Extended Entry Marker (Jump Break) And The 'Save' Button

Google's Blogger calls it a "jump break". But Raven/Raven+ calls it an "Extended Entry Marker". What it does, anyway, is to show a summary of your blog post at your Blogger blog's homepage, while providing a link, "Read more >>", to your entire post, which your audience can read in its entirety if s/he so desires.

A Bug

I always include a "jump break" in every one of my blog post. Problem is, I always do it as the last thing after composing my post (sometimes even after publishing it) mostly because of my absentmindedness.

There is this problem with the Raven/Raven+ editor - it does not enabled the 'Save' button (if it was disabled previously) after inserting a "jump break"/"Extended Entry Marker". This is rather annoying as I then have to insert a 'junk' character to enable the 'Save' button, then delete this 'junk' character before saving my now modified post. A prime target for getting this bug fixed here.

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Must be my lucky year 2016. I mentioned that I had a new avian visitor last September. A few weeks later in mid-October, I had another one - an Asian Brown Flycatcher. I was excited, obviously.

Taking a snap shot of this bird was easy. A rather bold bird, it greeted me by flying closer towards me when I was out and about at my backyard. It flew away briefly when approached, but it then flew back towards me a few second later. I suppose there must have been something about me that had piqued its interest. The closest it got to me by the way was about 8 feet away - an ideal distance for taking closeups of small birds.

Integrating Google's API Client Library Into The RavenPlus Source Code Repository

There is this problem with us programmers. We will not complain and will happily chug along when confronted with the toughest programming challenge ever. But when it comes to documenting our work, we will make excuses, drag our feet and create various alibi. I remember this joke that I've heard about programmers some 20 years ago:

"if it is so hard to write, it must be even harder to describe"

Yes, we programmers understand this perfectly. But still there should be no excuses for not documenting one's work; and this is something that I should bear in mind - always.

Unfortunately, I do get sloppy sometimes. Case in point:

I briefly mentioned that I might be integrating the "Google API Client Library for Python version 1.2" into RavenPlus some 11 months ago. Well in the end, I actually did.

Problem is now I can't remember why I made this decision. I can faintly recall problems I had between 'py2exe' and the newly installed libraries needed for Google OAuth2 authentication (most of them is installed, by default, in the '.egg' format).

Is this the main reason? I can't remember. If only I have written the reason down earlier - somewhere.

New Sub-Directory

Integrating the Google API Client Library for Python into RavenPlus is rather simple. All I did was to bung it under the blog publishing sub-system of RavenPlus at 'zoundry/blogpub'. Naming the new directory as 'blogger' seems appropriate and all Google Blogger's OAuth2 related modifications in RavenPlus (by me) are placed here and below its sub-directories; and this includes the picture uploading capabilities to Google's PicasaWeb ('zoundry/blogpub/blogger/gdataExtend' is where the modified gdata API resides).

The directories 'apiclient', 'oauth2client' and 'uritemplate', circled in RED in the picture above, are from the Google API Client Library itself. As mentioned previously, I only used a subset of this Client Library from Google.

Zebra Doves - From Hatchlings To Fledglings

A pair of Zebra Doves nested on one of my many bougainvillea plants last month October 2016. A well chosen site in my opinion with shelter from the sun and rain (courtesy of my front porch) and my dog out front keeping the stray cats at bay. The nest was well placed too at about 7 feet high off the ground. Like most bird nests it is made of twigs, with size measuring about 3" across - looks a bit undersized compared to the parent bird, in my opinion. The gaps between these twigs however made the nest look rather 'half-built'. But still, it did get the job done; it managed to raise 2 chicks.

Zebra Dove Hatchlings

Owing to its 'half-built' appearance, I didn't realised that the nest was ready until I saw a Dove sitting in it one day. Eggs had been laid a few days earlier without me knowing - I can't see because of the nest's height.

About 11 days later this is what I saw - a baby Zebra Dove:

I think another chick is partially visible, hidden by the twigs that made up the nest (under the beak of the parent Dove if you look closely).

microSD And My Canon Powershot SX530 HS

The manual to my Canon Powershot SX530 HS only recommends SD, SDHC or SDXC memory cards. Because of this, I would have preferred either an 8GB or 16GB SDHC Class 10 memory card.

But I had a Superbuy.my RM30 e-voucher, and the only branded Class 10 memory cards that cost less than RM30 are from Kingston (Kingston microSDHC 8GB Class 10) and SanDisk (SanDisk Ultra microSDHC UHS-I 16GB Class 10). These are microSD and NOT SD sized memory cards. A rather limited choice there at Superbuy.my. I could have chosen one of those unknown but cheaper brands SD sized memory cards but I didn't want to risk it. Miser pays the most - I always remember this saying.

microSD+SD Adapter In Digital Camera

The question now is: will any of these microSD memory cards coupled with an SD adapter work in my Canon Powershot SX530 HS camera?

Break Fluid Spilt Onto My Car Alternator

Shucks! I hope I didn't damaged anything. It wasn't may fault; I was just doing my regular monthly/bi-monthly car fluid level inspections. I couldn't see the break fluid level so I decided to take off its tank cover. To my horror, some break fluid spilt out when the cover was removed. It spilt again, because of that piece of plastic float in the tank, when I screwed the cap back on. Non got onto the paint work luckily, since I've read that break fluid is an excellent paint stripper. But I have some break fluid spilt onto the exposed wires of the alternator coil and the belt that drives the alternator.

Brown Shrike Whiskers

Bird Whiskers

I didn't know this before; I just found out recently - some birds have 'whiskers'. I only came to know about this about a week ago while looking at some photographs of Brown Shrikes that I have taken with my new superzoom digital camera. These 'whiskers' are not visible from afar, viewed unaided with the naked eye; and neither was it visible with pictures taken with my 5x zoom low-end digital camera (what I have been using previously).

And so far, I have found out that Lineated Barbet, a rather common bird in my neighbourhood, have 'whiskers' too.

Rictal bristles, I think that's what ornithologists call them.

An Avian Visitor - A Male Pied Triller

A male Pied Triller paid me a visit some 11 days ago. To a greenhorn birder like me, I was naturally excited as this is a once in a blue moon affair.

Canon Powershot SX530 HS - My New Birding Camera

It was suppose to take 3 days but it finally arrived, some 9 days later. What happened Superbuy.my? You had me worried there for a couple of days. Better late than never I suppose.

Yes, I have finally bought myself a new superzoom bridge camera - a Canon Powershot SX530 HS (SX530HS) with 50x optical zoom. Warranty periods is for 1 year from Canon Malaysia - got my email confirmation last week to prove it. I will be using this camera largely for birding and wildlife photography. Long overdue I think.

My Opinion

Having used this camera over the last couple of days, I must say that I am very pleased with my decision. Compared with my previous low-end camera, focusing and the image quality is definitely much better. I am surprised to find such fine details of a pigeon (and other birds too in fact; picture quality is subject to my shaky hands) captured with this camera. Just look at the picture below to see what I mean (do click to enlarge). Except for some cropping, there were no other editing done to this picture. It blew me away the first time I saw it. This camera is making birding and photography fun again! Previously, the only way for me to get such fine details was to hold my subject at arms length. I know because I photographed my rooster that way once. And no I was not tormenting it; I was just trying to photograph its injured eye.

Selection Process

The SX530HS is not my first choice actually. To be honest, it was not even my second.

Turmeric Flowers - Take Two

I always get excited when any of my turmeric plants produces flowers. I like them as I think they are dazzlingly beautiful.

I had two separate blooms last year from two separate plants in two separate pots - one in May and the other in December. Here are some pictures of my turmeric flowers taken during those two months. Armed with a better camera, and hopefully with some improvement in my photography skills, these pictures are definitely much better compared to the ones I took 2 years ago.

Close-up

But first, a close-up view on the crest of a turmeric flower that I took in May 2015. I just love those tinge of pink at the very top. Each flower is different though; sometimes there is no pink tinge.

I didn't take note but I believe this is from a 4 or 5 day old bloom.

An Almost Detailed Account

Here are some pictures that was taken on December 2015. Not shown are wilted flowers (who wants to look at them anyway?) - a process that will begin some 7 days later after blooming.