We’ve all been there - you’ve got an image you need to crop or resize but there isn’t anything installed on the computer you’ve got to do it. Enter Splashup (with or without a red cape) to the rescue. As long as you have the internet, you have the means.

With Splashup you can upload your picture to the site, make the amendments and save it out again. It supports basic filters, layers (very welcome) and will import or export to most of the online image sites, such as Flickr, or Picasa. It also has a very familiar interface to those of you that use Photoshop. In fact, it’s so familiar I tried to upload a PSD file, which threw an error! At present it only saves in jpg, png or fxo, but I’m sure more formats will become available as the product gains speed and popularity.

Wow, what a great find. If you’re into computer graphics then this site will be of immense use to you. It will convert raster graphics to vector graphics for free. If you have no idea what I’m on about, I’ll give you a quick explanation of what vector graphics are first, and why they’re so much better than rasters for computer work.

Raster

No it’s not what you call a religious type from Jamaica, it is in fact the name given to the graphic type that is made of lots of tiny squares of varying shades of colour. Look at the image to the right. You will notice that everything is blocky and that the squares that are next to each other are similar in shade. This is called “anti-aliasing” and is a trick to our eyes so that we can see smooth curves as curves, and not a progression of blocks. However, this trick only works when you’re zoomed right out of the image. The closer you get the worse the blocks appear. And if there is no anti-aliasing the picture will look blocky unless the resolution is massive (again essentially making the blocks even smaller to the eye, which hides the “steps”.)

So what use are raster images? They look rubbish, don’t they? Well they are, but they have their uses. For one thing, everything digital that captures an image (a digital camera, a scanner etc.) will do so as a raster. And also everything digital that displays an image, also does so as a raster. And if it isn’t a raster, it will be converted by the screen to one without you even knowing.. It just has to be that way for everything to be compatible. It’s the same reason that digital cameras need higher and higher resolutions as people start to print more and more detailed pictures - they would just appear too blocky if they weren’t that way.

Vector

Now, compare the image on the right to the raster one. The detail has not been lost when we’ve blown it up. The reason is that this image isn’t stored as a series of squares - this one is stored as a series of formulas for circles, and curves and squares and things. As this image is essentially a load of maths, it scales perfectly. Keep on zooming, and the details remain. It’s the same technology as that used by the fonts on any modern computer system. If you check, there is one file for every font, but you can have any size you want without losing detail. The real world, of course, isn’t made out of maths - at least not in an easy to store way - so that’s why vector images are essentially the realm of the computer artist and why they’re not interchangeable.

So here lies the problem.. What if you need a vector image to do things? What if you’re into rendering & CGI, or you want to create a nice christmas card from your tiny company logo? Normally of course it would mean either putting up with the horrible blockiness or re-creating it in a vector art package - something like Corel Paint.

In steps Vectormagic. A website & web application created by the boffins of Stanford University. Vectormagic will walk you through the process of converting a raster to a vector from beginning to end in only 4 steps. If at any point you want to change one of the settings, you can easily go backwards and forwards. Don’t let me put you off, there are only 3 choices or so for every step that are explained in plain english. In fact they really just require you to zoom into your raster image to have a look at the quality and things. And the results are amazing. For instance, the two images in this example are taken from a raster I downloaded ages ago of the half life 2 logo. The first one is the original, whilst the second is the Vectormagic-erised version. It will however, as you would imagine, struggle with a hugely complicated image with lots of colours. But for logos or high-contrast pictures it works a treat. [SHOW ME]

This is what happens when you take bored people, a bit of time, and someone on holiday.. We did something similar to this, but built a colleague an office out of mobile phone boxes - it even had windows!! (Hi Matt.) The idea of actually building things out of cardboard though really does show the depths some people will go. [SHOW ME]

Use a google maps-esque viewer to look at the Carina Nebula. Zoom and Pan till your hearts content. [SHOW ME]

You know the sort of thing - little games or text messages hidden within software that isn’t available without some sort of weird key-combination. However, they are not always only found in software. This one has been found on the Vista DVD by a bunch of people with nothing better to do than to examine a copy with a microscope! Who are these people by the way?? [SHOW ME]

I was browsing through some of the excellent wallpaper for linux tonight on GNOME-Look.org when I realised there weren’t that many widescreen Ubuntu ones. I decided to create some and post them to the site for other users that are having the same problem..

Follow the link to see the wallpaper I’ve uploaded, but don’t stop there - make sure you explore the rest of the site too. [SHOW ME]

Wow. This actually looks real. The skin, the moisture, the movements - all real. The only thing that brings you down to planet earth, is the fact the subject isn’t from planet earth. Very cool and worth a look at some of Greg’s other work showcased here too. [SHOW ME]

Yeap, OK, It’s not a tech article, but I’m working on it OK? After browsing a bit, I stumbled upon one of my favourite websites of yester-year. Last time I visited was probably a good 2 years ago, but my god has the entertainment value increased since then!!

As you can see, from the picture provided stage right, the quality of the art is pretty much beyond anything we could ever hope to understand! Trust me, you don’t need to be an artist, or ever have picked up a paint brush, to know that this stuff is truly tat of the highest order. [SHOW ME]

A work colleague of mine pointed out that he had seen a really big picture of a giant turtle. So we did a search and I turned up this monster! Not sure if it’s valid though.. [SHOW ME]

I can’t comment on the validity of the research, as I obviously don’t know anything about the science, but the results produced from this website are pretty fun - created by two experimental psychologists who are currently studying at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. The particular section of the website I’m linking to is a face “averager.” You get a screen full of people’s faces and you can select two and merge them together. Not really tech, but I guess the formulas involved are technical.

There are other sections on the website that deal with prototyping and even the ability to upload your own images and create your own averages - not that I’ve tried that out yet. Check it out if you’re into this sort of thing, or even if you have a spare 5 minutes and want to play about with something a bit different and interesting. [SHOW ME]