slank - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Maybe not. (Score 1) 596

by slank on Monday March 16, 2009 @02:21PM (#27214073) Attached to: What to Fight Over After Megapixels?

As a professional photographer, I have to chime in here.

Just because Canon can put out sensors with higher density doesn't mean it does a bit of good. Even the high-end SLR lenses from Canon and Nikon don't have the autofocus accuracy or resolving power to get per-pixel sharpness on dense sensors. Slight camera shake (even with stabilization) translates to slight blur. To get sharp 1:1 crops on hi-res sensors, you need a big camera with a big sensor and a big lens on a tripod.

The real frustrations for professionals and consumers alike are:

Noise in low light
Dependable automatic white balance
Wide dynamic range (aka HDR)

Low light performance on full-frame SLRs is really getting good, and has pretty much exceeded film. White balance accuracy is pretty much staying even. The dynamic range of digital is still nowhere near film, but improving slowly.

Getting to 24-bit/pixel dynamic range will pretty much take care of the other two problems. The current best for DSLRs is 14-bit, and on (tens of thousands of dollar) medium format, it's 16-bit (so far as I can tell). Those medium format cameras are at roughly the same sensor pixel densities as the 21mp 1Ds Mark III, probably because pixel density is one of the biggest factors that contributes to noise.

Revisiting the Physics of Buckaroo Banzai 163

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tuesday December 19, 2006 @04:22AM from the blast-from-the-past dept.

serutan writes "Shortly before the release of 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension' in 1984, physicist Carl Sneider of U.C. Berkeley wrote a surprisingly interesting essay on the physics behind the movie. Since the essay is not widely available on the web and I could only find it in plain text, I posted a more readable HTML version on my site. Among the more interesting points Sneider makes are that the oscillation overthruster is the result of decades of research instead of the usual laboratory accident, and its development corresponds surprisingly well with the evolution of particle physics from the 1930s to the 80s."

Possible Serious Security Flaw In ATMs 167

Posted by Zonk on Thursday November 30, 2006 @06:45PM from the my-money-is-flighty-enough-as-it-is dept.

sfjoe writes "According to a story at MSNBC.com, researchers at Algorithmic Research (ARX) have shown it may be possible for 'someone with access to the ATM network to attack the special computers that transmit bank account numbers and PIN codes, called hardware security modules'. Using these methods, an attacker could trick the security modules into exposing a PIN. It has long been considered impossible to access PINs as they are traveling through the ATM network without the encryption key used by the card-issuing bank. If PINs can be compromised, the almost 8 billion transactions per year they handle may be in danger. Not to mention all the transaction at retail stores."

Comment Re:Money Grab (Score 1) 92

by slank on Thursday May 25, 2006 @09:05AM (#15400737) Attached to: Half-Life Episode 1 Gold, Details on 2 and 3

This would be relevant if Episode 1 was an expansion, but it's more like a sequel. From the Steam store:

Episode One is the first in a series of games that reveal the aftermath of Half-Life 2 and launch a journey beyond City 17. Also features two multiplayer games. Half-Life 2 not required.

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