HDR photography seems to be polarizing. People either love it, or hate it, including here on MeFi. For those who enjoy exploring the possibilities HDR presents, a good place to start is Stuck In Customs. Trey Ratcliff has the first HDR photo ever to hang in the Smithsonian. He offers a comprehensive, six-step HDR tutorial if you want to try it yourself. A sampling of his HDR travel photography is here, and throughout the site, and he is also experimenting with HDR video technology. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Dec 3, 2009 - 59 comments

John Gill is the father of modern bouldering. In the early 1960s, he took his gymnastics training in to the field and pioneered the use of chalk and dynamic moves in climbing. In 1961, he climbed the 30 foot height of The Thimble, widely considered to be the first 5.12 ascent in the world, and did so without a rope.

A devotee of body weight exercises, he could perform a one-arm front lever and several one-finger pull-ups. During his time as a gymnast he engaged in competitive rope climbing (formerly an Olympic sport), which is making a bit of a comeback in the Czech Republic (if you think it looks too easy, try it with one arm). [more inside]
posted by 0xFCAF on Dec 12, 2008 - 16 comments

But where are the flying cars?
posted by troubadour on Jun 25, 2008 - 57 comments

Fuzzmail records your email as you type it and provides the actual composition for the person, or people on the receiving end. [via]
posted by cashman on Dec 14, 2007 - 40 comments

High Dynamic Range Imaging: The dawn of a new era? In computer graphics and cinematography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI for short) is a set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows. quote from HDR Wikipedia page
posted by spock on May 5, 2006 - 56 comments

Schmap is an online/desktop travel guidebook. They are taking Creative Commons licensed photos from Flickr and using them in their city guides. It is kind of like Google Maps + Flickr + Lonely Planet. [Contains some flash, and to try out the guide you have to install the Schmap Player.]
posted by pithy comment on Apr 1, 2006 - 10 comments

musicplasma evolves into liveplasma (movies and music)
musicplasma (last discussed here and mentioned here), has become liveplasma and added a movie database to its excellent graphical display system. Type in an actor, director or movie and explore an entire range of movies easily.
It's not fast but it is a great way to find new movies or music. One favorite thing is that there are no ads on the site (though clicking on an album cover or movie cover will take you to an Amazon page). Other new features: free registration to save searches and email them to your friends.
posted by fenriq on Feb 12, 2005 - 4 comments

The Sigmund Typeface Utility allows you to generate dynamic images of text via a query string. There are options for the font style, color, and kerning. And the best part? Its all open source so it seems like someone could come up with a generator for things like Silkscreen, Mini7 or whatever else one might find useful.
posted by bshort on Aug 1, 2001 - 10 comments