8 mm Samyang lens.

I have just bought an 8 mm Samyang Fisheye.
The experience has been quite novel for me. what has been shocking is that it is a completely manual lens, which is not a problem but meant that exposure is kind of trial and error. using the inspection of the result afterwards is mandatory if you want palatable and workable in postprocessing.
My experience with the first 20-30 pictures with this lens is quite pleasing and fun.
Since the there is a huge depth of field almost any picture comes out sharp and focussing is almost not needed. I have been using this together with friends and almost every picture has been a big laugh together.

What you must pay attention is the minimal focussing distance of 30 cm which makes it kind of difficult to use in close quarters / like from in a box, see the baby kittens in the box where you can clearly see the focussing distance is really sharp behind the cats.

Look at my published pictures with this lens

Connecting Business Objects in BI 4 to an SAP back-end

I have spent hours looking at the very interesting blogs on what connectivity the new BI4 stack is going to provide. Currently still everything is still under the haze of war while the products are in Ramp Up , nevertheless we can start to form ourself a clear picture of what is coming our way.

In the Current BOXI 3.1 the stack is structured in a way that gives us only a one way to our data.
Report -> Universe with MDX ->(Bex Query) -> (Multi Provider) -> Cubes , with the parts in parenthesis being optional.
It is a stack which can feel limiting when you come from relational databases , but somehow it seems to work when you know how to configure items at each level of the stack. Indeed its complexity comes from the fact that you need every layer of the complete stack to make your reporting project work.
The universe gives us access to predefined filters and a way to catch changes in the underlying regions so as to have stable reports, oh yes and unless you are working with the SAP cube version of efashion turn off database aggregation on measures. No navigation through MDX , this will only kill your performance and give you wrong results. The Bex queries gives you some configuration on hierarchies and currency conversion and some key figure calculations (Measures backend for us BO guys).
the MultiProvider gives you access to parallel processing control over multiple cubes and setting up alternate hierarchies if necessary .
The Cube being the Lowest Level that can be published and the way your information is structured (being your dimensional model) .


In BI 4 (the new name for BOXI 3.1) the reports can be connected in multiple ways to the SAP.
keeping a BOXI 3 like universe over MDX , creating new BI 4 type universe on the infoproviders (multiprovider / cubes / DSOs) , or BICS access to the BEX queries.
Where this is worrying me, is how each stack will have different behaviours and different feature-sets. Maybe even different syntax for each technical stack.
How do the different stacks handle prompts , hierarchies, calculations , ....
Or maybe  will we have one stack as a solution to a problem?
Currently I don't know and we will see how the future will be.

Blogging with a new app

I have just downloaded a new app to manage my blogs .
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Belgium

The basic tests seem to work.

I can manage my blogger blogs.

Create new content and publish them from my iPhone.

The app does what it needs to do without being too complex or overboard with unnecessary features.

It works also on the iPad natively , which is a bonus when you have both.

Wally is a mommy now !

Wallies black Puss Face, a photo by GMaerten on Flickr.

Hi everyone,

it is with great pleasure that we anounce that our little wally is now mom of 3 lovely little kittens.

First 'living' laser made from kidney cell - physics-math - 12 June 2011 - New Scientist

First 'living' laser made from kidney cell - physics-math - 12 June 2011 - New Scientist

how great is this, in twenty years I will have surgery to make lasers shoot out of my fingertips.
Is this the advent of designer super heroes in the real world?