That Pixel Geek

To find what flavor of Linux you’re using:

cat /etc/*-release

To find the version, use:

uname -a

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Scott Kelby has organized a Photowalk on August 23, 2008 in over 200 cities worldwide.

What is a Photowalk, you ask? He has a video on his website that provides all the details, but basically, you meet up with a group of people and take a somewhat planned route through an area of town, capturing as many different photos as possible.

Most groups end up at a coffee house or restaurant to ooh and ahh over each others work.

Find a Photowalk in a city near you.

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In this video post from prophotolife.com, you can do 1:1 macro photography using two lens you may already have; a 100mm(ish) zoom and a 50mm prime.

Check it out!

quick video 4, extreme macro photography trick from Jim Talkington on Vimeo.

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Too bad non-L lens don’t come with a lens hood… you really do need one most of the time. I looked at the Canon EW73B, but being somewhat of a cheapskate, I couldn’t justify spending $30 on a 5 cent piece of plastic.

I found a third party replacement on eBay, and decided to give it a try. Summary: It works great!

The packaging is simple. Plain, white box with plastic bag holding the plastic hood. The quality is pretty good. If too much pressure is applied, it will pop off without breaking.

There are two “entry” points on the lens… you insert and rotate 45 degrees. The words are only on one side, so they can be on the top or bottom of the lens.

And, yes, the hood can be installed backwards for transport.

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This doesn’t work perfectly, but I often use it to start tracking down disk hogs:

To return the 10 largest items in a given directory:

du -cksh * |sort -rn |head -11

Some times it’s helpful to view all

du -cksh * |sort -rn

If someone has a better approach, please comment.

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Looking for a log to show you failed login attempts to your Linux machine? Look in:

/var/log/btmp

You can access it by running:

/usr/bin/lastb

It’s similiar to the wtmp log of user login/logouts and the utmp log showing who is currently logged in.

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Marc Silber interviews Michael Adams about his father’s approach to photography. Very interesting video. Well worth the 17 minutes.

If that whetted your appetite, here are some audio interviews with Ansel Adams on BBC4. (Yuck, RealPlayer is required.)

And here is a neat article (and interactive feature) at the New York Times titled “What Adams Saw Through His Lens“

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Products like Spanning Sync allow you to sync your iCal with your Google calendar. Now Google has a new service called “Google Calendar CalDAV” that allows you to do the same thing.

Details at: Enable Google Calendar in iCal

I tried it and it works very good. Everything sync’d within a couple of minutes (I have a LOT of entries). No problems so far.

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Recently, I started looking for a “quick draw” bag to hold my Canon 40D. My list of options was fairly short.

Tamrac Velocity Series
Lowepro SlingShot 100 AW
Lowepro Fastpack 100

No local stores carried the Tamrac, but I did try the Lowepros at my local Best Buy. They were a little more cumbersome than I had hoped. My goal was to find the smallest bag possible to hold the 40D and maybe an extra lens. I decided to try the Velocity 7x anyway… based on the size specs and a few sparse reviews around the web.

After a few weeks using it, I can report that it works, but only barely. Getting the camera in and out is really a two-handed operation.

Your free hand must stretch the bag open at the top to prevent the flash shoe from catching on the fabric. In fact, the thread has started pulling away from the fabric where I wasn’t careful a few times.

With the camera removed, you can almost see how the two “columns” on each side can be used to store other lenses, etc.

The front pocket can hold a good bit of “flat” stuff. Many CF cards, a GPS device, cables, etc. The bag fits really good over the shoulder and rides high on my back (I’m an average size guy). It’s pretty comfortable.

Summary: I wish I had gone with the Velocity 8x or another bag.

Now I’m bag shopping again. I find myself taking the camera to work everyday (along with my Laptop Bag holding my 15″ MacBook Pro). So I’m considering a backpack to carry both.

I’m seriously considering the Crumpler Sinking Barge. Will keep you posted.

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