Peter's Blog

My daughter Victoria was born on 20th November 2004. Technically, at the time of writing, she is still a baby.

Subscribed to flickr, todays 5 minute wonder. Added new block on the right with random baby picture.

I tried to subscribe to Flickr yesterday but they were having severe problems, I got a fatal error when I tried to subscribe and they seemed to be having bad loading problems. They seem to be victims of their success. If flickr delays my page loads then the photo goes.

I take photos every day with the Canon Powershot S1 IS, I've learnt how to get it to autofocus most of the time and the new Uniross 2000mA/h batteries have been in it a week now without a recharge, no problems there, well worth £8.

Want new digital camera. Tried a Canon Digital Ixus 40 in the shop, here are bullet point impressions:

• Very small
• Nice big LCD on the back, very crisp picture
• Nice build quality
• It has 3x optical zoom, some more digital zoom (and digital zoom may be worthwhile on a 4M pixel camera) but from what I saw in the shop the zoom took the picture from wide angle to normal, it didn't go into telephoto territory. My Nikon Coolpix 2500 has useful zoom, if limited wideangle.

I'm tempted by the Fuji S5500, a larger format camera with 10x optical zoom. Thoughts:

• far too big for pocket
• complements my old Nikon better, I can keep that for snapping and portability and use this for real photos.
• 4xAA batteries so won't have to worry about battery life while out and about
• flash has got to be more powerful than coolpix (3m range) and being further from lens won't be so poor for red-eye (PaintShop Pro 9 and PaintShop Album and different red-eye removal tools that are quite effective but it would be nice to avoid it in the first place).
• takes videos at 30fps
• uses weird fuji/olympus XD Flash format which my TwinMOS 8 in 1 card reader cannot handle. Do they do a 9 in 1?
• could buy cheap from hong kong via ebay if I was a more trusting person.

Background, taking lots of baby photo's and not happy with results from Nikon. It's flash is weak.

Bought my mother in law a Kodak EasyShare CX7220 digital camera for christmas. It was reduced by £50 because it is an oldish 2M pixel model coming to the end of it's life. I found it interesting to compare it with my 2 year old Nikon Coolpix 2500 which is also 2M pixel. Here is a bullet point review:

Kodak pros:

• Kodak easier to use: I didn't need manual
• Starts up quickly and ready to fire compared to Nikon which takes annoyingly long (damn baby stops smiling by time it's booted).
• Kodak uses AA batteries and can take NiMH's. Compare to Nokon with proprietary (aka expensive) NiMH which goes flat 1/2 way through a day out.
• Kodak has a cool orientation sensor: take photo in portrait orientation and it displays it and outputs it as 1200x1600, instead of 1600x1200 landscape which saves a rotation operation when copied to computer.
• Kodak takes videos with sound.
• As you switch modes the screen explains what the mode is for

Nikon pros:

• Side-by-side comparison of the same scene (baby, what else) the Nikon picture looks a lot better. The kodak picture seems noisy: on the Nikon baby's skin is smooth while on the Kodaks the skin seems pixellated, even though both photos are 1200x1600. To me it was hands down to the Nikon. (I won't post the pictures as they are big files and I'm not sure anyone cares enough to download them).
• The Nikon had better pictures and the jpeg it generated was 1.44Mb compared to 1.92 Mb for the Kodak. Maybe the camera finds all that pixel noise harder to compress? As well as making the pictures look worse, it increases the file size by 33% (i.e. your memory card holds 3/4 the photos of the Nikon).

Conclusion: Kodak is easy to use and Mum-in-law is delighted with it. I'm not sure I'd buy a Kodak.

Edo spelt fonetikally

Ackamoo

Custard

Coyee

Hello Mum/Grandmum

Coyster

Hello Sister

Oo gwalla teeyah

Would you like a cup of tea?

Ob owah

greetings to you (to people who are at home)

Egbeh-riyeh

Are you fine?

Oh mo moh

baby

Eeway

Nose

Eeyay

Mother

Ey-har

Ear

Also this.

I've tried the Python Desktop Server package in Gentoo and had problems with the Wiki. Trying to look at a Wiki entry would give an error like this:

 Exception exceptions.AttributeError: HTMLFragmentWriter instance has no attribute 'visitor' File                 Line      Function         Source Tool.py              935       process_request  s = getattr(tool,meth)(req) WikiTool.py          376       show_html        homeTool = self) Tool.py              744       renderText       homeTool=kw.get('homeTool') StructuredText.py    201       renderText       settings_overrides={ core.py              382       publish_string   return pub.publish(enable_exit=enable_exit) core.py              186       publish          self.writer.assemble_parts() html4css1.py         115       assemble_parts   self.partspart = ''.join(getattr(self.visitor, part)) 

(note that I had to force traceback dumping in docutils to get this much detail. I did this by adding self.settings.traceback = 1 to publisher.publish).

Poking around, the problem appears to be with the new version of docutils (which appears to be dev-python/docutils-0.3-r1 0.3.3). The problem is that the code in html4css1.Writer.Translate has changed from:

I've tried the Python Desktop Server package in Gentoo and had problems with the Wiki. Trying to look at a Wiki entry would give an error like this:

 Exception exceptions.AttributeError: HTMLFragmentWriter instance has no attribute 'visitor' File                 Line      Function         Source Tool.py              935       process_request  s = getattr(tool,meth)(req) WikiTool.py          376       show_html        homeTool = self) Tool.py              744       renderText       homeTool=kw.get('homeTool') StructuredText.py    201       renderText       settings_overrides={ core.py              382       publish_string   return pub.publish(enable_exit=enable_exit) core.py              186       publish          self.writer.assemble_parts() html4css1.py         115       assemble_parts   self.partspart = ''.join(getattr(self.visitor, part)) 

(note that I had to force traceback dumping in docutils to get this much detail. I did this by adding self.settings.traceback = 1 to publisher.publish).

Poking around, the problem appears to be with the new version of docutils (which appears to be dev-python/docutils-0.3-r1 0.3.3). The problem is that the code in html4css1.Writer.Translate has changed from:

def translate(self):
    visitor = self.translator_class(self.document)
    self.document.walkabout(visitor)
    self.output = visitor.astext()
    self.head_prefix = visitor.head_prefix
    self.stylesheet = visitor.stylesheet
    self.head = visitor.head
    self.body_prefix = visitor.body_prefix
    self.body_pre_docinfo = visitor.body_pre_docinfo
    self.docinfo = visitor.docinfo
    self.body = visitor.body
    self.body_suffix = visitor.body_suffix

to:

I've tried the Python Desktop Server package in Gentoo and had problems with the Wiki. Trying to look at a Wiki entry would give an error like this:

 Exception exceptions.AttributeError: HTMLFragmentWriter instance has no attribute 'visitor' File                 Line      Function         Source Tool.py              935       process_request  s = getattr(tool,meth)(req) WikiTool.py          376       show_html        homeTool = self) Tool.py              744       renderText       homeTool=kw.get('homeTool') StructuredText.py    201       renderText       settings_overrides={ core.py              382       publish_string   return pub.publish(enable_exit=enable_exit) core.py              186       publish          self.writer.assemble_parts() html4css1.py         115       assemble_parts   self.partspart = ''.join(getattr(self.visitor, part)) 

(note that I had to force traceback dumping in docutils to get this much detail. I did this by adding self.settings.traceback = 1 to publisher.publish).

Poking around, the problem appears to be with the new version of docutils (which appears to be dev-python/docutils-0.3-r1 0.3.3). The problem is that the code in html4css1.Writer.Translate has changed from:

def translate(self):
    visitor = self.translator_class(self.document)
    self.document.walkabout(visitor)
    self.output = visitor.astext()
    self.head_prefix = visitor.head_prefix
    self.stylesheet = visitor.stylesheet
    self.head = visitor.head
    self.body_prefix = visitor.body_prefix
    self.body_pre_docinfo = visitor.body_pre_docinfo
    self.docinfo = visitor.docinfo
    self.body = visitor.body
    self.body_suffix = visitor.body_suffix

to:

Hidden in the new form is the line:

I've tried the Python Desktop Server package in Gentoo and had problems with the Wiki. Trying to look at a Wiki entry would give an error like this:

 Exception exceptions.AttributeError: HTMLFragmentWriter instance has no attribute 'visitor' File                 Line      Function         Source Tool.py              935       process_request  s = getattr(tool,meth)(req) WikiTool.py          376       show_html        homeTool = self) Tool.py              744       renderText       homeTool=kw.get('homeTool') StructuredText.py    201       renderText       settings_overrides={ core.py              382       publish_string   return pub.publish(enable_exit=enable_exit) core.py              186       publish          self.writer.assemble_parts() html4css1.py         115       assemble_parts   self.partspart = ''.join(getattr(self.visitor, part)) 

(note that I had to force traceback dumping in docutils to get this much detail. I did this by adding self.settings.traceback = 1 to publisher.publish).

Poking around, the problem appears to be with the new version of docutils (which appears to be dev-python/docutils-0.3-r1 0.3.3). The problem is that the code in html4css1.Writer.Translate has changed from:

def translate(self):
    visitor = self.translator_class(self.document)
    self.document.walkabout(visitor)
    self.output = visitor.astext()
    self.head_prefix = visitor.head_prefix
    self.stylesheet = visitor.stylesheet
    self.head = visitor.head
    self.body_prefix = visitor.body_prefix
    self.body_pre_docinfo = visitor.body_pre_docinfo
    self.docinfo = visitor.docinfo
    self.body = visitor.body
    self.body_suffix = visitor.body_suffix

to:

Hidden in the new form is the line:

This is not being done in the PyDS version of this function HTMLFragmentWriter.translate:

I've tried the Python Desktop Server package in Gentoo and had problems with the Wiki. Trying to look at a Wiki entry would give an error like this:

 Exception exceptions.AttributeError: HTMLFragmentWriter instance has no attribute 'visitor' File                 Line      Function         Source Tool.py              935       process_request  s = getattr(tool,meth)(req) WikiTool.py          376       show_html        homeTool = self) Tool.py              744       renderText       homeTool=kw.get('homeTool') StructuredText.py    201       renderText       settings_overrides={ core.py              382       publish_string   return pub.publish(enable_exit=enable_exit) core.py              186       publish          self.writer.assemble_parts() html4css1.py         115       assemble_parts   self.partspart = ''.join(getattr(self.visitor, part)) 

(note that I had to force traceback dumping in docutils to get this much detail. I did this by adding self.settings.traceback = 1 to publisher.publish).

Poking around, the problem appears to be with the new version of docutils (which appears to be dev-python/docutils-0.3-r1 0.3.3). The problem is that the code in html4css1.Writer.Translate has changed from:

def translate(self):
    visitor = self.translator_class(self.document)
    self.document.walkabout(visitor)
    self.output = visitor.astext()
    self.head_prefix = visitor.head_prefix
    self.stylesheet = visitor.stylesheet
    self.head = visitor.head
    self.body_prefix = visitor.body_prefix
    self.body_pre_docinfo = visitor.body_pre_docinfo
    self.docinfo = visitor.docinfo
    self.body = visitor.body
    self.body_suffix = visitor.body_suffix

to:

Hidden in the new form is the line:

This is not being done in the PyDS version of this function HTMLFragmentWriter.translate:

Adding the following line:

I've tried the Python Desktop Server package in Gentoo and had problems with the Wiki. Trying to look at a Wiki entry would give an error like this:

 Exception exceptions.AttributeError: HTMLFragmentWriter instance has no attribute 'visitor' File                 Line      Function         Source Tool.py              935       process_request  s = getattr(tool,meth)(req) WikiTool.py          376       show_html        homeTool = self) Tool.py              744       renderText       homeTool=kw.get('homeTool') StructuredText.py    201       renderText       settings_overrides={ core.py              382       publish_string   return pub.publish(enable_exit=enable_exit) core.py              186       publish          self.writer.assemble_parts() html4css1.py         115       assemble_parts   self.partspart = ''.join(getattr(self.visitor, part)) 

(note that I had to force traceback dumping in docutils to get this much detail. I did this by adding self.settings.traceback = 1 to publisher.publish).

Poking around, the problem appears to be with the new version of docutils (which appears to be dev-python/docutils-0.3-r1 0.3.3). The problem is that the code in html4css1.Writer.Translate has changed from:

def translate(self):
    visitor = self.translator_class(self.document)
    self.document.walkabout(visitor)
    self.output = visitor.astext()
    self.head_prefix = visitor.head_prefix
    self.stylesheet = visitor.stylesheet
    self.head = visitor.head
    self.body_prefix = visitor.body_prefix
    self.body_pre_docinfo = visitor.body_pre_docinfo
    self.docinfo = visitor.docinfo
    self.body = visitor.body
    self.body_suffix = visitor.body_suffix

to:

Hidden in the new form is the line:

This is not being done in the PyDS version of this function HTMLFragmentWriter.translate:

Adding the following line:

to this seems to fix the Wiki problem. Sorry for lack of diffs, patches or whatever. I'm taking baby steps in OSS development.

The Mesh tool is still broken. It gives:

 Exception exceptions.KeyError: '__hash__' File             Line  Function         Source Tool.py          915   process_request  s = tool.index_html(req) MeshTool.py      855   index_html       toolHasSigtool = False NuggetsTool.py   263   __getattr__      else: raise KeyError(name) 

I may look into this some other time. I don't use the mesh tool as I'm not sure what it does.

I've tried the Python Desktop Server package in Gentoo and had problems with the Wiki. Trying to look at a Wiki entry would give an error like this:

 Exception exceptions.AttributeError: HTMLFragmentWriter instance has no attribute 'visitor' File                 Line      Function         Source Tool.py              935       process_request  s = getattr(tool,meth)(req) WikiTool.py          376       show_html        homeTool = self) Tool.py              744       renderText       homeTool=kw.get('homeTool') StructuredText.py    201       renderText       settings_overrides={ core.py              382       publish_string   return pub.publish(enable_exit=enable_exit) core.py              186       publish          self.writer.assemble_parts() html4css1.py         115       assemble_parts   self.partspart = ''.join(getattr(self.visitor, part)) 

(note that I had to force traceback dumping in docutils to get this much detail. I did this by adding self.settings.traceback = 1 to publisher.publish).

Poking around, the problem appears to be with the new version of docutils (which appears to be dev-python/docutils-0.3-r1 0.3.3). The problem is that the code in html4css1.Writer.Translate has changed from:

def translate(self):
    visitor = self.translator_class(self.document)
    self.document.walkabout(visitor)
    self.output = visitor.astext()
    self.head_prefix = visitor.head_prefix
    self.stylesheet = visitor.stylesheet
    self.head = visitor.head
    self.body_prefix = visitor.body_prefix
    self.body_pre_docinfo = visitor.body_pre_docinfo
    self.docinfo =&nbs