October 2012 Archives

October 31, 2012 @ 21:11 EDT

54/365: Wading

You want to know what's a little creepy on Halloween? Three wood storks right outside your window, following your every movement with their undead eyes sunken into their already zombified heads.

But this one was content to find food the old fashioned way.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 30, 2012 @ 19:24 EDT

53/365: Labellous

I spent the better part of a day coaxing a well-abused Zebra 96xiIII label printer to print an acceptible (both human and machine-readable) label for one of my employer's products. These are just some of the (many) failures..

In the end I generated the label from scratch using Z/PL, generated programically by a perl (yay!) script. I also managed to find (and reprogram) a handheld scanner capable of reading the tiny QR codes, so they can be integrated into the production workflow. (The labels are less than 8mm square!)

...I sure seem to be doing a lot of printer hacking these days.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 29, 2012 @ 23:06 EDT

52/365: Consolation Cookies

I made another batch of my chocolate chip cookies tonight. This time, half of the chocolate chip budget was filled by Andes Candies. It turned out fairly well, though I'm glad I didn't put black walnuts in this batch too. Next time I do this I'll use a 1:3 ratio of Andes:Chips, or just stick to my usual Black Walnut-y goodness.

As I type this, there are only eight (of eighteen) left.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 28, 2012 @ 22:15 EDT

51/365: Jack Be Nimble

Mumble, Kick, Sizzler, Split!

Too bad there wasn't enough flotsam to go double-dutch!


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 27, 2012 @ 23:36 EDT

50/365: The Look


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 27, 2012 @ 11:48 EDT

Photo printers and libusb, oh my!

A while back, I picked up a Canon SELPHY ES1 dyesub photo printer, only to discover it didn't work properly under Linux, thanks to it needing an intelligent spooler to prevent lockups, and being just different enough from earlier models to require tweaks to gutenprint.

So, in the spirit of Free Software, I patched gutenprint, and wrote the spooler. Over time, the spooler got smarter, supported more printers, achieved sentience, and brought about world peace.

...Until Apple revved OSX's printer subsystem and Canon neglected to release updated drivers for, well, most everything. Since my tool was written to use linux's native usblp support, OSX users were SOL.

Last night, I finished rewiring it to use libusb, and accept input on stdin. This enables it to be used in a CUPS filter chain, and theoretically supports OSX. But that remains to be tested..

...And I finally moved it to version control:

    git://git.shaftnet.org/selphy\_print.git
    http://git.shaftnet.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=selphy\_print.git

It still needs USB IDs for most of the SELPHY line, but otherwise seems to work fine with my ES1, ES2, and ES30 printers, at least on Linux.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Free Software

October 26, 2012 @ 19:33 EDT

49/365: Cart Returned

Hurricane Sandy is brewing offshore...


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 25, 2012 @ 22:32 EDT

48/365: Before & After

Once upon a time, the one of the right looked like the one on the left.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 24, 2012 @ 19:16 EDT

47/365: Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls

I really wish I'd had a polarizer for this one. It filled the sky, and was vibrantly pur-ty.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 23, 2012 @ 21:52 EDT

46/365: "New" Toy

This Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 zoom was discontinued a few years ago. I lowballed an auction and actually won, much to my surprise and delight. I suspect it just cost too much money to make for them to keep it in production. It's built like a tank, and is optically about as good as it gets.

With the exception of the wide-angle shots of the cars, this lens hasn't left my camera in nearly a week.

I now have three Tokina f/2.8 zooms; oddly enough I need to dial down about -1EV exposure compensation for all of them.

(yeah, I couldn't come up with a better shot of the day. Blame a 12-hour day at work..)


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 22, 2012 @ 19:25 EDT

45/365: Morning Light

By the time I'd pulled off the road, the magic moment had passed. This was a nice consolation prize, hoever.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 21, 2012 @ 22:03 EDT

44/365: Split Reflections


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 21, 2012 @ 05:34 EDT

43/365: Lincoln Zehphyr

Is that not one of the most beautiful cars ever made?


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 19, 2012 @ 20:33 EDT

42/365: Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Shot out my front door. It's a little soft; apparently the polarizer on the lens is a little defective now...


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 18, 2012 @ 21:27 EDT

41/365: Sunset

Not the best shot, but I wasn't able to get to a better spot before the light tanked.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 17, 2012 @ 21:23 EDT

40/365: Lolz on Mah Crackberry

I can't help but think of the LOLCat Bible.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 17, 2012 @ 19:15 EDT

39/365: Domocile

It's nice, having a king. I can sprawl at any angle and still fit.

And I do.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 17, 2012 @ 19:07 EDT

38/365: Preventing Undead Zombie Babies

Being O-negative, I am a universal blood donor. Within a couple of hours of my becoming elgible to donate again, the blood center folks call me up daily, begging me to come back in. I donated on Monday; my blood will probably be inside a baby (or three) by the end of the week.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 17, 2012 @ 18:52 EDT

37/365: ...Will the Circle be Unbroken

And with this, the full set of Paralounge photos is now up.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 16, 2012 @ 19:27 EDT

Eye Contact


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos

October 16, 2012 @ 18:42 EDT

36/365: Festival Accoutrements


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 16, 2012 @ 17:58 EDT

I am Woman, Hear me Roar


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos

October 15, 2012 @ 20:33 EDT

35/365: A Metaphor


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 15, 2012 @ 20:04 EDT

34/365: The Gaping Maw

Thursday night, I arrived at Camp Kiwanis for the 21st Paralounge Drum Gathering. I hung my hammock between two massive oak trees, cradled beneath a canopy of Spanish moss -- which looked positively wicked in this light.

(Bear with me, I have a 2600+ image backlog to sort through before I can catch up to what I shot for today)


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 10, 2012 @ 21:31 EDT

33/365: George finds a new hobby

In other news, there won't be any updates for a couple of days; I'm heading out of town tomorrow evening. But I'll catch back up within a day or two.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 09, 2012 @ 21:49 EDT

32/365: Passing Clouds

Shot out the window going about 50mph. Unfortunately by the time I got the camera to bear, I'd already missed the perfect framing, which also made turning around and parking moot.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 08, 2012 @ 19:27 EDT

31/365: Happiness...

...Happiness is warm laundry.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 07, 2012 @ 16:48 EDT

30/365: Urban Jungle (wannabe)

Sorry about the washed-out appearance; the lens apparently had some fogging going on behind the UV filter.

Time to clean!


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 06, 2012 @ 19:23 EDT

29/265: Pirating is thirsty work

The pirate-y skiff Calypso was moored outside a local dive.

I not-so-secretly hope they get all drunk and raze that monstrosity of a building..


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 05, 2012 @ 21:57 EDT

28/365: Gloom

It's an awesome game, and Mr. Giggles is by far my favorite character.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 04, 2012 @ 20:47 EDT

27/365: Morning Wood


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 03, 2012 @ 20:13 EDT

26/365: Caption This!

Gotta love those corporate dress-up days. They never knew what hit 'em!.


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 02, 2012 @ 21:11 EDT

25/365: Quiet Moment


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365

October 01, 2012 @ 20:04 EDT

24/365: Nikkoriffic

Granted, two of the ones visible aren't Nikkors, but there two more not in-frame (three if you count the lens on-camera). But then there are another two non-Nikkor lenses not visible either.

(Sorry about this relatively meta shot, I've been migrained today..)


Posted by Solomon Peachy | Permanent link & Comments | File under: Photos, Project_365