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These are some of my technology writings. I am a firm believer in the value of open source software and the culture of openness and cooperation that surrounds it. So most of my written work today is about open source rather than proprietary products. If you are looking for information about Microsoft products or anything Windows-based, then you are probably in the wrong place – though please feel free to look around anyway, if you have a few moments to spare.

British Government’s open consultation on copyright and artificial intelligence
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British Government’s open consultation on copyright and artificial intelligence

ByGarf

Seems the British Government has set up an open consultation on copyright and artificial intelligence. It aims to discuss with the public how artwork stored on cloud servers, or processed using cloud-based software should be treated with regard to being used to teach AI (artificial intelligence) machines. Essentially the Government offers three possible choices:- Do…

Very Lidl help
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Very Lidl help

ByGarf

I had a pleasant surprise today, when I took delivery of a Lidl’s own-brand “Parkside” laser level, sent as a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law and sister-in-law in Hungary. Unfortunately the user manual is in Hungarian, Slovakian, Czech and German. Not English. “No problem,” I thought. “I’ll get onto Lidl and request an English language…

Problems with KDE Plasma 6 on Debian Trixie
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Problems with KDE Plasma 6 on Debian Trixie

ByGarf

I’m a big Debian fan and I’m currently running Debian 13, aka, “Trixie” on my main laptop workstation. Currently Trixie is Debian’s “testing” branch. Despite being a test version, Trixie has generally proven very stable and reliable. And we users get all the new stuff very promptly. I’m also rather keen on the KDE desktop,…

SD cards become read-only on insertion
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SD cards become read-only on insertion

ByGarf

One of  the most annoying features on standard SD cards is the write protect tab. This tab often seems to get caught and pushed into the “read only” position when one inserts an SD card into a card reader or camera. Thus rendering the card “read only”. It seems a particular issue with the slots…

Clownstrike fiasco continues in West, while Russia and China virtually unaffected
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Clownstrike fiasco continues in West, while Russia and China virtually unaffected

ByGarf

While the Clownstrike fiasco rumbles-on in the West, and people in our particular part of the planet can’t even purchase a train ticket, it seems both Russia and China are almost completely unaffected. Editor’s note 2024-08-17: Seems we’re not the only site referring to Cloudstrike as “Clownstrike”. Crowdstrike has issued several takedown notices to a…

Microsoft’s biggest ever outage, caused by Crowdstrike
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Microsoft’s biggest ever outage, caused by Crowdstrike

ByGarf

Today our planet is suffering what appears to be Microsoft’s biggest ever outage. Seems the culprit is a piece of buggy “security” software provided by a company called Crowdstrike. Or is that Clownstrike? It sends Microsoft Windows computers into a never-ending boot loop, from which users cannot escape, without going into “safe mode” and removing…

Affordable CCT spotlights for the studio
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Affordable CCT spotlights for the studio

ByGarf

I’ve been flirting with affordable LED in the studio for over a decade. And on each experiment, I’ve had change out of fifty quid. My latest sortie involved a pair of these things  They have simple removable diffuser, reducing the need for a soft-box, they’re fairly robust and in addition to being dimmable they also…

Hostile server blocking – eliminate ads and other nasties, free
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Hostile server blocking – eliminate ads and other nasties, free

ByGarf

If like me, you are tired of having your screen cluttered full of stupid ads, c/w the general enshittification of the Internet by commercial interests, then you may wish to try /etc/hosts file “hostile server blocking”. It’s free and no additional software is needed. This is because your /etc/hosts file part of your computer’s TCP/IP…

How I mounted my 120-year-old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens
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How I mounted my 120-year-old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens

ByGarf

Several people have contacted me privately and asked for information regarding how I actually mounted my 120-year-old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens on my µ4/3 camera. I hope in this article to shed a little light on how one can make such an old lens and seemingly-incompatible lens actually stay on a modern mirrorless…

120 year old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens, in action, on Portsdown Hill
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120 year old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens, in action, on Portsdown Hill

ByGarf

Regular readers may know that my 2023 Christmas project was to make this 120 year old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens fit on my µ4/3 cameras and actually capture some pictures with it. Unfortunately, at the time, the weather was too wet to take the thing outdoors. Fortunately by early January the weather became…

Making a 120-year-old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens work on a modern mirrorless camera
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Making a 120-year-old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens work on a modern mirrorless camera

ByGarf

Over Christmas I set myself a little task of trying to make a 120-year- old Bausch & Lomb + Beck lens fit on a fairly modern camera. The lens was given to me in the late 1980’s by one of my very first models. It was a nice thought but to be honest, I came…

BBC-broken
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BBC deliberately breaks its internet radio service

ByGarf

Editor’s note: a list of new BBC AAC HLS internet ratio streams can be found here. Seems the BBC has decided to make all its AAC HLS streams only available to wealthy people who have Apple or similar devices. And the good old-fashioned “shoutcast” MP3 streams have gone altogether. Seems that if you can afford…

Simple street photography
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Simple street photography

ByGarf

My experience of street photography is to make oneself looks as insignificant and unprofessional as possible – which comes rather too naturally to me, TBH! 🙂 Kit should be small, light and ideally somewhat battered looking – a “distressed” look that most of my kit usually acquires after a few weeks’ service. No expensive-looking kit…