Archive for July, 2007

That is the very interesting question answered in this article from Slate. Whatever you think about corridas (Spanish bull fights) it may be interesting to look at the consequences of being gored by a bull, like it happens in the encierro of Pamplona (when they free the fighting bulls in the streets to have them run to the bull ring).

When you’re an old user of Pegasus mail like I am, you see no reason to loose your old and faithful configuration when moving from one old PC to a newer one as I just did. But this kind of migration does not seem to be an option in the installation. However, following these instructions will allow you to do it transparently:

• Normal installation except that you have to ensure that the new location is the same as the original one, for me: C:\Program Files (x86)\PMAIL or C:\Program Files (x86)\PMAIL (instead of the default C:\PMAIL). Don’t forget to refuse the option for autoconfiguration of one user.
• At first run of Pegasus mail, it will offer to configure one user space. I asked the same configuration as the original one (single user as offered as first choice) with a mailbox in C:\Program Files (x86)\PMAIL\MAIL. Then, I accept every default option without worrying too much.
• Close Pegasus mail
• Copy the desktop configuration and the mailbox contents, by coping the contents of the original C:\Program Files\PMAIL\MAIL
• Check file C:\Program Files\PMAIL\MAIL\PMAIL.INI that must always have the right description of run data with the right installation directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\PMAIL\MAIL\Admin

Then, you can re-start Pegasus mail to recover the exact original configuration. So, I could recover my 400+ mail folders, my archives, the configuration of all my mailboxes, the configuration of my SPAM filters. Only one thing: The presence of the 3 welcome messages from the Pegasus installation in the inbox. I could easily wipe them out after reading them.

All about the movie techniques of the giant of suspense film: Hitchcock. How to turn your boring movie into a Hitchcock thriller…

As the most attentive of the readers will have noticed, there was a minor change to the layout of the web site. It should improve slightly the overal performance and it will allow further evolutions that may be appreciated later.

If you find some technical difficulties with your browser (it shouldn’t be the case, of course), please, feel free to comment about it.

For those most technologically inclined, let’s just say that without seriously changing the appearance, we went from template a fully based upon HTML tables to a CSS-based template. Many of the layout elements are now moved into the CSS sheet and this explains the performance gain.

Portable apps for a portable USB key.

• Portable Office Software
• Portable Email/Calendar/ToDo Programs
• Portable Text and Voice Messengers
• Portable Media Tools (Audio / Video)
• Portable Graphics Viewers and Image Editors
• Portable Browsers and Web Tools (FTP, Feedreaders, Torrent clients…)
• Portable Security Software
• Portable Games
• Other Portable Utilities
• Portable Developer Tools (Techies Only)
• All-In-One Packages
• Portable Operating Systems (’HowTo’ Articles)
• USB ThumDrive Tips

There are no video effects, of course. It really flies, but it’s not a new helicopter prototype of Russian origin. Would you recognize how if stays in the air?

It’s not that hard, but you can’t just obtain this result by pure chance you need some maths.

Accoridng to a recent report from NASA (or more precisely according to a single paragraph of that report), alcohol is circulating freely among the astronauts and most specifically during pre-flight. To the point that some worried that the state of the crew may endanger the mission itself. But local management did not seem as worried as others and no flight was cancelled or delayed for such reasons. We do not even know which flights were subjected to this infamous situation or what individuals were involved…

The Register even worries about the impossibility to chek these very incomplete facts. I would tend to follow their opinion. Nobody knows what kind of alcoholic state was observed and who did it or let it happen. It looks a lot more like a unlucky scoop than usable information.

Nevertheless, this won’t help the American space agency regain favor in the eyes of the general public. We will certainly never see the steely courage of astronauts with the same admiration if we believe that it draws more from booze than personal strength. Will we see the apparent hesitation at ignition of some rocket motors as the imprecision of the drunk mass trying to hit the ‘Go’ button? We certainly need to have a more positive hero image and we may find it in the new pioneers of Virgin Galactic and Space Shit One teams in their proud attempts to create a commercial and touristic space market (incidently they have been hit hard by a recent accident that killed three people a few days ago).

The stock exchanges have been subjected to hard winds this week, as it was expected by nearly all the expert analysts. I find it quite interesting that so many observers who are also actors on the market were able to forecast accurately the crisis but were not able to anticipate it enough to avoid it. It looks like a kind of blindness: I know that I’ll miss the next turn, but I keep pushing the pedal down.

The NASDAQ and Dow Jones went down. The CAC40 Paris index fell -6,5% in a week (my own stock portfolio did -4,55% on the same period and I had already protected a lot of it in a national fund (Livret A, much more stable in those hard times)). The newspapers and journalists run aournd it in circles while shooting “we saw it coming” and repeating their mantra (”be selectve in your stock picking” which means don’t buy junk; Isn’t it a brilliant financial insight?).

I find it funny in this mini-crack context that some technology-oriented web sites started crying because the stocks from Intel or AMD went down. I won’t give names, but they completely failed to notice that it was not a problem with the individual stock but a market pushing everything down. Nothing frightening for the electronics giants, unless your analysis is really audacious or really ill-informed about the mechanisms of financial markets.

What would happen if a designer team submitted national flags to customer countries? And listened to the ciritiques or comments?

Link

Via: Information Aesthetics.

Sigma recognizing that the current pricing of its SD-14 is setting it a little out of the competitive market for digital SLR cameras, decided to drop it to $1200.

Source: Popular photography.

John Chambers, CEO of CISCO, the company that bought Linksys in 2003, informed us that the Linksys brand will soon be abandonned in favor of a new line of routers all named CISCO.

The Linksys brand had been around since 1988, it had been kept because it had a higher recognition factor in the small router market and public. But it must no longer be the case and Cisco is pushing for a convergence between all Cisco-branded products.

I love Jay Leno. Here is one funnily scientific excerpt from his late show:

Competition is tough at this level (sub-$200 dual-core processors). That is the reason why TechWareLabs decided to compare both CPUs: Intel’s E6420 vs. AMD’s 5600+. This is a confirmation that prices are set to make CPUs quite comparable. There is a slight performance advantage to Intel but for a slightly higher price.

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

Again, Chasseur d’Images provided its forecast/rumour collection for the upcoming Canon 40D. Since some people wanted to see the list because it may be difficult to find the magazine out of Western Europe, here is a summary:

• Same chassis as the 30D
• Same viewfinder as the 30D
• No specific weather protection (competitive disadvantage against Nikon and Pentax)
• 12/13 Mpixels APS-C sensor with LiveView (as on the Canon 1D MkIII) with a possible USB or Wifi control
• 14-bit encoding (as in the Canon 1D MkIII)
• 1600 and 3200 ISO
• Sensor cleaning
• Still no wireless flash
• Same read LCD as on the Canon 30D
• 5 frames/second
• Improved AF, but no real detail about it or any forecast
• 1/8000s max speed (with 1/250s flash synchro)

Personnally, I found interesting the possible convergence with some of the features of the Canon 5D (I see the advantage Canon would have to do this), but Chasseur d’Images still keeps a possible Canon 3D in a rumoured timeline for 2008.

Chasseur d’Images, the first European photo magazine published the rumoured/forecasted characteristics of the upcoming Nikon D300 (or would it be Nikon D200x?):

• Will come end of July
• Same good viewfinder as D200
• Same chassis as D200
• Weather protection
• Sony sensor APS-C of 12/13 Mpixels (possibly improved over the standard Sony version)
• New chip for better exposure
• 3200 ISO (optional 6400 ISO)
• AF 11 zones derived from Nikon D2x
• Max speed 1/8000s with 1/250s flash synchro
• Improved battery system

GameTrailers brought back fro mthe E3 game fair a whole bunch of videos of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Clear Sky, the FPS video game that presents the prequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Shadow of Chernobyl with its best elements.

Here is an example, but I think you should also follow the link to find some more (even HD versions of the same videos).

The only thing I would complain about is that the guy playing while being filmed is specially not a top-notch one and has to use God mode (he has not to be afraid of bullets since they have no effect on his health). Of course, if helps to present the game easily, byt realism is shatteredin those game sequences (in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Shadow of Chernobyl the adversaries are not always brillant, but you would not survive more than a second or two if you aimlessly wandered under their fire like that).

Now, we know what PC configuration you will need to play Bioshock.

Operating Systems: Windows XP (with Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista

Minimum System Requirements:

• CPU: Pentium 4 2.4GHz Single Core processor
• System RAM: 1GB
• Video Card: Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 128MB RAM (nVIDIA 6600 or better / ATI X1300 or better, excluding ATI X1550).
• Sound Card: 100% direct X 9.0c compatible sound card
• Hard disc space: 8GB free space

Recommended System Requirements:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• System RAM: 2GB
• Video card: DX9: Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT or better). DX10: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 or better
• Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fiâ„¢ series (Optimized for use with Creative Labs EAX ADVANCED HD 4.0 or EAX ADVANCED HD 5.0 compatible sound cards)

You’ll need and Internet connection for game activation.

And to round it up, a trailer video: