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They have them in Europe
It’s called a "bidet" and it’s a below-the-belt-personal-hygene-device.
If you’ve never seen or used one, you should definitely try it 
In Milan
I am in Milan right now for customer meetings, it’s late at night and no pictures, no time for sightseeing 😦
Leaving tomorrow for Rome for some "family and friends" time. I guess I’ll have some pictures then.
In London
Today I am in London for business.
Must say that weather here is worse than in Seattle, sky like lead, feels heavy on your head… Or maybe is the overnight flight 😉
There are a ton of Italians, pare de’ ‘sta a Roma, people would say from where I come from…
I went around not to fall asleep and took some pictures. I went to Buckingham palace, but the Queen was not there (as you can see from the missing flag in the picture), must be in a warmer place somewhere else.
Next stops Milan, Rome and Amsterdam, hopefully more pictures to share…
Ciao!
Talking about Orb Networks : New Version 1.00.390
You’ve been warned, if you have not yet installed Orb, you’re making a huge mistake…
A new version is available with ton of new features.
I just wish I did not have to be logged on to stream my media from a remote location. Is it that hard to make Orb a Windows Service?
From the web:
Orb Media v1.00.390 is the current version. Following are the features that were added since v1.00.347, the previously required update version of Orb Media. For a complete list of historical changes, including bug fixes, click on the version links (ORB PC v1.00.0390 and ORB Web v1.00.117) at the bottom of your Orb login page.
- Support For Dual Analog TV Tuners – Orb Media now supports the simultaneous use of two Orb-supported Analog TV Tuners (i.e., tuners with a built-in, true MPEG-2 hardware encoders). Users can now watch a TV program on one channel while recording another TV program on another channel, or schedule two recordings at the same time on two different TV channels! Please note that HDTV tuners are not yet supported.
- Ability to Update Orb on Home PC Remotely From Device – Users who are notified that an Orb software update is available will now be able to remotely update Orb on their Home PC, from the device they are using to access their Orb account.
- Orb Thumbnails Now in Their Own Folder – To satisfy user requests, Orb thumbnails have been removed from the media folders and now reside in their own database for easy management of folders, and to prevent unwanted interaction with other applications.
- Timeline Control of Windows Media Player – Users can now use the timeline control slider of Windows Media Player to Fast Forward or Rewind a recorded TV program, a video or an audio file. This functionality has been implemented on PCs only (PDAs and Mobile Phones will follow).
- Sharing Photos with Multiple Groups of Family & Friends – Users now no longer have to create additional Orb accounts for guests to view shared photos. They can now create multiple groups of family and friends and invite each group to view selected shared photos on their Orb account.
- New Orb Home Page – The new Orb home page convenient layout provides the user quick access to favorites and main media folders. From one single page, the user can now play selected live TV channels or recently recorded TV shows, favorite videos, audio, or view photo slides, stocks and home weather. The Orb home page also gives users a glance at new Orb features in the "What’s New?" section.
- Sending Photos & Videos to an Orb Account – Users can now send photos or videos to their Orb PC via email from another computer, or via MMS from their mobile phone, as long as their cellular phone carrier supports delivering an MMS message to an email address.
- Orb Slip-Stream: Support for Peer-To-Peer (UPnP) – Orb now provides full support for Windows Media and Real Media streaming through a peer-to-peer connection. This functionality is only available to Orb systems that connect to the Internet through a router that has UPnP capability. UPnP must be enabled on the router and the UPnP stack must be installed on the Orb PC, by adding the UPnP User Interface to the Networking Services of Windows Components in the Add/Remove Programs feature of the Control Panel.
UPnP significantly improves the streaming experience, especially in local networks.
- Configuration Tool in the Orb Tray Icon – In addition to adding new accounts and changing the TV setup, Orb users can now do the following from the Orb tray icon on their home PC:
- Change the Recorded TV Folder – Users can now designate another folder on their PC to store recorded TV programs. Note that while only that folder will store newly recorded programs, all previously recorded programs will still appear in Orb, under Recorded TV.
- Add/Remove Media Paths – In addition to setting new media folders from Orb Setup, users can now add and remove Audio, Videos and Photo folders from the configuration menu.
- Enable Automatic Software Update – Users can now choose to receive automatic Orb software updates by enabling this function in the "Advanced" tab of the configuration menu.
- Change the Recorded TV Folder – Users can now designate another folder on their PC to store recorded TV programs. Note that while only that folder will store newly recorded programs, all previously recorded programs will still appear in Orb, under Recorded TV.
- Length of Time to Keep Recorded TV Programs now Configurable – Users can now decide how long should Orb keep their recorded TV programs, that is: until the disk space is needed, until the program is manually deleted, or for a specific number of days (1 to 7) before Orb deletes it to make space for an upcoming recording.
- Five Days of Weather Forecast now on Mobile Phones – Just like for PCs, laptops and PDAs, Orb Weather will now display five days of weather forecast on cellular phones, instead of three days.
Link
Talking about Canon: EOS 20D firmware v2.0.0
From DPreview comes the news of a new firmware for my beloved 20D. The jump is to v2.0.0 from 1.something before.
Good practice in these cases is to let it set for a few days, read the comments from others that have gone through the upgrade :-> and the go ahead and do it.
Unless you are in dire need to install the new WiFi adapter, this update can wait a couple of weeks.
Link
Canon posts EOS 20D firmware v2.0.0: Digital Photography Review
Talking about Windows XP MCE 2005 Create DVD Update
Another update for MCE users…
Seems like it is more tailored to PAL systems, but also good for NTSC.
From the Web:
The Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Create DVD Update enables increased reliability when creating a video DVD using recorded TV files (.dvr-ms).
This update has the greatest impact for users who create DVDs using TV recorded from a PAL broadcast but is also recommended for users with an NTSC broadcast.
Link
Download details: Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Create DVD Update
Pixmantec RawShooter Essentials 1.1.2 Released
A new version of the already excellent RAW conversion utility was just released.
Check it out at http://www.pixmantec.com/products/rawshooter.html
New features in this version (from the web site):
– Improved mapping WB to Kelvin scale
– Ability to change background brightness for Thumbnails and preview area
– Improved/faster thumbnail extraction and proxy creation
– Improved color rendering (Minolta/Nikon)
– Optionally Prepend priority # to output
– Star-icon to show that a file was recently converted is now persistent
– New keyboard short-cuts:
* Alt+Up/Down to adjust EV level
* Alt+Shift+Up/Down to adjust Fill-Light level
* Shift+Up/Down to adjust Shadow Contrast level
* Ctrl+R/E to rotate Clockwise/counter-clockwise
* Alt+Z/X to Reset/Restore corrections
– Using 1,2,3,F without Ctrl during slideshow will automatically advance to next image
– Updated User Guide
…various cosmetic improvements
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