AN: GuruGram #56

Show me how to do a one quarter degree rotation in Irfanview combined with a distortionless offcenter true keystone correction.

Looks more like a PDF file to me! :-)

PDF and its underlying PostScript language, of course, being an outstanding method of manipulating .BMP data.

What shutter?

As our consistently having the best images on eBay bar none proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, with decent image postprep, it does not matter in the least which direction the camera is pointing in or what happens to be sitting on the scanner.

Yes, using anything other than free Irfanview v3.97 with its RAW plug-ins and batch processing is totally and utterly foolish. Your free download is available here:

Rita

I'm really not sure I have yet to run across any real world need for these two features. Any rotation other than 90* or 180* should be done prior to taking the picture. As for distortionless keystone correction, this can be corrected prior to taking the picture with a Nikon Nikkor 85mm f/2.8 D PC or afterwards in Photoshop. It's totally and utterly foolish to correct these problems in postproduction when it's quicker to correctly compose the picture before releasing the shutter.

Rita

Oops! My bad since I forgot to add that only real digital cameras have them. This is why it is totally and utterly foolish to use any other camera than a Nikon D2x for your eBay pictures. In rare occasions and dire emergencies it is acceptable to sporadically use a Nikon D70 for a backup camera for your eBay pictures.

Rita

Are you selling images or are you selling merchandise? Squandering more than three-minutes from the time you take the picture, crop, resize, and ftp it to your hosting site is running a marathon in futility. Having the "best images on eBay" doesn't mean a thing if the exhaustive and time consuming labor of dicking around in post processing exceeds the value of the item you're trying to sell. This is why we highly recommend the highly efficient and speedy Irfanview v3.97 as the eBay seller's choice for free imaging processing software.

Rita

I use XV, which seems to be based on a similar concept. Very quick cropping/resizing methods, no bullshit, many keyboard shortcuts etc. Since I have a decent camera, all I care to do it cropping and resizing. The resulting images are 100% descriptive. I spend perhaps

Yes, it does go extremely fast when you get a system fine-tuned to your working style. Your pictures on eBay look excellent and are very effective for completing the task of accurately describing the merchandise. The key fact to remember is you're primary objective is to quickly sell merchandise while keeping production costs and time to a minimum. Even Ansel Adams would agree!

Have you tried your pics in a collage instead of individually? I find this style works really well instead of multiple single pics when numerous angles of view are required. Making a collage takes more time, but you'll still get it done and ftp'ed with time to spare when following the three-minute rule.

Rita

The PostScript PDL is designed for automatically generating page images for raster reproduction.

Its human-readability and editability was great in the beginning for debugging, but today results in huge and ungainly files. It's mostly used in high-end rendering devices and in networked office printers for Mac and Unix networks today.

Learning PostScript or Forth as a first or second programming language today would be utterly and totally foolish. More so even than learning Smalltalk or Lisp.

What few non-commoditized opportunities there remain for profitably marking, cutting, or otherwise altering material today-such as CAD/CAM, vinyl sign cutting, PCB manufacture, engraving, and embroidery-are inherently vector rather than raster operations. Autodesk's AutoLISP is an example of something that has never quite caught on even though it works: further developments are eagerly awaited by this writer, although without much immediate hope.

My feeling is a single collage is more desirable than multiple thumbnails since it keeps everything streamlined by having all the pertinent visual data in one properly sized picture. Plus, my experience has found it aggravating to click a thumbnail and the browser goes to another page. Having it load in a separate window is slightly better, but can be problematic for some browsers that have an improperly configured pop-up blocker. I guess it's all about preference? I think either way works well, but I have been annoyed the way some eBay'ers do it that I will skip the auction if it gets to be too much like work to look at an auction. My strategy is to pack as much important data into a small single page so the bidder doesn't have to overwork the mouse muscles.

Rita

I agree with all that, thanks for the compliment.

Well, if I did the collage, it would be all automatic anyway, without any human mouse clicking. I am not sure though, what is the benefit of having a collage. My auctions include small thumbnails anyway, the big pictures can be accessed by clicking.

An attitude like that one towards learning new programming languages is not just stupid, it is utimately career-limiting.

I have written nontrivial programs in all four of those languages, and about two dozen others. Forth, in particular, is by far the best language available for building embedded systems. I was a bit disappointed in PostScript, but it is adequate for the purposes for which it was designed.

I have not found it a bad thing to learn new languages, even those in minority use. Every language has something to teach about how to solve problems. I try to add at least one more to my repetoire every year. I have run into a lot of baby-duck-syndrome programmers who think that programming consists of writing whatever one language they already know (and invariably look down their noses at programmers using "inferior" languages). Most of them have been unemployed for the last few years, and are likely to remain so.

I landed my current job because I am conversant in four of the languages that are in use in their shop (and I get to pick up the fifth on their nickel). I have had a number of contracts in which I was up and productive in a new language by the third day.

-- Howard Lee Harkness Texas Certified Concealed Handgun Instructor

I didn't take my gun to the interview.

-- Howard Lee Harkness Texas Certified Concealed Handgun Instructor

That's the second language used in the shop...

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

I don't think he's against learning them, only against *starting* with them. Something along the lines of Java or C# is nowadays almost indispensable. PostScript, Forth, Lisp, etc., come later in one's career.

Are you sure you didn't get the job just because you were the only interviewee that was carrying?