Archive for February, 2008

… the day dream of all photographers. Instead of spending your nights playing with the setups, knobs and buttons of Photoshop (are any other similar software package), why not simply go through a process full automated, effortless, questionless, and with a nice little result?

ImproveYourImages.com

To be tested right now.

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Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger, Bec-en-ciseaux noir). Brazil, 2007.

Source: XKCD.

 

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Brazil, 2007.

Duck or rabbit?

Pour ceux qui souhaitent le savoir, chaque utilisateur sur le site Rouamzeilles.net peut avoir des droits différents selon le rôle qui lui est attribué (par mes soins). Les droits attachés ne sont pas toujours évidents, même pour un habitué de WordPress. C’est pourquoi j’ai produit le tableau ci-dessous pour expliquer.

Cliquer sur le tableau pour le voir en plus grand.

 

 
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Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga, Anhinga d’Amérique). Brazil, 2007.

If you want to do discreet (if not completely anonymous) P2P, Bittorrent and Gnutella or Kazaa are not your friends. With the advent of more attention from authorities, it is difficult to consider them as good opportunities.

I have been looking quickly at some of the possible solutions to protect your privacy while exchanging files over the Internet. I found the following ideas:

• Omemo is a recent Spanish development. I tried it and it is very obvious that the program is still in beta. Essentially, I was unable to download a file if it was not very small in size or to upload any. Let’s wait until it works.
• GigaTribe seems a good solution if you are willing to pay for the Premium package. It builds a closed network with your friends, but the standard (free) software is not able to grab files from multiple computers at the same time. So performance is very limited for the free version. GigaTribe3 is said to correct a number of issues some time later in 2008.
• Freenet is rather difficult to use at first, but if you run Thaw, one of the applications provided at installation, you will get a large choice of file downloads and performance while limited is not ridiculous: A few days for 2GB of video, it could be much worse. However, some may be troubled by the kind of data found there: While the common P2P data can be observed, you will also find conspiracy-related information and a quite significant load of pornography and child pornography (normally not found on the more open Internet).

I don’t know where the future of P2P lies, but it is certainly around some of these darknets (networks that are protected from external Peeping Toms). Freenet is supposed to be the best and most secured one, even if it is not perfect (it seems clear that some powerful agencies have setup some Freenet nodes in order to be able to spy the traffic).

The stars of show business and other stars are chased all around the world by paparazzis. Sometimes even catch them in X-ray photos. Here are the evidences:

Pamela Anderson

Homer Simpson

Mickey Mouse

(more…)

Boris Bendikov

 
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Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus, tyran mélancolique). Brazil, 2007.

Other possible identification: Cattle tyrant (Machetornis rixosus, Moucherolle querelleur). It was my initial assumption. But I now doubt it because of the wings 2-tone colour (the identification I did has been supported by will and DID in the forums of www.ornithomedia.com).

I identified this bird thanks to “Brazil: Amazon And Pantanal (Travellers’ Wildlife Guides)” the excellent book from David L. Pearson and Les Beletsky. Since the Tropical Kingbird is quite common in Brazil, it is shown in one of the 500 full color illlustrations.

Thanks to Patrick Fagot for his advice for this book.

You can buy it from Amazon by clicking on the image on the left or on the link.

Thanks also to Bruno Tredez for his advice on the identification.