December 2004 Archives

I have recently purchased the book titled "Professional Techniques for Digital Wedding Photographers, 2nd edition". One thing that really frustrates me when reading a book is when there are blatant errors in - and I am not even talking about typo's. I am referring to technical lies.

When I took some pictures of lightning the other day, I detected severe purple fringing around the lightning path itself. This bothered me, so I investigated.

I had the pleasure of being in a meeting room a few weeks ago in a large, respected company with some of their technical experts discussing the security considerations for a project I am consulting on.

Since I am paranoid about security, I obviously tried to push that they upped the security on the system dramatically (they are hosting it and will eventually take over the responsibility for securing it). It was just so startling to witness their responses to many of my recommendations, that I started to realise exactly how ignorant many people are towards IT security.

Yesterday evening while we were preparing for dinner, we had the most spectacular sunset I have witnessed in many, many years - right here in Centurion. I took some brilliant photographs, and posted them under various categories on Photudio. Browse around under Nature > Sunset and Other > Lighting Changes. Enjoy!

Ever wondered why a picture taken at say F3.5 on a non-SLR digital camera like the Fujifilm Finepix 602Zoom does not have the same DOF than a SLR camera like the Canon EOS 1D Mark II? In this article I'll explain what causes these differences.

Every Christmas, calculations are made to try and explain why Santa Claus cannot deliver all his presents to every child around the globe and still be within the bounds of physics. However, this year four physicists had been instructed to solve this paradox.

To quote an exert:

Every Christmas, calculations circulate that have been dubbed "The Physics of Santa Claus". The calculations cast doubt as to whether Santa Claus could possibly deliver gifts to all the world's good children - and still remain within the laws of physics. To deliver gifts to all who deserve them, they assert, Santa would need to move so fast that he would vaporise due to air resistance, be torn to pieces by gravitational forces or suffer other terrible fates we wouldn't wish for Santa Claus.

Many fall for these calculations. Yes, there has even been one instance in which a vicar was criticised for using them to explain to small children that Santa does not exist. Luckily, some would say, the vicar has apologised to the traumatised children.

Because, even though the physics of the calculations is apparently good, the reasoning rests on a completely wrong premise, namely that Santa Clause does not exist. Even small children understand that this premise is completely wrong!

How will Santa Claus ensure that all the good children receive their presents and once again save Christmas? To clear up this important question, Internet magazine forskning.no has gathered four the country's sharpest researchers: astrophysicist Knut Jorgen Roed Odegaard, professor of physics Gaute Einevoll, professor of mathematics Nils Lid Hjort and Elf expert Ane Ohrvik.

They've taken the job very seriously.

Ion-shield

If Santa Claus is to deliver all the gifts to all the good children, his sleigh must fly so fast that he would burn up due to air resistance. But it has already been documented that Santa has no problem climbing down a chimney with a fire burning below. So how does Santa solve the problem of heat?

"Santa obviously has an ion-shield of charged particles, held together by a magnetic field, surrounding his entire sleigh. This is how he solves the heat problem," points out Knut Jorgen Roed Oedegaard, who also casts a new light in the night sky:
..."

If you are a regular slashdotter, you would know about this story. Otherwise, read the full story.

Many moons ago - in the misty swamplands of the early WWW (1996) - I uploaded some of my applications I wrote to several FTP servers. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the file still exists exactly the way I have uploaded it. Search for "scicalc" or "Waldo Nell" here.

As you can see, the old Gamma web site has been removed in favour of this blog. Since most of the content there were anyways just information oriented, I think it is much more meaningful (and easier) to add that kind of content using a publishing platform such as this.

Therefore I have moved all those entries on to this blog, under yesterday's date. They might not all look perfect, but at least that information is still available and searchable now too.

I was absolutely amazed by what people set forth to achieve, especially something so adventurous such as creating a camera that can take an image at a gigapixel resolution (that is a thousand times more resolution than your standard 1 megapixel camera of today). Check it out.

Warning and Disclaimer: If you are a sensitive reader or easily offended, do NOT read any further.

Based on a recent discussion I had with a friend of mine, I am curious to know what other people think.

The discussion revolves around the use of defensive programming techniques, as implicitly discussed in my recent article. I am going to discuss two issues.

Ever wondered how the relationship between DPI and Image Size works? I found a brilliant article on the web... Definately worth a read.

A few days ago I decided it is time to start another small company called Photudio. I have been interested in photography since I was a little boy running around with my Vivitar 35mm point and shoot film camera.

The web site contains some photos from each portfolio I like to take pictures for. Since I am interested in many different subjects, I have created distinct portfolios. Commercially I prefer doing Weddings, Model Portfolios, Still life and family portraits.

I hope this will become a viable company since I love photographing beauty...