0100100001101001

Stay awhile and listen!

[zachkarpinski]

I’m taking a vacation from OS X. Part 3: We’re done.

My Macbook Pro started really letting me down last winter.  After the upgrade to El Capitan I was gradually running into more frequent occurrences of total unresponsiveness that required a manual shut down (i.e. holding the power button down).  I’d get the color wheel and nothing would work after that.  Before this point even if another app was getting the color wheel the finder would still be responsive.  After weeks of searching Google and inspecting my console logs, I could not find anything that seemed responsible for this behavior.  In December my employer procured a brand new Macbook Pro which I thought would solve my problems.  That was not the case and I started to get a better idea of what was going on when the same behavior happened on the new mac after I restored it from my time machine backup.

It was telling that when I did a reinstall on the old machine, these problems disappeared.  It was handed down to a coworker who has never reported a similar experience.  It dawned on me that I had been running the same install of OS X for probably 3 years or more.  Apparently there was a limit on how long you can get OS X to run nicely after upgrading the OS.  I knew that if I wanted this thing to run better I was going to have to reinstall OS X from scratch.  Unfortunately this was happening at a very inconvenient time with the deadlines I had at work.  Before reinstalling, I decided to see if Linux would encounter similar issues or not.  If it did I could be confident there was a hardware issue although I was very skeptical of that being the case.

At that point I would have normally just thrown Ubuntu desktop on it and called it a day.  However it had been awhile since I’ve seriously run Linux on the desktop and decided to see what else was out there.  I tried getting Elementary OS running but the Macbook Pro hardware was not fully supported by default and I was unable to find much information about convincing it to run.  I used Mint for a bit but it too had some quirks.  So based on advice from others, I decided to see about Arch Linux.  

I had never used Arch before but it has a relatively unique approach in that there are no releases.  I’m over simplifying but it is kind of like an always up to date distribution.  It reminded me of Gentoo Linux but with packages instead of compiling everything from source.  Gentoo is awesome but man it can take forever to compile everything.

Arch is also unique in that they do not really have an installer.  You more or less have to manually do steps an installer would do for you.  It is certainly a way to hone your understanding of making Linux run.  Thankfully there was plenty of documentation on getting a Mac book Pro up and running and after a few missteps I had it up and running with a modest amount of profanity.

I very quickly realized that I like Arch Linux.  Generally Linux distributions will select what software they’ll support and you’re kind of stuck with whatever version they’ve picked.  Getting non-supported software installed can be somewhat of a pain.  Arch kind of supports everything and if it isn’t official, you can get it from the Arch User Repository very easily.

After using Arch for work (Ruby on Rails dev mostly) I realized that I could very easily make this my every day work environment.  I then started to consider if the Mac hardware was the best choice for the job.  Eventually I opted to procure a Dell Precision 5510 to replace it.  With some after market upgrades to RAM and storage, I had a machine that was remarkably beefy compared to what my top of the line Mac book Pro could run (why can you not get 32GB of ram in a MBP?).  My biggest complaint about the mac hardware was that I could never get the sleep/hibernate system working properly.  Nothing sucks more on a laptop than not being able to close the lid and open it back up and just stare at a blank screen forever.  With a modest amount of toil the 5510 sleeps/hibernates without issue.

The 5510 also let me use a PCI-E SSD and a traditional SATA SSD, so I have two 500GB Samsung EVO Pro devices in here (950 and 850 respectively).  I run the PCI-E device as my primary storage and use the SATA device with LVM for virtual machines with Virtual Box.  To say it is fast is an understatement (the PCI-E storage in the MBP was fast as well, to be fair).

After using KDE Plasma for a bit I opted to switch to Gnome 3.2X and have stuck with that since. Between Gnome and how well Chromium apps from Google run on this, I’ve switched over completely.  Likely for good.  

The switch to Linux coincides with my gradual switch from iOS to Android which I may write about in a future post.  iOS in particular lacks the control that Android provides and seems too locked down for my liking these days.  I’m stuck with iOS for my phone (6s) until I am up for a new device in 2017.  I already know that I’m getting something running Android when the time comes.  I picked up an Nvidia Shield K1 to replace my iPad and I love it.

I still have the MBP and use it occasionally but my love affair with OSX is likely over.  Linux on the desktop has improved so much since I last used it (circa 2007) and it will likely be a long time before I’m convinced to switch away from it.  That and once you put the effort into getting Arch running, you probably are going to stick with it.  

[zachkarpinski]

Sample photos from my Flickr account, taken with the Sigma DP2 I have for sale.

[zachkarpinski]

UPDATE: Camera sold and is no longer for sale!

Here is another bit of photography equipment I am selling.  This time it is not a lens but the Sigma DP2.  The DP2 is an interesting device, especially considering it was release in 2009.  It has the same size sensor that Sigma DSLR cameras had at the time.  It shares the unique quality of using the Foveon X3 sensor.  This kind of sensor is different in that it does not use the Bayer mosaic filter approach to capturing an image (as a CMOS or CCD would).   

If you’re not a sensor technology junkie, you may be wondering why any of this matters.  First I would like to explain how most camera sensors work and then I will explain what makes the Foveon X3 special.  From here on out I’m referring to most cameras with BMF and the Foveon as X3F.

Nearly every camera out there is based on a monochrome sensor with a colored grid of tiles over it (BMF).  The colored grid imposes red, green and blue color over a black and white image.  There are generally twice as many green tiles as there are blue or red.  If a sensor had 400 pixels, 200 would be green, 100 would be red and 100 would be blue.  Before a demosaicing algorithm in the camera runs over the image, it probably looks nothing like what you saw in the viewfinder or with live view.  That algorithm takes the RGB image and reconstructs a very good approximation of the color that was actually being reflected back at the camera sensor.  In addition to the colored grid over the photo sites there is something called an anti-aliasing filter present.  This smooths out the jagged edges the colored tiles impose over the image.  Some argue that these additional layers detract from image fidelity.  There is a certain level of detail loss with the anti-aliasing filter, to be sure.  

X3F on the other hand, has no RGB grid or anti-aliasing filter.  Instead of capturing a monochrome image, it uses stacked photo diodes in a Blue -> Green -> Red arrangement.  Each layer responds to a specific color due to how different wavelengths of light penetrate silicone to different depths.  Those of you who are old enough to have done any film photography may think this sounds a little familiar.  In fact color film works in a very similar fashion.  You can read more on the Foveon X3 wikipedia page but the gist of it is the DP2 has a sensor that acts like digital film.   

While the DP2 technically has fewer than 5 million photo sites it creates images that are well beyond 5 megapixels, quality wise.  Each photo site captures all three colors and Sigma has made a point to reflect that in it’s effective megapixel rating of their cameras.  Naturally the companies that produce conventional sensor technology have a problem with saying a camera is 14MP when it only has 4.6M photo sites (ie the DP2).  I’ve read and been a part of a handful of debates with people over this over the years.  It is very easy to say that a BMF potentially discards up to 2/3rds of the color information available and then tries to fill it back in with software after the fact (yes, that is over simplified).

All this technical talk of photo diodes, filters and sensors is all fine and good, but what about the damn pictures man?  Well I loved the DP2 and my SD15 when I had them.  The quality of image from a Foveon sensor is unique and reminds me of slide film to a certain extent.  This is never more obvious than when you’re taking a landscape picture on a sunny day with a modest amount of clouds.  The detail you get in the highlights is remarkable when compared to a traditional BMF camera.

It sounds like I love it, so why am I selling it?  Well, I have a _lot_ of camera gear.  I rocked a two enlarger dark room in my basement for many years and have too many 35mm film cameras and a couple medium format bodies too.  I cannot let my digital camera pile up in the same fashion.  When my SD15 broke and the poor support from Sigma’s US repair division soured my experience, I had to move on.  The DP2 is a great little camera but it cannot be my daily shooter so it has gotten relatively light use.  

The DP2 is a 14MP camera (4.69M photo sites).  Compared to a BMF camera, the megapixel rating is somewhere between 10MP and 12MP.  The DP2 has a 24mm fixed lens (which is 41mm equiv on 35mm film).  The lens has a maximum aperture of f/2.8.  It can shoot RAW (.X3F) up to 3200 ISO.  ISO is limited to 800 if shooting jpeg.  

I’m selling everything I have for this camera which includes a leather protector case, two batteries, charger (with cord), the HA-21 lens hood and AML-1 macro lens that screws into the hood to give the DP2 a close up macro mode.  In addition I’ve got a 40mm Voigtlander external view finder that lets you operate the camera with the viewfinder off for extended battery life.  I’ll throw in a 4GB memory card as well.  All of this for $225!  

Some of the things listed for sale are not in the Amazon listing because I forgot I had them.  I’ll be updating the listing soon if I can.  I will also upload some more sample photos that show off the Foveon sensor better than what you have above.

The last three pictures are samples taken with the DP2.  The first two are macro shots with the AML-1 lens screwed into the HA-21 hood.  The last image was taken without the macro lens.

[zachkarpinski]

Another SA mount lens, this time the 18-50mm f2.8 EX Macro zoom.  Available for purchase today!  As noted in the item description I’ll provide a free upgrade to 2nd day UPS inside the USA.

[zachkarpinski]

A few years ago my main camera was a Sigma SD15 DSLR.  Unfortunately it broke and my endeavor to fix it got expensive enough to no longer justify the end result.  I have a couple decent lenses sitting in my basement that are SA-mount that I can no longer use.  I should have probably sold them a long time ago but never got around to it.  This week that has changed!  Pictured above is a 70-200mm f2.8 APO EX DG Macro telephoto zoom lens for sale.  

[zachkarpinski]

I’m taking a vacation from OS X. Part 2: Before the breakup.

I've been using OS X as my operating system of choice on the desktop now for just under 10 years now. Much of this time has been very productive and enjoyable after my initial adjustment period. That period was just a few weeks and it was only so I could get used to an improved user experience. The biggest problem I had was that I kept trying to figure out how to get to the "power user" way of doing things. Windows had trained me to assume the most obvious way to do something is probably the least useful. In OS X there is probably only one way to do something and that way generally works. I know that sounds obvious but I just was not used to that being "a thing". As a web developer primarily using Ruby and Rails, OS X is a great system to develop on. Underneath its shiny, usable surface lies a UNIX based operating system. With that comes the reliability and power you get with any other *NIX OS. The vast majority of tools that I used in production to run sites can be compiled for OS X. This simplifies things quite a bit and results in productivity increases that I did not expect at first. Prior to OS X I was either running Linux on the desktop (like now) or Windows. Desktop Linux was OK 10 years ago but nowadays it is much better thanks to distributions like Ubuntu, Mint, and more that really focused on it as an alternative that looked good and worked well. Before the switch to Mac I was mostly doing Perl scripting at work. Rails didn't come out until 2005 or so and before that I always considered Ruby a slower scripting language that had better support for Object Oriented programming (OO). While Perl had OO it was bolted on instead of baked in and it showed. I used it sporadically but never as the only approach. There were versions of Perl that ran on Windows but the modules and libraries required in my projects did not. This meant that I usually was editing files over the network on a development machine running Linux. As you can imagine that was slow. Not only are we talking about reading/writing files over what was likely a 100MB network. This network probably was on HUB for some years as well. As if that wasn't enough to slow it down, keep in mind the other machine played a role too. These were not the glory days of cheap disk and ram. The development machine was certainly someone's old desktop with a Linux server distribution on it. Needless to say, getting the "full stack" running on the same machine you're writing code on simplifies things greatly. The fact it came with an OS that had increasing support for real end user programs made it even better. It was great and has been great for a long time. Until last year when things started to get a little less rosy.

[zachkarpinski]

As this article makes clear, some black hats helped the government out. They did this by using a previously unknown flaw to unlock the phone. Now it is up to the white house to decide whether or not to disclose the vulnerability to Apple. Fun times.

[zachkarpinski]

I'm taking a vacation from OS X. Part 1: History.

I figure I could jump straight into the what and why of me switching away from OS X but chances are very good that you don’t know me at all. For most people a story about switching away from any one operating system can normally be followed up with “Who cares?”, right? While the odds rather high you’ll still say that when I’m done, a little backstory might make this all a bit more interesting.

One a day... But not yet!

I did not grow up in what you might call an “Apple household”. My family had a computer that loaded programs off of cassette tapes. We had a Commodore 64 (and those disposable noise boxes they called floppy drives). There was a “portable” 8088 in my house from time to time that was the size of a suitcase you’d use to travel overseas. I spent a considerable portion of my life holding an opinion of Apple that landed somewhere between “not interested” and “run away like it is on fire”. Well then, how did I find my way to Apple?

Hello iPhone

Yup the quick answer is “the iPhone release in 2007”. After several months with that device, I decided to buy my first Mac. I had a Blackberry at the time, probably for less than 6 months and it was cool but paled in comparison to the first iPhone. Before 2007 when I bought that first Mac I had been using PCs my whole life. Our first Intel based PC that was not owned by an employer of my parents was a Packard Bell with the 386SX 16Mhz inside. I think it had 256KB of RAM, which I later upgraded to 1MB. Those were the days when DOS what ran when your computer booted up and Windows was something you typed only after C:\> was visible. While it was not supposed to have one, there was an RLL hard drive inside that 386. Later we found out there was a class action lawsuit about the misrepresentation of the hardware in Packard Bell PCs. It was supposed to be IDE, but I digress.

Now it is time for a little *nix

All told I was PC only for around 20 years or so. It was all DOS for me until the mid 90s. If I needed to multitask I fired up Desqview-X and not Windows 3. I have a great story about an early release of Windows 95 (aka Chicago) copied to a couple dozen 3.5" floppy disks and a misplaced refridgerater magnet. I'll save that one for another day though. Starting in 1996 I got interested in Linux when I bought a book from B. Dalton Bookstore that had a Slackware installation disc included. Linux was great and I ran it as my desktop (only) for long stretches of time in college. This was possible thanks to game developers like iD Software releasing game clients in Linux. As any college age male should, I played video games. A lot. My go to games were Quake, Quakeworld and Quake 2. All ran on linux.

When Quake 2 no longer was my go to game (it had a Linux client), I likely switched to a dual boot setup. The release of Half-life probably had a lot to do with this. Dual boot let me run Linux and Windows without needing multiple computers. Games aside this was necessary because many of my MIS classes relied on Windows software for their homework (MS Visual C++ for instance). Virtualization was little more than a really cool idea that mostly worked unless you had somewhere to be or were on a deadline (ie, it was way too slow).

All told I spent about 10 years with DOS and 10 years with some combination of Windows and Linux on one or more PCs. I think the most computers I ever had running was in 2002 when an apartment I was in had a room that was too small for someone to sleep in. So I had a rack of like 8 PCs running web sites, game servers, acting as a firewall, etc… Great in winter, not so great in summer. If nothing else I hope this illustrate that not only did I prefer PCs, I was rather quite into them.

Think PowerMac.

I had plenty of exposure to Macs and OS X prior to buying my own. I managed a computer lab in college that had both PC and Mac computers. Back then it was 2:1 PC:Mac (these days I’m pretty sure its 0:1). In the mid-90s I was the kind of person who would sneer at OS9 and the over-priced under-performing Mac for sale. When the iMac came out, I paid attention and liked what I saw but it wasn’t for me.

When OS X came out I thought they were finally doing something right but wasn’t about to switch. There just was not anything worth using that I couldn’t get on Windows or Linux (keep in mind I am a web programmer who does not use WYSIWYG tools). My first real job after college was at a place that was about 50/50 PC and Mac. After many years of helping other people with their Macs (including my then girlfriend and now wife), my opinion of Apple had changed enough that the iPhone was a must have for me.

Anyone who remembers what it was like to get an iPhone after years of what passed as a “smart phone” before that knows how big of a change that could be. I had to admit, the iPhone was amazing. I liked using my girlfriend’s Macbook G4 at the time so I thought, why not give Apple and OS X a try for my laptop.

[zachkarpinski]

According to Tumblr, 0100100001101001 turned 2 today!  I suppose that means  I better post something!  I keep meaning to talk about my recent transition from OS X to Desktop Linux but every time I think of it I’m writing another post.  As you can imagine this has happened exactly two times recently :)

If I make good on this threat to continue updating this site you can expect my next post to cover the switch to desktop Linux.

[zachkarpinski]

A long overdue transition for my personal domain.

I originally started my personal domain "blog" on Postero.us before it was aquired by Twitter. Sadly, the folks at Twitter decided that Postero.us was not meant to be and shut it down. Afterwards I moved the domain to LogDown but sort of fell out of the habit of updating the thing. In fact the last posts were some great nerd rage about Dead Island: Riptide. A lot has changed since then and I'm finally getting around to putting my site somewhere that makes it more likely for me to update. Hello Tumblr!

[zachkarpinski]

This project has been in development for awhile at work but we're officially launching it today.

[zachkarpinski]

Donate to Serial

I donated to help make a second season of Serial! It is an awesome podcast. You should check it out and donate because you love it.

[zachkarpinski]

This is a great explanation of where net neutrality is right now.

[zachkarpinski]

What would Jesus do...if there were only this much coffee left in the pot? *He would brew more!

At least once a week I brew multiple pots of coffee at work, only to find that when I go back there is a half cup of burny tasting sludge.  Someone here deserves a crotch punch.  Since that isn't "acceptable work behavior", I've instead posted this sign behind our coffee maker.  

Update 3/17 - This sign has long since been removed.  People do not like being reminded that their behavior is not appreciated.  It turns out that signs are a bigger problem than burny tasting sludge.  

[zachkarpinski]

Photos from this week's cabin trip

[zachkarpinski]

Comcast Is Threatening To Cut Off Customers Who Use Tor, The Web Browser For Criminals

Look at this hyperbolic nonsense. Is Comcast going to start turning off customers who use proxy servers too? What makes a distributed network of free proxy servers illegal as compared to a non-distributed or non-free proxy server network?  Is it the pervasive encryption?  Last I checked SSL was not illegal either.

I totally refute the statement that people only use Tor when doing "illicit" things.  Case in point:

http://betaboston.com/news/2014/05/07/as-domestic-abuse-goes-digital-shelters-turn-to-counter-surveillance-with-tor/

[staff]

Today’s the day. The day you help save the internet from being ruined.

Ready? 

Yes, you are, and we’re ready to help you.

(Long story short: The FCC is about to make a critical decision as to whether or not internet service providers have to treat all traffic equally. If they choose wrong, then the internet where anyone can start a website for any reason at all, the internet that’s been so momentous, funny, weird, and surprising—that internet could cease to exist. Here’s your chance to preserve a beautiful thing.)

[zachkarpinski]

Well if Mark Ruffalo, who was born in Kenosha WI, says you should call your Senator, you probably should.