KEY POINTS:
If you're interested in great web-based imaging applications like Google Earth and Google Streetview, check out the beta version of Microsoft's HD View.
Over the weekend I came across Microsoft's technology specialist Nathan Mercer's blog where he has a link to a fantastic panorama of Wellington in HD View.
It's well worth a look. You'll need to download a small ActiveX plug-in and currently it only works in Windows and Internet Explorer.
So, what is HD View all about? Here's a pretty good explanation from Microsoft: "Recent advances in camera and sensor technology and software for stitching images together has led to the creation of images containing billions of pixels (gigapixels).
"These images are often panoramic, that is, they cover very wide fields of view.
Since monitors typically contain only one to two million pixels, it is only possible to actually see 1/1000th of such image data at once.
"Also, viewing very wide fields of view require unwrapping of an image projected onto a curved surface (think of a map of the world) which can cause distortions."
Effectively, HD View lets you zoom around these web-hosted gigapixel photos in a very user-friendly way. You can pan and tilt and zoom in.
Only the area you have zoomed in on will be retrieved from the web so you only need the full resolution for the part of the photo you are looking at.
That means you can look at high-resolution photos without having to open the entire file online or download it. It's early days for HD View but I like what I see - that panorama of Seattle on the HD View homepage is very nice.
HD View is being made available to people who want to create their own high-resolution images that are easy to navigate.
A plug-in that will allow you to create HD View photos in Photoshop is in the works.
I'll be keeping an eye on what people come up with as this is one application I can see plenty of business and entertainment uses for. Also over the weekend I logged onto the Live Earth website from time to time to check out the web-streamed coverage of the concerts taking place around the world.
It was a stuttery experience, which was disappointing as the Live 8 webcast back in 2005 which was organised by the same people, worked pretty well.
All sorts of things can effect the experience you receive when viewing webcasts so I'll hold my judgement on the service. The streaming set a new record
for a web event so I'm sure a good deal of people had a good experience.
The On Demand replays will no doubt be getting a thrashing over the next few weeks.
While I was happy to see some of my favourite acts like Dave Matthews Band, the Smashing Pumpkins and Roger Waters performing at Live Earth, I have to agree with Aardvark when it comes to the underlying value of holding the massive event.
There's no way you can say those shows were anywhere near carbon neutral and our awareness of global warming is already so heightened, the concerts just threatened to make people even more jaded with the Al Gore's forecefully delivered message.
This had the air of a celebrity love-in, more so than Live Aid or Live 8 and Bono and Geldof weren't even in the line-up.
