Nightmare wallpapers

A fan of my photos keep asking for large resolution versions of various pics (I usually put online web-optimized stuff) so I cave in, that's the explanation for me having often posts like this.
The images below are pretty-much made in camera (they were edited with GIMP only for crop, resize, BW conversion and color curves adjustment). The motion blur is created in-camera, with the following recipe (which you can learn looking at EXIF data): put a somewhat long exposure time, 1/10-1/15 of a second, start moving the camera and then press the shutter. The first and the last are made moving the camera on the vertical axis and the second by rotating the camera and zooming at the same time - pretty easy but you will need a bit of exercise to achieve a smooth movement.

MP4 and Wikipedia

Last week when I read about the request for comments on Wikimedia supporting MP4 video I wasn't at my computer, so I couldn't vote and later forgot about it. My position here is simple: supporting proprietary and encumbered formats can only harm the open web, so Wikipedia and all the other Wikimedia websites endorsing it would be a huge blow for the openness and community, so I strongly oppose. However, I acknowledge a lot of the existing devices produce content in such formats, so I guess a reasonable compromise would be allowing such uploads but then transcode the videos in open formats and serve those for viewing.

Today I was reminded about the issue by a message on some Wikimedia mailing list by a message worded in such way, I can easily label as "pro MP4 spam". It was a good incentive for me to finally answer the RFC/vote.

Still, I am disturbed to see a "product manager" at Wikimedia Foundation campaigning for MP4, especially when the public opinion is strong against it (at this moment it records 251 votes for no support, votes for contributing only, no view and only 132 for full support, so more than 2:1).

On Red Hat and CentOS joining forces

Red Hat and CentOS joining forces is a really smart move and it potentially is a win-win scenario for all parties involved: Red Hat, CentOS, community, end-users, FOSS. I won't enter into details, since a lot of people are talking about this already.

However, what baffles me is how little people understand the reasoning. So many comments frame it in the old context: a lot of projects need a no-cost Linux solution, and if they can't use a Red Hat derivative, they will use a Debian flavour and later when money will get involved, they will buy support from Canonical instead of Red Hat. Yes, this is a solid reason, but is the old reason. What we see now is something else.

The real reason for Red Hat embracing CentOS now is written plainly everywhere, from the press release "Red Hat is once again extending its leadership in open source innovation by helping to establish a platform well-suited to the needs of open source developers that integrate technologies in and around the operating system" to the FAQ "Red Hat is taking an active role in the CentOS Project to accelerate the development and broaden the reach of projects such as OpenStack by expanding our base."

These days Red Hat is selling not only the established Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but quoting from the same press release, things like "OpenStack, RDO, Gluster, OpenShift Origin, and oVirt" solutions. Compared with Linux, those technologies have so far less traction but comparable potential. Having CentOS as a strong player and supporting all those technologies will make them more popular and increase the chances for a later sale of more than RHEL.

Everything mentioned above is Free Software, so it can be a win-win for all of us. Of course, there are dangers (GNOME 3, I'm looking at you!) but there are safeguars: if the srpms will be easier to get, projects like Scientific Linux will have the life easier too.

Night wallpapers

For the New Year night I chased some fireworks pictures, but in the wrong place (had to stay near home) so the result was not spectacular (I didn't have high expectations for the fire show in the nearby park). But having the gear with me and noticing the park at night, which do looks different, I turned on them for more pics, which were then posted in the usual places. Receiving a specific request on some social network for high resolution, I follow with a blog post with wallpaper sized versions: