October 21, 2004
Open the pod bay door Hal.
AP Technology via Yahoo!:
The use of robots around the home to mow lawns, vacuum floors, pull guard duty and perform other chores is set to surge sevenfold by 2007, says a new U.N. survey, which credits dropping prices for the robot boom.The increase in domestic robots coincides with record orders for industrial robots, the U.N.'s annual World Robotics Survey adds.
October 19, 2004
BitTorrent “swarming distribution”
It's a distributed solution. Technology Review website:
BitTorrent was created three years ago by programmer Bram Cohen, who came up with the idea while working on an open source content-distribution project called Mojo Nation. BitTorrent relies on a concept called “swarming distribution,” in which files such as movies and songs aren’t transferred in one piece from one person’s hard drive to another. Rather, small bits of a file are pulled from many users’ hard drives and reassembled by the program on the requester’s computer.
October 18, 2004
Avoiding interruptions
Ole Eichorn wrote this over a year ago. But it's still a very interesting analysis on how to resist interruptions, particularly by email.
One of the key attributes of email is that it queues messages. Unlike face-to-face conversation and 'phone calls, people can communicate via email without both paying attention at the same time. You pick the moments at which you pay attention to email. But many people leave their email client running continuously. This is the biggest baddest reason why email hurts your productivity. If you leave your email client running, it means anyone anytime can interrupt what you're doing. Essentially they pick the moments at which you pay attention. (Even some random spammer who is sending you a crappy ad for a get-rich scheme.) This is bad.
[Thanks Boing Boing]
Burt Rutan on what's next.
MGA points us to this nice interview with Burt Rutan over on Space.com:
“Look at the progress in 25 years of trying to replace the mistake of the shuttle. It’s more expensive…not less…a horrible mistake,” Rutan said. “They knew it right away. And they’ve spent billions…arguably nearly $100 billion over all these years trying to sort out how to correct that mistake…trying to solve the problem of access to space. The problem is…it’s the government trying to do it.”
October 16, 2004
Google Desktop Search
This only runs on Windows, so I can't evaluate it, but it's been getting a lot of good buzz on the net.
Google Inc. on Thursday became the first tech heavyweight to tackle the daunting task of uncluttering computers, introducing a program that quickly scours hard drives for documents, e-mails, instant messages and past Web searches.
October 15, 2004
Flash application development.
After reading my post about Flash as a web-development platform, TECHPopuli pal AlexR called my attention to this open-source, free, flash application development environment. Laszlo: "Now serving rich Internet applications baked with open source goodness".
BTW, I think I know the origin of the name. Do you?
Progress
Kurzweill.net reports...
Foresight Institute has appointed Dr. Peter Diamandis, Chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation, to lead Foresight's Feynman Grand Prize Steering Committee.
Although it could probably be overused, the idea of development prizes to motivate research is a great thing. It's led to many past achievements, and the X-Prize is a great example of its potential.
October 14, 2004
Take 'em or leave 'em
I'm surrounded by people who love cats. So I will direct your attention to this with no further comment from me.
Apple intros new small stores plan
MacCentral via Yahoo!:
At a private viewing in Palo Alto, Calif., Apple Computer Inc. on Thursday unveiled its new "mini" retail store design. The new stores will be opening this Saturday at 10 a.m. in Palo Alto, CA; San Jose, CA; Santa Rosa, CA; Tukwila, WA; Bridgewater, NJ; and Rockaway, NJ.The mini retail stores will give Apple the opportunity to locate in places that, until now, have been too small to fit a tradition retail location.
October 13, 2004
What we wanted Java to be.
People are starting to do some really interesting and cool things with Flash as an online development platform.
See this demo of a drawing app.
And my new most favorite site, flickr.com, has a very impressive pic organizer, and their chat environment, FickrLive (I couldn't find a generic link to this, but look in the lower right of your People page).
I bet there's more that I haven't found yet.
It's an honor just to be nominated.
The Robot Hall of Fame:
Five robots from science and science fiction, representing the highest accomplishments in robotic achievement and creativity were inducted into Carnegie Mellon University's Robot Hall of Fame: ASIMO, ASTRO BOY, C-3PO, Shakey, and Robby, the Robot.Representatives of each robot accepted the honors on behalf of the inductees...
[Crossposted to &c.]
October 12, 2004
Much better color
Ever since I've had this Powerbook (aka wallstreet), and especially since upgrading it to OS X, I've been very unhappy with the screen's color qualities.
The contrast & color saturation was different from app to app, and seldom satisfactory in any case.
At the suggestion of an article in TidBITS, I just downloaded and did a calibration with SuperCal. What a difference.
The calibration process was similar to the one that the Display Control Panel takes you through. But there seem to be more steps/measurements. And the result is much more nicer looking that I can ever remember seeing on this monitor.
iPod for pics too?
Is Apple Computer Inc. fine-tuning an enhanced iPod with roughly 50 percent more storage and a color screen to display photos?
The space tourism industry: Big business
AvWeb reports on a respected study done by Futron Corp.:
Among Futron's findings: The overall space tourism market could generate revenues in excess of $1 billion per year by 2021; suborbital space tourism has the potential for 15,000 passengers and $700 million in revenues per year by 2021; and orbital space tourism could attract 60 passengers and $300 million in revenues per year by 2021. "Futron worked very hard over the course of several months to objectively and accurately analyze the space tourism market," said Phil McAlister, director of Futron's Space & Telecommunications Division.
Mac IT at MacWorld Expo
MacCentral via Yahoo!:
IDG World Expo on Tuesday announced that its upcoming Macworld Conference & Expo San Francisco 2005 show will feature the return of the MacIT Conference. This conference track offers in-depth public training on Apple's forthcoming "Tiger" operating system and its implications for Information Technology (IT) professionals.
October 07, 2004
Howard Stern moving to satellite radio
How about podcasting?
AP Entertainment via Yahoo!:
Howard Stern has long had two words for the Federal Communications Commission — and in 15 months, he can finally utter them on the air. The self-proclaimed "King of All Media," perhaps the most influential radio voice of the last 20 years, is shifting his salacious act to satellite radio and freeing himself from the increasingly harsh glare of federal regulators.
October 06, 2004
Can you hear me now? Good.
Technology Review website:
It is easy to tell whether a voice heard over the phone is that of a person or a computer. This is a good indication that scientists still don't fully understand how the human voice works.Researchers at King's College London and Phonologica Ltd. are using mathematical tools from quantum physics to address the problem. They have found that the vocal tract shapes sound waves in a way that is more complicated than conventional wisdom tells.
...
The researchers' concise model of the physics of speech could play a significant role in improving telecommunications, speech recognition and speech synthesis technologies.
October 04, 2004
Nonsense!
Back in July, in a presentation at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, about the first SS1 flight to space, Burt Rutan was asked a question:
One audience member asked Rutan what advice he had for designers.“Try different things,” he said. “There are breakthroughs that seem like nonsense at first. The way you make breakthroughs is by taking a chance on things that at first seem like nonsense.”
SpaceShipOne Live Notes
I'll be adding to this post over the next few hours, with my notes on the flight.
9:50 ET -- The White Knight with SS1 underneath just took off. It will now be about 45-60 mins until they reach the height to release SS1.
10:08 -- Halfway to the air-launch altitude.
10:12 -- It is much more satisfying to have uninterrupted coverage of the flight. They probably had this Science Channel stream last week, but I missed it.
One minor note. Who is this woman anchoring the coverage? She hasn't said anything outrageous (yet?), but is seems clear that she's not an aviation person. I'm not sure why you wouldn't get an aviation person, or at least a licensed GA pilot, to anchor this kind of thing.
10:23 -- Science Channel is reporting that they are about 15 minutes from release.
10:34 -- Working hard to climb the final few thousand feet to the release altitude. It could be any moment now.
10:43 -- CNN is now saying 5 more minutes.
10:49 -- Release!
10:52 -- Feathering has begun. "Unofficially in space now." 350K
10:55 -- The Science Channel just went to a commercial in the middle of re-entry!!! Watching CNN now.
11:04 -- CNN is reporting that SS1 reached 368,000 feet. That would not only win the X-Prize, but it breaks the old record for the highest ever flown by the X-15 crafts.
11:13 -- Touchdown.
11:30 -- Brian Binnie preparing to talk to the crowd.
11:34 -- Lots of people on the stage. Diamandis, Allen, Burt, Binnie, Branson (!), Blakey, the Ansaris. But where's Mike Melvill?
11:40 -- Ah, there's Mike.
SpaceShipOne Xprize flight #2
The flight is scheduled to begin around 10am eastern time this morning.
The X-Prize folks are showing full coverage in a webcast on their website. That coverage is also being broadcast on the Science Channel, which is 227 on my Comcast system.
As a backup, CNN has had pretty good drop-in coverage of past flights.
October 01, 2004
Netflix via TiVo
Online DVD rental service Netflix and digital video recorder maker TiVo on Thursday said they would jointly develop a product to download movies over the internet that could mark a revolution in home entertainment.
My questions is what movies will be available this way. Does TiVo think they can deliver ANY DVD this way? Can they? I would say that it would requires separate specific rights... Ah, here it is, later in the story:
TiVo Chief Executive Mike Ramsay told Reuters that Netflix would arrange movie licensing from Hollywood studios and TiVo would focus on the product technology. He said the product would not be available this year, but provided no details on an expected launch date.
I wonder how accommodating the movie industry will be to this? What will be the pricing? And what will the copy protection (usage restrictions) be?
Nikon D70 Review
Very detailed review with many reader comments on the Nikon D70 SLR digital camera.
HDTV on your PC for $199
This only works on a Windows machine (for now?) but we can hope it's the first of many.
Video gurus ATI have come up with a complete package that morphs your PC and monitor into a true high-definition TV for less than 200 bucks. You have a computer, right? And you have a PC monitor (with a picture tube or a flat-screen LCD), right? You’re well on the way to watching HDTV in your home.