my life: February 2012

Stop Lynas, Save Malaysia

This issue been really a talk of the town recently, latest update as below:

Press Statement by Himpunan Hijau Organizing Committee on 27 February 2012

The Himpunan Hijau Organizing Chairperson, Wong Tack

"Finally, we have received the first response from our Prime Minister. We feel encouraged but unfortunately, the answer was not what we are expecting.

Therefore, we hereby confirmed that Himpunan Hijau 3.0 is on!

We realized and strongly believed that in order to have a clean environment, we need a clean government. Thus, looking at the positive partnership of Himpunan Hijau and BERSIH 2.0, we will discuss with Bersih’s Steering Committee on the possibility of organising a joint green and yellow BERSIH 3.0.

Himpunan Hijau is extremely shocked that until today, our leaders are still very much ill-informed of the actual scientific facts and danger of the Lynas project.

The people do not accept the position by taken by the government and Lynas.

Firstly, the proposition is wholly disputable because Lynas has not had any prior experience operating such a project. Nor does Lynas possess a pilot-scale plant which would generate an industry-proven data to corroborate these claims. More significantly, Lynas has not disclosed official testimonials which verify the authenticity of the data. Rare earth plant like this does not appear anywhere in this globe except in China. It is wholly unrealistic to accept their claims of zero risk to the people, which is either based on China’s experience or on an hypothetical basis.

Thus, if a grassroot movement like Himpunan Hijau can engage experts and scientists to conduct thorough research to obtain the true facts of this issue, why can’t the government?

Our Prime Minister’s suggestion to dump the massive amount of radioactive waste far away from habitated area is totally senseless and unacceptable! This remark from the top leadership in this country is of grave concern to the people because it reflects a shallow understanding of the ecological system and blatant disrespect of natural environment.

Every inch of our motherland is a precious natural asset to our nation. The landscape of the countryside is an ecologically sensitive system of forests, rivers and food production farmlands.

Our Prime Minister must realize that the thousands of acres of land used for permanent disposal of toxic/ radioactive wastes will deprive our children and our children’s children for generations to come from getting near it for billions of years. This permanent radioactive polluting site will subject our whole nation to the risks of widespread contaminations and pollutions.

So, how could our Prime Minister, at this highly crucial moment, still calls for a compromise and a search for a win-win situation? Can we allow our future generations to face this kind of unreasonable and unnecessary risks? Can we selfishly rob our children of their future?

We understand that our Prime Minister has inherited this issue from the previous administration. We understand that he may be facing pressure from certain groups with vested interest.

However, we hope that he could step forward at this critical time and display his true leadership by making an honest and brave decisive decision for the people. We hope this decision will come before Himpunan Hijau 3.0. The action or inaction of the Prime Minister will be remembered for generations to come. "

41MP Nokia 808 smartphone

Nokia has made the startling announcement that it has created a 41MP smartphone, the Nokia 808 PureView. Interestingly, in most shooting modes the camera will output 3, 5MP or 8MP stills, rather than offering its full resolution - promising greater quality and offering some clever features. And this isn't a trade-show concept model, this is a product that will be offered to the public, though details of when and in which countries haven't been announced. What's interesting isn't so much the pixel count as how it's used, so we took a closer look.

The first thing to realize is that this isn't a standard 1/3.2" mobile phone sensor, it's an unusual and remarkably large 1/1.2" type (five times larger). In fact, it's almost three times the size of the sensors in most compact cameras. As a result, its photosites are the same size as those in most 8.2MP cameraphone but the 808 doesn't try to create an image of the same quality, 5 times bigger. Instead it oversamples the image and then pixel-bins down to a smaller size (though there is a special 'creative' shooting mode if you want the full resolution - 38MP at 4:3 aspect ratio, 36MP at 16:9).

Diagram showing the size of the Nokia 808 PureView's 1/1.2" sensor in comparison to those used in various compact cameras and mobile phones. A Four Thirds sensor is included for scale.

This pixel-binning means that noise (which occurs randomly) is averaged-out across multiple pixels (around 7-to-1 in the 5MP mode). The high native pixel count also means that it's possible to effectively 'zoom' by cropping into the center of the image and reducing the number of pixels you average together. Consequently the 808 can offer a roughly 2.8x 'zoom,' while maintaining 5MP output, despite having a fixed lens. The image quality will drop (since the noise is no longer being averaged out), but it does mean you get a roughly 28-78mm equivalent zoom, without the need to have moving lens elements, making the process fast and silent. It also means the lens' 15cm minimum focusing distance is maintained.

And, although the benefits of pixel-binning are lost as you magnify-in, because its photosites are the same size as contemporary 8MP phones, the resulting 5MP should offer the same pixel-level quality even at full magnification.

The same process allows 1080p video to be shot with a 4x cropping zoom.

Despite the large sensor and comparatively large f/2.4 aperture, you won't get much control over depth of field (it'll be equivalent to setting an APS-C DSLR's kit lens to 18mm f/5.6). The depth-of-field control is reduced still further when magnified-in, because it doesn't gain the shallower depth of field that longer physical focal lengths usually bring. So, while it's an improvement over most phones, we wouldn't put much faith in the Nokia white paper's talk of bokeh.

The interesting thing for us, though, is not the Panasonic-esque multi-aspect-ratio use of the sensor, nor the astonishing pixel count, it's the idea of using that high pixel count to offer lower noise or non-interpolated digital zooming, while maintaining a constant image size. As Nokia's blog points out:

'5Mpix-6Mpix is more than enough for viewing images on PC, TV, online or smartphones. After all, how often do we print images bigger than even A4? [It] isn’t about shooting pictures the size of billboards! Instead, it’s about creating amazing pictures at normal, manageable sizes.'

And that's something that might be interesting to see in future compact cameras - models that will concentrate on output of a sensible size so that the user can easily get the benefit of them oversampling the scene.

Nokia 808 PureView lens and sensor specifications

Carl Zeiss Optics
Focal length: 8.02mm
35mm equivalent focal length: 26mm, 16:9 | 28mm, 4:3
F-number: f/2.4
Focus range: 15cm – Infinity (throughout the zoom range)
Construction:
• 5 elements, 1 group. All lens surfaces are aspherical
• One high-index, low-dispersion glass mould lens
• Mechanical shutter with neutral density filter
Optical format: 1/1.2”
Total number of pixels: 7728 x 5368
Pixel Size: 1.4um

4th Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2012

The annual event that I always look forward to will take place again this year.

The Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta will be held again this year for the fourth times from 15 to 18 March 2012.

Please check out the official website of the event @ http://www.myballoonfiesta.com/

I am looking forward to this upcoming fiesta and fervently hope that the weather would be very favourable during the event.