Star Trails photography

Weather conditions were perfect the other night for some Star Trails photography and as I had never actually tried this technique before I thought it was a good chance to have a go.  I used a Canon 40D camera and a Tokina 11-16mm lens but so long as your camera can take individual long exposure shots over a period of time then you should be good to go (if you wanted to).  DLSRs are not really suited to keeping the shutter open for a long time as you end up with hot spots on the image, so a more practical solution is to take a series of shorter exposed images over time.

Required kit
-Camera which can take continuous long exposure images over time
-Charged camera batteries
-Tripod – essential to keep the camera steady and pointing in the same direction
-A clear night 

Additional kit
-Remote release used to keep the shutter release open – else you have to press the shutter release each time to take a shot
-Torch – basically to see where you are going in the dark   
-Some foreground object, a tree perhaps or the top of a building .. etc

Setup
I tested the process in my back garden with the top of a tree as my foreground interest, then with the camera on a tri pod I set it to an exposure time of 30secons, ISO 400, F5.6 and auto white balance.  Focusing on the stars was done manually and I had a cable release for starting the shoot.  After a few test shots to check the settings I pressed the remote and set it to hold the shutter release; so although the camera is capable of taking 6 shots a second it was now taking 1 shot every 30 seconds   I then left it alone for just over an hour and ended up with 100+ photos.  I shot in RAW and used a 2gb card.
Note: When I decided enough was enough I shone the torch into the tree for the last two exposures, this brought some light to the foreground.  Then I released the shutter and stopped taking pictures.  The last thing you have to do is put the lens cap back on and take one more photo, will tell you why in a moment.

Process
Armed with all those photos I converted them from RAW to JPG (also tweeked the colours slightly) and then used startrails.exe (free software) to stitch all the photos together.  This is possible in photoshop, or a similar package but would take ages, where as with startrails you point the software to the folder containing your images and it does the rest.  Now, the image you took with the lens cap on — this is known as the “darkframe” in Startrails and useful for reducing image noise.

Result
You can see the first result on my Flickr page to the left hand side, however I wanted to share the process.

The Google Social Graph API

From the site blurb:  “With so many websites to join, users must decide where to invest significant time in adding their same connections over and over. For developers, this means it is difficult to build successful web applications that hinge upon a critical mass of users for content and interaction. With the Social Graph API, developers can now utilize public connections their users have already created in other web services. It makes information about public connections between people easily available and useful.”  Watch the video too – more info here

For those last minute Xmas gifts, why not use Microsoft gift guide 2007

For such beauties as “Plan and track weight loss $19″ to “Give a gift of peace of mind, SimplyFile an overflowing inbox. 50% off” then why not visit the Microsoft gift store for 2007 where these and lots of other wonderful add-ons can be picked up.

“Professional backgrounds for PowerPoint for only $199″ – Surely they should have thought of those when developing PowerPoint in the first place … and does this mean that the backgrounds which were included with the software are NOT “Professional”

Note to self – find FreeWare alternatives to those add-ons listed and post 

Technorati tags: Microsoft gifts, Xmas gifts

Microsoft LISTAS

Listas is a tool for the creation, management and sharing of lists, notes, favorites, and more. It allows you to quickly and easily edit lists, share them with others for reading or wiki-style editing, and discover the public lists of other users.  We encourage you to try using it for meeting notes, bookmarks, shopping lists, to plan a night out, or whatever other creative ways you can think of.

Windows Live ID or Passport account needed.

WEBSITE TOOLS INSTANT TEST WIZARD

From Site:

Test the performance and availability of your website from 11 locations around the world. Simply click on the button for the test that you would like to run and input your info. This is the only testing wizard online that gives you results from around the world – FOR FREE

Here

Technorati tags: web tools, web test

Feist 1 2 3 4

New ipod commercial in its entirety …. pretty neat.

Technorati Tags: ipod, feist 1234, ipod commercials

02 win contract for UK iPhone

Title says it all really, but 02 have won the exclusive contract to sell the iPhone when it comes to the UK on Novemeber the 9th, so you can buy from 02 stores, Carphone Warehouse and Apple Stores.

Terms of the contract have not been announced, but the tarrifs appear to be for an 18 month contract @ £35, £45 or £55 per month with unlimited data usage.  The iPhone is priced at £269.

Interestingly, users will get free use of 7,500 wi-fi hotspots for Internet usage as well.

Technorati tags: iphone, apple, iphone uk

Visual search tool

oSkope is a neat little visual search tool which will allow you to search and organise items from various sources, such as ebay, flickr, youtube etc.  The results are presented in an intuative way and you can arrange them in a number of ways such as a graph, a stack, a pile or as a list.  I like the stack as it feels like you are browsing through photographs of things.  Very nice and worthwhile service.

Technorati tags: visual search, oskope, intuative search

QUECHUP social networking

Well, I stumbled apon another social networking site called Quechup which came to me as an invite.  I was talking to the friend that sent it to me and they were telling me that he never actually sent out any “invites” … it turns out that as part of their registration process Quechup will helpfully offer to search your mailbox to find any contacts who are currently on Quechup and add them for you.  However, it also then sends out an invite to all your contacts in such a way that it looks like you personally sent the mail.  Two things strike me about this, firstly that’s just spamming by another means and pretty sneaky.  Secondly, who the HE*L gives out their mailbox password to a random WEB site as part of registration …. have people learned nothing about WEB security !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have not read the Quechup T&C or privacy agreement nor have I tried this myself, but I can’t think of anything which would make me feel safe about giving my mail password over to anyone.

Technorati tags: quechup, web 2.0, social networks

WEB strategy – Twitter under the microscope

This is an interesting article on Twitter, [a WEB service which lets you post items of micro data about yourself to let your friends know what you are doing, as well as keep a track on what your friends are up to].  I have been tweeting on twitter for a while now (does that make me an early adopter????? probably not !!) and I still found this article very interesting.  Although it is aimed at the Web Strategist there are some good summaries and concepts about why & how twitter should be used and where it could all be going.

Technorati tags: twitter, web 2.0, social networks

An Inspirational Facebook application

The Inspire Me Facebook application does what it says on the tin … your friends can send you words of insipation to help you through your day, or to do those tasks, or to cheer you up.  This actually seems like an interesting idea with some potental !!!

Technorati tags: Inspire, Inspire me, Inspirational

XP Powertoys (MSVDM) and Office 2007

I am a fan of the XP PowerToys and find the Virtual Desktop Manager (MSVDM) a very useful addon.  MSVDM allows you to have 4 separate desktops; including individual wallpaper and start bars, allowing the user to organise their busy desktops.  The whole thing is controlled via shortcut keys or menus and includes an over view shot to help find windows you may have misplaced.  May not be a eye popping as Beryl on Linux, but its still a good tool on XP.

However, I have found an interesting (annoying bug) when you use this with Access 2007 or Excel 2007 in that when the desktop with either application looses focus the ribbon bar disappears when you switch back to that desktop.  I have tested this with other Office 2007 applications but Access and Excel seem to be the only ones with the issue, which in itself is very strange.  The application and any work is still loaded but not very useful without any menus or icons !!

Has anyone else noticed this?

Still testing so will post more if anything else comes to light.

I agree that it is not a particularly common set up, (XP + Office 2007 + MSVDM) but it is starting to get annoying and I would rather not have to sacrifice MSVDM.

Technorati tags: Microsoft office 2007, powertoys, power toys, msvdm

Let your bluetooth device find Facebook friends

Using bluetooth and Facebook technology researchers at Bath University have designed a way to build new friendship networks.  By installing a Facebook app called Cityware users can track real world encounters via their bluetooth devices.  It appears to be part of a wider project backed by Nokia, HP Labs and Vodaphone.

The system works with 4 parts, firstly a Facebook account then Cityware application followed by your bluetooth devices and then the Cityware nodes.  These nodes have only currently been installed in Bath, University College London, the University of California in San Diego, with more nodes going online in Sweden, Hong Kong and Sydney.

These nodes (computers) scan for bluetooth enabled devices and send that data back to the Cityware servers to compare the unique bluetooth IDs against known Facebook accounts.  The next time you access Facebook you will be shown other users that your device detected.

Cityware state that “The node sits in the environment and records everyone’s unique Bluetooth ID. Cityware itself doesn’t know your name, or who you are.”, Dr Kostakos, research associate at the University of Bath.

Dr Kostakos makes some other very interesting comments, “Networks are everywhere – social and digital.  The really nice thing about Bluetooth is that when you are walking down the street, although you are not talking to anyone, your Bluetooth device can be talking to other devices.”

“Most people you bump into or see regularly have made information about themselves available publicly online.  But the Internet is such a big place that it’s difficult to find contextual information about who someone is, where they are etc.”

The tool lets find out if any of the people you bump into is a Cityware user and has a Facebook profile, in which case you can choose to add that person to your friend list.

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Thinking about this started to give me a headache, I mean having my Bluetooth device allow other people to find me just seemed so un-nerving.  Similarly the thought that really, your locations could be recorded on a server somewhere was also a bit disconcerting.  However, regardless of how we choose to meet a new friend or a familiar stranger is having your bluetooth device do the introdcution any more dangerous than exchanging details the old fasion way?  Probably not and it could be argued that it was in some ways safer.  It will be very interesting to watch this technology develop over time but at the moment my Bluetooth is still OFF. 

The original article can be found on the BBC WEB site here

Technorati tags: cityware, bluetooth, facebook, social networks, social networking

Test Shows 41% Of Facebook Users Expose Themselves To Strangers

However interesting this post is about the ease at which some people will part with personal information in the social networking community of Facebook (and no doubt alternative sites) the title alone is worth a mention 

Nokia and Matsushita to replace mobile phone batteries

Nokia is offering to replace up to 46 million batteries for their mobile phones due to reports of overheating while charging. 

From the WEB site

“This is a product advisory for the Nokia-branded BL-5C battery manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan between December 2005 and November 2006. This product advisory does not apply to any other Nokia battery.”

There have apparently been very few cases of reported problems however more info and a product guide can be found here

Technorati tags: battery recall, nokia, safety

Microsoft dashboard for LIVE services

Microsoft have started to test a new dashboard interface for their Live services (link is home.live.com) where a Windows Live user can get an overview of their personal Live account, i.e. emails – MSN contacts – blog postings and try out other online Microsoft services.

I have just logged in and given this a spin, and well, like any dashboard it was actually good to be able to see a top level view of my services but I was disapointed at the experiences in that when you click to view a service there is no way “back” to the dashboard, other than pressing the browser back button.  Well, that works so whats the problem ??? and isn’t that just a niggle rather than a complaint ???… well to me it does not project an intergrated all-in-one experience which is kind of what I would expect.  Plus if you try and edit your settings then pressing the back button does not return you to the dashboard…. I actually had to go through the history and select the “sign in” page (interestingly I never had to sign in again but at least I got to the dashboard).

What I did like was the fact Windows Live services are linked on the back end by a common contacts database.  So I can post a picture on Windows Live Spaces, its blog – and picture sharing site, and send a notice to anyone on my instant messaging contact list.  Plus it is actually very neat to have a portal view … not a new idea by any stretch of the imagination but as Windows Live has about 300 million users who frequently log in to IM or EMail then this can only be a very good move.

If only it tied into non-Microsoft services like GMail, Facebook, Twitter, etc etc etc 

Technorati tags: microsoft dashboard, dashboard, windows live

Passion-Centric or Object-Oriented community sites

Social networking sites are huge … how obviously is that statement !!!!   but I came across another side to this upsurge of sites which are known as “Passion-Centric” or “Object-Oriented”.  Lets paint the picture: “A San Francisco native who loves the beach, parks, running and dancing, Marco has easily made connections over the Internet, racking up 5,200 on his profile. Not bad for a 4-year-old Miniature Schnauzer.”

Marco is just one of thousands of dogs with a WEB profile on Dogster.com – which is simply an online community featuring pet photos, pet videos, diaries, tips etc etc etc.  Its sister site, catster.com, is the same thing for cat lovers and apparently pets are not the only thing targetted … sneakerplay.com is for, well, sneakers (trainers, runnng shoes .. whatever).

These are places for people with particular passions to share that passion and have a bit of fun … not just swap names, photos or “collect” friends.

I’m sure there are other passions represented …. but you may have to clear your browser cache afterwards !! 

Technorati tags: dogster.com, caster.com, passion-centric

Spock.com

A new web search service has launched, but this one doesn’t provide results for the entire web—it only provides results about people. Spock.com went into public beta today after several months of private testingand prides itself in providing the “richest people search experience on the web.”

This may sound creepy at first, but users are able to manage thier own profile pages and also import details from a number of other places, such as LinkedIn and MySpace as well as tags, pictures and contact lists.  So why is this different from say MySpace or Facebook?  Well, it seems that the general public can also tag your pictures and put information in about you, and as Wikipedia has learned this sort of Openness some members may choose to vandalise profiles with damaging or false information.  Spock say that information will be checked, but it is unclear how.

They claim to have already indexed 100 million people, with a new million each day and it is fair to say that a high percentage of these people will not be managing their own profiles.

Technorati tags: Spock, people searching, find me, web 2.0, community sites

Official Vista “performance” and “compatibility” packs released

Microsoft still isn’t commenting on when a beta of Service Pack 1 for Vista will be officially released, but the company has posted two updates that are expected to be part of that final package: the “performance and reliability” update and the “compatibility and reliability” update. These are official releases.

Among other things the Explorer file transfer slowness has been fixed as has hibernate/sleep (well, for some laptops), and a load of video card support issues have been sorted (I will try these on my Dell D810 and let you know).

See KB 938979 (memory performance) and KB 938194 (the one which *finally* lets you play games  )

While this isn’t beta software, you would be advised to read both KB entries and hitting the discussion thread before installing the updates just to see what to expect and what your fellow Vista users are experiencing… and I will install both and let you know ASP.

Has Flickr just been pwned ???

Follow a live .Mac web gallery link to see what iMac galleries are now offering …….. It’s very slick indeed…. Drag your cursor over a gallery to “flip” through its photos, and click anyone to view. Once you’ve entered a gallery, you’ve got several options. Choose a grid, carousel or mosaic layout (the carousel is **impressive**), or simply start a slideshow. You may also change the background’s color and resize any photo. Finally, you can subscribe to an album’s RSS feed, send to a friend or add photos (if you’ve got permission to do so).

I tried this on Firefox 2.0.0.4 on XP and it was very nice … I heard that it looks amazing on iphone (don’t have those in the UK yet) and I am sure it looks better on MAC/Safari … but as for sharing photos then I wish Flickr did that 

Technorati tags: MAC Galleries, ilife, iwork, photos