Diary of a Network Geek

Well, I’m back.

Blogging, and writing in general, is like having a case of scabies; it’s a persistent itch that just will not go away!
In any case, I’m safely married and my blushing bride is hard at work on her business, so I’m back at the blog and other writing projects.  Right now, I’m working on some personal documentation off-line, in the privacy of my own directory structure, but that may eventually get shared with the larger world.  Until then, though,…
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By now, dear readers, you both should know that I’m “into” photography.

Now, I’m not really into collecting cameras, though, I will admit that I have several.  And, I only shoot digital, because, frankly, film is kind of a hassle these days and I just never really had the time, patience or money all at once to learn enough about film to develop my own.  And, let’s face it, if I’m not developing my own photos, it seems like a waste…
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What good is a virtual camera?

Funny you should ask.

So, my regular readers, both of you, know that I love photography.  But, at the same time, you’ll also notice that I haven’t been posting as many photos as I used to post.  There are a lot of reasons for that, but one, and the one I’m going to focus on today, is that I’m rusty.  Rusty in the sense that it’s been so long since I was shooting regularly that I’ve…
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Cool light techniques.

I love doing tricky things in camera.
Look, I work with software all day long at my regular gig, so when I get home, I don’t really want to spend hours and hours working with Photoshop to make a “photograph”.  To me, the whole point is to make photographs with the camera, not with software.  I know, it probably makes me an antique, but, well, there it is.
I’ve done some work with light painting, though, thanks to my tragic…
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Really, it’s about dust and keeping it out of your camera, but, let’s be honest, that really is the biggest issue in keeping your camera clean.

As part of their “photography 101” series, The Photo Argus recently ran a story titled “Caring for the DSLR Body and Lenses”, but it primarily focused on cleaning the body of the DSLR, including the sensor, and keeping dust out of the body going forward.  And, to be fair, dust in the body, especially on…
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On this day, in 1660, arguably the most famous diarist in history, Samuel Pepys, made the first entry into his personal diary.

He kept his diary for approximately nine years, detailing everything from his personal life to the news of the day to even what he ate.  Although he clearly kept his diary purely as a personal exercise, he must have suspected that it may eventually prove interesting to future generations based on the care he took to bind it and…
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Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"When I look into the future, it's so bright it burns my eyes."
   --Oprah Winfrey

Do you hear music when you read?

No, I don’t mean, “Do play music while you read?”, but, rather, do you hear music, like a movie soundtrack while you read a book?  I know for awhile, I was so immersed in movies and the movie experience that I couldn’t help hearing certain kinds of background noise and sound effects when I read certain kinds of books.  But, what if that happened on purpose?  What if you had a way to synchronize an actual soundtrack, complete with mood music and sound effects, with the book you were reading?

Well, if you read books on your Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone or Android-based e-reader, you actually can, thanks to Booktrack.  They’ve developed an app that will run on all those platforms which will adapt a soundtrack for your book, complete with sound effects, to how fast you read.  The download is free and I’m not sure if there’s a “training period” where the app learns your regular reading speed, but I sure do like the idea!  I’m sure the selection of books is a little limited right now, but, with any luck, more people will show interest and more books will get added to their list.

So, what the heck, it’s Friday!  Turn your volume down and go check it out!

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I love dragons.

And, clearly, I’m a “gadget guy”.  I mean, who in IT isn’t obsessed with gadgets, at least to some degree, right?  And, you may not realize it, but, well, I sometimes like to play with fire.  Nothing too huge, but, well, boys will be boys, I guess, right?  And, what boy hasn’t played with a campfire before, eh?
So, taking all that into consideration, you can imagine how cool I thought it was when I saw that someone had built a radio-controlled, fire-breathing dragon.
Yeah, you read that right.  Most of the linked article is in Italian, but the photos are still pretty clear and, honestly, the videos of this thing in flight and breathing fire are what everyone is going to want to see anyway.

So, yeah, it’s Friday, and you clearly have nothing better to do or you wouldn’t be reading my blog anyway, so you might as well go take a look at that link!
Enjoy!

Well, this is interesting…

Some time ago, I read about a revolutionary new idea in cameras; focusing after taking the photograph.
Having had autofocus occasionally grab the wrong thing in a photo, this idea intrigued me.  The idea that a camera could simply capture all the available light, store it in a photographic format, and let you choose later where you wanted to focus seemed, frankly, like an impossibility.  It seemed like science-fiction.  Well, apparently, the future is now, because this camera…
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I guess QR codes aren’t quite dead yet!

Back in the day, hobos, or “gentlemen of the rails”, used to use a kind of code that let other hobos know important information.  For instance, if they marked a cat-like symbol on a fence, it meant that a kind-hearted woman lived at that house and might give a hungry drifter food.  Or, three diagonal lines means that the place is unsafe and a hobo should get out of there as quickly as they can.  (You can see more codes on Wikipedia.)
Well, someone has updated that for the modern world and smart phones.  That’s right, someone has made QR Code Hobo Codes.  Now, you can just print up templates and spray them with paint out there in the world and people can shoot them with their iPhone, or Droid, or whatever, and see the information.  And the codes have been updated for modern life, too!  Now, they’ve added things like “bad coffee”, “dangerous homophobes”, “camera perverts”, “no outlets”, and “insecure wifi”, among others.

So, who knew?!
Now, while you’re out adventuring this weekend, keep an eye out for QR codes to scan!  You may find some interesting things along your way!
Have a great Friday and enjoy your weekend!