Bits & Bytes

On Sunday, I had to visit a photo studio to take photographs for the visa processing. I landed up around half an hour earlier to find an old studio with wooden doors with a peeling paint. I had second thoughts about going to another studio but then decided what the hell. All I need is a good photographer and my face. I decided to give it a shot. So i wandered around, took pics of BEST buses with my w800i, found Borivali Biriyani Center (BBC) in Goregaon and came back to the studio when the photographer called up. His studio was a small room converted into a studio with his umbrellas and lights and background scenery. We settled down for the shoot and I went through the process while he twisted my head to left and right and up and down and corrected my posture till he was satisfied and shot two blinding shots with his flash remotely controlled. I took notice of the camera. It had a hot shoe for external flash which can be configured to connect remotely and had that unmistakable 'L' symbol. It was a Lumix!. I couldn't notice the model but it said 12x zoom on the side. Google says its a FZ20. Anyways, thats not the point. After everything was done I asked him about the digital copy of the picture. I told him that I wanted it on my thumb drive. To which he expressed his concern about viruses and it needs to be scanned and all that. And i said somewhat reluctantly that I use linux and it doesnt have any virus as I havent used it on windows machine yet (not the whole truth... thats my bootable SLAX drive made in windows. i had that in mind but now i cant find it in my bag!!). The mention of Linux interested him. He told how his friend is using Linux and claims there is no virus. He wanted to confirm that with me. I said yes, your friend is right. No virus with Linux. Then he started asking how user friendly linux is? how are the applications in that? Since he primarily uses Photoshop he was keen to know about any photo editing tools in linux. A windows user wanting to test the linux waters. Perfect. This time around I didn't push linux into his throat. I answered his queries. Didn't dumb down windows. Just told him why windows seems to be the most friendliest OS for him as he has not seen anything else. Once you go around in Linux he will be comfortable with it too. Told him about GIMP. And in the end mentioned about the Live CD. He wasn't too sure of the Live CD so I promised to get him one so that he can try it out without installing on his machine. My initial idea was to burn the Ubuntu 8.04 CD I already had but remembered that 64 bit is not common. Good that I didn't burn the CD as I got the Ubuntu 8.10 CD today. I think its a 32 bit CD shipped by default. Have to check and supply a copy to the photographer and walk him through the Live CD. Must remember to leave my number incase he decides to wet his feet in Linux. I hope he does. :D