Roumazeilles.net

Archive for May, 2008


Nice handling of plane bags

(Saturday, May 31st, 2008)

Here is a startling idea to ensure that your luggage will not be lost at the airport and will receive real good treatment from the airline personnel (that is a rare condition). Matt Brandon proposes to declare the presence of a starter pistol. Right! you don’t need a permit or a license of any case, but it is still classified as a firearm and needs to be delcared on checking-in. TSA and other official authorities will identify your bag and ensure that it is the object of all cool attention (they don’t want any weapon potentially lost in an international airport!)

For once, the a… from security will make sure your bags fly securely.

Source: Jon Udell.

Disable hotlinking

(Friday, May 30th, 2008)

When you have a web site, it becomes quite common that some people feel so easy to just borrow your images that they do not even take the time to make a copy on their own web site. Not only do they use your artwork, but they also use the bandwidth you paid for.

Normally, there is a solution. You can modify slightly your website to ensure that if this happens, the image served is not the original one, but a modified one (either a big red X, or a message to the reader). But it is a little difficult to do by hand. A wbe site tool comes handy for this: HTMLbasix – Htaccess Disable Hotlinking Code Generator.

An owl and its prey

(Thursday, May 29th, 2008)

I was unable to identify the author of this very nice picture.

An owl and a rat

Black and white or Color (video illusion)

(Wednesday, May 28th, 2008)

One very cool optical illusion of a fade to black… and white.


YouTube link

And there’s another one very similar but with a different image: a waterfall.

This Summer’s war will be graphic

(Tuesday, May 27th, 2008)

Every rumour points at a change of pace in the war between GPU designers (designers of processors for graphics cards), nVidia and AMD are preparing a big battle for this Summer.

While we have been observing a rush for always bigger GPU (G80 and R600 from nVidia and AMD-ATI are even bigger than central CPUs from Intel and AMD), we should see the arrival of the first modular processors for grpahics cards: one chip only for cheap products, but 4 or 8 for the high-end graphics card. It will be easier to design the silicium, and you will only have to choose how many GPUs you need on the video card. The question is still to know if this will be refelcted in the announcements of this Summer or in 2009.

AMD ATI Radeon HD4850 (from Tom’s Hardware Taiwan)

Some photos of the ATI Radeon HD4800 line are now available on the Tom’s Hardware – Taiwan web site.

The long-expected HD4800 series from AMD will arrive on June 18th (with two cards: HD4850 and HD4870). The only limitation would be waiting for availability of GDDR-5-type memory (yet another memory technology for a new graphics technology). A turbo version HD 4870X2 (two high-end chips GPU on the same board) would be ready in Fall.

The HD4850 should be a performance boost over the current HD3850, but the HD4870 is expected to be a plain twice more powerful than the already nice HD3870X2. Let’s kick ass…

nVidia just revealed its low-cost GTX260 and a hig-performance GTX280. These would be the last launches before modular series. Under the public name of GT 9800 GTX with no less than 240 shader processors, 32 raster units, 1 GB of GDDR3, and a moderate 512-bit memory interface. The fastest version should be named GT 9900 GTX.

So, let’s look at the laucnhes in the sun and let’s watch the technological announcements for Fall (AMD R700 and nVidia G9x). The marketroids from both companies are cleaning their weapons under the eyes of video game players.

News from S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

(Monday, May 26th, 2008)

It’s coming! The new FPS video game for PC is arriving. We had seen the first opus of the saga hitting our minds and PCs in 2007: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. A game definitely attractive, where the player can really go anywhere in several square kilometers, where there is always something happening (you’d better be cautious). Now comes the prequel (not the sequel, but the a part of the story coming before the original title) under the -always too difficult to type- name of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky (or STALKER: Clear sky, for lazy typists).

It seems that the game is pretty well done and a few interesting bits are leaking on the Internet.

Transitions day-night-day


Link to GameTrailers

Alpha trailer


Link to Rutube

Always the same lovely atmospheres of abandonned landscapes around the old soviet nuclear power plant. But you can’t really consider this as a poster for tourism in modern Ukraine.

Software galore

(Sunday, May 25th, 2008)

We never can get enough of them, but our computers are sometimes overflowing. Software applications are everywhere, but how to choose the right one for the task at hand? I built a real collection of pages where you will be able to find nearly all you can dream for nearly all computers:

I have a dream…

(Sunday, May 25th, 2008)

I have a dream: I want to ride an ostrich… in Alaska.

A kid heard on the radio this week.

Get pixellated DOS games on your new PC

(Friday, May 23rd, 2008)

ScreencopyIf you have an old collection of PC MS-DOS games that has been sleeping at the bottom of a drawer, you may have two approaches: A/ you prefer to forget the old pixels and buy new games, B/ you were so found of those that you want to play even on your newest PC. However, it is difficult because most of these run only in a DOS box, but are so unusable because of the speed of the processor and the limited compatibility of the sound and graphics.

Now DOSBox.com offers a real solution with a free emulator.

Usable for MS-Windows, most Linux boxes, some Apple OS and OS/2.

Défi pour la Terre

(Thursday, May 22nd, 2008)

Défi pour la Terre (by CLM BBDO)

A campaign to protect Earth and save energy by CLM BBDO.

MC Escher in video

(Wednesday, May 21st, 2008)

Graphic artist and painter MC Escher produced a few very interesting paintings and engravings. But today, I give you the opportunity to see it differently. Bring on the video!

Escher animation

Source: Magic Design.

Photoshop: 101 tips and tricks (ebook for free)

(Wednesday, May 21st, 2008)

SitePoint is giving away (for a limited time only) an excellent e-book about PhotoShop. It’s well worth the effort to donwload the PDF file.

SitePoint sensational Photoshop book is now FREE to Download!

Project Offset bought by Intel, so what?

(Monday, May 19th, 2008)

Project Offset, the running name of a company who promises to build one of the most expected action epic video games, has announced in February that they were bought by Intel. However, I have to admit that nothing has been shown since. Not even the slightest hint at what Intel intends to do with it.

Is the development still going on?

Just to let you salivate a little in advance, here was the trailer “leaked” to the Internet earlier in September 2007.


HD version
SD version

Doorways and streets in Shanghai

(Sunday, May 18th, 2008)


Street and bike - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles Sleeping barber - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Door and scooter - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles Narrow street - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them

Folded paper font

(Saturday, May 17th, 2008)

I do not often present character fonts, but this one is definitely nicer than usual with its elegant 3D effect of folded white paper.

Folded paper font

Source: DaniellaSpinat.com.

Free movie: B horror movies from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s

(Friday, May 16th, 2008)

Logo Internet Archive

  • List from Internet Archive

Hollywood in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s created a long string of cheap horror movies that never reached the top rating lists. However, some of them, despite being left mostly abandonned by their authors, are worthy of some renewed attention. In this context, it is interesting to notice that the Internet Archive has recently pointed to a nice list of these B horror movies. In there, you will find (available for free download):

Colors in Shanghai

(Thursday, May 15th, 2008)


Three and three lanterns - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles Red lanterns and gold fishes - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Four red lanterns - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles Red lantern and green leaves - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Blue and yellow cords - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles Blue shirts - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles
Red peppers and red ears - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles Yellow spiral - Copyright (C) 2008 Yves Roumazeilles

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them


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