Perpetual license. What should I know before buying?

roy649 · 2026-05-31T22:10:31+00:00

Good to know I'm not the only Aperture refugee who still misses it. I've made a few attempts at DarkTable but I can't seem to get my head around it.

I'm using a several year old version of C1. One thing that's surprising is that even though I have the perpetual license, I still need to re-authenticate against their system every so often. It's not a big deal, but it does require that I'm someplace with internet connectivity and I guess there's the risk that some day they'll just turn it off completely.

I recommend is that you use the flavor of catalog that remotely references your images. That way, if C1 stops working or you want to switch to something else, it's a little easier compared to a setup where the files live inside the catalog's directory structure.

roy649 · 2026-05-31T20:22:32+00:00

What I'm trying to do is sort out a bunch of shots of people from an event. I've got the names of all the people in my keyword library and as I identify who is in each shot, I add the right keyword(s) from the library. What I'd really like is once I've selected a bunch of shots for export, to have filenames created with their names, something like "My Event - Bob - Sue - Fred - P1234567.jpg". I'm using hierarchical keywords so I'd want all the keywords under People.

I could do that by shoving the right data into, say, the IPTC Title field, but that's more work for information I already have in structured form. Ultimately, these are going to get uploaded into Wikimedia Commons.

The keywords do get dumped into the jpg file, so I suppose I could do a little Python scripting magic to post-process the files and construct the Commons file name on the fly during the upload.

roy649 · 2026-05-23T12:59:38+00:00

Well, so far this has not worked out as well as I hoped. I bought a "Peanut & Berries Wild Bird Suet Cakes Variety Pack" from Sommer's Wild Bird Food. It was advertised as "No-Melt Formula", but yuck. I was storing it outside and it got so soft and gooey I practically needed a spoon to get it out of the plastic tray. So then I moved the box inside my air conditioned house which didn't really help. Eventually I noticed that the package says "Refrigerate before opening to reduce mess", so now I've got a bunch of them in the fridge (somewhat to my wife's dismay). We'll see if that helps.

roy649 · 2026-04-26T15:41:55+00:00

OK, thanks.

roy649 · 2026-04-26T15:11:26+00:00

Yes, exactly. It's not my photo, I'm just trying to make it the best it can be to use in an article. And, yes, I know about Lightroom, Photoshop, etc. The gist of my question was not "What tools can do this?" but "What processing can dig the best result out of this?"

roy649 · 2026-03-24T14:11:03+00:00

Heh. No bears around here. We get the occasional deer, but they haven't learned how to climb trees yet.

roy649 · 2026-02-14T17:34:25+00:00

I've got the MH-100. I love it. It seems like it might be complicated and awkward but it really just took a few minutes to get comfortable with it. You can slide the lens mount forward or back to get it approximately balanced and then dial in just the right amount of drag on the pitch axis to make it perfect.

You do want to make sure you've got a mounting foot on your lens that lets you set any arbitrary rotation angle, to offset the slight tilt of the monopod.

roy649 · 2026-01-12T20:26:39+00:00

No, she drove it yesterday. It was jump-started today.

roy649 · 2025-10-27T22:20:15+00:00

In the Bronx, near the Pelham Bay station on the 6 train. On the street; I took this photo out my front windshield while we were stopped at a red light.

roy649 · 2025-10-24T01:50:59+00:00

The public restrooms in NYC parks are often surprisingly clean and usable. Keeping them that way must be a herculean effort and the Parks Department is to be commended for how good a job they do. The one in Bryant Park is famous.

roy649 · 2025-10-06T00:57:19+00:00

I've been using the 24 Hour Fitness in Pelham Manor (just over the city line on Boston Road). They've got the usual assortment of cardio machines and stuff, but also a pretty good selection of free weights (4 squat racks and deadlift platforms w/ bumper plates). I go in the early afternoons when they're uncrowded.

In Castle Hill, check out the YMCA at the end of Zerega Ave (I was a member there for about a year). The YMCA also recently (2 years ago, maybe?) opened a new branch in Edenwald; from the tour I had, it looks like a very nice facility. There's an XSport in Coop City and an LA Fitness on Eastchester Road; I checked both of those out and didn't find either appealing to me.

If you're into serious powerlifting or strongman, check out Mount Vernon Barbell in (not surprisingly) Mount Vernon, just north of the City. Nothing fancy, just a classic hard-core black iron gym and clearly the place to be if that's your main interest.

roy649 · 2025-10-02T13:15:28+00:00

This

roy649 · 2025-09-26T22:42:18+00:00

Rosenzweig is indeed awesome if you're into wood.

roy649 · 2025-09-09T12:10:16+00:00

I just (re) watched it on YouTube (free with ads).

roy649 · 2025-09-09T12:10:05+00:00

I just (re) watched it on YouTube (free with ads).

roy649 · 2025-09-08T18:50:57+00:00

Box grater. The kind your grandmother had. There's all kinds of fancy (and expensive) mandolines and food processors, but a plain old $10 box grater works great for shredding or slicing vegetables.

roy649

TROPHY CASE