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I've coded up SHA-1 Secure Hash computation and HMAC-SHA1 secure signature computation in pure Lua and thought I'd share them in case anyone else would find them useful. The download is over on my so-inventively-named “SHA-1 and HMAC-SHA1 in pure Lua” page.

Lua is a horrid language, so these were not trivial, but I needed them for the Twitter support I just added to some of my plugins for Adobe Lightroom (I added Twitter support to: Zenfolio, Flickr, Facebook, SmugMug, and Picasa Web). I hope someone else can get some use out of the result.

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Serenity
Sanzen-in Temple, Kyoto Japan

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In last week's post “A Visit to Kyoto's Sanzen-in Temple” (which was followed up by some pretty desktop backgrounds and Part II), I included a photo captioned Contemplation, showing a lady at the edge of a garden-viewing room, viewing one of the temple's gardens.

I never got around to actually entering the garden-viewing room myself, but on the way out of the temple grounds an hour or so later, a small break in an intermediate wall gave a glimpse of the garden and the garden-viewing room from right angles to before, and I took the opportunity to snap another shot.

I really like the result, especially when viewed nice and big. I hope you like it, too.

Continued here...

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/8000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Off for a Bike Ride
along the Kamo River, Kyoto Japan

It was a supremely wonderful day today, with perfect sun and temperatures. The hysteria from the swine-flu plague is mostly past, so we went out for a family bike ride, our first in ages... perhaps the first since last summer in Whistler, Canada.

Just prior to taking the picture above, I discovered that it's possible – though not particularly easy, and certainly not becoming – to change the focus selector switch on a Nikon D700 body with your teeth. (I was riding a standard mamachari Japanese bicycle, which is inherently unstable, and so unlike the bikes I rode growing up, it's almost impossible to ride with no hands, so I had only one hand free to hold the camera.)

Anyway, it was just a wonderful day, with people out and about. You can see in the background of the next photo kids playing in the river, which has stepping stones running across...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62 mm — ¹/4000 sec, f/7.1, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hustle and Bustle of a Relaxing Sunday

We made our way to the grounds of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and found a nicely wooded trail to enjoy...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/7.1, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos

We'd brought along some lunch, so stopped at a nice, quiet area to eat. One of the benches was just an old, large, slab of wood:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 40 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Well Aged

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony and a Friend

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos

After lunch, and a game of catch with a baseball (Anthony's getting much better at catching with the mitt, something he did for the first time just last month.)

We then took off for another part of the Imperial-Palace grounds...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 35 mm — ¹/4000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sunny Day in Kyoto Gosho

We stopped when Anthony spotted a tree that he thought he could try to climb. He's pretty much a scaredy-cat when it comes to stuff like this, so I was happy he wanted to give it a try...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
A Bit Stuck

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/3.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Like a Cat

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/11, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Okay, This is High Enough for Me”

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/60 sec, f/22, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Return to Earth

We played catch a bit more, but met somewhat of a roadblock when the ball got caught high up in a huge evergreen with wide, thick branches. The roadblock became a bit more troublesome – and substantially more amusing – when the mitt I was throwing to try to dislodge the ball also got stuck.

Luckily, we had a small plastic bottle of water, which dislodged the mitt on the first try, and, with the mitt pressed back into service, we soon had the ball back as well.

I decided to take a break on the ground, and Anthony decided to take a break on me....

Photo by Fumie Friedl, with her cell phone

Eventually we moved off....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/4000 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
On The Move Again

... and ended up at the playground in the far corner of the grounds, where Anthony played on a huge fallen tree, and swung on a swing, and did other random assorted play.

Getting late, we headed home via a different route, passing over the Kamo river above the path near where the first picture of this post was taken...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/6400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Kamo River, North from Marutamachi Street
Kyoto, Japan

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While running Windows Update, I noticed that Internet Explorer version 8 is out. Apparently, IE8 is just a rebranded version Firefox 3! Who would'da known...

My reaction to their “these are not the droids you're looking for” attempt was to bypass it. Heck, I haven't even installed IE7.... but then again, why should I?.... I never use the IE6 that I do have.

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While putting Anthony down to bed last night, he claimed (incorrectly) that he wasn't tired, and so going to bed would be “boring”. We'd been in a large five-story toy store recently, so I suggested that he pass the time by imagining that he lived in the toy store...

It took me a moment to realize what his complaint was. He was worried that by the time he was old enough to actually be able to make his dream of living in a toy store come true, he would be too old to enjoy it.

Wise beyond his years.

I explained that it's possible to keep a kid's spirit alive in your heart as you grow into an adult. He liked that idea.