Almost graduated

Half happy that another part of my life is (almost) complete, half sad that it's over.

Half nostalgic to get out of the wooden bench, half eager to get in the "ergonomic" chair and start working (again).

Half wanting to get into real projects, half praying to finish my BSc project in deadline.

Half ready for life long learning, only half sure that during the faculty I've learned how to learn.

Half sorry I didn't study more, half sorry I didn't party more...

Half sure life is a big compromise, half confident that you have to 1^st dream big in order to achieve something big.

Half child, half man...

Half waiting for the official FCS diploma, half waiting for the new things I will have to learn from now on.

50% feeling ready for what comes, 100% sure today I have to be better than yesterday...

Gaudeamus igitur
Juvenes dum sumus.
Gaudeamus igitur
Juvenes dum sumus.
Post jucundam juventutem
Post molestam senectutem
Nos habebit humus.

Graduation Day - UAIC, Iasi

Ziua Absolventului de „Cuza”

Together with you, we are 6108.

You have graduated the #1 university in Romania. It happens once in a lifetime! For the 1^st time, this year the entire celebrates you.

Come on the 27^th of May, take part with all your colleagues at the greatest graduation ceremony in Romania:

Ziua absolventului de „Cuza”. Ziua ta!

Fore more details, there is a poster and the site.

BSc Thesis

Am primit-o prin noiembrie 2002, de la un prof. Eram in primul an abia, poate nu o intelegeam ca acum. Am mai scris-o si cam acum un an, dar sper sa fie inca de actualitate :D

Iepurasul statea pe un butuc si scria de zor ceva.
Trece vulpea prin zona si il intreaba:
- Ce scrii acolo, iepurasule?
- O lucrare stiintifica despre cum iepurasii mananca vulpi.
- Ceeee?
La care iepurasul impasibil:
- Vino sa-ti arat...
............................................
Vine lupul pe langa butucul iepurasului.
- Ce scrii acolo, iepurasule?
- O lucrare stiintifica despre cum iepurasii mananca lupi.
- Ceeee, ai inebunit?
La care iepurasul impasibil:
- Vino sa-ti arat...
.............................................
Trece prin apropiere ursul:
- Ce scrii acolo, iepurasule?
- O lucrare stiintifica despre cum iepurasii mananca ursi.
- Ceeee, nu le mai ai pe toate?
La care iepurasul impasibil:
- Vino sa-ti arat...
..............................................
La doua sute de metrii mai departe o pestera in care zac ciolane de vulpe si lup. Langa, leul roade o laba proaspata de urs.

Morala: "Nu tema lucrarii tale stiintifice e importanta ci cine e indrumatorul tau de proiect..."

My VisualDNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Mod-ing my Canon!

Even if I was quite unsure of the process, I finally made a little modification on my Canon A630.

It's all about the HDK firmware, which gave me:

• Shooting in RAW
• Live histogram
• Zebra mode (blinking highlights and shadows)
• DOF-calculator
• Battery indicator
• Scripts execution (exposure/focus/... bracketing, intervalometer and more)
• File browser
• Text reader
• Calendar
• Some fun tools and games :)

There are entire threads about the (non-)usefulness of RAW in Canon's P&S cameras, for S3 IS, G7 and maybe others. Even before finding these, I had the same conclusion in my mind: the work implied is not worth it. If I'll change my mind, we'll just have to wait and see. Until than I'm just going to take advantage of the rest of the neat features! ;)

Workshop de arta fotografica - DigiPhoto 2007

Dupa cum ne-au promis organizatorii DigiPhoto 2007 (ASII), evenimentul se va incheia cu un workshop dedicat artei fotografice, in cadrul caruia vor fi premiati si castigatorii concursului national de fotografie digitala, DigiPhoto.
Workshop-ul va avea loc in data de 19 mai, ora 13:30 in Sala Henri Coanda a Palatului Culturii, Iasi.
Printre detaliile care ne-ar atrage la WorkShop, avem enumerate:

• Cei mai mari fotografi vor sustine prezentari in domeniul fotografiei
• Festivitatea de premiere DigiPhoto 2007 - (premii in valoare de 3.000 €)
• Vom avea un studio foto profesionist de 5.000 € pus la dispozitie de PhotoSetup pe care vei putea face practica fiind ajutat de mari profesionisti
  
• Vom creea un cadru in care profesionistii si amatorii vor putea avea un schimb de experienta
• Tombola pentru participanti cu premii de peste 500 RON.

Agenda:

• 13:30 - 14:00 Inregistrare participanti
• 14:00 - 14:05 Bun venit!
• 14:10 - 14:40 Prezentare - Matei Bejenaru
• 14:40 - 14:50 Tombola
• 14:50 - 15:05 Prezentare - Aparatura foto de colectie din patrimoniul Palatului Culturii
• 15:05 - 15:35 Prezentare - Alin Popescu
• 15:35 - 15:45 Tombola PhotoSetup
• 15:45 - 16:00 Pauza
• 16:00 - 16:30 Prezentare - Vasile Dorolti
• 16:30 - 17:30 Festivitatea de premiere
• 17:30 - 18:00 Prezentare - studio fotografic oferit de PhotoSetup
• 18:00 - 19:00 Practica pe studioul PhotoSetup

Cei 12 castigatori au fost alesi de catre un juriu format din fotografi profesionisti din peste 1100 de participanti care au intrat in concurs cu aproximativ 2800 de fotografii. Lista castigatorilor va fi afisata pe site-ul concursului digiphoto.asii.ro sambata 19 mai dupa workshop.

Daca vreti sa participati, trebuie doar sa va rezervati loc.
Eu deja m-am inscris si sper sa ne vedem acolo!

...si deznodamantul, surprins in Ziarul de Iasi.

Summer < Web /> 2007 Outcome

The event was great! Just a few minor flaws that were "understandable" considering the fact that this is the la(te)st edition. :(

"A picture is worth a thousand words is a proverb that refers to the idea that complex stories can be told with just a single still image, or that an image may be more influential than a substantial amount of text. It also aptly characterizes the goals of visualization where large amounts of data must be absorbed quickly."

That is why I say to you: Smile, it's picture time!

• here are some pictures from the event, taken by the XForms Apprentice!
  

  Summer <Web /> 2007



• and here are some taken by Anca Luca:

  Summer Web, 12-13 may 2007

If I will find some more, be sure I will put here a link to them!

Canon PowerShot S5 IS

I was just taking a look on BoG.com after an exhausting day when guess what do I see? :->
Some piece of news, quoting dpreview.com about the latest (May 7^th) Canon release: S5 IS!

Finally we have the update everyone had expected at PMA, the new PowerShot S5 IS digital camera. The S5 IS features an eight megapixel 1/2.5" (5.8 x 4.3 mm) CCD sensor and a twelve times Image Stabilized zoom lens. Unfortunately this lens, while offering long reach with its maximum 432 mm equiv. FOV doesn't improve at the wide end with the same 36 mm equiv. FOV as the S3 IS. Improvements include Face Detection (for AF, AE and Flash in shooting mode and red-eye removal in playback), a 2.5" LCD monitor (up on the S3 IS) and a flash hot-shoe. Still no RAW support though.

Features at a glance:

• 12x optical zoom lens with Ultrasonic Motor (USM) and UD lens
• Optical Image Stabilizer
• 8.0 Megapixel CCD
• DIGIC III with advanced Noise Reduction technology and Face Detection for stills and movies
• Red-Eye Correction in playback
• 2.5” high-resolution vari-angle LCD
• Long-play VGA movies with stereo sound and Photo in Movie
• 22 shooting modes including full manual control and 0cm Super Macro
• High ISO 1600 and Auto ISO Shift
• Compatible with Wide/Tele/Close-up converter lenses and Canon EX Speedlite flashes

As far as RAW support goes, I wouldn't be concerned since there are modified "firmware updates" available even for my A630 that can enable shooting RAW pictures.
But for the rest of the features... well, it really sounds good! :D

Summer < Web /> 2007 Presentation

Well, it seems that I will have some Summer < Web /> time of my own tomorrow.
My presentation (in Romanian) is called:

XHTML 2.0
Good-bye backward compatibility, hello structure!

And it will be an overview on XHTML 2.0, with more attention drawn on XForms.

World Sunlight Map

Ever wandered in what part of the world is it cloudy right now?
Can they really see the sun right now?
Watch the sun rise and set all over the world on this real-time, computer-generated illustration of the earth's patterns of sunlight, darkness, and cloud cover based on current weather satellite data thanks to a nice toy from die.net, powered by Google Gadgets:

Summer < Web /> 2007

The 7^th edition of the workshop dedicated to web technologies will take place this year on the 12th and the 13th of May at the Faculty of Computer Science (UAIC), Iasi.

The main themes will be:

• Usability and accessibility;


• Social Web;



• "Semantic" XHTML & microformats;



• Mash-up applications.
  

More information about contests, presentations and other details can be found on the official site.

Conversion Error

I was taking a sneak peek at the prizes given this year at DigiPhoto, and I think someone has forgotten the difference between ROL and RON...

2.300 RON != 22.000.000 ROL

Hopefully, the error will soon be solved. :)

Later edit: Even if the prizes remained exactly the same, their value grew up at 2.500 RON! But at least the "conversion" problem was corrected...

Good vs. Evil

Even on GoogleFight good wins... :P

DigiPhoto 2007

ASII organizeaza DigiPhoto 2007 - un concurs national de fotografie digitala desfasurat online.

Premiile insumeaza o valoare de peste 3000 de euro. Temele propuse pentru concurs sunt:

• Conceptul de rural in Romania


• Verdele incepe sa dispara


• Manipulare Digitala


• Acustic

In data de 19 mai in Iasi va avea loc un workshop sustinut de fotografi cu notorietate in comunitatea romaneasca, membri ai juriului. De asemenea se vor acorda premiile castigatorilor, care vor avea asigurat transportul, masa si cazarea pentru prezenta in Iasi.

Ca punct final DigiPhoto va avea una sau mai multe expozitii care reunesc cele mai bune lucrari inscrise in concurs.

Pentru inscrieri sau mai multe detalii, esti invitat pe www.digiphoto.asii.ro, iar daca inca nu ai auzit spotul publicitar, Bogdan l-a pastrat aici.