Saw my first Strida folding bike in the wild today.
Author: scruss
-
the discarded galosh
Winter is nearly over …
-
music for and by molluscs
Dan Jones & The Squids‘ new album Totally Human is out now – yay!
-
flash bang wallop
I’m rather taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2. Not merely does it look like a proper camera, it doesn’t handle like a gimmicky electronic toy. I love the wide-aspect images, and it stores all the EXIF information I need for panoramas. I could do without the proprietary USB/video connector, and it would have been really nice to have auto-bracket enabled on raw shooting for exploring HDR images, but it is not a huge deal. Neatest basic function is the ability to view your pics as a calendar, each day opening up the ones you took then. Nice.
Barnack’s ghost is probably troubled by the use of the Leica name on such a frivolous device. I will be able to claim the famed “leica glow” on my shots now, though.
I’m thinking that this camera is targeted towards the sophisticated grandpa. It’s able to track the ages of two children, so your pictures can be tagged as being of Baby X at age Y. Useless? Well, someone could use it.
Oh okay … some photos are here: http://scruss.com/gallery/v/lumix_lx2/
-
site search broken
I don’t think that WordPress‘s search function works any more.
Ah, it’s been fixed in 2.1.2. -
audible minority
Everyone says I don’t have a very strong accent, but I’m sick of being misunderstood. I have been offered Wild Turkey when I asked for water, and my house number – 36 – is a constant source of confusion. Bell got it wrong for a couple of hours when we first got our phone in 2002, and so the poor folks at 56 have been getting our junk mail ever since.
Last straw came during the last power outage. Toronto Hydro has an automated voice recognition system which first asks your postal code, then your street name, then the house number. It got the code and the street right, then assumed I was saying big ol’ 56 again. It took me right back to the postal code question, even after confirming it and the street name before.
Rather than going postal, I ended up having to slur out my mooshiest “thihrdheesihx” before it took it. C’mon people, consonants, consonants!
Hate to think what it’d have made of the Glaswegian ‘thehrty’, which my Gran always decried as “common” …
-
camerangst
I told myself that I wouldn’t upgrade my P&S until the pixel count doubled for an affordable price. I didn’t define ‘affordable’, though, leaving myself perhaps too much consumer wiggle room.
Anyway, 10+ megapixel compacts are here, but there are many contenders. The Panasonic DMC-LX2 has a nice lens, but is expensive and looks a little soft unless you shoot raw. The Canon SD900 is lovely and tiny, but maybe that’s all.
Do I really need to upgrade at all?
-
this is my breakfast
for Kieran …
-
yay bloggers, it’s cold!
GTAbloggers tonight. Is there any coincidence that it was absolutely baltic last time, and there aren’t exactly that many brass monkeys hanging around today?
-
all did go well in Sarnia
Well, I talked myself hoarse (must learn to project!), and I think it went well; no-one feigned death or sudden illness.
The ATI Remote Wonder performed flawlessly. It may be ugly, but it works.
-
more wind in Sarnia
I’m giving my wind talk to the Lambton Chapter of the PEO tonight: Wind Energy for the Perplexed.
If all goes well, I’ll be able to use my ATI Remote Wonder to control the slides, as I found an OS X driver for the Remote Wonder. Yay!
-
our robust power system
I’m writing this during a blackout. Our little enclave, just southeast of Kennedy and Eglinton, can have the power out when the nearby streets are fine. I can see that the (formerly derelict) Coffee Time has power, as has the block the other side of Kennedy. I wonder what makes us so special?
-
um, no …
This is really part of a route suggested by Google Maps:
6. Take the exit onto HWY-402 W toward Sarnia (102 km)
7. Make a U-turn (0.3 km)It should be noted that the 402 is a large highway, and u-turns are not exactly recommended.
-
Fixing bad shares on the NSLU2
Much as I like my NSLU2, it has a serious problem when it loses power; its share information often goes kablooey. There’s a not very elegant way of fixing this.
Say, f’rinstance, you had a share called Files on Disk 2. Sometimes you’ll find that this has gone, or migrated to the wrong disk, and there’s invariably a share called Files~1, usually on Disk 1. To fix this:
- Delete the Files~1 share.
- If you have a Files share and it’s inaccessible through the normal methods, delete that.
- Recreate the Files share on Disk 2. Do not change the location, unless you’d put it somewhere strange to start off with.
Your share should be back. I find that it sometimes usually changes the user permissions, so you may have to fiddle with ownership and group membership. You can fix this:
- Delete the user from the Users tab (but don’t delete the group and share – these are greyed out – and definitely don’t delete the folder)
- Delete the group, from the Advanced → Groups tab
- Delete the share, from the Advanced → Shares tab
- Recreate the user (from the Setup → Users tab), and select Create Private Folder (Share), giving the appropriate location for the share.
You can then save the configuration to allow you to quickly restore the settings. Nope, the reboot that’s carried out on restore makes the whole problem come back again – aargh!
-
Things I Saw in Vancouver
Things I Saw in Vancouver – and yes, there are flowers in bloom. Beware of the cute sea otters, though they’re not quite up there with the Oh Noes! otter.
