Posted on

Transparent backgrounds

One of the fads nowadays is taking “transparent” desktop shots of your computers. Don’t know what I mean? Check this gallery out: http://www.flickr.com/groups/transparentscreens/pool/

I thought I’d have a go, and since a lot of the stuff I see there are hard to top creatively, I went on trying to add some difficulty to the shot so people can appreciate it.

Basically what I wanted to do was:

  • Take a shot with me in it (pardon the pantulog clothing)
  • Try it without a tripod (handheld)
  • Capture decent ambient light so the cathode lamp of my Athlon rig can be seen.
  • Shoot at an angle (meaning not straight on, which is what I see most of the time)
  • Get a somewhat challenging DOP (depth of field), since I wanted to take as much of the background as much as possible with minimal blur.

At frist I shot it at f22 with FEC 2 stops up to allow a real fast shutter. It worked, but it would drown out the Athlons CCFL light and Powerbooks Monitor (which would kill the final shot). So I had to settle for a big-ish f8.0 – which resulted in a significantly shallower DOP.

I though it was simple enough but boy was I wrong! Read More

Posted on

This is NOT really about Columbine

Columbine has become a melting pot of issues – one interesting fact is that majority of these issues revolve around Brandon. Now Brandon is a decent guy with faults just like anyone else. He can be annoying (and boy, can he be annoying!) – which makes him unpopular with most of the Columbine people.

Surprisingly though, he still has got some “charm” with some of the ladies in Columbine, which is where this story takes place.

Read More

Posted on

Oh really now?

It’s the Content, Not the Source

The Apple lawsuit really boils down to the definition of a trade secret, not the definition of a journalist. Commentary by Adam L. Penenberg.

via Wired News

No. “Trade Secrets” or “Journalism” are just words being thrown around to defend each position on a legal standpoint. The Apple lawsuit(s) really boils down to a company willing to crucify its very own supporters.

Boooooo!

Posted on

Symantec: Mac OS X Becoming a Malware Target

Symantec: Mac OS X Becoming a Malware Target

Security vendor Symantec is warning that Apple’s OS X operating system is increasingly becoming a target for hackers and malware authors.’ They go on to warn that the only thing that’s protected Apple users from exploits so far has been the small number of Macs on the net. Now that people are buying Apple products for ‘style over function,’ according to one analyst, Apple computer has become a target for new attacks.

via Slashdot

The bummer here is that it was stated by Symantec, which easily could be construed as an act of furthering their own sales of AntiVirus software. But in general, friends and I have been discussing this before. That the reason OS X is said to be “secure” is simply because there isn’t enough interest in it for the malicious hackers.

Read More

Posted on

How many 5 year olds can you take on at once?

Taken from some forum (via Waxy.org)

The question: How many 5 year-olds could you take on at once?

The specifics:

  • You are in an enclosed area, roughly the size of a basketball court. There are no foreign objects.
  • You are not allowed to touch a wall.
  • When you are knocked unconscious, you lose. When they are all knocked unconscious, they lose. Once a kid is knocked unconscious, that kid is “out.”
  • I (or someone else intent on seeing to it you fail) get to choose the kids from a pool that is twice the size of your magic number. The pool will be 50/50 in terms of gender and will have no discernable abnormalities in terms of demographics, other than they are all healthy Americans.
  • The kids receive one day of training from hand-to-hand combat experts who will train them specifically to team up to take down one adult. You will receive one hour of “counter-tactics” training.
  • There is no protective padding for any combatant other than the standard-issue cup.
  • The kids are motivated enough to not get scared, regardless of the bloodshed. Even the very last one will give it his/her best to take you down.

I set my magic number at 30, but upon reflection, I think I could take on a few more. How many could you take on?

Read More