I watched a couple interesting videos that I enjoyed, and thought I’d share:
This Engadget video about the differences between DSLR and mirrorless cameras is terrific. Chris Schodt did a great job explaining both camera categories, and the advantages each type has. Well worth watching.
I made an extraordinarily long video on what mirrorless cameras are and how they're different from DSLR's. Check it out!https://t.co/jcCfCrVS19
I work with CSS every day as part of my work at Automattic, and while I’ve encountered pseudo elements, I haven’t really understood them until I watched Kevin Powell‘s video.
This video is the first of a three part series, and just having watched this first episode, I feel like I already have a better understanding.
I’m trying out a post format for sharing a few quick things that probably wouldn’t make for a decent length post. I like the idea of this sort of collection of interesting things, but it feels a little disjointed. Perhaps three short posts would work better. What do you think?
Robin Moul apparently made this awesome Star Wars dress, completed with hand lettering. It’s brilliant! The hair stick things (there’s probably a real name for them – I’m clueless) are a nice touch!
We had national elections in Israel this last Tuesday, 9 April. Elections days are public holidays in Israel, so we took advantage of the day off to have a family outing. We decided to head to the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv.
I had been to the museum a couple times with our kids, but this was the first time we all went as a family.
There’s a lot to like about this museum. There are a number of static exhibits, and new exhibits that arrive from time to time.
By the time we arrived at the museum, it was almost lunchtime, so we had an early lunch at a restaurant just outside the museum called Anina. The food is pretty good, albeit it a little pricey.
We took advantage of the Election Day public holiday to have a family outing in Tel Aviv, at the Eretz Israel Museum.
The museum is more like a campus comprising various buildings housing exhibits, with a number of outdoor exhibits too. We started off in the Kadman exhibit that basically traces the origins of money both in the region, and in general, leading up to the New Israeli Shekel that we use today in Israel.
The Glass Pavilion is pretty impressive too. We pretty much had the hall to ourselves. There was a fun exhibit documenting aspects of Israeli society with glassware, along with a variety of other pieces.
One of the highlights of this exhibit was a suit of armour made from glass.
From there, we moved on to a temporary exhibit that documented the work of Israeli photographer, David Rubinger. I was familiar with one or two of his photographs without realising who he was.
The photographer, David Rubinger, the Israel Prize laureate for Communication who died last year was one of a small selected group of photographers whose works are etched on local and international memory. His endeavor began at the end of the enlisted “Zionist photography” period, that dominated the local photography scene until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
I really enjoyed this exhibit. Looking at his photographs, I’m reminded that you don’t need the best of modern cameras to create meaningful, even profound, images.
We had an interesting experience when we stepped outside the exhibit. I took a little longer inside, and my wife and kids were waiting for me on a bench outside. I wanted to take a photo or two of the three of them on the bench, and we were interrupted by the exhibit’s usher who wanted us to rather take photos with some flowers she planted in the background.
This turned into a bit of a “lost in translation” family photo opportunity when the usher took my camera, and then spent a good 10 to 15 minutes getting us into position. My wife wrote about the experience on her blog:
One of the benefits of this experience with the usher was that she pointed us to another exhibit I hadn’t visited before. The Ethnography and Folklore exhibit is is a rich exhibit of Judaica that includes a recreation of an 18th century Italian synagogue, complete with its original doors, and ark.
We wandered through a couple of other exhibits along the way, including a flour mill, an olive oil press, and a few outdoors features.
It’s easily one of my favourite vacation destinations. There are a couple of other really great museums in the area, so if you’re looking for something to do, definitely consider spending a few hours at the Eretz Israel Museum.
The city adorned a path leading up to a local community center with a series of mosaics. I took a walk out there this morning, and took photos of them.
One of the concrete panels is blank, which is a little odd. Hopefully that will also be filled at some point.
The movie didn’t do well at the Box Office, and a series of sequels was scrapped. That’s a big pity. I really enjoyed how the movie was made, and the main actors. It was pretty clearly a Guy Ritchie movie, but then again, I like his style.
Here’s the soundtrack, if you’d like to get a feel for the movie:
My son and his friends are getting back into Minecraft, and they’ve been playing on some random server that they have some issues with.
I gave it some thought, and decided that I could set up a Minecraft server for them on a Digital Ocean. I mean, how hard could this be, right?
It turns out, it isn’t that easy. At least, I’m hitting a wall with this after my initial setup. So, what I did was the following:
I first created a droplet on Digital Ocean, with a view to following this guide I found somewhere;
I installed the current Minecraft Server version on my shiny new droplet (via SSH);
There were a couple tutorials for configuring the server (here, here, and even here), but all I think I managed to do was install a bunch of stuff I don’t know how to use.
I did register a custom domain that I’m mapping to the droplet for when I eventually figure out how to configure the server.
I’ve reached out to a couple gaming colleagues to see if anyone has any ideas. In the meantime, I’m tempted to just go the official Minecraft server route if I can’t figure this out.
It’s really easy to share stuff online (that’s the point of social media, isn’t it?). At the same time, just because we can share something online, doesn’t mean we should share it.
With all this talk about the term “fake news” that a certain president made popular, there is plenty of material that is misleading, and inaccurate, and yet not so easy to discern. Being able to spot the fakes is a great way to fight growing disinformation online, often from the very people who portray accurate reporting as fake.