntu) that handles dependencies, etc. The main userland tools are from the GNU project and GNOME and Firefox are used as the primary desktop environment.
I can't say what it's like yet but the screenshots and feature list look highly promising. After spending quite some time installing Solaris Express, upgrading the kernel to OpenSolaris and attempting to build GNOME 2.12 from sources I think installing Nexenta is a quick and easy solution. Admittedly, the process I've been on has been no problem thanks to the great documentation at opensolaris.org; rather the lack of Internet connection on my desktop machine has slowed me down -- a trip to Manchester Computing each time I forgot to download a file or release notes.
This should do very nicely and provide me a suitable way to learn a bit more about Solaris, while still enjoying the great world of GNOME :)
The current Nexenta alpha release could do for Desktop Solaris what I believe Ubuntu has done for Desktop Linux.
I've been using Ubuntu for probably around a year now, running the development version most of the time. It is constantly getting better, although lately I have been a little put off by some of the changes in terms of reduced or forced options. This is the GNOME way and some I have been happy to accept but others, such as the recent gnome-screensaver fiasco, whereby all screensaver options and power management settings have been removed, are a little odd.
But the best thing about Ubuntu is the community that supports it, the fast-paced development and the cutting-edge (most of the time) packages.
Nexenta aims to build a community in a similar fashion, and Ubuntu is the definite influence. Nexenta is essentially the recently open-sourced Solaris kernel (OpenSolaris) plus many of the community related addons (e.g. drivers, etc.) wrapped up with apt-get from the Debian project. apt-get is a powerful package management system (the very same used by Ubuntu) that handles dependencies, etc. The main userland tools are from the GNU project and GNOME and Firefox are used as the primary desktop environment.
I can't say what it's like yet but the screenshots and feature list look highly promising. After spending quite some time installing Solaris Express, upgrading the kernel to OpenSolaris and attempting to build GNOME 2.12 from sources I think installing Nexenta is a quick and easy solution. Admittedly, the process I've been on has been no problem thanks to the great documentation at opensolaris.org; rather the lack of Internet connection on my desktop machine has slowed me down -- a trip to Manchester Computing each time I forgot to download a file or release notes.
This should do very nicely and provide me a suitable way to learn a bit more about Solaris, while still enjoying the great world of GNOME :)
Fears subside
Vlad's take on the curious whale fiasco:
"They should just shoot the bugger and sell him to the sushi places."
"They should just shoot the bugger and sell him to the sushi places."
Fears for health of Thames whale
I just have a quick browse of the BBC News website only to discover this rather disturbing news headline.
"Fears for health of Thames whale".
"Fears for health"... yes. "Thames," okay. "Whale"... wtf!?
So, anyway. It turns out that a whale has somehow decided to visit the Queen and got stuck on the way back. Way to go, Mr. Whale!
"Fears for health of Thames whale".
"Fears for health"... yes. "Thames," okay. "Whale"... wtf!?
So, anyway. It turns out that a whale has somehow decided to visit the Queen and got stuck on the way back. Way to go, Mr. Whale!
Have an Epiphany... without ads
I've been using the Epiphany web browser recently, which is the supposed default GNOME browser. It's a lot like Firefox in many ways as it uses the same rendering agent, looks fairly similar and so on.
However, it's lacking in a few areas that make it not quite ready for prime time. That said, epiphany-extensions now includes AdBlock, which brings it a great deal closer to Firefox.
It's far faster, uses less memory and doesn't crash as much. It's a nice browser on the whole... but I think I'll be switching back to Firefox as soon as the Ubuntu packages get fixed. I'll keep my eye on Epiphany, though, as there is a lot of promise!
However, it's lacking in a few areas that make it not quite ready for prime time. That said, epiphany-extensions now includes AdBlock, which brings it a great deal closer to Firefox.
It's far faster, uses less memory and doesn't crash as much. It's a nice browser on the whole... but I think I'll be switching back to Firefox as soon as the Ubuntu packages get fixed. I'll keep my eye on Epiphany, though, as there is a lot of promise!
TrekEarth front page!
I guess I was a bit of a TrekEarth celebrity for a very short while today... I just happened to load the TrekEarth front page and what should I see but my very own "Luang namu tha" photo!
Brilliant. I'm really happy about that. I suppose it can't be the first time one of my shots has appeared on the front page. I have a few that have been marked as favourites (the little green star) and some of the locations I've visited have been pretty obscure... but to see my very own photo in the prime spot felt great ;)
I should note that the photo they used now has a score of 48 (a pretty high score, although occasionally shots reach 100 and upwards!) and has been my highest rated (and most favourited ;) photo since I added it.
Brilliant. I'm really happy about that. I suppose it can't be the first time one of my shots has appeared on the front page. I have a few that have been marked as favourites (the little green star) and some of the locations I've visited have been pretty obscure... but to see my very own photo in the prime spot felt great ;)I should note that the photo they used now has a score of 48 (a pretty high score, although occasionally shots reach 100 and upwards!) and has been my highest rated (and most favourited ;) photo since I added it.
The beginning of the end
This is a photo I took in Manchester. There was a charity abseil and I just happened across it. I'm pretty happy with this one; lots of diagonal lines, nice contrast between the ropes and the wall and the cool person silhouette. I wish I could visualise these shots before I take them, it'd make things a lot easier.
It won't happen soon though, Ansel Adams was pretty amazing before he decided that he knew what his prints would look like before he made an exposure. There's some way for me to go yet ;)
Exams (almost) over!
Woohoo! Today was the last computer science exam for this January. The last four days (one exam each day) have been really hard and tiring and I'm immensely glad to be able to chill out for a day or two before starting work on my business exam, which is on Thursday. Unfortunately, I know very little about that and I know it will be hard work.
I'm literally itching to get out and take some photos. It's been ages since I last picked my camera up and it feels wrong in every way. Depending on how early I get up tomorrow (hey, I'm allowed a lie-in on a Saturday morning!) I'll spend some time around Manchester. There are a few "new" places I've seen that I'd quite like to have a go at. Also, the light has been brilliant these last two days, both in quality and quantity -- a very Good Thing(TM).
I've been getting on well with TrekEarth for the past few days too. Despite the fact I've had exams and been doing revision, I've managed to find a little time each day to nip on over to Manchester Computing and upload a new shot. I've totalled quite a few in the last week or two.
I'm currently doing a series on Tiananmen Square; it includes shots of the different characters that can be found. I've also had quite a bit of success with my other shots. I'm actually really proud of my latest postings (more so than some of my earlier ones, although I'm not convinced that these are "better" shots... definitely better post-processed and cropped). If you've got some time head over to http://www.trekearth.com/members/lewiz/photos and view a few of the more recent ones at full size. Let me know what you think too :)
I've come up with a new way of becoming a better photographer. I don't know how well it works but in theory it seems sound (at least to me). It basically involves using a crop tool in your image editor. I've been going through my summer shots and coupled with some heavy use of the crop tool (don't limit yourself to the original aspect ratio, either) I've eked out usable shots from badly composed frames. So... the originals weren't brilliant but with some ruthless cropping I've got photos I'm happy to show people. I think if I were to give advice to anybody it would be to do what I'm doing. The benefits are twofold: you get useful shots to show people from existing "poor" photos, but, more importantly, you learn more about composition and how you should have done it in the first place. In a way it is just a form of self-critique, I suppose, but it feels a lot more constructive than saying "well, I could have done x, y, or z" (where those variables are all a bit vague and you can only see them in your head, not for real). I'll let you know if it works later on (i.e. if I stop cropping so much away).
This evening I fixed a big problem at CompSoc. User accounts (usernames, passwords, details, etc.) are stored in an LDAP database, which is replicated across two machines. Connections are encrypted via SSL (like secure online banking pages). Unfortunately the master server was not playing nice and hadn't been since January 6. I only realised this today when I really started to investigate the problem. In the end it turned out that the SSL certificate (that allows a client to verify the authenticity of the server) had expired some weeks earlier. The fix was quick, of course. It was interesting just how well the replication worked though -- the secondary server handled the load so well that hardly anybody noticed anything was wrong (including myself and I know the ins and outs of our servers pretty well). If you want to give me a big pat on the back, please do so. I'll enjoy it.
This new year has been pretty different, really. It didn't start off so well for me, then it seemed to get a bit worse, then a bit better, worse again but now I actually feel quite happy that things are getting better. I can't really be bothered to say any more than that, and I'll probably evade answering it if anybody does ask me, so just don't bother ;)
I'm absolutely shattered now. My eyes have been ready to close for ages, but I've had a little trouble sleeping recently. The odd-even exam times have really messed up my sleeping pattern, which was already pretty bad to begin with. I feel I should stay up a bit longer and then get to bed.
chaa buri buri everybody!
I'm literally itching to get out and take some photos. It's been ages since I last picked my camera up and it feels wrong in every way. Depending on how early I get up tomorrow (hey, I'm allowed a lie-in on a Saturday morning!) I'll spend some time around Manchester. There are a few "new" places I've seen that I'd quite like to have a go at. Also, the light has been brilliant these last two days, both in quality and quantity -- a very Good Thing(TM).
I've been getting on well with TrekEarth for the past few days too. Despite the fact I've had exams and been doing revision, I've managed to find a little time each day to nip on over to Manchester Computing and upload a new shot. I've totalled quite a few in the last week or two.
I'm currently doing a series on Tiananmen Square; it includes shots of the different characters that can be found. I've also had quite a bit of success with my other shots. I'm actually really proud of my latest postings (more so than some of my earlier ones, although I'm not convinced that these are "better" shots... definitely better post-processed and cropped). If you've got some time head over to http://www.trekearth.com/members/lewiz/photos and view a few of the more recent ones at full size. Let me know what you think too :)
I've come up with a new way of becoming a better photographer. I don't know how well it works but in theory it seems sound (at least to me). It basically involves using a crop tool in your image editor. I've been going through my summer shots and coupled with some heavy use of the crop tool (don't limit yourself to the original aspect ratio, either) I've eked out usable shots from badly composed frames. So... the originals weren't brilliant but with some ruthless cropping I've got photos I'm happy to show people. I think if I were to give advice to anybody it would be to do what I'm doing. The benefits are twofold: you get useful shots to show people from existing "poor" photos, but, more importantly, you learn more about composition and how you should have done it in the first place. In a way it is just a form of self-critique, I suppose, but it feels a lot more constructive than saying "well, I could have done x, y, or z" (where those variables are all a bit vague and you can only see them in your head, not for real). I'll let you know if it works later on (i.e. if I stop cropping so much away).
This evening I fixed a big problem at CompSoc. User accounts (usernames, passwords, details, etc.) are stored in an LDAP database, which is replicated across two machines. Connections are encrypted via SSL (like secure online banking pages). Unfortunately the master server was not playing nice and hadn't been since January 6. I only realised this today when I really started to investigate the problem. In the end it turned out that the SSL certificate (that allows a client to verify the authenticity of the server) had expired some weeks earlier. The fix was quick, of course. It was interesting just how well the replication worked though -- the secondary server handled the load so well that hardly anybody noticed anything was wrong (including myself and I know the ins and outs of our servers pretty well). If you want to give me a big pat on the back, please do so. I'll enjoy it.
This new year has been pretty different, really. It didn't start off so well for me, then it seemed to get a bit worse, then a bit better, worse again but now I actually feel quite happy that things are getting better. I can't really be bothered to say any more than that, and I'll probably evade answering it if anybody does ask me, so just don't bother ;)
I'm absolutely shattered now. My eyes have been ready to close for ages, but I've had a little trouble sleeping recently. The odd-even exam times have really messed up my sleeping pattern, which was already pretty bad to begin with. I feel I should stay up a bit longer and then get to bed.
chaa buri buri everybody!
Sunday, 15 January 2006
Sun job
Good news, everyone... I've been unofficially offered the job at Sun. They need to do some security checks, etc. before it's official.
Tuesday, 10 January 2006
Recent new photos on TE
I've uploaded a few photos to TrekEarth and TrekLens recently. Instead of linking them I figured I may as well just include them here for your viewing pleasure (I hope).
Three silhouettes
Yes sir!
Noodle soup
Long way down
The girl
Street player
Graffiti
Three silhouettesYes sir!Noodle soupLong way downThe girlStreet playerGraffiti
Monday, 9 January 2006
Interview
Had an interview at Sun. Went fairly well (I think) apart from ripping my trousers on an armchair before I even arrived in London.
Can't really be bothered to write anything else.
Can't really be bothered to write anything else.
Friday, 6 January 2006
Go NVIDIA!
NVIDIA are great. They make cool graphics card and then make even cooler drivers to support them.
Here I come Solaris x86/64 NVIDIA driver!
Here I come Solaris x86/64 NVIDIA driver!
Thursday, 5 January 2006
Sun and Solaris
I'm up for a job interview with Sun on Monday, so you decide for yourself whether this is just fake advocacy in the hopes that somebody over there reads it and thinks I'm a nice guy.
Sun have kicked out a whole pile of open source stuff recently, most notably OpenSolaris and DTrace (in my mind anyway). I don't know about the status of Sun Studio 10, but I know it is available free of charge, as are spin-offs of certain Java tools.
Sun really looks to be an interesting place recently.
I recently noticed that BrandZ has been announced, previously codenamed Project Janus. This strikes me as very similar to the FreeBSD Linux emulation layer, allowing it to run Linux binaries natively. In my experience with FreeBSD, this has worked very well, to the extent that complex applications such as Quake 3 ran flawlessly with no slow-down. BrandZ ties in with Solaris Zones somehow. From the website: "BrandZ is a framework that extends the Solaris Zones infrastructure to create Branded Zones, which are zones that contain non-native operating environments."
These "non-native" environments are not limited to GNU/Linux. Impressive. Unfortunately my knowledge of Zones is fairly limited (again a comparison to FreeBSD jails can be made, but this massively understates Solaris Zones).
Another amazing thing in Solaris is ZFS. This allows totally painless management of data, providing redundancy, compression and flexible reallocation. The only thing that I can think of comparing this to is "vinum or Veritas Volume Manager... done properly". Again, that comparison doesn't even come close.
Okay, now for the final "amazing" thing in Solaris -- the startup routine. There was a lot of talk a while ago about the new parallel startup process laucher that Sun introduced with Solaris 10. I didn't get too heavily involved with that because Solaris was little more than some vague "other" Operating System I didn't know much about. But after an initial bootup of Solaris Express yesterday I was seriously impressed at how fast the machine booted up. This is certainly something that needs to be adapted to work under Linux.
Everybody seems to be jumping ship to Google these days. I can only assume that the money is good... everything I've heard about Sun lately makes me seriously impressed. At the end of the day, all Google do is provide a powerful search engine, a bunch of maps and host some old USENET archives. Doesn't everybody do this?
Sun have kicked out a whole pile of open source stuff recently, most notably OpenSolaris and DTrace (in my mind anyway). I don't know about the status of Sun Studio 10, but I know it is available free of charge, as are spin-offs of certain Java tools.
Sun really looks to be an interesting place recently.
I recently noticed that BrandZ has been announced, previously codenamed Project Janus. This strikes me as very similar to the FreeBSD Linux emulation layer, allowing it to run Linux binaries natively. In my experience with FreeBSD, this has worked very well, to the extent that complex applications such as Quake 3 ran flawlessly with no slow-down. BrandZ ties in with Solaris Zones somehow. From the website: "BrandZ is a framework that extends the Solaris Zones infrastructure to create Branded Zones, which are zones that contain non-native operating environments."
These "non-native" environments are not limited to GNU/Linux. Impressive. Unfortunately my knowledge of Zones is fairly limited (again a comparison to FreeBSD jails can be made, but this massively understates Solaris Zones).
Another amazing thing in Solaris is ZFS. This allows totally painless management of data, providing redundancy, compression and flexible reallocation. The only thing that I can think of comparing this to is "vinum or Veritas Volume Manager... done properly". Again, that comparison doesn't even come close.
Okay, now for the final "amazing" thing in Solaris -- the startup routine. There was a lot of talk a while ago about the new parallel startup process laucher that Sun introduced with Solaris 10. I didn't get too heavily involved with that because Solaris was little more than some vague "other" Operating System I didn't know much about. But after an initial bootup of Solaris Express yesterday I was seriously impressed at how fast the machine booted up. This is certainly something that needs to be adapted to work under Linux.
Everybody seems to be jumping ship to Google these days. I can only assume that the money is good... everything I've heard about Sun lately makes me seriously impressed. At the end of the day, all Google do is provide a powerful search engine, a bunch of maps and host some old USENET archives. Doesn't everybody do this?
OpenSolaris
I'm half-way through installing OpenSolaris on my desktop machine at home. Total lack of Internet access has both aided and harmed my progress: because I have to travel to MC to use Internet access, I downloaded the Solaris Express b28 DVD in a fraction of the time it would have taken at home (a whopping 2.5MB/s over wireless!); destroyed it because if I forget even the slightest piece of documentation, I must wait another day to try again.
So far I've installed Solaris Express (Nevada) build 28. Solaris Express is essentially a pre-release version of the next full release of Solaris (in this case Solaris 11). It is tied heavily with on-going OpenSolaris work.
I have a copy of the latest OpenSolaris BFU code. This is essentially a binary archive of the OpenSolaris kernel, updates and changes over Solaris Express. What surprised me that OpenSolaris is little more than a community and a kernel. I had expected OpenSolaris would be the whole shebang.
On top of this I've got Sun Studio 10 and a license key to use it. This excellent development environment is provided free of charge by Sun.
This evening I will be attempting to install the OpenSolaris BFU code now I have the full (I hope) documentation. Fortunately for me the latest release (that I have) includes an Atheros wireless driver and wireless tools. Guess what wireless chipset I have? :)
I've also downloaded all of the necessary tools and source for building GNOME 2.12, the latest stable release of GNOME (although GNOME 2.13 has some impressive changes and advancements). I will be highly impressed if this gets much past the first or second step.
All in all I'm fairly impressed with the OpenSolaris project, the community and the work that's going in to it. I see little difference between running Ubuntu Breezy Badger (the latest stable release) and OpenSolaris with GNOME 2.12 in terms of desktop experience. Can it really be that good?
So far I've installed Solaris Express (Nevada) build 28. Solaris Express is essentially a pre-release version of the next full release of Solaris (in this case Solaris 11). It is tied heavily with on-going OpenSolaris work.
I have a copy of the latest OpenSolaris BFU code. This is essentially a binary archive of the OpenSolaris kernel, updates and changes over Solaris Express. What surprised me that OpenSolaris is little more than a community and a kernel. I had expected OpenSolaris would be the whole shebang.
On top of this I've got Sun Studio 10 and a license key to use it. This excellent development environment is provided free of charge by Sun.
This evening I will be attempting to install the OpenSolaris BFU code now I have the full (I hope) documentation. Fortunately for me the latest release (that I have) includes an Atheros wireless driver and wireless tools. Guess what wireless chipset I have? :)
I've also downloaded all of the necessary tools and source for building GNOME 2.12, the latest stable release of GNOME (although GNOME 2.13 has some impressive changes and advancements). I will be highly impressed if this gets much past the first or second step.
All in all I'm fairly impressed with the OpenSolaris project, the community and the work that's going in to it. I see little difference between running Ubuntu Breezy Badger (the latest stable release) and OpenSolaris with GNOME 2.12 in terms of desktop experience. Can it really be that good?
Our saviour, spot metering
Spot metering won't save the world, but I think it's pretty good fun (hmm) and can certainly simplify some shots.
Nikon's matrix metering isn't always perfect, though it is pretty amazing. One of the things I dislike is that it isn't predictable. Matrix metering meters the whole scene and compares the light intensities at different points with those in a pre-recorded database of "light values at different points and correct exposure values". Because it uses a database and not the "centre-weighted average scene" or "average scene" of old, there is no real way to compensate prior to taking the shot -- this means that you need to take the shot, look at the histogram and over-exposure views before compensating and taking the shot again.
This doesn't work well in all cases.
Yesterday I was trying to explain how great spot metering can be to Vlad. Unimpressed he carried on using matrix metering and took about four or five shots of the same scene, compensating each time to prevent blowout. Sure, memory cards are big enough, there was no time pressure, but I looked at the same scene through my viewfinder, took some readings of the sky, the darkest point I could find and some objects that I thought looked about average. I set my exposure in manual and took the shot. The resulting histogram was perfect (I wasn't even expecting it to be quite so spot-on myself). It took me about five or ten seconds to do this; slow, but a lot faster than snapping and compensating lots of times.
This brings me on to another thing -- spot metering works best in manual. That's fine, but if I decide to switch from f/1.8 for one shot to f/16 for another not only do I spend ages wheeling one dial, I then have to go ahead and wheel the other way with the other dial. This is what priority modes are good for, but they just don't cut it for spot-metering. My question is this -- why is there not a "lock" button for manual that allows it to temporarily act as a priority mode to save unnecessary wheeling?
Another annoyance is switching between spot-metering in manual and matrix-metering in aperture-priority -- this requires adjusting two dials. If cameras were more programmable I could have a single button or dial to do this for me. This is essential as spot-metering isn't always fast enough. For some candid shots you just have to rely on matrix metering to do a good job... speed is the number one importance, but that's no good if you have to twist two knobs to enable it.
So. Spot metering won't save the world... but it might just help.
Nikon's matrix metering isn't always perfect, though it is pretty amazing. One of the things I dislike is that it isn't predictable. Matrix metering meters the whole scene and compares the light intensities at different points with those in a pre-recorded database of "light values at different points and correct exposure values". Because it uses a database and not the "centre-weighted average scene" or "average scene" of old, there is no real way to compensate prior to taking the shot -- this means that you need to take the shot, look at the histogram and over-exposure views before compensating and taking the shot again.
This doesn't work well in all cases.
Yesterday I was trying to explain how great spot metering can be to Vlad. Unimpressed he carried on using matrix metering and took about four or five shots of the same scene, compensating each time to prevent blowout. Sure, memory cards are big enough, there was no time pressure, but I looked at the same scene through my viewfinder, took some readings of the sky, the darkest point I could find and some objects that I thought looked about average. I set my exposure in manual and took the shot. The resulting histogram was perfect (I wasn't even expecting it to be quite so spot-on myself). It took me about five or ten seconds to do this; slow, but a lot faster than snapping and compensating lots of times.
This brings me on to another thing -- spot metering works best in manual. That's fine, but if I decide to switch from f/1.8 for one shot to f/16 for another not only do I spend ages wheeling one dial, I then have to go ahead and wheel the other way with the other dial. This is what priority modes are good for, but they just don't cut it for spot-metering. My question is this -- why is there not a "lock" button for manual that allows it to temporarily act as a priority mode to save unnecessary wheeling?
Another annoyance is switching between spot-metering in manual and matrix-metering in aperture-priority -- this requires adjusting two dials. If cameras were more programmable I could have a single button or dial to do this for me. This is essential as spot-metering isn't always fast enough. For some candid shots you just have to rely on matrix metering to do a good job... speed is the number one importance, but that's no good if you have to twist two knobs to enable it.
So. Spot metering won't save the world... but it might just help.
Wednesday, 4 January 2006
Manchester Computing
With all of the rebranding and other notices going up around the campus, you'd think that some attention might be directed toward the shocking late-night entrance/exit route for Manchester Computing.
Just yesterday I had to get up and show somebody the way out because they'd been in and out of the machine room doors three or four times.
How hard would a couple of signs be to make?
Hmmm.... is this a plan in the making?
Just yesterday I had to get up and show somebody the way out because they'd been in and out of the machine room doors three or four times.
How hard would a couple of signs be to make?
Hmmm.... is this a plan in the making?
Tuesday, 3 January 2006
VAIO X505 extended BIOS
Up late last night contemplating how useless my laptop is at times (i.e. when I can't find the network dongley thing and not having a firewire CD/DVD drive for booting) I suddenly wondered why I couldn't just install a bootloader that handles booting to the hard disk, as well as regular USB drives.
Right now I don't actually own a USB CD or DVD drive... this is only because it would be essentially useless for my laptop. I'm not sure if Sony went all out to be a pain in the arse with this laptop, or whether the lack of USB booting is a side-effect of the diminuitive motherboard size. Either way, it makes installing things... interesting.
I've not really got much further than that, but I'm going to have a look now to see if ths is possible. I don't see why it shouldn't be. Assuming it is, it would be great to create a simple package for other people in a similar situation (I'm sure the X505 isn't the only pain-in-the-arse laptop about). This might create a small ext2, say, partition at the beginning of the disk, install a customised version of GRUB and provide simple menus, etc.
GRUB can boot pretty much anything, it supports diskless operation and can even fetch images to boot over a network (I was thinking an ISO of the Windows XP CD here... right now I have no idea how else I would go about reinstall it).
Something to work on, maybe.
Right now I don't actually own a USB CD or DVD drive... this is only because it would be essentially useless for my laptop. I'm not sure if Sony went all out to be a pain in the arse with this laptop, or whether the lack of USB booting is a side-effect of the diminuitive motherboard size. Either way, it makes installing things... interesting.
I've not really got much further than that, but I'm going to have a look now to see if ths is possible. I don't see why it shouldn't be. Assuming it is, it would be great to create a simple package for other people in a similar situation (I'm sure the X505 isn't the only pain-in-the-arse laptop about). This might create a small ext2, say, partition at the beginning of the disk, install a customised version of GRUB and provide simple menus, etc.
GRUB can boot pretty much anything, it supports diskless operation and can even fetch images to boot over a network (I was thinking an ISO of the Windows XP CD here... right now I have no idea how else I would go about reinstall it).
Something to work on, maybe.
Sunday, 1 January 2006
Public bins
Why is it that some public rubbish receptacles feel the need to have hinged doors? Why? Does it help that the hinges are all rusty and it requires another hand to hold the door open while the rubbish is deposited?
They're a damn pain in the arse. Whoever invented them should be stripped of his/her qualifications and sent back to Primary School "science" lessons. I'm sure they covered "germs" and there, and how touch is one way of passing them about.
It's not like your average kitchen bin, either. No. They get cleaned from time-to-time. But public bins are dirty, disgusting, smelly places. Those "green" street cleaning vehicles are crap too, they pick up a few bits of litter while pissing all over the pavement... only to screw up and dump all the rubbish in one place a few metres down the road.
They're a damn pain in the arse. Whoever invented them should be stripped of his/her qualifications and sent back to Primary School "science" lessons. I'm sure they covered "germs" and there, and how touch is one way of passing them about.
It's not like your average kitchen bin, either. No. They get cleaned from time-to-time. But public bins are dirty, disgusting, smelly places. Those "green" street cleaning vehicles are crap too, they pick up a few bits of litter while pissing all over the pavement... only to screw up and dump all the rubbish in one place a few metres down the road.
Sainsbury's
I nipped into Sainsbury's today to pick up some stuff to clean the dirty pots in my bathroom, to get some more toilet roll and grab a bite to eat. Since I was last in they have had a refit with new lower shelves, wider aisles and a slight reorganise. What a waste... not only did they not have any kitchen cleaning sponges (the yellow one with tough green bits on the back (actually, they didn't have any)), the toilet roll options have disappeared (you can have Sainsbury's "very expensive" brand or nothing) and there are no soft drinks.
Thanks for that, Sainsbury's.
Thanks for that, Sainsbury's.
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