The video of the seasons in Norway

December 16, 2005 eirikso91 Comments

Update: I’ve made a new video of better quality images from 2008:
One year worth of images give some amazing videos

Update:
I have now uploaded a high resolution version of the index print as well: High resolution index print of 2005

Update2:
The high definition version is now available here.

44 pictures taken out of our window at random times of the day and at random intervals through the year. When taking the pictures I have placed the camera up in the corner of our living room window at a place where it gets nearly the same framing for each picture. Because it’s only nearly I aligned all of them in Photoshop. Then I put them on the timeline in Sony Vegas Video. I strethced them to 5 seconds each and added a simple dissolve between all the pictures.

To align them in Photoshop you start with picture number one, put the next one on a layer above and makes it 50% transparent. Then you find a place in the picture that is as solid as possible and align the two pictures until you don’t have any “ghost image” around the solid parts.

Click the pictures to see the original screenshot from Photoshop. The first one (to the left) is not aligned. The last one (right) is aligned.

I have added the video to YouTube

Anyway, you can also download the video here:
Windows Media Video 9
Quicktime H.264

I have also made a 720p HD version of this video. It is actually quite nice to see it on my 37 inch LCD. The HD version is somethning that I could post on BitTorrent. Please comment if that is interesting.

Edit:
If you like this story you can vote for it on digg.com here. 🙂

Edit2
Been there, bought the T-shirt.

Eirikso T-Shirts

Pictures of the four seasons in Norway

November 30, 2005 eirikso6 Comments

More fun with my pictures from the year 2005. These pictures are a very good illustration of the four seasons here in Norway. The temperature vary from -20 to +30 degrees celcius. (And please note that -20 is the extreme low. Winter here in Oslo tend to vary between -5 and +5, still talking celcius). Summer should be from +15 to +25 C.

…and to make it easy for the people using an ancient system for measuring temperature:

Extremes through the year: -4 to +86 F
Normal winter: 23 to 41 F
Normal summer: 59 to 77 F

One year outside our window

November 30, 2005 eirikso54 Comments

For the last year I have been taking a picture out of our living room window at random intervals. I have found a place in the window where the framing is almost identical for each picture. My plan is of course to edit this into a short video that will morph through the year.

While working on it I made this index overview. Even that one looks quite nice. It starts with a picture taken in the beginning of January 2005 top left and ends up with a picture taken december 2005 down to the right.

Update
Here’s the video:
http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.swf
You find more information about how i did this here.

Update2:
The high definition version is now available here.

I will post back here when I have finished the video. My plan is also to publish all the pictures so that you creative people out there can experiment with them as well.

All hints on software that could help when putting the video together is appreciated. Use the comment feature on this post.

Update:
And here are four pictures that describe the four different seasons very well.

Update2
Been there, bought the T-shirt.

I want to keep on providing strange little projects like this one. I have a truly excellent hosting with Dreamhost. It’s cheap but not free. So, here’s the deal. This probably extremely limited edition T-shirt will give me a couple of euros to use on hosting and domain registration: Eirikso T-Shirts

And what’s that other T-Shirt? The guy with a bag on his head? Well, that’s Bill the Hacker. A character from another very popular post here on eirikso.com.

Yes I know. This is pathetic. “His blog got digged and now he starts selling T-shirts“. How awful. Don’t be afraid. Eirikso.com will not turn into a big shop. Making a commercial site out of this one will take the fun out of it. Consider this an experiment.

And why the limited edition? That comes as a natrual result of the fact that only a very limited amount of very intelligent people are going to buy it!

Please comment if you want me to set up a US shop as well. 🙂

Flickr and Webshots – A classic web2.0 case

November 25, 2005 eirikso18 Comments

Alexa is a web site that tracks traffic over time. The data from Alexa is collected from the people running the alexa toolbar in their browser, and in general that is enough to give a quite reliable picture of how a site is doing.

You can also compare charts, and the chart that shows the traffic rank of the popular photo sharing site Webshots vs. the chart of the relatively new but much hyped and right now just as popular service called Flickr is a very interesting illustration.

Webshots started as a general photo sharing site in 1999 and are celebrating their 10th anniversary as a brand these days (they started out as a professional service around 1995). Flickr emerged around february 2004. So, how come that a new site with a name that is difficult to spell and impossible to pronounce can rival Webshots after less than two years? It is difficult to say exactly why Flickr has this fantastic success. But, as it has been discussed all over the web as people realize this interesting and relatively new service – there are some properties of Flickr that is a good example of the successful web 2.0 service:

– A system that is easy to understand
– A clean interface with focus on usability
– Social functions like tagging, groups, commenting, evaluations and friends
– RSS feeds for everything
– An open API

The high usability grabs even your mother as a user. RSS feeds and an open API give them cred and collect users from the tech savvy digerati. The social network and possibility to create communities make both your mother and the geeky neighbour happy.

And while you’re here, please vote for my blog in the Norwegian competition that wants to elect the best technology blog in norway: Now I really need your help 🙂

Update:
Thomas Hawk has extended this article with more thoughts on the comparison of WebShots and Flickr here.

Update2:
Narendra Rocheroll has some interesting issues as well. Definitely worth a read.

Update3:
Due to a heavy load of spam on this post I have closed the comments and trackbacks.

More amazing circles

November 10, 2005 eiriksoLeave a comment

I have posted on Oyvind’s Amazing Circles before. I could not resist and went through his tutorial. The method is ridiculously easy and once you start making circles of your pictures it is actually quite addictive! You find the Eirikso Amazing Circles Photo Set here. You can do this using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. The Amazing Circles Flickr Group is growing and now counts more than 350 circles.

Reality or not reality – that’s the question

October 28, 2005 eirikso3 Comments

Picture by Glenn C. Feron

You can’t buy the effect of photoshop in a beauty saloon
The brilliant retoucher Glenn C. Feron has a wonderful portfolio where you can see the difference between the original and the picture that he has touched with his photoshop magic.

As you can see from the picture here, to the left you have a beautiful lady. Already beautiful to the point that is not possible to reach for average people because she is already prepared by the finest of professional make-up artists, hairdressers and an excellent photographer. To the right she is even more beautiful. Beautiful to the point that is completely impossible. To look like her in real life is something that is as difficult as looking like Donald Duck or any other fictional creature.

The problem is that a lot of average people think it is possible to look like the girl on the right. Huge industries of beauty products rely on the fact that people want to look like a creature from a fairy tale. For my own kids it won’t be a problem. They grow up with photoshop and all the knowledge that lets them separate fiction from real life.

The problem is the digital divide. All the people that actually think that a cure of pills, powder and skin care can do the same magic that photoshop can do.

And what’s the conclusion? Stop artists like Glenn Feron? Put a warning on the magazine cover saying that the person in the picture is fictional?

Of course not! Glenn, keep up the good work.

The solution is knowledge. Understanding. Analytical skills. Go home and tell your fourteen old girl.

Via Digital Media Thoughts

Panoramio – place your pictures on Google maps

October 22, 2005 eirikso3 Comments

I have mentioned GeoBloggers here before. Now meet Panoramio, a similar and very user friendly service. It lets you place your pictures by simply click the map and upload.

Very nice navigation, search function and cool layout for the pictures with both the picture, satellite photo and map.

As a test, I just uploaded a beautiful picture from the Sognefjord in Norway. And of course I had to upload the picture of Odda as well.

Edit:
The name Panoramio does not indicate that the pictures you upload have to be panoramas. (Even if my picture of the Sognefjord is a nice – yes… panorama.)

Why your camera phone will outperform your compact camera – bigtime!

August 25, 2005 eirikso6 Comments

The companies making mobile phones know it. They have a huge advantage over all other gadget vendors. The mobile phone has become the device that you really can’t do without. If you forget your iPod while heading off for work it’s not that serious. If you forget your digital camera, you’ll not return unless you really, really need it that day. It is the phone that makes you turn around and travel all the way back home to get it. So, they have a very valuable place in your pocket.

The only reasons for not having all your gadgets in the same device are:
1. Size
2. Price
3. Quality
4. Usability

There is absolutely nothing that indicates that it should be impossible to make a device that has a reasonable price, good usability, perfect size and includes the functionallity of my phone, MP3-player and digital camera in the near future. However, there is another huge difference between my Sony Digital Camera and the one in my Nokia Phone.

The operating system
The camera in my Nokia is a camera with an operating system. Basically that gives endless possibilities to system developers and third parties making additions and extra functionallity. Marking my pictures with data from my bluetooth GPS. Giving my camera advanced direct blogging functionallity. Supporting new image formats. Analyzing and recognizing patterns in the picture. Combining the camera with the networking functionallity of UMTS, GPRS and bluetooth.

All of this is impossible in my Sony Cybershot DSC-P150. I need to buy a new camera to give it new functionallity.

The same goes for my MP3-player. The stupid dependence on firmware from Creative is an example. With an open API in my MP3-player someone would have fixed that before Creative could put down their first meeting in the group that makes firmware.

So, even if you don’t want all your gadgets in the same device, gadgets without an operating system are sooo last century…