It’s late fall here in Toronto and I thought I give my M42 Russian lens, Helios 40-2, one more test. This time going for colour and as much swirly bokeh as this thing can produce…..

The colour reproduction of this lens is muted. It needs a bit of a kick, but once you kick it up a notch and add some contrast, it rocks. Check out the swirly bokeh in the out of focus leaves. Full flickr set is here.

Downloaded and installed 9.10 yesterday and what do you know, someone decided to take away Ctrl-Alt-Backspace — or what I call “Three Finger Salute for Linux”. Whhhaaattt!!!!

This is slightly old, but it’s still officially fall…..so here are a bunch of fall colour shots from a recent Toronto Photographers Meetup Group trip to Hockley Valley, Cannings Falls, Hogg’s Falls, Eugenia Falls and Old Baldy Lookout Point. Complete flickr set can be viewed here…..

More fall colours to come…..stay tuned…

It’s been a while since I’ve had the pleasure (read: pain) of working with Sloowaris, but now that we have two 48TB Sun X4540 Thumpers in house, I have to…..Uggghhhh . Here are some notes:

• Remember sudo -i does not work. Use “su -” to get the root environment through ssh (login as regular user).
• The machine has 6 Controllers with 8 Disks each for a total of 48 disks.
• To find out all the disks that are available on your system and their Labels…..root # format
Searching for disks...done

  AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:

• To see the status of the zpool runroot # zpool status
  pool: pool1
  state: ONLINE
  status: The pool is formatted using an older on-disk format. The pool can
  still be used, but some features are unavailable.
  action: Upgrade the pool using 'zpool upgrade'. Once this is done, the
  pool will no longer be accessible on older software versions.
  scrub: none requested
  config:

  NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
  pool1 ONLINE 0 0 0
  raidz1 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c0t3d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c1t3d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c2t3d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c3t3d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c4t3d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  raidz1 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c5t3d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c0t7d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c1t7d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c2t7d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c3t7d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  spares
  c4t7d0 AVAIL
  c5t7d0 AVAIL

  errors: No known data errors

• Our zpool is at version 10 and the latest is version 15, so we upgrade:root # zpool upgrade
  This system is currently running ZFS pool version 15.

  The following pools are out of date, and can be upgraded. After being
  upgraded, these pools will no longer be accessible by older software versions.

  VER POOL
  --- ------------
  10 pool1

  Use 'zpool upgrade -v' for a list of available versions and their associated
  features.
  root # zpool upgrade -v
  This system is currently running ZFS pool version 15.

  The following versions are supported:

  VER DESCRIPTION
  --- --------------------------------------------------------
  1 Initial ZFS version
  2 Ditto blocks (replicated metadata)
  3 Hot spares and double parity RAID-Z
  4 zpool history
  5 Compression using the gzip algorithm
  6 bootfs pool property
  7 Separate intent log devices
  8 Delegated administration
  9 refquota and refreservation properties
  10 Cache devices
  11 Improved scrub performance
  12 Snapshot properties
  13 snapused property
  14 passthrough-x aclinherit
  15 user/group space accounting
  For more information on a particular version, including supported releases, see:

  http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/version/N

  Where 'N' is the version number.
  root #
  root # zpool upgrade pool1
  This system is currently running ZFS pool version 15.

  Successfully upgraded 'pool1' from version 10 to version 15

• zpools are like autonomous raid subsystems that will eventually be added into a pool (which is similar to a LV). There are 3 types of pools raidz (raid-5 like), raidz2 (raid-6 like) and mirror.
• C0T0D0 and C1T0D0 are kinda special and can’t be included in a zpool…..something about SVM metadb…..blahblahblah. Leave it out.root # metadb -i
flags first blk block count
a m p luo 16 8192 /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7
a p luo 8208 8192 /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7
a p luo 16400 8192 /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7
a p luo 16 8192 /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s7
a p luo 8208 8192 /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s7
a p luo 16400 8192 /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s7
r - replica does not have device relocation information
o - replica active prior to last mddb configuration change
u - replica is up to date
l - locator for this replica was read successfully
c - replica's location was in /etc/lvm/mddb.cf
p - replica's location was patched in kernel
m - replica is master, this is replica selected as input
W - replica has device write errors
a - replica is active, commits are occurring to this replica
M - replica had problem with master blocks
D - replica had problem with data blocks
F - replica had format problems
S - replica is too small to hold current data base
R - replica had device read errors
• The following commands created the extra zpools needed:root # zpool add pool1 raidz1 c2t0d0 c3t0d0 c4t0d0 c5t0d0 c0t1d0
root # zpool add pool1 raidz1 c1t1d0 c2t1d0 c3t1d0 c4t1d0 c5t1d0
root # zpool add pool1 raidz1 c0t2d0 c1t2d0 c2t2d0 c3t2d0 c4t2d0
root # zpool add pool1 raidz1 c1t4d0 c2t4d0 c3t4d0 c4t4d0 c5t4d0
root # zpool add pool1 raidz1 c0t5d0 c2t5d0 c3t5d0 c4t5d0 c5t5d0
root # zpool add pool1 raidz1 c0t6d0 c1t6d0 c3t6d0 c4t6d0 c5t6d0
• This leaves the following 4 disks to be added to spare:root # zpool add pool1 spare c5t2d0 c0t4d0 c1t5d0 c2t6d0
• Now for the fun part…..finding out what the heck all this did to the system:root # zpool status
  pool: pool1
  state: ONLINE
  scrub: none requested
  config:

  NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
  pool1 ONLINE 0 0 0
  raidz1 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c0t3d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c1t3d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c2t3d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c3t3d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c4t3d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  raidz1 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c5t3d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c0t7d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c1t7d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c2t7d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c3t7d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  raidz1 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c2t0d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c3t0d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c4t0d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c5t0d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c0t1d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  raidz1 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c1t1d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c2t1d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c3t1d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c4t1d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c5t1d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  raidz1 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c0t2d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c1t2d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c2t2d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c3t2d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c4t2d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  raidz1 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c1t4d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c2t4d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c3t4d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c4t4d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c5t4d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  raidz1 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c0t5d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c2t5d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c3t5d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c4t5d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c5t5d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  raidz1 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c0t6d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c1t6d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c3t6d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c4t6d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  c5t6d0 ONLINE 0 0 0
  spares
  c4t7d0 AVAIL
  c5t7d0 AVAIL
  c5t2d0 AVAIL
  c0t4d0 AVAIL
  c1t5d0 AVAIL
  c2t6d0 AVAIL

  errors: No known data errors
root # zpool list
NAME SIZE USED AVAIL CAP HEALTH ALTROOT
pool1 36.2T 222K 36.2T 0% ONLINE -
root # zfs list
NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
pool1 161K 28.5T 28.8K /vol1

• To create a CX special mount point we do:root # zfs create pool1/CX
root # zfs list
NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
pool1 201K 28.5T 28.8K /vol1
pool1/CX 33.6K 28.5T 33.6K /vol1/CX
• When compiling iRODS on X4540 you might/will get an error like “make: Fatal error in reader: config/config.mk………Unexpected end of line seen“. This is caused because by default the system is configured for Sun’s make command (in /usr/ccs/bin/make) rather than the gnu make command which resides in /usr/sfw/bin/gmake under Solaris 10. To fix this add /usr/sfw/bin in front of your $PATH variable, export it and use gmake instead of make (read the INSTALL.txt file that comes with iRODS to find out how you can do the steps manually instead of using irodssetup command).

MMmmmmm…..Windows 7 Space Cake…….MMmmmmmm

There are a lot of fantastic free software packages out there for the PC if you’re running windows. VLC, Firefox come to mind. The problem is that it takes a long time to install all of them on your PC. You know the routine, click, wait for download, double click, next, next, next, etc……Well, why? Head over to Ninite’s website, choose the applications you want and let them create a custom “Meta Installer” for all the applications in one package. Run the installer and wham, you got all those free/opensource apps downloaded and installed on your machine in one shot, with minimal clickage . No sign-up required, Free for personal use, Just in time for Windows 7 Upgrade (or potentially downgrade). Now if only someone would make something like this on OSX, so I can install Final Cut Pro Studio without having grass grow under my seat, that would be nice .

Here is a video for all the people who attended — or god forbid hosted — a windows 7 launch party yesterday. This will give you a rough idea of what people will think of your party video in about 17 years……hehehehe

Holy crap…..MS has literally photocopied the Apple Store, replaced the Genius Bar with “Answer Bar” and the Genius’ with Guru’s……Does Microsoft ever come up with something original? Here comes “Attack of the Clones”…..hehehehe

If you’re using any one of Windows XP, Vista or 7 Platforms in 32 or 64 bit mode, you might be interested in the FastPictureViewer RAW picture codec pack from Axel Rietschin Software Developments. They are FREE for personal and educations use and give you fast access to preview RAW images taken by just about any digital camera capable of shooting RAW in Explorer. It even supports the slideshow function in Photo Gallery and Photo Viewer. The fact that it supports 32 and 64 versions of Windows is a bonus since most camera manufacturers — atleast up to now — have been very slow in supporting 64-bit windows. Here is a list of supported RAW Formats:

• Adobe Digital Negative (.dng)
• Canon Raw Image (.cr2, .crw)
• Fuji Raw Image (.raf)
• Hasselblad Raw Image (.3pr, .fff)
• Kodak Raw Image (.dcr, .kdc)
• Leica Raw Image (.raw, .rwl)
• Minolta Raw Image (.mrw)
• Nikon Raw Image (.nef, .nrw)
• Olympus Raw Image (.orf)
• Panasonic Raw Image (.rw2)
• Pentax Raw Image (.pef)
• Sigma Raw Image (.x3f)
• Sony Raw Image (.arw, .sr2, .srf)

For a Photographer — specially if you own an SLR and shoot RAW — this little Gem is a must.

….Atleast if you’re in Japan. Take a look at this monster…seven freaking patties stacked up in between two buns…..in time to celebrate Windows 7 launch. You’ll pay (roughly) $17.10 for the pleasure of clogging your arteries with this 5.1 inch tall monster. Once you’re done — if you’re still alive — you’ll finally understand how your computer feels after a windows installation .

I usually don’t tend to write about apps, but this one got my attention. Download the FREE NFB app and you get access to over a thousand films, documentaries, animations and trailers on your IPhone or Ipod Touch. I think (hope) that this move will be the trickle before the storm that will finally open the flood gates of media archives being made available to people everywhere. It is a real shame that these works are usually housed/guarded in some concrete bunker, being only available to specialists. I will not bore you with my opinions on archives/copyrights/rights management of our collective cultural treasures by the “high priests”……Let’s just say I’m crawling out of my skin in joy that NFB has taken the (hopefully) first step .

Not sure if this has already been mentioned somewhere…..It’s pretty old, but I happen to come across it today. It’s a great rendition of everyone’s favorite space opera done by Simon Jansen in ASCII. Telenetification (is that even a word?) by Snore, with improvements by Mike Edwards. Anyways, use the following command, sit back and enjoy…..Star Wars in all its ASCII glory
telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

If you don’t know how to telnet, click here to see it in your browser.

Here is a 20 minute video of a fantastic (stunning, mind blowing, awesome, whatever….) projection mapping performance put on during the Ingravid Festival in Figueres, Spain.

Telenoika Audiovisual Mapping @ Ingravid Festival, Figueres 9/2009 [FULL] from Telenoika on Vimeo.

// català
Mapeig audiovisual de l’Associació Cultural Telenoika a la façana del Teatre Jardí, en la primera edició del festival Ingravid de Figueres. 20 min.

// english
Audiovisual Mapping made by the Telenoika Cultural Association into the Jardí Theater facade, on the first edition of Ingravid Festival in Figueres. 20 min.

Crèdits / Credits :
Omar Àlvarez, Miki Arregui, Miguel Gozalbo, Kasero, Eloi Maduell, Santi Vilanova :: from Telenoika.NET -2009-

Agraiments / Thanks to :
Assoc.Cultural Telenoika
Mas Queló
Festival Ingràvid
LABfàbrica.NET
BAF General de Catalunya

Contact ? mapping@telenoika.net
www.telenoika.net
www.festivalingravid.cat
www.labfabrica.net
www.playmodes.com
www.baf.cat

[Warping and video-player software developped by Eloi Maduell from Playmodes.com with Openframeworks.cc libs. Software will be available for downloading soon at www.playmodes.com]

I finally had a chance to take my newest acquisition — a Helios 40-2 85mm/1.5 Lens — out for a shoot. Nothing fancy just stuff in the backyard. This lens for those who don’t know has a specific optical aberration that allows it to produce the so-called “swirly bokeh” effect. Check the out of focus shot of leaves below to get an idea of what it looks like. The complete set as usual is on flickr.

Everyone who’s lived on this earth for the past 10 years or so should have heard of Peter Jackson. You know, the Director of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Well, Mr. Jackson’s Effects house, Weta Workshop is at it again. This time pushing the envelope of what you can do with Digital Genitals. YEP, you heard right, green-screen naughty bits for indie-film maker Joe Swanberg. Gotta love technology.

As you already know Mike Lawrie and I had a Art installation for Nuit Blanche 2009 called Multitorch. We spent the entire night at Ryerson University’s Rogers Communications Centre where the installation was located. I found a few minutes to sneak away and take some pics of our installation and some of the other installations at Ryerson. You can find the full flickr set here.

• inCENTive:
  

• Multitorch:
  

• Of Plastic Circumstance:
  

• Rogers Communication Centre:
  

This is a couple of weeks old, because it took a while to sort through all the pics. They are pictures from a recent visit to Toronto Zoo. The complete flickr set can be viewed here.

Toronto Nuit Blanche was a blast. For those of you who don’t know:

Nuit Blanche (literally White Night or All-Nighter in French) is an annual all-night arts festival. Its exact beginning is disputed between Paris, St Petersburg, and Berlin, but, taking elements from all of these, the idea of a night-time festival of the arts has spread around the world since 1997, taking hold from Montreal to Madrid and Lima to Leeds. A Nuit Blanche will typically have museums, private and public art galleries, and other cultural institutions open and free of charge, with the centre of the city itself being turned into a de facto art gallery, providing space for art installations, performances (music, film, dance, performance art), themed social gatherings, and other activities.

This year the local Toronto Artist and Ryerson Image Arts Student, Mike Lawrie and I have entered a Independent project — Multitorch — under the Ryerson University/Faculty of Communications And Design’s Lightup the Night. The project involves a 23′x13′ (26′ diagonal) projection weighing in at 4096×2048 pixels driven by a multitouch engine. Up to 10 Infrared LED torches are handed out to the audience and the system will allow them to interact with the projection in front of them. As far as we know this is the largest (and highest resolution) multitouch screen deployed to date. The project uses CCV (Community Core Vision) tool for tracking, OSC (Open Sound Control) for communication and a 4500 line custom java visual engine. Here is a short 5:00 minute Timelapse video.

While I was on holidays (two weeks ago), TPMG (Toronto Photography Meetup Group) had a Strobist event that took place up at University of Toronto’s Victoria College. We ended up shooting well into the night (12:30 am) and walked away with a nice set of Pics. Here is a sampling of the entire set located on flickr: