LibTIFF - TIFF Library and Utilities

This software provides support for the Tag Image File Format (TIFF), a widely used format for storing image data. The latest version of the TIFF specification is available on-line in several different formats.

Included in this software distribution is a library, libtiff, for reading and writing TIFF, a small collection of tools for doing simple manipulations of TIFF images, and documentation on the library and tools. Libtiff is a portable software, it was built and tested on various systems: UNIX flavors (Linux, BSD, Solaris, MacOS X), Windows, OpenVMS. It should be possible to port libtiff and additional tools on other OSes.

The library, along with associated tool programs, should handle most of your needs for reading and writing TIFF images on 32- and 64-bit machines. This software can also be used on older 16-bit systems though it may require some effort and you may need to leave out some of the compression support.

The software was originally authored and maintained by Sam Leffler. While he keeps a fatherly eye on the mailing list, he is no longer responsible for day to day maintenance.

Learn more at this link.

Tool: Doing screenshots of web pages

How often have you found yourselves wanting to get a screenshot of some web page. You are writing a report, or doing some documentation, and want to get a screen shot of some web page. What can you use ? There are tools available, but many of them need to be purchased, and others put some watermark on the images. Well, here is a tool that can do the work (link to site).
From the site:

WebKut is an AIR application that allows you to capture web pages, or parts of them in a very simple way. It provides you 3 capture options: the entire page, the current view, or only a selection.
Limitations
On Microsoft Windows, PDF document and some Flash animations in web pages will be replaced by blank spaces.
The maximum dimension for an image is 2880 pixels

Photo: Side view of part of the Jungfrau complex and the nearby glacier

A view of the structure at Jungfrau. Jungfrau is a mountain resort, built high in the Alps, in the midst of ice, snow and rock, and allows tourists a place to enjoy being in such an environment in relative ease (a comfortable train journey is all it takes). This is a view of a part of the building, as well as the rock, snow and glaciers in the surrounding area.

Photo: Sharp rock and snow emerging out of the greenery on the way to Jungfrau

There is a truly spectacular train journey that one gets to see when one starts on the trip from Interlaken to Jungfrau in Switzerland. The train starts from normal green covered land to a place where you get into mountains, rocky, ice and snow covered cliffs. You can see something similar in this photo of the transition, where you start to see the towering mountain tops.

Photo: Rugged rock and snow covered mountain on way to Jungfrau

A view of blue skies and the rugged snow and ice covered rocky peaks on the Alps towering to these blue skies. This is one of the great views that one gets while on the way to the mountain resort of Jungfrau in Switzerland.

Photo: Railway lines mar the view of snow capped mountains on way to Jungfrau

When you get a great view, and have a nice camera in your hands, the itch to capture it a photo is incredible. But sometimes you are faced with situations where your photo will have glitches, such as this photo where the is a whole network of electric train lines that were obscuring the view. On second thoughts, I decided that this photo would make a perfect example of the coexistence of technology and nature.

Photo Blog - Person framed in the open doorway inside the Jaipur City Palace

Seems almost like a pose, right ? You have this old looking, metal studded thick door inside the Palace open, and can see a person framed in this open doorway. The photo was taken by chance, and I am somewhat proud of this photo.

Photo Blog - View of old and new in the Jaipur City Palace

This is a photo of a corridor that is towards the outside of the structure, and you can see how it shows a mix of the old and the new. The whole structure screams about the history of the place, about its heritage, and at the end of the corridor, you can see a bright red car, as modern as you can get.

Photo Blog - Self portrait in a beautiful mirror

Inside the Jaipur City Palace, there is a small network of corridors, lined with beautiful items such as paintings, mirrors with colorful beadings, and the like. I used this opportunity to take a self photo, but as normally happens, the flash came on and prevented any detail.

Photo Blog: A pigeon sitting near a wonderfully decorated section of the Jaipur City Palace

Take a look at this section of the Jaipur City Palace that is visible; it is very wonderfully decorated with a flower and leaf design motif; and right next to that, you can see a pigeon sitting right next to it. Pigeons can be found in huge numbers in this structure.

Photo of the structure of the Jaipur City Palace - the upper levels

A photo of the upper levels of the Jaipur City Palace. This section is not the red color of the main area, instead it is more yellow, with just the balconies being red.

Photo Blog - A solitary tourist taking a photo inside the Jaipur City Palace

A strange time inside the Jaipur City Palace. Normally a place full of tourists, to the extent that one needs to time photos to avoid tourists coming in this photo, I found a time in the afternoon when there was nobody except for this one tourist in the photo, taking a photo of the architecture.

Hindi TV Serial - Zee TV - Dance India Dance winner Salman on L'il Champs

SALMAN KHAN – the DID Season 1 winner shakes a leg on the singing platform

Salman Khan the DID season 1 winner makes an appearance in Saregamapa L’il Champs to promote his video in the movie ‘Wanted’ which he shot with superstar Salman Khan. The movie is releasing this Friday 18th September and Salman is anxious as this video might be his stepping stone towards the filmdom.

Salman came and spoke about his video and his experience with superstar Salman and the dancing genius Prabhu Deva who is the director of the movie.
He also announced the come back of Dance India Dance Season 2 and taught little Afsha and Dhairya how to shake a leg and groove that thing…





The viewers also are waiting with bated breath for DID season 2 - a frenzy that caught the Nation wild and tempted the audiences to put on their dancing shoes.

Photo Blog: Machinery digging up part of the green hillside for making a road

A bulldozer digging up a beautiful Swiss mountainside on the route to Jungfrau, for making a path. The picture looks beautiful, but it was a bit sad to see a green hill being partially destroyed.

Photo: Ice and snow covered peaks at Jungfrau

A view of the rocky cliff visible from the mountain resort of Jungfrau in Switzerland, giving a glimpse of very cold weather and deep snow. However, on this same snow, we could spot people going for guided treks at intervals.

Hindi Serial - Laali – the Snake Charmer (Agle janam mohe bitiya hi kijo on Zee Tv)

The monsoons, though most welcome, can cause havoc at times. The film city area in Mumbai which is the shooting hub of the entertainment industry, also shelters some of the deadly creatures of this planet. The cast and crew of Agle janam mohe bitiya hi kijo are literally having a reptile scare quite often! Every other day they are being hounded by deadly lizards, scorpions, worms of various kinds! The unit lost their cool when one day they found a snake loitering around the sets. It hit the panic button because people didn’t know what to do! Everything was in helter skelter until savior came in the form our brave Laali who came out rushing from her make up room when this fiasco was on …
And she managed to charm the snake like a pro! During the earlier days of Agle janam …when the unit was stationed at Wai; amongst other ghastly things like plunging in mucky water, rolling in mud, walking bare feet in scorching heat , catching a rat; this was another art which Lali had learnt from one of the villager. Though it never came handy then, but now out of the blue this sudden advent of snake god had lali shed all her inhibitions and tame the snake…

Quite a braveheart! True daughter of the soil….

When contacted Ratan, she said, “It may sound funny and unrealistic but it’s true that I have shot with real snakes in the 2nd episode itself. Yes they were trained ones but it was quite adventurous shooting then in Wai. Yes very often you would experience some or the other reptile on the sets during monsoons but that’s natural. The other day when the unit saw snake, they freaked and panicked big time. Though I was also a little scared but managed to throw it out of the sets.”

Photo: Greenish tinge from the sculptures inside the Ice Palace in Jungfrau

These are sculptures made of ice inside the Ice Palace (ice tunnel) at the Swiss mountain resort of Jungfrau. Varied sculptures, they looked very beautiful with a greenish tinge all around (the light being greenish because of the ice all around us). I always wondered as to how they ensure that the ice remains, and if this tunnel is a part of a glacier, how can they ensure that there is no movement of the ice.

Photo Blog: Empty tunnel inside the Ice Palace at Jungfrau

The empty ice tunnel inside the ice palace at Jungfrau. This is an ice tunnel apparently built inside a glacier in Jungfrau, and is a popular tourist attraction. I had to wait for some time to be able to get a photo where there was no one in the photo. The ice (and it was several inches thick) gives a strange light effect to the photo.

Photo: Distant view from the glass windows at the Eiger station on the way to Jungfrau

On the way to Jungfrau, the train passes through a track dug through the mountain, passing through rock. On the way, there are several stations, with a small view point, some restrooms and a small walk to stretch your legs. The view from this station, called Eiger, is spectacular. You can see the tops of hills nearby, showing the height at which you have already reached.

Photo: Cramped conditions inside the cogwheel train in the final leg to Jungfrau

People inside the cramped compartment of the train heading to Jungfrau. This is the final train (there are a total of 3 trains that you need to take, one after the other), and it can get fairly cramped. This train is the one that moves inside the mountain, on the cogwheel tracks, and through the rock and ice.