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Inside Microsoft's New Digital Photo Project

Posted by michael on from the wear-good-socks dept.

robyn217 writes "While Microsoft Research plays 'Big Brother' to a young hiker's trip across North America, it breaks new ground in digital photography by combining metadata, like location via GPS, with the image. Its online presence looks impressive as it displays digital photo albums on a map of the world, but it's slow and unwieldy for the most part and may not be better than a standard travelogue site. This week, I took a closer look at the project currently named the World-Wide Media eXchange (WWMX)."

12 of 239 comments (clear)

  1. 'plays Big Brother'? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They are the freaking sponsor! You make it sound like some grand conspiracy.

    1. Re:'plays Big Brother'? by DocDendrite · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You screwed up. You are part of the problem with /.not the solution.

      Dropping such a false and out-of-place jab in the story contributes to Slashdot's notoriety for biased reporting. We could blame the editors for approving your rediculous write-up but you deserve admonishment too.

      If you had just refrained and simply described the project in an objective way the comments section would no doubt be full of thanks and kudos for the relevant, interesting story.

      Way to go! pffffft.

    2. Re:'plays Big Brother'? by dasmegabyte · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Word. I don't see how this is any worse than, i dunno, OWNING a cell phone. In fact, I trust Microsoft more than I trust Verizon. Microsoft might have locked me indefinitely into an upgrade path, but they did it through enticing features and a massive application pool, not a mandatory contract. And Microsoft isn't allowed to charge me $175 to switch providers...

      --
      Hey freaks: now you're ju
  2. I bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...if a Linux-based solution was doing exactly the same thing terminology like 'big brother' would be nowhere to be found. I find your write-up to be double plus biased.

    1. Re:I bet... by sakshale · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree 100%

      I am not a fan of MicroSoft, but I am a fan of being truthful. The phrasing used in the announcement would have been flagged -1 TROLL or -1 FLAMEBAIT if I was moderating.

      MicroSoft's sponsoring of something like this is not something that we should condemn or flame. Sounds like it is the people at /. who operate the 'Ministry of Truth'.

      --
      For every problem there is a solution that is simple, obvious and wrong.
  3. Big Brother?! by bdigit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hardly.... They sponsored this guy and I think it's great that they are doing so. This is a wonderful project but since it's sponsored by Microsoft it's automatically evil?

  4. Re:Correlating Images and GPS data. by loserbert · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You forgot your close bracket:

    [/shameless-plug]

    --
    [ Don't reply to this ]
  5. WWMX by mobby_6kl · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Of course they couldn't call it WWME - World-Wide Media Exchange

  6. slashdoted... by kyoko21 · · Score: 0, Insightful

    hmm... web site running on ASP.net slashdotted.... this sure isn't good PR for asp.net. and MS is pushing asp.net for enterprise use? oh boy....

  7. Locating places... by thewiz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Over the years I've seen many pictures of places I'd like to visit (as I'm sure the rest of you have as well). IMHO, including GPS and other location metadata in a picture is a great idea! Now we'll know exactly where that beautiful water fall we want to visit is rather than just knowing that it's somewhere in Ecuador.

    The downside of this is that every tourist with a GPS can find places that are virtually unspoiled by man and end up spoiling them.

    --
    If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
  8. Re:Slow??? From Microsoft? You must be joking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Actually, that isn't the case for Microsoft Research at all. While the company itself may not use all of the contributions of MS Research, generally the group does some pretty innovative things. Most of the time. Unfortunately, very rarely does their work make it into their products, but when it does (like ClearType), it's usually pretty damn good.

  9. Re:Where do you want to go today? by JonTurner · · Score: 1, Insightful
    >>Just point at the picture you'd like to go to, and Microsoft will tell you exactly where it is.
    I think somebody on the implementation team needs to go back to the drawing board. Or out to the woodshed...

    From the web page: "our small server is unable to keep up with requests, and access to the WWMX itself maybe even slower than it usually is." [emphasis mine] Hmmm. Not exactly what I'd call a ringing endorsement of their server technology.

    A little examination of the header info tells us what we need to know...
    <title>World-Wide Media eXchange: WWMX</title>
    <meta content="Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 7.1" name="GENERATOR">
    <meta content="C#" name="CODE_LANGUAGE">
    Yep, I think that just about sums up the problem. It's a Win box, running IIS and .Net framework.

    "What can you do with a gazillion photos on a single database indexed by their location?"
    On a MSFT/IIS/.Net server? I dunno... pray that no more than a dozen people try to hit your web site at the same time?

    I know they meant the site to be a showcase of MSFT technology. Funny thing is that it is a showcase, just not in the way they intended.