Posted by Jorge Bernal May 22, 2008
Yes, you read it right, website. I know that sounds like 90s, and today trends are blogs and social networks, but I felt I needed some semi-static place to hold some info about who I am.
It’s not finished yet, I have more ideas for it, but it’s been sitting in my hard drive in a decent state for a while, and I think it’s time to obey the release early, release often motto.
Go there, if you want: www.jorgebernal.info
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Loading ...Posted by Jorge Bernal May 21, 2008
Update: I forgot to mention, the source code for the server part is available at flickr-commentr
flickr commentr is a simple tool to allow you post flickr pictures on flickr comments, or any other forum or blog
To install it, drag this bookmarlet to your bookmarks bar
When you are browsing a flickr photo, click the bookmarklet and you’ll see a popup like the following screenshot, where you can select the size and attributes to show, and copy the HTML code to post the picture.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Posted by Jorge Bernal May 20, 2008
# Enable some colors alias ls="ls -G" # Gimme details and size in KB, MB or GB, I'm not good reading bytes alias l="ls -lh" # SSH aliases alias moe="ssh moe.warp.es" # I always misspelled that onealias mow=moe alias ebox="ssh root@ebox" alias amedias="ssh amedias.org" alias rssh="ssh -l root" # Git alias ci="git ci" # Formerly svn ci # Jump to github from repository alias github="git config -l | grep 'remote.origin.url' | sed -n \ 's/remote.origin.url=git@github.com:\(.*\)\/\(.*\).git/https:\/\/github.com\/\1\/\2/p' \ | xargs open" # MySQL alias myserver="sudo /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server" # Start webserver on localhost:8000 sharing current directory alias webshare='python -c "import SimpleHTTPServer;SimpleHTTPServer.test()"' # Rails server alias ss="./script/server" alias sss="screen ./script/server" alias sr="screen -r"
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Posted by Jorge Bernal May 13, 2008
Update: I’ve been suffering some ungly and stupid bugs today, so I’ve fixed them and released version 0.2. It also includes a new script wp-update-home.
I’ve just published some scripts that help me manage my personal wordpress installations, and publish some plugins I’m working on.
Warning: these are early versions which I use for small tasks. If you find
a bug or have suggestions, contact me at jbernal@warp.es
Download version 0.1 version 0.2 or browse the wordpress-scripts git repository.
wp-dump helps you to backup your wordpress database. Just tell where is the wordpress directory and where to put the dump file
$ wp-dump wordpress-dir outfile
outfile will be a gzipped SQL dump, so you should use the .sql.gz extension
wp-import helps you to restore your wordpress database. Just tell where is the wordpress directory and where to read the backup file
wp-import expects the backup to be a gzipped dump
$ wp-import wordpress-dir infile
publish.sh is useful if you:
$ publish.sh plugin_name version
publish.sh will replace version numbers in your code (see Requirements), tag
the release with git, create a tarball and upload it to the specified server.
First, you need a config file called ~/.wpplugins. An sample way to do this is
$ echo myserver.example.com:public_html/plugins/ > ~/.wpplugins
where myserver.example.com is your server and public_html/plugins/ is the
path (relative from your $HOME) to upload the tarballs
publish.sh can also replace version numbers in your plugin. It will detect these two cases
When you are syncing wordpress databases, one of the fundamental things to change is the siteurl and home options with the remote URL.
$ wp-update-home wordpress-dir myhost.example.com
It’s been a while since I last released some open source project (beyond small patches) and it feels as good as ever 
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Posted by Jorge Bernal May 08, 2008
Updated: I’ve added some –exclude options to ignore svn and git directories. Also be sure to check out the comments, there are pretty nice variations there.
Add this to your ~/.bashrc
rgrep () { grep -rin --exclude=\*.svn\* --exclude=\*.git\* "$*" . }
And you get a handy grep replacement
$ rgrep function wp_head ./general-template.php:785:function wp_head() {
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ... (No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Posted by Jorge Bernal April 23, 2008
I’ve found at 37signals’ blog the presentation by David Heinemeier Hanson called The secret to making money online. I know it sounds like cheap unrealistic marketing, but it’s actually quite simple:
The second and key point is price. It may sound obvious, but if you look around the second round of the tech bubble is coming strong about free, with advertising as the only revenue model. Some have even declared the web 2.0 to be dead.
Another key point is: instead of aiming to become a billion dollar company, settle for a million, maybe even less. Solve a real problem, do what you love and charge for it
We both know some people who own more than a billion (dollars) and they’re not any the happier
By the way, with this video I’ve discovered omnisio, which lets you upload videos and synchronize them with slides. The result is great as you might see.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Posted by Jorge Bernal April 15, 2008
First, I hope this doesn’t become a flamewar about version control, it’s just what I’ve found useful.
Sometimes I feel the need to be able to go back in time when doing small changes. I don’t want to set up an external repository, creating branches or anything like that: just plain file revision control.
Whenever I feel that need I do:
$ hg init $ hg add $ hg commit -m "Initial import"
And I’m ready to go
The only thing I have to care about is the .hgignore file, to skip logs, cache files and so on.
If I don’t need version control anymore, I just have to remove the .hg directory and everything is like it was before.
By the way, I’m working on my new personal site: stay tuned for more!
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Posted by Jorge Bernal April 03, 2008
koke@warhol:~/tmp$ sqlite3 sms.db SQLite version 3.4.0 Enter ".help" for instructions sqlite> select rowid,date,text from message where rowid = 2; 2|1206801673|arr. Habemus iPhone sqlite>
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Posted by Jorge Bernal March 11, 2008
If you like this article, vote for its publishing at JPG Magazine: Candid shots
One of my favorite subjects in photography is people. Not people posing for the shot, but doing what they usually do.
The basic idea of candid photography is to make the photographer invisible in the pictures. I have some tips that might help to go stealth
You should have some long lens at hand if you plan to take sneaky shots of people. But don’t try to take every picture at 200mm. Even with image stabilization, focusing can be quite difficult when people are moving.
You want to find balance here. I have a 6-megapixel camera so I can’t crop too much for JPG Magazine, but less resolution is usually fine for the web. I’ve been uploading pictures to Flickr resized to 1000px for a year.
Taking shots of people in the streets without being noticed can be difficult. Try a coffee with big windows and enjoy your pictures of unaware pedestrians. This is especially useful if the place is dark and the street is well lit.
You want clear images, so you’ll have to use relatively fast shutter speeds. You also don’t want to use flash if you want to stay unnoticed. There isn’t much more to adjust, so push the ISO settings in your camera to 800 or 1600. Of course you will get some noise, but then you can try converting to B/W and see some magic happen.
Don’t obsess with quality. When you are taking pictures of moving subjects in low light conditions there’s no room for studio quality, so forget about it. This is all about capturing the moment, not every detail.
Also, you can bump the exposure afterwards in post processing. I’ve got some nice portraits that way that looked almost black at first.
You might be thinking about your camera’s weight. I know they can be heavy. I carry a DSLR with a heavy lens almost every day in my backpack. It might not be very comfortable, but sometimes it’s worth the pain. A few weeks ago, some friends called me to go to a free concert just after work. I had my camera with me and I got great pictures there. I might be starting my professional career because of this event.
Also, you can always carry a Point-and-Shoot in your pocket. They are getting really small lately.
I don’t like shopping: I find it really boring. But last time we went to Camden Market I just forgot about all the shops and used the whole afternoon to take pictures. There is a lot of human interaction in a place like this, and a lot of people. In the case of Camden there are weird people too, so you definitely can get great pictures.
Museums are places where I love to shoot. You can find there every kind of people, they are often well lit and you can get great face expressions. Most people will be watching closely the exhibition, so only a few will even notice your presence.
This goes back to the last point. In our last trip to London we went to the British Museum, but I had already been there. So I tried not to complain and use the opportunity to take pictures of people.
If you happen to find someone singing in the street, some band playing, or any other kind of performance it’s a good idea to capture the show. But look around you: there will be people enjoying the moment, with great expressions in their faces to portrait.
Black and white is not a thing of the past. Especially in low light conditions, when you have to push ISO to the maximum, noise can be a problem in color, but in B/W noise can give more emotion to the image. And with digital photography, you can always go back to color if you don’t like it.
I’m sure you already knew this one. Cameras love kids. Try to find them in the streets. They are much better in groups, when they are playing. Look for the kid you have inside.
This is one dirty trick, but it usually works. Take pictures of everything: people, furniture, plants, objects… If everybody sees you doing so they won’t find weird that you take some pictures of them (at least not so weird).
I realized this one in a conference. Since I was taking pictures of everyone -and everything- people just started to ignore me. The other dozen of photographers also helped with that.
As a bonus tip, when you are trying to do all the previous things, avoid having someone by your side taking a picture with flash. It has happened to me.
Remember, if you liked this article, vote for its publishing at JPG Magazine: Candid shots
Also, if you liked the pictures in the post check out my Strangers set on flickr.
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