Hasta La Gadget!

A quintet of researchers funded by the National Science Foundation have envisioned a new internet architecture, one where features could be purchased à la carte. The proposed framework would allow users to fine tune their experience by choosing from a variety of connection services. Let’s say, for example, that a customer’s connection is fine for browsing the web, but it doesn’t pass muster for streaming content — a service dedicated to video delivery could be added to close the gap. “Ultimately, this should make the internet more flexible and efficient, and will drive innovation among service providers to cater to user needs,” report co-author Rudra Dutta told The Abstract. A piecemeal next-gen web is no easy feat, however, as it would require revamping the web’s infrastructure with new protocols for choosing particular features, completing payments and monitoring network performance. The group’s rough blueprint will be presented at a conference next week, but you can thumb through their short paper at the source.

Filed under: Internet

Researchers propose à la carte internet services, overhaul for web infrastructure originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Aug 2012 07:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s already considered a grind to produce stop-motion video — imagine creating a clip using the spreadsheet app that many dread seeing at work every morning. Joe Penna, better known to the internet as Mystery Guitar Man, isn’t afraid. He and his team recorded a performance against a greenscreen, gave the video a mosaic look in After Effects and proceeded to recreate 730 of the frames in OpenOffice (and occasionally Excel)… by hand. We don’t want to know how long it took Penna and crew to wrap up their work, but the result is probably the liveliest you’ll ever get out of an app meant for invoices and corporate expenses. The fully produced video is above; click past the story break if you want to smash illusions and see how the pixelated rumba came to be.

Continue reading Stop-motion music video relies on OpenOffice and Excel, finds formula for success (video)

Filed under: Internet, Software

Stop-motion music video relies on OpenOffice and Excel, finds formula for success (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Aug 2012 04:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This weekend, from August 11th to the 13th, the Perseid Meteor Shower will fill the sky with hundreds of shooting stars. According to NASA, this year’s Perseid Shower is even more special because Jupiter, Venus and the crescent Moon are aligning while stars streak the night. More »

The latest word out of the epic saga that is Apple vs. Samsung is that in October 2010, Samsung passed up on an offer from Apple to license certain of their patents for royalty rates: $30 per smartphone and $40 per tablet device. Additionally, Apple was willing to offer Samsung a 20% discount if they agreed to cross-license their own patents back to Apple. More »

I spend my days on the internet, though “on” doesn’t strike me as the best preposition to link myself up to the nebulous depths of the web. I live in it, maybe. Or up against it, eyeballs pressed to pixels. A little too close, maybe, but nothing life-threatening. More »