Gosh, it ain’t that easy to mount a remote NFS share from a Mac. At least not if the NFS server is a Dreambox DM800 sat/cable tuner.

Connecting to a NFS share using Mac OS X is usually pretty easy: open Finder, hit Command-K and enter the remote NFS share address:

My Dreambox is running at 192.168.1.35 but you have to provide your own address or hostname. In my case, the Dreambox also resolves with the hostname dm800.local. If you’re unable to connect using Finder and you’re sure there’s an NFS server running in your Dreambox you will have to do some tricks with Terminal to make it work.

Use the showmount command to see the exported NFS shares:

showmount -e 192.168.1.35
Exports list on 192.168.1.35:
/media/hdd                    Everyone

If you see a NFS share using showmount, let’s try to connect to it from the command line:

sudo mount -t nfs 192.168.1.35:/media/hdd /Volumes

You may get an output like this:

mount_nfs: bad MNT RPC: RPC: Timed out
mount_nfs: can't access /media/hdd/: Permission denied

or

mount_nfs: /Volumes: Operation not permitted

If this is the case, you will have to apply two changes to your Dreambox’s NFS server configuration in order to be able to connect using Finder. Read more »

StatPress & StatPress Reloaded move over, there’s a new WordPress statistics plugin in town! It’s called kStats Reloaded. Even though it’s still in beta I find it more useful than StatPress (Reloaded) because it’s a lot faster and the charts look better. It even has an option to import all your historical data accumulated by StatPress. Read more »

If you’re an avid geotagger and own a Nikon GP-1 (or compatible) on-camera GPS receiver, you may have found yourself in a situation where you had to take a photo even though your GPS unit wasn’t ready, thus leading to inaccurate or even missing latitude/longitude coordinates in your photo. A GPS receiver usually needs at least 30 to 40 seconds to acquire an accurate position fix in the open once you turn the camera on. Depending on your subject, that can be quite some time. An on-camera GPS unit like the Nikon GP-1 also puts quite a strain on your camera’s battery life.

On the other hand, if you’re using an off-camera geotagger like the Holux M-241 there’s always some sort of more or less complex post-processing workflow involved to store the GPS readings in your photo’s metadata header. I sometimes forget to switch my Holux M-241 on when I’m outside with the camera or even worse: I usually forget to take it with me at all. Doh!

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a GPS unit that sits on the camera (so I don’t forget it at home), runs on its own power but still is able to immediately store GPS readings in your photos whenever you take them? Running on it’s own power has the advantage that when you’re outside with your camera, you can simply forget about hot/warm/cold startup times or draining your camera’s battery and just concentrate on the non-GPS-side of photography.
This is where the Easytag GPS module (a.k.a. Easytagger) comes into play. The Easytagger is a hybrid between an off-camera and an on-camera GPS logger. Judging from the product description, this thing seems to be the jack of all trades:

• Stores GPS info directly to a photo’s metadata header (no matter if NEF or JPEG)
• Data logger mode: Ability to log a trail (a series of GPS readings) to a microSD card using the popular NMEA format
• 2-axis magnetic sensor to record heading
• Barometric altimeter
• Built-in rechargeable 500mAh Li-Ion battery, and in case it’s emtpy, draws power from the camera
• Unique design to allow mounting on flash accessory shoe and the built-in flash to be used at the same time
• Multi-model compatibility: simply use the appropriate data cable. 10-pin: Nikon D200, D300, D300s, D700, D3/D3s/D3x, D2/D2x/D2xs/D2Hs. 8-pin: Nikon D90, D5000
• No setup required, just plug and play!

But does the Easytagger really live up to its expectations? I’m going to have a close look at the Easytag GPS module from a Nikon D700 and a Mac user’s perspective. Read more »