2008-03-08__IMG_1409
200mm at f/4.0 for 1/1600s (ISO 100)
Taken: 2008-03-08 15:10:50	Camera: Canon: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
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Wait for it…

2008-03-08__IMG_1413
200mm at f/4.0 for 1/1600s (ISO 100)
Taken: 2008-03-08 15:11:10	Camera: Canon: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
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Now you don’t

2008-03-08__IMG_1414
200mm at f/4.0 for 1/1600s (ISO 100)
Taken: 2008-03-08 15:11:11	Camera: Canon: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
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Here are a couple of other shots from the backyard I took today. The 70-200 (reviews) isn’t really long enough for birds, may have to shop around for a 1.4 TC…

2008-03-08__IMG_1390
200mm at f/4.0 for 1/500s (ISO 100)
Taken: 2008-03-08 14:46:25	Camera: Canon: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
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2008-03-08__IMG_1395
200mm at f/4.0 for 1/400s (ISO 100)
Taken: 2008-03-08 14:51:23	Camera: Canon: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
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IMG_0649
100mm at f/6.3 for 6/1s (ISO 200)
Taken: 2008-01-26 14:12:38	Camera: Canon: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
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Other than that, this has been one mother of a week.

20080209-IMG_0819
100mm at f/2.8 for 1/1000s (ISO 200)
Taken: 2008-02-09 15:21:47	Camera: Canon: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
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So I’ve been working on a plugin for WordPress that’ll let me embed images from my SmugMug account in blog posts.

The image you see above is served up from SmugMug servers, and I embedded it in my post with one simple tag:

[ smugimg id="imageid" key="imagekey"]

Of course, now you’re asking, “Just how do I figure out the image id and the image key???” Well, you could right-click on an image when viewing it at SmugMug and click “Properties” - the image’s filename format is

imageID_imageKey-size.jpg

But that sucks, so now I’m working on a page (testable here: test.php) that’ll show you all your galleries and images and generate the little smugimg tag that you need. Of course, ideally, such a page would be integrated with WordPress’s post editor page somehow. I don’t know if that’s possible, but I am planning to check into it…

Since I use file-based-posts, and don’t use the WordPress editor to create posts and save them into the database, this WordPress plugin is a filter. This means that it runs every time that the post is displayed, and looks for my smugimg tag. This isn’t exactly highly efficient, but that’s the way it is for now. Once it’s done, it’ll be a cakewalk to make a version that acts as a plugin which runs when you save a post to the WordPress database and generates the code then.

I’ll probably add this lightbox for WordPress dealie, as well as optional links to the image in SmugMug and/or the album in SmugMug where the image resides…

Big thanks to Colin Seymour, without his phpSmug library I would have had to write my own; and since I’ve been working exclusively with Java for the last 10 years, and haven’t even looked at a line of php code since 1999, that would’ve sucked. Oh well, since I’m on the topic: php is still crap.

Thanks also to Jesse Foster. I didn’t use any of his code, but did appropriate his SmugMug API key for the time being, since SmugMug isn’t issuing them at present.

A 100mm lens is not nearly long enough to shoot the moon…

I don’t really know why software is generally crap. I mean, I’ve been developing software for a living for almost 15 years, and I still can’t figure it out. I’d say that there are 5-10 software applications out there that aren’t complete garbage.

On the one hand we’ve got software that can direct a missile to shoot down a satellite that’s 150 miles up, and on the other hand we’re stuck with software that detects a keyboard failure (incorrectly, of course, as there was no keyboard attached) and wants me to press a key…

I don’t understand why it’s seemingly impossible to design/develop a piece of software that isn’t predicated on the user adjusting to its “quirks”. I refuse to believe that I’m the only one that’s sick and tired of adjusting my workflow to meet some idiot’s best guess, or the only one that’s no longer interested in things like figuring how/why Ubuntu’s latest update no longer wants to automount my thumbdrive. I just don’t give a shit anymore - this is 2008 for crying out loud, not 1998 - I shouldn’t have to.

Why have our expectations sunk so low that we are no longer surprised or incensed by the vast suck that is almost every software package. Are we using computers so much these days that the shittiness has become a minor irritant that is taken for granted?

In a case with statewide significance, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office is pursuing a Sunnyvale couple under a little-known California law because redwood trees in their backyard cast a shadow over their neighbor’s solar panels.

The thing that confuses me, however, is why we haven’t seen any news reports of Albert “The Peacemaker” Gore’s head exploding…