Seadragon, zoom in on your life

December 31st, 2008

It’s just another really well-done implementation of an old idea. Microsoft Live Labs has managed to execute another neat tech called Seadragon, allowing you to zoom in smoothly and seamlessly, getting more and more detail from an image. This is definitely the sort of thing that, can ’splode your mind, given time. The mobile version is even more impressive, allowing you to close in on any city, from a map of the world.

Tags: applications, cool, gallery, innovative, microsoft, mobile, photography, photos, seadragon

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 1:09 pm and is filed under newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Photosynth, stitching together environments, not photos

December 31st, 2008

Imagine what it would be like to have a photo gallery that you could place together, and make a walkthrough. Think of the ability to make a panoramic photo, but now step in to the picture, change the angle, look around. Photosynth is unfortunately Windows-only for now (thanks, Microsoft), but the concept behind it will surely inspire many to take it to other levels.

Tags: cool, gallery, innovative, microsoft, photo, photography, Photosynth, photosynth.net, technology

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 12:51 pm and is filed under newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Talk to Google.

November 14th, 2008

Well, they’re not the only ones, but they’re definitely the ones to watch. Or.. Talk to?

Google has been working on (among many other projects) searching their insanely large libraries using spoken words. Their iPhone app will take speech queries and return results for you. Find out more about speech-driven iPhone searches with google.

I haven’t seen it show up yet as an update on my iPhone, but the NY Times is expecting it any minute now.

Tags: Google, iphone, search, search engine, SEO, speech, speech recognition, talk

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 11:30 pm and is filed under newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Google announces Chrome web browser

September 2nd, 2008

The beta is to start with Windows-only, but there’s a Mac and Linux version in the works as well. Word is that it’s Open Source, stable, fast, etc. etc. etc.

Obviously, it will integrate well with the web apps that Google has been making available to its account-holders, but one hopes that this isn’t the start of another standards-flouting browser war.

Read the details about Google’s new browser (In a comic, no less) from the source.

Tags: browser, chrome, Google, open source

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 12:18 am and is filed under newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Firefox Ubiquity - letting language control your technology, not the other way around

September 1st, 2008

The internet is beyond a fad. Of that, there’s no doubt. It’s a powerful tool, and it all centers around communication. The ease of using the medium isn’t always up to par, however, and so it’s only the geeks that seem to be on the ball when it comes to the sharing, storing, comparing and broadcasting.

With the advent of blogs, social networks like facebook, mashup sites, and instant notification concepts like RSS, that’s all changing.

There’s a great project in the works that takes it a step further, putting all of these tools at your fingertips, and making it easy to use everyday language, too.

Take a brief look at Ubiquity for Firefox in this great intro video by Aza Raskin, and then, take a deeper look, if you like.

Tags: Aza Raskin, Firefox, Humanized, mozilla, open source, Raskin, ubiquity

This entry was posted on Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 1:46 pm and is filed under newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8 beta

August 28th, 2008

Beta software is still getting the kinks worked out, but this is a good way to check if a browser is right for you. The track record so far hasn’t been stellar for the big corporation, but, slow as it usually is to the game, they haven’t taken any huge steps back, lately.

We’ll download this and see, and if you want to do the same for yourself, head on over to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 Beta page.

Tags: beta, IE8, microsoft

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 9:09 am and is filed under newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Quebec group, “FACiL” is taking the government to the courts for not considering Open Source solutions

August 28th, 2008

The group essentially says that the Quebec government ignores the choices available when making purchases, wasting resources and dollars on software that requires expensive license fees to be paid. Open Source software has been successfully used in many government and corporate settings throughout the globe, and there’s no reason it should not be considered when software is being evaluated.

Visit the group’s official site, or a slightly friendlier summary by Michael Geist.

Tags: canada, FACiL, politics, quebec

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 9:02 am and is filed under newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

New Zealand Judge bans online publishing of accused’s names

August 25th, 2008

You heard it. Judge David Harvey ruled today that online media, and only online media was banned from publishing the names of two men accused of murder. His reasoning behind it was to stop online searches from turning up their names in the future, should the pair be found innocent.

Television and print are fine to name names, it’s only ‘online’ being singled out here, so questions come to mind as to how a scan of the newspaper would be treated, or a stream of the nightly news?

Read about the story online at the New Zealand Herald’s website. Apparently, you’ll have to go out and buy the dead-tree version, or tune into TV land to get the full story.

Tags: censorship, internet, new zealand, politics

This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 6:05 pm and is filed under newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Bell Canada trying to edge out the (not-so-little) little guys

August 7th, 2008

Bell Canada is moving to limit other ISPs from offering a useful alternative to bandwidth-shaping and a future of usage charges. The throttling that they inflict on their own users is trickling down to other ISPs like Teksavvy, reducing them to the role of Sympatico resellers, essentially. This means Bell, not the ISP, can control many of the usage policies and offerings.

Tags: bandwidth throttling, bell, canada, internet, ISP, Teksavvy, usage charges

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 1:14 pm and is filed under newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Women Comprise 40 Percent of U.S. Gamers

August 2nd, 2008

Surprising, but we should know better - it may have been kids’ stuff when the industry was in its infancy, but people grow up and many gamers are adult women.

Videogame-playing teenage boys are vilified by politicians and distraught parents, but with the average gamer age being 35 and 94 percent of parents being present when games are purchased or rented by kids, it’s time to rethink that attitude.

Read the full ESA press release.

Tags: ESA, gamers, girls, politics, video games, women

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 8:39 pm and is filed under DidYouKnow, newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Scrabulous, we barely knew ye. Long live Wordscraper!

July 31st, 2008

Ok, so that’s a horrible mix of misquotes, but the important thing is that the makers of Scrabulous haven’t left us to fend for ourselves when it comes to word-games online in a certain social network (that’s Facebook, if you’re too geeky to be social). Their new offering is Wordscraper, and it’s decent. I think the things they did right go beyond making Hasbro’s legal team angry, and I wish them good success. There’s more discussion on Slashdot, if you care for that sort of thing.

Tags: facebook, hasbro, Scrabble, Scrabulous, Wordscraper

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 10:15 pm and is filed under newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Delicious dropped the dots

July 31st, 2008

del.icio.us dropped the dots today, and they’ve got a brand spanking new interface. It used to be an eyesore, but the tool was so useful, people just muddled through it. No more muddling, they’ve got a great new face on a solid offering.

More about delicious.com at mashable.com

Tags: bookmarks, del.icio.us, News, social media

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 8:59 pm and is filed under newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

May 25th is Towel day

July 15th, 2008

To celebrate a hoopy frood who knew where his towel was at, May 25th is towel day. It’s still a bit far away, but all self-respecting geeks should mark their calendars and be prepared like no other, with towel close at hand, to show respect for a wonderful, witty, prolific and insightful man.

RiP, Douglas Adams, 1952-2001.

Tags: Douglas Adams, HHGTTG, towel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 11:10 pm and is filed under DidYouKnow, newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There’s a party for Firefox!

June 13th, 2008

There’s a party for the launch of Firefox 3. This Tuesday, if you haven’t already, consider making the switch to a standards-compliant browser, with a wonderful, supportive community.

Tags: announcement, Firefox, mozilla, party

This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 4:01 pm and is filed under newsBytes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.