kjp
I had two games at Go tonight; first - I won by a big margin, second - lost by a big margin. The second game was annoying: I kind of forgot about a lot of bad aji on a lot of my stones. Along with forgetting about counting liberties lost me a big chunk of the board. It probably would have been close otherwise. That's life.
Must play it safe, then attack. I shouldn't be too greedy...
For the first time in a long time, the table in my room isn't clogged up with piles and piles of bits of paper (junk) !!
There's just some plates with bits and pieces ontop and some scrap paper / appartment hunting stuff on the table... and assignment stuff on my bed, and orienteering stuff on the floor, and some bank stuff on the floor, and some more junk on the floor. *sigh*
Because I like to keep this blog up to date, I'll note the fact that way back when (4th of May) I went and saw Gothika at the movies.
Well, what can I say about this? Not much, other than the movie ticket (now in the bin) was cheap ($6). The movie was a bit on the thriller / scary / supernatural side of things. It had Halle Berry in it. And yeah, that's it. Fantastic review. :)
I've been cleaning up this place on the web:
Well, that's it for this morning. I'm going off looking at houses / appartments, and also into work to do some work on an assignment.
There's an interesting article here about the expected shift in global power. In particular, the possible consequences of India and China's increasing populations, economies and power, and what it means for the United States.
In case you weren't paying attention to a couple of test posts that were up an hour or so ago, you may have missed a tid-bit that I've learnt about Movable Type (well, at least version 2.66 (?)).
I have my copy set up so that it "Converts Line Breaks". So, if there is a whole bunch of text broken by some number of single "enter"s (ie: no two or more consecutive enters), then it will convert those enter(s) into the <BR /> html tag. If it comes across two in a row, then it will assume that the previous block was a paragraph, and enclose it with <p> and </p> tags.
This is all well and good, except in the following case. I put in a list with <ul> and <il> tags, but separated the list from the preceeding text by a single enter. As a result, MT interpreted the text before and the list as being part of the same paragraph. Unfortunately, this is not xhtml 1.0 strict, because in this DTD putting the <li> object within the <p> tags is not allowed. The <li> is a block level object, while the <p> is an inline object. And you can't put the former inside the later.
So - if you've got "Convert Line Breaks" turned on and you can be bothered about validating your html, make sure that put two returns between a paragraph and a following list or other block level object (headings, lists, pre, hr, blockquote, etc).
On another note, the site updates are coming along. The top of the page is just about right, and the text is all justified (not left aligned) to both edges of the panels (which are now a fixed width across). In the original development of the page I was using an inline division to handle the buttons. I couldn't get it working under Internet Explorer properly, so I didn't use it, and put all the links in a table.
This option was ok, however it was slightly insufficient when I decided to change the appearance of this page a bit. The problem with the table option is that it is a pain to line it up with the other bits of the page on the left: it's all got to do with the spacing between the cells in the table. So I've removed the table - the buttons at the top are now implemented using an unordered list. Which seems to work nicely under firefox and ie, at least: I'm happy. Thanks to Neal for this advice.
Well, I've been fiddling with the style sheet of this site. At the moment an annoying snag is with the border-spacing attribute of the table that holds the five buttons at the top of this site.
Around each of the cells of the table there is a spacing (between the border attribute of each cell) that is specified by the border-spacing attribute of the table. I want a spacing of 2 pixels everywhere, except on the left hand side of the left-most cell (the "Home" button). I'm trying to align everything on the page to the far left, including the "Home" button. If I set the border-spacing to be 0 then all of the cells merge into one, and it looks worse.
It's one of those little problems that after you've notice it for the first time, you keep on noticing it, all the time (see below).
I'm planning to make a few changes to the layout of this patch of web.
There's a few of reasons for this:
* I don't like the way images are handled in the photos section. In either the category page for a photo or the individual page for the photo, the image is never within a "panel" (always displayed directly on top of the background). This is slightly stupid as it breaks the feel of the rest of the design of this site. The reason why I did that way was that the panels have always been a width that is a percentage of the browser width. In testing, it looked really stupid having the image overlap the panel, so I put the images outside of the panels.
* Having a image that is 400 pixels width in the category page and one with 800 pixelx width on the individual image page is slightly stupid. Why not use a 640 pixel width for both. The benefit gained from 800 pixels from 640 pixels isn't likely to be much... Need to test this a bit. If I wanted the best quality image available I would put a link to it as a bigish (1 MB) file.
* The banner image / title of the web page and the buttons are slightly incongruous. The image is positioned in the far top left corner, while the buttons are at a fixed distance from the left edge, while the content panels are always in the centre. This is not the best, I think.
So, I plan to make the panels a fixed width, positioned in the centre of the page. All of the main navigation buttons and title bar would be directly above the panels. This will mean that for very narrow browser windows (< 800 pixels?) the whole page won't be easily viewable (would require scrolling left and right). What I'll probably do is set it up so that it looks pretty good on (at least) screen widths of 800 and 1024 pixels. There probably are statistics for the most common browser widths?? Will try and find it out.
This may mean that the images get resized. They're mostly 800 pixels width. This may be dropped (maybe to 640 pixels?) to fit them in the panels if the panels are set up for a 800 pixel width screen.
This will all happen over the next few weeks, I think; when time is available...
Also, does the word Centring look wierd to you... Does to me. Probably because I'm used to hearing the American centering, and haven't written / typed it before???
I've just been told I sent an sms saying "f". That's the message. Funny how I didn't think that I sent it. But it would explain the beeps I've been hearing from my phone as I sit on it: without the key lock on it.... oops. Who else have I sent strange messages to?
In other news my earphones are well and truly dead. Well, they still work. There's just a bonus buzzing sound that can be heard only when they are in use :)
I'm now a member of "the club" (down the road). Yes, you know the one: the club I have at least (usually) a meal a week at. No more signing in for me!
This morning's orienteering at "Bluestone Creek South" (in the Mount Crosby neck of the woods) was a fair bit greener than expected: lots of dense bush that wasn't marked. The best time for the red 3 course that I did (at a nominal 5 km) was a bit less than 60 minutes, I think (will check when the results are available). Ouch. Needless to say in the (lack of) shape that I'm in I was a fair bit more than 60 mins. Ahh well.
Well over the second half of last week I was "back to school" on a course at the QUT (Queensland University of Technology). It's was an interesting few days. Learnt a few things; re-enforced some ideas in my head: Good. It was part of the structured development program at work. I'll be going on another 2 1/2 day course towards the end of July: should be interesting as well.
The course was held at the Gardens Point campus of QUT - which is right next to the city / gardens / bend in the river. One of the main things that struck me was that it was more like a city than what I was used to. I studied at uni at the ANU (Australian National University) in the ACT. The ANU is much more spread out, with lots of grassy areas / courtyards between the buildings. And the highest building at ANU would be only a few stories high. The Gardens Point campus of the QUT was a lot more compressed and taller. It didn't take long to walk across the entire campus.
Because I'm classified as a postgraduate part time student I've got rights to borrow from the library there and internet access at the computer labs (if I wanted it...). Might come in handy.
A few other tidbits - it takes about 20 minutes to walk from central station to Block S at QUT. There's supposed to be a free bus loop that goes around the city. It's supposed to come every 10 minutes - so if you just miss it you're probably better off walking...
I've just finished reading Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair). It's a bizarre, crazy world that is described: totally different to our world. I never read it in highschool (we did Animal Farm, I think), but I've wanted to read it for a while. You appreciate the word "Orwellian" differently (more fully) after reading it. An interesting read. Now onto my next book.
Yesterday I got a CD of Piano Concerto No. 1 by (who else but) Tchaikovsky. It's the same piece that I went to back here. It's a sweet as piece of music. I love the main theme that runs through it. Happy me.
I thought I'd put down the tid-bits that I've learnt recently about the mechanics of taking pictures (on my digital camera). The general information below has been obtained from web, while the rest are details about my camera (Canon Powershot A75). In some ways this is here to re-enforce the ideas in my memory. But it maybe useful to others, so here goes. Note that it may not all be correct(!).
Shutters
Firstly, the easier to understand stuff. The shutter is the mechanism that lets light onto the sensor (CCD in this case). The longer the shutter is open, the more light will reach the sensor - so the lighter the image. Conversely, the shorter the duration the shutter is open the less light will be picked up by the sensor, so the darker the image. The longer the shutter is open, the more likely the image will be blurry as a result of the camera moving about while the shutter is open. This results in light from the same place hitting several different points on the sensor, causing the blurriness. When the shot is focussed (when the "take picture" button is pushed half-way down) the A75 gives the shutter speed and aperture setting that it will use in the image. At this point if the shutter speed is 1/40 s or longer, then it gives a "camera shake" warning. This seems to be a preset value: seems to be about right.
On my camera the range of shutter speeds is from 1/2000 s to 15 s. There is not a bulb setting (enabling the shutter to be left open until it is released). When the flash is being used the camera needs a minimum amount of time to synchronize with the flash. On this camera it is 1/500 s is required. Thus, when the flash is turned on if the speed is shorter than 1/500 s the camera will automatically set it to 1/500 s.
Aperture
The aperture is the part of the camera that changes the amount of light allowed to enter. It can be enlarged or reduced, changing both the amount of light and the depth of field. When a picture is taken the camera will focus on a particular distance (focal distance) which is the distance at which objects will appear the most in focus. In front of and behind that point some part of the scene will also be in focus. This range of the scene that is in focus is the depth of field. Also known as the area of sharpness. The depth of field is also tied in to the perspective of the scene.
To quantify the aperture setting an F (stop) number is used. F2.8 is equivalent to f/2.8 - two ways of saying the same thing. On the A75 the range of aperture settings available is from F2.8 to F8.0. The bigger the F stop number, the smaller / narrower the aperture - less light will be let in. The smaller the F stop number, the bigger / wider the aperture - more light will be let in. So F2.8 will let more light in than an aperture set to F8.0.
The wider the aperture (smaller F stop), the smaller the depth of field. This will result in the background being blurred. Apparently the (human) eye pays attention to parts of an image that are in focus. So, having a wider aperture is good when you want to focus attention on the main feature of the image, or in situations with low light or fast moving objects. For example, shots of people or where there foreground is important (background irrelevant). To decrease the depth of field of an image you can:
* Set the aperture to be larger
* Decrease the distance between the camera and the subject
* Zoom in
The smaller the aperture (higher F stop), the larger the depth of field. This will result in a large depth of the scene being in focus (greater focus range). This setting is good, for example, in scenic shots. In this case you want to focus on objects nearby and objects far away at the same time. To increase the depth of field of an image you can:
* Set the aperture to be smaller
* Increase the distance between the camera and the subject
* Zoom out
On the A75 the aperture setting effects the shortest shutter speed available (not sure if other cameras do this). For F8.0, 1/2000 s is available, whereas for F2.8, the shortest time the shutter can be opened for is 1/1250 s. I'm not sure why this is the case. There's probably a good reason out there.
Focus
Some cameras (like the A75) have a manual focus option. I have only had to use this once - the camera's automatic focus seems to be pretty good. When you're taking a photo it says whether or not it has got a good focus on the scene (before you actually fully depress the shutter button). However, regardless of what it says, I've found that the focus that it gets is pretty good. The only caveat that I'd put on this is when I have been taking photos of things that are very close (in macro mode). In this case, if it says that it can't get the image into focus, then it's best to use manual focus mode.
I was reading an interesting article (somewhere, lost the link) that specified where to focus for the maximum depth of field. Apparently, for landscape / scenic photos, the depth of field is about 1/3 in front of the focal point, 2/3rds behind. This means, if taking a landscape shot, it is best not to focus on the horizon. Instead, you should focus on a point that is 1/3 the distance between the camera and the horizon. This means that the maximum depth of field is made available in the image. When taking close-up images, about 1/2 the depth of field is in front of the focal point, 1/2 behind.
Exposure Setting
I've used the exposure compensation (+/- 2 stops in 0.3 steps) a couple of times. There's no auto-bracketing available on the camera. For me, this is not a big loss (not sure that I'd use it).
White Balance
The white balance presets on the A75 seem to be pretty good. I haven't had to use the custom white balance mode yet. The automatic white balance seems to get confused in our house - inside I need to tell it to use the incandescent setting.
For the first time in ages (a month or so) I went orienteering this morning - at Kalinga Park. It was another freebie. And I'm buggered from it. I haven't been jogging / exercising in a couple of months: have been busy / sick recently, etc. Also, for a while now it has been dark when I get home in the evening... So the 4 or 5 or so kilometres of (mostly) jogging today was tiring. After a shower in the mid-afternoon (needed - muscles were (& are) sore/tired) I slept until about 6:15 pm... Will also sleep well tonight.
There's a short article here about how the name of a newborn child is more likely to be "normal" if is a boy instead of a girl (in America, at least). This is measured by the "mutation rate" - the number of new names per 10, 000 newborns. It is around 2.3 for girls, 1.6 for boys.
It was an interesting night at Go on Wednesday. There is a group of Go players from Japan out here for a Go playing holiday. Along with them turning up, a fair few people from Tuesday showed to play them. (In Brisbane, Wednesday night is when most of the beginners / learners play, Tuesday are the stronger players.) I think that the Japanese guys are all 1 dan and above. Nice stuff.
Earlier on in the evening was pretty good for me. Over the past 6 or so weeks there has been a Wednesday night competition: everyone playing everyone else, with points for wins, ties, losses, etc. I (a bit surprisingly) ended up second on the ladder, earning me a prize - a Go book - "Attack and Defense" by Akira Ishida and James Davies. It seems to be a pretty good - all about the middle game. Will be an interesting read. I was a bit surprise to come so high in the rankings: I thought there were two others who were doing better than me. The first two games I played I got trounced, had 1 bye, one forfeit, and won the last 2 games pretty well (I think). My understanding of Go improved a fair bit during the course of the competition...
Last night there was a shindig here (birthday of a guy at the dog park). Good evening. Good people, very yummy food. However there was way too much polenta. The dogs got the left overs today - and had decidely rounder bellies. Especially Mr Twister - he's now "Mr Fat".
I've just put the dogs outside. It's getting cool overnight, so they're not happy...
There's a really good, informative website on digital photography here. I've just been reading the chapters on creative controls, sharpness and exposure - very interesting and informative. I think that I've got the wider and narrower apertures - and all of the associated properties that result (eg: depth of field, amount of light let in, etc) straight in my head. I'll be experimenting on the weekend; I think.
An interesting tidbit was that for scenic shots, the camera should not be focused on the horizon. This is because for scenic shots the depth of field is 1/3rd in front of the focal plane, and 2/3rds behind it. So, for the maximum depth of field for scenic shots, you should focus on an object 1/3rd of the way to the horizon. For close up shots the depth of field is about 1/2 in front, 1/2 behind the focal plane. Interesting.
Sunday night was another of the Zoo's jazz night. I went with my big sister and a friend of hers. Playing was one of the Conservatorium of Music's big bands "The Con Artists" (get it?). They are a 19 (I think) piece big band. It was all pretty cool. All five of the sax players were pretty versatile - playing a couple of saxes each; plus all could play flute, some on clarinet - got some interesting music as a result. A good evening.