nicholasjon.com :: a weblog

Hi. I'm Nick Olejniczak and this is where I write about technology, the web and other bits of general geekery. I'm a web developer who loves Ruby on Rails, web standards and personal publishing. Interested in working together? Get in touch.

 

Hyde's Mill

February 07, 2010 at 12:53am
Hyde's Mill

Winter in rural Wisconsin.

 

Domo-kun Reflects

January 07, 2010 at 1:49pm
Domo-kun Reflects

I definitely didn’t have access to reflective water today, it was a balmy 17°F here in Madison this afternoon.

Dailyshoot: Reflections draw the eye. Find a pool, puddle, or other body of still water and make a photo of a reflected subject today.

 

Shadow

December 30, 2009 at 4:07pm
Shadow

Roll for initiative.

 

Exploring

December 30, 2009 at 4:06pm
Exploring

Sugar plums?

 

Wheels

December 06, 2009 at 7:23pm
Wheels

Matt Trakker takes a break — it’s challenging to keep an ‘85 Camero running even when it’s not dodging rockets all day.

 

Get close

November 20, 2009 at 3:19am
Get close

I am playing along with @dailyshoot in an attempt to get in a little daily photography practice. This assignment was to “get close!” Should be a fun experiment in limitations (just my office, what equipment I’ve got with me that day, etc).

 

Parfrey's Glen

November 15, 2009 at 6:23am
Parfrey's Glen

Perfect for shooting waterfalls.

 

Link to the empire

November 08, 2009 at 9:13pm
Link to the empire

Wonder if they’ve got AT&T too?

 

Pumpkins

November 04, 2009 at 4:43am
Pumpkins

Pre-carving.

 

Deciduous across the field

November 02, 2009 at 4:52am
Deciduous across the field

Fall in Wisconsin.

 

Leaf

October 12, 2009 at 12:21pm
Leaf

That time of year.

 

Fungus

October 03, 2009 at 10:16pm
Fungus

There are a ton of these little guys all over the backyard.

 

At the Beach

September 21, 2009 at 4:14pm
At the Beach

Sandcastles and feet.

 

Beetle

September 09, 2009 at 2:36am
Beetle

I really hate these guys.

 

I upgraded to Snow Leopard tonight. It was a surprisingly quick and easy task actually. I did a clean install to a new drive, installed MacPorts and then ran the following, recorded here as much for my own memory as for posterity.



# get the right version of zlib
sudo port install zlib +universal

# install mysql
sudo port install mysql5-server

# configure mysql (some interaction required)
sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.mysql5.plist
sudo -u mysql mysql_install_db5
cd /opt/local ; sudo /opt/local/lib/mysql5/bin/mysqld_safe &
/opt/local/lib/mysql5/bin/mysql_secure_installation

# yay, ImageMagick
sudo port install ImageMagick

# rubystuffs
sudo port install ruby
sudo port install rb-mysql
sudo port install rb-rubygems

# do an update, just in case
sudo gem update --system

# grab a bunch of gems
sudo gem install termios
sudo gem install mysql
sudo gem install rake
sudo gem install rails
sudo gem install mongrel
sudo gem install capistrano 
sudo gem install capistrano-ext

# install git 
sudo port install git-core

The whole process took a little over an hour on my Mac Pro. Then it was just a matter of checking out a few codebases and rehydrating a few databases. Very simple.

Updated 11/1/2009 to include universal zlib configuration option.

 

Jars

August 30, 2009 at 4:32am
Jars

Amy and I are leaning how to can foods this year. So far so good. (Of course, we haven’t eaten any of it yet.)

 

Lightning

August 29, 2009 at 2:08am
Lightning

A little black and white, just for fun.

 

Cave of the Mounds

August 29, 2009 at 2:07am
Cave of the Mounds

It was dark.

 

Lightning

August 10, 2009 at 8:56pm
Lightning

I had never photographed lightning before, but it’s always been on my to do list. Turns out it requires patience and an extremely cooperative thunderstorm. So much fun.

 

Raindrops

August 06, 2009 at 2:12pm
Raindrops

They stayed there all day.

 

Nothing doing

August 06, 2009 at 2:11pm

I’m pretty sure this morning’s Twitter outage and Facebook flakiness are combined causing an unprecedented surge in the nation’s productivity.

At least, this is a personally true statement.

 

pnt.me screenshotCheck out the new and improved pnt.me, for all your URL shortening needs. We really rounded out the feature set with this one including things like link statistics that update in realtime, and a brand new look and feel.

 

Mustached

July 27, 2009 at 6:49pm
Mustached

A weekend of fun and facial hair.

 

Afternoon Tea

July 21, 2009 at 7:14pm
Afternoon Tea

Science-style.

 

Long exposure fireworks

July 05, 2009 at 10:00pm
Long exposure fireworks

I thought the colors in these were just too fun. Lots of red flares and a few local fireworks captured by a series of fifteen second exposures. I didn’t have a tripod though, instead I used a shaky park bench on a floating pier.

 

Burgos HDR

June 26, 2009 at 4:51pm
Burgos HDR

Same cathedral as here.

 

Eiffel Tower

June 24, 2009 at 5:21pm
Eiffel Tower

Paris, France.

 

Cathedral

June 07, 2009 at 11:25pm
Cathedral

The Burgos Catherdal in Burgos, Spain.

 

Chicago at night

May 31, 2009 at 2:02am
Chicago at night

Out the hotel window.

 

Kites

May 25, 2009 at 11:34pm
Kites

Gretchen flies a single-liner.

 

Spring gardening

May 24, 2009 at 4:47am
Spring gardening

A bowl of basil.

 

Chicago Botanical Gardens

May 18, 2009 at 4:26am
Chicago Botanical Gardens

Great place for a Sunday stroll.

 

Driving Range

May 12, 2009 at 1:36am
Driving Range

With new King Cobra SZs, thanks Mom and Dad.

 

Glacier Hills Mother's Day Walk

May 11, 2009 at 5:20am
Glacier Hills Mother's Day Walk

I thought the light filtering through the trees was just fantastic.

 

Dew

May 07, 2009 at 3:53pm
Dew

It rained this morning.

 

32 miles for 32 years

May 03, 2009 at 1:50am
32 miles for 32 years

Amy snacks about 10 miles into a 32 mile birthday ride for me.

 

Weekend tree planting

May 01, 2009 at 4:21pm
Weekend tree planting

Last weekend.