I’m making an XMLRPC server in Python that I need to access from a Java Servlet. But the default security manager is picky about allowing SSL certificates it does not trust (if you were in doubt: this is a good thing! ). The solution (based on this site was:

openssl x509 -in server.crt -out server.crt.der -outform der
keytool -keystore $JAVAHOME/jre/lib/security/cacerts -alias pySSL -import -file server.crt.der

I just saw PicoJet’s flash-based ad (via The Digital Photography Weblog). PicaJet is software for organizing my photos, not much unlike iPhoto. I’m really fond of iPhoto, except that it’s too slow and that labelling and organizing pictures still takes too long. I miss RAW-support and search-functionality like imgSeek. I love the Gallery plugin, despite rotation bugs. I’m currently sticking with iPhoto 2 as I figure it’s been so long since the release of iPhoto 4 that a new version is bound to be due soon. But as with all other photo-organizing software I’ve seen, PicaJet & iPhoto have a problem with DVDs.

With my recent purchase of my Canon EOS 20D, the amount of pictures I take has risen sharply. And the file size of my favourite format has risen for each picture from ~400k to ~6m. Within three weeks I’d taken 4Gb of pictures, nicely fitted on one DVD. But, that’s making my pictures unavailable. I need to have a thumb-nail in my archive (say about 640x480 would be nice) that informs me what DVD I’ve put it on so I can find it back. I’ve got a 15cm stack of photo DVDs and the occational photo CD. I need this to become available. How have you guys solved this?

In an attempt to say what beer is approved for more consumption and what is not, I’ve started taking pictures of it, with good help from the rest of the Monday Drinking Club. Martin is inspecting the fisheye lens (more for that complaint in a future post), but Fuglesang’s “Sterk Ding Dong” is a well-approved christmas ale. Enjoy!

I bought a 2x teleconverter from 47st.photo at eBay in September. The seller has until now not made even what I can consider an attempt on solving the issue, so I’ve given up, and hereby report the issue to eBay. I also write this as a warning of people who consider doing business with this company. Don’t do business with them unless you can walk in the door and hold the actual product.

The item I was bidding for was this: Canon EOS Rebel K2 Ti GII 7n 2x Pro Telephoto Extender and it had the following picture on eBay:

This item is what I got:

As you can see, it clearly sais macro and 0.42X, not tele, not 2x.

I contacted the seller as he had requested in writing before leaving feedback. Any decent person would. I described the problem detailed, but the answer back was a one-liner: hello this is the same lens. (entire mailing history enclosed for your inspection) After more one-sided mailing to a non-responsive seller, they finally wrote to me asking me to call them. I’d already left them my phone number in case they could not communicate by email, but they clearly could. With them sending the wrong item, it was unreasonable for them to demand that I should bear the expense of an oversees call, much less wait for them to get up in the morning. These are some of the wonders of email: asynchronous and (virtually) free.

Don’t get me wrong, the people handled the shipment in due time and all the “free, bundled” stuff was there. I’m sure it was a glitch in the shipment, but they should take responsability and handle the replacement for the correct lens. After more than a month, I have now given up on them and desided to write this. I’ve bought a 2x extender from another seller on eBay, and the transaction went smooth, just like all my other buys there. I would not discourage people from buying stuff there, but beware. I have now stopped looking at items sold in US dollars and will only buy from within the European community and Scandinavia.