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Category Archives: Technology

Thoughts and articles that relate to ever growing world of technology

How many of us thought you could buy an R2-D2 heliodisplay during our lifetime?

R2D2 Heliodisplay

Well, now you can. IO2 Technology has officially created the marvel.

Heliodisplay Showing Car

The Heliodisplay Free Space Display is capable of displaying any video source in high-resolution without the need for a screen. You can walk around, or even through, the floating image. The best part, however, is that you can interact with the object. No longer will we be limited by touch screens. Your finger can act like the cursor without any need for special gloves. Possible uses include advertising, entertainment, design, teleconferencing, and hiding secret messages that could be used to save the galaxy.

Perhaps, George Lucas knew what was really going on…

Modified PriusTired of spending $2.85 on gas every other day? Perhaps, you should invest in a Toyota Prius hybrid and a soldering iron.

Ron Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, modified the electrical system in his Prius to achieve an incredible efficiency of 250 miles per gallon. With $3,000 and a few months of tinkering, he added a ‘plug-in’ feature to his car that allows him to store energy while it is parked in his garage.

While research scientists around the globe are trying to find the cure for HIV, the answer might be right in the biodiversity at our local zoo. Scientists in northern Australia have discovered that a crocodile’s immune systems kills the destructive virus. Not only deadly to HIV, crocodile serum destroys a wide range of bacteria including those resistant to penicillin, such as golden staph. The animal’s immune system might actually be too strong for a human body and may need to be synthesized for our consumption. The scientists say it could take years, however, before anything is ready for market.

Crocodile

iStampedeWhat do get when you combine a mob of over 1,000 people and a sale for $50 Apple iBooks? An iStampede!

Last Tuesday, a rush to purchase cheap laptops from the school system in Richmond, VA, turned into a violent stampede. CNN states:

People threw themselves forward, screaming and pushing each other. A little girl’s stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd.

Next time anyone says Apple users are more sensible or intelligent than PC users…

Check out the video here.

Remote Controlled WomanHave you ever wished you had a remote control to guide your boyfriend or girlfriend? Well, now you can. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone labs have created a headpiece and remote control that can be used to control the movement of another person. The video is hilarious! I wonder where I can get one of these for Christmas?

Brice MellenThink you’re good at video games? Maybe it’s time you went up against Brice Mellen of Lincoln, Nebraska. What makes Brice so special? He’s blind.

Blind since birth due to Leber’s disease, Mellen sharpened his skills for many years through patience, memorizing key joystick operations, and listening to audio cues. Beginning with “Space Invaders” and “Asteroid,” he now plays modern combat games. Learning to play video games without sight was anything but easy. “He enjoyed trying to play, but he wasn’t very good at first,” says his father. “But he just kept on trying… He’s broken a lot of controllers.”

Brice spends his time hanging out at the Dog Tags Gaming Center in Lincoln. Apparently, people will come in and challenge him, expecting an easy win, just to get their heads handed to them in Soul Caliber 2. With only a year left of high school to go, Brice plans on attending college. What might he be studying? Video game design, of course!

Next time you’re stuck on a hard level of Halo 2, imagine doing it blind! You can read the full stories at CNN and TheOmahaChannel.

Thanks to J-Love for sending me the original article. If anyone is interested in challenging Brice, it’s pretty close to my place in Omaha. Road trip?

Microsoft DancersYesterday, Microsoft Corporation launched a new program designed to prevent people from updating pirated versions of software. According to InformationWeek, Microsoft estimates that about 12 million machines in the United States and 13 million in China run illegal copies of Windows XP. In order to crack down on this problem, they have created a program called Genuine Advantage that supposedly sniffs out pirated software on someone’s PC. They require that this program be run before installing any updates, including those to Windows Media Player, DirectX, and Internet Explorer. Microsoft has been working on this solution for 11 months.

How long did it take to crack? Less than 24 hours.

On BoingBoing today, a one-line JavaScript hack was posted. All you need to do is cut and paste it into the address bar of the browser and everything works. As an AJAX web designer, I spend the majority of my days programming in PHP and JavaScript. I can tell you that we double check any security requests on both the client’s computer and on our server. The fact that a JavaScript hack works shows how pitiful Microsoft’s attempts at security really are.

It should not come as a surprise that Microsoft is poor at security. It has been plaguing them for years and has been a major concern since 2003 when major bugs appeared in Windows XP. Even last summer, the US Department of Homeland Security came out with security concerns about Internet Explorer and recommended that users switch to alternative browsers.

Oh, Microsoft….

Note: As I write this blog, I am watching NASA TV and they are having issues getting Microsoft Outlook to work on ISS. What do they recommend doing? Reboot!

Microsoft is at it again. Trying to keep up with Google, they just launched their own map website, Visual Earth, to compete with Google Maps. It is interesting to see how Google defines the direction the web will be going and it will be neat to see how the competition between the two creates new features.

Upon inspection of the two websites, I find that Google’s is still easier and cleaner to use. On my computer, the maps are rendered more quickly and the click-and-drag scrolling is much smoother. Microsoft’s maps do allow zooming using the scroll button which is cool but, while I would like to use this feature, it is too slow and choppy to be comfortable.

The final reason I still like Google’s maps better are their up to date high-resolution satellite images. Microsoft’s are still black and white and most are still from the early 1990’s. One rumor going around was that Microsoft had erased Apple’s HQ off of their map. In reality, the pictures were so old, Apple’s primary campus had not been built yet. Here are the maps to compare: Google, MSN.

Google's map of Apple's HQ
Google’s website looking at Apple’s Headquarters

MSN's map of Apple's HQ
Microsoft’s website looking at where Apple’s Headquarters should be

I’d be curious to know what other people think of the two.

From 3:00pm on Tuesday afternoon until midnight of Wednesday, I spent over 26 hours coding an awesome piece of JavaScript that bakes navigation back into AJAX applications with ease. I’ll talk more about this later. Instead, I want to rant why it took me so long to do. It is actually just a small piece of code, albeit a powerful one. The main problem that plagued me is the one that plagues all web developers in the world: Internet Explorer.

Unlike all other browsers on the market (Firefox, Opera, Safari), Microsoft does not believe that they need to follow international internet language and functionality standards. I am sure this arrogance does not come as a surprise to many of you. No one would disagree that Bill Gates is one of the most influential people in the world due to his money. His money, however, did not come with clean hands.

Even in the recent weeks, IBM and Microsoft finally settled a 2-year long lawsuit between the two. Back in the mid-1990’s, Microsoft used its growing influence to bully IBM and prevent the development and success of it OS/2 operating system and SmartSuite desktop application suite. And just recently, Go Computer filed suit against Microsoft for similar charges. Back in the 1980’s, Microsoft used its influence to curb the financial backing of Go Computer and prevent hardware manufacturers from using their operating system. There have been plenty more antitrust cases, but very few have the money to compete with Microsoft in the judicial system.

It is clear that Microsoft is founded on antitrust actions and bullying. Nothing makes this case more clear than Google. For almost 30 years, no one has been able to compete on par with the operating system giant, but this one small company based on innovation has done just that. By focusing on innovation in an area Microsoft could not bully them (the Internet), Google has created an empire that is leaving its rival in the dust.

The last six months have proven this fact. Almost a year after Google came out with their desktop search tool, Microsoft came out with their own. After Google began not only mapping the world but releasing its software and mapping sites for anyone to use, Microsoft tried to compete with their own products. After Google released their AJAX code, Microsoft came out claiming they would do the same.

Honestly, Microsoft just cannot keep up. Does this bigger competitor make them gain a little humility and realize they need to change their strategies? It does not seem so. In a recent interview on News.com, Arthur Sorkin, a national wiz on operating systems, talks about the times Microsoft tried to hire him. Upon inviting him to their headquarters, they tried to quiz him on technology rather than try to sell him on the company. As to be expected, he turned them down.

This same corruption spreads to Microsoft’s software. Just recently, they have been trying to acquire Claria, formerly called Gator, and well know for its pop-up ads and software that tracks people on the internet. Claria’s GAIN spyware is one of the most prominent (if not the most prominent) spyware on the internet. All major spyware removal programs categorize it as needing to be removed or quarantined. Microsoft’s anti-spyware software did the same until recently. Now, its software recommends that the user ‘ignore’ it. In other words, Microsoft will take off all spyware software on your computer except theirs. This blog has a nice description and screen shots.

I know that most of you reading this are doing so in Microsoft Windows. I will not recommend running out and installing Linux, a much sturdier operating system. That day will come. Instead, I will set my sites on the reasons I began writing this post: Internet Explorer. Much of this Microsoft angst has been fueled by my frustrations with this browser’s lack of standards and attempts to do things its own, non-innovative way.

Internet Explorer is an insecure, weak, and problematic browser. At this time last year, the Department of Homeland Security issued an official document recommending that users not use Internet Explorer. Since that time, we have even seen books written on why not to use Internet Explorer. (“Don’t Click on the Blue E!” from O’Reilly)

I recommend that if you are reading this in Internet Explorer, please download and try Firefox. Not only is it faster and more secure, it includes many more features than IE like tabbed browsing and built in RSS. It is also much harder for spyware to embed itself into Firefox.

Good luck and happy browsing!