30/08: Most amazing video choreographed...

University Lipdub (HS Furtwangen) from DASKAjA on Vimeo.

The six students of the University LipDub production team did the conception of the "one-shot"-sequence and organized the complete shooting. When shooting the video there were involved more than sixty "singers", actors and extras with all their energy.

26/08: Canon EOS 50D has just been announced

 

Amstelveen, The Netherlands, 26 August 2008: Canon today strengthens its EOS range with the addition of a powerful new digital SLR: the EOS 50D. With a 15.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor, 6.3 frames per second shooting and Canon's latest DIGIC 4 image processor, the EOS 50D delivers unparalleled speed and resolution at a price point that is unique in today's market.

Outstanding, clean images
A newly designed 15.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor delivers ultra-detailed, low-noise images - ideal for large-scale reproduction or creative cropping. New manufacturing processes, plus redesigned photo diodes and microlenses, extend the light gathering capabilities of the sensor - allowing more pixels to be fitted on the CMOS sensor without compromising image quality. These changes ensure improved high ISO performance and low noise. High-speed, low light shooting is enabled by ISO levels of 3200, expandable to an ultra-sensitive 12800.

The EOS Integrated Cleaning System - including the improved Self Cleaning Sensor Unit with a new fluorine coating - increases protection of image quality by helping to reduce, repel and remove unwanted dust from the sensor. Stubborn particles can be removed automatically in post-production with Dust Delete Data and Canon's included Digital Photo Professional software.

Rapid-fire performance
Canon's new DIGIC 4 processor is fast enough to allow up to 6.3fps continuous shooting, in bursts of up to 90 JPEGs with a UDMA card. Used with Canon's wide area AF system, which locks onto subjects with 9 individual cross type sensors, stunning action sequences can be captured - even in low-light conditions. This makes the EOS 50D particularly suited to sports and wildlife shooting.

DIGIC 4 works with the CMOS sensor to deliver 14-bit image processing, for smooth gradation and natural-looking colours - as well as ensuring ultra-fast startup times and near-instant image review after shooting.

 

See everything
A new 3.0" Clear View VGA LCD provides extra-large and wide angle-of-view image review, with plenty of clarity for accurate focus checks in playback. By switching to Live View mode - which displays a real-time image on the LCD - photographers can enjoy simplified shooting from awkward angles, or connect to a PC for remote shooting. Live Mode now offers three ways to auto focus: Quick AF, Live AF, and new Face Detection Live AF, which optimizes focus based on faces detected in the frame - for fast, spontaneous portraiture.

Control and ease
The famously intuitive EOS menu system includes a new Quick Control screen, for instant access to the most commonly-changed settings. A new Creative Auto mode offers automatic focus and exposure - while still allowing creative ‘tweaks' to settings such as background sharpness.

"For advanced amateurs and semi-professionals - or professionals looking for a powerful backup model - the EOS 50D stands alone," said Mogens Jensen, Head of Canon Consumer Imaging, Europe. "No other camera in this price bracket offers a comparable combination of speed and image quality."

Canon EOS 50D Sensor Cleaning System
These changes ensure improved high ISO performance and low noise. High-speed, low light shooting is enabled by ISO levels of 3200, expandable to an ultra-sensitive 12800. The EOS Cleaning System which has been integrated in the Canon EOS 50D - including the improved Self Cleaning Sensor Unit with a new fluorine coating - increases protection of image quality by helping to reduce, repel and remove unwanted dust from the sensor. Stubborn particles can be removed automatically in post-production with Dust Delete Data and Canon's included Digital Photo Professional software.

Canon 50D perfect for sports and wildlife photography
Canon's new DIGIC 4 processor is fast enough to allow up to 6.3fps continuous shooting, in bursts of up to 90 JPEGs with a UDMA card. When using the Canon EOS 50D with Canon's wide area AF system, which locks onto subjects with 9 individual cross type sensors, stunning action sequences can be captured - even in low-light conditions. This makes the Canon 50D particularly suited to sports and wildlife shooting. DIGIC 4 works with the CMOS sensor to deliver 14-bit image processing, for smooth gradation and natural-looking colours - as well as ensuring ultra-fast startup times and near-instant image review after shooting.

Canon EOS 50D incorporates CMOS technology
Canon's CMOS technology is one of the company's key competitive advantages, with noise reduction circuitry at each pixel site delivering virtually noise-free images. In comparison with CCD technology, the lower power consumption characteristics of Canon's CMOS sensors also contribute to longer battery life. Signal conversion in Canon's CMOS sensors is handled by individual amplifiers at each pixel site. Unnecessary charge transfer operations are avoided, vastly speeding up the process of getting signal to the image processor. Noise generation is reduced, power consumption is limited and faster frame rate potential is increased.

Live View mode integrated in the Canon EOS 50D
The Canon EOS 50D features a new 3.0" Clear View VGA LCD, providing extra-large and wide angle-of-view image review, with plenty of clarity for accurate focus checks in playback. By switching to Live View mode - which displays a real-time image on the LCD - photographers can enjoy simplified shooting from awkward angles, or connect to a PC for remote shooting. Live Mode now offers three ways to auto focus: Quick AF, Live AF, and new Face Detection Live AF, which optimizes focus based on faces detected in the frame - for fast, spontaneous portraiture.

Canon 50D developed for semi professional photographers
The famously intuitive EOS menu system includes a new Quick Control screen, for instant access to the most commonly-changed settings. A new Creative Auto mode offers automatic focus and exposure - while still allowing creative ‘tweaks' to settings such as background sharpness. "For advanced amateurs and semi-professionals - or professionals looking for a powerful backup model - the Canon EOS 50D stands alone," said Mogens Jensen, Head of Canon Consumer Imaging, Europe. "No other camera in this price bracket offers a comparable combination of speed and image quality."

Canon EOS 50D offers Picture Style pre-sets
Picture Style pre-sets simplify in-camera control over image qualities. Picture Style pre-sets can be likened to different film types - each one offering a different colour response. Within each selectable pre-set, photographers have control over sharpness, contrast, colour tone and saturation. The camera's factory default configuration is set to deliver immediately-usable JPEG images without need for additional menu settings. Picture Style presets applied to a RAW image can be revised with Canon's Digital Photo Professional software. The six pre-sets are:

• Standard - for crisp, vivid images that don't require post-processing
• Portrait - optimises colour tone and saturation and weakens sharpening
• Landscape - for punchier greens and blues with stronger sharpening to give a crisp edge to mountain, tree and building outlines
• Neutral - ideal for post-processing
• Faithful - adjusts colour to match the subject when shot under a colour temperature of 5200K

• Monochrome - for black and white shooting with a range of filter effects (yellow, orange, red and green) and toning effects (sepia, blue, purple and green).

Canon EOS Digital Photo Professional Software
Digital Photo Professional software provides high speed, high quality processing of lossless RAW images. Processing with Digital Photo Professional allows real-time display and immediate application of image adjustments, giving control over RAW image variables such as white balance, dynamic range, exposure compensation, noise reduction and colour tone - plus the ability to view Auto Focus points on an image. The Lens Aberration correction tool allows precise correction of different types of distortion caused by certain cameras. Images can be recorded in camera with sRGB or Adobe RGB colour space.

Canon EOS Utility on the EOS 50D SLR camera
The latest version of EOS Utility provides essential support for Live View remote shooting, camera configuration and image transfers. Tightly integrated with Digital Photo Professional, EOS Utility can be configured to monitor ‘hot' folders, automatically renaming and moving incoming images to a structured file system. Users can also tag their images with EXIF data, including copyright information.

Canon EOS 50D price & availability
The Canon EOS 50D (body only) is available in Europe from the end of September 2008 priced at €1599.99 / £1199.99 inc. VAT. In the United States, the Canon EOS 50D digital SLR camera is scheduled for October delivery and will be sold in a body-only configuration at an estimated selling price of $1,399 USD.

Sources:
letsgodigital.org/en/news/articles/story_19745.html
whatdigitalcamera.com/news/Canon_launches_new_digital_SLR_news_266240.html
dpreview.com/news/0808/08082605canoneos50d.asp

21/08: The simple truth - Lesson 2

19/08: The simple truth - Lesson 1

12/08: oh! hellboy feel sad!

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: 'I am blind, please help.' There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, 'Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?'







The man said, 'I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.'
What he had written was: 'Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it.'

Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?






Moral of the Story: Be thankful for what you have. Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively.

Invite others towards good with wisdom. Live life with no excuse and love with no regrets. When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile. Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear.


Great men say, 'Life has to be an incessant process of repair and reconstruction, of discarding evil and developing goodness.... In the journey of life, if you want to travel without fear, you must have the ticket of a good conscience.'

04/08: Obama Cartoons

Source: http://www.canadaka.net

03/08: Canada Launches Telemarketer Do-Not-Call List

OTTAWA -- Canadians will be able to avoid unsolicited telemarketer calls by registering with the national do-not-call list in exactly two months, the federal telecommunications regulator confirmed Wednesday.

Consumers will be able to register for the list either by phone or online starting Sept. 30. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission warned calls will not stop immediately upon registration, as telemarketers have 31 days to update their calling lists.

Exceptions to the list include calls from charities, political parties, polling companies, newspapers selling subscriptions, and organizations with which the consumer has an existing business relationship.

Those registered with the list will also be able to file a complaint with a yet-to-be-named third-party investigator if they are still receiving calls from an unexempt organization after the 31-day grace period.

Telemarketers found in violation of the list could face fines of up to $1,500 for individuals and up to $15,000 for corporations.

The CRTC first broached the subject of a national do not call list in 2004 to complement the current regulations requiring telemarketers to keep individual, company-specific lists.

The regulator set out rules for creation and operation of the list in July 2007 and awarded Bell Canada a five-year contract to operate the list later that year.

Canadians will be able to add their land line, cell or fax numbers on the national do-not-call list online at www.LNNTE-DNCL.gc.ca or by calling 1-866-580-DNCL (3625). For TTY service only (for the hearing impaired), the toll-free number will be 1-888-DNCL-TTY (1-888-362-5889).

The telemarketing industry has been critical of the list, specifically the online registration. The concern is that hackers will be able to upload entire phone books to the list.

Source: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/index.html

01/08: Top 25 Documentaries

1. Hoop Dreams (1994), Steve James
2. The Thin Blue Line (1988), Errol Morris
3. Bowling for Columbine (2002), Michael Moore
4. Spellbound (2002), Jeffrey Blitz
5. Harlan County U.S.A. (1976), Barbara Kopple
6. An Inconvenient Truth (2006), Davis Guggenheim
7. Crumb (1994), Terry Zwigoff
8. Gimme Shelter (1970), Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin
9. The Fog of War (2003), Errol Morris
10. Roger & Me (1989), Michael Moore
11. Super Size Me (2004), Morgan Spurlock
12. Don't Look Back (1967) D.A. Pennebaker
13. Salesman (1968), Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin
14. Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance (1982), Godfrey Reggio
15. Sherman's March (1986), Ross McElwee
16. Grey Gardens (1976), Albert Maysles,
      David Maysles, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer
17. Capturing the Friedmans (2003), Andrew Jarecki
18. Born into Brothels, (2004), Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski
19. Titicut Follies (1967), Frederick Wiseman
20. Buena Vista Social Club (1999), Wim Wenders
21. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Michael Moore
22. Winged Migration (2002), Jacques Perrin
23. Grizzly Man (2005), Werner Herzog
24. Night and Fog (1955), Alain Resnais
25. Woodstock (1970), Michael Wadleigh

01/08: The best ever genie story

A Husband takes his wife to play her first game of golf. Of course, the wife promptly hacked her first shot right through the window of the biggest house adjacent to the course.

The husband cringed, 'I warned you to be careful! Now we'll have to go up there, find the owner, apologize and see how much your lousy drive is going to cost us.'
So the couple walked up to the house and knocked on the door.

A warm voice said, 'Come on in.'

When they opened the door they saw the damage that was done:
glass was all over the place, and a broken antique bottle was lying on its side near the pieces of window glass.

A man reclining on the couch asked, 'Are you the people that broke my window?'

'Uh...yeah, sir. We're sure sorry about that,' the husband replied.

'Oh, no apology is necessary... ! Actually I want to thank you.

You see, I'm a genie, and I've been trapped in that bottle for a thousand years. Now that you've released me, I'm allowed to grant three wishes. I'll give you each one wish, but if you don't mind,
I'll keep the last one for myself.'

'Wow, that's great!' the husband said.

He pondered a moment and blurted out, 'I'd like a million dollars a year for the rest of my life.'

'No problem,' said the genie.'You've got it, it's the least I can do.

And I'll guarantee you a long, healthy life!'

'And now you, young lady, what do you want?' the genie asked 'I'd like to own a gorgeous home complete with servants in every country in the world,' she said.

'Consider it done,' the genie said. 'And your homes will always be safe from fire, burglary and natural disasters! '

'And now,' the couple asked in unison, 'what's your wish, genie?'

'Well, since I've been trapped in that bottle, and haven't been with a woman in more than a thousand years, my wish is to have sex with your wife.'

The husband looked at his wife and said, 'Gee, honey, you know we both now have a fortune, and all those houses. What do you think?'

She mulled it over for a few moments and said, 'You know, you're right. Considering our good fortune, I guess I wouldn't mind, but what about you, honey?'

You know I love you sweetheart,' said the husband. I'd do the same for you!'

So the genie and the woman went upstairs where they spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying each other. The genie was insatiable.

After about three hours of non-stop sex, the genie rolled over and looked directly into her eyes and asked, How old are you and your husband?'

'Why, we're both 35,' she responded breathlessly.

'No Kidding,' he said. 'Thirty-five years old and both of you still believe in genies?????

01/08: The life of me!

Once a man went to a Veterinary Doctor and said:

"Doctor I have come on vacation for a month so that I can get myself  
treated fully within this period."

Doctor: I think you should go to the Doctor opposite to my clinic, see that board.

Man: No, Doctor, I have come to you only

Doctor: But, gentleman I am a Veterinary Doctor. I am an animal specialist.
I do not treat human beings.

Man: I know, Doctor very well and that is why I have come to you only...

Doctor: I can not, because you speak like me, think like me, talk like me which means
you are a human being and not an animal.

Man: I know I am a human but litsen to my complaints first:

Doctor: OK. Tell me.

Man:

        I sleep like a dog thinking about my work load whole night.

        I get up in the morning like a horse....

        I go to work running like a deer.......

        I work all the day like a donkey....

        I run around for 11 months like a bull without any holiday.

        I wag my tail in front of all my bosses.....

        I play with my children like a monkey if I get time.....

        I am like a rabbit before my wife..........

Doctor: Are you an engineer?

Man: Yes

Doctor: Instead of telling this long history you should have told me in the beginning
itself that you are an engineer. Come man, no one can treat you better than me.