During my casual news scanning, I saw two interesting articles which I thought are worth commenting here. One of them is an interesting program, and the other is a new type of network. Here goes:
1. Gonein60's (via Lifehacker)
Quite a name, right? What does it do? It allows you to un-close your accidentally closed programs. Say you are working on an important doc, and you accidentally close your word processor. Two things follow: the extreme frustration at losing your unsaved work, and regret. Not now. Use Gonein60's. Essentially, what it does it that it hides your closed windows for a duration of time, instead of closing them immediately. After this delay, the windows are then closed. During this delay, you can un-close those closed windows.
Note that the site from which you download Gonein60's contain LOTS of useful windows programs, such as one to dim the screen on inactivity, to disable the close button of certain windows, to mute on idle, to make windows transparent, add toolbars and much more. Feel free to explore. It's really a great site with lots of useful tools. Here's the site.
2. BAN (Body Area Network) (via Arstechnica)
It's now official. IEEE has formed a work group for devising the 802.15.6 standard, that is, Body Area Network. This low-frequency network will allow wearable devices to interact using their own network, a-la SC-FI. This technology opens avenues for loads of interesting uses. I've listed two here: You approach a person at a conference, and you automatically exchange business cards when you are within range. Your wristwatch connects via your mobile to the Internet, and automatically syncs the time with time servers.
Now, there are some security concerns that need to be addressed before it becomes widely used, but that won't be too difficult considering the short range of the BAN.
Prepare yourself folks, such things as bone-connectivity devices, skin connectivity, brain implants and the other cybernetic body implants are not very far away... :P
That would be all. Comments awaited.
I was using the MyT usage calculator some days back to determine if ever I switch over from 512K to MyT when I saw these 3 fields (see below). These got me thinking, and the conclusion is rather funny, but serious all the same!
Those three fields may imply "How many copywrited works do you download per week" IMHO.
Why? Because the vast majority of music clips available online are copywrited, and so are most video clips. The last field is interesting. "Number of software downloaded per week, more than 100MB in size". Frankly, I do not know many legit software that exceeds 30MB, excluding Linux distros, and some development platforms.
Would this mean that MyT is, in some ways, telling people that you will be able to pirate more using their service? It might be just me, but this is the message I got by checking those 3 fields.
With this, I want to raise another point. ISPs in the world are all going for the "I offer more bandwidth" race. We see megabit connections popping up everywhere, from 1Mbps and all the way to the 50-ish Mbps. Now, why the hell would you need such a fast connection for? I don't think simple browsing requires that amount of speed. Ok, your usual Youtube session will be a lot smoother. And so will be viewing your fav HD television channel. Apart from those? Your downloads, legal or illegal, will be lightning fast.
This is funny. ISPs offer such speeds, that are just cut for massive-sized file downloads, and associations like the RIAA still want us not to download stuff. Isn't that some kind of "service-contradiction"? Don't go telling me that all those kids with 8Mbps are using all that speed only for browsing pages, Youtubing and downloading Linux distros all day long!
You don't need 8Mbps just to browse. Unless you browse like 137634tdfjd pages of Youtube at the same time! :D
Make your own conclusion, and let me know your comments.
The popular image format, JPEG from Joint Photographic Experts Group, is to be extended to a format called JPEG XR. JPEG XR will be based on Microsoft's HD Photo Spec and will allow High Definitions pictures apparently.
Major camera manufacturers and other giants like Adobe will have to amend their products to handle the new format.
The new format features better compression techniques, better image fidelity, and enhanced in-camera editing features among others.
JPEG XR for now, is just a paper-standard, and will take almost a year or two to come to the level of JPEG in terms of usage and adaptability. Microsoft has already opened up some of its HD Photo Specs for developers to study and work on. For now, keep looking out! :P
The complete article can be found here.
Basically, it is a 2GB SD card that actually stores photos taken from your digital camera. But it has an added functionality: It integrates WiFi technology to your camera.
You just need to configure your wireless router/access point to accept wireless transmissions from this baby, and if you are shooting pictures in wireless range, they are automatically uploaded to your computer. It also includes a service that allows you to also send the pictures to sites such as Flickr and others. What's more? You can take out the card and replug it, and the photos will still be there, and they will still be uploaded when re-plugged.
That's a pretty sweet device IMHO, except for its $100 tag. If you shoot loads of pictures, and don't want to keep plugging in a cable, this is for you.
If you want to read more, check Gizmodo's article.
