Best Offer and Bid

Usually Best Offer comes with Buy it Now.  Yesterday was the only time I saw Bid and Best Offer but without Buy it Now.  With Buy it Now, I know what the seller wants price wise then I "low ball" an offer to test the water as I have three offers anyway.

It's a first for me to see that Bid and Best Offer only.  With Bid you know that's the threshold price for the item.  The seller would jump off the roof and just seethe in anger if you were to offer a price even lower than the initial starting bid, actually I wonder if eBay even allows that.  I know eBay would remind you if your offer is lower than the recent sold items or something like that.  As a potential buyer you always want something for nothing or realistically for the minimum relatively speaking.  As a buyer, I look for accurate, precise detailed description of an item.  If the seller is too lazy to take a picture of the actual item, instead he just uses generic pictures and description, what does it tell about the seller, would the seller bother to resolve any issues you may have when the sales don't come through as expected?  Say for example for an Apple Magic Keyboard, there are at least four iterations of the keyboard which one are you selling?  If the seller is ignorant or too lazy or both to find out then what does it tell you about the seller.  That being said if the item price is low enough then it may not matter after all.

I don't use any software to bid and I bid the highest I would ever pay and don't regret it, OK sometimes I do but that's just life.  And I never bid early or bid often; I bid the last five or ten seconds.

MacBook Pro Trackpad Handwriting

Prior to macOS Mojave, the trackpad handwriting would never stick around for long.  It simply disappears after sleep or whenever it decides to disappear.

I have the macOS Mojave installed for two weeks and the trackpad handwriting still sits neatly on the there so in my book Mojave is a great success, it finally fixes something not a lot of people care.  I mean the fix could be incidental but hey I will take it.  Before Mojave I have seen a few threads mentioning about this annoyance on the Apple discussion forums but there aren't really
any real solution to it.  Trackpad Handwriting isn't exactly great great but I like to have that option always sitting there when I want to use it.  I prefer to use the iOS handwriting.

Lining

All my Schott jackets have some lining which are not cotton or wool.  I am not talking about the zip out linings.  The zip-out linings of my 141 are faux fur type.

What I am trying to say is for jacket lining I much prefer a smooth material, like silk or acetate type that facilitates easy putting on and off and in general all kinds of movements.  So I don't know what Schott or other manufacturers are thinking when they make jackets with cotton or wool lining.  It's not exactly a show stopper but I personally would much prefer a smooth lining.

AF-S 80-200 f/2.8

I've never owned or used this lens before.  Instead I have the AF-D version.  The AF-S is supposed to be faster.  Nikon discontinued this lens and replaced it with the AF-S 70-200 f/2.8.  I have the first version a friend of mine gave me.

If you have extra cash but not extra enough to buy the AF-S 70-200 f/2.8 then perhaps this AF-S 80-200 f/2.8 is not a bad choice at all.  If I ever break the AF-S 70-200 f/2.8 then I won't be able to replace it.

Auto focus of AF-D lenses won't work on the Z cameras with the FTZ adapter.  More reason to get the AF-S instead of the AF-D 80-200 f/2.8 lens.

Phone Number

Thirty years ago, I memorized a bunch of phone numbers.  I still remember my home number from way back when my family got a rotary phone.

Now, I don't even remember my own cell number.  I keep the post-it the T-Mobile sales left me with my own phone number written on it.  It lost its stickiness so I guess I really have to commit the number in my memory.

Mojave on MacPro3,1

The power splitter came.

Chucked the SSD into the drive bay.  I didn't bother to get any adapter at all.  I figure the clipped on power and data cables would "secure" the SSD no problem.  I just saved myself a couple of days and $10.  I formatted the SSD and proceeded to install Mojave.  It went on no problem.

The on board Bluetooth is iffy.  I guess I need to upgrade that.
For internet connection, I just share the MacBook Pro using a RJ45 cable.  It works pretty well.  The MacPro doesn't come with one though I am going to get one comes this Saturday.

The graphics is a tiny bit sub optimal.  This has been documented on the patch documentation.  The windows title bar doesn't have transparency.  So it's expected.  When I use Safari the graphics shortcoming becomes more apparent; some buttons on webpages would appear smeared when navigating.  The Safari tabs also would smear when mouse over.  This happens in day or night mode regardless.  Strange enough, it doesn't exhibit this behavior on Chrome.  When I wanted to do a Command-Shift-5 to capture that smear, the screen refreshes and it's gone.

I am using ancient USB keyboard.  It's just not any USB keyboard but a DELL by Microsoft keyboard with number pad and all the special buttons for web browsing which I have no use on a Mac environment.  It's raised and supposed to be ergonomic.  But it's just way too big for the desk..  The mouse is an optical one with a click wheel which doesn't work on scrolling.  Oh well.

So I am think of getting

Magic Keyboard
Magic Mouse
WiFi and Bluetooth for Airdrop and Handoff
One or two 4TB of HDD

Liongate

As far as I know, Liongate is really good at encrypting or obfuscating its DVDs.

First Time Boot up the 2008 MacPro3,1

Here are the updates:-

I got the dosdude1 program to patch the Apple installer.

I downloaded the Mojave installer from Apple and even verified good by the patcher program.  But when it actually ran it complained can't mount.  I reformatted the USB thumb drive one more time, downloaded the patcher program one more time but still no go.  I don't find lots of information other than you must have the wrong install program (from Apple?) or you need another 16GB USB thumb drive.  Oh no!  OK, so I tried using the patcher's program utility to download the mojave again, instead from Apple, I don't know where it was from but worth a try.  This was like the last resort as it would take some 30 minutes to download.  Hey this time it worked.  So it's a mystery to me.  As the original mojave is from Apple and checked ok even by the patcher program why it failed I don't know.

So the patcher program created this modified installer which doesn't discriminate against old hardware or something something so my MacPro3,1 from early 2008 can install mojave.

I checked the installers by eyeballing them they look the same to me.

My build isn't quite ready as I am still waiting for the power cable splitter to power the STA SSD which is going to be installed on the optical drive bay.  It doesn't come with any drive at all.  So I have no way of booting it up from any existing old OS.

Anyway, I tried to boot from the USB drive.  And the MP came alive!  Since the SSD is not ready so I can't really install mojave from scratch.  The odd thing is I have another 3.5" HDD in the 2nd bay, I wonder why it can't see it.  I hope I can install and boot from the lower bay of the 5.25" optical drive bay, that's the goal.

I guess I need to wait till Tuesday to find out.

Screwdriver Set

If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  Or in my case, if you have one screwdriver, all the screws look the same.

Most of the time this doesn't work.

I keep learning this the hard way.  I don't know how many times I screwed up because of using the wrong tool, to be exact, some dollar shop screwdriver, the wrong size one to unscrew and screw.  Needless to say, the experience has been frustrating and counter productive.

I think I must have told myself to buy a nice set of precision screwdrivers a dozen times.  But that never happened until today.

I have checked out Wiha and Wera.  Since I need the good ones.  Alas, the price isn't all too bad but they just don't have the right pieces in one set.  In the end, after spending the entire day looking, I opt for the ifixit set for a whopping $59.99.  I was just too tired to look any further.

I don't open my computers too often as I don't do this for a living.  I do this like once a year when I need to replace the harddrive when it runs out of space.  A few years from now I guess chances are all the old upgradable Macs would be too outdated to mess with and all repairs or upgrades would be impossible except to the real professionals.  I wonder what will happen to OWC or Macsales or other Mac parts resellers.

For the foreseeable future I think I will still be upgrading 2 or 3 Macs.

https blogspot

I wonder why blogspot doesn't automatically goes https instead it allows http.

It's just weird something like this from Google.

Of course, I don't discount I don't know what I am doing or talking.

UPDATE:
Well, it's under basic setting, https redirect.  Blogspot provides this as an option.  And I thought it's a must.  Anyway it as an option is good I suppose.  I just thought it should be by default.  Anyway.  Good enough for me.

Nikkor 20-35

This lens has to be retired for the time being.  I simply don't want to spend the money on repairing it.  I didn't bother to make the trip to the shop to let them check it out.  I predict it's anywhere from $200 to $400 to repair it.

I will stick with my Nikon 16-35 f/4 for now.

Stripped Screw

I swear I am going to get the best set of screwdrivers.

A stripped screw turns out to the the biggest hurdle for my upgrade.

Sad.

Not touching it now.

MacPro3,1

Sometimes projects find me.  Not the ones that are you know earn me any money.  But the kind that are quite fun to work with but would burn a small hole or two in my wallet.

A friend of mine gave me this giant cheese grater or otherwise known as Mac Pro.  It's a 2008 model with 32GB of RAM but no HD whatsoever.  I am not currently having lots of disposable income so I have to savage whatever parts possible to make it run again.

I need a keyboard, a wired one at least in the beginning.  I have a PS/2 keyboard ... was thinking about getting an adapter for PS/2 to USB--this is really low I know.  Then I remember I actually have a Dell Microsoft keyboard Fung gave me long time ago.

USB mouse, which I have.
Install macOS Mojave
macOS  Mojave Patcher
2.5" 240GB SSD from before

To Buy list:
A DVI male to male cable
16 GB USB thumb drive
2.5" to 3.5" adapter

To Buy Later:
WiFi and Bluetooth module
more 3.5"HD
Bluetooth keyboard
Bluetooth mouse
PCIe card for USB3 ports

Nikkor AF-S 24-85 f/3.5~4.5 G

This was my first AF lens, bought long after I got my Nikon F5.  For a long time I just used MF lenses on my Nikon F5 adamantly.

I only used this lens occasionally and for a short period of time as I seldom took pictures and I discovered "pro" lenses.  I bought it from Canoga camera out in California.  I still remember the time I did my research on buying an AF lens and the moment and whereabouts when I placed the order, weird.  Back then I shot film and I was happy with the lens granted my point of reference was 4x6 prints and I must be in awe how the AF-S worked.

Now I "have to" revisit this lens again.  My pro grade 20-35 suffered from a fall and is out of commission.  I don't think I ever shot any digital using this 24-85.  I wonder if I shoot at f/8 or f/11, does it even matter?  When the lighting situation is difficult I think a f/2.8 helps or if you dig the f/2.8 or larger aperture rendition.  In terms of build, for me, as long as the mount is metal I am kind of OK with the rest.  All lenses broke from fall and impact, plastic or metal.  Sometimes I believe a lens shade helps alleviate the impact better than any metal construction.  That being said, I appreciate any well made lenses that last for decades.

Believe it or not, this lens together with its dedicated lens shade were Made in Japan.  The LC-67 lens cap was Made in Thailand.

Both Ken Rockwell and Moose Peterson raved about this lens if you ever need any affirmation of your purchase.  It's very interesting to read how Moose marvelled the lens cap LC-67 as I guess back then the squeeze-in lens cap was a rarity and the LC-67 was quite possibly among the firsts if not the first to use this squeeze-in mechanism.

S, M, L against numbered sizing

When I see S M L kind of sizing I shake my head a little.  Especially if the outfit in question is priced at a fairly high price like a $600-700 leather jacket.

I take it it can have XS, S, M, L, XL and for numbered sizing 36, 38, 40, 42 and 44.  So are they same?  I really don't know.  I tend to think when one uses SML sizing, it's just a bit unrefined and for lower priced goods.

Many if not most manufacturers still not disclosing what those letters or numbers mean exactly even for those selling online.  I think that's crazy.  Does 42 mean the jacket is 42 inches pit to pit or it means it's supposed to fit body with a chest size 42 inches?  Even for those sites that provide a size chart it's not clear to me what 42 means.  I wonder how can online retailers get away with actual measurements.  Some sites say true to size, what does it even mean?  Just give out the true garment measurements already.

I feel like eBay sellers do a much better job in general.

AF DC-NIKKOR 135mm f/2D

I don't know if Nikon USA has any rule in naming or calling its lenses but this is how it's listed on Nikon USA as of today.

So much ink has been spilled on this lens ... and I am going to spill a bit more.

This lens has a built-in hood that I have no idea how it's supposed to work, does it lock, do you just pull it out, are you supposed to turn it, clockwise or anticlockwise or something something.  I really have no idea.  Sometimes it just seems to be somewhat stuck.

The lens has an aperture ring.  What's old is new again.  I just read the new Canon R or more precisely the new RF lenses (not rangefinder by the way) has a ring that can be programmed to work as aperture.  Didn't they do that in the beginning of the time?  This lens provides defocus control meaning you can control the out of focus look either in front or behind the focused subject or you can simply leave the defocus alone and leave it in the neutral position.  The thing is if you need to work fast and you need to change the aperture, chances are you might forget to change the defocus setting following the change of the aperture.  For example you set you f/stop at f/2 and you set defocus at R2, to match the f/2 aperture you set.  Somewhere along the way, you want to shoot at f/2.8 but hey you are too busy composing and whatnot and you just left the defocus setting unchanged at R2 insteal of R2.8 as you preferred.  Not a huge deal in real world situation but psychologically it makes you feel sloppy and incompetent.  Unless I have ample time I would leave the defocus in neutral position.

Is AF fast?  This is relative and I don't have any scientific way to say one way or another.  Given that it's a prime D lens, so I assume it's not that fast by modern AF-S standard.  However, I use it to shoot velodrome cycling and I don't think it's bad or unuseable.  I tend to blame myself if I miss focus.

One thing I have to mention, some say chromatic aberration is not a problem ... I say it is.  Again it's relative.  When I shoot with this lens I make sure I check enable lens profile and remove chromatic aberration in Light Room.  On the other hand, when I use the relative modern 16-35 and 70-200 I never notice any chromatic aberration at all.  I am not saying CA shows all the time, it rears its ugly head on edges where light and dark color meet.  Sometimes when you shoot you just go I can be bothered with oh I can't use this lens or that lens because I am shooting back light with high contrast or lots of whites on the edges.  The lens basically gives a purple halo around the subject.  I suspect if I use Nikon's software it may clean up better.

135mm at f/2 is pretty shallow depth of field.  It can work to your aesthetic as much as against it.  But you have that option to deploy the lens at f/2 should you want to.  Modern cameras have astonishing high ISO performance so shooting at f/2 or f/1.4 or f/0.95 is more of a preference than a necessity.

Shooting with fixed focal length can be challenging and oddly satisfying as if you want to challenge and hence prove yourself in composition.

ImageMagick

I am a fan.  I know about less than 1% of its features but enough to admire the software and all that comes with it.

Tried to upgrade to 7.  What a challenge.  My MacPorts was outdated.  I think I installed IM via Ports.  So I tried to do it via Ports once again.   When Ports was done upgraded or actually migrated to High Sierra I was all set to upgrade to the latest greatest IM, sure I guess I could have used a much older version but.   Alas, the Ports port was still 6.9.  After going through an entire day, I was back to step 1.  I was thinking to use Home Brew to update, now I finally had enough.  I updated my Brew, not a migration mind you.   So nothing too abstruse to follow except to remove a couple of paths.  I was on 7 but the display program doesn't work.  Instead of tweaking tweaking and tweaking the path, I found another guy saying just to uninstall and brew install with X11 explicitly.  And it finally works.  Everything.  I tested my old scripts and it works too.

I modified my script to do Instagram as well.  I know so little IM and shell scripting so the script is kind of a patch work, but it works somewhat.

if [ ! -d "./ig" ]; then mkdir "./ig"; fi

for j in *.JPG
do
echo " ... instagramming $j"
test=`convert $j -format "%[fx:(w/h>1)?1:0]" info:`
if [ $test -eq 1 ]; then
convert "$j" \
    -resize 1080x566 \
    -background white \
    -gravity center \
    -extent 1080x566 "./ig/ig$j"
  else
    convert "$j" \
        -resize 1080x1350 \
        -background white \
        -gravity center \
        -extent 1080x1350 "./ig/ig$j"
fi
done


IM 7 uses 'magick' instead of 'convert' but convert apparently still works.

I need to shore up my shell scripting skill.

I purposely distracted myself installing IM yesterday.  I lost GIMP when I migrated MacPorts.  Oh well.  I don't really use it anymore as since I pay for LR.

UPDATE: 8/28/2018
I corrected the script, the portrait mode should be 1080x1350, wxh.

HTML

I miss the simpler days when HTML is just HTML with hyperlinks.  It's all about content about what it is.  But of course, CSS comes along and ruins it all.  Wow, I want to look pretty, so CSS.  I think 99% of CSS is bullshit.

Schott

I have a weakness for Schott.

Last year I drove all the way to their warehouse sales in New Jersey.  Alas, don't expect any fire sales because there aren't none.  I kind of expected that.  They aren't going to discount their leather goods.  Other stuff yes.  But not so much of their flagship items.  You are stilling looking at $600 leather jacket or more.

Years ago I got my no model number car coat from them in Soho, could be Canal Jeans, I am not sure.  The front has two pockets with flaps.  I use them too often as hand warmers which cause the flaps out of shape.  I don't know if there is a fix to it or if there is a fix that's free of charge or monetary remedy.  It's a minor thing like the flap is pointing up.  Other that that the coat is in good shape minus some very normal wear and tear.  The most disgusting thing is that I don't dry or professional clean my leathers.  I think the price is prohibitive and there is no convenience location to do that locally.

I have two 141s.  Don't ask me why.  I just do.  One is more matte or less glossy than the other.  Once is cut better at the sleeve than the other.  The 141 is a very clean cut jacket.  I bought the first one around 2007 I think.  I kid myself that I would sell one but I never did.  Size 44 seems a bit too big.

eBay is a very dangerous place, it burns holes in my wallet.

I came across this jacket that's not even marked as a Schott and hence priced not like a Schott.  I wasn't going to ask the seller hey is it a Schott that you're selling.  But the embossed buttons clearly say so.  The jacket I think is from the 1970s.  It looks good especially considered the price.  I can't help myself.  It's a 125 with the lining missing.  The pocket is very clean so you see the prior owner or owners don't use the pocket often or not often enough to soil or get them out of shape, kind of like what I did to my car coat.

My latest Schott is a 740N leather jacket.  Schott calls it pea jacket, at least on the label, instead of pea coat.  I find it a bit odd.  But hey what do I know?  A brand new one is now called 140 and fetches somewhat close to $800 quids--they just call it 740N if it's made of a blend of wool and nylon.  By the way, now I only shop used on eBay if I were to buy any Schott, the retail price on new ones is just too much for me.  Sometimes the current item is too much of a fashion item rather than the real thing.  Not that I ride any bike at all.  But if I pretend I'd like to stick with the real thing, the original thing.  There has been a number of manufacturers who supply peacoats to the Navy over the years.  Latest I read the Navy is going to stop peacoat as standard/free issue to new recruits, rather they need to pay for it if they want one.  Ouch!

a few things i like

there are a few things i like

leather jackets
cameras
lenses
computers, except pc