Open source photography workflow application #darktable 5.4 was just released with the new AgX tonal compression module. So I created a camera style for the Sony a6700 with AgX that closely matches the ST Picture Profile kaeru.my/notes/darkta...
With GIJC25 coming up next month, re-sharing an old tipsheet that's still applicable today on how to find and investigate details on boats, events and projects in Malaysian waters and coastal regions kaeru.my/guides/dredg...
Some notes for my first overnight #bikepacking trip in Malaysia. Been delaying it for some time due to work and health reasons, but sometimes they're just excuses. Now with first one done, I'm really looking forward to the next one!
kaeru.my/notes/overni...
It might be a bit soft, but the cheap and old Sony SEL55210 is is a tiny 55-210mm telephoto lens for APS-C which makes it quite useful in situations where you need to be mobile and less conspicuous. It's good enough for documentation work.
"Free Palestine" graffiti on construction barrier, Istanbul, Turkey (2014)
Global Free Palestine movement exposes that existing systems of democracy is broken worldwide. Massive disconnect between elected representatives and national government policy and positions vs the general populace on black & white issues like starving and killing children, and genocide.
A decade ago, the introduction of the a6000 gave me a small versatile hybrid camera on me at all times for documentation. Working in civil society gives me an insider and behind the scenes view of the work of a lot of amazing and brave people. Will bring more of these online in coming months.
Our research fellow - Melissa Lim Shi Hui joins other experts in an article by the Straits Times, warning that current Malaysian laws are inadequate for AI-generated content, suggesting updates to existing laws and that clearer recourse for victims is needed.
www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia...
UNHRC Commission concludes on reasonable grounds that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed and are continuing to commit the following actus reus of genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip. Detailed report: www.ohchr.org/sites/defaul...
Sunset view of Taipei, Taiwan
35mm focal length prime lens is my "fun" lens. Using balcony railings to frame landscape photo and remove unwanted foreground elements.
Thailand has experienced 13 coups in 90 years, leading to 20 versions of constitutions, each tailored to the power-holders of the time. Hear how WeVis shifted the dynamic by empowering citizens, in this #TICTeC session with Thanisara Ruangdej (GG):
We're now living in a world where Investigating and documenting genocide for International Criminal Court can get you put on US sanctions list.
www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/...
ROCm 7.0 decouples the AMDGPU drivers from the rocm libraries and runtimes. Works just fine on Ubuntu 25.04 with the distro kernel, everything works as it should HIP, OpenCL and multimedia acceleration. rocm.docs.amd.com/en/docs-7.0-...
Processing documents for RAG still isn't exactly plug and play. Especially when the source documents are badly scanned or have been censored manually with a marker. Sharing some steps in cleaning and processing document with docling & VLMs while preserving as much text & structure as possible.
With RAG I can query info, from dull but dense document filings (legal, parliamentary, corporate), in any language. While processing each doc takes hours, once done I can query and verify related and specific info from thousands of pages in minutes, supplemented by own detailed notes and databases.
Random tech updates. Monitoring CPU and GPU power usage on Linux and fixing suspend on Gigabyte motherboards.
Some preliminary notes, from my exploration of setting up local open source stack AI on my personal computer to augment investigative journalism methods and techniques kaeru.my/notes/ai-aug...
Reason for recent workstation upgrades. Augmenting and building upon investigative journalism methods and tools with AI/ML. In this case testing RAG with a badly scanned but detailed court document. Entity extraction done with LightRAG.
Pleasantly surprised that all common services and tools for Local AI works for AMD 9070XT and ROCm on unsupported Ubuntu Linux 25.04. Glad to be able to get work done on an open source stack for AI and compute.
Recovering from sickness is a good opportunity to reset. Restarting some good short daily habits, taking time for some photos each day. Reviewing past progress is also a good confidence builder. Set of photos from Timor-Leste 35mm focal length creatorscloud.sony.net/discover/det...
Just realized it's not the drives (just standard USB block devices) but old fs, formats that might lose support. Fuse would be good Linux sees the VCD files but can't read it directly
Technology from just 20 years ago seems like an age long forgotten. Slowly archiving old CD-Rs and noticed that some were VCD format. VCD Imager allows extraction of these 240p videos, but wonder how much longer drivers will be maintained for optical drives.
www.gnu.org/software/vcd...
Questions on whether PEPs public data should have expiry. For grand corruption cases they should never expire. Only 10 years has past, people directly involved in Malaysian 1MDB corruption cases, are still holding positions in policy think tanks. That level of influence and impunity is problematic.
@opentechfund.bsky.social’s #FOSS Sustainability Fund helps to ensure that free and open source software projects, and the communities that sustain them, have the resources they need.
Learn more about this Fund and other key results from our internet freedom work:
500GB now fits in a MicroSD card smaller than your fingernail for less than 70 Euros. Can bring along your entire music audio collection, and not be subject to any subscription services, ads for lossless music. The open source tools and apps I use to manage my music library.
When your Garmin fitness age is 40 and you play a pick up 🏀 game with 20 year olds. How does Lebron James do it?
Timor-leste children on the back of a pickup truck
Bare hillside after deforestation, Perak, Malaysia
Reminded of Robin William's speech on Good Will Hunting, when someone shares AI generated summary or images, or citing a report or video they've watched as input to policy discussions. Have you ever been in a data centre? Or a rural community without clean water? It's important to touch grass.
Undermining credibility of UN agencies and other independent international bodies is a typical strategy of authoritarian governments seeking to avoid accountability www.malaysiakini.com/news/743265
Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim doesn't seem to think that UN's civil aviation agency ICAO is credible or independent enough for a report on the downing of MH17 news.un.org/en/story/202...
.@opentechfund.bsky.social’s ICFP Fellow Alexandra Dirksen examined how authoritarian efforts to control network infrastructure domestically creates the conditions that facilitate HTTPS interception—threatening the #privacy of millions.
Learn more:
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