New domain:

Hey subscribers;

I have pointed my own domain to this blog, so the new link is

http://blog.toolman.geek.nz

RSS: http://blog.toolman.geek.nz/feeds/posts/default

The old location should redirect anyway. Update them readers!

Augmented reality: Like this one!

This is a great experimental invention - truly augmented reality...



.. at the cost of having a projector (aka beamer, Dutchies) strapped on to yourself.

I really like how it could augment real products; thats the holy grail for augmentation, and a source of plenty of revenue if successful.

The next challenge is getting quality information to the device. Control of the information used in this system, one it grew to mobile handset scales, would be powerful. Hopefully open systems such ala wikipedia would ensure sane community control of the public data.

What will products compete on? Consumer weighting of metrics, as offered on augmentation device:

• price (Current favorite ;)
  
• carbon footprint
  
• eco factor - packaging, manufacture etc.
  
• rating/score/desiriability in demographics you care about
  
• Loyalty scheme incentives
• ...
  

That seems like raw capitalism - the machine knows your weightings of many metrics, and always offers you the optimal choice.

Decisions would (mostly) be that of the Economists' ideal consumer: rational decision makers trying to maximize their benefits and minimize their costs. I say "mostly" because you don't have to take your handsets advice, do you :P ?

... Beamer on board ...

Thanks to Alef for the link.

Xmas platter:

What do you do when you have too many spare HDDs?

Create a Xmas tree out of them!


Check out the page my pal Trigger put up with pictures and videos. It even spins!

http://www.nzgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81672

Good work!

Kubuntu 8.10 with KDE4

As we are winding up here in Holland (only 3 more days of work for me), I am consolidating all the data I have scattered over 3 laptops down to just the old Acer.

I did a clean install of Kubuntu 8.10, and upgraded with to all the latest updates. I had a few reservations about KDE4:

• Is KDE4 going be fast on this hardware? Though badged as such, this is not "Vista capable" even with 2Gb RAM.
• Will it support hardware accelerated video? If not, is the performance in 2D mode OK?
• Is it usable yet?
  

Well the answer is YES to all; KDE 4.1.3 is surprisingly good!

The whole UI runs smoothly with hardware accelerated video and compositing. KDE4 is complete: it has all the major features going, and is very stable, no crashes or lockups.

In short, I am really impressed! Theres not many widgets, themes etc. yet. I want a widget that does CPU and network statistics if anyone knows of one..

But build it, and they will come. Give it a few minor point revisions and KDE4 could be suitable for most desktop situations; I would be comfortable developing with it.

This release of Kubuntu, which has a recent current kernel, supports all the important hardware in the Acer. The webcam is the only problem hardware, still only experimental drivers.

The US bailout:

according to bloomberg.com , on the subject of US "bailouts":

The money that’s been pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country.

Hmm so where is that money coming from? Yup, they will borrow it from overseas at interest. So the American taxpayer has quite a tab to pay off! If 100% of your tax money went into only servicing this debt, how long would it take you to pay it off?

In practice, this will never be payed back because the govt won't pour 100% of tax revenue into paying back the debt. It really is the yoke of debt slavery for generations of Americans.

Graphics Nirvana

http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/10/nvidias-quadro-fx-5800-with-4gb-graphics-memory-is-the-most-po/

240 GPU cores and 4 gigabytes on your graphics card... nerd-tastic cluster within a computer!

Not designed for gaming; the unit is more for complex and high volume calculation.

Bald alert

One of my old colleagues is being sponsored to get his head shaved.

http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/John_(Andrew)_Thomson/

Sponsor him, its for a great cause!