What Is Panoramic Photography?

If you are a host to a get together of say, old friends (in large number), then you would want to have a single photograph in which all of them would appear. Using normal photography, you can achieve this but the end result won’t be satisfying (recognition becomes a problem). Here’s where panoramic photography comes in handy.

Panoramic photography is defined as

“Panoramic photography is a style of photography that aims to create images with exceptionally wide fields of view, but has also come to refer to any photograph that is cropped to a relatively wide aspect ratio”-Wikipedia

An image is considered as panoramic if it captures a field of view comparable to, or greater as, that of the human eye - about 160° by 75° - and should do so while maintaining detail across the entire picture. Thus we can capture the complete panorama, using this technology. Thus the name panoramic photography.

History:

Panoramic photography has been there since the invention of photography. Initially two to a dozen photographs were taken and place together to get a panoramic photograph. One of the most famous early panoramic photographers was George Barnard. He took many panoramic photographs of the fortifications and terrains during the American Civil war in 1860’s.Here’s an early panoramic photograph of the view from the top of Lookout Mountain, February, 1864.. Photograph taken by George N Barnard.

The invention of the flexible film came as a boon to panoramic photography. It was originally designed by Hannibal Goodwin which was later brought into mass production by Eastman Kodak Company. This was followed by the emergence of numerous panoramic cameras like Cylindrograph, Cyclograph, Cycloramic, Wonder Panoramic, Pantascopic, Multiscope, Cyclorama, Panomax, Veriwide, Wiscawide, Ultrawide, Cyclo-Pan, Fuji 617, Art Panorama 624 and 617, Tomiyama 617, Noblex 617, Roundshot 35mm & 70mm, Widelux, Technorama, Hulcherama, Tecnorama, Globoscope, Al-Vista, Cyclops Wide-Eye [1], the I-Pan, V-Pan, Hasselblad X-Pan, and Z-pan to name a few. Here are some of early panoramic photographs.

Panoramic Methods:

Short rotation (or SWING-LENS):

“Short rotation is a term used to define cameras that have a lens that rotates around the camera's rear nodal point (the optical point from which the focal length is measured) opposite a curved film plane.[1] As the photograph is taken, the lens pivots around its nodal point while, at the same time, a slit exposes the vertical strip of film that is aligned with the axis of the lens.”-Wikipedia.

Full rotation:

“Rotating panoramic cameras (also referred to as slit scan or scanning cameras) are cameras that are similar to the swing-lens (or short rotation) cameras, but are capable of 360° of rotation or more, because the whole camera rotates, not just the lens.”-Wikipedia.

Fixed lens:

“Fixed lens cameras (also known as flat back and wide view or "wide field") are essentially panoramic cameras that have fixed, stationary lenses and a flat film plane - as opposed to the rotating lenses and curved film planes of short rotation panoramic cameras. These are the most common form of panoramic camera and range from relatively poor quality and inexpensive APS cameras, right up to the professional 6x17 and 6x24cm medium format variety.”-Wikipedia.

Segmented:

“Segmented panoramas, also referred to as stitched panoramas, are made by joining multiple conventional photographs with slightly overlapping fields of view so as to create a larger, panoramic image once assembled.”-Wikipedia.

Today:

The evolution of panoramic photography has been massive with the development of new technologies in the field of photography. Here are some of the recent panoramic photographs. You browser must have Quicktime plugin to view the content in the following links. To install the plugin click here.

Grand Place Belgium

Big Wheel Manchetser

Paris

Birmingham

For more go to

http://scotthaefner.com

http://www.360spin.co.uk

http://www.panoramas.dk/

Now a days panoramic photography is used in game development, marketing and many other fields. It has also become a hot carrier option. Well that's it from me.If you have any other answers or any other resources other than, the above resources feel free to mail at writewithmeblog@gmail.com . Comments and criticisms are taken positively. Remember, help yourself and help me. This Harravi signing off.

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What is a DFA Simulator?

This post is for computer science and information science students in fourth semester. Others feel free to browse through other posts in the blog or kindly wait for updates.FAFL is a kind of subject a student can get lost easily.At least it is my opinion.So help you through the course, especially DFA and NFA, I have found a tool I would like to share with you.

The tool is called Visual Automata Simulator. It has the following features:

Features

• Creates, simulates and transforms DFA and NFA machines
• Creates and simulates TM
• Batch tests for TM: useful features to test a bunch of files quickly!
• Easy-to-use GUI interface (multi-documents)
• Smart links between objects
• Machines can be drawn using the mouse - and resized at any time
• Multiple machines can be created in a single document
• Multiple documents can be opened at the same time
• Documents can be saved and reloaded from disk
• Debug mode to see exactly how the machine is working (each step has a different color)
• Export any machine to EPS file

Here are some of its screen shots:

Here is the link to download it:
Visual Automata Simulator

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Video Of The Week-1

This weeks video is a documentary which was aired on Discovery channel a few months ago. 
It concerns with the construction of the proposed sky city in Tokyo. The video is of three parts. 
Watch and enjoy....

If you have any other information or any other resources other than, the above resources feel free to mail at writewithmeblog@gmail.com . Comments and criticisms are taken positively. Remember, help yourself and help me. This Harravi signing off.

  

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Who Is This ?-1

One of the things that fascinate people from all ages is magic. One magician that always amazes me is David Blaine. Read about him and watch his exceptional tricks by viewing the videos I have provided….. 

Magic is one of those words that make ears stand up, heads turn and sometimes freak you out. You may have seen many illusions that leave you awed. I here use the word “illusion” to define magic. But is it? This is the question which is subjective. On my part I believed it was just a trick performed by professionals who are trained to deceive the eyes of the spectators. Starting from small card tricks to disappearance of TajMahal is a strictly supervised procedure to make people believe in the tricks of the magician. You just can’t make TajMahal. This not Harry Potter. Harry Houdini (real name Ehrich Weiss, 1874 - 1926) is considered to be the first modern magician. He was a specialist in stage performances like escaping from locked structures, handcuffs and what not! Even after reading about his exploits I was convinced that these were mere illusions. My beliefs were shattered when I saw David Blaine.

Did you see that? he just took off the ground. Here are some more of his illusions :



David Blaine not only performs these illusions but also tests his body strength and more importantly his will power. Here is a video that explain this to you:

Amazing isn't it? But what would you say if I said that people have shown what he does is just a trick? Click Here. According to me he is one of the best magician in our era. For more news and information about David Blaine Click Here.

If you have any other information or any other resources other than, the above resources feel free to mail at writewithmeblog@gmail.com . Comments and criticisms are taken positively. Remember, help yourself and help me. This Harravi signing off.


   

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How To Notify The Police If You Are Being Robbed In An ATM?

Has this happened to you before.Not to me!.Anyway if it does happen, here is what you have to do...

I came across this post at Ibibo.com.I don't know for sure, if this works with all ATM machines, but no harm in acquiring knowledge.

PIN NUMBER REVERSAL (GOOD TO KNOW)



If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM



machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse.



For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The



ATM recognizes that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the



machine.



The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to



The robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you.



This information was recently broadcasted on TV and it states that it is



seldom used because people don't know it exists.



Please pass this along to everyone possible.

Try once and don't forget to tell me the result.(Disclaimer: I am not responsible if police do arrive)

Was this information useful? Please let me know by writing comments or by mail to writewithmeblog@gmail.com. Thanks for your time.

Cartoon provided by : http://www.cartoonstock.com

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What Is This? - 1

What Is This?

Its a Artificial Pacemaker. The natural pacemaker of our heart is a small mass of specialized cells in the top of the heart's right atrium (upper chamber) called the sinoatrial (SA) node or sinus node. It produces electrical pulses which makes the heart to beat. When the natural pacemakers are defective it is replace by Artificial Pacemakers which maintain the regular rhythm of the heart. These artificial pacemakers are of two types:
1. External (temporary)
2. Internal (permanent)
For more information on pacemakers -
Pacemakers
Wikipedia

Was this information useful? Please let me know by writing comments or by mail to writewithmeblog@gmail.com. Thanks for your time.

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Which Is Today's Fastest Computer ?

Recently, a test chip developed by Intel Corp. contained eighty cores in it. I think this chip will remain in testing stage for a quite some time. We, computer enthusiasts in India are still digesting four cores. To my happiness, the chip was developed in Intel’s research lab in Bangalore, India. The war between Intel Corp. and AMD has resulted in an arms race (actually a chip race) to produce the most efficient processor. However, the burning question was “Which is today’s fastest computer?”

Before answering the question, we will have a look at the evolution of computers. Computing has its roots in early human civilizations.

The abacus is considered as the first computer. Tracing the development of modern computers from the abacus leads to a long list of equipments used for computing. For simplicity we will begin our journey from the year 1939 (advent of modern electronics). Here are some of the early events that made the development of today’s computers possible.

1939 : Hewlett Packard is Founded.


1940: The Complex Number Calculator is completed.




1943: Project Whirlwind begins.



1945: John von Neumann wrote "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" in which he outlined the architecture of a stored-program computer.1946: The public got its first glimpse of the ENIAC

and so on. For the complete list and for information about each breakthrough Click Here.

The Moore's law states that

"The complexity for minimum component costs has increased at a rate of roughly a factor of two per year ... Certainly over the short term this rate can be expected to continue, if not to increase. Over the longer term, the rate of increase is a bit more uncertain, although there is no reason to believe it will not remain nearly constant for at least 10 years. That means by 1975, the number of components per integrated circuit for minimum cost will be 65,000. I believe that such a large circuit can be built on a single wafer." (Wikipedia)

The growth is happening faster than the rate specified by Moore's law. Just think about the 80 core chip which I mentioned at beginning of this post. Then, Where do we stand now?. The answer to this question will answer our today's question "Which Is Today's Fastest Computer ?".

A website www.top500.org keeps track of the list of supercomputers and ranks them acoording to performance. Here is the latest list released during SC06.
In the first place is IBM BlueGene/L system with performance of 280.6 teraflops (trillions of calculations per second, or Tflop/s). Following closely in second is the new Sandia National Laboratories’ Cray Red Storm supercomputer with a performance of with 101.4 Tflops/s. For top ten list and more information visit the following link.
http://www.top500.org/lists/2006/11

280.6 teraflops/s is a huge amount when compared to the processors used in PC's. You cannot imagine the calculation power of the above jumbos. Well with luck I may get my hands on one of the above supercomputers before I die. Who knows, in fifty or odd years if, the progress continues in the present rate then we may use these supercomputers as PCs.

If you have any other answers or any other resources other than, the above resources feel free to mail at writewithmeblog@gmail.com . Comments and criticisms are taken positively. Remember, help yourself and help me. This Harravi signing off.

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Who, When, Where Blogging Began?

This being the first post of this blog, I will start of with a subject, that has a close relation to blogging - its history, something that many overlook. Actually, the answer to the above question is not definite or precise.

I presume that the reader has the knowledge as to what is a blog. Otherwise, please visit any of the following links before you read on.

Blog Basics

When I started researching for this post, I came across many articles all over the web. If you are a blogger then some of them deserve to be read and respected. The following is a summary of what I gathered.

Pinpointing the origin of blogs is impossible, we can only guess. Take for example, Tim Berners – Lee. He was a member of CERN. He began keeping a list of all new sites as they came online when internet had just came into the world. You can also give NCSA’s oldest archived “What’s New List “of sites as an example of early blogs. The point is, blogging is an old concept, which did not have a name. This did not happen until early 1999 when Peter Merholz coined the word “blog”.

Before Peter could coin the word “blog”, the concept of blogging was gaining popularity mainly due to people like Justin Hall and Cameron Barrett: Justin Hall who had launched “Justin’s Home Page “is recognized as one of the earliest blogger and Cameron Barrett who was the first to publish the list of blog sites on Camworld in November 1998. There was an increase in number of people referring blogs for information, as it was easy to read all the weblogs in Cameron’s list.

Early blogs were updated like common websites. Therefore, number of bloggers was limited because of the technological prerequisites. All this changed due to the introduction of Pitas, the first free build-your-weblog tool. The growth curve took a steep upward turn as people rushed to create there own blogs. This sensation was helped by the release of blogging platforms like Blogger by Pyra and Groksoup. These free tools aimed to enable individuals to publish their own blogs quickly and easily and boy! They achieve what they aimed for. The following snippet “Weblog: a history and perspective” by Rebecca Blood will give you the extent of activity in the blogosphere after the release of the mentioned software’s.

“I believe it has to do with the introduction of Blogger itself.While weblogs had always included a mix of links, commentary, and personal notes, in the post-Blogger explosion increasing numbers of weblogs eschewed this focus on the web-at-large in favor of a sort of short-form journal. These blogs, often updated several times a day, were instead a record of the blogger's thoughts: something noticed on the way to work, notes about the weekend, a quick reflection on some subject or another. Links took the reader to the site of another blogger with whom the first was having a public conversation or had met the previous evening, or to the site of a band he had seen the night before. Full-blown conversations were carried on between three or five blogs, each referencing the other in their agreement or rebuttal of the other's positions. Cults of personality sprung up as new blogs appeared, certain names appearing over and over in daily entries or listed in the obligatory sidebar of "other weblogs" (a holdover from Cam's original list). It was, and is, fascinating to see new bloggers position themselves in this community, referencing and reacting to those blogs they read most, their sidebar an affirmation of the tribe to which they wish to belong.”

One might ask - What did platforms like Blogger have to create the huge spur of activity? Rebecca has answer for this also.

“ Blogger itself places no restrictions on the form of content being posted. Its web interface, accessible from any browser, consists of an empty form box into which the blogger can type...anything: a passing thought, an extended essay, or a childhood recollection. With a click, Blogger will post the...whatever...on the writer's website, archive it in the proper place, and present the writer with another empty box, just waiting to be filled.

Contrast this with the web interface of Metafilter, a popular community weblog. Here, the writer is presented with three form boxes: the first for the URL of the referenced site, the second for the title of the entry, and the third for whatever commentary the writer would like to add. The Metafilter interface instructs the writer to contribute a link and add commentary; Blogger makes no such demands. Blogger makes it so easy to type in a thought or reaction that many people are disinclined to hunt up a link and compose some text around it.”

There is another reason for the rush – maintaining a blog can help the blogger in more than one ways. Here is what Rebecca has to say about it.

“Shortly after I began producing Rebecca's Pocket I noticed two side effects I had not expected. First, I discovered my own interests. I thought I knew what I was interested in, but after linking stories for a few months I could see that I was much more interested in science, archaeology, and issues of injustice than I had realized. More importantly, I began to value more highly my own point of view. In composing my link text every day I carefully considered my own opinions and ideas, and I began to feel that my perspective was unique and important.”

Personally, I totally agree with Rebecca. A blogging if done correctly can help in

1. Improve your written English.

2. Express your views and opinions for the world to hear

3. Increase your interest in a subject or develop new interests

and so on.

That sums up everything. Here is something that confirms what I have been saying. It is a video from Blogumentary, which shows that the roots of blogging are deep.

Video of Blogging History

The following are the sources from which I have done this compilation. Please visit these links for more comprehensive account on blogging history.

Weblog: a history and perspective

Chronological classification of Blog history

Wikipedia: Blog

Blogumentary

As to the question “Where was blogging began?” , I have a simple answer: The Internet.

If you have any other answers or any other resources other than, the above resources feel free to mail at writewithmeblog@gmail.com . Comments and criticisms are taken positively. Remember, help yourself and help me. This Harravi signing off.

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