"Seam carving" allows an image to be resized non-uniformly, so you can change the height to width ratio in the image without cropping, but also without distorting important features in the image (such as faces).
This is so cool. With more publishing moving to the web, this seems like a great alternative to static images. It would allow you tool preserve the content of an image along with the integrity of a layout. I imagine it will be quite a while before we see a viable implementation of this technology.
On the other hand I can see simple uses of this concept that seem easy to implement. For example, if you had a portrait, and you wanted the image to be dynamically resized, but not scaled, you could set the pixel coordinate of the center of the face, and the browser would just center the face in the frame.
That coordinate information could be saved in an external file, so you would have portrait.jpg, and portrait.jgw, where .jgw is just a text file that contains the added info.
This is a pretty good idea, I must say. At first I thought it was kind of gimmicky, but there could be some viable uses like charging up your wireless mouse while you were on the road. Now that I see them, I'm surprised nobody thought of it earlier.
» via MacUser. Yet again.
Thats right. The man behind Delicious Library is giving away an Intel CPU for which he has no use.
The CPU is is supposed to be worth, like, $1,000, and it's still sealed in its original box with a giant heat-sink and everything, and I've decided to give it away to some lucky blog reader.
Rather than have you perform some menial task, I've decided to combine my loves (attention-whore and the environment) and give the CPU to the greenest, gamingest reader out there.
In a valiant attempt to suddenly become organized in regards to my time, and by extension my life, I have just set up, synchronized, updated, and published my future online. I know I'm a huge geek, but I really do think this could help me. As long as I don't spend more time fiddling with different tools, feeds, protocols etc., than I do actually using the god-damn thing then I should be fine.
Really, I just set up three tools to talk to each other:
I use iCal to post all my personal events, basecamp to keep track of work, and Google to access it all from anywhere. The only drawback to this set-up is that I can't edit my iCal events from within Google Calendar (ie. when I'm at work). I am publishing my iCal calendars to .Mac, but the web inteface for .Mac is horrible, only allowing you to view one calendar at a time without editing. Maybe eventually I will move my personal calendars to Google Calendar, but for now I like how iCal feels.
It seems like there should be a way to have all of my calendars in one central place, such as a folder on this webserver, which I could then link to from any calendar tool, whether it was an application, a web page, or a cell phone. The current situation only lets you "subscribe" to calendars, which means you can't edit or save events in the central repository. We need two-way communication between all these different services.
Any ideas out there?
A while a go I asked whether there was any utility to keep you updated on your current IP address, if you are stuck with a static IP. Well it seems there are actually a few tools (mostly free) out there that do just that and more. If you are in this predicament check out www.no-ip.com or DynDNS.
Well, I've got that warm fuzzy feeling all over again. I have my site back up online after a short hiatus. I decided that running my own server, while interesting, was more than I could quite handle right now. And while I was able to get my local machine up and running on the "inkernet" I was concerned about security and bandwidth (assuming the forthcoming deluge of readers). So I broke down and got a hosting plan with (mt) and everything is going swimmingly.
Well, that was a pain in the ass. My IP address changed, but all the links in wordpress were set up using the old address. So getting back to the admin page was tricky… but do-able. I think the moral of the story is twofold - A: I need to break down and pay for hosting until I can afford to set up my own server and do it right. B: localhost, localhost, localhost. Until I get my shit in gear this set up is strictly for development purposes only.
Thanks, and goodnight.
Oh and by the way, tomorrow is the start of a long birthday weekend for myself.
Ok - so I figured out how to have my router assign my server the same local address from now on, so that should not be an issue. All ports are go. Well 8889 at least. I still have a dynamic address for my router, but it usually stays the same for at least a few weeks at a time, so I guess it should be suitable for now. Qwest does offer static IP addresses for residential accounts… $6.95 a month after a $25 set up fee. Pretty reasonable I suppose (in comparison to what, I don’t know) Nonetheless, I don’t feeling like forking out any cash right now.
