Photosynth, a technology demo from Microsoft Live Labs, has graduated from its "ooh, that's pretty" status to being a viable Web service for consumers.
The technology, which takes a grouping of photographs and stitches them into a faux 3D environment, can now be implemented with photos you've taken on your digital camera or mobile phone, and converted right on your computer. Previously, the process of stitching these photos together took weeks of processing on specially configured server arrays. With its latest version, Microsoft has managed to shrink that into around the time it takes to upload your photos.
Microsoft is giving users 20GB of online storage for their Photosynth collections. Photosynth product manager Joshua Edwards tells me this can easily fit 60 or more "synths" made up of around 150 to 200 photographs apiece--the higher end of what's recommended for what Edwards calls an optimum or "synthy" experience. Users who are making really neat collections will be granted additional space.
I spent the past few days building my own Photosynths and finally managed to get the knack for how to shoot correctly by the third one. While Microsoft has largely pushed it as a way to build jaw-dropping 3D-like environments, I'd argue to say it's a far simpler way to take super detailed shots of a wall or single room without breaking the bank on a high megapixel SLR. That said, Photosynth will take any resolution of photos you throw at it.
This synth I created uses close to 300 photos, although you can make ones with many less. Part of the creation process involves learning how to take photos for it to recognize how objects relate to one another.
(Credit: CNET Networks/Josh Lowensohn)
One of the most impressive parts of Photosynth is how damn fast it is. Over a decent broadband connection you'll immediately see large thumbnails that quickly begin to sharpen as data fills in the missing pixels. You can continue to zoom into these areas and they'll sharpen up even more on some of the super high-resolution shots.
The streaming and rendering technology behind Photosynth is Seadragon, another project from the Microsoft Live Labs universe. Users have always had to download a special Seadragon-based plug-in to view other people's synths. The new twist with the latest plug-in now comes with a desktop uploader that can be used to add your own collection to the Photosynth universe. This runs with complete autonomy from your browser, so you don't have to worry about it stopping if you close out your browser. It also works in both IE 7 and Firefox 3, making it cross-platform--at least for Microsoft. If you're a Mac user looking to get your hands on some Photosynth action you'll have to keep waiting. The focus on Photosynth will remain on the PC for the time being.
One thing that's missing from this version of Photosynth is a way to synth pre-existing photo collections, or sets of photos taken from community sites. This is the most useful for things like common landmarks, and is clearly something that can be done with the right photo database--something we saw in that really nifty video from Siggraph last week. In the case of Photosynth, once you've uploaded a batch of photos you can't simply upload more to it later. Gary Flake, who heads up Microsoft's Live Labs, says this is something that's coming later on down the road. For now, you'll just have to plan ahead.
Link:http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10020637-2.html
Apple 3G iPhone launched in India
iphone 3G which was expected very much by all was launched yesterday. It was introduced by the leading service provider Bharti Airtel and Vodaphone in Delhi.After a long waiting Swati a college student was the first one to get the iphone from Sanjay Kapoor president of Bharti Mobile Services. The phone is priced at Rs 31,000 for 8 GB memory and Rs 36,0000 for 16 GB of memory space.Vodafone was selling at 11 stores across Delhi, while Bharti was selling it only at the Shahara Mall.Recent survey says that there are 150,000 iphone users in India ,they got that from importing or from the grey market. Aitel has received order for 200,000 iphone by pre-booking since the process was started one moth back. The phone comes locked to the service provider which means the user can't switch his service provider.But there are number software available in market which hack the phone,they all go unnoticed.
It is expected to hit in India because India ranks third third unofficially after Russia and China.
It is expected to hit in India because India ranks third third unofficially after Russia and China.
Buzz Ball
The Buzzball delivers a thrill like no other interactive ride can, where the pilot has the power to create their own unique ride experience - from fun goer to thrill seeker. The Buzzball is a future product in development.
At the heart of the Buzzball is a dual motor configuration, enabling the pilot to control the motion and direction of travel via left and right control triggers, which provides power to the driving wheels.
The amount of power applied to each wheel will determine the direction the Buzzball moves. Powering one wheel will spin the pod and pilot on it's axis around the inside of the ball changing the direction of travel. If power is applied equally to both wheels the pod will rear up as the wheels climb up the face of the ball forcing the ball to rotate around the pod and powering the Buzzball forward.
Once the Buzzball is in motion the pod maintains an upright position until the pilot turns, causing the pod to rotate inside the ball against the direction of travel, which applies a braking force and the pod to lock with the ball. This causes the pod to rotate with the ball until the weight of the pilot and pod overcomes the inertia forces and causes the Buzzball to change direction.
This is when the fun starts, as the speed will affect the degree of rotation of the pilot and pod from a partial barrel roll to complete and multiple rotations
At the heart of the Buzzball is a dual motor configuration, enabling the pilot to control the motion and direction of travel via left and right control triggers, which provides power to the driving wheels.
The amount of power applied to each wheel will determine the direction the Buzzball moves. Powering one wheel will spin the pod and pilot on it's axis around the inside of the ball changing the direction of travel. If power is applied equally to both wheels the pod will rear up as the wheels climb up the face of the ball forcing the ball to rotate around the pod and powering the Buzzball forward.
Once the Buzzball is in motion the pod maintains an upright position until the pilot turns, causing the pod to rotate inside the ball against the direction of travel, which applies a braking force and the pod to lock with the ball. This causes the pod to rotate with the ball until the weight of the pilot and pod overcomes the inertia forces and causes the Buzzball to change direction.
This is when the fun starts, as the speed will affect the degree of rotation of the pilot and pod from a partial barrel roll to complete and multiple rotations
Quanta Plus is a highly stable and feature rich web development environment. The vision with Quanta has always been to start with the best architectural foundations, design for efficient and natural use and enable maximal user extensibility. We recognize that we don't have the resources to do everything we would like to so our target is to make it easy for you to help make this the best community based desktop application anywhere. Pretty much everything in Quanta is designed so you can extend it. Even the way it handles XML DTDs is based on XML files you can edit. You can even import DTDs, write scripts to manage editor contents, visually create dialogs for your scripts and assign script actions to nearly any file operation in a project. You can even look at and communicate with a wide range of what happens inside Quanta using DCOP.
Quanta is based on KDE so this means it is network transparent from any dialog or project. It can use not only FTP but other KDE KIO slaves from file dialogs or in project settings. For instance if you want secure access try the fish KIO slave that uses SSH. Just enter fish://[user]@domain in any dialog or select fish in your project settings. Here on this site you will find information on using Kommander to visually build dialogs you can extend Quanta with. These applications talk to each other using an IPC (Inter Process Communication) called DCOP (Desktop Communication Protocol).
The main features of Quanta are:
* Project management, including support for local and remote (through the network) projects. Project files can be uploaded to many servers using various protocols. CVS support is integrated, Subversion support is possible through external plugins. Advanced project features, like actions assigned to various project events and assigning roles in a team are also available.
* Uses KDE KIO slaves for FTP, SSH (through FISH) and other protocol support.
* HTML and XML support: by default support for various (X)HTML versions and some XML based languages are available. This support can be extended either by the user (by importing an XML DTD) or via the "hotstuff" interface, by downloading XML support packages. XML support means autocompletion of tags and attributes, visual editing of tags, document structure viewing, validation/problem reporting, context help.
* script language support: by default PHP support is included, other languages can be supported by creating a language description package. PHP debugger interface is included for the Gubed and XDebug debuggers. Autocompletion for built in and user functions/variables is possible.
* CSS support: visual CSS editor, autocompletion for CSS.
* templates: full site, one document or snippet templates are possible. Templates can be shared via hotstuff.
* user toolbars and actions: toolbars can be freely created with stock or actions created by the user on it. This toolbars can be assigned to a language or to a project. The toolbars are also shareable via hotstuff.
* unlimited extensibility: any type of scripts/executables can be assigned to actions or project events. Users can exchange toolbars through the hotstuff system.
* plugins: general KPart plugin support. Any KDE KPart can be used inside Quanta, by default Konsole, KImageMapEditor, KLinkStatus, Cervisia (CVS) and KFileReplace is configured.
* integrated preview: documents can be previewed inside the application using the KHTML engine. Preprocessing the documents through a web server before previewing is possible.
* context help: context help for many languages can be downloaded via hotstuff. New help packages can be created by the user.
* lots of settings: the application is highly configurable, so everyone can adapt to its needs.
* Builtin rendering with KHTML.
* Display the source code, WYSIWYG Mode (called VPL (Visual Page Layout) in Quanta) or both.
Quanta is based on KDE so this means it is network transparent from any dialog or project. It can use not only FTP but other KDE KIO slaves from file dialogs or in project settings. For instance if you want secure access try the fish KIO slave that uses SSH. Just enter fish://[user]@domain in any dialog or select fish in your project settings. Here on this site you will find information on using Kommander to visually build dialogs you can extend Quanta with. These applications talk to each other using an IPC (Inter Process Communication) called DCOP (Desktop Communication Protocol).
The main features of Quanta are:
* Project management, including support for local and remote (through the network) projects. Project files can be uploaded to many servers using various protocols. CVS support is integrated, Subversion support is possible through external plugins. Advanced project features, like actions assigned to various project events and assigning roles in a team are also available.
* Uses KDE KIO slaves for FTP, SSH (through FISH) and other protocol support.
* HTML and XML support: by default support for various (X)HTML versions and some XML based languages are available. This support can be extended either by the user (by importing an XML DTD) or via the "hotstuff" interface, by downloading XML support packages. XML support means autocompletion of tags and attributes, visual editing of tags, document structure viewing, validation/problem reporting, context help.
* script language support: by default PHP support is included, other languages can be supported by creating a language description package. PHP debugger interface is included for the Gubed and XDebug debuggers. Autocompletion for built in and user functions/variables is possible.
* CSS support: visual CSS editor, autocompletion for CSS.
* templates: full site, one document or snippet templates are possible. Templates can be shared via hotstuff.
* user toolbars and actions: toolbars can be freely created with stock or actions created by the user on it. This toolbars can be assigned to a language or to a project. The toolbars are also shareable via hotstuff.
* unlimited extensibility: any type of scripts/executables can be assigned to actions or project events. Users can exchange toolbars through the hotstuff system.
* plugins: general KPart plugin support. Any KDE KPart can be used inside Quanta, by default Konsole, KImageMapEditor, KLinkStatus, Cervisia (CVS) and KFileReplace is configured.
* integrated preview: documents can be previewed inside the application using the KHTML engine. Preprocessing the documents through a web server before previewing is possible.
* context help: context help for many languages can be downloaded via hotstuff. New help packages can be created by the user.
* lots of settings: the application is highly configurable, so everyone can adapt to its needs.
* Builtin rendering with KHTML.
* Display the source code, WYSIWYG Mode (called VPL (Visual Page Layout) in Quanta) or both.
Scribus - Open Source Desktop Publishing
Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of "press-ready" output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.
Scribus is designed for flexible layout and typesetting, and the ability to prepare files for professional quality image setting equipment. It can also create animated and interactive PDF presentations and forms. Example uses include writing small newspapers, brochures, newsletters, posters and books.
Capabilities
Scribus supports most major graphic formats in addition to SVG. Professional type/image setting features include CMYK colors and ICC color management. Although written in C++, it has built-in scripting using Python. It is available in more than 24 languages.
Printing is achieved via its own internal level 3 PostScript driver, including support for font embedding and sub-setting with TrueType, Type 1 and OpenType fonts. The internal driver fully supports Level 2 PostScript constructs and a large subset of Level 3 constructs.
PDF support includes transparency, encryption and a large set of the PDF 1.4 spec as well as PDF/X3, including interactive PDFs form fields, annotations and bookmarks. However, although PDF export is very good, it is not currently able to import/edit PDF files, and PDFs exported from Scribus are not searchable in Acrobat Reader if the document contains proportional fonts.
The file format, called SLA, is based on XML and is fully documented. Text can be imported from OpenDocument text documents, as well as RTF, Microsoft Word .doc, and HTML formats (although limitations apply).
Scribus cannot read or write the native file formats of commercial programs like QuarkXPress, Microsoft Publisher, and InDesign; the developers feel that reverse engineering those file formats would be prohibitively complex and could risk legal action from the makers of those programs.
Although Scribus supports Unicode character encoding, it currently does not properly support complex script rendering and so cannot be used with Unicode text for languages written with Arabic, Indic and South East Asian writing systems.
Download: Download Scribus
Sources : http://www.scribus.net/
wikipedia
Scribus is designed for flexible layout and typesetting, and the ability to prepare files for professional quality image setting equipment. It can also create animated and interactive PDF presentations and forms. Example uses include writing small newspapers, brochures, newsletters, posters and books.
Capabilities
Scribus supports most major graphic formats in addition to SVG. Professional type/image setting features include CMYK colors and ICC color management. Although written in C++, it has built-in scripting using Python. It is available in more than 24 languages.
Printing is achieved via its own internal level 3 PostScript driver, including support for font embedding and sub-setting with TrueType, Type 1 and OpenType fonts. The internal driver fully supports Level 2 PostScript constructs and a large subset of Level 3 constructs.
PDF support includes transparency, encryption and a large set of the PDF 1.4 spec as well as PDF/X3, including interactive PDFs form fields, annotations and bookmarks. However, although PDF export is very good, it is not currently able to import/edit PDF files, and PDFs exported from Scribus are not searchable in Acrobat Reader if the document contains proportional fonts.
The file format, called SLA, is based on XML and is fully documented. Text can be imported from OpenDocument text documents, as well as RTF, Microsoft Word .doc, and HTML formats (although limitations apply).
Scribus cannot read or write the native file formats of commercial programs like QuarkXPress, Microsoft Publisher, and InDesign; the developers feel that reverse engineering those file formats would be prohibitively complex and could risk legal action from the makers of those programs.
Although Scribus supports Unicode character encoding, it currently does not properly support complex script rendering and so cannot be used with Unicode text for languages written with Arabic, Indic and South East Asian writing systems.
Download: Download Scribus
Sources : http://www.scribus.net/
wikipedia