Wednesday, March 28, 2007
travelogue 2007.3a
the trip was a go. naturally, there were eleventh-hour jitters, most especially of our technical wunderkind when word got around that the director (one of the original trip proponents) would be pulling out due to other pressing concerns.
however, a few words from me (okay, maybe not so few (",) ), may have tipped him into the committed camp.
in the interim, while we were polling final numbers, i was on the phone to the accommodations, and the integrated bus/ferry round trip service to and from puerto galera. ultimately, seven of us signed on to the trip. so, seven seats on the bus, and 4 budget rooms reserved.
now, the original plan was monday to thursday, but the resort told me that the adventists had booked the place to the rafters on the 18th and 19th, so our schedule moved from tuesday to friday -- which, for me, gave rise to a very stressful monday indeed.
that had everything to do with sequentially-revealed-edit-related issues which saw me getting to the apartment at 11:30pm; packed and then slept at 1:30am; and an assembly time of 5:00am at the pilar 7-eleven for pickup by a van arranged by one of our number.
that last one was deemed necessary because the bus/ferry service set out from ermita -- so we had to go there. and early enough for breakfast before the estimated four-odd hour total travel time. got there, we did. breakfast, we did: i, in the hotel lobby; they, at the local nearby chowking.
the breakfast called "continental" was essentially a collection of bread (french baguette, croissant, dinner rolls, and plain toasted white sandwich bread) with butter, a slice of mango, and brewed coffee. odd, but i was ravenous -- and the croissant and rolls were good, though.
the bus/ferry service, called "SiKat", was something that i'd been using (with my makati housemate) times in the past when there were comets in the sky and the time to chase them to puerto galera's white beach. the service consisted of a tourist bus and a dedicated ferry boat to the puerto galera pier at muelle bay.
that ferry used to be (i say "used to," because the time previously, when the china crew came back and wanted to go to galera, the ferry was replaced by a "fast boat" called the blue eagle, i think) a catamaran style boat, with large-ish areas to walk around, and an integral bar/dining nook. i actually have no pictures of the boat itself, but i'll see if i can get one sometime.
anyway, the trip to batangas pier was a slumberous one as fatigue set in almost as soon as i sat on the bus seat. when we got to the port building, the line i was expecting at the baggage check was nowhere to be seen. hmm. then i saw it. x-ray machine! progress! at least it was quick.
i was expecting the blue eagle again -- and it was nowhere to be seen. in it's place was the blue penguin. hmm. all the "blue" monickers: blue eagle, blue pelican, blue penguin... what's that say? i have no idea.
the blue penguin was, in the mode of the other non-roro/supercat/seacat boats that ply the batangas to puerto galera route, a scaled up twin-outrigger banca. okaay...
one of their primary benefits, though, is the capability to make beach landings (something the SiKat itself could not do) -- and the other; speed. batangas pier to puerto galera in under an hour and a half. the SiKat would do that in two hours, a similar pace to the roro boats.
off we went then, blue penguin style.
however, a few words from me (okay, maybe not so few (",) ), may have tipped him into the committed camp.
in the interim, while we were polling final numbers, i was on the phone to the accommodations, and the integrated bus/ferry round trip service to and from puerto galera. ultimately, seven of us signed on to the trip. so, seven seats on the bus, and 4 budget rooms reserved.
now, the original plan was monday to thursday, but the resort told me that the adventists had booked the place to the rafters on the 18th and 19th, so our schedule moved from tuesday to friday -- which, for me, gave rise to a very stressful monday indeed.
that had everything to do with sequentially-revealed-edit-related issues which saw me getting to the apartment at 11:30pm; packed and then slept at 1:30am; and an assembly time of 5:00am at the pilar 7-eleven for pickup by a van arranged by one of our number.
that last one was deemed necessary because the bus/ferry service set out from ermita -- so we had to go there. and early enough for breakfast before the estimated four-odd hour total travel time. got there, we did. breakfast, we did: i, in the hotel lobby; they, at the local nearby chowking.
the breakfast called "continental" was essentially a collection of bread (french baguette, croissant, dinner rolls, and plain toasted white sandwich bread) with butter, a slice of mango, and brewed coffee. odd, but i was ravenous -- and the croissant and rolls were good, though.
the bus/ferry service, called "SiKat", was something that i'd been using (with my makati housemate) times in the past when there were comets in the sky and the time to chase them to puerto galera's white beach. the service consisted of a tourist bus and a dedicated ferry boat to the puerto galera pier at muelle bay.
that ferry used to be (i say "used to," because the time previously, when the china crew came back and wanted to go to galera, the ferry was replaced by a "fast boat" called the blue eagle, i think) a catamaran style boat, with large-ish areas to walk around, and an integral bar/dining nook. i actually have no pictures of the boat itself, but i'll see if i can get one sometime.
anyway, the trip to batangas pier was a slumberous one as fatigue set in almost as soon as i sat on the bus seat. when we got to the port building, the line i was expecting at the baggage check was nowhere to be seen. hmm. then i saw it. x-ray machine! progress! at least it was quick.
i was expecting the blue eagle again -- and it was nowhere to be seen. in it's place was the blue penguin. hmm. all the "blue" monickers: blue eagle, blue pelican, blue penguin... what's that say? i have no idea.
the blue penguin was, in the mode of the other non-roro/supercat/seacat boats that ply the batangas to puerto galera route, a scaled up twin-outrigger banca. okaay...
one of their primary benefits, though, is the capability to make beach landings (something the SiKat itself could not do) -- and the other; speed. batangas pier to puerto galera in under an hour and a half. the SiKat would do that in two hours, a similar pace to the roro boats.
off we went then, blue penguin style.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
beddie bye
of late, in the wake of the punctured airbed, have been going home to pasay on a daily basis. day before yesterday, however, sleepiness overcame me before the trip home: ergo pilar.
just in case, brought along my little bottle of rugby contact cement (purchased to fix a flapping sole-front-tab-thingie on one of my rubbershoes) with the aim of perhaps fixing the airbed in macgyver fashion.
right. inflate bed. bed inflated. lean bed up on wall, topside facing wall. running my hand over the suspected area of the leak reveals nothing. okaay... so far so good.
sleep.
awaken to bed half-deflated. better than the last time, when i actually was on the floor. this time, there were a couple of inches of air keeping me, well, aloft.
ah. decision time.
lunchtime sees me off to the local sm mall, and i purchase something that i've been looking at for months now: a buy one take one deal on a foam-core folding sofa/bed (single size, as far as beds are concerned) - and a less than ideal sofa.
but the thing about it is that it folds into four sections and can be used momentarily as a sofa -- so it actually doesn't need to be stored away when not in use as a bed. as a bonus, in my room at the pilar apartment, folding it into a sofa reclaims me some precious floor space.
so there's a good thing. also another thing, but that'll have to await a later post, when i can best figure out how to describe what happened next.
and the airbed? i may yet find time to locate and fix the hole (the thing could still be useful); but for now, its deflated, folded, stored away.
just in case, brought along my little bottle of rugby contact cement (purchased to fix a flapping sole-front-tab-thingie on one of my rubbershoes) with the aim of perhaps fixing the airbed in macgyver fashion.
right. inflate bed. bed inflated. lean bed up on wall, topside facing wall. running my hand over the suspected area of the leak reveals nothing. okaay... so far so good.
sleep.
awaken to bed half-deflated. better than the last time, when i actually was on the floor. this time, there were a couple of inches of air keeping me, well, aloft.
ah. decision time.
lunchtime sees me off to the local sm mall, and i purchase something that i've been looking at for months now: a buy one take one deal on a foam-core folding sofa/bed (single size, as far as beds are concerned) - and a less than ideal sofa.
but the thing about it is that it folds into four sections and can be used momentarily as a sofa -- so it actually doesn't need to be stored away when not in use as a bed. as a bonus, in my room at the pilar apartment, folding it into a sofa reclaims me some precious floor space.
so there's a good thing. also another thing, but that'll have to await a later post, when i can best figure out how to describe what happened next.
and the airbed? i may yet find time to locate and fix the hole (the thing could still be useful); but for now, its deflated, folded, stored away.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
pictures end
found it:
spectrum on carpet
mid-november 2006
now, i've made some noise about the slowness of the camera in general. so this photo comes as a bit of a surprise:
morning sky above pilar apartment
mid-november 2006
what's the surprise, you ask? well, here's a crop of that image:
what's that, up in the sky?
i would've expected the airplane to be just a blurred line - but there it is. identifiably so.
...and less than 30 days later, no more phone/cam.
although there used to be a neat little cybershot that i used to borrow, it was lost to a miscreant at a festival not too long ago in baguio city.
pictures end.
spectrum on carpet
mid-november 2006
now, i've made some noise about the slowness of the camera in general. so this photo comes as a bit of a surprise:
morning sky above pilar apartment
mid-november 2006
what's the surprise, you ask? well, here's a crop of that image:
what's that, up in the sky?
i would've expected the airplane to be just a blurred line - but there it is. identifiably so.
...and less than 30 days later, no more phone/cam.
although there used to be a neat little cybershot that i used to borrow, it was lost to a miscreant at a festival not too long ago in baguio city.
pictures end.
Monday, March 12, 2007
a pixel out of place; snaps from the past
get to work fashionably late (just in time for lunch, actually), and open the good ol' spam-filled email.
it's also a good thing that the open source email client i'm now trying out has an adaptive spam filter, so a majority of the spam goes to a folder of my choice and doesn't clutter up the main inbox.
one email. last week's project again. client would like a little white dot expunged from a certain part of the edit. it's never been noticed before, email says; could we therefore address it?
as a matter of fact, it's always been there. it's actually a graphic element scaled down to zero pixel dimensions prior to scaling up to full dream bubble glory. but zero pixel size in the compositing software apparently doesn't equate to invisible enough, so the white dot. my feeling is that the little "blemish" is the least of anyone's concern, but client has now made it the q.c. to-fix of the moment...
...so fix do i. fiddle with some layer visibility in the timeline editor, hey presto! pixel banished.
which leads to save, export, and later, encode to playable dvd -- but the latter only when they ask.
===
now back to an old topic: drowned camera phone, or the pictures therefrom. now, i like pictures; though taking pictures with an eye for composition and all that currently escapes me. so my pictures are serendipitous little things, with very little forethought involved.
of late, going through the home hard disk, came across a few snaps i took with the phone during it's tenure with me.
forthwith:
view during one of the impromptu tagaytay trips
taken at conspiracy, during jose's solo exhibit
(unless my memory's totally failing me)
sunset beams walking back to the office from merienda
there was one little image that i was looking for, somehow i can't find it at the moment - a little line of light across carpet, refraction from the office main door's glass panels.
when i find it, i'll post it.
it's also a good thing that the open source email client i'm now trying out has an adaptive spam filter, so a majority of the spam goes to a folder of my choice and doesn't clutter up the main inbox.
one email. last week's project again. client would like a little white dot expunged from a certain part of the edit. it's never been noticed before, email says; could we therefore address it?
as a matter of fact, it's always been there. it's actually a graphic element scaled down to zero pixel dimensions prior to scaling up to full dream bubble glory. but zero pixel size in the compositing software apparently doesn't equate to invisible enough, so the white dot. my feeling is that the little "blemish" is the least of anyone's concern, but client has now made it the q.c. to-fix of the moment...
...so fix do i. fiddle with some layer visibility in the timeline editor, hey presto! pixel banished.
which leads to save, export, and later, encode to playable dvd -- but the latter only when they ask.
===
now back to an old topic: drowned camera phone, or the pictures therefrom. now, i like pictures; though taking pictures with an eye for composition and all that currently escapes me. so my pictures are serendipitous little things, with very little forethought involved.
of late, going through the home hard disk, came across a few snaps i took with the phone during it's tenure with me.
forthwith:
view during one of the impromptu tagaytay trips
taken at conspiracy, during jose's solo exhibit
(unless my memory's totally failing me)
sunset beams walking back to the office from merienda
there was one little image that i was looking for, somehow i can't find it at the moment - a little line of light across carpet, refraction from the office main door's glass panels.
when i find it, i'll post it.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
long day... and a diagnosis
expectations fulfilled: a very long day indeed. less ennui than normal, though: one of the projects had come back with a minor revision.
brief history:
in the course of the past week or so, the client had decided that the songs that were part of the project would benefit from some "sing along" text, complete with bouncing graphic, to enable the target market to, well, sing along.
that part i was more than happy to leave to the edit group on the other side of our floor.
once the overlay text was done, i put it into my edit and discovered that there were portions where the transparency part of the video would disappear. odd, but no matter: it only happened at the beginning and end of each overlay video, so that was easily edited out.
so, that done, export edit as playable quicktime and call it a day.
...then, as mentioned earlier, minor revision looms on the horizon.
turns out that the text that was given to the edit crew to use was wrong somehow. a couple of phrases, where one would pause in the song, ended with colons. this, client could not live with. funny, client supplied text to begin with.
anyway, edit redoes text overlay; and to be absolutely pendantic on the matter, includes faithfully all punctuation given with revised lyrics. including quotation marks.
and now edit software decides to put a spanner in the works. this time, whenever the text disappears (instrumental parts of the song), the transparency decides to vanish, leaving a black video over my edit.
troubleshooting, i export the entire project off the editor's machine, and open it on the mac that i use. fiddling around with the sequence settings resolves the issue, though counter-intuitively. made sense later, thinking about it. if one were to need to export a video with a transparency channel, make sure the sequence is set up beforehand to output that way (codec, bit depth and all that).
so, that done, export playable quicktime, take that quicktime and make playable dvd project, burn dvd -- and day is done.
make my way to pasay (haven't addressed issue of deflated bed yet), and receive a text.
...the diagnosis.
not the original expectation (which is good), but still worthy of concern. i call up, and the matter seems to be on track for a resolution; and that is very good.
still and all, i pray.
brief history:
in the course of the past week or so, the client had decided that the songs that were part of the project would benefit from some "sing along" text, complete with bouncing graphic, to enable the target market to, well, sing along.
that part i was more than happy to leave to the edit group on the other side of our floor.
once the overlay text was done, i put it into my edit and discovered that there were portions where the transparency part of the video would disappear. odd, but no matter: it only happened at the beginning and end of each overlay video, so that was easily edited out.
so, that done, export edit as playable quicktime and call it a day.
...then, as mentioned earlier, minor revision looms on the horizon.
turns out that the text that was given to the edit crew to use was wrong somehow. a couple of phrases, where one would pause in the song, ended with colons. this, client could not live with. funny, client supplied text to begin with.
anyway, edit redoes text overlay; and to be absolutely pendantic on the matter, includes faithfully all punctuation given with revised lyrics. including quotation marks.
and now edit software decides to put a spanner in the works. this time, whenever the text disappears (instrumental parts of the song), the transparency decides to vanish, leaving a black video over my edit.
troubleshooting, i export the entire project off the editor's machine, and open it on the mac that i use. fiddling around with the sequence settings resolves the issue, though counter-intuitively. made sense later, thinking about it. if one were to need to export a video with a transparency channel, make sure the sequence is set up beforehand to output that way (codec, bit depth and all that).
so, that done, export playable quicktime, take that quicktime and make playable dvd project, burn dvd -- and day is done.
make my way to pasay (haven't addressed issue of deflated bed yet), and receive a text.
...the diagnosis.
not the original expectation (which is good), but still worthy of concern. i call up, and the matter seems to be on track for a resolution; and that is very good.
still and all, i pray.
Friday, March 09, 2007
a new dawn, punctured bed
continuing events from previous post
i wake up just shy of 4am to an unexpected, though perhaps not unforeseen event. the airbed had deflated. not quite 2 years of use (naturally way over the warranty period -- which, come to think of it, may have just been a month; or was that the not-satisfied-replacement-period?). hmm. i re-inflated it with the included handy-dandy airbed inflator doohickey and laid back down on it.
couldn't go to sleep. whenever i would move from a particular position (lying flat on my back, centered width-wise on the bed), an annoying high-pitched whistle would start up. for a seemingly tiny sound, it could be heard distinctly over the whoosh of the box fan at the foot of the bed.
by dint of a little experimental moving around, i gathered that the hole was towards the end with the air valve, and at the bottom surface. likely, at least. will have to run a test to see for sure.
now, thinking about it, the house has now been through 3 of 4 airbeds purchased of like manufacture (we got them all from the same store). louie's gone through 2; but his floor is wooden parquet (and the likelihood of splinters), while mine is grouted tile -- so i don't know; maybe just material fatigue over time.
options? back to the store to inquire about a repair kit (though in louie's experience they were not available at least one time that he's asked), or buy a new, non-inflatable bed. um. have to think about that.
being awake, decide to get on with the daily pre-flight stuff (medications, ablutions, etc.,) -- just on a lark (rarely if ever am i awake at this time). jose's already up; expectorating. inquiry reveals that at least he did get more sleep than recently with that one dose of syrup; and he goes back to his room.
by 5:30, i was ready. taking my leave with a text to jose, i was off.
got to the office before full dawn broke; a new day, a long one, loomed ahead.
i wake up just shy of 4am to an unexpected, though perhaps not unforeseen event. the airbed had deflated. not quite 2 years of use (naturally way over the warranty period -- which, come to think of it, may have just been a month; or was that the not-satisfied-replacement-period?). hmm. i re-inflated it with the included handy-dandy airbed inflator doohickey and laid back down on it.
couldn't go to sleep. whenever i would move from a particular position (lying flat on my back, centered width-wise on the bed), an annoying high-pitched whistle would start up. for a seemingly tiny sound, it could be heard distinctly over the whoosh of the box fan at the foot of the bed.
by dint of a little experimental moving around, i gathered that the hole was towards the end with the air valve, and at the bottom surface. likely, at least. will have to run a test to see for sure.
now, thinking about it, the house has now been through 3 of 4 airbeds purchased of like manufacture (we got them all from the same store). louie's gone through 2; but his floor is wooden parquet (and the likelihood of splinters), while mine is grouted tile -- so i don't know; maybe just material fatigue over time.
options? back to the store to inquire about a repair kit (though in louie's experience they were not available at least one time that he's asked), or buy a new, non-inflatable bed. um. have to think about that.
being awake, decide to get on with the daily pre-flight stuff (medications, ablutions, etc.,) -- just on a lark (rarely if ever am i awake at this time). jose's already up; expectorating. inquiry reveals that at least he did get more sleep than recently with that one dose of syrup; and he goes back to his room.
by 5:30, i was ready. taking my leave with a text to jose, i was off.
got to the office before full dawn broke; a new day, a long one, loomed ahead.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
sickness on hold; sickness developing
the full onset of the flu seems to have been arrested somewhat, but there are the niggling symptoms left over: periodic stuffy nose, and a cough that pops up from time to time.
the more irritating aspect is the cough, so i decided to use the flavorful cough suppressant on that -- while at work. next thing you know, drowsiness kicks in, and i end up taking a short nap.
...and as happened before, woke up feeling lousy; and elected to end the day as soon as 6 rolled around.
got to the apartment and slept as soon as i got in.
sometime around 10-ish, jose arrives. waking up, i go downstairs thinking that it might be a good idea to imbibe another dose of the syrup.
jose's at the dinner table about to have a snack, and he and i end up having a wide-ranging discussion on symptoms and sicknesses and things of that nature; turns out his condition may have taken a turn that requires more than self-medication: i'm of the admittedly-non-medical-professional opinion that hopefully it may be something less than it looked at the moment -- but agreed that he would benefit from an md's attention (and given that our 5k-strong workforce's doctor's waitlist was longer than comfortable for a checkup), he decided that he'd best see their family specialist the following day. somehow got him to try the flavorful syrup (least it could do was to enable him to sleep longer between bouts of coughing...).
having more or less talked him into tiredness, we repaired to our rooms for the night.
also, having taken that dose of syrup, i end up in a dreamless slumber, interrupted by something i'll discuss in a next post.
the more irritating aspect is the cough, so i decided to use the flavorful cough suppressant on that -- while at work. next thing you know, drowsiness kicks in, and i end up taking a short nap.
...and as happened before, woke up feeling lousy; and elected to end the day as soon as 6 rolled around.
got to the apartment and slept as soon as i got in.
sometime around 10-ish, jose arrives. waking up, i go downstairs thinking that it might be a good idea to imbibe another dose of the syrup.
jose's at the dinner table about to have a snack, and he and i end up having a wide-ranging discussion on symptoms and sicknesses and things of that nature; turns out his condition may have taken a turn that requires more than self-medication: i'm of the admittedly-non-medical-professional opinion that hopefully it may be something less than it looked at the moment -- but agreed that he would benefit from an md's attention (and given that our 5k-strong workforce's doctor's waitlist was longer than comfortable for a checkup), he decided that he'd best see their family specialist the following day. somehow got him to try the flavorful syrup (least it could do was to enable him to sleep longer between bouts of coughing...).
having more or less talked him into tiredness, we repaired to our rooms for the night.
also, having taken that dose of syrup, i end up in a dreamless slumber, interrupted by something i'll discuss in a next post.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
assumptions: part 2
continuing from the last post, but on an entirely different subject (with assumptions still part of the picture).
yesterday afternoon, got a call from the technical manager. in the weeks past, i was supposed to set up a little laboratory rig; a mini render farm for his analysis and other stuff. however, since i had that overflow of edit/composite work, this was something that was put on my backburner. the call brought that initiative back to the fore.
now, i had already (in fits and starts) managed to set up the bare bones of the mini-farm: his machine had the software installed, configured - though not working for reasons i didn't want to delve into all that deeply in my extreme busyness; the two slave units were semi-configured, one of them refusing to allow root access (odd, that; but it's os x).
in the course of the conversation, i mentioned to him that i had used the ip address he emailed me (xx.xx.xx.66) in the host files of the operating systems that the render management software relied on to make reliable connections between machines. to my surprise, he mentioned that his ip was actually 62. what the?! i made the point quite plain that it was quite involved to change ip addresses once they had been set up; that at least six machines needed to be re-configured if he were to insist on using 62 as opposed to 66 as he had last specified. and this may be one reason the render management software refused to consider his machine as a valid client.
...so he changed it back.
upstairs i went to his office, and did the rest of the configuration there. still not recognized. as a last resort, i had him force his network card to full gigabit from its default auto setting. this seems to have made a difference: now his machine validated.
on to the slave units. it wouldn't verify either. i asked him what networking switch he had attached the units to. turned out that it was 100base-T. okaay. told him that somehow the render management software had problems traversing gigabit/fast ethernet connections, and that he would need gigabit for this to work. reconnect, he did therefore.
once that was done, that machine validated. okay, now we have a minimum farm. one master, one slave.
okay, run render test. fail.
troubleshoot. this is a fresh os x install, yes? he affirmed. i checked the mounts. no servers that we used at present were mounted. riiiight. okay, go to weird utility for the purpose. it declined to accept either admin or root and the password that had allowed the login in the first place. wtf?
okay, use his alternate login, it accepted the password, authenticated with the weird utility, and i mounted the servers. reboot. login. check mounts? present.
run render test. fail.
i looked at the error log. the render component was not present. i turned to him and asked: "i thought this was a fresh install?" it was. turned out that he had cloned an older system disk, one without the latest version of the render component we used - which also explained why the new mounts were not present. arrrrgh. installers? he didn't have one. downstairs i went, got mine, upstairs, installed it, left the cds with him.
run render test. work.
downstairs i went, thus ended the day.
moral of the story? in his case, never assume.
yesterday afternoon, got a call from the technical manager. in the weeks past, i was supposed to set up a little laboratory rig; a mini render farm for his analysis and other stuff. however, since i had that overflow of edit/composite work, this was something that was put on my backburner. the call brought that initiative back to the fore.
now, i had already (in fits and starts) managed to set up the bare bones of the mini-farm: his machine had the software installed, configured - though not working for reasons i didn't want to delve into all that deeply in my extreme busyness; the two slave units were semi-configured, one of them refusing to allow root access (odd, that; but it's os x).
in the course of the conversation, i mentioned to him that i had used the ip address he emailed me (xx.xx.xx.66) in the host files of the operating systems that the render management software relied on to make reliable connections between machines. to my surprise, he mentioned that his ip was actually 62. what the?! i made the point quite plain that it was quite involved to change ip addresses once they had been set up; that at least six machines needed to be re-configured if he were to insist on using 62 as opposed to 66 as he had last specified. and this may be one reason the render management software refused to consider his machine as a valid client.
...so he changed it back.
upstairs i went to his office, and did the rest of the configuration there. still not recognized. as a last resort, i had him force his network card to full gigabit from its default auto setting. this seems to have made a difference: now his machine validated.
on to the slave units. it wouldn't verify either. i asked him what networking switch he had attached the units to. turned out that it was 100base-T. okaay. told him that somehow the render management software had problems traversing gigabit/fast ethernet connections, and that he would need gigabit for this to work. reconnect, he did therefore.
once that was done, that machine validated. okay, now we have a minimum farm. one master, one slave.
okay, run render test. fail.
troubleshoot. this is a fresh os x install, yes? he affirmed. i checked the mounts. no servers that we used at present were mounted. riiiight. okay, go to weird utility for the purpose. it declined to accept either admin or root and the password that had allowed the login in the first place. wtf?
okay, use his alternate login, it accepted the password, authenticated with the weird utility, and i mounted the servers. reboot. login. check mounts? present.
run render test. fail.
i looked at the error log. the render component was not present. i turned to him and asked: "i thought this was a fresh install?" it was. turned out that he had cloned an older system disk, one without the latest version of the render component we used - which also explained why the new mounts were not present. arrrrgh. installers? he didn't have one. downstairs i went, got mine, upstairs, installed it, left the cds with him.
run render test. work.
downstairs i went, thus ended the day.
moral of the story? in his case, never assume.
assumptions: part 1
...there's a saying somewhere...
anyway, yesterday was a bust insofar as getting much work done was concerned.
most of the day was actually spent waiting for a client (or representative thereof) to provide a graphic file of their logo for watermarking purposes on their video project. that watermark was necessary as the finalized versions were to be sent off somewhere to be dolby certified.
to that end, my requirements were fairly simple: high-resolution image file, with a transparent background (on the assumption that this was a simple to understand request). the transparency was necessary as having a rectangular surround on a half-faded logo over video would look unprofessional in my estimation...
first pass: 500x277 pixels, jpeg image file. um. no transparency possible there.
second pass: 627x378 pixels, tiff image file. ugh. it looked like a cropped version of the previous submission, scaled up. the aliasing on the angles and curves of the logo were incredibly obvious -- and somehow the transparency requirement was still not in evidence.
in response to the pm's email, i finally made specific my request: photoshop file, 3 layers (text, logo with shadow effect, white or no background at all).
let's see whether third time's the charm here...
anyway, yesterday was a bust insofar as getting much work done was concerned.
most of the day was actually spent waiting for a client (or representative thereof) to provide a graphic file of their logo for watermarking purposes on their video project. that watermark was necessary as the finalized versions were to be sent off somewhere to be dolby certified.
to that end, my requirements were fairly simple: high-resolution image file, with a transparent background (on the assumption that this was a simple to understand request). the transparency was necessary as having a rectangular surround on a half-faded logo over video would look unprofessional in my estimation...
first pass: 500x277 pixels, jpeg image file. um. no transparency possible there.
second pass: 627x378 pixels, tiff image file. ugh. it looked like a cropped version of the previous submission, scaled up. the aliasing on the angles and curves of the logo were incredibly obvious -- and somehow the transparency requirement was still not in evidence.
in response to the pm's email, i finally made specific my request: photoshop file, 3 layers (text, logo with shadow effect, white or no background at all).
let's see whether third time's the charm here...
Monday, March 05, 2007
flushed away redux
first:
Dreamworks and Aardman Part Ways
http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/008918.html
then:
DreamWorks Animation's Profits Flushed Away (third item)
http://us.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-02-28
and recently:
It May Be a Royal Flush, After All
http://us.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-03-01
what, if anything does it all mean?
the situation just seems somewhat ironic, is all.
oh, and a bit of trivia about the gestation of the movie (taken from imdb.com):
According to Peter Lord, co-founder of Aardman, this film's original concept involved pirates, and was pitched to Dreamworks soon after the release of Chicken Run (2000). However, Aardman were told that there was no market for pirate films (this was before 'Pirates of the Caribbean' was made), and were told to modernize the concept. By the time the writer had done this, the project was temporarily shelved to make way for the production of 'Wallace & Gromit in Curse of the Were-Rabbit'.
oh well. at any rate, i really liked this movie, never mind that it wasn't box office boffo in the states.
Dreamworks and Aardman Part Ways
http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/008918.html
then:
DreamWorks Animation's Profits Flushed Away (third item)
http://us.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-02-28
and recently:
It May Be a Royal Flush, After All
http://us.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-03-01
what, if anything does it all mean?
the situation just seems somewhat ironic, is all.
oh, and a bit of trivia about the gestation of the movie (taken from imdb.com):
According to Peter Lord, co-founder of Aardman, this film's original concept involved pirates, and was pitched to Dreamworks soon after the release of Chicken Run (2000). However, Aardman were told that there was no market for pirate films (this was before 'Pirates of the Caribbean' was made), and were told to modernize the concept. By the time the writer had done this, the project was temporarily shelved to make way for the production of 'Wallace & Gromit in Curse of the Were-Rabbit'.
oh well. at any rate, i really liked this movie, never mind that it wasn't box office boffo in the states.
flushed away
...the aardman/dreamworks movie, that is.
it is, to quote the "great" toad in the movie, diverting.
i don't think i've ever laughed so hard watching a movie in recent memory (then again, i managed to miss the second shrek in the theaters, not to mention the recent rash of animated comedies).
if you can, watch it.
worth the time, i think.
it is, to quote the "great" toad in the movie, diverting.
i don't think i've ever laughed so hard watching a movie in recent memory (then again, i managed to miss the second shrek in the theaters, not to mention the recent rash of animated comedies).
if you can, watch it.
worth the time, i think.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
sickness
a week or so back jose had been sick of the flu, and he was out an entire week.
there's been a bug going around these past few months, and i suppose it was just a matter of time before it had made a complete round of the office.
tangentially, yet somewhat related to the topic at hand, thursday was muntinlupa day; a declared non-working holiday. previously, there were rumblings afoot that the entire department (or a majority thereof) could take advantage of this holiday to take a four day break out of town to recharge batteries drained by the seemingly unending deadlines of the previous half-year before plunging onward to the next project on the horizon.
if there was a catch (and isn't there always?), it was that friday and the saturday half-day would be counted against leave credits available. there was an option, however, to save the leaves for a later date...
as it turned out, a previously mentioned galera trip fell through; and several decided to delay the leave-taking to that later date (to be determined, but tentatively weekend after first payday of march). being undecided at the eleventh hour, i went with going to work on friday after all.
not that there was much work to be accomplished, really. mostly surfing (with a little bit of system administration: where did all the space on the servers go?).
unaccountably sleepier than normal after lunch, i gave in to the drowsiness -- turned out to be a bad idea: i woke up from the nap feeling feverish; and going to makati after work was a real challenge to stay awake long enough to make it.
...so that's the connection: not taking the long weekend virtually results in maybe getting sick from the office bug...
saturday dawns with clogged nose and coughs. sneezes result in joint aches. uh-oh.
now, in times previous with incipient flu-like symptoms, i would just consume lots and lots of pinapple juice, and that would suffice to prevent a worsening of the situation. not this time, though. by the afternoon i was feeling pretty lousy. housemate obliged a request to visit the local mercury drug and came back with a couple of mats of nasal decongestant, a pain/fever reliever, and a bottle of vicks cough suppressant (which, for a cough medication, tastes rather good).
...so there we have it. almost really sick (hoping it doesn't take me out like my friend mentioned earlier), but with the means to hopefully nip this in the bud.
there's been a bug going around these past few months, and i suppose it was just a matter of time before it had made a complete round of the office.
tangentially, yet somewhat related to the topic at hand, thursday was muntinlupa day; a declared non-working holiday. previously, there were rumblings afoot that the entire department (or a majority thereof) could take advantage of this holiday to take a four day break out of town to recharge batteries drained by the seemingly unending deadlines of the previous half-year before plunging onward to the next project on the horizon.
if there was a catch (and isn't there always?), it was that friday and the saturday half-day would be counted against leave credits available. there was an option, however, to save the leaves for a later date...
as it turned out, a previously mentioned galera trip fell through; and several decided to delay the leave-taking to that later date (to be determined, but tentatively weekend after first payday of march). being undecided at the eleventh hour, i went with going to work on friday after all.
not that there was much work to be accomplished, really. mostly surfing (with a little bit of system administration: where did all the space on the servers go?).
unaccountably sleepier than normal after lunch, i gave in to the drowsiness -- turned out to be a bad idea: i woke up from the nap feeling feverish; and going to makati after work was a real challenge to stay awake long enough to make it.
...so that's the connection: not taking the long weekend virtually results in maybe getting sick from the office bug...
saturday dawns with clogged nose and coughs. sneezes result in joint aches. uh-oh.
now, in times previous with incipient flu-like symptoms, i would just consume lots and lots of pinapple juice, and that would suffice to prevent a worsening of the situation. not this time, though. by the afternoon i was feeling pretty lousy. housemate obliged a request to visit the local mercury drug and came back with a couple of mats of nasal decongestant, a pain/fever reliever, and a bottle of vicks cough suppressant (which, for a cough medication, tastes rather good).
...so there we have it. almost really sick (hoping it doesn't take me out like my friend mentioned earlier), but with the means to hopefully nip this in the bud.
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