My home PC is an AMD64 box, so when I installed linux I installed 64 bit Debian (why not use the power I can get from the hardware I have bought). Unfortunately there are several programs that don’t exist in 64 bit versions. So far just Skype, Flash, picasa and Bibble (if I decide to buy a copy) are the only things I coudn’t run. All Open Source software in Debian is pretty much already compiled in 64 bit for you (Debian have a wonderful build process which compiles for all architectures that are possible (and supported by Debian)).
I looked at the instructions for installing a 32 bit chroot and thought it was going to be rather difficult. It turns out it was incredibly simple. It took a few hours to download everything I need (basically a 2.4Gb second copy of Debian :-s ) but now I have all the above running happily, and I can barely tell that they are technically running on a second copy of linux. Using “schroot” (as explained in the instructions” allows me to run “skype” and it runs the 32 bit copy for me, I don’t notice…
Monthly Archive for January, 2007
I promised I would write up a bit about my experiences taking photos at gigs, so here it is.
Before I get too far in, I have not taken photos at many gigs, so this is a beginners perspective to gig photography
The importance of lighting
The photos below had very directional lighting, so standing in the right place can be quite important. These photos were really me just getting lucky, as the lighting was not very bright and the band had to be still enough to prevent blur. A tripod could be a good idea, though I just went with a stabilising lens, getting as close as posisble and trying to hold the camera steady.
Unfortunately I cannot remember the bands, and didn’t write down their names (note to self: take a pen and paper next time!). Playing with the lens These photos of “the phly“, again playing at a Rocksoc night at Imperial Colelge, were a chance for me to play with the camera a bit more and learn better how to use it. I used an external flash for extra power, though your built in flash will probably work too.
The odd effects were created by zooming the lens in or out on a long exposure (Tv 1 sec exposure, let the camera work out the aperture). As I was using a flash I could use a better ISO (400) so the quality is a bit nicer. The lighting and manual lens zooming during exposure created some nice effects, but the flash is really too bright - especially as the background is not black! Play with zooming your lens both in and out, and see which you like best. If you have a really nice flash, you can set it to fire at the beginning (front-curtain) or end (rear curtain) of the exposure, so you can zoom your preferred way. Of course, you cannot see through the camera while taking a photo, so get a feel for where you want to zoom to, and how fast to do it to fit your exposure Playing with the flash Again another uni gig night, except this time the lights were moving around randomly, and the light tech didn’t know how to control the new lighting board well enough to change that, so I tried to use it to my advantage. I set the camera to manual exposure, checking the camera’s exposure indicator to get the right exposure with the flash off. I then turned on the flash, and dialed down it’s power a few stops so that it wouldn’t completely dominate the photos.
The moving lights created some really interesting effects on my 1sec exposure as they moved around, and any band movement caought the light. The flash (on a rear curtain I think) then brought out the subject crisply so that the movement became a coloured blur, but not whole scene.
These were all taken handheld on a 1sec exposure, so keeping steady is very important (and a stabilising lens helps too). Because of the long exposure and flash I could use ISO 400 to keep the image-noise ratio good.
Thanks to Gin Panic for being the subject of my photos, though it is a shame they didn’t give credit on their website for the photos I gave them… (not sure it is worth chasing them for it)
Ditch the flash If the lighting at the gig is good enough you can go without the flash at all. These photos (as posted recently) of The Rivers of Sound show that this can work. The lighting here was only good enough for shooting at ISO 800 and 1600, but the shutterspeeds were good enough to make that work.
I currently shoot in JPG, and would have had a hard time with my current camera at this gig shooting RAW as even with JPG photos I still was waiting on the camera to empty its cache quite a lot.
300 photos for a 30 minute set isn’t too bad going, however one photo every six seconds with an image stabilised lens is going to kill your battery - I changed batteries halfway through, so don’t forget to take your spare! (and a big memory card).
That is about all I can think of for the moment. If you are taking photos of a gig soon, please let me know how you got on (same if you have done it already), and when you get there be sure to ask where you are allowed to go. I had a full backstage photo pass for this gig, and even got up in the light desk at the back of the room to get the wide shots of the whole stage.
One final tip, bring earplugs - I didn’t and wished I had. Leaning agains a huge speaker stack with a camera in hand really takes it’s toll on your ears!
On Sunday night I was invited to take photos for a friends band - The Rivers of Sound, who were playing in the Wedgewood rooms.
It was quite a lot of fun, as I have never taken photos for a band at a proper gig venue, and the backstage access etc was quite cool. Anyway, they are a really good indie rock band, they have some songs on MySpace (link above) and if you live in Hampshire they are worth coming to their next gig in February for. Here are a couple of photos from Sunday night.
More in the Gallery
So I have had a few days to start settling in to Message Broker Level 3 Service. So far I have only managed two PMR’s (Problem Maintenance Request - what the customer opens when they have a problem with our product). They have both been customer errors. This is not to say that the error is between the keyboard and the chair, but that they missed something important and hence are not getting the results they expected.
There is nothing like looking at a list of customer problems that couldn’t be solved by earlier support people to make you feel like you know nothing about the software. Most of the problems coming in look incredibly complex to solve, so I will probably struggle for a while trying to learn more about the product. I suppose that if anyone knew all the answers then there wouldn’t be a need for a whole team so I am expecting to be doing lots of new stuff over the next several months.
Once I have my computer set up properly I will probably be creating some code fixes too, which should be fun.
My other piece of work, which I unfortunately cannot talk about the details at this time is also keeping me busy. Presentations are being prepared to show off the product to various IBM teams, particulary Lab Services (these guys go out to the customer and do some complex custom work for the customer, and proof concept work etc) and Technical Sales, and more and more ideas are coming in on how to change/improve the code. I am not sure when I will find the time to work on this so I could be busy for a while.
Blue fusion continues to keep me busy, and with only 8 weeks to go now time is getting precious. The activities are all coming along smoothly, and most are sounding very interesting indeed. I will certainly have to test some of these games, as they should be pretty good fun!
Most other organisation for the event is on track too, so the only big thing to do now is give a presentation to senior management in the labs tomorrow morning. It will be slightly scary to stand up in front of all the high level managers, but it will also be really good to get their feedback on our plans for the event.
Can anyone explain to me why someone would steal a urinal from a pub?
BBC NEWS - Thief steals urinal from city pub
I was searching for how to get lmsensors running, and came a cross this Howto at wolfgang.lonien.de
It says it all really. For a crash course, try:
sudo apt-get install lm-sensors sensord hddtemp sensors-applet ksensors gkrellm
sudo /usr/sbin/sensors-detect
Then fire up gkrellm, or ksensors and you should be able to get the temperature of your system, various fan speeds and if you are lucky even the temperature of your hard drives!
