| Google Goggles brings visual search to Android; Favorite Places brings QR codes to restaurant review |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|05:29 pm] |
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http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/07/google-goggles-brings-visual-search-to-android-favorite-places/
Looks like Google's been busy on the camera tip lately -- not only is it launching a new QR code-based Favorite Places mobile search product today, it's also demoing Google Goggles, a visual search app that generates local results from analyzing mobile phone images. Favorite Places isn't super-complicated, but it sounds like it'll be pretty useful: Google's sent QR code window decals to the 100,000 most researched local businesses on Google and Google Maps, and scanning the code with your phone will bring up reviews, coupons, and offer the ability to star the location for later. (It's not implemented yet, but you'll be able to leave your own reviews in the future.) Google hasn't built this into the Google Mobile app yet, so you'll need something to read QR codes with -- Android devices can use the free Barcode Scanner, and Google and QuickMark are offering 40,000 free downloads of QuickMark for the iPhone today. We just tried it out using QuickMark and it works pretty well -- although we'll wait to see how many QR codes we see in the wild before we call this one totally useful.
Google Goggles is a little more interesting from a technology standpoint: it's an Android app that takes photos, tries to recognize what in them, and then generates search results about them. Goggles can recognize landmarks, books, contact info, artwork, places, wine, and logos at the moment, and Google says it's working on adding other types of objects, like plants. Pretty neat stuff -- but how about linking these two services together at some point, guys? Check some videos after the break.Continue reading Google Goggles brings visual search to Android; Favorite Places brings QR codes to restaurant reviews Google Goggles brings visual search to Android; Favorite Places brings QR codes to restaurant reviews originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  Make:Online, AndroidAndMe |  Google Goggles, Favorite Places | Email this | Comments |
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| IBM developing 10 petaflop supercomputer, Power7 to ship next year |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|04:59 pm] |
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http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/07/ibm-developing-10-petaflop-supercomputer-power7-to-ship-next-ye/  The last we heard, IBM was hard at work on its Power7 processor. Now the company's announcing that the thirty-two core chip -- and copious amounts of eDRAM -- are at the heart of its newest supercomputing project. To be housed at the University of Illinois, IBM's Blue Waters will be the largest publicly accessible supercomputer in the world when it goes online in 2011, theoretically capable of achieving 16 petaflop speeds by connecting up to 16,384 Power7 nodes, although IBM said that initially the theoretical peak performance will likely be closer to 10 petaflops -- with more realistic sustained real-world performance near one petaflop. To keep things from overheating, a system was devised that includes water-cooling for the whole rack, including the processor itself. But why should government agencies and large corporations have all the fun? According to CNET, IBM plans to ship Power7 processors with commercial server products sometime next year. IBM developing 10 petaflop supercomputer, Power7 to ship next year originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | CNET | Email this | Comments |
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| Harman Kardon's transparent GLA-55 2.0 speaker set gets glaring $1,000 price tag |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|04:08 pm] |
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http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/07/harman-kardons-transparent-gla-55-2-0-speaker-set-gets-glaring/
Look, we've no qualms with Harman Kardon -- in fact, we've been continually impressed with its wares over the years -- but we're about 99 percent sure we'd never pay a cool grand for a 2.0 speaker set. Yeah, as in a pair of speakers and no subwoofer. Clearly designed for "high-end consumers," the GLA-55 is a two piece setup meant for fashion-forward desks and bedroom nightstands. The set relies on Atlas AL and CMMD transducers, with the former capable of nearly 1-inch peak-to-peak travel for what we're told is exceptional bass response. That said, we find it tough to fathom that a pair of speakers such as this could really be worth the $999.99 MSRP, but we'll be sure to withhold final judgment until Jim Goodnight (or similar) brings over his dog's set for us to try out.
Harman Kardon's transparent GLA-55 2.0 speaker set gets glaring $1,000 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Hot Hardware | Business Wire | Email this | Comments |
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| Motorola Droid getting 2.0.1 now, Verizon posts details |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|03:39 pm] |
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http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/07/motorola-droid-getting-2-0-1-now-verizon-posts-details/  The "coming weeks" timeframe that Verizon had promised for 2.0.1 to start pushing to Droids has been mercifully condensed down to just a few days, because a number of folks are starting to report that they're receiving the update on their retail units today -- and we've been able to confirm with the company that it's going down. That's great news for a Monday, we'd say, and if you haven't gotten the update just yet, Big Red has now posted update instructions and details on the Droid's support site that should be enough to tide you over for a few minutes. In brief, this looks like bug-fix nirvana with improved stability and battery life, better camera and call quality, faster visual voicemail, and a host of other goodies -- anyone hoping for new features is probably primed for disappointment, but we'll take what we can get. Keep an eye on your Droid today, owners, and let us know how the experience treats you.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]Motorola Droid getting 2.0.1 now, Verizon posts details originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Phandroid, Android Forums | Verizon Droid Support | Email this | Comments |
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| Toshiba's Cell TV delivers a slightly-less ultimate eight tuner DVR experience December 10 |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|03:20 pm] |
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http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/07/toshibas-cell-tv-delivers-the-ultimate-eight-tuner-blu-ray-dvr/
Blu-ray and the Cell processor are back together again, now that Toshiba has jumped on the format and is ready to release its first Cell TV, the Regza 55X1, in Japan December 10. Just making it in 2009 as promised, the path to launch has cost this initial release the 4K resolution screen we'd hoped for, with a 1080p LED backlit display hooked to the aforementioned Blu-ray DVR, 3TB HDD and slick 3D GUI for navigating all sorts of content from the internet or recording from as many as 8 tuners at one time. Also pushed back? Some video on-demand services, but we're pretty sure that at this point a few software updates on the way isn't holding back anyone from the "ultimate entertainment machine."
Update: Our friends at Engadget Japan just pinged us to inform that Blu-ray was also one of the features left on the cutting room floor. Without that, our ¥1,000,000 is staying firmly in our theoretical Japanese wallet -- Toshiba, let us know how v2 works out.Toshiba's Cell TV delivers a slightly-less ultimate eight tuner DVR experience December 10 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Impress, Toshiba | Email this | Comments |
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| Fusion Garage JooJoo tablet rises from the ashes of the CrunchPad |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|12:50 pm] |
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http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/07/fusion-garage-joojoo-tablet-rises-from-the-ashes-of-the-crunchpa/
Fusion Garage has finally come clean with its side of the story in regards to the CrunchPad debacle, and just unveiled its new Arrington-free version of the device: the JooJoo. The way Fusion Garage tells it, the device was already in the works at the time of the original TechCrunch post about the idea, and that Michael Arrington and co. made zero contributions to the development of the device -- and apparently don't have any sort of contract to prove otherwise. The device is much along the lines of what we'd been hearing: it runs a UNIX-based OS, boots straight to a web browser (otherwise no apps at all), weighs about 2.4 pounds and features a 12.1-inch capacitive touchscreen. There are no physical buttons on the slate outside of the on-off switch, which taps into a 9 second boot time. Under the hood there's a 4GB SSD, WiFi (no 3G), an accelerometer and about 5 hours of battery life. Pre-orders start on December 11th, with a dream-shattering $499 pricetag bringing this thing back into the realm of reality. We're supposed to see demos of the Joo Joo in the wild this week, and another shot of the device can be found after the break.Continue reading Fusion Garage JooJoo tablet rises from the ashes of the CrunchPad Fusion Garage JooJoo tablet rises from the ashes of the CrunchPad originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | The Joo Joo | Email this | Comments |
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| Elisha Cuthbert Joins The Forgotten |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|10:42 pm] |
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http://comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=61459 Elisha Cuthbert ("24") has joined "The Forgotten" in a recurring role, and her first episode will air in February, 2010 (Tuesdays from 10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on ABC. She will play Maxine Denver, a strong and successful Chicago professional who is forced to put her skepticism of "amateur detectives" aside when The Forgotten Network begins investigating a case close to home. |
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| Celebrating Computer Science Education Week |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|02:13 pm] |
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/zp8Lt50Ukds/celebrating-computer-science-education.html Today kicks off the nation’s first Computer Science Education Week. The goal of this week is to encourage students to learn about the discipline that powers the computers, applications and technology they use everyday. Computer Science Education Week emphasizes that our society's aspirations will be met by individuals who have an increasingly deep understanding of computer technology.
We've been thinking about ways that Google could help with computer science education for several years. After all, our search engine has been used in education since its inception — how many essays, research papers and theses begin with a Google search? Today, we'd like to summarize some of what we've been doing at Google to advance CS education. Our efforts focus on four strategic areas, with an emphasis on computing in core curriculum.
Use of Google tools to support teaching and learning
Having a web-based shared document, spreadsheet or presentation that students in a group or class can all view and edit online has had an enormous impact on collaboration in education. So we provide a free suite of our communication & collaboration applications designed especially for schools and universities. We also used our tools and infrastructure to build and support a community of teachers who have developed classroom content and activities around these applications.
Increasing the access to and quality of Computer Science curriculum
We have many people at Google who know about all areas of computer science, many with backgrounds and experience in education. With this deep base of computer science knowledge, we developed Google Code University to help faculty update their undergraduate computer science curriculum, and the Summer of Code, which gives students the opportunity to develop programs for various open source software projects.
Integrating computing curriculum across K-12 core subjects
A group of Google engineers and K-12 "teaching fellows" is working on building and testing models of curriculum to encourage innovation. These curriculum models revolve around "computational thinking", a problem-solving technique that draws on the thinking and analysis skills that computer scientists use everyday. Our goal is to integrate computational thinking across subject areas in K-12 by connecting these skills, which are already a part of core curriculum, more explicitly to computer science. We're also taking this a step further by integrating simple programming concepts in appropriate areas of core K-12 curriculum, such as algebra. Our hope is that by making computer science more visible and showing its connection to every subject area, students will experience the full power and utility of technology in areas of interest to them. Integrating CS into other subjects will also have the key added benefit of leveling the playing field, so that many more students will have the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of computing.
Supporting organizations and individuals through community outreach
We've also worked for years with teachers and nonprofits to build early interest in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. Besides providing financial support and sponsorship for many external organizations, we've developed a number of scholarship and intern programs to increase the number of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM and computer science. In addition to these formal programs, every day Googlers all over the world organize visits with students at nearby schools and community centers to teach, present workshops and tech talks, and to share their personal stories on how they became computer scientists and engineers.
We're absolutely delighted to be a co-sponsor of the first Computer Science Education Week. As a company, we've benefited so much from advances in computer science and the creativity of computer scientists. We also know that the next great innovators in computer science are out there, ready to be inspired to create technologies that change our world and benefit our society. We urge our children, parents, teachers and educational institutions to pay more attention to this critical field, and we will continue to do our share.
Posted by Alfred Spector, VP Research and Special Initiatives and Maggie Johnson, Director of Education and University Relations |
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| Questions from economics honors exam at Oberlin College |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|01:26 pm] |
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/6KufLHEqYs4/questions-from-econo.html Steven Landsburg was chosen by the economics department at Oberlin College to be an outside examiner to "determine who among its top graduating seniors should receive an honors degree." He posted the written exam, which consists of 10 questions, to his blog.
I feel confident in stating that if I took the test I would get a score of 0.
Question 6. When Eve works, she produces exactly one apple per hour. Adam is completely unproductive and can produce nothing at all. Eve’s income is taxed at a flat percentage rate, with the proceeds delivered to Adam. What determines the optimal tax rate? What does “optimal” mean here, and what philosophical justification would many economists give for adopting this tax rate?
To make the problem concrete, you can assume that both Adam and Eve, if it were both possible and necessary, would be willing to work up to 1 hour for 1 apple, up to 2 hours for 4 apples, up to 3 hours for 9 apples, and up to x hours for x^2 apples. Now what is the optimal tax rate? (Your answer should be a number.)
Question 8. The five Dukes of Earl are scheduled to arrive at the royal palace on each of the first five days of May. Duke One is scheduled to arrive on the first day of May, Duke Two on the second, etc. Each Duke, upon arrival, can either kill the king or support the king. If he kills the king, he takes the king’s place, becomes the new king, and awaits the next Duke’s arrival. If he supports the king, all subsequent Dukes cancel their visits. A Duke’s first priority is to remain alive, and his second priority is to become king. Who is king on May 6?
The Honors Class, Part I | The Honors Class, Part II
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| Concept design for a disaster-proof baby container |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|01:05 pm] |
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/bavkCLsivaM/concept-design-for-a.html 
Pouyan Mokhtarian designed a concept container to keep a baby alive a for few hours while getting the hell away from a disaster site.
Inside you’ll find the communication unit and LED screen. You can look at the baby and the baby can look at you, too! This screen is also near several airblowing units. On the top of this screen unit there’s an orange LED light in the form of the Samsonite logo which shows the quality of the air inside the pod.
Inside you’ll also notice the auto rocking unit operated by a small servo unit located between the wells. Auto Diaper around the bottom of the baby has a moisture sensor which gently flushes away waste with water, the same with solid waste, all flushed away with tubes to the waste storage unit at the front of the case.
Smart Baby Case
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| Will Shetterly's "vampirish" YA novel free to download, available on Lulu |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|12:54 pm] |
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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/UxRcpBeBFdU/will-shetterlys-vamp.html Award-winning sf/f author Will Shetterly sez,
A couple of years ago, I wrote Midnight Girl, a YA vampirish (as in,
not your classic vampires) novel just for the fun of writing a book
without an outline, something I haven't done since my first novel. It
became the story of Cat Medianoche, a girl who discovers on her
fourteenth birthday that both sides of her family are part of a war
that began long before recorded history. Each sees her as the key to
their victory. I sent it to an editor who wrote back, saying, "I don't
just love it, I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!! Cat is one of the most kick-ass
heroines I've ever come across. And talk about conflict and things at
stake! (I keep having to tell authors to beef up the conflict because
there's never enough.) First [spoiler deleted]. Then [spoiler
deleted]. And *then* she has to make an impossible choice between two
equally horrible fates. I love every single character in the book... I
couldn't put the manuscript down. I devoured it in one sitting.
Anyway, that's how much I love it."
Sounds like a sure sale, right? Alas, her boss didn't like it. So I
did a rewrite, sent it back, and the boss still didn't like it. So my
agent sent it out to the major YA publishers, and they all passed. The
ones who gave a reason said they thought the vampire fad was cresting.
My agent recently sent me this note: "I was on the phone today with
one of the editors at [Major Publishing House]. He loved Midnight
Girl, and went to bat for it. The word he used was "brilliant."
Unfortunately, powers that be felt otherwise. But at least you now
know that it did have an in-house fan. He's a young up-and-comer, so
I've made a note for future work of yours."
Since this book doesn't fit the demands of traditional publishing, I
decided to do what the cool kids do and release it in formats for free
or purchase, and I've made the book available through Lulu.
P.S. Creating the book didn't cost me a penny. I formatted the text
with OpenOffice and found cover art at Wikimedia that I manipulated
with the Gimp. Thank you, open source and Creative Commons!
(Thanks, Will!)
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Featured in The Nation's charity auction, this Garden Noam Chomsky sculpture, of a run "probably limited to less than 100".
