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Author: Garf

Virtual light meter
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Light meter

These days almost all digital cameras offer excellent light metering, The old fashioned “light meter” has become a “thing of the past” to a large extent. Nevertheless they do still have their uses. For those still wishing to flirt with light meters but who don’t want to fork-out to the £100 or so that a…

Moggy takes a dip
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Moggy takes a dip

It was a lazy Bank Holiday Monday morning and we had just crawled out of bed, when we heard a bit of a splash outside. We opened the curtains and noticed the water in the pond was moving, But we didn’t know why. Fortunately Zoneminder captured the incident from one of our security cameras. So…

TV versus on-line video sites such as Youtube
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TV versus on-line video sites such as Youtube

Some interesting questions arose recently on a forum to which I belong.  Members were comparing conventional broadcast TV with on-line video sites such as Youtube, and asking… What are people watching on YouTube? Are they watching new material ?  Or are they watching old repeats that are be being shown in breach of copyright? Are…

Reintroducing Storks to Britain
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Reintroducing Storks to Britain

Following on from my post about Szofi and Macus, seems people all over Europe are cheering for them. They’ve become storky superstars! 🙂 Meantime back here in old Blighty, storks’ 360,000 year archaeological relationship with Britain came to an end several centuries ago, when it seems they were hunted to extinction. However, there currently three sites…

Hey, Hey, Rise-Up
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Hey, Hey, Rise-Up

“Hey, Hey, Rise-Up!” released on 2022-04-08, is Pink Floyd’s first new song since 1994. It will be used to raise funds for humanitarian causes associated with the warin Ukraine. It samples Andriy Khlyvnyuk, a member of one of Ukraine’s biggest bands, BoomBox, singing in Sofiyskaya Square in Kyiv, in a video clip that went viral….

Szofi come home
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Szofi come home

My wife is Hungarian. Like many folks in central Europe, Hungarians have a particular affinity for white storks. Even during the soviet era, lampposts often had huge plinths welded to the top, so that these massive wild birds can build their nests. Throughout the various COVID lock-downs my wife started following various European stork nests…

2021 incarnation, simplified yet improved. Note 15 amp PSU module, IEC mains socket and double 2.4A USB module on the top.
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Fed up with wall warts?

One of the problems with modern life is the plethora of plug-in mains adaptors or “wall warts” as they call them on the other side of “The Pond”.  Aside from the mess of wires, and the fact that often they are plugged into multi-gang power sockets an heaped on top of one another, building up…

Image processing using FOSS
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Image processing using FOSS

I belong to several online photography fora. One of the questions that repeatedly pops up is “what image editing software do you use?” and “what alternatives are there to Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom?” In this article, I hope to demonstrate that high quality image processing is perfectly possible using FOSS (free open source software). I will also…

Long Live Ukraine | хай живе Україна
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Long Live Ukraine | хай живе Україна

Long Live Ukraine – a collection of Ukraine-related video-feeds, hyperlinks, newsfeeds, artwork and memes.   Webcams Pictures A few of these are humorous memes. The rest serve as a painful reminder us of horrific human tragedy that is currently unfolding before our eyes. I plan to add to them as the conflict progresses. Links Links …

Facebook’s fortunes on the turn…
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Facebook’s fortunes on the turn…

Social networking platforms come and go. Does anyone remember Myspace? or Bebo? Granted, Facebook has enjoyed a longer run than most. But today saw parent company Meta’s shares plummet by a staggering $226 billion. That’s the biggest one-day loss for any US company, ever. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/feb/03/facebook-stock-shares-meta-mark-zuckerberg This comes on top of news last month that a…

Is a smartphone a substitute for a proper camera?
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Is a smartphone a substitute for a proper camera?

“Is a smartphone a substitute for a proper camera?” was an interesting question, posed on a photographic forum to which I belong . It certainly got me thinking… Firstly, I think there is a certain element of “using the right tool for the job” here. An analogy if I may: one can (un)do most screws…

GNU’s not Unix? If not then why not?
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GNU’s not Unix? If not then why not?

The GNU/Linux family of operating systems (e.g. Debian, Fedora, KDE Neon, Kubuntu, LinuxMint, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Xubuntu et al) are not permitted to use the UNIX trademark. Instead, they are described as “unix-like“. In fact, the “GNU” in GNU/Linux (c/w the “G” in GIMP) is a recursive acronym meaning GNU’s not Unix. In a nutshell,…