Archive for September, 2009

I couldn’t resist and I bring you this image I found on an automobile-oriented blog (autoblog).

After a demonstration of how cars evolved or progressed in terms of security in the last years, I also found some old crash tests where you can see what happens with a dreadful combination: High-speed (60+mph) and poor security car design.

For once, here is a photography trip to the Espace Rambouillet (near Paris, France) which allowed me (last weekend) to bring back a picture clearly representative of the rut (mating season) for red deers. Two stags fighting for supremacy: shocked antlers, flying dust and sexually aroused males.

Red deers fighting (during the rut)

Also, some portraits of other stags which are obviously calmer (for now).

Two red deers

Two red deers

With the repeated announcement of (minor) incidents with the security of the original PDF reader from Adobe, I wondered what could be a good replacement. Obviously, it seems important to stay around free or low prices (Adobe Acrobat: Windows/Mac/Linux, Basic: free, Pro: $299), but is it possible to beat the Adobe product to read PDF files?

• PDF-XChange (Windows, Basic: free, Pro: $34): loads real fast (much faster than the Adobe viewer), has all the basic options (annotations, graphic annotations, etc.) and the Pro version allows to reorganize the pages of a document or to extract text from it.
• Foxit (Windows/Linux, Basic: free, Pro Pack: $39.99): loads even faster, allows annotations (but only the Pro versio does it without watermark).
• Sumatra PDF (Windows, free): is even simple; everything is done for sheer speed.
• Apple PDF Preview (Mac, free): is very powerful (and it’s free, remember) and included in the MacOS offering; annotations, extraction, reorganization, all is available

Met in the forest of Rambouillet (near Paris, but more precisely in the fern land at the end of the Espace Rambouillet of Office National des Forêts), two roe deers that were stuck in the sights of two camouflaged wildlife photographers.

Roe deers (Click to enlarge)

Don't waste electricity

There could be waste in the most surprising places. So, don’t waste, use electricity wisely.

Via FAIL Blog.

Mac4Lin v1.0 is a free download for Linux systems which will allow your machine to appear very similar to a recent Mac.

If you want to grab the maximum CPU power for your PC video game (or any other PC application, by the way), there is a free utility that will ensure that the PC CPU does not spend to much time on anything else: Game Booster. It may be bad for a correctly balanced performance, but some games may appreciate the help.

Nota: This is similar to AMD Fusion Tool, but simpler.

On August 30, 2009, I shot a few images during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Paris, France. Here is a selection.

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OK, you’ve already seen all the icon collections on the Internet. Nothing can surprise you anymore. Stop! Icons Etc is really something else. You will find hundreds of high-resolution quality icons all of them being free and of the highest quality.

I just took one part of the simplest category: Rain drops.

Rain drops (on Icons Etc.)

I’m sure that you will find whatever you need for your web site, for your Windows desktop or any other icon-based application.

We tend to forget it easily, but automotive technology made astounding progress in the past decades. And, there is a domain which has been simply transformed by this leap forward: Car safety. 1970’s cars were crushed by the energy of car accidents. The following video is a witness of what happened to pretty good cars (from VW) in these years, when they suffered a crash test. You will easily notice how the passenger compartment deformed itself and wasn’t doing much to protect the passengers (here, crash test dummies).

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If you are looking for this camera, all the updated information I collected is on http://www.YLovePhoto.Com/en/ where I now publish all my photography-related news.

It is not often easy to correctly evaluate the exact power needed for the Power Supply Unit (PSU) of your computer (if you buy primary parts and go the DIY way). Here is a calculator that will help you find the power output exactly needed for your PC configuration:

eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite