Google wishes you Happy Holidays
Google wishes you Happy Holidays.
You can see the logos unfold on the homepage or here.
Happy Holidays! 
NewerTech USB 2.0 Display Adapter supports up to 6 extra monitors
Adding an external display to most modern laptops isn’t a big deal; and many desktops natively support dual displays. But adding a third, or even a fourth, display can be a challenge. The NewerTech USB 2.0 Display Adapter aims to make adding extra monitors as easy as plugging in a USB gadget. Macs can add up to four monitors, while PCs can add up to six!
The USB 2.0 Display Adapter is priced at $96, which isn’t terrible, considering that it supports resolutions up to 2048 x 1152 and includes everything you need for DVI, VGA or HDMI connections.
via NewerTech USB 2.0 Display Adapter supports up to 6 extra monitors.
POLL: Illegal Downloaders Buy the Most Music
The UK’s Independent newspaper picks up on a curious study today: people who download music illegally also buy more music legally, according to a poll’s results. The study comes as the UK plans a controversial “three strikes and you’re out” rule that would disconnect copyright infringers from the Internet – it’s set to become law in April 2010.
The Independent writes:
The survey, published today, found that those who admit illegally downloading music spent an average of £77 a year on music – £33 more than those who claim that they never download music dishonestly…The poll, which surveyed 1,000 16- to 50-year-olds with internet access, found that one in 10 people admit to downloading music illegally.
We see a few caveats here, the main one being that Internet users were simply asked whether they download content illegally or not: given that this would be admitting to a crime, that metric could be under-reported. Frankly, this self-reporting of illegal activity seems like a dubious measurement. The data doesn’t necessarily undermine the plans, either: 61% of illegal downloaders said they’d be dissuaded from downloading illegally if doing so resulted in being disconnected for one month.
The debate is a legitimate one: some UK ISPs are concerned about essentially becoming Internet watchdogs, and point out that enforcement would take significant effort on their part. Others point to over-regulation of Internet access. There’s a case to be made, too, that consumers seem willing to pay if the price is low enough and the process effortless (eg. iTunes).
Google Voice User? Get The Quick Reference Card
If you’re a Google Voice user like me, you’ll be glad to print out this quick reference card that gives you all the menu options when you call the service to listen to voicemail or change settings, or receive calls.
For example, when you receive a call with Google Voice you can hear who’s calling before you answer. Hit 1 to answer the call, or hit 2 to send them to voicemail. Easy to remember. But you can also hit 3 to send them to voicemail and listen in. Or 4 to answer the call and record it. Four is too many things for me to remember, which is why I’m printing this out and putting it in my wallet.
Thanks for CoolGeex for creating this!
City of Los Angeles Goes Google for $7.2 Million
It looks like those Going Google billboards are actually good for something, as the Los Angeles’ city council has just unanimously approved a Google Apps deal worth $7.2 million.
According to CNET, LA would become one of the largest government agencies, outside the District of Columbia, to make the switch to using hosted Google email and application services.
However, security concerns over storing information in the cloud did factor into the process and have yet to be 100% aleviated. Apparently the deal hinges around an agreement with Computer Sciences Corp, a contractor who would need to agree to pay a penalty should there be a security breach.
If the deal does go through it would be quite the coup for Google and their Going Google campaign. With both the US Government supporting the initiative and the city of Los Angeles joining the Google team, Google is building up an arsenal of large and impressive customers that should make it easier to attract more top dollar enterprise clients.
Image from Peter Kaminski on Flickr.
via City of Los Angeles Goes Google for $7.2 Million.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=6d29fd5a-280a-4336-abd5-0fb9b4fa84db)
Sony Promotes Bravia TV By Smashing a PS3 Into It [Video]
Ah, gadget violence: if you want to create a viral video, it cannot fail. That’s what Sony Australia was thinking when they created a video in which a PS3 Slim gets smashed into a Sony Bravia LCD TV at 50 mph (22 meters per second).
We give Sony points for not trying to hide the fact that they’re behind the video: it’s part of a promotion during which Sony Australia is giving away 25,000 PS3 slims for buyers of selected Bravia LCD TV models.
A couple of blogs were invited for the event, which included a specially-constructed sled that hurled the 3.2 kg heavy PS3 Slim into the Sony Bravia KDL46X 3100 Full HD LCD TV which was standing some 60m away. You can read the gory details over here, or simply check out the beauty of sheer destruction (in slow motion) in the video below.
Click the link to check out the video: Sony Promotes Bravia TV By Smashing a PS3 Into It [Video].
via Sony Promotes Bravia TV By Smashing a PS3 Into It [Video].
Prove You’re Human
Because of Google's latest news purchasing reCAPTCHA, I felt that this image might be appropriate:
Google Acquires reCAPTCHA
I think this is great news. Google can truly take this service to the next level, and even improve upon it to not only provide a better, more available and robust service but also to improve other technologies along the way.
You know those boxes with funky looking letters that are becoming increasingly common on website registration forms, or on Facebook Pages when you want to post an update? They’re called captchas and they’re used primarily to deter spammers and bots.
One of the biggest providers of the technology is a company called reCAPTCHA, and now, Google owns them. The search giant just announced on their blog that they’re buying reCAPTCHA, which is used on more than 100,000 websites worldwide.
Why exactly does Google want to own this technology? For starters, reCAPTCHA has a unique solution. As Google describes:
“But there’s a twist — the words in many of the CAPTCHAs provided by reCAPTCHA come from scanned archival newspapers and old books. Computers find it hard to recognize these words because the ink and paper have degraded over time, but by typing them in as a CAPTCHA, crowds teach computers to read the scanned text.”
And where does that fit within the Google portfolio of products? Google Books. The company continues:
“This technology also powers large scale text scanning projects like Google Books and Google News Archive Search. Having the text version of documents is important because plain text can be searched, easily rendered on mobile devices and displayed to visually impaired users. So we’ll be applying the technology within Google not only to increase fraud and spam protection for Google products but also to improve our books and newspaper scanning process.”
In other words, those 100,000+ captcha forms are now Google-powered, with the data being used to improve Google’s ability to digitize old books and newspapers to make them Web searchable. It makes a lot of sense, and gives Google yet another strategic advantage over would-be competitors.
via Google Acquires reCAPTCHA.
Original post: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/teaching-computers-to-read-google.html
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3e20fba0-b034-4208-bdc7-ba2ef988dfa8)
Google Launches a New Way to Read the News
Is reading online news broken? Google (Google) seems to think so as they just launched Google Fast Flip, a Google Labs experiment that’s designed to help you flip through news online as fast as you would if you were holding a print magazine or paper.
Fast Flip is essentially just a funky way to flip through articles from three dozen Google partners including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Fast Company. Partners share in advertising revenue generated through the labs experiment.
With Fast Flip you can flip through snapshots of the day’s popular news, drill into specific sections and topics, or narrow stories by publisher source. Once you select a story, you can view the article in its totality and use the arrows to flip to the previous or next story.
Click to continue reading "Google Launches a New Way to Read the News"
Go straight to Post
Recent Posts
- Sir Ken Robinson Lecture
- Next Project: MMORPG Development
- Music: When They Came For Us by Shiny Toy Guns
- The iPad…
- Switching to Media Temple
Latest Projects
- Natalie Tran [dot] me This is a Natalie Tran Fansite that I have put together. I’m still waiting to hear from Natalie about it, but until then, it’s a great place to keep up with Natalie.
- Robin Tabari Official fansite of Robin Tabari, “a 23-year-old that is determined to give it his best shot at making quality music, spending hours on end, each and everyday to provide you simply with a smile and some tasteful sounds.”
Archives
- August 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009