Technospeak – Page 13 – My Photo Blog

Keep taking the tablets – 30 May 2016

Posted on May 30, 2016 by Zogman

We went in to Glasgow with the stated intention of getting a tablet/laptop. Apparently what I was looking for was a “2 in 1”, which I suppose describes it quite well.

Note to JIC.
Please feel free to ignore this part as it’s almost all technospeak.
First stop was Staples where I saw the cheapo looking Linx 10.1″ tablet with a clamshell keyboard/lid. Cheapo maybe, but it had 2 x USB3 ports and 1 x micro USB for power and doubling as a port if you have an OTG (On The Go) cable. Even better, it was at a bargain price of £149.99. Ok, one possible.
Ok, JIC, Technospeak over.

Next stop was John Lewis who on paper had a load of these 2 in 1s. Unfortunately, if we ignore the very expensive Mickysoft offerings, there were only two. One was an Acer with no price on it and no power in the battery, the other was an HP at £80 more than the cheapo Linx. The spec appeared to be almost the same, in fact it only had 1 x USB port and 1 x micro USB. So it looks like it’s back to Staples.

Before that, Scamp decided that lunch at Patisserie Valerie was in order. Since she prefers to eat inside, we got a table no bother because everyone wanted to sit outside in the sun. Had our order taken: Crayfish Salad for both of us and Apple Pie for after for Scamp, Pecan Pie for me. Tea for both.
The tea arrived, and so did the manager to apologise, but there was no Pecan Pie. No problem, I’d just have the Apple Pie. A little later he arrived back to say that sorry, there was no Crayfish Salad. He did offer alternatives. Scamp went for Chicken Caesar and I chose Chicken Brochette. We’d been sitting for 20 minutes by this time. Half an hour later and still nothing had arrived although the manager had floated past about 15 minutes before to say that my chicken was just going on the grill. I’d had enough. We offered to pay for the two teas, but the girl on the till would have nothing of it and told us the manager “should have been dealing with it.” If I’d had to speak to the manager himself, Begbie would have come out of the box again.

Back at Staples, I bought the Linx. Unfortunately, when I got it home, I found that it looked nothing like what I’d seen in the shop. Quick phone call and was told to bring it back and they’d exchange it for the correct one. I did, they did and this time I checked it before I left the shop. So far, it’s doing everything I expected it to do. Pity the same can’t be said for Patisserie Valerie.

More sun promised for tomorrow. Bring it on!

When is a laptop not a laptop – 28 May 2016

Posted on May 28, 2016May 28, 2016 by Zogman

We drove into Stirling today for lunch at the Indian and not a lot else. The lunch was good and instead of nan bread we had chapatis. Scamp and I don’t like this new idea of chopping up a nan bread and serving it in a basket. I suspected that unscrupulous restaurants could be collecting uneaten nan pieces from previous diners baskets and using them to pad out new ones. Just a suspicion, but Scamp agreed that it was an unsavoury possibility, so we decided it would be better to get chapatis which are served whole.

On the way to the restaurant, I dallied in Stirling’s computer shop. I’d been looking for a laptop to take on holiday and I’d had a few bargains in the past from Computer Depot. Years ago, Ali, the owner, sold me a little MP3 music player that has a massive 64MB memory and also took extra memory in the form of SmartMedia cards. This probably means nothing to most people these days, but back at the turn of the century (that sounds such a long time ago, doesn’t it) they were very high tech and could be had in sizes up to 128MB. With a 128MB card in the player, you could have almost 3 hours of music at your disposal. I still have the Diamond Rio music player, and occasionally it will work. Anyway, there were no laptops that were in my price range. What they did have was one of the new (well, new to me) 2 in 1 tablets with a clip on keyboard.

<TechnoSpeak>
It only 32GB storage and 2GB RAM, but the processor was a quad 1.33Mhz with the ability to run at 1.83Mhz in burst mode. It had one USB 3 port and a micro USB 2 which, as well as being used as a charging port, could double as an import/outport device with an On The Go (OTG) cable. It was running 32bit Windows 10 which is a lot better than I thought, now that I know how to ‘refresh’ the install. The 32 GB wouldn’t be nearly enough storage for holiday photos, but if I used the USB port to connect an external hard drive it would be a neat solution to the problem. Almost as neat as the old HP netbook but much faster. Certainly worth considering. I didn’t dive in and buy the one he had on offer, mainly because I couldn’t find any reviews of it on the net, but I’m looking at alternative versions. In the words of Facebook, “A lot has changed in laptops since you last looked.”
</TechnoSpeak>

Today was a good day weather-wise and tomorrow is meant to be even better. We’ll see.

Friday, Fridges, Coots and a Coy Crow – 29 April 2016

Posted on April 29, 2016April 29, 2016 by Zogman

Friday used to be the beginning of the weekend, especially on a long weekend. Friday is the only day I regret being retired because you don’t get that TGIF (or TFIF for the atheists). My dad was right when he told me “you don’t get weekends when you’re retired.” Not to worry, the rest of the week makes up for Fridays!

Scamp wanted the drain in the fridge unblocked. It’s a messy, awkward job that means the fridge has to be angled out from the wall so I can clean the drip tray at the back after unblocking the drain hole in the fridge itself, then drag it back in. Only, this time when I dragged it back, one of the little wheels at the back came unstuck. The axle had come loose from the wheel and in an attempt to fix it, I tried to drive out the axle using the screwdriver as a drift (<Technospeak> a DRIFT is a bar used to push another into or out of place </Technospeak>). It didn’t work. The axle got jammed in part of the chassis of the fridge. Oh well, I’d just have to forget the wheel and use a packer to sit that corner of the fridge on. Switched it on and … the light came on, but the compressor didn’t. Shit!
Left it for about 10 minutes to settle but still no go. Switched it off and made a cup of coffee while Scamp priced a new fridge. I imagine I had rattled the compressor too much by hammering the drift. After the coffee and the shock that the most expensive fridge she found was £9900, I switched on the fridge and Lo and Behold, it sprang into life. Obviously my analysis of the situation was correct and the refrigerant just needed to stabilise itself. Phew!

Went for lunch at Cotton House, then had Scamp’s tyres checked at Jim Dickson’s and finally booked her car in for MOT next week. Lunch and housekeeping dealt with.

Walked over to St Mo’s and took the “Big Dog” AKA Nikon for a change. The batteries in the Nikons last forever compared to the Olys. About 750 shots at present with the battery on category 2 out of 4, 1 being New. Got some shots of mummy coot sitting on a nest with at least one wee red chick in it. Further on I actually framed my shot to include the round out of focus light. The rest of the shots were too poor to bother with.

On the way home, I saw a crow having a bath in a puddle. I thought it would make a good shot, so I brought out my camera. The crow took one look at me and walked away. Ok, camera back in bag and walk away. Took a few steps and watched the same crow walk back to the puddle again with its towel over its shoulder. It saw me watching again and did an abrupt about turn. I didn’t want to delay it’s bath time any longer and turned my back on it before its bath water got cold.

Just another Saturday – 23 April 2016

Posted on April 23, 2016 by Zogman

After yesterday’s biz, today was just another Saturday.

We went to Stirling and bumped into Scamp’s sister and her daughter (the same ones from yesterday) in our favourite curry shop. I wouldn’t have bothered going back there after the disappointments of our last two visits, but I’m glad we did. The menu, if more expensive, had gone back to its previous old faithfuls and I’m guessing the chef was back from his/her sabbatical because the food tasted like it used to. The only stumbling block was the nan bread which we both agreed was too soft and doughy. We’ll let them work on it.

Walked round Stirling shopping centre. That didn’t take very long. Stirling, apart from the castle and the old buildings leading up to it, isn’t all that interesting. More and more shops closed in the shopping mall it’s a sign of the times. Not as bad as Dunfermline the other day. Things are getting bad when the Cash Converter shop closes down. Anyway, we didn’t linger long in Stirling and drove home empty handed apart from a Thunderball ticket that proved not even worth the paper it was printed on. Oh well.

Today’s photo is the final one in the series of Shug and Tam meet the Queen. By the way, just in case you were wondering, it has nothing to do with Mrs McQueen turning 90. It’s just such a nice wee minifig, I thought I’d like to do something with it. I’m done with Comic Life for a while. I’d forgotten just how irritating it was to work with. Until you’ve experienced it, it’s difficult to explain just how badly coded it is. Even the version 1 as its flaws, the most annoying is when it loses focus on the object being edited. Leave it for a while to get its wind back and focus returns. Not something you want to happen when you are working to a deadline, so I doubt if you’d use this on a commercial basis. However, it cost me nothing so I shouldn’t complain, but I always do 😉

To those who read my blog posts, I apologise for the number of updates to it recently as I struggled to add two short videos. I finally worked out today that the only video format that WordPress would abide was MP4. I was sure I’d added a MOV once, but I was wrong. It was only when I was checking the HTML code today that I realised my error. I may not embed any more videos for some time, but hopefully I’ll remember that I wrote this explanation – partly to you and partly to myself!

Out for a Spin – 19 April 2016

Posted on April 19, 2016April 23, 2016 by Zogman

Got up this morning and couldn’t think of anything I wanted to do. Yes, it was sunny, but it was cold. Yes, there was very little wind (good for cycling) but that wouldn’t make for interesting skies. I was feeling quite down. In an attempt to lift this “creeping malaise” to quote Floyd, Scamp suggested we go out for a light lunch. So off we went.

I’d driven over the new Drumgrew bridge yesterday. Now don’t look askance, this is quite a big deal. The bridge has been closed for over 5 months now to allow it to be raised to accommodate the cabling for the electrification of the Glasgow – Edinburgh railway line. The closure has been a real pain as the only other direct route from Cumbernauld to Kirkintilloch is a single track road with very few passing places. So to return to today, we drove over the new Drumgrew bridge and out towards Kirkintilloch – nobody in their right mind actually wants to go to Kirkintilloch, which means that the upgrade of the Drumgrew bridge was a bit pointless really! To cut a long story short, we drove to Drumgoyne and had lunch in a garden centre there at a table next to the window and in the sun. My ennui was lifted.

Rather than drive back the same way we had come, I turned at the end of the road and we went back through Killearn then over the hills to Fintry. It’s been ages since I’ve driven along that stretch of road and today was a good choice. The light during the run was lovely with bright sun and fluffy clouds driving shadows over the hills. Just what I wanted for another time lapse.
[Have you ever had one of those words or phrases that’s in your head, but just won’t come out your mouth, or in my case down to my fingers and out through the correct keys. Time Lapse is my blind spot. I know the technique. I could, and often do, give anyone the MEGO effect (My Eyes Glaze Over) talking and enthusing about it, but ask me what it’s called and all I can say is “That time exposure thing, no, not exposure. Delay, no, not delay either. It’s that effect you see on the TV all the time.” One day I’ll remember the phrase, but by that time I’ll have moved on to some other obscure effect, I’ll forget ITs name, and the whole thing will start again. Aargh!]
The Time Lapse.

It wasn’t the most dramatic scenery. We’re not talking Rannoch Moor here, just some low hills with interesting clouds casting shadows on them and best of all, a convenient parking place. Unusual in itself in Scotland. This time I set an interval of 5 second and 60 frames. That would give me just over 4 seconds of video time for 3 minutes of filming / frame recording time. This was a much better setup than yesterday. Firstly because I was using a tripod today, but secondly and mainly because I could sit in the car instead of wandering around like a spare … The video, once the Oly had created it, was good enough. More leisurely than yesterday’s one. That may have been due to the shorter interval or to the fact there was less wind than yesterday. However, it worked and that’s the main thing – and the focus was correct this time! You might notice that I collected a few cars on the road in my time lapse (see, I’m remembering it now) and also, towards the end was photobombed or should that be time-lapse-bombed by a bee! Once I get the thing sorted out in my head and remember its name, everybody wants to get in on the act! While I was packing up I noticed a goose sitting snoozing among the bracken over in the next field. By the time I’d changed lenses it had woken up and was keeping an eye on me. I grabbed a few shots and left it. I imagine as it didn’t immediately fly off that it was either hung over from the Old Firm match on Sunday or it was sitting on eggs. Either way, I didn’t want to annoy it and we drove away.

We stopped further down the road at the Crow Road car park (remember going there to do mountain climbing JIC and Hazy?). Spent some time watching the shadows running across the valley rather than trying to record them. That’s where the monochrome landscape came from. Behind me some sheep were lunching on the thin grass over by the rocks and I thought they’d make an interesting shot or two. That explains the shaggy sheep shot (be careful how you say that!).

Hoping for more sun, less ennui tomorrow.

The Time Lapse

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Zogman

Today we had an appointment with our financial advisor in Falkirk and it was an early meeting at 10am. Not so early you may think, but working backwards from there it meant allowing 30 min to get there, making and devouring breakfast another 20 mins with essential lie-in, showering and shaving (for me!). All in it would take about an hour and a half, so I set my alarm for 8.30. Of course, we were awake long before that. There’s a special little internal alarm that triggers as soon as you set the physical alarm and doesn’t allow you to go back to sleep after you wake two hours before the physical alarm. So, we went to Falkirk and the news was good, so to celebrate we went to Tea Jenny’s for an early lunch. The food and service were excellent as usual. You really should visit this cafe the next time you’re in Falkirk. I don’t really care if you are from New York or Tokyo, make the effort for heaven’s sake!

When we got home I considered wheeling the bike out and taking it for a run, but there was a cold north wind blowing and I decided to go for a drive and possibly a walk instead. I’d seen the dodgy looking santa last week and wanted a photo of it. Up close it looked even creepier, stuck in a hollow of an old tree. After that I went down to Auchinstarry to try my luck at making a time lapse, like the bloke on Rannoch Moor. When I got to my chosen place, the sky looked interesting and I found a hollow in an old tree to wedge the camera in. I chose the 9mm lens on the Oly to get a decent wide sky and did a six minute timelapse of just 60 shots at 10 second intervals. I calculated that this would give a 6 second film of clouds scudding across the skies. You’ve seen these things on the TV. Very arty. Halfway through the exposure I noticed that I’d bumped the focus lever on the lens to the closest focus setting, about 20mm, so everything was going to be out of focus. However, mastering the process was more important than the actual finished article this time and I was reasonably happy with the result. Next time I’ll prepare more carefully, rain protect the camera and lens, use a sturdy tripod and take care not to nudge the focusing lever.

The bramble leaves shot was just a grab shot to make the most of the brilliant contre-jour lighting. I like the colours you get in bramble leaves.

Hoping for that cycle run tomorrow if the weather is more forgiving.

Endorphins again

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Zogman

A dull morning. Cold and dull.

Afternoon was spent trying to ignore the ignorant Rangers supporters next door stamping and shouting their team on to an eventual win, while we watched the F1 cars whizzing around a hot track in China. Neither of these sporting events really improved my mood.

Scamp wanted to go to the Sunday Social at Mercado in Glasgow. I wasn’t totally over the moon about driving and parking in Glasgow city centre just after an Old Firm game. We’d never been to Mercado, but had heard that the floor wasn’t great for dancing. I thought I might just have enough time to go out and get today’s PoD, but just as I was going out, the rain came on. Plan 2. I’d left the ‘weemen’ setup and tripod in position in the spare room. I took three of four shots of the same scene as before with differing focus points. At least I’d have a potential PoD.

On the off chance that it would improve my mood, I drove in to Glasgow. Tried to park in an NCP carpark just round from Mercado. Luckily I didn’t have enough change to pay the exorbitant £6 for 2 hours. Drove back round and parked on the street 100m away. Parking free on a Sunday. A bit further to walk, but a saving of £6. NCP Normal Costly Parking.

Maybe it was the endorphins again, but after 2 hours of almost non-stop dancing, I walked out in a totally different mood. Maybe it’s not anything so scientific, but there’s something in this salsa dancing that gives me sore feet, but lifts my spirits. Watched a few ‘rubber men’ wandering around bemused with smiles on their faces and Rangers scarfs. Maybe they were experiencing the effects of endorphins too. Saw a few sad looking green and white dressed men too. It’s a strange game this football.

The image for this PoD is two shots. One focused on the Queen and one on Shug and Tam. I exported them from Lightroom as layers into Photoshop and painted a mask on Shug and Tam’s layer to allow the Queen to show through from the lower layer. This gave the effect of sharp focus on the front pair and on the Queen at the rear of the stage while the ‘subjects’ were out of focus, a physical impossibility, but essential to the conversation. The text was laid on using Comic Life V1 which, thankfully, I’d retained when I updated to V2. Sometimes updates do more damage than good. That’s why I’m still using Mountain Lion instead of the allegedly borked El Capitan on the Mac. I’ll continue to use it until it isn’t practical anymore.

Hopefully a warmer day tomorrow.

Moody Monday – 4 April 2016

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Zogman

It has rained almost all day, but that’s ok, because it produced today’s PoD which is a water drop of the curve of a tulip leaf with another tulip leaf or two behind. Taken with the somewhat bypassed E-PL5. That shouldn’t be the case, because the E-PL5 is an excellent camera. In some ways it surpasses the E-M10 in that the rear screen has even more flexibility than the ’10’s and the EVF can flip vertically to allow the camera to be at ground level with the photog looking down through the viewfinder and out through the lens rather than lying prone to get one eye to the viewfinder as is the case with the ’10. Without the EVF, it’s just that little bit nearer too which is a great advantage for taking candid shots which I occasionally do. I used the kit lens for the above shot and it makes a fine fist of the job. For some reason, the ’10 doesn’t like the kit lens and produces dark blobs which look like dust bunnies but aren’t. I’ve checked with my sensor checker lupe and the sensor is clean. The lens also had a problem with the aperture leafs sticking which caused the ’10 to overexpose occasionally, but the ‘5 hasn’t shown either of these faults so far. I’ll keep a weather eye open for problems in the next week or so.

Like I said, it was a wet day today, and as is Monday which is Scamp’s day for Gems, I made myself scarce this afternoon and did a little bit of work in the gym and then had bit of a swim and then 15 minutes in the sauna to round off my session for the day. Pool was very busy, but that’s to be expected with the school Easter holidays on.

Hoping to go to salsa tonight and maybe try to remember what we did in bachata last week. Hoping for better weather tomorrow and the chance to get my bike out.

Another day in the sun – 10 March 2016

Posted on March 10, 2016March 14, 2016 by Zogman

Today started like yesterday with a search for a couple of sun beds together. We found them by the pool just outside the flat and that is where we stayed most of the day. The day began earlier with a sensible preparation for the sun. Rather than be caught out like yesterday we got thoroughly covered in sun cream. Then it was off to breakfast before we faced the sun. The sun was not so constant today which was a blessing really because it was too hot yesterday.

WARNING! MAY CONTAIN TECHNOSPEAK
After lunch we rested for a while beside the pool and then Scamp decided it was time for a walk. I’d said I wanted to do some painting on the dunes, so we headed up the road to the mini Sahara again. I didn’t get any painting done, but I did confirm my suspicions that this end of the dunes is a nudist beach. Couldn’t settle on a suitable spot for a painting and was getting exasperated with the camera occasionally overexposing. So started off back when I hit on the idea of doing a complete factory reset. I’d just done it when I realised that the over exposure only happened with the old kit lens. I checked it and sure enough, no matter what aperture setting I set on the camera, the lens aperture was stuck wide open. That would explain the overexposure. At least the overexposure in the camera. The overexposure of the blokes in the bushes was another matter entirely. Anyway, the reset seems to have made the E-M10 useable again.

Dinner tonight was in the Spanish restaurant where we had tapas to start with and then I had shoulder of lamb that simply fell of the bone – delicious and Scamp had salmon which apparently was quite good too. Pudding was banana flambé which was good, but with little evidence of any flames. Not like mine at all!

Tonight’s show was billed as Radio Gaga, but announce as We Will Rock You. Actually, it was better than the full length show we went to see in The King’s in Glasgow. The cast were all miming, but that didn’t affect our enjoyment. Sometimes enthusiasm is better than ability.

More pictures of the architect’s house, a desert shot and a cat for Hazy!