Purchase of the decade!

While stocking up with various bits and pieces (including a few more ringbinders) at Tesco I spotted a cheapy looking 19" pedestal fan going for £20.

I figured I could take it back if it was crap, but I don't think I will be doing so (short of it breaking... I have a one year warranty).

The fan is indeed very cheapy and comes equipped with five speed settings:

1. Off


2. Spinning very quickly


3. Spinning super quickly


4. Spinning like buggery


5. Hurricane

A clear win.  It is doing a great job in combating the monster that is the Pentium D.

D40 vs D80 (+MB-D80)

Chris has put up a quick comparison between the D40 and the D80 over on his blog.  You can read the entry at http://www.christalbot.co.uk/?p=77

His MB-D80 came today so he's included some basic info about this.  I've also arranged to borrow his D80+MB-D80 sometime next week so I can add it to my D2X/D200+MB-D200 comparison.

There are a few things that I'd like to point out:

The EOS-400D is Canon's low-end DSLR, but it's aimed more at the D80 market.  I believe that Nikon are currently selling one of the cheapest DSLRs going, the D40.

Canon changed their lens mount from EF (I guess?) to EF-S, which in many ways is similar to the AF-S F-mount glass we see over in the Nikon world.  Specifically all Canon glass made in the last n years has a built in motor.  I think.  But this should mean that there is very little practical difference between AF speed on Canon and Nikkor glass at a given price range.  I wouldn't be surprised if the Canon L glass AF speed was better than the Nikkor offering, given that they've been doing it longer.  Again, I think.  I can't claim to know more than the very basics about the Canon line-up or recent history.  If I've got it wrong, add a comment.

These days it would be crazy to buy the D40 over the D40X (10MP with better high ISO, etc. instead of 6MP).  Given the price difference between the D40X and the D80... I'd argue that those people are also crazy not to buy the D80.  But it is definitely horses for courses, and if you want a compact, cheap yet powerful DSLR, the D40(X) is the way to go.

Tidy up

There's no better feeling* than the feeling you get once you've spent the whole night sorting things out that you should have done years ago.

I've finally tidied up all of my bank statements, my bills/invoices file, mobile 'phone statements and so on.

Sometime I'll have to go grab a few more small ring binders to finish the proper organisation.

This now means that the left hand side of my desk is now clear. This is the first time it's been free from junk in years. Whenever I tidy my desk up I stack all of the "to do" things on the left, only to end up piling more and more stuff on top.

The trick now is to keep up as the invoices and statements come in...

*Edit* I rewarded myself by ordering a curry from Simply Indian in Yateley.  Not cheap, but very good.  The ordering actually had a lot to do with the fact that I've run out of food to put in the oven too...

Which Ninja Turtle are you?

You are Donatello. You are reserved and intelligent. You favor the use of brains instead of brawn.

To take the test visit http://www.brainfall.com/test8_1.php

Nikon D2X head-to-head with D200 + MB-D200

The D2X is Nikon's current* top-of-the-line digital SLR, announced in late-2004, which features a 12MP DX sensor. The D200 was announced a year later and comes equipped with a 10MP DX sensor.

D2X and D200+MB-D200 not to scale (but close)

I've borrowed a D2X, Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 and 80-200 f/2.8 from Vlad for a week. At the same time I've managed to get a hold of a D200 with the MB-D200 vertical grip and dual-battery pack from Neil Hutchinson who works in the BT Group of the Solutions Centre at Sun.

After playing around with both cameras independently and in a mini-shoot I've decided to discuss my findings. Please bear in mind that two or three hours isn't enough to judge any camera, no matter how much time you've spent reading about it. In addition the 17-55 is a totally new beast to me. All in all, beyond my experience with the D70s this kit is all new to me.

First off, I'd like to point out what key features I look for in a camera:

• Big, bright viewfinder that display all of the info I need


• Good performance at higher ISO levels


• Outstanding ergonomics and overall performance


• Build quality

I picked the D70s over the Canon EOS-350D solely on the viewfinder... by comparison the 350D's viewfinder was dim, small and cramped. In the meantime Canon have really upped the ante... the EOS-5D provides a truly stunning viewfinder in terms of size and brightness, while delivering some of the very best high ISO performance (performing well all the way up to ISO1600-3200).

So, first off... buttons...

D2X buttons

D200 buttons

The D2X is considered by many to be the pinnacle of camera ergonomics. The right controls are in the right place and they can be configured to meet the most demanding of situations. In fact, I spent well over an hour going through the D2X custom settings before I was satisfied I had them right. No doubt with extended use these will continue to be tweaked and changed.

Fortunately the D200 menu layout is very similar to the D2X... if you're going to be shooting with both, you'll have no trouble adapting to the slightly different controls.

The front of both cameras is the same... the mode button, exposure compensation button, on/off and LCD illuminator knob, DoF preview, a FUNC button that can be configured to do a variety of tasks, focus servo switch (manual, single and continuous), not to mention the main command (aperture) dial.

On the rear of the body things are again very similar: the AF-ON, sub-command (shutter speed) dial, joystick, focus mode (i.e. closest subject priority, group, etc.) and LCD buttons (menu, grid, lock and enter) are the same. Between the D2X and D200 the playback button has switched around (on the D200 it returns to the more familiar location above the menu button, while on the D2X it sits next to the delete button to the left of the viewfinder).

The main real difference is the AE-L/AF-L button... on the D200 it is slightly further away from the AF-ON button; I personally find this makes it easier to distinguish between the two.

In addition the exposure calculator (spot, matrix and centre-weighted) button rotates around the AE-L/AF-L button. On the D2X it lives at the right-hand-side of the large viewfinder prism and is operated in a rather clunky way. Again, the D200 wins here... switching between the available metering modes is quicker and more logical. It is also easier to view at a glance and so far I have not accidentally switched (and I don't see that I would).

Below the D2X's LCD display is a smaller LCD that displays various camera settings (notably the ISO which can be seen on the D200 only by pressing the ISO button or looking through the viewfinder). The D200 doesn't have this at all.

On the top of both cameras to the left of the viewfinder lives the mode selection dial. The D2X dial includes the BKT (bracketing), flash and a lock button, while the D200 has quality, ISO and WB (white balance).

On the D200 the flash button has been moved to the left side of the viewfinder, but unlike the D70s it does not also act as the flash pop-up button. I don't personally have any preference here... I'm used to the D200/D70s way, but both are good.

On the D2X the ISO and WB buttons are on the smaller LCD on the back. This leaves space for the BKT button... on the D200 this is above the play button... again familiar for D70s users.

This leaves the lock button, which exists on the D2X only. This button allows the shutter speed and aperture to be locked (in much the same way as AE-L/AF-L)... sounds useless until you're in a studio. I could feasibly see myself missing this on the D200.

Finally the D2X and D200 share identical settings on both the rotating shooting mode dial (S, Cl, Ch, timer and Mup (mirror up)) and the vertical grip: a shutter release, front and rear command dial and AF-ON.

So, ergonomics and handling...

Unsurprisingly both are *very* similar. I've already pointed out that the metering mode dial on the D200 trumps the D2X, but otherwise things are more or less the same. In landscape both cameras are a joy to use... once your fingers learn where all of the buttons are.

In portrait both cameras have their advantages/disadvantages. The D2X's joystick can just about be operated in portrait mode, while it is totally out of reach on the D200 (thanks to the larger grip). I don't believe the D2X's joystick was designed to be used in portrait, but it is handy and noticeably lacking on the D200. However, the D200 claws back by having a more comfortable grip in portrait... my thumb feels far more comfortable at the back and there is more purchase at the front. If you've managed to cope with using the AF-ON button and a command-dial to select focus point, then the D200+MB-D200 is for you.

So far my experience with using the joystick for selecting AF spots has been a bad one. Both cameras have 11 points and navigating between them is painful at best. I hope this will get better with practise and once I've learned the patterns. I've messed around with a Canon 5D recently and I'd like to point out that the nipple solution they have is absolutely outstanding... by having just nine AF spots and a nipple with centre, N, NE, E, SE, S, etc. it is possible to switch from any of the AF points directly to another one. I'd settle on two less AF points without any hesitation if such a system were implemented.

D200 viewfinder

The D200 viewfinder is slightly larger and brighter than the D2X viewfinder, while the D2X offers a 100% view of the frame. The D2X includes information (ISO, WB and quality settings) to the right of the viewfinder, along with the useful information along the bottom, which is shared with the D200. Overall I prefer the D200's view... it doesn't include quite as much information, but it meets *my* needs very well. Having the ISO setting at the bottom of the viewfinder rather than the right hand side in the D2X is another big plus for me... I find reading the right-hand readout unnatural and more difficult.

D2X viewfinder

I expected the slightly larger, brighter D200 viewfinder to be a really big thing for me, but it isn't. Neither camera really offers anything that would sway my decision. Both are very good, very big and comfortable to use, although I have to admit I prefer the smaller non-active AF spots in the D200 viewfinder (you can't see them well in the viewfinder photos I found on Google).

Both cameras come equipped with a large 2.5" LCD review screen. While the D2X sports a colour calibrated display, the D200 provides a much brighter, clearer display. The D200 wins hands down for me, but if you're shooting straight to JPEG in a studio environment, then that colour calibration may be useful to you. The content display seems to be the same, although the D2X seems to offer the old-style yellow luminosity histogram overlay, which I haven't got the D200 to do yet. I should probably move into the 21st century and learn to use a full RGB+luminosity histogram, so this is no big plus for the D2X. Fortunately both cameras provide a high-powered zoom feature, something sorely lacking from my D70s. Final note about the LCD display... the BM-6 cover that comes with the D200 is far better than the D2X's BM-3: it fits much closer over the display, appears to stop more dust, cause less reflection problems and critically does a better job of keeping my hot steamy breath from clouding things up.

A final ergonomics note... a big win for the D200 over the D2X is the ability to remove the vertical grip. With the grip removed the camera is lighter, smaller and less conspicuous. You might think that the flip side of this is that the D200 with vertical grip doesn't deliver the same comfort as the D2X with built-in grip. I argue that this is not the case... while the MB-D200 does look like it was bolted onto the base of the D200, it doesn't handle that way, and that's what counts. Again, if you spend plenty of time shooting with long lenses in portrait, this is of no use to you, but for me, I think it's something I might benefit from.

Auto-focus performance...

The long and short of it: the D2X blows the D200 right out of the water. With the 80-200 AF-D attached the D2X runs rings all around the D200 thanks to a super-powerful motor and better CAM auto-focus system. If you spend all of your time tracking birds in the flight or cars in motion, just go and buy the D2X.

That's not to say that the D200 doesn't do a good job... it does. The D200 is such a massive improvement over the D70s that it just isn't funny. But the D2X combined with the high-speed crop is a winner in all situations.

Personally, I don't do much of this... from time to time I think it's fun to play catch with the birdies, but it never goes beyond that. I like to think I do people-shots (where AF is important, but the D2X offers no real advantage over the D200) and some landscape stuff (manual is fine here :).

Making exposures...

I haven't had long enough to decisively address this. I was surprised to find that I found both cameras lacking...

I know my D70s more or less inside out and I can operate it very quickly (currently faster than I can operate either a D2X or a D200, but that's just a matter of time). In many circumstances I can compensate an exposure before taking the shot, just because I know what the matrix metering will make of the scene.

I had a challenging scene involving two white swans on a lake and neither camera made it easy for me to achieve what I wanted. I can't guarantee my D70s would have either, but I like to think it would.

Overall I'd say that the D200 did better than the D2X, but not enough to count. Really it was a tie... for moderate to unchallenging scenes both did perfectly.

In terms of what I look for this leaves two main areas: high ISO performance and build quality. The D2X is a first-class professional camera body designed to cope with the most challenging situations. NASA use them in space, pros operate them in deserts, the Arctic and hot and humid climates. They handle this because they were designed to. I haven't dropped the D2X as part of any tests, but I would be surprised if it didn't fare considerably better than the D200.

Again, as with auto-focus performance, this is definitely not to say that the D200 isn't rugged and durable. It is and it will take many of the same knocks the D2X will take and keep going. It's worth pointing out that the MB-D200 seems a little less solid than the D200 body itself, but not enough to matter in 99% of situations you might find yourself and your camera in.

As for high ISO performance... I'm not going to get into this. I haven't done the research into it. I've personally read conflicting views... some people say that if handled properly the D2X does a good job, while others say the D200 is better. What I do know for sure is that neither are great... stick them up against the EOS-5D and they look very poor. If high ISO performance is critical to you, consider the Fujifilm S5 Pro, which is based on the D200 body but incorporates a Fuji SuperCCD delivering high ISO performance on a par with the 5D. Expect to pay £200 more than your standard D200 body.

Canon EOS-5D and Fuji S5 Pro

In conclusion...

Both cameras are awesome. They both drive all lenses very well and cope with all situations very well.

Which you should pick depends on what you're doing. I personally feel that now the D200 is out there are only a limited number of reasons to opt for the D2X:

• You're planning a trip to the Moon/the Arctic/the Safara desert/a warzone (delete as appropriate)


• You spend all of your time catching high-speed action and the AF performance is critical


• You want to build-up your muscles


• You want to have something you can hit attackers with

For all other situations the D200 is a more than adequate competitor.

A D2XS currently retails for £2,479 and a D200+MB-D200 for £959.99. Both can be found cheaper, but the difference is massive. For the same price as a D2XS you can have a D200+MB-D200, a 17-55 1:2.8 and half of a 70-200 1:2.8.

My recommendation would be to go for the D200+MB-D200 unless your needs dictate otherwise, and even then get both and try them out before you buy.

Intel blows away the Vaio X505

Intel are demoing a new prototype laptop that is just 0.7in thick, beating the X505 by a whole 0.1in!

More impressive is the screen, built-in wireless (Wifi, WiMAX and cellular (UMTS?)), luminous keyboard and amazing 14 hour battery life.

There's a very nice review at http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/05/0524_metrolaptop/index_01.htm (from where I stole the above photo).  Other nice things are the funky portfolio cover that may include an extra display.

So far there are no specs and I can't determine if it has an optical drive or not (I hope it doesn't).  The only place it falls short of the X505 glory is in weight 2.2lbs instead of 1.8!

Grown-up dress-up

Nothing new here, but about time that I posted something truly awesome on my blog.

This is a guy with some serious imagination and skill.

See http://www.beseechfanclub.com/bored/ for the full set :)

New Quad interconnects

Awesome. After killing the fairly crappy 3.5mm jack to 5-pin DIN cable I knocked up about two years ago I've decided to buy a proper one on eBay.

With any luck Friday should see me as the owner of two new interconnects:

• 4-pin DIN to 4-pin DIN to connect the 33 pre-amp to the 303 power-amp


• 3.5mm jack to 5-pin DIN to connect my PC to the 33 pre-amp

I've bought them from a reputable eBay seller. They're blue, too, so they must clearly be good.

It would probably be worth pointing out that the thing on top is a Quad 303, while the bottom unit isn't a 33... it looks like a 34, which would have probably sold with a Quad 405 power-amp.

Solaris Nevada b64 + Gaim = Secure passwords

In Solaris Nevada/Express build 64 a patch has finally been applied to Gaim (hopefully soon-to-be Pidgin) that implements working gnome-keyring support for storing and retrieving passwords.

This now means that my primary LDAP password for logging on to all of the machines on the SWAN network is no longer sat in a plain-text XML file in my home directory.  Same thing for my MSN password and so on.

This is a big move for the Sun Ray desktop environment where the arguments made by the Gaim/Pidgin developers do not hold true.

Hopefully in the future we can see this change being pushed upstream in a more refined form, one that implements an authentication hook that can be used by plugins... this way we don't need to link the main Gaim/Pidgin library against gnome-keyring or the Windows/KDE/Mac equivalent.

Tell me about it...

I've been toying with the idea of knocking up a quick film review/sharing system in PHP/MySQL.  This would be used largely by Vlad and myself to quickly mark down films that are worth watching.

After thinking about it a minute or two longer I realised there was a much quicker way of doing it... del.icio.us.

del.icio.us allows users to tag content with for:username, indicating that the site should be brought to the attention of another user.  Today I finally got around to subscribing to the RSS feed for content tagged with for:lewiz... this means that from now on, you can let me know about cool stuff just by tagging it.

How does this apply to the film review system?  Simple:

• Tag the IMDb page for all films that you watch


• Include an out of ten rating as a tag: 9/10


• Apply any other suitable tags


• If the film was good, or you think it is of interest to your friend, mark it for their attention: e.g. for:inomine

And what if you want to share something with a friend and nobody else?  Combine the Do not share functionality with a for:username tag.

Google Apps

Google Apps are clearly amazing.

I think I'll be getting some Google Mail love soon.

Windows Vista, attempt two

Attempt two at running Windows Vista on the desktop and here's how I've found things:

• With my Audigy 2 ZS sound card now working (I had to force Windows to search c:\windows for drivers!) life is much easier.


• Per-application volume controls (done at the mixer-level, not the application level ala some GNOME apps) is a really handy thing.


• Windows Media Player did an awesome job with my DVD.  Specifically: I was half-way through watching Lily when my Lost download finished.  I fired up Lost and once it finished there was a really handy option to resume my DVD playback from where I left off.


• The default font (at least the default font in Firefox and Pidgin) is really great... it looks good, but is also very easy on the eyes.  I like the Bitstream fonts used in Ubuntu, but this is far better.


• The ClearType sub-pixel font rendering is not what I'm used to.  It's a lot better than in XP, but I'm not convinced it's as good as we have in GNOME.


• Due to an issue with my graphics card, I've disabled the fancy Aero 3D desktop.  With the non-fancy one I can't figure out how to change the colours of titlebars, the Start bar, etc.  I find the difference in blue between active and inactive window too subtle.


• Firefox feels a lot quicker (than under Linux/GNOME), as do a few other operations and actions.


• There is no 'telnet' command by default.  This is a mistake, it clearly wasn't taking up much space, and it's incredibly useful to have around.


• Pidgin installs quickly and easily, providing a superior replacement to the Windows Live Messenger.  There is some graphics corruption from time to due to, I presume, a GTK+ issue.


• I can run Lightroom, Photoshop and a whole host of other applications without using virtualisation software.  This is the real reason I'm interested in a non-Linux/Solaris desktop.


• Playback of non-region 2 DVDs is a bit of an issue.  I think I only have a few more goes at switching the hardware region before it gets locked.  Under Linux all of my DVDs play without issue.

All in all I'm coping.  There doesn't seem to be too much that I used to be able to do that I can't do now.  I'll see how things work out...

Lily

I've just finished off watching one of the awesome films kicking around on my DVD shelf thing.

All About Lily Chou-Chou is an incredible film that revolves around the lives of a bunch of middle-school students in Japan.

Lily is a fine example of a film with a non-linear storyline.  These days quite a few films seem to be done in this way, but in many cases the result adds unnecessary confusion to the whole thing.  Now, Lily is certainly confusing... this is partly because whenever I watch Asian films I tend to have just figured out who is who towards the end... but in a dreamy way.  I don't know, maybe Iwai wanted us to feel puzzled and confused like the kids in the film.

Like many good films, watching it isn't always easy.  I've found that I enjoy films like this by watching them bit-by-bit.  A few years ago I'd have scorned at anybody who suggested this, but now I think it really is the way to go.

As before, the DVD is on my shelf if you want to borrow it :)

From Ladybower

Here's one shot taken last weekend at Derwent/Ladybower reservoir.  Just finished scanning the first film.  This is Kodak BW400CN, scanned with a Canon FS4000 using VueScan Linux, edited in Lightroom on XP.

Good stalker

Upon arriving at Siem Reap international airport on Sunday February 25th we sorted out a taxi, loaded our bags and set off for our hotel.

On my seat was a roll of exposed Kodak colour film.  For whatever reason I decided that I'd pick it up.

Three weeks ago I got the roll developed and a handful of photos came out.  There was nothing really interesting (no child pornography either, thankfully), but as the good stalker I am... here are three shots that more or less came out.

Blu-tac

I've got some Blu-tac on my desk.

I'm not sure where it came from, but Blu-tac being Blu-tac means that I've spent quite a lot of time rolling it around in my fingers.

It's gone pretty smelly now.

To make matters worse, I seem to have a habit of squashing things down on top of it.  So far I've squashed down:

1. My mobile 'phone


2. My old mobile 'phone battery

It's all very well and good until I try and pick the object up... when I can't do it freely it takes me a worryingly long time to figure out what's going on.

Firefox Web Developer

After finishing off the basics of my image_location module yesterday, I've now decided to turn my attention to properly theming the website.

After spending an hour or two fiddling around with CSS files on the server (edit, reload, observe, wash, rinse, repeat) I decided to install the Firefox DOM Inspector and Web Developer extensions.

A quick Firefox restart later, enable one option and I have a view that CSS hackers would die for:

A big shout out to all of the Firefox developers out there!

Drupal image_location.module

After blogging about the need for a module for Drupal that handles Exif GPS data I started hacking.

I've whipped up a module that does exactly what I need.  It basically hooks in to the insert and update code for images, injects some data and allows the insert/update procedure to carry on as though the user has manually entered the latitude/longitude.

I've submitted a patch to the image.module guys so with any luck this may become a part of the image module.  For those that are interested head over to http://drupal.org/node/143071 for more details.

OpenSolaris what needs to come next, or, the day Ian Murdock joined Sun

I’ve had a half-drafted blog entry sat around for about two months now.  I started to write it after I did an initial install of a (at the time) bleeding-edge copy of Solaris Nevada.

For those that don’t know, Nevada is the code-name for the next version of the Solaris operating system, Solaris 11.  Nevada is actively developed where all of the new features, improvements, bugs and bug fixes end up before they get putback to Solaris 10 in the form of updates or patches.

Most of Sun runs on Solaris 10 Sun Ray servers, but in the department I work we run and maintain our own servers: one runs Solaris 10 and three run Solaris Nevada.  By choice I use Nevada for the more recent version of the Java Desktop System or GNOME.

In an office workstation role, Nevada/GNOME works surprisingly well.  From time to time Solaris does panic, but the bug is always logged and fixes come in with future builds.  At home, on a stand-alone desktop PC, both Solaris Nevada and Solaris 10 fall well short of the current mark, which I will define to be somewhere in between Windows Vista, Mac OS X and, of course, Ubuntu Feisty Fawn.

As a long-term Ubuntu user I can’t help but cringe when I look at various aspects of the normal Nevada installation, use and maintenance.  Depend on moods in the office, brining these problems up elicits one of two responses:

1. Yes, but... the Linux kernel sucks.  There’s no stable driver API, it crashes a lot, it’s a hackers’ OS, etc.  My response to this is: so what?  Solaris is no use to anybody at all if it requires n hours a week/month in maintenance, doesn’t work with their hardware and can’t run their applications.  Years ago when I tried to convert my Dad to Linux his reason not to was quite simply that it didn’t run his accounting software.  And besides... my desktop crashes less frequently than the Sun Ray servers at work (not a fair comparison, I know).


2. Yes, but... nobody is willing to do the work, it isn’t a priority, businesses don’t want it, etc.  This is definitely a more reasonable response.

So what is Solaris Nevada lacking that Ubuntu already provides:

1. Package management, package management, package management.  For the enterprise the current solution might be acceptable, but desktop users need to be able to painlessly install updates.  Basically what Solaris needs is apt-get/dpkg.


2. Installation.  The Solaris installation is archaic, although it does mostly work.  The text interface scares newcomers (even intermediate/advanced ones) off.  Nevada needs to pay close attention to what Microsoft have done with Vista and Ubuntu are doing with their live CD installers.


3. Software.  Ubuntu ships with a sensible set of default utilities, applications and configuration tools.  For the most part, so does Nevada.  But what Nevada (and Windows and OS X) doesn’t offer is a single interface to find more software for a given task.  This is where I bring up (again) apt-get, but this time in conjunction with a great big repository of software, one very similar to those offered by Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat, SuSE, etc.


4. Community.  Ubuntu has the most incredible community I’ve come across on the Internet.  Thousands upon thousands of people of different levels of Linux experience together to help people use their computers.  OpenSolaris is a great community that Sun has helped foster; using what they learned from this they need to set out and create a Desktop OpenSolaris community aimed at the everyday desktop user.

So how does Ian Murdock fit in?

Ian Murdock joined Sun on March 19th this year.  Ian founded the Debian Project and was the first DPL (Debian Project Leader), he’s been hired by Sun to help with Operating System Platform Strategy.  He’s already made it very clear that he wants to close the usability gap between Solaris and Linux, but also that he believes Linux needs to play an important role in what is to come.

Over the last week or so Project Indiana has been banded about quite a bit.  I don’t think anybody really knows quite what Indiana has in store for us just yet—I’ve certainly heard nothing more than I can read on the Internet, despite the fact I have access to SWAN.  It is entirely possible that Indiana has nothing at all to do with Ian Murdock, but the rumourmill has been set in motion, and an interesting little fact is that Murdock was born in the US state of Indiana...

What will Project Indiana be?  A better question might be ‘What do I want Project Indiana to be?’   I hope that Indiana will be the start of a big push for Solaris to hit the desktop.  I hope that Indiana can take over what the guys over at gnusolaris.org / Nexenta have begun:

A complete desktop operating system, based around the OpenSolaris kernel, a GNU userland and oodles of open source and third-party applications hosted in an easily accessible repository.

What if, given the fact that Sun endorse Ubuntu on their UltraSPARC T1 processors, Project Indiana became Ubuntu Indiana...

To do: Image Exif Location module for Drupal

In the hopes of forcing myself to follow up on this, I'm writing it here.

I plan to write a very simple module for Drupal that extends the current Image module when the Location module is also present.

It will do one simple task: automatically filling the latitude/longitude information for a photo with valid Exif GPSLatitude and GPSLongitude information.

That is all.

Ladybower

On Saturday Vlad and I made good use of the bank holiday weekend by driving out to Ladybower reservoir somewhere near Sheffield.

On arrival we needed three return trips to my car for various different bits and pieces (my wallet, my walking shoes, etc.).  On the final attempt at a little walking I was feeling thoroughly apprehensive, expecting something to go quite badly wrong.

First stop was a Cider Refresher ice lolly from the visitors' centre, before we wandered along the west bank of the Derwent reservoir, aiming to make it to the first or second dam before catching the shuttle bus back.

Upon arrival at the second dam, we quickly made the decision to take it a bit further and walk full circuit.

The route is (as Vlad pointed out) quite deceptive, in that you think you're making lots of progress towards a dam, only to find out that there is a branch in the reservoir that takes you on a three mile detour!

Four hours after we set off we arrived back at the visitors' centre.  The whole route was probably around 12 miles, which suggests we managed to keep a pace of around 3mph.  This isn't too bad, especially considering I've not walked for a long time, and Vlad has recently recovered from a wonky knee.

Much more practise is required to maintain a solid 3mph with 30kg packs for an estimated 20-25 miles per day!

Am der wochenende

The past weekend was pretty hectic... I travelled up to Manchester to catch the 6PM showing of Spiderman 3 with Vlad and Kirk at the Odeon.  Now, I didn't particularly enjoy either Spiderman 1 or 2, so it didn't come as much surprise to me that Spiderman 3 managed to reach such a spectacular low.

I've read elsewhere that Spiderman 3 should really have been two films (maybe like Pirates of the Caribbean?) -- one to cover the crazy sandman and another for that sticky black blobby thing.  Maybe if they'd have done this we could have properly appreciated the whole relationship between Spiderman and the hot chick.

Or maybe not.  Whichever way you try and spin it, the film totally sucked.

After the film we headed to Pizza Express before enjoying some Soul Calibur 2 on a PS2 kicking about around Kirk's house.

I can't really remember what we did on Saturday... probably drove to my house on the M62 to catch a small airshow on the Sunday.  The airshow turned out to be smaller than expected, but equipped with an OM-4 and 135mm Zuiko, this probably wasn't a bad thing.  With any luck there might be one or two shots worth doing something with.

After the airshow we drove back to Manchester to catch "Das leben der anderen" (The Lives of Others) at AMC (the good cinema).  This was quite a change from Spiderman... there was a plausible plot, with developed characters, good dialogue and excellent overall production.  The Lives of Others is set in the period running-up to the fall of the Berlin wall.  At times it was a little slow (as is true of many great films), but overall it was really worth watching.

The plan had been to meet up with Karen for a trip to Wagamama, or a Chinese meal, or something.  In the end Vlad and I had a nosh-up at Punjab, best Indian in Manchester.  As ever, the meal did not disappoint, although I suspect the chef has changed -- the style is different, but still outstanding food at better prices.

On Sunday night I decided to head back home, only to end up returning to Manchester again on the Monday.  Monday evening was spent enjoying* some coffee in Starbucks, followed by a very roundabout trip to Samia and Ceyda's flat for a "rave".  The "rave" was awesome... it even included a disco ball and one of those ace bouncy balls.

I headed back about 10-11PM to work from home on the Tuesday before starting the drive down to Surrey.

I've no idea how many miles I covered with the three trips to/from Manchester, but I do know that my bank balance is feeling it!

Sheep go "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0"

I'm so emo.

Want.

If you're ever feeling flush and fancy buying me something awesome I have just the thing...

 

Garmin's GPSMAP 60CSx.