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Google enters the browser wars today - Google Chrome is the newest entry to the list of browsers, and from the full description available in comic book form, it's a very different browser from what we've seen before, with a cleaner interface, designed for fast and secure execution, and of course open source. It sounds like what you'd expect a Google browser to look like! Visit www.google.com/chrome to download and start exploring.Labels: technology
—Mike @ 14:10
Animating the human face - The science/art of animating human facial expressions has made some recent advances, as demonstrated in the video clip embedded on this page. It looks more realistic than anything I've seen to date, though it still makes me do double-takes. There's something still not quite right in the details, but it's definitely getting closer. Interesting stuff.Labels: technology
—Mike @ 22:03
The world's first OLED TV - Still expensive, but has a high wow factor!"produces a contrast ratio of 1,000,000 to 1--the highest available and 100 times greater than the industry average. While typical LCDs have a response time between 4 and 8 milliseconds, this superior unit redraws pictures in less than 0.01 milliseconds"Labels: technology, TV
—Mike @ 00:27
CBS News making up for lost time - Once you get used to watching TV programs in HD, it can be pretty jarring to see non-HD content come up on the screen. CBS News programs have been suffering from that image and I've noticed that I tend to dial around them as a result. But starting later this month, they'll be taking the wraps off of their long overdue state-of-the-art HD control room. Sounds like it would be a cool place to work!Labels: technology, TV
—Mike @ 15:19
Dot-this and dot-that - The rules on what's a valid top-level-domain name on the internet (like the familiar .com, .net, .org and .gov) are about to be drastically relaxed.Labels: technology
—Mike @ 19:03
Electronic Bermuda Triangles - I'll have to remember to bring tin foil if I ever need to park my Prius near the Empire State Building! This article explains how that area, along with downtown Tampa, both wreak havoc with car electronics and alarms. Apparently there's so much RF interference from a combination of technologies that things just go haywire. Other reports claim that the On/Off button used by Toyotas and some other cars, with their proximity key, can be completely shut down in those areas, causing the cars to be unstartable until moved away from the blanket radiation. Yikes!Labels: communications, haha, technology
—Mike @ 15:15
Life with a robot - Diane has generously gifted us with our very own iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner. What a riot. This thing is more fun than a pet (what pet cleans up after itself?) Provides hours of endless entertainment, as we watch its seemingly random passes over our flooring, sucking up dirt we didn't even know we had. It's driven by its proprietary algorithms that are designed to ensure full coverage (even though the lines in the carpeting end up looking like the Nazca Lines in Peru), spot cleaning where needed, and automatic re-docking in its power station when done. A few times we actually couldn't find it, until we realized it was quietly but busily at work far underneath some of the furniture. We're considering names for it; I'm kind of patial to Astro (the dog from The Jetsons ;-) Thanks, D!Labels: haha, home, technology
—Mike @ 22:34
A quick history of cell phones - Click here to view the video clip.Labels: communications, technology, videos
—Mike @ 10:35
Flying wings that never land? - Sounds like sci-fi, but within five years, that's exactly what we might have circling around our own skies, according to this Avionews article.Labels: technology
—Mike @ 09:51
Phonautogram - The earliest audio recording ever made, from 1860, has been decoded. According to this NY Times article, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory "have unearthed a recording of the human voice, made by a little-known Frenchman, that predates Edison’s invention of the phonograph by nearly two decades." It's a bit scratchy, but you can hear the actual sound on that same web page. Amazing -- audio that predates the American Civil War.
On the other hand, not everyone takes it so seriously. Check out this story.Labels: haha, technology
—Mike @ 15:23
Remember the Holodeck on Star Trek? - Well, the VirtuSphere isn't quite the same thing, but it's a good start!The VirtuSphere is like an over sized hamster's exercise ball that immerses the user in a 3D virtual reality world.[Thanks, Mace]Labels: technology
—Mike @ 14:34
Digital TV For Free - If you're among those who will need one of those digital conversion boxes when the TV stations turn off their analog broadcasts early next year, this article tells you where to get the government-issued coupons and how to trade them in for converter boxes from EchoStar, at no additional cost. [Thanks, Mace]Labels: technology, TV
—Mike @ 22:12
Countdown to the digital TV cutover - There are about 13 months remaining until the FCC-mandated cutover to a new standard of television transmissions, which will make obsolete all the old-style (analog) TV sets that are still receiving free over-the-air telecasts with an antenna. The cutover date has slipped several times, but is now fixed at February 17, 2009. Leading up to that date, there will be a lot of publicity about what the cutover means to you and what you might need to do about it. A web site called DTVanswers.com has been established to provide information. The choices come down to:
- Obtain a coupon for $40 (maximum of two per household) toward the purchase of converter boxes that will become available soon, which will convert the new digital signals to something your old TV can understand
- Purchase a new TV (we just did that)
- Sign up for satellite or digital cable.
Labels: technology, TV
—Mike @ 18:39
It's rollable, it's foldable, it's... - the Readius, the world's first display device with a screen larger than the device itself, based on the technology of E Ink, who I've blogged about many times. They're also the folks behind the new Amazon Kindle eBook reader.Labels: technology
—Mike @ 22:34
You've seen those new LED Christmas lights? - They're showing up everywhere this season, and it's a great trend. I once blogged about LED-based lighting eventually replacing traditional room lighting, and now it looks like the first such products have become commercially available.Labels: green power, technology
—Mike @ 08:56
The latest in eBook technology - It's Amazon's new wireless reading device, called the Amazon Kindle. It uses E Ink's electronic paper technology to deliver an easy-to-read screen in any kind of light, doesn't need frequent recharging, and has instant access to hundreds of books and publications. Lots of informative videos on the product page.Labels: technology
—Mike @ 21:55
TV Flash drive - Here's an interesting idea: SanDisk is releasing a USB drive that can "carry television programs and videos from a computer for playback on TVs". I like it.Labels: technology, TV
—Mike @ 10:26
Texting vs. Morse Code - In a showdown between a "Morse coder" and "the fastest text messager in the country", who do you think would be able to transmit a message faster? Well, guess again, then watch this video. [Thanks, Bob]Labels: haha, radio, technology, videos
—Mike @ 21:03
Coming to a wall near you - Here's another one of those full-wall interactive display demonstration videos that show how we might be interacting with our display screens in the not-too-distant future. Cool stuff. [Thanks, Joe]Labels: technology, videos
—Mike @ 09:22
Thin is in - Sony has announced the world's first OLED TV, with an energy-efficient display a mere 3-mm wide. Check out this short video.
This story has some more details about their plans; they hope the first model will hit store shelves in just two months.Labels: technology, TV, videos
—Mike @ 08:51
USB Missile Launcher - So we hooked up one of these babies at the office today, and immediately came up with many possible uses for it. My boss wants to know if we could get one for everyone's desk that he could trigger with a special priority e-mail, in case he wasn't getting the results he needed from anyone in particular. And then, we could even hook up some motion detection technology to a bank of launchers, as demonstrated in this video clip. (Hmm, with a little face recognition added to that, the possibilities are endless! ;-) Thanks to Eric for the military equipment lease.Labels: haha, technology
—Mike @ 09:28
A universal communications device - Technology is changing so rapidly, especially in the area of communications, that hardware is having a hard time keeping up with the sometimes conflicting trends of obsolescence, convergence and miniaturization. Enter the SDR: software-defined radio, which could conceivably "do the job of all RF gadgets". Additional functionality could be downloaded as needed.Labels: radio, technology
—Mike @ 08:50
Offering hope in mine disasters - By next year, inventor and former Navy submarine technician Russell Breeding hopes to have ready an inertial sensor tracking device, a system that uses "microelectro mechanical sensors" to track miners within three meters of their location. With last week's double mining disasters, this would've come in very handy.Labels: currentEvents, technology
—Mike @ 15:12
It took me 6 months of research and procrastination - but I finally made a decision on what new digital camera to buy, to replace my 6-year-old 2-megapixel Olympus Ultra-Zoom. The winner is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50. While there's no such thing as a perfect camera, this model comes closest to the perfect compromise on all the features that are important to me.The best features of an SLR camera without having to lug around multiple lenses. I'm a happy camper.
- 10.1 megapixels
- Leica 12X optical zoom (even more at lower size pictures)
- 4x digital zoom
- Optical image stabilization
- Fully automatic or fully manual or customized combinations of both
- Any-angle viewscreen
- Manual twist rings for focus and for zoom, instead of slow motorized zooming
- etc., etc.
Labels: technology
—Mike @ 16:06
WiTricity - I like this idea -- using the concept of resonance to wirelessly transmit electrical power.Plugs and cables could become obsolete after scientists devised a way of recharging electrical devices ranging from laptop computers to lights from a distance. A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology made a 60-watt light bulb glow using electricity sent wirelessly between copper coils set seven feet apart. Scientists have known for years that electricity can be transferred without wires, but had struggled to find a practical and efficient way of making it work.They'll need to tweak its performance, though. It's still too inefficient for widespread use.Labels: technology
—Mike @ 09:15
High coolness factor - Check out this video from Popular Mechanics, demonstrating the "multi-touch" interface of surface computing. The possibilities look interesting...Labels: technology
—Mike @ 01:26
Here comes OLED - Sony has unveiled the world's first flexible, full-color OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display built on organic thin-film transistor (TFT) technology. The 2.5-inch prototype display shown in this video supports 16.8 million colors at a 120 x 160 pixel resolution, is 0.3 mm thick and weighs 1.5 grams!Labels: technology
—Mike @ 00:58
On the other hand, this may definitely catch on - Invisibiliity -- the real thing. As odd as it sounds, researchers are continuing to experience some breakthroughs in creating materials that may ultimately render things effectively invisible to human sight. Imagine the possibilities. (And like any technology, imagine the abuses.) Another example of science fiction pointing the way for reality.Labels: technology
—Mike @ 21:55
E-paper gets color - South Korean company LG Philips has announced the world's first full-page-sized color electronic-paper, "which works as a paper-thin, bendable viewing panel." Very interesting! [Thanks, Mace]Labels: technology
—Mike @ 19:44
Shift Happens - Spend a few minutes to think about how the world is changing around us, by watching this interesting short video, chock full of factoids. [Thanks, Bob]Labels: technology
—Mike @ 15:28
D-LinkTV - I recently had to replace my wireless router, but I'm still generally Happy with D-Link products. To help educate people about networking, they've now launched D-LinkTV, which offers a wide variety of videos to help us better understand home and business networking... I think that's a great idea.Labels: technology
—Mike @ 22:14
The HP Photosmart C3180 All-in-One - This is our new printer/scanner/copier for home, the first time we've ever replaced a printer. So far, so good -- easy to use, great quality, very versatile. (Not bad for 84 bucks!)Labels: technology
—Mike @ 21:00
Providing clean drinking water in the 21st Century... - ...may have just become a whole lot easier, due to an announcement about new ways to control water movement using carbon nanotube membranes.We have, at a very fundamental level, discovered that there is a new mechanism to control water transportDown the road, this technology has the potential for turning salt water into pure drinking water almost instantly, and for removing the tiniest of impurities.Labels: currentEvents, technology
—Mike @ 10:07
More? - There's additional reading available in the Archives.
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