/sys/admin/blog

I’m sold… I know I’m behind the times on this but I just recently started shooting in RAW. I don’t even bother shooting JPEG+RAW now, just RAW.

The proof is in the digital darkroom. I’m seeing how powerful having that RAW image is. Here’s an example from last night.

It may not be long lived, but I’ve returned to facebook. I swore I wouldn’t go back but I’m giving it one more try anyway. This time I’m being much more restrictive on who I friend, disabled all the apps and crap, and turned the verbosity of the email notifications way down. I’ve reconnected with a few friends already and I guess that’s what it’s good for.

Now we’ll see how long I last… I still think it’s a time sink.

I think the thing that bugs me most about Facebook, Twitter, and the like is the way they make it easy for others try to get me to waste time. For instance, things like all the apps that want me to play poker or give or get a Shrute-buck. I don’t really want to play with these crappy little apps and the social pressure of my “friends” sending them to me isn’t really welcome in my day. Also, I have more than enough email so yet another way to get electronic mail inside each of these sites is also not something I want. Facebook became a chore to me… log in, look at all the crap that showed up, check my private messages, approve friend requests, read my wall, blah blah blah. I don’t have time for that. Email me, or call me, but don’t write on my freaking wall. And if you don’t know me in RL in some way, why are you inviting me to be your “friend” anyway?

The other thing that comes to mind is what inspired this very blog post. I’m seeing a few twitter posts with catchy titles and a tinyurl link that go to some article I don’t care about. Using the power of “someone I know” to drive me to actually click it, I do. And it’s nothing I care about. I actually like twitter. I really like following people I know. But for the love of god, tell me what you’re sending me off to.

I think these sites all have great potential and great uses. People just need to learn how to use them and find what they are good at. I think I’ll even re-activate my facebook account soon… but I won’t be accepting nearly as many “friend” requests this time around. I’m all for wasting time… but it’s on my own terms for now on.

A Fable by George Reavis:

Once upon a time the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of a “new world” so they organized a school. They had adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects.

The duck was excellent in swimming. In fact, better than his instructor. But he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until his webbed feet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school so nobody worried about that, except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of the class in running but had a nervous breakdown because of so much makeup work in swimming.

The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of the treetop down. He also developed a “charlie horse” from overexertion and then got a C in climbing and D in running.

The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class, he beat all the others to the top of the tree but insisted on using his own way to get there.

At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceeding well and also run, climb and fly a little had the highest average and was valedictorian.

The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration would not add digging and burrowing to the curriculum. They apprenticed their children to a badger and later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start a successful private school.

I decided to switch my old T40 to Ubuntu 8. Almost everything worked out of the box. The secret to getting wireless to work was to add the following lines to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:

These aes modules break the airo driver.