Watching a skeleton move in 3-D

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1. Watching a skeleton move in 3-D - 2007-06-27 12:44:56-04
   In this short article, Popular Science reports that a Brown University team has developed a new imaging system. The CTX process combines 'computed-tomography (CT) scanners, X-ray video and computer software to give doctors and researchers a 3-D look at bones in motion.' In a previous note, the team said that 'CTX technology is expected to deliver images with exceptional precision and detail. Researchers will be able to track 3-D skeletal movements with 0.1 millimeter accuracy and see the equivalent of 1,000 CT images per second.' A commercial system should be ready by 2010. Here is an example of what can be achieved with the CTX technology. You can see above two series of images of a pigeon in flight. "For...
   
2. Comedy at the British Open Source Consortium - 2007-06-27 12:52:59-04
   The BBC wants to release a product that would allow users to view BBC programs on their PC. Initially, this will be Windows-only for the same reasons 99% of third-party software OEMs target Windows first before providing support for other operating systems (if at all). As expained in an article on BBC news: The BBC had initially chosen to concentrate on a Windows-based system as it is the world's dominant operating system. In addition, it allows the corporation to use Microsoft's off-the-shelf Digital Rights Management (DRM) system that means the programmes are deleted after 30 days. This is unacceptable to the British Open Source Consortium. Supporting Windows first gives Windows an unfair advantage, even though every company in existence, including...
   
3. JustinTV: Long live the lifeblogger? - 2007-06-27 12:55:05-04
   Justin Kan (just Google him--I'm uncomfortable providing a link) is wearing a wireless, head-mounted camera and streaming the feed to the Web. He has promised to do this constantly with the exception of times when he's talking business. His is explicitly a commercial venture: He hopes to attract enough advertising that he can turn a profit and perhaps recruit a whole stable of "lifebloggers." So What? Justin's venture is the logical extension of blogs and will probably become more common as bandwidth and cameras fall in price. (In fact, Natalie Portman of Star Wars fame is apparently in talks to launch a feed that would be all Natalie, all the time.) Popular lifebloggers might attract significant fan bases and would...
   
4. Poll: new BlackBerry browser or Opera Mini? - 2007-06-27 13:02:37-04
   It's an article of faith among many BlackBerry users that the best way to access and view the Web on a BlackBerry is via Opera Mini. Yet BlackBerry-maker Rsearch In Motion isn't happy with that prevailing Mini meme. In fact, as we've already learned today, a new BlackBerry browser is in the works, apparently headed for an upgraded BlackBerry Pearl 2 (code-named Komet) this fall. You may already have seen some screencaps. So now, I ask you: [poll=8]
   
5. A Little Transparency Could Go a Long Way: Oracle's Opacity Crisis - 2007-06-27 13:36:31-04
   Oracle's quarterly earnings look good, and their execs are crowing about how well their "surround SAP" strategy is working. And so it goes, another great quarter, another boastful conference call. What's wrong with this picture quarter after quarter is that we mere mortals -- and I include some pretty smart people in that list -- are simply unable to parse what is really happening with respect to Oracle's acquisition strategy. No doubt the raw numbers are impressive, and who wouldn't want to crow about continued high profits and increased market share. But behind the raw numbers are some serious questions about whether the $25 billion in acquisitions that Oracle has made recently are really paying off for shareholders. And herein...
   
6. JBoss takes Exadel tools to Eclipse open source - 2007-06-27 14:30:25-04
   JBoss.org and Red Hat this week took a significant step toward finalizing Red Hat Developer Studio with the introduction of the Exadel Eclipse plug-ins under open source. Tony Baer has a good write-up on this. Exadel contributed the plug-ins, along with Ajax4sf and RichFaces, to Red Hat last March with the goal of making high-end Eclipse developer tools available to the open-source community. Red Hat, which sponsors JBoss.org, an open-source middleware community, says that Developer Studio will provide pre-configured tools "that will offer significant time-savings and value, making them more productive and speeding time to deployment." Launch of that is set for later this summer. In addition to the new Exadel plug-ins, the JBoss Tools project encompasses the former JBoss...
   
7. On the Web, no one knows you're a Microsoft employee - 2007-06-27 14:55:48-04
   On June 26, an anonymous blogger posted a first entry on a new "Just Say No to Google" blog. The subject of the inagural post: "Life at Google - The Microsoftie Perspective." (The e-mail is now also linked and being discussed on Slashdot.) The post raises not only some interesting cultural comparisons between the two rivals, but also some questions about who and what you can believe on the Web. The text of the "Life at Google" post is an edited version of an e-mail message allegedly making the rounds inside Microsoft about the shortcomings of working at Google. The version posted to the Web omits the name of the person allegedly circulating this message, as well as identifying information...
   
8. Pownce using AIR (and I've got invites) - 2007-06-27 17:26:06-04
   Kevin Rose unveiled a new projecttoday, Pownce. Pownce looks like it's going to combine Twitter with the ability to send events, files, and links to your friends. Pownce allows you to send it to a specific person or share with everyone. Based on Leah's blog it looks like it's using S3 and of course AIR, the Adobe Integrated Runtime. Pownce decided to do their desktop client in AIR because it was cross platform and they could use the web skills to port most of the website functionality to the desktop client. I think it's a pretty good use case for AIR. You can do everything you need to from the website and you'll never have to download the client if...
   
9. Why I won't buy an iPhone on Friday - 2007-06-27 17:29:31-04
   I am very impressed with the specs and reported performance of the iPhone. For weeks, I've been thinking over whether to go buy one. The catch has always been AT&T, which may be the biggest wireless provider, but not the best. And if you are old enough to remember phone use before 1984, when the old AT&T was broken up, there's still a sour taste in our collective mouths. So, today, I found the definitive reason not to sign up for the iPhone. AT&T has not prepared well for the iPhone launch. When I used the "Find an AT&T store link" on Apple.com to see where the phones might be in stock, the following error message appeared: If you can't...
   
10. Eclipse Europa on track for June 29th - 2007-06-27 17:33:21-04
    Annual open source release train keeps chugging along with 17 million lines of code. Even if you're not a big fan of Eclipse you have to be impressed with one thing - their ability to deliver software on time. Later this week, while the rest of the world is standing in line waiting for an iPhone, the Eclipse Foundation will open the download floodgates for their latest coordinated project release train, code named Europa. Like its "sister" foundation Apache, Eclipse is the home of a wide range of independently developed projects, each with its own release schedule. Unlike Apache, though, once a year as many projects as possible sync up for a big coordinated release. This year, 21 Eclipse projects...
    
11. Thoughts on BlackBerry skins, protection, tight ladies pockets, etc. - 2007-06-27 18:43:45-04
    My old BBHub colleague Melissa Oxendale, who I hired back when I ran that entity for AOL, has surfaced at PDAStreet. Mel's out with a review of some BlackBerry Pearl skins. Her review doesn't focus on specifically named skins but with her visual impressions of skins-on-device. "To start off with, these skins ($9.99) do not cover the keys nor the screen," she writes. "If you want the display covered, a screen protector will be needed. Although I was using a case that covered the Pearl before - with plastic for protection - I found I can type much better with the bare keys under my fingers." "As for the skins, protection really aren't their forte; they don't really protect...
    
12. Seven reasons why iPhone's not fit for prime enterprise time - 2007-06-27 19:59:26-04
    Research firm Gartner issued a "How to Plan for User Interest in the Apple iPhone" research note today that despite its arguably welcoming title, expressly recommends that enterprise IT not consider buying iPhones at this time. Analyst and report co-author Ken Delaney writes that "general requests to support iPhone should not be fulfilled on the basis that the device cannot be fully secured and managed" to levels Gartner has described for smart phones. "IT organizations should refuse to support the iPhone at this time," the research note points out. And then comes this zinger: "If for political reasons this is not an option, then the iPhone should be placed under the concierge support level ... meaning that support will...
    
13. The waiting is the hardest part: here's iPhoners outside NYC Apple store - 2007-06-27 20:15:20-04
    With less than 48 hours to go up until the Apple iPhone goes on sale, that's the scene outside the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in NYC. The same NYC where a fairly massive, one-hour power failure hit today. So much for charging up your mobile device during that time. Just uploaded today by Flickr Member Web2.0 Style. He's posted it here.
    
14. Rutkowska faces '100% undetectable malware' challenge - 2007-06-27 20:38:50-04
    At last year's Black Hat security conference, stealth malware researcher Joanna Rutkowska caused a stir with the introduction of Blue Pill, a new technology she claims can create malware that remains "100 percent undetectable." This year, a group of her peers will challenge Rutkowska to prove it, arguing that a 100% undetectable rootkit is absolutely impossible. The challenge is being laid out by Thomas Ptacek (left), co-founder of Matasano Security, Nate Lawson of Root Labs and Symantec's Peter Ferrie -- three high-profile researchers out to prove that virtual machine rootkits (malicious hypervisors) are actually easier to detect than normal rootkits. The challenge will closely resemble the CanSecWest MacBook takeover contest won by Dino Dai Zovi -- two untouched laptops of...
    
15. CRM for the iPhone - 2007-06-27 21:48:42-04
    Etelos has differentiated itself by integrating its modular, on demand CRM platform with Google Apps, Netvibes, Pageflakes, Windows Live, Blackberries...and now the iPhone. Eric Berto of Etelos suggests that the ideal use for the iPhone and Etelos is "listening to iTunes while sending out a group message to your prospects while riding a ferry across Puget Sound." That sounds like a post-PC era scenario, although AT&T's network is not ideal for running Web business applications via the iPhone's Safari browser.
    
16. ZDNet's post Digital Experience Bloghaus is underway - 2007-06-27 22:24:52-04
    It's some time after 10pm and ZDNet's post-Digital Experience is happening right now at the W Hotel in Union Square. We've got a pretty good crowd here, not to mention a rock solid Wi-Fi signal.  Lots of lively conversation and a small handful of us have our notebooks open and we're typing away, filing blogs, stories, videos, pictures, etc.   I lost count of how many videos we recorded while at Digital Experience at the Metropolitan Pavilion. It was a great gadgetfest as usual.  I think we recorded six, maybe seven and we're cleaning the first few up right now for upload.  A handful should appear on ZDNet tonight (filed from here in the Bloghaus).  More tomorrow.  Here are a couple ...
    
17. Fellow ZDNet bloggers explore the hard road to SOA - 2007-06-27 22:26:43-04
    Notice how nobody is disputing that something is holding back SOA? What is that something? Two ZDNet blogging colleagues recently provided their thoughts on this topic. Dana Gardner, for one, says its hard to light a fire under businesses to get SOA moving. TechTarget's Rich Seeley interviewed Dana about the inertia that plagues many SOA efforts. Dana said that in his two decades of experience with IT, he's seen much talk about management standards, but like the weather, nothing gets done about them. SOA introduces more urgency, Dana adds. The demands of SOA are making demands on management that did not exist in the pre-SOA era which he characterizes as requiring a more simple "red light, green light" approach that...
    
18. Google Gadget Ventures announced today - 2007-06-27 22:35:41-04
    Marissa Mayer made an announcement today at the Searchonomics Conference in Santa Clara that Google will distribute grants to gadget developers through a program called Google Gadget Ventures. Developers who have gadgets that get around 250,000 pageviews a week will be considered for the $5000 grant. Of these people, some may even be selected for $100,000 in seed funding to start a real business that heavily uses the Google platform. The developer community is an extremely important part of our development ecosystem. Our hope for Google Gadget Ventures is to enable developers to grow and diversify the universe of gadgets in a profitable and sustainable way. Ultimately this will result in a wider variety of engaging and useful online content,...
    
19. Google Desktop for Linux - 2007-06-27 23:24:28-04
    Developed in Google's Beijing engineering office, Google Desktop for Linux is ready for prime time. This software is finally available on all major operating systems (Windows, Mac and Linux) -- providing quick access to files on your computer through the desktop search utility. Major features of Google Desktop for Linux (beta) include: Comprehensive Indexing - Users can search the full text of virtually all their computer's content, including text, PDF, PS, source code, HTML files, email from Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org documents, Man and Info pages, folders, images, and music. Google Desktop for Linux can even find previous versions of files or recover those that have been accidentally deleted. Quick Search Box - The Quick Search Box is the fastest way to...
    
20. iPhone step aside. Helio's Ocean does what you don't (and their NYC store opens tomorrow) - 2007-06-27 23:39:46-04
    Maybe Apple's iPhone is getting all the attention this week. And most of the critics are talking about how it's living up to the hype. But what they're not saying how the same amount of money might serve you better if you invest it in something else that's not only less money, but that spanks the iPhone on some of its weaknesses. Helio's Ocean for example. Here at Pepcom's Digital Experience event in New York City (a veritable gadgetfast), Helio was not only showing off the Ocean phone, but talking about how it's opening a flagship store down in Soho that's right around the corner from the Apple Store where prospective iPhone buyers are currently camping out. Take your pick...