Gosh-o-gosh. Techies on slashdot? What's the world coming to?!?!

You wanted me to just say "iPhoto", right?

lol...

That was all software, you know. Free, too.

...but it saves on random number generator cycles...

Just took a look at Imagemagick; they've definitely come a long way in RAW support. But I'm a little confused about what they mean by:

CR2 R Canon Digital Camera Raw Image Format Requires an explicit image format otherwise the image is interpreted as a TIFF image (e.g. cr2:image.cr2).

  Does it read CR2 or not? I have a 6D DSLR, so CR2 support was the first thing I looked for. Then there are the RAW, S-RAW and M-RAW variants.

Just curious.

I'm interested in power measurement (rolled my own), so I took a look.

The ready-to-buy pricing is interesting.

A power consumption measuring module for 8 lines is £324.00; a common breaker box with a capacity of 40 circuits will require five of these, for a total of £1620.00. Then you'll need 25- or 50-ampere current sensors, 40 of them at £12.00, adding £480.00. Now, if you want remote control through their cloud, add another £295.00 for the gateway module. The power supply module is £50.00. Then you get to subscribe to their cloud solution, I think, an idea I got by the "free one year of cloud subscription" you get with a small bundle of components they sell -- though I didn't find a price for the cloud itself.

So a one-breaker panel solution seems to be about £2445.00, or at today's exchange rate, $3,843.13.

That's not horrible for what it does in terms of commercial solutions, but it certainly isn't in the low-end zone, either. You can make a calibrated current sensor for under a dollar if you dig up some surplus ferrite, which I've not found to be particularly difficult (though ferrite isn't the only workable way to go. An optically isolated op amp configured balanced over a tiny resistance also works great.) So roundly, $40 for the ferrite based solution. An op amp and an A/d channel together don't amount to a dollar per either, so another $42 for those (I use a final pair of channels to watch AC voltage and phase at the breaker box, comes in all kinds of handy. Power consumption's not just about current!) Add about $10 worth of digital logic, a $40 Raspberry Pi [there's your computer and wired web server, add $5 to put it all on wifi], roll your own software and PCB or hardwiring, throw in a tiny power supply, and for about $150 US, you've got equally capable -- or better -- measurement capabilities. If you want to be fancy and uber-safe and avoid the whole ferrite space and cost and availability issues, you can add $5/line for another $200 cost for optically isolated op amps would would put you at about $350. And of course there is no need whatsoever for a "cloud." Just a webserver, which the Pi or similar can neatly provide. The Pi is a good choice because it's low power, well supplied with features, and capable and sufficient to the task. You can toss a monitor, keyboard and mouse on there permanently too if you want a fancy at-the-breaker-box position, but you don't actually need to, so I don't count that.

I did wonder what it'd cost to build from their PCBs, but there doesn't seem to be any way to really figure that out other than doing it. Pretty much has to be less than $3840, though.

A database (sqlite would do fine), a little Python (sqlite included), an image display program (painless if we're talking jpeg/gig/png, might be knotty for RAW DSLR images) and thou.

Open source, features up to you, no lock in because you can export it to any format you're willing to take the time to fool with. Best environment for this kind of undertaking is a web browser and some CGI, both of which, under linux as you prefer, are easily handled.

Image organization is a pretty minimal undertaking, if that's all one is really really after. The database will do the vast majority of the work. Just make sure you provide fields for everything that matters to you, or might matter to you, and then USE them.

Ubuntu, for one, has everything you need for the jpg/png/gif case built right in. RAW DSLR, as mentioned, will require some work.

comments that state that prohibition is the solution to America's drug problem

Prohibition is America's drug problem.

I don't believe it is controversial to consider vaccination 14 shots at 2 years old extreme.

Unfortunately, no one has yet convinced mother nature that it's "extreme" to threaten children (and adults too) with 14 (if only it was just fourteen!) infectious and not-that-unlikely really severe threats to their health. So there's your basic conundrum, partner: stick little Billy even if he cries, or let him die of some horrible disease, because, hey, 14 shots, so extreme.

Also, the autism thing... that's utter bullshit. Do a little honest research.

See, here's the problem. When the susceptible, that is, those you consider genetically deficient, engage in a mass die-off, there is a rather immediate and severe problem with bacterial and viral outbreaks that have little directly to do with the initial vector. Disposal of bodies becomes a severe problem (I refer you to Google for massive and unequivocal reams of corroborating evidence), the economy takes it in the shorts as all manner of people in all walks of life fall victim, distribution of necessities are disrupted, water supplies become corrupted, many newly desperate people begin to engage in rapidly upscaled numbers of antisocial acts -- theft, violence, etc. -- basically civilization shits itself and falls in it. Into this uniformly unpleasant and dangerous swamp of defecation you, complete with the pure and holy genes that rendered you immune from the initial outbreak, will almost certainly fall. Along with your spouse, offspring, pets and friends.

So let's not get too excited about letting nature run wild when we have the ability to prevent it, shall we? Life is ever so much more pleasant when you can go outside without a surgical mask, automatic weapons, and night vision equipment.

Oh, man, I truly hate to go there, but... at what level of risk, if any, do you feel it is appropriate for society to step in? What if Mom gets her jollies from dangling little Joey over a pit of alligators by a raveled string? What if daddy thinks his little cutie-pie looks best with a mouthful of semen? What if both parents like to hear the kids squeal when they shoot them in the limbs with a .22? Will you still stand up for inviolate parent's rights? What if they just want to pup out kids and sell them to the highest bidder? Personally, I think putting little Joey at intentionally higher, and almost certainly reducible, risk of some kind of horrific plague stands right at the level of selfish, ignorance-driven crazy evident in the preceding examples. Not to mention the increased risk to everyone else.

The only argument along these lines that has any credibility at all is the one that notes the legal and bureaucratic tendency of limited, appropriate interference to become large, inappropriate interference, and suggests that the risk to the relatively small number of kids who have a pair of batshit-crazy parents (perhaps if only one is fucktarded, we can at least hope the other will interfere) does not outweigh the risk to everyone else of the government interfering with, and/or taking their children for what amount to some or all of the wrong reasons.

Do you really mean to say that parents can do anything they want with their kids?

In fact, spreading his nonsense hurts his situation. The greater number of people who do not vaccinate for whatever reason, the more likely a significant outbreak becomes, and as he is without vaccination himself, he is much more likely to be one of the victims. If he can't vaccinate because of allergy, he should be whooping and hollering for everyone else to get vaccinated so they don't bring something horrific and unavoidable directly into his unprotected life.

Sometimes all that runs through my mind is "the stupid, it burns..." but then I remember that some people aren't stupid, they're just ignorant. Then I remember how hard it is to convince the ignorant of the facts when they have already taken a stand against them. Then I quietly despair.

That stuff will drown you. You can DIE! Plus, fish -- and alligators -- have sex in it. Ew. Here, sign my petition against dihydrogen oxide. It agitates for no more imbibing of the stuff unless properly moderated by either the beer-making process, coffee-making process, or the soda-making process, and in any case, buffered by pizza. Or when used as ice. Drink quickly, though.

I'm thinking more along the lines of a bassist.

I'm usually thinking along the line of the chassis. Specifically, the female chassis. Functional and delightful at the same time. But don't fret. I won't be four string you to agree with me. More of a 5-string guy, myself. Makes me B happier, it does. Deeply so.