The HTML Spec

★ Posted on Saturday, 17 Oct 2009 at 10:53 am ★

Starting to take interest in the HTML spec again. There are some improvements in HTML 5 and CSS 3, being able to embed fonts, create rounded corners, drop shadows on container elements and a whole heap of other features. The only problem is that the support for these modern web features are still limited and you need proprietary code to display them between the two major web rendering engines, mainly Gecko (Firefox) and Webkit (Safari and Chrome).

I’ve probably not learned anything new since 2006 or so in relation to web design. Even the current design was hacked together quickly with my existing knowledge. I used to spend hours banging against a brick wall (was never very bright back then) trying to coax a good design out of broken code. I eventually learned how to ‘speak’ HTML and CSS coding and could usually bend the code enough to my will to display what I wanted.

I don’t have any plans to fix up the current design, and my about page is still something I wrote from late 2007 and is 2 years out of date. There are random ideas floating around in my mind, but I’m preoccupied with too many other things to take a redesign of this website seriously.

Anyway, just a random rant on my part regarding web coding. Don’t know anyone to be able to bounce ideas off anyway, so I’ll just air my thoughts here, as a blog should be for the purpose of expressing ideas anyway.

Progress

★ Posted on Saturday, 10 Oct 2009 at 08:33 pm ★

Behold the Diadema Perfetta, stylish stainless steel hunk of metal. Makes coffee.

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Finally plonked down cash for a coffee machine and grinder. My previous machine from eBay had gone to the repair shop and I suddenly got an itch to replace it so I got myself a Diadema Perfetta single boiler dual purpose espresso machine and a Macap M5 grinder. Put in the order on Monday and I was sort of excited all week until finally this morning I went to pick up the machine. The grinder is pretty high end, and probably one of the best home use machines which is already bordering on commercial cafe quality machinery. The espresso machine is pretty much top of the line of the single boiler machines out there. Unlike the higher end machines, I cannot make coffee and steam milk at the same time due to the temperature differences between both processes. I’m quite happy to wait a bit before steaming milk as I don’t normally prepare that many drinks.

So far I’ve made only a few coffees (will start taking photos once I produce something decent) and with just some basic knowledge and skills, the coffee still comes out pretty decent. When I can start making coffee art on the steamed milk, I’d have had plenty of time on the machine.

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It’s been a pretty productive week for me. Cleared out a backlog of work I had piled up and feel pretty good about it. Finally got my first item sold on eBay, just hoping that it arrives to the person who bought it in one piece. Now I have one less computer and while four seems excessive, they all have their reasons for being in my room as they serve different purposes.

Got my shipment of books from Amazon regarding photography. Have graduated beyond the books that teach you how to expose for a scene. These days I’m more into the thinking behind how to compose an image and I’ve picked up a few ideas here and there. I had previously purchased Joe McNally’s The Moment it Clicks and mentioned it here. This time around I bought his second book, The Hot Shoe Diaries as well as another book by photographer David duChemin, titled Within the Frame: The Journey of Photography Vision. Have only skimmed the surface of both books and would like to spend time reading them over the week.

No soccer on tonight, so I’m happy to just lay back, relax and flip through my books.

Simply Tulips

★ Posted on Monday, 5 Oct 2009 at 08:04 pm ★

One of my favourite photos from the Tulip Festival on Monbulk Road in Silvan, Melbourne. This is the third time in four years I’ve been here.

My photo styling has evolved over the last few years, and I feel that I’m taking more interesting photos, as well as improving on my post processing skills. I still don’t think I’m handling the camera enough, so the learning is start stop during the weekends when I do have a chance to photograph something of interest.

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Was busy over the weekend, bringing Vyanne’s friend around Melbourne to have a look see. Yesterday was the Tulip Festival as mentioned while on Saturday we went to South Melbourne Market, then heading eastwards and having lunch in Brighton, before having a stroll on the beach.

Sunday was a simple affair. We lost an hour due to daylight savings (not sure if it’s starting or ending) and got up to make breakfast before picking up a few friends and driving off to the tulip farm. Heh, it started raining a little just before we arrived, so it messed up our plans to picnic on the grass, but it did give me water droplets for taking photos, giving the tulips a freshness about it.

As I have photographed these tulips twice now, decided to bring my exotic prime lenses to take photos. Brought my 85mm f1.8 but that did not come out of the bag at all. Instead, the 50mm f1.2 and 105mm f2.8 Macro saw plenty of action. You could see me half stooping, half bending in an awkward position just to get the shot. I even had my flash unit attached with the bounce card sticking out just to give a little fill light on the flowers.

It was overall an enjoyable experience, with friends bringing different types of food. I made some tuna sandwiches, while Vyanne prepared madeleines. Another friend brought pita bread, with salami, cheese and sundried tomato to be assembled on the spot. Even managed to pack some tea into flasks and the oddest thing at this picnic was a bag of longans. Heh, it seemed a little out of place amongst the other food we brought.

Anyway, the weekend went by too quickly and I don’t think I rested quite enough over this weekend.

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The tulips are quite beautiful, so here are some of the photos I took from this day trip.