The Case for Using Albums in iPhoto, or WebDav
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The Case for Using Albums in iPhoto, or WebDav

Byrichard

When you take photos on an iphone or other such device it’s easy to take photos and never organise them, unless you share specific photos with specific people. Images are automatically organised by time, date, month, location and people by photo apps but this is just an illusion of organisation.

By playing with Photoprism, Nextcloud, OneCloud, MyCloud (the Swisscom one), Immich and others I have often come across the same problem. When you’re synching thousands of images at a time devices time out after a few minutes, and you need to start from scratch over, and over, and over again. I’ve encountered this issue with almost all backup solutions.

If I had created an album for each month, week, or even event I would now save a lot of time. It’s not that it makes synching painless, but rather that it makes it easier to backup individual albums rather than 19,000 images at a time. With an album you select it and 300 images are uploaded from one album, and 12 from another, and 230 from yet another.

To use an analogy, imagine that a photo album is a head of hair, at the barber’s. You could cut an individual’s hair in five to ten minutes, and move on to the next and get through 72 hair cuts, or you could cut 72 people’s hair simultaneously but everyone would need to remain in place for eight hours. This is the nightmare I’m putting iphone photo backup apps through with my experimentation.

PhotoPrismUpload

This morning I was experimenting with PhotoPrismUpload. I wanted to experiment with this app because it’s directly paired with PhotoPrism and PhotoPrism looks like a good iCloud and Google Photos alternative. The first flaw that I spotted is that it doesn’t detect that all of the photographs are already backed up to PhotoPrism so I need to spend hours getting it to say “This file is uploaded, this file is also uploaded, and that file is now uploaded.”

This, in and of itself is quite time consuming but to add to the experience it downloads the offline images from iCloud to the phone, uploads them, and then leaves them there. The consequence is that my backup phone with a large hard drive is now low on memory and the sync is blocked.

To the question “Does this matter?” the answer is “nope”. Not for me, because my images are backed up. It’s a question of convenience. If I was to suggest a feature, which I should, later, it would be an option to “Show only un-uploaded images” like we have with e-mail clients for unread messages.

If I had this option then I would upload x number of pictures until the app timed out, select the latest un-uploaded images, upload them, and repeat this until everything is synched. Now that the phone is low on memory I will abort the experiment, but I won’t stop using the app because it is simple and convenient to use.

It clearly shows which images are uploaded, and which still need to be uploaded. When you sync images it’s quick and intuitive. You have two or three ads displayed but they’re not annoying like the awful adverts you get with mobile games. I got ads for Google Ads and for Mediamarkt. For 3 CHF you can do away with ads.

Photosync and WebDav

Photosync is the recommended app, by the developers of Photoprism but I don’t like that it encourages you to pay once for functionality that should be by default and a second time for added features. Despite this I do really like how Webdav works. I setup two webdav accounts. One that is for when I’m on home wifi and the second for when I’m connecting through the VPN when I’m out.

WebDav is an excellent tool because it knows which photos have been uploaded. With the Photosync app photos that are not uploaded yet are highlighted with a red border. You click the red sync button and you can upload “new”, “selected” or “all”. It then gives you the choice between “computer”, “phone/tablet”, “webdav”, “ftp”, “smb”, “files/usb/icloud”, dropbox, onedrive and google drive. I use webdav 2 and within seconds the files are uploaded. If I was out I would use Webdav 3.

The real advantage of the Photosync app is that you can see “new”, “selected” or “all”. If an upload is interrupted for any reason you don’t need to “select all” and upload. You can select just the “new” images, and within seconds you’re synching again.

Photosync information is not automatically synched between two phones so I don’t know how well Webdav works, via this app, when synching the same library from two phones.

And Finally

By organising photos into albums by hand you make online synchronisation more granular. Instead of uploading 19,000 files at once you upload one album, and then another, until everything is uploaded. It’s easier for backup solutions to keep track of their progress, and you don’t need to keep scrolling up and down to keep the screen awake and uploading.

PhotoPrismUpload and Photosync are both interesting solutions for synching to PhotoPrism but PhotoPrismUpload has the advantage of costing 3 CHF not to see ads, whereas Photosync costs 25 CHF for premium features, as well as 6 CHF for other features. If I had seen PhotoPrismUpload before Photosync I would have been happy. PhotoPrismUpload is a dedicated tool that works well within its niche.

Experimenting with Home Assistant
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Experimenting with Home Assistant

Byrichard

For a long time I wasn’t tempted to play with Home Assistant or the Apple Home app. I don’t have smart light bulbs, or a smart fridge, or a thermostat that I can control remotely. I don’t have solar panels that are feeding a battery. In essence I thought that if I played with Home Assistant I would not be able to do anything. Now I see that this idea was wrong.

Mobile Device Info

With home assistant you can track your phone. You can see graphs of floors climbed and descended, battery level, storage, average active pace, the distance you’ve walked, whether the phone is charging, whether you have one or two sims in the phone, connection type and more. I have only run home assistant for a few hours so I will get a better idea of what home assistant is capable of telling me about my iphone activity. For every device that has the app installed you will get information about location and battery status.

Aranet

I get pressure, temperature, Co2 readings and humidity. I suspect that with the history function on Home assistant I will be able to see history over a period of weeks or months, rather than days.

Forecast

By default Home assistant will provide you with weather based on your location from a centralised source according to the location you give it.

Netatmo Weather Stations

Netatmo is easy to connect to. Within two clicks you have access to Netatmo weather data. If you have just one weather system then this works very well. It’s easy to see weather info for the indoor and outdoor weather modules from the dashboard.

If family or friends are sharing their weather stations with you then you need to figure out which ones are yours, and which are those of others. I had to guess which devices were mine, and create different rooms for the devices of other people. I then made my devices visible and order was restored.

Apple TV

It is easy to turn it off and on again but aside from this there is no control. I couldn’t see how to change channels or apps, or do anything interesting. Turning it on is good, but usually you want to do more than turn on a tv device.

Network Storage

in the settings tab you have the option of using Home Assistant as network attached storage. You have the primary disk on which Home Assistant runs but you also have the option of adding an NFS or Samba disk (CIFS) storage option.

Traccar

Google Map, iCloud, Suunto, Apple, Garmin and others track your location, either for sports, or for other reasons. If you have family sharing enabled on iCloud you can follow people as they move from one location to another. You don’t need to ask “where are you?” because you can check with ease. Of course this works for a person or three, depending on the size of your “family” group.

traccar is an open source alternative that allows you to track people using your own personal computer, rather than cloud services. While you’re out for a walk it will buffer the data locally, and when you get to your home wifi network it will allow you to see where you’ve been, as well as tracks, and more. I will spend more time experimenting with this.

Home Assistant Integrations

If you would like to see what integrations are possible with Home Assistant so far follow the link and you will be able to search for devices and how well they interact with Home Assistant. In some cases it’s a matter of simply logging in to Netatmo for example, after clicking a button. In other cases, such as with traccar you install the app, and use it as a secondary app on the Home Assistant server.

And Finally

Home Assistant provides us with a different user interface for Aranet devices. Instead of having to look at the app we can easily check for information in browser. In theory we could setup a Pi with an Aranet nearby to provide real time co2 monitoring for an office building or other.

One of the key benefits of the Home Assistant App is that once you add Netatmo, traccar, your mobile devices, Aranet and more you have one app available for plenty of information. Instead of having to open the Aranet app or the Netatmo app you can check within seconds. If you want to look at your walking or other history you can also use the same app.

Initially I thought it would be a waste of time for me to experiment with Home Assistant but now that I have I see that there are a number of interesting features to continue experimenting with.

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Ingress Walks – A 12km path to Level 13

Byrichard

I stopped playing Ingress a few years ago because of how much time it requires. I have started going on Ingress walks again – a 12km path to level 13 in yesterday’s case, because I’m combining the daily walk that I would do anyway, with listening to podcasts and audiobooks, anyway.


By walking and listening to audiobooks and podcasts I am constantly learning about new things. Recently I’ve been listening to current affairs podcasts, I listened to 13 minutes to the moon, I listened to podcasts about the Swiss Watch Industry and more. Every walk is a journey in learning. I also learn about the fifty objects that made the world and more.



I also listen to books when I walk. These aren’t the most inspiring of books but four of them were free, as part of the books I get by being an audible member via Audible originals. Every walk I go on is an opportunity to learn, without feeling that I am not as productive as I could be.


According to my blog stats, I should have lead with writing about the game Ingress, which I took a break from for years, because of how much time it takes to level up, especially when you live in the countryside.


Luckily as time has progressed so has the ability to suggest and have new portals approved. A 12-kilometre walk had three or four portals. Now it has twenty or thirty. This means that during a walk in the countryside it is worth playing Ingress. Going to a polluted city is no longer required. Even country bumpkins like me can play and progress.


By having portals in the countryside it also opens up the prospect of Ingress bike rides. Last week I cycled from Nyon to Rolle, and from Rolle I went up into the vineyards and I destroyed and captured portals. My health benefited because it was a 40km bike ride with four hundred meters of climbing in between vineyards and some of these climbs are steep.


That’s where you see that cycling in Spain has its advantages. I cycled up steep inclines without suffering or worrying I wouldn’t make it. I also cycled up those steep inclines clipped in. I don’t feel comfortable with cycling up steep hills when clipped in because I’m afraid that if I lose power in my legs I will lose forward momentum, not be able to unclip and fall.


Having said this the swiss hills are nothing compared to the Cumbre Del Sol climb. As you cycle up from Mercadona there is one bit of road that is so steep that you can’t start up again. I know because I made the mistake of stopping there and had to walk a hundred meters or so before I found a portion flat enough to start up again.


In Switzerland, you almost never find such gradients on roads, for the simple reason that it snows and water freezes. Snowploughs and other machines need to go up and down Swiss roads.


The graph shows my Ingress progression from 2015 to today.


To get to level 13 I participated in an Ingress Saturday for the first time in years and I participated in two fielding events, to get one of the medals I was lacking the first time, and for the Didact Field Challenge medal currently taking place.


This month I visited 735 unique portals, discovered one portal, collected 4.7 million XM, walked 117 kilometres (low because most of my walking is without playing ingress) and more. I could bore you with the stats but I’d bore myself too. I also spent three weeks in Geneva as part of a favour for a friend so during my daily walks I got back in the habit of playing Ingress.


I don’t make time to play Ingress. I take advantage that my walks and bike rides take me by Ingress portals and play. By combining Ingress with cycling I go down many more roads than I would otherwise go down. I explore villages that I have no reason to stop in. I treat cycling as a journey, rather than a challenge to get segment personal records. I slow down., to experience the locations. It results in me having a more relaxed bike ride.


Ingress walks are also interesting because local people, who know about features that could be portals suggest them, and as a result, we see a portal off to the side of where we’re going, and we investigate. We capture the portal but we also increase our mental map of the area where we are walking.


Ingress, for a while, was a game for people who lived in town and cities. If you lived in the countryside you had to make time to play. Today Ingress can be played in short bursts and yield better results. It has been from a “chronophage” (waste of time/time consuming)activity, as french speakers would call it, to being, for lack of a better word, integral to our daily activities.


The Return on Investment of time, and distance traveled, to play Ingress, even in the countryside has decreased to the point where it is feasible to level up, without devoting half a day. One hour yields the same result.

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Thoughts on the Oculus Quest

Byrichard

During the World XR Forum I had to carry six or more Oculus Quest devices from a car to the conference centre and then help with setting up at least one of these devices. At first I thought it was like most VR headsets where the phone is the display.


In reality, the Oculus Quest is a self-contained VR headset driven via an app from the mobile phone. Once the Oculus quest and the mobile phone are paired you can play with content and use it. This is great because it no longer requires a high spec computer, it has no cables and best of all it’s affordable. At 400-500 CHF it’s affordable within most geek budgets.


The pole Vault/Barrier to entry is now just a skip and anyone can experience VR games whether on Android or iOS.


If you leave the controllers on a desk as you set up it is easy and intuitive to pick them up without taking the headset off. When you’re starting a session you can draw the outline of the room and mark where the walls are. In doing so you can set it up safely within seconds rather than minutes.


It also fits within a small box so you can carry it with you when you travel or when you’re doing things. In theory, you could hike with it and use it in a refuge. In practice, it’s better to use it where power outlets are common.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=60&v=Di7dIhUFsbw


It’s computer gaming, without sitting at a desk. It’s Virtual Reality without the constraints of time and space.

The best edit suite is the one you have with you.
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The best edit suite is the one you have with you.

Byrichard

You remember the old saying. The best camera is the one that you have with you. Today the same can be said about “edit suites” that you carry in your trousers or jacket pocket. I’m speaking of edit suites that work with your iphone or ipad. Lumafusion is one such example. 



It differs from other mobile editing solutions in a number of key ways. The first is that it allows you to edit on a timeline with three video sources at once This means that you have more control. It allows you to split audio which allows you to overlap sound from one clip to another and provide a better finish. 


clips in the top left, playout monitor in the top right and timeline in the bottom left and options in the bottom right.


This includes the option to add graphics, idents and other visual content. It allows you to provide a finished product, ready for broadcast or distribution. 


Another nice feature is that you can record your voice over directly to the timeline once the edit is finished. This means that vloggers and people who like to record commentary rather than natural sound, can capture natural sound, and add commentary later. 


I played with this editing solution with footage shot on an iphone SE at a music festival as well as other footage shot on an iPhone 8 Plus. The edit suite was my iphone 8 plus while lying on a couch. 


I like this editing solution because it allows for a high quality turnaround of mobile phone footage for a number of platforms without carrying a laptop. This is ideal for hiking, climbing and other types of video content. It costs 20 CHF so once you’ve spent several hundred on an iphone it’s cheap. ;-). It allows export in h264 as well as h265. 


Caveat


I tried importing greenscreen footage via Google drive from a PMW-200 that had been converted to mp4 but the video codec was not recognised. I have yet to try greenscreen quality. 

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A theoretical Seven Minute Workout a day

Byrichard

Seven Minute Workout for 36 days

For about six weeks I have been trying to do at least one seven-minute workout every single day. I eventually fell out of the habit for a few days because I had to fight a little virus. I’m feeling better again. Time to see if I can beat my old maximum of 36 days.

At least one circuit a day

The Seven-minute app I was playing with is by Perigee. The app provides you with the opportunity to train for fitness, for strength or to lose weight. I tried to last for seven days on the Fitness program and suffered. I managed to stick with the routine for a week once as a challenge. Now I choose the routine that I feel I am most in the mood for. On some days I choose a stretching routine and on others I choose to push myself. I tried a chest workout and I found it hard. Yesterday I went for an animal routine and it was easy.

Workout to your day’s energy level

The beauty of these apps is that as you get familiar with them you can give yourself different intensity workouts depending on the time of day and how you’re feeling. You can start with one of the morning routines if you like or an office chair workout. When you’ve finished with a run you can stretch or you can do the post workout routine.

Chose the trainer

I tried the drill sergeant for a while but he frustrated me so I tried the hippie and the kung fu master (or whatever name they used for the app). I have settled for the cheerleader. If I met someone that cheerful in real life I’d probably avoid them but for the workouts it’s nice. I’m usually working out either an hour before bed or more recently before dinner. This is the best time when I can decompress from the commute.

Complimentary

These workouts are complimentary to the rest of my day. I have started training with the c25k app once again and I’m trying not to push too hard. Eventually I want to get to 10km runs and beyond but only when my body can keep up. During week days I walk at least 2 and a half kilometres to work and back as well as walk during my lunch break. Today was an average day and I walked up the equivalent of fifty floors. The 7 minute app is just a bonus.

Motivation

I’ve tried a few of these apps and after less than a week I usually stop using them because they’re either too expensive or they’re a good challenge but not much more. With this app I like that you get badges for the challenges you accomplish. I My goal with this app is to go for seven months without missing a single workout. I managed for 36 days and now I have to start all over. I’m on day 8 of the current challenge. When I finish typing this blog post I will have accomplished day 9.

If you threw in some running between workouts then it would be just like parkour vita. That’s what they should do next.

12 exercises with three or four minutes of running between routines. By the end, you’d be exhausted. With perseverance, you’d be fit. Or you could just do crossfit.

 

 

Manu Chao At Paléo
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Manu Chao At Paléo

Byrichard

The Manu Chao Concert

Manu Chao was on the Grande Scène at Paléo last night. His concert lasted for an energetic two hours. He kept saying”Vous êtes Fou, Paléo”. He gave a lot of energy and so did the audience. For two hours he jumped around, for two hours the audience jumped around too. The sea of faces and people were impressive. In the distance you could see pac-man and a few ghosts bobbing up and down with the music.

Online sharing has evolved

While I was at this year’s Paléo two things were different. The first is that we now have unlimited data plans. When I was last at a Paléo Manu Chao concert we had limited data plans and it was a geeky thing to share to stream the event. Today you see that many people are sharing the event with their facebook friends. The other difference is that we are now capturing Paléo souvenirs in 4K and sharing panoramas with our friends.

Panoramas

When you take panoramas and share them to facebook the image pans as you pan the mobile phone. I tried creating panoramas during a few of the concerts. The image above was created with an Iphone SE and the inbuilt panorama function. It works well as long as you’re lucky enough not to have sudden changes in light.

I like panoramas because you’re in control. You can pan the camera to see what you want to see. It’s also a means by which to get context.

Affinity Photo Panorama

Affinity Photo is a photo editing software that I bought when it was on promotion. It has a panorama function to stitch multiple images together. During one concert I took a series of pictures looking up and down. When I got home I used the panorama function and this is the result.

The Right side of the transmission chain – acquisition
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The Right side of the transmission chain – acquisition

Byrichard

The right side of the Transmission Chain is at the event itself.  Transmission chain is a term used to describe the route that a signal takes from an event venue to the device on which you are watching an event. As a camera operator the right side of the transmission chain for me is at the event itself.

Belaying

For the IFSC World Cup in Villars this year I was both a camera operator and a belayer. Belaying at a world cup event is an interesting experience because it’s rare to clip and unclip from so many climbers in such a short amount of time. Climbers have a limited time to get up the route. They have six minutes. This means that every 12 minutes or so you’re belaying a new climber as they progress up the wall. It’s a great task for introverts. You observe what the person is doing. When they need rope you’re ready to give it. If they’re struggling you make sure to amortise their fall. When they make it to the top or come back down you help them untie the rope and then you start again.

Camera operating

Aside from this task I was camera operator during the semi-final and final of the climbing competition.  This means that whilst most people were standing in the crowd watching the competition I was on a podium in the middle of the crowd filming the climbers as they progress up the wall.

From here you see the crowd and you see the climbers from a privileged point of view. You can see the climbers and what they are doing comfortably. You’re also more attentive. You’re following their every move, watching as they clip and progress. You see them progress and you hear the commentator and hear the crowd cheering.

When you’re on the “wrong” side of the transmission you’re hearing the international sound and you’re seeing what the vision mixer is seeing but you’re not seeing the event in context. The image below illustrates this.

In television broadcasting you usually have the cameras, an OB van and an SNG truck or fibre connections. These go from the venue to the Network Operating centre. The signal is encoded either for web streaming and sent to the content distribution network or it is sent on to national broadcasters. On that side of the transmission chain you are in an air conditioned office as a passive observer ready to react if there is an issue and waiting for the event to end.

The Insta360 Nano and Air – A climbing test
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The Insta360 Nano and Air – A climbing test

Byrichard

The Insta 360 Nano and Air are two affordable cameras. The first is designed to work with the new iPhone shape as well as a stand alone device. The Insta360 Air works only when it is plugged into an Android device. Both are good for specific uses.

Insta360 Air

The Insta360 Air requests a firmware update the first time you want to use it. This takes a few minutes and then the device uses the phone’s gyroscopes to keep the image stable. On the Via Ferrata I climbed this weekend I used the insta360 Air and Xperia Z5compact phone to take one or two landscape pictures. In these images you can look up at the cliff, look across at the landscape or look down at how far from the ground I am. This is a nice way of giving people a feel for what it is like to practice Via Ferrata. For the use of this system, it is good to have both hands free.

[vrview img=”https://www.main-vision.com/richard/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/export_1496508048682-1.jpg” width=”500″ height=”500″ ]

Use the mouse/trackpad to rotate the image

Insta360 Nano

 

The Insta360 Nano is great because it has an SD card slot. It can be used as a stand-alone device. With the tripod mount and a selfie stick interesting images and video are possible. I tested it on a Tyrolean crossing. That’s where you attach your pulley to a cable and swing across over a waterfall. With a 360 camera you look anywhere you like. Image stabilisation for Tyrolean crossings is essential. When you transition from standing on firm ground to swinging across you move a lot. With image stabilisation this is avoided.

Post production

Post production with the Nano is quick and easy. Take the SD card, read it with your laptop and share. With the Insta360 Air you’re using the phone’s microSD card. You can batch edit and export to the insta360 community sites. I want to bulk export directly to Google photo from an Android device.

Conclusion

For the price of a Ricoh Theta S, you can have two 360 cameras. The Nano is ideal for monopod use and the Air is ideal for web streaming once you find the right phone mount for a professional monopod. With image stabilisation the camera keeps the image centred where the person with a VR headset looks. Without image stabilisation Nano footage would give people motion sickness.

Using an Xtorm Solar Charger
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Using an Xtorm Solar Charger

Byrichard

While in Spain for three weeks I was playing with the Xtorm solar Charger. I found that it worked well for the charging of tablets and e-book readers but not mobile phones.

For years I have wanted to play with solar power. I have wanted to buy a solar panel that I could fix to my bag or that I could use to charge devices. I often looked at the price and weight and changed my mind. I don’t want something that adds kilos to my load, especially if I am climbing.

With a small device like the one pictured above you can carry it with you and use it to charge devices. When you drive to the hike or climb, or when you stop for lunch or a drink you can take out this device and start charging your phone, gps, led lights or other devices.

if you want to charge devices to 100 percent then I would recommend charging ipads, ebooks, gps watches and other devices with this device. I found that it’s great for providing a phone with a top up charge but that because of my mobile use patterns it will only provide one full charge per day.

When we hear people speak about solar power we always hear about “How do we store the power we generate so that we can use it when we need it?” and I found a way. When I woke up in the morning I would put the solar charger near a window or outside if there was no chance of rain to charge up to over 75 percent. When it reached this charge I connected the solar charger to a 10,000mah external battery.

It is by using this technique that I have been able to keep my external battery fully charged with no need to plug it in to mains power. In effect it means that I can charge the ipad, the phone or the e-book reader without using mains power.

Strengths

It has a 6000mah battery and can charge two devices at once.

Weaknesses

If I was designing such a device I would ensure that the battery could charge within an 8-12hr window rather than 15. I found that to recharge the internal battery fully it would take two days.

This type of device needs to be rugged. It has to be rain resistant and transport resistant. I want to be able to leave it exposed to the sun without having to worry about the risk of rain. I would also like it to feel solid enough to be fixed to a bag when hiking or climbing. In it’s current configuration I would leave it near the bag when sitting for lunch or when at a climbing wall. I would not fix it to my bag during a via ferrata.

Conclusion

I’m happy with this solar charger. I have found the ideal use case for it and I look forward to experimenting with it over the summer. I think it would benefit from having a battery half the size that could be fully charged in half the time. It now tempts me to get a second larger solar panel to keep the laptop charged over the summer months.