Rumours are that Nikon will be anouncing the D200 on September 1st.
Or is is going to be a D80.
Bottomline is, I can’t wait. I just hope it is a full frame version, but I’m afraid Nikon is sticking to the APS size sensors.
Porn makes you go blind
RESEARCHERS have proved what mothers have been telling their sons all along – erotic images can make you go blind.
A study by US psychologists found people shown erotic or gory images could not process what they were seeing immediately afterwards.
Researchers believe that people in traffic don’t see other cars or pedestrians if the have just seen an ” emotionally charged’ scene.
Read more about it here.
Spying on VOIP
Researchers at the George Mason University have developed a methode which makes it possible to listen in on VOIP calls like Skype. Next counterstep will possible be the encryption of VOIP with Public Key Infrastructures (certificates).
Google earth equals Terrorist tool
A terror expert in the Netherlands, from the Clingendael institute, thinks that the Dutch government should do something against tools like Google Earth on the internet. These tools would give would-be terrorists too easy access to vulnerable information like; the Dutch main port Rotterdam, government installations, houses of our royal family, etc, etc.
I remember a documentary on BBC Horizon on Al Qaeda which showed their methods of stacking out possible objects for attacks. It showed how somebody with a video camera, used by any tourist, made a video of the entrance of a subway used by a lot of Americans. It shows that you don’t need tools like Google Earth to get your information. You just go to the spot and look around. Nobody will ask you any questions, nobody will expect anything and the information is up-to-date. Something you can question if you use internet data.
iPod connected in Japanese cars
“We work very closely with automobile manufacturers because your car is a great place to listen to your iPod,” said Steve Jobs, chief executive officer (CEO) of Apple, at a Tokyo news conference.”We’ve worked with a lot or automobile manufacturers and I’m very happy to report that next year, in 2006, over 1 million cars in Japan will be offered either factory-installed or dealer-installed with a way for you to directly connect your iPod right into the stereo system.”
The stereos will be available from Nissan Motor Co., Mazda Motor Corp. and Daihatsu Motor Co. and can be connected to an iPod to allow the driver to both play songs through the car’s audio system and also control the music player from the car stereo.Similar audio systems will be offered in BMW, Mini, Smart and Alfa Romeo vehicles. Car stereos that hook up to an iPod are also available from Alpine Electronics Inc., Clarion Co., Kenwood Corp. and Pioneer Corp., Apple said.
Why on earth would you like to have such a ‘lockin’. I don’t have an iPod, I have an iRiver. So I want an general solution for connecting an external device with a carradio! How about Bluetooth!
Do you have something to say?
The BBC reports that every second a blog is created.
The question is; how many of these blogs stay active and how many sease to exists after ashort while.The question is; how many of these blogs stay active and how many seize to exist after a short while.
Understandable reaction
From an Australian website.
The family of a Brazilian electrician shot dead by London police who mistook him for a suicide bombing suspect has rejected the apologies of British authorities and is considering filing a lawsuit against them, a family member said.
“We cannot accept (the apologies),” Patricia Silva y Vivian Menezes, a cousin of deceased 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes, told Brazil’s Globo News television from London.
“They’re pigs.
“They shoot first and kill an innocent person then they say sorry.”
Ms Menezes, who lived with Mr Menezes in his London flat, said his immediate family was planning to sue the British Government for the electrician’s wrongful death.
Time heals all wounds.
I want a Tablet PC
I’m contamplating whether I should buy a Tablet PC. I’m looking at the LE1600 from Motion Computing and at the Tatung TTABB12D. There is about a €1.000 difference between the two of them, which is largely due to the Motion Computing name.
The first time a worked with a Tablet was about two years ago when I started a pilot together with HP at a customer I worked for. Even as the machines were flimsy (10″ displays, bulky, slow, etc), the pilot was a success. The company bought the machines and they are pleased with them. Then all the Microsoft people I regularly work with started working with Tablets. I work with a laptop during meetings but using a Tablet at a meeting seems so much more natural.
The company where I did the pilot has moved on to the second generation Tablet PC’s, Fujitsu Lifebooks in this case. They tried the slate models but were not completely pleased with them, so they went for the convertible model. Most of the drawbacks, size – speed and power, are now gone and you can really choose a Tablet PC as a replacement for a normal PC or Laptop. The only thing is the price! Any way you look at it, it still is a lot of money.
I want panic and drama!
I want panic, drama, blood and people screaming! That what I imagine what the guy is shouting who is responsible for the Dutch news on the Television. The coverage of the bombing in June 21th is appalling!
Yesterday a Dutch reporter was talking with a police representative and with an eyewithness. Instead of just listening what they had to so say, yes this is a shocking event – there is some panic – but everything is under control, he was playing on the emotions. Making statements like; how can you live in a city where you could be blow up any minute, who’s is next, the next bombing could cloud be in our yard (the Netherlands).
Yak,
Up to 25,000 layoffs expected at HP
In the news:
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) is widely expected to cut thousands of jobs next week as part of a long-expected restructuring that will attempt to bring the computer maker’s costs in line with business and its rivals’ numbers, according to industry analysts.
The exact timing and number of layoffs isn’t known, though observers speculate layoffs could range from 5,000 to 25,000 positions. The huge company, whose offerings range from digital cameras and printers to computers and corporate consulting, has 150,000 workers worldwide.
I think it has more to do with keeping the shareprice up and the bonus of top management. As can be concluded from the next section of the newsitem.
Shares of H-P rose Friday. The stock has gained about 15% since H-P named NCR executive Mark Hurd as its chief executive in late March, replacing the ousted Carly Fiorina. The stock was trading Friday at a 52-week high.
Hurd has made no secret of his intent to reduce expenses at the company. In May, he told financial analysts that H-P’s cost structure is “off benchmark in many areas.”
Srebrenica
Discussions are flaring up in the Netherlands with the remembrance of the fall and massacre at Srebrenica. Questions of guilt and responsibility are being asked again. The Dutch government holds the position that we were send out on a peace keeping missing and were not in a position, nor had the mandate, to do anything more that was done then.
There are groups in the Dutch society who think we should admit that we were to blame and take full responsibility for the fall and the massacre. I don’t belong to that group.
The international community decided at that time that a peace keeping missing was at it’s place. The Dutch troops were sent into a hostile environment with limited resource and limited mandate. I clearly remember the pictures and stories in the newspaper where a military spokesperson explained that they had removed the ‘heavy guns’ from the armoured vehicles because they were on a peace keeping mission and the ‘heavy guns’ would only provoke the local population. They were going to patrol the area and act as a buffer between the two fractions. As a result Dutch troops had to hand over there equipment at gunpoint, simply because they were ‘outgunned’.
Who is to blame? Well, if you want to blame somebody, you may blame the Dutch government. They were too eager to send in our boys to Bosnia, they should have known that the troops were not equipped to defend themselves, they should have known that there was no clear mandate and support. And, what became clear after the fall of Srebrenica, they should have known that we were being played by the US, France and UK who acted on their own agenda.
So, are we to blame for 8.000 people killed, I don’t think so, we all screwed up.
Roadblocks allowed to go faster?
The Dutch government is considering to increase the allowed maximum speed fro caravans from 80 to 90 km/hour. The agrument is that by increasing the maximum speed the trucks won’t have to overtake the caravans that much, resulting in a better traffic flow. By-the-way, the maximum speed for trucks also is 80 km/hour.