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Linux Linux is an open-source operating system (OS), it sits underneath the other software on a computer, receiving requests from programs and relaying those requests to the computer’s hardware. A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system (OS) made from a collection of software based on the Linux kernel and often a package management system. A few acts and feels like MS Windows or macOS, and are relatively easy to use, while others are more complex to use. I mostly use Linux Mint, Puppy, and Mageia, but only as a personal preference. If I had to choose one it is Linux Mint as I find it is a good all-round operating system. ​ I have two dual boot systems (where I can choose to boot into either Linux or Windows – or Linux or macOS) and one triple boot computer (where I can choose to boot into either one of two Linux distro or Windows). So, why so many computers and operating systems? I use the computers and operating systems for different things but do most of my programming on Linux. Other tasks can be done on any of the operating systems. The advantage of Linux is, when I log onto Linux Mint, I can also view and move across the data from MS Windows, modify it and then move it back without the need to boot into Windows. This is extremely useful if the Windows operating system crashes and I need an aspect of data fast, as I can use Linux to get what I need. Especially useful for data rescue . ​ Also, Linux is not as hungry on a computer's resources, so Linux operating system and its programs can be installed and run on older lower spec computers and hardware. ​ Linux comes in many distro types or versions, a few are: ​ Mint Puppy Linux Mandriva Mageia Kubuntu Arch Linux Ubuntu Fedora Ubuntu Red Hat OpenSUSE Mandrake CentOS MX Linux Gentoo Slackware Debian Free BSD Additional Links: ​ Install WINE How does Linux differ from other operating systems (OS)? But many Windows programs will run quite happily on a Linux operating system, but you will need Wine (not the fluid type). ​ Wine is a free Linux tool to run Windows compatible software on a Linux operating system, without the need of MS Windows. ​ Wine is an open-source Windows compatibility layer that can run Windows programs directly on a Linux desktop. Basically, this open-source project is endeavoring to re-implement enough of Windows from scratch that it can run all those Windows applications without needing Windows. Linux is like MS Windows and macOS (formerly OS X or iOS). Like other operating systems, Linux has a graphical interface, and the same kinds of software you are accustomed to. There is a vast repository of free software available, an exceedingly small list is: ​ Word processors and PDF Editors – LibreOffice , PDF Studio , or OpenOffice Code and Text Editors – VS Code, Lyx , Simplenote , Laverna or Texmaker Photo, Image, Video and Audio editors – GIMP, Inkscape , Audacity , LMMS , Kdenlive , and OpenShot Screen Recording – Kazam , OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) , Flameshot or Ksnip Communication, Messaging, and Productivity Tools – Slack or Franz Virtualization options – Oracle , VM VirtualBox Authenticators - Authy Media Converters – Handbrake and SoundConverter Hardware and Software management systems – Stacer and Htop Backup Tools – Timeshift or Bacula Media Players – Audacious or VLC Media Server Software – Kodi and Plex Gamers – Steam and Discord Internet browsers - Firefox , Midori, Opera , Gnome , Google Chrome, Brave , Vivaldi , Falkon , Konqueror , Pale Moon , Waterfox , Slimjet, and Dissenter Email clients – Hiri and Thunderbird In many cases, software creators make a Linux version of the same program compatible with other operating systems. So, if you can use a computer or other electronic device, you can use Linux. ​ Nevertheless, Linux also is different from other operating systems in many significant ways. Linux is open-source software. The code used to create Linux is free and available to the public to view, edit, and for users with the appropriate skills to contribute to it. ​ Linux is also unusual in that, although the core pieces of the Linux operating system are generally common, there are many distributions (types or versions) of Linux, that include distinctive software options. Meaning, that Linux is incredibly customisable, not because applications like word processors and web browsers, can be changed, but Linux users can also choose core components, like which system display graphic or user-interface components used.

Motherboard A motherboard, system board, or colloquially, a mobo is a printed circuit board (PCB) found in computers and other expandable systems. ​ All motherboards have socket name that corresponds with the CPU that can be used, a few are: ​ AMD AM3+, AMD Ryzen™ and AMD FX Intel i7 series LGA 1156 socket H Intel i9 - LGA 2066 A Motherboard holds a few crucial components, such as, ​ Central Processing Unit or the CPU socket. Memory (RAM) slots. Contains important sub-systems . Many have embedded HD video facilities and 7:1 sound . Holds the BIOS (Basic Input Output System) installed. Provides connectors for peripherals, sockets, connections, and slots for: ​ Mouse Keyboard Speakers Network port USB ports Firewire port Hard drives Monitor Video cards Sound cards Network cards TV Tuner cards Motherboards provide several external connections, so users are able use the computer. It is PCB with expansion capability - the board is the ‘mother’ of most of the components attached. Different types of motherboard ports and their functions explained. ​ RJ-45 (Registered Jack 45) LAN port – The RJ-45 port allows connection to a Local Area Network (LAN) through a network hub using an RJ-45 cable. ​ Analog Audio P orts – allow connections like speakers, audio devices, and microphones. ​ USB (Universal Serial Bus) 2.0 or 3.0 Ports - are located on each motherboard and used for connecting mice, keyboards, printers/scanners, external hard drives, and tablets. ​ PS/2 Keyboard Port (purple) - used for a PS/2 keyboard. PS/2 mouse port (green) - used for a PS/2 mouse. ​ 1394a Port - used to connect firewire devices. FireWire has largely been displaced by USB. However, some professional audio hardware devices still use FireWire. ​ Optical S/PDIF - used for sound connections to home audio receivers or powered PC speakers with optical connections. ​ eSATA Port (External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) - It is an external interface for SATA technologies and competes with FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 to provide fast data transfer speeds for external storage devices. ​ HDMI Port (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) - is a digital interface for transmitting audio and video data in a single cable. It is supported by most HDTVs and related components, like DVD and Blu-Ray players, cable boxes, and video game systems. ​ DVI Port (Digital Visual Interface) - is used to send digital information from a computer to a digital display, such as a flat-panel LCD monitor. There are several types: ​ DisplayPort (DP) - is a digital display interface developed by a conglomerate of PC and chip manufacturers. The interface is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device, a monitor, it can also carry audio , USB , and other forms of data. Initially, the DisplayPort was designed to replace VGA, FPD-Link, Digital Visual Interface (DVI), and the interface is backward compatible with HDMI and DVI, using adapters. ​ VGA (Video Graphics Array) Port - VGA is an older video format and it allows an analog signal as opposed to a digital signal (ones and zeroes). Using higher frequencies, it is possible to reach a relatively high range of video resolutions. However, video quality directly responds to cable quality, and particularly with higher resolutions. Because of this, the quality of a VGA image can fluctuate with different makes of cable. ​ ​ Bus Sub-Systems The motherboard is a circuit board that connects the CPU to the memory and all the other hardware. Buses are circuits on the motherboard that connect the CPU to other components. There are many buses on the motherboard, bus systems move instructions and data around the system. Bus speed is measured in megahertz (MHz), The faster the bus, the quicker data is communicated, therefore, the motherboards speed is defined by the bus speed. ​ Bus systems are limited by their width in bits and are usually 8, 16, or 32-bits wide. This indicates how many bits can be sent by the bus at any one time, so, a 32-bit bus can send 32 bits or a 16-bit can send 16 bits at once. ​ The bus that connects the CPU to the memory is called the front-side bus (FSB) or system bus. CPU cores share Level 2 and Level 3 cache across the front-side bus and will usually connect to Level 2 cache through the back-side bus (BSB), the back-side bus is faster than the FSB. ​ There are two types of Bus sub-systems: ​ Internal – Buses that connect to internal components. ​ External – Buses that connect to external components. ​ The FSB contains two types of bus: ​ Address bus - this sends information about where data needs to go by sending an address to the memory. The address bus only sends data in one direction - from the CPU to RAM. ​ Data bus - this sends data to the memory or receives data from the memory. Data can flow both ways along the data bus. ​ ​ A Bus Sub-system transfers data between computer components. Separate to point-to-point connections, a bus system can logically connect several peripherals over the same set of connections. ​ Every Bus defines its set of connectors to physically plug devices, cards, or cables together. Because of this, there are various kinds of slots used to connect internal and external devices. North Bridge : The northbridge typically handles communications among the CPU, in some cases RAM, and PCI Express (or AGP) video cards, and the southbridge. Northbridge is directly connected to AGP video, thus providing higher transfer rates. SouthBridge : The southbridge is one of the two chips in the core logic chipset on a personal computer (PC) motherboard, the other being the northbridge. The southbridge typically implements the slower capabilities of the motherboard in a northbridge/southbridge chipset computer architecture. A southbridge chipset handles all the computer's I/O functions, such as USB, audio, serial, the system BIOS, the ISA bus, the interrupt controller, and the IDE channels. PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) There are many kinds of internal buses, but there are only a few popular ones. Various motherboards have different kinds and a number of slots, so it is vital to know what kind and number of slots a motherboard has before purchasing a sound or video card and match the type of slot to the motherboard. ​ PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) was common in PCs several years ago, now PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) has succeeded this type of bus. Usually, PCIe cards used were: ​ Network card or NIC card Sound card Modems Additional USB or Serial ports TV tuner card Additional SATA disk controllers Video card ​ PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) PCIe was designed to replace the general-purpose PCI expansion bus and the aging AGP graphics card interface. PCIe is not a bus, but a point-to-point connection of serial links called lanes. Because PCIe cards have faster bandwidths than PCI cards they make an ideal option for high-end video cards. ​ AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) is a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching graphics cards to motherboards to help in the acceleration of 3D graphics. Connectors and Motherboard Pins Motherboards require connectors and Pins to work. Some power the motherboard, while others provide connections for: ​ SATA and IDE (old type connection) Hard drives SATA and IDE DVD/CD writers/players and IDE floppy drive (no longer used) USB, Firewire, Audio (analog and digital), connections for the front of the case, and DVD players Power for fans (including the CPU cooling fan) ATX 24 pin and ATX 6 12-volt motherboard power Front panel pins – computer cases have fitted leads for front USB, Firewire, audio, microphones and: Power Switch Speaker Reset Switch Power LED Chassis Intrusion Header Hard drive activity LED Message/Power Sleep LED ​ Front panel pins are a conundrum because case manufacturers have not decided on a standard. Some manufacturers use plain coloured wire, others dual coloured and they hardly ever identify with is positive or ground leads. If lucky they put an information sheet in the box, but the cheaper cases tend not to have these. ​ Luckily, some motherboard manufacturers are more accommodating. However, all manufacturers do indicate which lead is which by abbreviating on the connector, such as: ​ PWR – Power Switch SPK - Speaker RES - Reset Switch MSG - Message/Power/Sleep LED CH - Chassis Intrusion Header HD - Hard drive activity LED PWR LED ​ The pin assignments for the front panel header may differ by model. Refer to the motherboard user's manual for the actual pin assignments.

Linux Command Line The Linux command line is a text interface to your computer, it is a computer program that interprets commands. Allowing users to execute commands by manually typing at the terminal or has the ability to automatically execute commands which were programmed in ‘Shell Scripts’. The shell is a program that takes commands from the keyboard and presents them to the operating system to perform. On most Linux systems a program called ‘bash’ (Bourne Again Shell) acts as the shell program. Besides bash, other shell programs include ksh, tcsh, and zsh. ​ A terminal is a program called a ‘ terminal emulator ’. This program opens a window and lets you interact with the shell. There are several different terminal emulators, most Linux distributions supply a few, popular terminals are: ​ Gnome-terminal - is a free open-source terminal emulator for the GNOME desktop environment, terminal emulators allow users to access a UNIX shell while remaining on their graphical desktop. Like most of the terminal emulators in this group, it supports coloured text, a variety of themes, transparency, mouse interaction, multiple tabs, and the automatic rewrapping of text upon resizing. As well as supporting multiple profiles. ​ Konsole or Console - is a free open-source terminal emulator that is part of KDE and ships with the KDE desktop environment. Konsole is the default terminal emulator shipped with KDE. Being a KDE component, it provides the embedded terminal for many other KDE applications, including Konqueror, KDevelop, and Kate. Its features are like the default GNOME terminal but have enhanced bookmarking functions for directories and SSH. It also offers split terminals. ​ xterm - In computing, xterm is the standard terminal emulator for the X Window System. Users may have many different requests of xterm running at once on the same display, each of which provides independent input/output for the process running in it (normally the process is a Unix shell). ​ rxvt - is an acronym for ouR eXtended Virtual Terminal, it is a terminal emulator for the X Window System, and in the form of a Cygwin port, for Windows. ​ Guake – is one of a few terminal emulators with a ‘ drop-down ’ style interface, emerging from the top of your screen with the press of a hotkey. ​ Tilde – is another Quake-style drop-down terminal emulator, designed for Gtk. Its name is taken from the tilde key, the default key for invoking the Quake terminal. Tilda's default interface is extremely minimal, with no window title or border, but this can be changed in the preferences. And has several options for everything from setting key bindings, setting default size and colour, and scrolling preferences. ​ Terminator - is a terminal emulator designed to make positioning terminals within a single-window easier, it features including several key-bindings, saving of layouts, and the ability to type to multiple terminals at the same time. Mirroring much of the behaviour of the GNOME terminal. ​ Yakuake - another drop-drown terminal emulator, is part of the KDE family. If you like Konsole but prefer the Quake-style approach, this is terminal may be an option. ​ To start a terminal search through the list of programs to see if anything looks like a terminal emulator: ​ With KDE - the terminal program is called ‘ konsole ’ With Gnome - it is called ‘gnome-terminal ​ Opening a Linux terminal ​ To open the terminal, press : ​ Ubuntu and Mint - Ctrl+Alt+T gnome-terminal - press Alt+F2 , type in gnome-terminal , and press enter Raspberry Pi - type in lxterminal Linux Commands Basic Commands: pwd (password) - When opening a terminal, you are in the home directory of your user. To know which directory you are in, you can use the ‘ pwd ’.command. It provides the absolute path, which means, the path that starts from the root. The root is the base of the Linux file system. It is denoted by a forward slash ( / ). The user directory is usually something like ‘ /home/username ’. ​ ls (list) - use the ‘ls’ command to know what files are in the directory you are in, but to view hidden files use the command ‘ ls -a ’. ​ cd - Use the ‘cd’ command to go to a directory. So, if you are in the home folder, and you want to go to the Documents folder, then you can type in ‘ cd Documents ’, keep in mind, this command is case sensitive, so if you type documents, it will not work, you must type in the exact name of the folder. If you just type ‘ cd ’ and press enter, it takes you to the home directory. To go back from a folder to the folder before that, you can type ‘ cd .. ’. The two dots represent back. ​ mkdir & rmdir - use the mkdir command when you need to create a folder or a directory. For example, if you want to make a directory called ‘ Music ’, then you can type ‘mkdir Music’. Remember, as told before, if you want to create a directory named ‘ Music Albums ’, then you can type ‘ mkdir Music\ Albums ’. Use rmdir to delete a directory. But rmdir can only be used to delete an empty directory. To delete a directory containing files, use rm . ​ touch - the touch command is used to create a file. It can be anything, from an empty txt file to an empty zip file. Like, ‘ touch new.txt ’. ​ rm (remove) - use the rm command to delete files and directories, typing ‘ rm -r’ will delete just the directory. It deletes both the folder and the files it contains when using only the rm command. ​ man & --help - the man command allows users to find out more about a certain command and how to use the man command. It displays the manual pages of the command. For example, ‘ man cd ’ shows the manual pages of the cd command . Typing in the command name and the argument helps it show which ways the command can be used, such as ‘ cd –help ’. ​ cp (copy) - the cp command to copies files through the command line. It has two arguments: ​ Location of the file to be copied Where to copy ​ mv (move) - the mv command moves files via the command line. It can also be used to mv command and rename a file. Such as, if we want to rename the file ‘ tinder ’ to ‘ fire ’, we can use ‘ mv tinder fire ’. It takes the two arguments, just like the cp command. ​ locate - The locate command locates a file in a Linux system, like the search command in Windows. This command is useful when you do not know where a file is saved or the actual name of the file. Using the -i argument with the command helps to ignore the case (it is not case sensitive). So, if you want a file that has the word ‘wolf ’, it gives the list of all the files in your Linux system containing the word when you type in ‘ locate -i wolf ’. If you remember two words, you can separate them using an asterisk (*). Like, to locate a file containing the words ‘wolf" and ‘ this ’, you can use the command ‘ locate -i *wolf*this ’. ​ Intermediate Commands ​ echo - the echo command allows us to move some data, typically text into a file. For example, if you want to create a new text file or add to an already made text file, you just need to type in, ‘echo beware, the wolf is at the door >> new.txt ’ . You do not need to separate the spaces by using the backward slash here because we put in two triangular brackets when we finish what we need to write. ​ sudo - is a widely used command in the Linux command line, sudo means for ‘SuperUser Do ’ . So, if you want any command to be done with administrative or root privileges, you can use the sudo command. For example, if you want to edit a file like viz. alsa-base.conf, which needs root permissions, you can use the command ‘ sudo nano alsa-base.conf ’ . You can enter the root command line using the command ‘ sudo bash ’ , then type in your user password. You can also use the command ‘ su ’ to do this, but you need to set a root password before that. For that, you can use the command ‘sudo passwd ’ ( not misspelled, it is abbreviated to passwd ). Then type in the new root password. ​ cat - the cat command is used to display the contents of a file. It is usually used to easily view programs. ​ nano, vi, jed - nano, and vi are installed text editors in the Linux command line. The nano command text editor denotes keywords with colour and can recognise most languages, vi is simpler than nano. You can also create a new file or modify a file using this editor. Like, to make a new file named ‘ cub.txt ’, you can create it by using the command ‘ nano cub.txt ’. You can save your files after editing by using the sequence Ctrl+X, then Y (or N for no). ​ tar - use tar to work with tarballs (files compressed in a tarball archive) in the Linux command line. It can compress or un-compress different types of tar archives like .tar , .tar.gz , or .tar.bz2 . It works based on the arguments given to it, like, ‘ tar -cvf ’ for creating a .tar archive, -xvf to untar a tar archive, -tvf to list the contents of the archive. ​ df - use the df command to see the available disk space in each of the partitions in your system. Type ‘ df ’ in the command line to see each mounted partition and their used/available space in % and in KBs. If you want it shown in megabytes, you can use the command ‘ df -m ’ . ​ du (disk usage) - the du lets you know the disk usage of a file in your system. If you wish to know the disk usage for a particular folder or file in Linux, you can type in the command ‘ df ’ and the name of the folder or file. So, if you want to know the disk space used by the documents folder in Linux, you can use the command ‘ du Documents ’ . You can also use the command ‘ ls -lah ’ to view the file sizes of all the files in a folder. ​ zip, unzip - is used to compress files into a zip archive, and unzip to extract files from a zip archive. ​ uname - Use uname to show the information about the system your Linux distro is running. Using the command ‘ uname -a ’ prints most of the information about the system. This prints the kernel release date, version, or processor type. ​ apt-get - using apt allows users to work with packages in the Linux command line. Users use apt-get to install packages. This requires root privileges, so the sudo command will also be required. Such as, if you want to install the text editor vim , type in the command ‘ sudo apt-get install vim ’ . Similarly, any package can be installed this way. However, it is prudent to update your repository each time you want to install new packages. This can be done by typing ‘ sudo apt-get update ’ . Upgrading the system you type ‘ sudo apt-get upgrade ’, and for distro upgrades, type ‘ sudo apt-get ‘ dist-upgrade ’ . The command ‘ apt-cache search ’ is used to search for a package. If you want to search for one, you can type in ‘ apt-cache search vim ’, but this does not require root command. ​ chmod - use chmod to make a file executable and to change the permissions granted to it in Linux. If you have a python code-named dog.py on your computer. You will need to run ‘ python dog.py ’ every time you need to run it. Instead of that, when you make it executable, you only just need to run ‘ dog.py ’ in the terminal to run the file. To make a file executable, you can use the command ‘ chmod +x dog.py ’ . You can use ‘ chmod 755 dog.py ’ to give it root permissions or ‘ sudo chmod +x numbers.py ’ for root executable. ​ ping - is used to check your connection to a server, it is a computer network administration software utility that tests the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. When ‘ ping google.com ’ is typed it checks if it can connect to that server and come back, and also measures the round-trip time then gives displays the details about it. Most users use this command to check their internet connection. If it pings the server the internet connection is active. ​ hostname - hostname provides your name in your host or network. It displays your hostname and IP address. Typing ‘ hostname ’ gives the output. While typing in ‘ hostname -I ’ gives you your IP address in your network.

Orchid Feeding & After Care Feeding Orchids are notoriously weak feeders and a solution of one-quarter to half strength orchid fertilizer is all most plants need. ​ A blend 30/20/20 is best for plants potted in a bark mix, as the bark will neutralise the nitrogen and a blend of 20/20/20 mix for most other orchids. ​ There are two types of feed, each formulated for a particular task: ​ Orchid Bloom – to maximize flowering. ​ Orchid growth – to encourage vigorous growth. Alimentazione Le orchidee sono notoriamente deboli alimentatori e una soluzione di fertilizzante per orchidee da un quarto a metà è tutto ciò di cui la maggior parte delle piante ha bisogno. Una miscela 30/20/20 è la migliore per le piante in vaso in un mix di corteccia, poiché la corteccia neutralizzerà l'azoto e una miscela di 20/20/20 mix per la maggior parte delle altre orchidee. Esistono due tipi di feed, ciascuno formulato per un'attività particolare: Orchid Bloom - per massimizzare la fioritura. Crescita delle orchidee - per incoraggiare una crescita vigorosa. Dopo la fioritura Fiori e guaine deadhead, ma fai attenzione a non danneggiare lo pseudobulbo da cui è cresciuta l'infiorescenza. Faleanopsis, la punta del fiore sarà cresciuta tra le foglie sul corpo della pianta, dovrebbe essere ridotta a un pollice da dove è apparsa.

Care of Paint Brushes Paint Brush Care Always dampen brushes BEFORE use unless they are specified dry brushes. If you load a dry brush with wet colour, the colour begins to dry in the centre of the bristles down close to the ferrule. Dampening the bristles reduces paintability to dry in the centre. But do not just dip the brush into the water and then go into the colour, the moisture needs to be worked into the hair/bristles of the brush. Working the brush on the palm of your hand and forcing the moisture into the bristles helps, it also transfers some of the oil from your hand and helps to condition the brush. Following that, dab the brush on a towel to remove excess moisture before dipping into the colour. ​ Never place brushes loaded with paint aside and allow them to dry in the hair/bristles. It is better to wash the brush immediately when done using them, even if the brush is only going to be inactive for a few minutes. When rinsing brushes, it is not advisable to scrape the brush around the bottom of the cleaning jar/container. Firstly, paint pigment drops to the bottom of the container, secondly, doing this can damage the hair/bristles. Some cleaning containers have drainage sieves or coils at the bottom so that any brush washed is kept away from the pigment sediment at the bottom, but rigorous cleaning on these can still damage hair/bristles. Gently swish the brush back and forth in the bowl and allow it to brush against the sides or bottom. Brush basins with rounded, textured bottoms are perfect for aiding the process. It is good practice to change the water on a regular basis and to have separate containers to wash different paint types. Being mostly involved in model kit builds, and do a great amount of airbrushing, I only use De-Ionised water. I have washpot/rinse pots for: ​ Acrylic paints an initial wash in between paint colour changes. Acrylic paints second rinse, following finishing with a particular colour, before proper cleaning and conditioning of paintbrush before putting away. Metallics. Decal brush, Washes, or Glazes. ​ Do not leave any brush in water for extended periods because with wooden brushes the wetness can cause the handle to swell, resulting in cracking paint and unstable ends. Synthetic brush hair is glued into position, and prolonged standing in water can break down the glue making the hair loose. ​ After rinsing, brushes do not allow them to dry with the bristles/hair face upward or flat on a rack or table, as this can damage the ferrule and can possibly soften the glue them as mentioned above. Drip drying racks are plentiful, these allow users to place brushes with their bristles/hair face facing downward, allowing the moisture to drain away. After washing the brush, check to see if any colour remains in the hair by brushing across a paper towel, do not push forward, as this will damage the bristles/hair. If the colour appears on the towel, rinse again. Cleaning materials advised are: ​ Brush Paint Cleaner or Purger Brush Conditioning Soap Brush Conditioner Gel ​ When storing natural haired brushes for long periods use a brush conditioner soap to thoroughly clean them. Brush Conditioning Soap or Gel can also be used to reshape the bristles/hair and stored in this way. ​ With Brush Conditioning Soap, moisten the dip the bristles/hair and gently work the bristles/hair into the soap, rinse and when no further paint pigment is visible in the Conditioning Soap, either twist into its original shape or use a Conditioning gel to do the same. ​ When storing brushes do not store them in confined containers where the hairs can get pushed out of shape or break.

Choosing a Tripod 1. Weight A tripod’s weight should be considered from two perspectives. Will it be carried around? Used indoors? Or both? ​ I have: 2 x heavy tripods for indoor use. 4 x small tripods for tabletop, placing on low walls or a bonnet of a car. 1 x medium weight tripod for outdoor use - Remember that someone is going to need to carry it around. Mine attaches to my Bergan/rucksack which makes it easier to carry long distances. ​ 2. Stability Weight does not always equal stability. If possible, test the tripod with the camera on it along with the largest lens, light, flash, and microphone. Test it fully extended to see how stable it is. Will it be sturdy on a windy day? Will it take the knock of someone bumping it on the way past? Has it got hooks for weights? ​ 3. Leg Locks There is a lot of variation between manufacturers when it comes to the mechanisms used for locking legs into place. Often, it comes to personal preference, but secure locks are essential. My main tripods are Manfrotto, they offer quick-release locks that are stable, and I have found reliable. ​ 4. Leg Sections The number of sections used to alter the height on tripods can be a factor. If they have two sections, they will be longer when they are collapsed. Two is good because there is less playing around with extending and locking the legs, while three sections provide a more compact tripod when folded. ​ 5. Height How long is a piece of string? Depending on the type of photography, the height requirements of a tripod will vary. What is the maximum height needed? But also, how it operates at its minimum, and how big it is when it is all folded. In all honesty, having a tripod one can look into the camera’s eyepiece without having to bend is a bonus, there is nothing worse than a full day of leaning over to check the framing shots. ​ 6. Tripod Heads Tripod heads can either be bought with a tripod as a complete set or separately. One key aspect to consider about a tripod is how the camera attaches to it. There are numerous options available, and it is worth planning and considering the options, as the tripod head not only keeps your camera on the tripod but will determine how much flexibility you have once it is attached. ​ My preference is the quick release Manfrotto tripod heads, they are well built and extremely sturdy. Each of my cameras and GoPros have a Manfrotto tripod head fitted, so I can easily swap cameras or tripods. ​ The two main types of tripod heads are: ​ Ball and socket – are great for flexibility and moving your camera around, but I find them fiddley. ​ Pan and tilt – are great for locking into position and are usually more affordable. They are not as fluid to move around and take getting used to, but I prefer them.

Computing Pascal is a general-purpose, high-level language that was originally developed for teaching programming as a systematic discipline and to develop reliable and efficient programs. ​ Pascal is an Algol-based language and includes many constructs of Algol and Algol 60 is a subset of Pascal. Pascal offers quite a few data types and programming structures, making it is easy to understand and maintain Pascal programs. ​ Pascal is widely used in the teaching and academics arena for a few reasons: ​ Easy to learn. A structured language. Produces clear, efficient, and reliable programs. Can be compiled on a variety of computer platforms ​ Pascals features: ​ Pascal is a strongly typed language. Offers extensive error checking. Provides several data types like arrays, records, files, and sets. Provides a variety of programming structures. Supports structured programming through functions and procedures. Supports object-oriented programming. So why use Pascal? It allows programmers to define complex structured data types, build dynamic and recursive data structures like lists, hierarchies, search options, calculations, or graphs.

Tomato Soup Cooking your own tomato soup is easy and rewarding. There are many benefits from making your own tomato soup, such as, you know what ingredients have gone into it and the lack of additives, like colourants, stabilizers, and preservatives that are used in commercially produced products. ​ This is my recipe; it makes enough for 4 large meals for two people (we freeze unused). You can vary the ingredients to vary your own needs, likes, or dislikes, so, feel free to experiment. Recipe ​ 1000 grams of sweet tomatoes 3 x large carrots 3 x large onions 4 x sticks of celery 2 x whole garlics 6 x fresh mint leaves (or a tablespoon of dried mint) 1 Litre of vegetable stock (either you own, or I use 2 x Knorr vegetable stock pot (112g)) 2x tablespoons of Tomato Puree 20 grams Extra Virgin Olive Oil 8 grams granulated sugar 2g table salt 2g pepper

Electronic Circuits for Model Kits Out of gallery La costruzione di circuiti elettronici per i modelli non è un processo complicato, ma è consigliabile una conoscenza di base. Questo kit è il Revell Imperial Start Destroyer, non la serie Technik poiché trovo che ci siano limitazioni nei sistemi elettronici dei produttori. I componenti utilizzati sono: Resistenze Condensatore Diodo Transistor Timer - 555

RAID Striping 0 to 4 RAID 0 Striping ​ With RAID 0 the data is written across multiple drives to improve access performance. There is no data redundancy. So, a 4Meg file would be written across 4 drives in 1Meg pieces. Because of this, the failure of one drive will render the data inaccessible, but the advantage is considerably higher throughput. RAID 1 (mirroring without parity or striping) With RAID 1 data is written identically to two drives, thereby producing a ‘mirrored set’. The read request is examined by either of the two HDDs containing the requested data, whichever one involves the least seek time plus rotational latency. ​ Similarly, a written request updates the stripes of both drives. The write performance depends on the slower of the two writes, such as, the one that involves a larger seek time and rotational latency. ​ At least two drives are required to constitute such an array. While more constituent drives may be employed, but many applications deal with a maximum of only two. The array continues to operate if at least one drive is functioning. Key: A, B, C, D, E, and F are blocks of data RAID 2 has bit-level striping with dedicated Hamming-code parity, all disk spindle rotation is synchronized, and data is striped so that each sequential bit is on a different drive. Hamming-code parity is calculated across matching bits and stored on at least one parity drive. ​ RAID 3 has byte-level striping with dedicated parity, all disk spindle rotation is synchronized and data are striped so each sequential byte is on a different drive. Parity is calculated across matching bytes and stored on a dedicated parity drive. ​ RAID 4 is block-level striping with dedicated parity and is equivalent to RAID 5 but all parity data is stored on a single drive. In this configuration files can be dispersed between multiple drives. Each drive operates independently allowing I/O requests to be performed in parallel. ​ RAID 2 is more of a theoretical system and not used in practice. But although applications for RAID 3 exist it is not commonly used in practice.

Programming Editing Software What is programming editing software? They are a computer program that edits plain text and called text editors. Text editing software is incorporated with operating systems and software development packages, they are used to write or modify configuration files, documentation files, and programming language source code. ​ Here are some of the programming editing programs I use: Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to create and change any kind of text very efficiently. It is included as ‘vi’ with most UNIX systems and Apple OS X. Vim is rock stable and is continuously being developed into a better text editor. ​ Features: Persistent, multi-level undo tree. Extensive plugin systems. Support for a myriad of programming languages and file formats. Powerful search and replace abilities. Integrates well with many tools. Notepad++ is a popular free-to-use code editor written in C++. It uses pure win32 API which offers a larger execution speed and small program size. It only runs in the MS Window's environment but uses a GPL License. ​ Features: This text editor supports syntax highlighting for languages like PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Auto-completion: Word completion, Function completion. Macro recording and playback. User-defined Syntax highlighting and folding. Customizable GUI. Multi-view and Multi-Language support. Visual Studio Code is an open-source (Free) code editing software developed by Microsoft. This free text editor offers built-in support for TypeScript, JavaScript, and Node.js. It is autocompleted with IntelliSense features provides smart completions based on variable types, essential modules, and function definitions. ​ Platforms: Mac, Windows, Linux. ​ Features: Easy working with Git and other SCM (Software Configuration Management) providers. Code refactoring & debugging. Easily extensible and customizable. Brackets is a free lightweight tool developed by Adobe. It allows you to toggle between your source code and the browser view. ​ Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux ​ Features: Quick Edit UI feature puts context-specific code and tools inline. Offers live preview, pre-processor support, and inline editors. Pleasant-looking User Interface (UI). A specifically developed tool for macOS Comes with the inbuilt extension manager. Dreamweaver is an Adobe software editor that allows users to create, code, and manage dynamic websites easily. Users can build responsive websites that adapt to fit any screen size, whether it is on a computer or handheld device. You can preview your websites and edit in real-time to ensure your pages look and work the way you want before you publish. It provides access code hints so users can quickly learn and edit HTML, CSS, and other web standards, and it uses visual aids to reduce errors and speed up site development. I have been using Dreamweaver for countless years and have found it to be a reliable robust editor. But it is expensive and out of reach for many non-professional users.

Bracketing Shots Bracketing One of the most useful techniques in photography is called bracketing, in other words, taking multiple photos of the same subject with different camera settings. Normally, bracketing is about changing your exposure: one photo at the meter’s recommendation, plus one under and one over. But exposure is not the only variable at play here. ​ Why Bracket Photos? Bracketing means you capture a sequence of photos while changing your camera settings from shot to shot. This means you end up with two or more photos of the same scene, with only a couple of differences in each shot. ​ Exposure bracketing is the most common kind of bracketing in photography, will usually ending up with one photo that is too dark, one that is too bright, and one with a correct exposure. But bracketing the focus distance will resulting in one photo that is front-focused, another that is back-focused, and one that is accurate. Some people consider bracketing takes up memory and wastes time. Especially if one knows what settings needed for an image, so, why bracket shots? There are two important reasons why bracketing is beneficial in photography. ​ 1. Playing it Safe Firstly, no matter how experienced a photographer the camera settings may be wrong. The three planned exposures, an overexposed, an underexposed, and one correct exposure will not always materialise that way. In their place, one may be extremely underexposed, another significantly underexposed photo, and another that is correct. ​ It is difficult to perfectly judge exposure in the field, especially in high-contrast light or other problematic conditions. Bracketing is a way to reduce potential problems by taking safeguards against common errors people generally make. Particularly for important potential one-time shots, it is a low-risk, high-reward procedure. ​ 2. Merging Photos Sometimes, bracketing is the only way to capture the photo required. For example, if shooting an ultra-high-contrast scene, one photo may not achieve the required results. A single image at normal exposure will lead to highlights that are too bright, and resulting in dark, noisy shadows. Occasionally this sort of problem can be rectified using a graduated ND (neutral density) filter, but the more practical option is to do things digitally. Take an underexposed photo so the highlights look good, plus an overexposed photo so the shadows are right. Then, combine the best parts of each photo into an HDR or luminosity blend. ​ Of course, one can go beyond a two-photo blend, by using three photos. For my part, I do not like blending exposures with more than 2/3 stop of exposure between them because the transition areas can look grainy. How to Do Exposure Bracketing The actual process of exposure bracketing is easy. In any semi-automatic mode, change your exposure compensation from shot to shot. In manual mode, change any of the three settings manually: aperture, shutter speed, or ISO. ​ Most decent cameras today allow the setup of automatic bracketing within the menu. When enabled, the camera will automatically change settings from shot to shot rather than making manual modifications. Some cameras only allow exposure bracketing, while others have bracketing options for JPEG settings, white balance, and other camera settings. Although bracketing is found in the menu, most modern cameras frequently assign a custom button to access this option quicker, while others have a specific bracketing button. ​ Which Exposure Setting Should You Bracket? Earlier, I stated that it is important to choose your bracketing setting carefully. Even though you can bracket shutter speed, aperture, and ISO just as easily as one another. ​ Aperture - since aperture affects depth of field it can be the worst setting to bracket. Creating an HDR from f/4 - f/5.6 - f/8 will result in an odd image, with unnatural transitions having blurry to sharp regions looking odd. A five-image bracket can be worse. ​ ISO – neither is adjusting the ISO setting, since each shot at different ISO settings will have distinctive levels of image quality. Anyway, an HDR shot at ISO 400, 800, and 1600 will not be improved over a single ISO 400 image. ​ Shutter Speed - the exposure setting is the setting one considers adjusting first. Especially if shooting from a tripod, and the subject is not moving. However, in scenes with quickly moving subjects and the potential for motion blur, the flexibility of bracketing shutter speed is limited. In action shots, ISO is often the better choice. Focus Bracketing ​ Focus bracketing is easier than exposure bracketing since there is only one setting under consideration: focus distance. Here, the goal comprises of focus stacking the images in post-processing later, like a group photo where everyone needs to be sharp but is unsure where to focus for the best result. Focus bracketing works best when overlapping the depth of field from shot to shot. But, if the steps are too wide, you can end up with an odd: sharp, blurry, sharp, blurry, sharp, etc. ​ So, when bracketing focus manually, take photos with smaller focus increments, and if possible review each photo afterward to check that the transitions are smooth. However, previews on a camera’s rear LCD look different than full-size images on a high-resolution monitor. ​ These days, many cameras today have a built-in focus stack feature to simplify this process. Focus on your nearest subject, tell the camera how many photos to take, and select a step size. I still recommend selecting lower increments than one might expect. It is also a good idea to test these features beforehand so you know how to use them correctly. ​ In theory, bracketing can refer to pretty much any variable in photography. You can bracket white balance, JPEG settings, long exposure noise reduction, flash settings, focal length, and much more. ​ If unsure what depth of field required, it is worth bracketing the aperture. Or, for a Milky Way photograph, consider using different ISO and shutter speed settings to obtain the best combination of noise performance and minimal star trails.