23 de julho de 2005
Fireworks photo gallery
Concurso anual promovido pelo side DCRP. Inclui boas dicas para quem quer tirar boas fotos de fogos (e outras coisas que explodem)
22 de julho de 2005
Informação importante? Grave em um cartão de memória!
Não é só propaganda enganosa da SanDisk. Os troços são resistentes mesmo...
Este press release da SanDisk mostra uma experiência: após explodir uma câmera com o cartão de memória dentro, o mesmo foi recuperado sem maiores danos.
Este press release da SanDisk mostra uma experiência: após explodir uma câmera com o cartão de memória dentro, o mesmo foi recuperado sem maiores danos.
Your brain: Search engine, or calculator?
For years, cognitive theorists have likened the human brain to a computer that completes tasks by breaking down complex problems into a series of small yes/no decisions. A recent study, however, shows that the brain adjusts its thinking as more data arrives.
21 de julho de 2005
The "Plugged In" Syndrome
Coisa de gente tecnofóbica... :D
There is a serious neurological condition called the "locked in syndrome," whose victims are unable to communicate with the outside world. Today more and more of us are seeing our loved ones succumb to a voluntary (but apparently highly addictive) condition that I call the "plugged in" syndrome: these folks prevent the outside world from communicating with them.
There are a number of tell-tale symptoms. First, the victim sprouts "ear buds" - those with long hair may go undetected for a while, but if you look closely, you'll see thin cables running from under the hair to disappear into a pocket or under the jacket to a belt-mounted audio device such as an iPod, RIO or other MP3 player, a Pocket PC or Palm computer or a mobile phone.
The disease seems to be progressive. It often starts with a single earphone. If you catch it at this stage, you may still be able to communicate with the victim, although he/she is likely to already be distracted, often humming or singing softly under the breath as you try to carry on a conversation. You'll probably have to repeat yourself several times before your loved one is able to respond.
If not nipped in the bud, the condition is very likely to progress to the stereophonic stage. With both ears constantly plugged, the victim is always subjected to a steady stream of music or conversation and the only way to get his/her attention is through visual or kinesthetic means. You may find yourself waving your arms a lot, writing notes, or even lightly (and perhaps not so lightly, as your frustration grows) striking the victim.
Unfortunately, it gets even worse. As the "plugged in" person becomes more and more absorbed in the sound input bombarding his brain every waking moment, he begins to shut his friends and family out to an increasing degree. In the beginning, he may have only plugged in for a few hours per day, but in the later stages, he'll spend entire weeks with the earphones in, nodding and snapping his fingers as he goes about his daily tasks, totally oblivious to your comments and questions. And he'll start sitting for long periods of time with his eyes closed, so that you can't even contact him with visual stimuli. He may even begin sleeping with the earbuds in.
As the condition degrades further, family members are affected. They begin to feel as if they're all alone, and may eventually give up in despair and move away to start new lives (fortunately, the victim usually doesn't notice). The saddest part is: it doesn't have to be this way. This is a completely preventable disease. Education is the key.
Do your part: refuse to buy your kid that first MP3 player. The government, which thus far has been exacerbating the problem by passing laws requiring "hands free" cell phones while driving, must get into the act and ban earbuds altogether. Spouses and parents who mistakenly encouraged their loved ones to plug in, to spare themselves the pain of hearing the music, must recognize the dangers of this pseudosolution. Most difficult of all, the victims themselves must admit that they have a problem, and "just say no" to portable music players and related devices. In advanced cases, intervention may be necessary. Surgery may be required to remove earphones that have become permanently embedded.
Finally, be careful about downloading music. Listening to MP3s through your computer or home or car sound system can lead to the desire to "go portable." Could it be that the RIAA only had our best interests in mind all along?
Seriously, folks, how do you feel about the ubiquitous nature of portable devices and the number of people who seem to be constantly plugged into them? Are you an iPod addict (or a lonely family member)? Is the next step an implanted chip to which we can download our favorite songs and have them with us all the time? Will we one day be routinely plugged into powerful portable computers in the same way we're plugging into simpler devices now? Are we becoming a nation of plugged in zombies, using electronics instead of drugs to escape from the real world? Or are those who worry about such things as silly as the ones who predicted that the automobile and the television set would be downfall of civilization (hmmm ... come to think of it, maybe we should revisit that one, too).
There is a serious neurological condition called the "locked in syndrome," whose victims are unable to communicate with the outside world. Today more and more of us are seeing our loved ones succumb to a voluntary (but apparently highly addictive) condition that I call the "plugged in" syndrome: these folks prevent the outside world from communicating with them.
There are a number of tell-tale symptoms. First, the victim sprouts "ear buds" - those with long hair may go undetected for a while, but if you look closely, you'll see thin cables running from under the hair to disappear into a pocket or under the jacket to a belt-mounted audio device such as an iPod, RIO or other MP3 player, a Pocket PC or Palm computer or a mobile phone.
The disease seems to be progressive. It often starts with a single earphone. If you catch it at this stage, you may still be able to communicate with the victim, although he/she is likely to already be distracted, often humming or singing softly under the breath as you try to carry on a conversation. You'll probably have to repeat yourself several times before your loved one is able to respond.
If not nipped in the bud, the condition is very likely to progress to the stereophonic stage. With both ears constantly plugged, the victim is always subjected to a steady stream of music or conversation and the only way to get his/her attention is through visual or kinesthetic means. You may find yourself waving your arms a lot, writing notes, or even lightly (and perhaps not so lightly, as your frustration grows) striking the victim.
Unfortunately, it gets even worse. As the "plugged in" person becomes more and more absorbed in the sound input bombarding his brain every waking moment, he begins to shut his friends and family out to an increasing degree. In the beginning, he may have only plugged in for a few hours per day, but in the later stages, he'll spend entire weeks with the earphones in, nodding and snapping his fingers as he goes about his daily tasks, totally oblivious to your comments and questions. And he'll start sitting for long periods of time with his eyes closed, so that you can't even contact him with visual stimuli. He may even begin sleeping with the earbuds in.
As the condition degrades further, family members are affected. They begin to feel as if they're all alone, and may eventually give up in despair and move away to start new lives (fortunately, the victim usually doesn't notice). The saddest part is: it doesn't have to be this way. This is a completely preventable disease. Education is the key.
Do your part: refuse to buy your kid that first MP3 player. The government, which thus far has been exacerbating the problem by passing laws requiring "hands free" cell phones while driving, must get into the act and ban earbuds altogether. Spouses and parents who mistakenly encouraged their loved ones to plug in, to spare themselves the pain of hearing the music, must recognize the dangers of this pseudosolution. Most difficult of all, the victims themselves must admit that they have a problem, and "just say no" to portable music players and related devices. In advanced cases, intervention may be necessary. Surgery may be required to remove earphones that have become permanently embedded.
Finally, be careful about downloading music. Listening to MP3s through your computer or home or car sound system can lead to the desire to "go portable." Could it be that the RIAA only had our best interests in mind all along?
Seriously, folks, how do you feel about the ubiquitous nature of portable devices and the number of people who seem to be constantly plugged into them? Are you an iPod addict (or a lonely family member)? Is the next step an implanted chip to which we can download our favorite songs and have them with us all the time? Will we one day be routinely plugged into powerful portable computers in the same way we're plugging into simpler devices now? Are we becoming a nation of plugged in zombies, using electronics instead of drugs to escape from the real world? Or are those who worry about such things as silly as the ones who predicted that the automobile and the television set would be downfall of civilization (hmmm ... come to think of it, maybe we should revisit that one, too).
Malásia prende 58 seguidores da seita do bule gigante
O Bule Gigante?!?! Esse pessoal anda exagerando no chá de cogumelo...
20 de julho de 2005
Primeiro protótipo da Estrela da Morte
A arma, chamada Active Denial System (sistema de negação ativa), é classificada como "menos letal" pelo Pentágono, e dispara um raio de microondas de 95 gigahertz que provoca sensação de calor na pele e uma dor intolerável em menos de cinco segundos.
Google... Moon!
Pronto, era só o que faltava. O Google agora chegou na lua.
Quando será que teremos o Google Mars??
Quando será que teremos o Google Mars??
Chuveiro "muito style, doido!"
Com fibras óticas, esse choveiro maluco faz a água mudar de cor durante o banho. Coisa de Jetsons...
19 de julho de 2005
Buzz Game
Um jogo interessante criado pelo Yahoo!. Algo como um mercado de ações, só que as 'ações' são na verdade tecnologias do mercado mundial de TI. Você acredita que o Trillian vai derrotar o MSN na área de Instant Messaging? Qual rede social vencerá? Orkut? Friendster? Linkedin?
Compre 'ações' das tecnologias e participe...
Compre 'ações' das tecnologias e participe...
Enquanto isso, no reino da Dinamarca...
Um fenômeno tem se tornado cada vez mais comum em diversos países da Europa: os pássaros (cada vez mais comuns em áreas urbanas) estão começando a aprender a cantar... ringtones! Os primeiros relatos foram de andorinhas Dinamarquesas cantando a musiquinha da Nokia, em 2001. What????
A RIAA (a associação de música que vive pelejando contra a pirataria de mp3, e mais recentemente de ringtones), já demonstra preocupação com o fenômeno, que pode trazer prejuízos à indústria fonográfica mundial.
A RIAA (a associação de música que vive pelejando contra a pirataria de mp3, e mais recentemente de ringtones), já demonstra preocupação com o fenômeno, que pode trazer prejuízos à indústria fonográfica mundial.
The birds were simply adapting to their environment in imitating human sounds in what he termed an "evolutionary playground"
18 de julho de 2005
Gigapixels!
Um megapixel é um bocado de coisa. Significa um milhão de pontos de cor, que juntos formam uma imagem. Dez megapixels são um onte de coisa. Significa dez milhões de pontos de luz - luz o suficiente para gerar uma imagem (em geral, uma fotografia) 'imprimível' em grandes formatos (quiça, até um outdoor).
Em plena era dos Terabytes, começam a surgir as primeiras imagens de alguns GIGApixels. Um gigapixel é um bocado de coisa.
Esta imagem é talvez a maior imagem (em pixels) da 'atualidade'. São 1.06 gigapixels, formados por 196 fotografias coladas (stitched), em um panorama gigantesco. Alguns dos detalhes técnicos da foto gigante:
* Final image dimensions: 40,784 x 26,800 pixels
* Number of pixels in final image: 1,093,011,200 (1.09 gigapixel)
* Final image file format: RGB Tiff using deflate compression
* Final image file size: 2,068,654,055 bytes
* Number of source images: 196
* Number of pixels in source images: 1,233,125,376 (196 images * 3072*2048)
* Lens focal length: 280mm (equivalent to 450mm on a 35mm camera)
* Aperture: F9. Shutter speed: 1/400
* Number of control points in PTAssembler project: 779
* Number of seams that were manually blended after stitching: 364
* Horizontal field of view of final image: 63 degrees
* Time required to capture component images: 13 minutes
* Time required to set control points: 2 hours
* Time required to optimize project: 2 days
* Time required to stitch project: 4 days
* Time required to blend seams / correct misalignments / finalize image: 3 days
Em plena era dos Terabytes, começam a surgir as primeiras imagens de alguns GIGApixels. Um gigapixel é um bocado de coisa.
Esta imagem é talvez a maior imagem (em pixels) da 'atualidade'. São 1.06 gigapixels, formados por 196 fotografias coladas (stitched), em um panorama gigantesco. Alguns dos detalhes técnicos da foto gigante:
* Final image dimensions: 40,784 x 26,800 pixels
* Number of pixels in final image: 1,093,011,200 (1.09 gigapixel)
* Final image file format: RGB Tiff using deflate compression
* Final image file size: 2,068,654,055 bytes
* Number of source images: 196
* Number of pixels in source images: 1,233,125,376 (196 images * 3072*2048)
* Lens focal length: 280mm (equivalent to 450mm on a 35mm camera)
* Aperture: F9. Shutter speed: 1/400
* Number of control points in PTAssembler project: 779
* Number of seams that were manually blended after stitching: 364
* Horizontal field of view of final image: 63 degrees
* Time required to capture component images: 13 minutes
* Time required to set control points: 2 hours
* Time required to optimize project: 2 days
* Time required to stitch project: 4 days
* Time required to blend seams / correct misalignments / finalize image: 3 days
Europeus querem telefones mais simples.
Segundo o Forrester Research, 63% dos europeus usam seus telefones apenas para voz e instant messaging: "six months ago, more than 60% of mobile users aged 16 to 24 have an Internet-capable mobile phone, but only 18% of them actually use mobile Internet services. We see the same lack of interest when it comes to mobile phone features”. O fato não passa despercebido: executivos das maiores teles já reclamam que o excesso de features e inovação nos aparelhos tem que parar, antes que os aparelhos fiquem complicados demais para um usuário comum.
Enquanto isso, eu continuo sonhando com um telefone que toca mp3, grava filme, tem câmera de 8 megapixel, toca DVD, liga a televisão e aquece o café de manhã.
(É, acho que não me encaixo na categoria 'standard user'...)
Enquanto isso, eu continuo sonhando com um telefone que toca mp3, grava filme, tem câmera de 8 megapixel, toca DVD, liga a televisão e aquece o café de manhã.
(É, acho que não me encaixo na categoria 'standard user'...)
17 de julho de 2005
MobiBLU DAH-1500 MP3 Player
Com 2.4 cm de lado e 16 gramas de peso, o MobiBLU é o menor player de MP3 do mundo. E o trocinho é poderoso...
16 de julho de 2005
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