The song was a big hit in 1999, somewhat before I was interested in this kind of music, so I do not remember it. Maybe that’s for the better as I can listen to it now and I can understand its meaning and power.

It’s actually amazing how much history is behind this song. You can read all about it in its Wikipedia article. The most amazing thing is that it’s being played on graduation ceremonies on Zagreb’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, as that was the first thing I thought when I heard it - how this would be amazing to hear on my graduation (if I ever graduate).

You can read the original column by Mary Schmich, the lyrics to this song, on the Chicago Tribune’s website. Read it. Again. Remember it. Live by it.

I lose control because of you babe
I lose control when you look at me like this
there’s something in your eyes that is sayin’ tonight
I’m not a child anymore, life has opened the door
to a new exciting life

I lose control when I’m close to you babe
I lose control don’t look at me like this
there’s something in your eyes, is this love at first sight
like a flower that grows, life just wants you to know
all the secrets of life

It’s all written down in your lifelines
it’s written down inside your heart

You and I just have a dream
to find our love a place
where we can hide away
you and I were just made
to love each other now
forever and a day

I lose control because of you babe
I lose control when you look at me like this
there’s something in your eyes that is sayin’ tonight
I’m so curious for more just like never before
in my innocent life

It’s all written down in your lifelines
it’s written down inside your heart

You and I just have a dream
to find our love a place
where we can hide away
you and I were just made
to love each other now
forever and a day

Time stands still
when days of innocence are falling for the night
I love you girl I always will
I swear I’m there for you till the day I’ll die

You and I just have a dream
to find our love a place
where we can hide away
you and I were just made
to love each other now
forever and a day

Well, her name is Leah Culver and she is the lead developer behind Kevin Rose’s latest startup Pownce. She’s using Django for Pownce’s backend and I must say, I was quite surprised and impressed to see a girl behind the project of this magnitude. At the same time, when you think about it, being anywhere close to Kevin Rose anyone is bound to get into Web services business.

Anyway, I’ve downloaded the latest Systm episode (thanks to JAnez for pointing it out) and was blown away! Leah is a guest host with Systm’s David Randolph and is helping him “crack” the brand new iPhone, right in front of the Palo Alto Apple Store (latest Diggnation was filmed there too - get it here). Although the iPhone is thought to be “sexy” it is nothing compared with how sexy Leah is!

I mean, she’s every geek’s dream: smart, funny, cute, knows her way around computers and is actually writing code!
I have yet to meet someone like that. Sure, there are more and more girls at FRI every year but how many of them are real coders, can sit down behind a computer and don’t get up until the problem is solved, can go to a party and talk about latest and greatest JavaScript trick and gets all excited about new features in Django? Huh?! How many?!

I rest my case.

I would love to see Cyberpipe girls get more involved into building a community of girls who are interested in computers, either hardware or software. Maybe just organizing meetings, lectures and workshops and getting them to work together. I think this could influence more girls to actually creating something cool instead of just getting through college hardly knowing that there’s anything else than Windows and Java.

More Leah Culver links:
Photos at Flickr
Leah Culver’s Stupid Blog
Leah@Powce

I can imagine so much uses for it… web terminals in Kiberpipa, thin (ltsp) clients all over Kiberpipa, thin (ltsp) clients all around the house, audio input and output everywhere and with USB webcams video too, put a web interface on all of them and you have remotely controlled audio/video input/output device that you can stream video and audio to and from, etc.

I could see this as a very nice progression towards “thin clients @ home” concept. Having to manage only one server, although more powerful and expensive, instead of 4 or 5 computers would greatly reduce my headaches. If everything would run on a terminal server than these things are just about everything you need. Just connect a touchscreen/monitor+keyboard+mouse, boot it over the network and you’re good to go.
There are only two things I would like to see this Jack PC to have:

1. Wireless connectivity (power can be supplied by small power adapter, I don’t mind)
2. Composite video output (TVs and such don’t have VGA/DVI inputs yet)

Wishing for a composite video input or even Firewire… it is a dream but that would be pushing it.

Check out the resellers’ and manufacturers’ websites for details. A little bit pricey but impressive. I wonder… how could I convince them to sponsor Kiberpipa with, lets say, 30 of this little buggers?

And yet, for every useful, nicely designed, stable, free or cheap service, webapp and thing alike, I switch to “analyst/designer/programmer/engineer“-mode. All I can think about is how could I create an application with the same functionality and run it myself. I get so into it that I can see a solution for any specific sub-problem, feature and caveat.

I have a problem with not having total control over things I use and know I could create myself. On the other hand, I break that “personal rule” on daily basis - I have no problem using GMail for my main e-mail, no problem with using Google Calendar for time management, no problem with using Dreamhost for my domain and Django apps hosting, and last but not least using WordPress for this blog. And I use these tools on daily basis, some of them for 5th year and running.

But since I’ve started actively developing different web applications I find myself rejecting to use perfectly good, usable, tested, stable, time saving and free existing services. If I would have to pay for the service, then the whole “master plan” for building the service myself just jumps in front of me, leaving me troubled, knowing that I do not have the time and energy to create it properly, but still refusing to use the existing service.

For example: I’ve recently came to realize that I need a way to make my whole photo library available online with photos in full resolution, EXIF information, tagging, sub-galleries, custom access restriction with guest users & uploaders, with unlimited space and bandwidth restriction.
Great, I thought, I’m sure there’s something out there I could use. Well, finding something I could “agree with” is something totally different. Services like Flickr and Marela have bandwidth restrictions and do not offer “private-only” albums and advanced usage; open-source scripts like Gallery2 and others are something I despise for their extremely bad user experience; html-generating desktop applications are fine when you want a single gallery with 20 photos, but when you have gigabytes of pictures like I do, those end up useless too.

Then one day, Fry, a colleague from Kiberpipa, pointed out a professional-oriented photo hosting service called SmugMug. I’ve checked it and it was all my dreams come true! Unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, access restriction, style skins, no ads, everything! Sure, you have to pay a subscription fee of $40 USD/year for Basic, $60 USD/year for PowerUser or $150 USD/year for Professional account, but there it is - hassle free, worry free, free backups, everything now and ready to use. But…

There it comes, the engineering part of my brain, telling me “why should you pay for something you know how to create and maybe do a better job in making it the way you like it?”.
And the whole process of figuring out all the details and stuff is started and cannot be stopped. Sure, I would have to have a hosting for 50GB now and 150GB in a year, but that’s doable. Sure, I would have to keep extra backup of it somewhere if something goes wrong, but I can do that. Sure, it will take me 2 months to build the basic functionality and design the way I want it, but other projects can wait.

That’s all fine and groovy, but I still have 50GB of photos I need online access to, a way to restrict access to, a way to have someone pay for the download or just give someone a glimpse of what I can do. And I need it now! But my cursed engineering mind wouldn’t let me! :(

But then again, I’ve been a programmer for far less time than I’ve been a looser dreamer. That might just be a reason I’m good at being a looser dreamer and can actually do it on time (for a change).

And after 4 years of exclusively using Free and Open Source Software I’ve gotten used to the fact that there’s always something fundamentally wrong with each application I use. And I’ve gotten used to the fact, that there are often some thing one has to do to make a desired application work the way one wants. And that’s OK.

However, I’ve never experienced that the documentation, that I was using as a reference while programming, was to up to date. Until yesterday.

I was working on a web application for a friend and I was using Django, as usual. I was just about to finish writing data models and was trying to validate them. And the validation kept spitting this out:

'module' object has no attribute 'DecimalField'

Each time I’ve looked at the documentation I was increasingly sure I must be loosing my eyesight or something. I was sure the documentation says “DecimalField” and have checked the syntax a dozen times.

I was just about to quit and sleep on it (it was 4:00 in the morning after all) I figured that if there’s likely to be a bug in Django then someone had to experience it before me. I’ve headed to Djago-users Google Group and searched for the “DecimalField”. What came up was a post by my Google Summer of Code mentor Malcolm Tredinnick. Apparently there were some changes in how Django core handles floating point numbers - 24 hours ago!

And as it happens my Django-trunk checkout was 3 days old and did not yet include the already-documented feature of “DecimalField”. This has never happened to me before. Actually the opposite is more often true - the documentation being a few major versions old. “Keeping up with the development” has a whole new meaning for me now.

I just wanted to pay my respects to the devoted developers that make my job so painful on daily basis. :)

“I’m Just A Kid” by Simple Plan

I woke up it was 7
I waited till 11
Just to figure out that no one would call
I think i got a lot of friends but I don’t hear from them
What’s another night all alone?
When your spending everyday on your own
And here it goes

[Chorus:]
I’m just a kid and life is a nightmare
I’m just a kid, I know that its not fair
Nobody cares, cause I’m alone and the world is
Having more fun than me
Tonight…

And maybe when the night is dead, I’ll crawl into my bed
Staring at these 4 walls again
I’ll try to think about the last time, I had a good time
Everyone’s got somewhere to go
And they’re gonna leave me here on my own and here it goes

I’m just a kid and life is a nightmare
I’m just a kid, I know that its not fair
Nobody cares, cause I’m alone and the world is
Having more fun than me

What the hell is wrong with me?
Don’t fit in with anybody
How did this happen to me?
Wide awake I’m bored and I can’t fall asleep
And every night is the worst night ever

I’m just a kid [repeat x5]

I’m just a kid and life is a nightmare
I’m just a kid, I know that its not fair
Nobody cares, cause I’m alone and the world is
Nobody wants to be alone in the world.

I’m just a kid and life is a nightmare
I’m just a kid, I know that its not fair
Nobody cares, cause I’m alone and the world is
Nobody wants to be alone in the world
Nobody cares, cause I’m alone and the world is
Having more fun than me tonight

I’m all alone tonight
Nobody cares tonight
Cause I’m just a kid tonight

On that note… I’ve started to “port” my slightly outdated contribution to Django to make it work with current code base in trunk. I’ve spent quite some time figuring out how to merge current trunk to my branch, that was last merged to almost six months ago. And after everything I tried, svnmerge came to rescue. Now I believe that I have my branch up to date and what is left is to test my application and see if it still works. But that is another posts’ story…

Yesterday I went to a concert in Mediapark Cvetlicarna in Ljubljana, Slovenija. It was first after a very long time (if I don’t count my friends’ “Doctors & Losers” a month ago). And the artist was the reason enough. Tommy Emmanuel, one of the best acoustic guitar players I’ve ever heard! Dag introduced his music to me about 4 months ago and when I heard Tommy will be playing in Ljubljana I was ecstatic! And when I heard that the scheduled concert a month ago was canceled I was equally disappointed. But then yesterdays date was announced and I couldn’t wait.

After both Dag and Bostjan let me hanging alone with the ticket I decided I’ll use this concert for practice in concert photography. I’ve packed all my gear (which ended up a bit obsolete) and headed for the venue. At the ticket desk I politely asked about the photography rules and was given the specs: no flash, first three songs up-close, then from way back. Fair enough, considering I was not accredited or anything. When I got in I took out my gear and tried a few different angels, lenses, etc. The plan was to get the up-close shots from the right side of the stage and then “retreat” to the VIP level to get to the “high ground” and use my 200-400mm Tokina lens. Well, easier said than done.

Just after a few minutes I’ve spotted “The Pros” - professional photojournalists - gathering in the middle of the room and slowly advancing toward the stage. I thought it may be wise to follow their lead but not get to close to the “battle ground”. So I ended up in about 4th row, in the center of the stage. Which was one of the best positions I could be at. You see, the Pros in the front were “bounced” back after 3 songs. And I wasn’t! :) The forth row was far enough not to be spotted by security and close enough for 135mm lens to be effective. Victory! The only problem I had was the classic applied Murphy Law : “the tallest guy in the room has to stand in the first row right before your lens.”

I’ll be posting pictures of the concert on my photo blog FailedGuideDog Photography for the next few days, so you might want to check it out now and then.

Note: Today or maybe tomorrow, FailedGuideDog Photography will be changing servers on my host and may thus be unavailable for a period of time. Do not give up. It will be up shortly.

Now, a few words about the concert itself…
The opening act was by Saso from Prekmurje (if I remember correctly) who showed the crowd how can Slovenian music sound when played in a Tommy Emmanuel fashion. Quite interesting and Saso was a pleasant surprise too!

After that, Tommy came to the stage and the crowd went wild! In short - it was a blast!!! This guy can play, drum, bass, fingerpick, pluck and do whatever with his guitar and it will sound great! The sounds he can get out of his acoustic guitars are just amazing! Something my father would surely appreciate. And besides that, he can play acoustic blues like no other I’ve heard live! Truly, a treat!

In the middle of the concert Tommy surprised everyone - he invited his fiancee Lizzie Watkins to join him on stage. And while I was expecting a slightly middle-aged woman, Lizzie took my breath away. She is young and beautiful. And looks half his age! Good for you, Tommy! ;)
And besides that, she can sing beautifully! They make a very nice couple!

After a few songs with Lizzie, Tommy played his “aboriginally inspired” Initiation piece. A little scary, full of reverb and unearthly sounds, this song put the crowd in a bit of depression. Fortunately, nothing a few “delta 12-bar blues” songs couldn’t repair!

The performance was topped by Tommy and Saso blues improvisation and two encore songs. Very effective and powerful show. I left musically content, as well as creatively fulfilled. I would recommend to everyone to go and see this guy play! It is something you’ll never forget. Almost like a Iztok Mlakar’s live performance - priceless.

non-L vs. L

And I can tell you, it is real. And not just for lenses, but all photo hardware. Sometimes I would kill for an EOS 5D, but then I am reminded that I could do much worse as what I have (20D).

For example, today I tried out the “new and shiny” EOS 400D. Well, compared to 20D is like a high-tech toy. It’s half the size, feels fragile, plastic, settings are shown on a oversized LCD (as opposed to a low-power-consuming LED indicators), M mode is a hassle without separate controls for aperture and time, etc.

As far as the lenses goes… there are two kinds I prefer: Canon brand and old russian/german primes. And there’s a good reason. Canon brand lenses have proven to me that they are worth every Tolar I paid for them. Sharp, good construction, IS, very fast AF, etc. I had a lot less luck with i.e. Tamron.
And when primes are concerned… there is NO WAY you can get more for your money with any other lenses than old M42- or K-mount lenses! I have two (a Helios 44-2 58mm f/2; Tokina 200mm f/3.5; + 2x converter) which I have from my early photography days with Zenit ET. And since I bought a M42->EOS mount converter so I can use them on the Canon I am blown away! I find myself in constant lookout for excellent M42 primes now (I have one eye on this Zenitar 15mm f/2.8 fisheye :) ).

Taken with Helios 44-2 58mm f/2 (source: FGDP)

Back to the image… (which I shamelessly stole from DPChallenge thread)
Canon L-series lenses are supposed to be the “creme de la creme” of Canon lenses and are thus out of most amateurs’ budget (starting at about 1500 Eur). This way L lenses got their “Rolls-Royce” status and anyone who uses one is considered “a professional”.

So when you get into a crowd of photographers at an event or concert and you start noticing the “dark red”-circled lenses all around you… I don’t care how much confidence you have in your skills, you DO feel overpowered and underequiped. And you start acting that way too… giving the others more space, letting them to get to better shots, etc.

And that is when peer pressure really starts to suck… :(