Nikon P510 42x optical zoom. Source: www.nikonusa.com
In November last year I decided to get serious about the photos I take. Of course, mobile phones cameras are getting better and better (16 MP with the HTC Titan II), but even with the best mobile phone lenses or even with the slickest apps, the photos we take with our mobile phones are nothing more than photos taken with a mobile phone.
Therefore I went for a Nikon L120, but soon found out that the pictures it took were disappointing, especially in poor lighting conditions. So I returned that one and settled for a Nikon Coolpix P500. From my personal experience with the camera I can tell you that the P500 one takes great photos in every possible lighting environments thanks to its back-light CMOS senzor, has an impressive wide-angle optical zoom at 36x and boost Full HD recording at 1920x1080p / 30fps.
Why I’m telling you all this? Well, simply because the folks at Nikon launched P510, a remarkable successor to the above mentioned P500. As compared to the P500, the next generation super-zoom from Nikon comes with a 42x zoom with lens-shift VR and 16 MP. Talking about lens envy, right? 
Posted: February 2nd, 2012 |Filed under: Tech | Tags: Coolpix, L120, Nikon, P500, P510, photography | No Comments »
The past week in Romania was all about the general turmoil around the debates ignited by the president Basescu around needed healthcare system reform. Following the example of the citizens in Targu Mures, last night several thousands of people in Bucharest, Brasov and Sibiu occupied the streets showing their support for the advancement of the reforms in the public health sector. Their enthusiasm was visible online early on during the week, with Facebook maintaining a major role in the civic effervescence.
Having this in mind, the recent news that Facebook allowed access to its data for text mining and sentiment analysis purposes concerning the GOP primaries cannot be ignored. Au contraire. Social media analysis is undoubtedly playing an important role in political competitions, but until now researchers had to stick to alternative means of reaching and measuring the noise (such as counting Twitter mentions or Google search relevance). Getting access to and, more important, aggregating all those political feelings Facebook users share with their friends can provide a real-time tool for determining the outreach of political events as they happen, even making it possible for the campaign managers to adjust the message being conveyed piecemeal.
While this sentiment analysis opportunity is currently limited to the US, we might expect in the not so distant future to see it made available in more countries and to other organizations. Note also that Facebook users might not be that happy with the social site sharing their private thoughts, but what should they know is that messages are analyzed anonymously by special software designed for that purpose.
Posted: January 14th, 2012 |Filed under: Politics | Tags: Facebook, GOP primaries, political campaign, Traian Basescu, Twitter | No Comments »
