Today I came across an easy to follow tutorial on how to create professional HDR images. This technique lets you combine multiple pictures of the same subject taken at different exposures to create "a perfect picture" with no under or over exposed areas.

After my camera decided to die just in time for the warranty to expire I abandoned photography for a while. After reading this tutorial today I just feel like giving myself a very expensive Christmas present.

The Ryan McGinnis tutorial - Found via Hackzine

The lack of blogging in the last week was due to a mini project I was doing with Many Eyes. This website lets you create data visualizations (like charts etc) and then lets people discuss the data and the displays of the data.

I collected some data from social networking sites (like facebook, bebo, myspace and the rest) and created a map of which websites are the most popular in each country.

There are three different views of the same data. You can see all the diagrams here in the technology page. You can take a look at the different visualization and comment upon them and perhaps choose which diagram you prefer most and why.

P.S. If you like the pictures please digg them by clicking on the Digg button on the post or this link. The more people who comment on the diagrams the more useful this proof of concept I'm trying to show will be.

Report: Many U.S. Parents Outsourcing Child Care Overseas

... I dosed the milk to cereal ratio perfectly. You know, like, when you put exactly enough milk to scoop the very last crunchy nut from the bowl, with the last sip of milk. That was exactly it. Just perfect.

...is a Friday morning, and this is pre-pre-Christmas weekend. The weekend when everybody feel like meeting, mingling and drinking.

...while cycling to work I met a pheasant on the pavement. We chatted for two seconds then he flew away in the barren fields.

...I read a book review on Stephen Few’s blog on the book Geekonomics

This month on National Geographic there’s a special feature about one of my favourite birds – the albatross. There are some great wallpaper pictures of these glorious birds.

This is the link of monthly wallpapers from National Geographic. For the Albatross pictures select December 2007.

I'm back from the land of chocolate, beer, fries and seafood. That's about all I learnt about Belgium in the 2 short days I spent in Brussels this weekend. The beer (Duvel, Leffe, Chimay, ...) and chocolate (Godiva, Cote d'Ore ...) I knew about, the fries I sort of knew about, but the seafood I had no clue about. The Mussels are the national dish of Belgium and most of them come from the North Sea off the northern coast of the Netherlands. The Belgians claim that they invented what everybody else calls French fries. In fact here they call them Belgian fries.

The main reason for going to Brussels (apart from meeting the Miss) was to see the Christmas markets. I've never been to any Christmas market before, so everything was new and interesting. As far as markets go it's not unlike any other, but with a Christmas twist to it. The stands are predominantly decorated with red, lots of Christmas lights and the smells of brewed mulled wine that remind you of Christmas. Unfortunately there wasn't any snow but it doesn't usually snow that much in Brussels. There was an ice skating rink near the big wheel though and an uncharacteristic carousel with gigantic Kafkian insects, Russian space shuttles and prehistoric dinosaurs.

With all the food stands in the market I indulged in the delicacies on offer. Lots of gluhwein topped with amaretto, winter coffee, Belgian fries, Waffles with chocolate coated strawberries and praline chocolates. The highlight though were the escargot (snails). They might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Christmas, but their smell of sea was irresistible. The snails weren’t like the garden snails we eat in the dot, but some sort of sea snails that taste a bit like mussels but with a more chewy texture. I also tasted the churros which are elongated chunky finger doughnuts; very oily and heavy.

Once when I was a kid father went to Brussels and he got us some souvenir of the Manneken Pis (the pissing child). My middle brother really used to like this statue and when I saw the real thing on Saturday all these childhood memories started flowing. Everybody told me that it was a very small statue, but I didn't realise how small it was until I actually saw it. It's only about a foot tall. The little pissing boy was dressed maybe for Christmas or something.

I've got 553 unread feeds in my reader, total time on the web spent this week - 2hr 42minutes, number of blog posts this week - 2, number of headaches this week - 3. Something is not quite how it usually is, but then again in 2 weeks time I'll be heading off home for the Christmas break. In the mean time tomorrow morning I'm off to Brussels for the weekend.

In the mean time I'm thinking about 2 end of the year top 10 lists, one for best humour (video/pics/sound files) and the other top 10 albums of the year. If you have any suggestions or the top X of your own feel free to list. Peek preview ... Achmed is going to be there. Surprise surprise.

With only 21 days to go I'm all pepped up for Christmas spirit. Look at what I got today ...

... a Santa Cactus :)

I know this is a bit old, and most people have already seen it but it's too good not upload here. Thanks to Geek Baazar for the pointer to this great act.

hope you are still alive and did not freeze of fear hearing the word children ....
....
defrost please

wireless internet is great ... i can sit on the toilet and talk to you, but I've got to stop for a while to wipe.

a trucker drives under every condition

Ra I hope you understand this. There is nothing personal in this project, absolutely nothing! Unless you invite me for a cup of tee ;-). (Please remember I don' drink coffee, but love any chocolate!)As you know (pardon me my language this time) I'm in the same deep shit with C as you are! And say true A is in the same boat with us. Don't you, A? With love and B.R