Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Hasselblad rolls out 39 megapixel H3D II DSLR

from Engadget by Donald Melanson

Hasselblad may have already hit 39 megapixels more than a year ago, but that doesn't make the company's new H3D II DSLR any less impressive, which hits that same mark with a few other improvements. Those include a new 3-inch display, which promises both a clearer view of images and lower power consumption, as well as an apparently revamped menu system that'll let you tweak settings using the thumbwheel controls on the camera. Otherwise, you can expect just about everything you could ask for in a $37,000 camera, including 48x36 mm CCD image sensors (the largest currently available), a Global Image Locator that tags photos with the exact geographic co-ordinates at the time they were taken, and an array of features that promise to keep your shots free of noise and moiré effects, to name just a few. What's more, if 39 megapixels and $37k is just a bit too much for you, you can opt for one of two lesser models that Hasselblad's also just introduced, including the 31 megapixel H3D-31II ($30,000) and the 22 megapixel H3D-22II ($25,000).

3D: MotionPortrait Animates Still Photos, Turns On Internet Dating World

3D: MotionPortrait Animates Still Photos, Turns On Internet Dating World

from Gizmodo by Yuri Baranovsky

MotionPortrait has released a new photo imaging program of the same name that can take a regular 2D picture and transform it into a moving, smiling, talking 3D model. According to the company, a one-gigahertz CPU can handle the 2D-to-3D transformation, which then allows the user to change eye color, hair-style and facial expressions. The CG animation can even be synced with sound to respond to various inputs.

This is easily one of the best picture-to-CG animations I've seen. Sure, it's not flawless -- but if the company keeps improving on it, it can open up a whole lot of interesting features for social networking sites and video games. Unfortunately, the program can only be used through companies that put it into their own products -- but I'm expecting a 3D animated Yuri to be doing obscene gestures my friend's cellphones in the near future. [SciFi via UberGizmo]

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Google Docs Adds Web Based Version of PowerPoint 1.0

from Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal

Google today launched a "very basic" PowerPoint clone that lets you create Presentations inside the web browser. Other than creating presentations from scratch, you can also upload your existing PPT and PPS slideshows into Google PowerPoint.

The new Google tool, which surprising doesn't have any name (they call it Google Docs presentations feature), is available at documents.google.com or can also be accessed from docs.google.com. It's also available for Google Apps customers.

Microsoft PowerPoint is celebrating it's 20th birthday this year but should the Redmond giant lose sleep with Google making inroads into the Presentation arena. Probably not because Google is more focused on building a tool that eases delivery of presentations online, not creating them.

The winning feature in Google PowerPoint is integration with Google Talk - while you are delivering a live presentation online, the presenter and attendees can text chat in real time via Google Talk.

Google provides no option to embed PowerPoint slideshows in web pages. You can export a presentation to zipped HTML but that functionality is broken as of now.

Related: A Real Contender for Google PowerPoint

© 2007 Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal

Ask.Com Ad Campaign Futility

Augustine: "if a site cannot grow virally, it just will not grow." -- absolutely agreed. It is harder than ever to stand out these days with new web 2.0 websites springing up daily. The key is to start with something simple, yet remarkable enough that users are compelled to share it with friends (they know best what their friends are likely to like). And the next key is to continue to innovate and build so that the remarkability is sustainable. This could be extremely difficult, BUT web services have a built in customer feedback mechanism and power users/lead adopters are usually the ones that have the best ideas to share about how to improve a web service. So by putting in place the business processes to incorporate such ideas rapidly into features, a site can leverage continuous user innovation to help it continue to grow virally.

One other example from the field... a colleague at American Express was able to prove an early hypothesis of mine -- cut above-the-line advertising by half and there will be NO detrimental effect on website traffic or new cards acquired. His budget was cut by 80% in last year's belt tightening, BUT to everyone's surprise the website traffic showed NO decrease, and the rate of customers signing up for cards on the website showed NO decrease -- i.e. traditional advertising IS being ignored more completely than ANY industry reports are willing to admit.

from Alan Meckler by Alan Meckler

I think Ask.com is terrific! I think it was smart for IAC to purchase it a few years ago.

Recently the folks at Ask have been pushing a billboard and television ad campaign to stimulate readership. The billboard campaign was ridiculous. However the tv ads are terrific.

I doubt, however, that any ad will grow traffic to Ask. Our short Internet history has shown one thing: if a site cannot grow virally, it just will not grow.

The IAC management comes out of the old media tradition. While it has made terrific Web site purchases over the years, these ad campaigns seem to be coming from their old media training. I suggest they use the ad dollars for some more solid Web deals.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Alarm Clocks -- from Seth's Blog

Augustine: something as simple as this, yet because manufacturers don't have business processes whereby such obvious customer feedback gets directly to product development people who need it, they have not built this in. Web 2.0 services have the luxury of immediate (and intense) user feedback and the good ones turn these into bug fixes or new features rapidly. Obviously it is a lot harder for traditional product companies to incorporate "rapid user feedback" but simple changes to business processes and organizational structure can bring them closer to this "customer-driven innovation" nirvana -- and save them a lot of time and resources on wrong product "guesses" - a la Palm's Folio.

from Seth's Blog by Seth Godin

For twenty cents or so, alarm clock manufacturers can add a chip that not only knows the time (via a radio signal) but knows what day it is too. Which means that they can add a switch that says "weekends." Which means that the 98% of the population that doesn't want to wake up on the same time on weekends as they do on weekdays will be happier (and better rested.)

This isn't as complicated or expensive as my idea four years ago.

So why doesn't every alarm clock have this feature? Because most people in that business are busy doing their jobs (distribution, promotion, pricing, etc.), not busy making products that people actually want to buy--and talk about.

There are very few products and services that wouldn't get a lot better if people just tried to make them better.

Iron Sulfate Dumped Into Sea May Slow Global Warming Or Do Completely the Opposite

from Gizmodo by Yuri Baranovsky

In an effort to slow down the effects of global warming, scientists from Germany, Italy, India and Chile are planning to dump 20 tonnes of non-toxic iron sulfate into the sea. The iron particles -- which will be spread around a 1,000 square kilometer area -- should theoretically create conditions for large amounts of phytoplankton, algae and microorganisms to grow and, ideally, help soak up the carbon dioxide that's slowly causing our planet to roast.

The process -- called carbon sinking -- could potentially restore plankton, improve the quality of the water and, on a very good day, slow climate change. On the other hand, since it's more or less untested, it could also result in nitrous oxide and methane being shot into the atmosphere, making things worse. So, you know, cross your sustainable fingers. [Hindustan Times via TreeHugger]

iUnlock Reloaded: free iPhone unlocking for dummies now available

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Cellphones

Wake the kids, phone the neighbors, the ~~graphical~~ new version of the iPhone unlocking software is now out, official, automatic (or as much as it can be) and free. Developed by the iPhoneDev team, the new software makes opening up your iPhone to any GSM carrier simple as pie. According to the Dev Team, "This new version needs only be copied over to the phone and executed, it's full automatic. No more needs for fls or extract bin files out of the nordump. It should also cut the time down to max. 3-5 minutes."

We'll bring you more just as soon as we get hands-on with the new wares (eh hem, all our iPhones seem to be unlocked at the moment) and as long as Apple doesn't drop the hammer with a new iPhone firmware release. We know it's coming, and chances are it will wreak havoc with the unlock.

Download
EU mirror
US mirror

Update: Not so dummy-proof Instructions and more after the break.

Update 2: GUI version is now out.

Giant email leak from MediaDefender -- MAFIAA hitmen

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

700 megabytes of internal email from MediaDefender, a group of entertainment industry enforcers, has leaked onto the net. The emails detail MediaGuardian's procedures, their internal response to being outed for posting a fake download site to entrap users, the plans to induce users to link to their entrapment site, and the way the company sought to insulate their clients in the motion picture industry from negative publicity arising from their entrapment efforts. There's plenty more there -- 700mb is a lot of mail -- and I'm sure we'll see all kinds of interesting things in the coming weeks.

Unfortunately for Media Defender - a company dedicated to mitigating the effects of internet leaks - they can do nothing about being the subject of the biggest BitTorrent leak of all time. Over 700mb of their own internal emails, dating back over 6 months have been leaked to the internet in what will be a devastating blow to the company. Many are very recent, having September 2007 dates and the majority involve the most senior people in the company. Apparently this is not the first time that a MediaDefender email leaked onto the Internet.
According to the .nfo file posted with the Mbox file the emails were obtained by a group called "MediaDefender-Defenders". It states: "By releasing these emails we hope to secure the privacy and personal integrity of all peer-to-peer users. The emails contains information about the various tactics and technical solutions for tracking p2p users, and disrupt p2p services," and "A special thanks to Jay Maris, for circumventing there entire email-security by forwarding all your emails to your gmail account"

Link (Thanks, Christian!)

Clips: VOCALOID 2: The Japanese Anime Song Generator

from Gizmodo by Jason Chen

Think Garageband for otakus. This Japanese software suite lets you plug in lyrics and melody and generates an "authentic-sounding" song via its music and vocal synthesizers. As you can see above, the software features a 16-year- old "Virtual Singer," which croons out whatever disgustingly sweet (or just disgusting) lyrics you enter in (Japanese only, we're assuming). It's so popular in Nippon that it's actually the #1 selling software on their Amazon. And for good reason—the songs they generate actually sound like it could have come from a generic teenaged anime. Hit the jump for two videos.

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Update on TD Ameritrade data breach: yup, hacked.

from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin

Remember Mark's post about TD Ameritrade customers receiving weird pump-n-dump stock scam spam from TD Ameritrade? Turns out the company was hacked, and those spams resulted from that data breach:

Online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. said Friday one of its databases was hacked and contact information for its more than 6.3 million customers was stolen. A spokeswoman for the Omaha-based company said more sensitive information in the same database, including Social Security numbers and account numbers, does not appear to have been taken.
But Ameritrade has known about the problem at least since late May when two of its customers sued the brokerage in federal court because they were receiving unwanted e-mail ads on accounts used only for Ameritrade.
The data on Ameritrade's servers may have been vulnerable for an extended period of time dating back at least to last October, according to the lawsuit filed by lawyer Scott A. Kamber. The company said Friday the problem had recently been fixed.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit had wanted the court to order Ameritrade to tell its customers about the data problem, but Ameritrade issued its release before a hearing could be held. The plaintiffs are also seeking damages and are trying to qualify as a class-action lawsuit.

Link.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Samsung's SGH-F700 gets (really) official on Vodafone

from Engadget by Darren Murph

Those paying attention should know full well by now that Samsung's SGH-F700 (you know, the Croix) is set to make everyone not a Vodafone customer uber-envious here soon, but just in case you missed it, Sammy is making sure you're up to speed. The handset will boast a three-megapixel camera, a 3.2-inch 432 x 240 resolution touchscreen, QWERTY keypad, Bluetooth 2.0, USB, a microSD expansion slot, HSDPA, and an integrated media player that handles H.263 / H.264, MP3, and AAC formats. We know what you're really after, so check out a bit more eye candy after the jump.

Desktop Factory's cheapo 3D printer is coming

from Engadget by Joshua Topolsky

Tinkerers, schemers, makers and DIY-buffs: grab your ball-peen hammer and heaviest piggy bank, because you're about to need a loan. A company called Desktop Factory is going to make your 3D-printing dreams a serious reality with the introduction of its 125ci 3D printer, a $4,995 hunk of concept-plastic magic which could possibly represent a paradigmatic shift for the state of three-dimensional printing for the masses. The DF crew calls the pricing "disruptively lower than the nearest competitive offering," and we're inclined to agree, as most 3D printers crest easily over the $10,000 mark. The printer takes up a paltry 25 x 20 x 20-inch space, and weighs about 90-pounds, while the maximum size of printed objects is 5 x 5 x 5-inches, and Desktop Factory says per-cubic-inch printing costs will hover somewhere around $1. One of these beautiful babies could be all yours, just put down your $495 reserve fee, and then go to work on that string of robberies you've been planning. [Via TG Daily]

Lindy intros Wireless VGA Projector Server

from Engadget by Darren Murph

We know, it's never fun to think about spending even more time in the boardroom, but LINDY's looking to make things a bit easier around the office with the Wireless VGA Projector Server. Put simply, the device "enables users to easily network a projector or display monitor," which makes transfers much easier when switching between presenters. Up to 20 users can log in to the machine at one time, and an integrated browser interface "allows control to pass between the users." Notably, the box supports audio and MPEG1/2/4, 802.11g, Ethernet and Windows XP / Vista (sorry, Mac users), and can be thrown on the corporate card now for £299 ($608). [Via TechDigest]

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Miro needs your donations to build the future of Internet video

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Miro needs your donations -- the project is trying to raise $50,000 to pay programmers and designers to make its player even better.

Miro (formerly known as Democracy Player) is the best and most promising video player I've ever used. It's free and open -- licensed under the GPL -- and it incorporates three different technologies that make watching videos easier and better than any of the proprietary players like Windows Media Player or iTunes. These technologies are VLC, a free and open video playback engine that plays all video formats, no matter where they come from; RSS, so that you can subscribe to "feeds" of your favorite videos (including subscribing to feeds of YouTube videos matching your keywords); and BitTorrent, so that you can download files without costing the people who host them -- so the more popular a file is, the cheaper it is to host.

Miro is a bet on a future for "Internet TV" that is as open as the Web, controlled by no one. Otherwise, the way things are headed, we could end up with one or two giant companies owning the future of video. No one -- not community activists, not video startups, no one -- benefits when just a few companies control the platform.

The Miro fundraiser will raise money to pay the talented hackers who have been producing regular updates to the Miro platform, ensuring that there's always an up-to-date version for the Mac, Windows and Linux. I believe in Miro enough to have volunteered for their Board of Directors since they started -- I hope you'll help us keep on producing the future of Internet video. Link

(Disclosure: I am a board member for the Participatory Culture Foundation, the 501(c)3 charitable nonprofit that oversees production of Miro)

Q&A with Austin Mayor Will Wynn

from Earth2Tech by Katie Fehrenbacher

Will Wynn, the mayor of Austin, Tex., says he publishes his electricity bill in the paper to show how a little energy management can produce results. (It’s frequently below $50 per month.) Sure, we have Al Gore, and every trend-seeking celebrity waving the climate-change flag and driving a Prius, but we really need more likable public officials that are actually creating change in meaningful ways.

Mayor Wynn is just that. He has helped Austin become one of the leading cities for incubating clean-tech startups; the city now counts at least 25 of them, such as HelioVolt, as part of its local industry. He’s also trying to make sure clean tech stays in Austin: The city is working with HelioVolt on an economic incentives package to try to make sure the company’s manufacturing facilities stay local, for example. “We are spending a lot of time, effort and money in a targeted way to try to grow the clean technology sector here in Austin,” Wynn told us. His efforts are clearly resonating with Austin residents; according to his web site, he got over 78 percent of the vote in the most recent election. Oh yeah — and he walks to work. Below are excerpts from a conversation with Mayor Wynn.

Q. Why is the clean tech industry important for Austin?

A. It starts with the fact that Austin has a great tradition of a positive environmental perspective. It used to be focused on water quality and air quality, and now folks are becoming more aware that we need to talk about energy. We are truly a clean tech capital. We founded the Austin Clean Energy Incubator. Austin Energy is a beta lab for clean energy companies, and we have an aggressive solar panel system.

Q. There are a lot of debates about what clean energy options are viable. What are you excited about?

A. Well Texas blew past California in terms of wind. I’m also really interested in material sciences, smart appliances, computer chips. The tech sector will also play a huge role in this. There are fortunes to be made here. If we are smart, we are going to be right in the middle of the economic opportunity that combating global warming will offer. This will make a lot of people a lot of money.

Q. What do you think about carbon offsets; do you do these in your daily life?

A. We are actually in the process of creating a city-wide carbon footprint calculator that will focus on locally-based offsets for Austin, using local projects in the area. We’ve been waiting to roll that out, and it has been taking us awhile to create it. Hopefully we are weeks away from launching it.

Q. Austin leads in clean tech innovation, but when it comes to “a green city,” SustainLane said that Austin dropped in rankings “because the city remains heavily car-dependent, with ramifications for congestion and overall economic health.” What do you think about that criticism and are you doing anything to help the situation?

A. I agree completely. Transportation is far and away our biggest challenge. We will knock it out of the ball park for energy, but for transportation it is difficult and that is because of land use challenges. We are a sprawling metropolitan area. I use myself as an example: I moved downtown into a high-rise and dramatically reduced my car use, but ultimately it will take dramatically different land use patterns to have a viable mass transit options.

We are dramatically reassigning land use for every place we can. And there is opposition every time we try to do that. I am proposing an election for 2008, to have a significant passenger rail referendum.

Photo via Sprig.

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