I have had my Tair lens for a couple of weeks and had yet to try some direct comparison shots with the Jupiter 11. So I loaded both into my bag and headed out to Silverlake and environs to make some shots with each.

The Son knows well what sort of diversions might amuse his father, so he pushed me in the direction of Photosynth, knowing that I could not resist having a go.

The process is simple enough. You take a series of photos, upload them to the Photosynth site, and an animation is created for you. You can take a series of photos moving around an object, or by standing still and rotating around a spot, or by walking forward and taking photos on front of you or to the side. Check out the Photosynth site for some examples.

I decided that my first attempt should be an animation moving around an object; and rather than going out and walking round a temple, which would have been far too much effort in the current heat, I decided to stay at home and make a synth of my Yashica, with the camera staying still and the object being rotated in front of it. This is how I set it up:

So read the heading of an email from The Son, with a link to a web-based puzzle which looked pretty simple.

All you have to do is slide number tiles together until you reach number 2048, hence the name of the puzzle.

The screen capture above was made by me this afternoon after bloody days of effort on my computer, iPad and phone.

It’s very easy and somehow soothing to play; until numbers start to appear where you don’t want them and then it becomes a wankfest clusterfuck and you have to start again. This happened to me a lot. Then I worked out a system and I managed to get further; then I refined the system and finally cracked it; oh the joy.

It was on the 24th March 2008 that I first put (electronic) pen to (electronic) paper and wrote my first ever post for Pattaya Days. Two thousand, two hundred and ten posts later; here I am marking a sixth birthday and still wondering how I manage to churn out the crap on such a regular basis (an average of just over one post per day).

For those who like statistics, here are some more:

529,650 views A current average readership of around 350 per day 4,348 comments (an average of almost two per post)

Pattaya Days has been read by people in 181 countries over the past two years, here is the top twenty:

Just messing about with the drone.

The DJI Phantom 2 Vision is a fun to fly, but there are a few frustrations. One of them is the fact that you have to use your phone to move the pitch of the camera. It is fiddly and feels unnatural given that all the other flight controls are on the transmitter. If only I could move the camera by means of a control on the transmitter. Now I can, and this is how I did it.

On the back of the transmitter there are two holes that provide access to a couple of potentiometers. The bottom potentiometer switches the transmitter power between CE compliance and FCC compliance. The unit comes with CE compliance set, but a minute with a screwdriver changes that to FCC compliance which gives more range; so that’s something I did when I first received the unit. You can tell which mode is set when you turn on the transmitter, one beep means CE, two beeps means FCC.

The top hole provides access to a potentiometer that controls the mysterious seventh channel. It’s mysterious because it apparently changes the camera pitch; but is disabled on the Phantom Vision 2. If only there was a way of initialising it. There is, but first we need to install a lever to move the potentiometer.

There are a number of offerings out there; but I thought it best to go with the official DJI switch.

I bought mine from Helipal for $9.90 and their service was excellent. Dispatched immediately and I then received regular mails advising me of the tracking status.

Installation is simple. Remove the back of the transmitter (you have to pull the back down to slide it out from the collar around the antenna); and then insert the metal rod into the upper potentiometer hole in the back panel. Replace the back panel, making sure you haven’t trapped any wires. Remove the double sided tape cover from the small plastic plate and stick it on the cover, place the lever on the rod and screw it in place. Finished!

It’s that time of year again, when Beach Road is closed and six stages are erected; upon which musicians of varying levels of competence are let loose on an unsuspecting crowd who are passing on their way to purchase assorted tat at the kilometres of stalls. Close to a hundred hours of musical mayhem, so I had to pop by and take some photos; as you may have gathered from the previous post.

As last year, I found the reggae stage to be the most enjoyable, far preferable to the pretentious Thai rock being served up on the other stages; but there were some good musicians everywhere; plus a few vocalists that should never, ever give up their day job.

It’s on till Sunday evening; good luck with finding parking