Category: arts and letters

Live preview

There was an interesting question of the D200 user group:

I know its just been 2 days since I bought my D200 but am I missing something or is there no way to shoot while screen is on?

I dont want to look in the viewfinder in every picture I take, there must be a way that I couldnt see in the users manual… 🙁

Okay, I can see all you SLR users there smirking. The person just bought a $1400 camera and doesn’t know that SLRs don’t do that sort of thing because the reflex mirror (the R in SLR). But things have changed a lot. Are we sure we’re not being snobs for smirking?

Golden flight

Golden flight
San Francisco, California

Nikon D200, Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VR
1/90sec @ f/22, iso 125, 18mm (27mm)

Maybe if I had live preview on a swivel mount, I could have gotten the horizon right?

I know of at least three ways newer SLR cameras get around this problem:

[Understanding live preview after the jump]Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 2

EVE online

Since I was working on a web-tool to detect and clean HTML embed codes, Firefox was experiencing some intermittent crashing. Today I loaded up my page in Safari, seeing the site for the first time in weeks without my banner ad blocker:

Eve Online, Afro Samurai and other Tagged madness

The banner ad is for Eve Online which is a MMORPG imported from Korea. Someone I know just accepted a job for a similar company so this is a big shout-out to you (you know who you are).

BTW, Afro Samurai did a takeover a couple weeks ago. I decided to change my tagged profile theme to the promo. It’s a pity that I don’t get cable and this isn’t on iTunes, because it looks like an interesting show.

(I had cable until yesterday, but didn’t know it since I never connected it. I found out today when they left a note on my door saying they cut it.)
Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 1

The key to beauty

According to Popular Photography’s blog, apparently the key to feminine beauty is either Photoshop or over-exposure mixed with either high key or low key lighting.

I’m kidding, but it’s a nice tip. I have to remember to try “dialing to 11” my meter next time just to see what comes out. Before this, I was depending on happy accidents:

unknown tree flower

unknown tree flower
Mountain View, California

Nikon D70, Lensbaby 2.0, Tokina .45 macro
f/2 at 1/2500 second, iso 200, 50mm (75mm)

(Yes, I know the photo isn’t of a woman. I’ll have to work on that.)

Posted on by tychay 0

Barcamp Sacramento

BarCamp Sacramento, June 2-3

Adam Kalsey and Scott Hildebrand of SacStarts are holding a BarCamp in Sacramento on June 2nd and 3rd.

BarCamp is a conference where the participants are the speakers. Show up, sign up to give a session, and get going. There’s lots of networking in the halls, food, great conversations, and you’ll even learn a thing or two.

I love the price (free) 🙂 I’ll be there, maybe you should also. Maybe I’ll dig up an old talk or or test drive a new one (no doubt there will be some PHP involved in mine).

Show your support for the Web people a little further inland and signup!

Posted on by tychay 0

PHP (and mac) pinup

I was catching up on some of my newsreading when I ran across this article, with the quote:

Is this quote for real?

Image from Macenstein and model from Suicide Girls. (horny php guy desktopper)

I thought I’d make it into this desktop image as a shout-out to all you (male) PHP devs out there. (There was an old PHP image I saw about five years ago sort of like this…those of you who remember, know what I’m talking about.)

(Passing thought: this person has been a PHP developer longer than me.)

[Commentary after the jump.]Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 4

Ed Finkler agrees with me

From Pro PHP Podcast:

Q: What do you think are the three largest failings of PHP and Security?

“I agree with some things that Terry Chay has said about this: that the things that tend to make PHP insecure also tend to be the things that make PHP easy to work with.”
—Ed Finkler, PHP Security Expert, CERIAS

Thanks Ed. 🙂

Listen to the podcast. It’s a realistic assessment of the state of security in PHP.

[Some comments after the jump.]Continue reading →

Posted on by tychay 6

This happens way too often

“It hurts me to confess it, but I’d have given ten conversations with Einstein for an initial rendezvous with a pretty chorus girl… And how often, standing on the sidewalk involved in a passionate discussion with friends, I lost the thread of the argument being developed because a devastating woman was crossing the street at that very moment.”
—Albert Camus, “The Fall”

Posted on by tychay 4

Another Search Startup

A friend sent me the homepage of yet another stealth search startup. This company plans on using NLP.

My comment:

“Hmm, I should send [the URL] to Dave. He loves it when a bunch of braniacs get together to make an ASS [Another Search Startup] of themselves.”

New term I just invented. I hope it catches on. 🙂

Posted on by tychay 4

LinkedIn Haikus

I decided to dress up my latest LinkedIn invitations with some poetry:

Found new connections.
Send mail into the ether.
LinkedIn Spam Is Fun.

You liked this haiku?
Then add me to your network.
(We’re both on LinkedIn.)

Posted on by tychay 8