dj writes in with a reminder that forty years ago, on January 16, 1969, the two Russian spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 carried out the first docking between two manned spacecraft and transfer of crew between the craft. Wired's piece gives a gripping account of "one of the roughest re-entries in the history of space flight": "Soyuz 5's service module failed to detach at retrofire, causing the vehicle to assume an aerodynamic position that left the heat shield pointed the wrong way as it re-entered the atmosphere. The only thing standing between Volynov and a fiery death was the command module's thin hatch cover. The interior of Volynov's capsule filled with noxious fumes as the gaskets sealing the hatch started to burn, and it got very hot in there (which, a short time later was something he probably missed). ... But wait. There's more."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ilgaz writes in to let us know that we will have to install MS Silverlight 2 to watch the US President's inauguration online. Everyone running Mac PPC, Linux, and FreeBSD has been left out, as there are no working Silverlight 2-capable alternatives on these systems. Here is Microsoft's press release announcing the selection of Silverlight yesterday. Streaming of various events around the inauguration begins today at the Presidential Inaugural Committee site, which touts its "inclusive and accessible" coverage.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

theodp writes "Most of America's largest publicly traded corporations and Federal contractors — including those receiving billions of dollars from US taxpayers to finance their recovery — have set up offshore operations that could help them avoid paying US taxes, according to a GAO study released yesterday. Of the 100 largest public companies, 83 do business in tax-haven hot-spots like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and the British Virgin Islands. The report found that Citigroup, a recipient of $45B in bailout funds so far, has set up 427 subsidiaries in tax-haven countries, including 91 in Luxembourg, 90 in the Cayman Islands, and 35 in the British Virgin Islands. Household names on the lists from the tech sector include Apple (1 tax haven subsidiary), Cisco (38), Dell (29), HP (14), Intel (6), IBM (10), Microsoft (8), Motorola (4), and Oracle (77)."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

wiedzmin writes "Great entry in today's SANS Internet Storm Center Handler's Diary — How to suck at Information Security. Some of my favorite points include: 'Assume the users will read the security policy because you've asked them to. Assume that policies don't apply to executives. Make someone responsible for managing risk, but don't give the person any power to make decisions. Expect end-users to forgo convenience in place of security. Hire somebody just because he or she has a lot of certifications. Expect your users to remember passwords without writing them down.' Very entertaining and informative read with total of about 4 dozen points. Now if I could only find a way to get management to read it." There's also a one-page PDF on the author's site.

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Despite only attracting "only" 110,000 attendees, there was still a lot to see and a lot of fun had at 2009's Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. First impressions were downbeat, but we found things to look positive about and ended up having a great time with some of the tech toys we'll be seeing on the streets this year. Top of the stack was the Pre, a good-looking smartphone that turned Palm's press from tragedy to triumph in a matter of hours. There are seven features that make it better than the iPhone. Don't miss Joel and John's hands-on coverage. We also took a look at Sony's amazing Vaio P notebook. Though the company hates it when people call it a netbook, it's hard not to notice the resemblance: an Intel Atom-powered lightweight 1.4lb laptop with a 9" display, full keyboard and up to 6 hours battery life. Here's the announcement and the hands-on review. We fawned over it, we did. LG came up with the first not-awful cellphone wristwatch; Casio announced a point-and-shoot digicam with the same features as the fancy EX-F1; Sharp announced televisions, and Netgear had a TV streaming box almost as small as a deck of cards. There were hands-on playtime with the OQO model 02+ and other new pocket PCs and MYVU's latest video glasses. John had a strange encounter with Disney zombies and pirate play at the Toshiba press event. We also covered new gear from Dell, Samsung, Toshiba, Monster Cable, HP (more), Netgear and Logitech. Not enough? There was also another show called MacWorld, should you be interested in $3,000 laptops. Boing Boing Gadgets at CES

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA has appealed the order entered several days ago allowing the January 22nd hearing in SONY BMG Music v. Tenenbaum to be streamed over internet TV. Additionally, they've made a motion for a stay. I'm just a country lawyer, but as far as I know: (a) it's not possible to appeal the order, (b) it was procedurally improper and ineffective to file a notice of appeal, and (c) it was improper to direct their motion for a stay to the District Court Judge. Well, let's hope the arguments in the First Circuit will be streamed, too. Meanwhile, one commentator wonders why the tooth and nail opposition to broadcasting, since the professed aim of the litigations was to 'educate' the public?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Times of India reports that two young girls have been wed to frogs in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram district, "to prevent the outbreak of mysterious diseases in the village''.

The girls, Vigneswari and Masiakanni, dressed up in traditional bridal finery -- gilded sarees and gold jewellery -- married the frog 'princes' in separate, elaborate ceremonies at two different temples in the presence of hundreds of villagers.

Amidst chanting of vedic hymns, the temple priests garlanded the brides and tied the magalsutras on behalf of the frogs pronouncing the two as wives of the amphibians before the sacred fire at the auspicious hour.

The villagers threw themselves into the ceremonies with gusto. While residents living in the western part of the village acted as relatives of the brides and those from the eastern part play-acted as relatives of the grooms. The ceremonies had all the usual elements of a traditional marriage including a sumptuous feast.

However, unlike the fairy tale `Frog Prince', where the ugly toad turns into a handsome prince when the princess kisses it, the Villupuram village belles bid their amphibian grooms goodbye and lead a normal life thereafter. As for the terrified frogs, they are thrown back into the temple ponds after the ceremony.

Two minor girls married off to frogs

Episode two of The Oracle, Max Keiser's irreverant, curmudgeonly finance show on BBC World aired yesterday and it's up on YouTube today -- all financial coverage should be this good.

Here's a useful primer on whole-house rainwater catchment systems:

In many areas of the country, a water-conserving household can provide for all its water needs from what it can catch off its roof. If the graywater and potentially the blackwater/humanure is also recycled for landscaping, each home can become an independent and sustainable part of the local ecology. We often speak of living off our annual income of solar energy, so it makes sense that we should try to live off our annual income of rainwater as well.

Does anyone have documentation on DIY blackwater systems?

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remove office writes "I recently discovered that Belkin's lead online sales rep, Michael Bayard, has been secretly paying internet users to review his company's products favorably on Amazon.com and other websites like Newegg, whether or not they've ever used the devices. Bayard instructed the people he was paying to 'Write as if you own the product and are using it... Mark any other negative reviews as "not helpful" once you post yours.' Ironically, he was using Amazon's own Mechanical Turk service to hire his fraudsters. Did he honestly think he wouldn't get caught? Are Slashdotters aware of other examples of other such blatant astroturfing on behalf of a large tech company like Belkin?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

notseamus writes "In the past few days, YouTube has started muting videos uploaded by users that use 'unauthorized copyrighted music' in response to Warner Music's threat over royalties, and so far appears to target only Warner Music related videos. Ars Technica also reports that after three DCMA notices YouTube will remove a user account, even when it appears to be fair use. Kevin Lee has had video essays — which he believes are fair use — removed from YouTube, and his account disabled before he could file a counter notice."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

mytrip points out news that an anti-piracy firm called Nexicon has been offering financial incentives to ISPs in exchange for having the ISPs police their own networks for copyright infringement. Nexicon would offer their services (for a fee) to help the ISPs pinpoint users who are illegally sharing files, and then give the users an option to "settle" through their "Get Amnesty" website. The revenue generated by such settlements would then be shared with the ISPs. Jerry Scroggin, owner of a smaller ISP in Louisiana, is still skeptical, saying, "I would still wind up losing customers. I would also have to pay Nexicon for this ... I have to survive in this economy but I don't have the big marketing dollars that bigger ISPs have. I have to fund 401(K)s and find ways not to lay off people. Giving free rein to the RIAA is not part of my business model."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "Microblogs, targeted advertising, social news, online video, streaming music, and enterprise social networking are among the technologies that will probably fail in 2009, according to a new report from Internet Evolution. The report cites revenue figures, failed or non-existent business models, and an overabundance of 'me-too' start-ups, combined with the current recession, as reasons the aforementioned technologies might not survive the year. 'Whereas the past couple of years have been defined by overcrowding and overfunding in the Web 2.0 space, and an onslaught of startups with no purpose or plan to make money, this recessionary year is likely to see more due diligence on the part of VCs, allowing strong companies and technologies to emerge from the smoldering pile of dead ones.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A simple idea in a twit.

Google should hire someone to beautify their URLs. Seriously would make their products 100 percent more attractive and usable.

I'm always cleaning up their URLs. Why can't they do that for me?

For example -- a Google Map link to the Empire State Building:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Empire+State+Building,+New+York,+NY&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.36116,66.708984&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=A

And if you don't sign out first, they include your home address in the URL. Oy. Talk about security leaks. Geez Louise. Someone at Google, please get a clue!

Anyway why shouldn't this be, simply:

http://maps.google.com?q=Empire+State+Building,+New+York,+NY

I just filled out my profile. Its url is:

http://www.google.com/s2/profiles/103628798844723879427

Why not:

http://users.google.com/dave.winer/

And on and on.

Lady Bird Johnson had a program to beautify America's highways. Google needs someone to beautify their information superhighway.

visible.frylock writes "Cnet is reporting that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (PDF), currently in the House Appropriations Committee, contains Net Neutrality provisions: 'The so-called stimulus package hands out billions of dollars in grants for broadband and wireless development, primarily in what are called "unserved" and "underserved" areas. ... The catch is that the federal largesse comes with Net neutrality strings attached. ... recipients must operate broadband and high-speed wireless networks on an "open access basis." The FCC, soon to be under Democratic control, is charged with deciding what that means. Congress didn't see fit to include a definition.' The broadband grants appear to begin in SEC. 3101 (pg. 49) of the PDF."

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Enter the alternative universe of Jake Von Slatt, a leading Steampunk Maker, who turns modern technology into Victorian works of art. In the Maker Workshop, John Park mounts a remote control camera on a painter's pole to take stunning aerial photographs, and Cy Tymony demonstrates some sneaky uses for magnets. The Maker Channel presents a theremin orchestra, a smoke ring generator, a pulse-jet bike, and a video-hack method to paste yourself with a beer into congressional hearings on C-SPAN. Visit Blip to watch in HD.

Download the m4v, or subscribe in iTunes.

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Jake Von Slatt invites us into the alternate universe of Steampunk. As leading figures in the Boston arts community, members of Steampunk combine the power of modern technology with the grace and intricacy of Victorian design. Working with brass, recycled items and found objects, Jake and other Steampunkers party like it's 1899, bringing old-world, steam engined-inspired touches to everything from computers to flatscreen television. Plus, watch the story of steam power, from the first crude water pump to a bionic arm. Watch the clip, and visit steampunkworkshop.com.

Get the m4v or subscribe in iTunes. Or watch on YouTube or Blip.

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Want to see the world from a decidedly different point of view? Join John Park as he makes a Sky Eye / Polecam. This pole-mounted camera is fashioned from servo motors, a digital camera, and a standard remote control. John took it to the zoo to snap some sky-high shots; where will you take yours?

Read the instructional PDF.

Get the m4v or subscribe in iTunes. Or watch on YouTube or Blip.

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The companion PDF that will help guide you through the Pole Camera project. Be sure to watch the original segment!

The Podcast is available here..

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In this 'Sneaky Gadgets' segment, Cy Tymony demonstrates some innovative and sometimes stealthy uses for magnets. Tired of zippers and buttons? Make like Cy, and insert magnets into your clothing as an E-Z fastener. This prolific Los Angeles-based author and Maker also offers other accessible projects that are great to try with young makers; check out Cy at sneakyuses.com

Get the m4v or subscribe in iTunes. Or watch on YouTube or Blip.

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Here are this week's Maker Channel videos from Make: television.

Theremin Orchestra - Masami Takeuchi's instrumental ensemble looks amazing and sounds even better.

Smoke Ring Machine - Ali Momeni shows off his programmable smoke ring generator.

Pulse-Jet Bike - Robert Maddox pulse-jet engine-powered bike makes tracks.

[Trouble Maker] Drink Beer on CSPAN - Bill Barminski demonstrates a simple video hack.

Get the m4v or subscribe in iTunes. Or watch on YouTube or Blip.

We need your video for our upcoming season! Tell us about it at makerchannel.org

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marciot writes "I live in a condominium where I get interference from my neighbors' WiFi. I understand that 1, 6 and 11 are the only non-overlapping WiFi channels, but how does this translate into real-life best practices? When you must overlap, is there a 'good' way to do it? With nine access points, for example, is it better to have three APs each on 1, 6 and 11, so that each completely overlaps with only two others. Or is it best to distribute those APs across nine channels such that they only partially overlap others (but potentially overlap more APs in total)? Do use patterns affect interference? For example, is it best to overlap a channel with multiple APs that rarely transfers data, or to share a channel with one person who downloads torrents 24/7? Does maximum data rate affect interference or robustness to interference? I found out by accident that setting my access point to '802.11b only' mode appeared to give me a vastly more reliable connection that leaving it in 'mixed 802.11b/g.' Is this a fluke? Or does transmitting at 10 Mbps when everyone else is using 54 Mbps (for their 3 Mbps DSL pipes!) give you a true advantage?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This week:
"One-Chip" Arduino, Making Dot Paintings w/ Bubble Wrap, More Decochari, Recotana's
AVR-based OSC Server, Gundam Bento, Life Preservers Replaced With Recycled DIY Flotation Devices, Making Glasses From the Bottoms of Bottles.

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thefickler writes "The Chinese Government is expanding a crackdown on Internet pornography. Xinhua news agency, which is owned by the government and can safely be used for reporting in China, says the campaign to scrub the country's Internet of 'vulgar' content has so far resulted in 29 criminal cases. Police have ordered the removal of 46,000 pornographic and other 'harmful' items from websites. The latest crackdown comes after official warnings of rising social unrest as the economy slows. It's no coincidence that this year is the twentieth anniversary of Tiananmen Square, or, to use the acceptable nomenclature, 'the June 4th incident.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Julie188 writes "Opera Software's year-old antitrust complaint against Microsoft took another step toward being vindicated, and the Oslo-based browser maker can't help crowing over the European Commission's decision. Opera had filed a complaint with the EC in December, 2007, contending that Microsoft's bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows violated antitrust rules. Yesterday, the EC sent a 'Statement of Objections (SO)' to Microsoft with a preliminary finding that bundling IE with Windows does indeed constitute an antitrust abuse. Microsoft has eight weeks to plead its case and change the EC's mind, an unlikely outcome if ever there was one. Opera's CEO said, 'On behalf of all Internet users, we commend the Commission for taking the next step towards restoring competition in a market that Microsoft has strangled for more than a decade.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This past Thursday's Handmade music night was totally packed! Curious minds braved the cold Brooklyn winter to see some sweet projects firsthand. I managed to grab some video and chat a bit with the event's head honcho Peter Kirn which you'll see above. I know these gatherings are just going to get better and better - see you @ the next one!

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John Gunn, the General Manager of a DRM company, alerted us to a blog post he wrote taking me to task for the post I wrote last week concerning a software developer who didn't freak out when his app was cracked, but used the experience to learn what the market wanted from his app. Gunn's post is slightly odd, and a bit troubling to me, in that he says that, by showing how this developer learned to use the piracy to his advantage, I "crossed the line" I have always avoided, and "actively promoted the criminal act of software piracy."

This is both wrong and misleading at the same time. First, my position is nothing new. I have always said that content creators need to learn how to take advantage of unauthorized access. In fact, that's been a common theme throughout this site from the beginning. Saying that content creators can and should learn to take advantage of such things (and then highlighting those who do so successfully) is, in no way, condoning the actions of those who partake in unauthorized file sharing. My position has always been directed to the content creator, and both recognizes the reality that unauthorized file sharing exists and will not go away, and then looks at ways to use that to your advantage, knowing it's there.

Gunn's second point is to claim that there are "far more efficient and reliable methods" for a developer to get feedback from the market. That may be true (though, actually, I doubt it), but again it doesn't change the fact that unauthorized access will occur. And, given that, why wouldn't you want to take advantage of it? Nothing about using piracy for market lessons is mutually exclusive from those mythological more efficient and reliable methods. Then, Gunn goes back to the old, disproved claim of DRM defenders: that the only real message from pirates is people want stuff for free. Considering just how often we've shown examples of people happily paying for things they can get for free when given a reason to buy, rather than being treated as a criminal by DRM providers, it's simply a myth.

Finally, Gunn, posts a series of questions for me:

Why use the denigrating term "freaking out" to describe software publishers who act to protect their assets and revenues by using an effective DRM solution or by pursuing action against people that steal from them? Wouldn't you do the same?

The term "freaking out" was descriptive and, I believe, accurate. Many software developers get so focused on unauthorized access and file sharing of their software that they miss out on the fact that there are business models they could adopt where that issue goes away. They miss out on the fact that throughout history, so called "piracy" has almost always opened up new, and much larger, markets. So, "freaking out" is proper. It shows a response that is out of proportion with what would be a reasonable solution, such as figuring out a way to take that activity and use it to their own advantage.

As for the issue about "protecting assets" using "an effective DRM solution... against people that steal from them?" Well, the answer should be obvious. First, it's not about protecting assets. It's about limiting activity of customers. Limiting activity of customers is the same thing as limiting your market and making your product less valuable. If you're in business, your goal should always be making your customers more satisfied and more interested in doing business with you, rather than "protecting" or limiting. As for an "effective DRM solution" well, such a thing has never existed, so I don't know what he's talking about. Finally, as someone who claims to be a regular reader of Techdirt, it's odd that he would call unauthorized access "stealing." It's not. Claiming it is doesn't change things at all. In fact, claiming it is stealing makes it nearly impossible to figure out a way to respond reasonably and leads to, yes, freaking out.

And, finally, to the question "wouldn't I do the same?" The answer is no. I wouldn't (and don't) limit my customers. I'd put together a business model where it doesn't make sense to do so. I would put together a business model where I get benefits the more my content is spread widely -- rather than taking an adversarial stance against my customers. Plenty of folks are doing so today, and are finding stronger and better relationships with their customers and bigger and bigger businesses. And, when my customers do something new and unique with my content, I'd learn from it and encourage it in order to make my future work that much more valuable.

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AnInkle writes "Two months after acknowledging that their flagship 1.5TB Barracuda 7200.11s could hang while streaming video or during low-speed file transfers, Seagate again faces a swell of complaints about more drives failing just months after purchase. Again, The Tech Report pursued the matter until they received a response acknowledging the bricking issue. Seagate says they've isolated a 'potential firmware issue.' They say there's 'no data loss associated with this issue, and the data still resides on the drive;' however, 'the data on the hard drives may become inaccessible to the user when the host system is powered on.' If users don't like the idea of an expensive data-laden paperweight, Seagate is offering a firmware upgrade to address the matter, as well as data recovery services if needed. By offering free data recovery, Seagate seems to be trying to head off what could become a PR nightmare that may affect several models under both the Seagate and Maxtor brands."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

One of the persistent themes I noticed at Wednesday's patent conference at the Brookings Institution is that most of the lawyers seemed to assume that if the legal system ultimately reaches the right conclusion—invalidating a bad patent, say—that this means that the patent system is working well. Some panelists suggested that the Bilski decision, which struck down one particularly egregious "business method" patent, shows that there's not really a problem, because the courts are recognizing the problems with bad patents and correcting them. They seemed not to fully appreciate how slow and expensive the legal system is. One only has to think back to the great BlackBerry showdown to see that having the legal system eventually invalidate a bad patent may not be good enough. Even if the law is on the side of an accused patent infringer, the time, expense, and uncertainty of litigation can kill the firm before its rights can be vindicated in court.

I think the right way to think about patent reform is not whether the courts eventually reach the right result, but whether the system is predictable enough that you can tell in advance what the law requires, without hiring a patent lawyer. After all, this is how well-designed property rights systems work. I didn't need to hire a property lawyer to tell me who owns the apartment I'm living in—the rules of real property are predictable enough that I could figure it out on my own. The vast majority of property transactions are the same way—lawyers only get involved in exceptional cases that involve large sums of money or tricky legal issues. By the same token, if we're going to have patents on software (or in any other industry), they should be few enough and clear enough that a smart entrepreneur can figure out in advance, without the help of a lawyer, which patents he needs to license. If our current patent system isn't living up to that standard, the solution isn't to come up with ever-more-complex legal doctrines trying to separate the "good" vague patents from the bad ones. Rather, the solution is to restrict patenting to those fields where it's possible to make things clear and predictable. If that's not possible in some industry (and I suspect it's not in software), then that's a sign that patents aren't an effective way to promote innovation in that industry.

Timothy Lee is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Timothy Lee and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Today on Offworld we saw an elaborate scientific study on gravity's weight in Super Mario's Mushroom Kingdom, looked at vintage game ads that brazenly promoted their (actually non-existent) gratuitous violence, and saw one developer doing recruitment ads very right. We also read how the head of Harmonix wants to revive their original cult music-game Amplitude and move onto the iPhone, played Oregon Trail and other Apple II classics in our browsers, read more vintage tales on the making of Doom, and wondered whether the recession was the perfect time to create an indie game. Finally, we saw a new designer art-pack coming to LittleBigPlanet, prepared for the Adult Swim debut of Offworld favorite brit-com Look Around You with its best games related clip, and, most wonderfully and belatedly, played Gravity Bone, a game that would have easily made The Offworld 20 if only I'd played it sooner. Also: invites for our three-way Planetside blog-war should be going out soon -- I suggest joining Offworld's Facebook group for more coordinating and pre-game strategery.

We've seen a variety of overly aggressive actions concerning trademarks lately that go well beyond the stated purpose (and the letter of the law) concerning trademarks. However, one of our readers, BendWeather, sent in something we hadn't seen before. He was reading the latest (paper) copy of PhotoShop User Magazine and discovered the following advertisement: Now, I have no problem with the company, Little Trees, that makes those "car-fresheners" enforcing their trademarks when there's a real violation of the trademark, but it seems quite odd to become so proactive that you would take out an ad specifically warning people that it's a trademark violation "no matter how you use it." That, of course, is false and a misstatement of trademark law... as is the information on Little Trees' own web page about its trademark, where the company incorrectly claims that "the law requires that we take action when someone is using them without permission."

That is not true. The law requires that a trademark holder actively police infringement on its trademarks and activity that would likely cause confusion or dilution of the trademark. That does not mean any use that is without permission. For example, in writing this post about Little Trees' trademark policy we did not ask permission, nor should we need it, since we are commenting on the policy itself. We are not competing with the company, confusing anyone as to the origins of the mark, or diluting the value of the mark, unless you consider explaining how the company is overly stating the rights associated with the mark as diminishing its value (which would be quite the legal argument).

Also, in looking at the ad, the company is being somewhat misleading in claiming that the image is "private property." It is not. It is covered by trademark, which is not the same thing as private property, and the company is doing a disservice to everyone claiming that they are the same thing.

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snydeq writes "Texas-based Saxon Innovations has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission to bar six companies — including Research in Motion, Palm, and Nokia — from importing handheld devices into the US. At issue are three patents that Saxon purchased in July 2007; a patent for keypad monitor with keypad activity-based activation; a patent for an apparatus and method for disabling interrupt marks in processors or the like; and a patent for a device and method for interprocessor communication by using mailboxes owned by processor devices. Saxon, with five employees, purchased about 180 US patents formerly owned by Advanced Micro Devices or Legerity in 2007, according to its ITC complaint."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I like the looks of this electronic compass sensor paired with an Arduino protoshield. It would be fun to drive a servomotor with this data, to create a digital/analog compass.

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A few readers have sent in the news that Connecticut lawmakers have stepped in to save two newspapers in the state, that were about to be shut down. This is raising all sorts of questions about the separation of government from the press. What's scary is that just a few years ago, such an idea was used as satire. Then it became a serious suggestion and now it's happening. Of course, the big question is about how this will impact coverage. It is possible for the government to own a newspaper and still have that newspaper report critically on that government... but it's definitely harder, and a lot of people may wonder about how closely the papers will monitor government officials.

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This is truly aggressive upcycling:

The De Vrouwe van Stavoren Hotel in the Netherlands salvaged four wine casks from Switzerland and converted them into rooms. Formerly filled with 14,500 liters of Beaujolais wine from the French chateau, each now holds a modest two-person room with standard amenities and even an attached bathroom and sitting room. Visitors from all around the world have traveled to the quaint northern port town of Stavoren to stay in one of these upcycled rooms.

(images, story via Inhabitat)

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If you plan your panoramic shot sequences just a bit, there are some great Open Source tools that will help you to stitch the photos together into a single panoramic image. Here's a great tutorial on using Hugin and Autopano in Ubuntu to automate the alignment, correct for lens distortion at the seams, and adjust exposure levels.

I keep seeing these commercials for Windows Vista and their new panoramic photo maker. Knowing how the Linux hacker scene is, anything that someone makes there is almost guarenteed to be a Linux project to make something close. Well guess what, there is a really easy way to make panoramic photos from multiple still shots in Ubuntu! Further, not only am I going to tell you how to do this, I will show you with some shots of my own.

I've actually used these same tools on the Windows side as well, but getting everything installed and set up is a breeze in Ubuntu. The tools correct for a lot, but for best results it always seems to work better for me if I use a tripod and set everything to all-manual so that the photos don't have any major exposure or perspective differences.

Do you have any recommendations for producing the best panoramic photos?

Panoramic photos in Ubuntu

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