Archive for September, 2006

Pentax finally let everything loose about its new high-end Digital SLR camera, the K10D. Summed up, the beast has enough to fight directly the Nikon D200, the Canon 40D and other Sigma SD14 or Sony Alpha A100 (the latter being somewhat left behind, but it is widely available since last July).

Of course, it got a 10 mega-pixel-paint job, but - more importantly – if receives a powerful 22-bit A/D conversion chip that would announce exceptional Raw image quality output from the CCD sensor (let’s wait for the tests, but it should be impressive). We also are eagerly waiting for the results of the quality evaluation tests at the highest sensitivity (the K10D sports no less than 3200ISO!). The ever-needed image stabilisation system is included in the camera body (as already seen in the K100D) to bring from 2 to 4 stops of margin (here go the blurred images!); And the CCD sensor is cleaned by shaking it regularly.

However, the most interesting part (comparatively) seems to be the mechanical quality: Pentax annonces protection against water that could go from droplets to splash. Very nice indeed for pro-users and those who like to be able to bring their camera everywhere (dust and rain are welcome!).

Last but not least, the back screen is a 2.5″ LCD with a very large viewing angle, but this is becoming more common nowadays. Nonetheless, some will be surprised to find SD memory cards on a high-end camera while most high-end users are still thinking “Compact Flash” for all their memory storage.

All in all, a very good camera indeed that will feed the competition race starting at the Photokina fair and rushing for the end-of-year buying spree.

Sometimes, I like to browse what is appearing in the ads. Today, I noticed that the announcement of the new Digital SLR from Canon, the 40D replacement for the 20D/30D line, is driving prices down for the 30D.

If you want a good price, you can check by yourself, but I found the following offers for the Canon 30D:

• Royal Camera 579$
• CCI Camera city 575$
• Genius Cameras 575$

Posts about EOS 40D: EOS 40D initial scoop All of them

I cannot recommend specifically those US companies, but they seem to be known locally and they claim to have the camera in-stock. It looks like a sign of times: People are emptying the stocks of Canon 30D by crushing the prices.

Time to bargain-shop if you don’t need 10 mega-pixels? Or should you still wait for the next generation (maybe forever)?

It is said to be a good idea for any web site to use geolocalisation services. So, I added the little map you can find at the bottom right of the pages of this site (since today). It shows a map of Paris around our location.

What do you feel about this? A good idea? A bad idea? It’s your call.

I guess that such a title had you think that you would find the address of a pirate web site. But Universal announced the signature of a two-year deal with SpiralFrog : all the Universal catalog in free legal download. Two things are included in the deal (to explain it): The whole thing will be financed by advertisment (You can think that there may be a lot of it) ; Music titles will be protected by the Microsoft DRM solution (It’s worth noting that a few weeks ago a hacker announced a full crack to this; Up to now, it was merely a technical news flash).

Source: IT-wire.

My method is quite simple. So simple that, when my phone rings to ask if I’m the owner of my house or if I heard about the new regulation allowed by the IRS or related to my bank account, it can always be applied.

I quickly ask to be excused : ” Please, can you wait for a second? I won’t be long “.

Then, I just have to drop the phone on the table. It’s not too hard on my energy and it’s up to the friendly telemarketer to decide when he/she wants to stop talking to the kitchen table.

Ain’t it easy? Have you a better one?

If you are like me, organizing your CSS code is as difficult as understanding it. The Blog Herald has one neat post with tips about organizing and writing your CSS. I don’t know if it is perfect, but it already looks quite good.

This is the promise of Sony with its new VPL-VW50. It will soon be available and able to display in full glory 1080p television shows (the maximum resolution and quality of HDMI/HDCP for High Definition TV). But the real problem stays that the price will be over 6000$. I’m not yet ready to replace my good old VPL-CS1 (800×600 only); I was right when I bought a new replacement lamp instead of trying to change to a new model.

Posts about EOS 40D: EOS 40D initial scoop All of them

Here is a scoop again for digital single lens reflex cameras (D-SLR). Canon, after announcing its 400D (follower of the successful 350D) starts renovating the upper market segment. The EOS 30D seriously needed to freshen up a bit in view of the competition, this is what comes with the 40D.

• 10 mega-pixels (instead of 8MP)
• Sensor auto-cleaning (Canon decided to share it all over the digital SLR cameras)
• 9 point autofocus (coming from the 30D, already extended to the 350D; This won’t help the 40D to differentiate from the lowest segments)
• 5 frames per second (exactly like the 30D)
• Memory: Compact Flash (Not the “amateur-looking” SD like the Nikon D80)

Nothing Earth-shattering, but if, like me, you expect the very good image quality of the 20D and 30D (or better), you can expect a deep interest from the Canon lovers.

Source (and mockup photo) on: Fosfor.se.

Additional information in a more recent post.

On 19th August 2006, the French ship, Belem, enters the harbour of Bayonne. I went there to enjoy the show.

A few images with varying sizes and forms.

All images are Copyright (C) 2006 Yves Roumazeilles – All rights reserved.

On about all the versions of Microsoft Word the footers anre headers of a page can print wrongly (The footer may show either 5/1, or 5/5, instead of 5/22, for the fifth page of a 22-page document). It is a Word bug that is known on many different version of Word. Unfortunately, Microsoft did not think necessary to correct it despite the long history of this “feature”. So, it appears randomly on all the files text-processed by Word.

This bug is only present when printing (screen display, including “print preview”, is always correct; Which is a bit annoying and costly in printer consumables).

Possible avoidance maneuver

There are some containment solutions identified by Microsoft (to avoid the impact of the problem on your documents). Systematically, and independantly of the version of Word you use, you can:

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Ron Davis has a very nice picture of a baby fully ready to play in Dungeons & Dragons (or ready to be a NPC).

We are all in a capitalistic society where commercial companies are guided by their financial interest. A company in a monopolistic position is able to freely set its prices (at least, very independently from the consumers/customers whishes and market interests). I can’t do anything about this kind of situation, but it still opens a few possible practical approaches for me to act responsibly when I am on a buying spree for my computer equipment. 

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Some may believe that free movies and public domain films come only from low-budgets, B series (or Z series) and cheap cinematographic efforts. This is not always the case and, today, we want to stop at one movie with famous great actors and that can be easily loved by all in the family: “His Girl Friday“, a 1940 movie signed by nobody less than Howard Hawks and hosting stars like Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. These actors are shooting for stardom in this black and white romantic comedy.

Watching it, you may think about ” Arsenic and old laces ” that will be shot by Frank Capra four years later or about ” Bringing Up Baby ” shot two years before. All fans of Cary Grant need to go and download it right now. Such a movie should be in his/her video library for a long time.

Synopsis

Cary Grant is a daily newspaper publisher whose best reporter (Rosalind Russell) was also his wife. But they just broke out and divorced; Their interests will be set against each other opposing a quieter life in a new home (the young girl wants to marry again and create a family) and the adrenaline rush of newspaper scoops along with a lovesick man trying his best to conquest her again.

The plot contains a lot of those little surprises we love in any romantic comedy. It is a nice little sweet if you are ready to appreciate the best Hollywood had to offer during a troubled era of the 20th Century.

Ben Wilhelmi is a photographer I like a lot. He has a nice web site with galleries of powerful safari photos. All his images seem different, but they share an invariable personal requirement for quality.

With the final real actual end of Windows 98 support by Microsoft in the beginning of Summer 2006, those who are still using this Operating System (the great-grand-mother of the much more expensive Windows Vista) started worrying about how to obtain the needed software patches. For example, what would you do if, needing to re-install it, you’d like to apply all the available patches?

The answer comes directly from Microsoft on its sub-web site dedicated to Windows 98: http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/corporate.asp is home for all the critical patches for this OS. EAsily downloadable, I would advise you anyway to make a backup local copy to be sure that you’d still have it would Microsoft decide to remove it from the web site.

I do not report each and every little news about the upcoming Windows XP replacement. But today, we are learning that Microsoft marketing got one weird idea. Since they want Vista to show a “common, and beautiful, face to the world”, they decided that the music/sound provided by Microsoft as an opening sound for Windows Vista will be compulsory (you will not have any way to shut it down).

The RC1 test version already had the testers annoyed at this feature, but I can imagine some companies where, between 8:00 and 8:15, it will be an awful cacophony in the cubicles.

PDF Creator (the free open-source PDF production application) has moved to a new web site : PDFforge.