Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Tid Bits
Both of these tid bits are from Gizmodo.
Solar Powered Backpack
backpack
Self explanatory! Well sort of. The purpose is to be able to plug in any gadget (not a laptop) and get it charged. I like the concept but it is a little pricey $230.
Toshiba Meta Brain TV
In my post on the future of media content delivery I mentioned the future tv's will have input/outputs for flash drive memory devices. I mentioned Elonex as a TV having these features but now Toshiba has one (not sure of its availabilty). The TV has "dual Ethernet, FireWire, and USB ports that allow you to connect to your home network to stream video from PCs and Network Attached Storage devices, or record video back to the PC or NAS hard drives". It also allows you to put video onto a SD cards via the SD card slot on the TV. This ties in very well with my early post. (Yep tooting my horn and buzz!!)
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Solar Powered Backpack
backpack
Self explanatory! Well sort of. The purpose is to be able to plug in any gadget (not a laptop) and get it charged. I like the concept but it is a little pricey $230.
Toshiba Meta Brain TV
In my post on the future of media content delivery I mentioned the future tv's will have input/outputs for flash drive memory devices. I mentioned Elonex as a TV having these features but now Toshiba has one (not sure of its availabilty). The TV has "dual Ethernet, FireWire, and USB ports that allow you to connect to your home network to stream video from PCs and Network Attached Storage devices, or record video back to the PC or NAS hard drives". It also allows you to put video onto a SD cards via the SD card slot on the TV. This ties in very well with my early post. (Yep tooting my horn and buzz!!)
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Liquid that Freezes when Heated
A French Physicists discovered a lquid that freezes when heated. PhysicsWeb article. The best part is that once it is cooled it becomes a liquid again. It is bizaro world! Not sure what it will/can be used for but how about on popsicles in the summer.
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New Links
Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends - very focused on the technology(not gadgets) but not the boring ho hum stuff. (blog)
Worthwhile Magazine - About work/life balance and having both be fulfilling. Sounds blah but it has some good post. (blog)
Technocapitalist - Entrpreneurship and Technology. (blog)
This three links can be found under the blog links on the rightside. If you have suggestions for links feel free to email me. gforst@hotmail.com
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Worthwhile Magazine - About work/life balance and having both be fulfilling. Sounds blah but it has some good post. (blog)
Technocapitalist - Entrpreneurship and Technology. (blog)
This three links can be found under the blog links on the rightside. If you have suggestions for links feel free to email me. gforst@hotmail.com
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Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Learing on PMPs
pmp learning
I have discussed Personal Media Players as the next MP3 players but now there is a use besides entertainment, learning. A Korean company, Koreaedu, has teamed up with IRiver to create tutorials for Korean students taking the Korean college entrance exam. Now Korean students are more advanced than American students in gadgets but I could see this as a great application. Think business man attends a conference and at that conference they provide you video that compliments the speakers and subjects. You could argue this can be done now with a laptop, yes, but with a PMP you are allowed more freedom in viewing the material.
It may not catch on here but it is fun to discuss.
Links: Korean Times article, Money not art blog post
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Business Efficency thru Smart Dust
smartmesh
"the concept of 'smart dust,' or grids of very small wireless communication nodes dubbed 'motes,' which permit to monitor the environment" The technology is here and as tends to be the trend it must be applied. I have been reading things about "smartdust" for about a year now and it is good to see it come to fruition. Essentially there are small pieces of "dust" that monitor the environment (software tells them what to monitor) via sensors. Then the information is passed along from "dust" (node) to "dust" until it reaches the central monitoring system and from there changes can be made to the environment to create more efficiency. The industries that can utilize this are manufacturing, security, agriculture, defense etc... I can't wait to see what happens. Lots of future buzz here.
Links: Dust Networks, MIT Tech Review Article
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Friday, September 17, 2004
Cell Phone Scribble
755
Not a whole lot of information out about the new Phillips 755 phone. But it appears you can write on the screen, ala a PDA. Then you can send either your message or picture to a friend via MMS. It is a little gimmicky but I could see teenagers loving it. It is just another little thing that cell phone companies are adding to keep us interested. Personally I will pass on the phone but I like the idea for an option on a PDA/cell phone.
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Google Changing The Way You Search For A Job!
google ad
Google has taken the job hunt to a new level with this math problem that engineers and logarithm lovers would understand. The above ad says "(first 10 digit prime found in consecutive digits of e).com". Once you know that answer you go to that website and there is another math problem and once that is figured out you are taken to a job description/application page. Google is essentially weeding out bad applicants and letting the best come to them. Obviously, Google wants someone that is good will logarithms to help improve or create a search engine. Now will it payoff? Maybe.
They are saving time by not having to sift through hundreds of resumes but they are paying for the advertising. The cost of the billboards versus the time to hire someone the old fashioned way (sift through resumes, interview, re-interview etc) probably cancels each other out. If that is the case, the money is not an issue and Google gets more qualified candidates in the door faster.
This type of job searching can only work for very specific fields and I would love to see other companies try it.
More info at NPR.
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Thursday, September 09, 2004
New Improved Blackberry
New Blackberry
PC Magazine has written up a review of the new Blackberry 7100t. Lots of improvements - new keyboard, GSM, bluetooth etc. Missing some things you would like to see but not extremely important like video play back and mp3 play back. I have been watching Blackberrys for awhile waiting for these little improvements. Now I will wait for it to come down in price from $199.99 from T-Mobile. Not a bad price but checkout the prices of the older Blackberrys on Amazon, after rebates the price is nice. Hopefully Blackberry can start producing newer versions faster. This one is a good start.
The buzz around phones/pda's continues to grow. It will be interesting to see what people perfer.
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Thursday, September 02, 2004
Plug and Play the Classics
plug and play ms pacman
These plug and play devices have been out for a little while now but the classic games keep coming. The premise is you buy the joystick above that is preloaded with numerous games and plug it into your tv's input video and input audio. It is real simple. The one in the picture has Ms Pacman, Pole Position, Galaga, Xevious and Mappy. Three classics and two ok games. But for $20 you can't beat it. Other games out are Pacman, Dig Dug, Pong and many more. Check out Jakks Pacific for all the games and they are sold at Radio Shack, Target and other fine stores.
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Wednesday, September 01, 2004
The Future of Media Delivery
I recently read a post by Mark Cuban on his blog, the blogmaverick, about the future of media delivery. In it he is focused on Hi Definition media delivery but that is because he is heavily invested in HDTV. But in the post he discusses using USB flash drives to carry his DVD's around. He copied a couple of DVD's onto a USB flash drive and took them on trip with him. He said it was flawless, just as good as a DVD, but smaller and unscratchable.
Now to fit one DVD on a flash drive you have to by a 512mb drive which currently cost around $50. But the whole idea is that the cost of these drives will soon be nothing and these drives come in sizes over 1 gig. With the meshing of the TV and the computer it is only a matter of time before a USB port is on your TV. (One company has already Elonex.) A USB port as the new DVD player? The shear portability is amazing but worrying about scratches would be a thing of the past.
So think about purchasing "Top Gun" on a USB flash drive, dropping it in your pocket, getting on a plane, popping the drive on your laptop and entering the danger zone. (corny i know)
To show you how much buzz there is around this idea here are two more articles using the technology to deliver media content over a USB flash drive.
1- USB Flash Drives To Carry Video Messages From Military Personnel To their Families
Title covers it.
2- Kiosk allows music fans to download the concert onto a USB 2.0 drive
This covers music showing the use of the drive is not limited to film but any digital media.
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Now to fit one DVD on a flash drive you have to by a 512mb drive which currently cost around $50. But the whole idea is that the cost of these drives will soon be nothing and these drives come in sizes over 1 gig. With the meshing of the TV and the computer it is only a matter of time before a USB port is on your TV. (One company has already Elonex.) A USB port as the new DVD player? The shear portability is amazing but worrying about scratches would be a thing of the past.
So think about purchasing "Top Gun" on a USB flash drive, dropping it in your pocket, getting on a plane, popping the drive on your laptop and entering the danger zone. (corny i know)
To show you how much buzz there is around this idea here are two more articles using the technology to deliver media content over a USB flash drive.
1- USB Flash Drives To Carry Video Messages From Military Personnel To their Families
Title covers it.
2- Kiosk allows music fans to download the concert onto a USB 2.0 drive
This covers music showing the use of the drive is not limited to film but any digital media.
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