My Nisi 58mm Close-up Filter

Well, things does not always go according to planned as we all know.

A couple of months ago, I had the intention of getting a budget macro lens; the ones that are made in China. I've narrowed down my choice to either a TTArtisan or an 7Artisans.

Guess what. I bought a Nisi 58mm close-up lens (NOTE: a Lazada Malaysia affiliate link) (Also available on Amazon.com - Note: an Amazon affiliate link) instead in the end.

The deciding factor: the ability to auto-focus when shooting macro. I already own a Raynox DCR-250 (a +8 dioptre lens), by the way. But I felt that I needed the extra working distance than a +8 dioptre close-up lens offers.

Yes I know what they say about most macro photographers where they focus exclusively in manual. But I am just not that confident with my manual focusing abilities. With stock photography, where my macro pictures will end up eventually, sharpness at the point of focus matters. And when you miss your opportunity, there may not be second chance. Hence, my decision with the Nisi over a manual macro lens.

Resynthesizer's Heal Selection In Gimp Under Linux Mint 21.2

Installing the plug-in Resynthesizer in Gimp 2.10.30 running in Linux Mint 21.2 is not as straight forward as it seems. The root of the problem, it seems, is that Resynthesizer requires Python 2. However, Python 2 has been dropped on Linux Mint 21.2 in favour of Python 3. But luckily there is a work-around thanks to some very clever people on the Internet.

Anyway, this is how I got Resynthesizer (and thus Heal Selection) working on Linux Mint 21.2 for Gimp 2.10.30, as of 21st February 2024.

1. Install Gimp via Linux Mint's "Software Manager".

2. Download and install Resynthesizer executable into the local gimp plug-in directory (usually ~/.config/GIMP/2.10/plug-ins)
   
   (description can be found in this forum thread https://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-Gimp-2-10-Resynthesizer-Linux?pid=11261#pid11261)
   
   The rest of the Resynthesizer Python scripts can be found in the folder PluginScripts at github.
   
   Make sure all downloads are executable (via the command line, I use the "chmod 664").
   
   I could have compiled the Resynthesizer executable myself, but I didn't.
   

3. Download and install 'gimp-python2-overlay-launcher-ubuntu22.04.AppImage' (a 27.2 MB download)
   
   In the description (scroll down to the 25 Apr 22:22 announcement) it says:
   
   "These AppImages launch a system installed Gimp and add Python2.7.18 and MathMap. This solution loads Gimp without changing the operating system. They are intended for current systems @ June 2022"
   
   

4. Test your setup by launching the downloaded Gimp launcher AppImage from 3. It works for me.

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Buy refurbished computers from Amazon.com

(Note: An Amazon.com affiliate link)

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Commode Chair Seat Replacement

I bought this commode chair seat as a spare back in June 2023 from China. It is only last week that I started using it by replacing the old cracked one on my mother's commode chair. After a week I have heard no complains from my mum. So I suppose the quality of this seat is acceptable so far. Installation is easy as it is just a matter of pulling off the old one and then just popping in the new. Quality wise, it is as good as the old one but hopefully better. Time will tell. They come in two colours - white and gray - but I chose the gray one as can be seen in the picture above.

New Door Closer

Perhaps it is already too old. Perhaps it couldn't withstand being opened up to 120°, sometimes up to 5 times per day. My DIY door closer quick and dirty repair only lasted 9 months. I had a final look at it and concluded that it is really beyond repair this time. There is nothing more that I can do to revive it. The only thing I could do now is to get a new one.

So, I went online and bought a new one from Lazada Malaysia. Looks nothing like the old one but it is functional. Installation is easy. It is just a matter of drilling the necessary holes on the door frame and later attaching it with the provided screws. Tension on the new door closer is adjustable (hex key is included in the package) but I find this unnecessary.

New PSU For My Lenovo Thinkcentre m70e

Now that I know the offending component is the power supply unit (PSU), now to go out hunting for one.

Prolink DH-5102U USB Wireless Adapter - My Experience

First off, this is not a sponsored post nor was I paid by anyone. And second, I am not a expert in USB wireless adapters for PCs. All I am doing here is to share my knowledge and experience in using this USB wireless adapter from Prolink model DH-5102U (Note: This is a Lazada Malaysia affiliate link). The only reason why I bought this adapter is because it was being offered at a special price at my time of purchase in July 2023. More importantly, it supports the Linux operating system. So far, I have used it on Windows XP, Windows 7, LUbuntu 18.04 and Linux Mint 21.2 XFce. On the whole, I find this device to be usable. Unfortunately, it has its limitations too.

Resurrected And Still Good

Would you believe it. After three years my 'dead' Lenovo Thinkcentre m70e desktop PC is still good. All I did was to just plug in a spare over-sized power supply unit (PSU), power it up and it just came back on - right into the screen complaining about no boot media. To get rid of this error screen, I then plugged in its hard disk (which I have removed for other uses) and Windows 7 just booted up like nothing has happened since July 2020.

I can't believe it. I almost trashed a good working computer.

Keeping Canon Selphy Printing Glitches At Bay

Nine months ago I bought a Canon Selphy CP1300 photo printer. Printed some photos when I first received it and I was happy with how the photos came out. Superb print quality. The best part, I bought it at an unbeatable price because of the Lazada 11.11 sale. Essentially after all the discounts, I got the photo paper and cartridge for free. In case you didn't know, no paper or cartridge is included with the printer, unless it is a bundled deal.

Some 2 weeks later, I printed some photos again. Not sure why, but this time there was a glitch on the first print. Three coloured dots on the output that were not in the original JPEG image (see picture above). I was disappointed obviously. Subsequent prints however went perfectly. A big sigh of relief. Thank god.

But what went wrong on the first print?

Dual Boot Linux Mint Upgrade

Not too sure what happened but my LUbuntu upgrade (reinstall actually) from 18.04 to 22.04 went horribly wrong. What I ended up in the end after the 'upgrade' was a non-bootable PC with no recognisable operating system detected! I panicked obviously. Something about problems in creating a file system and unable to proceed. Nothing that made sense to me.

I reinstalled WinXP from backup, reinstalled LUbuntu 18.04 and everything was back to where it was. A big sigh of relief. Luckily. Nothing went missing or corrupted. Next course of action - backups. Before that I didn't do any as my previous Linux and Ubuntu installation were non problematic.

Linux Mint

I looked around for another distro, found Linux Mint Xfce with favourable reviews and it suites me fine with my 2GB RAM PC. I then decided to give it a go.

Chinese Pond Heron - Breeding Plumage

Learnt something new today. These Chinese Pond Herons, they look different depending on the season. This blog post contains pictures of a Chinese Pond Heron in its winter plumage.

The two pictures in this blog post here is how it looks in its breeding plumage.