Rosario's posts with tag: geek speak
 | SPUDS! | Oct 4, '06 10:22 PM
for everyone |
I talked about setting the white balance using Pringle's lids a few days back and how these lids are now transparent and not translucent. I haven't tried the coffee filter option yet, but I have found another option. The local SPUDS! potato chips that come in a similar pacakging as Pringles have translucent white lids. I bought a small SPUDS! canister and used the lid to adjust my white balance. What do you know? It works! :D I'm going to try the coffee filter technique soon... when I have my coffee filters, that is.
The Creative Writing SIG is actually a group formed by several Mensa
members who would love to do nothing more than to put pen to paper and
ideas to ink. Members include Janet Villa, Art Ilano and myself, though
there are a lot more people in the group. They just haven't gotten
around to posting their stuff online. :D Do take a visit at http://crew.pinoyweb.net and read the ramplings and thoughts of several creative literary minds.
Also on The Geekette Speaketh.
Being a gadget lover, it comes as no surprise that I'm into product photography. The first time I heard of the light tent was when I read about it in an issue of Shutterbug. The first time I saw a light tent was when Jo Avila bought one from Avenue Photo in Hidalgo, Quiapo. (Note: Avenue Photo is the best place to buy lighting equipment in Quiapo, no matter how basic or how grandiose your lighting needs are. They're also going to be part of the Hidalgo Rummage Sale.) If you'd like to experiment with light tents, you have two options. Either borrow someone's light tent, or make one yourself. Instructions on how to make your own light tent can be found here. The nice thing about making your own light tent is that you can adjust the measurements as required. Now, if you want to shoot huge objects like cars, best you visit John Chua of AdPhoto. :D
I am not an impressionable person. It takes a lot for me to be awed by
someone. Blame my high and highly-erratic standards. And the fact
that I've been taught not to be easily swayed by PR. But the people
close to me admit that if I'm impressed by someone's capabilities, then
that someone must REALLY be good.
There are quite a few (living) people that have influenced me in
several fields that are close to my heart. This is a shortlist of
those people and why they are an inspiration.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Jo Avila - The man who started the VA (volunteer
assistant) culture in the PhPhoto yahoogroups. He unselfishly shares
his lighting techniques to anyone willing to voluntarily
assist him in his shoots. His former VA, John Mateos Ong, now pays it
forward by also accepting VAs during his own shoots. Note to beginners: Assist in his shoots and you won't be disappointed. His
shoots vary from products to corporate reports to magazines to weddings
to food. Just make sure you follow his rules, one of which is "You are
not allowed to shoot unless given explicit permission to do so".
Eddie Boy Escudero - "Passionate" is an understatement
when it comes to describing this man. It's amazing how he could shoot
an insane number of film rolls for a wedding ALL BY HIMSELF. Man, I
just love the avant garde way he shoots weddings. You should also see
his nudes!
Bert Dimson - He's lovingly called "Papa Bert" by
everyone who knows him. Again, another amazing wedding photographer.
I love the way he connects with people. He immediately puts you at
ease even if you've never met him before. An absolutely jolly
gentleman!
Albert Yan - "The crochety old man of film". He's very
particular with color output and quite upfront with his criticisms
(like Jo). But take his comments to heart and you'll find yourself
asking for more. :D
Jay Javier - Again, another photographer who's very
particular with color output. I love his chemistry experiments on film
processing and printing. He's an odd-cam guy, having a collection of working Russian Kievs.
Arnel Umali - Like Albert Yan, he's particular with color
output -- down to the tiniest detail. Careful how you defend your work
or you may end up eating peanuts! He's also an odd-cam guy,
specializing in old rangefinders.
Let it be known first: I am not a religious person. I usually
describe myself as a non-practicing Roman Catholic leaning quite a bit
towards agnosticism. That said, sometime back our community parish
asked for my help in creating a website and/or some sort of system for
their office. We had a couple of meetings and that was that.
If
they were to approach me again for help, I most likely would recommend
to them this particular linux distribution. According to developers,
"the goal of Ubuntu Christian Edition is not to bring Christianity to
Linux but to bring Linux to Christians". The distro is chockfull of
free open source software like web content parental controls and
several modules from GnomeSword including bibles, commentaries and
dictionaries. Aside from that, it also contains the financial
management software, GnuCash, to take care of the parish's funds.
Truly I say unto thee, this makes it so much easier for the non-techie christian denomination. :)
So. Here I am waiting in line to check in my baggage. The following text conversation ensues.
ME: Just a sudden thought. If you lost your pda and the Palm is no longer available, what would you do?
ART: I'd... cry? :D
I ask myself the same thing. What would I do without my Palm PDA? What if the OS disappears for good? I wouldn't cry that's for sure. But most likely I'd go into a nervous breakdown.
Right now my PDA and my phone act as my lifeline to the wired world. My laptop stays home for the meantime. I don't think I'll survive being able to not check my mail.
Well. At least it's personal and not work... unlike someone I know. ;D
After several days of trying to migrate to the new platform, it's finally over! The sites of Pinoyweb.Net were moved seamlessly with none of the sites going offline at all.
Clair noticed missing posts on the new server. Good thing I made a back up of the database and all her posts came back a few seconds after. Aside from that minor mishap, everything seems to be going fine. :)
Just proves to show you that given the proper planning, there's no need for a website to suddenly disappear for several days during a migration. ;)
Next up... upgrading all WordPress and Drupal accounts on Pinoyweb.Net. Remember now... PLAN CAREFULLY.
You may be wondering why I write my geek stuff here on multiply more than on my blog, The Geekette Speaketh. It's because it and the rest of the PinoyWeb.Net sites are being migrated to a new platform. It's taking some time to move since the testing isn't going as well as planned. So we're doing the move manually. Backing up databases, testing them locally then putting them all back online one by one. It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it. ;)
[From The Geekette Speaketh] Version Control Systems (VCS) have been around since the time people started developing software. It's an electronic way for keeping track of changes that have been made in the code. It also allows one to go "back in time" to the previous versions. Though it is regularly used in software development, not many people know that VCS can also be used for publications. Few people take the time to know the versioning system built in to Microsoft Word and simply resort to saving their current work as a new file when major changes come up. But what if you're typing your work in something other than a Microsoft Office product? There are free open source VCS available on the internet. Some options to consider (note that all of these are available on almost any operating system): I would think that some publication houses make use of some sort of versioning system. If not, items such as the one above would be a great help to them. As for myself, as soon as I've moved my site to the new server I plan to set up either Subversion or Bazaar so I could have a place to keep track of my writing projects.
[From The Geekette Speaketh] Ever since the m|ph site got itself a makeover, somehow everything just
went quirky. I've been trying to post a comment on their site but it
just isn't getting in at all. Case in point. Last July 28, Art Ilano
posted about prices of laptops dropping. This was what I wanted to
reply: Quad core, or the eight-core chip processors, are
just around the corner actually. Imagine replacing your home server
with that baby! {{{DROOL!}}}
I'm ok with my laptop, except for
the fact that for some gosh-darned reason I still can't find the 2GB
sticks I so sorely need! Nevertheless, the eight-core processor looks
tempting enough to get for the home desktop...
After
trying to post several times, I finally gave up and decided maybe
they're still having trouble with their server move. Some time later I
tried again. I had to edit my reply this time around since the chips
finally got released. Still nothing. Today I take a look and my
couple weeks old comments still aren't popping up. I just finally gave
up on it. Which brings me to web projects. Coming from the
industry that specializes in enterprise web applications and
service-oriented architecture (SOA), I know for a fact that there will
always be times when applications have to move to different platforms.
Specially if there's an intention for upgrades. Sadly, I've come
across a lot of local sites where people seem to think that moving
their PHP applications to another server is easy as pie. So they make
the move, change the DNS settings and --- BOOM! --- it, uhm, works.
Kinda. Right now PinoyWeb.Net is being migrated to the new
servers of our webhost. I've been in contact with the host engineers
about the migration. They've been doing some tests with our sites on
the new servers and the site seems to have some problems on the new
platform. Well, that's according to their automated tests. But on my
end, after doing a manual check, everything seems to be fine.
Nevertheless, I had set up my laptop to as near to their platform
settings as I possibly could so I can test it on my side as well. From
experience, moving production-grade applications isn't easy. But we
always make sure that the new home works 100% before resetting the
DNS. It's called Quality Control. And this, sadly, is something you
rarely see in the Philippines for some reason or another. I'm actually
tempted to just switch the DNS to the new servers, but I keep saying to
myself that I should be patient and keep trying to work on the new site
to pass the quality tests of the hosting service. I've seen very
few local home-grown software houses that implement Quality Control.
And it's just sad. We have so much IT talent. It's because of the
tendency of Filipinos to just say "Bah! That's good enough. Ship it!"
that we aren't recognized for such talent. So many times we've seen software that
has real potential but under the hood it's sloppy, disorganized and in
disarray. I'm glad our company is doing it's best to make a difference
and turn the local IT industry around. We may be few in number against
India. But it would sure be nice if we're known to churn out
world-class work in the IT field. References:
- Art Ilano's "Prices are a-dropping"
http://www.m-ph.com/general/prices-are-a-dropping/
The Geekette Speaketh:I guess it's bound to happen sooner or later. According to the article on DailyTech [1], Palm Inc. might shove the Palm OS down the drain. According to Palm, developing for two separate operating systems is too expensive, and more devices coming to market continue to ship with Windows Mobile. Although the change isn’t reflected in Palm's current device roadmap, the company mentioned that it would make sense. I can't say I knew it was coming. But you have to admit, after several name changes, you'd really wonder if the company would live past 2007. You think they'd change their name again from Palm Inc. to WinMobile? My guess is the company is just going to fold up altogether. That being said, I'm still hanging on to my trusty, newly "formatted" PalmOne Zire 72(stripped). Until I can get my hands on the Sony Ericsson M600 [2] that is. References:- Palm's Direction into the Future May Open New Windows
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3118 - The Sony Ericsson M600
website
I realized that it's such great fun when you're unattached! Nothing to
hold you down. Nothing to get in your way. None of the ties that bind.
Freedom! Freedom to do what you want when you want it and where you want it!
So this is what it feels like to turn your home into a hotspot! 
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