Stefan's Stuff

"Thor" being the host name of my server. What an educational rebuild that was, I really should document rebuilding the server as this is the third time I've done it in a year and a half.

Long story short: I dug up an old Dell Pentium 3 and sank a SATA HD and host adapter in it.  That was the easy part as rebuilding the web server to support my needs was a bit of a chore. Each time I've done this it was with a different version of the DB, PHP, Apache and the OS as well. Naturally, I've never fully documented it….

Slight Update: Other FW products spoil me silly; IPTABLES is a *pain* to configure.

Music I'm listening to right Now:
"Big Bang Baby" by Stone Temple Pilots from the "Tiny Music…Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop" Album. It seemed apropos…

One of my biggest tasks is backing up data to DVD. The Nikon D80 is a 10.2 mega pixels camera and I shoot in RAW. Each raw file averages about 7.8 megabytes and with over 10,000 photo's I've taken since August, that adds up to a lot of disk space. With double layer DVD blanks getting cheaper, it's easier to archive my photo's to DL DVD.

As a programmer, I try to make my life easier by writing programs for specific tasks. I wrote a PERL program that copies images off my SD card onto the hard disk in directories based on date and camera model. In the D80's case an image taken today would be copied into "d:StuffStefanNikond802007-04-09". In the D70s case, the program would copy files onto "d:StuffStefanNikond70s2007-04-09". This isn't magic, I'm just using the Image::ExifTool Perl Library Module written by Phil Harvey to read the EXIF info embedded into the NEF Raw files to create the directory structure I want. Right now, I'm trying to automate it so that I can login to my PC, put
a blank DVD into the drive, type a command and go for coffee. 

I  used to have a utility that would do this to CD's on Windows 2000, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was.

Music I'm listening to right Now:
"Holly" by Republica from the "Republica" Album.

Been very busy these last few weeks, so I thought I'd post an update while I have some free time. Besides, it's been over a month since I managed to post something.

Spring is here, so I cleaned up my backyard, mowed the lawn and prepped my vegetable garden. This year, we'll have 9 broccoli plants, 2 grape tomato plant, assorted lettuce, and 2 basil plants. As a bonus, I also planted a strawberry plant. Naturally, after I plant these it goes to 32 degree's Fahrenheit. With any luck, they'll be ok.

On the photography front, I purchased a used Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro (That's it on the right) from a co-worker who upgraded to a Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom. So far, I'm really enjoying it and recommend it to anyone looking for an affordable zoom that opens up to f/2.8. You can see my photos I took with it here. At this time, my favorite is this one I took of a friend of mine. At f/2.8 he's in focus and the background has a soft feel to it. To make life better, at f/2.8 with my Nikon SB-800 flash on my D80, it's perfectly lit. At 24-70mm, It is, IMO, a perfect indoor party lens. For daylight Walkabouts, I'll still use my Nikon 18-200mm VR DX lens.

On a related topic, I'm using DXO Photo Optics pro more often. I find that for batch processing of photo's It's very convenient and often does a better job than I would in a shorter amount of time. It doesn't have my new lens listed yet, but I'm hopeful they'll add it to the list of supported lens. I'm not giving up on Adobe Photoshop, but I think DXO Photo Optics is an excellent addition to my tool set. Also, I've been backing up my photo's to DVD's. Since the beginning of August 2006, I've taken in excess of 10,000 photos. At 10 megapixels and in RAW NEF format, that adds up to a lot of disk space.

Music I'm listening to right Now:
"Shimmer" by Fuel from the "Sunburn" Album.

Heard on the news this morning: Shuttle vet went after woman dating space pilot she coveted. 

Let me see If I can sum up:

• She's married with three kids.
• Apparently. has only a working relationship with the other astronaut whom is said to be the victims boyfriend.
• Drove 950 miles from Houston to Orlando – wearing adult diapers to drive non stop.
• Disguised herself in a dark wig, glasses and trench coat
• Confronted the victim in the parking lot of Orlando International Airport.

According to News Accounts, an officer followed Mrs. Nowak and
watched her throw away a bag containing the wig and a BB gun. They also
found a steel mallet, a 4-inch folding knife, rubber tubing, rubber
gloves, $600 in cash, love letters – all in bags and in her car.

NASA spokesman James Hartsfield in Houston said that, as of Monday, Mrs. Nowak's status with the astronaut corps remained unchanged. Even if she beats the attempted kidnapping charge, I think it's safe to say her days as an astronaut are over. Bet all the Astronauts under go a new round of psychological testing because of this.

As the title says: I think Nasa is having a very bad day. There is just No Way to spin this. On the surface, this sounds bizarrely funny, but this is really a serious matter. It ended peacefully, but this could have gone down a lot worse. What do you suppose she would have done with the steel mallet, rubber tubing and knife? Hope she gets help, She needs it.

Bet Jay leno and David Letterman are all over this tonight.

Google News here. 

Music I'm listening to right Now:
"Big Bang Baby" by Stone Temple Pilots from the "Tiny Music…Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop" Album.

Not much going on so I thought I’d mention things I’ve read about:

• Possible Darwin Award winners? People are apparently drinking the Hand gels of Sanitizers and getting poisoned. It’s a sad situation when an addiction forces you to do such a thing.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Scare: 2 men held in Boston for guerrilla marketing. You could get a close up of one here on Flickr. I don’t even know where to begin on this one. Personally, I think
  guerrilla marketing campaigns are more of a nuisance than anything else but I’m hardly an advertising expert. Methinks the city of Boston has Egg on it’s face as these thing have been apparently showing up for a few weeks.
• Human slingshot on Youtube as shown by Gizmodo.com. It’s all fun and games until someone puts an eye out. It looks funny, but that stunt can go bad in about half a dozen different ways. I don’t recommend it…
• Exxon Mobil post record profits. Shocking! Two Years running!

Music I’m listening to right Now:
“Dragula” by Rob Zombie from the “The Matrix: Music From The Motion Picture” Album.

Image from the NY Times article.

Eating healthy when under the weather is a chore. I'm getting convinced that whatever tastes good has an excellent chance of being unhealthy unless it's in moderation.

I wouldn't say I'm on a diet but just trying to balance what I eat. At the moment, I try to have an occasional salad of mixed greens with either Tuna fish or chicken.  Here is a photo I took of one of my lunch last week.

Another way I try to eat better is to avoid junk food. Sounds easy, but I find I'm used to eating a Bag of chips and drinking a Coca Cola when I have a sandwich. While very tasty it's not very conducive to a healthy diet…

Finally, my wife Janny is a great cook and careful about what we eat. On top of this, she's teaching me how to cook too.

Music I'm listening to right Now:
"World" by Five for Fighting from the "Two Lights" Album.
Heard this on the radio and like many other great songs, it tells a story. John Ondrasik is "Five for Fighting" and his songs are really good. That Album also has "The Riddle" and "Policeman's Xmas Party".