Radha mitchell climb quotsilent hillquot!

I like to think that we have rather sophisticated spam filters here at Microsoft - the bulk of the unwatend mail never makes it into the corporate network, and most of those that slip by usually go straight into Outlook's junk mail folder - so it's always interesting to see what mails make it actually past all those safeguards into my inbox.

Today's was rather exciting in appearance and content:


A mail that well crafted must be telling the truth! Go and buy those CBFE shares now before all the sleeping investors realize the true potential!

A day of mourning.

Like for so many other students across the world, they have provided nourishment for me through weeks and months of short budgets and busy schedules of mixing finals and dedicated multiplayer x-box gaming. Even in my poorly equipped student housing in Waco, TX, a warm meal with flavors vaguely reminding of chicken, beef, teriyaki, or even seafood could be provided instantly - with virtually no cleanup and no other required ingredients or preparation.

Granted, with temperatures often rising above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in summer, a warm meal wasn't required very often, but the economic advantages often outweighed the environmental circumstances. Bought in the right quantity at Costco, a single dollar's investment could feed me for almost an entire week!

Of course I am talking about Ramen Noodles. Those "blocks" of dried noodles coming with a little satchel of flavoring that have been copied by so many companies since their invention.






And that's just it! They were invented. Invented not by some anonymous corporation, but by some guy who - most likely - had a "vision" about the future of food and built a million dollar company around this vision. Now that guy is dead, passed away at the age of 96 near Osaka (Did he eat his own invention regularly? Are his noodles a secret to long life? Or lies the secret in their avoidance?).

I doubt many students have ever heard the name of Momofuku Ando, but no doubt they've enjoyed his vision of food. Truly a man that has made great strides for the quality of student life around the world. You may have already forgotten his name when reaching this sentence, but his food will forever hold a place in our hearts.

In fact - his departure has been of such significance that there is even an article about it in the NY Times Op/Ed.

Here's a link to the Official Ramen page. They even invite you to visit them on Times Square. It's not just food! It's fun too!

More real than real.

After reading an article in the German news magazine "Der Spiegel", which described in detail the new HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography a few days ago, I decided to take a look at it myself. Should there finally be an alternative to graduated neutral density filters?

The problem that often plagues photographers is as follows: Cameras have a very limited capability of recording contrast, so images of motives very rich in contrast will invariably have to exhibit some trade-offs, some corner-cutting.

Let's take a run-of-the-mill sunset image for example: A darkening mountainous landscape with exciting textures and shades of rock and snow; above the mountains a bright fabulously lit sky filled with pink and red clouds.

When taking a picture without the help of any tools, it usually comes down to two options - either adjust the settings to optimize for the bright sections of the image, and thus losing all other areas to the shadows (in our example a fabulously lit sky, but the foreground is dark as night and will lose all it's features and texture), or optimize for the darker parts of the image, and thus "burning" out the bright areas (the sky will turn completely white or pink and the individual clouds would be lost).

Traditionally this problem has been solved with so-called "neutral density" filters - essentially slabs of glass that are mounted in front of the camera and which have the upper half darkened, and the other one as clear glass. This allows to artificially darken one half of the image, and allows the photographer to expose the image longer without burning out the bright areas. It works great for images where there is a clear, straight line separating the bright from the dark sections of the image (like a horizon). It's not that great when patches of bright and dark are all over the image.

Instead of trying to get all the information into a single image, for the new HDR technology three (or more) images are taken, and only later combined into a single new image. One of them is deliberately underexposed to record all features of the bright sections, one of them is normally exposed to capture the mid-range, and the third is overexposed to gather all information about the dark parts of the image. I was curious about this, so I downloaded the sample software and took a series of high-contrast shots in Dublin yesterday.

First the three shots taken, the center one being the "normal" exposure. You can see the problems of the foreground being too dark (on the leftmost) or the sky being burned out (rightmost) quite well:



Then the combination with the Photomatix HDR tool:


The results are staggering: Every cloud of the sky is still visible, and so are the green color and the features of every plant in the foreground.

And this was just a few handheld shots in the afternoon. Using a tripod will produce much crisper results and much less ghosting. Some amazing examples can be found at the Photomatix website

The original Spiegel article which prompted me to try this myself can be found here

Autotranslation

The first work week in this year is appropriate now nearly already again behind me - only for 51 up to the year 2008. As I this morning in the office came and with "Good morning", "bon Giorno", "Buenas slide", and "Bonjour" my team welcomed there and to me again once was noticeable, how much my team is more international here than it in talking moon ever was, thought I that it property an idea would perhaps be once for testing how much translation software in the last years became better. For this reason I wrote the today's entry into German, and to it by an automated Website translates. It would surprise me much if somewhat readable thereby comes out, but in any case much fun with to read.

(Altavista Babelfish: http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr)


Now the first week this year lies almost again behind me – only 51 up to 2008. When I came today tomorrow to the office and there with "Good morning", “ voucher of Giorno ”, “ Buenas of slides ”, and "Bonjour" mine team greeted and to me struck once again how much more internationally my team is here than it in Redmond one day I was, thought that it maybe a good idee would be to be tested once how much has better become übersetzungssoftware during the last years. That's why I have written the today's entry into German, and have translated afterwards by an automated website. It would surprise me very much if, besides, something readable comes out, but in any case read a lot of fun with.

(Im Translator: http://www.translation.paralink.com/)

Resolutions indeed!

Instead of procrastinating like I would have done in the old year, this time I'll take the time and actually add some of the new pictures right away.

Glendalough - one of the "must see" destinations of Ireland, conveniently located only an hour's drive outside of Dublin.

That hour's drive would have posed an almost insurmountable obstacle for me, had it not been for my friend Ilana who recently left the US to work for Microsoft in Denmark (and who will enjoy a fabulous quality of living, paid for with a 55% tax bracket). We rented a fine little french vehicle that took us not only to Kilkenny and Wicklow, but also to the fabled site of Glendalough.

Apparently it used to be a remote site chosen by St. Kevin as his new home for its loneliness and the absence of other people. However, a bunch of his followers wanted to "share" this loneliness with him and moved there to learn from him, making this quickly one of the main religious sites in Ireland - probably not what good ol' Kevin had in mind.

I'll have to come back at some point in spring/summer to see the sight in full daylight and with the green environment it will no doubt have - in fall it's all a bit gray there.

Nevertheless, here are some snapshots (as always, a full gallery is on my picture site):

Resolutions...

It's a new year - out goes 2006 with all its ups and downs, and in comes 2007 with a million plans and promises. I am sure that I'm not the only one who begins every new year with a number of resolutions* (like more sports, more pictures, more blogging, less sweets, finding true love) - that usually go out the window together with the Christmas decorations in less than two weeks.

But of course, this year it'll all be different.

This year I am going to stick with those resolutions! And to make sure that this will be the case I decided to go out and start taking some pictures and immediately put them up in my blog - that's catching two birds with one stone!

Admittedly, the first set of pictures was already taken a few weeks back when my friends Anne and Nate came over from the US and saved me from my car-less existence with a swell Avis rental car. We took a road trip up to Northern Ireland (which is a thrillingly unexciting border crossing only noticeable by gas prices suddenly being marked in Pound Sterling instead of Euros) to Belfast and the Giant’s Causeway – and I could have hardly asked for a greater introduction to the scenic Irish landscapes:

The Giant's Causeway is an area of 40,000 interlocking basalt columns resulting from a volcanic eruption. It is located about 2 miles (3 km) north of the town of Bushmills in County Antrim, Northern Ireland along the northeast coast of Ireland. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a National Nature Reserve in 1987 (by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland). In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, Giant's Causeway was named as the fourth greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom. It's the centerpoint of many famous photos, notably the cover of the Led Zeppelin album Houses of the Holy. The Giant's Causeway is owned and managed by the National Trust. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, however there are some with four, five, seven and eight sides. The tallest are about 12 meters (36 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 meters thick in places (Thanks again, Wikipedia).

After spending the night in a small B&B (of which we skipped that Breakfast because Anne made us get up at the crack of dawn) we made our way back to Belfast to hop on one of the famous “Black Cab” tours in which the driver takes you to the famous and infamous landmarks right there in the heart of the Northern Ireland conflict. While the open violence has subsided and doesn’t take a prominent spot in everyday news and media anymore, the hate and mistrust still runs deep between many Protestants and Catholics. A 10m wall divides Belfast, target for many a child to cast a stone across, separating the neighborhoods of both faiths. Massive steel gates in the wall can be closed at a moments notice to prevent acts of violence or retaliation. Having grown up in the 80s and 90s and seen much of the IRA and Northern Ireland violence on TV in that time, it is an odd feeling standing in front of the head office of Sinn Fein or the murals depicting the heroes of the Ulster Freedom Fighters.

The next set of pictures that I actually DID take this year will be showing off the Republic of Ireland, namely Glendalough.

I’m sure I’ll get around posting this soon – after all, it’s one of my resolutions.



* Being a big wikipedia fan and often relying on it to satisfy my thirst for immediate answering of questions I decided to look up the history of New Year’s Resolutions. It’s an interesting bit of trivia, but it also shows the flaws of the Wikipedia concept - too many cooks do in fact dilute the precision of the answer... or something like that:

The tradition of the New Year's Resolutions goes all the way back to 153 BC. Janus, a mythical king of early Rome was placed at the head of the calendar.[citation needed]

With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future. Janus became the ancient symbol for resolutions and many Romans looked for forgiveness from their enemies and also exchanged gifts before the beginning of each year.

The New Year has not always begun on January 1, and it doesn't begin on that date everywhere today. It begins on that date only for cultures that use a 365-day solar calendar. January 1 became the beginning of the New Year in 46 B.C., when Julius Caesar developed a calendar that would more accurately reflect the seasons than previous calendars had.

The Romans named the first month of the year after Janus, the god of beginnings and the guardian of doors and entrances. He was always depicted with two faces, one on the front of his head and one on the back. Thus he could look backward and forward at the same time. At midnight on December 31, the Romans imagined Janus looking back at the old year and forward to the new. The Romans began a tradition of exchanging gifts on New Year's Eve by giving one another branches from sacred trees for good fortune. Later, nuts or coins imprinted with the god Janus became more common New Year's gifts.

In the Middle Ages, Christians changed New Year's Day to December 25, the birth of Jesus. Then they changed it to March 25, a holiday called the Annunciation. In the sixteenth century, Pope Gregory XIII revised the Julian calendar, and the celebration of the New Year was returned to January 1.

The Julian and Gregorian calendars are solar calendars. Some cultures have lunar calendars, however. A year in a lunar calendar is less than 365 days because the months are based on the phases of the moon. The Chinese use a lunar calendar. Their new year begins at the time of the first full moon after the sun enters Aquarius--sometime between January 19 and February 21.

Although the date for New Year's Day is not the same in every culture, it is always a time for celebration and for customs to ensure good luck in the coming year.