Disabling internal wireless card in linux

I bought this Zotac zbox a while back to play with a small computer attached to a touch screen monitor: wanted to experiment with android-x86. The one big problem with this box is that it has a worthless internal wireless card and it frequently keeps disconnecting even when it is 6 feet away from my wireless router.

However, disabling this is not simple. There is nothing in the BIOS to disable the card and in Ubuntu 10 there is no straightforward way of disabling a wireless interface. Several searches and a lot of dead ends later, I came across an article that said that NetworkManager will not manage interfaces that are marked as manual in /etc/networking/interfaces. The basic idea is to mark the unwanted interface as manual and never manual activate it.

So this is what I added to my /etc/network/interfaces and all works. The applet shows the built in card as device not managed and it stays that way after a reboot.


# disable the builtin wireless card
auto wlan0 wlan1
iface wlan0 inet manual
    down ifconfig $IFACE down

The other thing I had to do was to stop Ubuntu from bugging me for the WPA password (for which it needs the keyring password) was to follow the steps from ubuntu-tutorials.com. I'm also listing the steps below in case the URL is unavailable later on

• sudo aptitude install libpam-keyring (was not needed on Ubuntu 10)
• echo "@include common-pamkeyring" | sudo tee -a /etc/pam.d/gdm
• requires that your login password and the keyring password be the same. 

So now, I can mount my router attached USB share on my zotax box, and all is setup to launch a picasa slideshow making for a nice 21inch touchscreen Picture Frame (Will be best after I get android-x86 onto it but for now it is dog slow and this solution works for me). Will keep checking on the progress of the android-x86 folks though as having android run on a large touch screen will be fantastic.

Ahh sweet debugging monkey..

I am building this C++ to C# bridge prototype to in order to investigate what it takes to allow IronPython or .NET assemblies as plugins for a big C++ code base.

All was well in the prototype but when I started integrating it into our code I started running into all kinda of crap. A series of mysterious EEMessageException etc. My VS2008 would indicate that an exception was thrown, from some hex address and the stacktrace would point to some random location for the source. This was pretty frustrating as that EEMessageException was not listed in the SDK.

.NET errors are also logged in the Event manager. However, the information there was useless (it just said Fatal Error). No dice there as well.

After doing all kinds of things (basically re-reading the Pratschner book) and starting with implementing my custom AppDomainManager , I started seeing some changes: different exceptions. Since I defined my own AppDomainManager which had to be loaded from a .NET dll, the exception changed to EEFileNotFileException. Again, no details whatsoever, but atleast now I can figure out that the problem is definitely that the assembly containing my custom AppDomainManager was not being loaded. Some more inspired googling later, I found this gem: Apparently I need to set my debugging type to Mixed (It was being set to auto and it obviously was not auto enough).

Now, the debug information was fantastic. I had specified blah.dll as the containing assembly and the debug dialog indicated that the missing files were blah.dll.DLL and blah.dll.exe. The methods simply expect the name of the assembly without any suffixes (makes sense when you think in terms of mono where it should ideally search for .so files).

Anyhow, once I figured this out, the debugger pointed out all the boneheaded things I had done (keeping assembly names in sync across C++, C# and python) it was easy to get it all working again and I can sleep well today :-).

Issues with the Pro-Blend.

I loved these when I got them initially, however, the shine has worn off since and I see some issues when the gallon just I am pouring from is nearly full. The following images illustrate the usage.

 First you squeeze the jug so it can fill up the pro-blend. Here I am measuring out the Chemical Guys Microfiber wash. A very small amount as you can see.

Then you pour it out. The problem starts with this: notice how the tube (there is a tube inside connecting the bottom of the dispenser and ending at the bottom of the jug) is still immersed in the liquid. Since this pro-blend has no controllable valve, as long as the tube can pick up liquid it keeps on pouring it out. Speak about unbounded measurement error! Epic failure of duty!

As you can see, I have tried to minimize this by pouring it out in an awkward angle (instead of holding the handle above the level of the dispenser), however, the tube in my case is still not empty of fluid till I tilt the jug level: by which time most of the liquid in the tube has already flown out, once again messing up my calculations. Atleast now, the error is minimized to the volume container in the tube. Still, Incompetent design! to say the least.

Proper disposing of gas filled struts

I don't imagine this to be a problem occupying may minds :-). However, I recently replaced two aging gas struts which were failing to keep the weight of my engine hatch up. My plan, prior to the replacement was to dispose of the old ones at the S.M.A.R.T station where I go once in a while to dispose off scrap metal, used batteries, CFL bulbs etc (BestBuy also takes used bateries and CFL bulbs for disposal).

The warnings on the struts gave me pause though: It said Contents under pressure. Do not puncture, take apart, or apply heat. Since I assumed that the scrap metal handling will involve some sort of compacting and subsequent melting, I started seeing visions of exploding jagged scrap metal pieces! suitably scary thought.

Started researching about how one goes about properly disposing these things. finally found a good article (pdf) with nice pictures :-). Please note that the drilling is on the body of the shock and the other part with the dashed rod in the middle doesn't always look like that; sometimes the rod is exposed without any cover. The document indicates that my struts are of the high-pressure kind, so I know which instructions to follow. It does seem to require two things that once again, not many people I know have lying around:

1. A vice (which by definition has to be mounted on a string stable surface)
2. A drill with a 1/8inch or 2/3mm drill bit capable of drilling steel

Being a magpie when it comes to tools, I do have those lying around (one in storage and the a brand new Makita cordless drill and impact driver at home). I am not sure about the metal drill bit, however, drilling and breaking stuff is always fun ;-) and I am willing to buy a special drill bit just for this little project. If home depot caries it and it breaks while doing what it promises to, I can always get it replaced by them, so no worries there. I am also going to replace a leaking, much larger shock/damper on my car so I do need the practice on the smaller fellas I think.

I think I'll wait till I swap my suspension out to combine labor/HomeDepot/StorageTrip cost :-).

Android workaround for stupid bugs with adding a second gmail account

I have been parking under a big rock it looks like: wasn't aware that you can actually push a second google mail account to the gmail app. I was all set for integrating with my work google apps mail and calendar. I am running Android 2.1 on a HTC Hero.

My first experience went thusly:

• Menu > Settings > Accounts & Sync > Google > follow the wizard
• Add username and password
• phone says "Hang on, communicating with google servers. This may take up to 5 minutes"
• ........
• phone says "Can not establish a reliable data connection to the server...." and then quits.

I thought maybe a phone issue and tried to update my profile, PRL, firmware etc and tried again. No dice..Same stupid dance. Googled all over the place and then finally found comment #93 which worked.

• Android 2.1 and god knows which other versions are somewhat broken as far as their multiple account mail capability is concerned.
• Use the included Youtube app to log in (use your google apps or google credentials). Don't worry if authentication fails.
• Now go to Menu > Settings > Accounts & Sync and you'll find that the account you attempted to use with the Youtube app has been added.
• Simply enable syncing and you are good to go.

Of course, life cannot be this simple. Apparently calendar syncing is not allowed for secondary account. So you'll still have to share all secondary calendars to your primary account and hope for the best (my work calendar is somehow setup to only allow the sending of busy/free status and it is either this restriction or someother issue that prevents it from being shown on my phone). So much for enterprise usage of this. Gah! Well life goes on. My old WM6 phone was complete crap and Android 2.1, while it behaves like a beta, is still better.

Maybe it is all HTC's fault. However, it says "with Google" in big bold letters on my Hero so Google definitely is proud of what they are putting out, warts and all. At the end, all software companies must likely choose to triage and decide to release with em bugs. Thank god (and intrepid experimenters) for workarounds.

Spidey

I recently noticed these three huge spiders making their home right in front of my apt. They build these massive webs and sit right in their middle. They have sorta become my friends I think :-), when I head out, if I find one missing, I wonder where it's gone to, prospecting some other site or some such (they probably have multiple residences). A couple of days back, I think some of the landscaping people must have walked through and cleared some of the webs out, in the evening, one of them was busy rebuilding it's web. Looks pretty cool.

 

I don't have any high magnifications lenses that can focus close, so this is pretty much the best I can currently do. The rest of the photos are here.

Pro-Blend

 I  had ordered a couple of these from US plastics, but the site says that it is back ordered. Further searching revealed that Grainger also carries them and the local Grainger store on Kern St in Sunnyvale had it in stock. If you decide to get one from there, have them search for "Chemical dispensing" and locate the item. Do note that it comes in 1 gal and 1 qt sizes, so get the correct one for your needs.

This thread describes how to use it. I have 1 gal jugs of "Optimum No Rinse" and Chemical Guy's Microfiber wash. Totally looking forward to using it. Simply pouring from the 1 gal jug is next to impossible to do cleanly when you have very thin liquids.

Another alternative when you don't have to measure (I need to as the ONR and the MF detergent specify dilution ratios), you can also use these simple spouts or these pumps. I have the spouts on order from CGs as well just to keep them around as they look useful.

Pad care

Following my recent headlight polish job, I was left with three used pads: the tangerine one was particularly dirty and looked saturated with polish (looks like I used more than needed). I needed to wash these fellows and started a new google search for this. Found some useful links

• Use a Pad Washer if you want to spend 140$ or more and have the need and space for it
• Make your own following DIY pad washer
•  Use a brush to clean the excess gunk off the pad (which works best if you have a rotary which I don't. The random orbital is apparently not useful with a pad brush)
• Press the pad into a terry towel and then turn the polisher on: This also has some negatives as some say it deposits lint from the towels onto the pad.

However, using cleaner solutions and the grit gaurds I already had lead me to the following process which worked out very well in cleaning everything out nicely

• Fill a bucket with some water and add some Chemical Guys Citrus wash (Any shampoo might work here. I used the citrus wash following the citrus components in the pad cleaner link above).
• Soak the pads and use a pad cleaner brush to brush stuff off: worked somewhat decently
• Now place the grit-guard at the bottom of the bucket. Hold it in place with one hand and with the other, drag the pads on the grit-guard along it's outer circular edge. This more or less replicates the expensive pad washer mechanism for the weekend warrior. In the future, I think I will skip the brushing step and directly drag the pads on the grit-guard.

Restoring headlights

The first thing I have wanted to do in my renewed desire to see all my wheeled babies shine is to conquer an old problem which I have never been able to solve properly: clear up the yellowed headlights on the prelude (and the accord while I am at it).

I had at one point, decided to do this as after washing the prelude, the headlights were the only sore spot. I proceeded to research like crazy and obviously failed in hitting the right links as I decided to do (following "well" researched net articles and posts):

• Sand the headlights down
• Use a microfiber applicator (small sponge covered with MF) and my stock of random Meguiars scratch remover polish to plenty of elbow grease.
• Stand back and marvel (never got here)

The sanding required that I go to ACE and search their sand paper sections and get sheets of 2000 grit wet/dry sand paper (I think this is all I bought as it is all I have left) and a sanding block (something with a gripper which can hold a piece of sand-paper locked into two edges (wrapped around the bottom and the edges are on the sides). The result of this as of today, looks like so.. (looks worse in person than in the photo).

Following my new detailing bible from detailed image, especially their headlight care section, I decided to use my newly acquired Menzerna polishes (Power Finish and Super Finish) and the new 4 inch Lake Country pads (Yellow regular and the Cyan and Tangerine Hydrotech pads) for the job. I only had the 2000 grit wet.dry paper lying around and decided to see how far I could get with the polishes alone. I realized that unlike clearcoat and paint, the plastic of the headlights is very hard and would require some work to polish. Still, I was hopeful as the inspirational links promised very good results with my plan of action.

On the prelude I taped the trim and then used the Cyan pad with the Power Finish polish followed by the Tangerine pad with the Super Finish polish. I cleaned out/buffed with a microfiber towel after each polish stage. The Porter Cable polisher was set at speed level 4 or 5. The results were very good. Please forgive the different angles, but each headlight looked like the right one does: pretty clear.

Once this was done, I started on the Accord. After fighting with it for a while with the Cyan and Power Finish, the headlights still looked pretty bad. It looks like the wet sanding done several months earlier on the Prelude must have helped. It was already getting cold and I was getting tired, so I did a few passes with the 2000 grit paper (the links from DI indicate the need for progressive 1000, 1500, 2000 and 3000 grits, each done in X first and then Y to produce a hatched sanding pattern) and decided it was done.

Accord before the cleanup

After Wet Sanding

Once wet sanded, I cleaned them up with water and then proceeded again with the Cyan/Tangerine combo (I also hit it with a yellow pad, the most cutting power I had before I decided to sand as the Yellow+Power Finish were not enough), I finally got this..

Note that the hazy/dull sections are actually reflections of the apartment complex. It came out looking pretty good. Will not compare with new headlights, but for a 10 year old plastic piece that has lost it's UV protection and has been battered by billions of tiny projectiles: the old mama looks good again!

Very satisfying day all in all. Folks with yellowing headlights who also have access to polishing compounds should definitely try this: makes a big difference. You can use elbow grease if you don't have a polishing machine. Chemical guy's also has a "Headlight Restoration & Protection System-GlassyLite" listed in their glass care section. I also see other headlight restoration kits being sold at Pep Boys and Auto Zone but have no experience with either.

Detailing cars aka new money pit. Rewarding though!

I have been suddenly and inexplicably been taken with the desire to restore all our cars to their new-car glory. The paint on the Accord and the Prelude have been pretty much neglected for a decade so doing this now is kinda pointless. I am also busy with lots of other things in life. However, this I feel is something I have to do. The other motivation for this vehicle appearance refresh is the feeling that I have to sell the Prelude sooner than later and I wanted to clean it up for the new owner and all that.

I have collected a whole bunch of tools over the past several years so I do have a random orbital buffer, bunch of pads, polishes, sealants etc (know most of the buzz words, see..). However, I restarted my research and now have come to a different set of conclusions or atleast want to start from a different point.

The inspiration for the born-again detailer mojo was this: Ask a detailer thread. This started a whole other list of related searches which lead me to bookmark

• What does Polish unitl it looks clear mean?
• Detailed Image's Auto Detailing Guide (Huge resource)
• Detailed Image's Ask a pro blog (Another huge resource)
• Paint Repair Clinic 
• ONR the definitive thread 
• Leatherique Leather Care How To 

These have made me change how I do stuff as far as keeping the hondas clean which I'll document in subsequent posts as I have another post to add before I forget (or get busy).

The fun and folly of embarking on a new coding project

I am in the market for a new software tool say, everyone from Microsoft to the nice Opensource folks make something that satisfies a part of what I need: no one works at even 50% of what I want. What does one do ? I am prepared to pay for good stuff: Mindmanager, Bluebeam PDF etc are excellent tools on my tablet and I paid for them. Lightroom is another beautifully crafted software application I have no issues paying for. However, paying for crap (especially if I can do without it) is something I cannot do.

So what does one do ? A total geek like me would think, "Hey, nice non-trivial project to sink my teeth into" and then quickly proceed to sit back and dream of the final kudos I would receive. I have found my dip and by Thor, I am going to cross it. Waves back to the suckers across the dip, hah.

But wait: what if there is reason no one is making the kind of software I want. Is there no market for it ? Will it function horrendously once I lay down the code to build my requirements palace ? did someone actually do the smart thing and run this by users to see if there is a market ? Experience has taught me to be choose humility and my boss taught me spend time asking more questions. Apparently there is always another angle to look at things. Hmm.. wonder what Apple thought about the iPhone and why no one thought about touch based UIs ? Nah.. maybe most of the software companies are producing mediocre stuff because they don't have someone particularly OCD/Anal enough nagging them with "still not right. see, this is crap".

In any case, I have this wonderful cop out, "It will be a learning experience" and all I will be wasting is the one things that will turn out to be the most precious: my time.Gah..

The optimistic code monkey marches on. May the banana (hindi pun intended) gods prevent the peels from getting underfoot.

Continuation of Ikea bed fix

I think I better finish this before I completely forget. Somewhat jobless now, so best time to get this done. So..

The first thing I had to do was to break out my Proxxon tools and see how well I can use the rotary tool to actually cut metal. I had purchased a whole lot of things to make my life easy and this turned out to be just fine. The biggest problem was all the fine metal dust that accumulated below the little stool (to which I bolted the base of my drill press).

I could not get small mending braces at OSH so I picked up these angled affairs after a salesperson told me that a Dremel like tool could cut it easily. I was skeptical but I simply had to try it. Here you see the mending brace clamped in the Proxxon Vise which is attached to the base of the Proxxon drill stand. The drill stand has two mounting holes and I simply drilled two holes into the top of a stool I had sitting outside and attached the stand to it using long carriage bolts and butterfly nuts.

Now for the fun part. I had prepared myself with goggles and all, and was looking quite the handyman. My research showed that cutting through metal needed high RPMs and a gentle touch. That is, no pushing the cutting disk into the metal with force.

The pic above shows the cutting disk (a fiber reinforced disk to withstand the high temps without disintegrating). It is attached to the end of a flex-shaft which is attached to the actual rotary tool. I did not need to use the drill-press, but it allowed me to work easily because I was not worried about where the tool was. All I needed to do was guide the flex shaft with the rest of the assembly secured to the stool/bench.

Actually cutting the mending brace was not too bad. Little sparky bits kept flying off and would sting slightly when coming in touch with the skin of my hand. Unfortunately I don't have any videos of it as I did not think of documenting the process at that time.

With the metal braces done, I then needed to drill holes into the side table. This is actually trickier than it sounds because of the requirement that the holes be perfectly perpendicular to the wood. I had foreseen the trouble there and a swipe of plastic money got me this..

This is what is called a Drill Guide, a cheap one, but gets the job done. The idea is to basically attach the drill to the fixed bit and then attach the bit to the chuck provided. Now as the drill is pushed down, it can only travel down the guide rods.and remains perpendicular to the base of the guide. This is all fine in theory. In practice what you get is

• The sliding mechanism sticks
• There is some wobble and the drill doesn't move perfectly up and down. It tends to move around and the holes are not perfect.
• Finally, depending on where you want to drill, there isn't backing material to place the base of the guide on.

Anyhow, all said and done, it was useful and I did manage to drill straight. The picture above also shows the side table mounted solidly on the Jaw Horse :-). A very useful thing, dat! Some more photos of the horse clamping the table.

I unfortunately do not have photos for the rest of the heroic endeavor. Without further verbiage, I present the end result! somewhat irregular, but very strong side table.

You'll notice that after all this preparing and shopping and talking, it isn't much to show. I could not even get it level finally :-(. However, it now holds weight very well and is once again a trusted load bearing member of my furniture family.

The shift to nikon, or why I love the D700

Yengyo made the mistake of asking me why. Here is why :-).

I have been with canon for the last eleven years. My first SLR was a film Rebel purchased in 1998 and I have stuck with canon since. I have been through a 10D, a digital rebel, 20D, 5D, 5D Mark II, 7D, 5D Mark II again and have finally decided to try the Nikon D700 following the accounts of a number of people who have switched from the 1DIII and 5DII to the D700. I figured that if they were happy using the D700 professionally, maybe it will suit my modest needs well.

I have multiple reasons for deciding to give Nikon a shot

• I have been with canon for a long time. Change is good for the soul.
• I have been wanting a better AFing camera for a while and while I would miss the 21Mpix's cropping ability and canon's video impl, the usability of the Nikon that some people were raving about simply had to be experienced.
• What if I was more of a "Nikon" guy but stuck with canon because of an accident (no money in grad student days to spend on Nikon)
• I was getting bored.

The D700 specifically over the D300 or others as I wanted a small sized FF body and it was the only option for me. Over the 5DII, from a specs perspective I get

• + More rugged and better weather sealed
• + With the grip, I get 8fps if I need
• + Better low light AF
• + Even if the cross points are somewhat idiotically clustered in the center three columns, the outer points are far from lame.
• + Built in flash which is also a flash commander
• + Built in AF assist
• + Better Auto White balance
• + Excellent Auto ISO implementation.
• - Only 12Mp compared to 21MP. Less opportunities for cropping.
• - Somewhat worse skin colors (but I can work around this as I always shoot raw)
• = No video (But then using the 5DII video in practice is not that easy and I don't do it often)
• - Lack of mid range image stabilized lens. But thankfully the Sigma 50/1.4 works its magic on Nikon as well and the 24-85mm AF-S is pretty good too. I can wait a bit on this as I don't think Nikon can afford to ignore this bracket any longer.

When I found an excellent deal on a D700, I snatched one up with the intent to play with it side by side with the 5DII and then decide which one to keep. Giving up all my canon stuff would get expensive and painful (lots of things to sell, dealing with craigslist jokers who want stuff for 30% of posted value etc). It wasn't love at first sight though.

Education

  Moving to  Nikon for a canon guy requires a decent learning curve. You have to learn much about lenses and what lenses work on what cameras and so on. Most of the ones available are manual focus and come with an array of acronyms.What I learned was that I should stick with the AF-S lenses featuring SWM (the Nikon equivalent to Canon's USM, silent fast focusing). Once this was out of the way, the real shock set in. Nikon's mid range lens collection for full frame is non-existant once you consider what Canon has to offer. There is no single good mid range zoom with VR. Having been spoiled by the Canon 24-105L, I was somewhat surprised to see that Nikon had ignored the FX users for the most part, the one exception being the highly ignorable 24-120VR . So I looked around and the one lens that got decent reviews for someone wanting to try Nikon out was the 24-85 AF-S F3.5-4.5 (not very slow but close enough to constant F4). This is a nice and small lens and gets a good review by Thom Hogan. I found one on EBay for a good price and got that to test the camera out.

Initial impressions

• Everything in the viewfinder looked yellow
• The images looked yellow and somewhat nasty. I could never stand the Nikon colors as they tend to render images too cool or skins too yellow.
• Grip was not as deep as the 5D and my fingers would hit the Fn and DOF buttons making it not as friendly to hold.
• Very hard for me to hold one-handed which I could easily do with the 5DII inspite of (or maybe because) it being a larger body.
• The AF dial pad was too low and awkward to use to change the AF point. Would start hurting my thumb almost immediately.

So I was all set to pick up the 5DII again and you know, make it feel loved again. A few days later, however, I started reading the manual (thick affair, all 420 pages of it) and started searching for settings that would really make it my own. This is what I found and this time, it was like love at first read :-). I had found my camera at last! (I am still waiting for Nikon to takes its collective head out of dark places and come up with an answer to Canon's 24-105 F4).

Before I describe why I fell in love, I need to explain what kind of issues I face with my camera. The 7D probably came close to fixing some of them, but I wanted a larger sensor for the DOF control so the 7D was not it.

Camera manufactures seem to segment users in somewhat strange buckets (At least Canon does). Nikon does the same when it comes to lenses (you pay 1700$ for the 24-70mm 2.8 or 500$ for the 24-120 VR piece of junk. Nothing in the middle).

Canon Segmentation 

    The biggest issue with canon currently is that you just cannot get a D700 equivalent body. The description I am looking for is probably "small sized, full frame, customizable body with pro AF and weather sealing". The 5DII lacks the AF capabilities, frame rate and weatherproofing of the D700 (weather proofing I cannot comment on as I haven't exposed either to the elements). To get all of that in a full-frame body, the only option is the large (and expensive) 1Ds series. Now I don't want to carry a beast like that all the time. The only small body that does what I want is the Canon 7D and that is a APS-C sensor, which I would rather not buy (I did try it out for a while and while I liked the body, the loss of the shallow DOF option was a big one and I sold it soon after and went back to the 5DII).

My Typical use case

   Some people are able to say that they shoot a specific set of subjects that define their photographic needs as landscape (target doesn't move, very good noise control at low ISO, access to sharp wide angle lenses etc), portrait (studio or slow moving, good skin color rendition, access to fast telephoto lenses with rounded aperture blades, low base ISO to allow wide open shots with fast glass under bright light) or sports (fast moving targets that demand accurate AF-tracking and high frame rate needs. Access to fast long glass for reach and subject isolation).

The P&S industry have this mythical creature called "Jennifer" :-). She represents their customer. The average mom ferrying her kids to soccer matches, fixing up birthday parties and so on. She just wants the camera to work. Intuitively and with good results.

The SLR industry doesn't seem to have their own version of Jen. Their segmentation is oriented towards professionals who know what they shoot because that is what they get paid to shoot whatever it is that they have chosen to shoot.

While, I might not be the standard use case, I think my needs are very similar to most people who buy SLRs.

• I shoot what I shoot and I buy an SLR for the image quality. I am willing to learn and put effort into the shooting but the camera better allow me flexibility as I learn.
• On vacations it is landscapes
• Uniformly lit
• Non uniformly lit and needing bracketing or spot metering
• When photographing a kid: nephews, friend's kids etc.
• capture a brat that can move suddenly. Accurate AF and tracking.
• High contrast situation so need access to spot metering on active AF point.
• Low base IO so I can use ultra fast lenses without bumping against min shutter speed limits.
• Need positionable AF points so I get more accurate AF without having to focus-recompose and throw AF accuracy outta the window (in most cases)

The thing about trying out the D700 is that most of my points have been answered and answered in ways that make the camera fantastic to use and very quickly adaptable to changing situations. 

Once I setup the camera according to how some wedding photogs have (prakashphotography AF settings,  Nikon thread on POTN and a few other sources I don't remember) I have the following

• Single shot mode. (top left dial)
• Always on C (Continuous servo mode), Switch near lens mount
• Always on Dynamic AF and default to 51pt 3D Tracking
• AF only on AF-On button press
• Center button of joy-pad to zoom in on active AF when pressed during playback
• 11 pts for manual selection
• Preview overridden to Spot-meter
• Preview + dial to change Dynamic AF modes (9,21,51,51 + 3D)
• Fn + dial to set bracketing 
• Fn + shutter to shoot bracket burst even in Single shot mode.
• Set shutter to not lock exposure
• Set the indicators to reverse (Nikon's exposure dials have + at the left side and - at the right side. Remarkably stupid I think, but I'm sure there was a reason connected to the way the dials turn for compensation).
• Set the dials to reverse as well
• RAW and 14bit NEFs.
• The AF assist light has turned out to be as much of a nuisance and as distracting as canon's stupid strobing flash when shooting people. so I always turn this off.

The beauty is that Nikon's continuous AF is not as jittery as AI Servo (atleast in my experience) that this works for single shot as well as actual action. These settings allow me to do the following very easily.

Examining AF accuracy: After shooting, while the image is on display, I simply hit the center button of the dial pad and the image zooms to the AF point to check accuracy. Super convenient. On the 5DII, I have to hit the magnify button multiple time to do this.

3D Tracking as focus-recompose aid: When outside, with enough color difference between subject and bg, I can actually simply focus on a face using the center AF point, keeping the AF-ON pressed, I can reframe the scene. When 3D tracking works (which is most of the time), the active AF point moves around and the closest one (one of the 51) is on the face. This is pretty cool! It removes the need to use the unergonomic (to me) pad to select the AF point manually and lets 3D tracking do that for me. A huge plus!

Dedicated spot metering: On a hike, if I see a branch in shadow that I want to capture and the scene is otherwise very bright and I decide to spot meter: what do I do ? Simply keep the preview button pressed with my index finger while I press the shutter button and I get instant spot metering (Note that for this to work when shutter button is already pressed half-way, the setting to *not* lock exposure on shutter must be enabled). On my 5DII, I have to set my exposure to spot using the buttons on top (can be done by feel I guess but I never succeeded in doing so. If you can do it, the VF will show which mode you are in). This is significantly easier for me being able to dedicate an action to spot metering without having to scroll through all the metering modes. I am using this more and more in backlit situations with people as well. Very very useful!

Dedicated bracket controls: This is not as frequently used but I love the functionality. If I find scenes that I feel like blending exposures later on, I can set bracketing and shoot the entire bracket in seconds. The way I have it setup. Press the Fn button with my ring finger, and turn the front-dial to decide the separation of the shots (1ev, 2 ev etc). Once that is done, use the rear dial to set the number of shots (I use 3 usually) and then keeping Fn pressed, keep the shutter pressed and the entire bracket is shot! I find this fantastic and it is done much faster than the instructions here might indicate.

Dynamic AF: The 3D tracking feature on the D700 can be fooled with the background colors match the foreground. Even if that doesn't happen, sometimes it locks on to all kinds of things. This is very similar to the 7D's iFCL (color sensitive) tracking but seems to track better. When it goes for a toss, I simply keep the preview button pressed with my index finger and rotate the rear dial. The choice of dynamic AF area shows up on the rear LCD and I then tend to choose 9 or 21 pt for tracking. This is not often though as I stick to 3D tracking more often than not.

Stationary brat deciding to move suddenly: This is real simple, since I am always in continuous servo, I just keep AF-On pressed and track the moving bullet. This is where one might need to switch from 3D tracking to 9/21 pt depending on the backgrounds (Which does force you to take your eyes off the VF once but then after that you don't need to switch back to 3D as 21pt is more than enough if you are tracking the kid)

Following someone that moves from dark into light This is where the beauty of auto-iso comes in. Nikon's implementation is simply superb. You specify a base-iso, a minimum shutter speed and a max-iso. And after trying to use the base-iso, it keeps on increasing the ISO till it reaches the ISO max limit or the min shutter speed. Very nice. The canon one never worked this well.

Overall, I am very happy with the D700. Much less so with the lenses but the Sigma 50/1.4 is as beautiful on the D700 as it was on the 5DII. I have sold pretty much all of my canon stuff (just have a flash, some extenders and a 100-400IS lens left. Those will be gone soon as CL is a great market place in the bay area).

I don't think the image quality of the D700 is all that though. It is very good but the 5DII equals it or trumps it readily and at 21MP it is quite the feat. People do say that the amount of data you can extract from the Nikon raw files is amazing and I have yet to experience that. However, IQ aside, the D700 allows me to shoot the way I want without getting in the way. It takes away a lot of annoyances and obstacles which was a huge bonus. No stupid marketing morons forcing me to work their way. And for that I am grateful to nikon, in spite of the tacky gold boxes and the red swoosh on the front.

I still think that Canon leads in tech overall. Having a lot more resources compared to Nikon, this is probably to be expected. They were the first to introduce USM, IS, Hybrid IS, using CMOS in sensors, excellent video implementation, first with DO lenses etc. However for my needs, the current state of Nikon tech is just fine (For the next several years atleast :-) ).

Taking advantage of bing cashbacks and the price increases since I purchased some of my stuff, I have so far actually made a small profit in selling my 5DII, 24-105L, Sigma 50/1.4 and the 580EXII. The rest will probably lose me some 50$ total. Not bad for a complete change of systems.

I kea mara mei kya kea. Fixita..

A few weeks back, or maybe even a month, the lovely ikea made bedside stand decided to give up its tenuous hold on the bed and crashed spectacularly. The spectacle was helped by the somewhat full water-heater-for-tea thing I have there for the dw to use. The little metal plate you see in the image is what connected the bed-frame and the side table together. One nail each in the back. There is also a small support at the bottom of the frame but I don't have any photos of it. The support lasted several years so I should not really complain I guess.

At this point, I had three options. Replace with the same item, replace with different thing not attached to the bed or repair what I have. The design of the current sidetable is unsound but I really liked how it paired with the bedframe, so naturally, I chose repair with option to strengthen. Now the fun began and I began procuring material for my first carpentry project. Really small project, but still, I was a carpentry virgin and was getting unreasonably excited at the prospect of buying more power tools :-).

It is amazing how utterly foolish you sound when you go to homedepot and start waving your hands around drawing imaginary pictures. One session of that and I found myself at wikipedia. God bless the thing. I now knew the difference between doweling, miter cuts, drill guides, forstner bits and a whole lot of stuff. The story behind how drill bits were initially created is quite fascinating.

Anyhow, after a whole bunch of preparations, this is the list of tools I ended up having to use. Some of these I already had, the rest were purchased from amazon (my fav place) or from OSH locally (Which surprisingly was cheaper than amazon for the jawhorse)

Supplies

• Metal plates to join different things. These are generally called mending braces and they come in various shapes and sizes. I chose two T shaped ones with two holes on each of the branches. The plan was to cut the T into two segments so I get a total of four plates with two holes each. Each pair of these plates would form one join between the bed frame and the sidetable.
• Nuts and bolts (to connect plates across the thickness of the bedframe)

Drill ToolsA basic drill is important. I had a basic battery powered Ryobi from homedept that was purchased a few years back. Not sure what I used it for, but the time had come for it to be useful. Luckily, I also realized that when trying to drill though a 2 inch thick bed frame, such that multiple drill holes are parallel, I need some way of ensuring that the drilling is perpendicular to the surface of the wood. A little bit of research introduced me to the Drill guide. I already had a bunch of other stuff that I purchased for other purposes.

• Cheap drill from homedepot (which I already had)
• Proxxon 38481 IB/E Professional Rotary Tool (already had this)
• Proxxon 28132 Machine Vise MS 4 (already had this)
• Proxxon 28606 MICROMOT Drill Stand MB 140/ S (already had this)
• Proxxon MICROMOT Flexishaft 110/P - Converts your Proxxon Rotary Tool into a Flexible Shaft Machine (already had this)
• Precision drill guide (bought new from homedepot)
• Dremel 426D 1 1/4-Inch Fiberglass Reinforced Cut-Off Wheel 5/Pack) (bought a single disk from OSH)

I have never had trouble spending good money on high quaity tools. Initially, I had purchased a dremel from amazon. As is my wont, a few days later, after the item is sitting in my house, I proceed to re-read the reviews. A few references in the comments caught my eye
:  a few days later, I had returned the unopened dremel and got myself the German made proxxon, very similarly priced and if reports are true, much better made. You can see that I went on a binge here. First I got the drill. Once the drill was home, I thought that a flexible shaft will make a nice addition as it will allow me to wield a polisher bit like a pen (The motivation at that time was to clear out the rust from a air-pump Acura had provided me for topping off the spare. The trunk in which the pump was housed was flooded because the car's trunk seals were bad and yada yada it ended up with some corrosion. I naturally needed a power tool to get some of the rust off). A few days later, I wondered about the safety implciations of having a drill lying around and powered on (even if attached to a shaft) and so wanted a clamp for the drill itself so it'd be prevented from jumping around. The best option turned out to be a small drill press :-). So. you see, good reasons all in all.


Safety Equipment

• Goggles
• Mask

Additional HelpersWhile searching for reviews of tools, I came across people recommending the Black and Decker worktable as a means of holding/clamping/placing work items. I nearly one-clicked the item as it looked ideal for my needs. Luckly, I found this other fellow, the Rockwell RK9000 Jawhorse. It seemed ideal, tons of features, packs small, very strong and reasonably priced. Plenty of review videos for this fella online. I found it in OSH and got it from there the day of the procedure (on the bed i.e) as I did not plan well enough to buy it from amazon. The intension here was to have the jawhorse hold the sidetable while I measure and drill it. I did not want the drill bit hitting the concrete of my backyard and wanted the whole table raised up. This looked ideal and would be useful for lots of other things later on (or so I convinced myself)

Continued..