Cornell Robotic Chair [via CNET Crave]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged on Oct 25, 2006, 4:11AM

Magnet Gut Video [Random Good Stuff]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 11:00PM

Click on for more pics of the house you'll never live in. – Louis Ramirez

Rotating House [via GizMag]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 10:10PM

Navirobo GPS teddy bear [ubergizmo]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 7:45PM

The diminutive PCs are aimed at home theater users, and if they can just keep that fan noise down, these might be the worthy addition to that shelf of components. However, topping off at a hard disk capacity of 320GB, apparently these home theater PCs (HTPC) aren't aimed at HDTV users.

Although Trigem's a Korean company, we're hoping US designers will follow the lead of Trigem and take notice of this pleasing form factor. Some already have. Case in point: WinBook, whose $1200 Jiv Mini HTPC is undoubtedly on the right track. Gentlemen, start your copiers, and while you're at it, keep them quiet, and make them HDTV CableCard-ready DVRs. – Charlie White

More pics of the lovely ladies and close-ups of the PCs, after the jump.

The new Little Lluon+ with a Core 2 Duo! [Akhihabara News]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 7:30PM

What to say about the Audi R-Zero? Tell you the truth, we aren't even sure it's much more than a fantasy. But everyone needs some electric-car eyecandy now and again, and since you can't look at naughty pictures at the office, go nuts. The R-Zero is an electric muscle car that came from the minds of three students at France's International School of Design. Four in-wheel motors would give this car a top speed of 286 mph, 1091 horsepower, and 0-62 in 3 seconds. Whoa.

Everybody knows that the universe-altering, ultra-ubiquitous iPod just turned five years old, and with the birthday of the gadget that revolutionized the music industry, we found some good news about downloading music. According to a study we found via the Guardian, downloading music instead of picking up the plastic disc yourself is more than twice as ecologically efficient, and much easier for those of us who don't get up from the keyboard except to go to the bathroom. The fun stops there, though; once you burn a copy, into the TreeHugger doghouse you go....

Industrial designer Ross Lovegrove, the "Organic Minimalist" we know and love for a plethora of TreeHugging designs, has done it again. Meet the Solar Bud, a handy little gadget that combines one of our favorite forms of alternative energy (solar) with a favorite light source (LEDs) to make a wireless, battery-less path and garden light. Stuck in the ground in a place that gets some sun, the lamp uses sensors to detect when darkness falls, and automatically switches on three high power red LEDs. The UFO design comes standard, too.

Lastly, from the "we've been waiting for this since the '80's" file comes word that Alternative Energy Holdings plans to be the first company to tap into the natural energy of lightning. The company says it has successfully developed a prototype which can collect power from the ground area surrounding a strike. This power can then be converted into electricity and sold through existing power grids. In 2007, during the peak lighting months of July and August, the company plans to test a mobile full-scale lightning farm. We don't know why they don't just stick a pole at the top of a clock tower and drive a DeLorean back & forth until it happens, but there might be some copyright infringement involved with that idea.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 7:30PM

This one has a few tricks up its sleeves, though.
Most notably traffic monitoring, and finger gesture reading. Traffic is par for the course, but the finger gestures are something we''ve never seen before. Essentially, you can do things like draw an upsidedown V on the touchscreen to set the nav to bring you home. (Sony told us it was the shape of a teepee or roof, so it should be easy to remember.)

The screen is 3.5 inches diagonal, and it has 7.5 million points of interest across North America. Both decent stats.

The downside is that...

the traffic sensor is built into a likely bulky bracket, while Garmin manages to fit their traffic modules inside of its StreetPilot series monitor. And I require any GPS I use for driving to have text to voice for street name announcement, which this does not have.

It's a tight space, and I still think TomTom, Garmin and the soon to be released Dash are the best bets for the money. Final judgment reserved for the time when I get one in my hands. Or Charlie does another one of these awesome GPS vids. –Brian Lam

Sony NV-U71T [Sony]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 6:57PM

Bonus shots of the Artemis against the T-Mobile Dash (HTC Excalibur), Motorola Q, and the Samsung I-320 after the jump. If you were curious how big this GPS-phone is compared to a phone with a keyboard, check it out. – Jason Chen

First Look: HTC Artemis [Mobility Today]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 6:41PM

We're all familiar with the LED belt buckle and the Motorola/Burton jacket, but now we're grabbing fashion by the threads and showing you how to make your own tech-inspired clothing (and not look like an MIT project in the process). After the jump, we're gonna show you how to sew an LED onto your shirt in 8 easy steps. Yeah, we're gonna sew. But we will sew while drinking a beer to re-emphasize our masculinity.

Before you begin, you'll need conductive thread (the same material used to make fencing vests), a sewing machine, a hand sewing needle, pliers, scissors, an LED, a 1,000 ohm resistor (which can be purchased at any Radio Shack), alligator clips (also from Radio Shack), and a 9-volt battery.

1) Start by cutting the end wires (or leads) of the resistor down to a shorter length.

2)Bend the leads in a round shape. You'll notice that one LED has a longer lead. This is the + side of the LED that electricity flows into. The shorter lead of the LED is the ground side. Like the resistor, cut the leads and bend them into loops. Make the longer lead + a larger loop. Bend the loops so that the LED can sit flat on the fabric.

3)Mark where the components will go on the fabric. Make sure that the resistor is placed by the side of the LED that has a larger loop.

4)Thread your sewing machine. If the thread is too thick to pass through the needle, you can use a larger needle.

5)Sew lines and leave gaps where you'd like the resistor and LED to be (basically you will be sewing between the marks you made on the fabric). Be sure to backstitch the ends where you want to add your components (to back stitch, just push the reverse button on your sewing machine and the machine sews backwards). Backstitching keeps the end of thread from coming undone and ensures that there is more surface area for the components to make contact with. Using a hand sewing needle start from the back.


6)Hand stitch the loop of one lead to the edge of a sewn line.

7)Hand sew the resistor and LED into the circuit. Using a hand sewing needle start from the back of the fabric (so as to avoid loose threads in the front). Hand stitch the loop of one lead to the edge of a sewn line. Be sure that the hand stitched part overlaps with the sewn line.

8)Once all of your components are sewn on, add a power supply. Attach one end of an alligator clip to the + side of the battery and the other end to the resistor side of the sewn line (refer to red clip in photo). Using the second alligator clip attach one end to the side of the battery and the other end to the LED side of the sewn line (refer to green clip in photo). The LED should light up. Now throw on the shirt and hit the town.

Diana Eng is a nerdy fashion designer in New York City who's designs are inspired by science. She was a contestant on Project Runway 2 and her work has been featured in Maker Faire, Siggraph, Wired, and ID Magazine. Diana has recently cocreated BlackBoxNation.com with Emily Albinski, a company dedicated to merging fashion with technology.

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 6:35PM

Furthermore, Sony have failed to disclose to the London High Court that not only the world wide gaming community in more than 100 countries relied on Lik-Sang for their gaming needs, but also Sony Europe's very own top directors repeatedly got their Sony PSP hard or software imports in nicely packed Lik-Sang parcels with free Lik-Sang Mugs or Lik-Sang Badge Holders, starting just two days after Japan's official release, as early as 14th of December 2004 (more than nine months earlier than the legal action). The list of PSP related Sony Europe orders reads like the who's who of the videogames industry, and includes Ray Maguire (Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Alan Duncan (UK Marketing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Chris Sorrell (Creative Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Rob Parkin (Development Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited), just to name a few.

Bad ass, Lik-Sang. You will be missed. Thanks again, Sony. We love ya! – Nicholas Deleon

Important Notice: Lik-Sang.com Out of Business due to Multiple Sony Lawsuits [Lik-Sang.com via The Register]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 5:34PM

This is a great idea. If enough people buy into Zune, the product will reach critical mass, and because of this bounty, everyone will be eager to offer their song lists to others in hopes of amassing enough credits to buy more music. It's viral/incentive marketing on a micro-payment scale. If this is just a false rumor, if I were Microsoft I would do it anyway. – Charlie White

Zune to Pay You Back for Sharing Songs? [CrunchGear]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 5:11PM

Windows Mobile seems to be hitting its stride with recent releases such as the T-Mobile Dash, also from HTC. Looks like Cingular chose the right manufacturer to try to play catch up with. – Nicholas Deleon

Cingular/HTC 8525 / HSDPA (testing) [HowardForums via SlashPhone.com]

Originally from Gizmodo reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 4:30PM

Mozilla has officially announced Firefox 2 and included with that is the revamped homepage that is pictured above. Unlike the new Add-ons page this one will actually change the header picture a few times each time you refresh the site.

The Mozilla homepage also got a similar update but with different images in the header. The Products page wasn’t left behind either because it too got a facelift. Ahh, but then the Thunderbird homepage…it is the lonely one out of the bunch because it appears as though it isn’t part of the family. While the others have gone on to bigger and better things the Thunderbird page sits alone with its non-glossy old-school appearance. Maybe when it reaches the important 2.0 milestone it will be good enough for a refresh.

Mozilla also has their press release available for people who like reading those sorts of things although their features list is probably the thing that you should really checkout. It is very well organized and provides screenshots with nearly all of the new features they have integrated.

Congratulations Mozilla on an amazing release…and I am happy to join you on the road to Firefox 3!

Sponsored By: Professional Gaming PCs : BEAST Computers Build Gaming Rigs for Serious Gamers

• Firefox 1.5.0.1 Has Officially Been Released For Download
• Yahoo Is Testing Out A New Homepage
• Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 Available For Download
• Firefox Becomes The First Third-Party Program On Google’s Homepage
• Portable Firefox 1.5 Finally Released

Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 11:51PM

Here are some of the things that are expected to be in Ubuntu 6.10:

• New theme and bootup splash screen
• Tomboy - used for note-taking
• F-spot - photo manager
• Firefox 2
• OpenOffice 2.0.4

As this release of Ubuntu wraps up we also need to start thinking about the future. The next version will be 7.04 and should be available in April of 2007, which is right on their 6-month release schedule. Here is a little bit of information that was sent out via Ubuntu’s mail list regarding version 7.04:

In the next cycle we’ll expand on the brand new infrastructure that has landed in Edgy as well as branching out in some exciting new directions…

The main themes for feature development in this release will be improvements to hardware support in the laptop, desktop and high-end server market, and aggressive adoption of emerging desktop technologies. Ubuntu’s Feisty release will put the spotlight on multimedia enablement and desktop effects. We expect this to be a very gratifying release for both users and developers. Detailed planning will take place at the developer summit next month in Mountain View, California. Please join us there to help shape the Feisty Fawn!

From the sounds of it their primary focus is going to be on hardware compatibility which is one of the things that holds many people back from switching to Linux. However, they also mention “desktop effects” and the first thing that popped into my mind when I read that was XGL. That would be really nice if they made it easy for all Ubuntu users to enable XGL without any configuration necessary.

Like always I can’t wait to see what specific features Ubuntu 7 will be bringing but in the mean time I seem to be content with what 6.10 has to offer.

News Source: OSDir.com

Sponsored By: Professional Gaming PCs : BEAST Computers Build Gaming Rigs for Serious Gamers

• Ubuntu 6.06 Beta 2 “Dapper Drake” Released Today
• New Ubuntu To Be Released On Thursday
• Ubuntu 6.06 Officially Released
• Ubuntu 6.10 Beta Released
• Installing XGL In Ubuntu

Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 9:27PM

I just went to see what Firefox extensions had been updated today and noticed that the Firefox Add-ons page received a drastic redesign. I think this confirms my thought that Mozilla will be providing a refreshed Firefox homepage when they launch it.

I think the new design adopts the Web 2.0 theme that can be found all over the Internet, but I actually prefer the old look a little more. I don’t completely understand the motorcycle located in the header but it does look like there’s a Firefox logo on the seat. Now I’m curious what is going to happen with the Firefox homepage. Maybe we’ll get some pink ponies?

What does everyone else think of the new design?

Sponsored By: Professional Gaming PCs : BEAST Computers Build Gaming Rigs for Serious Gamers

• Firefox 2 Is Now *Officially* Released And Has A Redesigned Homepage
• Yahoo MyWeb Get’s A Facelift
• Mozilla Officially Releases Firefox 2 Beta 2
• Firefox 1.5.0.3 To Be Released Very Soon?
• Firefox 1.5.0.3 Candidate Builds Now Available On Mozilla FTP

Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 8:15PM

Surviving without Nero was quite tedious but there were a few applications that I used along the way that helped me cope. One of those programs was ImgBurn which allows you to burn CD/DVD images using the free software. It is definitely nice but you’ll run into limitations.

Also in the comments OldManDeath said that Dell had Nero 7 for $59.99 after the $20 mail-in rebate. This is far from a bad deal so if you have yet to purchase the software this is a pretty good deal. Hope everyone is as happy as I am to see the new Nero!

Sponsored By: Professional Gaming PCs : BEAST Computers Build Gaming Rigs for Serious Gamers

• Roxio Beats Nero To Vista Compatibility
• Paul Thurrott Covers Vista Compatibilities
• Paul Thurrott Upgrades His XP Machine To Vista RC1
• How To Modify The Boot Manager In Windows Vista
• Laugh Of The Day: My Windows Vista Error Message

Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 7:53PM

Update:

As Dave pointed out below you will need to have JavaScript enabled in order for this to affect you.

I haven’t tried it in Firefox 1.5.0.7 but the result should still be the same since the bug also says that it is fixed in Firefox 2. The Security Advisory page for this bug says “We have seen no demonstration that these crashes could be reliably exploited, but they do show evidence of memory corruption so we presume they could be.“

So how many of you will be sending the demonstration link to your friends to see how many times they will try and open it before they give up?

Sponsored By: Professional Gaming PCs : BEAST Computers Build Gaming Rigs for Serious Gamers

• Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.1 RC1 Ready To Be Downloaded
• Firefox 1.5.0.3 Released With The Security Patch
• Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 Release Scheduled For Thursday
• Firefox 1.5.0.3 Planned For Release Today
• Mozilla Fixes 2300 Bugs In Firefox 2.0 So Far

Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 4:31PM

If you’re still using Windows Defender Beta 2 then you’ll have until December 31 to make the upgrade because it will expire then. There is no update available for Windows Vista users which sucks because Vista can be used up until June 2007 but your spyware protection is only good until the end of this year.

These are the improvements that Windows Defender has received since the previous release:

• Enhanced performance through a new scanning engine.
• Streamlined, simplified user interface and alerts.
• Improved control over programs on your computer using enhanced Software Explorer.
• Multiple language support with globalization and localization features.
• Protection technologies for all users, whether or not they have administrator rights on the computer.
• Support for assistive technology for individuals who have physical or cognitive difficulties, impairments, and disabilities.
• Support for Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.
• Automatic cleaning according to your settings during regularly scheduled scans.

Windows Defender Download Page
Direct Download Link for Windows Defender 32-bit
Direct Download Link for Windows Defender 64-bit

Sponsored By: Professional Gaming PCs : BEAST Computers Build Gaming Rigs for Serious Gamers

• Microsoft Releases Minor Update For Windows Defender
• Microsoft Releases Windows Defender Beta 2
• Microsoft Releasing Plans For Windows Defender Beta 2
• Final Opera 9 Due On Tuesday
• What To Expect From The Final Windows Live Messenger

Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 3:04PM

Google just released a Custom Search Engine Creator that lets you make your own search engine with a customizable list of sites that will be included in the search. I went through the initial set of options and had my own search engine up and running in just a few minutes. There are only a few sites that I added to the search list but it is open for volunteers that want to contribute more URL’s.

Some people are taking it even further, like this technology search site, by making custom pages for the search engine. You can do the same by going into the Control Panel after you have created your search engine. Once in the Control Panel you will be given several options that you didn’t have before and one of those options provides the necessary code to add the search to any page you would like.

You may even decide to make a little money off of the search engine by adding your Google Adsense account information. That way you can make some cash on the side if someone clicks on some ads while performing a search.

This is a great idea and a lot of people seem to be excited by it, but I think it will wear off very quickly. People will not want to clutter their bookmarks with multiple Google Search Engines. The only way that I can see people using this a lot is if Google added some sort of “filter” for people to use directly on the main Google Homepage. Otherwise these search engines are going to quickly be forgotten.

News Source: Official Google Blog

Sponsored By: Professional Gaming PCs : BEAST Computers Build Gaming Rigs for Serious Gamers

• Google Makes It Easy To Add Their Search To IE7
• How Do Search Engines Really Rank Themselves?
• Mozilla Changes Search Box In Firefox 2.0
• Roxio Beats Nero To Vista Compatibility
• Wikipedia Now Has A List Of Google’s Sites And Services

Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 1:20PM

Computers would not be nearly as productive as they are if they didn’t have the copy and paste commands available to use. Think about how often you copy and paste text, files, images, and more throughout the course of your day. I do it so often that it seems like my fingers naturally rest on the Control+C keys on my keyboard.

Today I want to focus on tools that extend the functionality of the Windows Clipboard to make it easier to use and allow you to get tasks done much more quickly. Here is the software that I managed to find:

–Clippy (Homepage)–

Clippy is one of the coolest clipboard utilities that I have to present to you. It lets you perform common operations to any text that is currently located on the clipboard.

There are a ton of different things that you can have Clippy do and you will really see it shine in certain situations. This is one of those situations that we would have all liked to have this:

How often have you needed to extract text from your emails, only to find the simple, menial task to take more time than it should. You’ll have many ‘>’ characters appearing at the beginning of lines because your email has been replied to, back and forth, countless number of times. Often, you’ll also need to painstakingly reformat the text to make it appear readable.

Now with Clippy, you’ll be able to remove ‘>’ characters and reformat your text with a single click of a button.

You can add individual “tasks” for Clippy to complete or you can create your own “Clippers.” The Clippers are a group of tasks that you put together so that the program can perform multiple operations on the text with just one click. I like to think of these more like macros.

–Ditto (Homepage)–

Ditto is a free open source program that extends the Windows Clipboard to have even more features. The number of configuration options that it has is absolutely insane but don’t let those distract you from its primary purpose: copying and pasting!

Here are a few of the great features that Ditto has:

• Search and paste previous copy entries
• Keep multiple computer’s clipboards in sync
• Data is encrypted when sent over the network
• Accessed from tray icon or global hot key
• Select entry by double click, enter key or drag drop
• Paste into any window that excepts standard copy/paste entries
• Display thumbnail of copied images in list

–Auto Copy (Homepage)–

When you highlight text in a web browser it is often to copy it so that you can use it somewhere else. There is an extension for Firefox that will actually copy the text to the clipboard anytime that you highlight some text. There really isn’t much more to it than that but you may be surprised at how useful the extension is.

–Overview–

Those are the clipboard utilities that I currently use or have used in the past. They all have some unique features that can save a bunch of time and hassle if you frequently copy and paste things like I do. If you know of any other great clipboard utilities please let me know because I am always looking for things to improve the standard clipboard’s usefulness.

Sponsored By: Professional Gaming PCs : BEAST Computers Build Gaming Rigs for Serious Gamers

• Internet Explorer Shows Users What’s On Your Clipboard
• Cyberware: Download The Free PhraseExpress To Save Keystrokes
• CyberNotes: Your Week In Review With Sunday’s Summary
• CyberNotes: "Fat Finger" Airfare Deals
• Staples Offering 2GB SanDisk Cruzer For $45 - No Rebates

Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 24, 2006, 11:00AM

I don’t know about you, but I am always looking for some good blogs to add to my feed or my list of bookmarks as the not to miss, “must reads.”  In fact, sometimes I find that blogs have more accurate or up-to-date information than a newspaper or other online news sources.  So in keeping with the weekend traveling theme, I went out to find some of the best travel blogs out there. In the process, I came across TravelPod which is a rather large collection of travel blogs including blogs for just about every country or island possible! It was released in 1997 and is a great way to gather some tips, tricks, and photos of your travel destinations.

One of the first things you will notice when you go to TravelPod after clicking on destinations is the map of the Earth that is clickable.  By clicking on a country, state, island, etc., you’re able to view the blogs that have been submitted for that particular location.  People post everything from past experiences, maps, photos, thoughts, and some even post live updates while they are on their trip.

After viewing the large map of the Earth, I decided to pick a location to see just how TravelPod works.  I’ve always wanted to go to Australia, so I clicked on Australia. From there, I was taken to the results page with all of my information.  They use tags for things such as popular cities or tourist attractions so that if you’re only interested in a particular place, you can narrow your search results.

The results that it pulls up shows thumbnails of  travel blog photos that have an Australia tag to them.  It will also pull up a search box so that you can search for deals on airfare, hotels, and cars.  Additionally, they include videos and MP3 Podcasts that might be beneficial in planning a trip. Then they give you the list of travel blogs available for the area.For Australia, the list was lengthy so I had a good choice in what I wanted to read.  I narrowed my search to Canberra, the nations capital and got equally impressive results. The blogs were all unique and generally gave me a good idea of what to expect, or at least some interesting or funny traveling stories. The smaller countries or less traveled destinations typically have a smaller search results.

There are other features that you can expect from TravelPod such as an active forums that’s updated regularly.  There are topics such as travel tips, “how to”, and general travel information. They also provide a tab specifically for finding tours that you might want to take while you’re visiting a certain destinations, as well as a search for hostels, and information on travel insurance (hey, ya never know what can happen while you’re away from home!).

If you’re looking for some great advice, they have a list of top travelers that’s updated daily.  This is calculated based upon the number of visitors to their blog, number of forum posts, number of photos, and number of entries to TravelPod.

 I always like to know exactly where I’m going and what I’ll be doing while I’m traveling.  I like to call it being prepared.  TravelPod is a great resource for finding pictures and blogs that pertain to the specific location that you’re traveling to.  They receive visitors from those who have travel blogs just as much as they do from people who are looking for some good advice on a destination.

You don’t need a membership to browse the website or the blogs, although a membership is free anyways.  They offer unlimited uploads of photos, and will notify up to 500 friends and family members of updates to your blog.  They’ve changed a lot since 1997 when it all began! If you’d like to check it out, visit www.travelpod.com Even if you’re not interested in actually visiting some of these locations, you can certainly just look!

• Yahoo Acquires del.icio.us
• Technorati Launches New Web Site Design
• About
• eBay Is Getting Blogs, Search Tags, And Wikis
• Google Adds World Cup Scores To Search Results

Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ashley reBlogged on Oct 14, 2006, 11:00AM

A few months back we were exposed to the Google GDrive online page and now it looks like Philipp Lenssen from Google Blogoscoped actually got his hands on the client application that Google employees use. The current codename is Platypus as you can see in the lovely screenshots but Philipp, who couldn’t login with his Google Account, was quick to note that:

Gdrive, from what it looks like, is not a product for general release, but a way for Google employees to store and share files.

He has also placed a copy of the HTML help pages on his site that are available for both Windows and Linux users. There are two interesting points in those files:

Can I help make Platypus better? I have some 20% time built up.

Yup! We’d love your help with engineering, interface design, or marketing. Email Justin if you’d like to volunteer your time. You can also make Platypus better just by using it and reporting bugs.

What data should I keep in my Platypus share?

We encourage you to keep all of your files with us, including your Office documents, photos, and personal notes, except for sensitive data (including electronic protected health information) and other files inconsistent with the internal user agreement.

So they are obviously trying to gear the service to hosting all kinds of files for people but they make it sound like there is no team dedicated to working only on this project. They want people to use some of their “20% time” that Google employees receive to work on any project that they would like. That essentially means that they have one day out of each week to make the next big Google app…and hopefully GDrive will be it!

Philipp then went on to post the configuration file and that appears to limit users to 500MB of storage, or they may just be using that configuration file for testing purposes and want the ability to try different limitation sizes. The thing that is really funny, and you knew there had to be something, was what I noticed in the configuration file. If you take a look at the URL for a forgotten password it points to here. Guess that is something they still need to implement.

The last bit of news that Philipp shared was an image that showed a listing of all the files that the application contained:

It is a little disappointing to think that Google isn’t going all out trying to release the GDrive that we have all been craving. Maybe Google leaked this on purpose though! They could have done it to throw competitors off and make them think that Google hasn’t really done much work on their file backup/storage software? Hey, I’m trying to be optimistic here!

• Google’s GDrive Slips Up
• Windows Media Player 11 Leaked To The Web
• Yahoo Maps Beta Adds Satellite Images
• Google Calendar CL2 Now Live
• REAL Google Calendar CL2 Screenshots Leaked

Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 14, 2006, 3:39AM

I just decided to try out the Remote Desktop in Windows Vista and it is actually pretty nice. I have two computers that currently have Windows Vista RC2 installed and they are both located on my local network. I made sure to specify in the Remote Desktop that I wanted all of the graphical goodies for the machine that I was connecting to which happened to be my laptop.

My desktop is able to handle the Aero theme which allows for the cool transparent effects but my laptop, which was the machine I was connecting to, doesn’t have the WDDM compatible drivers so I’m forced to use the Vista Basic theme. To my surprise the remote connection let my desktop computer do the graphical processing so that I could see the Aero theme “on my laptop.” You can see a screenshot that I took above of this in action.

One thing that is still disappointing is that the computer being controlled will still log the user off in order to give you full control. I really like being able to connect to machines without logging a user off, especially if I want to show someone how to do something. Oh well, maybe in the next version of Windows.

• Enabling Remote Desktop On A Remote Computer
• Remote Desktop For Mac OS X
• Review Of Symantec pcAnywhere 12
• Connect To Your Computer Remotely Using A Web Browser
• Google Desktop Search 3 Sports A Quick Search Feature

Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 13, 2006, 10:33PM

The person that created this script is the same person that made my favorite Greasemonkey script called GMail Conversation Preview. Using that script you can right click on any message in your Inbox and it will show you a popup window with the contents of the message. It saves me so much time and lets me quickly read my messages.

Honestly, GMail should have a feature similar to Google Reader where you can click on article’s title in the collapsed view and it will expand it without the need to take the user away from their Inbox. That would make reading emails a lot quicker but until then I will be using GMail Conversation Preview. It would also be cool if Cooliris was compatible with GMail but it doesn’t seem to work.

Thanks to everyone who sent in this tip!

• Add AJAX Capabilities To Your Normal Yahoo! Mail
• CyberNotes: Greasemonkey Scripts That Save You Time
• Google Links Bar Adds Picasa And Spreadsheet
• Firefox Extension Allows Users To Skin GMail Without Greasemonkey
• Google Reader Goes Mobile

Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 13, 2006, 8:55PM

Every now and then I have to convert a video from one file format to another and it is a pain to find the software to do it…especially free software! That is where Super comes into play. It can handle a huge variety of video formats and can convert them to nearly anything you would want! Here are a few of the converters that it comes with:

• Mobile phone converter
• PocketPC converter
• iPod converter
• PSP converter
• VCD converter
• SVCD converter
• DVD converter
• AVI converter
• MP4 converter
• MOV converter
• ASF converter
• FLV converter
• MPG converter
• OGG converter
• WMV converter
• GIF converter

The list is actually even longer but those are probably some of the most common ones that people will use. On top of being able to convert videos it can also play/save Internet Media Streams (such as mms://, rtsp://, and http://) without any problems!

So even if you don’t plan on using this program right now I still suggest that you bookmark it, because when you do need it you won’t be able to find it!

Download Super (links located at the bottom of the page)

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Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 13, 2006, 7:18PM

Microsoft has apparently received a lot of complaints from users who receive black borders on their windows when they maximize them. You may not think this is that big of a deal but for those people who choose colors like red or orange you can drastically notice the window color change, for example from red to black, when you maximize it. Microsoft originally did this because when you maximize a window you are trying to focus on the contents and a black border makes that easier to do.

Users didn’t like that though so Microsoft decided to compromise a little bit. Now the window borders will take on more color depending on the Aero color choice that you make. The image above is from the blue theme that I chose for the sake of the example, otherwise I personally like the Graphite one.

Here is why Microsoft gave in and made the change:

With 300 million users, even 1/10th of 1% of people don’t like something, and only 1% of those REALLY don’t like it, that is still thousands of people who will email us daily, blog about it, tell their friends, etc.  The trick of working in Windows is to have a thick skin while still remaining sensitive to potentially serious issues.

…

In the end, we decided that we like the black and think it is the right thing to do, but we want to respect the user’s color choice for users who bother to make a change.

Yesterday, on that same blog, the team was also answering some of the most frequently asked questions about the Windows Vista Basic theme. They answered almost every question that I have asked myself at one time or another:

• Why isn’t the Close button oversized compared to the Minimize and Maximize buttons, like in Aero?
• Then how is the DWM getting away with it?
• Why didn’t you change the legacy window manager then?
• Why aren’t the caption buttons bigger in Aero Basic?
• What if I don’t like them this small?
• What’s with the extra border?
• But I’m running Aero Basic not Aero so I don’t have glass, so why put a thick “glass” border there?
• What if I don’t like it?
• Why does Aero have a solid 1-pixel black border inside the frame, and Aero Basic doesn’t?

They even went as far to show us a per-pixel image of the new theme:

I was actually surprised at how in-depth they got with the whole subject. Now that they actually explained all of their reasoning then I guess I won’t be questioning as much why they couldn’t find some way to make the Basic theme look more like the Aero one.

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Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 13, 2006, 5:33PM

In a recent press release Microsoft announced that Windows Media Player 11 would be released in the coming weeks. They then go on to say that it will be available on October 24 for users to download. For those of you who haven’t tried out the WMP 11 pre-releases then you will be quite shocked at the differences. Everything is much more streamlined and well organized. It will definitely be a good compliment to Microsoft’s Zune media player that is supposed to be available later this year.

Update:

I’m not sure on the accuracy of the information that ZDNet provided below because they removed the article. This could be a sign that Vista isn’t getting released in December or that they weren’t supposed to say anything.

The biggest news (according to ZDNet), however, is that Vista will be released on December 5 to the general public! That’s right, Microsoft is pushing the release date FORWARD almost two months from the originally slated January 30, 2007 scheduled release. Microsoft also plans to make Office 2007 available that same day. The business community will still be receiving Vista in November but Microsoft will surely be recognized for shaving some time off of the public delay.

I think it is great that Microsoft has pushed Vista up but now I am a little concerned for the number of programs that will be Vista-compatible at the launch date. Hopefully Microsoft was able to make most companies aware, especially antivirus developers, of the change before today because they now have two-months less to work on compatibility issues. I have heard most companies repeatedly say that they will have a Vista-compatible version of their software when Microsoft officially releases it to the public but I wonder if that will still be true!

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Originally from CyberNet Technology News by Ryan reBlogged on Oct 13, 2006, 3:54PM

• Floating toolbars: Allow the user to pull all toolbars off the top of the window and create a floating toolbar. These floating bars could be overlapped, tiled, etc to save screen real-estate.
• Optional IE theme
• Drag tabs between windows
• Shading of tabs denoting time since it started: On the scale of white to black, white is more recent than black.
• Allow relative opening of tabs: Child tabs open next to parent tab and not at the end of tab bar.
• Page change notification: Enable a system where the browser can check if a page has changed, without relying on Web feeds (any bookmark can be “live”).
• P2P support
• Improved file type handling: always download specific filetypes to a set of default or user-specified folders (defaults: Audio, Video, Images, Zipped, Executable, etc.).
• Improve profile/user management and switching
• Password-protected user profiles
• Offer to install extension packs while installing
• Private browsing: Implement a “private browsing” mode that prevents collection and recording of data.
• Ability to resize textareas
• Improve FTP support
• Be the fastest browser on the market, not only on “fat” desktops, but also on bargain desktops with only 256MB of RAM.

Those are the few things that really stood out. Surprisingly, someone mentioned a “River of News” feed reading option but no one really said anything about having a full feed reader built-in. That is probably one of my highest requests for Firefox and hopefully when they do get around to it they make it similar to what Flock has to offer.

I think all browser developers should be looking at this list because it is a real eye opener as to what people really want. It really reminds me of a few months ago when I put together an article on what features the perfect web browser would have. While my list is no where near the extent that Mozilla has it still points how which browsers implement certain features the best.

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