Paul's Blog

Students at a Scottish university are to have their lecture notes sent to their mobile phones in a pioneering bid to replace paper handouts in classes, reports Scotsman News.

"Dr Ayse Goker, from the school of computing at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, is planning to run a trial of the system in her lectures next year.

The system, called AmbieSense, uses hi-tech chips in lecture rooms that are capable of beaming information to mobile phones nearby.

If successful, the project could spell the end of the traditional image of students moving between lectures weighed down with piles of paper notes. Instead students will be able to download handouts, timetables and other work on to their phones.

AmbieSense was developed in a Europe-wide project to provide intelligent interactive tools in different environments.

The system has already been piloted in Seville and Oslo Airport to give useful information to tourists. The AmbieSense chips were able to beam pages from the Lonely Planet guide to people as they visited key tourist spots."

In an iTunes Music Store announcement from Apple, today, there was an amazing purchase and download metric: One Million Videos Sold in less than 20 days.

The October 12th debut of the ability to get videos from iTunes let customers choose from over 2,000 music videos, Pixar short films and hit TV shows for just $1.99. Top downloads have included music videos from Michael Jackson, Fatboy Slim and Kanye West; Pixar’s “For the Birds” and “Boundin’”; and episodes of ABC’s hit TV shows “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives.”

“Selling one million videos in less than 20 days strongly suggests there is a market for legal video downloads,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Our next challenge is to broaden our content offerings, so that customers can enjoy watching more videos on their computers and new iPods.”

Admit it, you've gotten up in the middle of the night, 'cause you couldn't sleep. Maybe you go down to the kitchen for some food, maybe you take a walk, maybe you just make a quick pitstop. Or, if you're like me, you head out in the dark to take your dog out before even the birds wake up. With all of this walking around in the dark, wouldn't it be great to have some light? Of course it would, but you don't want to disturb everyone, do you? Of course you don't. What if there's a power outage? How do you locate candles, flashlights and other emergency lighting sources? That's where the BrightFeet Lighted Slippers come in!

For those who just can't stand to wait - like I can't - there are a few pictures of the PS3 interface flying around the Flickr world on the 'net. I've included a picture here, along with a quick look at what it might contain. My first impression is: "Boy is that sloppy!" But I think that's just the goofy background they used for the system, itself.

OK, first of all, as much as I love Microsoft technology, I seriously can't help but say that I really dig the PS2. The PS2 was a fantastic choice when it came out. Considering I'm a technology architect, it definitely showed the better architecture for the dollar, at the time. Now that the XBox has come along as far as it has, I think there is great viability there, too. I'm happy people have embraced that, as well, and I'll cover the Xbox 360 stuff soon.

Onto what we see here in the pic:

Here are some "usage models" for High-Def displays, which includes playing a golf videogame along with a real golf game, reviewing news (at full size), playing multiple HDTV streams simultaneously with filtering such as rotate/resize applied, video chat, with quick switching between different types of rich media.

It obvisouly resembles the PSP interface with many more features and functions. This is probably to show the power of the PS3. Hopefully the final model will be as clean as the PSP interface. Unless you've got some serious ADHD traits, I'm guessing that trying to look at all of those things at the same time might be close to impossible.

Click Image To Enlarge

• Home - Profiles and such
  
• General settings - same as PSP's
  
• Photo viewer
  
• Music player
  
• Video player
  
• Wi-Fi / Bluetooth functions
  
• Games
  
• Networking
  
• Maybe a Contacts list?
  
• Maybe Videoconferencing?
  
• Possibly VOIP?
  

Yes, I know, I shouldn't try to sound cool, like a super rap-star, but that's apparently what it takes to get this amazing new subwoofer. Some believe you'll need a rap-super-star ID just to get one.

This is what may be hailed as the world’s most powerful subwoofer: the Eminent Tech TRW 17. Rather than the standard 10" inch paper cone pulsating back and forth, this subwoofer creates a wall of air as big as your room; the entire room becomes a resonating box.

What's the thinest PC client you can get? Would you think as small as a double-gang wall box that actually fits in the wall? Well, the Jack-PC from Chip PC Technologies takes "zero desk space" by converting existing enterprise LAN jacks into full-function Windows CE-powered thin client computers, without requiring additional cabling, according to the company.

I was writing a reply to a question on The Hive, and I had a thought: What if iPods ran the PocketPC software, instead of the current Apple software? In general, I thought this might be an interesting topic of discussion: to those whom wish to partake.

What if you could play both the Apple and Microsoft DRM'd music on the device? What if it had the same cool style as the iPod, but had the greater functionality of the Microsoft PPC environment? What if the sync features of the iPod were more like ActiveSync, so that it will be possible to always sync whenever a change occurred?

We've already got the ability to transfer our calendar and contacts to the device, right? We can listen to music on the iPod; in a number of formats. We can get text to our iPod device. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to have the greater ability to interact with the device?

So, what are your toughts? I'm very curious as to what people think about this idea. Please leave your comments for me and others to discuss.

Scientists know that the representation of three-dimensional objects on a surface so as to produce the same impression of distance and relative size as that received by the human eye is a practical definition of perspective.

"Standard flat-screen applications can display a field of view (FOV) of no more than 60°. The Elumens VisionStation allows for a fully immersive display of 160°. The VisionStation's ultra-wide FOV creates an amazing sense of space and depth, without need for goggles or glasses. The large size of the VisionStation screen (1.5 meters) also helps promote an excellent sense of immersive 3D."

When you think of Portable Media Players, you think: "Great! Another toy that will take endless hours to where I will want to port my videos." Well, with the Maxian T600, you don't need to. Maxian's not the ONLY one doing, this by the way. The Maxian has the ability to record video directly from a television or some other source (such as a DVD player).

While I was wondering about what happened to the SPOT watch that used to be on my buddy Kevin's wrist, I came across the news that Microsoft is trying to keep people subscribed to its MSN Direct service by offering them a free upgrade from their first-generation SPOT watches. Those watches include manufacturers such as Fossil, Suunto, and Abacus. There's a "while supplies last" rule on these, but what a good deal!

According to SpotStop.com, Microsoft wants to reward those who signed up to the service during its early stages. Those eligible will receive a same-brand upgrade, meaning Suunto n3 owners can obtain a second-generation Suunto n3i. To apply for the free upgrade, customers must call 866-676-8487 with their MSN Direct and watch model information handy.

Via: [Betanews]

If you happen to be in the Atlanta airport, you may notice something interesting from the eZoom Shop. It's a vending machine with iPods in it; like Shuffles and stuff. Now, this may seem like something cool, 'cause while you're waiting at the airport, thinking about flying all the way home to the west coast, and you're about to leave, you say: "Hey, I'm gonna buy an iPod for my flight home!" Of course, you've forgotten on thing: there's no music on the iPod!

Yesterday, Gizmodo posted about the new Vodafone vending machines that are popping up over the UK. They are prepaid cell phones and that makes some sense. Today... we have iPods in a vending machine. OK.

An incredibly rare coffee, and somewhat astonishing, is produced by Vietnamese weasels. Basically, the weasels eat the beans and then hurl them up, then some very patient and not-skeved villagers go out and pick up the beans, selling them for about $40 per 57g! Apparently, the beans are for conoisssuers of the heady, smooth, stronger-flavors created by the gastric juices of the rodents.

In preparation for the launch of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 on November 7, the final release of the .NET Framework 2.0 is now available for download. Version 2.0 serves at the underpinnings for next-generation Windows applications and will be integrated into Windows Vista.

Via: [Microsoft/BetaNews]

The folks at i4U reported that the Korean government launched a new project called "Ubiquitous Robotic Companion" (URC), to push low-cost robots into the market. Can you say "I, Robot" anyone?

While reading through my friend Jame's blog, I noticed something that struck me funny. He was talking about how the long-time mini-Tablet advocate Mickey Segal had posted a couple of pictures of the LS800 fitting in a pocket. Segal had a special pocket made, inside a sports coat, just so he could prove that it would fit; for those "Doubting Thomas" doctors and business people alike.

Here's an interesting tidbit, Onkyo - the "home theater" people are planning on shipping their new Media PC by sometime next year. Given that these guys have carved out a pretty good space with component hardware for many a living room and audio salon, I think they might be onto something.

It seems like the BitTorrent's favorite buddies are now dead in the water. There was a report on Digital-Lifestyles that talked about how a BitTorrent user was arrested. Chan Nai-Ming, of Hong Kong, is believed to be the first BitTorrent user to be nailed by cops. In January of 2005, the customs officers knocked on the door of the 38 year old, who used BitTorrent to distribute "Miss Congeniality", "Daredevil" and "Red Planet." ...and he was charged $641 for what he did.

So, the RIAA/MPAA are really crackin' down. In the wake of such news, the day has arrived, when anonymous P2P is here. Sure we've seen in a few other forms (like Ants and other clients which have implemented forms of an anonymous mesh), but thanks to some anonymous developer, there is now a version of the wildly popular bittorrent software that works completely anonymously.

The client works with the i2Pexternal link (cache) anonymous network. You can do seeds, trackers, bit torrent search engines, clients, the whole shibang!

You know, the harder these big-business guys try to keep people down, the more people try to get around it. Granted, I think that the networks should be embracing this (and I've blogged about this before) and taking advantage of the situation. But that's just me...

Via: [eHomeUpgrade]

There's a new and up-and-coming subnotebook from the folks at Dialogue called the Flybook V3. The V3 is said to include an 8.9-inch touchscreen at 1024x600, and an Intel M at 1.1 GHz. Some other nifty specificities are that it includes 512MB RAM standard, and hard drives in sizes from from 20GB to 100GB (who the heck would want anything as small as a 20GB drive, these days?), along with WiFi and Bluetooth.

While reading through some other more popular blogs, I saw a story about the LeapFrog Fly Pentop Computer. I was looking at one of these things at the local Toys R Us toy store, this past weekend. It has a number of accessories for it - including a docking station for charging and lots of "paper" to use with it.

The Fly is a computer-in-a-pen that recognizes written commands and then talks accordingly, allowing for games, note taking, other applications such as a calculator.

On Tuesday, October 25th, 2005, it appears that Skype was the victim of two vulnerabilities which were made public on that day, with a new release of the internet telephone software.

The flaws centered on boundary errors in the way Skype handles URLs meant to trigger an action within the program, and when importing VCARD files. Both issues could be used for a code execution attack when the user loads specially crafted URLs and files.

Web security firm Secunia rated the flaws as "highly critical" and recommended that users of the program download the latest version.

"As a work-around prior to updating the Skype software, this bug may be avoided by not selecting Skype-specific URLs and not importing VCARD records,"

Here's a piece of lighting equipment that is really pretty cool in terms of its looks. The Climbing Light, which is a lamp that screws onto your wall and looks like a large bug, has a silver top (where the bug's head is supposed to be, of course) that makes the light shine downward from there. So, I suppose you'll want to make sure you carefully select the placement - since you're screwing up your walls to install it.

Manufacturing computers and their pieces and parts is definitely one of the most polluting industrial operations. Things like lead, phospher, and barium are all over your computer, and out there in the world.

Well, it seems that AMD has tried to solve some of that problem by creating a better industrial process for their chips.

Here's a device that looks goofy enough that it just might work! Of course, I hate things like this, because you're taking an analog source and transferring it out - when you could have easily (I mean Sony, c'mon!) created a video-out port to make everyone's life simpler!

Buffalo, Inc. has begun shipping its new LinkTheater Mini, a compact, easy-to-use
network media player with Mediabolic's award-winning Media Player
software.