Did You Know?

Here's an updated version of the quite famous "Did you know, shift happens". Again, great work...

Windows 7 boot screen

I read on the Windows 7 developers blog an interesting post about the new boot screen of Microsoft's new operating system.
Seems like there were some really creative people at work. I can only recommend the link :o)

Windows Server 2008 on a laptop

Yesterday evening I started a new project. Since my old server in the basement doesn't for about 4 months, I decided to install Windows Server 2008 on my "old" laptop. The tech specs doesn't sound so old though... 1.8 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, 250GB HDD etc...
Anyway, if it works as planned I will have an ultra-silent, energy saving server in the basement :-D
All I have to do so far is to download all the needed drivers in advance. I am wondering by the way if the integrated webcam will still work... ;-)

UPDATE: Everything worked just fine :-)
Only problem that occured at the beginning was the deactivated wirless lan setting. This feature has to be installed manually.

For further information regarding installation Windows Server 2008 as a desktop OS you can have a look here at.

Windows 7 in Virtual PC

Since the beta of Windows 7 is out there for a while, some may not try it on their physical system but wanna try it out on a Virtual PC.

Brian Keller, technical evangelist over at Microsoft released a nifty tutorial on his blog.

New iPhone firmware 3.0 on the horizon?

In several tech websites like golem.de it can be read that there will be a
presentation of Apple's latest iPhone firmware.
Hopefully they finally include MMS functionality, tethering via Bluetooth and/or USB and MAYBE copy & paste...

We will know more on March 17th when Apple is holding the BIG presentation.

Flower for PS3

After completing my university exams I finally found the time to play a game called "Flower" which was released some months ago for the Playstation 3 by the creators of fl0w.

In my opinion ThatGameCompany has done it again and you must not miss this title cause it is one of these games that is relaxing instead of stressing you out.

PS: The song is "Catch the Wind" by "Donovan"

Why HDR (sometimes) sucks

I cannot believe this my first post about a technical fotography aspect in 3 years.
For some time now, I see there a lot of these HDR pictures on the web like on flickr for instance.
I am sure most of you know how these High Dynamic Range images are made and how they look. In case you don't, here's a short introduction:
At first you take several pictures of the same motive but with different "exposure" settings.

Then you transfer your pictures to your computer. The rendering software then produces a high dynamic range image.


As you can see, in this example (taken from the English Wikipedia) the results can be stunning. Especially when the lighting makes good results almost impossible.

OK, but there are MAAAANY "bad" examples...

or
Don't get me wrong. There are some really nice and impressive HDR images out there but lately I've mostly seen pictures like the two examples above. Let's hope some people stop exaggerating ;-)

Validation

Wow, what an incredible good short film. "Validation" is a fable about the magic of free parking. Take your time and enjoy it.

PS: A smiling is included :o)

FCKGW. If you know what I mean you are kinda geeky...

Yesterday I saw something I already believed forgotten: "FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8".
For those who don't know: This is the most often used Windows XP license key and I have it seen quite often in the last 7 years. These days I read it is one of the most recognized serials out there.
Something else that Windows XP has achieved that Vista hasn't so far ;)