The Author – Bart Busschots
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Apr
19
Why do we Need Marriage Equality? This is why!
Filed Under Polemics & Politics on April 19, 2010 | 15 Comments
I’ve never broadcast details of my love life on this blog or on the many podcasts I contribute to because frankly, my personal life is, well, personal. In this case though, I’m going to make an exception. Why? Because of the relevance to the tragedy I want to draw your attention to. I’m in a committed loving relationship with another man. We’ve been together for over 5 years now, and we’re building a life together. We just want what every couple want, some basic recognition of the fact that we are a family. This is what the fight for marriage equality is all about. It’s about the simple things like hospital visitation rights, inheritance rights, and so on. It’s inevitable that one day one of us will get sick, and when that day comes, we’ll want the right to visit each other, and to make medical decisions for each other should one of us not be capable of making those decisions for ourselves anymore. Should one of us die before the other we want our worldly possessions to go to the remaining partner without question or taxation, just like it happens for regular couples. These are very simple things, but very important things.
Apr
18
Photo of the Week 112 & 113 – Remembering Autumn
Filed Under Photography on April 18, 2010 | 2 Comments
I’m playing catch-up again this week with another double post – I’m not doing too well the last while to keep these on schedule. Anyhow, as usual for a double post, I’ve chosen two photos that share a theme – last Autumn in this case.
The first shot is taken along one of my favorite sections of the Royal Canal, between Deey and Pike Bridges on the stretch from Leixlip to Maynooth. This is one of the sections where the towpath hasn’t been surfaced, even with gravel, and where the canal is lined with trees. It’s a really lovely stretch of nature for walking or cycling along.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/160 sec
- Focal Length: 18mm
- Focal Ratio: f/8
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Bias: +0.3ev.
The second shot was taken on the grounds of St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth as Autumn was just starting.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/200 sec
- Focal Length: 18mm
- Focal Ratio: f/11
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Bias: +0.7ev.
Apr
10
Reflections on Apple’s New iPhone Developer Agreement
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on April 10, 2010 | 3 Comments
Apple have added in a few lines of extra language to their Developer Agreement for the latest version of their iPhone SDK. You can read the exact wording changes on Daring Fireball, but the effect of the language is that you have to use Apple’s XCode development environment to compile all your code. This has had the effect of killing some unsupported means of making iPhone apps, most notably MonoTouch and Adobe’s about-to-be-released iPhone Flash bundler in CS5. My initial reaction was very negative (ask my Twitter followers), but that was purely an emotional response because Apple didn’t give us any reason for this change. Because Apple didn’t explain themselves, we were left to come up with our own explanations, and the first few that came to my mind were none too positive. Ultimately, I greatly dislike Objective C, so I was pissed off at the alternatives getting the chop. But, slowly, a different story is emerging. I still haven’t heard anything official from Apple, but I think I understand what’s going on, and it changes my opinions significantly.
Apr
4
Photo of the Week 111 – A Winter Evening Commute
Filed Under Photography on April 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment
I’ve taken shots of quite a few special trains recently, but somehow I still prefer this one, even if it is of just a plain ordinary commuter train. I really love this spot because it allows for a big sweeping composition which I really like. It helps give a nice sense of depth, and strangely also speed. I also really like the warm evening light which this shot was taken in.
The processing here is quite complicated. The first step was to take the original RAW image and tonemap it with Photomatix Pro. Secondly the RAW image was loaded into Aperture and tweaked to correct the exposure a little and to boost the colour a bit. This second version of the image was then exported to Photoshop Elements and the Topaz Adjust filter was applied to produce an alternative tonemapped version. The version from Topaz did a better job on the train and the trees in the background while the version from Photomatix was better for all the rest. This final image was generated by using Layer masks in Pixelmator to blend the two versions of the image into a third version with the best elements from each of the two other versions. This third blended version was then taken back into Aperture, given a few minor tweaks and then sent to the Dodge & Burn plugin in Aperture to do a few minor localised teaks.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/400 sec
- Focal Length: 26mm
- Focal Ratio: f/4
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Full Manual
- Processing: see above.
Apr
4
I’ve lost count of the amount of Twitter clients I’ve tried, and none are perfect. There may well be a client out there that does everything I need exactly how I want it to, but I’ve yet to find it. In recent times I’ve settled on Syrinx because it ticks most of the boxes, but it’s not perfect. I haven’t been actively search for a new client, but I’ve still been keeping my ears open. Hence, when Tim Verpoorten talked about Itsy on a recent episode of the Mac Review Cast I decided to give it a go.
Apr
2
Bad Friday
Filed Under Polemics & Politics on April 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment
I may have stumbled in to Catholicism as an accident of birth, but I’ve since picked myself up, dusted myself off, and decided that I want nothing to do with such a profoundly corrupt and power-hungry organisation. Nothing about the RCC gels with the person I am. I believe there is nothing more dangerous than blind faith, while the RCC literally preaches it as a virtue. I believe each person should be free to explore their own spirituality, while the RCC believes it and it’s priests are there to tell the people how to interpret the bible, because ordinary people are too dumb to do it themselves.