When Slaughters invited all the Downing lawyers for dinner (as is traditional every 2 years) many of the third years were faced with a moral choice that unsettled us in extreme cases for as long as four seconds. Those with training contracts in place or focused solely on the bar would not, of course, be applying to Slaughter and May. But a free three course meal at the Crowne Plaza Hotel is — well — delicious. I was sat next to Andy W who claims this was purely by luck as he had not seen the seating plan in advance. It provided a good opportunity to get to know several of the first years, as well as hearing more about law school from trainees and established lawyers. It was still somewhat strange to feel that Beccy, a geographer, had more right to be there than I did.
As a new feature in the Critic section we will be highlighting some of the best DVD bargains we find. Only highly recommended films will appear, and only if the prices are truly competitive. It’s designed to highlight the best deals at the time so if you have a little cash burning a hole in your wallet and you want a recommendation or just need an extra item to get free postage from Amazon it’s well worth a look. You’ll find no mark-up on the prices — you’ll be buying direct from Amazon at their list price. Each item is accompanied by a short description of why it’s there. If it’s on the list, chances are I actually bought it myself too.
By far the most intriguing project to emerge from Microsoft Live Labs has been Photosynth, which attempts to create a three dimensional representation of collections of photographs. The results they showed in videos were intriguing but many were sceptical about how it would work in practice. A new technology preview now allows you to experience it for yourself (IE only, I’m afraid). The technology is still early in development and undoubtedly needs some work but the premise is definitely attractive and is already workable to an extent.
10 November 2006 at 7:42 pm
What about the HMV deals? You bought a fair amount of DVDs there just recently if I may remind you…
10 November 2006 at 7:55 pm
Yup, the plan is to gradually expand the page over time. Amazon just happened to offer a swanky interface through which it was easy to do, so I started with them.
11 November 2006 at 2:45 pm
I saw a demo of this from SigGraph, very impressive. A bit let down by their repeated allusions to an ‘intuitive interface’, a phrase which is known to raise the heart rate of anyone who takes HCI seriously….
But despite their rhetorical shortcomings the technology looks very impressive (all the more for me having spent many hours of thinking time trying to do the same thing with a different approach a while back, their system works in real time, mine takes 5000 hours of CPU time to produce a single snapshot) 🙂
It’s nice to see someone actually try and do something unusual with their photos.
11 November 2006 at 3:07 pm
Nice, I’d like to hear Adam’s response to the 5000 hour benchmark time! 😉
I also agree on the “intuitive interface” allusions which they repeated several times in a Live Labs video discussing the project a while ago — it was unfortunately entirely marketing jargon instead of a proper look into one of Microsoft’s most interesting and genuinely innovative departments.