Fire?

This morning I drove on the A4 highway towards Amsterdam. Close to Schiphol Airport on my righthand side I saw an airplane come down with high speed and a lot of 'smoke' behind it. This was mainly water because it was raining (again). Some hundred meters later on my lefthand side, just before the Schiphol tunnel, I saw lot of black smoke and huge orange/red flames... It scared the shit out of me. "Planecrash!" I thought. But no news on radio Veronica. Nothing on NU.nl... Complete silence. Then a colleague of mine came up with this. Strange coïncidence? Or a major cover up? :-) Decide for yourself...

iPhone = free

It was to be expected: the iPhone is hacked and is now free for use with every possible provider. Not (only) by opening up the phone and do mumbo jumbo nerdy technical stuff. All it takes is just a software update. Check it here.

A while ago I thought about buying an iPhone (but it will not be available in Holland before December). It seemed like a good device, well thought of and well developed. BUT... what I disliked most is the exclusivity contracts Apple closed with a small group of providers. You cannot pick a subscription or company of your choosing. It's so last century to push your customers into an exclusive contract without giving them the opportunity to figure out the best solution themselves. Hoorah, Apple is punished now. Or are they? I think AT&T is the real victim. They paid a huge amount of money to get exclusivity. Since the hack everybody can use the phone with every provider. Bye bye exclusivity. And Apple shares went up by 2,5%, since more people will get the phone.

> Here's a nice story about the hacker George Hotz on Youtube.
> And here a nice video (in Dutch) on how to crack your phone

In case you want an iPhone, check this review.

What's real and what's not?

I really love sci fi and fantasy movies. Becouse of the stories, special effects and imagination behind it. You all know Star Wars and Lord of the Rings of course. Personally I think LOTR is the best special effects movie ever made. Peter Jackson and team used a lot of computer generated stuff to make it look real, but also 'older methods' like miniatures and matte paintings.

What I think is so cool about matte paintings in LOTR is that you can't see where the real footage ends and the painting starts.

A very good website to see some examples is that of Dusso: www.dusso.com. To make it easier for you I selected some examples:

> LOTR's Frodo & Sam walk around in Emin Muil

> LOTR's great plains of Rohan

> Pirates of the Caribbean - ship in Port Royal

> Star Wars' city planet of Coruscant

SOME MORE...
Here's a nice 'how to make your own matte painting'.
And here another great Matte Painting website.
A great site for digital effects and behind the scenes looks: fxguide.com. Alex, thank you for the tip.