MIT gestural computing makes multitouch look old hat

MIT gestural computing makes multitouch look old hat: "

Ah, the MIT Media Lab, home to Big Bird's illegitimate progeny, augmented reality projects aplenty, and now three-dimensional gestural computing. The new bi-directional display being demoed by the Cambridge-based boffins performs both multitouch functions that we're familiar with and hand movement recognition in the space in front of the screen -- which we're also familiar with, but mostly from the movies. The gestural motion tracking is done via embedded optical sensors behind the display, which are allowed to see what you're doing by the LCD alternating rapidly (invisible to the human eye, but probably not to human pedantry) between what it's displaying to the viewer and a pattern for the camera array. This differs from projects like Natal, which have the camera offset from the display and therefore cannot work at short distances, but if you want even more detail, you'll find it in the informative video after the break.

[Thanks, Rohit]

Continue reading MIT gestural computing makes multitouch look old hat

MIT gestural computing makes multitouch look old hat originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Process Hacker v1.7 Released – Process Viewer & Memory Editor

Process Hacker v1.7 Released – Process Viewer & Memory Editor: "Process Hacker is a free and open source process viewer and memory editor with unique features such as powerful process termination and a Regex memory searcher. It can show services, processes and their threads, modules, handles and memory regions.



Key Features

Viewing, terminating, suspending and resuming processes.
Restarting processes,...


Originally Posted by darknet.org.uk

Seeing RFID on the cheap

Seeing RFID on the cheap: "

Immaterials: the ghost in the field from timo on Vimeo.

The folks at BERG developed this neat method for visualizing the sensitivity of an RFID reader. Rather than using an expensive set of test equipment to measure the magnetic field intensity, they just hooked their reader up so that it lit an LED every time their card was detected, and then captured it using a camera. This is pretty similar to the technique used to make the Roomba art. They were also able to show that (due to polarization) the orientation of the card with respect to the sensor changes how it responds. Fascinating!

New hacker hang out in Seattle

New hacker hang out in Seattle: "

This Thursday, Oct 15, Metrix Create: Space will open its doors in Seattle (at 623A Broadway East). It's hackerspace meets an indie coffee house. They'll have tools and equipment for building projects, 3D fabbing machines, classes on various types of high-tech makery, coffee and snacks. They even have a vending machine that'll dispense Sun Chips, M&Ms, Clif Bars, and Arduinos, breadboards, jumper wires, etc. How cool.

More:

All of our hackerspace coverage on Make: Online

Use TinEye to Find Source Images for Desktop Wallpaper [Image Search]

Use TinEye to Find Source Images for Desktop Wallpaper [Image Search]:

It turns out that TinEye, the image search engine, is good for more than simply finding carbon-copy matches of pictures. You can also use it to go from a screenshot of a desktop to the source image.

While reviewing the TinEye Firefox extension last week, we noted that results were rather precise in nature and that variations on an image were often excluded. While that is true to an extent, reader TheLostVikings pointed out a way he uses the database and that it wasn't quite as narrow in scope as we initially believed:

Note on the 'surgically precise' comment. I routinely use TinEye to find the actual background image when people post pictures o their desktops (complete with open windows, taskbars, docks, etc) and tineye will usually be able to locate the original picture.

To test this approach out we fired up Firefox with the TinEye extension and headed over the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Pool. Chalk it up to luck or the popularity of the images people were using for their desktop background, but we were able to find 8 out of 10 of the source background images using TinEye.

The next time you see a capture of someone's desktop and you're dying to know where they got the cool background, give TinEye a shot at finding it for you. Thanks TheLostVikings!

TinEye

Make a Desk Out of Concrete [DIY]

Make a Desk Out of Concrete [DIY]:

You don't need to spend big bucks to own a desk with some heft to it. Through the miracle of concrete and a little elbow grease, you can work on a surface with a stone-like finish.

Instructables user hivoltage wanted a unique computer desk and wasn't afraid to bust out the power tools to get it. The most distinct feature of his desk is the surface. Taking a cue from the popularity of concrete countertops, he used poured concrete to make his desktop.

It's certainly not as easy as buying some extra counter pieces from the local kitchen shop or throwing a door across two file cabinets, but the end result is quite impressing. Check out the full tutorial to see how he goes from a plywood form to a polished final product.

How To Build a Polished Concrete Desk [via Make]

AVRSH command interpreter for Arduino/AVR

AVRSH command interpreter for Arduino/AVR: "

Instructables user nevdull writes:

Ever wanted to be 'logged in' to your AVR microcontroller? Ever thought it would be cool to 'cat' a register to see its contents? Have you always wanted a way to power up and power down individual peripheral sub-systems of your AVR or Arduino in *real time* ? Me, too, so I wrote the AVR Shell, a UNIX-like shell.

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Digg this!"

Morning Types Crash Faster Than Night Owls, Study Says [Sleep]

Morning Types Crash Faster Than Night Owls, Study Says [Sleep]: "

The early bird may get the worm, but there's something to be said about burning the midnight oil. In fact, according to a new study, staying up later and longer may increase alertness and productivity more than being an early riser.

Photo by myyorgda.

According to the study as reported by Scientific American:

An hour and a half after waking, early birds and night owls were equally alert and showed no difference in attention-related brain activity. But after being awake for 10 and a half hours, night owls had grown more alert, performing better on a reaction-time task requiring sustained attention and showing increased activity in brain areas linked to attention.

Of course we wouldn't be surprised if another study were to come along touting the opposite conclusion, so it's worth taking this news with a grain of salt, but the post is an interesting addition to the early bird versus night owl discussion. If you're looking to find your peak performance time, check out our previous post on the best times morning people and night owls should get work done.

Early Risers Crash Faster Than People Who Stay Up Late [Scientific American]

Nokia Tosses Another OSS OS Into the Mobile Mix

Nokia Tosses Another OSS OS Into the Mobile Mix: "
Nokia on Thursday announced the N900 smartphone, a mobile device running the Linux-based Maemo operating system that the company typically uses for its tablets. The device runs a Mozilla-based browser and offers still and video photography, an FM radio and 3.5G and WLAN connectivity. Maemo is the operating system used in Nokia's tablets, and the Finnish handset maker's description of the N900 shows it's moving to converge the computer, the Internet and the mobile phone. Nokia sees the Maemo OS as driving its new technology, and the N900 as merely the hardware to contain the OS."

Nokia's Maemo 5 RX-51 / N900 tablet gets exhaustively previewed

Nokia's Maemo 5 RX-51 / N900 tablet gets exhaustively previewed: "

Eldar Murtazin at mobile-review teased us with that shot of Nokia's RX-51 / N900 Maemo 5 tablet earlier today, and now he's back in force with a detailed preview. We're talking tons of hardware pictures and screenshots of what stands to be the standard-bearer for all Nokia devices going forward, and while we'd love to tell you all about how impressed we are with what we're seeing of Maemo 5 and how disappointed we are in the Rover's resistive touchscreen, we won't hold you back -- hit the read link and dive right in.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia's Maemo 5 RX-51 / N900 tablet gets exhaustively previewed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

New Maemo 5 screen shows fascinating, unique array of settings

New Maemo 5 screen shows fascinating, unique array of settings: "

Nokia may have shot down rumors that it was planning to completely replace its Symbian OS with Maemo, but that hasn't taken all the shine off the mobile OS, and a new, lone screenshot has now surfaced to further stoke those flames of anticipation (it's okay, you can admit it). As you can see above, however, it's not exactly the most exciting of screens to capture, but is supposedly the real deal and not just another SDK sourced image.

[Thanks, Eric]

Filed under: Handhelds

New Maemo 5 screen shows fascinating, unique array of settings originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:13:00 EST.

Turn Your Car's Cup Holder Into a Laptop Stand [DIY]

Turn Your Car's Cup Holder Into a Laptop Stand [DIY]: "

Need to use your laptop in your car? Don't purchase a pricey laptop stand for the passenger seat or shell out for a dashboard mount. With some creative DIY-action you can turn your cup holder into a laptop stand.

Mike Davis needed a way to use his laptop in his truck and have a nice stationary platform to put it on. Unfortunately commercial models ran upwards of $300. After scoping out the cab of his truck and doing some brainstorming he realized he could build his own stand and use the center console cup holder as a base.

With $30 worth of parts—mostly pvc pipes, fittings, and a sheet of plywood—and a single afternoon of work he had a laptop stand for his truck that holds his laptop so well it doesn't budge even when swinging the truck around corners.

Check out the full build guide below to see step by step photos and additional information. Have a unique in-car DIY hack like Mike's laptop stand? Let's hear about it in the comments.

DIY In-Car Laptop Holder [via Hack a Day]

Arduino 017 is now available

Arduino 017 is now available: "

The Attic Playground [Featured Workspace]

The Attic Playground [Featured Workspace]: "

Most people think of attics as a place to stash boxes of Christmas ornaments and dusty boxes of mementos. Follow the example of today's featured workspace, and the attic becomes a place for 8-core workstations and Rock Band sessions.

If we had to guess how Lifehacker reader edgefactor627 came about the idea of having such a pile of goodies in his attic, we'd have to go with him having a strong desire to serve as a beacon of fun for the whole neighborhood, drawn to the signal of condensed awesomeness in the highest room in his house.

No matter what the motivation, the end result is a workspace that has plenty of personality—tartan carpet anyone?—and lots of space for work and play. On one end of the room is a MacPro 2009 with 8 cores, hooked up to dual 24" displays and a Wacom Intuos tablet. On the other end of the room is a couch, 1080 HDTV with surround sound, and a Rock Band station complete with drum set. Check out the pictures below for a closer view and the link to his Flickr set for additional photo notes.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off, throw the pictures on your Flickr account and add it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool. Include some details about your setup and why it works for you, and you just might see it featured on the front page of Lifehacker.

The Attic Playground [Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool]

More Google Reader "Send To" Tricks [Feed Readers]

More Google Reader "Send To" Tricks [Feed Readers]: "

Google Reader added custom 'Send To' options to its feed reading service, and at least one blogger quickly patched together a Save as PDF trick. Now others have Send To links for Instapaper, default email clients, Google Calendar, and more.

Jordan Running sends us his tip on sending Reader feed items to Instapaper, the article-saving, text-extracting webapp we find pretty indispensable for set-and-forget mobile reading. I'd thought using my email address as my Instapaper account would trip up Running's URL hack, but, despite landing on a 201 error page, the full article—pulled from a partial feed item—arrived in Instapaper just fine.

Over at Google Operating System, blogger Alex comes up with hacks for Google Bookmarks and Add to Any, while his commenters chime in with tricks for adding Google Calendar events, triggering your system's default mail client, like Outlook, instead of Reader's built-in Gmail sender, and a few others worth checking out.

As noted in yesterday's post, share any Reader 'Send To' URL tricks you find or devise, and we'll round them up for a meatier post in due time.

Instapaper 'Send To' button for Google Reader [Jordan Running]
Google Reader's 'Send to' Feature [Google Operating System]

PDF Mod Edits Multi-Page PDFs in Linux [Downloads]

PDF Mod Edits Multi-Page PDFs in Linux [Downloads]: "

Linux: Linux is fully capable of scanning, processing, and otherwise working with PDF documents, but some of the default tools aren't exactly new-user-friendly. PDF Mod is a straight-forward tool for adding and subtracting pages, exporting images, and other document tweaks.

The software, written in just over a week last month, lays out all the pages of a PDF in a grid, then lets you click on a page to rotate or remove it. You can select even, odd, or matching pages throughout a PDF, extract images from a document into a folder, and re-save your document as a new, fixed PDF. That's all it does, but for those whose spirits droop a bit when faced with the myriad options and buttons in XSane or other PostScript/PDF tools, you'll dig PDF Mod's simplicity.

PDF Mod is available as a free source package for Linux systems that's fairly easy to compile; the Lazy Ubuntu blog linked below has a copy-paste terminal guide for Ubuntu users.

PDF Mod [Gabriel Burt's Blog via Lazy Ubuntu]

Backup and Search Your Friends' Tweets with Google Reader [Twitter]

Backup and Search Your Friends' Tweets with Google Reader [Twitter]: "

Thanks to a combination of RSS magic and Twitter API, it's possible to search the tweets of everyone in your Twitter network with Google Reader. Here's how to do it.

First, though, why would you want to do this? The native search tool provided by Twitter only tunnels back about a week and a half. Anything beyond that is lost in the ether. Thanks to a handy little tool created by Dave Winer, you can turn your follower list into an RSS feed and import that feed into Google Reader, which turns the data from the Twitter feeds into a search-friendly mountain of feed items. How do you do it? From ReadWriteWeb:

It couldn't be much simpler. Just put your Twitter username into this link, instead of mine, and load it up in your browser: http://tw.opml.org/get?user=marshallk&folder=1

It may take just a minute, but the end result will be an OPML file. You can either go up to your browser's File menu and select 'save as' or you can View Source and copy and paste the source of the page into a text document. Save it with a memorable name and either .xml or .opml as the file type. It's really quite easy.

Now if you want to put this puppy into Google Reader just log in, click on 'manage subscriptions' and find the import/export button. Import that file into Google Reader and you're ready to rock and roll!

In our test of the service, we were able to mine all sorts of things from the feed we created. How much did our band of followers talk about Texas? Quite a bit more than we expected. Check out the full article at the link below for additional information or use the technique quoted above to jump right in. Have a favorite Twitter-centric hack of your own? Share it in the comments.

How To: Backup And Search All Your Friends' Tweets In Google Reader [ReadWriteWeb]

Boxee locks up additional funding, plots route from underground to mainstream

Boxee locks up additional funding, plots route from underground to mainstream: "

We're not sure how this affects the zero-dollar revenue goal for 2009, but popular media player software Boxee announced it has closed a $6 million round of financing including a new partner, General Catalyst. We'll let the money men assess value, the key point for users is how this affects the company's plan to take the platform from underground darling to mainstream hit - embedding the software in connected TVs, Blu-ray player, game consoles and set-top boxes. With a Windows alpha release in the bag and latest support from MLB.tv Boxee seems well on the way towards reaching larger audiences, CEO Avner Ronen says to look forward to the beta release this fall, more content deals and extending the App Store and API support. Our advice is to avoid tearing an ACL itself dancing on stage like another recent independent performer turned-mainstream star, what would you like to see from Boxee now that the company has more resources to provide it?

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Boxee locks up additional funding, plots route from underground to mainstream originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Reader Adds Social Sharing and Mark as Read Controls [Feeds]

Google Reader Adds Social Sharing and Mark as Read Controls [Feeds]: "

The Google Reader team's been busy of late, adding social network sharing and friend following features, but also giving power users a (long-awaited) ability to mark items of a certain age as read.

Most noticeable, on an item-by-item basis, is the new 'send to' menu. Head to Google Reader's settings, click off the social networks you want to add access to (or manually add a URL, if you're hack-friendly like that), and they'll appear on the send to menu. Reader will also notify you when friends you're following in Reader have web sites with feeds attached in their Google Profiles.

But the most important changes, for those using Reader to get their news reading done, are the Mark as Read tweaks. It's not a custom search by date, exactly, but it does let you skip through a huge pile of unread items after, say, a long weekend, week's vacation, or general absence from your feed reader. You get the ability to mark items older than one day, one week, or two weeks as read, which is a pretty good start.

A few other changes are in effect for mobile users and note sharing, so hit the link to learn about them, and share what you're able to do now, or what you don't really like about Reader's changes, in the comments.

A flurry of features for feed readers [Official Google Reader Blog]

#!CrunchBang Linux

I'm going to give #!CrunchBang a try and see how I like it in VirtualBox first of course. Once it finishes downloading... Grrr been spoiled lately.

• Download CrunchBang Linux
• Read about CrunchBang Linux

I have tried out #!CrunchBang for a while now. It is great if you really like minimalism on your desktop. The keyboard shortcuts are easy to learn for the most part. There are some spots that could use some polish but it's mostly aesthetic. Other than that it's a pretty solid distribution with some nice default software choices.

Beautiful Simplicity.

Normally my interests are tech related but this is very different. I love the asthetics of this simply constructed home. It reminds me of a Hobbit style home from Lord of the Rings. As a younger man I visited Frank Lloyd Wright's "House on the Rock" Which is an architectural wonder and a museum of oddities. Visiting it gave me an appreciation for buildings that incorporated their natural surroundings into the structure. The site has sort of "how to" and there is a bit of tree hugging hippy rhetoric. To be honest though I would love to live in a house like this as long as it has major utilities water, electricity(solar/wind a plus), and High-speed internet.

"A Low Impact Woodland Home"

My Google Voice Invite Arrived!

I finally got my invite to Google Voice. In a word it is amazing, there is so much that it can do. The most impressive feature to me is it's main feature having voice mail sent to e-mail including a transcription. I hate voice mail dialing numbers, going through menus, and having to listen to a ten minute message to hear the phone number at the very end. This will help me stay on top of my message so much better. Setup is easy and intuitive and only takes seconds. The only tricky part now is getting everyone to start using this number. I think I'll stop answering direct calls and have them call this number instead if they want me to take the call.

Here are some of the basic features. Call forwarding one number can be forwarded up to six phones right now. Call connections, I can initiate a call on the Google Voice website and it will connect me free (in the US) to that number. Now when receiving a call there are some goodies here too.

When you answer a call, they tell you who's on the line. Then, they present you with four ways to handle the call:

• Accept it (press 1)
• Send it to voicemail (press 2)
• ListenIn^TM on the voicemail (press 3)
• Accept and record the call (press 4)

I'm going to start using the "Accept and record the call" option mostly with my wife. so when she tells me to do something I have it written down(transcribed) and if she tells me to do the wrong thing I'll have proof. I love technology.

Avant Window Navigator vs. Gnome-Do's Docky vs. Cairo Dock.

I have been using AWN for a couple years now with Ubuntu and have been really happy with it. It's a pretty solid dock and has all the features you would expect. I thought that are other things out there and that I should try them out.
I started with Docky since well... I already had Gnome-Do installed so it was next. Docky is a very minimal dock it looks nice if not a little plain. I started adding icons which was pretty neat you just use the search feature and there is a little plus symbol to add it to the dock. Yup and that's where the fun ended I couldn't figure out how to add a custom icon to an app. which I'm really picky about. The solutions I found were convoluted and very indirect. I continued with it for a couple days and kept it simple. I liked the window grouping and being able to use the scroll wheel to change window focus. I know a lot of people think but "Gnome-Do uses Mono and Mono is the devil" lately but big deal it's not a problem right now so forget about it already.

I Moved on to Cairo Dock.

All I can say is WTF! What a mess. Don't get me wrong there are some nice features like the app grouping and the icon themes are pretty cool but also very incomplete. Applying the themes seemed a bit buggy at times too. It had about as many features as AWN just a bit disorganized.

In Conclusion I'm back to AWN for now and I'm glad to be back. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. AWN gets my choice for two reasons, features and the simple configuration tool (AWN Mangaer).

Quick Update 7/21/09:

I have been unable to use AWN for a couple weeks now due to some bug in Ubuntu Karmics GTK 2.0. Details here. So I tried using Docky again to find out it was out of date the new V.82 is much nicer than what I was running and it has some windows 7 looks about it but it's pretty nice. It may be hard to switch back that is if I try to.

First blog post for Indirect Tech.

Disclaimer...
Most posts will be pro Linux especially Debian based distros.
Most will be about Desktop Eye candy and usability.
Some scripting and Command line stuff too

Whatever I get caught up on or anything I have to pull together from too many sources to be useful I will be put together and re-post here in a friendlier format.