This one just to get away from the dark pictures for a bit, taken on November 28th. The wall belongs to the offices of WSOY, a large book publisher. It's a huge construction of glass walls around a steel (or whatever it is) structure. I usually don't like modern architecture that much, but this building sort of works.
The trouble with this time of year is that the opportunities for this sort of pictures are few and far between (hm, did I use this expression correctly?). It is steadfastly refusing to get cold - by this I mean below zero - so on most days it rains. Or is at least cloudy. Night photography is fun but there's such a thing as too much. Although, having said that, today I went out for an evening walk in the park nearby which is by the sea. It's a wonderful place at any time of year and day, but I think I find it the most beautiful in the evening in winter, when there's no snow. One of the reasons is the lighting there which is not bright, glaring and cold as so much city lighting tends to be but soft and warm. There's something really special in walking along the shore in the soft light and darkness, listening to the gentle waves (they were gentle tonight) and looking at the city lights across the bay.
**
So, I decided to become a real proper computer geek: I ditched Windows and got Ubuntu linux instead. It all started with getting one of those asus eee pc mini laptops, a 7 inch thing weighing about a kilo which is fantastic to carry around in libraries and travelling. It has linux installed, and I liked it a lot. I was surprised to find out that actually it's easy to use. The basic things like installing programs are quick to learn and it's easy to find help for problems you run into. My laptop with Windows XP had slowed down and I was frustrated of not being able to sort it out. So, having heard a lot about Ubuntu while sorting out the mini laptop (it has a modified Xandros, based on the same core as Ubuntu, called Debian), I today installed it on my laptop. Everything worked like a charm, I could get the external sound card, printers etc. working straight away. I'm loving it. I'm absolutely loving it. It sorted out the slowness problems. It looks great. Most of the software I need came with the OS, and it's easy to install others via a manager program which gives access to a large array of software sources. Best of all, it's all free. The basic usage is actually not that different from Windows, except that Linux does not have any useless rubbish of the sort Windows XP has, little things which nobody needs and which all together only weigh the system down.
Now this is already proper computer geek talk isn't? People who aren't computer geeks probably don't give a toss about any of it. :-)
The trouble with this time of year is that the opportunities for this sort of pictures are few and far between (hm, did I use this expression correctly?). It is steadfastly refusing to get cold - by this I mean below zero - so on most days it rains. Or is at least cloudy. Night photography is fun but there's such a thing as too much. Although, having said that, today I went out for an evening walk in the park nearby which is by the sea. It's a wonderful place at any time of year and day, but I think I find it the most beautiful in the evening in winter, when there's no snow. One of the reasons is the lighting there which is not bright, glaring and cold as so much city lighting tends to be but soft and warm. There's something really special in walking along the shore in the soft light and darkness, listening to the gentle waves (they were gentle tonight) and looking at the city lights across the bay.
**
So, I decided to become a real proper computer geek: I ditched Windows and got Ubuntu linux instead. It all started with getting one of those asus eee pc mini laptops, a 7 inch thing weighing about a kilo which is fantastic to carry around in libraries and travelling. It has linux installed, and I liked it a lot. I was surprised to find out that actually it's easy to use. The basic things like installing programs are quick to learn and it's easy to find help for problems you run into. My laptop with Windows XP had slowed down and I was frustrated of not being able to sort it out. So, having heard a lot about Ubuntu while sorting out the mini laptop (it has a modified Xandros, based on the same core as Ubuntu, called Debian), I today installed it on my laptop. Everything worked like a charm, I could get the external sound card, printers etc. working straight away. I'm loving it. I'm absolutely loving it. It sorted out the slowness problems. It looks great. Most of the software I need came with the OS, and it's easy to install others via a manager program which gives access to a large array of software sources. Best of all, it's all free. The basic usage is actually not that different from Windows, except that Linux does not have any useless rubbish of the sort Windows XP has, little things which nobody needs and which all together only weigh the system down.
Now this is already proper computer geek talk isn't? People who aren't computer geeks probably don't give a toss about any of it. :-)
9 comments:
LOL Maria, you do sound very knowledgeable, I must admit, but I'd accuse you of being a geek! I would use linux myself, I think, if I were sufficiently interested in computers, but as it is, I find Macs suit me best as a user who just wants a laptop that works. You know, like those ads for things that say 'no mess, no fuss' etc. Well, that's my Mac to me.
Your photo is wonderful - all angles, lines and light..and the reflection is so sharp. Super! The weather here swings between being really cold and snowing and mild wet and windy, but then this is nothing unusual for the Netherlands. I hope you get your cold, stable winter soon!
well, I will admit I am lost in your computer wording here, could have veen in your native finnish (is that right?) Anyway, hope it all works better for you. I give up on trying to understand it all, I just try to make it all work and when it doesn't....oh boy am I lost!! :)
Hi Maria,
I have enough of a hard time understanding the computer geek I am married to, never mind reading about it.
I think whatever techniques you use, nothing can replace the talent and eye you need to capture the initial moment, although technology certainly g=can play a role afterwards in making it even better.
I don't know if you went back to my posts, but I wanted to let you know I had the chance through a student last year to hear the beautiful Butterfly song by Rajaton, so you have some national musical treasures too that I am aware of.
xx
AM
I'm immensely impressed that anyone understands such things Maria, but then I have always been impressed at the way you maximise the potential of any available technology. I expect I shall struggle on with Windows and look on in awe. [Mads is a Mac fan too Vally, and uses her Macbook like an additional body part.]
I'm not fond of much modern architecture either, although there are stand-out examples. The glass wall thing has to be done very well not to look cliched these days. Apparently there's so much of it in Melbourne now that whenever the sun's out the temperature in the city is always about five degrees higher than in the suburbs - it's just like a network of giant mirrors, and the heat radiates and bounces around it.
Oh, and yes, perfect usage of the term "few and far between".
Oops, just read my last comment and realised I left out the word 'never'. I meant to say I'd never accuse you of being a geek! Hope you realised that's what I meant...;-(
Margie, Koos's Macbook is permanently attached to him too. It is as necessary to his existence as his glasses, and with minus 7 vision that says enough! I love my little iBook and take it most places with me, but I do draw the line at the loo ;-)
Hi Grace,
I think that's actually how technology should work I think - seamlessly so that people don't have to bother about it. :-)
Hi Anne-Marie,
You are exactly right: technology is just a tool. In photography too there are plenty of people who don't seem to realize it: they talk about the gear the photos have been taken with, not HOW they have been taken; and keep going on how their photos would be better if they only had this or that camera or lens. Sometimes these are people whose photos are technically good but have nothing in terms of personality; at other times people who don't have even the basic understanding of things like composition but are convinced that if they had better "gear" they would be good.
Hi Margie,
Yep, never overdo it, it only devaluates the effect. And all that light reflected from Melbourne's glass walls only goes to waste if they haven't constructed ways to put it to use as solar energy.
Hi Val,
Not to worry, I did think you had forgotten a word there! Thanks for your words about the picture which were lovely as always.
I HAVE got the impression that Koos is rather passionate about his Macbook. ;-) But I salute your decision to draw the line at the loo. Looking at it from the practical point of view, what can you even do with the computer in the couple of minutes you spend there? :-)
Anne-Marie,
Oops! I'm pleased to hear that you saw a bit of Finnish stuff. I managed to miss that post where you mentioned Rajaton but I'll definitely go read it.
Well, Maria, I would agree with you of course, but then we are not men ;-) I have never solved the mystery (starting with my father) as to why the opposite sex seems to find it necessary to spend not just minutes but absolute hours in the loo! And the present subject of my observation needs his Macbook with him on such occasions - of course ;-P
Perhaps he reads the news online? As a modern version of a newspaper or a magazine? :-)
But this is also why my brother, when doing the job of Santa at Christmas when his eldest son was little, was able to give "I was in the loo" as a logical explanation for his absence just when Santa arrived.
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