Teleportation – Crawl, Walk, Run

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Recently, I had a conversation with some kids about Star Trek teleportation. How long would it be before it would really be possible? I argued that this is an evolving technology and in fact we’ve been doing it for years. It’s just incremental.

Ok, maybe I’m not talking about their Star Trek version yet. But if you see it as baby steps, you may be surprised – we’ve come pretty far. This doesn’t even touch on recent work in Quantum teleportation.

We do teleportation all the time and don’t even think about it.
We deconstruct a physical analogue into digital information (or media), then send it via cell phone or email to some location and the data is recompiled back into the analogue representation. Here are some examples:

Let’s just start with the fax. It’s actually an interesting history. In 1842 Alexander Bain, a Scottish philosopher and psychologist invented the first fax machine. Yup crude, but technology improved and by 1924 publishers began using faxes to transmit documents and photos. Then digital fax, and by the ’70s & ’80s they are everywhere and cheap.

Digital photography It began with low resolution, then the digital information starts to approach the physical grain of the original. Now, nearly all the pros use digital cameras and simply send copies to recompile their pristine images.

Next CAD / CAM A wounded soldier’s limb is scanned in 3d and its surface or tessellation coordinates are sent to a remote location and a prosthetic is created to a perfect fit (plaster casts are a thing of the past).  In a similar way, computer milling devices create identical parts from CAD data that can be sent from remote locations (sometimes referred to as "rapid prototyping").

Genetic code Richard Dawkins points out that it’s no longer necessary to have a physical relic preserved to reconstruct a genetic copy. All we will need is the genetic code – data on a digital file to reconstruct (clone) a copy. You can get a full copy of your genetic code, put it on a portable drive, email it or send a copy into space. Science meets fiction.

Of course now we get into the realm of of memory, consciousness and awareness – and the ethical issues.

I’ll leave you with something a friend told me about a funeral he just attended."My father was there in the room with us, just a less dense version of himself".

 

Taking better news portraits'"with or without a DSLR

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Technology is increasingly putting the potential for a great photograph in the hands of people all around the world. Even if you’ve never had any formal training, taking an awesome photograph can happen at any moment. Here are a few tips for making those moments happen even more often.

For the self-concious non-model types…

Ever wonder how so many celebrities appear to know just how to pose for a photo? A lot of it involves posturing to make the subject appear thinner. Remember that much of what the viewer will see involves perspective, so shooting from extreme angles should be reserved for the sort of thing where you are illustrating something that looks extreme (some sports, musicians, etc.) Here are a few tips to pose a subject.

Double Chins .. Make sure your subject pulls their head, just slightly forward. Double chins appear on thinner subjects if they try to “turtle” their head back into their neck.

It’s in the feet … Ask your subject to plant one foot in front of the other and place their weight on their back foot. This sideways angle will give a “thinning” appearance.

Cock their shoulders … Unbalance your subjects shoulders to avoid emphasizing their width. The head is usually much smaller than the shoulders and adding a little shoulder lean into the photos will lead the viewers eye as well as soften the impact of the shoulder width.

Suck it… in . Not too much! If your subject is sensitive about their weight, ask them to breathe in while pulling their shoulders back.

Hold this … Give your subject an item to hold on to, or place them in an interesting environment. Preferably the item and environment are relatable to the focus of the story. People that are doing something, are much more interesting than “floating” people in front of a backdrop.

Look down … The best camera angle for most subjects is to look slightly up at the person subject, while they are looking down. Looking down at a subject is rarely a flattering angle. The more imposing your subject should be, the more extreme the angle should be.

Stop the staring … Don’t always let every subject stare and smile. Sometimes you need to ask them to either relax, or just look in a different direction. Sometimes looking just off from the camera is enough to make the shot more captivating.It creates a sense of intrigue with the viewer. Another option is to have your subject look at an object within the frame. This generates a second point of interest, as well creates a connection between the two subjects.

Think differently…

Sometimes, no matter how good the subject may be at posing, they get snapped by a lame photographer. Don’t be a lame photographer.

Interesting angles … I know, above I outline some pretty clear examples of “best” angles. Sometimes, you have to ignore that though and go with an interesting angle to add a little bit more pop to a photo. By all means, break away from simply standing at eye-level with your subject. Those sort of photos may work for the casual photographer, but if you are trying to get your work into print, you need to offer something that is interesting to look at.

Get lit … Consider the lighting of your subject. You may be able to utilize natural light, or you may be restricted to the indoors, or require flash. All of these different light sources give a different look to your photos. I won’t go into the technical aspects, but be aware of the light type and direction when you are shooting. Back and sidelighting as well as the casting of interesting shadows (such as through a window blind) can make an otherwise boring shot exciting.

Get tilted … I’ve heard arguments against this, but I think stepping outside of the horizontal/vertical box can often add some fun and drama to your photographs. If a subject looks dull in typical frames, try flipping the camera on a diagonal.

A Final Word…

One of the most important tool to improve your photography is to change your attitude about photography. You can’t see yourself as a reporter that also take photographs. Give yourself a “slash” title. Reporter/photographer. Put as much care and diligence into composing a nice feature photograph as you would put into writing your story.

Remember that your job is tell a story. Photos that merely fill up white space will never fill your inbox with job offers, or even story ideas from subjects. A good photo is what will introduce your reader to your story. It is often even more important that the headline. Try to keep that in mind before you trip the shutter…

Is Your Hewlett-Packard Notebook on the Brink of Failure? Know the Signs

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I’m currently chatting with one of Hewlett-Packard’s online technicians about the failure of my husband’s Pavilion dv6125se notebook. This is the second time that I’ve had to deal with Hewlett-Packard’s technicians in the past year; the first time was when my notebook, a Pavilion dv2000z CTO, experienced an identical failure.

So how can you tell if your Hewlett-Packard notebook’s motherboard is likely to fail? The first thing that I recommend is contacting your local Best Buy and requesting a list of the Hewlett-Packard and Compaq models with known motherboard issues. Any of their Geek Squad technicians should be able to print that list for you. You can also try searching for your notebook’s model through your favorite search engine.

Once you have the list of affected models, check to see if your part number is listed. All Hewlett-Packard notebooks have their part numbers listed on service tags on their bottoms; the line that begins with p/n gives you your part number. Don’t worry if your part number seems to contain extra digits; if it contains a pound sign (#), ignore everything that comes afterwards.

If your notebook’s product number matches one of the product numbers on the list, you probably have a faulty motherboard. At this point, you have a couple of options. First, you can take preemptive steps to ensure that you don’t have to deal with a motherboard failure, and replace the motherboard. However, you may have to pay for the replacement, since the parts are not considered faulty until they actually fail.

The second option you have is to simply wait for something to go wrong. The problems with both of ours started with the notebooks’ integrated wireless LANs. The notebooks had occasional difficulty finding our home wireless network; we could be sitting directly on top of the router, yet it would not be able to find the network. Sometimes rebooting the wireless router could fix the problem. Other times, we’d have to reboot the notebook to get it to find the LAN.

Not long after that started, the wireless LAN in both simply vanished from the Device Manager. It was as though there was no wireless card installed at all. With my notebook, we were able to fix it a few times by reinstalling the operating system, but that was a temporary fix. According to threads on Hewlett-Packard’s forums, this is a very common initial sign of impending motherboard failure. If your system is still under warranty, send it in to Hewlett-Packard for repairs at this point, and tell them you believe it is a faulty motherboard as yours is on the list of affected models. Their technicians will verify the information, then make arrangements to send you a box to return your notebook to HP in.

If your warranty has expired, however, you may have to wait if you do not want to pay for repairs. There are certain symptoms of motherboard failure that will be covered at no cost to you, but they must be present in order for you to qualify for a free replacement. Among these symptoms are problems with the notebook charging (the notebook may not charge at all, or the LCD light may not indicate that it is plugged in when it is) and problems with the notebook’s LCD screen displaying no image. These symptoms can show up suddenly, so if you are experiencing trouble with your notebook’s wireless LAN make sure to create a full backup of all of your files.

After or more of these symptoms appear, you can contact Hewlett-Packard and make arrangements to ship the notebook to them for repairs. You can also choose to go with a third-party repair service; however, reimbursement for repairs performed by an authorized service provider is not guaranteed.

Gateway's New SX2840-01 Desktop Might Just Be the Perfect Option If You're Due for an Upgrade

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One of Gateway’s recent desktop computer releases is the SX2840-01, a performance-focused solution geared towards budget-minded users demanding an upgrade. Despite this desktop’s appeal as a basic, capable desktop machine or even its potential as an HTPC or home theater PC, this computer is budget-priced and at around $600 represents a great value.

Centered on Intel’s Core i350 CPU, also known as the Clarkdale, this dual-core processor represents a step up from the highly successful Core 2 Duo line. Many savvy computer users purchased systems or built their own desktops using the Core 2 Duo as their choice as of processor since the CPU represented a significant leap forward in technology when the line was first released in the summer of 2006. Since then, advances in desktop CPU performance have slowed somewhat, with Intel’s arch-rival AMD unable to offer much direct competition to challenge Intel and spur new development until recently according to Ilya Gavrichecnkov of Xbit Laboratories.

Intel has recently offered dual and quad core CPUs which have hyper-threading available on each core, essentially meaning that for every physical core on the processor, there is a hyper-threaded or “virtual core” available to carry out processor demands as well. The original batch of Core 2 Duos did not offer this feature which has been available since Intel’s release of the Core i7, i5, and i3 CPUs. If you’re still relying on a venerable old Core 2 series CPU, you’re probably due for an upgrade and the Core i3 represents Intel’s affordable budget entry in its multicore hyperthreaded series.

While graphics are rendered through the onboard, integrated Intel GMA X4500HD graphics chip, the motherboard has one free PCI-Express x16 available as an expansion slot so that users can upgrade and easily install a mid or even high level graphics card if they fancy some serious gaming. With the 6gb of DDR3 memory, you shouldn’t have any problems with graphics as long as you have a decent video card.

Tech-savvy PC users these days of all kinds have plenty of peripherals, and fortunately the SX2840-01′s nine USB 2.0 ports means that you should have no problem making sure you can connect and use each of your important gadgets, from smartphones to USB drives. The eSATA port is also handy for those who need to use an external hard drive, though with over 1TB of space, the internal drive should be fairly hard to fill up, even for people who like to download large amounts of high definition content such as videos and music.

While there is an HDMI port for convenient compatibility with whatever modern monitor solution you might choose, the integrated graphics holds the system back from really shining as a HTPC. While the DVD-RW optical drive is adequate, movie lovers will definitely notice the lack of a Blu Ray drive which limits this system’s potential. Nevertheless, with a price tag of around $600 USD, this is a solid choice for anyone who is due to swap their old, dusty desktop for something new. This desktop is available online at CompUSA and other online computer vendors.

REFRENCES:

http://www.www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2duo-preview_11.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-phenom-ii-x3-720.html
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/enderle/core-wars-the-battle-to-change-the-virtual-world/?cs=40448
http://www.intel.com/support/processors/corei3/

New iPhone App Identifies Live TV Programs

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Do you have problems remembering the funny show that aired last night ? A start-up application (app) development company called IntoNow has created an app to identify TV shows by sound. The app has the ability to identify 2.6 million television programs aired within the past 5 years. The app is available to users of the Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPod. The app is free and downloadable from the Apple iTunes App Store.

Working with the app, users gain access to the show’s cast and production information, as well as information published on imdb.com. The app allows users to share information derived from the app on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, "Hey folks guess what I’m watching….!." The app capitalizes on the social media wave, allowing users to see lists of popular shows watched by other users.

It recognized one of three shows streaming from the Netflix app on a MacBook Pro laptop; perhaps the quality of sound produced by the speakers caused technical difficulties. Better performance was achieved testing the app on a television with home theater surround sound where two of three shows were recognized.

The IntoNow app works as advertised, though not perfectly. The ability to discover shows on the fly and queue in your Netflix list or purchase from iTunes make the app worth downloading. 

For more information see:

IntoNow

 

Study: Online Info Sways Moms’ Decisions About Tech Gadgets

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Reviews and other online information wield considerable influence over American mothers when they’re shopping for consumer electronics like laptops and digital cameras, a new study shows.

Sixty-four percent of moms have read online information posted about consumer electronics products and retailers, according to the study, released by the Consumer Electronics Association. Among those moms, nearly two in three bought an electronic device as a result, and about half recommended friends or family make a purchase. By comparison, 43 percent of all online adults have recommended that someone they know buy a consumer electronics product after reading about it online.

“As the main purchase decision-makers in the home, women with children represent a crucial demographic for marketers,” said Ben Arnold, senior research analyst at the Consumer Electronics Association. “To make more informed decisions, many moms turn to social media sites, including blogs, message boards and product fan pages, to research products and get firsthand product reviews and recommendations.”

Online conversations also can steer moms away from tech products. Fifty-one percent of moms who’ve read information about tech products online have decided against a purchase based on that information, according to the study. Nearly four in 10 moms recommended others not buy a tech product based on what they learned online.

U.S. moms spend an average of $822 on consumer electronics each year and account for more than half of their household’s total tech spending, the Consumer Electronics Association said.

“Online moms are a particularly important consumer segment, as they are both active on social media sites, and possess substantial buying power and influence,” Arnold said. “As social media continues to evolve, it is essential for companies to embrace brand evangelists to further extend the reach of their marketing initiatives.”

Other finding of the study:

• Half of moms who post information online about consumer electronics are early adopters of technology, and one in three has a household income of at least $75,000.

• One in three moms has posted reviews, opinions or experiences about electronics products and retailers in the past 12 months, compared with one in four women online.

Findings of the Consumer Electronics Association study mirror results of a recent survey conducted for Child’s Play Communications by The NPD Group Inc. The survey found that 79 percent of mothers in the United States with children under age 18 are active in social media, and that purchasing decisions by nearly one-fourth of “social media moms” are affected by social networking sites or blogs.

 

Cleaning Up and Organizing Your Digital Life

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Today’s consumer spends an inordinate amount of time taking pictures and videos and sharing them across a spectrum of social networks. Over time, consumers create a body of work that at some point will get out of hand.

There will be videos and photos on your smartphone, camcorder and regular camera. Of course, days add up to weeks; weeks up to months; and, months up to years. This translates into thousands of digital memories in a variety of places that are unorganized and at times very hard to find.

To help prevent digital organization headaches, here are a few tips:

Find A Home for Those Memories
Our smartphones, memory cards and computers can only hold so many pictures and videos. External hard drives are a great way to eliminate digital clutter, especially those with USB 3.0 technology. Take a look at the Western Digital My Passport 2TB hard drive. It’s compact and packs a ton of space for roughly $300. Best part, it’ll allow you to have all your digital memories in one location that’s portable if it needs to be.

File Organization Should be a Priority
Once you have your external hard drive, you have to get the digital memories on to the device in a manner that will allow you to find them later on. You don’t want to spend hours looking for that one photo from Uncle Bob’s birthday that was taken three years ago. My suggestion is to file your photos and videos by year, month, date and then subject matter. For example, 2012 / July / 06-04 / July 4th Festivities.

Additionally, if you shoot in RAW format (digital negative), separate those files from your JPEGs, which are the photos that are in a social sharing friendly format. This will allow you to separate your digital “film” from the photos themselves.

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Enter the World of New Technology with the Google Chromebook

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Google, in collaboration with Acer and Samsung, is well set to launch new laptops termed as the Chromebook, which will be based on Google Chrome operating system.

Google launched the prototype of chromebook “CR-48” around six months ago. It was distributed among testers and programmers and there feedback helped Google and its partners making this project user friendly.

Both Acer and Samsung are stepping with two models each. One model is Wi-Fi enabled and the second model has the option of 3G connectivity as well. The price of Acer Chromebooks is lesser as compared to Samsung notebooks. Price for Samsung 5 series Chromebook starts from $429 and 3G model is priced at $499. Price of Acer Chromebook starts from $349 and price of 3G enabled model is still undisclosed.

Google Chromebook boasts of some amazing features, which some say will make you run away from your laptops. In this there will not be any extra software like Microsoft Office etc. Everything will be done online and your documents will be stored in Google docs. Storage of your documents and data in cloud makes it more secure. Another highlight of Google Chromebook is boot up time of just 8 seconds. This is really very less as compared to a normal laptop. This has been made possible because there are no extra software and applications present on Chromebook which takes lots of time in loading.

Google Chromebook comes with the feature in which there will be inbuilt internet facility. All the applications will be updated online. So you will have all the new applications on your laptop instantly after their launch.

Google has given a gift to the students by giving rent option to the students. Students can use Chromebook by paying a monthly rent of $20-$28 depending upon the model they are using. For internet lovers, Chromebook is a big thing because you can stay connecting to internet anywhere in this world. Google Chromebook is secure and will keep you away from malware and viruses.

Google Chromebook will be launched on June 15, 2011. It will be available on Amazon on the same day. So what are you waiting for? Just get ready to scrap out your old laptop. Enter the world of new technology with new Google Chromebook.

 

The Future of Mobile Computing is in the Cloud

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Mobile computing has grown by great lengths in the past few years and looks to continue that trend into the future. The mobile market is now filled with smartphones and tablets that are tasked with taking on more and more of our daily computing tasks. For those applications that cannot yet be run on smartphones or tablets, laptops fill the void. These too are evolving to become faster, lighter, and capable of rivaling desktops in performance.

But with all the advancements in portable devices, one major factor that continues to become a hindrance is battery life. Sure, batteries are getting slightly better, but as we begin adding faster processors with multi-cores and high-end graphics cards, the benefits gained in improved battery technology is often lost. Think about it: while computing power and storage space tends to double every couple of years at best, battery life is extended only a few minutes with every new mobile hardware revision. In some cases, it gets worse!

So what’s the solution? In my opinion, the industry needs to abandon the idea of putting faster processors and high-performance graphics cards into our mobile devices. Instead, a cloud approach should be used where all the processing power and graphics rendering is offloaded onto servers that are not reliant on battery power.

With the continuing evolution in wireless networks including WiMAX and LTE, it won’t be long before we can truly have a mobile cloud environment where anything and everything can be virtualized and simply passed onto mobile devices. You can greatly reduce the amount of power that laptops, smartphones and tablets require and therefore see some impressive battery life numbers.

Are we to the point where we can begin building mobile devices that are strictly cloud-based products? Not quite. The wireless infrastructure is not quite there yet. That being said, Google has gotten the virtualization ball rolling with their Chrome OS notebook that just was released to a number of users for testing purposes. The notebook heavily relies on cloud computing applications to perform tasks. With a big player like Google, other hardware/software manufacturers are likely to follow. Then it’s only a matter of time before we start scaling back all of our mobile devices horsepower in favor of extended battery life.

 

Warpia StreamHD Review

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I am always looking for new ways to display items on my laptop to show up on my big screen TV. I reviewed the Sony SMP-N200 before and found it a very unique way to marry my Seagate external hard drive and network media player to bring me my daily dose of awesomeness. I am using that device on an everyday basis. So when I was shown a new device that would display the content of my laptop right onto my HDTV I immediately jumped at the chance to test it out.  You can check out my quick video review of the Warpia StreamHD here.

Let’s Stream Away

The Warpia StreamHD is the device that connects your laptop via a USB dongle that transmits a wireless signal to another USB dongle attached to a base unit that connects,via HDMI to your HDTV. After installation of the device drivers onto your laptop you are then easily displaying your laptops display on your HDTV. It couldn’t be simpler. Everything you need is right in the box. Your base station, 2 USB dongles and HDMI cord and power supply. From there pop in the CD load up the software and you are good to go.

Now there are lots of devices packaging Netflix, Hulu and various other services along with the device. However if you don’t have one of those devices OR your Xbox360 you can still showoff that content using the Warpia StreamHD. Don’t think you are limited in what you can use this for by any means. Showing off photos or TV shows whatever you can display on your laptop main display you can show on your HDTV. Not only that you can use it for a big work presentation. It really is an amazing little device.

Looking At The Specs

The most important aspect of any device is of course the specs.  So let’s take a look at all the aspects of the device and their specs and minimum requirements.

Audio/Video Base

  • HDMI Connector
  • S/PDIF Connector (5.1 surround sound output)
  • 3.5mm audio jack (Stereo)
  • 32-bit True Color support with display resolution of up to 1920 x 1080 (SXGA+)
  • Up to 1080p resolution
  • Capable of working in both Mirror Mode and extended Mode (TV/monitor as a second screen)
  • 48 kHz, 16-bit Stereo via audio jack or HDMI connector
  • Power supply unit 5VDC

PC and Device Adapters

  • USB type-A male
  • Internal antenna
  • Single LED – Power/traffic

Standards

  • Wireless USB 1.0, USB-IF certified
  • Certified WiMedia PHY and MAC
  • 3.168 to 4.752 GHz (WiMedia band group 1)

General

  • Same room, line of site range, up to 30ft
  • 128-bit AES security
  • Regulation compliant to US, Japan, Europe, Korea
  • Software drivers: Windows® 7/ Vista™SP2/ XP® SP3
  • Input voltage: 100-240V, 50/60Hz
  • Operating temperature range: 0-40 C

Windows based PC with an available USB 2.0 Port

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