I wanted to make a panorama from some photos I took and found a handy little tool called: AutoStitch.

This software will automatically make a panorama from the photos you give it. No need to put them in order or line them up, just point it at the photos and wait.

It is just a demo so there are a few limitations. The main one is that it can only use JPG.

To get the best results:

• When you first run AutoStitch, go to the edit, options menu and set the output size to scaled 100% (top left), otherwise you will end up with a small image. Also set the JPG Quality to 100 (bottom right)
• When taking photos, you want them to all be at the same exposure. This means that don’t mix light photos in with dark photos if you can avoid it.
• A tripod will help you to take nice non blurry shots.
• The output file is created in the same directory as your source files and is called panno.jpg

Fun fact: ILM (the guys who?? do all the cool effects), have licensed the software to use.

Do you run a mulit-monitor setup? If so Display Fusion can help you out with backgrounds.

It allows you to have a custom background for each monitor, lots of great options, Vista and XP.

Need some awesome backgrounds to go with it? Check out Interfacelift for some amazing high resolution backgrounds.

Check out these awesome HDR images.

The author Trey Ratcliff even has a HDR tutorial.

Personally, I think this is the next killer feature for point and click cameras, just imagine setting the dial to HDR, putting the camera on a tripod and instant WOW.

Found via Good Morning Silicon Valley.

News on the Interweb for Week 13 of 2007.

Game News:

• GTA IV Trailer - Looking very nice.
• Gears of War Patch coming out - Nice to see them still supporting it and even adding a new game type.

Geek News:

• Mulitasking not that great - Another article that shows that focusing on a single task at time will allow you to get more tasks done overall.
• Focal Lenght and Aperture explained - Nice and easy for us photography noobs.
• Unlimited holidays at Netflix - All they care about is the work you do. Take 6 weeks of no problem as long as the job is done.
• Keep it Simple Stupid - 49 websites that do just that.
• Transformer Costumes - Lot of effort went into these.
• Washable Computer Tablet - Wow. Talk about on the ball. This is a great idea, I hope it gets picked up.
• How to peel a boiled egg real quick - Cool little trick to try out.
• Be prepared for an emergency - Handy tips on what to have ready to go in an emergency situation, via Lifehacker.

Geek out.

Here is something that I have been saying for a while. The truth about digital Cameras.

What is it? Well:

We blew up a photograph to 16 x 24 inches at a professional photo lab. One print had 13-megapixel resolution; one had 8; the third had 5.

….we ran the test for about 45 minutes. Dozens of people stopped to take the test; a little crowd gathered. About 95 percent of the volunteers gave up, announcing that there was no possible way to tell the difference, even when mashing their faces right up against the prints.

There you go, the megapixel myth at its finest.

Found some interesting things via lifehacker:

• How to make your own secret door.
• How to take a better photograph - With the way I take shots, I can only get better.
• Firefox 2 tweak tips - the new version is out and here are some handy tips to help you optimise it to the max.

As always, geek on

Here is a great idea: Put your contact deatils in your Camera.

Brilliant.

Check out 10 Ways to Add Variety to Your Digital Photography for some handy tips on mixing it up when you next decide to take those happy snaps

Ahh finally a Digital Photo Frame for geeks

This thing is freaking awesome. First you take and old laptop, next get a custom frame to hold the laptop, now reconfigure it to fit in the frame.

Now here is where the genius comes in. Instead of just plugging this thing into a lan, you get a wireless card and set it up to access Flickr and randomly display whatever you want using a software progam called Slickr.

Thanks for Lifehacker for the article, with a comment that mentions an open source software called Gallery that I might have to check out.

Lifehacker have the goods on a DIY Kite Camera that looks pretty sweet. For those of us that can afford the gear, time etc looks like a lot of fun.
If you don’t have the skills or the time, you can find Scott Haefner’s 360 Panoramas that are pretty fantastic and worth a look.

Details: DIY Kite Camera