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Cinnamon patrol

Mr and Mrs Lili Wedding

 

Adventures in scanning


Through a glass darkley
Originally uploaded by djcult
As I think I mentioned, I bought a medium format camera on holiday and since we've been back I have a scanner too.

Scanning, I've discovered, is a major pain in the backside and if there is one reason to have a digital camera, it's to avoid scanning.

Anyhoo, after buying a special new film holder for the scanner to hold the film flat (film flatness, not easy) and spending a good 2 hours tonight adjusting little screws in increments of 0.2mm (no kidding), I can now can get sharp images!

The next major problem is color correction. I don't have my own printer (and can't really be bothered with one) but my lab (not being a pro lab) doesn't have a colour profile for their printer - so I've got nothing to calibrate against. That's probably as well, because if I did I'd need to get a colorimeter to calibrate my screen. That's just more stuff - eventually Laura will kill me, or I'll have no desk left, or both. So I did some test prints today, and I'm going to go for the "hold it up to the screen and compare" kind of colour correction.

So here are some of the scans I've done: 2 x Vancouver and 1 x Grandmas. You might have seen them on my regular albums already, but that was before they were sharp.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/djcultdjcult/3255129323/ (sharpish)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djcultdjcult/3317718996/ (actually sharp)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djcultdjcult/3314961026/ (still not sharp, needs redoing).

Schlaf schön!

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Polyglot?

I said it in Hebrew—I said it in Dutch—
I said it in German and Greek:
But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)
That English is what you speak!

-Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark

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Gmail is dead. Long live gmail!

I've got a case of the cold sweats.

The email service went offline at around 10.25am GMT, and the outage appears to have affected users throughout the UK as well as across Europe, and even as far afield as Australia and India.

It appears that only web-based Gmail access is affected, and users can continue to send and receive messages using other devices, such as mobile phones and third-party mail clients.

Google could not confirm what had caused the outage. “A number of users are having difficulty accessing Gmail,” said the company in a statement. “We are working to resolve the problem. We know how important Gmail is to users, so we take issues like this very seriously, and we apologise for the inconvenience.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/google/4797727/Googles-Gmail-service-crashes-across-world.html

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Life in Ireland, well Dublin really.

I've been meaning to blog about the Irish economy; specifically the banking sector. But I found this, and it's nearly as funny. And I mean no exaggeration when I say it reminds me very much of several of my walks to work.




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Loving me tender

Before I begin, I'd like to be clear: this isn't a post about Valentine's Day or love or smooshy stuff, nor is it about my love of chicken tenders. These are certainly blogworthy topics in my mind, but what I'm actually here to post about is meeting Elvis in the pub last night.

Yes, Elvis. And it isn't the first time I've met Elvis in a pub in Dublin, either. But I digress...

So in response to a slightly lacklustre feeling (associated, no doubt, with a return to relative normality after all the excitement of the world's longest family-visit-trip), David suggested yesterday that we go to Ryan's, a local pub, for "a sneaky pint". I'm not sure why it was sneaky, but it was an appealing idea.

So after leaving work early (5pm! I could see the road without headlights!), we convened at Ryan's with our pint each of Guinness. Ryan's - or, the bit I saw - is vastly superior to our other locals - the Cobblestones (which is unrenovated to the point of yuck, doesn't seem to believe in central heating, and is apparently so dirty that Irish men prefer a bottle of beer as opposed to a pint), and Thomas Reid's (wherein a pint cannot be poured properly, which bodes very ill indeed). Cosy, not fussy, and with a fair few regulars, but in such a way that you still feel comfortable popping in as a not-regular.

We were sitting quietly at our table when David looked up and his eyes widened. I smelled him before I saw him - Elvis, unwashed, and clearly worse for the wear after who knows how many pints. And whilst he had no costume, and spoke in a thick Irish accent, I knew immediately who he fancied himself to be, thanks to a spectacular pair of sideburns.

During the next 5-10 minutes, Elvis made allegations concerning Nicholas Cage's relationship with his daughter, explained the technique that led to his sexual prowess, and speculated on the likelihood of David (ahem) getting lucky that night.

I didn't have the heart (or the breath, I was laughing too hard) to tell Elvis that Lisa Marie had moved on, married someone else, and had twins with him.

Eventually one of the guys behind the bar told Elvis to go away, but my snickering continued long after he moved (his really rather smelly self) along.

As far as Elvises in Dublin pubs go, this one was much lewder than the chap I'd encountered in the Swiss Cottage one evening, who had a reasonable singing voice, and the sense to sing a few songs before hitting on me.

So, Elvis. Not dead, but living it up occasionally at my local pub. Who'd've thought?

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US Airways 1549 ATC

Here's the air traffic control audio for the flight that landed in the Hudson river.

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Worldwide 08 - some photos




I've been home all week with illness. Kind of an extension on the already long holiday, but it just prolongs the anti-climax of going back to work, so it feels kind of odd - a kind of purgatory. At least it's been nice sitting in the apartment, watching Discovery and the snow falling outside - so much snow!

On holiday I bought a 2nd hand (well, of course) Contax 645 which is a medium format film camera. I also bought a scanner so I could scan the negs myself. So, as well as other photos, I've uploaded some of the scans. It's a bit disappointing because although the negs are pin sharp, the scans aren't and that's mostly because the negative strip won't stay flat in the film holder. Kind of annoying. But as a first try I'm moderately happy.

Look out for a joint food diary style posting with photos. It might be a couple of weeks due the post-holiday chores backlog.

Slideshow here.

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It's a white out!

Posted by Picasa

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We're back!

We and our 7 bags have made it safely back to Dublin. (Somehow, we managed to acquire more than we offloaded.)

We really got back just in the nick of time - today, the UK airports are closed due to snow, and David's nasty case of flu has settled in.

There may be a wee bit more radio silence as we unpack, do laundry, work (me) and recuperate (David). But we'll be back soon.

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