| Hubble loses its workhorse camera; It probed dark energy as well ...
The Hubble Space Telescope is flying partly blind across the heavens, the result of a short circuit on Saturday in its most popular instrument, the Advanced Camera for Surveys. NASA engineers reported Monday that most of the camera's capabilities, including the ability to take the sort of deep cosmic postcards that have inspired the public and to track the mysterious dark energy splitting the universe to the ends of time, had probably been lost for good. In a telephone news conference, Hubble engineers and scientists said the telescope itself was in fine shape and would continue operating with its remaining instruments, which include another camera, the wide-field planetary camera 2, or wfpc2, and an infrared camera and spectrograph named Nicmos. ''Obviously, we are very disappointed,'' said Preston Burch, program manager for the telescope, at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, noting that the camera had basically met its five-year design lifetime.
Camera project delayed
A camera project designed to reduce crime at Hilton Head Island beach parks will not be ready next month when the tourism -- and vehicle break-in -- season picks up, Beaufort County sheriff's Capt. Toby McSwain said Wednesday. The project was planned for launch last July as a pilot program in Chaplin Community Park at Burkes Beach. Depending on its success, the project would be expanded to other problem areas on the island. But it was delayed because of issues with utility poles and a fiber-optics installation project. Now, officials are weighing options on what type of technology to use to catch criminals. McSwain met with assistant town manager Greg DeLoach on Wednesday to discuss camera options. It would be about two to three weeks before the technology is chosen.
Vista Issues For Pro Photographers
Professional photographers eyeing a Vista upgrade should be aware that some users have reported that Windows Vista Explorer and the Microsoft Photo Info tool can destroy metadata and in some cases the image itself. For now pro photographers may want to hold off on upgrading. According to the MS Knowledge Base article: When you edit the properties of a photo to add metadata to that photo in Windows Vista, the software for the digital camera may no longer recognize the metadata that is automatically added to the photo by the digital camera. Other photo-related problems with Vista include problems with RAW images. Microsoft built an extendable framework into Vista which allows camera manufacturers to add support for proprietary RAW file formats.
Skype Coming To PSP? Shut Yo Mouth
Has anyone delved into the PSP's firmware updates snooping around for hidden treasures? We haven't, but Quick Jump has. According to QJ, if you look into the decrypted version of vshmain.prx from Firmware 3.10, you may be led to believe that some form of VoIP functionality will show up in the future. All signs point to Skype at the moment as the provider. Checking the dump, there was no actual PRX by that name which means that the actual functionality is still being worked upon at this stage. And I don't think anyone's bluffing either. There have already been cases of Camera, GPS, and POPS PRXes being in the firmware long before the functionality was opened up. In the case of Camera and GPS, references can be found as far back as Firmware 2.70. POPS references were found in Firmware 2.80 dumps.
Camera Expert Explains How to Keep Digital Cameras Working in ...
In a new article posted on AIRC, Bob Atkins describes what cold weather can do to consumers' and professional photographers' camera equipment, and shows readers how to avoid common winter shooting maladies. New York, NY (PRWeb) January 31, 2007 -- Cold winter weather presents unique problems for photographers; if unprepared, a novice cold-weather photographer can end up with frostbite and a non-working camera. In its ongoing efforts to educate photographers and help them improve their skills, Adorama has just published "Winter photography tips: How to keep your camera gear running when the weather outside is frightful" (http:// http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?article=011607&op=academy&refby=cold)." The article is the latest in an ongoing series, published on the AIRC - Adorama Imaging Resource Center, by renowned optics expert Bob Atkins that focuses on the inner workings of digital cameras and lenses.
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