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Archive for July, 2008


Project Origin: You’ll kill zombies

(Friday, July 18th, 2008)

In this PC shooter game, still unavailable, you’ll see quite some destruction.


Link to GameTrailers

(more…)

Far Cry 2, 100 hours of intense gameplay

(Thursday, July 17th, 2008)

Far Cry 2 - FarCry2 - Logo

100 hours, that is the promise from Ubisoft Montréal (where most games only last 10 to 20 hours). This game will have a fully open map in Africa (50 square kilometers, only limited by deadly deserts) where you will meet mercenaries, and weather elements (including fire).

Analysis (in French) at JeuxVideoPC.com.

Nikon at next PMA

(Thursday, July 17th, 2008)

The expectations for the next PMA fair: Nikon will announce 3 new prime lenses (most certainly high-quality), 2 new zoom lenses (24-120mm VR II, 70-200mm VR II), the Nikon D3x (high-end pro Full Frame camera) and the Nikon D90 (entry-level replacement for the Nikon D80).

I love Paris illusion

(Wednesday, July 16th, 2008)

Optical illusion - Paris in the the Springtime

If you read “I love Paris in the springtime”, read again.

A bridge too high

(Tuesday, July 15th, 2008)

Somewhere in Malaysia, there is this astonishing bridge.

Bridge in Malaysia

I guess that most people would be a little unsure walking onto it, not really knowing how it holds in place.

All details at Deputy Dog.

Airline codes

(Monday, July 14th, 2008)

Sometimes, you hust have to understand the cryptic codes used around the world of airline travel. The companies are using them, probably not just for the sake of being incomprehensible, but the result is the same. I recently found the right place to look for this information, a web site to search for all airline-related codes:

Airline codes

I used it to find the meaning of the two-letter IATA code of the company name in a flight numbers (CZ3572 is a flight of China Southern Airlines and MU2511 is another flight from China Eastern Airlines) because an assistant had booked me electronic tickets forgetting to tell me which counter I should go to register on the following day.

A lion without travelling to Africa

(Sunday, July 13th, 2008)

WowWee Alive LionEven better than going to Africa, you can have your own lion pet, cute lion cub at home.

Furry and reacting to its environment, this is really a cool robot toy.

http://www.gizoo.co.uk/Products/ToysGames/RadioControl/WowweeAliveLion.htm

£49.95 (about $100 USD or 75€) in pre-order.

Crysis Wars comes along with Crysis Warhead

(Saturday, July 12th, 2008)

While Crysis Warhead is now in pre-order for $29.99/29.95€, we heard that it will come along with a new multi-player component named Crysis Wars.

  • new online multi-player modes
  • 21 maps

Crysis Warhead – Requirements and other data

(Saturday, July 12th, 2008)

Crysis Warhead - CoverCrysis Warhead is a sort of complement to Crysis, the FPS PC video game that shocked the FPS game world last year. For my own part, I’ve drawn pleasure from the mere act of replaying the solo game campaign, for its realistic combat scenes, its pleasant images, and its great playability.

But EA is preparing a kind of follow-up. It’s all about following the deeds of a character already found in Crysis. this time, in Crysis Warhead, you are Sergeant Sykes (”Psycho”). It is not a sequel to Crysis (even if everybody was disturbed by the abrupt end essentially opening to the following two episodes in the series), but a a parallel approach to the same part of the scenario.

Nevertheless, what PC configuration will be needed? EA told us that software optimisations will help a lot the users with relatively small PC configurations, who were unable to play Crysis correctly (EA said that a 400€/$620 PC would be enough for the “High quality” settings).

Minimum requirements

  • Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ or Intel Core 2 Duo E6550
  • Memory: 2 GB of SDRAM
  • Graphics: DirectX 9.x on GeForce 66xx or Radeon X16xx

Recommended requirements

  • Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ or Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
  • Memory: 2 GB of SDRAM
  • Graphics: Radeon HD4870 or GeForce GTX260

See also: Image gallery at IGN.


Link to GameTrailers

Canon EOS 3D – When?

(Saturday, July 12th, 2008)

Currently, there are two groups of rumours running through the Internet forums about the future successor to the Canon EOS 5D digital SLR camera.

  1. There will be two cameras at the same time (either Canon EOS 3D and Canon EOS 6D, or Canon EOS 3D and Canon EOS 7D) launched just before the Olympics (to allow pro photographers to publicly play with them during this very public event).
  2. There will be two cameras at the same time (either Canon EOS 3D and Canon EOS 6D, or Canon EOS 3D and Canon EOS 7D) launched after the Olympics (usually pronosticated for Monday, September 8, 2008).

Did you notice the common points and the divergence?

Unfortunately, it is rather impossible to say where is the information and where is the fake news bit.

Sony Alpha 800, why not?

(Friday, July 11th, 2008)

For sure, we heard a lot of rumours more or less tolerable, but here is one that does not seem to have a lot more ground than the wishes of some Sony customers afraid of discovering too high a price for the upcoming Sony Alpha 900. Guess what? 24 millions pixels could ask for a steep price, nearer to 3000€ or 4000$ than the target of 2000$ that you could maintain if you are ready to purchase a bargain end-of-life Canon EOS 5D (nearing official retirement but not dead yet, for sure).

The arrival of the Nikon D700 with a Full Frame sensor of a lower resolution than the high-end cameras like the Nikon D3 (or the Sony Alpha 900) had people murmuring that maybe (and I have to heavily insist on this maybe word) Nikon and Sony would share a 12-16 million-pixel Full Frame sensor. Nikon would launch a Nikon D700 and Sony would launch a similar Sony Alpha 800 sometimes nicknamed “flagcheap” (”flagship” designating the top-of-the-line Sony, the Alpha 900, “flag-cheap” is a word game on “cheap” for a cheaper camera).

It is impossible to tell if there is any truth to it. Assuredly, the lack of recent information about the Sony Alpha 900 (and most importantly its price target) had heads spinning and marketing laws or logic law being what they are, plugging a price hole in the Sony SLR camera range may become an urgent necessity. Sony could fill it with the Alpha 800. And it previously occured that Sony hid some products behind the visibility of another camera (see the example of the Alpha 300/350).

Unusual felines

(Thursday, July 10th, 2008)

In the spotlight:

Some of our pets can become heroes or -at least- be more unusual than we would think. The Pet Blog collected a series of astonishing histories about cats high moments, like:

  • Oscar a.k.a. “Unsinkable Sam”
  • Simon, of the Royal Navy
  • The Alamo Cat
  • Fred, the undercover secret agent
  • Tama, train station master

Source: The Pet Blog.

Teach or Learn? Simply the illusion of a difference

(Wednesday, July 9th, 2008)

Optical illusion - Teach or Learn

On the one side “Teach”, on the other “Learn”. Is it all simply an illusion? Ask teachers and students.

When pool players get bored [video]

(Tuesday, July 8th, 2008)


YouTube link

50 mega-pixel photography

(Tuesday, July 8th, 2008)

I don’t intend to go too deep into this kind of extreme photography right now, but I wanted to indicate two news items that could be reflecting on the continuous trend toward larger sensors and additional pixels:

Again, those people are keeping pixel size around 6µm (a good target to keep diffraction low and manageable).

When robot programmers get bored [video]

(Monday, July 7th, 2008)


YouTube link

Price of the Full Frame SLR

(Monday, July 7th, 2008)

With the arrival of several Full Frame SLRs on the market, people start wondering what they should buy or what they should wait. Actually, we can expect to see very real price differences, so I thought it would be good to make a summary for us:


SLR Price
(body only)
Comment
Canon EOS 5D <$1900
<1600€
On sale, end of life
Sony Alpha 900 <$2000
<1700€
According to Photography Bay,
available in Sep-Oct 08
Canon EOS 5D MkII/6D/7D <$2500
<2000€
My guess-timate
Nikon D700 <$3000
<2600€
Launched,
available in July 08
Nikon D3 <$4000
<3000€
Available now
Nikon D3x ??? Expected for 2009
Canon EOS 1Ds MkIII $4000-$8000
6500€-7000€
Available now

As you can notice, it is expected that the Sony Alpha 900 will be targetting low prices despite it’s 24MP sensor (or it will have a little Alpha 800 brother, while the Alpha 900 would shoot for a higher price point). But the current Canon EOS 5D seems to be an astonishingly good bargain (while stocks last).


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