OT: Lazy language

[Bob Eager]

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[Bob Eager]

Earlier? I managed the university mainframe for a number of years. We didn't ditch the card reader until 1983 (when I got a second CPU put in and we ran out of room). Fixing the OS for the second CPU was fun...

[gareth]

Ah, Yes! And also, if I remember correctly, the "400" had to be prefixed by whatever was the memory size?

[Bob Eager]

Sorry, yes.

[gareth]

My introduction was to a PDP11/20 in a vacation posting in 1971.

8K words of memory, DecTape, but only a teletype for reading and punching paper tape. Just over a year later, afte graduating, my first task was to design and produce an interface for a Facit high-speed reader / punch.

Double-sided PCB produced by taping black sticky tape onto a double-sized master, and then geting a photo reduction for the masks.

Health and Safety has gone somewhat mad since those days, for, to get our PCBs to etch more quickly, we'd boil up the ferric chloride in a saucepan on a Baby Belling Cooker.

[Johnny B Good]

My meaning was that the OS was, strictly speaking, a Data Storage Management Operating System wherein the "Data Storage Management" part of the resulting acronym, DSMOS, could be replaced by the letter D on its own since, at the time when the acronym OS for Operating System came into more common use, magnetic disk storage had become the standard method for off-line non-volatile long term storage for data (including the OS and application software code).

The letter D in DOS was the final tenuous linkage to the primary purpose of a computer OS (managing the storage of data, whatever it might represent). Once the acronym has been stripped down to its bare minimum, OS, it facilitates a lack of perspective in the consumers' view as to what the "OS" should offer by way of facilities.

In essence, modern windows OSes are nothing more than a Turnkey Launcher of 'paid for' software packages (games, office suites, multimedia pay per track/ pay per view and so on).

Now this might suit the needs of the casual 'consumer' with a 'toy' throw away computer such as a smartphone or tablet but it leaves them rather vulnerable to the dubious software so readily accessible via the internet when using a broadband connected laptop or desktop PC with which they, presumably, would like to use in more ambitious ways than merely consume served up apps and 'content' (or, at the very least, use as their main hub of digital activities and interactions with their 'toy computers').

Quite possibly, Microsoft and Apple might think the end user shouldn't be 'micro managing' the resources on their home/office computer. That the need no longer exists and therefore they should be discouraging such practices by crippling the file manager interface. After all, the home computer and its operating systems provide so much more facilities and reliability that such a need no longer applies. Sadly, this is far from being the reality and for the DIY enthusiast, a terrible disservice.

The need to routinely deal with the file system may eventually disappear but, imo, this will be coincident with the routine use of a microphone and camera as user input devices in place of keyboard and mouse.

[Johnny B Good]

The speed of light isn't the issue, it's the speed of the event.

The only definition of 'pre-trigger' I've seen in the context of photography relates to the art of capturing high speed events with ultra high speed movie cameras whereby the operator anticipates the start of such a short lived event to trigger the camera into streaming the sensor data into a circular 10 or 15 second buffer which can either be automatically stopped by the camera software detecting a preprogrammed attribute in the image stream or else stopped manually when the operator thinks he has nicely bracketed the event by the ten or fifteen seconds worth of captured footage in the circular buffer.

I suppose a similar technique could be used whereby the shutter press terminates a rapid sequence of stills from which the operator can choose from a preview, the best shot(s).

In this case, the camera would need to be set to a 'pre-trigger mode' whereby the half press of the shutter release causes the camera to continuously stream a series of stills into a high speed circular buffer the contents of which are only dumped to the storage medium a fraction of a second after the shutter release has been fully pressed.

That's a technique aimed at the more dedicated follower of lightning (flash) photography. Even using a single camera (accepting the minuscule risk of missing a lightning event between exposures) demands some level of 'faffing about' ("ham-fisted") with tripod (or a bean bag) and a shutter release cord.

Shortly after writing that opinion piece, I took a look at the CHDK wiki and 'Lightning capture' is mentioned. It won't necessarily apply to all models of Canon stills cameras that can be loaded with the CHDK 'firmware' but it does get a mention.

That might be true for the *very* latest models but that certainly wasn't the case for my recent Superzoom bridge camera (PowerShot SX40HS).

The later SX50HS model (same Digic V image processor) only has a beta version of CHDK available at this point in time whilst the even more recent SX60HS (15 Sep 2014 model) shows no version of CHDK being available (as yet - my parenthesis).

Whilst the very latest models do seem bereft of CHDK support, this is probably more to do with the need for analysis of the firmware and further development of a suitable CHDK package rather than a lack of interest.

For anyone with an older Canon digital camera who fancies having a go at photographing lightning, a look at the CHDK wikia might be just the ticket. Anyone else who fancies having a go at such specialised photography on a budget and looking for a decent 2nd hand camera would be well advised to assemble their short list of Canon contenders from the CHDK site.

[dennis]

I think the wife's Lumix does that.

8<

You don't need special equipment to do lightning, you just need a small aperture and a long exposure and some decent storms, its the later that is the problem.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ås someone else said., so its aerial a shortening.

[John Chance]

Sure, and that is how living languages work, nothing to do with laziness.

[Clive George]

Ah, this is just another variant on your "Win2K was the bestest OS MS ever did" rant.

Meanwhile out there in the real world there are many people doing significant things with their computers, and the file browsing system is a teeny tiny part of that. If you're spending anything more than a tiny amount of your time browsing for files, you need to improve access to what you've got stored in some way, and there's many options. Software development will typically have some kind of IDE to manage it, documents/photos will use various forms of metadata, there's indexing, document management databases, etc.

[John Chance]

Not necessarily. The other obvious approach is for the apps to do that sort of thing for you, most obviously with your photos where it is perfectly possible for an app to do a lot more for you as far as finding the one you want than you can do manually.

and there's many options. Software

And that can be quite transparent to the user.

[Clive George]

I think you'll find you're agreeing with me.

[whisky-dave]

But for what you're trying to take is relivent. If you were recording the sound of the luightning that would be easy, when you see teh flash hit the record button. In most cases' you'll get a recording and it's pretty easy to do.

Yep been there done that, with a cheap webcam abd software.

sort of likie a moviwe as in lots of frames taken closely together. Been done we had a 20,000 FPS camera here 35 years ago.

Better to use the lightning flash to trigger the camera or rather the stop/start recording.

shutter release cord ! haven't used one since the last millennium ;-)

yes it gets a mention but it's not a very good way pof capturiong lightning.

It can be fun messing about with an older camera withy the CHDK but the it can void the warrenty on a camera.

Maybe.

Not very likely it's not a good way of doing it.

Anyone else who fancies having a go at such specialised

Could do, but for lightning I'd use the 'normal' method people use.