Alan’s Blog

No More Flickr… Let’s see how Zooomr is

Though I publish photos on my main website. I wanted a way to quickly share pics with friends and family. As quite a few other people were sharing their photos with me using flickr, i decided to go the same way.

As it turns out free flickr is far too restrictive so its time to find something else.

There is a limit of 3 sets (groups) that is far too small and also on the number of photos that can be uploaded.

I will give zooomr a go and report back. It seems it has no limits and looks pretty decent.

If you know me and have a zooomr account let me know and I will add you to my contacts.

Photoshop Batch processing with Python

I meant to look into this for a while and now I have I am very pleasantly suprised!

 
 
import win32com.client
 
ps = win32com.client.Dispatch("Photoshop.Application")
ps.Preferences.TypeUnits = 1
ps.Preferences.RulerUnits = 1
 
mydoc = ps.Open("IMG_1630.jpg")
if  mydoc.Height > mydoc.Width :
   print "Portrait"
else :
   print "Landscape"
   mydoc.ResizeImage(Width=640)
 

Basically you use the vb api docs :

PS VB API

The API seems quite detailed, certainly enough for my needs. If all else fails you can always call a Photoshop Action if it gets too tricky.

Lots more coming soon on this subject!

New Finning Technique

I'm not sure how this would be in a cave but it looks like it could be fun in the open sea.

I want one!

Navy Seals PowerSwim

Need Web Hosting?

I am looking at getting a dedicated web host. A small machine with a Gb or so of Ram. I, with my partner Michel Hollands will do all the admin... backups etc.

As this is pretty pricey, to offset the costs I can offer simple web hosting accounts to friends at typical hosting prices. About $5 a month.

This is not a business and I really don't want to deal with people I don't know. If you currently have a host and are not satisfied with the service, or have been thinking about buying hosting, then it could be a good option. For the same price you get service you can trust and a lot of flexibility.

Michel and I know what we are doing and will offer python, ruby on rails etc. The host will be Linux, most likely centos

if you are interested contact me at mail@alanformstone.com

HPUX 11.23 cx_oracle, python and Oracle 10.1

I searched long and hard to get this to work and eventually found a solution.

Build both python and cx_oracle as 32 bit. I will describe the full process for this some other time , but for the moment there quite a few post about this out there already.

this bit was puzzling though :

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Scuba Diving Puerto Aventuras after Hurricane Dean

While Puerto Aventuras missed the category five winds of Hurricane Dean. There was a lot of damage along the coastline due to pretty bad storm surge.

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Ikelite Leaky Housing

After spending close to $150 on shipping and related 'incentives' to the Mexican Postal Service and having Ikelite assure me that my housing works fine and has been pressure tested to whatever depths, its time to take it out again.

Hmmm I am not happy, not one little bit. So it was pressure tested was it Mr Ikelite? It works fine does it? So how is it that I have actually worked out whats going on here and you havent?

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Hurricane Dean

Following on from the Earthquake in Lima, Hurricane Dean eventually missed us in Puerto Aventuras. Though what defines 'missed' is difficult to say really.

Dean was a fast powerful Hurricane with a lot of storm surge. This ultimately meant that though the winds didn't damage too much, we did receive a vist from the ocean. Quite a few crabs moved in to take shelter from the storm.

Both Hurricane Emily and Hurricane Wilma in 2005 were certainly far more destructive than Hurricane Dean, but the water damage this time was far worse.

Earthquake In Lima

As some of you know I had the misfortune to be in Peru during the 8.0 earthquake. To make matters worse I happened to be on the 11th floor of a lima Hotel less than 100 miles from the eopicenter. Pretty scary stuff, I can tell you.

Strange situation though, as I was discussing Lilianas evacuation From Mexico from Hurricane Dean at the time the earthquake struck. Two natural disasters in one week. Thats a new one for me.

But anyway to let you know. I and everybody I know here is fine.

Time to Blog

I've looked after the static pages of alanformstone.com for quite a few years now but now its time to make things more dynamic. The idea is that this blog will complemnt the static pages but allow me to make more frequent updates and make it easier to get to some of the alanformstone.com pages.