Happy Birthday to You

My nth attempt to edit video.  The original video is 640x480 (69.8MB), I resized it to 480x360(11.1MB).  I don't know how big Blogger is going to embed it.  It seems like I have little control over the resolution once is embedded here.  I have to wait and see as it's uploading.  With my quad-core setup, the original rendering takes less than a minute.  I used to take a shower while the PC was rendering, it was that slow.

Epson Workforce 610 and Ubuntu 10.4 64 bit Work

Something I thought impossible is working flawlessly.  I was able to print to the Epson Workforce 610 wirelessly.  It's nothing short of magic.  When I have time I will write up the steps.  I don't understand it but at least I am able to follow instructions.  There are some very nice people out there who make things work and make my life easier.  Wow.

To make it work, both printing and scanning, you need to do basically three things:
Download and install by going through Epson support ...

1.  epson-inkjet-printer-stylus-office-tx610fw-series
2.  iscan-network-nt

To add your printer go
http://localhost:631
Now you can print


3.  To scan wirelessly you need to do this (if your 610 is only USB connected, I don't think you need to add this line) (thanks to this thread)
At the terminal type: sudo gedit /etc/sane.d/epkowa.conf
add the below line and save

net 192.168.1.102

replace with your printer IP address.  You can find your printer IP from localhost:631 or I guess by some other means.

And you are done.

The below is a sample scan from a 4x6 print.  All the dust ...  Anyway, I have a V500 USB connected for "real work."  The Workforce 610 is really for printing only.  If I have both the USB connected V500 and wireless connect Office 160 on, Iscan actually lets me pick.  Wow!

LaGuardia Airport

Twin Polaroids scanned by Epson Perfection V500 Photo scanner.  Wow!  You just can't remove all the dust.  Scanning at home is an exercise in frustration and futility.

EPSON PERFECTION V500 Photo Ubuntu 10.04

It's really easy.
The negative is atrocious.  It must be the negative, the processing, never my photographic skill of course.

All 64 bit install is as easy as 32 bit, there is no difference in the process at all.  Epson rocks in this department.  With my quad core and 4GB RAM, the scan is almost painless at 2400 dpi.

update:
11/23/2011
In case you are wondering and Googling, Ubuntu 11.10 64 bit works just as well.

Ice Cream

Makes you happy

Storm 2010 - Tree Removal

Wrangler and logger boots for the real logger, OKAY, perhaps not a logger logger but a definite tree remover.  I always like Wrangler and logger boots but to see them in real people in action on the job, it's the first time.

The tree stump on the left of the last picture belongs to a much smaller tree on the sidewalk that fell a few months ago.

Some random guy stopped by and asked me if the job costs $1,000.  I told him no, it costs only about $50.  Nice guy but he lives in a different era.  Another service quoted me about the same price, actually even a bit more but told me it would take a day to just remove the snapped off top and a total of two days at the very least to remove the entire tree.  Well these guys worked from 7.45 to 12.45, a total of five solid hours to finish the job.  And it costs only $50--the amount I told the random guy from a different world.

I am glad it's over.

Ubuntu 10.04 64 Bit - Cheapo PC Hardware That Actually Works

Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Item #: N82E16817371030
I am old so I thought the exhaust blow out of the case in the back. But it's on the top or bottom depending how you orient the PSU. Now the exhaust is blowing into the case as my Antec case has the PSU cutout on the top.

MSI N250GTS TwinFrozr 1G OC GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Item #: N82E16814127445
Expensive and I thought there is mail-in rebate but I don't see it anymore. Anyway maybe there wasn't? You know in the end, I just clicked order. Too tired.

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
Item #: N82E16820231277
You thought memory is "cheap," not anymore.

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822136319
Now that I look at it, didn't I order the 6.0Gb/s version? I don't know anymore.

AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor ADX640WFGMBOX
Item #: N82E16819103871
The chip is tiny like it's work 50 cents. The heat sink and fan are much bigger by comparison. The package is tiny too, guess it's good thing.

Recycled Stuff so old and so cheap that it's a miracle that they actually work:-

Koutech IO-RCM620 USB 2.0 3.5" Card Reader
Item #: N82E16820162016
I have to play with the seating of the reader, because the power cable connecting to the USB header on the MB is just about 1cm shorter than required. But I made it work.


LITE-ON LightScribe Black 20X DVD±R Burner with 12X DVD-RAM write Black IDE Model LH-20A1H-186 LightScribe Support
Item #: N82E16827106045
It works through IDE, or PATA.

TRENDnet TEW-228PI PCI 11Mbps Wireless LAN PCI Adapter
Item #: N82E16833156130
It works, used to use Windows driver and ndiswrapper, now I don't have to do anything--where is the fun? This card is really old, I can't believe it. Signal is good too.

When I did this Frankenstein PC, I spent plenty of time online researching what's compatible with Ubuntu 10.04 64 Bit. And I usually couldn't find any answer that's recent and relevant.

Since I just got the box running, at least for the most part, so I hereby share the components with you so you know they work. I went through the pain and maybe you don't have to.  The way Ubuntu goes, chances are they may just work and it may not make a difference whether you do any research or not.

Ubuntu 10.04 64 Bit

Wow I didn't know it would be this easy.

I have to say this is the most painless install I ever have.

I order from Newegg, it's shipped from Edison New Jersey, so I got it the following day, that's today.  I think Newegg really lives up to the e-commerce promise.  Let's just not to talk to any sales person, just order it online.  It works.  And if you need to talk to somebody you sure can, or you prefer to live chat, that's also doable.  Anyway, I sound like I am a spokeperson for Newegg, but I'm not.  I like quite like their system.  Order I ordered back in 2002 I can see it online, still.  Wow.  They are doing something right.

 The CD there is a bit misleading.  I actually downloaded my 64 bit and burned the ISO on a CD for installation.  The pictured CD is there just to confuse people something I am naturally good at.

Wow, cheapo PC hardware from Newegg.  Thumps up.  (actually it gets a bit pricey now ...)
I just downloaded the latest upgrade and now I am going to reboot ... (Gee that's seems so Windows to me, OKAY, something I just have to put up with, reboot, well because of a new kernel I think.)

Storm 2010 - Tree Removal

Storm 2010 - Tree Removal

National Punctuation Mark Day

I don't know there is such a day. But I think it's a good thing. I am no grammar police but I myself prefer to write and read grammatically correct English. Every time I see the Sartorialist abuses the ellipsis on his blog, it makes me sad. How could he do such a thing to the ellipsis? Then there is the exclamation point, I always think if the content is exciting enough, you don't need to use the exclamation point let alone multiple of them as if adding exclamation points would make anything boring magically exciting. Then there is the ~, the tilde, people just love to use it. Frankly does it even have a place in a sentence? I got to find out.

Ubuntu 10.04 64 Bit

Downloading the ISO, it's going to take more than 2 hours.

Newegg got my order today and shipped today from Edison, NJ. I am going to receive tomorrow. It beats hauling the stuff yourself.

Micro-Nikkor 55mm f2.8

Manual flash, focusing.  The picture is set at small.  Shot on tripod.

An interesting read on the micro-NIKKOR 55mm f/2.8 AI version.  Notice the tone of the writing, very interesting.  Mine is the AIS version (I doubt there was AI to begin with) manufactured between 1979 to 2005. Actually the lens is listed in Nikon, so it's in production! Surprise.

Storm 2010 - Tree Service

It costs more than two Nikon D7000 to remove the snapped top and trim the branches. Everything is expensive.
UPDATE
It costs more than four Nikon D7000 to get rid of the whole tree.
For those who would like to pre-order a D7000 for me, please do so.

UPDATE 9/24/2010
Poor tree.  Like a toothpick, a giant one.  then it's gone.

Nikkor

The F1 has the best viewfinder in terms of brightness at least.  It is so bright you almost need to wear sunglasses looking through it.  I read from mir that it's largely due to the focusing screen.  Man, don't you wish all DSLR employ that technology or something better?  Or do people simply focus through the LCD screen nowadays?

Bluetooth Tethering Works -- Reasonably Fast

Like fast as it was in the 20th century.  But I am just happy that I got my internet back on a bigger screen instead of getting stuck on my tiny Blackberry.  Just don't use the connection to watch any HD video online or even 360P video, it's stop and go and frustrating like you are driving on LIE on a busy weekend.  Anyway.  The Speakeasy test score says the download and upload are somewhere around 1Mbps and 0.50Mbps respectively.  I guess the numbers are somewhat respectable, eh?

Bluetooth Tethering Works

There is no power, no internet, almost.  But my Blackberry works.  So here I am bluetooth tethering to the Internet.  But I am going to shut it off very soon.  Bye and be safe.

Storm 2010 - Steeple as Pile of Debris

Storm 2010 - Church No Steeple

Storm 2010 - Street Carnage

Last night I walked home from around 110 Street and Jewel Avenue.  It was a good exercise ... that I didn't really need.  I didn't feel the wrath of the storm until I was a block away from home, the fallen tree was totally uprooted together with power lines were just right in the middle of the street blocking my way.  It was pretty scary to kind of see it in the dark in the rain.  Many sidestreets were still covered with fallen branches and other debris that totally block traffic.  Hopefully the condition will improve sooner than later.

Day After Tomorrow

D7000 Viewfinder and Magnification

It says to be 100% viewfinder and .95 (D300s is 0.94) magnification.  With the 1.5 crop factor, that's going to translate to an equivalent of 0.63 (a better .63 than D300s' because of rounding, ha ha) image magnification for a 50mm lens mounted on a full frame camera.

0.63 is the magic number for Nikon's second tier professional DSLR, the D3 series has a swell 0.7 image magnification which is very close to the 0.75 of the oldie goodie Nikon F5.

So I guess I have to live with 0.63 all things considered.  I expect the viewfinder can provide much needed eye relief and help some what in the manual focusing department.  And the fact that it supports A and M for meter/exposure is just music to my ear--color matrix metering with aperture value display not just center weighted like in F5.  All of a sudden it just gives me more reasons to keep or even acquire older AI or AIS manual Nikkors because compatibility is just getting even better.

PC

Unless you build PC once a year, otherwise there is no way you are going to know what the latest and greatest processor, MB, peripherals are.  It's a rather steep learning curve.  The last time I built my PC was in February 2002, and I am telling you, NONE of the equipment fails (touch wood, keep my fingers crossed).  I think it's just about time to get myself a souped up desktop in preparation for all the processing power I need to suck out and process 16MP pictures and 1080P video.

Nikon 200mm f/2G Nikon 200mm f/2G AF-S ED VR II

Amazon is accepting pre-order for this, this swell piece of fine equipment.  According to Amazon, you are saving $1,200.05 from the MSRP of  $7,200.00.  Once you bought this monster of a lens, everything else seems so cheap, reasonable and easy.  In case you are a bit slow in the math department, that's $5,999.95 that Amazon is going to charge your credit card, and yes plus sales tax too.  (With the saving of $1,200.05, and an additional of $598.95, you can get the equally swell new Nikkor 35mm f1.4G lens, Wow)

The way I buy lens, is usually from some back alley in downtown Manhattan, from some dubious sellers on craigslist, in the tune of $100 to $200 top.

Note:  image from Amazon, for illustrative purpose.

Being a Good Citizen

At jury duty.

update:
It's been a stressful day, not because of jury duty per se, it's more because of me myself.
I didn't get to be a juror, but that's Okay.

Nikon D7000 - My Thoughts

I don't think there will be any D300s replacement.  Essentially this is the model that replaces the D300s and D90.  The End.  OKAY, Maybe you absolutely need 51 focus points and 8fps then goes for the D300s, and for me and myself the D7000 is the bomb.

Nikon D7000 meters AI Non-CPU Nikkors

Holy Shitaki mushroom.  The D7000 can meter with non-CPU Nikkor lens.  That puts it on a par with the pro Nikon DSLRs, perhaps it's a pro DSLR, no?  Man, I hope it's not a mis-print like NikonUSA did it with D90.  This is great news for people like me who own some old manual Nikkors.  I thought this would never happen, the fact that D90's replacement will meter non-CPU lenses.  Wow, it seems to me Nikon is listening.  And this just shows wishes can come true, or actually D7000 is really a mashup upgrade of the D300s and D90, Nikon just wants to keep its mouth shut on D300s not to kind of upset those who already bought the D300s not so long ago.  Wow.

Nikon D7000 Announced

Just as expected, Nikon gives us the D7000.  Now back to your regular programming ...

Nikon D7000

Wow, more leaked pictures of the soon to be released Nikon D7000, from, where else, Nikonrumors.com which is more like Nikon marketing goes rogue than ever. Earlier I was "complaining" no frontal view of the D7000, now we have more than frontal view of the camera but top and frontal nudity showing the beautifully crafted magnesium alloy body.  And yes the 39 AF points as well.  So it's a lot of camera packed into one neat package.  Especially for me, coming from the oldie but goodie D70, and yes, FE and F5 of the good old film days as well.  39 AF points I wonder how the camera knows what you want to focus on, is it the eyes, the nose, the mouth or somewhere else?

My D70 isn't made of any metal alloy, magnesium or not, but I find it almost indestructible though I never got it dropped accidentally or otherwise certainly no test of fire either.  So I wonder if the magnesium alloy body is more of a marketing ploy or it actually makes the body super duper strong.  Most people just play with their camera in their apartment (hence the demand to have good ISO performance and huge f-stop for lenses) and only a few dedicated professionals actually go to shoot in the Amazon, Antarctica and god forbid war zones.  But magnesium alloy, it is kind of neat and it's a good conversation point.

My wish list that would never come true: metering with non-cpu lenses, .75 magnification factor, full frame FX sensor.  For a price tag of $2,000.

New York Times Print Edition Goes 3D

The New York Times print edition has Nadal's picture on the front page above the fold on the left. It shows love to Nadal and to tennis. The picture is printed in 3D I think so without the 3D glasses, the picture looks horrible, like it has ghost, like newsletter printed by grade school kids, like they don't know how to print color, like very unprofessional, like I am wasting $2 on the print edition.

Nikon Random Thoughts

Can you have too many Nikon's?  The answer is like asking can you be too rich?  You simply can't.

Finally Nikonrumors got a credible leaked D7000 picture.  Alas, it's an ass shot, there is no frontal nudity.
Adding to the excitement is the new 35mm f/1.4, 200mm f/2 and a newish speedlight SB-700.  You think the new lenses may bring down the oldie but goodie manual nikkors they kind of replace?  I think it only happens in your dream.  The price would never ever go down.  So when buying Nikkors, go for the better or the best if money is not an issue.  You are like just paying a deposit and rent the lens for free, when you are done, you sell it back, if you are lucky you can even make a tidy little profit--some random guy paid $175 on eBay for a 28mm f/2 and tried to sell it for $300 after using it for a while, no that's not me.  Anyway, the value definitely holds unless you broke it or something.

The D7000 may turn out to be Nikon's best all around DX sensored DSLR.  It has everything and can do anything.  So I am really tempted to upgrade my D70 to the D7000.  With that I also need to upgrade my desktop PC.  So it has this money sucking chain reaction.

For the past week or so, I have been shooting with my manual Nikkor lineup, that's my 24mm f/2, 28mm f/2, 50mm f/1.4 and my 105mm f/2.5.  The focusing on my D70 got very difficult especially for action shots, i.e. my kids doing Kung Fu kind of stuff.  For D70, it's best to shoot with AF lenses because you can hardly see anything from the tiny viewfinder.  I have forgotten my AF cheapo Zoom Nikkors for some time.  And I think I should have used them a bit more as they certainly help big time in the focusing department if not in the image department.  For some reason, I just think it's cooler to use good old manual prime lens.  The D7000 may present better focusing for my manual Nikkor lineup but I don't believe it will meter, the full frame professional DSLR Nikon still has an edge on metering and on better viewfinder experience.

Let's see what happens tomorrow.

Note: Sorry dudes, if you are here for any interesting information about the impending release of D7000, there isn't any. You have to go to Nikonrumors.com where all the rumors are. Or just wait another day or so. The D7000 has the potential to be the perfect Nikon DX DSLR. Give me a FX sensor for a price tag of $2,000, I am sold like right away.

The Days of Living Dangerously is Over, Almost

I hate to manage files and storage.  I've never really done any backup or such.  Not systematically anyway.  And I hate any virus or malware scanning programs except when I really need them.  I've tried Simple Backup but I kind of messed it up or it's messed up like with some of my help.  I got it to work, but it's just too slow for my taste--I know even my PC is running on museum grade hardware.

My pictures have been growing and growing, though for the most part they are mostly from a 6MP camera and I don't take that many pictures.  I think I have less than 14,000 pictures amount about 47GB of garbage.  In terms of size I don't think it's big.  But still I dread to manage any storage.

Finally in this rainy day when the US Open is suspended, most likely postponed, I just cobbled together a very simple script to do my "backup."  It's so simple that I wonder why I didn't bother to do it in the first place.  Performance wise, it's not bad, I guess if I have better hardware it could even be better.

Here is the single line that does the job.

cp -aRvu /home/genius/Photos/ /media/externaldrive/

It's so simple that I am embarrassed to even mention it here.  But I got no shame anyway, and it's good to share and as some sort of note for myself.  It takes less than an hour to copy my 14,000 pictures or 47GB to the FireWire 400 external 7200rpm harddrive.  And the -u option is pretty neat.  (Note:-if you know some nifty options, please do share with me.  Just don't tell me to rm -R at / as root)

the options
a - archive or attributes I guess, to keep the attributes of the source files
R - recursive, copy the directories and files
v - verbatim, to show the files are being copied
u - update, if the destination has the same files, it won't waste time copying them

On another note, just in case your external harddrive all of a sudden stopped working, chances are it has some huge huge files under the hidden trash folder.  To delete them, type sudo nautilus in Terminal, then view Show hidden files.  Delete the Trash folder to reclaim your precious space.  That's all.

Again, because I really don't know what I am doing, if by following the above instructions or guides you mess up your system just a little or big time beyond repair, hey you have been warned and I can't be held responsible for that.

US Open 2010 - OCD Watch

Let's have statistics on How many times Nadal pulls his pants or performs a pants tug, and then smells it--the horror, before he hits the serve.

The Big Short - Michael Lewis

The 2008 Wall Street implosion was so bad that even the few, most notably Steve Eisman and Mike Burry, that were right in predicting the Armageddon and made boatloads of money off this clusterfuck weren't exactly elated when it actually happened.  That's how bad it was.
I almost failed to finish Lewis' book, primarily because I kept going back to read what I didn't understand when I was commuting to and from work between sleeping and standing on the train.  In the end, I just gave up understanding because you know the big time CEO's and all bold faced regulators didn't understand credit default swaps or CDO's either.  I am just ignorant if not fabulously and murderously so like the Wall Street type.  I read it as a work of fiction and for its entertainment value.  I enjoy the prose and the narrative because they are witty, wise and vulgar.  What I perhaps don't enjoy is even I've known it prior to reading the book, there aren't exactly any losers on Wall Street.  The CEO's and traders who lost billions and ran their firms to bankruptcy still got to reap millions in compensation very much at the expense of shareholders and tax payers money.  They really got a lot of something for nothing.

Perfectly Aged Mooncakes

There are immense interests on my perfectly aged one year old mooncakes.  So here they are in pristine condition.  I just tired the left hand side one a week or so ago, and it was perfect inside and out, no molds, fungus and anything disagreeable.  It tastes surprisingly fresh with a touch of muddy aroma from my fridge that really distinguishes its age.

Asking for $50 for the right hand side unopened one and $75 for the left hand side one--it's a name brand and tested excellence.  No lowballers, no shipping, no Paypal, Cash face to face transaction only.

Can meet in Manhattan or Queens.

Moon Cake

There is this one year old moon cake, perfectly aged inside my fridge.  I can't wait to devour it on Mid Autumn Festival this year.

First Day of School

With nonchalance and trepidation, the children begin a new school year.

Bore yourself with technical details:  D70 with manual flash at 1/8 of the power.  Nikkor 28mm 1:2

Bryant Park, NYC

Shooting wide open at f/2.  When the subject is close and the aperture is wide open, and the focus point is not center, I find it a bit hard to acquire correct focusing through the tiny viewfinder with only the aid of the green focusing LED to indicate correct focusing.  The focus point defaults to the center one whenever I mount a AI or AIS lens and I have to make an effort to switch to one of the other four.  The merit of auto focusing or a bigger better viewfinder and focusing screen can't be exaggerated.

US Open - Jersey Shore Edition

When on court action isn't much, looks off court.



Novak Djokovic and Philipp Petzschner should have done some soul searching.  Should they have played a little bit harder, to make the match a bit more mesmerizing, maybe the fans don't have to resort to fight each other to get entertained. Djokovic and Petzschner are somewhat responsible for this melee--should be fined or even suspended in my opinion.

The New York Times also reported that it says "two men tumbled down a few rows of $45 seats."  Next time forget about the $450 seats, get the $45 seats if you want to be close to where the real action is.

US Open - Venus Williams

Picture added 9/4/2010 Chang W. Lee/New York Times, copyright belong to its rightful owners.

Picasso once said good taste is the enemy of creativity.  The Williams sisters got to be the most awesome creative tennis players in the history of tennis.

With Serena not playing this US Open, and mind you, all the line judges are breathing a collective sigh of relief, knowing nobody would shove down tennis balls down their throats, Roddick is such a pussy so he doesn't count, Venus single-handedly shoulders the responsibility of wearing the most woefully designed outfits to shock and awe tennis fans world wide.  And I have to say she has succeeded spectacularly.  As if her play is not firework enough on the court, she literally put firework on her little tiny bitsy black dress which is sequined with firework motif.  And of course she won the match against French woman Mandy Manella.  She is such a tennis royalty and whatever, everybody, of course including that Pam Shriver, is complimenting her outfit. I feel like it's some kind of Emperor's new clothes moments whenever somebody complimenting their outfits.   Serena is not playing this tournament but she still will not leave us in peace, she has to come fully and spectacularly dressed to haunt us all ... Scary, isn't it?

Times Square, NYC

I was right there on the giant TV ...

The 28mm wasn't wide enough but you shoot with whatever you have.

US Open - Djokovic

Djokovic is The Man With the Dragon Tattoo ... tennis outfit.  Black on crimson red.  I am sure the dragon design is inspired by the now ubiquitous Millennium series.  With a touch of Chinese color scheme thrown in, it's tastefully done without the kitsch.  I wish the Williams sisters can take heart.  But seeing what I see here, I think they just have a very unique sense of style.  But hey, if you play that well in tennis, you can dress any way you want.

Update: picture added from Sergio Tacchini.  Copyright belongs to its rightful owners.

Roddick Fails

Roddick fails miserably.  Sure he lost to number 1,980 Janko Tipsarevic on the second round but what's worse is he couldn't disparage the line judge like Serena did--with unprecedented ferocity and gusto that mesmerized the stadium.  He did a terrible job; it was half hearted, protracted and lacked conviction and at no point did we feel the life of the line judge was threatened or in moral danger.  Serena was a thousand times more menacing.  He should have studied Serena's moves before he even thought about disparaging the line judge.  The only upside of this:  he didn't get any warning or fine from USTA or whatever tennis governing body.  Serena is still number one in that department, Roddick, at best, a very distant second, very sad.

Window Dressing

Grand Central Terminal

I find it hard to walk around with a 105mm lens and shoot street candids. Everything is so much in your or my face. I guess I could just abstract the subjects? Or it just takes time to get used to the world as seen from a longer lens. I always feel like a shorter lens is much more useful for general shooting.