groggythoughts

[groggythoughts]

More same old?

Recently YT pushed a vid on me from PetaPixel reviewing the PhaseOne XC:

It immediately reminded me of this other camera from some time ago, Hasselblad CFV series:

And to me, both basically are just digital versions of the Hasselblad SWC (film camera):

Except, the CFV allows for interchangeable lenses whereas the SWC and XC has their lens built on the body and only the back is replaceable.

[groggythoughts]

The Opensource OS Buffet

This post is a summary of my journey to find a replacement OS to Windows on my new computer.

Technically the computer is just contemporary 2022 by any account, it's not bleeding edge nor antiquated. It's no speed demon nor slouch I think: -> Intel N6000 + UHD Graphics -> 8GB RAM + 256GB SSD -> 1080p OLED touch screen -> WiFi + BT -> Front + rear cameras Nothing that any modern OS couldn't handle.. right?

I do have a little list of what to look for in the OS that is going to run this computer: -> light on RAM, CPU, SSD -> sprightly touch friendly UI -> easy-ish configuration -> supports the hardware i.e. CPU, GPU, WiFi, BT, etc. -> pi-hole + unbound to make the internet pleasant-er -> runs Google Chrome & Brave browsers Not terribly demanding by any measure.. right??

So off to DistroWatch.com to check out what's on offer in the world of Opensource OS!

>>> Long story short, I spent weeks experimenting ... >>>

Never have I thought that I would cycle through so many OS to find so few that works with my hardware.

I've cycled through MX Linux / Debian / Manjaro / Slax / Slitaz / PopOS / EndeavourOS / FreeBSD / NomadBSD with no success.

For a time I felt that Manjaro was going to be the OS to be. It supported most of the hardware sans the cameras, ran all of the apps I need .. but pi-hole + unbound somehow always didn't end well. pi-hole would work and unbound too, albeit not in tandem, I just couldn't get them to play together, that's probably my fault for not knowing to configure each that well. It was also rather heavy on RAM at almost 4GB which probably is GNOME's fault. Yes I used GNOME, only because it has better touch screen support than the other Window Mangers and Desktop Environments.

Manjaro GNOME has its quirks, sometimes, something glitches and the UI craps out on me, but generally it works well, is sprightly, but it sips quite a bit of battery juice when in Sleep mode., and Hibernating is almost akin to rebooting which doesn't bode well for just picking up the computer to do a quick search or read or watch something.

The Debians and BSDs were wrote off shortly after their first boot. The problem was they couldn't detect the OLED display. I couldn't control brightness, set resolution or adjust color at all, which Manjaro somewhat managing with exception color adjustment.

Alas poor Slitaz .. honestly, I was hoping that it would be the one that works, but it didn't even manage to boot. I was quite dismayed.

So that is why I almost resigned to using Manjaro seeing that it was the only Linux that actually-mostly-worked on this computer, but .. there was one more OS I wanted to try on this computer, it came on my radar only because it can now run Linux apps, so just maybe, it could fare slightly better than Manjaro..

-> ChromeOS Flex

Back in the day, I'm already aware about Neverware and what they were doing to bring ChromeOS to the average Intel / AMD x86 / x86-64 computers. When they were bought over by Google, their product, CloudReady, became ChromeOS Flex. Now that it is Google-fied, tehre is a whole lot of convenience in keeping my browsing preferences in sync across different computers.

With Google incorporating Linux containers in ChromeOS Flex, this was one avenue I was keen to explore to satisfy my desire for OS-wide ad blocking & DNS identity privacy.

And I am pleased to have finally managed to tinker my way to a working installation of pi-hole with unbound in ChromeOS Flex. It's a little klunky, having to start the Linux VM on every boot for pi-hole+unbund to work, but it works.. for now.

[groggythoughts]

A fascination with shades of green under a cloudy blue sky.

[groggythoughts]

Just another picture of the same sky I see every day.

[groggythoughts]

So bad - so good

The allure of Lo-Fi digital photography is why there is a niche for such cameras. This is a pic taken with an old Digital Harinezumi which I dug (again literally) out of storage. I think it's one of the early models (either version 1 or 2) but no matter, it delivers all the glorious image quality that only aficionados / connoisseurs can appreciate. I think I'm just a side-line fan.

[groggythoughts]

When a dog smiles in his sleep, is he having a great dream of chasing butterflies and running in a field of yellow pansies?

[groggythoughts]

Clearly blur - Blur clearly

Recently, just for fun, I had this urge to dig out (literally) this old (2001) camera (Ricoh RDC-i500), my first digital camera (oh the nostalgia), which is still in my possession and giving it a spin. It is a 3 megapixel camera with an unusual design - one of the reasons I got it. It had a layout that meant it can be used much like a waist level finder style camera and I loved that.

Unfortunately the screen is now dead (lit up but blank) and the sensor has one dead pixel which incidentally was easy enough to fix during editing and by editing, I mean degrading the picture into something abstractly nice.

This blur picture (no doubt about it), is the result of a camera doing its best in low light, snapping a picture with its limited ISO range and slow lens (typical of the time) and I'm glad it somehow managed to capture this moment! With a little fiddling in Windows photo edit and then Google Photos, I arrived at this gritty 'detoned' 'desaturated' vignetted blurry rendition that seem quite soothing to my eye and conveys quite well the sleepy mood befitting the cozy 11pm ambiance.

[groggythoughts]

Windows, windows and windows

[groggythoughts]

This is a set of rather old pictures from 2007, taken during a weekend trip to Shanghai with a tiny pocket digital camera - Contax i4R. I still have that camera in my dry box and I am not sure if it still works.

Seeing (or re-seeing) these photos revives my fading memories of the trip and the pictures look just as fresh now as the day they were taken. It's great that jpegs don't degrade over time.

Using the camera was rather fun, it being so tiny and handsome while the photos seem to have a peculiarly vibrant edgy darkness yet naturally vivid character that I find quite charming.

[groggythoughts]

There is always something about clouds which, doesn't have to mean anything, just look.

[groggythoughts]

Higher and higher or Lower and lower?

[groggythoughts]

We are so so far apart

[groggythoughts]

Not cliché - Is cliché. When patterns repeat.

[groggythoughts]

Q: Why does the snail cross the road? A: To send a flower to the other side.

[groggythoughts]

Lego - Not Lego

Public housing in Singapore.

[groggythoughts]

Landscape - Not landscape

[groggythoughts]

View from space - Not view from space