Re: Panoramic pictures with viewers

I forgot to mention its website.

othmana.tripod.com

or directly to:
http://othmana.tripod.com/panorama/panorama.htm

An alternative is othman.000webhost.info but I'm having problems
uploading via ftp.

Panoramic pictures with viewers

I've included viewers with my panoramic pictures of a few places in
Sabah.

I compressed these 1024x512 pictures until they are less than 50kbyte.

It still takes a long time because it has to load the ptviewer.jar
also.

The pictures don't look sharp. I don't think the resolution is the
culprit because I had seen pictures with lower resolution and yet look
so sharp.

Perkasa Hotel Kundasang in Pano

I've just added a panoramic picture of Perkasa Hotel, Kundasang.

It is not a complete 360 degree but displayed as a 360x180 degree
panoramic picture format. There is no tripod used. I only used my hand
to take all these pictures. It shows that Panorama Tools can handle
these pictures as well.

Additional techniques that I find useful is to use the lens data from
previous pictures to quickly speed up the optimisation process.

I no longer need to do the lens view and distortion optimisation any
more.

I also notice that this is a very effective way of measuring lens
parameters.

It also shows that it is no longer important to have an extremely low
distortion lens because they can be corrected digitally.

The best water front in the world

It is at Harbour City Sandakan. It is located at the old Sandakan
Jetty at the mouth of the Sandakan Bay. It is deep and has lots of
islands inside the bay.

It makes the water calm most of the time which makes it unique. With
its warm climate, plankton survive and emit fluorescent light which
can be seen clearly at night.

It is now better developed because it has a 2 star hotel but it does
not have any marina in front of it.

I've posted a panoramic picture of it at my blogspot sabahheaven.

Panoramic Picture of Power Boat F2000 at Kota Kinabalu

This picture isn't clear because the output is directly from enblend
to the 1024 resolution.

The others were output to the 8192x4096 for Aerofly RC Flight Sim, and
then reduced to 1024 using gimp.

For comparison the anchor photo is included. It does not apper to be
clear as well.

Sabah Artifacts

http://stores.ebay.com.my/borneoartifact

I was looking for items about Sabah at ebay, when I found this ebay
shop specialising in artifacts from Sabah.

I suspect this site to be from Sarawak because it mentions Dayak
prominently. Dayaks don't exist prominently in Sabah, only Sarawak,
where the Ibans are also called Dayaks.

The sale of traditional items are welcomed. One of the most famous
were the weapons used by natives, such as blow pipes. Even I like to
own one, provided its price is right, but I don't seem to be able to
find them. Maybe they are obsolete. We use Bakakuk nowadays.

Guess where this beautiful tranquil island is?

http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/4716/_igp0789b.jpg

Sabah, the poorest in Malaysia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabah#Economy

Refer to the above link for those who still doubt that Sabah is officially the poorest in Malaysia. The reasons mentioned there appear to be reasonable.

Excuses such as Sabahan politicians are to be blamed because they are corrupted are not the real reason because these politicians are selected by West Malaysian politicians who are chosen, not because of their potential to develop Sabah but because they are those who are willing to surrender Sabah's rights to the West Malaysian government, i.e. the Federal Government.

First it was Petroleum, Customs Collection, Fisheries, and Vehicle Licensing, Telecom and Electricity, under Berjaya.

Under UMNO , projects were no longer managed by Sabah JKR but by federal government body or directly awarded to main contractors in West Malaysia. Even the appoinment of Chief Ministers and State government officers had to be approved by Kuala Lumpur that led to the rotating Chief Ministerships every 2 years.

Now KL wants water rights and the entire JKR department despite problems with JPPS and Federal JKR in West Malaysia, glaringly obvious full of mismanagements to the point that expensively new Federal showcase buildings are already leaking heavily.


If corruption were the reason, then there is no reason why Sabah was among the richest when it was the was corrupt under USNO in the 1970's but what is clear was that USNO had defended Sabah's rights without trampling on the livelihood of its citizens, and that was the time before Petroleum revenue was available.

What is worse is that situations in Sabah could be worse than in Rwanda, making Sabah the poorest in the world.

Low Cost Terminal at Kota Kinabalu

It was completed more than 6 months ahead of schedule. One technique is his willingless to pay damages in order to follow his schedules.

It is the the second largest low cost terminal behind Singapore, larger than the low cost terminal at Sepang.

The information at this wikipedia article may be more reliable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kota_Kinabalu_International_Airport


Terminal 2 of KKIA is not really a dedicated low cost terminal.

See the panoramic picture of this Terminal 2. It is not easy to take these pictures. I was approached twice by officers from both Malaysia Airport and DCA.

The technique that I used to take these pictures could the best. Note the missing tripod. The number of pictures taken is also the minimum.

However the lines are not perfect. Maybe there is a need for a Pano head. Pano tools by Mr. Dersch, may not be good enough.


I took the opportunity to visit Sabah Flying Club. They conduct flying lessons and will charge about RM20,000 for 43 hours on a 4-seater Cesna aeroplane, the minimum required in order to get a Private Pilot License.

Growing Growing Gone: Alarming Stats About Global Warming

Growing Growing Gone: Alarming Stats About Global Warming

The best beach in the world

Kelambu beach is truly the best beach in the world.

However it is little appreciated by locals. It is due to the fact that Sabah used to have much finer beaches than this one.

Most early residents in Sabah, i.e. my ancestors build houses on sheltered beaches. Yes, they were beaches, and not just on the sand, but on the watery part of the beaches.

They had chosen the best locations in Sabah. Kelambu beach is not even well regarded by locals but it is now the only remaining good beach in Sabah. Other beaches are located at remote islands.

This Kelambu beach is unique in that it has an island right in front of it, and we can walk towards it safely. It also meant that there are two bays with fine beaches on both sides of the island. Yes, they are bays, instead of just a straight beach.

The best part of all, is that it is totally uninhabited.

I say a similar beach in Sri Lanka with a house on top of the Island. It was featured in an article in Reader's Digest, Asian Edition.

I also say an Indian film, where the actor and actresses dance on the beach next to an island, and noting how beautiful it was. Suddenly I met this Kelambu beach and noted how unique and beautiful it really is. I don't have the desire or time to swim at this beach. Nor was my family. Maybe it is sufficient for us to savour its beauty. These beaches are meant for viewing, not to be spoiled with swimming.

The million dollar question is how long it will last. With all reclaimation works being done all over the beaches in Sabah, it is only a matter of time before it will be filled up.

Panoramic pictures

These pictures are best viewed using panoramic picture viewer. They are all in the form of 360x180 degree 2:1 format.

That means they represent complete view of the surrounding from the point of view of the photographer.

They are useable as photo sceneries for Radio Control Flight Simulators but are of lower resolution i.e. 512x256, which are just good enough for this blog page.

There are other blogspots which support my interest in these panoramic pictures.

All materials in here are copyrighted by me but are for sale, from zero to whatever the buyer is willing to pay. It all depends on their uses.

Most are available in the form of 8060 resolution which are used for RC Fsim but the originals are mostly of the 14000 resolution because they are taken with 2M pixel camera.

Sabah is truly heaven.

I shall dedicate this blogspot for discussing and proving that Sabah is really heaven on earth.

I shall insert panoramic photos of a few places that I had taken. They are meant for RC Simulator use.