TaoSpace

Rebooting

This blog will soon relaunch, with a pure focus on photography. I hope to combine practical tips, techniques and reviews with opinions on photography and its industry in the broad sense. Of particular interest, as before, are digital workflow, RAW management and processing as well as printing!

The R2880 Profile Tracker continues to get a sizeable number of hits and emails with updates and questions keep pouring in. I hope to find a way to tie that in closer as well.

Sit tight!

Still here...

Seems that instead of posting actual events as they happen, I'm resorting more and more to posting summaries of the stuff that has happened since the last summary. Is one still a blogger if one posts only once a quarter? Or is it more existential than that? Like: I'm still here, so I'm still blogging. Or is it other way around?

Anyway, things have been way to busy:

• Got the big 3-0 coming up soon. Looks like world+dog will come over to DK to celebrate. This'll be good. Very good.


• At work we are increasingly using Ruby and Ruby on Rails for stuff. Beyond all the hype, it really does deliver.


• We've also spent serious time with Adobe Flex. If you use REST with Ruby on Rails, you get all these XML-serving controllers for free with your Rails model. It turns out that these can very easily be consumed by Flex's mx:HTTPService component. These Adobe/Macromedia guys really thought of just about everything. There is stuff in there to solve almost all common programming problems.

  Once you get your head around the concept of databinding, development goes very fast indeed. One of my guys took 2 days to build a fully fledged dynamic UI for relatively large Rails-based document processing system. Very, very, cool.



• Went to AIIM in Boston (big document/imaging tradeshow). Was able to take the girl too. And a truckload of customers. Spend some time in New York before it, which unfortunately was exactly when this happened. We had a good time anyway though.


• Another upshot of that trip is that the girl now has a Canon 400D (incl. crappy kit lens). She's already making some really good shots. Because it is so light and includes an on-camera flash, the kids have an easier time messing around with it too. The 5D is really too heavy for them to handhold inside.


• Finally had some time to play with studio-lighting. Hope to post some results soon. For now I'll say it involved a mountain of icecubes and a polar bear.


• The new site is still coming, but high pressure at work needs to drop first...

That about wraps it up for now...

Barcelona

Just returned from a four day holiday in Barcelona. We've been trying to get over there for years now and we finally succeeded. And let me tell you, it is an amazing place! So without further ado...

Moving cities

Have you seen this man?

Last seen: Long time ago
Last known activity: Preparing for some OU test
Last known whereabouts: Cologne, Germany.

This man is missing, presumed lost in the blogosphere!
If you have seen this man, please contact TaoSpace. He may be blabbering incoherently about business and something called "blogging". This is normal, do not be alarmed.

Do not however believe him when he says his schedule is too busy. This is known to be an elaborate ruse he uses to confuse people! Professional help might be needed to persuade him to show his face in the real world once more...

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Update: The man in question has reported himself to the proper authorities, who are currently slowly exposing him to reality again.

Was ist den das?

Maybe I've been spoiled by cosmopolitan people like Oliver, but I thought most young germans spoke english these days. Unfortunately this turns out not to be the case. When I tried to book tickets for Blue Man today I had to call the german ticket-hotline multiple times because of all sorts of problems.

None of the people I got on the phone spoke english. Well...there was one, but that was only after her colleague passed her the phone, asking her to deal with the strange english person. I guess she was the only one that could. Unfortunately I had to call again and finally completed the booking by stretching my german skills to the breaking-point. I *THINK* I now have tickets for Blue Man, but I'm not at all sure.

OK, I shouldn't be drawing conclusions based on this little debacle, but still:
Another illusion down the drain.

The marriage thing...

Well, it seems it is official.

I'm getting married July 30, 2005 in Oslo.

A formal invitation to all the usual suspects will follow, but you might want to pencil it in already.

The strangest thing...

Today saw what might be the end of my long running feud with my cable-internet company.

When I moved to my current house around January 1st this year, I got a letter from them detailing when an engineer would come to install the cable internet again. I wrote back saying I wasn't using it (hadn't for ages since I switched to ADSL. Just forgot to cancel.) and that I would like to cancel.

Thinking it was sorted I didn't give it another thought. That was until I found out (way too late) that they were still deducting my from my account every month. I called again and was told that I would have to write another cancellation letter. And fast too, since they had now switched to a "per year" scheme. If I was too late they would automatically extend the agreement another year!

Dutifully I complied and sent in another letter. That was 5 weeks ago and I still hadn't heard anything. So I called yet again. After waiting in line for ages and getting redirected 3 times I got someone on the phone.

She explained to me that according to her records the account was cancelled early this year and that I was hundreds of euros "in the plus". She went off the check with a colleague and what do you know?
It was true.

They vowed to transfer this "surplus" back to me forthwith and cancel the account "for real".

Amazing...

Now I need a way to spend it!

In-laws

Had my three brothers-in-law from Norway over for the weekend.

We found lots of cool places to go in Amsterdam and spent a truck-load of money. Boom Chicago was excellent and is highly recommended.

Did Batavia and was very impressed with the whole thing. Just don't try and visit the nearby city (Lelystad) however. It makes Alexanderplatz look cozy.

Also met my friend Erwin and discussed some interesting ideas for a new editor. Perhaps more about this soon.

Overall I took some 150 photos and kept less then 50. I'll put some on Fiat Lux soon.

Taxes

That time of the year again. Income-tax time.

Every year I manage to ignore it until it is too late. (Un)fortunately my girl reminded me in time and insisted on being on time. So we filled in the forms to get an electronic signature (just a 5 digit code that you tell the tax-man about) and started filling the electronic form.

It turned out to be only a 30 minute job this year. Probably because this is the first time my little enterpreneurial expedition of yonder years wasn't in the way.
Since my girlfriend and me share our incoming tax duties because we've lived together longer then 3 years at the same address eventhough we aren't married and she worked part-time for a salary that barely reaches disc three last year we even managed to wipe out almost all of the taxes I owe for driving a lease-car without cutting too much into her public-transport deduction based on her travelling more then 10KM but less then 40KM a day.

The point of this little post? Well: If you thought that last sentence made perfect sense, you are either an accountant or you have the wrong job.