Fixing The Power On/Off Button

I think I have to start planning for a replacement mobile device. It could either be a smartphone or a tablet. It doesn't matter which as I only use it for reading e-books and for transferring pictures from my camera to my PC - no calls.

I have already replaced the screen on my smartphone once but symptoms of pending trouble is brewing again. A dark halo has appeared on the edge of the screen, like last time, for quite sometime now. Quite clearly, some circuitry has gone bad on the phone and its not worth maintaining anymore.

My Contribution To The 2019 MY Garden Birdwatch Survey

The annual MY Garden Birdwatch Survey was held this year on the 8th and 9th June, 2019. I did my counting at my home, as usual, on the morning of 8th June 2019, time 8:30 A.M. I normally do at least 2 counts and pick what I consider to be the best to better reflect the diversity of birds in my neighbourhood. But not this year though.

Python Script To Upload Pictures To Google Photos

I was working on this Python script to upload pictures to Google Photos. Then I found out later that I couldn't get a permanent URL for my uploaded pictures - the Google Photo API doesn't provide one. And I subsequently I stopped working on it.

This little script is of no use to me. Hopefully, somebody will find some use for it. It's a waste to just throw it away since I spent quite some time working on it. "One man's junk is another man's treasure" they say.

PC Downstairs Conked

Over the last 2 months, I think the Gods must be angry with me. It's either that or the stars and planets are not align to my favour.

Health wise I haven't been doing quite well since the beginning of April 2019. Friends said I have 'vertigo' when I described my symptom to them.

Then my WiMax modem go bricked in mid-April.

And now, the computer downstairs that my children uses just died. Problems with the motherboard I was told by the store technician. And they will not fix it. Too old they say. A sound advice in my opinion. This Foxconn motherboard PC has not been reliable from the start. Two new power boxes, one new RAM module plus other various booting up issues - these are some of the problems that I have faced during the last 10 years. Summing up, I think the total cost of ownership would have been cheaper if I had bought a branded PC from a Dell, Lenovo or HP from the start. Yes, more reliable too.

Bricked - Samsung SWD-V100

This Samsung SWD-V100 feature phone that I have since 2013 - which I use to access the Internet as it has a built in Wimax modem to the YES network - it has more or less died. Bricked! It will power-on all right but will get stuck in the Samsung logo screen. I have tried everything that I knew off in trying to revive it (taking out the battery for a couple of hours, for example) but nothing works.

The problem started, by the way, because of low battery level indication. I should have charge it up right away, but instead I shut it down to conserve the battery. Huge mistake.

Fastening A String To My Third Party Lens Caps

When I received my recent DSLR camera purchase, I was quite disappointed when I realised that Canon only provided a standalone lens cap that comes with no attachment cord. I wonder why as after all, the lens cap from my Canon Powershot does come with one. My recent lens purchase, the Canon EF 50mm lens, comes with no attached cord either. A piece of string for attaching the lens cap to the camera strap or body, I don't think they are that expensive. They are pretty handy in preventing lens cap from going missing.

Caps From China

Luckily there are third party lens caps for sale online. And I bought two (because of the different lens sizes that I have) from two separate online merchants in China. One for my Canon EF-S 18-55mm kit lens and another for my Canon EF 50mm prime lens. The build quality is pretty good and sturdy in my opinion. No complains there. But then that attachment cords for both caps. Why can't they provide a better one rather that giving me essentially just a piece of plain old string. The worse part - the given strings is a bit insufficient at just 13" in length. I did make do for awhile by employing the "pedigree cow hitch" and "overhand loop" knots, but because of me accidentally tugging at them quite often, the "pedigree cow hitch" knot eventually came loose yesterday.

Discounts And Bargain Hunting For My 50mm Canon Lens

I hope this will become the norm. Discounts. I talking about bargain and discounts when shopping online, especially at Lazada Malaysia.

You see, I just bought myself a Canon 50mm F/1.8 STM lens at a very good bargain price during the "Lazada Malaysia's 7th Anniversary sale". This purchase includes a 1-year warranty and a RM50 rebate from Canon Malaysian. Added to that, Lazada also gave me a 5% rebate for topping up my Lazada wallet. So in effect, the amount that is coming out of my pocket is around RM364. That's a 27% discount there! My lucky day I guess - Santa came early for me this year.

Yongnuo II Vs Canon - 50mm EF Mount f/1.8 Lenses

There something alluring about the price of the Yongnuo's 50mm f/1.8 Mark II EF mount lens for Canon. I seem to be having some trouble getting my mind of it. Perhaps I have been seduced by it. You can't blame me as I am staring at something like a 40% savings here compared to a Canon original 50mm f/1.8 STM lens. If Yongnuo II can perform as good as a Canon's why pay more, right?

Apple-to-apple comparison

But somehow I have this uneasy feeling. I need facts, I need proof that it can produce good quality images before opening my wallet. I need an apple-to-apple comparison between the two lenses. Otherwise, I just can't make a decision.

I searched, I Googled and I DuckDuckGo-ed. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything comprehensive. The best I could do was to collate the information from the videos by Christopher Frost Photography on Youtube. And below is what I have transcribed from this review videos to the best of my abilities. There are other reviewers on Youtube by the way. But I find the reviews by Christopher Frost Photography to be the best as he tested the lenses on both Full Frame and APSC cameras. Others may disagree but this is my opinion anyway.

A Chinese Pond Heron?

Spotted this rather big bird on a neighbour's roof a couple of weeks ago. I may have even seen it flying overhead a couple of times. But it was a bit too high up to identify this bird correctly without any binoculars.

This is my best guess. I suppose this bird is a Chinese Pond-Heron. I stand corrected obviously. Well, it has light greenish legs and brown back feathers.

Breeding plumage, non-breeding plumage. Urgh! So confusing.

Test Picture Upload To Flickr

Someone mentioned that the photo uploads to Flickr from Raven+ is broken (here and here). Looks like it is not. Here is an excerpt from the log for this blog post for my Flickr upload for the picture above: