It’s been a while (as usual). I’m quite impulsive which is reflected in everything I do, including this blogging stuff.

One of the many things I’ve been doing this summer (besides working) has been learning the trade of HDR (or sometimes HDRI) photography, which is what I want to talk about today. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range which in layman’s terms means a photo where more is correctly exposed than it normallycould be. It works by mathematically combining image data from several different exposures and then picking out the colors you want. What it results in are… well astonishing exposures which (in layman’s terms) means quite different pictures. Take a look at the slideshow below to get a feel for it. Larger images and comments can be found in my Exposure gallery. A LARGE slideshow can be found here…

If the page is looking strange you’re in luck. Because most times it doesn’t show up at all! Thanks a lot to my not-so-great host who won’t give me enough fucking PHP memory bandwith I’ve had to revert to this terrible layout! The reason for that is that I’ve upgraded to Wordpress 2.2 and at the same time the host moved t a 64-bit system which apparently makes PHP demand more memory to work with - which the of course won’t give me

It’s a shitty situation but I’m working on it.

Apologizes….

So without further ado: here’s Cate 2.2!

Download Cate 2.2 (17 kb)

So say we all!

The computers will be sold via Dell’s web site, said Canonical’s director of operations Jane Silber. “We have worked with Dell to get Ubuntu fully supported and fully certified on Dell hardware,” she said. “Ubuntu has the full endorsement of Dell.”

This was hardly a surprise as Ubuntu has thrived over the past few years and it’s community is growing larger by the day. More and more people realize the Windows reign (of terror) is finally over. Fueling the speculations was Dells CEO Michael Dell’s acquisition of Precision M90 laptop which he loaded with Ubuntu and a bunch of Open Source software in late April.
This is a huge step forward for popularizing Linux and Ubuntu in particular as a mainstream alternative to Windows. The biggest barrier thus far has been getting people already using working Windows installation to switch to Linux alternatives. Now that normal end users will have the option to buy a computer with a preinstalled
Open Source operating system the ‘mysticism’ and nerd-status surrounding the whole Linux community will hopefully dissipate easier than before.

Thanks to everyone!

So say we all!

Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) arrived just a few days ago with promises of better hardware compatibility, included proprietary software and drivers, and more user friendliness. Was it worth the wait? And more importantly - Is it finally time to “Make the Switch”? Read my review of Ubuntu 7.04 to find out!
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What is Cate?
Cate is a free customer database system using PHP+mySQL. It’s for storing customer information
and providing customers with online services. Cate’s code is quite portable so it can
basicly be combined with any other webapplication, eg. an online webshop, gallery,
ordering system or similar.

Who is it for?
Cate is mainly aimed at web developers looking for a way to quickly add customer database
functionality to their system.

Anyone interested in this, feel free to download. More about it can be found in the README. Cate is FREE and open source. You can use it and alter it all you want. If you do, however, plan to make tons of money from it somehow I could use some of that money

Download: Cate 2.1.5 (a whopping 16 kb!)

Of course, sticking it to the man is never that easy. Vista needs to be activated by an authorized serial key within 30 days of it’s installation. There is a crack which makes it possible to extend that period to 120 days but after that time you’re dead in the water. You either need to reinstall it or go buy it - that’s the bottom line. There are some cracks out there on the net but I’ve gotten none of them to work.

Reaching that deadily 120 mark isn’t however the end of the line, it turns out. I found out that even when Vista presents you with an “activate me or die” window at startup there’s still a way to get normal funtionality back.

When you’re promted for the activation you can choose the option “Access your computer with reduced funtionality”. When you choose it, your default webbrowser starts (in my case it’s Firefox). Now choose “open file” in the file menu. In the window that pops up now (your normal Vista file browser) write explorer in the address bar and hit enter. The normal vista UI loads up and your computer is ready to go! The only thing that seems to be limiting is the fact that you can’t turn of the “Windows Activation” window. If you do, you will be logged out of Vista.

1. Choose “Acces your computer with reduced functionality”
2. Select “open file” in the webbrowser
3. Write “explorer” in the addressbar and hit enter

There you have it! Now let’s all start sticking it to the man… Or get Linux

So say we all

One would think that all this fancy modern technology we have today would not only bring crappy webcam videos on YouTube to the people, but also say, make rigging elections and cheating in politics more difficult? Most major software companies today put millions on making computing safer and fiddling with computer systems more difficult - but that doesn’t really mean squat when some key systems in the US for example are still not protected enough. Systems that should be protected because their safety can be decisive importance for the future of one of the most powerful countries today and indeed the whole world.

Ok, so we all now that Bush jr. got into office by rigging the elections back in 2000. It was so obvious that many people all over the world were outraged at how a country forcing democracy on the rest of the world wouldn’t even be able to conduct fair elections itself. But somehow the cheater remained at his post. In 2004 it was time again. By this time everyone knew that the elections weren’t going to be fair and indeed the cheating was done more discreet this time. So again, people didn’t care… at least not enough. But what many people don’t know even today is how close it really was! By slightly over dramatizing one could say that the US presidential election in 2004 was decided by little more than 500 votes.

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