Nic Fillingham

Photokina 2008 - Drew Gardner shows us the 60MP P 65+

Nic — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:30:00 GMT

Renowned British photographer Drew Gardner was at Photokina 2008 this year helping demonstrate the 60.5 mega pixel, Phase One P 65+ digital back.
Phase One is a Danish company that specializes in high-end, medium format cameras, digital backs and RAW processing software.
For those of you (like me) unfamiliar with the term digital back, Wikipedia tells us that it is "a device which attaches to the back of a camera in place of a film holder and contains an electronic image sensor. This lets cameras which were designed to use film take digital photographs".
The sensor on the P 65+ is absolutely mammoth, and comes with a price tag to match, but as Drew explains (and shows us) the results are both spectacular and well worth it.

Channel 9 on Mars: A tour of the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab

Nic — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:57:00 GMT

Charles and I were lucky enough to get a tour of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasendena, CA last month whilst we were in town for PDC2008.
Dave Lavery, Program Executive for Solar System Exploration (aka coolest job title evar!) granted us permission to film a portion of his awesome tour and spoke with Charles about designing and building robots for use on other planets.

"Tune in and learn about some of the challenges of developing autonomous machines that you will never get to touch again (think about the reduncancy requirements for a robot rover that is deployed 100 million miles away from Earth...)"

Check it out here: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles/Channel-9-on-Mars-Inside-the-Mars-Exploration-Mission-Past-Present-and-Future/

Photokina 2008 - Seitz 6x17 Digital, 160 Million Pixel Camera

Nic — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:11:00 GMT

One second,... That's the time it takes for the Seitz 6x17 Digital camera to capture 160 Million Pixels!

We checked out the Seitz booth at Photokina 2008 and got the man himself to give us a demo of this monster slit-scan panoramic camera, the largest and fastest in its class.

If you like the idea of medium format panoramic photography but don't have a spare 25,000 Euros you might want to check out Microsoft Image Composite Editor.

Windows Home Server + Live Mesh @ PDC2008

Nic — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:30:00 GMT

The Windows Home Server team were at PDC2008 presenting sessions on developing WHS applications and services which are now available for on-demand viewing over at Channel 9.

We sat down with Mark Pendergrast, Brendan Grant and Doug Berrett to chat about their PDC sessions and how Live Mesh is being integrated with Windows Home Server including a prototype demo of WebGuide running as a Silverlight application from the Live Mesh desktop.

Session links: Exposing Connected Home Services to the Internet via Windows Home Server (ES12) & Developing Connected Home Applications and Services for Windows Home Server (ES11)

Photokina 2008 - Minox Spy Cameras

Nic — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:33:00 GMT

The Channel 10 cameras were in Cologne, Germany last month for Photokina 2008 and on display was the latest and greatest in digital photography and imaging products and technologies.
One of the companies that caught my eye was Minox - manufacturer of the original miniature spy camera - who had a new line of covert picture taking devices that look like they've come straight out of Q's laboratory.
Check out Minox.com for more info

AC/DC 's Rock n' Roll Train Music Video,.. in Excel!??

Nic — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:21:00 GMT

Yep - AC/DC's first new studio album in eight years - Black Ice - is now out and to celebrate some clever fan has converted the music video for Rock n' Roll Train into ASCII format and stuck it in an excel spreadsheet!

What the video here or download and run the XLS yourself!

Link: http://www.acdcrocks.com/excel/

Duke Nukem 3D Available now on Xbox Live Arcade

Nic — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:20:00 GMT

Woot! For 800 MS Points you can now get your hands on Duke Nukem 3D for Xbox Live Arcade.

Duke Nukem, the politically incorrect action hero and ultimate alien ass kicker, defends Earth and its babes from alien invasion in Duke Nukem 3D. This is the award winning game that helped define the FPS genre, introducing unparalleled interactivity, and a main character that spoke. Take the fight to the aliens across 39 levels featuring Hollywood, Los Angeles, a moon base, and alien spacecraft. Innovative items like the Jetpack, HoloDuke, Shrink Ray, or Pipe Bombs allow you to fight the aliens in any style you want. Defeat the aliens, so Duke can get back to some R&R with a stogie, a warm belly, and a bottle of Jack.

Featuring: Eight-player cooperative and DukeMatch multiplayer, user clips, concept art galleries and Xbox 360 enhancements like controller vibration, bilinear filtering, motion blur and Xbox LIVE® Vision camera support.

More info: 3D Realms & Xbox.com

"Come Get Some!"

Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor) Released (for FREE!)

Nic — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:50:00 GMT

Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE), released today is an advanced, stand alone version of the panoramic image stitching feature found in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

From the ICE web site:
"...shoot a set of overlapping photographs of a scene from a single location, and Image Composite Editor creates a high-resolution panorama incorporating all your images at full resolution. Then save your stitched panorama in a wide variety of formats,... like JPEG and TIFF to multi-resolution tiled formats like HD View and Silverlight Deep Zoom"

More info here: HDView Blog
Download: http://research.microsoft.com/ivm/ice.html

Microsoft Pro Photo Tools 2.0 Released

Nic — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:00:00 GMT

From the Pro Photo Blog:

Microsoft Pro Photo Tools provides a set of tools for photographers allowing them to perform various tasks with their images—including RAW captures. The current version enables you to quickly geotag your photos, edit metadata, and organize your images by leveraging the power of Microsoft Live Local.

New features include:

Support for reading & writing XMP side car metadata enabling interoperability with Adobe products.
Viewing actual RAW images, in addition to thumbnails
Conversion of RAW files to JPEG, TIFF, and HD Photo using “As Shot” camera settings.
The ability to resize RAW images.
Support for 64-bit Windows
Support for geotagging international locales
Improved functionality for geotagging images.

More info: http://blogs.msdn.com/prophoto/archive/2008/09/17/new-version-of-pro-photo-tools-released.aspx

Download here: http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/tools.aspx

XNA Game Studio 3.0 Beta Now Available

Nic — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:38:00 GMT

XNA Game Studio 3.0 Beta is now available to download with tones of new features including support for the new Zune 3.0 firmware, Rich Presence and Invites.

Download here: http://creators.xna.com/en-us/3.0beta_mainpage

More info on the XNA team blog here: http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/archive/2008/09/16/xna-game-studio-3-0-beta-is-go.aspx

What's new?

Zune

Compatibility with the upcoming Zune 3.0 Firmware release.
Improved deployment stability.
Support for Zune deployment on Windows Vista x64 Systems!
You can now use the Remote Performance Monitor for Zune games.

Xbox 360

Xbox 360 project templates (You will not be able to develop on the Xbox 360 until our final release. We felt this was important to include so that you could get projects converted over and look at the system, even if you are not able to run the games, yet).
Support for the Big Button Pad.

Framework & Visual Studio Features

Enumerate and play back media on your Windows computer or Xbox 360.
Simple sound effect support on Windows computers and Xbox 360.
Support for Rich Presence (lets friends know what’s going on in your game).
Support for Invites (ask your friends to join you in a multiplayer game) and Join Session In Progress (after you see what your friends are doing, you can join their current session with just a couple of button presses, even if that’s a different game to the one you are currently playing)
Compress your content and save space with the new content compression features!
ClickOnce packaging support for distributing your XNA Framework games on Windows.
Upgrade your project from XNA Game Studio 2.0 using the Project Upgrade Wizard!
Take screen captures of your game running on Zune through the XNA Game Studio Device Center.
Support for .NET language features like Linq
Create multiple content projects and leverage cross project synchronization in Visual Studio.
FBX importer improvements: read materials containing multiple textures, and export custom shader materials directly out of Max or Maya.

PPS08: David Riecks on Metadata

Nic — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:54:00 GMT

David Riecks presented findings from the Stock Artists Alliance Photo Metadata Project at the 2008 Pro Photo Summit. The project looked at how stock agencies ensure that their digital assets have the right kind of metadata so that they can accurately search through (and find stuff) in their massive libraries of images.

Apologies for my crazy British pronunciations... you'll get used to it ;-)

Real People: The 2nd Gates & Seinfeld Installment

Nic — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:54:00 GMT

I loved me some Shoe Circus. This second installment is perhaps even better.

Best lines....

Bill: (to Jerry) Why are we doing this again?
Jerry: Why Bill? Because as we discussed... you and I are a little out of it. You're living in some kind of moon house hovering over Seattle like the mother ship... I've got so many cars I get stuck in my own traffic.
We need to connect with real people!

It's true.... everynight before I go to sleep I look up into the sky and see the glorious moon-house watching over us...

Watch the videos: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/

Swype: Touch Type With Just One Finger

Nic — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:07:00 GMT

Do you have a smart phone or tablet PC? Want to be able to "touch type" on your device at 40 words per minute with just one finger? If so then you might be interested in signing up for the Swype beta.

From the website: "Swype provides a faster and easier way to input text on any screen. With one continuous finger or stylus motion across the screen keyboard, the patented technology enables users to input words faster and easier than other data input methods"

"Swype is faster than existing text entry methods because it has built-in intelligence that does not require users to hit each letter accurately. Also, tracing a smooth, continuous path is much faster than “target-tap-lift-target-tap...”. Even novice users can quickly achieve sustained data entry speeds of over 40 words per minute."

More: http://swype2type.com

PPS08: Skip Cohen on Marketing for Photographers

Nic — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:48:00 GMT

Skip Cohen, president of Rangefinder Publishing and WPPI was at the 2008 Pro Photo Summit and spoke about the ever-changing marketing challenges facing professional photographers (which Skip defines as anyone paid for any level of photographic services - including enthusiasts).
Skip talks about how photographers can generate future business opportunities by maintaining long term relationships with clients and how smart photographers are building their own brand awareness by partnering with community groups and charities.

PPS08: Natalie Dybisz (aka Miss Aniela)

Nic — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:57:00 GMT

Natalie Dybisz - also known as Miss Aniela - is part of a new breed of photographers circumventing the traditional path to success in the world of fine art photography by utilizing photo sharing/social networking sites like flickr to build a fan base, launch a portfolio and get noticed.

Natalie's images - many of them self portraits - are unique in that they aren't shot with high-end equipment or studio lighting and often include multiple instances of herself in the same image (via some photoshop-magic).

Natalie presented at the 2008 Pro Photo Summit on her style of photography and how her flickr site turned into millions of views, thousands of fans and (real world) gallery shows in the UK and Spain.

PPS08: Frans Lanting - Life: A Journey Through Time

Nic — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:49:00 GMT

Seven years ago, world renowned nature photographer Frans Lanting took a photograph of horseshoe crabs coming out of the ocean on the east coast of the USA and remarked to himself that the scene he had just captured probably looked the same as it did millions and millions of years ago. He then wondered whether there were other examples of life on earth that could be captured today as they were when they first appeared on the planet...

Thus began the Life: A Journey Through Time project incorporating books, multimedia orchestral performances (composed by Philip Glass), a traveling photographic exhibition and interactive web site: LifeThroughTime.com

Frans spoke about his experiences working on the Life: A Journey Through Time project as part of his keynote address at the 2008 Pro Photo Summit.

MSNBC Has a New Toy: Surface!

Nic — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:12:00 GMT

NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd has a shiny new Microsoft Surface unit and some fancy custom applications to assist him in analyzing the upcoming 2008 election.

From the Surface Team Blog:
"Today we saw two applications in action, the Electoral Map and Battleground States, but over the coming days/weeks Todd will likely use other unique applications and features to further highlight the candidates, the issues, polls and relevant political news." ..more info at the Surface Team Blog

Check out the Surface unit in action here

PPS08: Kostas Mallios - Why the Pro Photo Summit?

Nic — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:08:00 GMT

Kostas Mallios, General Manager of the Microsoft Rich Media Group, chats with me about the 2008 Pro Photo Summit. We discuss the importance of photography in the technology space, why Microsoft hosts the summit each year, who attends the summit, what do they talk about and "where does all this talking take place?".

ShutterSpeed EP04 - The Photosynth Team

Nic — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:00:00 GMT

By now most of you have probably heard of Photosynth. The cool new technology from Microsoft that allows you to explore collections of full resolution photos by relationship in an amazing, interactive 3D space.

From today (9PM PST) Photosynth is being released to the public which means anyone with access to a digital camera, PC and internet connection can create their own Photosynth collections. Just visit photosynth.net, download the app (approx 8MB) and start synthing.

To coincide with the release of Photosynth to the masses we thought it might be fun to sit down with 1/5th of the development team behind the technology to learn some more about how Photosynth works and how best to go about creating collections of photos specifically for synthing.

Joining me for this episode of ShutterSpeed is Live Labs and Photosynth Architect Blaise Aguera y Arcas (who you might recognize from this infamous TED presentation), Scientist Drew Steedley and Program Manager Scott Fynn.

Check out Max's interview with Rick Szeliski and Noah Snavely over on Channel 8 for more on the genesis (and genius!) of Photosynth. And for those of you about to grab your camera and go shoot some photos for a little synth action make sure you first watch Laura's how-to-synth video for tips and tricks.

PPS08: Icon's of Imaging Panel 01

Nic — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:01:00 GMT

The Microsoft Icons of Imaging is an exclusive group of (thirteen) industry leading photographers and digital imaging experts whose workflow is based within the Windows environment.

At the 2008 Pro Photo Summit we brought the Icon's together for a series of mini-panels and asked what was the biggest trend that they witnessed in the photography industry over the past five years and what trends they see continuing, emerging, evolving or declining in the next five.

Their answers may surprise you.

In this first panel is Jerry Ghionis, Bambi Cantrell and Matthew Jordan Smith.

Live Labs Shadow Box on the Surface

Nic — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:57:00 GMT

Now this is cool. Jeff Weir and John Lynn work in the Microsoft Live Labs team (that's the group that created Photosynth). They also have a couple of Surface units in their office. So the two of them came up with an idea to build a little application called Shadow Box (or unofficially "nightmare box") that 'burns' in and out images of what the infrared camera inside the surface sees. The end result is both awesome and spooky! Check out the video of Shadow Box in action.

More on Live Labs: http://labs.live.com/

PPS08: Lou Lesko on Photography Piracy

Nic — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:18:00 GMT

Photographer Lou Lesko's presentation at the 2008 Pro Photo Summit was titled 'Let the photo pirates have their way: the advantages of not worrying about image-theft and actually giving some of your images away'.
A somewhat controversial subject, Lou's argument is that allowing your photos to be used without permission, but with attribution, can be beneficial in the long term.

PPS08: Future Pro Photographer Comp Winners

Nic — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:04:00 GMT

For the past three years the Microsoft Future Pro Photographer Competition has been held in conjunction with the annual Microsoft Pro Photo Summit to find talented up and coming student photographers from around the world.

This years winners - Arjan Koetsier, Whitney Dafoe, Colin Miller, and Ed Salter, along with Jeff Greene from Microsoft - talk to me about the competition and their winning entries.

More: http://blogs.msdn.com/prophoto/archive/2008/07/09/microsoft-pro-photo-summit-2.aspx

Games For Windows LIVE is Now FREE

Nic — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:11:00 GMT

Kevin over at Gamerscore Blog has the details:

I love getting achievements when I play games. I love having the same friends list shared between my PC games and my XBOX 360. And I love not having to pick games from a list of servers, but just having matchmaking that puts me into a game. And today, we made some announcements that are going to make that much more common in Windows games... Games for Windows – LIVE – our online multiplayer gaming service for Windows, now offers completely free multiplayer. No exceptions – multiplayer is completely free, even cross-platform gameplay with XBOX 360 users.

Full post: http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2008/07/22/560107.aspx

More info: http://www.gamesforwindows.com/live

Make Money with Xbox Live Community Games

Nic — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:19:00 GMT

Turn your XNA projects into cash with Xbox Live Community Games.

Coming holiday 2008, Xbox Live Community Games will give XNA game developers (that's YOU!) the opportunity to publish and sell their projects to millions of gamers worldwide via the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Here's how it works. XNA game developers (again that's YOU!) submit their titles to http://creators.xna.com for peer review. Once approved the games are then made available for sale on Xbox Live Marketplace for a price point that you set (between 200 and 800 points). You then receive up to 70% of the games total revenue!

So let's say you create a game that you sell for 200 points (which is approx USD$2.50). The game is then purchased 10,000 times. That's $25,000 in total revenue of which you stand a chance to receive up to 70% or $17,500!!! WOW!!

More info: http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/ & http://creators.xna.com/

Press Release

Join the Community: Make Games, Make Money on Xbox LIVE

You’ve played Xbox 360 games with the millions of gamers on Xbox LIVE. You’ve chatted, shared, and dominated in games of all kinds. But what if those millions could be playing your game?

Better still – what if you were getting paid for it?

Starting holiday 08, Xbox LIVE Community Games is your ticket to fame – and possibly fortune as millions of Xbox LIVE users now have the opportunity to view, buy, and play games that you create.

How it Works

The setup? Simple. The payments? Cash.

As a Premium member in the XNA Creators Club, you’ll be able to submit any complete Xbox 360 game you’ve created in XNA Game Studio to the Creators Club community at http://creators.xna.com/, for peer review. Other Premium Creators will check to make sure your game is safe to play. If it is, you’ll set a price point – between 200 and 800 Points – that people will pay to download your game.

Once the game is reviewed and the price point set, you’re done. The game is listed on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, and you’ll get a check every quarter, for up to 70% of the game’s total revenue in your own currency. Depending on your game’s success, you may even have your game advertised on Xbox 360 and other Microsoft online properties.

Just imagine - your game in the hands of millions of Xbox 360 gamers around the world: that’s the power of Community Games.

How to Get Started

While the official launch of Xbox LIVE Community Games won’t be until later this year, you can start working on that great game right now with XNA Game Studio and the XNA Creators Club Online community!

First, download XNA Game Studio, the free game development tool from Microsoft. It’s free and works with Visual Studio or Visual C# Express Edition. If you’ve never made a game before, the XNA Creators Club website has tons of samples, tutorials, even whole video guides to game creation. Jump right in and start coding your dream game!

Next, join the XNA Creator’s Club at http://creators.xna.com/. It’s a community of game creators just like you. If you’re going to develop games for Xbox 360 and want to sell your game on Xbox LIVE Community Games, you’ll need a Premium membership. It’s just $99 per year or $49 for four months.

Finally, submit your finished game to the XNA Creators Club and watch the money roll in!