Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on March 31, 2008
According to Reuters, the paradigm of military UAVs is soon to be replicated by Miami police in Miami, Florida. Military UAVs are being continuously improved in the Iraq and Afghanistan battlefields, to a degree that they are now regarded as indispensable tools for a modern army.
This success has apparently not gone unnoticed among law enforcement agencies and if Honeywell’s drone wins approval by the Federal Aviation Administration of the US, it will soon help the Miami police force in its missions. The drone itself weighs only 6.3 kg, can be carried in a backpack, and is equipped by cameras to do the necessary surveillance work.
The fact that the whole business has to do with integration of existing and not-so-exotic components means that drones are developed by a host of small companies. They are all looking for future business to satisfy tremendous demand in the US and -why not- worldwide from camera-happy UK to any police force that is cash-strapped and short on personnel. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in technology | Tagged: drone, flying drone, Honeywell, Miami, sky drone, surveillance drone, UAV | No Comments »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on March 31, 2008
In its quest to achieve 20% energy production from clean sources by 2010, Southern California Edison wants to turn large flat Californian rooftops into useful solar producing spaces. This new project is a followup to a massive wind project. It will eventually produce 250 MW, and installation will be on large commercial buildings at a rate of 1 MW per week starting this august. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in solar | Tagged: California, rooftop, SoCal, SoCal Edison, solar | No Comments »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on March 28, 2008
Source: ars technica
Poor Microsoft. You have been hammered by almost everyone about the instability of Windows Vista. But what can you do when the largest GPU supplier writes low quality driver software that causes the whole OS to crash?
NVIDIA’s G80 architecture caused many problems throughout 2007 and the pie chart above -based on Microsoft data- confirms that NVIDIA drivers were the major cause of crashes. Not that others are as good as we would expect, with heavies like Intel and ATI causing their big share of the problems. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in PC, software | Tagged: ATI, drivers, G80, GPU, Intel, Microsoft, SP1, Vista, Vista SP1, Windows, XP | No Comments »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on March 27, 2008
Adobe’s Photoshop Express is now available online and free for everybody to use. Like its Premiere Express cousin, it uses Flash and all you have to do to get started is to register online. You get 2 GB of storage space and there are presentation choices. You can sync with Facebook, MySpace or Picasa and the editing choices you have are as follows:
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Basics: crop & rotate, auto correct, exposure, red-eye removal, touchup, saturation.
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Tuning: white balance, highlight, fill light, sharpen, soft focus.
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Posted in internet, software | Tagged: Adobe, CS3, Express, Flash, online, Photoshop, Photoshop Express | No Comments »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on March 27, 2008
The statistics do not lie, the times are changing. Traditional newspapers and magazines have to face the inevitable. As older generations are replaced by the younger tech savvy ones, online news gain ever more momentum, to the detriment of paper publications. People like to get a quick glimpse of the news at the office, much like they read blogs or purely online news sites.
So how do established but older names like the New York Times, Newsweek and Time magazine differentiate themselves from Yahoo for example? The answer seems to be in experience and huge archives that for some publications go as far back as the 19th century!
By digitizing and tagging old articles and photographic material, the depth and size of a site can be enhanced unbelievably. Additionally, all this information helps with online searches that can more frequently point to a publication’s site. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in internet | No Comments »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on March 26, 2008
UMPC sales have not exactly taken off. Being a product segment squeezed between light laptops and smartphones makes life very difficult indeed. That does not of course subtract any conceptual value from Jean Hong’s design, a combination of UMPC and alarm clock. It consists of two pieces that can be manipulated for use in your favourite position in bed -please don’t think dirty. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in PC, electronics | Tagged: alarm, alarm clock, Pix-L, UMPC | No Comments »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on March 25, 2008
According to a post in Treehugger and the Earth Policy Institute, global energy generation from wind is growing in leaps and will very soon -estimated within a month- reach 100 GW! This considerable amount covers the needs of 150 million people!
Although certainly not solving global energy problems, it is a great start and holds even more promise for the future, since rates of installations are increasing in several countries. In 13 of them, generation exceeds 1 GW and growth exceeds any other type of energy, including natural gas. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in energy, wind | Tagged: Earth Policy Institute, energy, generation, generator, wind | No Comments »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on March 24, 2008
Modern cellphones sport an outstanding array of functions that could not even be imagined a decade ago. Now their use is extended beyond voice and data to special two dimensional barcodes that can replace paper boarding passes. Continental Airlines is currently offering that functionality to its US customers and is a step ahead of electronic ticket booths that eventually print out a paper boarding pass. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in mobile, technology | Tagged: mobile, cellphone, barcode, airline, airplane, IATA, RFID, two-dimensional, air travel, phone | 1 Comment »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on March 22, 2008
Very few people will manage to get their hands on the new camera co-developed by Phase One and Mamiya. It is called the 645 by Phase One, or the 645AFDIII by Mamiya and is hailed as the most flexible medium format system in the world (great moto). Components are the usual body, backs (digital or film), lenses and software. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in DSLR | Tagged: 645, 645AFDIII, DSLR, Mamiya, medium, medium format, Phase One | No Comments »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on March 21, 2008
Arthur Clarke is a typical case of an outstanding person ahead of its time. During World War II he got involved as an officer with the British early warning radar system that was one of the decisive factors that helped turn the war tide. As early as 1945, he conceived the use of satellites and has left behind a number of books with imaginary stories or his thoughts.
Many people will remember him for his book “2001: A space odyssey” that was directed in 1968 by Stanley Kubrick, and is regarded as one of the most masterful and influential science films ever. In 1956 he emigrated to Sri Lanka and died there on the 19th of this month at an age of 80. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in miscellaneous | Tagged: 2001, 2001 space odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke, Arthur Clarke, satellite, space elevator, space odyssey | No Comments »
