WeeKee Today

One of the most interesting features of Microsoft Silverlight technology is the Deep Zoom, originally codenamed Seadragon. What it does is that it break down an image into many small pieces of varying resolutions. When view from afar, a low resolution image can be used without the loss of details. As one zooms into an image, higher resolution of the image will be streamed in, providing higher detail. You can observe this feature in action when you use Google Earth.

Anyway Microsoft has a free tool known as the Deep Zoom Composer that allows one to easily create such images. Hence I decided to create a giant image of all the photos that I had taken at Pitstop Cafe for the past 3 years. The tools required are pretty easy to use. You can refer to this excellent guide on how about doing it. The tough part was actually organizing and managing over 6000 plus images. You can check out the photo wall for the end result.

However, there are some learning points that I like to share that will hopefully help to make your implementation even easier.

1. Working with 6000 plus images can be slow when everything is in one folder. You might want to first plan on how you want to categorize the images and have them placed in different folders before commencing on the project.
2. I had problem importing and working with an image that is at 200 MB size. I ended up splitting it into 4 images of 50 MB and it work fine. So if you encounter similar problem, you might like to try to use AndreaMosaic software to split up the image first and stitch back again using the Deep Zoom Composer.
3. When you are removing an imported image from your Deep Zoom project, apart from deleting it in the project workspace, you will also need to manually delete the copy of the image file from your project folders. Otherwise you might encounter problems with importing an image in the future that has the same name.
4. Microsoft Silverlight Streaming site is the best site to host. It is free and it gives you a 10 GB hosting space! One problem I faced during the deployment stage is that the upload feature does not have a progress indicator and you are left wondering if the upload is actually taking place successfully. I tried to upload a 500 MB file and leave my machine running for a few hours. At the end of it, I got an error message but surprisingly the whole file did went through. Hence when you see an error page after uploading for a period of time, check on your application status on the administration panel first before repeating the upload process.

In conclusion, it is easy to get started on doing your own Deep Zoom project. The tools really simplified alot of the steps involved. For those who are more technically inclined, you can also easily export and modify your Deep Zoom project using Visual Studio or Expression.

Useful links:

• AndreaMosaic
• Deep Zoom Composer
• Silverlight Official Site
• Silverlight Streaming

Hope this is useful. Do check out the photo wall and give me your comments.

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I got a nice surprise. It seems like Disney has decided to dedicate the magic kingdom just for me! Don't believe it? Check out the news report below.

Great use of technology to incorporate personalization in its marketing communication. I have no doubt that this piece of work will go viral soon.

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I want the American people to be able to say, "Government's not perfect; there are some things Obama does that get on my nerves. But you know what? I feel like the government's working for me. I feel like it's accountable. I feel like it's transparent. I feel that I am well informed about what government actions are being taken. I feel that this is a President and an Administration that admits when it makes mistakes and adapts itself to new information, that believes in making decisions based on facts and on science as opposed to what is politically expedient."

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"from 2007 to this year... oil prices went up 40 per cent, but fares went up just 0.7 per cent" [source]

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Thanks to some great folks I get to know in my Facebook module (yes NUS actually has a cool Facebook development module in case you are wondering), I got a chance to attend a week of workshops at Microsoft office. It was a nice break from the boring internship and an opportunity to infiltrate the "evil empire" to see what badness they are up to...

Indeed they are up to no good. Through the workshop I got exposed to a harmful radiation known as Silverlight and got mutated and learn how to do cool things that look like this Hard Rock Cafe site. In fact with prolong exposure to Silverlight, knowing how to create this wickedly awesome video site could be a reality!

Our trainer Apurva is really amazing. Can really sense his dedication in sharing his love of technology with us. Not only did he guide us, he took the time to bring in other folks to share with us some really amazing stuff that they are doing. If you are willing to taste the poison from the evil empire, here are some of the cool evil stuffs that I like to share with you.

DreamSpark: For those who love open source software just because it is free, you will be glad to know that the evil empire has free software too! If you are still studying in any of tertiary institute, you can download all the cool development software at absolutely no cost at the DreamSpark site. You are not looking at some half fuck release that cripple after 30 days usage or some crappy lite version that does not do anything useful. Instead what you are getting is a complete version of the software.

BizSpark: If you are aspiring to build next multimillion dollar Internet startup like Youtube or Facebook and need some development software, BizSpark is your poision. Drink it and you get all licensed software you need to create your startup for free. Of course that is not applicable once you are already making more than 1 million US$ in revenue. But if you are making that money, don't tell me you can't afford to pay for the tools that brought you the fortune?

With all the infrastructure in place for you at no cost, the only thing left is whether you have a great idea and the courage to pursue it. Do also check out the following links to get an idea on what other wicked stuffs they are working on.

Azure
Live Services
DeepZoom
Silverlight
Imagine Cup
Interop

It had been a hell lot of fun for the past week. It was really great exploring all these new exciting technologies and talking to folks who are so passionate about the things that they do. If all this is consider evil, hell, I would love to be on the dark side.

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Gosh time really flies! Before I knew it, Eve and I had been married for 4 years. Thankful for the holiday and the nice weather, we get to spend most of our time lazing around at home just relaxing and catching up on sleep before heading to Pitstop Cafe for some board games.

Dinner was a simple affair. We headed for a steamboat buffet dinner at Bugis area. It wasn't any fine restaurant but rather one of the many shophouses that are selling steamboat around the area. Steamboats are just perfect for a cold weather like tonight. There is just something homely about steamboats. It takes a certain level of familiarity and comfort to be able to share a pot of food together and dipping their chopsticks into the same pot of soup!

   

The numerous plates of food on the tables, the boiling pot stuff with all sort of vegetables and meat, the cramp space, the loud chattering, the forgetful waiter who still had not got my plate of cockles after placing the order thrice, the running nose from the spicy soup, it was simply wonderful.

Such contentment and happiness from the simple pleasures of life are only possible because I am bless with a great companion who has been by my side for the past 8 years.

Happy Anniversary!

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It has been quite a while since I enjoyed a nice abundance of sun. Thanks to Soon Keat who arranged an outing, my wife and I visited an Aeroponic farm as well as the Sungei Buloh wetland reserve. It was nice to get an opportunity to take some photos. I have not really done any photography since I sold away my Lumix in exchange for a smaller Sony Cybershot. The visit made me miss the 12x optical zoom that came with the bigger camera. Without a good zoom lense, I wa pretty limited to spiders and grasshoppers. There were lots of monitor lizards but I don't think walking close to them with my Cybershot was a good idea. Nevertheless, my current Cybershot is still a pretty decent camera with great colors and picture quality.

                   

I think the best thing about the visit is actually being able to do it together with my classmates. I am always day dreaming, spaceout and busy with God knows what that for most of the time in school I don't really interact much with my classmates. Hence this was one of those time that somehow I was able to put everything aside everything and just enjoy the company. Hope there will be more outings to come considering that most of the folks have graduated from the school.

It is one of those things that you take for granted when you have the opportunities to build up relationships with your friends but did not, and yet miss it only when the opportunities has become harder to come by.

I really got to learn how to be more appreciative and put more effort into relationships. It feels so good to embrace Mother Nature every once in awhile.

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It had been a long time since I did some sports. On a Monday night, I decided to get some action playing basketball. It was fun throwing the balls at the start and before long I thought I was back to the days when I was still 18. Wishful thinking! An off balance layup and I landed horizontally with my palm on the ground trying to support the fall. My right arm did not manage to support my weight and the whole arm went numb from the fall. I suspected my beer tummy could be the main culprit. The next morning, my whole arm could not move more than 15 degrees.

No choice but to make a visit to the poor man clinic Polyclinic...

8.30 am:Left home for the clinic. Thankfully wife was around to clothe me and drive me to the clinic.
8.45 am: Got my queue number for registration.
9.25 am: Manage to register my visit.
10.20 am: Finally get to see the doctor. I pointed to my pain spots and she ordered 2 x-rays to be taken.
10.40 am: Pose my arms for the x-ray machine.
11.20 am: Spoke to the doctor again. Discovered that I had an old fracture which I never knew I had. Other than that, no broken bones. Got prescribed some painkillers and told to go for bandaging.
11.25 am: The nurses took out a piece of flimsy fabric and attempt to do a sling to support my arm. It is worse than what a boy scout would do and I decided to leave without it.
11.50 am: After more waiting, I got the medicine.
12.10 pm: Even pay money also have to wait.

After a wasted morning and a damage of $35, my arm still hurts like crazy. Other than the information that no bones were broken, it was a waste of money and time. Heck, there was not even any images of the x-ray that I could post on Flickr.

When Ang Moh technology can't make it, it is time to get some help from the 中医师 to solve my problem. Off to Ang Mo Kio we went where my wife located the 4th generation disciple of Huang FeiHong. A quick brief about the accident and he knew exactly what was going on. I was told to try and straighten my arm. The pain was unbearable but it was nothing compared to what he did next. With a swift movement, he twisted my arm and I screamed in pain as my arm went lifeless. In less than 10 minutes, he bandaged the swollen area with a mix of herbs and it was all done.

This was followed by an explanation about my injury through the use of some Chinese drawings of the human bone structures and another 30 minutes session about the Chinese martial arts. In less than an hour and for almost the same amount of money, I get much better treatment.

Though my arm still hurts but it definitely feels much better now as the swelling had subside significantly. When it comes to treatment of certain injuries, technology is no match for the real 中医师.

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