darice.org

One minute photolab

darice@darice.org (Darice de Cuba) — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:59:00 GMT

Since recently I have been trying out Adobe Lightroom. I always used Photoshop for touch ups. So Lightroom was very different, it's basically just a digital darkroom. Instead of Actions like in Photoshop it has Presets. You can load downloaded ones, or create your own. Once the preset is loaded you just mouse over on it and get a small thumbnail preview of how the photo will look. Once you apply a preset you can change settings and adjust the photo to your taste.

But you can easily go to far with Lightroom, so a good photo composition is still key factor to a good photo. But taking photos with the Ricoh really lets one see how good DSLRs are. With my Nikon D70 in automatic mode I can shoot away perfect photos. But the Ricoh GR is not so great in automatic. I never shoot automatic, since I got the D70 I've been using manual 100% of the time. Once you can use manual easily automatic is like a handicap.

Everyone who owns a DSLR with a kit lens can take a good photo quality wise, so to stand out nowadays composition is everything. 10 people can photograph the same item, but only a few will take a unique view of the item.

The trick is to take a mundane object and make an interesting photo out of it. And also to know how the photo will look best, e.g. in B&W or colors? I decided to give it a try and create a composition in my room and use my desk lamp as only light source.

My shoes

See full size versions on my flickr macro set

The whole process took very little time to get done. The longest part was taking the photos. Then load them on the computer, open Lightroom, select the best shots, apply presets and done. But for me the thrill of photography is always getting a good composition. When I started taking photos with a Fuji S5000 I would sit/stand for hours observing animals in the nature to get that one great shot.

If you want to challenge yourself, get a fixed lens like a 28mm or 50mm and shoot in manual only. Think good about the composition and remember that digital editing is just the finishing touch, not what makes the picture.

A cross road called Wajong

darice@darice.org (Darice de Cuba) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:04:00 GMT

Since November 2007 that I applied for a government welfare payment because I'm not able to work full time due to my illness, I still haven't gotten it. Here I live in a country of which I have the Dutch nationality, I pay taxes, I paid insurance for if I was ever not able to work full time, which has happened. And now they keep rejecting me due to mistaken information they got on file.

The government is having discussions every week about the big problem, young people not being able to work and living from welfare. This particularly welfare is called "Wajong", 'Law of Disability Provisions for the Young Handicapped'. According to the numbers too many people are getting Wajong while they are able to work. I'm super pissed off when I read that if someone has an IQ of 85 they are declared incapable of working and automatically get full Wajong for the rest of their lives, according to an article in Elsevier.

And I for one got incapable in July 2006 when I became a dialyse patient, since then I get tired very fast plus I became deaf so that really makes it hard to get a job or even function 100% in team work. Now I only work 4 hours a day. By law I'm entitled to 35% Wajong(this is according to the evaluation I went through), I was healthy and a college student at the time I became ill. I satisfy every requirement to get Wajong but they keep rejecting me for reasons like:

"you were already incapable of work when you moved to Holland"
"you became incapable of work in 2007, you have to be ill for 52 weeks before getting Wajong(I'm Ill since 2006)"

I issued a complain and they rectified it and continued the procedure, I was declared 35% incapacitated of working and then again rejected, reason?

"you were already incapable of work when you moved to Holland"

Yes, again same mistaken reason I already had them rectify. Since then I have been waiting for a month for their reaction to my second complain. We called them about this, on the phone they said I had to be living here for 6 years to have a right to get Wajong. I don't know where they got that as it isn't stated anywhere in the Wajong law. Even so I have been living in the Netherlands for more then 6 years! So now they gave me an appointment for over one month to defend my case with the civil servant handling my case, which is always someone different.

I applied for Wajong beginning November 2007 it's going to be 5 months now and still no progress. If the government is complaining how everyone who has some illness but are still capable of doing some kind of work still get full Wajong then why can't I get the 35% I'm entitled to?

Meanwhile it's highly stressful working everyday and not being able to work full time even if you want to. Last week I worked 25 hours instead of 20 to finish some deadlines. I was so tired that my whole week-end was ruined, I didn't have any energy left to do something. And working part-time is no gold-mine either. And everyday I hope I wake up energized enough to head to work otherwise I have to force myself because I don't want to call in sick a lot.

If I get Wajong I'm assured of a job/income. So if I'm unable to work say because I'm in the hospital, my employer can keep paying me and claim my salary with the government. This way I don't have to worry about my job and bills when I'm in the hospital or sick at home.

In a country where we way pay taxes on every damn thing you don't expect to be treated like this.

I'm adding relevant links(Dutch content) below and I'll be linking to my own Dutch article on Wajong. It won't help much but at least Google will know about this.

Wie krijgt een Wajong uitkering?
Hoe zit dat met de Wajong?
Mijn ervaring met Wajong aanvraag procedure(coming soon)

My quest for a compact high end camera

darice@darice.org (Darice de Cuba) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:27:00 GMT

After three years of using only the Nikon D70 and always having to plan if I take it out with me, considering big enough bag, which lenses, etc. I decided it would be a good idea to have a compact camera that I could easily carry around everywhere. Last year I looked at a few cameras but they where to big and I somehow wanted the ability to shoot RAW.

Then through Twitter and Flickr someone mentioned Ricoh GR2 and posted some photo taken with it. That's when my interest for a compact arose again and I started doing some research on DP review. The camera looks great, good specs and reviews. But way to expensive for a second camera alongside my Nikon D70. Then I saw Ricoh GR Digital which was released in 2005. Now that version 2 is out the first one is cheaper. But most of them are sold out.

Panasonic has a camera comparable to the Ricoh GR, namely the Lumix LX 2 which has a Leica lens. This one is less expensive then a GR2 but more expensive then a GR. Both these camera are for the more advanced users, having a fixed 28mm lens with some digital zoom only, extensive manual settings, a good ISO range and RAW ability.

Considering how expensive these cameras are I decided to check one second handed. I never bought any gadget second handed, only cheap old film cameras. I used a dutch merchant website owned by e-bay. This site doesn't work with profiles so it's really at your own risk.

A search for Ricoh GR yielded one result only and for Lumix LX2 one result only. So I bid for both see which one I could get. Typically the Ricoh was posted online for days and nobody had bid but as soon as I bid people started overbidding me. There isn't a time limit here, the seller decides which bid it will take. Really wanting the Ricoh I did a heavy bid and won it right away. Meanwhile the Lumix was being heavily bid one so I let it pass.

This Ricoh was advertised as new in box, never used being sold because the owner doesn't use it. I got it for 10% less then the cost of the remaining GR being sold in stores.

I didn't want to take the risk of being ripped off and because the seller lives 20 minutes by train from The Hague I setup a meeting for the exchange.

It turned out to be a nice man, the camera was a gift for his girlfriend but she didn't have any use for the camera so they decided to sell it. The camera came brand new in the box with plastic still on the LCD. Complete with everything and the store recipe. So that was a really lucky purchase, the camera was bought just a month ago. I couldn't be happier, worth every penny and I get a one year warranty.

The Ricoh GR doesn't come with SD card, so the next day I got a SD Extreme 2GB which is more then enough. Still needed: a cool wrist strap like the blue one for Nintendo Wii remote and a camera pouch, a funky one.

Today I took the camera around city for a few try outs. It took and will take some getting used to it, after three years with an DSLR. There is no view finder so I have to use the LCD display. A very handy factor is that you can see the settings "live" on the display: if it is too dark or too bright, etc. But I hope after some use I'll know the camera good enough to get great pictures.

You can see some of the photos taken with the Ricoh GR. I went with mostly B&W using ISO 400 to try get the grainy effect of a Kodak Black and White ISO400 film.

I'm looking forward to take more photos of different subjects and maybe a video just for fun to put on Flickr.

My Life

darice@darice.org (Darice de Cuba) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:07:00 GMT

Edition 003

Not much going on right now. Work is as usual, we had pizza at "La Galleria" on good friday after work, it was fun. Being busy everyday with coding gets ideas flowing in my head for articles and projects. I have an entry on webdesign business planned. Just have to sit down and write it out.

Last week and yesterday I had my regular doctors appointment. I'm scheduled to have surgery to remove my parathyroid glands and have them placed in my arms. Due that my kidneys don't work it affects the parathyroid glands which causes a high level of calcium in my blood. So I have been on the waiting list for surgery, the waiting time is about 4 to 6 week and I have been waiting since mid february. I expect to be called any day now. Hopefully the surgery will go fine, I'm a bit nervous, no one likes having surgery.

I have been keeping busy with cooking and documenting the results. I also bought an iPod Touch, I have been saving for months for a gadget. And it became the 8GB iPod Touch. I have been converting movies and uploading them on it, I got to sync my Google Calendar with the calendar app. This way I have my agenda offline available. I haven't been taking it with me everywhere as I have yet to get an iPod sock for it.

I also added an iPhone icon to my website for myself. So when I add my website to the springboard I get a nice icon. I hope that there will be good and useful apps when they are released in June. But for now I'm using plenty off online app like Twitter, the local TV Guide, etc. I'll be taking it to the hospital which is easier for watching video, then dragging along my old iBook G4.

Well that was about it for now, I'll be posting more entries soon, an article like I said before and a hardware review.

Professional webdesigners on Aruba?

darice@darice.org (Darice de Cuba) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:44:00 GMT

In this digital age most people have a computer they know how to use and most of them have internet. From kids to elderly everyone is digital to some levels. There are plenty of applications to create websites, edit your photos, and so on. These applications target the amateur hobbyist and the professionals. Lots of designers and developers are self taught and many do have a degree in another field or a field closely related to webdesign, like Communication for example. But being a webdesigner or developer is an ongoing process of self teaching, practice and keeping up to date with latest technologies like coding, web-standards, etc.

Not everyone is as good as the other one, we all have different method of working and preference. But that's good, it brings variety, while one client might like an awesome eye catching design, the other client might prefer a simple design with focus on content. To each its liking and preference. That's when a portfolio of a webdesigner comes in handy.

Now that I'm working and no longer a student I'm always on the look out for website projects. I focus mostly on Aruba. Being an island with only one internet provider its only the last 5 years that technology has started booming there with G3 service being started a few months ago. The whole island is full of wifi hotspots and most residents have DSL(although the speeds are pitiful compared with somewhere else). But the island is mostly online and mobile.

Logically websites are finally popping out everywhere, all newspaper are online, the radio stations, the government, lawyers and hotels. Other instances especially non-profit are slowly getting their websites. At the moment there are many Arubians like myself with web building experience and a study in the field. We all would like to build websites for clients from Aruba. But there is a problem, a problem that is everywhere and very known to webdesigners.

The amateurs who can open Frontpage(or any kind of WYSIWYG program) and claim to be webdesigners. They can put a website online so they think they can charge companies to create websites for them. The clients who have no knowledge of websites are more then happy to get someone who claims they can create their website in short time and at very cheap prices or worse they charge lots of money and provide a cheap website.

An example case

Yesterday on one of the online newspaper they wrote about the new website launched by the department of Education. A website to promote our native language Papiamento.

Disclaimer

Now I must say I don't know the person who created it and I don't know any details of the project, if it was for free or paid for. I just know it's an important website, which considering what's being done on the education field will grow and serve visitors with valuable information. This website represents our native language.

As any webdesigner would do first, I took a look at the source code of the website. Thanks to the favicon which wasn't adjusted I already new it runs on Joomla. Rookie mistake, they install Joomla and don't even take the time to adjust it fully to the website.

The code itself is a mess, like a website coded in the 90's. And most notorious, the design isn't original it's the canaan_maybiz theme for Joomla which is free to get and use. They only changed the colors to Aruba's flag color: red, blue and yellow. Added the original logo and the original headers images of Papiamento. They didn't even resize the logo to load fast and display sharp, they just did an inline resize, so if you right click the logo to view the image you will see how big it actually is. I did a quick resize to compare the quality different see original vs. resize

This is a website that was done in a day or two. And it screams "this website runs on Joomla". Now I have no problem with Joomla, I use it everyday at work. But using Joomla doesn't mean you can take a template change the color and be done. Joomla is very customizable and you can integrate unique made designs with it without a problem.

On Aruba only there are countless of websites running on Joomla with a Joomla template and all those templates look alike. I would like to see professionals being hired to do the job and bring variation of design on Arubian websites.

How are you going to stand out if you get an out of the box website done by an amateur? Most company pay a professional to do their marketing, then why not the same for the website? In this digital age your website represents your company. And every company who cares about their image should make a good investment.

Working life

darice@darice.org (Darice de Cuba) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:55:00 GMT

Since January 14 I'm employed at PlusPort as Junior Web Developer part time. I work 20 hours a week by choice. Because of my health I can't work 40 hours so I applied for 20 which suits me just fine. This is my first steady job since I'm no longer a student. I now work, get paid and pay taxes.

The job is just what I like doing, coding: PHP, XHTML, CSS, Javascript. Creating database structures and a bit of web design. PlusPort does more then just providing e-learning, we get to create custom made applications for large companies like AstraZeneca, Dura Vermeer, Mammoet, just to name a few.

The company has been around for five years and is growing quickly. Everyone is in their twenties and in their thirties, I can even say I'm one of oldest there. So it's a very young and dynamic place to work. They also care for your professional development by stimulating you to set personal goals you want to reach within your job.

I always thought I wouldn't like an office job, especially after doing two internship. But now I know it has more to do with the job itself. Internships where boring to me because it was mostly one project you had to work on for 5 months. Now I get plenty of different projects to work on so it doesn't get boring.

Like I said the company is growing fast and they are looking to hire more people: web developers, designers. People with skills like PHP, ASP, XHTML, CSS, Javascript, ActionScript, Flash, etc. So if you are a designer or web developer living in the Netherlands and want to work by the sea at Scheveningen send in your application.

I'm also still open for freelance work, now that I have a steady job I can relax more knowing that bills are being paid and I don't depend on getting a constant flow of clients. I just need to work out a marketing strategy for my focus group which is very different then the regular web clients.

And the last few days I've been playing with the idea to start a host reselling business. It won't make me rich but it's something to do on the side. I'm just not sure yet if it's worth it considering the costs and the time it will take to sell enough space for a good win/lose margin. Something to think through.

An ode to my home

darice@darice.org (Darice de Cuba) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:18:00 GMT

When I'm feeling homesick, and I mean for my home back on Aruba. I browse on Flickr for photos of Aruba. Being a tourist island there is always lots of new photos uploaded almost daily. Some are real your regular vacation snaps and there are also some real good photos there.

You'd think after almost eight years living in the Netherlands that the missing would become less but I don't think the missing will ever go away. As soon as one year since my last time on Aruba pass by I start to feel homesick, especially if it's a cold winter day like today and all I can think about is the warm sun that is shining there and the beach within a 15 minutes drive from home.

So I was browsing Flickr on a search term for the tourist spot right by my home, see if I could get a shot. And I found one, just a vacation snap but you get the gist.

I mean the photo only explains why I would be feeling homesick in the middle of winter in my apartment in the city. The view those two people on the photo are enjoying is the view I grew up with, that is the nature surroundings I spent my childhood walking around, exploring and playing.

If I'm not mistaken that whole area has or will officially become part of the Arikok National Park, so there is no more house building allowed there. Our houses where built there 27 years ago and was the last ones to be build in that specific area.

I can tell you a lot of stories about this place, the countless of ghost stories as this place is called "The Frenchmen's Pass" where supposedly a lot of Frenchmen's and Indians died during the first colonization. Or all that water you see there comes from the lagoon that is right off the picture on the right. And when we get tropical rains that water rises so high that roads are flooded leaving us stuck at home. And we'll spend the whole day watching cars trying to get trough the water and all failing because people never realize that it's sea water.

And when growing up people would always comment "how can you live so far from town". In Arubian terms far is a 15 minutes drive. Well I'd live there anytime over a 2 minutes drive from town. I never liked living in a town and never will. In my opinion we got the best spot to live on the island. Although there really are more.

I think I'll make an effort and if circumstances allow I'll be going for a vacation this year. But it's home, my family is there so in thoughts I'm there.