I have finally bought a digital SLR, the Sony Alpha 100. It was a tough decision between the Sony and the Nikon D80, but I finally settled on the Sony because it is somewhat cheaper and has image stabilisation built into the body. The Nikon has image stabilised lenses, but that increases the price of every lens.
The weather here is overcast, so I haven’t taken many photos yet. The first experiments in our garden showed good results, particularly this photo of a spider, taken with the zoom at 280mm, hand-held at 1/20th second! The image stabilisation works very well.
Webentwicklung: Ärgernisse mit Internet Explorer
In letzter Zeit habe ich an einigen Websites gearbeitet:
- hauskirchen.ch verwendet jetzt ein CMS, damit mehrere Autoren schreiben können. Die ersten haben sich schon während der Entwicklungszeit gemeldet, ohne dass ich sie angesprochen hatte! Das freut mich sehr.
- Forum Gemeinde!nnovat!on, eine Zusammenarbeit mehrerer Gruppen, die neue Formen oder Ausdrücke von Kirche fördern und unterstutzen wollen.
- Im Beruf entwickle ich eine Erweiterung für Avaloq mit Web-Oberfläche
- Dieses Blog und Gallery – wobei ich nur wenig Zeit hatte, an den noch bestehenden Probleme zu arbeiten.
Gemeinsam war, dass die grössten Probleme dieser Sites an Internet Explorer lagen: Bilder verschwinden (dieses Blog/Gallery), Sidebars lassen sich nur mit Tricks positionieren, Menus verrutschen… Mit Firefox hat alles ziemlich schnell gut ausgesehen und richtig funktioniert, dann gingen die Versuche mit Internet Explorer los. Komischster Effekt: ich hatte in der Avaloq-Erweiterung einen Abstand unter ein Element definiert. Internet Explorer hat den Abstand zwar korrekt dargestellt, aber alle folgende Elemente etwa doppelt so weit nach Links verschoben 😕 Die Lösung? Ich habe den Abstand entfernt. Grrr.
Zeltstadt 2006
Wir waren vom 9.-17. August an der Zeltstadt, ein christlicher Sommerlager. Mary-Anne, ich und Helen Hofmann haben zusammen zum ersten Mal einen Seminar über die Geistesgaben und die Epheser 4-Dienste geleitet. Das war spannend! Wir haben sehr gut zusammen arbeiten können, obwohl die gemeinsame Vorbereitung etwas kurz war. Mary-Anne hat den grössten Teil der Lehre gebracht; ich habe hauptsächlich moderiert, und Helen hat Mary-Annes Lehre ergänzt. Am letzten Tag sprach ich über die Epheser 4:11-Dienste. Für uns am beeindrückendsten war der 5. Tag: der Heilige Geist hat unser Programm unerwartet umgestellt ganz am Anfang. Ich hatte die Teilnehmer begrüsst und das Gebet gesprochen, dann wollte Mary-Anne anfangen zu lehren. Wir haben aber alle gemerkt, dass der Heilige Geist präsent war, und entschieden uns etwas Zeit im Gebet zu verbringen. Er hat dann mehrere Teilnehmer stark berührt. Nach etwa 20 Minuten konnte Mary-Anne dann doch lehren. Am Schluss gingen wir aus dem Zelt, schauten einander an, und lachten vor Freude und Überraschung! Continue reading “Zeltstadt 2006”
Still not happy with Gallery 2 integration
I noticed yesterday that Internet Explorer no longer displays images in the posts. I normally use Firefox, and sometimes Konqueror — both display the images correctly. Internet Explorer obviously doesn’t like something about the stylesheet. I’m experimenting, to try to find a solution.
Not yet happy with the Gallery integration
I’m not yet happy with the Gallery 2 integration into the blog. All the old thumbnail images have vanished, because Gallery 2 moved them and doesn’t map the old location to the new. That means that all the photos in our blog entries before July are just displayed as a text link. I started to edit all the old entries to correct that, but it is way too much work. At least the links to the full-sized image work!
I’m also not too happy with the way images are inserted in new entries. Using the recommended method, there’s always a linebreak where the image is inserted, even if it supposed to automatically align left or right with the text flowing around it (like this).
I suppose I’ll have to try to improve it myself.
Technical problems solved
I’ve solved yesterday’s technical problems. It turned out that Gallery 2‘s built-in handling of old links to Gallery 1 photos was causing the problem. Turning off the automatic mapping (under “URL Rewrite/Migration”) and replacing it with the rewrite rules in .htaccess suggested by the “Import/Gallery 1” page solved the problem.
Technical problems with the blog
I’ve just upgraded the blog to WordPress 2.0.4, and am trying to integrate the photo gallery using WPG2. I’m having problems, though: if I configure it so that the links in the blog work (such as clicking on the title of a post, or in the archive), the links to the full-size pictures don’t work. Unfortunately, the converse is also true. For now, I’ve decided to let you read the blog for now 🙂 , and deal with the dead photo links later.
Sam also had (minor) problems with his upgrade to 2.0.4. Maybe something changed in the new version which causes problems with the Gallery integration.
Passed the test
93%!
I finally received the result of the Avaloq test I took: passed with distinction! Before the test, I decided I would be happy with 70%. The theory exam – which consists of multiple-choice and simple text answers – is marked automatically; I was a few points under the 85% needed for a pass with distinction, and realised that if I did well in the practical exam, I could just make the grade. The practical exam is graded manually, because of all the possible variations, so I just had to wait. I thought it had gone well, but with a final mark of 93%, I must have done better than I thought!
Humble missiology
Mike Bischoff pointed me to this excellect article about missiology.
Technorati
An exciting evening in Schönenbuch
Just before 8pm, we heard some small explosions nearby, and wondered what was happening. We discovered that a trailer of straw had caught fire on the main road about 50 yards from our drive entrance – which the first fire engine blocked.
Schönenbuch is obviously a rural community; lacking other evening entertainment, there was soon a small crowd of people watching the efforts to extinguish the blaze ( 😉 ). Once straw has caught fire, it’s obviously difficult to extinguish it. The firemen (and -women) had to pull the entire load of the trailer, spreading it along the road, and douse it with water and foam. I pitied them in their heavy jackets, masks and helmets, because the day had been hot. From experience, I can say that the uniform is warm even in winter. They were all red in the face, and drinking plenty of water in moments of rest.
Technorati: Schönenbuch, fire