Archive for January, 2007

If you regularly read the news on this site, you know that I am not fully in favor of buying an OS software that could well be more expensive than the computer holding it (more than 500€ for the richer version of Vista). But I did not expect the announcement made by Alex St. John, chief executive of video game producer WildTangent.

Security went to the front line while developing Vista (who could complain?), but this comes against functionality. And video games are definitely sensitive applications because they include so many different functions. In-game saving may become difficult with the presence of the Rights Management feature of Vista, game network features will soon become a nightmare and ESRB video game classification (allowing total control for parents over what their children can or can’t do on their computer) has decided to deny games already installed or not yet rated (the vast majority).

Again: I advise you not to rush to install the yet-to-be-sweetened Vista…

Origin: TG daily.

For those of you who want to know where technology-based content protection is naturally leading:

Thanks to XKCD.

In the spotlight: Sony Alpha 900 Canon EOS 5D Mk II Nikon D700 FX Download Nero for free

Wallpapers? You’re probably wondering how I could drop as low as writing about a wallpaper website. Usually they are either bad and ugly, or ridden with so many ads that you can’t find the wallpapers. Usually, they are both at the same time.

Now there is a change. Digital Blasphemy is the web site of Ryan Bliss, a real 3D artist using the best rendering software and a very imaginative mind. The result? Amazingly beautiful images that bring a brand new colour to your desktop.

It just happens that these images make glorious wallpapers.

Most wallpapers are available in many different resolutions to ensure top-quality whatever happens. Some are completely free to download.

Sometimes, it is a bit difficult to identify the difference between two digital cameras. But, when it comes to fast mechanics, it is easy to hear and see the difference between an entry-level amateur camera like the Nikon D70 or D80 and the professional camera of a Nikon D2X. Just look for yourself.

Thanks to TomPolen.

Going from one version to the newest for a software program like WordPress that I rely upon to operate this web site is not necessarily difficult, but it is always a bit safer to work smoothly, orderly and slowly rather than rushing into the dark.

I started by updating all the plugins I use to enhance WordPress. After checking that they were compatible with WP2.1 or that they had a new version compatible with it, I went and downloaded them before installing them one after the other. I could immediately detect an issue with WP-Polls and I invalidated it after a few seconds to secure the quality of the visits (knowing that there us not yet any online polls, it wouldn’t create problems for the visitors).

Then, from a safe situation, I could download WordPress v2.1 and install it separately. Importantly enough, there are plenty of details about how to make a safe upgrade, right in the download page.

Following the instructions was fairly fail-safe and, apart from a minute of file uploading, there was no real impact on the operation.

I believe that each and every Excel user already met the case where they open a file to receive a message dialog box announcing that there is a macro in the file and asking whether or not Excel should allow its execution. Unfortunately, in 99% of the cases, there is actually no macro and you may wonder how to stop this message (whatever you answer to the dialog box, it will come again and again).

But, today, I bring you the answer, the solution, the way out. (more…)

It may be only an oddity, but didn’t you already wondered where exactly lied the oil of Arab countries? Maybe not, but here is anyway the map of oil and gas around the Persian Gulf.

Some of you may have already seen it on TV or in a theater, but here comes to Google the work of Picasso painting. All is converted into a time-lapse video that gives a very nice feeling about how the great painter was working.

Flying bees shot in macrophoto on BeeDreams.com.

Some people seem to have wondered what plugins I am using to extend the basic functionality of WordPress. So here goes the list:

• AdSense Deluxe to help me handle Google AdSense advertising and some table inclusions in the posts.
• Akismet to protect Roumazeilles.net against comment SPAM.
• WP-email to allow users to email a copy of posts.
• WP-Polls to include polls on the site (may not be ready yet when this is published; Be patient).
• Keywords to ease the management of these meta tags in posts.
• WP-DB-Backup to allow easy backups of the web site database.

Plenty of others are available, but those one make the great WordPress much better on my web site.

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

This time, this is for sure. Canon leaked information about the new D-SLR on its Hong-Kong web site. No technical data (only an empty page with the interesting name), but the name is now confirmed. We are probably only a few hours/days from real data coming from Canon.

After less than 24 hours, Canon replaced the contents with a good old description of the EOS 400D.

You certainly heard about this most-symbolic meal of Japanese culture. They are probably nearly all what we, Westerners, know about Japanese food. However, I offer you to discover -or re-discover- them through a video -dubbed in Japanese- that will make their taste ring under the discreet humor of Japanese people.

Where I live, we are currently renovating the four lifts that bring the tenants to one of the 30 floors. The new lifts are bright and shiny with one little gadget included at the last minute in the price negociation by the lowest bidder: An LCD display in the wall of each lift cabin to show news of the owners syndicate.

All is well, but there is one little odd behaviour I observed these days. Many people (and I mean MANY) while looking at the display, currently showing the desktop of a Windows XP computer, have a common reflex: They lift a finger to touch the screen and check if the screen has tactile input.

Isn’t it interesting to note that so many people of all ages would think it the most easily conceivable behaviour for a Windows LCD screen? I assumed that the vast majority of them do not own a touch-sensitive display, but I am now reconsidering this position. Probably, touch screens are really becoming part of our lives. And if you see some computer output on a flat screen embedded somewhere it is a safe assumption that there will be some interaction with the user and it will go through some kind of touch screen input.

We did live a real social revolution through technology in the last 20 years, didn’t we?

Great news for the WordPress community of bloggers and web site designers: WordPress 2.1 is available for download. This is really a significant upgrade to one of the most successful blog-and-CMS software applications (the one I use for Roumazeilles.net). New features include (my own selection of the good things):

• A new tabbed editor allows you to switch between WYSIWYG and code editing instantly while writing a post.
• The lossless XML import and export makes it easy for you to move your content between WordPress blogs.
• You can set any “page” to be the front page of your site, and put the latest posts somewhere else, making it much easier to use WordPress as a content management system.
• The upload manager lets you easily manage all your uploads pictures, video, and audio.
• Comment feeds now include all the comments, not just the last 10.
• A new version of the Akismet plugin is bundled.
• Redesigned login screen from the Shuttle project.
• More AJAX to make custom fields, moderation, deletions, and more all faster.
• Our admin has been refreshed to load faster and be more visually consistent.
• Much more efficient database code, faster than previous versions. Domas Mituzas from MySQL went over all our queries with a fine-toothed comb.
• Better internationalization and support for right-to-left languages.

It seems all great (and it is). However, I want to stress that existing WordPress 1.x blogs should not jump immediately into the new version. The main reason for being cautious is the unavailability of new versions of some of the plug-ins your site may be using. In my case, I will need a little more time for the transition.

Full details.

Everybody told you that 2007 will be the year to upgrade your PC configuration. But usually, this is supposedly because of the arrival of Windows Vista. I beg to differ. You can forget about Vista, but the upcoming games of 2007 will be a very good reason to shoot your old hardware down. 2007 will be shock-full with good new games.

Left 4 Dead

Zombie? You said Zombie! As a matter of fact, you will have to fight against zombies (dead corpses still willing to hunt you down til you drop… dead). You are 4 survivors (hence the name ) in a post-apocalyptic world that is turned into a hunting ground for… zombies (and you are the ones running). If it was only that we could forget about it until it comes to cheap packages later in 2008, but Valve (of Half-Life fame) also participated. It could well be a fever-paced game. But let’s not forget that the recipe for a game like Left 4 Dead can easily turn to hardly interesting or plain boring, and the characters could become too caricatural to believe into them. Ah yes! One last detail: There is no chance of seeing any ‘no-violence’ option button here. You come here to fight and fight dirty.

Announced for… I’m not sure.

Bioshock

Who could really say what this video game will be in the end? Basically, this is a classical FPS game but the developers inserted so much flexibility in the player actions and the non-player intelligence that you will not risk facing a rectilinear scenario. There should also be some part of role-playing. Weirdly, the first comparisons that pop to my mind when thinking about Bioshock are: the old DeusEx, SystemShock or even Oblivion. In any case, be ready for a Science-Fiction setup. The adversaries will be varied (very). The environements, too (Do you know how to fight under water?)

There is a risk left with the decision to launch simultaneously the game for PC and XBox360. On the one hand, it may create an impossible technical task; On the other, it may lead to a very simplified game with a poor gaming experience from trying to meet all specifications at the same time.

Project Offset

At best for the end of 2007: (it seems that Offset Software, its creator, did not yet secure a worldwide producer/distributor for the project), this game made me think about good-old Daikatana. It is a game where you won’t get fire arms but, in this medieval-fantasy setup, you will be loaded with cutting/slashing/butchering swords and knives. Images look simply stunning. But who knows what kind of hardware will be needed?

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl

Here is my sweet spot: A game on the drawing board for more time than a female elephant gestation, promising to render an extraordinary atmosphere out of the usual scope of gamers like us (The player is sent to the no-mans-land of post-Chernobyl-accident, ready to experiment a real paranoia in the supposedly empty zone). Probably no risk on the hardware side: The developers kept pace with the news in graphics hardware but do not intend to blow the current PC out of the water. It would be -at last- a really innovating setup for FPS, but will it appear in 2007? Latest news say 22 March…

Crysis

Everybody speaks about this sequel to FarCry. Everybody is waiting impatiently. Crysis: Action, exotic setup, graphic orgy, artificial intelligence. Don’t run short of the expectations, guys! (The aim is set high by Crytek which wants to better itself after the already excellent FarCry). We already understand that the hardware requirements will be between high and very-high in today’s terms. Since the game is no longer expected for the first half of 2007, the required level will probably be more acceptable then.

Conclusion

More than one of these titles will appear late, for sure. Some may even miss 2007 and be pushed into 2008 (missing completely the Christmas marketing window) even though they have been anticipated for months and sometimes years. But you can predict that your violent thirst for the blood of the zombies or the alien mutants will only be fully quenched by th euse of up-to-date hardware (even if the editors/publishers still try to adapt to the current hardware when they launch a new product). We’ll keep informing you precisely here about this.

We already talked about it here at length: Devices willing to handle High Definition (HD) video have to (or will have to) be all HDCP-compatible in order to be able to display anything. Recent Christmas holiday season sales will probably soon appear as somewhat lacking in this section (most of the HD-Ready TV sets don’t even include an HDMI connecteor that is a needed but definitely not sufficient pre-requirement).

Today, we start to hear about incidents for users of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) game console from Sony. When connected to TV-HD sets, some consoles see their display cut by some blacks and their sound dropping, etc. It is now confirmed that this is caused by a bug in the communication between the TV set and the console. Since the TV does not respond fast enough to the HDCP challenge from the console, this one decides that it is connected to a non-HDCP display peripheral and unilaterally cuts the outputs (sound and image).

(more…)

This web site offers to compare two images. You click on the one that seems fairest to you. It allows to build a small top-10 list of the fairest images. Curiously, the majority of the fair images are colorful landscapes.

It’s your turn to judge which image is the fairest!

You can also propose images that you really believe should be in the list.