Jun 222005
 

If you like to sketch, and you have a drawing-tablet, or you have a tablet-PC, please try Alias SketchBook Pro. It’s a very nice application, especially designed to be used with a pen. Have a look here to download the 15-day trial. After that it will continue to work, but with limitations.

 Posted by at 20:10
Jun 222005
 

I have put my Fuji FinePix S2 Pro on e-Bay. Click this link to view it and place a bid. If you have any questions, just ask.
The camera will not be sold if I don’t get the minimum-price I have in mind.

I also have for sale:
– Nikkor 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 AFD
– Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AFD
– Sigma 15-30mm f/3.5-4.5 EX DG

 Posted by at 12:47
Jun 202005
 

I was messing around with Apache2’s config file, to allow/deny access to certain parts of my webserver. I did restart Apache2 a couple of times after modifying the configuration, but must have changed something after the last restart, since it would not start this evening. It gave me this error in the eventlog:

The Apache2 service terminated with service-specific error 1 (0x1).

After some digging, I found that I had put a space after the comma in “allow,deny”. Hey, I did not know a comma was allowed in a keyword! You can choose “allow,deny” or “deny,allow”, but not with spaces after the comma. This is fucked up. A real WTF!

 Posted by at 23:48
Jun 152005
 

If you have a Nikon or Canon digital camera that supports the RAW-format, you can now benefit from Microsoft’s latest powertoy. The “RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer” powertoy will save some of your precious time, since you don’t need to start a seperate RAW-viewer everytime you’re sorting out your files, or are looking for a certain picture. Just open the explorer and you’re fine. Download here.

 Posted by at 16:48
Jun 132005
 

It’s the latest disc I bought for this PC, and it seems to be the first to die on me. I randomly hangs or gives “delayed write failed” errors in Windows. If I wait long enough, the system will get back to live and will be responsive, until I do something that needs to access this disc.

At the moment, I don’t have the financials to replace it with a big SCSI disc. I can replace it with the same size disc, but it was cramped already. So I started to have a look at S-ATA, in particular controllers that support Tagged Command Queueing and discs that support Native Command Queueing. So far, I came up with:

– Promise SATA II 150 TX2 Plus: you can have 2 SATA and 2 PATA discs, and it supports TCQ.
– Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Plus with NCQ, 160GB, or
– WD Caviar Special Edition (with NCQ), 160GB.

The controller costs about 42 euros, the Seagate is 89 and the WD is 86 euro. Add an S-ATA cable of 4 euros to the total and for about 135-140 euros I have 160GB of disc-space. A replacement Atlas 10K3 is about 150 euros (for 36GB, since you can’t buy 18GB anymore).

 Posted by at 17:54
Jun 112005
 

Yesterday I held the Canon 350D in my hands in a local photography shop. It had the kit-lens (EF-S 18-55 USM-II) on it. Being used to the Fuji FinePix S2 Pro with a modified MB-16 I can only say: the 350D is conveniently small and light. Auto-focus is very fast and quiet. The viewfinder is bigger than the viewfinder the S2 Pro has, and it’s a little brighter.

The camera makes a nice sound (the flipping of the mirror) when releasing the shutter. From shutterrelease to preview on LCD is extremely fast and the LCD is a little better than I was used to.

Being in all-auto, I must say the whitebalance was not always spot on, but that’s what I already read on the internet: don’t use Auto-WB. On my other camera’s I never did, so why start doing that on the Canon?

The command-dial on top needs to get used to. Nikon camera’s (and so the S2 Pro as well) have a maindial where your indexfinger is, and a sub-dial where your thumb is. Canons only have one dial and it’s on top. No big thing, but one needs to get used to it.

The camera is small: too small for people with big hands. No problem for us, but it can be a serious problem for others.

Now I have to sell my S2 Pro and all the Nikon-mount lenses I have. And fast, since I need to “practice” with the camera first, before going on holiday in September. So if any of you is interested, send me an e-mail.

Update: …or look here for a part of the stuff I’m selling.

 Posted by at 09:34
Jun 102005
 

What’s Acrylic? From the website:

“Acrylic” is the codename for an innovative illustration, painting and graphics tool that provides exciting creative capabilities for designers working in print, web, video, and interactive mediums.

This beta will expire October 1st.

 Posted by at 01:17