Category: Technology

Google really is rather clever, isn’t it. As a jape I used the “word”, umberleevabull in a chat to a friend. Try a search on that word and Google recognises that you really meant unbelievable: Google Search: umberleevabull.

Unburleaverbull!

(Doesn’t recognise that one though, hah!)

Footnote: Actually, it now does recognize that last spelling and once again suggests Unbelievable. I presume they have some sort of algo in place that automatically updates the database when someone uses the misspelled word and lets Google correct them. Very, very clever.

A neat way to remove the old red eye problem when you’ve taken a portrait with your camera’s built-in flash and the subject was staring right at the camera, is to paint it away. Unfortunately, this can be less than realistic because the catchlight and other details in the eye are lost.

Instead, of simply blasting black into the eye, use a
soft brush set to ‘color’ mode and set the brush color to black. Then carefully paint over the red-eye area to remove it. This desaturates the area you painted over without loss of detail in the eye. You might want to then use the “burn” tool to darken the pupil a little more to produce an even better result.

The catchlights in the eye and any other gradations are retained with this red eye removal technique – results in a much more natural look than those automatic red eye removal tools in iPhoto and other programs.

Sometimes the red eye flash back from the retina spills over into the iris too. You hopefully know what colour your subject’s eyes are normally so set the foreground colour to that hue rather than black (if you have a photo of them without red-eye use the dropper tool to grab the color) and with a soft and suitably sized brush set to “color” mode once more, paint over the iris area with this color. Results may vary and you may want to use masks and layers and all that other stuff to help you get the most natural and authentic look. Obviously, none of this is automatic, but then who wants automatic photography?

I’m proud to say that this tip was featured in Geoff Lawrence’s flash photography tutorial from whom we’ve borrowed the thumbnail of the red-eye girl above.

Cornell University researchers are working hard to ensure P2P systems work as they should. Assistant professor in Computer Science, Emin GÜ® Sirer, for instance is working on various programs such as Credence, which he hopes will counter P2P pollution.

He’s also spotted a serious vulnerability in the Limewire P2P program, which runs on the Gnutella file sharing system and triggered Limewire to send out a patch to its approximately 35 million users.

Maybe this is a naive question, given the sheer number of users out there, but what are Cornell researchers doing improving systems that are commonly used to propagate copyright material illicitly across the net? Are there actual legitimate reasons why people would be using Limewire and other P2P software? Presumably, business users and academics wishing to share their information would do so through an intranet, ftp, or by email, rather than allowing all and sundry to access their files through a P2P network.

I could understand it if the academic community were working with the copyright holders on techniques to prevent copyrighted materials being propagated in this way, but this seems to be an odd way to spend research funds, or am I missing something here?

A chemistry student in the US has beaten software giant Microsoft to a legal pulp, according to a report in The Register. David Zamos of Kent State University re-sold on e-bay some MS software bought at an educational discount rate. MS sued and then Zamos counter-sued says The Register. The funniest thing about the article though isn’t Zamos’ contorted retort to the MS legal claims (“Microsoft purposely established and maintained a sales and distribution system whereby rightful rejection and return of merchandise that is substantially non-conforming is either impossible or practically impossible due to the ineptness of its employees, unconscionable policies malicious intent and deceptive practices,” he wrote in the countersuit, reports The Register), but that the webzine then asks, “What’s this kid doing messing around with Chemistry?”

Well…if Zamos is clever enough to out-do MS in legalese, he could only be a boon to the chemical industry and ought to be given a high-level position as soon as he graduates…

My mentioning Joel Shurkin’s blog brought forth some sarcastic comments because of my quoting his remark on cancer cause and cure. One blog made the quite obvious comment in joannejacobs.com that “make a mouse drink enough water, it’ll develop cancer from it”. I wasn’t sure if that entry was being sarcastic or not, but I think Joel himself was being ironic…science writers see dozens of research papers that swing both ways on such matters as cancer cause and cure. Equally we see headlines proclaiming “[insert favourite chemical here] Causes Cancer” and just as many saying, “Scientific Breakthrough in Cancer Fight”.

Any compound can be demonstrated to be cytotoxic under the right conditions and so kill cancer cells or cause cancer in healthy cells. It’s the “right conditions” that matter though. Nevertheless we should heed the warnings about some chemicals: DHMO.org

How to maintain a healthy Windows System. This page does what it says on the tin, providing a run down of what you need to do to maintain your Windows set up and cut down on the old Bluescreen of Death. One thing though lots of the text on this page is very pale and impossible to read if there’s a lot of glare on your screen…so here’s a quick tip to make any “too pale” text easily readable: “Control A” (Selects all). All text on the page then becomes white on a nice dark blue background. Much easier on the eyes if browsing in bright conditions…

Half Baked. Interesting comment from Sebastian at Onfolio about scientists not being up to speed with syndicated news content. It occurred to me that one area in which it might be incredibly powerful for active scientists is in the preprint arena. They could release their up-coming papers and posters using a newsfeed and by providing comments space on the paper’s web page get instantaneous feedback to help them fine-tune their paper before submission to their favourite scientific journal.