28mm f/1.4E ED Nikkor Review
April 8, 2023
The Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28mm ƒ/1.4E ED is a $2000 (US) prime lens. This, on the surface, looks like poor value proposition. After all, even the cheapest kit lens is going to have a 28mm equivalent focal length at its wide end. So a review of this lens needs to start with addressing why someone would even consider paying for this lens.
Unique Qualities of 28mm Optically, a 28mm1 lens provides a wide field of view, which roughly matches what we see or percieve of our environment.
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Quest for the Best Focal Length
March 23, 2023
If I were to be left with only one focal length to take photos with for the rest of my life, which would I pick? This is my journey through 15+ years to find the answer to that question. Why it’s taken me this long to arrive the answer has a lot to do with experimentation, self-discovery and some great technological advancements. It all starts with the wrong type of 50mm.
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Fujifilm X100V Review: An Unfulfilled Dream
March 20, 2023
A few months ago, I reviewed the Fujifilm X-E4 and mentioned that I got that camera because
For years, I’ve been searching for something that’s compact, elegant and competent – a “Vanity Camera”, as I call it. After much deliberation, I settled on getting the world’s prettiest camera, a Fujifilm x100v. Except, as of this writing, I couldn’t find a new body in three different countries that I looked.
Well, it turned out that my brother managed to find an X100V and was gracious enough to swap it for my X-E4 kit.
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The MetaComputer™ (Part "What" of 3)
December 9, 2022
In part “Why” of this series that appeared previously, I talked about the need for a new computing model that simplifies modern cloud-native distributed application development. In this part, I’ll go into some details of what this new computing model should be and what it should provide.
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The MetaComputer™ (Part "Why" of 3)
November 27, 2022
It’s been a quite a while since I truly enjoyed programming at work. Don’t get me wrong. I like wrangling with code to make interesting stuff happen. The problem is that for a long time now, making interesting stuff happen with code hasn’t been the end game. Since the last ten years or so, it’s become incredibly more complex to get finished code to start working in the real world (aka production). Some say it’s because we OD’d on microservices. That probably true but there’s more to it than that alone.
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Fujifilm X-E4: An Engaging Experience I'd Rather Not Have
September 1, 2022
When I’m on a business trip and I go for breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant, I want to take a few photos of the ambience and the food. However, my Nikon D750 feels a bit like an overkill for this job, as does my Nikon D500… or Z6 or even Z50.
What I want for this occasion is something svelte. Like a Nikon Coolpix A or a Nikon J5. Except the former is as usable as a butter knife for carving steak and the latter is often outdone by an iPhone.
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exiftool Examples
May 6, 2021
Following is a collection of real exiftool commands that I’ve used, along with explanations of what each does. exiftool is a command-line utility that provides very powerful EXIF reading, writing and searching capabilities.
I’m writing this down because I often spend a lot of time reading through exiftool documentation to find out how to get something done, just to forget it within hours. All of these examples work on a Unix shell environment like ZSH on MacOS or the various Linux shells.
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Using a QLC SSD for Backups. Am I Insane?
September 10, 2020
I have a properly working Seagate Backup Plus Hub. However, I’m now using a Samsung 870 QVO for Time Machine backups on my Mac, despite its bottom-of-the-pile TBW (durability) rating. It actually makes sense.
The Backstory I have a 2017 iMac (bought that year as well) which I use as my primary home computer for photo/video editing, a bit of programming and a lot of Netflix and HBO Go as well.
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Buy or Build?
April 18, 2020
One of the decisions a CTO has to frequently make is whether to build some piece of functionality in-house or buy it from a third party vendor. In this post, I share my framework for making these decisions.
I also include a case study each for a buy decision and a build decision. Added bonus – some thoughts on whether you should sell something you’ve decided to build.
Functional Complexity One of the most important determinants of buy-vs-build decisions will be the ability to spec out the entire functionality.
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5 Competitive Advantages in Technology
January 19, 2019
The technology universe is in a constant state of flux with new advancements arriving faster than one could keep up. A technology leader, in this scenario, needs to look for something durable to build the foundation of their new (or improved) technology organisation.
Spending 36 months leading the charge (and occasionally failing) at a fast growing business that’s powered by technology can teach a lot. Coming off the back of a career built with customer-facing development teams at companies serving over 100 million customers, I now have some idea of what it takes to make a strong technology foundation for a modern business.
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