here's something you don't see every day

here's something you don't see every day
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

I noticed this fallow deer buck and a magpie sitting next to it staring intently at the deer's penis. I tried to move into a better position, figuring I'd get a funny shot out of it when I noticed the magpie jumping on the deers back. It moved a few steps forward. Right after this shot I spooked the deer.

Strange behaviour, I've never seen this before. Reminds me of those birds that feed of the insects of african buffalo.

Nokia 3720 classic

Or should I title this post “from one ruggedized phone to the next”? Ruggedized means more or less that it’s designed for use in harsh environments.

I don’t consider myself hard on my phones. My first few cell phones were all Nokia. I started on a 8110 and have used the 5110, 6110, 6150 and all of these spend a lot of time in my pocket or on my belt. They all suffered the occasional drop and handled it well. In the early years of this decade I switched to Siemens for an S55, lovely little phone but after a year or so it distinctly showed signs of wear and tear. The Motorola V3 I bought after that died a little under two years.

So, when I was due for a new phone in early 2008 I decided to buy something that was durable and loud enough to use in the noisy server rooms where I spent some of my time. At that time there wasn’t much to choose from on the European market. Nokia had withdrawn the 5210 years ago and had not released anything else. Siemens had tried a few models such as the M65 but Siemens sold the GSM division and that died soon after.

The only serious player at that time was Sonim. A company almost unknown in Europe if you didn’t work in the building industry. In early 2008 they had just introduced their first cell phone, the XP1 and the Xp1BT (With bluetooth). My review of the XP1BT is still the most popular page on my website.

After a little over a year I got tired of the constant echo of the phone and the fact that it couldn’t be without battery power for a second without losing it’s internal clock settings so I mailed sonim support and after some weeks they send me a replacement. That developed some sort of phone altzheimer’s in september. It would miss calls without letting me know. By then I was thoroughly sick of the 1990s user interface, the short battery life and the call quality which could range from abysmal to ok in 5 minutes. So I started looking for a replacement.  Of course the new sonim xp3 came up but I found it a bit expensive and I didn’t have much faith left in the Sonim designers. Unlike the american market where several companies offer ruggedized and mil-spec phones there is not that much on the European market. Samsung has the B2100 and B2700. And then came nokia with it’s 3720 classic. Now my wife had bought a 2330 a few weeks early and I was impressed with the Series 40 user interface and the call quality. So I ordered a 3720.

It’s a basic candy bar with a charger port at the bottom. Nice, big 2.2” TFT with 320x240 resolution which makes for a nice crispy image. Comes complete with charger, 1gb memory card, earbuds and a 25 euros coupon for the german nokia music store. All that for 136 euros including shipping.

First impressions: nice screen, fits the hand well, easy buttons. It does not come across as a very sturdy phone unlike the Sonim which felt like you could use it to drive nails with. Well, that’s not all you could do with it, there’s a load of clips on youtube of people trying to kill a sonim, This one is my favorite:

Now breaking stuff is fun to the people doing gadget

tests for a living and so the guys from phonearena tried to break a 3720:

and it can also swim.

So, despite it’s elegance I should be ok. For the moment I’m enjoying that wonderful screen, nice call quality and the fact that I can have it talk to my pc quick and easy with the standard Nokia tools.

I’ll let you know first time it needs charging.

Technorati Tags: nokia 3720 classic,nokia,3720,classic,review,sonim xp1,sonim xp1bt,sonim,xp1,ruggedized phone

I think I'm in love!

Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 AT-X 535 PRO DX
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

And no, not with this lady but with the lens I used for this shot. The Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 AT-X 535 PRO DX. Very, very nice piece of glass. Handles fine, built quality is on par with what you'd expect from a Tokina AT-X pro lens. Focussing is very fast and very quiet. The colors are very neutral with a tiny amount of cool.

My compliments to the model as well, don't know her name but there she was on the tokina stand continuously striking nice poses!

Beware of photography competitions!

I was just reading on dpreview about the lumix awards (http://www.lumixaward.com/). Nice website, nice theme, I'd expected to have some chance with this picture.






But then I read the terms and conditions.

16. Entrants agree that, in relation to any photographs selected as winning photographs, they grant Panasonic Marketing Europe GmbH and Panasonic Corporation companies and other members of the Panasonic Group an exclusive licence to use images for 5 years at no charge for their marketing and promotional activities. Winners will be given an authorship credit in respect of any published reproductions of their photographs made by Panasonic or its agents.

Come on! 5 years exclusive license? Get real!

buzzard in flight

buzzard in flight
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

Quite proud of this one actually. A slight crop from the original. With the 70-300VR this is relatively easy to do. Of course you still have to be close enough to the flight path. Nonentheless, I am quite pleased with this shot.

Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor ED 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF

I bought this gem friday. It's replacing the weakest lens in my bag, a Sigma 70-300 APO. Haven't had the chance to test it properly yet but the first impressions are good. It looks bigger but is almost the same size as the sigma. It feels heavier and sturdier. AF is very quiet, quick and spot on. VR seems to do what it should do and quite discretely.

First test results:

And a crop:

Best airline safety briefing ever

Found this via an article in "El Reg" about IBM failing quite miserably as an outsourcing partner. It gets the message across in the right tempo with attention to details. The fact that the whole "crew" only wears body paint is to me secondary.

There I was, approaching a small herd of fallow deer which included, by the sound of it, 2 males disagreeing. Almost found a good spot and noone had noticed me. Then, suddenly, a big truck loaded with empty containers thunders by. The herd was spooked and all I got was this shot.

Esther in the woods

Esther in the woods
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

Just a portrait. Shot in the dark under the trees so I used a sb-600 on camera for a bit of extra light.

how did a deer cross the stream?

how did a deer cross the stream?
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

Or why do I always carry my camera setup for a snapshot?

It's mating season now, all the fallow deer act weird. Normally this guy would have discretely disappeard. Now he heard another male burling and decided to go and take a look.

I was at Technet Live last thursday. Microsoft introduced Windows 7, Server 2008 R2 and, a day later, Exchange 2010.

Steve Balmer's keynote was impressive, shame there were a bunch of journalists asking really stupid questions.

After a good lunch I spend the afternoon with:

Brandon Hoff telling us about all the new features in Exchange 2010. I found the 90% reduction in IOPS very impressive. I failed to be baffled about the option to move user mailboxes during the day, something I already had in Lotus Notes 4 in the mid-1990s.

Next up was Don Schmid and Martin Vliem about security, identity and things like that. Very technical, I was dozing off due to the big lunch and lack of coffee.
I did remember an excellent quote from Don, "cloud is the new outsourcing"

Last up, Martin Sih on system center. A rather weak speaker compared ot the rest and extra handicapped by a lack of the internet connection he needed to do his demo. Apparantly System Center allows the Schiphol group to manage a varied server collection.

All in all a nice day, shame about the distinct lack of goodies, all we got was a t-shirt (xl the largest, how many sysadmins do you know that wear an XL?!) and a Windows 7 ultimate DVD.

After events like this the hangover always sets in. You realize that the change that you actually get your hands on a 2008 server running exchange 2010 is very slim. It's a reason I don't attend events all that much anymore, you see all sorts of nice goodies that you'll never work with. Same goes for booth babes, nice to look at but that's all.

Something to look forward to on TV

Recently I’ve caught some of the reruns of Victorian Farm on BBC2. Interesting show that follows a historian and two archeologists spending a year on a farm trying to imitate the late Victorian way of farming.

After the last episode it was announced that they have commisioned a special christmas episode. Since a lot of current British christmas traditions originate in this period it will be something to look forward to.

Now I’ve found out, via wikipedia, that there’s another series scheduled as well, Edwardian Farm.

According to the press release:

Following the huge success of the Victorian Farm series, BBC Two is presenting the same intrepid team with a brand new set of challenges as they are forced to get to grips with the trials and tribulations of life on an Edwardian Farm.

Archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn and domestic historian Ruth Goodman will return to front Edwardian Farm, spending a full year delving into Britain's rural heritage.

They will make their home in a stunning new location, exploring the challenges posed by the British countryside at a time of great change and tumult; a time when farming was becoming increasingly mechanised at home, and abroad the world was moving gradually towards war.

As in the first series, the action will be based primarily on the farm, but the new setting will also allow the team to explore wider aspects of the working countryside, including rivers and coasts, boat-building, mining, fishing and market gardening.

Now, for us foreigners, the previous series was set around 1870, the new one will be around 1900-1910.

I’m now wishing I could lay my hands on “Tales from the green valley” which is made by some of the same people and deals with farming in the 1620s in Wales.

Technorati Tags: TV,BBC,experimental archeology,edwardian farm,victorian farm,history,farming

traffic accident
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

On the crossing near the office. The guard tipped me of. It was also listed on the emergency services paging system. (http://monitor.livep2000.nl/) as

29-09-09 16:23:41
LIFELINER 1 / MMT INZET VOOR MKA :KENNEMERLAND, HOOFDDORP, VAN HEUVEN GOEDHARTLAAN # KRUISWEG, COORD I-14-D


0120988 Life Line 1
29-09-09 16:23:26
12804 [A1] VAN HEUVEN GOEDHARTLAAN/KRUISWEG - N201 HOOFDDORP VKO MET LETSEL RITNR 39797


0126804 brandweer / OvD-G 804 - GHOR VZA Hoofddorp / Kennemerland
29-09-09 16:18:16
12183 [A1] KRUISWEG/VAN HEUVEN GOEDHARTLAAN HOOFDDORP VKO MET LETSEL RITNR 39795


0126999 ambulance / Monitorcode / Kennemerland
29-09-09 16:18:16
12183 [A1] KRUISWEG/VAN HEUVEN GOEDHARTLAAN HOOFDDORP VKO MET LETSEL RITNR 39795


0126183 regio 12 Kennemerland AMBULANCE 83
29-09-09 16:17:18
12186 [A1] VAN HEUVEN GOEDHARTLAAN/KRUISWEG - N201 HOOFDDORP VKO MET LETSEL RITNR 39794


0126999 ambulance / Monitorcode / Kennemerland
29-09-09 16:17:18
12186 [A1] VAN HEUVEN GOEDHARTLAAN/KRUISWEG - N201 HOOFDDORP VKO MET LETSEL RITNR 39794


0126186 regio 12 Kennemerland AMBULANCE 86
29-09-09 16:17:16
PRIO 1 UGS A PELIKAANWEG LUCHTHAVEN SCHIPHOL LUCHTVAART INCIDENT SCHIPHOL (VOS: 1) [ 597 ]

The guy driving the bike didn't make it.

Facepaint: Finished lion

Facepaint: Finished lion
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

Our local shopping center had organised a theater theme sunday. Facepainting was part of it. I really like this one, expressions, lines, colors it works for me.

fighting horses in the mist

fighting horses in the mist
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

Was up early this morning. Mist was still on the fields and when I drove up I noticed the horses being restless. I missed 20 horses breaking into a gallop. I did manage to capture these two having a discussion.

Tricky shot, way at the edge of my Sigma's 70-300 range, low light so high iso and fog is tricky to meter, the line between losing the mood and getting horrible noise is rather fine.

Despite all that and despite the obvious shortcommings I really like this shot.

Here's me trying to be clever

DSC_7724
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

I noticed this nice scene on my way to work this morning. I love moody cloudy skies especially at sunrise.

Anyway, as we all know metering this requires care, the contrast between the ground and the lighter parts of the clouds is big so you'll either underexpose or blow highlights.

I figured I'd be clever and HDR it. What I forgot for a moment is that even with shutter speeds above 1/200 and my camera set to continuous high the tractor would still travel some distance. I discovered this when I plunked my 3 bracketed frames into photomatix. Load of ghosting on the wheels. So I tried another apporach, took a frame I liked, hit it with 20% d-lighting and a neutral grad.

Not a massive crowd pleaser

Mouflon
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

Shot this this morning. Very grey and blue light. First time in ages I encountered mouflon.

One of these shots that won't draw massive crowds, mainly because the small version isn't that interesting.

RFC 1149 alive and well after 19 years!

As a recent experiment in South Africa proved the old RFC 1149, transmission of IP over avian carriers. I think the ISP involved, Telkom, should be very, very ashamed of itself! My sympathies go out to the sysadmins who need to work which such slow lines.

Windows 7 and Diana Krall

Now I can hear you wonder, what on earth is the relation between those two? Has the best jazz singer of the last two decades signed a deal with Microsoft?
Not that I know of.

Early last week I got a chance to trade in my aging Lenovo T60 laptop for a slightly newer T61. And I also got invited to participate in my employer's Windows 7 beta program.

So I've been running Windows 7 for about a week now and I love it! It's robust, quick to start and I like the interface. I also, and I never thought I'd write this, the Mediaplayer that came bundled with it. It plays xvid without an extra codec (although you do need a codec for the common AC3 sound, I use Shark's Windows 7 codec pack) and it also seems like the audio playback is way better than my old T60 with Windows XP. So I'm listening to a high-bitrate version of Diana Krall's Departure bay. Excellent song, love the lyrics!


The fading scent of summertime
Arbutus trees and firs
The glistening of rain-soaked moss
Going to the dairy queen at dusk
Down narrow roads
In autumn light

The salt air and the sawmills
And the bars are full of songs and tears
To the passing of the tugboats
And people with their big ideas

Last portrait for a while

Last portrait for a while
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

Soon after I shot this I bumped into my lightstand and discovered the flash wasn't properly secured. So it took a fall to the ground and now it will not turn on.

I am quite upset by this.