Comment How long till Facebook break it? (Score 0) 71
I give it 24 hours before Facebook does something to break it.
Submission + - Linus Torvalds: OS X file system is "utter crap" (digitizor.com)
kai_hiwatari writes: Torvalds said that OS X Leopard is a much better system compared to Windows Vista but the HFS+ file system that OS X uses is “complete and utter crap”.
"I don't think they're equally flawed — I think Leopard is a much better system. (But) OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for. Their file system is complete and utter crap, which is scary."
"I don't think they're equally flawed — I think Leopard is a much better system. (But) OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for. Their file system is complete and utter crap, which is scary."
Submission + - Microsoft Accused Of Stealing Kinect From Inventor (digitizor.com)
kai_hiwatari writes: Allegations are surfacing that Microsoft the technology behind Kinect from Columbian inventor Carlos Anzola. Anzola is said to have developed a similar technology, which he called the Human interface Electronic Decice (HiE-D), in 2007.
The HiE-D works by projecting a pattern of dots on the user using infra-red. The infra-red patterns are invisible to the human eye but can be easily picked up by the an-infra red camera. When the user moves, the pattern changes and this is picked up by the camera and translated into functions which the computer can recognize. This is very similar to the technology that Microsoft’s Kinect uses.
The HiE-D works by projecting a pattern of dots on the user using infra-red. The infra-red patterns are invisible to the human eye but can be easily picked up by the an-infra red camera. When the user moves, the pattern changes and this is picked up by the camera and translated into functions which the computer can recognize. This is very similar to the technology that Microsoft’s Kinect uses.
Submission + - The massive mystery of Google's Finance (siliconvalleywatcher.com)
kai_hiwatari writes: "The partner sites are part of Google's AdSense network and include large media companies such as The New York Times.
Google's own sites, such as search, gmail, etc showed 39% growth in the most recent quarter compared with the year ago quarter, to $6.23 billion.
Google partner sites grew at nearly half the rate: just 20% compared with a year ago, to $2.48 billion.
This huge disparity between the growth rates of Google sites and partner sites is without precedent for most of its history. For example, in 2010, Google sites never exceeded the growth rate of partner sites"
Google's own sites, such as search, gmail, etc showed 39% growth in the most recent quarter compared with the year ago quarter, to $6.23 billion.
Google partner sites grew at nearly half the rate: just 20% compared with a year ago, to $2.48 billion.
This huge disparity between the growth rates of Google sites and partner sites is without precedent for most of its history. For example, in 2010, Google sites never exceeded the growth rate of partner sites"
Submission + - Did Microsoft steal the tech behind Kinetic? (hackaday.com)
kaptink writes: In 2009, while Microsoft was busy designing and marketing what would become the Kinect, Carlos Anzola, an inventor, tinkerer, and self-ascribed geek from Bogotá, Colombia, had been working for years on a nearly identical gesture interface for the PC. His creation, the Human interface Electronic Device, or HiE-D – pronounced ‘Heidi’ — was capable of gesture recognition years before Microsoft would release the Kinect.
After developing his gesture recognition device in 2007, Microsoft showed interest in Carlos‘s device – going so far as to request a prototype. Microsoft suggested that he should apply for a patent on his technology. Carlos did just that, sending in patent applications to both the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization a mere two days before the announcement of Project Natal and a full seven months before Microsoft applied for their Kinect patent.
While any action on Microsoft’s part would be speculation, we will say that the Kinect is remarkably similar to the HiE-D. Both use a ‘constellation’ of infrared dots projected on the user, and both can are able to detect the ‘skeleton’ of a user for motion control. The image below, from the HiE-D patent, shows how the movement of a face can be tracked.
Today, Carlos is in talks with a few interested companies that would like to produce the HiE-D. He says it would sell for only $50 USD, compared to $140 for a Microsoft Kinect. The HiE-D doesn’t have a camera to capture video of a user, so playing dress up with a HiE-D would be impossible. This wouldn’t be to much of a drawback, because some of the most impressive Kinect hacks we’ve seen wouldn’t change at all with the HiE-D.
Carlos says he’s been in contact with a few lawyers in Boston, who believes he has a case against Microsoft for patent infringement. He’s undecided about how to proceed at this point – Microsoft does have the war chest to go after Google for Android and defend itself over its use of 3D mapping. If we were Carlos, we’d be pretty skeptical about our chances as well.
After developing his gesture recognition device in 2007, Microsoft showed interest in Carlos‘s device – going so far as to request a prototype. Microsoft suggested that he should apply for a patent on his technology. Carlos did just that, sending in patent applications to both the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization a mere two days before the announcement of Project Natal and a full seven months before Microsoft applied for their Kinect patent.
While any action on Microsoft’s part would be speculation, we will say that the Kinect is remarkably similar to the HiE-D. Both use a ‘constellation’ of infrared dots projected on the user, and both can are able to detect the ‘skeleton’ of a user for motion control. The image below, from the HiE-D patent, shows how the movement of a face can be tracked.
Today, Carlos is in talks with a few interested companies that would like to produce the HiE-D. He says it would sell for only $50 USD, compared to $140 for a Microsoft Kinect. The HiE-D doesn’t have a camera to capture video of a user, so playing dress up with a HiE-D would be impossible. This wouldn’t be to much of a drawback, because some of the most impressive Kinect hacks we’ve seen wouldn’t change at all with the HiE-D.
Carlos says he’s been in contact with a few lawyers in Boston, who believes he has a case against Microsoft for patent infringement. He’s undecided about how to proceed at this point – Microsoft does have the war chest to go after Google for Android and defend itself over its use of 3D mapping. If we were Carlos, we’d be pretty skeptical about our chances as well.
Submission + - PayPal Announces NFC Payment Support For Android (digitizor.com)
dkd903 writes: NFC has decided to ease off every thing for the customers who think its enough to use their wallets. The technology has once again taken a major leap with PayPal’s announcement of support for NFC on the Android phones.
Submission + - IBM Contributes Symphony To Apache OpenOffice.org (digitizor.com)
kai_hiwatari writes: IBM has surprisingly thrown its weight behind OpenOffice.org in the OpenOffice.org vs LibreOffice fight. Tomorrow IBM will announce the donation of the source code of their free office suite – IBM Lotus Symphony – to the Apache OpenOffice.org. Now, the ball is in Apache’s court. They will consider IBM’s offer and if they think that it will help OpenOffice.org, they will accept it. If they think otherwise, well, they continue as before.
Submission + - Adobe released 64-bit Flash for Linux (digitizor.com) 1
kai_hiwatari writes: Adobe has been taking quite a bashing from Linux supporters of late. First, there was the issue of them dropping AIR for Linux and then came the bashing because of the lack of updates on the experimental 64-bit Flash for Linux.
Well, guess what! They have just released Flash 11 and it includes native 64-bit support for Linux as well. When they discontinued their experimental 64-bit Flash earlier this year, Adobe promised to release a 64-bit version of Flash for Linux when they release the next major version. They have kept that promise.
Well, guess what! They have just released Flash 11 and it includes native 64-bit support for Linux as well. When they discontinued their experimental 64-bit Flash earlier this year, Adobe promised to release a 64-bit version of Flash for Linux when they release the next major version. They have kept that promise.
Comment Re:Didn't quit (Score 4, Informative) 284
Yes, his profile is still visible at https://plus.google.com/104560124403688998123/about . Only the details like number of followers, followings etc has been made private.
Comment Re:But.. (Score 5, Informative) 107
He is the Open Source Manager at Google. Former Slashdot editor, I think.
Submission + - New Lenses Change Color on Demand (gizmag.com)
Zothecula writes: Most will be familiar with photochromic lenses that darken when exposed to UV light, but now a researcher at the University of Connecticut has developed lenses that can quickly switch color based on the amount of voltage passed through them. While sunglasses manufacturers are expected to employ the technology to create color-changing sunglasses, it has also apparently captured the attention of the U.S. military who see it as a way to potentially assist soldiers to see clearly in rapidly changing environments.
Submission + - Google: Android is the Linux Dream Come True (digitizor.com)
kai_hiwatari writes: Chris DiBona, who is the Open Source Manager at Google, has said that Android is the Linux dream come true. He described Android as “the ultimate success story of Linux”.
Do you agree?
Do you agree?
Submission + - GM of CO.CC: Deindex Facebook and Blogspot (digitizor.com) 1
kai_hiwatari writes: "A few days back, we reported that Google has removed more than 11 million .co.cc websites. Today James Kim, the General Manager of CO.CC, has taken to the Google Webmaster Forum saying that Google made a mistake because 99.99% of the co.cc websites are clean. He also commented that Google ought to remove Blogspot and Facebook if they want to be fair."
Comment Do not make much sense right now (Score 1) 441
Firefox 8 is not even in the alpha. It will change a lot by the time it reached the users. So, i think there is no point in statements such as "Firefox 8 is 20% faster than firefox 5".
Comment Re:Well (Score 5, Informative) 127
.co.cc is not an officially recognized second level domain. It is just sub-domains given out by a Korean company that owns the domain http://co.cc/
So, Google is actually removing just one domain with 11 million sub-domains. (source http://digitizor.com/2011/07/06/google-removes-cc-domains/ )
