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Control your Roomba via Wii remote?
From the “People with too much time” files, we have a guy who modded his Roomba to handle commands given by the Wii remote. So, to vacuum his floor, he simply tilts and turns his remote in the desired direction. I have to ask… wouldn’t a manual vacuum make more sense?
Big WebOS roundup
While we’re waiting for Google to launch its own Google OS (if the rumours are true, of course), I’ve checked out 10 web operating systems and what they can do. Not many of them feel like finished and fully usable products, but there are some true gems among them.
Before now, I had no sweet clue that there were so many Web OS’ to choose from! Here is a big list for you to go through if you want to try something new.
Gamers Too Busy Actually Gaming To Notice In-Game Advertising
Last month a company came out with a method of studying effectiveness by tracking gamer eye-movement and physiological data during gameplay. The results of their first study are in, and it looks like sports gamers in particular couldn’t care less about in-game ads — likely because they’re too busy trying to drive, grab a rebound, or pummel their opponent senseless.
This seems like common sense I guess, but I still believe the ads shouldn’t be there in the first place. They may work in a few games, but not all. I’d hate to see the new ways they come up with, since these don’t seem effective so far.
James Brown Dies, 73
James Brown, the legendary R&B belter, a singer and songwriter who created a foundation for funk and provided the roots of rap, a man of many nicknames but a talent that can only be described as one of a kind, is dead. Brown died early Monday at Atlanta’s Emory Crawford Long Hospital of congestive heart failure, his agent said. He was 73.
James was certainly a legendary performer who inspired many of todays musicians. Even if you are not a fan of his style of music, you have to respect him for what he accomplished throughout his life. You can read more thoughts over on the CNN site.
Google Passes Yahoo as Second Most-Visited Web Site
Google Inc. displaced Yahoo! Inc. as the world’s second-most visited Web site in November and closed in on leader Microsoft Corp., a market researcher said today. Visitors to Google’s sites rose 9.1 percent to 475.7 million in November from a year earlier, while those to Yahoo sites rose 5.2 percent to 475.3 million, ComScore Networks Inc. said today. Both sites trail Microsoft, which had 501.7 million visitors, ComScore said.
With the rate that Google is growing, it shouldn’t be too much longer before they exceed Microsoft. They only have a 5% lead, so they are not exactly dominating.
Digital Media Winners and Losers of 2006
We thought that 2005 was the key year for digital media, because of the MGM v Grokster ruling. We thought, but are still not sure as the content industry’s victory in that case did not achieve its primary goal, to stop file sharing. Not only does online trading continue to increase, but other technologies have since made their impact clear. Below are this year’s success stories and not so successful stories in a continually turbulent online environment.
It’s no surprise that the winners include YouTube, Apple and MySpace. The losers are no surprise either, which include AllofMP3.com, Blu-Ray/HD-DVD, Sony BMG and DRM.
Wikipedia Founder Plans Search Engine to Rival Google
The founder of the vastly popular Web encyclopedia Wikipedia is planning on developing Wikiasari, an Internet search engine which will compete with Yahoo and Google. In an interview with The Times of London, Jimmy Wales mentioned that his web site search engine will utilize the same user-based technology that Wikipedia uses.
You need quite a lot of confidence to try to take on a search giant, but it’s not as though Wikipedia proved a failure. The idea behind Wikiasari (that name is horrible) is that human input into the backend should be more reliable than Googles advanced algorithms. I’m looking forward to seeing this one surface.
The Corporate Scrooge Contest Results
A contract consultant sends word that the company to which he is currently assigned recently sent out an e-mail to some 2,000-odd consultants. The company would give away two $100 gift cards—to two of the brave souls who would commit to work 80 hours between Dec. 18 and Dec. 31. As our correspondent noted: “Hey, if you work Christmas, we’ll put you in a pool of 2,000 other folks to maybe win a hundred bucks.”
You think your employer is shady with year-end bonuses? You may change your mind after reading what others are getting… or not getting.
AllofMP3.com Sued by Record Labels
Major record labels, including Arista Records, Warner Bros. Records, Capitol Records and UMG Recordings have launched a lawsuit against AllofMP3.com claiming that the Web site has been selling music in violation of copyright. The labels claim in the lawsuit that Russia-based Mediaservices, parent company of AllofMP3.com, profits off copyrighted music without paying any royalties to the holders.
This was bound to happen, but it will be interesting to see if AllofMP3 gets completely wiped out by it. Their luck hasn’t been good over the past few months, but it’s no surprise given their less than legit nature.
Has the Desktop Linux Bubble Burst?
In 2002, both KDE and GNOME released their last major revisions; KDE released KDE 3.0 on 3rd April, while GNOME followed shortly after with GNOME 2.0 on 27th June. For the Linux desktop, therefore, 2002 was an important year. Since then, we have continiously been fed point releases which added bits of functionaility and speed improvements, but no major revision has yet seen the light of day. What’s going on?
This is a very thought provoking article. I don’t really think that Linux desktops should be compared to Windows and OS X though. They all cater to a certain crowd, or at least seem to. I personally love KDE, and don’t see a real need for a new major version. Sure, it would be nice, but I care more about functionality as is.
Jeremy Allison Has Resigned from Novell to Protest MS Patent Deal
The legendary Jeremy Allison (of Samba fame) has resigned from Novell in protest over the Microsoft-Novell patent agreement, which he calls “a mistake” which will be “damaging to Novell’s success in the future.” His main issue with the deal, though, is “that even if it does not violate the letter of the licence, it violates the intent of the GPL licence the Samba code is released under, which is to treat all recipients of the code equally.” He leaves the company at the end of this month.
It’s great to see someone stick to their conviction, especially in this situation. It’s Novells loss, but apparently Googles gain.
Spam Volume Jumps 35% In November
Spam volume soared another 35% in November, an e-mail security vendor said Thursday, and the month saw spam tactics that reduced the efficiency of traditional anti-spam filters. “There’s been a huge increase in spam volume,” says David Mayer, a product manager at IronPort Systems, “from 31 billion spams a day on average in October 2005 to 63 billion in October 2006. But in November, we saw two surges that averaged 85 billion messages a day, one from Nov. 13 to 22, the other from Nov. 26 to 28.
85 Billion messages a day is difficult to fathom. You would think that numbers would decrease as laws are put into place, but it seems the exact opposite is happening. One reason for the huge boost is due to image based spam, and I know I personally get at least 20 stock market messages like this a day so I am not surprised there.
Counter-Strike in-game ads soon?
IGA Worldwide is announcing Tuesday that it has struck a deal with “Half-Life” developer Valve to provide in-game advertising in “Counter-Strike.” The shoot-em-up online game still generates 5 billion minutes of game play each month. That’s a lot of eyeballs staring at the screen, and advertisers want to reach them.
This is a huge win for Valve, considering the sheer amount of minutes that CSS players rack up. For the player however, I can’t imagine many being happy with such “intrusion”. It may be different if levels are specifically designed in a manner where ads will actually fit in. But none of the current levels would go well with ads, in my opinion. It’s going to be interesting to see how the community reacts to this news.
First look at Thunderbird 2.0
After many months of development, Thunderbird 2.0 is almost ready to debut. The Mozilla Foundation released the first beta of Thunderbird 2.0 last week, and I’ve been using it to manage my mail since then. The new release boasts tagging, history navigation, new mail alerts, improved extension support, and a number of other features. Thunderbird 2.0 won’t knock your socks off with exciting new features, but it’s a nice, gradual improvement over the Thunderbird 1.5 series.
If you use Thunderbird as your mail client, then there are numerous reasons to upgrade. I’ve been using it for the past few weeks and it runs well. The theme has been updated and it in itself is almost worth the upgrade.
Sony settles over rootkit
Sony BMG Music Entertainment will pay $1.5 million and kick in thousands more in customer refunds to settle lawsuits brought by California and Texas over music CDs that installed a hidden anti-piracy program on consumers’ computers. Not only did the program itself open up a security hole on computers, but attempts to remove the software by some customers also damaged the PCs.
I think it’s safe to say that Sony has paid out a lot more cash than they brought in this year. Hopefully this will secure future ridiculous copy protections on music we legally purchase.
Firefox 2.0.0.1 released
The award-winning Web browser is now faster, more secure, and fully customizable to your online life. With Firefox 2, we’ve added powerful new features that make your online experience even better.
This is mainly a huge bug fix update, but it also adds better Vista support. You can grab the latest version off the official site, or just wait for your version to initiate the update on it’s own.
Top 5 Strangest Laptop Mods
TecheBlog has yet another one of their top 5 lists, and this time they are looking at the strangest laptop mods. Included here is a Pong clock, laptop with wooden chassis and an iBook that fits into a notebook. The coolest one in my opinion is the laptop that’s powered by a pedal. You can get your workout while getting your work done and saving money by generating your own power!
Amazon Soon Opening DRM-free MP3 Store?
The company is apparently telling labels (politely, I’m sure) that it is only interested in selling DRM-free mp3s (meaning, once you download the song, it’s yours for whatever purpose you see fit, no more restrictions like you can burn only X amount of times or you can only have it reside on X computers, etc.). The second difference is that Amazon seems interested in offering variable pricing.
I have not used iTunes for quite a while so I cannot compare, but if Amazon plays their cards right then this could prove extremely successful. Although, I’d still like to see higher bitrates available. I think we’ve outgrown 128Kbps and 192Kbps long ago.
Wiimote Straps Result in Class Action Suit
Green Welling LLP filed a nationwide class action lawsuit on behalf of the owners of the Nintendo Wii against Nintendo of America, Inc., in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The class action lawsuit arose as result of the defective nature of the Nintendo Wii. In particular, the Nintendo Wii game console includes a remote and a wrist strap for the remote.
That answers the question that lawsuits can indeed get dumber. I am far from being a Wii fanboy, but these issues are ridiculous. How difficult is it to “hold” onto the remote while playing? I cannot seem to grasp who on Earth would need to completely let go of the remote during gameplay. If you do, you are probably -way- into your game.
CSS turns 10!
his year the World Wide Web Consortium proudly celebrates the ten years of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), the technology designers use to create attractive, economical, and flexible Web sites. “The design community has confirmed that using CSS promotes beauty while making it easier and less expensive to build sites, †said Bert Bos, W3C Style Activity Lead and one of the original co-authors of the specification that became CSS level 1, published on 17 December 1996.
Where would the web be without CSS? Back at 1996, that where! CSS has proven to be one of the most important parts of web design, and is what allows people to be creative and deliver some amazing looking templates. If you are unsure what CSS is, check out CSS Zen Garden for great examples.
Good moods? Less colds!
Frequently basking in positive emotions defends against colds regardless of how often one experiences negative emotions, say psychologist Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and his colleagues. They suspect that positive emotions stimulate symptom-fighting substances.
This doesn’t sound too far fetched at all. I don’t recall the last time I was in a seriously good mood with even a headache. So there you have it… keep a good mood and you will feel better. Who would have thought?
New Core 2 Processors Around the Corner?
It’s been a while since Intel last made notable updates to its desktop processor roadmap. Last month DailyTech revealed Intel is expected to launch a variety of new Core 2 Duo and Pentium E 2100 processors including refreshed Conroe based products next year. Intel’s latest desktop roadmap reveals more new processors and removes some previously reported models.
Looks like there is a 2.13GHz Q6400 on the way and should retail for around $450 after the Q6600 drops in price. There is also a slew of new E models that will be available, but they will not be seen until next summer.
Ray Tracing and Gaming
One technique that was used creating the images for those movies is called “ray tracingâ€. This is an alternative rendering technology compared to what actual graphic cards on modern PCs and consoles do. For many years ray tracing has only been used for offline-rendering and the generation of pictures for movies often took many days to calculate. Real-time ray tracing has been made possible with the OpenRT Ray tracing library.
PC Per has a great article taking a look at Ray Tracing in-depth. Anyone who has used a 3D design program knows what this is, but it’s not too often we see it’s effect in games. There are plenty of explanations and examples (even video) in the article.
Movie downloads coming to PSP
Sony is expected to launch a new video download service centered around its PSP handheld, according to multiple sources. Expected to arrive early in 2007, the service will allow PSP owners to download movies and other video content directly to their PCs; the content can then be moved to a Memory Stick for playback on the PSP. The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that a direct-to-PSP downloading option is also in the works.
With the UMD sales not doing so great, this may be the last breath of air that Sony is trying to push into the movie capabilities of the PSP. This could actually work though, since people could easily download a new movie and stream it to their PSP without leaving the house. Pricing is something I’m interested in seeing.
Wii Costs Nintendo $158 to Make
Japanese site Toyokeizai Online has a piece on the looking at the new consoles, with a distinct focus on the Nintendo Wii. The publication’s tear down of the console revealed parts from Broadcom, Qimonda, Samsung, Elpida and of course IBM and ATI. A Foxconn PCB print was found inside the console, pointing to the manufacturer. More interesting, however, is the tally for the cost of the components that make up the Wii.
This is actually pretty amazing, that Nintendo earns money off each console even though it’s cheap to begin with. That’s not something Microsoft nor Sony can claim.