This entry might find a lot of you swimming in the deep end of the geek pool – it’ll use terms you haven’t heard before, and concepts that may be foreign to a lot of you.

But here we go anyway:

Yesterday, while listening to my home phone ring for the Nth time that day with yet another judge advocating I vote for someone else, I came up with a simple, yet very functional method of filtering out machine-generated phone calls.

It’s rather simple, actually. As soon as the phone rings, answer, and play back a message prompting the caller to do something (generally, press a button.) In response to this “something” the caller is then connected through to let my actual phone ring.

Failing a response, the caller is hung up on after a predetermined number of seconds.

This is all rather simple if you have already played with the opensource PBX system Asterisk.

Edit the incoming context for your VoIP provider’s SIP/IAX connection, and drop in the following snippet of magic:

[incoming]
exten => _X.,1,NoOp(Incoming Call from ${CALLERID} for ${EXTEN}@${SIPDOMAIN})
exten => _X.,2,Answer()
exten => _X.,3,Wait(1)
exten => _X.,4,Playback(continue-english-press)
exten => _X.,5,Playback(digits/1)
exten => _X.,6,WaitExten(10)

exten => 1,1,Goto(default|inbound|1) //or do whatever you want to "continue"

exten => t,1,Playback(i-grow-bored)
exten => t,2,Hangup()

exten => i,1,Playback(invalid)
exten => i,2,Wait(1)
exten => i,3,Hangup()

I see some of your eyes have glazed over – I understand, and apologise for the level of uber-geekery. On the other hand, I did want to get this information out there for others to enjoy the next 8 months. 🙂

Today I spent the afternoon on SoCo (South Congress for the non-locals) hanging out with some fellow photographers.

Earlier this week, I’d read some online conversation regarding a desire to get more collaboration going between photographers in Austin. Strobist has an Austin group, there is an Austin flickr group, and a few other groups are trying out the whole collaboration thing.

I am strongly in favor of collaborating – sure, I can do X on my own, but it takes time and a lot of effort. If I get 2,3, maybe 4 other people involved… it’s easy to get X accomplished. Many hands make light work, and whatnot.

There’s talk about having another Strobist meet in planning – I’m considering helping out with the organization of this, in the interest of teaching others and furthering the whole collaboration thing. 🙂

For those of you who enjoy some indie music, a torrent (fancy speak for download) of this years music can be found here.

(From here )

When you see us moving past you quickly:

Don’t take offense or think we’re trying to “show off”. Ninety five percent of the time, we’re trying to get out of your blind spot or taking ourselves out of a potential dangerous situation that has evolved around us. Distancing ourselves from you does not mean we want to race, but that we’re giving ourselves the edge we need at the moment.

When you hear our horn:

Don’t take offense or think we’re trying to aggravate you. All we’re doing is letting you know where we are in relation to you on the road, and we’re more than likely aware of your inattentiveness to us while you’re talking on a cell phone, eating, reading or involved in some other distracting aspect to your driving. It’s important to us, and you, that you know we’re there.

When you hear our loud pipes:

Don’t become angry and hostile toward us. Yes, some are quite loud, but for some, there’s a purpose behind being loud. It’s about letting you know we’re close by and we’re constantly hoping that our investment in this accessory will help save our lives. Our pipes are really not about our ego…it’s a pride and personalization to our form of transportation.

When you see us in our clothes:

Don’t become fearful of us or think us weird. Our leather jackets, chaps, gloves and boots are the barriers between loosing massive amounts of flesh should something cause us to go down…nothing more, nothing less. Safety gear is paramount to our riding. We wear patches on our jackets, and pins on our vests. These are symbols of pride and honor within our group(s), individuals giving back to those who gave. These things bond us as a brotherhood and sisterhood among bikers. Not that we’re better than anyone else, but that we have the same kind of nobility and pride in our accomplishments as you may have in the various aspects of your life. I guess one could say; our patches and pins are the decals and the bumper stickers of our involvement with society and the general public, of which we are very pleased to be a part of in our own little way.

When you see us in a restaurant:

You don’t have to shield your child or feel intimidated. We have family, wives, husbands, children and loved ones too, just like you. We smile; we laugh and enjoy the moments we have. We are approachable, and would befriend you, if given the opportunity.

When you see us in a parking lot:

Don’t convince yourself that we’re there to “get you”. More than likely, we just finished a long ride and are taking a break. Or, we may be meeting up with other riders for a charity run for young children, or another very worthy cause. We may just be admiring one another’s bikes, sharing our pride with other brothers and sisters, just like you do with your personal vehicle. It’s what we do…it’s a part of our lives, and we’d be more than welcome to share with you what riding a bike is all about…if you’d only ask.

When you see aggressive riding bikers:

Don’t put us all in the same stereotypical category as those whose behavior and actions would cause you to react in disgust and intolerance. Many of us do not agree with this style of riding either, and we know and understand that human nature tends to blend us all together as the “same group”. Most of us don’t want that title…and don’t deserve it.

When you see a group of bikers on the roadways:

Give us the courtesy of sharing the road with you. Please don’t “move in” between several bikers in formation. This gets us very excited and nervous, especially when it’s done with no due regard for our safety. Provide us with your awareness of the fact that we are much more vulnerable than you. We don’t want to challenge you, for all of us are wise enough to know…we’d lose that battle.

When you are turning left or entering a roadway/highway:

Look, then look again…and then one more time. For we can be easily hidden, and appear to be invisible by such things as a telephone pole, another vehicle, bright lights or the glare of the sun…or possibly, the beads hanging from your rearview mirror, among numerous other items that are displayed there. If you see us flashing our lights at you or blowing our horn, we’re only trying to ensure that you will see us before tragedy changes both our lives.

When you are behind us:

Please give us the room we need and don’t tailgate us. If you hit us, we’re going down…HARD! We don’t want to play games with you, we just want to enjoy the ride and the fresh air, and experience that which many of you have never lived for. If we accelerate away from you, don’t interpret this action as though we want to drag race you. We’re only trying to take ourselves out of a bad situation if you insist on being too close.

When you experience road rage:

Don’t take it out on us just because we’re smaller than you and more vulnerable. Think about what you’re doing and the end result that may become a reality. The consequences of your actions and choices could be very detrimental to our well being, our families, our children and our loved ones. Yes, there are those that can tend to piss you off, however, rage towards them will not solve the issues, but accentuate them. Nine out of ten bikers will do everything they can to take themselves out of that situation without causing you or them harm.

When you have an opportunity to talk to us:

You’ll discover, outside any influenced or stereotypical mindset you may have, that we are just as human as you are, just with different interests and toys. Many of us would give you the shirt off our back if it would tend to brighten your day or console you in some way. We’re really no different…and we drive cars, trucks and vans too. So, meet us and greet us…I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised that you’ll be met with open arms.

Thank You for attempting to understand.

This last weekend, I attended a creative portrait lighting workshop, held by Steven Noreyko and Christopher Ferguson.

The workshop was great – we spent a lot of time covering composition, previsualisation, posing and some lighting information.

The rest of the workshop was practical – we got to shoot!

They had brought in two local models for this workshop – Zion and Heather.

It was a great experience to get to work with professionals. One of my biggest worries was how to build a rapport with the subject of a photo shoot, and getting comfortable directing a model/subject.

I had a great time, learned a lot, got orders of magnitude more comfortable with my model/subject interaction and well… had a great time. 🙂

You can see the rest of my photographs from this session here.

Bah humbug. 🙂