Rainy day - playing indoor
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Funny glasses
Today we had the "Familyday" at Brunstad. Great fun for all the kids, and I guess most of the parents as well.
A 3D movie (a Shrek episode) was viewed in the big conference hall. We had to wear funny glasses, but the kids tought it was great fun.
Take care!
Sunday, August 07, 2005
The monolitt
Shot some pictures in the "Vigeland" park today (Oslo, Norway). There will probably be some pictures in my other photoblogs as well.
As I have created a new photoblog (http://mandusimagery.blogspot.com/), as well as the slower one (http://pblog.odegard.no.eu.org), I will probably reduce the number of pictures here.
Friday, August 05, 2005
A little boat in Åsgårdstrand
A little detour on my way home from Brunstad today - stopped in Åsgårdstrand for a few shots.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
del.icio.us/mandus
Better late than never... I signed up with del.icio.us today, my bookmarks will be at:
del.icio.us/mandus.
Seems like a cool thing, and since my personal online bookmarks database is kind of offline these days, I give it a whirl. So far I think it is a good thing.
I also signed up at O'Reilly Connection. Not sure if that is useful, or some thing I will use. At least, I don't have any connections there yet, and I am not sure how I am supposed to get them. Maybe I have to put some effort into it by adding information.
For those who are reading this, why don't you connect too, and add me as a connection if you like!
Still working on the thesis thingy.
Take care.
del.icio.us/mandus.
Seems like a cool thing, and since my personal online bookmarks database is kind of offline these days, I give it a whirl. So far I think it is a good thing.
I also signed up at O'Reilly Connection. Not sure if that is useful, or some thing I will use. At least, I don't have any connections there yet, and I am not sure how I am supposed to get them. Maybe I have to put some effort into it by adding information.
For those who are reading this, why don't you connect too, and add me as a connection if you like!
Still working on the thesis thingy.
Take care.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Having dinner!
That's my eldest daughter there, having a nice meal for dinner. This one is from the middle of July, at the Brunstad Fish restaurant. Very nice food. And a nice view as well.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Friday, July 29, 2005
The inside
Relates to the previous post. Both shot while visiting my parents house with the childrens for a barbeque evening. A couple of the other ones where taken there, too. Nice to be home from time to time.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Friday, July 08, 2005
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Årets første bad!!!
Endelig fikk jeg somlet meg ned i vannet. Etter å ha hatt badetøyet liggende på kontoret noen dager, fant kollega Moe og jeg et passende tidspunkt for å rusle ned på den vanlige knausen noen hundre meter fra it-fornebu bygget, der vi pleier å bade.
Siden sist har Telenor(?) lurt seg til å sette opp et lite hus på svaberget vårt - bildet av det kommer kanskje her etter hvert - ikke så lite frekt spør du meg. Men vi kom oss da ut i vannet allikevel. Og det var ikke vondt. Varmt er det i luften, og i vannet har nok temperaturen kommet opp i over 20°C - det vil si at det er varmt nok for meg.
Vi håper på en lang og fin badesesong. Jobb eller ikke jobb, bade må vi da ihvertfall ta oss tid til!
Med ønske om en fin sommer!
Siden sist har Telenor(?) lurt seg til å sette opp et lite hus på svaberget vårt - bildet av det kommer kanskje her etter hvert - ikke så lite frekt spør du meg. Men vi kom oss da ut i vannet allikevel. Og det var ikke vondt. Varmt er det i luften, og i vannet har nok temperaturen kommet opp i over 20°C - det vil si at det er varmt nok for meg.
Vi håper på en lang og fin badesesong. Jobb eller ikke jobb, bade må vi da ihvertfall ta oss tid til!
Med ønske om en fin sommer!
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Python snippet - setattr
This isn't anything particular cool, probably I have seen it before, too. But I stick it here anyway:
Any key/value pairs in the keyword argument to the constructor call will be assigned as members in instances of the class.
Take care,
class A(object):
def __init__(s, **kw):
for n,v in kw.items():
setattr(s,n,v)
Any key/value pairs in the keyword argument to the constructor call will be assigned as members in instances of the class.
Take care,
Monday, July 04, 2005
Reflections
I was riding my bike today, and saw this next to the road. Another title could have been "old meets new" or something like that. Go figure :-)
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Thursday, June 30, 2005
This is Oslo
Well, the place in the front seem to be a nice place, but all the stuff behind there...
Sorry, the harbour of Oslo isn't very nice.
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Python snippet
Picked up a trick from comp.lang.python. Probably "documented" elsewhere, but I put it here for easy reference...
Python lack the ?: conditional short-cut from for instance C. It is, however, possible to do:
As [b] always is True, regardless of 'b', the result will be [b] if 'a' is True, and the last [0] will extract the first entry from the list [b], which is 'b'.
Take care!
Python lack the ?: conditional short-cut from for instance C. It is, however, possible to do:
a and b or cThere is, though, a small problem with this. If 'a' evaluates to True, the result should be 'b'. But if 'b' also evaluates to False, python will go on with 'c', and return the result of 'c'. A quick fix is:
(a and [b] or [c])[0].
As [b] always is True, regardless of 'b', the result will be [b] if 'a' is True, and the last [0] will extract the first entry from the list [b], which is 'b'.
Take care!
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Focal-length statistics!
Have you ever wondered how the distribution of focal-lengths among your pictures are? If you have, I have created a tiny piece of script that can help you out! The EXIF data in the pictures are used.
Download img-focalstat. Save the file as img-focalstat.pl or whatever you like.
img-focalstat is a Perl script which takes a directory as input, scan the directory recursively for jpeg's, and check the focal length for each picture using jhead. The script show the number of pictures for each focal length, sorted from shortest to longest.
If you like, a GD bar-plot can be made of the data, with a width of each bar of your choice.
Also, all images for a particular focal length can be showed. This requires gthumb at the moment. May be made configureable on user-request.
To use the script, you need perl with File::Find, Getopt::Std, POSIX, and GD::Graph, as well as jhead and optionally gthumb. Should work on any linux, Mac OS X or other **ix. May work on Window$ as well.
The script is licenced under GPL.
syntax: img-focalstat.pl [directory| [-s focal-length] [-g ] [ -o filename ] [-n integer ] [ -i ] [ -b directory]
Description of options:
-s focal-length: Show all images with the given focal length using gthumb. Focal length should be specified as jhead show it, but without "mm". For instance 24.0 (and not just 24, at least with my jhead...)
-g : Make a GD::Graph bar-plot
-o : Output filename for bar-plot, must be a non-existant file, the script refuse to overwrite. Output will be a PNG image.
-n ingeger : The number of bars to have in the plot. Focal length will be distributed evenly on this number of bars.
-i : Include images with unknown focal length in the count and bar plot, show up as "n/a". For those cases where jhead are unable to detext any focal length in the EXIF data.
-b basedir : The basedirectory to scan. If any options are given, the base directory must be specified with the -b option. If no option is given, the base directory can just be given as the only argument to the script (without the -b)
Feel free to use or abuse or whatever. Comments are welcome :-)
Take care!
Download img-focalstat. Save the file as img-focalstat.pl or whatever you like.
img-focalstat is a Perl script which takes a directory as input, scan the directory recursively for jpeg's, and check the focal length for each picture using jhead. The script show the number of pictures for each focal length, sorted from shortest to longest.
If you like, a GD bar-plot can be made of the data, with a width of each bar of your choice.
Also, all images for a particular focal length can be showed. This requires gthumb at the moment. May be made configureable on user-request.
To use the script, you need perl with File::Find, Getopt::Std, POSIX, and GD::Graph, as well as jhead and optionally gthumb. Should work on any linux, Mac OS X or other **ix. May work on Window$ as well.
The script is licenced under GPL.
syntax: img-focalstat.pl [directory| [-s focal-length] [-g ] [ -o filename ] [-n integer ] [ -i ] [ -b directory]
Description of options:
-s focal-length: Show all images with the given focal length using gthumb. Focal length should be specified as jhead show it, but without "mm". For instance 24.0 (and not just 24, at least with my jhead...)
-g : Make a GD::Graph bar-plot
-o : Output filename for bar-plot, must be a non-existant file, the script refuse to overwrite. Output will be a PNG image.
-n ingeger : The number of bars to have in the plot. Focal length will be distributed evenly on this number of bars.
-i : Include images with unknown focal length in the count and bar plot, show up as "n/a". For those cases where jhead are unable to detext any focal length in the EXIF data.
-b basedir : The basedirectory to scan. If any options are given, the base directory must be specified with the -b option. If no option is given, the base directory can just be given as the only argument to the script (without the -b)
Feel free to use or abuse or whatever. Comments are welcome :-)
Take care!
Closeup experiments
Try the +4 closeup on my 75-300, in my garden. A nice sunny day, and stopped down the lens can still be kind of sharp.
Haven't done any rigorous tests, but I think the closeup give me at least true macro (1:1 magnification) on the 75-300.
In other news, I am still writing my Ph.D stuff.
Friday, June 17, 2005
Salt and pepper!
Got a new close-up diopter/filter for my lenses. It's a +4 strength close-up
that fit on both the kit-lens and my 75-300. This picture is with the
kit-lens. The magnification is significantly higher with the 75-300, but
it's hard to do anything serious without a tripod (which I do not have yet).
Will probably go look for bugs in the garden tomorrow...
Thursday, June 16, 2005
flies having dinner
Took a little detour with the camera today. Didn't get that many great shots, but at least a few.
I am pretty satisfied with the EF 75-300 for now. Sharpness is quite ok, and the range is great. Good learning-tool together with the kit-lens.
Monday, June 13, 2005
Another in the oow series
I like the place I live. Who wouldn't when this is what it looks like out of your home-office window!
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
What a day!
Sarge is finally out, Norway celebrates 100 years of independence, and Apple decides to go for Intel processors. Not all of that are on the positive side, but remarkable events nevertheless. Lets hope Etch will be out before Norway celebrates another century...
On a completely different end of things, I manage to get a ride on my bicycle yesterday - about 22km. Man, that hurts. Too long since last time I did something like that - I'm in even worser shape than I thought. So I better get started with some training.
No good pics today, sorry folks.
Take care!
On a completely different end of things, I manage to get a ride on my bicycle yesterday - about 22km. Man, that hurts. Too long since last time I did something like that - I'm in even worser shape than I thought. So I better get started with some training.
No good pics today, sorry folks.
Take care!
Monday, June 06, 2005
Monday, May 30, 2005
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Friday, May 20, 2005
Out of my window - Spring-time
Not many interesting shots these days. This is from my "Out of my window" series.
Take care!
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Friday, May 13, 2005
Another flower
Maybe not the greatest - just played around with the 350D. At least, the kit-lens do work quite well close-up. Now I only need to get a diopter or close-up filter/lens, strength around +3 should give more or less true macro (1:1) if my computations are correct. That will be cool to try out :-)
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Out of my window!
I am running a "Out of my window" series over at OutOfWindow and think this one is particular interesting. Not for the looks of it, which is not that interesting, but from the gimp'ing.
Based on a suggestion in a post in the Canon300D/350D forum over at dpReview, I played some tricks to remove haze from the far away parts of the picture, as the kit-lens of the 350D isn't particulary sharp far away. I think this turned out not that bad! The steps are basically:
- Duplicate layer, add layer mask, make it selected.
- Create a black to white gradient in the layer mask, such that near stuff are blacked out
- Apply layer mask
- Layers->Colors->Curves and play with the curve for the Value-channel (add a couple of control points, drag it down) in order to make the distant stuff more haze-less.
- Merge layers, and do whatever more you want/need. For instance USM.
That's about it, judge for your self the result. By the way, don't you think thats a nice place to live - very refreshing view!
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
The bridge of Leonardo Da Vinci
Walked around in the neighbourhood yesterday evening. The bridge of Leonardo Da Vinci was build close to where I live a few years ago. This is it.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Selfportrait II
Took a short stretch and grabbed some images while I was on my way home the other day.
This one conveniently named "Self-portrait II"...
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Friday, May 06, 2005
Coffee
Coffee - that's good for you. Just must have it. By the way, it's a self portrait. If you take a very close look, you can see me there!
Besides that, this was a gimp-exercise as well. Tried to add some vignette, after the usual levels - unshapr mask - sharpen. Had to increase saturation and hue, and make it a bit ligther as well, but I think this turned out quite interesting.
Should anyone see this, comments are welcome!
Todays quote:
Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.
Mar 13:30
Take care.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Release update: editorial changes to the testing propagation scripts
Wow:
Release update: editorial changes to the testing propagation scripts
Debian sarge in frezze. Man, we have waited for that. Hopefully, this is the start of a new era in the Debian-world, with a bit more frequent releases.
Wow, almost unbelivable!
Release update: editorial changes to the testing propagation scripts
Debian sarge in frezze. Man, we have waited for that. Hopefully, this is the start of a new era in the Debian-world, with a bit more frequent releases.
Wow, almost unbelivable!
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Not particullary interesting...
I am still writing that paper. I think I am approaching something, but there is still a way to go. So I stay in our small cabin, and captured this right out of my door.
As the picture itself was not very interesting, I played a bit with the RAW picture from the 350D. Converted to something readable by Gimp with dcraw, and did some postprocessing there. Most interesting part was to saturate the blues a bit, then doing some gaussian blur and finally apply as a layer mask to the original, which was multiplied with the original.
Point? I tried to boost the blue sky a bit, while not destroying the rest of it. Don't know how sucessfullt that went, but this is the result anyway.
Take care!
As the picture itself was not very interesting, I played a bit with the RAW picture from the 350D. Converted to something readable by Gimp with dcraw, and did some postprocessing there. Most interesting part was to saturate the blues a bit, then doing some gaussian blur and finally apply as a layer mask to the original, which was multiplied with the original.
Point? I tried to boost the blue sky a bit, while not destroying the rest of it. Don't know how sucessfullt that went, but this is the result anyway.
We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak
2Cor, 4:13
Take care!
Monday, May 02, 2005
Boats in the gray
This should be spring-time, the calendar tell me it is may, but I am not so sure...
But the main thing is that I'm testing out the new Canon 350D. I think it doing quite well, although I haven't had time yet to do the most interesting things...
Take care!
But the main thing is that I'm testing out the new Canon 350D. I think it doing quite well, although I haven't had time yet to do the most interesting things...
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.(Gal, 6:2)
Take care!
Friday, April 29, 2005
Got the Canon 350D
Today I got my Canon 350D with the EF-S 18-55 kit-lens, which will do for now, as I need to learn using a SLR anyway.
Just to get started, I tried a closeup of this orchid. Have done a bit post-processing, but I think it is kind of ok. Even though the kit-lens is no macro lens, it can go fairly close, and I can do stuff I never was able to do with my old camera. Guess this will be fun.
Take care!
Just to get started, I tried a closeup of this orchid. Have done a bit post-processing, but I think it is kind of ok. Even though the kit-lens is no macro lens, it can go fairly close, and I can do stuff I never was able to do with my old camera. Guess this will be fun.
Take care!
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
New camera!
There won't be many more crappy shots with the Sony P52 - a new camera is coming up, and it seems to be the Canon 350D. It will still take a few days before it arrives, though, so I have to relax.
And the Sony will be with me anyway, it is nice to have the point 'n shoot for those occations I can't carry the big dSLR.
It is already on its way!
As always, take care!
And the Sony will be with me anyway, it is nice to have the point 'n shoot for those occations I can't carry the big dSLR.
Update
It is already on its way!
As always, take care!
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Flowers!
It's been a very nice in our area of Norway today, so I have been out most of the day together with my family. Captured these nice flowers in the sun right outside our house.
Days get longer, the sun warmer, and colours fresher - definitely spring-time!
Take care!
Days get longer, the sun warmer, and colours fresher - definitely spring-time!
Take care!
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Planet Debian - on search Engine Optimization.
Planet Debian:
Others do this, so I do it too:
Hommingberger Gepardenforelle
Let's see whats happend :-)
Others do this, so I do it too:
Hommingberger Gepardenforelle
Let's see whats happend :-)
Monday, April 18, 2005
De kan få sagt det: digi.no - Dobbeltkjernet Pentium
Idag sier Digi.no:
Dobbeltkjernet Pentium offisielt lansert: "Prosessoren, som er basert på 90 nanometers prosessteknologi, består av omtrent 230 millioner prosessorer"
En slik prosesssor, det vil jeg gjerne ha!
Take care,
Dobbeltkjernet Pentium offisielt lansert: "Prosessoren, som er basert på 90 nanometers prosessteknologi, består av omtrent 230 millioner prosessorer"
En slik prosesssor, det vil jeg gjerne ha!
Take care,
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
A tree at Brunstad, by night
I captured this tree in a kind of nice light, right outside my cabin at Brunstad. Brunstad is the place the church have the conference center, and there are nice cabins there.
As I stay in the cabin for a few days to work intensively on the paper already mentioned, I captured my PaD late yesterday evening. Unfortunately, the camera I use isn't quite capable for this kind of stuff. Hopefully I can afford something better not to far into the future... ;-)
Take care.
As I stay in the cabin for a few days to work intensively on the paper already mentioned, I captured my PaD late yesterday evening. Unfortunately, the camera I use isn't quite capable for this kind of stuff. Hopefully I can afford something better not to far into the future... ;-)
Take care.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that
ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day
dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts (1 Pe, 1:19)
Watch out for new photos
Watch out at my gallery for new pictures. I don't add everything here.
Besides that, there won't be much update here this week, I am to busy writing my paper.
Besides that, there won't be much update here this week, I am to busy writing my paper.
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Todays picture!
Click the picture to head over to the full-size version! Maybe not a very good picture, but I somehow liked it anyway. The important thing to notice is that it is springtime in Norway! Soon, the colours will be nicer, the weather much warmer, the days longer! And after that, there will be another winter. So we have to enjoy the summer while it is here. Until then, we enjoy spring!
Not sure there is much more to say today. I am still writing my research-paper. Guess I will be busy with that whole next week as well - it's a tough paper to write, but I'm sure it gonna be very good. Look out for it in a journal near you (not sure which yet, though).
Take care!
Thursday, April 07, 2005
A picture out of my window!
I just figured out it will be nice to capture some pics right out of my window in my home-office. This is what it looks like early in April!
You can just click the picture to go to my album where you can see that picture (and maybe later on a few more of my special creations) in larger sizes. My plan is to follow up this with a series of pictures captured at the same spot, maybe for as long as one year, to document how nature changes throughout the year.
Of course, mostly pointless, but I thought is may be kind of fun...
By the way, camera used for now is a Sony Cybershot P-52. I start looking for something better. I want to have the Canon Rebel XT/350D, but maybe I have to go for something a bit less expencive!
Todays quote:
You can just click the picture to go to my album where you can see that picture (and maybe later on a few more of my special creations) in larger sizes. My plan is to follow up this with a series of pictures captured at the same spot, maybe for as long as one year, to document how nature changes throughout the year.Of course, mostly pointless, but I thought is may be kind of fun...
By the way, camera used for now is a Sony Cybershot P-52. I start looking for something better. I want to have the Canon Rebel XT/350D, but maybe I have to go for something a bit less expencive!
Todays quote:
Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;(phi 2:14-15)
Monday, April 04, 2005
Linux and Firewire audio device
Right now, I learned that there is a project called freebob that try to implement a GPL driver for firewire breakout-box audio devices for linux. And the particular device that I own is on the list of their test-devices!
This sounds really cool - it may be just a matter of months before I can do even the serios soundstuff (blæh..) that I am doing, on Linux. Way cool!
todays quote:
This sounds really cool - it may be just a matter of months before I can do even the serios soundstuff (blæh..) that I am doing, on Linux. Way cool!
todays quote:
Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; (1 Pe 4;1)
What do I want to say today?
I am very busy writing a research paper these days, hence not much blogging. Actually, there aren't much techno-stuff to tell about from my dept. lately either. No new gadgets, and not much discovered on the technology side.
Or wait a minute, there is actually one little thing. A few days ago I started experimenting with connecting my M-Audio keystation pro-88 to my linux-running laptop, through usb. Compiling the midi-usb module was very easy, and actually I could use the keyboard more or less right away in e.g., rosegarden. The only problem was that I needed something more to get some sounds. Then I start discovering jack. Using jack, something called qsynth, and rosegarden, together with ardour, a hardisk recorder for linux, I can do everything a need to do music-wice on my linux-box. Only problem now is that I bought a firewire-based soundcard together with my dual-g5 powermac, which is not supported by linux, at least not yet. So I have to stick to crappy sound on linux. Or use the mac for recording, which is always a possibility.
Todays quote:
Or wait a minute, there is actually one little thing. A few days ago I started experimenting with connecting my M-Audio keystation pro-88 to my linux-running laptop, through usb. Compiling the midi-usb module was very easy, and actually I could use the keyboard more or less right away in e.g., rosegarden. The only problem was that I needed something more to get some sounds. Then I start discovering jack. Using jack, something called qsynth, and rosegarden, together with ardour, a hardisk recorder for linux, I can do everything a need to do music-wice on my linux-box. Only problem now is that I bought a firewire-based soundcard together with my dual-g5 powermac, which is not supported by linux, at least not yet. So I have to stick to crappy sound on linux. Or use the mac for recording, which is always a possibility.
Todays quote:
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. (Eph. 6:10)
Monday, March 14, 2005
Torvalds switches to Apple
Check out this link: Torvalds switches to Apple | CNET News.com
Obviously, it does not mean much, but it is exactly the same kind of computer I have on my desktop!
Obviously, it does not mean much, but it is exactly the same kind of computer I have on my desktop!
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Status on the new PowerMac
As I have mentioned earlier in this blog, I have recently obtained a brand new and shiny Apple PowerMac G5. Some of you may wonder what the status might in that dept.
First of all, I have to recap some of the context. I am, and will probably always be, a linux kind of guy. And not only that. I also prefer a working environment which is as simple and clean as possible. I do not work in the console, but not far away - I use the fvwm windowmanager, without panel, pagers, icons on desktop, menus and so on - just windows with as litle decoration as possible. And everything I need to start often bound to clever keys. I also move between windows using a Vi-like set of keybindings. The mouse is something I use at little as possible, mostly to click on links in the browser window.
So, what is the deal with the Mac then? First of all, the hardware is quite cool, so I like to check it out. Besides that, I needed a desktop computer at home, and as it is almost impossible to buy a computer with linux on, why not buy something which come close? Finally, I like to play music, like saxophone and clarinet, as well as piano and guitar. I have heard that the Mac should be quite good at recording and stuff, so I want to try that out as well. To summarize we can say that I want to
get a sucessful working environment will be that the applications you relay on
are available. As I tend to rely more or less only on opensource software, I
am lucky. In most cases you can just grab the source and do the regular
configure, make, make install sequence to get what you need on Mac. The reason
of course is the unix under the hood on the Mac OSX. You have to remark though
that stuff you install this way tend to run under X11, not under the to Mac
native gui environment, Aqua. There are some subtile differences although X11
is undoubtly very well integrated.
Fortunately, fine folks around the globe have put efort into porting some main
applications to the Aqua environment. This mean that I can run firefox,
thunderbird, Abiword, vim and a few more appications direclty in Aqua, even
without compiling as all these are available in precompiled versions. Add to
that the darwinports and fink projects, which both make several important
packages available either as precompiled software or easy to build packages,
and I hvae everything I want, including state-of-the-art perl and python
environments, latex publishing tools, the graphics manipulation programmm
gimp, the spreadsheet gnumeric and openoffice - most of these running under
X11 though.
Anything else we need to add? If you need or like to have, gui interfaces to
both cvs and subversion are available in Aqua, as well as in
terminal/commandline versions. Needless to say, the die-hard linux nerd as my
self have almost everything available on the mac, and whats not there is quite
easy to build usually.
To good to be true, you may say - there must be something? Yes, there are, but
we're really into the details here. I still miss the evolution mail/calendar
suite. Probably it will be possible to compile this one as well, but since it
is a really large build with a lot of dependencies, I haven't got around to
that yet.
After that, lets move into some really gory details. As a big-number of years
**ix user, ypu have probably grew accustomed to your own very special Xmodmap,
as well as keybindings related to the keyboard map in your windowmanager. I
for instance switch esc and caps-lock as I am a vi-kind of guy. Then I map
Alt-{h,j,k,l} to switching focus between windows in the natural directions.
Alt or Alt-ctrl or Alt-shift coupled with some letter start a specific
applications, one which feel very natural to me because the binding have been
ther for years. Even window movement, resizing or maximize/minimize may be
performed this way, reducing the mouse to a very litle used device.
Some of this you can do on Mac, but certainly not all. The Apple/Mac
philosopy is that there should preferably be just one way to do some task,
and that should be the way Apple think is right, not the way you like it.
What they achive is consistency between applications, but at the cost of
flexibility for the user. Some aspect of this is as I said possible to
tackle, but not as easy as you may be used to. And something can't be done at
all.
What annoyes me most? To this date, I have not been able to remap Esc to the
Caps-lock key. I really can't do without that mapping. Most of the other stuff
I can handle, but for that one I might have to rewire the keyboard or buy
another keyboard with the Esc key in the right position.
What about music production then. I just have to say that it works quite well
in that dept., though I have to relay on software that cost me money, like
Logic express. But that is ok, as music equipment like saxophone or keyboard,
or equipment like decesnt microphone and soundcard, costs money too...
First of all, I have to recap some of the context. I am, and will probably always be, a linux kind of guy. And not only that. I also prefer a working environment which is as simple and clean as possible. I do not work in the console, but not far away - I use the fvwm windowmanager, without panel, pagers, icons on desktop, menus and so on - just windows with as litle decoration as possible. And everything I need to start often bound to clever keys. I also move between windows using a Vi-like set of keybindings. The mouse is something I use at little as possible, mostly to click on links in the browser window.
So, what is the deal with the Mac then? First of all, the hardware is quite cool, so I like to check it out. Besides that, I needed a desktop computer at home, and as it is almost impossible to buy a computer with linux on, why not buy something which come close? Finally, I like to play music, like saxophone and clarinet, as well as piano and guitar. I have heard that the Mac should be quite good at recording and stuff, so I want to try that out as well. To summarize we can say that I want to
- make a working-environment as close to my linux environment as possible on the Mac
- check out how the Mac work as a home musical production system
get a sucessful working environment will be that the applications you relay on
are available. As I tend to rely more or less only on opensource software, I
am lucky. In most cases you can just grab the source and do the regular
configure, make, make install sequence to get what you need on Mac. The reason
of course is the unix under the hood on the Mac OSX. You have to remark though
that stuff you install this way tend to run under X11, not under the to Mac
native gui environment, Aqua. There are some subtile differences although X11
is undoubtly very well integrated.
Fortunately, fine folks around the globe have put efort into porting some main
applications to the Aqua environment. This mean that I can run firefox,
thunderbird, Abiword, vim and a few more appications direclty in Aqua, even
without compiling as all these are available in precompiled versions. Add to
that the darwinports and fink projects, which both make several important
packages available either as precompiled software or easy to build packages,
and I hvae everything I want, including state-of-the-art perl and python
environments, latex publishing tools, the graphics manipulation programmm
gimp, the spreadsheet gnumeric and openoffice - most of these running under
X11 though.
Anything else we need to add? If you need or like to have, gui interfaces to
both cvs and subversion are available in Aqua, as well as in
terminal/commandline versions. Needless to say, the die-hard linux nerd as my
self have almost everything available on the mac, and whats not there is quite
easy to build usually.
To good to be true, you may say - there must be something? Yes, there are, but
we're really into the details here. I still miss the evolution mail/calendar
suite. Probably it will be possible to compile this one as well, but since it
is a really large build with a lot of dependencies, I haven't got around to
that yet.
After that, lets move into some really gory details. As a big-number of years
**ix user, ypu have probably grew accustomed to your own very special Xmodmap,
as well as keybindings related to the keyboard map in your windowmanager. I
for instance switch esc and caps-lock as I am a vi-kind of guy. Then I map
Alt-{h,j,k,l} to switching focus between windows in the natural directions.
Alt or Alt-ctrl or Alt-shift coupled with some letter start a specific
applications, one which feel very natural to me because the binding have been
ther for years. Even window movement, resizing or maximize/minimize may be
performed this way, reducing the mouse to a very litle used device.
Some of this you can do on Mac, but certainly not all. The Apple/Mac
philosopy is that there should preferably be just one way to do some task,
and that should be the way Apple think is right, not the way you like it.
What they achive is consistency between applications, but at the cost of
flexibility for the user. Some aspect of this is as I said possible to
tackle, but not as easy as you may be used to. And something can't be done at
all.
What annoyes me most? To this date, I have not been able to remap Esc to the
Caps-lock key. I really can't do without that mapping. Most of the other stuff
I can handle, but for that one I might have to rewire the keyboard or buy
another keyboard with the Esc key in the right position.
What about music production then. I just have to say that it works quite well
in that dept., though I have to relay on software that cost me money, like
Logic express. But that is ok, as music equipment like saxophone or keyboard,
or equipment like decesnt microphone and soundcard, costs money too...
Monday, January 17, 2005
Google - Just a Test
Some of you may know this one: Google
Just kidin'... I am simply testing the JustBlogIt extension for firefox, and it seem to handle blogger blogs just fine. So, please, just ignore this one unless you are interested in the extension yourself. In that case, open the firefox extensions webpage, and look in the blogging section.
As always, take care!
Just kidin'... I am simply testing the JustBlogIt extension for firefox, and it seem to handle blogger blogs just fine. So, please, just ignore this one unless you are interested in the extension yourself. In that case, open the firefox extensions webpage, and look in the blogging section.
As always, take care!
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Just a few more words on the new computer
Now the new PowerMac have been in the house for a good week. I just have to admit that the Apple people have done a very fine job!
First the hardware - it is simply great. Powerful, without much noise, rock stable, nice looking
Then the MacOSX. With just a few days tweaking, it start feeling like linux, maybe with a slightly nicer graphical appearance. I have all the programs I use on a regular basis already, except my mailer, evolution, but I can do without it, both the included Mail program and thunderbird can do a good job. I tested the first version of OSX a couple of years ago, and was not very satisfied with unix part of it, and not the stability either.
Now, it feels like unix, which mean I feel like home. And it is more stable.
If I just could tweak the Aqua "window-manager" to accept the keybindings I regulary use, that will be something. For an entertainment machine and some work at home, this computer can do the job anyway, but for doing real programming work, I will still stick to my linux :-)
First the hardware - it is simply great. Powerful, without much noise, rock stable, nice looking
Then the MacOSX. With just a few days tweaking, it start feeling like linux, maybe with a slightly nicer graphical appearance. I have all the programs I use on a regular basis already, except my mailer, evolution, but I can do without it, both the included Mail program and thunderbird can do a good job. I tested the first version of OSX a couple of years ago, and was not very satisfied with unix part of it, and not the stability either.
Now, it feels like unix, which mean I feel like home. And it is more stable.
If I just could tweak the Aqua "window-manager" to accept the keybindings I regulary use, that will be something. For an entertainment machine and some work at home, this computer can do the job anyway, but for doing real programming work, I will still stick to my linux :-)
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
New Computer in House
Hi there!
First of all, happy new year to all my faithful readers, take care out there!
This is just a quick notice to inform you that I have a new computer in house - a Dual 2.0Ghz G5 PowerMac. It's an awesome computer, I just have to say that. Even if it is not running linux (yet). Mac OS X is actually a good OS as far as my experience goes this far...
More on this later.
First of all, happy new year to all my faithful readers, take care out there!
This is just a quick notice to inform you that I have a new computer in house - a Dual 2.0Ghz G5 PowerMac. It's an awesome computer, I just have to say that. Even if it is not running linux (yet). Mac OS X is actually a good OS as far as my experience goes this far...
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Sad days
As we head for christmas, I just like to share a sad story with you. My wife was expecting our next baby about the midle of December. On the 3. it was obvious that the baby was soon to arrive. Unfortunately, during the next hours it become clear that the baby was already dead. About noon on saturday 4. December, my wife gave birth to our third son, Daniel, already on his way to heaven, to meet his older brother Aleksander, who passed away only 15 days old in October 1999.
From time to time, life can be pretty hard. This christmas will not be any thing like we exptected it to be. But we know that both our two boys are safe and with Jesus in heaven - a far better place than this world. And later on we will meet both of them there. This is a comfort to us in these really hard, hard days.
Since we have 3 other children kickin' and alive, we have to go on with the daily routines, and make a christmas as good as possible for the family. That is a help to move on as well.
Do not take life for granted. Be happy for all the days your are able to live on. Make use of the days, they may be fewer than you think. And be good to other people as both them and you are struggle through the days. And remember, there is hope! Jesus was born on christmas day, and can still help you out, giving hope and a future - not only for your life here on earth, but for an eternal life together with him in heaven.
Merry Christmas!
From time to time, life can be pretty hard. This christmas will not be any thing like we exptected it to be. But we know that both our two boys are safe and with Jesus in heaven - a far better place than this world. And later on we will meet both of them there. This is a comfort to us in these really hard, hard days.
Since we have 3 other children kickin' and alive, we have to go on with the daily routines, and make a christmas as good as possible for the family. That is a help to move on as well.
Do not take life for granted. Be happy for all the days your are able to live on. Make use of the days, they may be fewer than you think. And be good to other people as both them and you are struggle through the days. And remember, there is hope! Jesus was born on christmas day, and can still help you out, giving hope and a future - not only for your life here on earth, but for an eternal life together with him in heaven.
Merry Christmas!
Friday, November 26, 2004
You think I am a techno freak?
Probably, you think that I am only concerned about new technology if you read what I write below. But I am not, and that is probably the reason I am not blogging very actively. I am so busy trying to finish my Ph.D. Yup, that's true. I am about to finish a Ph.D on scientific computing. Mostly I try to implement good software for solving PDEs. Right now I try to build software for dealing more easy with PDEs (like rapid prototyping). This software I write in Python, the extremely versatile and flexible language.
The software package will be open source in the future, so stay tuned. I will probably try to package it in .deb form as well. Maybe it even make it into the main debian repository. We'll see.
So long,
The software package will be open source in the future, so stay tuned. I will probably try to package it in .deb form as well. Maybe it even make it into the main debian repository. We'll see.
So long,
Monday, November 22, 2004
Still here, but not very active...
I'm just back after 2 weeks in US, where I visited SC2004 and LISA'04. Both events was very good, and in particular the last one, where I met so many nice people.
Maybe a write up more on this later on, not sure... As you know, I am not a very active blogger. But that may change in the future.
Maybe a write up more on this later on, not sure... As you know, I am not a very active blogger. But that may change in the future.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)