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The world’s largest disposable camera

scaredpoet

Everyone knows that you can judge how good a photographer is by the size of their camera, right?

Okay, well of course that’s not true. But the Chicago tribune reports that a group of seven photographers from the legacy project are saying that size matters anyway. They’ve converted an old aircraft hangar into one giant camera obscura:

The photographers are using a nearly 31-by-111-foot piece of white fabric covered in 20 gallons of light-sensitive emulsion as the “negative.”

After exposing the fabric for up to 10 days, they will develop it in a huge tub made of pool siding, using 200 gallons of black-and-white developer solution and 600 gallons of fixer.

The photographers joke that they also are making the world’s largest disposable camera. When they are done, the hangar will be torn down.

No doubt, such a sizeable camera will probably produce quite a clear photograph. I just worry that the camera’s lack of permanence might rub off on the negative: how does one care for such a huge photograph?

The Mac that runs on 1.21 Gigawatts

scaredpoet

deloreanmacmini

While sadly, the flux capacitor is still not a reality, it appears that it IS possible to put the next best thing into a Delorean: a Mac mini, complete with projection display system. This guy was crazy enough to do it:

This project involved more than just a carputer. This is the merging of an automotive environment and a computing environment. This creates a portable office in your DeLorean. Not just a drive-in movie theater, but a drivable drive-in movie theater. Sound like fun? It is, but challenges along the way have made this ambitious project push the limits on my electronic and fabrication talents.

Interesting, but is it compatible with Mr. Fusion?

The coup de grace? A 37-inch projection screen, of which the development is detailed here. Evidently, this enthusiast was not content to use the tiny LCDs that most modders put in their car…puters.

Windows Users: time to update!

scaredpoet

A huge update – 12 patches and bugfixes – for Microsoft Windows XP is scheduled for relase sometime later today. At least one such update is listed as critical and involves a security exploit. So folks, be ready to fire up windows update tonight.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft has also made it clear with this batch of updates that they are going to stop updating Windows 98 and ME operating systems against new vulnerabilities. According to the BBC:

At the same time as information about the update was being released, Microsoft mentioned that it will not be able to patch Windows 98 and ME against a loophole discovered in April 2006.

Fixing this bug in the ageing software would require a major re-write of the Windows Explorer program used in these old copies of the operating system.

Microsoft is not prepared to undertake this work, given that all support for Windows 98 and ME ends on 11 July 2006.

On its security blog Microsoft wrote: “We strongly recommend that those of you who are still running these older versions of Windows upgrade to a newer, more secure version, such as Windows XP SP2, as soon as possible.”

Alas, for those users of the older operating systems, forced obsolescence has finally come.

Oh, and  keeping with the spirit of updates and such, this server has been updated to the latest versions of Apache (2.2.2) and PHP (5.1.4).

Cambodia bans 3G; assumes the medium is the message

scaredpoet

The prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, just announced the banning of 3G cell phones from his country, all because his wife was receiving content that was just a li’l too dirty for his taste:

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Reuters) — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has banned 3G mobile phones after a complaint from his wife and her friends about receiving pornography on them.

“I have written to the Minister of Telecommunications to delay the use of certain mobile phones,” Hun Sen told an assembly of Buddhist monks in Phnom Penh on Friday.

“We can wait 10 more years until we have managed to improve morality in society.”

I just find it funny that not only has this guy decided to throw out the baby with the bathwater by ignoring 3G’s positive attributes in favor of focusing the acts of some perverts, but that the former deputy regional commander of a totalitarian regime, responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people, can sit high n’ mighty and talk about “improving morality in society.”

Ah, but then we can’t speak in judgement either… we have Bush.