“You don’t need to invent anything, you just have to do traditional research where you look at history and then compliment that with scientific research where you’re trying to do something new. That can lead to a lot in the business and technology sectors these days” – Bill Buxton
A chat with Microsoft Principal Researcher Bill Buxton, Part I
Apple has just released the new Safari 4 in Beta version. This new version took and improved some cool features from its competitor – Google Chrome.
According to apple, Safari 4 is over four times faster than Safari 3. One of the most interesting things around this new version, is its full support for Windows fans, including Windows XP and Vista skins in order to keep a “Windows-like” environment.
Some of the features include: Top Sites, Cover flow, Tabs On Top, Full History Search, Smart Address Field, Smart Search Field, Full Page Zoom, and more …
“Mozilla have described plans for the next version of their popular web browser, Firefox. Mozilla’s “Ubiquity project” is set to become a standard feature, allowing “users to type natural language phrases into the browser to perform certain tasks, such as typing ‘map 10 Downing Street’ to instantly see a Google map of that address, or ‘share-on-delicious’ to bookmark the site you’re currently visiting on the social news site.” Also of interest is so-called “lightweight theming” allowing users to customize the browsers design more easily. The launch date is still somewhat unclear, and Mozilla are apparently unsure if version 3.2 will be released at all, apparently considering going straight to Firefox 4.”
Source: Slashdot | Firefox 3.2 Plans Include Natural Language, Themes
Not that we were too impressed with gOS when we first saw Rocket almost a year ago, but Cloud — the small footprint, quick boot Linux variant that Good OS introduced today at the Netbook World Summit in Paris — looks like an altogether different beast. Arriving pre-installed alongside Windows on the new Gigabyte touchscreen netbooks (perhaps some variant of the M912V), the new SplashTop-esque OS uses a web browser as its main interface, with an integrated dock providing such Web 2.0 mainstays as Skype, YouTube and the Google family of apps — and if this smattering of tools doesn’t meet all of your computing needs, you can always boot into your main OS from there. Cloud can be installed as a dual-boot partition on your hard drive or SSD as well as onto a flash chip hardwired onto a motherboard. That’s all we have for now, but you can bet we’ll be on hand to check it out at CES in January.
For more information, here is the direct link: http://www.thinkgos.com/
Source: Engadget.com
Radiohead, one of the greatest bands of all times, has realeased a new video for its song “House of Cards” from the album “In Rainbows”.
No cameras or lights were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.
Watch the making-of video to learn about how the video was made and the various technologies that were used to capture and render 3D data.
Explore data visualization and get a hands-on experience with the data.
Download an iGoogle gadget to view the video right on your homepage.
Add the Radiohead iGoogle theme and customize your page with their unique visual style.
Charles Cooper from Cnet:
Sometimes, change is so imperceptible that you don’t notice what’s different until very late in the game. Is that what’s going on in the world of social networking?
Could be. Even though it’s become such a mainstream part of the Internet, social networking may be changing in important ways. Indeed, Joe Kraus of Google gave a talk on the very subject at the SuperNova conference. Webware editor in chief Rafe Needleman, who was on hand, later joined me for a recap.
Photos: Panasonic rolls out Net-enabled plasma | CNET News.com
For those looking for a REAL TV, this is the one to get!
“The PZ850 will feature “Viera Cast” to connect to YouTube and Google’s Picasa straight from the TV. Other items viewed with “Viera Cast” include weather from five chosen locations and Bloomberg news and stocks that are updated every 15 minutes. A computer can be hooked up to the TV, but isn’t necessary for access to the Internet. The PZ850 plugs into the Web via Ethernet.”
Can you imagine? Internet-Ready TV. And soon we should have Media Center TV fully integrated. But don’t buy it yet. Wait 3 months after release in order to find better prices. Remember, do your homework and you could save big time.
OMG, now I have to start selling my plasma 
