path: root/wired.txt

# Notes 
Leica notes:


diagonal of the sensor it is what see, same perspective as the eye. 43mm lens in the q3.

best of both worlds. no menus, no review. 2024 70th anniversary of the M series. Leica M3 1954. 

## Action cams, underwater domes: https://www.amazon.com/Diving-Trigge-Underwater-Waterproof-Accessories/dp/B08L68TJ72/r https://www.amazon.com/GEPULY-Waterproof-Housing-Underwater-Photography/dp/B08TTP2KB8


## birding update:
don'ts - dye in hummingbird feeders, bread, etc seagulls
t-shirts
    bird nerd
## terms
EPC Earnings Per Click: an affiliate marketing term that refers to the average amount of money you earn each time someone clicks one of your affiliate links. 
CVR Conversion Rate: a marketing metric that tells you how many users are converting on your website
AOV Average Order Value. This is an eCommerce metric that indicates the average amount a customer spends during each transaction.
GMV Gross Merchandise Volume: shows the total sales value for merchandise sold through a marketplace over a specific time frame.
CPA Cost per acquisition: financial metric that is used to measure the revenue impact of marketing campaigns
CAC Customer Acquisition Cost: see above

# Scratch


Updates:
Improve Wifi
Merino Wool
Tents with mike's blurb
Action cams after insta360 embargo



Operating Systems Ranked by Usefulness

1) Linux
2) Nothing. Nothing is even close, which is why Linux is running the server you're reading this on to the seat back display on planes, to your ATM, to the cash register at the coffee shop.
3) Android/macOS. macOS has become so nagging even Gruber is complaining. https://daringfireball.net/2024/08/the_mac_is_a_power_tool
4) iOS
5) Windows

# GoPro Hero 13 Black Review

The new GoPro Hero 13 is first significant redesign in years for the action camera that invented action cameras. GoPro has added an interchangeable lens system to the GoPro Hero 13, along with a new Macro, Ultra Wide and Anamorphic lenses, along with a set of four neutral density filters. The Hero 13 Black even autodetects which lens is attached and changes settings accordingly.

While this new system is very slick, and opens up shooting possibilities that simple don't exist in prior models, the sensor and processor remain the same as what we got in the Hero 12, Hero 11, and in the case of the processor, the Hero 10. In many ways the Hero 13 Black feels like it is laying the groundwork for the Hero 14 Black, which makes it a great choice for first time customers, but hard to recommend as upgrade.

## Lucky 13

First the good news: the new interchange be lens system is awesome. There has always been the Max Lens mod, which offers a wider field of view, but the new system is more than just an expansion of the Max Lens. The key is that the camera auto-detects the lens or filter you have attached and automatically adjusts settings. You can of course override these adjustments, but it's nice to pop on one of the four ND filters and have the camera automatically adjusts settings to get a motion blur effect.

GoPro has released three lenses along with the Hero 13 Black: Ultra Wide, Macro, and Anamorphic. 

I had a lot of fun with the Macro lens, which allows you to use your GoPro for close up shots (close focus distance is 4.33 inches), something no other action camera can pull off. Probably the most exciting of these lenses is the Anamorphic, which unfortunately will not be available until early next year so I was not able to test it.

The other big news in this release is a magnetic mounting adapter. It functions very similarly to what DJI and Insta360 have long offered and makes it much easier to move the camera between mounts. As with those other systems, GoPro suggests not using the magnetic mount system in high vibration or high speed environments. 

Outwardly the Hero 13 Black looks a little different than its predecessor. It thankfully ditches the blue-speckled paint job of the Hero 12 Black, and adds a noticeable heatsink to the front, just below the lens. Otherwise though it is the same size, it even fits in the same Media Mod as previous models. 

The disappointing part of the Hero 13 Black is that it uses the same 27-megapixel sensor and the same processor as the Hero 12, and, for that matter the Hero 11. Yes, this is the third GoPro in a row with this sensor and processor, which makes this a less compelling upgrade than it would be with a bump in sensor size or output image quality.

This means that video footage still maxes out at 5.3K and most other video and photo specs remain unchanged. This also means that the sensor's flaws, which in my view remain the shoddy low light performance, also remain unchanged.

GoPro has a few tricks here and there worth mentioning though. As someone who likes to handle color grading in post production software, the new improved Log video support is very welcome. I would go so far as to say this is the best Log profile I've seen in an action camera.

The Hero 13 Black has a new slow motion burst mode which can record 5.3K footage at 120fps. It only pulls that off for 5 seconds though, so this is best used for situations like your kid going off a jump on their bike or diving in the pool or similar quick moments you want to slow down later.

Another small video improvement is that HDR support is vastly improved, with support for Hybrid Log-gamma (HLG) HDR video. The Hero 12's HDR support was not great, but HLG HDR is a widely used open-source HDR format that offers much better compatibility with non-wide-color-gamut displays. The footage also looks much better than the previous version.

I said above that the Hero 13 is the same size, which is true on the outside, but internally that's not the case, GoPro has enlarged the battery compartment to fit a new, bigger battery that the company claims will last 10 percent longer than the Hero 12's battery. I found this to be roughly true. Shooting 4K video with the Hero 13 I was able to consistently coax it along for about 1:45, sometimes up over the 1:50 mark if there was more ventilation (riding a bike for example).

The opposite was also true, shooting through the window a vehicle for instance, with almost no ventilation, and recording time went down to around an hour. I have not had a chanced to test it in cold weather, but GoPro is claiming improvements there too. Overall that's about 15-20 minutes longer across the board than I generally get with the Hero 12, which is great, but it's well behind the new DJI Action 5 Pro which had no trouble running well over 2 hours and 30 minutes in the 4K test. The Hero still has the worst battery life in the action camera market and the new battery, while improved also means your old batteries won't work, adding a sizable cost to those looking to upgrade.

One interesting battery related addition to the Hero 13 Black is the new mag charge door, which GoPro calls Magneto. It's a USB-C pass through door with a magnetic charger on the outside, which allows you to power the GoPro using an external battery without having the keep the battery door off. There have long been USB-C pass through doors available from third-party sellers, but this is the only one I'm aware of that's waterproof, which means that if you forget you have it on and jump in the ocean, you won't fry your GoPro.

One last new feature I found impressive is a new Voice Audio mode that prioritizes your voice, muting any ambient sound. It's not nearly as good as what you'll get from a dedicated wireless mic setup, but it's better than previous GoPros. Unfortunately you still need to add the Media Mod kit to add a separate mic, which remains my biggest gripe about the GoPro.

## Should You Buy a Hero 13 Black?

If you're new to action cameras, the Hero 13 Black is worth considering. Despite being two years old, the sensor has the highest resolution video available in an action camera at the time of writing, and it also has the best image stabilization I've tested. The new interchangeable lens system provides options no other action camera can match (though the price will add up when you start adding lenses).

However, if you're going to be shooting indoors a lot, or at night (think of those soccer games that run well into twilight this time of year), then I would pass and instead consider the DJI Action 5 Pro (full review coming soon), which has much better lowlight and indoor video.



	


# DJO Osmo Action 5 Pro


# Outdoor Gift Guide

hatchet
Local hiking guide
Black Diamond Mission MX Mitts (chris)
jefferson's bourbon: https://jeffersonsbourbon.com/whiskeys/jeffersons-ocean-bourbon/
campfire coffee




# Darktable

Every great piece of software starts with a problem. Good software solves the problem. Great software so elegantly solves the problem we forget that it ever existed. Writing machine code was a problem. Enter the compiler. Try finding someone who remembers days when writing machine code was the only way to program.

Elegance is in the eye of the beholder of course. Everyone sees elegance in their favorite text editor, though others may not. Some see elegance in various ways of the fibonnaci sequence, or writing a Perl script in the shape of a dolphin. tk etc

If I were picking the ultimate in elegance I would pick something that might seem obscure, but borders on the magical when you really think about it. It's not just one piece of software, but a chain of things that enable you to transform something you've seen in the real world into something that exists on your screen.




For me this is Darktable. Darktable is a RAW image editor. It's in same vein as Adobe Lightroom, except that it's far more powerful, and open source to boot. 












## Darktable alt

One of the great myths of free software (free as in freedom, not necessarily free as in beer) is that if it doesn't work the way you like, you can take the code, modify it to suit your needs, and go on your merry way. This is the cornerstone of the Free Software Foundations argument for why free software is better than proprietary software. 

While this is technically true—the provisions for copying, modifying, and redistributing are governed by the licence—it ignores the social reality of programming. There is more to software than code. 

The code is perhaps the least important part of a software project, particularly a large software project. All software starts with a problem. Good software solves the problem. Great software moves beyond the problem entirely. Which is to say that code must be there, but at some point in the life of a software project the code takes a back seat to the other two elements at play, the human elements, the developers and the users.

These are the two elements that determine the fate of the code (again, taking for granted that the code does in fact solve the problem). 

Perhaps the oddest part of programming is that these two factors, the producers and the users often end up producing a tension that can make or break projects. In the best cases this tension drives the project forward. From what I've witnessed over the years in the free software community successful projects have great leadership, whether that's a very talented individual or a governing body of individuals. What makes a great leader is difficult to say, it seems to vary by project even. 

While there are doubtless exceptions, most major project splits I've witnessed have been related to personalities within the project more than the capabilities of the code. Think LibreOffice, which spun off of OpenOffice in major part because the developers wanted a more egalitarian project structure, or NextCloud, which was forked from OwnCloud in part because, again, there were cultural differences between developers and the parent company. There are plenty of other examples. WordPress forked from b2, MariaDB from MySQL, Tenacity from Audacity.

In every case the project that ends up continuing is the one that draws in the most developers and most users.  

Software without developers quickly dies. This is obvious. What's less obvious is that software without users quickly does the same. Developers need users. The relationship between the two is what makes software more than code, more human. 

When we make something public a certain amount of control of that thing slips out of our hands. This is true of any writing, software, fiction, even this column will no longer be exclusively mine once it leaves my notebook. Somewhere in the process of publishing it, I fade to the background, the reader comes to the foreground. What matters now isn't what I have written, but what you think of it. These words don't belong to you in a legal sense, but in reading it you become part of a conversation and any community that surrounds it.

The same is true in software development. Whether you are a contributor or just use a piece of software, you are a part of the conversation that surrounds that software and whatever community may exist around it.

As with communities in other parts of life, some software communities are better than others. 

Therefore, you have
certain responsibilities if you distribute copies of the software, or if
you modify it: responsibilities to respect the freedom of others


The conversation and community look different depending on where you stand. 

Personally I don't use software made by people I don't like. 

Somehow segue to darktable.


One of the more interesting examples of software

like undeveloped film : a raw image can be developed by software in a non-destructive manner to reach a complete image that resolves every pixel in a RGB color space. Raw development adjustments include color, contrast, bjurightness and details recovery. A given raw dataset can be developed many times with different adjustments.

When Adobe moved Lightroom to a subscription model I started looking around for alternatives. I tried a few, but quickly settled on Darktable. It has the same conceptualization as Lightroom—it is both a photo file manager and RAW image editor—that it felt familiar even if all the tools and workflow was different. 

According to the commits in Git, Darktable came on the scene in 2009. I believe I first began using it in 2010. 


So it is literally the raw recording of the camera sensor. It's not even an image file as I understand it, it's just raw data, which is why you need a program like darktable or lightroom to display it.
4:32 PM
But it gives you more editing capabilities than jpg.
4:32 PM
And ultimately, when you're done tweaking it, you export it to JPG, TIFF, PNG or whatever
4:33 PM
Jason Kehe
 ahh, fun
4:34 PM
so the column is about darktable - which is obviously NOT a programming language - but, sure, it kinda sorta qualifies as machine-speak in a way, right?
4:36 PM
sng
 yeah because I really want to talk about the user/programmer relationship. the give and take (give and build?) that happens there. I'm just going to use darktable as an example of how that works in both good and bad ways.


# Blurbs

## Urbz Window Planter 

If space is really tight, consider the Urbz Window Planter, a small plastic orb that moves your counter top garden to the wall. It will attach, and I mean really, solidly attach, to any non-porous surface—windows, a tile backsplash, bathroom mirror, and more. I even got it to stick to some very smoothly varnished wood, although that wasn't quite as secure. These little planting pods are also easy to move around if you change your mind about where to put them.

There's a water catcher so your floor won't get wet, and I was also pleasantly surprised to find that window plantings did not fry in summer or suffer from our cold winter. You will want to stick with sun-loving plants if you put the Urbz in a window, but I had great results growing everything from succulents to herbs in the course of my testing. —Scott Gilbertson

## Root Pouch