Month: July 2006

Virtual keyboard

(via Gadget Bloggers)
virtual_keyboard.jpgI’ve written about this before, somewhere, sometime, somehow. I can’t find it in the current blog contents though, so I’ll post it again. If you’ve ever wanted a more portable keyboard than what you get lugging around a full-sized, you could certainly carry around a flexible keyboard (I have one that rolls-up about the length of a hot-dog and about 2.5 inches across). If you want to appear cooler around your geeky buddies (for geek-values of “cooler”), though, you’ll get this bluetooth virtual keyboard instead. Sure, you have to have a bluetooth device to use this sucker, but that’s becoming more common on many geek devices.  And how many of your friends will have a laser projected virtual keyboard of any sort, anyway?

An amazing glimpse of this promised future has just arrived at ThinkGeek in the form of the Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard. This tiny device laser-projects a keyboard on any flat surface… you can then type away accompanied by simulated key click sounds. It really is true future magic at its best.

…

in a size a little larger than a matchbook.

Tiny, isn’t it? And they say size doesn’t matter? Ha! I say.

[tags]Virtual keyboard, Bluetooth, Geeky gadgets, gadgets[/tags]

Sony continues work on making people not want PS3

(via Dubious Quality)
In an apparent attempt to get the whole world ready for excessive game prices to accompany its excessive console prices, Sony has announced that games probably won’t be $99.99 at release. OK, so it isn’t really an announcement of excessive pricing just yet, but check out the quote and see if you don’t read it the way I (and Bill) do.

SCEA president Kaz Hirai isn’t promising a $59.99 price tag for PS3 games this fall. In an interview with PSM, the Sony leader explained. So, what I can say now is, I think it would be a bit of a stretch to think that we could suddenly turn around and say “PS3 games now $99.99.” I don’t think the consumers expect the software pricing to suddenly be double,” he told the magazine. “So, if it becomes a bit higher than fifty-nine bucks don’t ding me, but, again, as I said, I don’t expect it to be a hundred bucks.”

So Sony is not announcing $100 games, but it certainly seems a setup for games costing more than the $60 XBox360 owners are already paying.  This is on top of the extra (at least) $100 a PS3 will cost over the XB360.  Maybe I’m seeing too much in that quote, but it does look to me like preparing a table for $70 and possibly $80 games for PS3.  This console will have enough trouble fighting the 1 year and $100 price lead of the XB360 since Sony has saddled the thing with a next-gen drive that so far gives shows no value to me (but then, I’m like many others who don’t see the value in next-gen video discs anyway).  I hope I’m wrong, but I see Sony working hard to make consumers not want this console.
[tags]PS3, Playstation, Sony, OMGWTFBBQ?[/tags]

Avoid grammatical errors when blogging

(via Blogging Pro)
I make mistakes all the time – grammatical, factual, and spelling mistakes at least. And I’m guessing a lot of other people do (and that’s guessing as in – I read other sites enough to know that many people are even worse than I am). In an attempt to help bloggers (and others) reduce or avoid making so many grammatical errors, ZDNet has published an article entitled “10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid” for your edification. As the host of Blogging Pro said, I don’t think these mistakes necessarily make you look stupid, but they can make you look careless, poorly educated, or something along those lines. And for bloggers, those kinds of impressions will typically lead to fewer return visitors.

#3: They’re for their for there

No: The managers are in they’re weekly planning meeting.

Yes: The managers are in their weekly planning meeting.

No: The techs have to check there cell phones at the door, and their not happy about it.

Yes: The techs have to check their cell phones at the door, and they’re not happy about it.

OK, I admit that #3 there is a big annoyance for me. Of all the mistakes I make, mixing up they’re, there, and their is rarely one of them. But when I see others mix them up, it does disrupt my reading of what they’ve written.

#8 Lay for lie

No: I got dizzy and had to lay down.

Yes: I got dizzy and had to lie down.

Yes: Just lay those books over there.

Ooops. I frequently screw up on #8. I’m trying, but man, do I ever mix those two up. Sorry about that, folks.

[tags]Grammar, Writing errors[/tags]

MAKE molecules from balloons

(via MAKE ezine blog)

molecule-01.jpgUseless party trick? I don’t know. But this gallery of balloon molecules (at balloonmolecules.com, oddly enough) looks neat to me. The site has a gallery of finished molecules, a brief write-up of what’s behind the build, and links to more instructional bits on how to build some of the molecules.

We would like to show you some of the balloon molecules we have built. The estimated time to build the molecule is given but advanced balloon sculptors will soon need less time. For most of these sculptures we also offer a detailed construction manual.

molecule-02.jpgAnd so they do. The guides provided start at the basic balloon tying beginning steps, and show how to section things off, separate parts, and all that jazz. There is probably enough information on the site to even learn something about balloong animal/structure building with no previous experience.

And for my favorite:

DNA-Helix

molecule-03.jpg This two-and-a-half-metre-model of the DNA-helix with a diameter of 1 metre shows that a lot is possible. If the PO4-units and the sugar are adjusted correctly, the helical structure will form without any pressure. For understandable reasons a construction manual is not available.

The motto of the DNA-helix-sculpture is “look and enjoy”. Construction time: the first try (picture) took about ten hours.

Check all the cool (larger) pictures, the mini-guides, and everything else offered there.

[tags]Balloon molecules, Balloon art, Balloons[/tags]

Harsh penalties on tax evaders

Here’s a story from CNN that should just make you feel warm inside. An Argentinian man, accused of tax evasion, has been hit hard by his country’s government in an attempt to collect back taxes. Just 2 days before Argentina is due to play Germany in the World Cup semi-finals, tax officials took away the man’s large screen plasma TV. That’s a heavy penalty in a soccer-obsessed country.

It was the latest move in a “shock” campaign by Santiago Montoya, the top tax man in Buenos Aires province, the country’s biggest, to curb rampant tax evasion in Argentina.

Tax officials carted off the new big-screen television from a man who owes some 6,100 pesos ($2,000) in back taxes.

“We’ve taken the plasma as a guarantee against the debt he owes,” said Juan Manuel Prada, a provincial tax official.

[tags]Tax evasion, Soccer, World Cup, Argentina[/tags]

Why hi-def DVD formats have already failed

(via boingboing)

Interesting piece over at Audioholics on why the next-gen high definition disc formats are already failures.  In a nutshell – little improvement over current gen, greed by media companies, confusion over competing formats, and more.  There’s more to it, and the list of reasons is worth checking out.

For years we’ve heard about the evils of MP3 and illegal downloading. All the while the RIAA and music industry had two formats that could have prevented any illegal copying – at least for all but the most dedicated crackers: DVD-Audio and SACD. These formats proved to be higher quality than CD, presented much enhanced copy protection schemes and were easily used as alternative formats to CD. Yet both formats failed miserably to achieve any significant market penetration. Why? Without an artificial “shove” from the record industry – which never materialized – technology alone is never enough to push a new format into the hands of consumers. In terms of convenience and ease of use, DVD-Audio and SACD offered nothing to consumers. In fact, they made listening to music more complex, since most hardware was unable to correctly decode and provide adequate bass management for the new formats.

Could these formats have succeeded? Absolutely. If the recording industry had presented a plan to phase out CDs and the “format war” had been avoided (simply by the industry picking one format over the other) we would all be using DVD-Audio players and illegal downloadable music would be mostly confined to analogue rips or older music. Is this a stretch? Perhaps, but only because history shows us that corporate greed causes most companies to miss the long term economical gains over a short term loss of licensing revenues.

[tags]DVD format war, Hi-Def video, Next-Gen video[/tags]