Monthly Archives: October 2008

Taalgebruik in die Werksplek

I’m not sure where this originates from.  A friend e-mailed it to me and I thought it worth posting.  Thanks Dré.

TAALGEBRUIK IN DIE WERKSPLEK:

Dit het onder die aandag van Bestuur gekom dat sommige individue in die maatskappy vuil taal tydens normale gesprekvoering teenoor hul kollegas gebruik.  Weens klagtes vanaf sekere werkers in die verband, sal die gebruik van hierdie tipe taal nie langer geduld word nie.  Ons besef egter die noodsaaklikheid daarvan om in staat te wees om akkurate menings teenoor kollegas te kan uitspreek.  Die volgende nuwe en innoverende uitdrukkings word derhalwe aanbeveel ten einde gedagtes en inligting op ‘n effektiewe wyse te kan oordra:

  1. Voorstel: Ek dink addisionele opleiding sal waardevol vir jou wees.
    In plaas van: Jy’t geen fokken idee wat jy doen nie.
  2. Voorstel: Sy’s ‘n dinamiese werknemer.
    In plaas van: Sy’s ‘n hardegat-teef.
  3. Voorstel: Ek kan moontlik oortyd werk.
    In plaas van: En wanneer de fok dink jy moet ek dit doen?
  4. Voorstel: Ek is oortuig daarvan dis nie lewensvatbaar nie.
    In plaas van: Daar’s nie ‘n fokken manier nie!
  5. Voorstel: Werklik?
    In plaas van: Moenie kak praat nie!
  6. Voorstel: Die probleem sal beslis aandag ontvang.
    In plaas van: Vertel dit vir iemand wat ‘n fok omgee!
  7. Voorstel: Ek was nie by die projek betrokke nie.
    In plaas van: Dis nie my fokken probleem nie!
  8. Voorstel: Dis interessant.
    In plaas van: Wat de fok?
  9. Voorstel: Ek is nie seker dat dit geïmlementeer kan word nie.
    In plaas van: Hierdie kak sal nie werk nie.
  10. Voorstel: Ek sal dit probeer skeduleer.
    In plaas van: Hoekom de fokken hel het jy my nie vroeër gesê nie!
  11. Voorstel: Hy’s nie vertroud met die aspekte nie.
    In plaas van: Die idioot weet fokkol!
  12. Voorstel: Verskoon my, meneer?
    In plaas van: Ag fok jou!
  13. Voorstel: So jy was nie gelukkig daarmee nie?
    In plaas van: Jammer om van jou kak te hoor.
  14. Voorstel: Ek is ‘n bietjie oorlaai op die oomblik
    In plaas van: Fokkit, ek verdien ook maar net ‘n salaris!
  15. Voorstel: Ek dink nie jy verstaan nie.
    In plaas van: Druk dit in jou gat!
  16. Voorstel: Ek’s mal oor ‘n uitdaging!
    In plaas van: Dis ‘n kak job hierdie!
  17. Voorstel: Wil jy hê dat ek dit uitsorteer?
    In plaas van: Wie’s dood en het jou die fokken baas gemaak?
  18. Voorstel: Hy’s ietwat onsensitief.
    In plaas van: Hy’s ‘n doos.

Dankie vir u samewerking
Menslike Hulpbronne

Futuristic Pagoda

Futuristic Pagoda

Sunset Over a Calm Sea

Sunset Over a Calm Sea

This was taken around the same time as Post-apocalyptic Sunset but this image is more true to what the eye saw. Two shots, exposed for foreground and background were merged with a layer mask in Elements, simulating the use of an ND gradient filter. Processing was then finished off in Lightroom.

Pringle Bay

Pringle Bay
Click here to view a larger version or on the image above to visit the Flickr page.

I don’t own, and can’t afford to buy, one of the latest versions of Photoshop that have good panorama stitching support; or a specialised stitching application for that matter. I must therefore resort to free applications and have had good results from Autostitch up to this point. This panorama is the first one that I was not able to stitch successfully with it; the result had many artifacts and stitch errors and it would not really have been practical to try and repair them to reach a usable image.

I tried the new Microsoft ICE and it did a reasonably good job, with just two stitch errors that were easily corrected. However it produced very marked colour banding with this image so I had to try something else.

I have heard of Panorama Tools but been put off by their non-graphical nature; they seem as though they would take some major effort to learn and use. The Panorama Tools page mentions hugin, a graphical frontend, or toolchain, that uses Panorama Tools behind the scenes. I hoped it would hide some of the complexity so I gave it a try with this image and was blown away. Performing just an automatic stitch, using the wizard, without needing to delve into all the options, produced this image with no stitch errors that I could see and no colour banding.

hugin will certainly be my choice of panorama stitcher from now on.

Post-apocalyptic Sunset

Post-apocalyptic Sunset

To the eye, this was a gentle, pastel-coloured sunset but I wanted to come up with something more punchy.

This was shot auto-bracketed (+/- 2EV). The frames were enfused to a single image with improved dynamic range and this image was then processed in Lightroom.

What happened to the fail whale?

Looks like twitter have done away with the fail whale.  Now there’s a caterpillar and an ice-cream.

Big Stick

USS Theodore Roosevelt

The 332 meter USS Theodore Roosevelt, known as “Big Stick”, anchored off Cape Town yesterday and of course I had to have a look and try and get a photo. I chose Signal Hill as my vantage point and this was the best I could manage with the hazy day and my consumer grade zoom lens. I would have dearly loved a less hazy day and a 600mm lens for this occasion.