Windows 10. Horrible!

On Nov 24, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

On 11/24/2017 9:46 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On Nov 24, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

Snip


Even worse, I want to try Aurora. I got a $10 dollar discount code
through a camera group. I wanted to see if I could do better. Do a
search Aurora HDR discount code. I stopped searching after the first few
led me directly to the Macphun site, with a message that no code was
needed. Yet Macphun honors the discount code. To my way of thinking
these other sites are practicing unethical marketing. i am not sure, but
I suspect that the only reason they do what they are doing, is they get
a commission. The sites I am referring to include such as "retail me
not," etc. If Macphun did not have a good reputation, that type of
marketing practice would make me wary of buying. If anyone thinks I went
too fr off topic, that's their problem.
End of mini rant.

It is always best to go directly to the developer site, questionable
intermediates have been known to be problematic. Some previously trustworthy
cheap/free app sources have become vectors for malware. That said, not all
sites offering additional discounts are toxic, so one needs to be alert to
bad playe4rs among the sincere offers.

As for Aurora HDR, I think you will find it very suitable for some of your
HDR work. It also does a good job on single exposure tone mapping. They have
some interesting presets (some a bit over the top), a layered workflow with
local adjustment brushes, and very flexible adjustments.

With the local adjustment brush, you can apply a preset, or personal
adjustments to a specifice area of the image. You also have the ability to
create your own presets.

...and they have a good library of video tutorials.

I agree completely, and have heard good things from others. Putting the
issue of malware aside, I feel very strongly that the publisher is
entitled to be paid. To the best of my knowledge, I have never used
unlicensed software. There is nothing wrong with trying to get the best
price, for legal software. I was shopping for the best discount codes
that Aurora will honor.

Fujirumors usually has good snag-free discount codes.
Here is what they provided for Aurora, Luminar and some other stuff.

https://www.fujirumors.com/aurora-hd...e-fuji-double-
fuji-x-cashback-europe/

I also looked at Luminar, which I think it is a
very good program. But, there is very little in it that interests me,
that I don't already have. Right now, I am into playing with a using
circular coordinates with luminosity masks. I bought Lumenzia, which
speeds up making luminosity masks. Greg Benz, the developer gives great,
and personalized support.

I have seen his stuff in promos, but I have most of the function covered with
other apps, and I have yet to roadtest Luminzia.
On1 PR 2018 does a pretty good job with luminosity masks.

Here is an example, which I am posting this only to show the concept. If
anyone objects to the reduced resolution, or my copyright notice, look
through it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g6w96lsf1095334/20171005_6203-butterfly%20garden.jpg

;-)

--

Regards,
Savageduck

On Nov 24, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

On 11/24/2017 9:58 PM, Savageduck wrote:

snip


Interesting. I don’t have that sort of ad issue with my iPad Pro which I
use to stream Amazon Prime, Netflix, and other streaming content via my home
network.

I heard that Netflix, is acquiring Yahoo.

The combined company will be called Netanyahoo.

(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Groan...

Even worse considering that Verizon bought Yahoo several months ago.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/13/ve...tion-of-yahoo-
marissa-mayer-resigns-memo/

--

Regards,
Savageduck

"PeterN" wrote

| there should be no expectation of privacy in email. When I have to send
| sensitive information, I use encrypted files.
|

I see that as 2 different issues. One is whether
your private info -- nude photos, SS number, etc --
might possibly be stolen in transit. Email is high
risk that way. That's not about privacy. That's security.

Privacy is what I consider to be an expectation
of basic civility and honesty: That your correspondence
is private property and should be treated as such by
the people who handle it.

Security is whether your personal effects are
safe from theft in your locked file cabinet in your
home office. Privacy is whether I have a right to
copy and study your personal effects, then sell them
to advertisers or marketing research people, simply
because you hired me to clean your office, or
because I built the desk you keep your papers in,
and I therefore have a key you've given to me.
Very different issues.

What about selling information I've gleaned about
you without actually copying your private effects?
I could write down info about what food you eat,
drugs in your medicine cabinet, tools in your garage,
movies and music in your living room -- then sell that
to marketers. Illegal? Probably not. But would you
want me back in your house?

This is a real-world example. I'm a contractor. I
do office buildouts and bath remodels. It would be
unprofessional for me to discuss a customer at all
if there's any possible chance of you knowing them.
Rummaging through their effects for information
to sell? I can't imagine being so sleazy and that
would probably border on illegal. They've given me
permission to pull up their bathroom floor. They haven't
given me permission to read their mail or personal
letters, or even to look at the drugs in their medicine
cabinet. That's an issue of basic decency. Yet you
don't mind your email handler doing it.

It should not be legal for Google to ask you to
sign away your rights to your own personal effects,
for them to store copies of email you've deleted,
for them to access email content, or for them to
forward your email to the NSA. But by putting your
email functionality online they redefine your
correspondence as their property and have gradually
worked to redefine the legal precedent. We're
increasingly allowing corpoate interests to middleman
our lives and they're claiming co-ownership. You're
*actively* furthering that trend by using the services.

Unfortunately, that scenario is not only in the corporate
interest (for targetted advertising and the collection
of salable personal data) but also in the interest of
"the gov't spook community".

MS sends data to NSA and helps NSA decrypt their
own encryption:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...tion-user-data

Judge demands that all gmail, including deleted emails,
be turned over in a legal case:

https://www.cnet.com/news/police-blo...il-disclosure/

US gov't claims right to access any and all emails from
anywhere in the world, arguing that email stored on
MS servers is not private property but rather MS business
data, and the gov't has the right to access corporate
business data:

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...search-warrant

Google faced a class action by non-gmail users at
one point, who claimed they never gave Google the right
to read their email. Google's argument was that everyone
knows Google spies on everything and therefore the
plaintiffs had no reasonable expectation that Google
might not read any email sent to a gmailer: "But your
honor, everyone knows I'm a bank robber. You can't
blame me. It's the bank's fault for having money in the
bank drawers when I walked in."

The mega-corporate ad/tech companies' only interest
in your privacy is for PR purposes. For instance, Tim
Cook was happy to share iPhone data with the gov't.
He just had to refuse once they made it a public demand.
For the gov't's part, making it a public demand in special
cases gets their foot in the door. Who's going to protest
breaking the encryption on a cellphone owned by a
terrorist who killled dozens, or by a cannibal who eats little
girls? Once they publicly win cases like that they have
a precedent. Companies like MS/Apple/Google/Facebook
have no reason to care about that. They only care about
whether you think they care and whether it might threaten
your use of their product.

On 11/24/2017 11:30 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On Nov 24, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

On 11/24/2017 9:46 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On Nov 24, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

Snip


Even worse, I want to try Aurora. I got a $10 dollar discount code
through a camera group. I wanted to see if I could do better. Do a
search Aurora HDR discount code. I stopped searching after the first few
led me directly to the Macphun site, with a message that no code was
needed. Yet Macphun honors the discount code. To my way of thinking
these other sites are practicing unethical marketing. i am not sure, but
I suspect that the only reason they do what they are doing, is they get
a commission. The sites I am referring to include such as "retail me
not," etc. If Macphun did not have a good reputation, that type of
marketing practice would make me wary of buying. If anyone thinks I went
too fr off topic, that's their problem.
End of mini rant.

It is always best to go directly to the developer site, questionable
intermediates have been known to be problematic. Some previously trustworthy
cheap/free app sources have become vectors for malware. That said, not all
sites offering additional discounts are toxic, so one needs to be alert to
bad playe4rs among the sincere offers.

As for Aurora HDR, I think you will find it very suitable for some of your
HDR work. It also does a good job on single exposure tone mapping. They have
some interesting presets (some a bit over the top), a layered workflow with
local adjustment brushes, and very flexible adjustments.

With the local adjustment brush, you can apply a preset, or personal
adjustments to a specifice area of the image. You also have the ability to
create your own presets.

...and they have a good library of video tutorials.

I agree completely, and have heard good things from others. Putting the
issue of malware aside, I feel very strongly that the publisher is
entitled to be paid. To the best of my knowledge, I have never used
unlicensed software. There is nothing wrong with trying to get the best
price, for legal software. I was shopping for the best discount codes
that Aurora will honor.

Fujirumors usually has good snag-free discount codes.
Here is what they provided for Aurora, Luminar and some other stuff.

https://www.fujirumors.com/aurora-hd...e-fuji-double-
fuji-x-cashback-europe/

I also looked at Luminar, which I think it is a
very good program. But, there is very little in it that interests me,
that I don't already have. Right now, I am into playing with a using
circular coordinates with luminosity masks. I bought Lumenzia, which
speeds up making luminosity masks. Greg Benz, the developer gives great,
and personalized support.

I have seen his stuff in promos, but I have most of the function covered with
other apps, and I have yet to roadtest Luminzia.
On1 PR 2018 does a pretty good job with luminosity masks.

I will try it, but I haven't put On1 on my laptop.


--
PeterN

On Nov 25, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

On 11/24/2017 11:30 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On Nov 24, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

On 11/24/2017 9:46 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On Nov 24, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

Snip


Even worse, I want to try Aurora. I got a $10 dollar discount code
through a camera group. I wanted to see if I could do better. Do a
search Aurora HDR discount code. I stopped searching after the first few
led me directly to the Macphun site, with a message that no code was
needed. Yet Macphun honors the discount code. To my way of thinking
these other sites are practicing unethical marketing. i am not sure, but
I suspect that the only reason they do what they are doing, is they get
a commission. The sites I am referring to include such as "retail me
not," etc. If Macphun did not have a good reputation, that type of
marketing practice would make me wary of buying. If anyone thinks I went
too fr off topic, that's their problem.
End of mini rant.

It is always best to go directly to the developer site, questionable
intermediates have been known to be problematic. Some previously
trustworthy cheap/free app sources have become vectors for malware. That said, not all
sites offering additional discounts are toxic, so one needs to be alert to
bad players among the sincere offers.

As for Aurora HDR, I think you will find it very suitable for some of your
HDR work. It also does a good job on single exposure tone mapping. They
have some interesting presets (some a bit over the top), a layered workflow
with local adjustment brushes, and very flexible adjustments.

With the local adjustment brush, you can apply a preset, or personal
adjustments to a specifice area of the image. You also have the ability to
create your own presets.

...and they have a good library of video tutorials.

I agree completely, and have heard good things from others. Putting the
issue of malware aside, I feel very strongly that the publisher is
entitled to be paid. To the best of my knowledge, I have never used
unlicensed software. There is nothing wrong with trying to get the best
price, for legal software. I was shopping for the best discount codes
that Aurora will honor.

Fujirumors usually has good snag-free discount codes.
Here is what they provided for Aurora, Luminar and some other stuff.

https://www.fujirumors.com/aurora-hd...e-fuji-double-
fuji-x-cashback-europe/

I also looked at Luminar, which I think it is a
very good program. But, there is very little in it that interests me,
that I don't already have. Right now, I am into playing with a using
circular coordinates with luminosity masks. I bought Lumenzia, which
speeds up making luminosity masks. Greg Benz, the developer gives great,
and personalized support.

I have seen his stuff in promos, but I have most of the function covered
with other apps, and I have yet to roadtest Luminzia.
On1 PR 2018 does a pretty good job with luminosity masks.
I will try it, but I haven't put On1 on my laptop.

When you do get around to trying take a quick look at these:

https://www.on1.com/blog/tag/masking-compositing/

https://youtu.be/v7ry-zRGqAk

https://youtu.be/djRIw0ul4-U

--

Regards,
Savageduck

On 11/25/2017 10:09 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"PeterN" wrote

| there should be no expectation of privacy in email. When I have to send
| sensitive information, I use encrypted files.
|

I see that as 2 different issues. One is whether
your private info -- nude photos, SS number, etc --
might possibly be stolen in transit. Email is high
risk that way. That's not about privacy. That's security.

That is where we differ. I admit that there are people who do not care
about privacy, and/or security. They are the exception. I think that in
general people lock their doors for both privacy and security reasons.
I am looking at the issue from a Fifth Amendment viewpoint, and criminal
cases. The rule may very well be different in civil cases, In the US,
and New York, the issue of whether the search yielding the evidence was
reasonable under the Fifth Amendment, typically hinges upon whether
there was a reasonable expectation of privacy. As an example, if the
perp leaves his window shades wide open, while performing the act
constituting the crime, a photograph of the act would be admissible
because anyone who leaves their windows open has no expectation of
privacy. If all things were the same, and the cop, without a court
order, jimmied the lock, sneaked in and took the picture, in the absence
of other factors, that picture would not be admissible, because it was
the product of an unreasonable search.
Since there is no reasonable expectation of privacy, the injured sender
has no legal or moral right to raise the issue. Similarity, if someone
murders his parents, a request for mercy, because he is an orphan, would
not be considered by the court.
Because this is a photo group, I have oversimplified the situation, and
omitted citations.





Privacy is what I consider to be an expectation
of basic civility and honesty: That your correspondence
is private property and should be treated as such by
the people who handle it.

Security is whether your personal effects are
safe from theft in your locked file cabinet in your
home office. Privacy is whether I have a right to
copy and study your personal effects, then sell them
to advertisers or marketing research people, simply
because you hired me to clean your office, or
because I built the desk you keep your papers in,
and I therefore have a key you've given to me.
Very different issues.

What about selling information I've gleaned about
you without actually copying your private effects?
I could write down info about what food you eat,
drugs in your medicine cabinet, tools in your garage,
movies and music in your living room -- then sell that
to marketers. Illegal? Probably not. But would you
want me back in your house?

This is a real-world example. I'm a contractor. I
do office buildouts and bath remodels. It would be
unprofessional for me to discuss a customer at all
if there's any possible chance of you knowing them.
Rummaging through their effects for information
to sell? I can't imagine being so sleazy and that
would probably border on illegal. They've given me
permission to pull up their bathroom floor. They haven't
given me permission to read their mail or personal
letters, or even to look at the drugs in their medicine
cabinet. That's an issue of basic decency. Yet you
don't mind your email handler doing it.

It should not be legal for Google to ask you to
sign away your rights to your own personal effects,
for them to store copies of email you've deleted,
for them to access email content, or for them to
forward your email to the NSA. But by putting your
email functionality online they redefine your
correspondence as their property and have gradually
worked to redefine the legal precedent. We're
increasingly allowing corpoate interests to middleman
our lives and they're claiming co-ownership. You're
*actively* furthering that trend by using the services.

Unfortunately, that scenario is not only in the corporate
interest (for targetted advertising and the collection
of salable personal data) but also in the interest of
"the gov't spook community".

MS sends data to NSA and helps NSA decrypt their
own encryption:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...tion-user-data

Judge demands that all gmail, including deleted emails,
be turned over in a legal case:

https://www.cnet.com/news/police-blo...il-disclosure/

US gov't claims right to access any and all emails from
anywhere in the world, arguing that email stored on
MS servers is not private property but rather MS business
data, and the gov't has the right to access corporate
business data:

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...search-warrant

Google faced a class action by non-gmail users at
one point, who claimed they never gave Google the right
to read their email. Google's argument was that everyone
knows Google spies on everything and therefore the
plaintiffs had no reasonable expectation that Google
might not read any email sent to a gmailer: "But your
honor, everyone knows I'm a bank robber. You can't
blame me. It's the bank's fault for having money in the
bank drawers when I walked in."

The mega-corporate ad/tech companies' only interest
in your privacy is for PR purposes. For instance, Tim
Cook was happy to share iPhone data with the gov't.
He just had to refuse once they made it a public demand.
For the gov't's part, making it a public demand in special
cases gets their foot in the door. Who's going to protest
breaking the encryption on a cellphone owned by a
terrorist who killled dozens, or by a cannibal who eats little
girls? Once they publicly win cases like that they have
a precedent. Companies like MS/Apple/Google/Facebook
have no reason to care about that. They only care about
whether you think they care and whether it might threaten
your use of their product.



--
PeterN

On 11/25/2017 10:37 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On Nov 25, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

On 11/24/2017 11:30 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On Nov 24, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

On 11/24/2017 9:46 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On Nov 24, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

Snip


Even worse, I want to try Aurora. I got a $10 dollar discount code
through a camera group. I wanted to see if I could do better. Do a
search Aurora HDR discount code. I stopped searching after the first few
led me directly to the Macphun site, with a message that no code was
needed. Yet Macphun honors the discount code. To my way of thinking
these other sites are practicing unethical marketing. i am not sure, but
I suspect that the only reason they do what they are doing, is they get
a commission. The sites I am referring to include such as "retail me
not," etc. If Macphun did not have a good reputation, that type of
marketing practice would make me wary of buying. If anyone thinks I went
too fr off topic, that's their problem.
End of mini rant.

It is always best to go directly to the developer site, questionable
intermediates have been known to be problematic. Some previously
trustworthy cheap/free app sources have become vectors for malware. That said, not all
sites offering additional discounts are toxic, so one needs to be alert to
bad players among the sincere offers.

As for Aurora HDR, I think you will find it very suitable for some of your
HDR work. It also does a good job on single exposure tone mapping. They
have some interesting presets (some a bit over the top), a layered workflow
with local adjustment brushes, and very flexible adjustments.

With the local adjustment brush, you can apply a preset, or personal
adjustments to a specifice area of the image. You also have the ability to
create your own presets.

...and they have a good library of video tutorials.

I agree completely, and have heard good things from others. Putting the
issue of malware aside, I feel very strongly that the publisher is
entitled to be paid. To the best of my knowledge, I have never used
unlicensed software. There is nothing wrong with trying to get the best
price, for legal software. I was shopping for the best discount codes
that Aurora will honor.

Fujirumors usually has good snag-free discount codes.
Here is what they provided for Aurora, Luminar and some other stuff.

https://www.fujirumors.com/aurora-hd...e-fuji-double-
fuji-x-cashback-europe/

I also looked at Luminar, which I think it is a
very good program. But, there is very little in it that interests me,
that I don't already have. Right now, I am into playing with a using
circular coordinates with luminosity masks. I bought Lumenzia, which
speeds up making luminosity masks. Greg Benz, the developer gives great,
and personalized support.

I have seen his stuff in promos, but I have most of the function covered
with other apps, and I have yet to roadtest Luminzia.
On1 PR 2018 does a pretty good job with luminosity masks.
I will try it, but I haven't put On1 on my laptop.

When you do get around to trying take a quick look at these:

https://www.on1.com/blog/tag/masking-compositing/

https://youtu.be/v7ry-zRGqAk

https://youtu.be/djRIw0ul4-U


Thanks for the links. Right now, my days are spent trying to give my
wife support, and see that the doctors are not screwing up. Today I
caught a pharmaceutical error by a nurse practitioner, that would have
been harmful.
https://www.drugs.com/drug-interactions/benadryl-with-tylenol-with-codeine-896-1617-48-8457.html

When I get home at night working on an image, is cathartic for me, as I
have to be on my A game during most of the day.


--
PeterN

On Nov 25, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

On 11/25/2017 10:37 PM, Savageduck wrote:
On Nov 25, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

On 11/24/2017 11:30 PM, Savageduck wrote:

Snip


I have seen his stuff in promos, but I have most of the function covered
with other apps, and I have yet to roadtest Luminzia.
On1 PR 2018 does a pretty good job with luminosity masks.
I will try it, but I haven't put On1 on my laptop.

When you do get around to trying take a quick look at these:

https://www.on1.com/blog/tag/masking-compositing/

https://youtu.be/v7ry-zRGqAk

https://youtu.be/djRIw0ul4-U

Thanks for the links. Right now, my days are spent trying to give my
wife support, and see that the doctors are not screwing up. Today I
caught a pharmaceutical error by a nurse practitioner, that would have
been harmful.
https://www.drugs.com/drug-interactions/benadryl-with-tylenol-with-codeine-896-1617-48-8457.html

I can relate. In the case of my wife, the most serious goof was commited by
her neurologist, and only caught by her neurosurgeon during the damage
control phase. It is going to be ten years in December since I lost her.


When I get home at night working on an image, is cathartic for me, as I
have to be on my A game during most of the day.

Just keep at it, whatever else is happening she is your major priority.

....and unwind when you can.

--

Regards,
Savageduck

"PeterN" wrote

| Today I
| caught a pharmaceutical error by a nurse practitioner, that would have
| been harmful.
|
https://www.drugs.com/drug-interactions/benadryl-with-tylenol-with-codeine-896-1617-48-8457.html
|

Not to mention that the efficacy of Tylenol is
questionable for pain and non-existent for
inflammation. And it's a risk for organ damage.
Yet it's somehow been spread through the medical
establishment like water on restaurant tables.
Everyone gets megadoses.

In article , Ron C
wrote:

The big pain for me is that I have Win 10 on a machine
that I use infrequently. Seems just about every time I use
the machine it installs updates that take ages to install.
It took 10+ minutes to boot this afternoon because it
was updating/installing something; 10+ minutes with
that sick greenish-yellow screen with the spinning dots.

that part is most annoying, although it appears to be faster with fce.