Posts by Kiwi

Re: Don't travel to the US.

we are talking about petty officials with huge egos that have been given a vast amount of legal power.

Going by the single downvote many of these posts are receiving, one of them must be here along with all of his friends.

So, do tell. If you're not going to focus on the camera, how are you going to convince people that Fondleslab A is better than Fondleslab B?

Dunno.. By getting rid of the garbage, dropping the weasely marketting junk (or dropping the marketing department from a very high place over something nasty - I'd pay to see that!), and giving me a phone with features I like at a price I can accept? :)

(FTR, NZ$50 is about my upper limit for a "smart" phone)

Re: Right tool for the job...

Love the pic!

Thanks for the link to SGL - I may actually manage to get my A into G and off the C, and get more into getting out and about :)

Re: "likely to be used is in street photography"

When we go out and people start taking photos, at parties, for example, she explicitly states that they do not have her permission to upload any photo containing her to the Internet.

Interesting mix of people.. Someone saw fit to disagree with you, obviosly thinking they should be able to invade people's privicy on a whim.

Me, if I could afford airfare I'd want to know where you live and be on the next plane over. I don't think you should have the right to publish photos of others without their permission!

(When you think about it, what I am doing at the time is in a way my intellectual property - if I had not chosen the action you found interesting, you would not have your photograph)

Re: "likely to be used is in street photography"

Not over here, you have to get them to sign a waiver before you can photograph them.

Nice. I am quite camera-shy and also simply don't want people photographing me in the street unless they actually seek my approval (at least for anything other than private photos).

I'd love to live somewhere where the rules were different. In NZ it's legal to photograph anything you can see from the street, even if that means you're able to photograph inside someone's living room or kid's bedrooms. Google got away with multiple breaches of people's privacy with their towering camera arrays. They may blur out faces, but they still show things inside people's property that people perhaps don't want them showing. Pixelating my face doesn't help when my neighbours know who I am, and you stuck your camera over my fairly high fence and photographed me where I have a reasonable expectation of privacy!

...mainly because, as 12 year old, developing a film cost a lot of money, so I learnt hot to properly frame an image and get everything right, before pressing the shutter....

...with the small memory cards, I still took time to line up photos....

...It is also interesting, even though I have Photoshop Element and Affinity Photo, I very rarely do any post processing on my photos.

Much the same with me. It's amazing how little time you have to spend faffing around with software if you do it right with the camera in the first place :)

Give a poor photographer the best camera and it is still a crap-shoot, whether you will get a good photo out of them.

At least with digital they can rattle off a few hundred pics and hopefully there may be something pretty good in there :)

Just to make the point, there is more to photography than just how many pixels you can cram into an image.

So many people seem to forget the importance of the optics, which those things they stuff into phones simply aren't capable of doing decently. I've seen pictures coming from a 2MP DSLR with the right lenses that are still well beyond even the highest MP phone photo-taking-hardware.

1) It can GPS tag the photo in realtime

Not a feature I'm interested in.

To be fair, some DSLRs do have GPS, though this can take several seconds to get a good lock and can therefore be wildly inaccurate

Every GPS device I've used or worked with can take between 5 seconds and 5 minutes to get a good lock on the GPS once GPS is enabled, even dedicated units with decent aerials.

2) It can upload to storage or social media without the need to find a wifi hotspot

So a big disadvantage then :)

3) It can crop the photo

Stupid idea I know, but did you know that you can do that automagically in the camera - even in old film cameras - just by framing the photo correctly? :) And for those where you decided on the cropping later, there's much better tools out there than any phone's offering. They'll also let you manipulate things in other ways as well.

4) It can apply filters - from simple colour tweaks up to perspective transforms and whichever "snapchat" filters are currently hip with the youngsters today

Not interested. I think I lost interest in such things back when I had a video camera that had a "star wipe" feature on it.

5) It can display the photos at human-viewable size immediately after taking - a Canon EOS only has a 2.7" screen, versus the mighty 6" screen of my phone. And as an added bonus, the touchscreen controls make it incredibly easy to zoom in and flick between the photos

My camera's screen isn't obscured by "touch screen controls", but should I want to I can still flick through photos on it easily. I've almost never wanted to use that though, except sometimes when it is attached to a decent screen without the use of a computer as an intermediary.

The screen on your phone isn't "mighty" for anything much. I prefer to show and examine photos on a proper screen as that way any flaws are going to be easier to notice. That said, I am more inclined to be working towards professional quality photos or at least photos I am not going to be ashamed of showing others.

60 If you're feeling fancy, you can send your photos and videos to any nearby TVs via DNLA magic

No one I know has that feature available to them simply because most people I know either have older TV's or don't bother buying so-called "smart" tvs. We put our money into a higher quality non-smart and a computer of some grade to drive it, thus getting a better screen and a lasting updateable experience for years to come, instead of next week when the manufacturer stops providing updates and YT/Netflix et al change the API.

I don't have any hardware to connect an android device to my TV. I do, however, have a simple lead that allows me to connect my camera to any TV made since the mid 80s.

Equally, some even support social-media uploads, or you can simply transfer the photos to your phone and then upload anywhere

Or wait till I get home and make sure they're of an acceptable quality before another gets to see them :)

But as far as I'm aware, they can't do any editing of the photo or apply any filters, and they're pretty poor when it comes to showing people the photos they contain.

So is you phone screen :) And I'd much rather carry my small camera and my phone then carry a phone with a 6" screen. But then I do get out and have fun, and such a large slab would get in the way of that quite often :)

So what were your advantages of a DSLR camera again? Sounds like I'll be carrying around a lot of weight - and having another set of batteries to charge - for less functionality than my phone offers.

Only one I'm interested in. The quality of the pictures.

And I'd rather not carry a DSRL with me all the time, or take it into places where it could get damaged (e.g. nightclubs) - even assuming that I'd be allowed in with such a device [*].

Agreed. For those I have a smaller and cheaper camera (or suitable insurance). Smaller than your phone, "less functional" maybe, but while my camera cannot make phone calls or upload photos to all and sundry (costing me copyright as well while it's at it - check Google's TOS) it does one thing much better than any phone on the market can, even those with more than double the MP - it takes good pictures.

Yes, yes, I know that the quality of the photos will be better. But for most people, smartphone photos are now Good Enough, in much the same way that MP3 proved to be good enough when compared to CDs and vinyl, and streaming video proved to be good enough against DVD and Blu-ray. Snark all you want about the quality; we'll be over here having fun and taking Good Enough photos to prove it...

There's several levels of "good enough" though, same with MP3 and the like. Those who know what they're doing apreciate things with higher quality - it's a curse in many respects. I can enjoy slapping a bit of cheap tinned spaghetti on toast and sprinkling some of the wrong kind of cheap cheese on top of it. Many people reading this are gagging at the concept, and several others are lobbying for a return of the death penalty for such food crimes. Because I am someone with an 'untrained pallet' I and I have no clue what I am missing, I am able to enjoy such things. Same with people who like cheap wine vs the true connoisseurs - the latter know everything that's wrong with the cheap junk and cannot enjoy it (although if they don't know it's cheap junk it may be another matter :) )

For you, your phone's camera is 'good enough'. Cloud storage on Google's servers (where you give them rights to use your stuff as they want, forever - if they haven't changed the T&Cs) may be fine for you. Checking your photos out on a piddly little screen might be enough, and being able to play with filters might make you feel like a pro.

For me, these things just aren't good enough. They would be if I hadn't spent time studying photography, didn't learn about what makes a great picture vs what is mundane and what is bloody aweful.

I can't enjoy the photos that you can, because I know what is wrong with them. Just like you may have a very hard time with "mini pizzas" with a base that is a slice of cheap white bread, a "tomato" topping that consists of tinned spaghetti, and the cheapest supermarket-quality colby cheese money can buy, while I think I know what I'm going to be enjoying for dinner tonight. (Ok, but NOT with Colby - my tastes run a little better than that!)

Advantages?

Lighter and smaller

Not compared to a decent pocket-sized camera, especially when you consider the extra power banks you will need to give your phone the same ability to take photos as my little Cannon with a couple of 2500mAH rechargeables

larger view screen

Not an advantage actually.

Always on

Not when the battery's gone flat it isn't. Even when charged, I can't figure out how that is an advantage? A camera takes a couple of seconds to start and only uses the power when you need it.

always with you

I have my camera on me more often than I have a phone on me. (Often I am out of cell range)

better touch interface

I can operate my camera's controls by feel alone. That's a far superior interface than any touch screen will ever have.

Better processing capabilities

Don't need anything like that.

Can add additional functionality via apps such as GPS (which many cameras now don't have)

Don't want or need those.

automatic cloud storage and social networking interactivity

Absolutely DO NOT WANT.

Good enough for general photography

Ha ha ha ha. No.

My camera's advantages :

It isn't always on, so only uses battery when I want it to.

It cannot connect to the net, so cannot send pictures that I don't want sent.

Has NO cloud connectivity whatsoever

Doesn't need a touch interface

Doesn't need a view screen (has one but I seldom turn it on)

Doesn't need processing capabilities - I either take the photo with the camera or I don't take the photo.

Doesn't have GPS (if I want to tell you where the photo was taken I'll tell you).

Is always with me and always ready to go. I can use it easily when I have a phone to my ear, and can use it when the phone is charging somewhere else.

When the phone and a dozen power banks are drained flat, I'll be considering taking the second pair of AA's out of my pocket.

.Its always on, while most dedicated cameras have slow startup times.

My old DSLR : Less than 2 seconds from turning the switch on to ready to use. However, taking it out of the bag and fitting a lens ads 10 seconds. No wireless or anything, but I take pride in my work and want to be sure of the photo on a decent screen before I send it elsewhere, so connectivity is not of interest to me.

Secondary-fallback 4M Panasonic that cost me less than $5 from a junk shop : Also less than 2 seconds to turn on. No wireless or anything, but I take pride in my work and want to be sure of the photo on a decent screen before I send it elsewhere, so connectivity is not of interest to me.

Lenovo tablet (the one with the scratched and petrochemical-damaged screen because I tried to use it to take a picture while working on my car - oops) : 7 seconds from the screen being off (ie tablet has been on a while so well and truly booted). A lot clumsier to handle than the smaller camera as well. Also has the potential to be uploading stuff to other places when I don't actually want it to, so it's connectivity is a concern to me.

Mate's Alcatel phone : Also around 7 seconds from screen off to ready to use.

Admittedly these aren't high-end units, but sufficient for a quick test of your premise :)

My phones (even when I've tried smart phones) aren't always connected to the net, in fact the connection is as limited as I can make it, and I wouldn't want to pay the prices for data here in NZ nor would I be wanting to trust any old 'free' WiFi (though I do have OpenVPN set up for such reasons). Smart phones have appalling low battery lifespans, and if I was to be taking photos with it I also wouldn't want to be more than a couple of inches from a power point. A couple of batteries can keep my camera going for a full day's shooting, but I can't carry spare batteries for a lot of phones although I could use a powerbank. Which is quite large really, so the size of the phone plus power bank is now getting to the size of the camera plus spare batteries. But then I'd need a couple of power banks, as when I am out of town the radio in the phone draws a lot more power making the battery charge fall even faster.

For some of us, all your "advantages" aren't, and even for those where they are they're still short lived, eg short battery life.

Re: Are you suggesting carrying a DSLR 24 hours a day?

Lots of togs, including myself, do, you know. If I'm not actually carrying it, it's in the car. Some of the more extreme togs (me again, I'm afraid) even have a camera bag in the car at all times with >$bloody stupid amount< worth of lenses sitting in it 'just in case'

Have often done that as well.

But I usually ride a bike, and a camera bag without suitable storage available is a bit of a pain :(

What if I want to take the best picture possible, at ANY time possible? Are you suggesting carrying a DSLR 24 hours a day? Phone cameras have their place and at least they give expensive* camera owners something to feel superior about.

I carry a quite old 7.2MP Cannon with me almost always.

Most of the time it does a bloody good job, although knowledge of how to use it helps a bit :) I have a cheap tablet (entry level Lenovo) that does OK 720 video (OK when viewed on a 50" screen) since my DSLR pre-dates them doing video (some day I'll update the body, and hopefully upgrade it in the process).

It's light, easily pocketable, and fairly cheap. When I got it I got it as a "do a decent job but I won't cry if I drop it in the sea", however these days it's been with me a long time and I think I'm on the 3rd time round the clock RE picture numbers.

Also has an amazing super-macro given the price I paid for it as new :)

I'm yet to see a phone that has a camera in it. Some take OK pictures for viewing on a tiny screen, but camera? :)

Re: EFF, Wikipedia, Google...

If you shorten it too much, many of those works will become not remunerative to be created.

I've sold some stuff I've created. But I don't recall ever creating the work because I wanted money.

Like most creators I've known, I've created because "I have a story inside me that needs to be told'. My mental wiring is such that I desire to create these things. Most of my written work is given away via the likes of these forums, some of the visual work is given away at my expense, and some of it sold.

I create because I am wired to create. People who are not wired to create consume, or derive - some with more success than others. I create because I enjoy the process, or feel that someone else may get some enjoyment out of what I do.

If it gets me a dollar, nice. If it gets me a smile from someone I care about, nicer.

I’m less interested in all of the amateur hacking advise, and more interested in hearing from folks on how they would go about securing and protecting their company’s cloud resources.

Quite simple (at least in theory), onsite and offsite backups are the first and biggest key to protecting your systems. If you don't have a backup, you don't have any data worth backing up. Offline backups are critical to that of course :)

Any multi-factor or even multi-person authentication system, if you can get it set up, is also valuable. DON'T have the 2 bits with one person of course.

Wellington city could be nuked, everything within 100km wiped out, and my data would be safe. I probably wouldn't be around to get to it of course, but at least my dying moments won't involve worrying if my backups are safe or not :)

Re: Frankly,

Any outfit named "Voova" deserves failure.

Should've named themselves "Hoova". Clearly they suck at data protection!

Re: Errr, censorship?

"It's NOT impossible for YT or FB et al to screen every single video that is uploaded before they are made available."

Have you read the WIRED article I linked above? It's like with call centers that have to keep callers on hold due to lack of techs.

I don't recall doing so. I did have other things on my mind at the time.

Doesn't matter though, either you hold things for moderation in advance (much like stuff.co.nz does, and has gotten worse on in relation to these attacks) or you let things through awaiting for complaints of problems. It is not impossible for FB etc to moderate everything in advance, but it will destroy the functionality of the sites, or at least wipe the quantity of the material that is on offer.

"I either get the vids I like and every one else gets the vids they like, or we all get stuff-all."

So what's it gonna be? Anarchy or the Police State? Because anything in between's bound to gravitate towards one or the other, as is happening all over the place.

Unless you can suggest a better option, that is all we have. Either 'everything is published and removed after a complaint" or "nothing is published until we OK it". A trust system falls under the latter still, however stuff is okayed on the basis of trusting the author.

"A trust system may be useful, which would still let a large amount of stuff go up untouched but those prone to posting less "socially acceptable" stuff would find it harder."

Unless they start using shill or stolen accounts...

Well, FB have tightened up their security such that if 2 people post from one IP, they have to prove they at least have separate phones (well, they have to provide a number which receives a txt message - effectively shutting me out from FB as I simply will NOT give them my phone # and have had too many test/temp accounts to get past things now). Stolen accounts are, supposedly, harder to do as well given the need to provide a working # and so on, though I do suspect people can mess with that. Shill accounts may still exist, but again you have to be posting from separate IPs or else provide a working phone #. These days it's not easy to change IPs (though IP6 may allow you some leeway if you have a couple of billion available to you, no idea how FB looks at that). Often people using VPN's are required to provide extra security checks, at least with google's stuff.

BTW, I was including myself in those posting what is not "socially acceptable". Christian (/religious), gay, anti-AGW, anti-flouride, anti-1080, recommend parents do some research into vaccination (neither pro- nor anti-, just "do your homework and don't blindly follow either side").

stuff.co.nz has just changed their article commenting rules such that most of the things I am interested in I can no longer comment on, only those who toe the party line may speak (very interesting for a national news paper - and yes, our national press has the wonderful name of "Stuff") #ashamedofnzspress

Re: Remove beer tax, back to the pubs.

"That said, a friend watches a lot of old "western" movies. Ones where the idea of killing someone over some tiny imagined slight is romanticised heavily."

I got news for you. Those really did happen quite a bit in the late 19th century.

No shit Sherlock! But I do fail to see where I said it didn't happen.

The rest of your post falls very much under "[citation needed]", and completely misses the point of my post, as per usual :)

Re: What Register?!?

You're mixing the Paris (where the nutcases used guns) and Nice (where a truck was used) attacks

I stand corrected.

Re: restrictions to weapons

But the problem won't be solved by banning automatics if somebody's determined enough

But we must have less guns! Guns are bad and kill people!

Lets just ignore the fact that in the last 24 hours more people have died from alcohol than from guns, more have died from the use of cars than from guns, probably more have died in home and work accidents, many many more have died from preventable starvation and disease, if only us richer people weren't so damned greedy and selfish.

This guy had a car with a decent amount of cargo space. A little more thought into his IEDs (shoulda spent more time in the library, easy to avoid the censors and the sensors that way!) and he could've gone out in a "blaze of glory" and killed a LOT of people as well.

Admittedly, his method perhaps was one of the more effective methods, just like how the Washington Sniper killed relatively few yet had quite a significant effect on the area, but he could've done more damage without guns.

Re: Root causes

I've had dealings with regional police in NZ. Unless handed everything on a silver platter they're unlikely to take action to prevent crime occurring(+)

(+) In a number of cases the _police_ have been the criminals.

I could tell you stories, but I think you may've already come across some of them.

I guess according to some here on El Reg that makes us both anarchists! :)

I'm always amazed at how NZ police seem to rate as the least corrupt in the world, yet I don't think you'll find a lazier more incompetent self-entitled bunch anywhere else.

Re: Remove beer tax, back to the pubs.

So perhaps raise the bar or ban public ownership of semi-automatic guns/rifles. Plus encourage people to be a little more moderating of people they mix with, gotta be strong to do that.

Actually, with a lot more of the latter, there probably wouldn't be much of a need for the former. The same family who taught my to shoot and how to kill animals also taught me a lot more than most about respecting animals, caring for them, caring for the land and so on. They also taught me a lot about respecting others and how to 'play nice' even when you really hate the other person and every thing they stand for.

More teaching people how to play nice with others, getting people out into social realms and social norms and modelling what is good. When role models are Bruce Willis and the like, where the "hero" murders unarmed surrendering crims (DH3, scene near the end where a guy raises his hands and shouts "don't shoot" in German), well I can understand modern man being a little mixed up. I enjoy "action movies" from time to time, but I'd also like to see more modelling of decent actions, even in the worst of circumstances.

That said, a friend watches a lot of old "western" movies. Ones where the idea of killing someone over some tiny imagined slight is romanticised heavily. I'm starting to wonder if the distance between us from modern tech is really such a bad thing after all :)

It isn't remotely that simple and it never will be. Define trade? "My" website being hosted in Delaware, where "I" enjoy free speech protections may run foul of your law in NZ. If NZ citizens are accessing it, then that's neither "my" fault, nor something "I" can specifically prevent (VPNs exist, for instance).

These questions have been nutted out a long time ago for the most part, and the legal system has been prosecuting people for some years based on crimes committed in other jurisdictions.

The Delaware example aside (I actually probably have greater FOS in NZ than those in the US do), if I create child porn involving neighbourhood kids and host it on your server, and they're ID'd as NZ kids, then there will be legal ramifications for you even if the content is legal where you are. That may be as little as a demand for logs, but don't be surprised if you find yourself in a tighter spot than you should be. We still have the KDC case being argued after all, yet what he was accused of was not a crime in either NZ or the US.

There have been several other instances of people acting in one jurisdiction being nabbed or at least charged in another. El Reg has, IIRC, run some articles on this over the years.

I certainly don't expect all of the web adheres to NZ law. There are many parts of NZ law I disagree with, and I would hate to think of other people being bound by such things. I do expect sites to follow the laws of the land where they operate however, even if it is something I disagree with.

El Reg, for example, operates within the UK even though I may be able to reach it from within my living room. I would expect El Reg to operate under UK law. El Reg also has offices in a couple of other countries, and where they operate out of those offices I would expect them to follow the laws of those lands.

Geoblocking is another matter, and I have in the past blocked many thousands of people based on the ISP or block they operate from. Also I know from personal experience that the use of a VPN does NOT prevent a site from blocking people, you just need to block the appropriate range of IP's and it's done, end of story. I personally abhor the practice but I understand that other people do not like people trying to protect their ID so they block as much traffic as they can.

Sure, sometimes the details are a little harder to manage (eg with import/export by different companies or people - but then it's usually on the importer to be sure things are right), but the theory itself is very simple. Tax dodgers try to make out it's complex, but it isn't really.

Re: Why share?

"I know from people I've had the misfortune of actually knowing that there are groups with very racist views down there"

The mayor is obviously talking out of his arse. I lived in NZ for a couple of decades, of which I spent maybe a dozen nights in Christchurch. Both times I've been assaulted on the street have been there, and while I can't be certain of the political views of the skinheads with swastika tattoos that were busy stomping on me, I'd have guessed at somewhat right of center.

My friend, I fear you may have met some of the very same people I was referring to, and perhaps under much the same circumstances (although I have never walked anywhere in drag).

Some of those I know go through former business contacts as well. Finding out what I know now about these people was not a pleasant experience.

Re: not neccessarily very good at brown-nosing...

As a lowly clerk 1-5, he did not have to think, and could do his job literally on auto-pilot.

Hence why I've loved doing low-skilled work that pays OK. More of your life is your own, you can think, and if you come up with some great ideas during work time or later and wish to sell them, there's none of those annoying "all your thought belong to us" clauses in the contract.

I could travel when I wanted, take a long weekend. If my holiday time was used up for the year and we had a quiet period at work, I could still take a long weekend or two with the boss's blessing - he didn't have to pay me to sit around and do nothing and I didn't have to stay there sitting around doing nothing.

Sometimes menial work is the best :) Though these days I prefer stuff more 'constructive', with a little bit of a bite to the job.

Re: not neccessarily very good at brown-nosing...

I now work for a different large global who has just introduced, as the result of feedback, the ability to stay on a non managerial path yet still have the same recognition, goals, promotions and rewards.

Wow.. I almost struggle to believe that :)

It is a rare thing indeed for companies to do such great things for their employees.

Re: I smell a rat

I've worked with people in the past who were actually very good at their jobs but were constantly being bad mouthed by management. This was often when a PHB thought they knew everything (often loudly) and the colleagues were constantly being forced to prove them otherwise to the PHB's boss.,

I had fun with that once or twice. The boss had been badmouthing me to suppliers, customers and contractors.

One day there was a fault with the internet (telco end, not ours) and he came in while I was talking to one of said customers and mentioned it. I just nonchalantly said "Well, you know much more about networking than I do, I'll go off clock and watch in awe as you fix it".

Both the customer and I found it quite a joy to be sharing a moment together watching him get more and more flustered as he proclaimed his knowldge, went in with a 'fix', only to have that fail so go with another thing. He'd heard me talk of a bad LAN card flooding the network with "martian packets" (an early outage before I got some resiliency built in) so decided one of the machines was causing that and unplugged them one by one, claimed bad cabling so opened up packets of patch cables (all the shop ones were made by me, the ones he opened were on the shelf IE saleable stock), and various other things..

What made it more enjoyable for me is it was a "brief" (as in 3-4 hours) but major outage. The customer worked a couple of blocks away and had everything with the one telco so had lost phones and internet, and had come to me in person to see if I was aware what was up. As our net and phone line was also out, I'd already phoned the telco to make sure they were aware of a fault when the boss came on the scene. Given we could log into the router and it had a "disconnected" status icon, I was fairly certain the internal LAN was fine and the other side was dead, especially as someone a couple of blocks away had the same problem :)

Love being able to show that kind of manager up when the time comes.

Re: Horse crap.

and do-overs when you make a mistake

Isn't that the purpose of backups? :)

I am desperate for that staffer to end up at a disciplinary so I can grill him but until then my hands are tied.

Er, you don't read much of the BOFH do you?