Sunday, August 27, 2006

Get your self on YOUTUBE, and perhaps be a future animator.


Easy, Cheap, Animated Cartoon in 10 Minutes and the animation on youtube for a little more! Yes, you can do it.
I can not draw for a toffee, but after reading the methods described in this article, I was able to laugh at my own work. It did take me more than 10 minutes but may it was because I was multitasking, washing clothes, browsing through library of congress (true!!) and zillion other things. The most time was spent on finding my long ago discarded webcam!. Anyway I rigged it up as the article says and downloaded the software, MonkeyJam, and spent quite a bit time over at that site too. If you are going to do this, you too better spend some time at MonkeyJam site and if you are rich enough, donate to the creator of MonkeyJam so he can add another line to explanations to his wife about his time on the computer.
The author of the article describes the process in a few steps and if you follow them, viola, you have an animation that you, and perhaps others will enjoy.
By reading the comments on the article, it is obvious that this is a super deal if you have children. I think it is a best way to spend an afternoon. Forget about the 10 minutes. I am sure you will spend more time at the INSTRUCTABLES site.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

The guy who killed Pluto


The critical blow for Pluto came with the discovery three years ago of an object currently designated 2003 UB313. Discovered by Mike Brown and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology, 2003 UB313 has been lauded by some as the "10th Planet".
Measurements by the Hubble Space Telescope show it to have a diameter of 3,000km (1,864 miles), a few hundred km more than Pluto. 2003 UB313 will now join Pluto in the dwarf planet category.
Robin Catchpole, of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, UK, said: "My own personal opinion was to leave things as they were. I met Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto, and thought, it's nice to shake hands with someone who discovered a planet.
Most astronomers were happy to see Pluto cast from the official roster of planets. Professor Iwan Williams, the IAU's president of planetary systems science, commented: "Pluto has lots and lots of friends; we're not so keen to have Pluto and all his friends in the club because it gets crowded.

"By the end of the decade, we would have had 100 planets, and I think people would have said 'my goodness, what a mess they made back in 2006'."

Friday, August 25, 2006

Samsung X830 aka SPH-S4300



The Samsung x830 phone is a size of a chewing gum pack (85 x 29 x 20 mm) and is flick rotate and open (rotating screen) design. GSM connectivity allows to connect to any GSM network. It weighs 2.6 ounces only and sports an 128 x 220 pixels TFT screen.

It is not just a phone, like most of the phones today it supports all popular formats of music encoding, including the Ogg (Open source fans aka Linux users should be happy). The music is transferred using either USB 2.0 or a Bluetooth adapter. There is a 1GB space to save your music and ...

There is more (but less), it comes with a built-in 1.3-megapixel digital camera. A slimline keypad and a thumb wheel let you browse through your contacts or music collection. Go dial a song. It will be available in US in two months (October) and may be will be known as SPH-S4300 and I read about that at the gadget blog. Go check it out.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Patches enters Microsoft Vista's View or ET TU Vista?

While Microsoft has touted Windows Vista as its most secure client operating system yet, (They said the same thing with Windows 98, Windows XP and other server releases too!) the unfinished product is already getting regular security fixes. May be M$ is keeping to it's traditions. I have Vista on a partition and have not logged in for two days, previous updates were only for malware updates.
Anyway M$ is again at the butt end just like after the black hat intro of the Vista.

Two of the seven "critical" Windows updates that Microsoft delivered on Aug. 8 affect Vista, Heaton wrote. These are MS06-042, for Internet Explorer, and MS06-051, which addresses a flaw in the Windows kernel.
Vista is not affected by the Windows flaw that is getting most of the attention among the Patch Tuesday bulletins. That flaw, MS06-040, affects file and printer sharing and has already been exploited in low-risk worm attacks.
But there is a hotfix for the MS06-040 already. Get it if your program uses more that 1GB of memory on 2003 server, which is almost every server program nowadays.
Here is the M$ alert;
"Programs that request lots of contiguous memory may fail after you install security update 921883 (MS06-040) on a Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1-based computer or a Windows XP Professional x64 Edition-based computer"
I have two Oracle servers and I am wondering to uninstall the patch or to install the hotfix!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

New blog on Blogger Beta

Brand spanking new weblog is out on Blogger beta site. I really like the new features on the blogger beta!

Monday, August 14, 2006

Murky clouds of Spyware over movieland! Gets sued by Washington State

I was reading about movie gadgets and then movieland came up. When I was searching about this, I came up to this article by Suzi Turner at ZDnet. When there are any spyware stuff, I usually check what she has written. Although it is not the latest gizmo, It is a good read since most gizmo and gadget aficionados will fall pray to sites like this. Not only they have hijacked users desk tops but an innocent open source software project named Mediapipe.
I went ahead and followed links provided by her and my own searches. Came to a conclusion that I should post this article, even though I have seen culprits lawyers leaving messages on websites.
It is official now! They have been taken to court by Washington State Attorney General McKenna. I think this why;
You will find more info on forums people trying to remove the software installed by Movieland. You should be careful about sites like these. Here are some sure shot info on them;
StopBadware.org Reports;
We find that MediaPipe is badware because it does not fully disclose what it is installing, does not completely remove all components and "obligations" during the uninstall process, and modifies other software without disclosure.

We currently recommend that users do not install the version of MediaPipe that we tested, unless the user is comfortable with the level of risk we identify or until the application is updated consistent with the recommendations in this report. Read the full report and more here.

Counter Spy reports here;
Advice Type Remove
Description MediaPipe/MovieLand is an online content access program that badgers using into paying for the application if they do not cancel the "trial" within a certain time period.

FIOS New multiroom DVR!


Put an end to the days of DVR remote tug of war with our new Multi-Room DVR. It features all the same cool controls as your standard DVR, only with more flexibility because it allows you to watch a recorded show in one room while someone else uses the same DVR in another room. Forget the cost and hassle of having multiple DVRs throughout the house! To top it all off, access to the Media Manager is included so you can play your favorite music and watch photo slide shows from your PC to your TV. Let your DVR rock the house!

The Multi-Room DVR is:

* Simple - Eliminates the need for multiple DVRs throughout the house
* Flexible - Pause a program in one room, continue viewing in another
* Convenient - Watch recorded shows on multiple TVs throughout your home
The launch of Home Media DVR follows the June 1 introduction of FiOS TV
Widgets, a free interactive feature that lets subscribers display
text-based local weather and traffic information on their TV screens. More
information about both services is available here.

Lean to steer a segway's new i2 PT (Personal Transporter)


(AP Photo/Segway, Inc.)

Segway has modified and plans to reintroduce its self-balancing scooter with a gadgets that allows riders to start the device with a remote control and steer it simply by leaning in the direction they want to go.
"Some people describe it as very similar to skiing," the company's chief technology officer, Doug Field, said of the new LeanSteer technology that replaces a set of handlebars as the Segway's means of steering.
Segway wanted to make the new version of the scooter more intuitive and fun to ride, a vehicle that "truly becomes an extension of your body, The best interface is no interface at all" according to Field.
The key to the new steering technology, Field said, is at the pivot point between the stem and the base, where a group of sensors "reads your body angle" and communicates the information to the software that controls what direction it travels.
Since its launch in 2001, the Segway is the top of rich geekines gizmo and the sophisticated software engineering that allows a rider to balance effortlessly on two wheels has been praised many a times. But its too high price is one of the reasons I am still on four wheel personal transportation.

Blue Pill Muddles Vista Security Views?

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Video kills Froogle!


Google, never known to pushdown or withdraws products, is playing favorites. Google has bumped Froogle to a back page. What replaced it was Google Video. If you visit the Google home page, look at the banner just above the search box and you will see Video with new icon attached to it.
Those that are interested in numbers and graphs, hitwise has done some nice work on this topic. What a difference a link makes? A lot it seems, Wednesday's change moved Google Video into the #5 position in the Google Breakdown, while Froogle moved from the #5 to the #7 position. Read more at hitwise blog.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Microsoft promotes Firefox! By driving WGA screws!!

WGA is hard to remove! It is getting tighter!! Remember the article Geemodo: removeWGA released, well according to this article forget about tools, WGA is built into Vista and you can not avoid it, so far!!
But I went ahead and read the original article and a little light bulb flashed! May be M$ will promote FIREFOX by doing this WGA thing. According to the article,
"""We built a set of features and a set of functionality that is only available to genuine Windows customers," Johnson said. "Windows Defender, for example, the anti-spyware for Windows XP and Windows Vista, is available to genuine Windows customers. Windows Media Player 11.0, Internet Explorer 7.0, will be available for download for Windows XP customers who are genuine, and of course those are built into Windows Vista. Future updates to Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player for Windows Vista will require them to be genuine. And certainly there's some premium features built into the Windows Vista operating system that will require genuine validation as well. So we're really trying to amplify the fact that being genuine enables the set of benefits and value to access these types of features and capabilities."""
Well I never depended on Windows Defender, Media Player! I rarely use it and IExplorer ? I have a IE tab for those sites that depend on IE. Anyway the best part is that when people are pressed to find a solution to problems, they tend to let go the status quo and may be these people will find that FireFox is a better solution.
Now that gridtech: Apple Opens up (kernel) and we see no Worm! and better Linux desktops are mushrooming, only Vista M$ might see is the rear of the users running away!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Color your banana, and keep monkeys away!


Banana Guard, one of the latest gadgets, comes to you from three Canadian Emergency Room Doctors who were extremely concerned about the amount of banana trauma and abuse taking place in the world. Their banana were bruised abused by the time they opened their lunch bags. Only a monkey could eat this browned out banana. Since there are no monkeys around here only garbage cans were the end of the road for the bananas.
The Banana Guard the gizmo was conceived and produced to alleviate this problem. So now you can abuse your banana without bruising them. If you want to know more here is their FAQ about the BG!
To get one or two, click the headline
Q: "Not all bananas are the same size or shape, so how can the Banana Guard fit them all?"

A: The Banana Guard was specially designed to accommodate the majority of banana sizes. Our testing indicates that over 90% of commercially available bananas will fit into the Banana Guard. Highly curved bananas can be straightened ever-so-slightly without harm to fit the Banana Guard shape. The opposite holds true of very straight bananas.

Q: "Will the Banana Guard keep my banana fresh at the end of the day?"

A: Yes, the Banana Guard contains special ventilation holes that allow the banana to ripen at its natural rate.

Q: "How long do the hinges last?"

A: The hinges on the Banana Guard are called "active hinges". In the plastics world this means that the plastic molecules are specially aligned to provide for maximum strength in the thinnest form. As long as the hinges are not twisted they will not break with regular opening and closing.

Q: "You don't have an outlet where I live. How can I get a Banana Guard?"

A: We deliver worldwide.

Q: "Is there a battery attachment?"

A: No. The Banana Guard was designed for its intended purpose only as a device to prevent banana trauma during transport.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Is your life tied to Gadgets and gizmos?

I can't live without IT!
To some IT is a cellphone, to some IT means every gadget! But I think I can do without most of my gadgets! Ha!! Leave that notebook alone. Cell phone, Yes I never answer it anyway unless I know the caller. I never listen to my voice mail, I just erase them! So I use it when I have to call!
Anyway, the story goes like this;
Having the newest technological gadget is important to a large majority of people in Saudi Arabia (87 percent), Romania (65 percent) and India (60 percent). And across all countries, 45 percent of respondents say that the could not live without their mobile phones, particularly Saudis (68 percent) and Thais (61 percent). Laptops are considered the next most indispensable piece of technology across the sample (9 percent), followed by plasma/LCD TVs (8 percent). Not surprisingly, respondents under the age of 35 are most attached to these and other electronic devices such as DVD or MP3 players and TiVo systems.

To get these data, Synovate surveyed 5,500 respondents in Canada, China, France, Hungary, India, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Taiwan and Thailand, asking about their attitudes toward the latest technological devices.

Sony is cited by most respondents as the brand that leaps to mind when one thinks of cutting-edge technology, leading other manufacturers by a wide margin across all age ranges. Samsung and LG are the second most recognized brands amongst respondents under age 35, while Philips is more frequently associated with high technology by those above 35.
Read more at this site.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Top 100 games! in this century!!

If you are a gadget aficionado, then it is certain that you have an arsenal of gizmos to play games with. Be they PCs, gamecubes, playstations, PDAs or phones.
Anyway you have been forking out those hard earned money to bring you virtual happiness or real happiness!.
These bits of electronics and programming have their ranking too! Just checkout gameranking.com. But it was hard to find the top 100! Be at ease, drop that controller and head out to Next-Gen.biz, they have ranked games for consoles totally based on unit sales. The analysis also includes revenues, reviews, commentaries and then some.
The only problem is that you have to scroll, click 13 pages to find out who ranked the first.
I will give you a small dish for reading my tiny article, the numero uno is Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Find the rest at the site.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

While Zune battles iPOD, VeriZon fights with LG VX8500 (LG-KG800)


All the news about the battle of pods, iPOD and Zune was filling many a gadget web pages little while ago. Even our site, GEEMODO reported on the same.
Enter the LG-KG800, in to the scene!
verizon has decided to eliminated $15 monthly charge to down load music via it's V CAST VPak. Surely to attract customers to this new and exciting product (gadget) and service. Songs cost as little as $0.99 if purchased from the PC or $1.99 if purchased and downloaded over the air onto a V CAST Music phone. May be it is better if Verizon matches PC price for the songs on chocolate, $1.99 is not a song! But if you are wiser, you would download music to your PC for $0.99 and move to a MicroSD card. So don't forget to buy an adapter if your PC or notebook does not have one. Most of PC gizmos do these days. Mine does.
Now customers can leave all the MP3 players behind and only carry the phone, provided that you are on the Verizon circuit and willing to sign off your phone freedom for two years. Also do not forget that you need to pay $149.99 after a $50 instant online discount.
The phone, affectionately known as chocolate, features a 1.3MP camera with 2x digital zoom and self-timer, color TFT with 240x320 pixels, integrated speaker, video player, mp3 ring tones and microSD card slot with capacities up to 2GB.
This is Verizon's best music-phone so far. You can listen to music via stereo Bluetooth, a must have gadget to go with the phone. It has a roomy 68 MB of on-board memory, in addition to MicroSD memory cards up to 2 GB. Now the hooray!! Finally it can play both WMA and MP3 files natively in Verizon's V CAST Music player. You can put music on the phone by transferring to a MicroSD card, or syncing it via USB cable with Windows PC.