FastStone Image Viewer
August 9th, 2012I’ve recently gotten back into photography a bit. I bought a Sony RX-100 (which I think of as producing results akin to a pocketable DSLR) and a Canon PIXMA iP4950 photo printer. The print quality that’s available to people at home is just amazing with these tools. One thing I was missing was a fast way to handle the workflow.
I found a program called FastStone Image Viewer. Wow! It’s fantastic. I use it for everything from importing images from the camera to printing. I’ve even started using features in this program that I used to go out to Photoshop to do. It’s so much faster to do it all in one place.
What I especially like is the cropboard feature. Say that I want a 4×6 print from a cropped image. I can select the 4×6 template and use it to crop from my source file. Copy the crop to the clipboard. CTRL-N, new image. CTRL-V, paste the crop. Then I simply print the cropped 4×6 without having to resave anything. The original file is untouched.
The program is very fast and lightweight and it’s full of great features.
Price: Free for personal/non commercial use.
I hit that donate link on their site within two hours of installing the program.
Update: Works With Camera RAW Files from Sony RX-100
I can view and make basic adjustments to RAW files from the RX-100 with this FastStone viewer. Until I build my new 64-bit rig, this will definitely keep me happy.
Olympics Spectator Arrested for Not Smiling
August 8th, 2012Via: Guardian:
A man with Parkinson’s disease who was arrested during the Olympic men’s cycling road race while sitting beside the route has said he wants a “letter of exoneration” from Surrey police, claiming their treatment of him was disproportionate.
Mark Worsfold, 54, a former soldier and martial arts instructor, was arrested on 28 July for a breach of the peace shortly before the cyclists arrived in Redhouse Park, Leatherhead, where he had sat down on a wall to watch the race. Officers from Surrey police restrained and handcuffed him and took him to Reigate police station, saying his behaviour had “caused concern”.
“The man was positioned close to a small group of protesters and based on his manner, his state of dress and his proximity to the course, officers made an arrest to prevent a possible breach of the peace,” Surrey police said in a statement.
Worsfold, whose experience was first reported by Private Eye, claims police questioned him about his demeanour and why he had not been seen to be visibly enjoying the event. Worsfold, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2010, suffers from muscle rigidity that affects his face. He was released after two hours without charge or caution.
“It could have been done better. I was arrested for not smiling. I have Parkinson’s,” he said, adding that he realised the officers were working long hours and trying to control the event properly, but they had not, in his case, acted correctly. He said he did not want to make further comment until he received a response from Surrey police.
Internet Archive: Over 1,000,000 Torrents of Downloadable Books, Music, and Movies
August 8th, 2012Via: Internet Archive:
The Internet Archive is now offering over 1,000,000 torrents including our live music concerts, the Prelinger movie collection, the librivox audio book collection, feature films, old time radio, lots and lots of books, and all new uploads from our patrons into Community collections (with more to follow).
Chart of the Day, HFT Edition
August 8th, 2012Via: Reuters:
This astonishing GIF comes from Nanex, and shows the amount of high-frequency trading in the stock market from January 2007 to January 2012. (Which means that the Knightmare craziness of last week is not included.)
More: Nanex
Appeals Court OKs Warrantless Wiretapping
August 8th, 2012Via: Wired:
The federal government may spy on Americans’ communications without warrants and without fear of being sued, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a decision reversing the first and only case that successfully challenged President George W. Bush’s once-secret Terrorist Surveillance Program.
“This case effectively brings to an end the plaintiffs’ ongoing attempts to hold the executive branch responsible for intercepting telephone conversations without judicial authorization,” a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote. (.pdf)
Possible Egyptian Pyramids Found Using Google Earth
August 8th, 2012Via: Archeology News Network:
Two unidentified, possible pyramid complexes have been located with satellite imagery from Google Earth.
One of the complex sites contains a distinct, four-sided, truncated, pyramidal shape that is approximately 140 feet in width. This site contains three smaller mounds in a very clear formation, similar to the diagonal alignment of the Giza Plateau pyramids.
The second possible site contains four mounds with a larger, triangular-shaped plateau. The two larger mounds at this site are approximately 250 feet in width, with two smaller mounds approximately 100 feet in width. This site complex is arranged in a very clear formation with the large plateau, or butte, nearby in a triangular shape with a width of approximately 600 feet.
The sites have been documented and discovered by satellite archaeology researcher Angela Micol of Maiden, North Carolina. Angela has been conducting satellite archaeology research for over ten years, searching for ancient sites from space using Google Earth. Angela is a UNC Charlotte alumnus and has studied archaeology since childhood. Google Earth has allowed her to document many possible archaeological sites, including a potential underwater city off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula that has sparked the interest of scientists, researchers and archaeologists. Angela is also a board member of the APEX Institute, founded by archaeologist William Donato, who is pioneering underwater archaeological research in the Bahamas. Angela has been assisted by Don J. Long, fellow APEX researcher and colleague.
The sites have been verified as undiscovered by Egyptologist and pyramid expert Nabil Selim. Nabil’s discoveries include the pyramid called Sinki at Abydos and the Dry Moat surrounding the Step pyramid Complex at Saqqara. Nabil has stated the smaller 100 foot “mounds”, at one of the proposed complex sites, are a similar size as the 13th Dynasty Egyptian pyramids, if a square base can be discovered.
France: Hollande Wants 75 Percent Tax on Income Over $1.24 Million Per Year
August 8th, 2012Via: New York Times:
The call to Vincent Grandil’s Paris law firm began like many others that have rolled in recently. On the line was the well-paid chief executive of one of France’s most profitable companies, and he was feeling nervous.
President François Hollande is vowing to impose a 75 percent tax on the portion of anyone’s income above a million euros ($1.24 million) a year. “Should I be preparing to leave the country?” the executive asked Mr. Grandil.
The lawyer’s counsel: Wait and see. For now, at least.
“We’re getting a lot of calls from high earners who are asking whether they should get out of France,” said Mr. Grandil, a partner at Altexis, which specializes in tax matters for corporations and the wealthy. “Even young, dynamic people pulling in 200,000 euros are wondering whether to remain in a country where making money is not considered a good thing.”
A chill is wafting over France’s business class as Mr. Hollande, the country’s first Socialist president since François Mitterrand in the 1980s, presses a manifesto of patriotism to “pay extra tax to get the country back on its feet again.” The 75 percent tax proposal, which Parliament plans to take up in September, is ostensibly aimed at bolstering French finances as Europe’s long-running debt crisis intensifies.
Avatar Officer Installed at Arizona-Mexico Border Station
August 7th, 2012Via: Scientific American:
People crossing the Mexican border into Nogales, Ariz., this week will have a chance to meet U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s newest officer—a polite yet no-nonsense bilingual gatekeeper with a thick shock of black hair and a striped gray tie. He may not have a name or join his fellow officers for coffee or lunch breaks, but his presence will likely be welcomed both by them and the commuters who regularly pass through this southern Arizona outpost on their way to and from Mexico.
That is because the new recruit is an avatar, a virtual border patrol officer residing in a kiosk developed by researchers at the University of Arizona to facilitate border crossings.
…
The kiosk is not designed to indicate that an interviewee is lying or to diagnose that person’s intent, says Aaron Elkins, a University of Arizona postdoctoral researcher in the Management Information Systems department who helped develop the kiosk. Instead the kiosk analyzes an interviewee’s voice for anomalies that may prompt a border officer to probe deeper into a particular response.
Anomaly detection is based on vocal characteristics—changes in factors such as rate, volume, pitch and intonation—that may be related to different emotional, arousal and cognitive states. An inflection in one’s voice may indicate uncertainty, or a pause might imply that an interviewee may have been devising a deceptive answer, Elkins says. The kiosk’s speech recognition software monitors the content of an interviewee’s answers and can flag a response indicating when, for example, a person acknowledges having a criminal record.
New Video from Inside Bohemian Grove
August 7th, 2012Via: BohemianKyle:
Windows 8 Will Apparently Prevent Booting to the Desktop
August 7th, 2012Via: ZDnet:
If you were one of those business users counting on being able to circumvent the new tiled Windows 8 start menu, you may be disappointed.
The final release-to-manufacturing (RTM) builds of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 have been leaking to the Web for last few days. Those with access to the final builds are discovering the final tweaks Microsoft made to the product since the last public test build, Windows 8 Release Preview, was delivered.
One of those tweaks is the decision to block users from setting up their Windows 8 machines to boot straight to the Desktop, circumventing the tiled Start screen, formerly known as the Metro screen.
