IN-12 / IV-12 Nixie / VFD Clock. Well, tubes are just awesome. However, I would rather go for the "ready-assembled clock" option, my fingers often end up on the wrong (hot) end of the soldering iron ...
Archive February 2011
RUR-PLE is something like Logo, only with Python instead of Logo as the language. So actually just the graphical environment of typical Logo implementations. In any case, a nice toy.
using negotiate authentication (GSSAPI Kerberos) with Firefox. We have looked at this from time to time and wondered how to link Firefox to Kerberos logins.
Newcomer: Kenko to offer system camera with C-mount lenses. Simply interesting because this brings another somewhat unusual system camera - C-mount are compact video lenses, there are also some from Zeiss (so with quite good quality) and the image circle of these optics is rather suitable for compact camera chips. This naturally means worse low-light capability, but chances for very compact bodies (although my NEX with its APS-C chip already delivers a very compact body). It's a bit like the heyday of analog photography in the 35mm format again, when the market became really colorful with the Olympus Pen, the Pentax 110 and other camera exotics. I like it.
what a superb owl
Probably from here (I only heard about it indirectly via Twitter).
Lenzig
Played around with the Auto-HDR of the Nex-3 in Cafe Lenzig, also used the Zeiss 50/1.4 via Novoflex adapter. Somehow, I really like this.
How to write vim plugins with python. Because I like Python, because I like Vim and because you always want to build smaller things that make life easier. And because Vim's own scripting language is rather awful.
It seems that the Sony Alpha NEX-Open-Source-Firmware is Linux-based. I can't yet say exactly what's behind it, but Sony has Linux Kernel downloads (and the usual embedded tools) for the NEX on the server. If there's really a Linux running on it, this could become a hacker's paradise in the long run!
Layout Experiments
Since I'm still figuring out where my new blog is going, there are always some layout experiments. The first iteration was a bit too dark for me, so everything is now a bit lighter. I also noticed that I write a lot of asides (short articles without titles), which can be a bit hard to read, so I've adjusted the font size and line height of asides to match regular posts. Overall, I think it looks a bit more relaxed now.
In response to a question: no, I still don't plan to make the links colorful again - in fact, I've even removed the color from the small date tags. For some reason, color just doesn't seem to work well in my layout right now - except in my pictures, of course. But maybe the darker links are now better to read due to the larger font.
I usually test with Firefox, Chrome, and Safari - so if something doesn't work with IE, I won't notice. If something is broken, you can let me know via my contact form.
WorkingWithSubversion - Mercurial. Since I keep encountering outdated SVN repositories and clearly prefer Mercurial, I should take a closer look at hgsubversion.
Because I'm not looking for something like this for the first time and it looks quite practical: Sorting elements with jQuery – James Padolsey.
SLR Magic 35 1.7 Lens review on the Sony NEX-5. Interesting - cheap - lens for the Sony NEX. Basically, this is a lens like those used in surveillance cameras, adapted to the E mount. The optical quality is "interesting" - basically a fun lens for experiments.
Ricoh developing M-mount module for GXR system: I ended up with the Sony Nex 3 to revive my Leica lenses. And I am very satisfied with the new firmware for the Nexes. But the GXR with such an M module would certainly also be quite interesting (though probably not price-wise).
Vimari - Keyboard Shortcuts extension for Safari - GitHub. A bit like Vimium for Chrome, but can do significantly fewer tricks (and the links seem to be affected by the page CSS, which is why the QuickLinks look weird on my website)
Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results. Interesting article, if this is true, Microsoft has made a pretty big (and embarrassing) mistake.
Java Hangs When Converting 2.2250738585072012e-308. PHP too. The solution to the puzzle in both cases: the number is the smallest representable number in double floats and approximations are determined for the conversion in Java and PHP, but unfavorable values are assumed as starting points - and thus infinite loops result because the target value is never reached. And yes, this is critical because you can send servers into a loop if you enter these number values in input fields that convert to double float. I also tried it with Python (CPython and PyPy), but they don't run into a loop, they simply deliver a slightly different value.