Top 30 movies not out on Blu-ray
Posted in: Today's ChiliWhile more and more Blu-ray movies come out each month, there are many favorites that haven’t been released yet. Here are 30 we’re waiting for.
Originally posted at Fully Equipped
While more and more Blu-ray movies come out each month, there are many favorites that haven’t been released yet. Here are 30 we’re waiting for.
Originally posted at Fully Equipped
Still the stuff of rumors, at the moment–speculation about speculation translated from a columnist on a Russia Mobile site. That said, the mere mention of Nokia and Microsoft in the same sentence seems to be enough to make even the most level-headed mobile enthusiasts shriek with joy.
Here’s what we do know: Mobile-Review’s (the aforementioned Russian mobile site) columnist Eldar Murtazin has reported that Microsoft and Nokia are “in talks.” What precisely they’re talking about, we don’t know.
Speculation has it that Nokia is looking to embrace Microsoft’s surprisingly slick new mobile OS, Windows Phone 7. The timing seems right. Nokia may still have a firm grasp on the global market, but the company’s market share is being chipped away by the competition–iPhone, Android, et al.
Also adding to speculation is the fact that Nokia is currently run by former Microsoft exec, Stephen Elop, who may actually be happy to embrace the output of his current company.
You have a lot of documents you’ve acquired over the years, hundreds or thousands in some semblance of order thanks to folders and whatnot. Now, imagine taking the output from hundreds or thousands of others, all with their own ideas about organization, and finding only those pages relevant to a certain topic. That’s what legal aides have to do in cases where a major corporation is being investigated, and we’re thinking that’s a major target market for Xerox‘s Smart Document Review. It’s a prototype touchscreen table that enables users to collaboratively filter documents, starting by indexing a giant pool and then allowing for the creation of “magnets” that contain keywords or other heuristics and dynamically pull out matches, all happening courtesy of animations that look only slightly less sophisticated than those seen in Hackers. Search results can then be dumped to a thumb drive. The prototype table dates back to earlier this year, but Xerox is now making them available as part of a pilot program exclusively for trendy law offices with unisex bathrooms.
[Thanks, Pradeep]
Xerox shows off Smart Document Review table, a Surface that sifts through billions of docs (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 10:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Several Blu-ray movies are available for less than $15, with some priced below $10. Which ones are worth picking up? Here’s our list.
Originally posted at Fully Equipped
UC Davis’s Oliver Kreylos has been responsible for two of our most impressive Kinect hacks yet. He was one of the first to get proper 3D video out of the thing, following that up by pairing up two of the cameras, one to fill in the gaps of the other. You might have thought he was just playing around but no — oh no. There was a method to the madness and his ulterior motive has been revealed: 3D telepresence. This is what he’s been working on all along and he has an early version operational, using the output from two Kinects in a remote office to beam a 3D representation of another person to his display, which he can navigate around (and through) using a Wiimote. Meanwhile, the viewer can see the position of Oliver in real-time, a virtual camera floating around and enabling them to maintain eye contact despite her not actually looking at either physical camera. That demonstration is embedded after the break along with a somewhat fanciful follow-up in which Kreylos engages in a rather… protracted lightsaber battle against the forces of evil.
Two Kinects join forces to make 3D telepresence, enable virtual light saber battles (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 10:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Electronic flash isn’t just for when you don’t have enough light. Used outdoors, electronic flash fills in harsh shadows – thus the term fill flash – and even lets you use a slow shutter speed to convey motion in the background while freezing the subject, as in the picture above. Your DSLR probably has a pop-up electronic flash. You get more versatility with an external flash, and well you should when they cost $150-$500.
Tonight will mark the first opportunity in two years for star gazers to catch a glimpse of a total lunar eclipse. Weather permitting, the eclipse should be visible for upwards of 1.5 billion people–those in North and South America and parts of Europe, Asia, Hawaii, and New Zealand will get a chance to glimpse the cosmic event.
The shadow of the eclipse will fall on the moon at around 1:33 AM EST tonight/tomorrow morning. Prime viewing will occur between 2:41 and 3:53 AM EST. By 5:01 AM, the eclipse will be gone. The mid-totality moment will occur at 8:17 UT/3:17 a.m. EST/12:17 a.m. PST.
Unlike the tricky pinhole viewing of solar eclipses, you’ll actually be able to look at this one–heck, bring a pair of binoculars or a telescope, if they’re handy. Another total lunar eclipse won’t be visible in the US until April 2014.
For more information on the Eclipse’s stages, check out Space.com.
This portable, steel-clad shed might look like a render from your favorite post-apocalyptic first-person-shooter, but it is terrifyingly real. Designed and built by Dutch designer Joep van Lieshout, the Vostok Cabin is currently on show in Paris, at La Cité des Sciences.
The hut is as minimal as it is creepy. The only amenities are a light, a woodstove, a toilet and a couple of benches. The rusting, scarred walls are welded from steel plates reclaimed from dead ships, and while the zombies might make a terrible clanging racket as they slowly try to claw their way in, the human meal inside this tin-can will likely stay safe until his own food runs out.
What on earth was van Lieshout thinking when he designed this? Luckily, he tells us:
The changing climate, growing poverty, wars and more are only expanding. This movable nomadic dwelling unit provides shelter from this disconcerting situation.
That’s a dark future right there. You’d think that if you were building a shelter to help you outlast such apocalyptic times, you’d make it a little less depressing. C’mon, van Lieshout. What’s going on? You specced-out a beautifully symmetrical wooden handle for the stove-lid, but you couldn’t find time to add a lick of paint? Not to worry, though. The only thing left in existence after the nuclear winter (apart from cockroaches) will be the equally ubiquitous IKEA. You can always brighten the place up.
Vostok Cabin by Atelier Van Lieshout [Dezeen]
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A nation-wide pornography block? That’s what one UK politician is gunning for. Ed Vaizey, conservative parliament member and communications minister, is looking to block access to legal pornography, making access to the stuff an opt-in–rather than opt-out–model.
Those interested in looking at adult content will have to contact their Internet providers. Doing so will add them to a “porn surfing whitelist”–a lot more work than the average Internet surfer is currently used to undergoing in order to see naked people.
The move is being pushed as an attempt to block children from seeing adult content. According to a recent study, one in three kids in the UK under the age of ten has seen pornography on the Internet (which, for those of you non-techy folks out there, means that one in three kids in the UK under the age of ten has seen the Internet).
How possible is such a country-wide block? Not very, according to pretty much every ISP in the country. Here’s an example, quoted by the BBC, “Unfortunately, It’s technically not possible to completely block this stuff.
And here’s something from the Internet Watch Foundation, “You end up with a system that’s either hugely expensive and a losing battle because there are millions of these sites or it’s just not effective. The cost of putting these systems in place outweigh the benefits, to my mind.”
This article was written on February 27, 2007 by CyberNet.
Vending machines can accept payments from cell phones, so why not McDonald’s? Back in September, Coca-Cola announced that it was going to equip all of their vending machines in Japan with the technology that would allow the machines to accept payment via mobile phones. They hope to have this done by the end of 2008.
With that, I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before cellphones became the newest way to make payments. It makes sense for a couple of reasons, but first because so many people have their mobile phones glued to their side! Secondly, it’s a way for companies like Coca-Cola to save money because they don’t have to worry about collecting coins from machines if they’re getting electronic payments.
According to BBC, this technology is being expanded in Japan to the McDonald’s Fast Food Chain. Together with NTT DoCoMo (a leading mobile phone operator), McDonald’s will offer customers the option to make a payment via their mobile phone. This also provides McDonalds with important information about their customers and their eating habits which they could use for marketing purposes.
This could definitely turn into a replacement for cash, much like the credit card. It means one less thing you’ll have to carry around, and one less thing to worry about. As mentioned, using a mobile phone to make payments isn’t something new to Japan, but it has yet to reach the U.S. The U.S. mobile market is typically behind other countries anyways, but I think it’s definitely something that could take off here in the U.S. where you can find a McDonalds at nearly every corner.
Sources: Far East Gizmos, BBC
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