Columbus 1/2 Marathon - My Goal Race

Mission Accomplished! I did it, damn it! I got the picture and medal the to prove it. :)

This really was my "goal race". Back in February 2007, I set a goal to run the Columbus Half Marathon this year. Well, I did. However, I gotta say that after the 20K Indian Trail Run last September, this race was (almost) a walk in the park. I didn't stop once from exhaustion and I held a damn strong pace the entire race.

I'll be totally honest, I wasn't nervous or worried about finishing the race, but I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do with my mindset. James and I were in Tulsa, OK for Tulsa TechFest 2007 (which was a blazing success by the way). We didn't back to Columbus until 7:30pm Saturday night. By the time I got back into Newark, it was almost 9pm and Jennifer talked me into stopping at my parents for a cookout. I had honestly wanted to just go home and go to bed because James and I were up all night Friday night posting Data Dynamics Analysis to the website. We ended up staying at my parents cookout until 10:30pm and by the time we got home and settled down, I didn't go to sleep until 1am!!

The Columbus Marathon and Half Marathon started together at 8:00am. Therefore, I had to get up at 5:30am to eat breakfast and get out of the door by 6:30 to beat the race traffic. I did. I got to the race around 7:30am and I had plenty of time before the race started. I decided to find the port-a-potties and take some pictures of the race crowd. As I made my way toward the port-a-potties with my camera in hand, I was met with a wall of people around the corner. I had no idea how many people were actually going to be at the event. It was amazing to see so many people in downtown Columbus at one time (besides Red, White, and Boom of course). It took me about 20 minutes to get through the bathroom line, but I got some (kinda) cool pictures during my wait. You can find them in my picture gallery here:

Columbus Marathon 2007

By the time I got done at the port-a-potties, the race was about to start. I literally ran back to my car to drop off the camera, took a bite of a protein bar and sprinted to the starting line. I didn't even have time to stretch... Believe it or not, I had to catch up to the police car that was following the "last person"... therefore, I was the last person to start the race. If you knew me, you would agree that this only makes sense, I'm late for most things. :)

The race environment was absolutely awesome. There were people on the side of the road every step of the way cheering the runners on. I heard "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes, I heard a high school drum line rocking out at a couple of spots along the way (that was really cool too btw), and there were many local musicians setup along side the road playing their instruments for the racers. Many of the local residents of Columbus sat out in their yards cheering on the runners too. It was simply awesome to be a part of this. I knew the race was going to be easy at about the 3 mile marker believe it or not... I was so in tuned with everything around me that I didn't even thing about the fact that my body only had 4.5 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours. My senses were all on overdrive that I didn't even notice that my legs were moving at a 9 minute pace!

I met a lot of people on the course too. Lots of runners had little sayings on their shirts. For example, one lady had a shirt on and the back said "My name is Linda. I'm 50 years old today, and this is my first marathon!". So of course, as I passed her, I congratulated her and wished her a happy birthday. This was the whole race too, I talked to so many people and everybody was so nice.

The only downside to the race was my nipples... Yes, my nipples. At about the 7 mile marker my nipples hurt really bad from my shirt rubbing them over and over. I eventually looked looked down on my shirt and saw that my new white shirt now had a red patch of blood where my nipple had been rubbed raw. Needless-to-say, I still had 6 more miles to go. I was going to have to ignore this piercing pain and move on. Honestly though, this was easy to do; I was so high on energy and no sleep that my nipples didn't bother me that much. They just felt weird, but didn't really hurt at that point. However, as I ran past people on the sidelines, I found myself watching their eyes. I then knew what it was like to be a busty woman... Nobody was looking me in the face anymore; they were all looking at my (red) boobs. :)

The course finished on a slight uphill climb, but then turned a corner and the finish line was toward the bottom of a nice downhill slope. I finished the race with a 9:09 mile pace.

Going into the race, I told myself that I wanted to to have a sub 10 minute mile pace. I finished the 13.1 mile race in 2 hours 7 minutes 12 seconds. This calculates to a 9:43 pace!! Never would I have guessed that to be possible! Never!

There really isn't much more to say about my first 1/2 marathon experience other than it was a blast. I'm so happy that I did it. I'm already planning my 26.2 mile adventure for next spring. There are actually quite a few marathons in the spring, so I'm going to do my research before committing to one.

Oh yeah, to finish my story about my lack of sleep and overall body torture... I got home from the race, talked to Jen and my girls, and then crashed on the couch for about 3 hours. When I woke up, my dad and I went camping for 3 days. I slept in a tent for the next 2 nights. Yeah, my body still hates me for all of this. I figure I'll catch up on sleep over that next weekend... Wait I'm having a bonfire that next weekend... Crap!? :)

Hippie Daizi

Only a father could think this is adorable.

Others don't seem to think so though...(?)

My Guitar Hero

I know I haven't blogged in a while, and that is about to change, cause I have a backlog of things that need blogged. However, this is very blog worthy post for a comeback.

Tonight, I logged in to do some PCing, and James sent me a link to his buddy's guitar hero video on YouTube. This guy's name is Adam and I've met him before. At that time I had no idea he had mad-jammin-chops. Well... I'll let the video speak for Adam now:



From now on, whenever I'm in the room with this guy, he will be known only as "Mr. Guitar Hero".

Rock on Adam!.. I mean... Mr Guitar Hero, sir.

Data Dynamics Analysis (public beta)

This post is a bit longer overdue than James' late announcement.

We, at Data Dynamics, have been very busy the last couple of years developing the next generation of analysis tools for .NET developers. We've just recently announced the beta release of our latest .NET component called Data Dynamics Analysis.

This is a new cutting edge visual analysis tool for developers that need to deliver analysis solutions to their end users. With a few configurations, developers are able to deliver business intelligence solutions to their end users through presentation quality charts requiring nothing more than simple drag and drop operations. In a nutshell, we will help you look like a rock star with this thing. If you don't believe me, just download it and give it 15 minutes of your time.

It really is amazing how basic charts can give a person a deep understanding of the same data. By simply visualizing the exact same data in a meaningful chart with easy colors, the user begins to make sense of the data at a deeper level. Though DynamiCube will always be my first love, Data Dynamics Analysis is my new tool for analyzing data.

Indian Run 20K - My Sixth Race

This post is very long overdue! I ran the Hocking Hills Indian Run 20K Trail Race back on September 22nd (almost 1 month ago). Honestly, I wasn't sure what I should write, so I procrastinated until it got ridiculously overdue. Now that I've reached this milestone (ridiculously overdue), I felt it was time to tell my story. The first thing I guess that I should say is that it was the hardest thing (physically) that I've ever done! This was the longest distance I've ever ran and it was also the toughest terrain I've ever run on. Here is my story...

The Night Before
I left my house around 6PM the night before so that I could setup camp at Caveman Retreats. By the time I got there, it was pushing 8PM and it was pretty dark. I basically setup my tent and laid down to sleep. Believe it or not, I was in my sleeping bag by 9PM and laid awake until about 10:30PM before actually falling asleep. It was a long night because I slept right on a root or something. I woke up every hour or so all night long shifting my body around this thing under my tent. Needless to say, I loved the whole experience. I was born for this crap! Everything about it was just great. Lying in my tent under the stars was very relaxing. I just listened to the crickets chirping and Sasquatch yelling...

The Morning Of
When morning broke, I literally woke up, packed my tent, paid my dues, and was on my way to the race. Notice I left out a few important steps: breakfast and water. That information plays an important part later... By the time I woke up at 8AM, to the time I was on the road 8:45AM, I was just focused on getting to the starting line. I knew I was in for a true test of endurance and focus that day and I just blocked out all common sense (food, water, stretching, etc..). The weather was pretty hot already and I had a long 2+ hour run through some nasty wooded trails and hills ahead of me.

The Race
My start time was at 9:30 exactly. I started with 2 other women, they had both ran the Indian Run before. However, this was the first time either of them had done the 20K. At this point I was questioning my sanity. Was I crazy to think I could do this my first time. Of course!! :) To set the stage for this race, I must say that while I was standing at the starting line ready to start, I realized that I hadn't done any stretching, I hadn't eaten anything, and had absolutely no fluids in me. This concludes the crazy factor. I'm nuts!

The first 3 - 4 miles was up a few hills, through some nature paths and along a very hilly road. So far so good; nothing too bad at this point. I felt great and had a good pace going. At about the 4 mile marker I was met with a hard left turn at the bottom of a huge hill. Once I made the turn, I looked up a hill that seemed to stretch all the way to Heaven. It was a dirt path that literally looked like it went for about 1/2 mile winding up through the woods. I decided that I was going to run/walk up this thing so that I didn't kill myself too early. I still had 8+ miles to go and didn't want to spend all of my energy on this thing. I was pleasantly surprised to see many of the stronger runners walking up this thing too. I didn't feel so... noob.

Once we got to the top of this hill my legs were burning so bad. There was the first water station setup that had water, power-aid, pretzels, fig newtons, and crackers. It was pretty crowded, but I squeezed over and took down 2 dixie cups of water. The pit stop lasted about 30 seconds for me and it helped a bit.

After the water stop, I got back into a nice pace and passed a few runners and I felt like I had gotten back into my rhythm. At this point, the course got very beautiful. We went back off of the road and wound through some dirt roads through the Hocking Forest. It felt very reminiscent of Blackhand Gorge (aka. My Park), only it was 10 time bigger in every aspect. I was in a zone for the next 4 miles and they went very quickly and very easily. Yes, I even went through some pretty treacherous parts, but I was in my element just by noticing the scenery and keeping pace with the runners around me. Nobody talked, we just panted and kept up with one another. I loved it!

About 8 miles into it, we met up with the 10K course and I was really looking forward to the finish line. I only had about 4+ miles to go and I think I got a bit cocky with myself. I picked up the pace a little bit and passed some runners thinking "I can do 4 miles in my sleep". The thing that I didn't take into consideration was my fuel tank was on empty. I was only running on water and a bad night's sleep. Luckily, there was another water station about this time, so I stopped and had 3 dixie cups of water and 2 fig newtons. I think the fig newtons helped a bit because I could feel myself coming out of a funk a bit. I probably should have taken a minute or two and eaten some more food for the remaining 4 miles, but I didn't.

After that pit stop, my race turned to shit! I found myself walking more and more up every little hill and only ran on the strait aways (which were few and far between). There were a couple of spots where I did some stomp-running where I just kept falling forward and allowing my legs to keep me upright. We ran through some nasty hiking trails that were just wide enough for one person and was inviting me to twist my ankle with every step. Much of this trail was along side a beautiful lake. I wanted to jump in that lake so bad and just float lifelessly for 10 minutes, but I still had 2 miles of hilly, wooded trails to go. Everybody that I had passed earlier was now passing me. Of course as they passed they would say words of encouragement for I guess my pain and fatigue was pretty noticeable. The support from these other selfless runners really did help me get through this part of the race. I'll remember this in my next race when I see people struggling.

The final stretch was the hardest mile (hands down) I've ever done. The course came out of the woods and onto the main road that led back up to the Lodge. Key word here is "up"... it was an uphill run. I actually stopped at one point and sat on a guard rail to give my legs a break. By this point, I was numb and completely exhausted. One runner came up and stood next to me and talked to me for a minute. He was spent too. We realized that we were crazy for running this thing then started inching toward the finish line. He pulled away from me after a while and I was struggling to put my feet in front of one another all the way to the finish line. Once I saw the finish line, I sucked it up and tried to run as fast as I could. The crowd was so motivating; everybody was cheering me on like I had won the race. It helped me finish strong.

The Result

My finish time was 2 hours 25 minutes and 30 seconds!!! :D

The After Math
Honestly, the moment I crossed the finish line, I knew it was worth all the sweat and pain. I stumbled over to the fruit and water table and couldn't sit down quick enough. My legs just hurt. Period. It was a "weird" kind of hurt that I had never experienced before; deep in my muscles. I sat at that table for about 20 minutes and got my sweat under control and let my body pull itself back together again. A lot of people stopped and talked to me and I realized that runners are very encouraging and supportive of other runners by nature. I didn't feel out of place at all. We had all just put ourselves through the same amount of torture and there was an odd bond by this point. I sat there until I got caught up on my food and water deprivation. I probably ate 3 apples, 2 bananas, a gatorade, and 2 water bottles. Once I got myself back together, I stood up and made the long walk to my car (~200 yards away... uphill).

Needless to say, when I got home I slept for 4 hours strait with my legs elevated and iced. The cool part about this killer race is that ever since that day, my training runs are MUCH easier and MUCH faster. :) It's amazing how much you can improve when you break yourself down to nothing. Next week is my Columbus 1/2 Marathon race. I'll be sure to post my race results a lot sooner than I did this one.

Moving Hardbarger.com - Phase 2

I finally moved my site over to Google Apps last night. I was unpleasantly surprised when I found out I had to pay $50 for every member in my family. This includes Jennifer, my Mom, my Dad, my Sister, and myself. Heaven forbid I want to add my cousins and other relatives. I thought I was going to be able to add as many users as I wanted, but this is not the case. :(

I'm in the process of getting my email's transferred over, but it looks like I might have to dish out a bit more money for this to be a complete port. I would have thought that as a Premier member, I could add "Standard" users with just email permissions... I spent some time in Google Groups and it appears that many other users are reporting the same problem.

Moving Hardbarger.com - Phase 1

Well I'm in the process of moving my site to Google Apps and the big chunk is finally out of the way. I still have to wait on a few things before I can actually sign off to the new site. Mainly because I'm hosting a couple of online photo albums for other people, and I want to give them a chance to relocate their pics.

Moving all of my photos was a huge step. Here is a link to my new photo album: Luc's Picasa Web Albums. And, yes, I'll try to keep this updated now that I have finally accepted how stupid-easy it is to do...

Word 2007 - From Scanner or Camera

Wow, Word 2007 doesn't offer this option. It only took me about 20 minutes of searching before I decided to press F1. I'm pretty stubborn sometimes I guess:

What happened to the From Scanner or Camera option for adding pictures to a document?

The From Scanner or Camera option for adding pictures to a document is not available in Microsoft Office Word 2007. Instead, you can add pictures from your camera or scanner by downloading the pictures to your computer first and then copying them from your computer into Word.

After you download a picture to your computer, do the following:

On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Picture.
Locate the picture that you want to add to your document, and then click Insert.

This is a big change if you ask me... I used the crap out of this thing in earlier versions of Office.

What does your product do?

Issam turned me onto a great link: How to Craft a Killer Elevator Pitch That Will Land You Big Business

I thought it was very informative and should be read by anybody selling anything. I'm going to try it's methods to nail down some pitches I need to be working on. :) Thanks, Issam!

Do I look credible?

I'm renewing my passport, and this is what will be on it:

And, (for comic relief) here is my old one from when I was 16:

Online Training Log for Runners

Just recently (ok, 3 days ago) I wrote a post about my "new online running tool". Well, I've flip-flopped to another tool since then. Yes, 3 days ago... :)

As I outlined in that post, there is a lot of competition out there and this is my final stop; I finally found the one that fits me. I'm a subscriber to RunnersWorld magazine and I read articles from my blog reader (none other than Google Reader of course). They've recently announced a new online training portal to their site for tracking your data. Needless-to-say, they offer the built-in Google maps tool to create, find, and share running routes as well.

The RunnersWorld.com mapping utility appeared a bit flawed at first, but it was much better than the mapping utility that CoolRunning.com had (which was nothing). MapMyRun.com offered a full-fledge community feel to their site and had some pretty compelling features for us "tech nuts" including an add-on for finding runs directly from Google maps, various blogging links, and other cool things that had me convinced they were "the ones". What ended up selling me on RunnersWorld.com was the fact that they had charts, in depth mileage tracking, very large online community, amazing articles, and they're improving their map sharing.

My only complaint with these training sites is that nobody has an "import" utility to import old data files. They all offer an "export" utility, which makes it easy to leave... but no "import". This seems like a "must have" if you ask me. Especially for RunnersWorld.com, because they are the "new kids" in town with their training log. I've only been running for 8 months... I couldn't imagine the heaps of data that other runners must have.

I posted the discussion on both sites requesting this feature, so I guess you can say that I did my part in getting the ball rolling..? We'll see...

An Extensive Examination of Data Structures

While I coding away and decided to try to implement my own binary tree last night (I know, but whatever...). So, of course, I did some Googling and found "the link of all links". I quickly got lost in all-goodness: An Extensive Examination of Data Structures

This post is more or less just a reference for me... for later.

MapMyRun.com

I've been spending a lot of time with some new (to me) tools for tracking my runs and so on. There are many tools out there that now offer mapping technology with their services. For the longest time, I've been using CoolRunning.com to track my progress, but the other sites offer a lot more features...

If you've ever read any of my posts, you know that I am a big fan of mapping technologies (who isn't?). Well all these other running sites allow me to create maps of all of my runs using customized Google maps embedded right in their site. Needless to say, it appealed to me immediately; integrating the Google Maps API into a running log just makes sense as far as I'm concerned. Just recently I've found quite a few that offer this feature: RunningAhead.com, MapMyRun.com, RunnersWorld.com, etc...

What really sparked my interest about MapMyRun.com was that I actually found them while searching Google maps for something (don't remember what it was now). I was checking out some of the new add-ons and got stumbled upon their "Run Finder". I added it to my toolbox and started searching for runs.

I was surprised to see that there were no routs in my area (Newark, Ohio). There weren't any!! I then did a search for runs in Columbus, Ohio and found oodles... This led me to their site and I setup an account. Their site is easy to use, quick to update and very "tech savvy" for avid bloggers and online nuts (like myself). Needless to say, I've been hooked on it ever since.

If you like to run and would like to find runs when you travel (ie. 5 miler in Vegas or 10 miler in Denver), or wish to add your own runs for others to see, I highly recommend you check out MapMyRun.com. Oh, and don't forget that the next time you are in Newark or Columbus, be sure to check out some of my maps: Lucas28

Update: 8/17/2007
I've changed this post to a testimonial of MapMyRun.com; however I removed all of the content describing how it is my new training tool. When I found their site, I focused on the enhanced mapping utility and the community based mapping service. I clearly overlooked the functionality that was most important to me which was the charts and analysis.

Ouch! YouTube Just Crushed Me

I was setting up my YouTube account, and since it's my first time in here, all of my sections said:

• You have no Channels
• You have no Favorites
• You have no Subscribers
• You have no Videos
• You have no Friends...

Ouch...

Now That's a Snake!

Jennifer found this snake on the road in front of our house. It was either coming into our yard or was leaving it; we couldn't tell which it was. Either way, I'm glad a passer-by killed it before one of the girls found it (alive). As you can see above, it was about as long as Lizzie is tall... Pretty big!

Celtic Festival 5k - My Fifth Race

Ok, so I've kinda slacked a bit. Somebody asked me last week how my race went and I realized that I had not posted my results and overall thoughts to my blog (which I clearly stated I would here).

The race was "good". It was so hot that day. I think it was like 95 degrees Fahrenheit with 95% humidity and there was no escaping the heat. Before the race, I did about 10 minutes of jogging and stretching hoping that I could do real good with this "new approach". I was already drenched in sweat by the time the race started, but I was convinced that I stayed very hydrated. I took a few drinks from Jen's warm bottles of water. I finished stretching and warming up about 5 minutes before the race started and I just stood there like an idiot shaking my legs and arms because I didn't know what else to do. :) I guess this is what runners do before races because everybody else was doing it too. So... yes, it's safe to say that we were all being idiots. :P

The race was an easy "out and back" course, meaning that it goes out for 1.55 miles and you have to turn around and cross the starting line to finish. I thought it sounded easy enough and I was ready to go. There were no clouds in the sky, the sun was right in front of us and the pavement was pulsating heat waves up in the distance. Hell, I can handle this!

When the race started, I kept up with the crowd pretty good. My first mile was 7 minutes and 20 seconds. This was really good and I was excited to try and do my "sub 25 minute" race, but the first mile really drained me. They had the water table right before the first mile and I didn't think I needed any so I just ran right past them thinking there would be another one up the road. About 50 yards from the water station I started to get cold chills and I could feel my skin get cold. I knew this wasn't good because (like I said) it was so hot that day. I realized I was in a bit of a pickle at this point. I decided to back off a bit and catch my breath and try to cool down.

My second mile was 8 minutes 44 seconds. This is much better than my training pace, but very slow for my race pace. What sucks is that my condition was getting worse. My mouth was all dry and my head started to hurt. I knew I was dehydrating fast and I was loosing steam even faster. My side hurt and my legs were starting to get stiff on me. I wanted to stop and walk the rest of the way so bad, but I just pushed through it. I could see the water table up in the distance, so that was my mental "check point". When I got up there, I grabbed the water and tried to drink it........... HOW DO PEOPLE DO THIS!!! I basically got it all over my face, up my nose, and all down my shirt; I probably only got down like 2 drops. Even then it wasn't refreshing because I had to try and swallow it down between my compulsive gasping for air. Needless to say, it didn't help much. I was still ready to walk the rest of the way and I had about 1 more mile to go.

Stubborn as I am, I pushed through the 3rd mile as lots of people passed me. What was worse was that the race started (and therefore ended) with a bunch of up and down hills. The finish line was at the top of a huge hill and I probably could have crawled up it faster on a good day than I did running up it on this day. My last 1.1 mile was a stellar 10 minutes and 20 seconds. But hot damn, it was over.

My total time was 26 minutes and 24 seconds. I learned a lot from this race! The number one thing I learned is that I need to figure out how to drink and run for the next race. :) Which (BTW) I have 2 BIG races lined up for the fall: a 20K and a 1/2 Marathon. Those ought to be some interesting blog posts. :O

The Bourne Ultimatum

Jennifer and I had "hot date" night last night and went to see The Bourne Ultimatum. If you have not seen it... go see it now. No seriously, go. This was the best one yet. I won't spoil it, but I will say that there is a fight scene in here that destroys the any fight scene from the last two movies. Jason Bourne is a hillbilly bad-ass. After the movie I thought about jumping over the banister to the exit area and then just breaking someones arms with my wanna-be ninja skills and then busting some knee caps for no apparent reason. :) Just kidding! No seriously, I did... psych. What?

I sure hope that they have a 4th one: The Bourne Continuum or something silly. This story just keeps getting better!! I can honestly say that I now see Matt Damon as a super star. All of his other movies, he plays a good part, but I like him best as Jason Bourne! The last Bourne movies were better than "OK", but this one was just plain awesome! You know a movie is good when it is 2 hours of strait ass kicking and nobody gets up to go to the bathroom. Jen and I sat in the back row and didn't see too many people leaving during the movie. We were on the edge of our seats the whole time. Every now and then we would look at each other and laugh because Matt Damon busted out some sub-second jujitsu on like 5 people then walks away like it was nothing. I don't know... that just does something for me. :) I just wanted to stand up and yell "YEAH!!!", but fought the urge until I got back into the van.

Again, I stress... Go see this movie!

This is Absolutely Crazy

Jake Brown takes one for the team and scores my vote for President!



I'm sure he's pretty sore today... Nice 720 BTW!

C'mon Bonds!! I mean, Dodgers!! I mean, Bonds!!!

I've recently started watching baseball again and last night I was watching the Giants vs. Dodgers game and was pretty upset with one of the decisions made by the Dodgers pitching staff to walk Barry Bonds in his last at bat.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last decade, you should know that Barry Bonds is the #1 MLB villain these days. Well, so far he's kicking butt this year, but his last two months have been pretty boring. Last night he was looking to tie Hank Aaron's home run record (still...), but came up short again. He didn't have one hit all night (0 - 4). In the last inning of the game the crowd got all rowdied up and gave their normal "motivating" boos. All of the sudden, the Dodgers catcher stands up with his arm out to intentionally walk him and the boo's got even louder!!?? The Dodgers then got "boo"ed on their own turf. :)

Talk about some bipolarity (is that a word?)!.. I mean do ya love him, or do ya hate him? Make up your minds.

I must admit that ol' Barry has it pretty hard these days... James and I went to a Colorado Rockies game vs. the San Francisco Giants in Colorado a couple of months ago and Barry got boo"ed every at bat and every time he took the field. Between all the cackling his un-fans and all the nasty press he gets, he is in dire need of a hug.

Of course, I don't care either way if (rather when) he breaks Hank Aaron's record... I mean it's inevitable (and yes, that is a word). Just quit making a big deal out of him... Let him play ball! I guess my blog post isn't helping the general consensus either, but whatever... Anyway, last nights bipolar crowd during the intentional walk was pretty funny to say the least.

P.S. This is my first (and probably last) blog post about baseball... Consider yourself lucky to be a part of this monumental moment in (my) blogging history.

Photograph Math & Extreme Genius

Well, I was catching up on my blog role today and found a really cool site: Grant Schindler

I've blogged about various software packages in the past that manipulate photo's and organize them in cool ways. For example, Microsoft is doing some pretty cool things with PhotoSynth, Google introduced street view, etc... Well today I found out exactly what goes into the math behind that rendering and... WOW!! Watch this quick (silent) video to see exactly how the to make a virtual 3d world using a set of photographs:

Now quit reading this and figure out how to write that code! Please do share when you figure it out. :) ...in C# please.