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Month: March 2006

Now THIS is MY Kind of Bathroom!

Now THIS is MY Kind of Bathroom!

God bless all my friends that keep an eye out for great photos and jokes to pass along to my inbox for future inspection and the sure-to-follow giggles. I’m a busy guy, but I love to laugh, especially at amusing but ingenious human creations. I’ve seen some pretty sweet looking all black marble bathrooms that were bigger than my house, but this has got to be the best public washroom I have ever seen. Unfortunately I have no clue where this is from, so feel free to post a comment of where or who did this so I can plan a visit lol!

Click the picture for a full view:

Sample

Now admit it, that’s some funny stuff. Ok, next post is serious, I promise.

Dan

21 ways to make your Flash based site suck

21 ways to make your Flash based site suck

Check out this hilarious and sarcastic look at some of the major problems people seem to fail to get right when it comes to Flash sites by Jay.

“I’m not a fan of Flash based sites and the main reason for that is barely no-one does them properly. So here’s a list of 21 ways to make your Flash based site suck, so that the next time you build a Flash based site you can really hit that nail on the head.”

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Google Drive Steers Theories

Google Drive Steers Theories

A section of text in a Google PowerPoint presentation described the concept of storing 100 percent of a user’s data; what started as a one-off observation made by a blogger rocketed all the way to a lengthy mention in the Wall Street Journal.

Greg Linden posted his thoughts after taking a look at the PowerPoint presentation Google made available as part of its Analyst Day. One slide described the concept of a GDrive and the potential for Google to be the 100 percent storage solution for users.

Then, several things happened at once. Other bloggers picked up the story; ZDNet blogger Garett Rogers noted how GDrive could function as a network shared drive; the concept would be familiar to workers in a networked environment who use network shares every day.

After more commentary and wider coverage of the GDrive, Google made the comments in question disappear from the Analyst Day PowerPoint package. Google was its usual helpful self in clarifying that to the Journal:

A Google spokeswoman said the notes weren’t intended for publication. “We are constantly working on new ways to enhance our products and services for our users, but we have nothing to announce at this time,” she said.

Of course, placing something online and then removing it did not prevent the presentation from being downloaded and retained by other users. One commenter on Linden’s blog posted the alleged comments from slide number 19, which contained the Store 100% reference. A section of that text shows what Google thinks it can do for users and their data:

As we move toward the “Store 100%” reality, the online copy of your data will become your Golden Copy and your local-machine copy serves more like a cache. An important implication of this theme is that we can make your online copy more secure than it would be on your own machine.

Another important implication of this theme is that storing 100% of a user’s data makes each piece of data more valuable because it can be access across applications. For example: a user’s Orkut profile has more value when it’s accessible from Gmail (as addressbook), Lighthouse (as access list), etc.

The important thing to note here, though, is that other than Linden’s blog, there is no way to confirm these notes were truly part of the original presentation, other than inferring from Google’s comment to the Journal about them.

Slide number 19 has a picture and the words Store 100%, but no comments now. Google isn’t talking about it. Analysts in attendance haven’t mentioned this online. Maybe this will turn out to be another “Google buys Opera” prank and ‘Golden Copy’ is another way of saying ‘Gotcha’!

About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Google… you guys scared at what these guys can do yet? You can get more awesome articles like this in your inbox by subscribing at WebProNews

Dan

Photo Repair – Recent Project for a Good Friend!

Photo Repair – Recent Project for a Good Friend!

It’s a fairly unknown fact that I really enjoy restoring old destroyed photos to digital beauty ever since i was handed some old photos of my grandparents that my mother had kept, despite being somewhat damaged by water. The end result of that project was pretty good, but over the years I’ve been fortunate to learn some fairly advanced tricks and techniques, and when I get time, I pull out an old photo and play around. I think of it as a photo CSI… working out how things were destroyed and how to best fix it up. The more destroyed a photo is, the more I enjoy it and I try to “fudge” as little as possible whenever I can. I probably completely restore about a dozen severe photos a year and my first of the year was a real doozie and I thought I’d share it with my friends that read this journal blog.

Here’s the situation… I was given a photo by my very good friend Chris, and it it was a pic of his parents together in Niagara falls during the 80s. The photo obviously meant a lot to him, but it was in very rough shape. Here’s a look at the before photo (click for a larger view):

Sample

Here’s a list of issues with this photo so you know what I was dealing with:

1. First off, the photo was actually STUCK to the glass that was in the frame, so I couldn’t even get the glass off to scan it in, so the scan was done as is. I wold have to clean up the light refraction issues as I restored the photo.
2. The huge blue blob areas are where the photo is stuck to the frame. There is no way to remove that photo from the glass without destroying the photo, so all the blue blobs would have to be digitally repaired.
3. The entire bottom left corner is torn right off with only the backing of the paper showing.
4. Moisture spots cover the entire base of the photo… you can see these purple and yellow marks in the darker areas such as the rock base of the fence, their pants, and her mother’s coat and purse.
5. There is a thick film of cloudy grime along the left and right edges of the photo, and a very thick band of it all along the bottom of the photo. That dirst is on the photo itself, not the glass so I can’t just wash it off. Any detailing on the bottom of the rocks is totally gone.
6. The “glued” part covering the section of waterfall to the right of the mother has complete swallowed up the detailing of the falls.
7. The sky is covered in dust and dirt particles. You can see some of the larger pieces of dirt in the sample photo above.
8. The paper is badly discolored due to age and light exposure.
9. There are two ripples in the sky caused by the photo being rippled and warped. I can’t flatten it because it’s glued in place on the glass.

So that’s the major issues… now, bear in mind the sample above is roughly 800 x 600 pixels, which may not seem to large or time confusing. Nice try, but this is just a down sample for you guys to quickly look at. The real digital copy that I modified was in fact an 8″ x 10″ photo at 300 DPI, so that’s actually about 2400 x 3000 pixels to repair. It was going to take a lot more than the clone tool!

So, 10 working hours later, here is the fixed result of my efforts (click for larger sample):

Sample

The look on his face when I handed him the final printed photo made every minute of this project 100% worth it. He’s actually going to Hong Kong in a week so he’ll be bringing a copy for his brother who still lives there. I ended up making 3 versions for him… one with the date restored like in the original, one without the date, and one without the birds I added for the heck of it.

Anyhow, that was my fun project last week, hope you like it!

Dan

Go Daddy opposes ICANN-VeriSign agreement

Go Daddy opposes ICANN-VeriSign agreement

Remember that article I posted about the Verisign monopoly deal? Well, it’s happening and the deal has been approved and is now before U.S. Department of Commerce. Here’s the update from GoDaddy, who is protesting the move for obvious business reasons, but you should definitely be aware of what’s happening:

Go Daddy opposes ICANN-VeriSign agreement

Yesterday, February 28, ICANN announced that its Board of Directors met and approved the pending deal with VeriSign for the .COM registry. The agreement will let VeriSign raise registration fees by 7% annually in four of the next six years. It will also give VeriSign control of the .COM registry indefinitely, as it extends VeriSign’s “presumptive renewal” right when this agreement ends in 2012.

The deal was approved by a majority vote, with nine voting in favor and five voting against. One director abstained. Vinton Cerf, who is the Chairman of ICANN and also now an employee of Google®, voted in favor of the give-away.

Following the vote, Credit Suisse increased the price target on VeriSign stock. Their analyst describes the .COM registry as VeriSign’s highest margin business (before any price increases). He goes on to say that the compounding effect of just the price increases could represent a net present value of $4 to $5 per share for VeriSign, or 1 to 1.25 billion dollars. The price increases will start in 2007.

Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons is voicing strong disapproval of this agreement. “The agreement is a bad deal for our customers and the Internet community as a whole,” said Parsons.

“The fact that this deal was approved is a loud signal that major changes are needed at ICANN. If we don’t step up and overhaul ICANN, and leave the Internet largely under the control of this incredibly inept organization, this will go a long way in providing the United Nations with the ammunition it needs to start taking control of the Internet – that must never happen.”

From here, before the deal becomes final, the U.S. Department of Commerce will still need to approve it. If you are disappointed with this recent decision, consider writing a letter to your Senator and Congressperson. You can find the email address of your representatives at the following two Websites:

For the Senate:
www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
For the House:
www.house.gov/writerep/

For more information about the agreement, please visit Bob Parsons’ blog – Hot Points! – at www.BobParsons.com.