Steven Erat's Blog | TalkingTree.com

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Fri Jul 17 1:15 AM

@scouten Fascinating! BTW, if u ever need LR3 beta testers, sign me up. (I won the Adobe contest for most bugs logged against PS Express)

Fri Jul 17 12:59 AM

@ashumittal Feeling a lot like Thursday night here! ;-)

Fri Jul 17 12:52 AM

@scouten Yikes! Didn't know that. A 4 year dev cycle must have been grueling (but finally rewarding)

Fri Jul 17 12:43 AM

@scouten Wasn't Lightroom 1 released Feb 2007? Macr/Adobe deal closed Dec 2005. Well, as Flex dev, my fingers are crossed for MXML in LR3

Fri Jul 17 12:37 AM

@scouten What got me thinking was PatchPanel which enables Flex developers to write plugins for CS4. WIshing could do that with Lightroom.

Fri Jul 17 12:33 AM

Passing the night by watching @benforta videos on ColdFusion 9 (again) http://bit.ly/Qz4Yv

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This entry was posted on July 16, 2009 at 9:21 PM and has received 28639 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Fri Jul 10 1:57 PM

Happy Friday! A few backlogged portraits updated. Lydia and Ms Asphyxia http://flic.kr/p/6DDjss http://flic.kr/p/6DDjt3 #photog

Fri Jul 10 12:59 PM

@remotesynth Nice, I didn't even know Cringely was still writing columns since he parted with PBS. I used to read them every week.

Fri Jul 10 12:41 PM

@chrisadragna This is old news since Labs was first published under Macromedia. Wiki was a canned app, and a better one in CF didn't exist

Fri Jul 10 12:38 PM

New Portrait: Twelve Feet (@tangon) #photog #photo http://flic.kr/p/6DBkmU (posting again for Left Coast peeps just waking up)

Fri Jul 10 12:05 PM

According to @klout, I'm influential to these peeps: @stevei @claymgarrett @styggiti @coldfusionPaul @ranarula. http://bit.ly/14VD7D

Fri Jul 10 11:45 AM

@photonconcepts Thanks for the #FF!

Fri Jul 10 10:51 AM

New Portrait: Twelve Feet (@tangon) #photog #photo http://flic.kr/p/6DBkmU

Fri Jul 10 9:54 AM

Oh no, Geocities is closing. Sniff. That was my first place on the web back in 1994. I'm gonna miss my blink tags.

Thu Jul 09 10:03 PM

According to @klout, I'm influenced by these peeps: @demirkapi @ryanstewart @cfjedimaster @reboog711 @jeffcrossphoto. http://bit.ly/14VD7D

Thu Jul 09 9:16 PM

If my brain were as big as @pfreitag's I would be serious danger of having my head explode into a million bits

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This entry was posted on July 10, 2009 at 11:00 AM and has received 28588 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Recent Tweets for Wed July 01, 2009

Wed Jul 01 2:59 PM

Thx @fuzzyorange . Looks like a known condition with its own JVM flag http://bit.ly/UYzMh -XX:-UseGCOverheadLimit

Wed Jul 01 2:56 PM

@dfgrumpy Thx. Its the "GC overhead limit exceeded" part I've never seen before. Researching now. Might be a new verbiage, nothing more.

Wed Jul 01 2:50 PM

First time I've ever seen this in ColdFusion: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded

Wed Jul 01 2:48 PM

@awest @cfaddict minus ~30% in taxes of course.

Wed Jul 01 2:37 PM

@mvanleest Linux, CF80 RedHat 5. I'm thinking its a large cf.registry file for client storage since cf startup pauses at "Starting client"

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This entry was posted on July 1, 2009 at 11:14 AM and has received 27880 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

As you may have noticed, TalkingTree.com blog is rather barren these days. I find that while I work, while I relax at home (that is when I'm not working at home), or even when I'm mobile I'm nearly always using Twitter, and less so Facebook.

Unless you've been living under a rock you've heard of Twitter by now. If you're still not sure, Twitter is a bit like group chat where you post a short summary of what you're doing or what's on your mind, and other people that are interested can reply. While I'm not going to explain Twitter fully here -- you can find that on Twitter.com -- it can be very useful for sharing up to date information about a particular interest with lots of other people that share that interest. Most of my Tweeps fall into one of several interest groups... There's those interested in Photography, those interested in Web Technology, and those that happen to otherwise be friends or family. There are several applications you can use to watch Twitter updates. My favorite for use on a computer is TweetDeck, and on my iPhone I use Twitterific. One reason to love using an iPhone with Twitterrific is that I can be anywhere, shopping, getting a haircut, or at a conference and have the ability to take a cell phone picture for upload to Twitter with a brief description about what's going on.

Twitter and Facebook are such interesting places to socialize online while sharing information that I've neglected my blog for quite some time. To address that problem, I'll be posting summaries of recent Tweets to my blog here where you can catch up on some of the things I've been talking about. Although, this is a bit like sitting next to someone that's on the phone since my Tweets here are only half the conversation some time. To get the full benefit of Twitter you really have to follow both sides of the conversation.

To accomplish updating this blog with my Tweets, I whipped up a quick ColdFusion script to pull in my Twitter RSS feed and convert to HTML with all usernames and URLs converted to actual links. I'll next try to automate this so that my blog gets regularly updated with my Twitter summaries.

Of course, if you're already on Twitter, Follow Me, and on Facebook Add Me as a Friend.

How to read tweets

• If a tweet begins with an at sign, its a username, like @JoeSchmoe. Its at the beginning because I'm replying to something that Joe Schmoe tweeted earlier.
• If a @username appears later in the tweet but not at the beginning, then i'm refering to that user, like Hey, did you see that cool widget that @JoeSchmoe built?
• If a tweet begins with RT, that means Re-Tweet, and its kinda like holding up a megaphone. On Twitter you Follow or subscribe to certain people, and in turn other people follow you. The people that subscribe to your tweets may not be following the people that you subscribe to. So by retweeting someone that you subscribe to, you are amplifying that persons tweet by broadcasting to all the people that subscribe to you. Confused yet? If your subscribers are interested in the retweet, they may then follow that original person (a.k.a tweep or twit).
• If a tweet has a word beginning with a pound sign like #photog, that's called a hashtag. Hashtags are used as labels to identify a topic for your tweet. Later people can search by hashtags to see tweets from everyone that talked about that topic. In this case, #photog means the tweet is about photography or a photographer. This in contrast to #photo without the last 'g' and it is used for tweets about a particular photo.

Recent Tweets for Mon June 29, 2009

Mon Jun 29 10:09 PM

2 nights in a row my son doesn't want to sleep coz he's not feeling well. Long nights of frequent rocking, not much sleep for me.

Mon Jun 29 4:45 PM

@JoshuaCurtiss Pretty sure it was CF5 -> CF6 w/ the J2EE conversion. I was on the team at Macromedia that reviewd poss bkwds compat issues

Mon Jun 29 4:39 PM

@jlamoree Holy cow, a fradulent Lactating Lesbians infringement claim from Cream Ridge, NJ. That just, em, *sucks*!

Mon Jun 29 12:52 PM

@jonbcampos Apache XSL-FO http://bit.ly/Xrhar

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This entry was posted on June 29, 2009 at 5:23 PM and has received 28193 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

My photography will be on display among that of my classmates, as well as from those in 3D Multimedia, Film and Video, Graphic Design, and more. If you're in the Boston area, please stop by!

Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University

Friday, January 16: Gallery Opening and Reception

Opening Reception: 6:30-9:00pm at 274 Moody Street



The best work from our latest Photography, 3D Animation, Audio Production and Graphic & Web Design graduating class will be on exhibit beginning Friday with an opening reception. Come check out the outstanding work by our students + music and media presentations. Refreshments will be served.

Free and open to the public.

This entry was posted on January 15, 2009 at 1:57 PM and has received 26699 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

A couple weeks ago a friend at the First Parish Photography Club suggested the idea of photographing an outdoor, candlelight service on Christmas Eve in Concord, Massachusetts. As a recent graduate of the Professional Digital Photography program at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University, I embraced the opportunity as a means of practicing real event photography, a genre of its own requiring distinct skills apart from other types of photography.

This event was the first outdoor service in the 300+ year history of the First Parish, due to ongoing renovations this year. Historically as many as four services are held there on Christmas Eve, having as many as 500 attendees per service. This made planning a bit of a challenge because the number of attendees could range anywhere from a hundred to perhaps a thousand.

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This entry was posted on January 5, 2009 at 5:08 PM and has received 28330 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

One of my favorite blogs, Lightroom Killer Tips, posted an entry today regarding how to filter according to file type in Lightroom 2. The entry is a revision or repost of the same thing for Lightroom 1 posted on that blog 9 months ago.

However, the tiny screenshot of the Metadata Browser used on the updated blog entry was taken from their earlier post about the older version of Lightroom. I'm sure it was an oversight during light holiday blogging.

Since the whole metadata search feature was improved and restructured after Lightroom 1, I wanted to post an updated screenshot of my own showing how to filter by file type in the new version, Lightroom 2. This is useful if you searching just for JPG, TIF, or PSD files specifically, for example.

Click on the photo below to see it on Flickr, or for those not having an account here's a direct link.

This entry was posted on January 2, 2009 at 10:30 AM and has received 28285 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

The recent ice storm that crippled New England and left me looking for other shelter seemed to have killed my 2005 Power Mac G5. The night of the ice storm the lights in the house blinked off, then on, then off again... They stayed off for four days, along with the furnace, until the power company put my town back on line.

A week later, when I attempted to start the G5 in my home office the main power light came on, and stayed on when ever it was plugged in, and the desktop would not begin the boot sequence, nor were any sounds emitted such as the fans starting up.

With lots of other things to take care of I delayed troubleshooting it, but thought that it would eventually require a trip to the Apple Store Genius Bar for a drop off. Today I finally did a search and came up with this little wonder:

How to reset the SMU on a Power Mac G5

The SMU (System Management Unit) is a microcontroller chip on the logic board that controls all power functions for your computer. If your computer is experiencing any issues regarding these functions, resetting the SMU may resolve the issue. The functions controlled by the SMU include:

* It tells the computer when to turn on, turn off, sleep, wake, idle, and so on.
* It handles system resets from various commands.
* It controls the fan.

The guts circuit board did not look the same as in the photo on their article, so I started pushing all the transistors and every little silvery bumps I could find. Close to my RAM memory slots, I finally found a tiny, round, silver button on a small black square base that was in fact slightly pushable.

Upon reassembling the tower's side door and re-inserting all the cables, I was very happy to hear that little whir of the fan as the computer took its first breath after being resuscitated. The prospect of waiting in line at the Apple Store during Christmas week was something I was not looking forward to.

This entry was posted on December 23, 2008 at 1:13 PM and has received 28810 views. There are currently 2 comments. Print this entry.

I was searching through my email for something today, and I came across my application to CDIA where I wrote this in the Personal Objective section almost two years ago.

Why have you chosen to pursue an education in the field of Digital Imaging Arts?

Through achievement, motivation, and serendipity I've been fortunate to have earned an esteemed position as software quality assurance engineer at Adobe Systems. Within this vibrant, professional atmosphere my personal growth as a serious amateur photographer has accelerated significantly.

At this nexus, I wish to seize the opportunity to expand my skills horizontally by bridging my experience in rich internet development with the digital imaging arts and professional photography.

What do you hope to achieve by enrolling in the program at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts?

With the completion of a certificate in Professional Photography I will have formalized a long standing, deep, personal ambition which will allow me to thoroughly exercise my passion with technical excellence.



Further, I strive to achieve a role at Adobe where I can consult with, collaborate with, and guide Adobe customers towards their own creative endeavors and solutions. Knowledgeable in the diverse array of photography, digital imaging, and next generation web application development I will be able to translate my success into the success of my customers, my colleagues, and my company.

This entry was posted on December 5, 2008 at 1:39 PM and has received 28189 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

A week from today will be the 2nd annual Flex Camp Boston at Bentley University. At a very modest cost, this is a full day event packed with sessions at the intermediate to advanced level given by industry experts. Register for Flex Camp Boston.

For the last year I've been on the Flex SDK team as a Quality Assurance Engineer, and before that I had excellent run of more than 7 years testing and supporting ColdFusion. I know most of the speakers that will be presenting at Flex Camp and can attest to their passion for building the next wave of Rich Internet Applications, so I fully encourage you to attend if you haven't signed up yet to share in the excitement and mingle with your peers.

This will be an unexpected reunion of sorts for me as I suddenly find myself as a customer rather than employee. With the extra time as I seek new employment I'll immerse myself in training with Flex and AIR, and try to produce an application as an online reference to demonstrate as an example. The odd thing about QA'ing a software product is that you are exposed to narrow facets in which you dive very deeply, and don't often get the chance to practice the breadth of the product. My success in ColdFusion QA was largely dependent on the many preceding years where I provided "gold" level support for the product, something which required me to constantly explore and exercise every nook and cranny of the CF app server and language.

My first inclination for a Flex app is to build my own photography business website in Flex to avoid the cost of purchasing one of the reputable but expensive prebuilt websites from places like LiveBooks, BigFolio, or A Photo Folio.

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone from coworkers to customers to local cfug friends for taking a moment to contact me and express their thoughts and show their concern. People have been writing and chatting intensely while offering job tips and advice. As I mentioned on Facebook, I've never before felt the online community to be as tangible and real as I do now. Thank you all, and I hope to see those of you in the area at Flex Camp!

This entry was posted on December 5, 2008 at 11:32 AM and has received 28899 views. There are currently 4 comments. Print this entry.