News

January 2006

My own Corel PhotoPaint configuration: How do I configure Corel PhotoPaint v9 for my own hardware and in order to get the best possible photo prints.

How to accelerate eMule+ under Windows 98: For P2P, eMule+ is a good software application, but Windows 98 was not created for this task. How to get the maximum output from your eMule downloads.

Icon's war story: If you have some free time to spend in front of your computer screen (Hey! It's January and it's cold out here), just go and watch this Icon's story. It will tell you all about what's happening on your computer desktop when you do not look and explains why it is sometimes very difficult to start your computer again after you left it sleeping (so it seems).

The cheapest photo camera: It's what was offered by a Communist Czechoslovakia magazine providing the blueprints of a cut-out paper camera. Of course, for the lens, there was no other choice than a pin hole. It worked and it was dirt cheap (much cheaper than today's dear Digital SLR).

Dirkon ABC

Produce PDF file without installing software: It is so easy! Just go to the GoHTM.com web site. They sell the easy PDF Printer Driver software but they also present an online demonstration that simply takes your file, transforms it into a PDF file and sends it back to you in an email message. It's simple. It's free. You don't need to change your software.

Record label defends accused file-swapper against the RIAA: RIAA is the Record Industry Association of America, the most powerful association of disk/music industry in the US of A. It is also the one that sues thousands of American consumers for swapping music files on the Internet. The record label is Nettwerk Records (Canada) that decided to pay the legal bills of one family caught in this nightmare of being asked to cough 9000$ to avoid legal action.

You could think this is weird. As a mater of fact, Nettwerk Records explains that this is simply normal and that, opposite to what the RIAA (or its European counterparts), these hurt-the-consumer tactics goes against the interests of the music industry itself. This is what hundred of thousands of Internet users and thousands of artists say: hunting down hundred of thousands of your customers cannot be good for the business, gives ideas to those who did not already thought about downloading and handicap burgeoning legal download business.

RAID system (2/2): Yet another good paper about this solution for securing your hard disc systems from Tom's Hardware (US) titled "Acard's Small Business RAID Appliance".

RAID system (1/2): I have had some thoughts about no longer using optical media like CD-R or DVD-R (see my recent article) and replacing it altogether with hard disc drives. However, this is not completely solving the issue of reliability and long term stability. For this, I started investigating the RAID system solution. To get a very first idea of what can be done with several SATA discs, you could have a look at this nice article from Tom's Hardware (US) titled "SATA Spells Trouble for SCSI RAID: Five Controllers Put to the Test".

CompactDrive, unexplained minor incident: I really don't know where this comes from, but I recently noticed that Windows 98 was convinced that 45GB (out of a total of 55GB in my CompactDrive PD70x) were already used. This had the unwelcome and surprising effect of limiting the disk capacity to about 10GB.

Without really understading the origin of this, I prefered not to investigate but to immediately format the hard disc drive again (connecting my PD70X to Windows 98 and calling the Microsoft formatting utility). Things are now back to normal.

All about OKI printers: This is more or less what you can find on the web site of the printer manufacturer OKI in its OKI Technical Review; Very technical pages about the technology used for the printers of this Japanese manufacturer. Sometimes, reading is difficult (because of the technical level), but the details can be thoroughly interesting.

After Minolta disappearance, what about Minolta owners? The question has to be answered after this shocking pre-PMA press release. First, Sony - within the scope of an agreement published at the same time as the withdrawal of Konica-Minolta - will provide technical support and maintenance for the photographic business. Also Sony will develop Digital SLRs compatible with the Minolta AF lens mount.

Thus, we will not be left alone in the desert (no need to run imediately to the shop and the Canon or Nikon catalogs), but it is yet unclear what energy and what innovations Sony will really bring to a market already very competitive. The first Sony products are expected in the Summer 2006. So, their presentation will certainly be observed with keen eyes as the best source of real information about the future.

If there is no need to flee from Minolta right now, I cannot advise to invest significant money into Minolta-compatible hardwar before knowing where Sony will lead. Personally, I will not buy a new lens this year (I do not want to take the risk of regretting such a purchase if, in 2007 or in 2008, I was forced to think about a new/different brand for my photographic hobby). In the mean time, the happy owners of a Dynax/Maxxum 7D or of a Dynax/Maxxum 5D can still use it with great pleasure. The bolders ones could observe a probable price fall for second-hand lenses in the coming months (opportunities?).

Shocking news for the Minolta lovers: Oh no! After discreetly removing itself from the Canadian market in 2005, Konica-Minolta just announced its full retreat from the photography market in March 2006 (in order to concentrate its activities onto office equipment - printers and copiers). Major lay-offs coming (3500 people) and thousands of photo lovers who had hoped to see the Maxxum 7D and the Maxxum 5D drawing the blue brand out of economic quagmire.

Press release

CDs and DVDs, this is not a life long romance: I told so a few weeks ago in these same pages (Recover lost files on CD or DVD). Now, Kurt Gerecke, an expert from IBM Germany, speaks up and tells the awful truth on ComputerWorld: Burned CD and DVD: limited life span around 2-5 years.

The North Star isn't simple: Yes! We just learned from a detailed observation by a fine telescope that it is actually a triple star. And, for once, nobody could accuse the Hubble space telescope to have a fuzzy view.

Panoramic photographies of Hervé Sentucq: A guy who takes great outdoor photos in this nice wide image format. You have to go there and visit if you like panoramas.

Click here to enlarge

Small improvements in version 2 of Open Office: In a few words, I would like to remind you of a few of the new advantages of version 2.0.1 of Open Office (the free desktop suite I prefer to replace advantageously the very famous Microsoft Office) :

Saving files seems (to me) a little faster than before. It may be a consequence of the new file format, I'm not sure.
An old internationalization problem left in the management of the decimal point (a coma in Frnehc, a point in English), that was really annoying, prevented an easy language choice and the smooth use of the numeric keypad, finally disappeared even when (like this writer) you mix a little too many of the national versions of software programs.
National dictionaries is still not integrated to the normal install, but this is acceptable.
Finally, the graphic icons are nicer and more modern than in the past (it was long overdue).

Many other advantages, but these ones are those I consider the best recent additions (liked to the newest version v2.0.x).

How motherboards are made? If you already asked yourself this technical question, the PCstats.com web stats presents you a guided tour of the Gigabyte factory in Nan-Ping (Taiwan) displaying a very large number of photos. You will not always have the opportunity to do this kind of walk-through.

Nikon Nikon leaves analog photo: This is exactly what must be understood from the press release published by Nikon UK on the 11th January (and available on DPreview). All the silver/analog photo cameras will see their manufacturing stopped and sales will only continue while stocks last (estimated: until 2006). Only the F6 will still be sold in Europe and the manual FM10 elsewhere.

All kinds of boot diskettes: Some software applications and Operating Systems request to build a boot diskette. Sometimes, you don't know how to do this. A web site says it all: BootDisk.com.

Bad surprises from Vista: Let's summarize what is known about the bad news coming from the Vista front (the new replacement of Microsoft Windows). I think that you may discover you are deeply interested if you want to buy a new computer or new computer parts.

You will need a 3GHz CPU and 1GB or RAM memory (generally, Microsoft is a bit optimistic and this should be considered as a bare minimum). It was more or less expected.
You will need a graphic video card compatible with Direct X10. Not a lot of them available today, but mid-range and high-end models from ATI and nVidia should meet this requirement (with updated drivers).
Internal documents at Microsoft show that it's better not to use an nVidia graphics card if you want to have access to all Vista features (ATI is the only choice right now). It will change, for sure, but today we only know that you must expect nVidia limitations in displays, transparencies, etc. This week in Las Vegas CES show, Microsoft used 99% ATI-based demonstration machines without additional public comments or public explanations.

HDCP = High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection

To take advantage of high quality video display, you will need an HDCP-compatible motherboard. They are not common, but the first ones arrive on the market. If you have to buy a motherboard, check this. If you bought it more than 6 months ago, it is not compatible (whatever CPU you chose).
To take advantage of high quality video display, you will need an HDCP-compatible graphics card and an HDCP-compatible screen. The only problem: You can't buy one (the first compatible screens are expected soon but prices are unkonwn). Contrary to what most sales people tell you, it is simply a bad investment to buy a new LCD screen, a new Trinitron display or a new graphics/video card for your PC; If you want to re-use it in six months with your new Vista, you loose. You'll only see low resolution videos (when available).
If you have a dezonned old DVD on your PC, Vista will not support it. If, like me, you have a DVD collection coming partly from the US (zone 1), partly from Europe (zone 2), you can expect the worse even with a new DVD drive.

XiaoXaio dojo: The surprising cute little graphic animés of a stick man living epic martian arts battles on your screen.

F u t u r e M e . O r g : Funny little service offered by FutureMe.Org, send an email in the future. You write a message, provide an electronic address and a date of sending. On the preset day, FutureMe.Org will send the message. You can write yourself in the future...

DRM #21 (Google): Google announced this week in Las Vegas a new service of Internet video sale. After Apple iTunes, this service may transform the market because Google opens it to all (they merely provide a technical infrastructure, a new DRM-based copyright technology and a 30% fee on all transactions).

Success is not garanteed yet (in front of Apple and Microsoft solutions) but fires up a lot of questions about the consequences of a DRM-based copyright protection system that will - again - reduce the consumer rights to private copy. But Google insists on the fact this technical solution is not compulsory (and some vendors already announced that they would even provide free download of some TV programs in the first 24h before going to pay-per-view).

Energy savings? A fast Flash card: One of the easy ways for the digital photographer to use electrical energy sparingly is to have fast memory cards. A Transcend CompactFlash 1GB 80x as I just bought, takes about half the time to read or write as my older Transcend CompactFlash 1GB 43x.

CompactDrive, it's so easy: While I just decided myself for a photo safari in the Southern Kenya (along the Mara river), I can confirm that the CompactDrive PD70X is really simple to use. The nicest touch is certainly the one hand operation for copying a CompactFlash card onto the internal disk drive while checking the progress on the green LED on the side.

Jacques Chirac wants P2P but not its software tools: Not very clear that warm declaration from the French President. He joins the debate about P2P and Internet downloads just when the MPs will start talking about music downloading again (a place where he was not expected - he previously misnamed a mouse as a rat or "mulot"). At least, he pushes the idea that the interest of the user should be taken into account.

Priority: Chinese market: This the rightful conclusion of observing that Microsoft just admitted censoring the blog of a Chinese journalist upon request by the Chinese authorities who did not like whistle blowing about corruption. Another company had led the way in ensuring that the Chinese laws and regulations are applied to the letter: Yahoo! had accepted to deliver the contents of email exchanges of another Chinese journalist (no sweat, just do not think about the consequences for the guy ni a country where freedom of expression is only tolerated on Tienanmen square : 10 years in prison for the Internet user).

What's freedom of a single man when you have to conquer such a wonderul market? Soviet dissidents were happy having to deal only with Staline police and not the companies of the capitalist world.

Sony launches an electronic book: (Information from the CES in Las Vegas) Finally! The Librié (the electronic book by Sony) is about to be publicly and globally launched (it was already available in Japan) around 300-400$. Good news because the screen in fabulously nice and readable; Bad news because the e-books are protected against copy which is a very bad omen looking at the way Sony BMG does in this domain.

Dynax 5D, Dynax 7D and Linux: This is a very workable combination for the digital photographer who wants to handle his images with open source software, even if this may come as a surprise for some. Here is how: "Dynax/Maxxum 5D and Linux" (updated).

Are you afraid of height? I hope not if you intend to go and visit in 2006 the latest attraction being built in the Grand Canyon (The Grand Canyon sky walk over the Colorado river). Yes! some half-mad scientists and architects are currently finishing the enormous glass walk over 4000 feet of emptiness.

All measures have been taken to make this secure (so they say!), but you can be sure that the sheer altitiude is a real warantee that your legs will be less strong than for the usual walk from the mall to the car park.

The oldest domain names: It's been years that you can choose your own domain name. It is easy to register, easy to forget and loose a name. What are the oldest domain names? Roumazeilles.net is not in the list...

CompactDrive software upgrade: after my study of portable storage devices, I want to inform the users of the CompactDrive PD70X that a new firmware is available on the manufacturer's web site.

Million dollar home page: It's a mighty crazy advertisement idea. The guy is selling a million pixels of ads at the rate of 1$ per pixel. It's so weird that it works.

I'm bluffed by this vacuum cleaner: If you follow this link, you will be able to epxeriment with the options at the top of the page (click on the GO! button and look).

Thanks Xtian! You're not a sucker...

Looking for a T-shirt? Then, you will certainly appreciate my Personalized T-shirt bookmarks page. You will discover that you can have nearly any kind of apparel and hardware imprinted with your colours, your digital image or your photo.

Industrial sites abandoned to photography: Last year, I presented here Abandoned-Britain.com; Here is another similar web site but for industrial American sites: Abandoned photography. A new weird occasion to meet interesting photographs.

Public Domain Torrents: A web site where one can find downloadable movies (using a P2P Bittorrent software program) but, this time, they are public domain movies (so download is legal and the MPAA has nothing to look into). Old movies indeed.

Furthermore, they are encoded using DivX, and there special downloads for your PDA.

Thank you all! You flocked to this web site in 2005: More than 80,000 visits over all the year. Maybe it will be more than 100,000 in 2006. Your email messages are welcome.

Joyeux Noë et bonne année

News

January 2006

Other links

Others

News archives

Roum'shop

Contents

Bookmarks

SpamAnti.net

Other sites