Photosynth is an amazing new technology from Microsoft Live Labs that will change forever the way you think about digital photos. Our software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space.

With Photosynth you can:

• Walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle.
• Seamlessly zoom in or out of a photo whether it's megapixels or gigapixels in size.
• See where pictures were taken in relation to one another.
• Find similar photos to the one you're currently viewing.
• Send a collection - or a particular view of one - to a friend.

The Photosynth Technology Preview is a taste of the newest - and, we hope, most exciting - way to view photos on a computer. Our software takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and then displays the photos in a reconstructed three-dimensional space, showing you how each one relates to the next.
In our collections, you can access gigabytes of photos in seconds, view a scene from nearly any angle, find similar photos with a single click, and zoom in to make the smallest detail as big as your monitor.

Microsoft Live Labs: Photosynth

So another great Live service I just started using is Windows Live SkyDrive

You can use SkyDrive to store your own important files or make files available to friends in the public folder all in "the cloud". You get 1GB of storage which is available free to everyone with a Windows Live ID. While there are many free services available, SkyDrive  is different as it integrates with Windows Live contacts, Spaces and Hotmail. You can even subscribe to an RSS feed so you are instantly notified when a new file lands in one of your SkyDrive folders.

Good idea to advertise on the back of buses.  Shame about the position of the exhaust pipe

National Rail Enquiries: Live Departure Boards

Displays the latest train running information for a particular train station in the UK, with optional filtering by destination.

NationalRailEnquiries

Price: Free

 

Windows Live Gallery

The title of Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year for 2007 has been awarded to Ben Osborne, a British photographer. Ben was awarded the title during a gala ceremony at the Natural History Museum, his winning image is titled Elephant creation

for more details click here

Why did De Vinci paint the Mona Lisa? Because he never had a  Nikon D200.

Two old guys in raincoats are in a dark alley, on seeing a pretty girl approaching, one guy holds the edges of his coat and turns to the other and says,  "In this poor light, what exposure shall I give?"

Have you checked out the new professional photography site yet? It's much improved with a new look, updated galleries, downloads and more

Microsoft Professional Photography

Triumph TR is back!

Is another of Britain's most famous names set to make a comeback? We look into the sensational plans Full details available below

Triumph | Auto Express News | News | Auto Express

If you frequently travel between time zones or work with people in different time zones, it can be a challenge to keep the different times straight. Windows Vista can make things a little easier by displaying clocks for extra time zones in the system tray. Just click on the time stamp in the system tray, in the pop up chose "Date & Time Settings" then choose the middle tab "Additional Clocks"

 

Summary of the review from Coolsmartphone.com; HTC have done an awesome job with this phone. It's lean and shapely yet tough and strong too. HTC really are pointing the way in more than just phone building and phone design now. They're rapidly rolling out more and more software applications and tweaks to their phones which are all nothing short of astounding.

See, this is what I like - this is a Pocket PC masquerading as a phone. A cool, thin, sexy-looking phone. Perhaps "masquerade" isn't the right word, maybe I should say "cleverly disguised". Think about it, you've got all the features of a traditional Pocket PC - the push email, the touch screen, the Office suite - but it's wrapped up in a good looking phone that teenagers on the street would lust after.
Every now and then I get sent phones on loan and I don't want to send them back. This, without doubt, is one of them.

For the full review visit  CoolSmartPhone.com - HTC Touch Dual

In the past my blogging has be sporadic to say the least. This is because I don't always have time to post. Well that has all changed for me, now that I have started using Live Writer. Writer is a desktop application that makes it easy to publish rich content to your blog and has a rich set features included. (See below). In addition to these features when you  install Writer you also get a menu option in IE that allows you to post a reference direct to the application. You can then save this as draft and use the offline editing function to complete your post when you get time

Windows Live Writer Beta

Win Key +spacebar brings the 'Gadgets' to the front, they seem to come through the desktop!

Winkey +g cycles through the Gadgets, naturally you have to install a few gadgets for this to work!

Winkey +u  activates the Ease of Use Center.

WinKey +x  activates the Mobility Center.

Winkey +Tab activates the new Vista feature called Flip 3-D.

Winkey +d  Desktop

Winkey +e  Explorer

Winkey +f  Search (Find)

Winkey +l   Lock workstation

Winkey +m  Minimise

Winkey +r  Run Command

See some of his work here YOUNG GALLERY. I can only dream of having the opportunity and and skill to capture pictures of this quality.

Starting this Thursday (25th October) follow the story of photography in BBC Four's six-part series 'The Genius of Photography'. See some of the most famous photographs ever taken and find out more about what made them so very special.

In the course of our 170 year relationship, photography has delighted us, served us, moved us, outraged us and occasionally disappointed us. But mainly, it has intrigued us by showing the secret strangeness that lies beneath the world of appearances. And that is photography's true genius.

BBC - Photography - Genius of Photography - Homepage

Fom vivid, colourful landscapes to intimate portraits of animal behaviour, the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition offers an extraordinary insight into the beauty, drama and diversity of the natural world.  Buy tickets online or purchase them from the ticket desks located at the Exhibition Road and Cromwell Road entrances to the Museum.
Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year - Natural History Museum

Click here view the 2006 winners

Almost everyone knows that you can use the Ctrl and Shift keys in conjunction with a mouse to select more than one file or folder. Windows Vista offers a more convenient alternative by they use of tick boxes, though this feature it's not enabled by default.

To set this option to be active, open a  folder in the explorer view, click the Organize button, then choose Folder and Search Options. Then click the View tab and scroll down nearly to the end and add a check next to Use check boxes to select items. Now, you'll be able to select multiple files without using the keyboard, even when working with files directly on the Desktop.

So what is the Golden Mean? It's one of those magical numbers 1.618, just like PI (3.14) This number is represented by the Greek letter PHI, the golden mean goes unnoticed in our everyday life, such as in nature and architecture but because of the use of this number is why we find these things strangely pleasing on the eye. So here's example of how the golden mean occurs in nature. If you look at the diagram below you will see it is made up of squares, but the overall image is a rectangle. If you measure it, it has the magic ratio of 1.618. Now look at the curved lines in each of the squares and you will see that these are in fact quarter circles. If you then look at this as a whole you may think this is a cross section of a shell.

And your right, as this is the growth rate of a Nautilus Sea Shell.

So can you use this rule in photography? Yes you can by roughly duplicating the path of the spiral in your photographs it will increase your odds of getting appealing results. Using the Golden Mean forms a smooth line for your eyes to trace through the picture, where the Rule of Thirds is more static. Your eyes will move along the line of the spiral which creates a more compelling experience.  If you want to place the subject of your photograph in the tightest end of the spiral, and the other elements of the picture should roughly follow the path of the spiral.  You can transpose the spiral so you can create more variety when you are composing pictures. This rule is best suited for landscape photography which have long flowing lines, but it can also be useful in close-ups and portraits. When you understand the basic form of the Golden Mean, using this rule of compisition becomes second nature.

Here's a quick, easy, Vista tip.  You can change the size of the desktop icons simply by holding down the Ctrl key, and scrolling the mouse wheel.  The icons such as the Recycle Bin enlarge or shrink as you turn the mouse's wheel.  This is a classic for learning a tip try applying wherever you go, for example try Ctrl + scroll the mouse wheel when you are next in Windows Explorer.

 Nikon has just announced next years free Expo. For details visit http://www.solutions-expo.co.uk/