A new version of the Microsoft Deep Zoom Composer has been released, one of the cool things that it can now do is generate a Javascript Deep Zoom viewing client! Which is great when you want to allow people to view Deep Zoom images when you can't install a Silverlight client. The Javascript version is a bit slow though but I guess that's mainly because it's displaying images with the web browser's IMG display algos. But hey.. it's an alternative if you want to use it.

The other interesting tidbit is that the image generation tools is now a .Net ASSEMBLY!!! So no more hacking command line tools to generate your DeepZoom images, this opens up a LOT of doors for future integration and expansion.

Let me just insert this into my Deep Zoom Album creator program... hmmm.. oh oh.. what's the redistribution rights of the DLL?

It started out normally enough, during my cousin's wedding WZ notices the confetti strewn on the stage and wanted to go play with it, no harm there.

Then the performers started giving him a little attention.

WZ started clapping a little cause of their song.

And then he gets up...

And gets jiggy!

If there ever was a time where I wished my Sony A350 had video capabilities I guess this would be it. But since it doesn't I made do with my Diamond to catch this rare moment of WZ entertaining everyone.

My cousin got married last yesterday, and before hand he was asking me to take care of playing all the usual wedding montage videos, music and other usual things you play during a wedding. He wanted me to help him do it but I told him since WZ was around there was no way I can be free enough to handle that for him. Also there was some interesting AV equipment challenges of splitting the VGA input signal. Then it dawned on me, the PS3 he had uses a bluetooth controller which in an open area like a restaurant should have pretty decent range and also it is capable of playing videos and music. Therefore we ended up with this.

Because the outputs came out as standard composite plugs the AV guys were able to jury rig a connection to fit their equipment easily enough. The videos and music were played off a USB hard drive connected to the system. And his brother handled the controls from where he was sitting thanks to the wireless controller.

So while the GREATEST BEST CONNECTED ONLINE GAMING EXPERIENCE is what the Xbox 360 offers, the PS3 is great for everything else other than games.

While the videos and music of the hard disk played fine, when it came to playing a DVD movie of the morning proceedings, the video started to stutter and jerk causing the sound to appear broken up. The DJ at the station noticed the problem did a fantastic save and muted the audio while playing music from another source. That was a great save on the part of the DJ, hope my cousin gave him some extra tips.

So as long as you don't have video on a DVD-R, The PS3 can serve your media broadcast needs at a wedding. But if you wanna play games, the Xbox 360 is still the better choice!

This is the first external DVD drive I bought, I think it was about 2003 after I got my first tablet PC which didn't come with a built in optical drive. 5 years later I get this.

It's slightly wider and thicker than the external drive, but is about the same length. But this is not an external optical drive.

This is a case for the mini-itx form factor, and in it is of course the Intel D945GCLF2. It's a very small cramped case that just barely has enough space for a 2.5" hard disk, the case also supports the use of a slim optical drive but I have no need for that... nor do I know where to find one!

It's VERY cramped inside the case, as it usually is the case for generic cases, you can see the board's power cable is literally pressed up against the front top of the case. I really don't know how they intended for a slim line optical drive to fit!

With the drive mounting panel in place you can see that there really isn't much space for anything else, and just remember beneath the plate is a whole bunch of wires.

This system's main purpose is to serve as a video player unit that I can take along with me and connect it to the TV's in the hotel rooms when I go out with WZ (cause mommy doesn't feel that WZ can stare at the eeePC without wanting to destory it) This can theoretically serve the purpose well because

The board has a built in S-Video out, so theoretically I can just plug it in to any TV... that has an S-Video port. Which I don't think most hotel TVs have. So I thought I could just use a converter that looks like this

To convert the signal to fit through a composite plug. Unfortunately, with the above 2 converters, the single unit plug type one gives me a black and white picture, but it's so old I can't remember where I found it so I don't know if it's because of dust on the plug or wheter the converter just isn't working well. The wire type converter doesn't even make the video card register that there's a video connection. So I'm hoping to find a proper usable one soon.

It was also when assembling this machine that I realized...

DIMM RAM now comes in half the height now!

Anyway.. if you're looking for a small ass case for your Mini-ITX project in Malaysia, I'd have to say this has got to be the smallest and cheapest (relatively) one you can find.

I was helping a friend control his wedding slides at his wedding dinner when I noticed that the sound was intermittent. Checking the audio cable connected to the notebook I noticed the cable was tight and had no slack in it. So I gave it some slack by pulling more from underneath the table. But still the problem persisted.

That's when i realized that the body of the audio plug had cracked, and seemed to be tugging on the internal wires causing the interference. With one hand on the cable I fished out my wallet and splayed it open on the table, then I reached into one of the card compartments and pulled out my duct tape stash, I managed to pull a strip out but I was unable to tear it with one hand.

So I bit into the tape to steady it and rip it out with my free hand!

Then I wrapped the tape around the plug to secure it. Boy am I lucky I have that tape around in my wallet!