Teeeeejirrrrr » Things

The Point-and-Shoot Challenge

Tijger Tsou — Tue, 04 May 2010 16:03:36 +0000

Artistically... this is nothing special. But technically, it is not the sort of low-light image quality you normally expect from a point-and-shoot digital camera...

I’m out to prove something to myself… that even with an old point and shoot digital camera it is possible to take great pictures which rival those taken with higher end gear. Why the hell am I doing this? Motivation by seeing someone else’s sub-par work. Also, it doesn’t hurt when someone says that a piece of equipment is outdated junk.

Yes.. what triggered this was seeing someone else’s poor product (no, not shots that I took, for serious!), having to listen to someone else talk smack about low end camera gear for no particular reason other than brand fanboyism.

Okay, feeling motivated to produce superior work even while armed with a simple point-and-shoot camera kind of kicked this whole thing off too, because I shot my mouth off, ranting that way.

Luckily for me, the only person who heard me rant was my wife. Unluckily, she wanted me to back up what I said. Luckily, I was counting on her issuing the challenge like that. Don’t worry. We get along splendidly. She knows how to light a fire under my ass, and I mean that in the best of ways. Of course, I won’t post the offending work on here. That’s just not cool. After all, I’m not a paid pro, and this other person is.

For this little project I chose the Canon PowerShot S400 to try and prove my point. It’s the perfect little camera for the job. Here are some of the reasons why:

It’s ‘old enough’ in digital camera years, being of 2003 vintage. The timing of the camera’s age means many people are upgrading it in favor of newer gear. It’s super cheap on eBay right now.
It is easily overlooked by most people these days because on paper, many of its specifications have been far surpassed by contemporary compact point-and-shoots.
It’s compact, and has an excellent physical build.
It has a relatively large 1/1.8″ CCD, the last PowerShot of it’s kind to use that sensor. Current cameras of its class use the smaller 1/2.7″ CCD form factor.
It doesn’t have too many photosites crowding up that CCD. Four megapixels is just right. Not too many, not too few.
Canon’s firmware is pretty good at extracting optimum dynamic range most of the time in all shots.
It has no manual controls. This is actually good. This makes it more challenging for me to trick the camera into doing my bidding.
This is Canon’s last PowerShot camera to use an all-glass lens, as opposed to polycarbonates/resins on current models.
Although not really a ‘good’ thing, the camera has a dinky 1.5″ LCD screen, which will make composition and exposure evaluation a bit trickier- which in turn should make this whole crazy feat more impressive.
The camera has an infinity focus mode, so the camera will still shoot anyway without having acquired focus lock on a nearby subject. Useful for low light work.

Well, without further ado, here are the first wave of test shots, done at macro lengths.

Thanks for reading!

The Cost of Incompetent Programmers

Tijger Tsou — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:58:59 +0000

This topic comes up for me not necessarily as a rant, but as I was going through some old notes before tossing them away, and this issue came up. How much damage can an organization do to themselves by hiring discount, unqualified programming resources?

The answer: A hell of a lot.

If you own a small software development shop, do yourself a huge favor and keep reading.

Stupidity cost us about $250,000 over a 9 month period. Another $250,000 was lost for us in other means.

A previous company that I worked at had a habit of hiring low-cost coding staff to handle production quality servers- Not just any production machines… but the very hardware which was responsible for 100% of the revenue being generated for said company. This makes no sense as their client side programmers were generally top-notch, and among the more creative and competent that I have had the pleasure to work with.

Management also had a habit of protecting these junior staff members voraciously- for various reasons, but mainly economic. A single server-side programmer could cost two or three times more in salary to maintain. Also, some in the management felt that this staff member was a ‘worthy project’ that could become a superstar programmer someday. I mean, it worked for Darko Milicic during his stint with the Pistons, didn’t it?

I calculated that my previous employer definitely cost themselves $250,000 in lost cashmoney over a 9 month period for the mishaps they had in retaining ONE very junior server-side engineering resource. This was absolutely staggering to me. Another $250,000 could easily be accounted for in other means. I’ll get to that in a moment.

The other sources for my numbers are the assumptions that:

Yes, this programmer was causing problems nearly EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Five client/server development resources were utilized, at $20/hr in wage costs each time a bug needed to be fixed.
Eight QA staff were utilized, at $15/hr in wage costs to confirm said bug fix.
This underqualified developer introduced one bug per day, which took an average of six hours per bug to fix.
This individual worked for a period of 9 months, before finally being axed for causing a systemwide outage of all revenue generating products for a significant part of a business day.
Not entirely relevant, but said individual produced on average 15 lines of code per day, with the assumption of 21 working days per month. Vacation time is included in this count because this individual only really took one, and worked some weekends as well – so it all balances out.

The numbers I am leaving out are:

Costs to management salaries. The reason for this is twofold- one is that I don’t know how many staff members were involved in back-room decisionmaking each time we suffered downtime events. This ranges from one to four. Who knows…
Costs to my productivity. I was a systems admin, so it was my job to support the engineering staff. I had the unique experience of being able to read/understand code, but full well knew that I could not hold a candle to the proper engineers. In a nutshell, I could talk shop with them, and help diagnose problems. I was a bit faster than a plain old sysadmin at doing this. I was a good cheerleader at times. That’s about it.
Costs of contractors: During most of this 9 month period, we had consulting/contracting staff on board who had to shift gears to help fix problems on a near-regular basis. I simply did not accurately keep track of how often they had to drop whatever they were doing and scramble to help us.
The damage caused by spaghetti code. This is utterly incalculable. Each time new server-side programming staff were added they faced an absolute nightmare of a learning curve.
The amount of time lost by production server uptime – According to my notes we were down (and by that I mean not being able to process subscription material) for a period of nine total business days during that 9 month period. To this day I still don’t exactly know how many dollars per hour in transactions were being handled by those servers, so I can’t guess there. I won’t even bother to put a price tag on it, but it is the elephant in the room.

If I really do have to hazard a guess at the total cost of damage over 9 months, then I’ll say that stupidity cost us about USD $500,000 total. There is also the untold damage done to the reputation of the company, as subscribers probably grew tiresome of outages and took their business somewhere else.

How much damage can one incompetent programmer do to an organization? A hell of a lot.

In the end it isn’t my intention to throw anyone under the bus for the mistakes that were made. Guilty parties all know who they are, and to some degree or another, they all paid for it already, so there’s no need to flog that dead horse all over again.

The underqualified individual who boasted of general programming expertise which he did not have faced the prospect of never finding work in a proper engineering environment again. Management who felt they were saving money by having this resource around because of cost-effectiveness are facing the prospect of their entire company going down the tubes because the server-side codebase is nearly unmaintainable, among other things. Those of us who stuck around trying to fix the situation paid for it with a few sleepless nights, and the agony of ‘Heisenbug’ code which was nigh near unpossible to debug or maintain effectively.

I learned many things myself. I used to never document very well. Because of the insanity I was forced to deal with, I feel I have come a long way in that regard. I enjoy documenting now. It’s saved my ass a number of times since then.

Over a year after the staff member was let go, the server programmers were still fixing bugs.

Also, a young and promising programmer who was forced to help debug and manage the fix processes on a regular basis learned a hell of a lot from these failures, and it will serve him tremendously in his career as time goes on. This is the type of education you just can’t get in college. Over a year after the staff member was let go, he was still fixing bugs. The thing is, he’s already bailed on this company and isn’t looking back. If there was someone worth focusing on and making into your future team nucleus… this guy was the one.

What’s done is done, and hopefully dear reader, if you’re in management or if you own a small company, you won’t make the same mistakes that they did. I implore you to hire competent people. Don’t cheap out in that regard. It will cost you a whole lot more than you think.

Interesting Places: Sarawak Chamber

Tijger Tsou — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:06:27 +0000

The Sarawak Chamber is the largest known underground chamber of its kind in the world. It is part of the ‘Good Luck Cave’ system which is located in Gunung Mulu National Park, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo.

The chamber is not yet fully explored, and roughly measures about 700m (2,300 feet) long, 400m (1,300 feet) wide and at least 70m (230 feet) high. To get a sense of how much space this is, imagine the amount of land you would need to park ten Boeing 747-400 aircraft in line. That’s a lot of space! The irregular shape of Sarawak Chamber would probably fit at least 30 more inside if the ground was flat, and the entrance was big enough… well, it’s safe to say that I would have to be making a good number of assumptions indeed. In any event- It’s BIG.

There are no good photos of the chamber because it’s rather difficult to get to, and lugging along a light source powerful enough to light up the entire chamber just to get a photograph is not a trek that would provide a very good bang for the buck.

The story of the initial discovery itself is quite interesting as well. Andy Eavis, Dave Checkley, and Tony White – all highly accomplished spelologists wandered into the chamber not quite realizing what they were in. At some point they realized from the air and how sound carried that they were inside a large chamber, but their lights were not powerful enough to see where the border walls were. Imagine the terror of not knowing where the walls are, and that you’re just in the dark somewhere underground, clambering about in a field littered with giant boulders.

One of the men had a panic attack (the other two won’t say who of course) and they spent some time just trying to find a wall so that they could make a bearing. The whole story is documented in greater detail in the book “Underground Worlds” by Donald Jackson.

There are few places left on Earth that inspire such wild imagination of the unknown.

Stuck iPhone Home Button?

Tijger Tsou — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:16:27 +0000

Does this really need a freaking sign? Picture is non related to the iPhone.

Is your 1st edition or 3G iPhone home button stuck?

Does it take multiple presses to get back to the home screen?

Does it sometimes not respond at all to the touch, even though the clicker mechanism seems to be intact and not making any grinding noises?

Is your phone no longer under warranty so you fear those sales reps er… Genius Bar technicians are going to try to gouge you on repair costs?

Is your phone not going to be serviceable because it’s been jailbroken?

Well, I’m not saying I have all the answers, but consider this before you take matters into your own hands and begin dissecting your iPhone looking for a way to replace the switch.

This is my three-step guide on trying to fix the problem:

Buy or borrow a blower that you would use for camera gear. Not one of those rinky dink ones- but something like this Giottos Rocket Blower- which should set you back about $13 or so. Even if this process doesn’t fix the problem, you should own one of these things if you have ANY other electronic equipment.
Depress the home button, and then guide the nozzle into the thin gap where the button and body meet.
Squeeze the hell out of the blower a bunch of times (it took me about 20-30 shots) and vary your position around the button if you feel inclined to.

The whole point of this exercise is to try and lodge free any dust & debris which may have accumulated in the home switch itself. While it seems unlikely, this fix worked for me. So in my super-large sample set of one person, I have achieved a 100% success rate!

Again, your mileage may vary- but if i’ve saved you a trip into the iPhone innards by having to disassemble it, only to realize that access to the motherboard where the button (and it’s popple) are limited at best- then you’re welcome.

Otherwise, if it didn’t work, i apologize. But at the very least you are now in possession of a useful cleaning tool, and you have a legitimate reason to try and kick my ass if were to ever meet in person.

Thanks for reading!

It’s Not The Camera Gear, People

Tijger Tsou — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:00:42 +0000

Here are some photos I stumbled upon on Flickr, which I felt were quite good… subjectively valued by their framing, artistic merit, emotional content, and the vaguest of them all, sheer beauty:

Happy Birthday by redrocker_9@flickr

Feliz cumple.... by Espace vitto

Pattern by d's 2nd@flickr

Down the road, by humanwarmth@flickr

Pogled sa zvjezdarnice by *shana@flickr

Trio, by La Señorita Pil

To go to heaven, by ~ Araien ~@flickr

Dargın mıyız ? by Derya Hacalaki@flickr

Now for the fun part. These pictures come from two of the WORST digital cameras ever manufactured. Again- the pictures are absolutely beautiful and nothing bad can really be said about them… but the hardware is almost universally derided.

The first four photos were taken with a Polaroid i-Zone 550, a camera regarded as a toy. Its own user base tends to not really like it all that much. Not only a camera, it also comes with a built-in MP3 player, and unfortunately is good at neither task. Advertised as a 5.1 megapixel camera, it was shown to be a 3MP CCD that was upsampled to meet the specification- yet look at the nice shots that came out of the camera in this particular case.

The next four shots were taken with a Pentax Optio E-10, a camera known for its technical crappiness and generally hate-filled user reviews, and for its CCD imager chip randomly dying or batteries mysteriously being drained in abnormally short times.

Again, this is proof that the camera really does not make you a better photographer. Good tools help, but that’s all they are- tools. Many pixel-peepers today simply fail to grasp that.

Pancake Lenses are Cool

Tijger Tsou — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 02:42:52 +0000

I have to say I am hooked on pancake lenses. What are they? Well, they’re very flat compared to other lenses, hence the name. Other than their compact size, they don’t offer distortion effects like fisheye lenses, or tilt-shift lenses. The name just implies their diminuitive footprint and possible roots in the Zeiss Tessar lens package design. Now I’m motivated to start a little project that provides some centralized information about them.

UPDATE

I’ve got the first four lenses added into my “Index of Pancake Lenses“, a little database-driven side project that I just launched. I hope to add more in there as I get collect information and develop better understanding of lenses as a whole. Any hints/corrections/additional info are greatly appreciated!

Canon Issues Select Recall on EOS 1D Mark III

Tijger Tsou — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:00:01 +0000

Yesterday, Canon issued a recall on one of their flagship DSLR cameras, the EOS 1D Mark III. One of the problems is related to autofocus issues when not using the center focus point – which I don’t experience because I almost exclusively use the center point. There are a total of 45 autofocus points on the camera viewfinder, with 19 of them being selectable. The remainder are “assist” points.

The autofocus has had knocks on it because under certain conditions it totally freaks out – high temperature heat/haze in the backgrounds, and under low contrast conditions (such as a dancer wearing black against a black background). The EOS 1D Mark IIn, its predecessor, apparently did not have these kinds of issues.

The other problem which is potentially more serious and troubling are ‘ERR99′ messages that occasionally pop up and without real regularity. These cause the camera to become unusable until powered off.

Canon’s biggest problem though is that they are perceived as covering things up.

It’s a lot like when a Windows desktop would crash- you had no idea what happened, and like voodoo in the Microsoft way- with the reboot of the computer, and the waving of a dead chicken, everything would come back just fine. Some users have had to leave their cameras powered off for extended periods of time, while others just remove the battery to reset it, and everything is okay again. I have personally never experienced this problem, so I can’t comment on it.

Canon’s biggest problem though is that they are perceived as covering things up. Having some camera bodies out there that work, and some that can’t focus, and now finally acknowledging some that randomly crash makes this problem worse. In some ways, I wished that ALL of the cameras had failures so that it would be easier to clear the mess away and start over. Then they could issue a credit on current 1D Mark III owners towards the newer model. But I can’t

If you follow the traffic on various Internet forums it would look like the situation has reached Biblical proportions. Everyone from raging drama queens, to unreadable chicken-scratchers, to brand-bashers seem to be coming out of the woodwork as they all smell blood. Others like Markuson@pbase and DPReview can enjoy the sweet taste of vindication as their original complaints were held true.

My hat goes off to people Rob Galbraith at their persistence with trying to find the root cause of the problems.

There has been some misinformation spread about the internal guts of the 1D Mark III in general.

1) The 1D Mark III is NOT does not run DRYOS.

The camera still uses Wind River Software VxWorks. In fact I don’t think any of the SLR cameras use DRYOS as the EDSDK has not been ported or altered to support DRYOS cameras yet. Also, the changes would be significant and Canon would most likely rename EDSDK to something else, as they had done with RCSDK before it.

What this means is that the cameras did not undergo the ‘double bypass’ equivalent of software engineering- having both new code functionality added along with an operating system transplant. With such an undertaking you can bet things could go wrong, and bugs could be introduced. This puts Canon back on the hook for the ERR99 problems that have come up here and there.

2) The autofocus problems now seem to be indeed hardware related.

Rob Galbraith suspected this. Other users with understanding of how passive intensity differential autofocus engines suspected as much too. This puts Canon back on the hook for putting out the impression that all of the issues in the past would be corrected via a firmware update.

What does this all mean? Probably that some engineering errors during testing got put into production, or that the accountants got a bit too chop-happy during the initial production acceptance stages of the camera. Either way, it means this will not be an easy fix, as Canon is now scheduling individual appointments with 1d Mark III users.

Conclusion and what it means to you:

I have mixed feelings about this. I have a camera that seems to be working pretty well, and I am not inclined to f*** around with it. I still really like my camera lot. But then again, I’m not shooting sports like gymnastics or airshows with it on a routine basis.

On the other hand, it would be neat to get a properly working camera up to spec out of the box. I guess I’ll chicken out here and not make ANY conclusions just yet. If you are an owner and feel slighted by Canon, by all means, call them and pester them until you have a camera body that you’re happy with. Just because people like me may be on the sidelines doesn’t mean we don’t support you. Good luck!

06 March UPDATE – Information Regarding Specific Serial Numbers

I called Canon to see what kind of options I had out of curiousity. I spoke with a Canon service engineer, and he did confirm that there were at least three significant revisions of the 1D Mark III. Out of interest in not putting his job in jeopardy, I won’t post his name. But his comments were in line with the contents of this posting here at DPReview. I’ve pasted the contents of his posting here below:

Hi,

According to CPS representatives in my regions, there are 3 different revisions of the Mk III. These are labelled within the battery compartment. There is a code inside of it. Relevant are the last 2 digits:

01-04 are the first one with defective AF mirror
05-08 are the second one (blue dot)
09-13 are the latest. These are fine and should include the latest AF module.

So probably if your cam belongs to the 09-13 range, the new fix is not necessary.

Best regards
Lightjunkie

I might be hallucinating, but the Canon rep I spoke with hinted at more than three revisions, but my interpretation was as many as five. This would have been fairly expensive in terms of man-hours to disrupt the assembly line five times with upgrades to manufacturing processes. Of course, he might be pulling my leg as none of the manufacturing is done in the USA and the possibility of support staff knowing everything that’s happening over in Japan is slim and/or next to not useful.

I’m not sure what exactly would have been hardware related to address. No doubt tooling costs, training costs, and hours lost by downtime for staff at manufacturing positions would be significant. Then again, the 1D series cameras are not made in massive volumes where something like this would be that disruptive. At least Canon was trying to fix matters on the assembly line.

As for me, my conclusion is to stick with the camera that I have. Luckily my camera’s manufacture code ends with a 13. It works, and I really like it so far in terms of performance, ergonomics, and such. After all, it’s just a tool to help take photos, and is basically an expensive little box that captures light momentarily.

Well, now that this is all done for the time being, let’s go grab a drink.

So You’re Interested in a DSLR Camera?

Tijger Tsou — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:00:55 +0000

You’re probably here because of a random search. Well, i’m no expert, but i’ve got some equipment, and i’ve been shooting for only a little while. I’m probably the perfect person to offer an objective point of view! I’m a newbie too. Just like you, but the only difference is that I have some gear, and you don’t (yet).

Well, I want to help you. I want to help you save money, time, and frustration. So without further do, please allow me the opportunity to set you straight on a few things.

The equipment DOES NOT really matter!
Persistence and patience do matter, however.
Being creative and curious helps a lot.
Special effects are easy. Time consuming, but still… easy.
Connections help more than expensive lenses.

The explanation for each of these points continues after the break.

The Equipment Does Not Really Matter

I shoot Canon gear, and I have invested in it mainly because it’s what I’ve always been comfortable using from starting off with point-and-shoot cameras. That’s it. I’m perfectly comfortable with the prospect of having to use Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax, and even Sony (who bought up the assets of what was once Konica-Minolta).

Anyone who tells you one system is flat out superior to another is a fanboy. Don’t listen to them. No how good they seem to be at their craft, they are doomed to be the frog in the well. Definitely do not listen to the boisterous keyboard warriors of the Internet forum wastelands. More often than not, these are the types who never even post photos. Probably because they are too busy arguing the merits of one brand over another.

…The camera at its core is just a f#*%ing box that captures light…

Save yourself a lot of stress, go to a camera store, or a Best Buy, and play around with the interface on the cameras on display. Put your brain on ‘IGNORE’ mode with the salespeople. Feel the camera and look around in the interface for what is intuitive for you. Don’t worry if you don’t know what buttons do which. At this point you are not supposed to know. Just put the camera in your hands and work on these things:

Can I figure out how to turn it on or off?
Is it comfortable in my hands?
Is it too light, or too heavy?
Can I reach all of the buttons, switches, and doodads with both hands comfortably?
Does it feel right?

Seriously, that sounds simple, like for developmentally retarded individuals. But I have quantified the exact things that will be running through your mind at that point. Pick something you’re comfortable with. You’re the one that is going to have to use it every day.

Don’t worry about megapixels. Don’t worry about the ISO rating of the camera. Don’t worry about technobabble this, or whachamcallit that. Don’t let anyone- whether it be a sales droid, a crazy uncle, or even myself get to you to influence the TECHNICAL aspects of your decision. Camera bodies are all competent regardless of the manufacturer and worrying about the TECHNICAL details is really useless at this point.

The camera at its core is just a fucking BOX that captures light. An empty coffee can with a pinhole and some film can do that. There is even a trend these days to use deliberately crappy cameras and lenses to take artsy, strangely overexposed photos. I am serious! (wikipedia – Lomography). So DON’T WORRY about these technical aspects at all.

Don’t worry about getting additional lenses at this point. Learn and use the kit lens that comes with your camera first. I had a kit lens and I regret selling it, because it was damn good at what it did, and was light and cheap. Put thoughts of loading up on lenses firmly out of your head.

…Don’t worry about megapixels. Don’t worry about the ISO rating of the camera…

The main merits of sticking with Canon or Nikon (since they are the big dogs) or some other recommend brand is that if you’re in a class/group environment, you can share other people’s lenses.

Otherwise if you want to go with some other brand, knock yourself out. Building a good DSLR is not rocket surgery, and pretty much everything out there is competent at taking pictures, so you will be perfectly fine with whatever gear you are comfortable with.

Still not convinced? Check out this rant written by Chad Coombs, a professional photographer. He says it a lot more to-the-point and jarringly eloquently than me most of the time. I am being dead serious. Stop right now in fact, go read that page RIGHT NOW, and you can thank me later. I won’t be upset if you decide not to come back. I’m being serious.

Persistence & Patience Really Do Matter

I read my manuals and documentation all the time. I frustrated the hell out of my wife because I take my cameras into the bathroom, and use that opportunity while downloading a brownload to fully understand the feature sets, limitations, and experiment while my gear has a captive audience. No, I don’t take pictures of my own poop. I might though, if I leave one large enough to clog the whole thing down, but you get my drift – OKAY back on subject…

There is a lot to understand about photography, and while I cannot claim to be an expert at ANYTHING in the field, I can at least have conversations with those that do, and take away a reasonable understanding of things they have to say. There are quite a few technical terms, a little bit of math, TONS of marketing bullshit, but even more good tips and techniques.

My point is that I still may not be a good photographer after all is said and done, but I have learned a lot of random things related to the study of light, and there is always more to reach for. Don’t let the initial overwhelming flood of information intimidate you. Embrace it, and just try to digest comfortable sized bits at a time.

Being Creative & Curious Helps a Lot

I’ll admit I need a lot of work in this regard. Every time I give my camera to a child to use, more often than not I get something back that looks better than if I had taken it. This happens! Accept it!

The trick is to not get discouraged, and instead capitalize on the lesson they are sharing with you. Keep an open mind, be creative, and be curious. Who cares if you’re at a museum, and you are lying on the ground to get a better shot of a statue?

Sure, people are laughing at you now, but these are the same people who would gladly over cashmoney for one of your prints afterwards.

Special Effects are Easy, But Time Consuming

If you’re looking at this photo and you say “Wow! I really want to do this! This is SO FREAKING COOL!”

…let me just tell you first to smack that thought out of your head and come to your senses. Don’t fall for this sort of bullshit. You are better than that.

There is nothing wrong with this type of photography- it’s called high dynamic range imaging, or HDR (sometimes HDRi) for short- but it is a special effect. Time will tell if it fades into obscurity as a mere gimmick, or continues its life in a more muted and upscale fashion. Photos like this are composed of at least two images taken at different exposure settings which are ‘muxed’ together using Photoshop or other applications.

Remember, that these are special effect shots. Good effects like any must be used in moderation. If you rush out and get yourself a DSLR thinking you want to shoot only images like this, chances are you will be frustrated and disappointed. These sort of shots take a lot of time to craft, and it’s all too easy to fall into the trap to overdo them.

Connections Help More Than Expensive Gear

This is something I don’t need to elaborate much on. If you’re at a venue, and you can get front-row access, you stand to get much better, intimate shots than the guy slathered in gear who is sitting in the nosebleed seats, doesn’t know any of the performers, doesn’t even know where the dressing rooms are, or can’t even get the time of day from the security staff.

I often have to remind myself to work on this aspect. It’s really something that people overlook until the last minute.

Conclusion & Wrap-Up

Below are two of my cameras. I use both of them. If you’re bored, you can see a head-to-head comparison between David and Goliath that I am slowly pulling together here and here. You can decide for yourself if even using a DSLR is what you are looking for.

Well, I really hope that this helps you in making your purchase. Remember that what matters is that you are happy and comfortable taking photos. Good luck!

It pays to take your camera around everywhere. This may not be a ‘great’ photo but I love the emotion it sparks when I see it. Best part? No posing, and total spontaneity. I wish I had a better eye for this sort of thing.

Again, not a technically impressive shot, and completely lacking in an interesting subject… but its always fun to experiment.

Normal, mundane things can be fun too.

Xythos Broken Advanced Upload Functionality

Tijger Tsou — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:29:18 +0000

We use Xythos at our workplace to provide a file repository for students and eventually faculty and staff. It’s basically a web front end for a file system.

My personal feelings about the product are somewhat ho-hum and indifferent. It makes funny noises under the hood, it’s a bit clunky, but it works, runs on Linux and it’s reliable.

So you’re probably here because you searched on this error:

java.lang.ClassFormatError: Truncated class file

The problem is that you’re probably running your Xythos installation over port 443 (as you should) but there are still components trying to pull files down from port 80. With Xythos, if SSL is enabled, any requests to port 80 get dumped over to 443, and you will get truncated errors like above.

The fix is to feed some hardcoded variables for your site name into the application so it does not do that, and use port 443 isntead.

We use version 7.1, and in our case the error was addressed by editing the following file, in your Xythos installation:

/path_to_xythos/wfs/webapps/xythoswfs/upload_advanced.jsp

Now look for the text “UPLOAD Applet”, and you should see some source that looks like this:

<% if (l_showApplet) { %>