This is part of our series on building a NAS. In this article we will get the box set up with a static IP address, and get your drives set up for RAID 1.
We are assuming that at this point you have Ubuntu installed. We are gong to install software raid in a moment. The first thing I want to do is make sure we have a static ip address. Usually Ubuntu will start up with a dynamic ip address. This can make it more difficult to transfer files to this box, so lets make it static.
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I sent my Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 in to be serviced a couple of weeks ago. I was wondering if they really got the lens, as I hadn’t heard anything from them. I knew they really got it, because I asked for signature confirmation from USPS. Still, I hadn’t heard from them. I decided to go online and look around. I found a service section, but to get a status on your lens you had to have a service order number. I didn’t have one yet. They had a repair status form, so I filled that out. And waited.
I gave up waiting and called. Virtually no hold time and I was though. I give them points for that. I talked to someone who was able to confirm that they indeed had the lens and that it was sent to the repair area. That meant that they agreed that it had issues. Then I was told it would be 2 – 3 more weeks to do the repair. Really? Wow. That is not the fastest shop around. So then I asked if normally they sent out emails on the status of the repair, such as if they recieved the lens, if it had been sent to the repair shop, that kind of thing. The response was “No, we don’t have time.” Really? Wow.
To me, this means that either there are a lot of Tamron lenses that go back so they are overwhelmed, or they just don’t hire enough staff. I have never sent an item back to Nikon. I wonder what the turnaround is for Nikon and Canon, and how well they keep you up on the status of repairs. I was not expecting a personalized thoughtful carefully crafted response. I was expecting and automated email to go out when somone entered into the computer that the lens had arrived. I was expecting an automated email to go out once somone had looked at the lens and entered into the computer what problems they found. There shouldn’t be a time issue with this.
Tamron, you need some technology applied to your customer service area. By the way, I am looking for a programming job, do you want me to implement that for you?
Update: Lens fixed.
I have posted before how I was frustrated with National Camera. I have stopped using them. I fugured that I was going to be a purely online buyer until I found out about a store in Minneapolis called West Photo.
West Photo is a whole different deal. For one thing, this is a store for photographers. Staffed with photographers, selling gear to phtographers. They even had a couple of people out at the MN Strobist event I was at.
I have been there a couple of times now, and while I wish they were open later or on weekends, I am glad I went. I¬†was surprised that their prices are right in line with Amazon and others. I am willing to pay a bit more (don’t forget the tax) to buy from a local store, but there are limits to the price difference I can handle. West Photos prices fall in my range.
The staff here also understand, use, and shoot with the photography equipment they sell. They had no problem telling me what they use and comparing it with other gear in their store. Real world experience counts for something.
They have lighting equipment out the wazoo. If you want to look at something and have knowledgeable people talk to you about it without sounding bored, this is the place.
If you drop by, tell Kyle or Jenn I sent you.
I finally did it. I sent my Tamron lens in for service. This is my main walking around lens, and only wide-ish lens. So… for now I am walking around with the Nikon 50mm f/1.8. I like that lens, but it sure isn’t on the wide side.
I had finally had enough of the lens. I sure hope it can get fixed. I would feel bad about trying to sell it and move to a Nikon version without getting it check out. So, what did I want looked at? Three things:
I lived with this stuff for awhile now, thinking that this is what I get for not going Nikon, but it isn’t acceptable now. I bought this lens after hearing from several Canon shooters who had the similar lens in a Canon mount just how good it was. I can’t believe it is the same lens they talk about.
It was getting some quality Nikon glass that pushed me to send it in though. I now have a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8, and that lens is amazing. It really does make me want to try other Nikon lenses out and see if they are as good. The Tamron is no where near as sharp a lens. I can only hope that Tamron can find some little screws to adjust in there somewhere that will magicly make me like this lens. Otherwise, I am saving pennies (and lots of them) for the Real Deal.
Update: Tamron Customer Service.
Update: I got a paper confimation (05/29/2009) that they had recieved the lens and found issues they would fix. Paper. Really?
Update: Lens Fixed.
Scott Kelby has a post up where he compares studio strobes and speedlights. This is somthing that I have had going on in my head for quite some time now.
I took a studio lighting class, and the instructor was pretty anti speedlight. Maybe he just hasn’t use them much. I sure wouldn’t want to tell Joe McNally and David Hobby that small off camera flashes don’t put out good light. So, I decided that I would start small. Leave the studio strobes for some later time. Let me be able to say that I can do everything that is possible with one light.
So what did I buy? Well, I had an SB800 before the price lept off the insanity board. I figure you need a hotshoe flash no matter what, so it wouldn’t be a wasted light purchase. I now use it all the time. So what other gear¬†I purchased was a strobist kit from mpex (without the flash). See this post from a couple of days ago. I still intend to post more about the kit, but¬†I took these pics recently with that kit and that mini softbox from the friday post
I have to say that you can get quite different pricing than Scott got. Not on the same equipment, but how “pro” do you want to go? Mpex has one light¬†strobist kits for $219 that includes a flash! Yes, I know that it isn’t as powerful or feature rich as the SB-900, but hey, the price of entry is pretty cheap.
Then there are the alien bee’s studio strobes. The AB800 is $279. That is quite a bit cheaper than the Elinchrom BXRI 500s. ($625 at B&H, but out of stock) So are the AB800’s second fiddle? I haven’t seen enough lights to know. I do know that there are several people that have appeared on Scott’s guest blog that use Alien Bee’s lights, including Zack Arias and Dustin Snipes. I also used the ABR Ring Flash¬†at my class which I loved. So… when I get around to it, I am leaning to the bees.
But for now, I have a lot of learning to do. I have the Nikon CLS video¬†waiting to be watched, and I have wanted to order the Strobist Workshop DVD’s¬†if not attend a workshop myself. I think it would also be cool to attend a One Light Workshop with Zack Arias. ¬†I have read Joe McNally’s The Moment it Clicks, and right now I am reading The Hot Shoe Diaries.
That’s a lot of material to master. I figure I might add another speedlight, or LumoPro LP120¬†from mpex or two in a little while, but maybe I will wait until I can pull of this group shot with a single SB26 manual flash.
I have a whole bunch of lighting related stuff to mention today:
I got my starving student kit (SX2) from Midwest Photo Exchange. This is a pretty neat kit. If you check out the link you will see all the stuff that is included. The highlights are the stand (fairly compact), a shoot through umbrella, a swivel that connects the stand, the umbrella, the flash, and allows the flash/umbrella to tilt. The umbrella is really compact when folded.
I decided to get the kit to get all the pieces to try it out. They are supportive of the strobist community, and the kit gets a discount. There is some other stuff in the kit that will be fun to play with too. Gells, tape, straws and cinefoil to use to make DIY light shaping tools.
Mpex also has a new all manual flash, the LumoPro LP120  for only $129 that I might look at later.
Well, I decided that the umbrella wasn’t enough, I needed to spring for a softbox. We had been using them in the studio lighting class exclusively, and this small LightDome that works on my SB800 was on sale. I head of this gem from Matt Brandon. He¬†posted about¬†using one here and then PhotoFlex was highlighting him.
What makes this kind of funny is that tomorrow I am going to go take pictures of a newborn with this very contraption. Just so happens that friends down the street just had their second baby, and I just happened to get a light box. Coincidence?
This is not the same item, but I will try the same ideas as this strobist post too soon.
I am also finally going to get to use my new light toy. Well, those other things are really my newest light toys, but at one time this was, and I haven’t used it yet. I need to make sure it is changed up. Heading out with some friends to hit a barn with 2 million¬†watts of light. Actually, 8 million watts of light if we all hit the barn with the lights. Might even be too much light! Anyway, that should be fun.
So, lots of new toys, and I am going to try to use them all this weekend. Everyone always says you shouldn’t buy new shoes the day before the big race, and I probably shouldn’t head to take portraits with¬†new equipment¬†I have never tried before, but hey, what the heck. Pictures to follow.
I was just comparing notes with another iPhone user, talking about how we don’t know how we ever did without the thing. I was checking an RSS feed, and sure enough, Ars Technica has a post about the iPhone OS 3.0 that will be out this summer.
This is not a point release. Turn by turn GPS, cut and paste, MMS messages, push notifications, bluetooth connections to other iPhone users, and more API hooks into the default apps for developers to access.
Free upgrade for all iPhoners when it comes out. Sweet. How did I live without this thing?
Again! I lost my Blackrapid star washer again. I am starting to get tired of this, and less excited about the strap in general. This happens to me almost every time I use my tripod. See, I usually head out with the camera on it’s strap, holding the tripod on my shoulder, or by one of the legs. I don’t like the idea of swinging the whole contraption around with the camera on top.
So anyway, I take the camera off the strap, and attach it to the tripod. Then sometime later that day, I realize that I am missing part of the FastenR. Crap. Yes, it is my fault. I should tighten the washer against the angle bracket when I take it off the camera, but I keep forgetting to do it. Crap. Do I order another one?
I started typing in a reply to someone about what iPhone apps are living on my screen, so I thought that maybe I would post the list of things that I have on my iPhone here.
First up is Flickr. They don’t have an iPhone app, but they have a mobile site that is quite amazing. Great UI.
I also use the Facebook app for accessing Facebook. Most of both sides of my family now used Facebook, so this is a great way to check in.
The wordpressapp is pretty neat. It allows you to create posts right from your phone. This is not perfect. You can’t access images that aren’t on your phone. Ones from your wordpress library would have been nice. Much better than using Safari and the admin section.
I jumped on twitter recently, and the twitterificapp works great for me. It would be even better if the iPhone would let you know when updates occur, but that is not yet in the iPhone architecture. Checking by accessing the app probably saves battery life though.
AccuWeather and The Weather Channel are much better than the included weather app.
WhitePages is great in the US at least. I look up people and phone numbers with this all the time. It lets you add addresses to existing contacts or create new ones as well as providing a map of the location.
LockBox allows me to put sensitive info into the iPhone with an additional password. There are a few with that name. Thisis the iTunes link.
Yelp and AroundMework great in the US. I can see restaurants, businesses, bank machines, and more that are near by my location.
Flixster is also pretty amazing. It has a great interface to tell what movies are playing, where, and when. It used the location service to tell you what is near by. You can also see info on the movies playing or coming in the future as well as play trailers. I don’t get to movies much, but a guy can dream.
I have craigsphone (for craigs list), eBay, and Amazon on my phone, but don’t use them much. I have looked up prices on Amazon while out an about though.
I have Pandora and Public Radio Tuner to stream audio, but haven’t found that I use them much. I drive too much I guess.
Been trying to find good lists and to-do apps. I am trying ShopShop (grocery app comparison) and ToDo’s right now.
I also started using NetNewsWire. I have their desktop app on my Macs, and the mobile version of the RSS reader on my iPhone. I created an account with them and now they all sync together. Pretty cool.
Newspapers like the New York Times and USA Today have mobile app versions. It is faster and more UI friendly than their full or even mobile sites.
My 2 year old loves DressChica and I Hear Ewe.
Also check out Terry White’s Tech blog. He reviews iPhone apps every week. http://terrywhite.com/techblog/
There are a bunch of photography tools. I am pretty cheap, and haven’t tried any of the pay tools, and haven’t found any photography tools that are free that are worth buying. Depth of Field Calculatorlooks interesting. Just look at the photography catagory in iTunes. There are lots of apps there. Scott Kelby (on photoshop user tv) recommended FocalWare to see sunrise and sunset times for landscape photographers. It is $9.99. Haven’t tried it yet.
I am amazed. These apps combined with maps and address book have become glued to my hip. In about a month I am now wondering how I lived without them. I probably use more of the data plan than my voice plan. (I only have the 400 min plan)
Somehow I missed this. Gavin Gough has done a review of the lensbaby composer, complete with images taken with the optic kit. It does sound like a fun piece of kit to play with. I think I will skip the optic kit, and just get the double glass. I put it on my Amazon wish list 🙂 It is also worth looking about the lensbaby web site. They have some pretty cool images taken with their kit.