Phuket

I wasn't planning on writing about the disaster, since I figured that many people more eloquent than I had already covered it.

And then I got an email from Will Poole, the Senior VP in charge of the Windows division.  Will was on Phuket at the time of the tsunami,  Will was sea kayaking on Phuket at the time of the Tsunami.  Fortunately, he and his family were safe (they were on the "unaffected" part of the island.

Will wrote up a Photostory3 photostory with his pictures of the event, and posted them on the Nikon digital photography site here (if you're running XP SP2, the content's mislabled so you need to allow the content to be downloaded).  You'll need WM10 or Photostory3 to see it, since it's encoded with the Photostory codec (which dramatically reduces the size of the WMV file).  Will ends with an ad for Photostory3, IMHO, that was unfortunate (since it detracts from his message), but...

Anyway, the video's absolutely worth watching.

And if you can somehow find the money, please, please give to one of the many charities helping out.  While the news reports currently indicate that they currently have more cash than they know what to do with, the reality is that the reason for this is simply that too much infrastructure's been lost for them to begin spending the money - the need is still there.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2005
  Nothing cool works on Windows 2003, only serious work like stuff. I'll have to go home and watch this on XP.

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2005
  Sorry Sahil :(
  
  If it was any other format, I'd post it in that format...

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2005
  
  What's the point of sharing a content that only a narrow amount of people can see anyway? I think this post got messed up and is unfortunately (as you said) turned into a very sad Agenda post.
  
  

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2005
  Stephane,
  You're absolutely right, but the reality is that a significant percentage of the readers of this have WMP10 already, or have windows machines that can get photostory3 (or WMP10).
  
  The contents of the video were worth watching (at least once) - not earth shattering (how exciting is "the sea rose up a few feet, then it went down"). As I said, Will wasn't in danger at any time (he was on the wrong side of the island), but I still thought the movie was worth linking to.
  

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2005
  Steve, you're absolutely right.
  
  Will should have never put the ad in. I'm just proud that Microsoft's donating $3.5M in cash donations.
  
  I'm upset that it took two days for us to replace http://www.microsoft.com with a banner recognising the disaster, but it's there now.
  

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2005
  It would be nice if MP10 wouldn't crash.
  
  Right click picture at any stage, choose Full Screen, attemps to mode switch and can't get full screen. Pictures flip upside down. A second attempt at r/c - Full Screen causes a crash. This only happens if MP10's video acceleration is set to None (I just want to be able to take a screenshot in MP10 one day - nothing I've ever tried has worked - ctrl + I doesn't, no acceleration in either MP10 or Control Panel - Display doesn't, And I've not seen the the frame capture menu command ever.)
  
  But one would expect the acceleration set to none to prevent problems not cause them.

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 04, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 05, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 05, 2005
  Yes, I should have done some research rather than relying on memory. I apologise for questioning you and thank you for taking the time to cite authoritive sources.
  
  Thanks also for the rundown on earlier Indonesian history. I was only vaguely aware of those horrifying events.

• Anonymous
  January 05, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 05, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 05, 2005
  Manip:
  
  Yes. It seems that I'm too much influrenced by "The Perfect Storm".
  
  When you mention waves, those big waves in the film comes to my mind.(Of course those bad weather are thrown out). Thanks for correcting me on the respect.
  
  However, on the sea surface between the top and lows of the wave, the surface can be steep and there may still be probability that the boat will roll over.
  
  So, perheps there's other reasons like insurance? In here, although most buildings are secure, the companies have to release us home on typhoon signal no.8 or above. This is because the insurance for employees of companies will not be effective on that situation. If any accident/injuries occurs during the signal is hosted, the employer must take the responsibilty to pay the "compensation"(not sure if it's the correct word). If the travellers are not on the boat, perheps the boat owner will not have to take the responsibility...
  

• Anonymous
  January 05, 2005
  The comment has been removed

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