The formula or the rule of thumb is: 1/(focal length x crop factor) s

For example, 50mm on 350D or on any 1.6 crop factor multiplier sensor:

1/(50 x 1.6) = 1/80 s

Means, the slowest allowable shutter speed is 1/80s. Note the word allowable, means you still can go below that, with a price though. For full frame DSLR like Canon 1D series or newly introduced Nikon D3, You don’t have to calculate as the minimum allowable shutter speed will always be the focal length of the lenses. Hence, the formula will always be 1/(focal length x1). The only catch is that all full-frame DSLR is cost arms and legs. You guy should already know what’s your camera crop factor is.

When shooting in low light condition, without any powerful flashgun, in fact i don’t have any :-(, and no fast lenses as well, I always choose sharpness over brightness. With the help of Photoshop, we still can recover the brightness, as long as the picture is not too dark or burnt out. Boosting the ISO level also help, but most entry level DSLR tend to produce lots of noise in high ISO.

The picture below taken with 70mm f4.0 1/200s, above the minimum allowable shutter speed of 1/200 s. The result, a bit dark image due to low light condition. But with very minimal touch up using photshop software, we can achieve acceptable image.

The following picture adjusted just with: 1- ctrl+j (duplicate layer), 2- change blending option to screen. That’s all. You can adjust more using curve, level, brightness and so on, but this just to demonstrate that how easy it is to do it. You can achieve better result with further adjustment.

You are welcome to read the rest of this entry »

Share This

You are welcome to read the rest of this entry »

Share This

Salah satu ciri-ciri penting Wordpress adalah plugin, terdapat ribuan plugin untuk Wordpress di Internet. Dan membuat plugin untuk wordpress ni tidaklah sesukar yang disangkakan. Aku sendiri pernah buat beberapa plugin untuk wordpress yang aku pakai kat sini, Random Entries, selain paparkan entri terkini, plugin ini akan paparkan entri-entri dalam blog korang secara rawak, plugin ni aku telah kemaskini dengan tambahan ciri-ciri ajax. Keduanya RSSLiveFeed, kalau korang perasan senarai pautan di sebelah nampak macam biasa, tapi bila klik kat pautan tersebut, akan keluar senarai entri dari blog-blog tersebut. Plugin tu masih ada untuk dimuatturun, tapi bukan yang terkini, aku tak tahu orang pakai ke tak, tiada komen yang memberitahu jadi aku anggap dorang yang muatturun tak pakai.

Tapi kali ini, bukan aku yang buat, tapi aku hanya ubahsuai. Mail dari Ismail dot com Sdn Bhd bertanyakan mengenai senarai komen di sebalah yang ada gravatar. Aku telah ubahsuai 2 plugin, pertamanya gravatar untuk membolehkan korang panggil gravatar darai mana-mana tempat selain senarai komen, fungsi asal tidak diubah. Dan keduanya show top commentors untuk panggil fungsi gravatar tersebut.Kalau korang nak pakai tak susah pun, download file ini

kemudiannya untuk plugin “Show Top Commentators”, ada tambahan pilihan iaitu default_gravatar. Pastikan korang letakkan URL ke gravatar korang untuk orang-orang yang belum ada gravatar. Kepada yang belum ada ni, boleh daftar disini http://site.gravatar.com/

“default_gravatar” => “http://www.blog_url.com/images/defaultgravatar.jpg”

Letakkan kod “Show Top Commentators” pada tempat yang korang suka:

<?php if(function_exists(’ns_show_top_commentators’)) { ?>
<li class=”sb-archive-links”>
<h2>Top Commentators</h2>
<ul><?php ns_show_top_commentators(); ?></ul>
</li>
<?php } ?>

Aktifkan kedua-dua plugin dah lihatlah hasilnya Selamat mencuba.

You are welcome to read the rest of this entry »

Share This

ERROR 1045: Access denied for user: ‘root@localhost’ (Using password: YES)

It’s is not surprising recovering lost password in open source product is relatively easy, after all they are open. Linux is very stable and secure, so stable that once your installation complete and has been configured and secured, you can just ignore its existence, it will work just fine. This, expose most administrator to one major problem, lost passwords. Today, for some reason, I logged in to one of our client email server we setup two years back. Uptime 147 days, last login december last year. Luckily I still remember the OS password. Tried to login to mysql, failed. Tried again with all possible passwords, still no luck. Tried, history | grep mysql, yay!, there is mysql -u -p in history, try that and still failed. Being the only person that have root access to the server, Nobody else will know the password and it is not in use anyway, I decided to change it and share the steps with whoever need it.

So how to recover your root password? It’s actually not recover the password, the correct term will be recovering root privileges as what we are going to do is change the root password without having to know the original password. Follow the following steps to do so:

1. service mysqld stop
2. safe_mysqld ––skip-grant-tables & or mysqld_safe ––skip-grant-tables &
3. mysql -uroot mysql
   1. Type the following command in mysql:-
   2. UPDATE user SET password=PASSWORD(”abcd”) WHERE user=”root”;
   3. FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
   4. quit
4. service mysqld restart

Now you can gain your root privileges by using the new password you just set. Collect enough mana and summon the following command:

mysql -uroot -pabcd

If you cannot gain access, then your mana if not enough. Try again, or just set ––skip-grant-tables to completely ignore the security option, which of course is not safe and not recommended.

And a little tip for you: lost root password for linux OS, google for ‘linux single’.

You are welcome to read the rest of this entry »

Share This

My “create your own theme” project is still in progress, in fact to date, i’ve come out with more than three design but nothing is remarkable yet. Creating a theme, as I experienced it is not very difficult . But getting the result that can satisfy me is one difficult task. The “project” still ongoing, but don’t know until when. for the time being, current theme is here to stay.

On the other side, i’ve create a tiny plugin to display entries randomly on the sidebar or virtually anywhere you like. This plugin inspired by chronosight random entry feature. I searched for built-in function but to my disappointment, it only shows chronologically. I don’t really know why I didn’t search for it in the first place, I just assume that it’s doesn’t exist, there are dozens similar plug-in already available. And making a simple plug-in for wp is not difficult at all, may be that’s why. Since I already created it, might as well I share it with everyone. Installation and usage is very simple.

Step 1: Download the file
Step 2: Copy/upload to plug-in directory
Step 3: Activate it
Step 4: Copy the following code to your desired location:

<ul class=”random-links”>
<?php ss_random_entries(); ?>
</ul>

The options you have is:

ss_random_entries($num_posts = 10, $excerpt_length = 100, $prefix = “<li>”, $postfix = “</li>”)

The live example is on my sidebar

Share This

iPAQ6515 is the best PDA ever, with built in AGPS and the price tag below RM1800.00 including all the jajan, there’s no excuse not to get one. However I use my PDA for data only, there’s no software for SMS and Phone installed. In fact, if if possible i want to uninstall to get extra memory.

• GPSProxy – NMEA to Garmin Protocol
• Garmin Que for PPC – GPS Navigation Software
• GSFinder – A much better file explorer
• TCPMP – Media Player
• AvantGo Client – No need explanation
• Microsoft Reader – I do read books
• Agile Messenger for PPC – Yahoo Messenger
• SBSH Pocket Breeze – I can see everything on my today screen
• ADBIdeaLibrary – A neat software to keep all your ideas, other than build-in PIM
• PocketFeed – RSS Feed reader
• PocketPutty – SSH Client for PPC. A very handy tool for me
• Visual It Digital Camera Guide – For a beginner like me
• ccrryyppttoo – File encryption tools. To protect my files
• Pocket Informant - Some one claim the best PIM
• Magic SS - Screen capture utility, mapped to message button

All above is what I have installed in my PDA beside the preinstalled software. Do you have any other suggestion?

You are welcome to read the rest of this entry »

Share This

You are welcome to read the rest of this entry »

Share This