(I mean, if your house is a listed building and you're not allowed to attach a satellite dish to it, why not build a parabolic antenna in your garden that also becomes a listed building? Bwuhahaha!)
I've got a Belkin Skype phone, which judging by pictures and reviews is nigh-onidentical to the SMC model - and while looking for updated, marginally less buggy firmware a while ago, I noticed that Belkin had 'GPL Downloads' available for their own product.
No idea what's included (there are two versions of a ~100MB.tgz), but there's definitely something.
Now to get the bloody thing to talk WPA to my (also Linux-based) router thingy...
Steam's a bit different - you can switch it to 'offline mode' (which happens automatically if it can't connect to the Steam servers), and it won't need to phone back again. You only need to be online to initially decrypt and update the game.
Plus there is nobody to tell me I can't have a beer during afternoon conference calls.
Also, the dress code is much more relaxed - in that clothes are entirely optional!
* prances *
Note: working from home can instil bad habits, such as the above. Remember that other, real offices may look down upon such behaviour, so do remember to wear clothes for external meetings...
I could be totally wrong here, but I was under the impression that digital cameras don't even have a shutter.
I don't actually know about point-and-shoots (I assume they don't have conventional shutters, what with all the live-preview stuff) - but digital SLRs most definitely do.
Actually, the best way to imagine a dSLR is as a film SLR, but with an image sensor taking the place of the film. The half-silvered, hinged mirror is still there for the viewfinder, as is the autofocus and metering gubbins arranged beneath it - on older dSLRs, the image sensor only gets to play when the mirror hinges up, blocking light from getting in through the viewfinder, and the shutter opens.
(Ever wondered what that funny rubber rectangle is on the camera strap? It's for putting over the viewfinder when you're about to take a long exposure - light getting in can confuse the metering system that's in front of the shutter...)
If it's anything like the 300D versus the 350D, they'll notice that people are hacking features back into the camera, and enable them by default on the newer model.
(Is there any alternative firmware for the 350D onwards, or have the hackers simply not bothered?)
I must say the practice of picking your Slashdot username from cheesy British science fiction TV of the 70s is totally lame, and betrays a pathetic obsession with nostalgia at the expense of personal development.
Ooer... there's my own WAD in there too. Five maps of single-player mayhem, for Doom 2. Released over nine years ago, which was pretty late by Doom standards...
If you want something a bit more modern, there's always this for Half-Life, and this for Half-Life 2: Episode One (Liverpool nil). Andsomereviews!
Re:Features i'd like before considering getting on
on
3G iPhone Expected in June
·
· Score: 2, Informative
My Sony Ericsson K750i has a decent flash.
You sure? My own Sony Ericsson K750i hasn't got a flash. It's got some naff white LEDs which light up, but they're on continuously - it's definitely not got a conventional, camera-style xenon flash tube.
Not that I care, of course - flash photography is the spawn of the devil. And is why I spend a bit too much on fancy, low-light lenses for my Canon dSLR...;-)
Btw Ada is n't that bad a language, but does n't guarentee success. I remember being told that an Ariene rocket that exploded mid flight was written in Ada, the cause was a overflowing integer.
But the main reason I personally still much prefer Photoshop over the GIMP, is the fact that Adobe pays enormous attention to detail. Resizing of images is done with bicubic interpolation, the GIMP has only the far poorer cubic interpolation.
Say what? In this case 'cubic' is being used as a synonym for 'bicubic' - the 'bi' is just referring to it being done on a two-dimensional image. It's probably more correct to refer to it as bicubic interpolation, but it's the same algorithm being used.
Having said that, recent versions of The GIMP will also do Lanczos resampling - arguably a far better interpolation algorithm. (Personally, I found it a bit too good at preserving detail when scaling down images, so I'd often stick to cubic interpolation...)
Use a recent version. Point number two is definitely fixed (by default, image windows have a conventional menu bar at the top) - and point number one has been worked on. A lot.
Actually, if his camera has a Bayer filter over the image sensor, they quite probably are 12 bits per pixel - they're interpolated to something more appropriately RGB afterwards. Until then, they're just red OR green OR blue. Not a combination!
If you're loading raw files into the GIMP, they go through the not-half-bad UFRaw loader. I'm not sure what sort of precision that uses internally, but it's pretty high - on a par with Photoshop's raw loader. Correct the basic contrast and curves in the loader, then it'll be way closer to what's needed when downsampling to 8-bits-per-channel. If you still get banding problems after that, then either your camera suffers from no noise whatsoever, or your photo's stuffed and you need to take a new one. Learn how to use a camera?
(I have had pretty nasty banding effects in some images I was editing due to the GIMP's eight-bit limitations - but these where some pretty borderline cases involving very smooth gradients in skies generated in Terragen. Personally, I'm looking forwards to being able to create some proper, HDR skyboxes with Photoshop - but 32-bits-per-channel colour is a bit ridiculous otherwise...;-) )
You forgot "no interface elements that aren't batshit insane."
Yeah, like changing a simple right-click on a layer, then 'Alpha to selection' to 'Select', 'Load Selection...', then selecting the appropriate document and channel from no-preview combo-boxes...
The GIMP's batshit insane, but Photoshop is as loopy as a teapot. Their particular modes of madness simply aren't entirely compatible - The GIMP is definitely pretty bad in places, but for the life of me I can't figure out how Photoshop is supposed to be infinitely superior from a user interface point of view.
I must admit that I still really like The GIMP's perspective correction tool - Photoshop's got better distortion tools, but they won't run backwards. Unlike the crop tool's perspective correction, which has no handy grid-lines visible. There's the lens correction filter, but that's really fiddly. But is brilliant at removing barrel distortion from texture references - something that's a real arse in The GIMP.
Drawing tools? I really like how the hold-shift-to-draw-a-straight-line works in The GIMP. Click somewhere, undo to remove that splodge, hold shift down and it'll preview a fine line from where you clicked to the current cursor position. Click somewhere, and it'll draw a line with the current drawing tool. Hold down control-shift, and it'll lock to particular angles.
Photoshop? Click, undo to remove that splodge, ARSE! it's forgotten where I clicked. Okay... Leave that initial splodge, hold down shift, NO FINE PREVIEW LINE!, click somewhere, oops wrong place for that line, undo, ARSE AGAIN! it's forgotten where I wanted to draw the line from!
With Photoshop, it's really easy to set up guides for your simple, shadowy lines on yer textures - but I still like The GIMP's way of doing it.
Actually, The GIMP's handling of alpha channels is a bit more sensible - right up until the point it merrily decides to discard colour information from completely transparent pixels. As part of an 'optimisation', albeit one that only gets invoked with certain operations. So it's very easy to completely destroy your texture, unless you keep to a strict, undocumented set of operations.
Photoshop's alpha handling is plain weird in places, but it's a bit more predictable...
From the release notes: "With the help of the UI team, the Toolbox menu has been merged into the image window. GIMP now always keeps an image window open and the default configuration treats the toolbox and docks as utility windows."
Well, they're doing something about it - although I much preferred the previous way of doing things. It was almost RISC OS-like in its simplicity - context-sensitive menus only!;-)
As for the article linked by Slashdot, was it just me who got a noisy advert? I heard my earphones muttering about some sort of business opportunities while they were sat on the desk...
ISP's are ultimately going to have to go to a model like cellphone contracts. 100 GB per month (or whatever). After that your bandwidth drops off or you pay for the overage, depending on your plan.
My current ISP's doing pretty much just that - 15GB in the basic monthly ADSL cost, and 50 cents per gigabyte after that.
It's all summarised on my phone bill, too - it is a mobile phone company, after all...
Slashdot Mirror
That's not a big dish, this is a big dish!
(I mean, if your house is a listed building and you're not allowed to attach a satellite dish to it, why not build a parabolic antenna in your garden that also becomes a listed building? Bwuhahaha!)
At today's exchange rates, £600 is about $1,173.15. How old are your figures?
I've got a Belkin Skype phone, which judging by pictures and reviews is nigh-on identical to the SMC model - and while looking for updated, marginally less buggy firmware a while ago, I noticed that Belkin had 'GPL Downloads' available for their own product.
.tgz), but there's definitely something.
No idea what's included (there are two versions of a ~100MB
Now to get the bloody thing to talk WPA to my (also Linux-based) router thingy...
For the record, this is what a healthy platter looks like.
Steam's a bit different - you can switch it to 'offline mode' (which happens automatically if it can't connect to the Steam servers), and it won't need to phone back again. You only need to be online to initially decrypt and update the game.
Also, the dress code is much more relaxed - in that clothes are entirely optional!
* prances *
Note: working from home can instil bad habits, such as the above. Remember that other, real offices may look down upon such behaviour, so do remember to wear clothes for external meetings...
I don't actually know about point-and-shoots (I assume they don't have conventional shutters, what with all the live-preview stuff) - but digital SLRs most definitely do.
Actually, the best way to imagine a dSLR is as a film SLR, but with an image sensor taking the place of the film. The half-silvered, hinged mirror is still there for the viewfinder, as is the autofocus and metering gubbins arranged beneath it - on older dSLRs, the image sensor only gets to play when the mirror hinges up, blocking light from getting in through the viewfinder, and the shutter opens.
(Ever wondered what that funny rubber rectangle is on the camera strap? It's for putting over the viewfinder when you're about to take a long exposure - light getting in can confuse the metering system that's in front of the shutter...)
Many older Canon cameras run VxWorks, apparently - and only recently have they moved on to something entirely of Canon's own devising...
I think the 450D has a live preview feature - so not exactly through the viewfinder, but a live histogram would be a funky addition.
Assuming it doesn't have it already - I'm happy with my old 350D.
If it's anything like the 300D versus the 350D, they'll notice that people are hacking features back into the camera, and enable them by default on the newer model.
(Is there any alternative firmware for the 350D onwards, or have the hackers simply not bothered?)
I'm reminded of this - Mac OS X running on a Centris 650. 68MB RAM, 25MHz 68040.
No, not even a PowerPC processor. Fully software emulation.
Running? Well, booting. Sort of. Excruciatingly, glacially slowly!
Nerd! Neeeeerd!
Oh, wait.
Goat-Skin+RW is still attached to the goat, so the burn-marks heal sooner or later - thus allowing data to be rewritten.
Clever, eh?
Ooer ... there's my own WAD in there too. Five maps of single-player mayhem, for Doom 2. Released over nine years ago, which was pretty late by Doom standards...
... some bonus Quake!
If you want something a bit more modern, there's always this for Half-Life, and this for Half-Life 2: Episode One (Liverpool nil). And some reviews!
Aaaand
Ahem. That's quite enough links, I reckon!
You sure? My own Sony Ericsson K750i hasn't got a flash. It's got some naff white LEDs which light up, but they're on continuously - it's definitely not got a conventional, camera-style xenon flash tube.
Not that I care, of course - flash photography is the spawn of the devil. And is why I spend a bit too much on fancy, low-light lenses for my Canon dSLR...
Sarah Connor?
I was wondering if anyone would mention that - the first non-flight of the Ariane 5 booster.
It's possible to program bugs in any real programming language...
My Google-fu wins all!
MARS.EXE, which I'm about to try in DosBox...
Say what? In this case 'cubic' is being used as a synonym for 'bicubic' - the 'bi' is just referring to it being done on a two-dimensional image. It's probably more correct to refer to it as bicubic interpolation, but it's the same algorithm being used.
Having said that, recent versions of The GIMP will also do Lanczos resampling - arguably a far better interpolation algorithm. (Personally, I found it a bit too good at preserving detail when scaling down images, so I'd often stick to cubic interpolation...)
Screenshots or it didn't happen!
Oh wait. The GIMP, Photoshop CS3. Behold some passing similarities!
Use a recent version. Point number two is definitely fixed (by default, image windows have a conventional menu bar at the top) - and point number one has been worked on. A lot.
Actually, if his camera has a Bayer filter over the image sensor, they quite probably are 12 bits per pixel - they're interpolated to something more appropriately RGB afterwards. Until then, they're just red OR green OR blue. Not a combination!
;-) )
If you're loading raw files into the GIMP, they go through the not-half-bad UFRaw loader. I'm not sure what sort of precision that uses internally, but it's pretty high - on a par with Photoshop's raw loader. Correct the basic contrast and curves in the loader, then it'll be way closer to what's needed when downsampling to 8-bits-per-channel. If you still get banding problems after that, then either your camera suffers from no noise whatsoever, or your photo's stuffed and you need to take a new one. Learn how to use a camera?
(I have had pretty nasty banding effects in some images I was editing due to the GIMP's eight-bit limitations - but these where some pretty borderline cases involving very smooth gradients in skies generated in Terragen. Personally, I'm looking forwards to being able to create some proper, HDR skyboxes with Photoshop - but 32-bits-per-channel colour is a bit ridiculous otherwise...
Yeah, like changing a simple right-click on a layer, then 'Alpha to selection' to 'Select', 'Load Selection...', then selecting the appropriate document and channel from no-preview combo-boxes...
The GIMP's batshit insane, but Photoshop is as loopy as a teapot. Their particular modes of madness simply aren't entirely compatible - The GIMP is definitely pretty bad in places, but for the life of me I can't figure out how Photoshop is supposed to be infinitely superior from a user interface point of view.
I must admit that I still really like The GIMP's perspective correction tool - Photoshop's got better distortion tools, but they won't run backwards. Unlike the crop tool's perspective correction, which has no handy grid-lines visible. There's the lens correction filter, but that's really fiddly. But is brilliant at removing barrel distortion from texture references - something that's a real arse in The GIMP.
Drawing tools? I really like how the hold-shift-to-draw-a-straight-line works in The GIMP. Click somewhere, undo to remove that splodge, hold shift down and it'll preview a fine line from where you clicked to the current cursor position. Click somewhere, and it'll draw a line with the current drawing tool. Hold down control-shift, and it'll lock to particular angles.
Photoshop? Click, undo to remove that splodge, ARSE! it's forgotten where I clicked. Okay
With Photoshop, it's really easy to set up guides for your simple, shadowy lines on yer textures - but I still like The GIMP's way of doing it.
Actually, The GIMP's handling of alpha channels is a bit more sensible - right up until the point it merrily decides to discard colour information from completely transparent pixels. As part of an 'optimisation', albeit one that only gets invoked with certain operations. So it's very easy to completely destroy your texture, unless you keep to a strict, undocumented set of operations.
Photoshop's alpha handling is plain weird in places, but it's a bit more predictable...
From the release notes: "With the help of the UI team, the Toolbox menu has been merged into the image window. GIMP now always keeps an image window open and the default configuration treats the toolbox and docks as utility windows."
Well, they're doing something about it - although I much preferred the previous way of doing things. It was almost RISC OS-like in its simplicity - context-sensitive menus only!
As for the article linked by Slashdot, was it just me who got a noisy advert? I heard my earphones muttering about some sort of business opportunities while they were sat on the desk...
My current ISP's doing pretty much just that - 15GB in the basic monthly ADSL cost, and 50 cents per gigabyte after that.
It's all summarised on my phone bill, too - it is a mobile phone company, after all...