Atom H | 氫原子

WordPress 3.3 code named “Sonny” was released on last Monday. which I just learned after today’s login. I have been using Live Writer for all my posts recently and really been away from the so called Dashboard quit long time.

My host supports WordPress painless update, with one click of button. I sure hope my host can just update all software packages, plugins and themes without my attention at all.

The first thing you will notice after this update is the UI improvement.

UI drop menu

Second best thing, is for uploading multimedia files. Finally the drop and go option for WordPress arrived.

Drop and Go

By the way, WordPress gave me gentle warning that my Firefox is out of date. Thanks, but I am not following Firefox for their “rapid development model”. It’s considered out dated for a browser released on 2010 new year.

Firefox 3.6 out dated

Enough on WordPress.

Today I just bought a new-for-me ThinkPad X61s with 4GB ram and a 7200 rpm hard disk which came installed with Windows 7 Ultimate. I just tried out Ubuntu LTS on this and it’s been working great. Really enjoying the screen, small but much more readable than my “OLD” T60P.

Ubuntu LTS on X61s

This machine is so light that I can hold it single handedly with another typing on it. And I have just done that on the way back while waiting for bus coming. Now I can finally retire my trusted X40, which is really showing its age.

Strangely enough, for a business class laptop, it comes with a SD card reader, which is not even presenting on my T60P, a workstation special tailored for graphic/design. This coming Chinese New Year I will again be out travel, X61s will be such a great companion for photo storage and light editing, status update on Facebook (can be done on smartphone as well, but I prefer real keyboard even for lightest type task), a few songs or movies while on plane and general search (taking advantage of the free WiFis offered).

For the old T60P, I am planning to get a Ultrabay slim HDD adapter for a second internal hard drive options. The hard drive price is insane now, but will come down eventually. Hopefully it will get a SSD system drive in the main hard drive bay as well as a large and power efficient HDD in the Ultrabay.

Life has been great for this year, and it’s just getting better into the holiday season.

在下平生第一次用10mm的镜头，激动地可以。上面这张是在路上就忍不住拍下来了。当时在下坐在后座位，10mm之光，可见一斑。

鄙人比较穷，用副厂镜头来看看广角是不是鄙人的菜。Tamron SP AF 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II LD Aspherical (IF)

它的一些评测

Dpreview: this is a wide angle zoom which will give good results when used with a little care

Ken Rockwell: The Tamron 10-24mm is nice enough, except that it’s not very sharp unless stopped down.

The digital picture: Shoot stopped down and avoid the longest focal lengths. Photozone:

鄙人自己的感受是，真是广，前所未有的广。以前鄙人最广的是16mm，拍建筑还是觉得要退后几步，到了10mm，视角到109º。

而拉到24mm，视角缩小到60º，又是比较合适的人文视角。虽然锐度跟很多在这个焦距的镜头差很远，在不想换镜的时候还是可以用的，记得放小光圈。

试镜照，10mm的广：

四个边的锐度极具下降，不过颜色还好。如果能再减光圈，应该能有进步。

期待今年过年的九寨沟自然风景和成都的人文风景只有。话说这支镜头就是为这次旅游买的。

这是上个礼拜一个朋友结婚拍的。结果发现太广了，与我个人的婚礼主要拍美女的理念不符合，还是换回17-50/2.8了。

本人为这次婚礼还专门买了闪光灯，原厂AFG540，来练习婚礼摄影。万一将来不做我的本行了，还能赚点饭钱不是。有暇待续。