Author: Allister

  • Digitising Negatives by DSLR

    Digitising Negatives by DSLR

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    Allister
    in

    The Problem to be Solved For many years, I have struggled through the process of scanning old negatives using a flatbed scanner. I even wrote a post on the particular struggle that was Scanning Negatives with VueScan (Multi-frame). While I managed to scan quite a lot of negatives using VueScan or other software, and using…

  • Wellington Spots

    Wellington Spots

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    Allister
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    A colleague is new to the Wellington area and frequently says she has no idea what we’re talking about when people in the office talk about nearby localities. When I described my love of Zealandia, she did not know where it was, and eventually she asked me to create a list of “nice walks” in…

  • “Information” versus “Documents”

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    Allister
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    Documents and information are two very different things and using the tools for one to produce the other can needlessly complicate your audience.

  • Reading Stream Files in RPG

    Reading Stream Files in RPG

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    Allister
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    While working on a task to parse IBM MQ logs for a web front end, I needed to solve a couple of problems: Wrangle the log files into something far more manageable than their raw state; single entries span multiple lines and there is a lot of whitespace. Parse out the relevant details from each…

  • Useful Linux Commands

    Useful Linux Commands

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    Allister
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    I created this page to share some ‘beyond basic’ Linux commands that I have needed to devise to solve specific problems. Partly this is documentation for my own purposes (though I have them stored elsewhere as well) but mostly it’s here because if I had to figure them out, then I couldn’t find a solution…

  • How I Fell In Love with Photography

    How I Fell In Love with Photography

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    Allister
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    I’ve been an enthusiast photographer since December 1986 when I inherited my brother’s Cosina CS-1 SLR with Sigma 70-210 lens, literally in a camera shop in Singapore where he was buying his first Nikon. In true “grandfather’s axe” fashion, I still have the same camera today, though I have replaced the body five times and…

  • Fixing the Apache Log Format

    Fixing the Apache Log Format

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    Allister
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    The following was one of those things I let slide for a long time because the time you notice it is really not the time to be changing it. In my Apache configs I had plenty of CustomLog directives to set the log file name for each web domain I have. At the end of…

  • Equipment DOES Matter

    Equipment DOES Matter

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    Allister
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    It is often said that a bad worker always blames their tools. This is often used in photography where the message is usually given as “buying better gear doesn’t make you a better photographer.” While that does hold true in general, there are exceptions to the rule. I recently purchased a new lens to use…

  • Scanning Negatives with VueScan (Multi-frame)

    Scanning Negatives with VueScan (Multi-frame)

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    by

    Allister
    in

    Some years ago I began the task of scanning my father’s large collection of photographic negatives, comprising several hundred films. I have had many starts on this project and many different approaches, each with their own issues. Some approaches have been easy to perform but yielded suboptimal results. Others much harder to perform but with…

  • iPhone 13 Pro gains “optical zoom?”

    iPhone 13 Pro gains “optical zoom?”

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    by

    Allister
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    I have a bone to pick with Apple. They mix camera terminology in confusing and, I think, misleading ways.