I, Curtis

Lens Information Stored

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 02:38:50 -0500

Finally, I have managed to store lens information in my JPEG files! It isn't using ExIf though, because honestly, it's way too hard and would require me learning way too much information about how the Makernote segment of ExIf works. As an alternative, I am using XMP. XMP is an Adobe developed standard based on XML that is embedded into JPG files (or as a standalone beside RAW). I am so far using two fields of XMP that come from Microsoft's standards used for Windows Vista/7's image management tools, those are /xmp/MicrosoftPhoto:LensManufacturer and /xmp/MicrosoftPhoto:LensModel as well as /xmp/xmp:lens and /xmp/aux:Lens. I've gone from having 0 places for lens information to having 3 places for lens information. At this point I am just happy it's in there, but now that I am using XMP, I have more places to put information which means I can allow for the option of storing more information in the files. I now have intentions on letting ExIf 35 store contact information in the files when the option is selected. Additional things I would like to store is things like the chemicals used in developing and a better way to do the film information, other than just a user comment area that states "Shot on ____ film". Because things are moving more digital, I am likely to have to write my own schema addition to XMP and store the information. It's likely that the only thing that will read those fields is ExIf 35 itself, but I'm hopeful that if it has to be done, I might be able to convince Flickr to adopt my schema addition as well, since it is quite likely it would be the only one anywhere near supporting film information. All of this information is relevant to the image, and it would be great to get it all in.

ExIf Lens Information

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:22:41 -0500

I think I have managed to accomplish all that I wanted with ExIf except for one thing. I still want to store lens information in the ExIf info. Unfortunately, the only place to do that is MakerNotes, and I don't know how to work with them. It is my understanding that I would have to pick a specific set of makernotes to use for this, but I'm not even sure how to go about that. Because of the nature of my project I am not tied down to one particular set of notes, but that also means that I don't need all of the tags included in a full set. I can't make heads or tails out of how makernotes function. Do I have to somehow specify what the notes are? Are there internal references between the notes that tell photo viewers what each tag is? I don't have a clue and its starting to get to me. Is it possible to create my own maker notes? My guess on that is no, since everyone seems to be desperate to track down makernotes for every major camera ever created. I feel like I am Googling in circles at the moment trying to make things work.

What is deserving of film?

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:22:57 -0500

What images are deserving of being stored on film? As I have only taken 7 exposures of film so far I have found myself thinking about this a good bit. I don't think I would want to us film for special occasions, as there are way too many things that could go wrong, and yet, I don't want to use film for frivolous photography because film is expensive. I suppose this puts film in the category of "serious art photography", but I don't like that, as I don't think "serious" and "art" go together, one pollutes the other. I do believe I want to use film only for art photography and not for the other purposes mentioned. I still question what I should shoot as I don't think I have ever thought about photography in this way. With clay I have to put a lot of effort and focus into what I do because the clay is precious. When thinking about it, film is even more precious because while you can make a bowl, even though it may be a bad bowl, it still has all of the basic properties of a bowl, it can hold things. With film, a bad exposure is just that, a bad exposure. I suspect my problem here in the question of what deserves film is more or less about my compositional skill, which at the moment is pretty non-existent. With digital I shoot until things look right, with film I don't have that option. Perhaps it's time for me to wander around with a viewfinder to my head and answer my own question.

The Many Ways to Flash (or Not to Flash)

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:22:24 -0500

Just thought of adding some of the more fun flash codes to my ExIf tool, but have decided against it for now unless someone directly requests it. I am perfectly happy with the binary choice of 0 (Flash did not fire) or 1 (Flash fired). All of the other options are roughly as easy from a logical standpoint, but they are much harder to pass into my existing code for encoding into the ExIf of image files.

0000.H = Flash did not fire.

0001.H = Flash fired.

0005.H = Strobe return light not detected.

0007.H = Strobe return light detected.

0009.H = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode

000D.H = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, return light not detected

000F.H = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, return light detected

0010.H = Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

0018.H = Flash did not fire, auto mode

0019.H = Flash fired, auto mode

001D.H = Flash fired, auto mode, return light not detected

001F.H = Flash fired, auto mode, return light detected

0020.H = No flash function

0041.H = Flash fired, red-eye reduction mode

0045.H = Flash fired, red-eye reduction mode, return light not detected

0047.H = Flash fired, red-eye reduction mode, return light detected

0049.H = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode

004D.H = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode, return light not detected

004F.H = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode, return light detected

0059.H = Flash fired, auto mode, red-eye reduction mode

005D.H = Flash fired, auto mode, return light not detected, red-eye reduction mode

005F.H = Flash fired, auto mode, return light detected, red-eye reduction mode

On the other hand, I have decided to add all 21 types of light, since that seems more useful (and is less likely to give me a headache)

1 = Daylight

2 = Fluorescent

3 = Tungsten (incandescent light)

4 = Flash

9 = Fine weather

10 = Cloudy weather

11 = Shade

12 = Daylight fluorescent (D 5700 – 7100K)

13 = Day white fluorescent (N 4600 – 5400K)

14 = Cool white fluorescent (W 3900 – 4500K)

15 = White fluorescent (WW 3200 – 3700K)

17 = Standard light A

18 = Standard light B

19 = Standard light C

20 = D55

21 = D65

22 = D75

23 = D50

24 = ISO studio tungsten

255 = other light source

ExIf Bytes

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:00:48 -0500

I am victorious over ExIf! The documentation for ExIf overcomplicates things. While ExIf uses a lot of different types (0x1 through 0xA), it is possible to interact with most common values utilizing only 2 of these, 0x2 and 0x5. 0x2 is the null terminated string, and 0x5 is the 2 pair of Long Ints, acting as a rational. It would also seem that even though the documentation suggests that length only matters for 0x2, it cares for all of them, so it is a must to give the length of the byte array used to carry the long ints. A small error on my part was trying to convert directly from String (because I used System.Window.Forms.TextBox to get the information) to byte[] without passing through the intermediate int, or trying to convert to byte[] from double, which was very nasty. I learned these little tricks about things by reading in ExIf information in the application itself without the aid of any little helper apps that try to clean things up, it make the structure a lot more clear.

For anyone else trying a similar exercise in futility, here is a bit of my code:

if (Type == 0x2)

{

tmpProp.Len = value.Length + 1;

value = value + nullChar;

tmpProp.Value = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(value);

}

else if (Type == 0x5)

{

Byte[] tmp1 = BitConverter.GetBytes(Convert.ToInt32(value.Split('/')[0]));

Byte[] tmp2 = BitConverter.GetBytes(Convert.ToInt32(value.Split('/')[1]));

Byte[] tmp3 = new Byte[tmp1.Length + tmp2.Length];

tmp1.CopyTo(tmp3,0);

tmp2.CopyTo(tmp3, tmp1.Length);

tmpProp.Value = tmp3;

tmpProp.Len = tmp3.Length;

}

I love C#, so simple, but yet such a pain in the ass, all at once.

The Downfall of Distance Education

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:43:05 -0500

When I first started distance education (online) courses back in 2004 things were different than they are now. From that statement you might gather that things have improved, you know, something technical, so it has to have gotten better. The situation is quite the opposite. When I started online courses, I liked them better than lecture courses because they were better on many different aspects. Online instructors used to be specialized in what they did, they had a special affection for the online course delivery method. Often instructors would use such tools as web based chat, interactive websites and sometimes even video to keep students engaged in courses. The point being that the courses were actually web based courses, using the Internet as a key part of the instructional process and not just as the delivery method for the course. Now courses seem to be more structured like independent study courses that merely utilize the Internet as a method for sending in papers or taking quizzes. There is no instruction and often instructors are primarily lecturers looking to pick up a few extra hours on their schedule. To students, these instructors barely exist. I have a hard time remembering the names of my instructors because of their lack of interaction. I remember a time when I took online courses and I had a message in my inbox from an instructor at least once a week, sometimes more. Instructors would do things like send out links that may be of interest, or some little personal observation about course performance. Now the courses are pretty much forced to run themselves. It is quite a sad change. I feel as though the changes in the way online courses have been treated will eventually cause the online method to either be terminated, or force them into a completely different accreditation status.

I believe the change in the way distance education courses have been taught in recent years has a lot to do with adult learners wanting to complete degrees. Those adult students do not want a lot of a materials to handle, or any type of interaction, they just want to do the reading for the course, take the test, and then get a meaningless piece of paper to stick on the wall. I do not believe those students truly want an education, they want a degree. With that downturn of academic ambition there isn't a lot of reason for instructors to be involved or to do much more than a copy/paste online course in Blackboard. The courses are technically capable of running themselves, they can grade a lot of their own material and they can handle operating on a schedule, no intervention required, but do we really want to change the way academic institutions are structured to have students interacting with a course and not an instructor? If this pattern continues, that's what will happen, no more instructors, just courses and "course designers" (the people that presently prepare courses for instructors).

I hope that when I begin my masters program I won't find the same thing in graduate courses as I am finding in undergrad courses.

Still an ExIf No Go

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:39:56 -0500

I am still trying to wrap my head around everything in ExIf. The Strings are no big deal, they just convert cleanly to byte arrays and go into the file, but I don't even know where to begin making things the right format for everything else. If anyone can make any sense of this, please see the documents below, and if you think you can help, request to be added to the project on SourceForge so you can have SVN access to active code.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.drawing.imaging.propertyitem.type.aspx Defines the types I am forced into using

http://www.exif.org/samples/nikon-e950.html Gives some examples of the fields and their values (still not helpful, since it doesn't give me the raw input form)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms534418%28VS.85%29.aspx The tags, in order, that VS supports.

http://exif35.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/exif35/ExIF35/ My source code. Feel free to poke around.

The problem:

Everything has to be converted to an array of bytes (byte[]). I do not know how to get things like 1/100, 2.8/1 and 50/1 into the proper forms (see first link above) to put them into the byte array. I am just so incredibly frustrated at this point.

Fighting ExIf

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:31:22 -0500

The Exchangable Image-file Format is a nice little thing that keeps up with information relating to how a picture was taken, where it was taken, who took it and what is in the picture (as vague as how far from the camera the subject, or even detailed information about the subject). The use of ExIf is primarily linked to digital photography, but there are some instances when it doesn't have to be. The options for storing the type of sensor method used to capture the image is certainly a digital-only field, however, there are things such as "DTDigitized", which is "Date/Time Digitized" that would indicate that the moment the image was captured and the moment it was digitized might be more than a second apart (such as in film photography).

I am horrible at keeping up with notes, so I am attempting to write software that will store all of my relevant information for me. The software for storing the actual notes was not a big deal, it is just a form that writes everything to a giant XML file, no complication there. Where things get tricky is the writing of data to the files themselves. First of all, with as common as ExIf information is, I assumed that there was some type of text-based value used to identify the properties, that isn't the case, they are large integers (such as 0x8827 for "ISO Speed"). Those integers map to a specific property. The information itself is stored as individual arrays of bytes, no strings at all, everything is stored numerically. Things have to be written in a very particular way or else when the bytes are converted back to strings for reading, things don't match up and you get off the wall values.

Now I am fighting with C# and the .NET System.Drawing.Imaging library (specifically the PropertyValue class) in an attempt to make everything work out. I have to set like 4 values for each one ExIf property I want to use. It is going to be a very long night before this application is ready for use.

Writing Software

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:35:07 -0500

It seems like lately I have been creating a lot of software applications, but not really getting any of them where I want them in terms of functionality. All of my apps are very specific in what they do and aren't really of much use to anyone else. Several of these applications are in the repositories on SourceForge and their code is publicly viewable. I am starting to think I should put some effort into all of these, except the ones relating to GITI, since they are merely supplements to the online system itself.

APA Reference Manager
The insanity this came from was dodging writing a paper, while still sort of working on it. It's pretty much the same as the web-based conversion services, except this one is on your PC and won't suddenly demand a fee to get your references [Screenshot]

ExIf 35
Now that I have a 35mm camera I started thinking about the fact that most film photogs carry around little notepads. Well, I don't like those notepads, at least not for long term storage of my picture information, so, I have written this little tool to store that information to a file, and eventually I hope to get the ability to write the ExIf data directly to the scanned negative files. [Screenshot]

GITI Desktop
A very basic desktop application that I have now abandoned working on. It is supposed to get information from GITI on the web and present it for the user, eventually it would theoretically be able to handle all of the modules of GITI, but that seems a little too hard at the moment. [Screenshot]

GITI Cookbook
This application has the GITI name, but isn't strictly for GITI. It can retrieve recipes from GITI's cookbook, but it can also retrieve recipes from a file, or take them from user input and then store them in a file. Very simple as far as use, but a really neat app to write from the standpoint of using XML and object orientation. [Screenshot]

GITI Notify
This is my second attempt at a GITI application. This focuses on upcoming items in the queue of GITI. Nothing too complicated, a very clean app in my opinion. I want to add more things to it, such as status updates. I also plan to make it minimize to the tray. [Screenshot]

GPSWriter
This one is basically complete. It takes in files written by my GPS receiver (in NMEA sentence files), and then runs them through a pre-written converter (GPSBabel) and then places them in the proper folder. Its not a big deal, but I have given it a drag and drop interface that will let me put in a batch of files very easily. The app I use in the background to make this work only takes one file at a time. [Screenshot]

Side By Side
This was born from one of the crazy little things that keeps me from replying to email. I hate having to move between windows or tabs or whatever to reply to a message. This little app will let me paste plain text into box 1 and type a response to it in box 2. I want to make this one more interesting, but it doesn't really go beyond what I have mentioned as far as expected functionality. It's like having two notepad windows side by side, except these two boxes are permanently bound by this single application. [Screenshot]

Virtual Kiln
This one I thought was neat at the time, but not so much now. It is a piece of software that mimics the controller on my kiln and tries to determine what the temperature might be when ramping up. In the future I might add the ability to save programs as well as kiln statistics in it. [Screenshot]

Chicken Lasagna Rolls

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:31:19 -0500

Category: Chicken
Prep Time: 00:40:00
Cook Time: 00:40:00

12 Lasagna Noodles
3 Chicken Breasts, boneless
2 cups Heavy Cream
3 tbsp Butter, not margarine
2 tbsp AP Flour
1 pinch Nutmeg, ground
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Black pepper, ground
1 tsp Garlic powder(Optional)
2 cups Marinara sauce
6 ounces Mozzarella cheese, grated
2 tsp Olive oil(Optional)

To cook the chicken and pasta:

1. Slice raw chicken breasts into pieces that are slightly longer than the width of the noodles, and will allow the noodle to be wrapped around it several times.

2. Brown chicken in a hot skillet, a non-stick skillet will require no oils. For other pan types, use about 2 tsp of olive oil to lubricate.

3. While browning chicken begin boiling water for the noodles, and cook them per the package directions. Let them drain on a cooling rack.

For the bechamel:

4. Once the chicken and noodles are cooked, heat the butter in a sauce pan until it begins to melt, then whisk in the flour, whisking continuously until the mixture is smooth and begins to bubble.

5. Once the mixture is bubbling, add the heavy cream (or milk, milk just takes longer to cook, but absolutely no 2% milk). Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking continuously and until the mixture reduces to a sauce that resembles alfredo or a nacho sauce. Remove from heat as soon as desired thickness is reached and whisk in nutmeg, salt, pepper and garlic (if desired).

Assembly:

6. Place one noodle on a cutting board or other clean surface in front of you. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the bechamel on the length of the noodle, most nearest you, and gradually thinning as you approach the top. Sprinkle about 1/12th of the cheese (1/2 ounce) evenly along the length of the noodle. Place a piece of chicken (1 large piece, or 2 small pieces) horizontally on the noodle at the end nearest you. Roll up the noodle and place it face down in a baking dish. Repeat for all remaining noodles.

7. Pour any remaining bechamel on top of the noodles.

8. Pour marinara sauce over the noodles.

9. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Mobile Computing Power

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:46:58 -0500

In the past several months I have spent a lot of time hanging out in UNC-Charlotte's Atkins Library, and I have noticed an odd trend among students who take computers with them to the library... a lot of them plug in. When I began college, only a few people brought laptops to class or even to the library, and almost no one brought their power packs. In general, back then, laptops had enough power to run for a few hours without needing to be plugged in. Now software applications are more power hungry and CPUs just sort of let them have at what they want to use. When I was researching what computer I wanted to buy for the purpose of having a mobile computer for taking with me when I go places, the first thing I looked at was battery life. I was less concerned about overall computing power than battery life. It may be hard to do things with an underpowered CPU at times, but it is even more difficult to do things when you have no power for the CPU to use at all. So why is it in this age of everything mobile and social that laptops are built in such a way that they require the power adapter leash? Personally, I am sitting here with 94% and 13 hours of battery life available to me, and even though I plan to be here until about 9:30 this evening, I know that I will have more than enough power. On this laptop I have Windows 7, Office, Visual Studio and a few image applications (everything short of PhotoShop), and the "low power" CPU I have doesn't seem to struggle at all with them. I suppose having two cores is better than one, no matter what voltage those cores consume.

Arrival of Nikon N80QD

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:25:51 -0500

The Nikon N80QD arrived at 11:50 this morning. I ordered a camera listed as "used" in Adorama's inventory. I ordered the one with the best rating that I could find (a rating of "D" for demo). Even with the device being of "demo" grade, I was expecting to see some signs that it had been touched before, but I had difficulty finding any. The camera came in its original box, in its plastic bag, complete with undisturbed silica gel packets. The only sign of the camera being used at all was the removed proof of purchase UPC on the side of the box. Also, the manual was missing, which isn't shocking, since it is worth a lot more away from the camera than it is with the camera.

Returning to a Simpler Time

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:33:01 -0500

My 35mm film SLR shipped from Adorama this afternoon, after a 24 hour delay (which has yet to be explained). I have decided to spend a little time today reading the manual for it. So far what I have noticed is that I am sending myself to a simpler time photographically. The Nikon N80QD is very similar to the Nikon D90's direct predecessor the Nikon D80, but there are things that are obviously very different. The biggest thing I have noticed from reading the manual is that the highly customizable menus that exist on the D80 and D90 are present on the N80, with many of the same options (or their film equivalent), except for a major difference. Where I have been used to working with a full color menu with help options and a variety of other little conveniences, on the N80 I will have the menu options guide from the manual and the option to select 1 or 0 for each of the numbered options in the menu (just numbers, no names). When I first got the D90 I asked why the menus had numbers, since the D60's menus do not have numbers, I suppose now I have my answer, because in that line of cameras there was an early history of using numbers to identify options instead of names. I suspect it will be a pain in the ass to learn all of the menu options, but I will give it my best shot and hopefully not spend the first few weeks with the camera learning its controls. Other than the main menu, all of the other controls are laid out just like the D80, which again, is nearly identical to the D90.

Film Photography Welcome Kit

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:53:20 -0500

To get me started on the wonderful world of film photography, I have ordered the following:

SKU                  Brand Product                           Qty   Price      Total

-------------------- ---------------------------------------- --- ----------- -----------

DKG16

               Adorama One (1) Pint (500 Ml) Plastic Gr  1    $3.95        $3.95

DKFC4

               Adorama Stainless Steel Film Clips, Pack  1    $5.85        $5.85

CHISBP

              Adorama Indicator Stop Bath for Black &a  1    $4.99        $4.99

KKPF200P

            Kodak Photo-Flo 200 Photographic Wetting  1    $7.95        $7.95

ILRF500

             Ilford Rapid Fixer 500 Milliliter Bottle  1    $6.95        $6.95

CHFD

                Adorama Film Developer for all Black &am  1    $5.99        $5.99

PAT135

              Paterson 35mm Tank and Reel               1    $25.95       $25.95

FJNP400365

          Fujifilm Neopan 400 Black &%3B White   1    $18.75       $18.75

US371316

            Nikon N80 Autofocus W/date Body W/box   D 1    $159.00      $159.00      
----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------- -----------
Subtotal: $239.38      

 
I have assembled this little getting started kit from following the advice from http://chromogenic.net/develop. I hope this works out well. I am a little nervous about having to open a film canister and putting the film on to the reel for developing. I am not good at doing things in the dark. Once the film is in the tank, very little can go wrong, or so I'm told.

Extending a Hobby

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:29:34 -0500

I have decided this morning to make a fairly bold move in my consideration of working with film photography. I have purchased a Nikon N80D, 5 rolls of Fujifilm ISO 400 BW film, an developing tank and an assortment of chemicals required for the developing process (wetting agent, developer, stop bath, fixer). Before this morning it was pretty hypothetical, but I decided (in my sleep deprived state) that the thoughts of not doing it at all were irrational and that if I did that, I would regret it. I do not foresee doing a lot of film photography, but at least if I want to, the option is available to me. Normally my order from Adorama would have been packed today, but due to the Jewish holiday of Purim, the order will not ship until tomorrow morning at the earliest.

I am having buyer's remorse already, but I think I will get over it once I spend some time with the camera. I will need to practice my dark room techniques as well as maybe spending some time trying to learn how to make impressive photographs with contrast, shadow and light.

Thinking About Film

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:31:37 -0500

A long time ago, I photographed on film. From the time I was 5 until about 2000 I worked exclusively with film, a combination of 110, 35mm and APS. In 2002 I made the transition to digital photography, and then finally in 2008 I moved to Digital SLR. I have seen numerous claims that digital cannot beat the clarity of film, but in recent times I have not done anything to compare to. Out of pure curiosity and perhaps a bit for a challenge, I am considering purchasing a film SLR camera. I have found quite a good deal on a used Nikon N80 from Adorama, and I think it would be worth pursuing. The N80 is fairly close in features to the D80 (the direct predecessor to the D90). I find myself worrying about the concept of developing and printing the film. Would I use a lab? If so, which lab? How hard would it be to transform a bathroom into a dark room? I have a film scanner, so it isn't as though I would have to always get my images printed, but I would need to be able to develop the film to prevent deterioration. There seem to be only a few reasons to do film again, but yet, a few concerns and reasons to not. I feel like the biggest reason to obtain a film camera is for historical value. It is still common practice in art education programs to still use film to teach photography before digital because it forces the student to be more careful and take a more active role in the art, which is perhaps something that would be beneficial to me. There is also that feeling in the back of my mind like it's something I should learn how to do, if for no other reason than just simply for the sake of being able to use both types of media.

Maybe it's just an excuse for another toy, and that's why I am still undecided.

Boredom and its outcomes

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:15:22 -0500

Last night after becoming somewhat bored, I decided I really wanted to play "Rodent's Revenge". It's not at all a fancy game, so I thought I would give it a shot on CMK7-M. Somewhere along the way I forgot that the game was originally for Windows 3.1 and would not run on a 64-bit operating system. It makes sense, after a while, things need to be left behind and not be emulated, so that the rest of the world can do things more efficiently. I considered letting go of the idea of playing the game before I remembered that I have VMWare installed on my laptop. It is there because I considered creating a dual boot machine with Ubuntu before the system was obtained (and I really hate rebooting). Anyway, for some reason I can't explain, instead of installing a Windows XP VM, or even 2000 or Me, I decided I would go for the most archaic thing I have access to, Windows 3.1.

I had forgotten how much of a pain Windows 3.1 was to install, especially without a floppy drive. I ended up having to a bootable DOS 6.0 image, then installing DOS 6.22 (because all I have is an upgrade copy), and finally installing Windows 3.1. Installing Windows 3.1 was pretty easy in itself though, once the pre-reqs were in place.

An Environmental Impact Report

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:56:00 -0500

Here is my new laptop's report so far on its usage of electricity and how much power it thinks it saves by utilizing the Toshiba "eco" power plan. Blue is usage, and green is the amount of power it thinks it has conserved. Since at full power the laptop draws about 15W (vs the lightbulb in a fixture at 60W), I am not much too concerned about the amount of power that my computer is drawing. The system runs pretty cool, uses little power, but still manages to handle all of the tasks I throw at it, although, I haven't tried running PhotoShop yet.

Privacy

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:14:34 -0500

Privacy seems to be something that a lot of individuals are worried about, but organizations seem to have no care for their constituents to have it. Facebook and Google lure users into their services with promises of secure communication and access to some special attribute that only that service can offer. With Buzz, Google violated the trust that users had placed in them, but of course, this was not the first time. Google has always had somewhat shady policies regarding information storage and use. With Google, there is an expectation of privacy on the part of the user, but an expectation of complete ownership of all information that passes through its network on the part of Google themselves. These are perhaps conflicting expectations. Facebook on the other hand, is just badly designed. There is now an open-door policy on a service that was once a protected place for university students to communicate with each other and for friends who went to different schools to stay in contact with each other. Now, there is a creepy factor since things have been opened up to allow any strange person in the world to sign up. It is a bit concerning, especially for anyone who may have had an account when the service was safe, and has since abandoned it. At this point Facebook is just careless, allowing any and all types of applications access to their API and making simple mistakes that cause email notifications to be mis-delivered, which is a severe breach of privacy. Twitter, on the other hand, is a gaping privacy hole, but that's perfectly fine, since Twitter users have absolutely no expectation of privacy.

I personally do not have much worry about privacy, because in general I don't really have anything to hide, but I do not like the idea of my information being released without my consent. I do not want to be added to services that I have not signed up for, and I especially do not want things that I write or create to become the property of Google, it just isn't right.

Reconsidering Blog Diversification

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:55:38 -0500

At some point in the past I had a lot of things going on in my life to the point where I required several different blogs just to keep things sorted out. I had interests pretty much flying out my ass and needed a place to blog and insert content relevant to each and every one. Now, things are different. My interests are narrowing and things are becoming more stable and cohesive, so the need for a separate blog relating to each thing is becoming less required. Unfortunately even my more specialized (and somewhat secret) blogs are not doing their jobs anymore either, mostly because they do not represent the real me anymore. I still have kinky interests, but they seem to have no meaning or substance without affection and some type of strong emotional bond, so those areas almost come back under the scope of this blog. Originally when this blog was launched it was to be my one-stop place for all of my thoughts, no matter how pure of problematic. Several years ago I had a problem where I considered suicide a few times, the entry where I announced those feelings and tried to write about them so that I could address them was posted to this blog, but now, it might be more likely to go to another blog, Restricted Access (as the name implies, its locked down). A few days ago, my new exercise routine stirred up erotic feelings in me and I felt like I needed an outlet, but it wasn't right for my fetish blog, and it seemed a little out of the range of the body blog (since it's a mental issue), so ideally it would be a personal topic, for the personal blog (this one), but once again, that type of thing ended up on RA, out of public view. The thoughts were personal, but not necessarily enough to be completely private. The separation of the body blog from the personal blog is really a self image thing I think. I keep the two worlds separate because I am afraid of screwing up, and then it would be an issue where it would be reflected in this blog and not just some other auxiliary blog that I can either close, or just ignore and forget about. Now I am realizing that the body blog is an ongoing thing and I do not necessarily screw up when I deviate from my goals, it just indicates a change in direction, just like anything else. The art blog has not been updated in over a year, which is probably a bad thing, since my art is a big part of my life. I don't share much on there because it hardly seems relevant, because I feel like I am always doing the same stuff. It used to be the clay blog, which was great when I was still actively participating in ceramic classes and needed a way to keep my clay thoughts separate from my personal thoughts. Once again, I do not see why the differentiation was needed, except as a content delivery mechanism for the ceramic website (which is pretty much dead now). One other thing that affects the more "uncensored" blogs is the general audience nature of this blog. I really don't want to make anyone uncomfortable, and I feel like if I started posting in that way, I just might alienate people. Perhaps that defense is more about a disparity in self image more than alienation, but I just can't be sure. I am not yet comfortable with bridging that separation.

No matter how weird my life is, I am only one person, and there is becoming less and less reason to have everything separate. I want to be whole and outside of authentication mechanisms I'm not really sure how to go about it. I think I will experiment with web presence stuff other than the blogs at first and see if it is even a doable thing for all parts of me to coexist.

My Ideal Camera Bag

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:30:00 -0500

I am still looking for the perfect camera bag, but I think I have accepted that it simply does not exist. Below is a diagram of what I really would love to have, even though I can't seem to find it.

A – Laptop compartment (15.4" capacity)

B – SLR Holster, about 9" long, SLR+Long Zoom

C – Accessory pocket

D – "Sliplock" or something similar (nylon web straps with plastic buckles will work)

E – Shoulder straps, I want a backpack form factor.

Char[140] Message

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:20:01 -0500

Why 140 characters? Why not 150, or 130? I have recently begun experimentally using Twitter. I still hold my previous opinions of it as being a gross social devolution, but I do find it to be somewhat amusing and even interesting in other contexts. I presently have my GITI statuses post to Twitter just for the purpose of because I can, I can get GITI to do it and it doesn't force any extra effort on me. I still do not believe that Twitter is a useful service by itself, but with the addition of various readers and other tools that can integrate it into other things, it becomes the quite essential personal QOTD utility. I suppose in some ways, short messages are essential in technology, but not in human communication, that's why we have e-mail, IM and a variety of other things that allow us to communicate without being stuck into a 140 character bubble. Sometimes writing for Twitter feels more like a game invented by an English professor, forcing the efficient use of the language. Can every thought someone would want to express be done in 140 characters? I don't know, but it sounds like a great experiment for a PSYC major.

Procedures and Precedence

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:02:36 -0500

It seems like too often I have to question GITI in some way. Sometimes it is in the form of the amount of time I have to spend directly modifying the database, other times it is in the lack of a coherent user experience. The most recent situation of this was this morning when several times while working out I had to go into the database to add new entries for exercises that were not yet in the 'fields' table. If I were a normal end user I would be basically screwed in that situation since there isn't an "other" and the health_exercise module uses only "system" fields, it does not allow for the end user to extend what is available. Why not? I do not know, it just was never considered, I guess as a result of me reacting to other modules that use user-level fields that are really inconvenient. I have found that in general the system level fields are more useful and tend to be less user intrusive, since it forces an administrative decision on what the fields should contain, but in the end it comes out show GITI to be a little inflexible in some areas. In almost no area of GITI do I use any type of coherent shared fields… a set of base values specified by an administrator and then a set of additional user values that can apply to the same field. Also, it is an ideal of GITI for each module to control its own fields when they are needed, this hasn't gone so well in implementation as I have yet to write a single bit of code to allow a user to add an assignment type to the assignment addition area write in the education module, or about 1000 other annoying little spots where such functionality would be really cool. Now I find myself with a decision to make. GITI needs consistent fields, and of course with its requirement of minimizing waste, it must keep user information redundancy to a minimum. Which would work better: users able to add values to fields for themselves (in addition to system values), or a way for users to propose system values? Maybe the answer is in both, but that gets complicated, as it would require allowing users to add values themselves and then recommend for system wide usage, at which point the user would lose access to modify the value they created. I want consistency and extensibility, but there is so much to consider. There have been no procedures specified until now to handle more than 2 or 3 users on GITI, but if I want to get feedback and learn how to make GITI better, I am going to have to prepare it for more than the number of users in my comfort zone. There simply is no precedent in GITI's history for the type of things I am wanting to accomplish.

Tracklog Workflow

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:42:25 -0500

I am trying to find ways to shorten my GPS workflow by a bit. I use a GisTeq CD-110B tracklog recorder, and it writes a new log every time it powers up or down, which can create a lot of logs since the thing powers down after 15 minutes of inactivity and powers up when it's in motion.

The present flow of things is a bit like this:

There is a good amount of manual stuff that I want to cut out. I have already shrunk the file conversion from GPS => GPX a bit, but coding a quick way to pass the files to the conversion software, but I would still like to reduce my involvement a lot more. I recognize that between Nikon Transfer and my varying geotag apps, I can't shorten the photo involvement process, but I'm hoping to be able to shorten a lot of the file handling, but I'm not quite sure how to go about that just yet.

Bags, Bags, and More Bags

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:00:42 -0500

I am so sick of dealing with bags. I used to just think that my needs simply didn't represent the majority of people, so therefore, I was having trouble picking a bag. Now, I am starting to think that the majority of bags just suck. I received my LowePro FastPack 250 this morning and at the moment I can't say for certain that it will be around for another few days, because I am having trouble finding any redeeming qualities about it. Even though it was described in a way that made it sound like the perfect bag for me. I should state that other than my reservations about the bag, I think it is well made and could be a quality addition to any photographer's bag collection.

The problems however are too great to ignore, at least for me.

First, the bag's visual appearance is HUGE. It is much bigger than I feel that a bag like this should be (in depth).
Second, I tried putting in the Nikkor 70-300 lens, it didn't fit. It fits in the camera area, but what if I am shooting with a lens other than it? Where does it go?
Third, I was told this bag had the LowePro SlipLock system… uh… yeah, kinda. It has ONE connector, on the right strap. A very bad spot in my opinion, unless you are sniper needing easy access to your ammo in that area. I cannot see strapping the 70-300's Lens Case 3 to that position and still feeling comfortable walking around in public. My shoulder holster has 2 connectors, one on each side. This bag has a side with no zippers or other things blocking a connector from being there. If there were a slip lock connector on the side of the bag, it would resolve #2, and make #1 less annoying (a bag this fucking huge has to be able to handle a large lens).

My plan at the moment is to continue to tinker with the bag's interior configuration a bit and see if I can come up with some workable solution, and/or find a good way to use the alternative connectors on the Lens Case 3 to attach the 70-300 to the bag. Other than those problems noted, I do like the bag, and feel that my equipment would be well protected and more accessible than in my holster (little compartments, so less lens cases hanging). The compartment for the laptop is perfectly sized. Its for a 15.4" laptop, which I don't think it can comfortably hold, but its absolutely perfect for my 13.3. I also like that the bag stands up by itself.

At the moment I am carrying the D90 with the 18-105mm inside of a Targus laptop backpack, its not very secure in there, and there isn't much padding, but it kind of works. There isn't room for the 70-300mm in or on this bag either, but that doesn't bother me cause the bag is thinner, narrower and shorter than the LowePro bag, and I have space for the Lens Case 1, containing the Nikkor 35m f/1.8, to attach to the back of the bag (horizontally).

Bi-polar PC

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:43:47 -0500

While I have been amused by the completely unrealistic battery expectations of the T135 I am becoming less amused when it throws things in the other direction. I was beginning to worry a few minutes ago as I was told that I had 60% remaining on the primary battery, and that meant that I had 2.5 hours left…. WTF? I wasn't doing anything, the hard drive was inactive and the fans were quiet. I decide to ignore the battery situation and just let the thing go about its business… check on the battery level again after a few minutes and then I'm told I have over 6 hours of battery remaining. I really wish this thing could calculate based on the amount of battery that I use on average to determine how much time to put on the clock. So far this system is performing well and I haven't felt like I will be needing a longer lasting battery, but the jumping around bit gets to me. I prefer feeling secure in the availability of power on my system.

Project 365: Day 141

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:20:59 -0500

World’s Most Delusional Laptop?

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:25:57 -0500

This even makes me a little skeptical.

CMK7-Ms First Outing

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:20:44 -0500

I have taken CMK7-M out into the world for the first time. I am in the UNC-Charlotte library, on the south side, near the windows and directly underneath an access point. I am enjoying having access to my own system while here. I could have never brought CMK5-M out like this, it was way too heavy to carry and in general not that useful (4 hours of battery is disappointing). The machine is overall lightweight and easy to carry. My only real problem with the machine at this point is its highly reflective screen, which doesn't do well with natural light or with high powered florescent bulbs buzzing overhead.

I do have a problem with bag selection though. I bought a bag right before I bought the system just because I was running out of time and needed a way to carry it. I bought a fairly inexpensive Targus bag and am overall happy with it. Its thin, and quite nice for carrying just the laptop, but the whole configuration is a bit much to handle when I try to carry the laptop in the backpack and the D90 in the shoulder bag. It so does not work for me. I feel too much like I'm being strangled and I feel like I look like a packmule, not the level of hotness I'm going for in general when it comes to my appearance. I have located a bag that I kind of like, now that it has become a necessity type of situation. It's a Lowepro FastPack 250. It's not a jumbo bag, but at the same time it will carry everything I need it to carry for an outing, and also will hold things on the side with Lowepro's sliplock technology. I do not love that the bag costs $80, but its one of those things where if I am backed into a corner and have to, I will. I love having the laptop with me, but I also want to have access to my camera. I can't choose between them, but $80 is a lot to consider paying for a bag… or is it? I dunno. Someone help me here, I'm rambling because I'm confused. I sort of like that the whole thing is side accessible, while at the same time, not being a weird annoying Lowepro Slingpack.

Other than the bag issue, everything else is great. The battery I think will hold out for as long as I need it to, but that doesn't mean that I feel comfortable at the moment with the thing telling me I only have 5 hours of battery power left. I guess in general I am just the nervous type, which is something I need to get over before I manage to hurt myself with it. With a 6 cell battery this thing seems like it will hold out for my normal use for around 6-7 hours, which is good. Maybe wanting the 12 cell battery is just me being nervous, or maybe once the battery gets used a bit it won't be good enough anymore and I will need the 12 cell. I guess only time will tell on that one. For now, no additional battery, but its still on the list of potential upgrades over the life of this little system.

Boring Software

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:09:49 -0500

After looking over the list of software that I have installed on CMK7-M, I have come to the conclusion that I run really boring software. There is nothing really exciting on the list. There is ZDaemon, but somehow I doubt that a 17 year old game is really that exciting at this point (wow, I feel OLD!). Then there is my photo and geotagging software, but that's more nerdy than anything. I can't even think about what would be "exciting software". I hate a lot of modern software because it feels so restrictive, things come across too restrictive. I would love to have a cookbook application, but I don't know how to resolve that with the GITI cookbook functionality. I want both worlds I suppose, and I really don't have time to write all of the software that I want. Computing should not be dull, but at the moment, that's how I feel about it. I have an OS, productivity software, photo and geotag apps and an ancient game. Blah!

Software Installation for CMK7-M

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:30:59 -0500

Here is the software manifest for the new system, at this point, I am to Firefox. It's still going to be a long night.

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
- Toshiba Drivers
- Toshiba HDD Protect
- Toshiba Bluetooth
- Toshiba PC Health
- Toshiba eco
Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7
Elaborate Bytes Virtual Clone Drive
Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise
- Word
- Excel
- Power Point
- Outlook
- OneNote
- Visio
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional
- VisualSVN
- MySql Extensions
Mozilla Firefox (current)
- Delicious
- FxIF
- Flash?
Adobe Reader
Programmer's Notepad 2
Pigin
Nikon Transfer
GisTeq PhotoTrakr
GPSWriter
GPicSync
ACDSee Pro 3
HDRSoft Photomatix
NPL ROES
Nikon View NX
Google Earth
Stellarium
VMWare Player
- Ubuntu 9.10
Java Runtime Environment
ZDaemon
Kindle for PC

Arrival of a System

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:19:16 -0500

I could barely stay in bed this morning. I had nothing planned for the day, except to receive a package from FedEx, I guess I was worried that FedEx would want a signature for the package. Found out when they left I, they were just going to leave it anyway. The driver thought it was safe, I don't exactly live on a major road and he thought I was getting 8lbs of books (thank you Amazon for being discreet as always). I always thought it was funny that for expensive packages there was a signature flag… doesn't that raise attention? Anyway, from 9am until 12:20 or so, I had nothing to do. Now I have the system and it is set up and charging. It was at 92% out of the box, and is now about 99%... which I assume will take days to finish off the last 1%.

My first impressions out of the box were that the touchpad was a little stiff and the system seemed a little slow…but I now think the slow was just a result of a background OEM install going on (5 mins to prep desktop, then everything is quick). I am beginning to believe that all of the hard drives that died in CMK5-M went as a result of vibration and sudden movements by me, as I have already managed to trip the hard drive vibration alarm on this thing twice (mostly while moving the table it is set up on). The keyboard will take some getting used to, but then again, don't they all? Its better than the keyboard on the Mini and seems to be very responsive, especially the arrow keys (which I love).

At the moment everything is configured as OEM. I have not yet begun the Windows 7 Ultimate clean install to replace Windows 7 HP. I am beginning to be glad that I have not wiped it yet, as it is nice getting to know which of the apps that I originally had no intention of installing are actually useful. At the moment I am definitely considering installing the health monitor and the eco utility (gives power consumption of the system and allows for customizations to extend battery life).

So far so good…

APA Reference Manager

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:55:07 -0500

Today I have been avoiding getting started on a research project (not due until March 22^nd). In place of working on the paper, I have instead decided to give myself a way to put my references into APA standardized form (revision 6).

As usual, if you have lots of boredom, check it out: https://sourceforge.net/projects/aparefman/

P365: Day 133

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:24:55 -0500

P365: Day 132

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:23:47 -0500

P365: Day 131

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:19:33 -0500

P365: Day 130

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:16:42 -0500

Changing E-mail Approaches

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:06:51 -0500

Recently the email system that has served me well for many years has begun to fail me. A variety of the email addresses that I have used legitimately in the past have started turning up as receiving SPAM.

I suppose a good place to start is at the beginning, since not everyone may be familiar with my email system. My personal domain, curtis.kularski.net was implemented several years ago with an email system allowing wildcard access, meaning that I could use whatever username I wanted on the domain for a particular use, for example if I was to conduct a transaction with Acme Rockets Inc, I might use AcmeRockets@curtis.kularski.net as my contact address for them, which gets forwarded back to my main email box. Up until now, trusted companies have never turned up as having their assigned address used for SPAM. This is not a dictionary attack as would be suspected with the way my mailboxes are operated, but certain specific addresses have been attacked. I do not have reason to believe that the databases of those companies were breached, but I do believe that some of the unencrypted email traffic has been sniffed somewhere at some common point in order to determine those addresses. I am not sure what I am going to do as a long term approach to correcting that specific problem, but for the moment I am intending to reassign those organizations to new addresses and hopefully get the recent waves of SPAM to stop.

At the moment I am also evaluating a greater change in my e-mail configuration, for one I am considering moving to a system that only accepts pre-specified addresses as valid delivery addresses and using mail rules, the mail will be sorted into folders. I am presently experimenting with how well this works with my subscribed email. It is quite a slow experiment to conduct, but once it is finished I should be able to implement it pretty easily, as I will have generated a list of addresses that are needed and such. At the moment the experiment is on a separate domain that previously did not have email support, in an attempt to minimize disruptions and any false positives or conflicts with existing email configuration. This is fairly complicated as it requires me to reverse nearly my entire email system. I have to remove my blacklist and create a whitelist in its place.

I must say that the system I have utilized so far has worked pretty well and is only lately falling victim to some strange circumstances, including receiving email to addresses that seem to be pretty random (Donovan_shultz@curtis.kularski.net for example), and address that have been used publically before that are being picked up by bots and such and used against me. I have tried a variety of things, including using a single purpose email account on my other domains to try to have all of my junk mail in once place, but that didn't take hold too well and was too hard to manage (some places still send email from a lot of different addresses). When this system was initially created it was created with the idea of both human mail as well as machine mail going to the same place, only separated by the address issued to each party, but it became too confusing for the humans, so the systems had to split. I have grown to like the two (actually, now 3) places for email, it makes things make more sense when I am working on a particular task. Human, machine and academic mail are now all separate, but it doesn't bother me anymore.

I find it funny that when the existing email system was put into place many years ago people told me I would get bad dictionary attacks, but so far nothing even close has occurred. A few random addresses, and a few companies misusing information, but otherwise not a bad run for a system that the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) said was a bad idea. No address, not even my main account address (which is pretty simple) has been victim to any kind of logical or systematic attack.

P365: Day 129

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:13:53 -0500

GITI As An Application… Again

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:18:20 -0500

I am once again attempting to build GITI as an application, this time with more seriousness than my previous attempts. The problem I am running into is that I am discouraged from developing it in C# because there is already a fully build PHP version that works pretty well. The PHP version is HUGE compared to things I can easily do in C#. This makes the desire to move to an application base less than the desire to continue development in PHP, even though I know that I need something on the desktop side to compliment the web based version.

In web land it is incredibly simple to make everything very specific because the user is always on a different page, but on a desktop application the same user interface is used for most things (otherwise, it becomes a mess), so things have to be general. So far I am working with this by having a basic class for "GITIObject" and then I extend it with things like "ClassObject" and "AssignmentObject", but I am still having a hard time, because things are so different. What I have learned so far today is that GITI has two distinct classes of items it handles. The first class is in the way of education assignments, schedule items and todo items, collectively they could be called "Activity Items". Next there are the things like keys for software, address book contacts, recipes and such, those are "Data Items", things that don't change state and do not need to be brought to the user's attention unless they are asked for.

At the moment I am attempting to work with all of those items using a GITI application, and just with the Activity Items by using a smaller application I am working on, called "GITI Notify", which is basically a glorified listbox that updates with information from GITI about current assignments and schedule items.

One day, GITI will work on desktops and the web.

P365: Day 128

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:12:33 -0500

P365: Day 127

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:09:36 -0500

Danner Rocks!

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:17:34 -0500

A few days ago I began wondering why my newest pair of Danner Ft. Lewis didn't have the same tags as my older pairs, since they are made with Gore-Tex also. I sent an inquiry to Danner to determine if there was a way to obtain the tags and received a response the next day. The CSR asked for my address and told me that she would send out some to me. They arrived today, and I just finished installing them on my boots. I can't believe the level care Danner puts into their customers, they are truly awesome.

P365: Day 126

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:06:15 -0500

More Bothersome Bags

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:02:19 -0500

One of the pre-requisites I have set for myself on getting a new laptop is that before I acquire the hardware I must first locate a suitable bag for the new device. This is turning out to be harder than picking the laptop itself, which after weeks of looking at technical information and seeking details about battery life, wasn't a simple task.

First of all, I should mention my needs. I need something in the backpack class, but it must not be enormous. If it has room for an SLR with attached lens, then woohoo, but it isn't required. The bag must cost less than the supplemental 12 cell battery for the laptop ($124), preferably a lot less. I would like the bag to be either yellow, graphite/charcoal, or black. I do not necessarily have to have a bag specifically designed for a laptop, as I intend to get the Toshiba recommended sleeve.

I am finding all of the bags I have seen recently are huge, ugly and designed for 17" laptops. I am intending to purchase a laptop that is 13.3", which is somewhat smaller than the 17" size, so therefore, I need a bag that is smaller as well (not to mention not wanting to look like I am going on a hike any time I have the laptop with me).

Any ideas on good places to find the type of bag I am looking for? If anyone says "Endless", I'm going to ban them from the blog.

P365: Day 125

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:02:24 -0500

P365: Day 124

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:00:58 -0500

P365: Day 123

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:59:35 -0500

Virtual Kiln

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:06:30 -0500

I have become bored and started playing with C# again. This time I designed a virtual kiln controller. It can calculate firing times based on a Bartlett controller's prescribed programs, or it can accept a custom firing program. It is my eventual goal to have the software be able to estimate temperatures during firing as well as during cooling, but for the moment it only does the firing temperatures. Cooling is much harder because of all of the factors involved (including kiln fullness). The application tries to mimic the Bartlett V6-CF displays for the temperature and status display. It is a fairly simple application that I designed last week and over the weekend. It works for those of us who would like to know what temperature our kiln might be at, without spending $900 on K.I.S.S.

If you are interested, you can grab a copy of VirtualKiln from http://www.pcfire.net/VirtualKiln/