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Exploring Perl6

I've been exploring Perl6 since Rakudo-star was released in late July. There's a lot of exciting things to learn about Perl6, and you have to start early to figure things out. I've been working on implementing a simple sudoku solver, as something to do. My conclusion is that I'm delighted with what's been done, and what's coming ... and frustrated waiting for what's coming to turn into usable features! Sudoku In case you've been on Mars the last few years, sudoku is a puzzle with nine rows and nine columns. That block is also divided into 3x3 regions ... like a tic-tac-toe board subdivided into tic-tac-toe boards. When solved, each row contains the digits 1 to 9, without repetition; so does each column, and each block. Each puzzle begins with a certain number of cells filled in, your job is to figure out the rest. You know that cell A1 can't be a 1, because there's a one already in that row, it can't be a 2 or 4 or 6 or 7 or 8. From the othe

It didn't happen if you don't have photos

Visited Niagara Falls last weekend. Everyone was busy proving they had been there.

Tall Ships

There was a gathering of tall ships in Toronto Canada / Independence Day weekend, and while I found some interesting shots of rigging and hardware, I especially liked this rope hanging off the stern of the German ship, so swimmers could climb back aboard. The ship was steady, being tied to the dock, hardly any motion at all, so the movement of the water expressed itself relative to the monkey's fist knot at the bottom of the gently swaying rope. This one is scaled down; click on the picture to go to my photo website gallery of animations and see it full size.
Toronto's Gay Pride parade, last Sunday, July 4th. How do they arrange a HOT day, year after year? Do they have special arrangements with the man upstairs? or is it the hot guy downstairs? Either way, it was a day for super-soakers, especially the humunguous one on the fire enging bringing up the rear.

Testing the Ray Ring Flash

The Ray Flash is a piece of plastic that fits onto a on-camera-flash to provide the effect of a ring flash. Ring flashes are essential for certain macro photography, common, for example, in medical photography. When you're in close, an ordinary on-camera flash is shadowed by the lens itself, so only a portion of the subject is illuminated. As well, the ring flash is soft, because the light comes from a large area, compared to the relative point-source of an ordinary flash. Not as soft as a softbox or umbrella, but better than on-camera flash. So it combines the full-on lighting of on-camera flash, without the harsh shadows, and retains some texture thanks to the softer light source. Click on the photos for a large version. The trunk of my car, including the white Ray Flash box and the brown shipping box. ISO 400, 1/200 @ F/8.0, 24mm on EF 24-70, Canon 5D mark II. Those military families are trying to invade my bookshelf. Notice how the soldiers are essentially shadowless, yet the d