One evening, after work and supper, The Girl and I drove south from Denio Junction toward the hot spring. This was one of our views on the way home. Captured with X100VI, 2026-08-25 19:50:17, 23mm, 1/30sec, f/8, ISO-320, light editing in PhotoLab7.
The previous week was too busy to make note of interesting websites that I visited. I started a remainders to hold those few and elected to delay a post for a week.
My Zoom subscription is scheduled to renew in November. Given that it is not a cheap service, I started investigating an FOSS alternative. Jitsi came up as a possible. I might want to self-host this software. More work is required to determine what is needed to self-host or if a third party host could be used.
I suppose I should list the source that pointed me toward Jitsi. I found a resource at GetVOIP.
I have followed Thomas for a long time. In a recent post, he talks about The Uncompromising Compromise. After reading his post, I realized I could have written something very similar.
I am a bit of a sucker for cool \TeX things. This web page is an interesting implementation of several TeX-related tools in a browser. Cool.
Uninstalling software can be a pain either because no uninstaller is provided or because it is complete. I use AppCleaner on my Mac, but searching for an alternative turned up a manual procedure. It might be old, but it remains a breadcrumb.
I am enjoying the Jack Reacher books by Lee Childs. I caught wind of them via the Prime series, which I enjoy. But I readily turned to the books. And here is a list in chronological order, rather than publication order.
Jason, KM4ACK, recently pushed this 450w bifacial solar panel for portable charging. The 450w is a lot of power and it is a big panel. I do not think this is for me at this time, but it might be later.
While out for an early medical test, I stood looking east from the third-story window. I like how the contrast implies anonymity to the city from this location. Captured with X-Pro3, 2026-08-21 07:29:51, 35mm, 1/5400sec, f/8, ISO-400, Ilford Pan F 50 Plus film simulation via PhotoLab7.
At the time this posts, it will be officially Fall 2026. (That would be 1705h local time.) This year the equinox occurs at 00:05Z on 23 September 2026. It is one of the oddball years.
Happy Fall.
About the image: One morning in August I was out early for a routine medical test and was waiting in the assigned area for my technician. As I looked out the third-floor window to the east, I noticed that the morning Sun pushed the structures in north Carson City into a somewhat less intrusive mass of rough shapes. I had the Fuji X-Pro3 with me and a Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 lens affixed to it, so I made a few captures while I stood there like an oversized cat, soaking up some morning Sun.
This is a test frame from an Olympus Zuiko 90mm f/2 macro lens wide open (f/2). Captured with ILCE-7M3, 2026-08-14 16:39:26, 90mm, 1/30sec, f/2, ISO-400, light editing with PhotoLab7.
Earlier this summer, I took a fancy to my small Olympus film camera collection. Last year I carefully traded out an Olympus OM-2n for an Om-4Ti and then picked up a user-grade OM-3. The OM-1MD was also serviced when I found it had a frozen shutter.
When I bought the Olympus kit from an old motorcycle friend, it came with a small collection of lenses. They were the usual suspects and a mix of OEM and third-party glass. The Tokina zoom was surprising good, certainly better than I expected. But I do not generally use zoom lenses, particularly on vintage film cameras. The prime lenses are generally much better and certainly far more interesting from a image quality perspective.
Over the last few months I carefully curated a small collection of Zuiko prime lenses. I carefully picked those with the best reputation for image quality. I think my collection is complete and I have a few samples to sell.
One of the lenses with a better than average reputation is the Zuiko 90mm f/2 macro lens. It is fast, particularly for a close-focusing lens. It has a reputation for being sharp, even wide open, and sharp across the field (even wide open).
I also have a Tamron 90mm f/2.5 macro lens in my collection that uses the Tamron Adaptall-2 mounting system. The Olympus adapter(s) were purchased last year (or before). During my research I noted that there were two instances of the adapter with the later unit being adjusted to fit the OM-4 bodies. The earlier version would sometimes lock to the body because one particular screw was in slightly the wrong position for the mount. So, I made sure I have only the later copies in my collection. The early version of the adapter was set aside.
A number of the Tamron lenses are rated superior in image quality to the general population of third-party glass. Tamron’s designs were good, particularly their 90mm, 70-210mm zoom, and 17mm lenses. All of my samples are from the SP line with the BBAR coatings. They are also in good condition.
When my Zuiko 90mm arrived, I collected it, the Zuiko 85mm f/2, and the Tamron 90mm lenses and played a little at my desk. My Lucas plushie often serves as a test subject for my playing and he did well this time around. I also keep the living room lights on because they can provide an interesting bokeh if that is part of the lens’ attraction.
The Zuiko is quite good. I do not see any bloom in the out of focus background light and the light from my desk lamp (that illuminates Lucas) does not cause any significant loss of contrast in the image. The lens is plenty sharp wide open.
For comparison, I shot the same image with the Tamron 90mm. Both were affixed to my Sony A7iii and shot in raw format. I made a few minor edits to the images to adjust contrast and saturation slightly1. The Tamron performs well in comparison to the Zuiko. Both lenses are a good match for the OM bodies, with the Zuiko being just a little smaller.
This is not intended to be a scientific test of the optics of my two samples. There are plenty of in-depth studies of the lenses on the Interwebs. My comparison between two legacy lenses that both have solid reputations is intended to provide a quick answer to the question “Are they any good?”. From my limited experience, those reputations are deserved.
I might do a three-way comparison and include the Zuiko 85mm f/2 in the lineup. That lens is slightly smaller than the 90mm f/2 macro.
This is a test shot from a Tamron 90mm f/2.5 macro lens wide open at f/2.5. Captured with ILCE-7M3, 2026-08-14 16:34:28, 90mm, 1/30sec, f/2.5, ISO-500, light editing with PhotoLab7.
—– 1The Sony cameras are solid, particularly at the Rev. III level. They have in-body image stabilization that can be adjusted for unchipped manual lenses using the menu system. However, I do not care for the image quality straight out of camera. While the adjustments I make are generally subtle, I find SOOC Sony colors not quite to my taste.
Similar to the light on the vans, the light on this sign was definitely special. Captured with X-Pro3, 2026-08-14 18:57:20, Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2, 1/22000sec, f/2.8, ISO-800, in-camera Kodachrome film simulation.
I did a lot of work on my websites this weekend. For a long time (years?) I knew that both my weblog and professional landing page needed the security of a SSL certificate. My browser has had a red flag for both forever. When that change was generally implemented across websites a few years ago, I was on notice that I needed to upgrade mine.
I made an attempt two or three years ago. I installed a free certificate, given neither website generates direct income. I did not want to pay for that security.
In addition, renewal on my business email service was fast approaching (expired today). I use a couple of specialty email services as of the beginning of this year in an attempt to reduce my exposure to data scraping by Big Tech. It is not that I think email will be secure; it in inherently insecure for most applications. I know that most of my correspondents will not use PGP or GPG to encrypt/decrypt email traffic. Nor am I convinced that is absolutely necessary with some exceptions. There are alternative private/secure means to pass that traffic anyway. But, part of my objective is to reduce exposure.
That meant moving away from Apple and GMail services to the extent reasonable. And I wanted my business email away from my hosting provider, which is not particularly interested in privacy.
Yesterday, with the help of an AI robot I was able to edit the DNS records for my work website/email such that it could be routed through one of my specialty email services. This particular service does not store my traffic. That is private. (Neither does the VPN from that provider store data passed through their servers.) So, the expiration of my hosting service email today is of no consequence. My business email traffic is being properly handled.
That left dealing with the SSL certificates for this site, my weblog, and my business landing page. The latter was also in need of an update and a cleanup to eliminate reference to my address, phone, and email. After taking care of The Girl this morning, I started a new chat with an AI robot and work began there.
It turned out there was a configuration problem with my hosting provider that prevented application of AutoSSL to both of my domains. I attempted to contact GoDaddy support through a chat window, but that service was not available. The alternatives were to use a different mode of contact or use a third party to provide/implement the certificate. I elected to use text messaging, which was quite unsavory to me since I really do not care to type on my phone. Yet, I did it and support was able to validate my identity and then fix the problem. After an hour or two, both sites had working SSL certs and the “Not Secure” flag was no longer displayed by my browser (Brave).
I had some lunch (leftovers) and then asked the robot to review my website. It informed me that my site “was solidly in mid-90’s style and content”. It took my data and redeveloped content in my voice and style that convey my expertise and experience. I had it write the code in my style with the new content. I also asked it to create a contact form that would allow potential clients to send me an email without revealing my email address. It included a captcha trap to reduce the ability of bots to spam me.
In addition, I asked the robot to review my CV for exposure of my data and it flagged only a couple of places where redaction was needed. I edited my resume and then uploaded everything to my landing page. With some testing and debugging, it is now working and is much better looking.
There is only one more thing to do but I think I am done working on my websites for now. The issue is minor and noncritical, so it can wait for another session.
That was a lot of work done this weekend. It cleaned up a couple of items that were on my list for a long, long time.
Now I think I have a couple more things to look at today, although I should not do any real work. The week starts again tomorrow and I need a productive week.
I am satisfied, though, with what I accomplished this weekend. These were good, necessary tasks that are important. I am so grateful, even for the AI robot. They can be useful. But I think they are also dangerous. Nonetheless, Life is good.
On walkies a few evenings ago, I noticed that the light on these vans was almost perfect. So I made the capture. Captured with X-Pro3, 2026-08-14 18:55:39, Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2, 1/2000sec, f/8, ISO-800, in-camera Kodachrome film simulation.
Last week I was out in the field overseeing construction of some stream restoration work. I was not much in the mood for Internet searching beyond tracking the news and keeping up with incoming email. The work was interesting and I was required to apply my engineering knowledge and experience to field fit the proposed amendments.
On return I was busy recovering from the travel (and long days). Of course, there were lots of chores and work-related tasks to catch up on. So, I did not spend much time surfing the WWW and reading.
My C.Crane Skywave SSB 2 arrived and is tested before I headed out for field work. The receiver works pretty well and the included wire is helpful for AM broadcast and shortwave stations. I pair mine with a small Anker amplified speaker through its auxiliary input port and it delivers a much more pleasant sound. This speaker also serves and an external speaker for my portable transceivers.
One of the radios in my inventory, and the only rig that is weatherproof, is the TX-500. That rig needs some love and might be the best candidate for an emergency communications radio that I have. It is small, makes about ten watts on its own, and I have a 50-watt amplifier to boost the output when needed. Although I have a Digirig configured for it, access to the Robust Packet Radio is not included the best I can tell. Oliver, DL4DK developed a device that implements the RPR protocol, the Link500. Packet is one of the digital modes used for digital communications via radio.
DL1GKK provides a lot of content on digital ham radio modes. If that is of interest, his site is worth a view.
I was reminded this week, again, of the need to remember the Serenity Prayer. It is, indeed, worth remembering and meditating on.
