Panorama structure

I was trying to figure out the math for covering a spherical panorama with a minimal amount of shots providing sufficient overlap, and realized that I had a tool nearly perfectly made for this: Povray.

The sphericalpano.zip contains three files for povray, but you only need to edit the panostructure.inc that defines the lens focal length, camera sensor dimensions and how you are planning to shoot the panorama. The panosim.ini contains povray settings for input, output and quality, and panosim.pov contains the scene construction. To run, just execute povray panosim.ini and look at the results. If you can see any black or if the overlaps are very small, increase number of shots. The center column has colored frames to help you analyze the results.

Marketroids gone wild

I stumbled upon an article of canned champagne, which - they claim - is loved by young women. It comes in a red soda-can, with a straw attached to the side, and in 4-packs. I definitely love this part of the article:

KR Washington Bureau | 12/29/2005 | On New Year's Eve, pop the top: It's champagne in a can

Enter canned Sofia, aka the Sofia Mini.

Although drinkers call it champagne, technically it's not: Only sparkling wines produced in the French province of Champagne can call themselves that. It also calls itself Blanc de Blancs, but that label traditionally denotes a sparkling wine made entirely of Chardonnay grapes, while Sofia's a blend of pinot blanc, sauvignon blanc and muscat canelli.

That pretty much sums it up. If you can market something without repercussions while misleading the customer on all your claims, and people still claim to love it, it makes me wonder. On the other hand, this article could be just an article written by their PR-department, as is often the case in the US.

koko kansan esilaulaja

Terveiset tuomiokirkon portailta, vielä puolisen tuntia ennen perinteistä ja virallista uuden vuoden toivotusta Helsingistä