I found this interesting software called Portrait Professional which takes out a lot of the Photoshopping effort to improve on a portrait image. At first I was skeptical about its capabilities, but fortunately they do provide for a demo version. The demo version has the full functionality, except that you can’t save the output image.
Anyway I gave it a try. Here is the original picture:
And here is the picture tweaked by Portrait Professional.
In an attempt to garner a Guiness World Record, Mozilla assigned June 17 as the Firefox Download Day. However, it appears that they underestimated the volume of download requests. The Firefox blog reports that “the outpouring of interest and enthusiasm around Firefox 3 has been overwhelming (literally!)” and that their servers are “currently feeling the burn.”
Fortunately, as I write this entry, I am able to download the Mac version of Firefox.
I am not too concerned about participating in the attempt to set a download record. I have been using the beta version of Firefox 3 so I just want to make sure I am using the official version.
Due to its popularity as a blogging platform, Wordpress has become a prime target for hackers looking to take over blogs for search-engine optimization (SEO) of other sites they control, traffic-redirection and other purposes. Recently there have been a spate of automated attacks which take advantage of recently discovered security vulnerabilities in Wordpress.
To date, Wordpress has been keeping up with the security holes by releasing updates within a few days of new exploits being found, but in the past few days new exploits have appeared that nobody seems to have answers for.
Had he lived, Jamie Livingston would have beamed a picture perfect smile seeing how his collection of more than 6000 Polaroid photos – one taken for each day of his life, beginning in March 1979 – has turned into an international sensation.
The discovery of the website containing the collection of Polaroids shot and collected over a twenty year period is as intriguing as the collection itself. Chris Higgins at Mental Floss stumbled upon a website full of seemingly bland photographs that were dated for each day across twenty years, beginning in March of 1979 and ending in October 1997. Since the website was still in beta mode, he had no way of knowing who the photographs belonged to or what the collection signified. After some Google trickery, Chris finally managed to reveal the identity of the photographer and the story of his collection.
James Livingstone, a New York based cinematographer had indeed taken a Polaroid for each day of his life, probably meaning to build a collection. Tragically, he died of cancer in October 1997, and the collection was interrupted. His friends Hugh Crawford and Betsy Reid were in the process of setting up the collection on the website that Chris chanced upon.
The collection, entitled PHOTO OF THE DAY: 1979-1997, 6,697 Polaroids and dated in sequence, was displayed at the Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard College, the place where James began his Polaroid-taking odyssey. The entire collection spanned an entire 70 x 120 feet wall.
Some of the pictures, captionless and, in these days of digital imagery, in quaintly poor resolution, are breathtakingly poignant. Like the shot of the engagement ring lying in its box, followed shortly after by a picture of the happy couple, or the stitches in his head, where we begin to see his losing grip on life.
He probably lived a normal life, no different from yours or mine. But his series of pictures just demonstrate that life, no matter how simple, can be quite beautiful. And such a simple collection can make a simple man quite extraordinary.
View the pictures at http://www.vagabondish.com/jamie-livingston-polaroid-photos/.
I received a new credit card. The funny thing was that I didn’t apply for a new card. I guess some of my private and confidential personal data leaked out.
Anyway, I took that opportunity to clean out my wallet. I was amazed by the amount of plastic inside. I have an HSBC ATM and HSBC credit card, a BPI ATM card, Citibank ATM and credit cards, Standard Chartered credit card, Diners, plus other miscellaneous cards. Do I really need all those credit cards?
When we arrived at Heathrow, we took a cab from the airport to the hotel. It was a nice ride, about 30 minutes long, but with four other people, plus luggage, I felt claustrophobic. The staccato traffic also helped with my car sickness.
I now know better. An express train between Paddington and Heathrow only took 15 minutes. I was about to take a short nap when we were already at the terminal.
