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Archive for November, 2010

The 7.2 mega pixel EXILIM Zoom EX-Z77 joins Casio’s successful EXILIM Zoom series, which balances high functionality with compact yet stylish features. The EX-Z77 also adds enhanced movie functionality and features a new YouTube Capture mode.

The EX-Z77 also features a blur reduction function by using motion analysis technology, an auto-tracking AF system, and face detection technology. The combination of face detection technology and the auto-tracking AF system ensures that once the focus locks on to a person’s face, it will stay sharp and maintain the right exposure, even when the person moves, ensuring great shots every time.

In addition to the YouTube Capture mode, this camera features the eBay® Best Shot Mode, exclusive to the U.S. line of Casio EXILIM digital cameras. The eBay Best Shot Mode optimizes photos for display on eBay, allowing users to quickly and easily create photos for selling items on eBay.  Such photos are even stored in a special eBay directory, making the process very easy and user-friendly.

The YouTube Capture mode records in next-generation MPEG-4 H.264 video format, providing an optimal compression ratio that allows users to record longer movie segments without downgrading movie quality.  The YouTube Capture mode also provides sharp resolution (640 x 480) and a frame rate of up to 30 frames per second. An exclusive software application is included which provides for an easy and seamless two-step process to upload clips from the camera directly to YouTube. The software also allows users to upload multiple videos at once, making it easier than ever to share original content with your family and friends or the public at large.

Photos and movies are stored in 11.4 megabytes of internal memory and on optional SD/SDHC or MMC/MMC Plus type memory cards. The camera is powered by a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery with a charge lasting for 190 shots. The camera can be charged with either an AC charger (included) or an optional docking cradle. The camera interfaces with the computer via USB and you can print directly to any PictBridge compatible printer. Still images are ExifPrint and PRINT Image Matching III compatible.

Features include….

* 7.2-Megapixel effective CCD imager
* 3x optical zoom
* Large 2.6-inch TFT color LCD
* Onboard blur reduction function
* 39 “BEST SHOT” modes set the camera for easy to difficult situations
* Record voice-only audio, or add up to 30-second audio memos to still images, either at the time of capture or afterwards
* MPEG-4 H.264 format Movies
* Movie Resolution:  848 x 480, 640 x 480 and 320 x 240, up to 10 minutes in length
* Autofocus system with selectable AF modes: Multi or Spot AF
* Face Recognition technology for sharp portraits
* ISO sensitivity from 50 to 800
* Built-in flash with Red Eye Reduction and Flash-assist function
* USB data transfer to PC or Mac computers
* Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery and charger (included)
* 11.4 MB of internal memory and SD/SDHC/MMC/MMC Plus card slot
* ExifPrint, PRINT Image Matching III, USB Direct-Print, and PictBridge compatible
* Available colors:  black, blue, pink and silver

This camera retails from $160 – $220.

Users find this camera to be easy to use and appreciate the small compact design, but some users express dissatisfaction at the quality of photographs taken, citing poor noise reduction.  The proprietary USB cable (included) is also a source of dissatisfaction, and the LCD quality and photo quality sometimes do not match.

Computer programming is a phrase that is bandied about quite heavily, but only few people actually understand its implications. The process of computer programming itself is difficult to understand for people who are not in the computer science field. Computer programming makes use of a code or a language: this language can be placed into several lines of code that can be translated to mean different things once they are processed as a program. For instance, the software that you use to calculate your taxes, or the software that you employ to make your simple web page are all products of skilful computer programming. Behind these software programs are scripts and codes, and these scripts and codes can mean different things.

For many different programming languages, a function can be important and can therefore be a key concept to learn when someone is interested in software and computer programming. A function can also be termed as a subroutine, procedure, or sub-query. How is a function important? For instance, if a company or institution has a library of many different programs, these programs can therefore consist of millions upon millions of lines of a source code. In the interests of time and space, you would like to keep from duplicating a certain source code in many different places.

Why is duplication so undesirable? If a source code is duplicated in many different places, it is being needlessly copied, and it can spell Hell for the programmer and troubleshooter when things go wrong down the line. If the source code is actually erroneous, the programmer or troubleshooter will have to correct the code in all the different places that it appears. If the source code has to be updated or improved in order to make the program either run faster or perform more operations, then the source code has to be modified, improved, and updated in all the places that it appears. And if the source code has to be removed and replaced with a new source code, then it has to be erased and replaced with the new code in every single place that it appears.

This is indeed time-consuming, and it can lead to more errors because of all the human intervention that has to be done. On the other hand, if there are functions that are built to handle all the different programs, then only one or a few changes need to be made should there be errors, or should the source code have to be updated, modified, improved, or changed. You can think of the function as an umbrella: it covers all of many different programs beneath it, so that you do not have to cover each program individually.

Having a single source code serving as the function is also advantageous when you have to introduce a new program that still makes use of that same source code. Because the source code is already available as an overall function or sub-program, you do not need to add the source code to the new program. You only need to find a way for the new program to interact with the source code itself.

These are only a few facts that you need to know about functions in computer programming. For more information, read up on the latest computer programs, how different programs can interact with each other using some umbrella or overall scripts, and how different programs can be improved when using functions.

In another article, we described a great number of educational opportunities that lay hidden in video gaming. This time, we’re going to introduce a few employment opportunities as well.

1. Working as a Video Game Clerk. Working at video game store or rental place – either permanently or temporarily – has got to be a teen gamer’s dream. In a single place, employees have access to the first games and game systems hot off the market and they’re privy to peek inside magazines hot off the press before anyone else. If that wasn’t enough, gaming clerks get a discount on what would otherwise be too expensive (games, game systems, and game accessories) to even think about buying. Sweet!

2. Working as a Game Tester. Before a game hits the market, it has to go through extensive testing and if you think the programmers behind the game test their own material, think again. The gaming industry is extremely sensitive about what it puts out into the public. In an effort to remain competitive, it must make absolutely sure that the games it produces work as intended. This is where testers enter the picture. But it isn’t easy to become a game tester. Becoming a game tester requires a little inside help but once you’re in there, you’ll not only have access to games that no one else knows about, you’ll also have an opportunity to shape the game into an experience that you and your comrades prefer.

3. Working as a Game Designer. Do you have good artistic skills? Can you whip out a character faster than you can say, “I drew that”? If so, you may be able to get a career designing video games. Today’s video games exude some of the most beautiful graphics ever seen and if you have a good imagination, are able to use some of the most advanced graphics software programs available, and can follow instructions, you could see your own artwork in the next popular video game.

4. Working as a Game Critic. The gaming industry is always looking for good content and if you have a flair for writing combined with a love for games, you could write for game magazines like Game Informer or you could write content for a highly popular gaming website.

5. Working as a Game Programmer. Not a career for everyone, a good game programmer is always in demand. As player preferences change and new technology is developed, someone with the right programming skills has to be there to fill the gap between what players want, and what the gaming industry can supply. Becoming a game programmer requires extensive training in several different development languages – so if you don’t have a clue as to what we just said, skip this profession and look into some of the others.

The great news about all of this is that the gaming industry shows no sign of disappearing any time soon. Even colleges are getting in on the gaming craze as they fill their course books with game programming classes and game design curriculums. There will always be an opportunity for you to blend your love for games with a steady paycheck as long as you remain dedicated to looking for these opportunities, and you make an effort to stay abreast of what’s happening in the gaming world.