Should have blogged this long ago; a classic photo.net post from 2003, Evolving into a photographer.

(Compare "success" in Fedora terms: "doesn't corrupt hard drive beyond repair".)

Upgraded the Glamorous Research Assistant's PC from CentOS 4.5 to 5.0 yesterday and...it actually went pretty swimmingly. Using the recommended Anaconda upgrade method took about an hour, including a moderately long pause after the final package update, after which it rebooted successfully. Only one major issue below.

• The Seamonkey browser isn't included in 5.0 and it isn't in any of the companion repositories either! The previous 4.x package (a mid-lifecycle replacement for Mozilla) causes a conflict with the bundled Firefox package on the GRE config file, so one of them has to be removed. This was almost a showstopper given that Seamonkey is the household browser of choice around the lab here; the GRA would not have been impressed by "command not found" errors. Fortunately, the FC7 seamonkey RPM can be installed, although you're then committed to manually tracking off-distribution packages that change regularly.
• Several 4.x packages are orphaned and one or two have to be removed to avoid YUM conflicts.

Tempting as it is to go with the stress-free stability of CentOS for BB's own PC, we're currently succumbing to the temptation of Fedora 7 owing to the newly extended support period and some of the juicier package updates included therein. In fairness, FC5 has been exceptionally stable since shortly before its EOL, although this might also be connected with the RAM and motherboard upgrade carried out recently.

Interestingly for both CentOS and Fedora, a fresh installation is always recommended over the provided upgrade path. BB's PC has survived from RHL 6.2 through half a dozen upgrades to FC5 (and replacement of almost all the hardware barring the case) so far, but it hasn't been a smooth course, with a number of manual interventions required at various points. Outdated RPMs also tend to accumulate and require the occasional careful clear-out; it's amazing how many "next generation" open source frameworks and libraries quickly turned into dead ends. This really demands some attitude adjustment on the part of Red Hat; yes, it's easy to keep user data on a separate partition and thus preserve it, but restoring an entire system config - possibly a carefully customised one, as is the way of "freedom" - on a newly installed standalone PC is really no fun and nobody should be expected to do it. I choose to upgrade because I have a lot of carefully tweaked settings and third party packages that I want to retain, and while I can accept that this won't always be as reliable as a fresh install, I don't expect the default answer to be "Please don't do that". (Resists opportunity to mention Solaris by comparison.)

Interesting URLs from the last day or two:

• qtpfsgui is a graphical frontend to various UNIXey HDR tools, if you want to experiment with the techniques suggested in this TOP post. Early findings: it's tricky to get right without a lot of experimentation, and what's wrong with blocked shadows and highlights occasionally anyway? If you want to see how easily it can be abused, put on some sunglasses and visit the Flickr qtpfsgui group pool. Help with the HDR algorithms was found at ...
• The Open Source Photography wiki, a very useful resource for a number of free tools and techiques, which led to ...
• The Focus-Blur (fblur) plugin for the GIMP provides lens blur effects, useful for simulating tilt and shift lenses (or jumping on the bandwagon for the "simulated scale miniatures" fad).
• The same thread on TOP caused me to look up Richard Sintchak's Flickr stream, which has some beautiful medium format work and a host of other fascinating film-based work. While searching for this, I also stumbled across ...
• Joe Reifer's blog, which collects some interesting articles and links.
• And speaking of Flickr, 2point8, quoting Stephen Shore, unwittingly sparked a huge debate over its overall quality or lack thereof, something I too often find difficult to accept.

And now I feel sick and need some fresh air.

Scenario: you are running some proprietary VPN software under a Windows guest OS in VMware (e.g. Shiva/Intel NetExpress), and you want to share the connection back to the host OS (e.g. Linux) so that you can run native tools that access the VPN. I've used this to run the Linux Lotus Notes client to access my work email from home.

(The following assumes you already have the VPN connection successfully running and accessible in the guest.)

1. Configure NAT virtual networking for the guest's primary network interface in VMware. Give it any IP address except a 192.168.0.x one.
2. In the Windows guest (I'm assuming XP here), install the Microsoft Loopback Adaptor (Add devices under Control Panels).
3. Configure Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on the VPN interface, and share it with the loopback interface (not the LAN one). The loopback interface will automatically be configured with a 192.168.0.1 address (which is why you don't want to share directly with the LAN interface, since the address change will break your networking and probably your VPN configuration).
4. Enable routing in the Windows guest; you may need to use a registry hack to do this in the Home edition of XP or W2K Professional (see Google).
5. In your host OS, add one or more network routes to the VPN-accessible subnet(s) via the guest LAN IP address (you may wish to ensure that the guest has a static IP assignment). Packets go to the guest IP and are routed in the guest via the loopback (where ICS performs NAT on the source IP) to the VPN interface, back out via the LAN interface, through your LAN and across the Internet to the remote VPN gateway and hence into the remote network.
6. If you wish to lookup addresses in particular DNS domains via name servers accessed via the VPN, configure a local (caching) name server with BIND forwarding zones for the domains in question.

Preparing for an upcoming family holiday in the Lakes, I looked to update my aging copy of The Good Guide To The Lakes by Hunter Davies with the latest edition. Except the "latest edition" came out in 2003 and now appears to be somewhat rare and increasingly pricey on the secondhand market. Searching around, I found this entertaining article by Davies, describing how he got out of the self-publishing business and flogged his independent concern, along with the Good Guide, to Frances Lincoln (who also happens to publish the revised Wainwright guides). In the absence of an imminently forthcoming new edition, it looks like we'll be taking the The Rough Guide to the Lake District (4th ed., May 2007) with us. I might pick up a copy of the last Good Guide if I find one in a dusty corner of a gift shop somewhere.

I did buy a used copy of Davies's classic A Walk Around The Lakes (1993) via Abebooks though.

I made a conscious decision to use the Bessas last weekend, as they've been sitting around mostly unused for the past six months and I had a hankering for black and white film. If I were being a "rational economic actor", I'd probably have come to my senses and sold them on long ago, but something about the build quality of these cameras makes sense go out the window. Just as well, because they can also be a pig to use.

The various problems I had were:

• Two of the lenses (Skopar 35/2.5 and Jupiter-8) lack detents on the aperture ring, added to which the Skopar has an incredibly loose dial - I frequently took the camera away from my eye to discover that f/8 had become f/6.3. Not a big deal in terms of exposure for a negative, but it could make a difference to DOF.
• The Skopar is incredibly small, but that also makes it somewhat irritating to use since there's barely room for your fingers. I can't yet accurately and quickly locate the focus ring by feel, and I frequently end up putting my finger over the rangefinder window, particularly when holding the camera in portrait orientation. Neat concept but the handling is poor.
• On one occasion, my finger slipped as I was trying to nudge the (slightly stiff) shutter speed dial and I pressed the shutter by accident.

What I liked:

• Hyperfocusing is easy and often quicker than peering through the viewfinder trying to locate the RF patch over a suitable edge and then work out what it's showing.
• The Skopar has a nice short throw, which makes it easier to track a moving object (like my Junior Research Assistant) once you've got the initial focus.
• The 15mm Heliar and external viewfinder on the Bessa L continues to be a joy to use, even if the effect can easily be overdone.

This isn't meant to be a whinge - chances are, experience and familiarity would overcome most of the problems (perhaps coupled with a different lens in the case of the Skopar - I think it's quite a dull proposition in terms of its focal length and maximum aperture, but its contrast is outstanding). This are simply data points to bear in mind before you become too sucked in by the amount of starry-eyed hype lavished on this kit in various photo forums. Expect to put a fair amount of effort into adapting if these are your first RF cameras.

On a related note, I regret to say that my old and worn Yashicamat TLR is nearly dead after barely three rolls of film, during its first outing in a year. A lovely camera to use, but at the time I could only dare afford one in "pre-battered" condition. The meter, which was nonfunctional and already hanging off, detached completely when it hit the ground after falling out of its extremely loose-fitting case. It still works, but sadly it's more of a liability to drag around now, especially with the requirement for a separate meter. Ironically, the little Gossen I snapped up on eBay at the same time also appears to be knackered.

Unlike the RF experiment, I've really enjoyed shooting with a TLR on the few occasions I've been able to use it. The square format appeals greatly, the viewfinder puts most digicams to shame and, while they're a bit tricky to use if the subject is anything other than static, the results can be outstanding (even allowing for the extremely flare-prone lens in my particular example). I'm going to replace it one day, but this time save up and spend more money on a decent example with a working meter, which will eliminate at least one major impediment to getting more use out of it.

Actually, I think what I really need is a Leica. I'll browse eBay for one just as soon as my Glamorous Research Assistant gets back from instructing her solicitors...