Monthly Archives: April 2007

Google Translate is user enabled

Sometimes a company does something very innovative and you think… well, duh, why didn’t anybody else do something like that before.

Google translate does something that will have the same affect. There are many companies that do online, automatic translation of text. It’s been around for years. But since the good old days, when babelfish was the only translation service, the translation has always been quite poor. And even if you didn’t know the language from which you were translating, you new from the resulting translation into your language that it didn’t work well.

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Invisibility cloak a near reality?

Star Trek Romulan Ship -- CloakingResearchers at Purdue University have stepped into the world of Harry Potter, Star Trek and other sci-fi stories. Using mathematical theory developed in the United Kingdom in 2006, Purdue engineers have developed a way to cloak an object. Well, actually, they have developed a way to cloak an object that only contains a single color. The design currently only allows for the cloaking of a single wavelength and can make a red-ish wavelength “wrap around” an object so it appears as if the object isn’t there.

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Google personalizes online maps

Google recently announced a new feature for Google Maps. It’s called “My Maps”, but the name doesn’t really do it justice. This new feature now brings Google Maps a little closer to the functionality available in Google Earth [download]. Don’t get me wrong, Google Earth has so many more amazing features that it blows Maps out of the water, but it’s an installed desktop application.

The huge benefit of Maps is that you don’t need to install an application in order to use it. It works in any modern browser and is lightweight and quick.

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The beginning to the end of DRM?

For the first time ever, a major recording label has signed a deal with Apple iTunes Store to sell DRM-free digital music, although at a higher price. EMI holds the rights to many top recording artists including The Beatles. This is the first time a major recording label has agreed to sell digital music without digital rights management and it so happens to be a deal with the largest digital music store.
DRM and fair-use

There is a huge controversy over DRM, which limits the transfer and copying of digital multimedia files. In most situations, DRM limits what many consider “fair-use” of copyrighted materials.

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Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone!

Check the Wikipedia Easter article for some interesting information (with which I wasn’t all too familiar) on Easter. Sample interesting facts:

  1. The word “Easter” actually comes from the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess, Eostre.
  2. There were excommunications in the very early catholic church (pre-Nicaean Council) over calculating the date of Easter.
  3. In Serbian and Croatian, the name of Easter, “Uskrs,” means “Resurrection.”

Computers could end the world

A Quote from Nathanial Borenstein made me laugh:

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That’s where we come in; we’re computer professionals. We cause accidents.

So in other words, you need to be nice to us “computer professionals.”

OSC's Afterword to Empire

The audio version of Orson Scott Card’s latest book, “Empire” (reviewed here) contained an afterward where a lot of what he said really hit me as just common sense. But how he phrased it needs to be heard by any and all involved in politics. From the top level “Right wing crazies” and the “Leftist Commies” to the people who barely follow the political landscape.

After I listened to the book (and afterword), I really wanted a copy of the afterword, but couldn’t find it. So I sent a request to OSC through his ornery.org site to see if I could get a hold of the text. I never heard back, but when reading the last article on his blog, I noticed a new link to the side. “Read Orson Scott Card’s afterword to Empire” — sure enough, it was posted.

Seriously, everyone should read this afterword. Here’s a small excerpt (the last three paragraphs):

Or, maybe, we can just calm down and stop thinking that our own ideas are so precious that we must never give an inch to accommodate the heartfelt beliefs of others.

How can we accomplish that? It begins by scorning the voices of extremism from the camp we are aligned with. Democrats and Republicans must renounce the screamers and haters from their own side instead of continuing to embrace them and denouncing only the screamers from the opposing camp. We must moderate ourselves instead of insisting on moderating the other guy while keeping our own fanaticism alive.

In the long run, the great mass of people who simply want to get on with their lives can shape a peaceful future. But it requires that they actively pursue moderation and reject extremism on every side, and not just on one. Because it is precisely those ordinary people, who don’t even care all that much about the issues, who will end up suffering the most from any conflict that might arise.

Now go read the rest.

Design and build your own home — by yourself

Let’s play in the world of make believe for a while. Let’s pretend that you are in need of a new home. You want to build your own home. You’d like to design it by yourself without much in way of professional help. Now, here’s the kicker, you want to build the entire thing yourself as well, without construction knowledge or workers.

Ok… so is that possible? With the complexity of today’s homes, can you design and build your own home without the professionals? In todays world… yes!

Thanks to a couple UK companies, your dream could easily be a reality. Using 3D modeling on a computer, you design every aspect of your home, right down to the screw-hole placements. Then you can have your entire home “printed” in lumber. Then it’s delivered to your home. You put it together using standard household tools. If you can put together lego’s, you can put together a house.

For more info, check out posts from Core77 Design and Treehugger.

Free Internet Access from Google

Google TiSP KitToday Google announced an extremely innovative and revolutionary (and FREE) way to access the Internet. It’s called Google TiSP (Google Engineers call it Teaspoon). It leverages existing fiber-optic networks in your municipal sewage system.

Google will even send you a free TiSP kit. Installation appears quite simple. If you run into problems or have additional questions, just check out their FAQ (frequently asked questions).

They’re even working on an Enterprise version of TiSP:

We’re actively developing a higher-performance version of TiSP specifically tailored to small and medium-sized businesses, including 24-hour, on-site technical support in the event of backup problems, brownouts and data wipes.

Note: Be sure to recognize the date on which this post was published.