Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, May 21, 2007

FlickrSLiDR.com - Embed Flickr Slideshows in Your Site

from KillerStartups.com - published startups by rakohn

Have a bunch of photos that you'd like to post on your site in crisp slideshow form? If you use flickr, this is now very easy to do using the flickrSLiDR. It's a one page site meant to make embedding flickr slideshows into your site or blog as easy as possible. All that's needed is the flickr URL address of the user, photo set, or group you want to use. If you want to specify certain photos within a group, type in the specific tags from the group or user. You can also choose the size of your slideshow, as well as a couple other options. So if you have pictures from flickr you'd like to post to your site, it couldn't get easier than using flickrSLiDR. In their own words: "The next time you want to post a flickr slideshow on your website, just head over to flickrSLiDR and provide it with the URL of the flickr photostream, photoset or group that contains the pictures to put in a slideshow. For photostreams and groups, you can specify tags or a full text query to fine tune the type of pictures to be displayed in the slideshow. You can also specify the dimensions of the slideshow." Why it might be a killer: He had posted some info on how to make a slideshow from flickr before and it received over 200 comments and a lot of traffic, so obviously there is a desire by flickr users for this tool. It's really easy to use so that anyone can set up a slideshow within seconds. Some questions: Will there be more customization possibilities added for the slideshows? Will people use this site to make their slideshows, or turn to one of the many other slideshow specific sites out there that have a bit more flare?

Apple's $1099 2GHz MacBook gets benchmarked

from Engadget by Darren Murph

Filed under: Laptops

If you'd been pinching your pennies waiting for Apple to unleash an update to the MacBook side of things, your wait was ended last week, but if you've been wondering just how much difference the increase from 2MB to 4MB of L2 cache (and the 0.17MHz bump, too) made, here's your sign. MacLife was able to get its hands around a $1,099 base unit, and rather than carefully coaxing into the world, it broke out the whipping stick and put this bad boy to work. The new machine was pit against the old base MacBook (at 1.83GHz) and the previous 2GHz BlackBook, and while increases in efficiency weren't exactly considerable, reviewers found them at least noticeable. The latest machine shaved seconds off here and there from iMovie exporting and Photoshopping, and while most tests showed just single digit improvements, the iPhoto test did display a 22-percent gain compared to the previous 1.83GHz MacBook. Of course, these preliminary tests aren't anything out of the ordinary, but keep an eye on the read link for more fleshed out testing (including the refreshed BlackBook) in the coming days.

Panasonic's 12 megapixel Lumix DMC-FX100: a wide-angle, "HD video" shooter

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Oh boy, lookie lookie. Panasonic just announced their new Lumix FX top-ender, the DMC-FX100. Packing a 1/1.72-inch, 12.2 megapixel CCD, this compact shooter manages to squeeze in a 28mm wide-angle Leica DC lens with 3.6x optical zoom. The cam features VE III processing along with Panny's Mega Optical Image Stabilizer and Intelligent ISO control (up to a 6400 sensitivity) to reduce blurring. Shutter release is measured at 0.009 seconds while bursting 8 shots per second at full resolution. It even records WVGA (848 x 480) video at 30fps or 1280 x 720 at 15fps direct to SDHC/SD cards. Nice, should be a winner by the time the reviews roll around.

Casio's 12 megapixel Exilim Zoom EX-Z1200

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Pfff, 10 megapixels is for sissies. Casio, like Panasonic earlier today, just pumped out their own 12.1 megapixel shooter, the Exilim Zoom EX-Z1200. A 1/1.7-inch CCD and 3x zoom lens will be responsible for collecting the photons while the Exilim Engine 2.0 processing attempts to make sense of it all. Casio's flagship compact also delivers CCD-shift image stabilization and range of blur-reduction technologies bent on making the most of that ISO 1600 sensivity -- if reviews of its EX-Z1000 cuz are anything to go by then that's probably not saying much. Face detection and motion analysis technologies enable the camera to lock focus onto a subject's face and then track it as the person moves. Rounding things out are a decent 2.8-inch wide LCD, SDHC card support, a lazy 3 shot per second burst mode, and H.264 video recordings at a maximum 848 x 480 resolution and just 20fps. No price listed, but it had better slide in for less than the superior spec'd DMC-FX100 if they hope to compete.

Fujitsu's H.264 chip encodes/decodes in Full HD -- a world's first

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: HDTV, Portable Video

Fujitsu just announced a world's first H.264 chip capable of encoding/decoding 1920 x 1080 (60i/50i) video in real time. The chip features 256MB of onboard FCRAM and ultra low 750mW power draw when encoding video. That means lickity quick, MPEG-2 quality processing with only a third, or half the required storage. The ¥30,000 ($247) MB86H51 chip is available to OEMs starting July 1st after which you'll find it bunged into the latest up-scale, consumer-class video recorders.

How to turn your photo into movie-like effect using Photoshop?

(source: ebin 21 03 2007)

What you need to have: Adobe Photoshop What you will learn: colour mood adjustments + depth of field effect + film effect PS: ⌘ key for Mac users / CTRL key for Windows users

Colour mood adjustments

1. Adjust the Hue/Saturation: ⌘U/CTRL-U

2. Adjust the brightness and contrast: Menu > Image > Adjustments > Exposure…

Depth of field effect

3. Duplicate current active layer by dragging it to the ‘create a new layer’ button located at the bottom of Layer window.

4. Apply lens blur on the new layer on top: Menu > Filter > Blur > Lens Blur… Adjust according to your own preference.

5. Click on the ‘add layer mask’ button at the bottom of Layer window. Then click and select the ‘Layer mask thumbnail’ (the white rectangle).

6. Select brush tool(b), set the master diameter to 400px. Then choose the focus point in the photo and click on it.

Film effect

7. Create a new layer by clicking the ‘create a new layer’ button located at the bottom of Layer window.

8. Fill the new layer with black colour: reset colour to default black & white (d), switch black colour to background (x), fill the layer (⌘-del/CTRL-backspace)

9. Set the opacity of the black layer to 70% by pressing ‘7′

10. Use erase tool(e), set the master diameter to 400px. Then start erase the center of the photo.

11. Flatten the image: Menu > Layer > Flatten Image and add noise: Menu > Filter > Noise > Add Noise…

Cinemascope (optional)

12. Add black bars on top and bottom of photo and it’s done! Use Rectangular Marquee Tool(m) to select (drag) upper part of photo, hold the shift key and select the bottom part, fill with black colour (⌘-del/CTRL-backspace)

You can also add an extra step to twist the colour into this mood by using ‘Color Balance’(⌘B/CTRL-B). Drag the slider towards cyan and blue for Shadows, Midtones & Highlights.

Virtual World Population: 50 million by 2011

from GigaOM by Wagner James Au

When technology analyst group Gartner recently asserted that “80 percent of active Internet users (and Fortune 500 companies) will have a ‘second life’, but not necessarily in Second Life” by 2011, a lot of people jumped the gun and assumed 8 out of 10 of all Net users would be in a virtual world in four short years. Not exactly, Gartner Chief of Research Steve Prentice tells us. “Firstly,” says Prentice, “this statement refers to ‘active’ Internet users– a subtlety missed in much of the subsequent reporting.”

Their actual estimate, as it turns out, is decidedly less expansive, but about as impressive, and that’s by conscious choice. The statement was meant, says Prentice, as “a wake-up call to the CIO and CEOS out there that this is not a game, just sort of messing around. It’s interesting [and] we think it’s going to big.” By “active”, Gartner is referring to “people who are heavyweight Net users.” And by their definition, all of them are broadband users. “They’re my kids, to be honest, back from school, right onto MySpace.” That in mind, the estimate is actually that 50-60 million Net users will participate in a virtual world by 2011. “Doesn’t seem totally outrageous to me,” says Prentice.

Considering the largest existing worlds, including South Korea’s Cyworld, and its 20 million uniques, World of Warcraft with its 8 million subscribers, and Europe’s Habbo Hotel with its own 7 million regular users, that guess is actually on the conservative side. (While researching another story, Lisa Cosmas Hanson of Chinese game market analyst Niko Partners told me she estimates 26 million online world users by 2011 in China alone.)

To arrive at that figure, Prentice considered numerous variables, chief among them these five:

Upward growth rates of existing worlds and social networks like MySpace.
Usage patterns of current online world users (“Especially in the teen and young adult area…”)
General computer game usage (Gartner cites a recent Entertainment Software Association report indicating that 69% of US head of households already play computer games.)
Penetration and growth of Internet-enabled notebooks in this generation and spread of easily accessible wireless Internet.
Involvement by major firms like IBM in virtual worlds, coupled to metaverse consulting groups to serve them there. (“[T]his reflects both a growing interest from their client base, and will result in growing pressures (and competencies) to accelerate the move by corporate users into the virtual worlds space.”)

Surprising to me at least, Prentice believes most virtual worlds of 2011 will not be console-based, and that they’ll primarily remain a PC-centric platform. But he thinks it’s possible we’ll see metaverses accessible through phones and PDAs by then. (”Never say never: people said they’d never watch movies on a phone, and they do.”)

Another surprise is that Prentice thinks none of the existing virtual worlds will dominate four years from now– hence the “‘second life’, but not necessarily in Second Life” qualification. At this point, he says, “Linden is [like] the AOL of the early Internet. The biggest ones don’t even exist yet.”

SharedReviews Paid Opinions

Augustine: nice concept, but it may not solve the issue of "biased" reviews by reviewers seeking to earn the rev share. But it is a step in the right direction -- of solving the "trust" issue. from TechCrunch by Nick Gonzalez

Most product review sites fall into one of two categories: professional or community driven. Sites like CNET Reviews and blogs like CrunchGear pay their staff to review the latest gadgets and give you an authoritative, and hopefully unbiased, opinion on what tech toys make the grade. Community driven sites like Epinions and Amazon rely on the kindness of strangers to post reviews, which are presumably honest and useful when taken in aggregate. There is a whole other class of startup that is trying to aggregate user reviews from a number of sites. See our roundup here.

The latest spin on product reviews has been to combine the two systems. In a talent search less glamorous than American Idol, review sites are turning the their community members to find the best reviewers in exchange for a little more cash.

SharedReviews is soon to launch review site in this category. The site will be a community of reviewers each with their own profile consisting of their reviews (video, written), their experience related to the products they review, and a rating of their skill as a reviewer. Reviewers will be able to post reviews to the site directly and through widgets using their API. There’s a sneak peek of the site to the right.

From there it’s just a matter of separating the wheat from the chaff and rewarding reviewers. By taking a look at the flow chart below, you can see what SharedReviews has in mind. They want to create reviews, sell advertising, and then share the wealth with the community and reviewers. Shared reviews will take 50% of the ad revenue, and then split the remainder with the reviewers ranked by proficiency along with the community that voted them there.

They’re looking for private beta testers with plans to launch this fall. If you’re interested, you can sign up here.

Readers interested in earning cash for reviews should also check out expoTV and Shopwiki.

Music Licensing Online: YouLicense

from TechCrunch by Duncan Riley

YouLicense aims to gain traction in the growing market for direct music licensing deals.

An online music licensing marketplace, YouLicense enables artists and those seeking musical content to conduct business directly without the need to deal with music companies.

Content is indexed and easily searchable. YouLicense provides standardized contracts so that both buyer and seller immediately know the legalities of a deal, allowing for a quick and easy transaction.

The obvious competitors to this site are the variety of Podcast focused free and paid music marketplaces. Whilst music licensed by YouLicense can be used for podcasts and other forms of web created content, the site aims at the full spectrum of music uses: Film & Television, Advertising Campaigns, Music on Hold, Mobile Phone Content and Audio Projects. Items offered are also not limited by format. Ringtones, sheet music and beats can be listed along with the traditional pre-recorded music.

The goal of YouLicense is to make music licensing and copyright trade a simpler and more direct process. Whilst the service is still in private beta testing, I gained access to the marketplace and it certainly looks like it’s going to deliver on its goals.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

PatentMonkey.com - Searchable Patent Database

from KillerStartups.com - published startups by ncapretz

Looking for a patent? Patentmonkey.com is a fully searchable US patent text database, with images and PDF documents as well. Whether the patent is active, expired, abandoned or pending, you can find it on this site. Of course there is a fee for this...$10 for a basic monthly membership or you can buy credits for a certain number of downloads. You can also bulk download patents on zip files, or email, post, or blog patents. They have a particularly informative blog on all the latest and greatest with patent disputes and issues, which would undoubtedly be of great interest to those dependent on patents for their business ventures. In their own words: PatentMonkey.com is a patent search and document downloading site built with smart user focused features and tools for the average user and the most experienced patent searchers. Users can quickly scan front pages, build a list of patents to save and download and then choose free single patent downloads or bulk downloads for a fee. PatentMonkey.com has a fully searchable data base of US issued patents with timely data updates. Why it might be a killer: This site is meeting a key niche of finding patents for entrepreneurs and those in other business ventures. The site is comprehensive, thorough and constantly in motion to make sure they are up-to-date and meeting their member's needs. Some questions: Can they make a profit charging only $10 a month membership? How many employees do they have to manage this ever-changing site? Are they open to redesigning the layout of the site, as it has a bland 2-color scheme and doesn't appear as professional looking as it should for a serious business. » original news

10X Revenue (continued)

from A VC by Fred

I wrote a post about the recent ad network/ad infrastructure deals called 10x revenues several weeks ago.

Since then we've seen AQNT trade to MSFT (this morning) for $6bn which is 10x revenues.

But TFSM only got 3x revenues from WPP.

It's interesting that market leaders like DLCK, Right Media, and AQNT get 10x revenues but second fiddles like TFSM get 3x. That shows the power of market leadership for sure.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Compete.com Rank and Visitors - stock photo peers

PictureSandbox is the BLUE line

Microsoft Pays $6 billion for aQuantive: Massive Ad Network Consolidation Is Occuring

from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

Breaking: Microsoft is acquiring advertising network aQuantive, the parent company to Avenue A | Razorfish, Atlas and DRIVEpm, for roughly $6 billion in an all-cash transaction, the company said this morning.

aQuantive is a public company (AQNT) and had a market cap of just $2.8 billion as of yesterday. The acquisition price of $6 billion is a roughly 2x premium on yesterday’s closing price, which is a reflection of the fact that this were competing bidders (see notes below). The acquisition comes after recent big acquisitions by Google and Yahoo in this space. Google bought Doubleclick for $3.1 billion in April. Later that same month, Yahoo acquired competitor RightMedia for $680 million. Just yesterday, WPP Group acquired yet another company in this space, 24/7 Real Media, for $649 million.

2006 revenues for aQuantive were $442 million. Net income as about $54 million.

aQuantive’s operating companies include both tools and ad agencies. The company is located in Seattle.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Madlix.com - Got 3-D? Madlix Does

from KillerStartups.com - published startups by ncapretz

3D artwork is cool and this new product from Agency9, a leading provider of 3D applications and games, allows anyone to include 3D-content in their web page, blog, Google page, a communication presentation, or wherever. While a bit slow to download, the site offers plenty of 3D examples and it was fun to explore the different options. The downloads are free and easy to integrate into your own applications. Agency9 believes that 3D content is just beginning to grow in popularity and use. Currently, most 3D content is used for defense system applications (i guess to show off all 3 sides of the bomb or tank to see to Congress). Madlix allows anyone to submit 3D artwork to them for review and possible publication as well. In their own words: MADLIX lets you insert true 3D-content into your web page, blog, Google page, community presentation and more. Choose your favourite 3D scene to insert into your space from the 3D gallery at www.madlix.com , or create your own 3D scene. MADLIX is accompanied by the MADLIX exporter tool enabling 3D artists to directly export their 3D artwork from Autodesk Maya to the MADLIX gallery. The exporter features pre-view functionality as well as a standalone viewer, supporting the MADLIX file format and the open standard file format COLLADA. MADLIX runs smoothly inside all Java-enabled web browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera and more. MADLIX also supports a large number of Operating Systems including Microsoft Windows XP, 2000 and Vista, Apple OSX, Linux, Solaris and UNIX systems. Why it might be a killer: As websites get more and more sophisticated, 3D artwork will become more standard for displays and demonstrations. By making artwork free and easily integrated at this stage, they are helping to grow the market and interest in these products. Some questions: How are they going to market this page to the average blogger or website designer? Will the artwork become quicker to download? How are they planning on making a profit?

Objects of Desire, Week of 5/6/07

http://www.luxist.com/2007/05/06/objects-of-desire-week-of-5-6-07/

Posted May 6th 2007 8:03AM by Deidre Woollard

Decor and Gadgetry Hermès Travel Domino Set Handmade Painted Driftwood Mirror Christopher Paul Mats For Your Summer Decor Trump Home Furniture Collection The Erich Ginder Ghost Tree More Information on the Lomme Bed Pair of 1950s French Bergere Arm Chairs Add a Moroccan Glow with the Chandelier Mamounia The Loet Vanderveen Imperial Rhino Crushed Glass Vase Beolab 9 Speakers from Bang & Olufsen Pininfarina Hard Drives 47 Vases in One Accuro-Korle Ecstasy Stainless Steel Radiator Handbags Cole Haan Vivian Hobo, Handbag of the Day Lauren Merkin Eve Plaid Clutch, Handbag of the Day Isabelle Fiore Peacock Clutch, Handbag of the Day Antrobus Convertible Bag, Handbag of the Day Vive Le Rock, Allison Burns, Handbag of the Day Louis Vuitton Monogram Dentelle Batignolles Horizontal, Handbag of the Day Real Estate The Austonian Chickering Lane, Estate of the Day Golf Drive, Estate of the Day Seven Isles, Estate of the Day North Haven, Estate of the Day What $10 Million Buys You in Dubai Rosemary Beach, Estate of the Day Belle Epoque, Estate of the Day Santa Fe, Estate of the Day Wine and Spirits Xellent Vodka Danny DeVito's Premium Limoncello Vodka Goes Acai 360 Vodka, Drink the Vodka Save The World Spirit of Toronto Whisky Gala Crown Royal XR Whisky For The Queen Pahlmeyer Goes Pinot Kendall-Jackson Highland Estates Wine Wheels Tesla To Electrify Chicago Porsche 911 Turbo Spied Topless 2008 Porsche Cayenne Hits The Press Fleet Shaq Supersizes His Lambo McQueen's Ferrari On The Block The Skinny On Maybach Luxury In Excess? Colnago for Ferrari Bicycles Journeys De-Age Your Face At The New Guerlain Spa Set To Open This Fall Luxe City Guides Offer Only the Best Scooops, a New Spa Just For Kids The Camelback Inn Plans A Massive Renovation Sleep Under the Stars in the "Honey Room" at L'Albereta Amuleto, Paradise Down Mexico Way RiverStone Lodge, Luxury Comes To Pigeon Forge The Stoli Hotel Is Not For Overnight Stays Watches and Jewelry FDR's Watch To Sell At Auction Brilliant Lady 21, How Many Facets Can Fit On One Diamond? Lauren Bacall Will Have Her Own Jewelry Line Wings Aruba has New Airport Terminal for Private Jets BMW Enters The Jet Design Business With The 787 VIP Business Jet Water Perini Navi Launches Tamsen The Plans For Pretty Woman

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