Monthly Archives: January 2004

general January 31, 2004 posted by

From Russia with love.

The Tholos project is one ambitious puppy. Basically the company is planning to install a network of 7 meter diameter, 3 meter high advertising sponsored kiosks which incorporate a 360 degree screen, microphones and HyperSound directional speakers (rather like Audio Spotlight I suspect). The idea is that each gateway kiosk will be linked to another in a different country, so that tourists and inhabitants of the two cities can interact, talk and wave to each other etc in real time….

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general January 31, 2004 posted by

Moody moody.

I’ve been playing with the MoodLogic service for a while. It’s OK, but I’m a little bit leery of using anything that relies on external proprietary server data to organise my own media. Especially when it charges me $39.95 for the privilege. ‘If you have a large collection of digital music (100 songs or more), you need a way to organize your collection and to clean up your badly tagged songs. MoodLogic does this, and much more. How? MoodLogic is…

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general January 31, 2004 posted by

iFire, you listen!

The iFire – ‘lets you enjoy the great sound and stunning design of the popular Apple Pro Speakers…with any computer in the world with FireWire.’ Also lets you hook up your iPod. $34.99.

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general January 31, 2004 posted by

Mass media marginalised.

Oh dear, SF Gate reports on the continuing decline in mass media consumption. Seems that we’re not conforming as we’re supposed to, darn it! ‘Television has “become background noise,” says Susan Young, a 46-year-old mother of two from Maplewood, N.J. Her boys, 9 and 13, watch about an hour of TV a day during the week, sandwiched between homework, sports, religious school and piano lessons. But when they watch TV, they’re frequently on the computer or playing with a toy…

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general January 31, 2004 posted by

Dot Eaters.

Dot Eaters – a videogame history 101. ‘While the point of this site is to cover the varied and interesting 40 year history of all those eater of dots, whether they be the pixels on the screen or the quarters in our pockets, from the invention of the very first game displayed on an oscilloscope in a nuclear laboratory to the latest megabit home console sensation, I don’t expect to have EVERY base covered (at least, not yet).’

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general January 31, 2004 posted by

Fun with RC and me.

The Power Air Surfer looks like fun, especially for just $30.00 to $50.00. Rechargeable batteries, range 300 feet, max height 100 feet or so. More here.

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general January 31, 2004 posted by

Phone net.

NetEcho from Internet Speech lets you access the Internet using any phone. ‘Breakthrough technology translates the requested Web Page information into text, and reads it out loud to you – minus those annoying banners, ads and images you see when using a computer to access the Internet. Imagine driving down the road and having your e-mail read to you through your cell phone. Or being able to check on the weather, request a stock quote or buy a last minute…

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general January 31, 2004 posted by

Remote connections.

You know what I lurve about the Net? It’s the fact that you can pick up total trivia from every corner of the globe as easily as sneezing. I mean how else can you explain this bunch of outback Aussies and their pet roadhouse singing dingo getting global exposure on Yahoo! and Reuters? Fab!

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general January 31, 2004 posted by

Be my little chocoholic?

OK, Valentine’s Day is coming (wot, you didn’t know?) so let’s be a tad topical. Why not go for a new trick this year and offer your beloved a chocolate digital photo? ‘Chocolate Graphics is excited to announce our new Photo Process. Using the latest technology we are now able to emboss photographs onto Chocolate.’ …or indeed some Picture Cookies? I’m sure they’ll soon be eating out of your hand if you do.

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general January 31, 2004 posted by

Newspaper revolution.

The Seattle PI is breaking new ground as far as online newspapers go by offering their readers a new segmented day experience. That’s right, no more boring old single day edition, instead the site will morph over the course of 12 hours into various different types of publication. Wonder if print cousins will eventually follow suit? ‘At 4 p.m., we will roll out the popular 4 O’clock News, but now it will BE the home page, not even one click…

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general January 31, 2004 posted by

I like it…

The I Like service puts the power of collaborative filtering to use in relation to web sites. It’s very easy to use, just click the I Like button when you find a site you like. ‘…in return you will get a list of web pages you will like but didn’t know about…’

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general January 30, 2004 posted by

Canon singing the blues.

Canon has announced a new portable printer called the Bubble Jet i80, which incorporates a Bluetooth module option for wireless printing. The A4 sized printer looks to be an upgrade of the company’s i70 (above) and features a rechargeable battery giving 450 pages per charge, and a speed and resolution of 14ppm (mono), 10ppm (colour) at 4800×1200 dpi. Available in March for �199.00.

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general January 30, 2004 posted by

iPod skin.

Fanatic about your iPod? Worried about getting likkle scratches and dinks in it? Then you need an exo3 cover. Stretchy, thin, lightweight and in a fascinatingly bizarre range of colours. $9.50.

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general January 30, 2004 posted by

Sony keeps walking the walk.

Apparently one of the new crop of Sony minidisk players just released – the MZ-E520 – comes with an integral digital amplifier and 6 band EQ. Is this the Minidisk format making a last minute – futile? – attempt to stem the HDD player/recorder onslaught?

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general January 30, 2004 posted by

Glide slopes.

According to this New Scientist report, there are proposals afoot to lower the noise of landing aircraft by getting the planes to adopt a gentler landing pattern. I’m all for that, dudes, having experienced a very interesting rollercoaster type landing at New York recently! ‘Instead of beginning the descent 17 kilometres away, the crew began their descents some 70 kilometres away and from a height of 11,000 feet, while maintaining an angle of descent of 3� and keeping engine power…

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