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By Brian, November 30, 2006 3:28 pm

Normal life of a hard disk should be 5 years, but when I tried to boot up my Windows XP machine this morning, I couldn’t get further than the Windows startup screen, at which, the computer will restart. A quick check indicated one of the partition (happens to be the C:!!!!) was dead. The old HDD was a Maxtor 160Gb.

Luckily a backup was made, but at least a month old, so 3-4 weeks of information was probably not updated. So its going to be a long process to get a new HDD up and running and to get all standard information and PDAs up and running again… Sigh…

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By Brian, November 21, 2006 3:15 pm

Today (actually last night) marks the day when my gallery site is updated. Now its on version 2.x up from 1.4 yesterday. Why so long? Thought that the old version, although serving its purpose, requires a refresh to make the administration of the albums easier.

The skin of the program will be updated when I have the time. Planning to include the Carbon theme from gallery so that I maintain the darker theme throughout the site.

Nothing to do? check it out. Ask me for a login if you need one to see more photos.

http://nangka.org/gallery

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By Brian, November 12, 2006 10:45 am

What to do on a Sunday morning? For me today, it was to transfer the Shimano Ultegra cassette from my old wheel to the new one.

The dismounting was easy enough, and a lot of mess as I did the degreasing to clean the cassette. Just realised that the cassette that I have is a 13-25T. And according to the American Classic instructions, they included spacers for 11T and 12T, but nothing mentioned on the 13T and higher configurations. Well, it turns out that maybe no spacers are required. I say maybe becuase none of the spacers would fit into the space between the cassette and the freewheel.

There were quite a bit of play/movement of the cassette when mounted, and I was a little worried, but once you lock it in, its tight as hell. The 13-25T Shimano Ultegra 2005 model has 3 sets of cogs. The first 3 are together. Then you get the 14-19T in a set of 6 cogs, and the final 13T is alone.

Its all mounted now, and I just have to a Sunday dash to the nearest sports shop that opens on Sunday here in Paris to get another tube for the tire, since the shop gave me a wrong one last week. I need a spare as well, so I’ll get another one and once I exchange the wrong one it will become a spare. My old spare has the shorter pump valve, so will not work with the new high profile wheels.

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By Brian, November 11, 2006 9:48 pm

Started to work on the new American Classic CR420 wheel this weekend. Last night after coming back from the office with a new rim tape from a nearby shop, I decided to install the thing and once I finished, I realise that the tape was a 18mm version instead of teh correct 16mm. What happened after is that the tires could go on the wheel, but just one side would clip on. The other side would just slip out becuase the tape was too broad.

So this morning I went to another shop near by and bought the right 16mm tape. Unfortunately I was not really paying attention to the wheel once I put the tape on, and then I realised I put the only hole on the tape on the wrong hole. It was the hole used to tighten the spoke and not the little hole for the inlet to the tubes. Had to rip it out again, and it was 15mins before the close of the local bike shop, so had to run all the way there to get a new set of rimtape before I had to wait till monday.

So then the wheel went fine, started with the front wheel. Installed the new Michelin Pro Race 2 tires on it and felt good once inflated to around 90psi. I’ll go up to 110psi when its mounted onto the bike.

When I started mounting the tires on the back tire, I realise that the damn shop I went to on Friday sold me 2 packs of butyl tubes (Can’t seem to find latex with long heads) with 52mm heads, but one of the tube had a standard looking head on it, which means that I can’t use it since the Am Class wheel has a 34mm profile, so once the tube goes in, there’s no way I could pump air into the tube.

So looks like fate has it that I will not ride this weekend. After two months, I guess another weekend is nothing much.

So my plan this weekend would be to work on transfering and cleaning the Ultegra cogs over to the new wheel and if I have some time, to go to the Decathlon in Montreuil, which is opened on Sunday, and get a new tube. Will go back to the shop on Monday to exchange, and if they dont want to exchange it with the right tube, I’ll be a typical French & complain till the cheese is matured.

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By Brian, November 7, 2006 3:42 pm

Upgraded the firmware on the Fujifilm last night. Not sure if there’s a difference yet but it seems that there are a lot of forum posting that complains about corrupted images, and how its fixed by Firmware 1.02. The one that came with the camera was 1.01. The upgrade was relatively painless, and no settings are reseted by flashing the firmware, which I was quite afraid of, especially when the numbering of the photos goes back to 1 from the 600+ that we have right now. If that happens I’ll have duplicate photos with the same number. But luckily it was all good after the upgrade.

So… as I mentioned, 600+ photos so far. and its an amazing camera. Like most websites have said, when you take it in the open with bright lights and large contrasts, you’ll see purple fringing… but I see that with most point and shoot as well. Its just a small annoyance. But the low light performance is just great. The ISO3200 shots are ok at 5R or 4R printouts, just don’t do 100% zoom or else it looks blotchy. But this allows you to take without flash even indoors, shown by the pict the wife took in the Opera Garnier in Paris, where even with a flash you can’t illuminate the end of the large hall. With the Fuji F30 you get a ISO3200 shot that has just the right amount of detail left. I’m sure with a pro shooter steady hand and some support you’d be able to take it at ISO800 or 1600, but… 3200 will do.

Love the camera.

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By Brian,

Ran out of fixer this morning for my black & white development and had to skip half day of work (partly to go to the doctors) to go to this shop in the 9th to pick up the new bottle of Ilford Rapid Fix. Thought that they had some photoflo wetting agent as well but it comes in 1L bottles or larger. Since most people recommended just a few drops, 1L is just too much. Will expire before I run out of solution. Finally got the following:

1L Ilford Rapid Fixer: 8.80€
1L Kodak HC110 Developer: 21.60€

All prices without tax. I dont know what it is but its 19.6% and added right at the end of the invoice. Bought the HC110 to fool around for my Ilford films. Just want to see if the grain can be reduced compared to Rodinal. Overall, I thought that the HC110 is quite expensive. DOn’t remember how much I paid for my last bottle of Rapid Fixer in Singapore but I dont think its expensive at all. Maybe even 30% cheaper. But got 6 rolls of film waiting to be developed and can’t wait for the trip back to Asia.

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By Brian,

Had to replenish my Ilford Rapidfixer and found this shop hear metro stop Anvers or Cadet in the 9th Arrondisement. They seem to carry quite a wide range of stuff, surely the digital stuff, plenty of paper for inkjet printing and for photo developing, and most importantly for me B&W chemicals. Prices are usually displayed without tax and its added at the end. They do delivery as well but its 10Euro per delivery so for my volume its too large a proportion of the final cost.

Did see some developing kits there as well, like the tanks, spare reels, trays, and accessories. They’re not dirt cheap enough for me to buy on impulse, but nice to know its there if I need it by emergency. Finally bought a bottle of Rapid Fixer and HC110 from them. Enough to last me for years.

Here’s a copy and paste from the website:
PROPHOT is open From Monday to Friday.
Opening hours: 9:00 am – 12:30 pm / 1:30 pm – 6:00 pm

Prophot Photo Supplies, Paris

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