It's a blog about nothing!

Last.fm Scrobbling with Banshee
12/4/2012 - 20:15:25 - 1 comments - By D47
For AGES now my music player has refused to scrobble tracks to last.fm.

I checked it out today and found I was getting the error in `/home/d47/.config/banshee-1/log`: 
[Error] "Not all request variables are set - Invalid Timestamp"


This made me think maybe my computers time was set wrong somehow. After a casual check it turned out to be fine.

I tracked down the last.fm cache to `/home/d47/.cache/banshee-1/extensions/lastfm/audioscrobbler-queue.xml` and found in the first entry a negative timestamp! (among thousands of stuck tracks behind it) Obviously this was the problem.

So I closed banshee, removed that entry and reopened it.

Then came the flood of the scrobbles! :D
 
Sleep Paralysis
28/3/2012 - 21:17:42 - 0 comments - By D47
I don't think I've never had a real lucid dream but I once experienced sleep paralysis.

I was sleeping in a house that wasn't my own and for some reason I was sleeping on my back, which I never do. While I was asleep (I might have been dreaming, I don't know) I heard a really loud noise like someone had dropped a saucepan or something and my eyes opened instantly and I was a little shocked.

Then I saw what I thought was an alien casually walk past my door outside my room, right where I was looking. As it walked it froze mid step right in my doorway staring at me as if it wasn't supposed to have been seen. It looked just like those typical grey aliens with large black eyes only taller and it's head was a normal size. It also wasn't wearing any clothes. Beyond my door it was dark and poorly lit so anything I thought I saw was very vague and I was constantly trying to focus and make out a better image. Anyway I was scared like crazy and we both just stayed in the same position and stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity until I couldn't see it any more.

After some time there were blotches in my vision and blurry spots of ambiguity that normally see when you try to see in the dark. I knew I hadn't really seen an alien so once I got over it I just rolled over and went back to sleep.

It was very strange and scary to experience but I think it was exiting and quite fun.

A++++ would do again.

Edit: it wasn't some naked person making a noise outside my room lol, I checked.

Also of note, a while ago I started keeping a 'dream journal' where I would write down my dreams as soon as I woke up and while I could remember them. I recommend it! You dream of some wacky shit that you wouldn't believe.
 
Polarising Filter
27/12/2011 - 21:37:48 - 1 comments - By D47
Recently I acquired a polarising filter for my camera. I'd never used one before and I didn't really know what they were actually for, something to do with reflections I guessed.

After playing with it for a while and reading a lot of things on-line I think I get the basic idea, there is so much science involved in the technical details that it seems impossible to implement it all into a single piece of glass.

A polarising filter allows you to cut varying amounts of sunlight reflected off of non-metallic objects depending on the conditions of the shot.

The biggest factor that effects how your photo will look with a polarising filter is the rotation angle of it on your lens. At different rotations the filter will only allow light oriented in that direction. How light can be oriented in a particular direction is a hard one to imagine. If you think of light as a wave with an amplitude and wavelength then imagine the filter as a group of slits that only let the wave pass if it fits through the slit. For example, a wave that is oscillating up and down vertically will not fit through a flat horizontal slit.

Anyway you don't need to be a physicist to be able to use a polarising filter. The end effect of rotating the filter is that you can selectively accept only certain groups of light through to the camera. If you watch through your viewfinder you can see what effect it is having and take the photo when it looks the best.

The goal of course is get the picture you want and the best way to make use of a polarising filter is to know what kinds of effects it can achieve.

Another factor that determines how the polarising filter will affect your photo is the angle of the reflected light. I've read somewhere that you need to be at 50 degrees for it to be completely eliminated. I don't know why this is nor do I know where to go to find out but it does have an effect.

If you look through your filter at an LCD screen you can get a feel for what angles and rotations give the best results. LCD screens produce polarised light and so they can be blocked using a polarising filter.

The following images demonstrate how a polarising filter can be used to remove reflections from your shot. (Click to expand)

embedded imageembedded image
No photoshoping or other manipulating was performed on these images (except for resizing). The photos were taken with the same camera settings within seconds of each other. They represent the actual difference when using a polarising filter.

Anyway I love the effect of these filters and I will definitely use it regularly.
 
Close Bird
10/12/2011 - 14:16:33 - 0 comments - By D47
Have you ever wondered about sharing everything you know and all of your memories with someone? I think it would be something amazing to be able to package your entire memory and share it with someone. I would be keenly interested to know what other people had to say after receiving my memories. And vice-versa too of course.

I would be totally willing to do this if it was possible. I dream of being able to do it and a far out fantasy of mine is to live long enough for technology like this to develop. Perhaps I would like to help develop it myself. If I could.
 
Photography!
22/9/2011 - 14:45:24 - 1 comments - By D47
When I was in Japan I awkwardly bought a nice camera from the friendly non-English speaking staff.

At the time I had no idea about anything to do with photography really. So I just got the latest version of the same camera my friend had, the D3100. I was overflowing with cash at the time so I opted for the twin lens kit. embedded image

The lenses I got with the camera were these:
18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR AF-S (http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/18-55mm-vr.htm)
55-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR AF-S (http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/55-300mm.htm)

Now I have exactly zero experience with any other lenses or brands so I can't comment on their relative quality. But based on these alone I am once again awed by human ingenuity and technical ability. These things are just so incredibly advanced, it's amazing what a low income earner can buy with their emergency flood relief money.

My camera went mostly unused for many months after I returned. I simply didn't have any drive to take pictures of things so close to home, they just didn't seem worthy of capturing, just too mundane. However recently I was just curious and started reading up on what all the different settings do and what effects they have on the photos, also the particulars of my lenses and other lenses.

embedded image It got me very very interested in my camera and I started bringing it with me on my daily travels. For the most part things in Brisbane are indeed completely mundane and I really can't wait for my upcoming trip to Japan and South Korea (not just so I can take photos of course :).

Caught up in my own hype I bought a new lens and a GPS atachment. One thing I noticed when I was buying these is that you can really only buy them online, anywhere local is nearly double the price for some reason.

The lens I've ordered is a 35mm f/1.8 Nikon prime lens (http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/35mm-f18.htm). I've read good things about it , it's in my price range (very low) and it has the benefit of being rather compact and capable in low-light conditions (I don't like the way my flash photos look).

The GPS attachment I got was the official Nikon GP-1, It is $500 anywhere in Australia as far as I could find. So I got it at ebay from a Japanese seller for $265! (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160476160525)

embedded image I intend to keep learning as much as I can about photography just as a hobby. I put it at number 3 in my life-time list of desirable skills after programming and Japanese.
 

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