This post is just to save the next schmuck who has rvm crash mid-install on OSX Lion from the pain of cleaning up.
If typing
ls
gets you
ls: illegal option -- -
check for an alias in your terminal. (Just type alias).
If you have an alias set for “ls” just type unalias ls
google-keywords: bash linux osx ls broken headbutt wall rvm install xcode command line tools
Over the last few weeks noise from the Anzac rifle range has been getting excessive. It’s sounded like a WWII front-line for three or four days this week, and the entire weekend has been non-stop. I’m not sure what’s going on down there but a bit of googling today was the first time I discovered the govt is looking to close the rifle range down. I could not possibly support this more.
The NSW Rifle Association is expectedly miffed as is the Shooter’s Party (we have such a thing? Really?) – but this is not in their back yard. They’re fighting the Commonwealth government in the courts and apparently Penny Wong is the minister who’s portfolio this falls within. If you think the Anzac Rifle range is in the wrong place you should tell her. From what I can tell it look alike the closure of the range is still going to happen in Feb.
As the crow flies, it looks like about a 1.5 km from my house to the Anzac Rifle Range – with a lot of houses between me and them. Yet this is the noise in my back garden today:
My house to the Rifle Range:
The Malabar Headlands are the focus of a vocal local lobby group, who would like to see all the lands turned into public open spaces and nature reserve. Now that would be amazing.
[EDIT] Just found there is actually a tournament on this weekend. The “Queen’s Prize“
10 years in Aus today. He wasn’t even walking when we got here.
I’ve become infatuated with the camera on my iPhone. The phone has lately become my favorite camera, with the added bonus of being able to receive calls. Seriously, this camera can be made to sing. Here are some of my favorite ideas for iphoneography.
1. Macro madness
I put a few posts up a while ago when I discovered what some blu-tak and the lens from inside an old cd rom could do. This is still one of my favourite ways to get cool pics, but I have since moved on to a macro lens I bought from photojojo. I bought both the fish-eye and wide-angle/macro lenses but in truth I almost never use the fish-eye because I don’t like the rounded edges I can’t seem to escape. the macro and wide-angle is on my keychain and I play with it often.
I modified the magnetic ring to fit without obstructing the flash, and I fitted the ring to my case instead of directly to the phone (I drop my phone so I can’t *not* have a case)
Modified magnetic ring
This took five minutes with some side-cutters and a small metal file to smooth it. You can see in the picture that the ring is off-centre. This is the second ring – both were originally centred but have kinda drifted. I guess it’s caused by me keeping my phone in my back pocket and sitting on it too much 
Cosmos flower taken with iPhone macro
2. Social photography
Get yourself Instagram (free app). Seriously. It’s cool. The old-school polaroid style of photos, and the square format, are both great. Fun and easy. But the social side of it is where it’s at. You can browse heaps of great photos and discover people who inspire you with their photos. Many pictures are not iphone pics, and are visibly SLR quality. But hey, if you’re finding inspiration take it for what it is. And once you’re on Instagram, follow @homework – it’s a bit of an experiment some people are doing where each week they’re posting an assignment. You do your assignment and then use a hashtag to “submit” it. Cool huh 
Instagram can also post to Posterous, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
3. Make the World Miniature
A friend introduced me to TiltShiftGen – this app is the best I’ve seen so far for creating tilt-shift effects (as shown below). The app is not free, but is only a couple of dollars to buy. It offers you the ability to adjust all dimensions of the effect – saturation, blur gradient, brightness, contrast, and so on. And it can save in high resolution so you can print the pictures should you wish. I took the picture below from the window in the reception of some really nice offices in the city, while waiting for a meeting.
A Sydney vista, after TiltShiftGen
4. Make Compositions
We noticed a lot of compositions in instagram, and a couple of days ago a friend spotted Diptic. this app makes great compositions and once you pull them into Instagram you can overlay the instagram effects and do stuff like this:
Diptic composition, colour changes via Instagram
5. Get a better camera app
The iPhone camera app is okay for most use but sometimes oyu want to be able to have better control over exposure, white balance, and so on. I like the app Camera+ but would fault it for working off it’s own storage space, and you have to explicitly tell it to save each photo to the camera roll. This is a little irritating. The app is currently selling for $1.19 in the Aussie app store, which is a bargain for what you get.
6. Experiment with even more effects
I found an app called picfx, which has a collection of great effects that can be applied to photos – again useful before pulling into instagram. It is currently selling for $2.49 in the Aussie app store, and it’s one of my two picks for effect apps worth having (second to follow). Here’s an example of the cracked paint effect – one of my favourites – applied to a macro shot of a New Guinea Impatient flower in my garden.
Another effects app worth having is an app currently selling for $1.19 is 100 Cameras in 1. This app allows you to apply effects basically as overlays on to your photos, but they are really easy to apply and to vary in strength – and you can apply one on top of another until you get to your desired effect.
7. Editability is key
Last but not least ye olde faithful, Adobe Photoshop Express – a free app – is a must-have. You can crop, straighten, adjust saturation, contrast, etc and apply some nice borders. It’s a necessary addition to the iphoneography toolkit.
If you have an iphone I hope I’ve given you a couple of ideas to play with and get more value out of your phone camera
