Friday (07-December-2012) — New Jersey

Technology Update: Laptop Hard Drive to SSD Drive Conversion.

For the last week I have been hearing a knocking sound from my travel laptop computer (Lenovo ThinkPad W510). It actually sounds like a car knocking when climbing a hill when using low octane fuel. When I have heard this sound before, it was a precursor to the hard drive failing (often catastrophically). My last backup (disk image) was 2 weeks ago, so the first thing I did was make a new backup. I would love to be able to do incremental backups, however my Lightroom catalogs contain over 500K images. Even though I only keep normal sized preview images in the catalog, it is a lot of small files. Because of the large number of files, backups can take days. My workaround it to make a full disk image backup. This is sector based, not file based and only takes 2-3 hours.

I actually planned to replace this computer with a new Lenovo W520 computer back in August, however Lenovo failed to deliver the computer on time before I left for the Fall 2012 Semester at Sea Voyage. UPS tried to deliver the computer after I left. I ended up having some long phone calls to Lenovo from the ship (at $2.50/minute). The computer was returned, and ultimately I was refunded for the cost of the computer (but not the phone calls). So what to do with the current computer? I decided to try to upgrade the current computer with a new 512 GB solid state (SSD) hard drive, and a second 1 TB hard drive. The second drive would go into an Ultra Drive slot, replacing the CD/DVD drive. This should give the current computer some additional life, and having a primary SSD drive and a second data hard drive some improved performance.

I ordered a new 512 GB Crucial solid state (SSD) hard drive, a 1 TB Seagate hard drive, and an Ultra Bay hard drive caddy via Amazon. I have Amazon Prime, so featured Amazon prime items get free 2-day delivery. I was pleasantly surprised when the two hard drives arrived in less than 24 hours via US Mail (USPS). The Ultra Bay caddy is coming from China, so will take longer.

The Crucial SSD came with Apricorn Data Transfer software and a USB/Hard Drive connector to make an image of my current hard drive on the new SSD hard drive. The process was relatively simple, and after 4 hours I had an identical image of my current hard drive. Tomorrow, I will swap the hard drives and see if the process works.

One thing that I need to worry about is that some software in an “ET calling home mode” compares processor s/n, hard drive s/n, etc to decide if the software is pirated. I have heard of some folks finding out that some of their programs no longer work because the software thinks that it has been illegally copied.

The other thing that I need to check into when I have the computer open is the amount of installed RAM. I purchased this computer with 16 GB of RAM (since I was going to be using Windows 7 Pro 64-bit). I was surprised to see Task Manager only indicating 8 GB installed — Strange. Did some of the memory in the computer go bad, and needs to be replaced?

Laptop Computer Hard Disk Upgrade. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec) (David J Mathre)
Laptop Computer Hard Disk Upgrade. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec) (David J Mathre)

Thursday (06-December-2012) — New Jersey

Backyard Late Autumn Early Morning Sky: Last Quarter Moon.

It has been a long, but mainly productive day. I got up very early to get a picture of the last quarter moon. I wanted to try out photography of the moon through a 500 mm telephoto lens using the Nikon 1 V1 camera. Because of the smaller size of the image sensor vs. a 35 mm (FX in the Nikon digital world) the effective field of view with this setup is equivalent to using a 35 mm camera with a 1350 mm lens (~2.7x). Since the N1V1 camera does not have a mirror (the mirror in a DSLR needs to move out-of-the-way when taking pictures) and has an electronic shutter mode — there is no mirror slap or shutter motion when taking pictures. This is important when taking pictures through large telephoto lenses where any motion or vibration will blur the image. I had hopes that this would help to get a sharp image of the moon. One limitation with the N1V1 with the FT1 adapter is that it can only autofocus through the center autofocus sensor. For this image I manually focused the lens (and set the camera to manual focus so it would not try to autofocus before releasing the electronic shutter). I used the remote (IR) shutter release so I would not be adding additional vibration to the system. I was impressed with the result. I did take several images trying different settings, and this was one of the better ones.

Last Quarter Moon, Late Fall in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera, FT1 adapter, and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 500 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Last Quarter Moon, Late Fall in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V1 camera, FT1 adapter, and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 500 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)

Wednesday (05-December-2012) — New Jersey

Indoor Autumn Nature in New Jersey: Cricket Dance.

A few days ago I noticed a number of crickets in my basement. They are a silent variety as I haven’t heard any chirping. Once I get them identified, I’ll figure out if they are harmful or if I just ignore them. For now they are a good subject for a time-lapsed video. I set up a camera and flash to take an image every 15 seconds overnight.

Monday (03-December-2012) — New Jersey

Late Fall Backyard Nature in New Jersey: Deer.

The deer are very skittish right now, between rutting season and hunting season. There were a few does in the backyard late Sunday afternoon. As soon as I got out onto the back deck to try to get some images, there was a series of shotgun blasts in the distance. White tail up and the deer quickly took off. I thought that hunting wasn’t permitted on Sundays for those of us that like to go walking in the woods.

I processed the raw image with a trial version of Capture One Pro 7, and then converted it using Nik Silver Efex Pro. The new version of Capture One is going to take some getting used too — some new features, but also some idiosyncrasies that will take some time to understand.

Late Fall Doe. Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 7 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Late Fall Doe. Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 7 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Late Fall Doe. Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 7 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)
Late Fall Doe. Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 7 and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)

Sunday (02-December-2012) — New Jersey

Late Autumn Indoor Nature in New Jersey: Dead Mouse in the Basement.

A month ago, just after hurricane Sandy I checked to make sure that there wasn’t any water in the basement. I did see that the mouse/rat poison trays were empty. I also saw a large number of Crickets and House Centipedes. I also thought that I saw something moving fast out of the corner of my eye, but couldn’t be sure if it was a mouse. I placed several new poison trays in the basement just to be sure. 30-October-2012 This was the first time that I had been in the basement since going on the Fall 2012 Semester at Sea Voyage and my October road trip to attend the Nikonians ANPAT 12 trip in New Mexico.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been setting up and re-configuring my home office. The label printer I have requires a com port connection to a computer, however neither of my current computers have com ports. I ordered a USB com port converter on Amazon that arrived in 2 days. When I tried to set up the label printer with the new USB com port, the printer didn’t work. Actually, no lights to indicate that it was even getting power. Rather than just throwing the label printer out (note – in New Jersey, I can’t just dump it in the trash – but need to bring it to a recycling center that is only open once a week) I opened it up and found that a fuse was blown. So, where can I find a fuse?

Back to the original story, I went down to the basement to see if I had the right fuse in my electronics parts collection. Sitting on my bench, I found this dead mouse. I guess that the new batch of poison is working. When I took this picture, I also saw that there is a war going on between the crickets and the house centipedes. I think I am going to set up a camera & flash to see if I can get a time-lapsed view of this indoor wildlife conflict.

Well, since I didn’t find the fuse I needed, I ordered one (actually pack of 5) on Amazon. It should get here in two days. We will see if my old “fix it” electronic days still work. Problems with the 20-year-old Yamaha AX-550 Stereo Amplifier for another day.

Dead Mouse in the Basement. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens with a SB-900 flash (ISO 200, 105 mm, f/11, 1/60 sec). (David J. Mathre)
Dead Mouse in the Basement. Image taken with a Nikon D3 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens with a SB-900 flash (ISO 200, 105 mm, f/11, 1/60 sec). (David J. Mathre)