Screw You, Nature

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Saturday was the day of arrival for my work permit, and today we had planned to go and get social security numbers sorted etc. That would allow Kelly to file her taxes and I start working on a driving permit, as well as getting the bank out of trouble (they were told last month that they had 12 months to get a SSN from me, which was difficult since I don’t have one!)

We probably would have also stopped in at some of the thrift stores and looked at what cameras they had available. But no! It snowed last night. Great news for school kids because it takes less than an inch to get them out for the day, but not so great since most government buildings are closed! Oh well, try again tomorrow I guess 😉

Lights, Camera, eBay

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I’ve found myself in the market for a 35mm camera. Now, at the beginning of the week I was looking non-specifically for anything good that worked well and was in good condition. I then progressed to 3 specific brands (Nikon, Canon, Olympus) and then reached a point of favoring the Olympus OM series a little over the Canon EOS series.

I like the Olympus OM series because dad owned an OM-1 (a few years after he’d owned and sold an OM-10 due to financial difficulties – that was before my time though) and it was what I learnt how to really take photos before I bought my Fujifilm S5600. So, I suppose they have a feeling of prior knowledge with me, I know what they feel like and I know what they can (and, to a large degree, can’t) do. But, when I asked dad if he had a preference (he said the OM-10, btw) he reminded me that while they were great cameras they are now getting on a bit, 30-35 years old now for the most part.

I kept a bunch of the Olympus’s on my watchlist and moved on to the Canon EOS series. Now, Kelly and I have discussed and agreed that we both want Canon Rebel’s at some point in the not-too-distant future. Whether it is the XSi (EOS 450D) model or whatever they bring out next will be decided by time, money, and available options at time of purchase. I still want a 35mm camera though.. What I hadn’t realised was that the Canon EOS digital SLR range uses the same EF Lens mount as the EOS 35mm range. There are a couple of differences being added (since the 300D, I believe) in that they are now using an EF-S, but this mount is backwards compatible, so I should be able to use any EF lenses I pick up interchangeably between a 35mm and a digital.

All the Olympus models were removed from my watch list, replaced by various Canon EOS 35mm cameras. It clearly needed to be pruned further, as I want the best deal I can find, preferably the newest camera for the lowest price possible. Time for further research on how Canon did their EOS range, compared with what is available on eBay.

Now, mostly what I’m interested in are a small range of the EOS series: the Rebel G, the Rebel 2000, the Rebel K2 and the Rebel T2. I have very little interest in anything pre-1995 anymore, and it seems most of these may be available with Lens and batteries for ~$30USD. If I have to I’ll spend a little more for a Buy Now, but I’m gonna try my luck at auctions first. I did bid on a faulty Rebel G by accident though, if someone wants to outbid…feel free…

Cause to Celebrate

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One: I fixed a computer tonight. Probably still some work to do, left it installing SP3 on XP, but still needs verification that sound works (not hopeful), that the virus is actually gone (BEWARE, ANTI-VIRUS-1 IS A VIRUS. Found removal instructions online through google and following them in safe mode seemed to work a charm.)

Two: I’ve put up a photoblog at photoblog.i-al.net, and theres nearly 2 months of photos stacked back waiting to appear. Some of these are up at DailySerene, but others are photos that weren’t appropriate for DS for whatever reason.

Three: The chances increased over the last three weeks that my work authorization card would arrive this week, as it did not arrive in any of those.

Fourth: (this one needs a quote)

Application Type: I485, APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS

Current Status: This case is now pending at the office to which it was transferred.

The I485 APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS was transferred and is now pending standard processing at a USCIS office. You will be notified by mail when a decision is made, or if the office needs something from you. If you move while this case is pending, please use our Change of Address online tool to update your case with your new address. We process cases in the order we receive them. You can use our processing dates to estimate when this case will be done, counting from when USCIS received it.

Basically what this means is that we finally have all the paperwork needed and it’s been forwarded to a USCIS office for processing rather than at the National Benefits Service Center where we were posting everything.

For those interested in tracking it further, the application was received on either July 2nd, 2008 or February 25th 2009 (depending whether they are counting from initial receipt of our application, or the acknowledgement of receipt of everything they asked for), and it is at the CALIFORNIA SERVICE CENTER. I’ll try and keep you up to date with any changes and events that occur.

Slowdom

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I haven’t updated this week, mostly because I’ve been busy with a server move – My VPS provider decided to move from a server with ThePlanet to a server with Limestone Networks, and so I’ve been setting up email servers and the like on the new box.

So, what is new with Zeke and I-aL?

DailySerene.com is now down to Monday/Wednesday/Friday updates owing to lack of contributions. If you have serene pictures that you would like to share, share! Don’t be afraid of rejection, and don’t worry if you don’t have your own photo website to advertize.

I’m starting work on a photoblog, to share photos that may already be up at DS, but also those that aren’t necessarily appropriate for DS.

UCCN got a twitter account yesterday, and followed several of it’s regular chatters. It’s displaying what they’re doing at UnitedChristianChat.net.

I finished House Season 2 the other day, and about to start episode 6 of Season 3.

Kelly should be home about as it ends, and with Coke! Yay!!

The Deer Hunter

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The Deer Hunter was a 1978 movie starring Robert De Niro, John Cazale, John Savage, Christopher Walken and Meryl Streep, among others.

I have never seen the movie, however I have heard the Shadows rendition of “Cavatina” – the theme from the movie. I remember watching them play it as an interlude while Cliff Richard “counted money” at a live show they did together. I remember listening and enjoying how it flowed, and wished I could play it.

Being a guitarist, I looked up the tabs and gave it a try. It was an abominable failure, as it was beyond my abilities at the time. That version still is, but I found a backing track and learned how to play it in the same way the Shadows did and have been practicing on and off for the last couple of days. Today I recorded it – not the way I would have liked to, but I tried yesterday to make it work as a multi-track and couldn’t, so I played along with it and recorded it all as one track. It still doesn’t sound perfect, aside from a couple of slide mistakes (and a missed fret once) I think the guitar is slightly off tune compared to the track. It will suffice for now until I can record a better version some time.

I’ve uploaded an MP3 at http://rizzo.i-al.net/~zeke/Cavatina.mp3 for your ear-bleeding pleasure 😉

UPDATE: Credit where credit is due (I had this in my orignal post but it wasn’t saved etc etc..) – the backing track came from http://goran.tangring.com/index-filer/backings.htm

Brawling with iptables

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I’ve been fighting for the last couple of days with iptables on my smoothwall machine, and I’m not sure where to turn next – might need to visit a forum or an IRC channel or something on the subject..

Anyway, at this point I have given telly a second IP, locked the webserver to one side and set up an iptables redirect from port 80 to 3128 (squid) on the other IP only, this tests fine, no problems, perfect.

The problem now lies purely on the smoothwall box.

I keep running in to RTNETLINK errors, and can’t figure out how to get around them.

yoda (root) / $ /usr/sbin/ip route add default via 192.168.1.5 dev eth0 table proxy
RTNETLINK answers: File exists
yoda (root) / $ /usr/sbin/ip route add default via 192.168.1.5 dev eth0 table 200
RTNETLINK answers: File exists
yoda (root) / $ /usr/sbin/ip route add default via 192.168.1.5 dev eth0 table 201
RTNETLINK answers: File exists

I’m pretty sure it’s a kernel module, but basically I’ve been sampling off some instructions I found to make this work and trying to debug as best I can, and it’s just not working:

yoda (root) / $ /sbin/iptables -t mangle -A PREROUTING -j ACCEPT -p tcp –dport 80 -s 192.168.1.5
yoda (root) / $ /sbin/iptables -t mangle -A PREROUTING -j MARK –set-mark 3 -p tcp –dport 80
getsockopt failed strangely: No such file or directory
yoda (root) / $ /usr/sbin/ip rule add fwmark 3 table 2
RTNETLINK answers: Invalid argument
yoda (root) / $ /usr/sbin/ip route add default via 192.168.1.5 dev eth0 table 2
RTNETLINK answers: File exists

I’m lost at this point, and not sure which direction to look next. I found that xt_mark.ko wasn’t loaded and having loaded it it got me to these errors, but I’m not sure which way to go..