tylerball.net /page/3/

words: jul 5 2019

batch generating jpgs from fuji raw files

The best Google service is Google Photos. Despite one’s usage probably providing material to train Google’s machine learning corpus that will eventually enslave us all, having a canny search function for your unorganized archive of digital photos is worth it. Type in “dog” and you get all the photos of your dog.

My problem is it doesn’t support raw files from Fuji cameras, of which I have a few. In the future I can solve this problem by shooting in RAW+JPEG, which stores a .jpg file processed with the camera’s colour profiles that the Google sync app can pick up and put on Google Photos.

But what do I do with my years-long archive? I tried a few different batch image converters but none of them retained the Fuji film simulations, or adjustments I had done in Lightroom. I also couldn’t find a way to filter my photos in Lightroom for the images that lacked a corresponding .jpg file and convert them that way.

Enter raw2jpg, a script (Mac only) I wrote for bulk converting raw files that is RAW+JPEG aware and applies adjustments made to the image in Lightroom or Photoshop. To use it, install Homebrew and run:

brew cask install adobe-dng-converter
brew install exiftool
curl -Lk https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tylerball/raw2jpg/master/raw2jpg > /usr/local/bin/raw2jpg

Then you can run it on a directory of RAW files.

raw2jpg ~/Photos/Fuji

words: jun 26 2019

building a better sonos with free software and cheap hardware

When I first heard about Sonos I was impressed. Completely synchronized music playing in every room is something I’ve always wanted, but the price seemed ridiculous, especially if you like the speakers you already own. Most of their products have a speaker integrated into them, forcing you to ditch any Hi-Fi equipment you might already own. Also I like keeping my own library of digital music and Sonos steers users towards using streaming services.¹

For a while I was convinced there wasn’t a good open-source solution that could rival Sonos, but then I started playing with forked-daapd. It’s like iTunes but better. It scans your music library and allows you to stream it to Airplay receivers around the house. It also accepts audio via pipe so you can hook it up to receive audio from other sources and send it to your speakers.