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		<title>Kiril&#039;s web log</title>
		<link>http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php</link>
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		<copyright>Copyright 2012, Kiril Karaatanasov</copyright>
		<managingEditor>Kiril Karaatanasov</managingEditor>
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			<title>How to use remote flash with Sony NEX-5 (&amp; 5n and 3 and c3)</title>
			<link>http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry111229-221046</link>
			<description><![CDATA[A frequent problem that comes up with the Sony NEX cameras is the lack of standard flash hot shoe (the weird sockets on top of DSLR cameras). In practical terms this means the NEX is useless for  photography training,  studio photography and strobist photography. <br /><br />I want to share here my simple solution to this problem. It is based on the <a href="http://ssphotos-aboutphotography.blogspot.com/2011/03/nex-5-and-off-camera-flash.html" target="_blank" >following article</a> and I have added a simple rubber band to hold all in one place for smooth experience.<br /><br />First let me introduce you the basic building blocks<br /><br />1. <a href="http://www.dealextreme.com/p/seagull-remote-slave-trigger-for-digital-camera-syk-5-2321" target="_blank" >Seagull Remote Trigger SYK-5</a><br /><br />2. <a href="http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ctr-301p-flash-sync-trigger-remote-control-25931" target="_blank" >Flash Trigger Remote Control - YongNuo CTR-301P</a><br /><br />3. Hair rubber band<br /><br />4. A Sony NEX camera with small detachable flash (this is the reason you are reading this article, no?)<br /><br />5. A flash - I use <a href="http://www.dealextreme.com/p/yongnuo-yn560-2-0-lcd-flash-speedlite-speedlight-for-canon-nikon-olympus-sony-black-4-x-aa-104414" target="_blank" >YongNuo 560</a><br /><br />6. A small black pouch e.g. the one that ships with Lensbaby does good work; flash pouches are too big and heavy<br /><br />Here they are<br /><br /><a href="javascript:openpopup('/nex5flash/DSC00026.JPG',800,600,false);"><img src="/nex5flash/DSC00026.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Once you acquire all the building blocks it is fairly easy to figure out how to put them together.<br /><br /><a href="javascript:openpopup('/nex5flash/DSC00022.JPG',800,600,false);"><img src="/nex5flash/DSC00022.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />The pouch is to cover the whole thing on the flash as to eliminate light from the build in flash on your final picture.<br /><br />The magic settings for the SYK-5 are:<br /><br />1. The switch should point to the eye icon (not flash). Note my picture is deceptive due to the shadow<br /><br />2. The wheel should be turned all the way to the right (clockwise)<br /><br />...and now the long awaited moment a remote flahs photo triggered from my NEX-5.<br /><br /><a href="javascript:openpopup('/nex5flash/DSC07809.JPG',800,600,false);"><img src="/nex5flash/DSC07809.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Some other observations:<br /><br />1. The SYK-5 and the YongNuo trigger do not snap in the end position so the SYK-5 may slide off a bit and cause the system to stop working.<br /><br />2. As the NEX-5 flash is raised you gain one of the NEX-5n and NEX-7 features - exposure is no longer previewed on screen allowing you to frame photos in poor light despite aggressive aperture and speed settings.<br /><br /><br />P.S. For the beginner - here is 101 of strobist lighting:<br /><br />1. Switch to M mode<br /><br />2. Check that speed is lower than 1/160 (or other lower than 1/160 - camera won&#039;t let you dial more when flash is attached - so another smart NEX feature)<br /><br />3. Use aperture  and flash power to get correct exposure - typically 3-4 attempts are needed to get it right. Correct exposure means photo looks good in preview + histogram does not show too much in the left or right end.]]></description>
			<category>Photography, Sony</category>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry111229-221046</guid>
			<author>Kiril Karaatanasov</author>
			<pubDate>Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:10:46 GMT</pubDate>
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			<title>Sony NEX-7 small review</title>
			<link>http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry111211-205353</link>
			<description><![CDATA[As we all know the NEX-7 is late very very late. Sony have been doing all they can to get it in for the shopping season but no luck. Their last resort to share with the public the miracle they built was to give to Sony users chance to shoot with pre-production samples. In my case the Sony rep for Alpha in Bulgaria got in touch with me and offered me a sample NEX-7 for 1 week. Wow! This is what I call customer care! Way to go Sony!<br /><br />I went to their office and pcked up a NEX-7 camera with 18-200 lens for a week. I made few hundred shots with it and made a small gallery on Pciasa to share. All photos are JPEGs from camera and uploaded in 100% size (use the magnifier icon to zoom in)<br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/108932183055258509379/Nex7review?authkey=Gv1sRgCN6ksY25u5v3gQE" target="_blank" >http://picasaweb.google.com/10893218305 ... Y25u5v3gQE</a><br /><br />Some of you may be interested to know my impressions from the camera<br /><br />The body design is very nice. I made comparison shots next to my NEX-5 (I used my trusted A700 + flash and softbox for this delicate job :-) ). As you can see the body design is very clean yet a lot of buttons and dials allow you to interact with all essential camera functions at a single touch. It is great continuation of the NEX design and despite it being a bit bigger then the 5 I think it is worth the compromise. Unlike Panasonic G1, GH1 etc. The NEX-7 remains quite thin, so the size is much smaller than DSLR<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC09966.jpg" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />Onthe back you can see the tons of buttons and a new hinge mechanism for the screen that articulate form the middle of the camera, unlike NEX-5 that was attached to the top., This is great addition as it makes the camera much more discrete.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC09953.jpg" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />My first attempts with the NEX-7 were at a training in my office. I used the Zeiss Sonnar 90/2.8 for Contax G. Amazing lens starting at f2.8. It is much easier to use peaking with this lens and the NEX-7 than on the NEX-5. Peaking worked  through the viewfinder too which I found very very handy.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00019.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00028.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />white balance is a bit off but this you can blame on my skill not NEX-7 as I used manual balance<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00039.JPG" width="427" height="640" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />These were all iso 1600 shots. Colors and dynamic range seem quite fine thought he detail in JPEG is not fantastic.<br /><br />The 10 fps advantage manifested itself on Saturday morning as I was making pancakes I asked my daughter to take few snaps<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00102.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00103.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />Both of these were shot with the kit lens in the shutter/speed priority continuous. Really amazing only slight click on the shutter ends up with 3 or 4 photos taken in an instant. As both shots were using avaialble light and the kit si not renown for wide aperture the NEX-7 used iso 1600 so detail is very very good but not excellent as one may expect on low iso.<br /><br />Speaking of speed NEX-7 has another trick in the bag. There is no shutter lag. None it is all gone. It is faster than many DSLRs. The reason - there is only rear mechanical curtain. The consequences are two fold - taking the photo start when you press the button and the sound is dampened compared to NEX-5. <br /><br />There had been a lot of discusison about the 18-55 kit possibly being totally useless on NEX-7. Well NO! The Kit lens 18-55 is performing very well on the NEX-7. Here are few cat shots. Do not forget you can see them in all their 24 MP glory on Picasa<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00129.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00130.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00131.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />Finally I had some spare time and put the Zeiss Planar 45/2 for Contax G on the camera. What an amazing lens. If you thought the photos above are ok in terms of sharpness you got to see the Zeiss - it is unbelievable<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00137.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><br />Here is link ot the photo on Picasa do zoom in to 100% <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/108932183055258509379/Nex7review?authkey=Gv1sRgCN6ksY25u5v3gQE#5684493855144312178" target="_blank" >http://picasaweb.google.com/10893218305 ... 5144312178</a><br /><br />In the afternoon on that Saturday we wne tof ra walk in the park wiht my daughter (She is so nice for putting up with me). I kept the Zeiss Planar on -what a marvelous gem it is<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00141.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00143.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />The colors of NEX-7 reminded me so much about the Min0olta 5D I once had a loved.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00145.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00151.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00157.JPG" width="427" height="640" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00169.JPG" width="427" height="640" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />...and again the Sonnar 90/2.8 amazingly sharp as well and fantastic defocus<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00172.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00173.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00256.JPG" width="427" height="640" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />As we all know one of the major advantages of the NEX-7 is its flash hotshoe. So using a couple of flashes (HVL-58AM + YN-56) and Radio trigger (Pixel Pawn wqith Sony &amp; Nikon receiver) I made a couple snaps. Lens again was the Planar 45/2<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00223.JPG" width="427" height="640" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />... another random shot with the planar (This is the only snap I got as the store keeper got upset with my urge to take photos of merchandise)<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00257.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />At home I took out a soft box and an umbrella and my two flashes and asked my daughter to make a snap using the beyond decent 18-55<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00311.JPG" width="427" height="640" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />I mentioned that Sony handed me a 18-200 lens. This is acceptably big with the NEX-7 but is not really exciting to me in any way. Never the less I took ew of those cat shots to see if it is worthy. seems the lens will not disappoint those with inclination for super zooms or movies<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00366.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00367.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />On sunday I met my father at a local store. The detail NEX-7 with the planar is able to pull at f2 is just beyond belief and then the colors are fantastic - what is there enot to love<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00395.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />and then one more with the Sonar 90/2.8 @ 2.8. The cat is not in focus<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00405.JPG" width="427" height="640" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />Did I mention I love the colors? Well the 90/28 makes great colors too<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00412.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />I had to return the camera on Monday and here are my last shots. I wanted to see just how sharp the Zeiss Planar can get at f8<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00443.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />But then I had not tried the 16mm  lens<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00447.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />and 16mm with the wide angle adapter for even more fun<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00449.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />oh can you believe this? the 16mm is tack sharp at f8 and quite sharp with the wide angle adapter!! I bet this combo beats the Tamron/Sony 11-18.<br /><br />and more shots with the wide angle - lovely colors plenty of detail<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00450.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00454.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC00457.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />Well the last photos were from the business park where Sony&#039;s office is and I gave back the NEX-7. <br /><br />Over the week I took few hundred photos and tried as many as possible of the settings. The camera is using firmware 0.10 and evidently is not a production quality. Low iso shots were quite good and high iso remained very decent. At high iso there is loss of details, which to be honest is fully acceptable given the 24 Mega pixels. I think Sony need to work a bit on their firmware though. I had the following observations that Sony may consider improving:<br /><br />1. There is no need for dedicated compensation button. The tri-navy gives direct access and the bottom  button could be programmed to something more useful<br />2. There is no way to program the Shooting Mode function to some button or combination of button + wheel. The only option is to dedicate the center button on the navigation wheel to shooting mode which is quite suboptimal<br />3. The tri-navy opens tons of possibilities while Sony have made great use of it it may be possible to make couple of firmware upgrades to make it very fluent. <br />4. There are not user programmable modes like A700/A900<br />5. I could not find how to set custom max auto ISO - it stayed at 1600 most of the time but one evening went up to 6400 after playing wiht the camera for a while...strange<br /><br />Before I wrap it up I would like to share few more shots I took the previous time Sony gave me this pre-rpoduction camera with the Zeiss 24/1.8 and Sony 30/3.5 - the album is here <br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/108932183055258509379/NEX7?authkey=Gv1sRgCNqExurj4ZegSg" target="_blank" >http://picasaweb.google.com/10893218305 ... xurj4ZegSg</a><br /><br />Unfortunately I do not have these full size as I shot RAW. I was able to extract the preview thumnails from the RAW files and here they are:<br /><br />Zeiss 24/1.8<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC06990.thumb.jpg" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC06993.thumb.jpg" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />Sony 30/3.5<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC07129.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC06943.thumb.jpg" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC06953.thumb.jpg" width="342" height="512" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />I also have a single shot with the fish eye adapter. It is noticeably softer than the wide angle though<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC07122.JPG" width="341" height="512" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />...and if someone tells you m43 is any good in terms of dynamic range do not trust them. The sun is in the shot yet there is not much of black nor tons of white. I used the HDR at its maximum with the 30/3.5<br /><br /><img src="http://www.karaatanasov.info/nex7review/DSC07139.JPG" width="512" height="342" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />My impression is that both the Zeiss 24/1.8 and the 30/3.5 are very sharp from their widest apertures. <br /><br />I had a lot of joy with this camera and would love to have. I hope Sony can soon deliver it to stores so we all can enjoy this marvel of technology. I loved the following <br /><br />1. 24 mega pixels! Yes it is worth to have it on the NEX-7<br />2. The image quality - unrivaled. This camera is just fantastic . I had never seen so much details from an APS-C. Colors are astonishing. It seems the Dynamic Range in RAW is amazing too (I do not have RAW software.). Again on colors this is the first Sony camera to remenice of the Minolta days - just look at forums people still cherish the Minolta 5d and 7D and try to force their Alphas in this mode. Well no more the NEX-7 does it with its &quot;Deep&quot; color setting! Thanks Sony!<br />3. The flash hot shoe is great addition to a NEX camera. Can we have a add-on module for the lower end models as well?<br />4. There is mode that allows decoupling of exposure from the display i.e. no exposure preview in the display or EVF. This allows you to shoot manual lens in bright daylight and as well allows you to shoot with flash in manual settings Great work Sony. Can you fix on all NEX and Alpha cameras starting with A300? We will not only love the cameras we will worship them then<br />5. There is an EVF and this is fantastic. Very good addition. there has not been situation where the NEX-5 display prvented me from taking a photo. On the contrary it allowed me much more, but sometimes a viewfinder is just that much better. The NEX-7 EVf is quite big and for first time I like composing using a viewfinder - on A700 it somehow felt crammed and unconfy so I tried to frame photos with my eyes and than hastily mimic this in the viewfinder. With NEX-7 I prefer the viewfinder. Great Job!<br />6. Speed - this camera is blazing fast. Virtually no shutter lag. AF is ultra fast  with the kit and 16mm and a bit slow with the dark 18-200 at 200 and f6.3<br />7. Unobtrusive - the new screen hinge mechanism and dampened shutter sound make the NEX-7 very discrete.<br />8. Last but not least there are tons of useful buttons and the tri navy that for all practical reasons make the NEX-7 the easiest camera to use made to date - no DSLR comes closer.<br /><br />Looking forward to seeing NEX-7 in stores!]]></description>
			<category></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry111211-205353</guid>
			<author>Kiril Karaatanasov</author>
			<pubDate>Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:53:53 GMT</pubDate>
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			<title>How to use the RabbitMQ user-id validation</title>
			<link>http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry111119-234740</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I have not been posting anything in a while. But here it is a new post. <br /><br />What caught my attenton is a simple thing - how to secure communicaitons between two apps leveraging messaging communicaiton over RabbitMQ. I found out that Rabbit MQ has an extension to the AMQP protocol <a href="http://www.rabbitmq.com/extensions.html#validated-user-id" target="_blank" >Validated User ID</a> that is supposed to serve this goal. <br /><br />Yet how does it work? At first reading it does not make any sense. Sender needs to supply something ...when we actually want the recipient to be able to verify the sender identity...how so?<br /><br />Well it turned out quite simple:<br /><br />1. Sender needs to explicitly say they want thewir message authenticated i.e. not anonymous by providing their identity in the message properties<br />2. RabbitMQ makes sure the user id is not forged<br />3. Recipient may as desired verify that the user name of the ender application matches its expectations<br /><br />Below is an example of how all this works. The application tries to send 3 messages a forged one that results in exception, an anonymous message and an authenticated messsage. There is also a small recipient side that ilustrates how to verify the user identity.<br /><br />To use the sample one needs locally deployed RabbitMQ with default security i.e. guest/guest is admin. The sample is written in Python 2.7 and uses Pika 0.9.5<br /><br />Enjoy!<br /><br />
<pre>
<font color="a52a2a"><strong>import</strong></font> pika
<font color="a52a2a"><strong>import</strong></font> sys

connection = pika.BlockingConnection<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font>pika.ConnectionParameters<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font><font color="#008000">&#039;localhost&#039;</font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>

channel = connection.channel<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>
channel.tx_select<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>

channel.queue_declare<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font>queue=<font color="#008000">&#039;hello&#039;</font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>

<font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> <font color="#008000">"try forged message"</font>
try:
  <font color="#444444"># This does not go through as the user is forged
  </font>channel.basic_publish<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font>exchange=<font color="#008000">&#039;&#039;</font>, routing_key=<font color="#008000">&#039;hello&#039;</font>,body=<font color="#008000">&#039;Forged Message&#039;</font>, 
                        properties=pika.BasicProperties<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font>user_id=<font color="#008000">&#039;fake&#039;</font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>
  channel.tx_commit<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>
except Exception as e:
  <font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> <font color="#008000">"Cannot publish forged message"</font>
  <font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> e

<font color="#444444">#Get new channel and try good message with out forged id
</font>channel = connection.channel<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>
channel.tx_select<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>

<font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> <font color="#008000">"try anonymous message"</font>
try:
  <font color="#444444">#This should go through as we pass the correct user
  </font>channel.basic_publish<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font>exchange=<font color="#008000">&#039;&#039;</font>, routing_key=<font color="#008000">&#039;hello&#039;</font>,body=<font color="#008000">&#039;anonymous Message&#039;</font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>
  channel.tx_commit<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>
  <font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> <font color="#008000">"published anonymous message"</font>
except Exception as e:
  <font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> <font color="#008000">"Cannot publish anonymous message"</font>
  <font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> e



<font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> <font color="#008000">"try authenticated message"</font>
try:
  <font color="#444444">#This should go through as we pass the correct user
  </font>channel.basic_publish<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font>exchange=<font color="#008000">&#039;&#039;</font>, routing_key=<font color="#008000">&#039;hello&#039;</font>,body=<font color="#008000">&#039;authenticated Message&#039;</font>, 
                        properties=pika.BasicProperties<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font>user_id=<font color="#008000">&#039;guest&#039;</font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>
  channel.tx_commit<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>
  <font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> <font color="#008000">"published authenticated message"</font>
except Exception as e:
  <font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> <font color="#008000">"Cannot publish authenticated message"</font>
  <font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> e


<font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> <font color="#008000">"Listening..."</font>
def on_receive<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font>ch, method, properties, body<font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>:
  <font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> <font color="#008000">"Received: <font color="#2040a0">%r</font>"</font> <font color="#2040a0">% </font><font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font>body,<font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font> 
  <strong>if</strong> properties.user_id is None:
    <font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> <font color="#008000">"Ignore anonymous message"</font>
    <strong>return</strong>
  
  <font color="#444444">#At this point we can check if we trust this authenticated user... 
  
  </font><font color="a52a2a"><strong>print</strong></font> <font color="#008000">"Received from user: <font color="#2040a0">%r</font>"</font> <font color="#2040a0">% </font>properties.user_id
  sys.<strong>exit</strong><font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>


channel.basic_consume<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font>on_receive, queue=<font color="#008000">&#039;hello&#039;</font>,no_ack=True<font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>

channel.start_consuming<font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>


connection.<font color="a52a2a"><strong>close</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>(</strong></font><font color="4444FF"><strong>)</strong></font>
</pre>
]]></description>
			<category></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry111119-234740</guid>
			<author>Kiril Karaatanasov</author>
			<pubDate>Sat, 19 Nov 2011 21:47:40 GMT</pubDate>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>A kick in the right direction</title>
			<link>http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry071012-232803</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I am just back from Moldova where we conducted the initial meetings of the Moldovian IT Mark program of <a href="http://esicenter.bg" target="_blank" >ESI Center Bulgaria</a>. The IT Mark service is an interesting program that helps small companies get on the road of process improvement.<br /><br />Chisinau is a nice city with strong European flavor.  I have been able to take some pictures you can see themby clicking on the link below. If you happen to go to Moldova do try their wine it is like no other and is quite cheap.<br /><br />
<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="288" height="192" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fkaraatanasov%2Falbumid%2F5120448287068955265%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>

<br/><a href=http://picasaweb.google.com/karaatanasov/Chisinau>Click here to go to Picasa…</a>
<br /><br /><br />I will try to drop few lines about IT Mark later when I have some spare time.<br /><br />Meanwhile you can look as well at my pics from Yerevan Armenia where I lead an Intro to CMMI training in June 2007.<br /><br />
<table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/karaatanasov/Yerevan"><img src="http://lh4.google.com/karaatanasov/RoYyIjNUQaE/AAAAAAAABTQ/NvzABorqyKo/s160-c/Yerevan.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/karaatanasov/Yerevan" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">Yerevan</a></td></tr></table>
 <br /><br />Also note there will be an Introduction to CMMI training in Sofia, Bulgaria at the end of this monnth or early in November. Please contact <a href="http://www.esicenter.bg/" target="_blank" >ESI Center Bulgaria</a> to get more info and sign up.<br />]]></description>
			<category>CMMI, CMMI Implementation</category>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry071012-232803</guid>
			<author>Kiril Karaatanasov</author>
			<pubDate>Fri, 12 Oct 2007 20:28:03 GMT</pubDate>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>Endless projects?</title>
			<link>http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry070501-230722</link>
			<description><![CDATA[A series of small projects or an endless project is a dilemma for all people implementing CMMI practices in environment that operates a support team that performs series of small fixes and enhancements. Over the last one week I participated on two separate occasions in discussions how CMMI is to be applied in such environments, so here is my view on the topic and links to relevant information.<br /><br />Firstly the current version of CMMI is called CMMI-DEV i.e. it is designed to address development organizations primarily while leaving an option of interpretation for service environments. There is going to be a separate CMMI-SVC constellation(edition) of CMMI to be announced in 2007 that will be written specifically with the service organizations problems in mind. Thus should one be impatient to implement CMMI or if the service business is only a fraction of the overall business some interpretation of CMMI-DEV will be needed.<br /><br />An excellent place to start is the guideline for interpreting CMMI 1.1 in service environments released by SEI in 2005:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents/03.reports/pdf/03tn005.pdf" target="_blank" >http://www.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents/03 ... 3tn005.pdf</a><br /><br />It gives mapping/interpretation of CMMI practices in the context of service organization. One particular area of interest is how one defines a project in support environment.<br /><br />CMMI-DEV v1.2 brought additional ease in interpretation by taking special attention during design and development of the model for expanding the model coverage. Most changes in this regard are in the informative material and provide notes and examples for usage of practices in service and hardware organizations. There is however one change in the glossary that is of significant importance to this subject. <br /><br />Prior to v1.2 CMMI has adopted PMI alike definition of project i.e. a group of resources directed towards a common goal with a definite beginning and an end. This came to a change in v1.2 now a project in required to have a start point but is not required to end/finish. This small change allows now organization operating support team to maintain a single plan for maintenance that has many small phases estimated separately.<br /><br />This all seemed crystal clear to me until a recent discussion on the <a href="http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cmmi_process_improvement/" target="_blank" >CMMI Process Improvement</a> Yahoo group. It turned out the first three prints of the CMMI book were flawed and provided <b>wrong</b> definitions of key terms like project, service and project startup. Namely a project was mandated to have a completion –thus the view of implementation in service organizations required an artificial and totally redundant break up of activities in service organization into time limited slots of say one year. This has caused confusion amongst many professionals. A special notice about the errors in the first three prints can be found in the CMMI book errata page maintained by AW professional web site:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.awprofessional.com/content/images/9780321279675/errata/Chrissis_Errata_1182007.pdf" target="_blank" >http://www.awprofessional.com/content/i ... 182007.pdf</a><br /><br />To complete our discussion here are few important points hen you do support for a client organization:<br /><br />1. CMMI-DEV v1.2 is friendly towards service environments. Few examples are the definitions of terms in the glossary: <b>Project</b> in the glossary is defined as something that has a start and operates according to plan. There is NO requirement for end or completion unlike PMBOK. Thus project can be the overall setup for delivery of products/services. <b>Product</b> in the glossary covers both tangible products and services. Quote &quot;In the CMMI Product Suite, <b>a service is a product</b> that is intangible and non-storable. (See also “product,” “customer,” and “work product.”)&quot;. This makes life easier in defining what the support project produces. This makes me  believe you can implement CMMI-DEV practices in an environment that does small support tasks within the context of a larger contract.<br /><br />2. CMMI does not prescribe life cycle i.e. you decide what phases you will have in servicing a request. There could be guideline as to what is required for different types of requests i.e. what phases. Ultimately there is sense in each practice in the CMMI model and your processes should cover all of them to be appraised. It is the business need that should drive the definition of the exact details of the preformed activities and their scheduling.<br /><br />3. There is one critical distinction when talking about outsourcing - who owns the processes. If it is the client organization then they ought to go for appraisal and what the supplier does is personnel leasing i.e. supplier ought to enhance upon its people management capabilities, not CMMI, may be People CMM. If it is the service organization that owns the process then it should work on improving processes using CMMI practices.<br /><br />Last but not least I just received an e-mail from SEI to confirm the successful completion of my instructor for Introduction to CMMI training. I am waiting to see my name on the list published on <a href="http://partner-directory.sei.cmu.edu/" target="_blank" >http://partner-directory.sei.cmu.edu/</a><br /><br />Cheers and all the best!<br />]]></description>
			<category>CMMI, CMMI Implementation, Introduction to CMMI course</category>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry070501-230722</guid>
			<author>Kiril Karaatanasov</author>
			<pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2007 20:07:22 GMT</pubDate>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>I am an Intro to CMMI instructor!</title>
			<link>http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry070427-230815</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Today I finished successfully the observation for becoming Introduction to CMMI instructor.<br /><br />It was very exhausting, interesting and challenging experience. <br /><br />Good is that there were two of us Youri Metchev and me teaching together so we split modules and exercises. Thus one gets time to go over material just before presenting it and it also allows get some rest between presentations. Despite this the 3 days are exhausting. Added to the teaching itself the stress for me was quite high so this added up to the exhaustion.<br /><br />There is a lot I learned preparing and actually teaching the Intro to CMMI course. You learn a lot of small tips to better present material to people. Our observer was Pat Kirwan a great guy; he helped us evolve our teaching and presentations skills dramatically during the 3 days. <br /><br />I also got really deep into the book – before you train in the observation you realize responsibility you take by standing in front of audience that has invested significant amount of money to learn something. I look as well at the expectations and plans wemade with ESI for delivering training and this capability depends on your performance during the observation. <br /><br />Well once you realize you have prepared enough and you are not so bad in communicating to the audience - It gets much easier. Indeed you start having fun engaging people and discussing different matters. It gets tough sometimes when a strange question is thrown, but I guess this id normal. It is an intro calls and people would have hard time with even basic concepts.<br /><br />Well end of the day I am very very happy. It has been a great experience and I am keen to do more training now.<br />]]></description>
			<category>CMMI, Introduction to CMMI course</category>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry070427-230815</guid>
			<author>Kiril Karaatanasov</author>
			<pubDate>Fri, 27 Apr 2007 20:08:15 GMT</pubDate>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>My first CMMI training is scheduled!</title>
			<link>http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry070405-004857</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Hello,<br /><br />I have just received the official confirmation from SEI that my observation Introduction to CMMI training will be on 25-27 April 2007.<br /><br />This will be a public course. It will be offered in Sofia, Bulgaria. So if you would like to come please get in touch with ESI <a href="http://www.esicenter.bg" target="_blank" >http://www.esicenter.bg</a>. I would be more then glad to have  bigger audience.<br /><br />For details on what this training is about see the SEI official page about <a href="http://www.sei.cmu.edu/products/courses/p44b.html" target="_blank" >Introduction to CMMI training</a><br /><br />This is great news as both ESI and myself will have much better opportunities to help companies in the region work with the model.<br /><br />I hope to see you there!]]></description>
			<category>CMMI</category>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry070405-004857</guid>
			<author>Kiril Karaatanasov</author>
			<pubDate>Wed, 04 Apr 2007 21:48:57 GMT</pubDate>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>A SPIN BG meeting</title>
			<link>http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry070120-003159</link>
			<description><![CDATA[We had a SPIN BG meeting this week. <br /><br />There were several quite interesting items discussed:<br /><br />1. There is a <b>Bulgarian company that achieved maturity level 2</b> in CMMI. The company name is <a href="http://www.mps.bg/" target="_blank" >MPS</a>. This is big achievement as it is the first company in the region that has achieved a CMMI rating from A class SCAMPI. We discussed their SCAMPI experience on the meeting.<br /><br />2. Just a month later a Romanian company achieved CMMI maturity level 3 rating<br /><br />3. I made short presentation about the new developments in CMMI 1.2 . Of course you can download it form the link - <a href="/uploads/SPIN-BG%20Seminar%202007.ppt" target="_blank" >CMMI 1.2 what is new</a>]]></description>
			<category>CMMI, CMMI Publications</category>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry070120-003159</guid>
			<author>Kiril Karaatanasov</author>
			<pubDate>Fri, 19 Jan 2007 22:31:59 GMT</pubDate>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>Some shots from this morning</title>
			<link>http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry061228-134737</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Today I got some nice shots of my dog while we were on a walk in the mountain. <br /><br />There seems to be a lot I need to learn about taking pictures of moving objects.<br /><br />Click on the picture below to open the album in Picasa Web<br /><br /><div style="text-align:center;width:194px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:83%"><div style="height:194px;background:url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/karaatanasov/Rudo"><img src="http://lh5.google.com/image/karaatanasov/RZOo-csV40E/AAAAAAAAARQ/1AmAL2LqS4k/s160-c/Rudo.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="border:none;padding:0px;margin-top:16px;"></a></div><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/karaatanasov/Rudo"><div style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">rudo</div></a><div style="color:#808080"></div></div>

]]></description>
			<category>Personal</category>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry061228-134737</guid>
			<author>Kiril Karaatanasov</author>
			<pubDate>Thu, 28 Dec 2006 11:47:37 GMT</pubDate>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>On the way to become CMMI Instructor</title>
			<link>http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry061221-111520</link>
			<description><![CDATA[The latest news about me is that I took the way to becoming <b>instructor for the Introduction to CMMI</b> course. I already attended the course in November in Frankfurt and am now looking to schedule and conduct my observation. For this I am partnering with the <a href="http://www.esicenter.bg" target="_blank" >Bulgarian ESI Center </a>. <br /><br />Perhaps many would like to know more about the Instructor course. Well the course is superb in my opinion. We had excellent trainers that have been working with CMMI for many years and had very deep understanding of complex concepts. The other important part is that you learn a lot about training by watching the instructors as well as the other students. <br /><br /><br /><h4>The model training </h4><br /><br />Even though the training is not aimed towards the model you do learn a lot about CMMI in these 3 days. To learn at this level about CMMI one must have very good idea of the process areas and the discussion will bring new level of understanding of the model. Some of the things discussed include Process Area relationships, evolution of concepts through the levels of the model, better understanding of how to read and apply CMMI and last but not least the concept of institutionalization. <br /><br /><br /><h4>Trainer training </h4><br /><br />The other aspect of importance to me was to acquire or enrich my trainer skills and better understand what it takes to teach the course. Again the experience and professionalism of the trainers helped a lot. <br />The intro training is very fine balance between interactive and engaging training experience and racing against the clock. The training gives you some guidelines how to avoid loosing time, save time if you lost some and how to keep the discussion to the point and avoid distractions. <br />On the trainer training one is able to see two experienced trainers and several other individuals in my case all form different cultural background. This combined with the ability to experiment with different approaches makes the training valuable experience that sets guidelines for further improvement.<br /><br /><br />I guess some of you will be interested to take the instructor course yourself and are wondering how difficult is the training and what preparation is required. The answer is that one needs to know the model well and spend a week or two in preparation on the model and few days for completion of the pre-class assignment. The training itself is intensive and not easy, but the instructors do help a lot and aim to have all successful classes. During the course there is one examination and several presentations for assessing the capabilities of the candidate instructors. These should not be a problem provided one knows the model well and is serious about becoming instructor. Indeed during the presentations you will be encouraged to experiment and try out approaches you would not otherwise attempt in front of audience.<br /><br /><b>Finally if you are new to CMMI and would like to learn more get in touch!</b> <br />]]></description>
			<category>CMMI, Personal</category>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.karaatanasov.info/index.php?entry=entry061221-111520</guid>
			<author>Kiril Karaatanasov</author>
			<pubDate>Thu, 21 Dec 2006 09:15:20 GMT</pubDate>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>


