Archive for November, 2007

After going to version 1.0.4, we hear that the firmware for the Canon EOS 40D camera is now in version 1.0.5.

I balance between the admiration for a company (Canon) that do not hesitate to quickly correct the bugs of its software and the impatience o seeing the device was obviously not ready for the market when it has been made available.

Here comes a weird news even when the worlds of finance and technology collide at high speed. However, this si the core of a rumour running around these days, more precisely since a Microsoft press conference held by Kevin Johnson, their president for Platforms and Services Division, where he told that Microsoft could reach a 30% market share for online search services.

In some countries like France, Google covers more than 90% and this helps forget about the small results of Microsoft MSN Search. At a global level, Microsoft has definitely less than 10% of market share. How to triple this? A gigantic quantum technology leap that would shake the market and change the hierarchy over night? Nobody would bet on this. So, Microsoft must be ready to buy a significant competitor. The most probable one would then be Yahoo!

But is Yahoo really on sale, even if some rumours had been heard a little earlier this year?

A little less than 20% of market share to catch? At what price? When?

You’re dead and you want to know what is happenning. Thanatorama will give you a fairly detailled explanation.

Imaging Resources has a few test images shot with a brand new Nikon D300 digital camera (click on the Samples tab). The camera seems to be up to the expected level. Despite its very high price of $1800, I would expect that quality image lovers will be hesitating even when comparing with cameras set at a lower price point (like the Canon EOS 40D or the Sony Alpha 700).

Click on the thumbnail images to enlarge them

Superb small bird whose attitude is a gift for the bird photographer.

Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus savana, Tyran des savanes). Brazil 2007.

Cryostasis, Sleep of reason is an upcoming First Person Shooter (FPS game) coming from Russian 1C Company. The most unusual thing here comes certainly from the fact that the game is set aorund the North Pole (it seems that Global Warming is opening new navigation routes and new opportunities for a lot of things - including new games from Lost Planet to Crysis).

To play that game, you will need a good PC. And I don’t mean that this will be the solution to heat your character (a big PC heats the room, but the player will have to manage body heat in the game, too).

Minimal configuration

• CPU: AMD 3000+ or Intel equivalent
• DRAM: 1GB
• Graphics card: AMD/ATI Radeon 9800 pro or nVidia 6800GT
• HDD space: unknown
• Sound card: DirectX 9 compatible
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000

Recommended configuration

• CPU: AMD x2 5600+ or Intel CoreDuo 6400
• DRAM: 2GB
• Graphics card: AMD/ATI Radeon 2900 HD or nVidia 8880 GTS
• HDD space: unknown
• Sound card: DirectX 9 or 10 compatible
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP or Vista

Some initial comments from the April 2007 presentation:

• IGN
• Action Forms
• GameSpot
• 1up
• Firing Squad

A web site with many cool images of Earth as seen from space.

Triumph, famous brand of feminine underwear well rooted in Japan, insists on answering to the finest needs of their nippon customers.

Today, it’s a piece of underwear with the following advantages:

• at the right side, a bowl of rice,
• at the left side, a bowl of miso soup,
• chopsticks provided in side pouches.

They prove that a woman’s breasts can provide good food in a nicely presented package.

A previous demonstration by Triumph.

The young women is looking back, the old one is looking down. The young woman’s chin is also the nose of the older one.

When the young citizens of the United Kingdom leave their country, they see no limit! They want innovation in their sexual relations. According to Science Blog, one out of five of the young Great Britons take advantage of their travel to foreign countries to sexually experiment with new partners.

English physicians start worrying about the influence of air travel on the health of the British/English sex.

When you have one computer under GNU/Linux, it is common to have it as a second machine to run experimentations or dedicated to one single task (run one program like BitTorrent, a backup server or a web server, for example). In this case, it is quite pleasant to be able to control it without leaving your main keyboard and screen (staying in front of your main machine). This is the problem that some bloggers tried to solve and I want to cite them here:

• How To: Control Ubuntu from Windows
• How To: Build a BitTorrent box
• Run Linux apps on Windows.. kinda (X-Windows system on MS-Windows)

The famous photographer of “Earth seen from the Sky” now has a page on Flickr. What is happening here? While he is still very attentive to the management of his photographer’s rights and of his fame, Yann Arthus Bertrand would have fallen into a liberated open publishing media?

Of course, not. This is just an April’s fool idea that stayed a little longer.

Champs de blé dans la papouasie sud.

I am fascinated that the page was kept on Flickr, but the experience is quite funny. I just hope it won’t become a Flickr trend. But feel free to point at other similar pages…