img_19547 img_13360 p1000220 img_15810 img_18335 img_15992 img_1491 img_14150 crw_9625.jpg 125mW green laser img_15703 Cooking 125mW green laser img_18787 img_1594 img_18872 img_14510 crw_9287.jpg img_15795 crw_6867.jpg

@antonpiatek on twitter

Posting tweet...

Powered by Twitter Tools

Laptop X config broke over xmas

I got back to work yesterday to find that my laptop no longer started X properly. I spent ages trying to get X working again with the ati, fglrx and radeon drivers with no luck.

I noticed initially that the console was loading a high resolution during bootup, which is wasnt doing before, so suspected something had changed with the framebuffer config. I searched but couldnt figure out where this was being set.

Then I noticed a error message in the startup that said that /etc/modprobe.conf was not including /etc/modprobe..d/
Reading the man page for modprobe.conf revealed that without a config file,all files in the directory are read. So I moved the config file out of the way, and X started working properly again, the framebuffer stopped being used, and the system went in and out of suspend properly.

The framebuffer would be nice for a slash bootup screen, but I prefer the rest of the above working…

Duke Nukem Forever Teaser

I remember playing the old Duke Nukem’s. They were great fun. Duke Nukem Forever though has been a long time in the making (11 years I think)…

Everyone is wondering if it can live up to the hype… 3D Realms Site: Duke Nukem Forever ®

The sharp details

While a friend was staying with me a few days ago, we decided to get out the macro camera gear. We wandered around the house looking for something that took our fancy, and came across a couple of cacti I have. It turns out the spiky little things are quite interesting close-up. My EFs-60mm macro lens took all the photos below, except the last one which was taken with my friends lens and about 45mm of extension tubes

Cactus

Red Cactus

Green Cactus

Cactus Cactus
Cactus Cactus

Oddly enough, the cacti that looked the most interesting, were the ones with the larger spikes, and they looked better when slightly further out. The extension tubes allowed us to get closer than 1:1 (which is what my lens does), but that didnt make any of the photos more interesting.

The sea at night

While in Northern Ireland for Christmas I slipped out to the coast to get a night shot. I really love the long exposure of the sea…
Portstewart at night

The photo would probably have been better taken a bit earlier while the sky still had a little bit of light. Maybe I will try it again sometime.

This is the right time of year for doing night and sunset shots as the sunset is early so you dont have to stay out too late to get them. Of course it is also colder…